The Clare Spark Blog
The pitfalls in writing histories of the movies
Filed under: Uncategorized — clarelspark @ 6:53 pm
Tags: "cultural Marxism", Alexander Vassiliev, Ben Hecht, Ben Urwand, Cary Beauchamp, Clayton R. Koppes, Edwin Black, Gregory D. Black, Harvard University Press, Harvey Klehr, It Can't Happen Here, John Earl Haynes, Joseph P. Kennedy, Louis B. Mayer, Mark Kramer, New Left movie criticism, Sinclair Lewis, Steven Alan Carr, THE COLLABORATION, Thomas Doherty
There is a sprawling bibliography of both trade books and academic studies of the movie industry. Into this minefield, strides Ben Urwand, whose book has been received with fury or, in some cases, approbation.
For Ben Urwand’s recent Harvard published book The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler, “Hollywood”, “Jewish” moguls, “capitalism,” and the ostensibly Nazified/anticommunist/bigoted American movie industry are conflated and held in contempt. (The “collaboration” that Urwand and the many critics of mass culture and mass media may have in mind is the bond between image and audience. Like other critics of technology and its assistance to demagogues, Urwand turns out to be an antimodern, even a sort of Tory, though he appears to be writing from the left. For instance, writing in the voice of “Doremus Jessup,” Sinclair Lewis wrote, “‘Is it just possible,’ [Doremus Jessup] sighed, ‘that the most vigorous and boldest idealists have been the worst enemies of human progress instead of its greatest creators? Possible that plain men with the humble trait of minding their own business will rank higher in the heavenly hierarchy than all the plumed souls who have shoved their way in among the masses and insisted on saving them?'” So modern mass media enable demagoguery of the kind that Lewis fears. Odd that Lewis doesn’t pin this on FDR in his It Can’t Happen Here (1935), a book that Urwand admired and wished that it had been turned into a movie. (For a blog on the “cultural Marxists” see https://clarespark.com/2013/07/31/the-nefarious-cultural-marxists/.)
With respect to the Urwand book, the questions for an academic reviewer are easily summarized: Given the magnitude of the claim of the book, that from 1930 onward, “Hollywood” dismissed Jews from the screens it controlled, and worse, allowed Germans in both Weimar and in the Third Reich to censor movies, to the point where even the Holocaust was off limits for filmic presentation after WW2 until the 1960s, by what criteria should Urwand’s thesis be either defended or criticized?
Since Urwand cites German archives in his footnotes, one would expect the author to be fluent in the German language (he is self-taught in the language); to fully understand the culture of Nazi Germany (looking for continuities and discontinuities with the modern German past); and most importantly, to have reviewed the responses of Western Europe and America to the New World Order proposed by the various fascisms, putting up with Hitler and Mussolini until 1939, and keeping their distance from the Spanish Civil War. Urwand seems to know little about the history of anti-Semitism and isolationist suspicions of war-mongering “Jews” who were trying to snare American Christians into their nefarious “collaborationist” schemes. And since Urwand shows no reluctance in declaring (but not proving) why certain “anti-fascist” movie scripts were dropped by such famously conservative, pro-American moguls as Louis B. Mayer and other producers, we would expect the author to understand the intricacies of the movie business and the often chaotic or unrecorded decision-making, including the various forces that pre-censored and post-censored movies, especially after 1934 when the Production Code was established and controlled by Joseph Breen and the Catholic Legion of Decency. But we must not neglect the power that New York financiers exerted over the studios located in California–a matter explored by Cary Beauchamp in her recent biography of Joseph P. Kennedy, drawing upon previously restricted papers in the Kennedy Library (publ. 2008).
Ben Hecht as depicted on anti-Zionist website
Urwand’s book is easily dismissed as the unsupported speculations of an ideologue bent on imitating Ben Hecht by separating antisemitism (‘bad’) and anti-Zionism (‘good’),* but not so an entire genre of movie history written from the academic Left and published by the most prestigious university presses. These authors include Thomas Doherty, Gregory D. Black, Clayton R. Koppes, and Steven Alan Carr. While a few of these academics criticize antisemitism in books depicting “Hollywood” as generically Jewish [Carr], or note Joseph Breen’s open hostility to the scummy and omnipotent Jews who ran Hollywood [Black], in the end many resent the “Hollywood” representations of a phony melting pot, and idealizations of heterosexual romance, happy families, escapism, spectacle, glamour, happy endings, the suppression of labor vs. capital conflict, racism, and more, but most of all, they are dead set against the Dies Committee and “McCarthyism” as evidenced in the postwar blacklist after the Cold War was begun. Since many of their books were published after the Soviet archives were opened and books published verifying many of HUAC’s or McCarthy’s suspicions and accusations, one might conclude that capitalism and the profit-motive are the real targets of academic interest in the movies. (The authors who have written about the revelations in the Soviet archives include Mark Kramer, John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev.)
For prior blogs on Ben Urwand’s book, see https://clarespark.com/2013/10/10/urwand-undoes-chaplins-dictator/, and https://clarespark.com/2013/09/13/urwands-collaboration-hollywoods-pact-with-hitler/. No reviews, even those dismissive of Urwand’s peculiar view of “collaboration”, have sketched in the appropriate historical context for evaluating this academic book’s claims. It was published by Harvard University Press, but those academic readers who supported it are anonymous. But in insisting that Hollywood profits supported the Nazi war machine, Urwand’s thesis reminds me of Edwin Black’s sensationalized work. That Urwand’s book has received some good reviews suggests that many movie journalists are unequipped to evaluate histories of the movie business.
*I am reading Hecht’s Child of the Century (1954) now, and Hecht is a waverer on the subject of Israel. More when I finish this autobiography. Urwand may have misunderstood the extent to which Irgun-admiring Hecht distanced himself from “Zionism.”
Urwand’s THE COLLABORATION: HOLLYWOOD’S PACT WITH HITLER
Tags: Alexander C. Kafka, antisemitism, Ben Hecht, Ben Urwand, Berkeley faculty, Chronicle of Higher Education, Clayton R. Koppes, David Denby, David Welky, Gregory D. Black, Harvard Law Review, Joseph Breen, Joseph P. Kennedy, Martin Dies, masochism, Office of War Information, populism, Ron Loeb, sadism, Steven Alan Carr, The Great Dictator, Thomas Doherty, Will Hays
This is an impression of Harvard Junior Fellow Ben Urwand’s new book, to be released in October. I was initially appalled when I saw a puff-piece in TABLET. (See https://clarespark.com/2013/06/13/hollywoods-pact-with-hitler/. I had not yet read the book and expected some archival research that would establish the veracity of Urwand’s title.) In my wildest dreams I could not have imagined such a mendacious book published by one of the most prestigious academic presses. In this brief blog, I will mostly focus on the depths of antisemitism between the wars, and then suggest that calling the moguls “Jews” plays fast and loose with what it means to be a “Jew” in America, today or any other day. For a related blog that quotes from Urwand, see https://clarespark.com/2013/10/10/urwand-undoes-chaplins-dictator/.
I suggest that the interested reader look at both an article from History News Network from circa 2002 on Joseph P. Kennedy’s antisemitism, which may look “extreme” to the eyes of the reader, but was not different in intensity from that of his contemporaries, let alone from that of much of the Left today. See http://hnn.us/article/697 “Joseph Kennedy and the Jews.” Or, see Steven Alan Carr’s Hollywood and Anti-Semitism (Cambridge UP, 2001), that poses “the Jewish question” as “the Hollywood question” in a masterful review of antisemitica in America, and nullifying Urwand’s claim that there were lots of good Jews in the movies before the cowardly, money-mad moguls capitulated to Hitler’s German consul in Los Angeles. Carr also shows, through implication, that Urwand’s startling thesis is nothing new. Quoting The Nation, September 20, 1941: ” ‘Far from being too vigorously anti-Nazi’…the film industry ‘as long as they could, avoided making films that might endanger their markets in Germany and Italy. Business was their first consideration.’ ” (p.269)
Then read David Denby’s recent unfavorable review of Urwand’s book, that makes many points I would have made, namely that Urwand spends much time in speculation about why such and such a film was not made, but makes wild surmises that are not verified by his evidence. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2013/09/16/130916crbo_books_denby, also http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/09/how-could-harvard-have-published-ben-urwands-the-collaboration.html. (Yet another unfavorable review says mostly that business is business, and Urwand is naïve to make so much of the censorship; see http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/09/did-hollywood-collaborate-with-hitler-a-new-book-makes-bold-claims.html. ) In yet another review (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/does-collaboration-overstate-hollywoods-cooperation-595678), Thomas Doherty’s competing book HOLLYWOOD AND HITLER, 1933-1939, is compared with Urwand’s nasty book, but the description of Doherty’s conclusions does not match what Doherty actually wrote: Doherty is said to praise Hollywood for resisting Nazism, but Doherty trotted out the Warner brothers as exceptional only to castigate them as caving to HUAC and the Martin Dies Committee by producing super-patriotic movies that hid controversies in U.S. history, such as labor unrest. And in his concluding sentences, he wonders what he, Doherty, would have done about coming out against the Third Reich were he in the shoes of the Hollywood moguls.
None of this should surprise us. Ben Urwand begins his acknowledgments with tributes to some of the New Left Berkeley faculty: Michael Rogin, Lawrence Levine, Leon Litwack and Martin Jay (the latter a noted critical theorist and historian of the Frankfurt School that blamed mass media for the corruption of the working class, hence the working-class failure to stop Hitler). And the book is getting support in high liberal venues: see http://chronicle.com/article/When-Hollywood-Held-Hands-With/140189/, in a long and informative article by Alexander C. Kafka.
The novelty of COLLABORATION exists in the claim that Jewish moguls allowed Hitler and his minions to control “Hollywood” not only throughout the 1930s, but on into the war years, and worse, inured to the Pact, Hollywood continued its baleful influence by suppressing the horrors of the Holocaust until decades after it became known. Urwand’s earlier work was on aboriginal rights in Australia, and his latest work wants to present America as a capitalist, hence fascist country, in cahoots with the Third Reich, and carrying on its mission. There are even suggestions that American movies “infused” Nazi culture, an innuendo comparable to Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. (See https://clarespark.com/2010/03/10/jonah-goldbergs-liberal-fascism-part-one/. I do not intend to blame Goldberg for his take on movies (not his target), but rather on the progressive nanny state and eugenics as inspiring fascist programs in Germany.)
WHAT IS A JEW?
I have only dipped into the vast literature on the history of film. As far as I could tell, Joseph P. Kennedy’s role in virtually inventing the complicated financing of the movie industry (as revealed in Cari Beauchamp’s book published in 2008 after crucial Joe Kennedy papers were unsealed in the Kennedy Library), was unknown to the various authors I have read: two by Thomas Doherty (1993, 2013); David Welky (2008); and one co-authored by Clayton Koppes and Gregory Black (1987). Of these scholarly works, Welky’s seemed the least biased.
For one thing, Welky gave several paragraphs to Joe Kennedy’s speech to fifty Hollywood “moguls” in late 1940, which I quote here: “…Recalled to the United States during the British negotiations [regarding the import of US films], the ambassador accepted Jack and Harry Warner’s invitation to speak to movie executives. His talk during the three hour lunch on the Warner Bros. lot left the gathering of fifty industry leaders speechless. Kennedy told them the United States should limit aid to Britain in case the Nazis won the war, an event he thought likely. More important, he asked producers to “stop making anti-Nazi pictures or using the film medium to promote or show sympathy to the cause of the ‘democracies’ versus the ‘dictators.’” Pictures like The Mortal Storm, Escape, and Arise, My Love, an anti-Nazi comedy released by Paramount a few weeks before Kennedy’s visit, did more harm than good because they highlighted Jewish control of the movies. Many Anglos blamed the war on the Jews, Kennedy warned, and anti-Semitism was on the rise in Britain. He advised producers to “get those Jewish names off the screen.” After Kennedy’s lecture, screenwriter Ben Hecht remembered, “all of Hollywood’s top Jews went around with their grief hidden like a Jewish fox under their Gentile vests.” MGM and Paramount canceled several anti-Nazi projects, including Heil America, Heroes, I Had a Comrade, and Invasion.
[Welky, cont., quoting Kennedy] …The “Jewish boys…are quite nervous about the conditions and they have reason to be…Smart British interests have already taken over the Jewish boys…and have sold them an idea they already had, that they must work for England, even if it means getting us into war.” (pp.244-45, THE MOGULS AND THE DICTATORS) Compare these quotes to Urwand’s brief reference to the Kennedy speech, referring to Ben Hecht’s warning to the movie heads: “Hecht told the studio heads not to buy into Kennedy’s arguments that such pictures would lead to an increase in anti-Semitism in the United States. He said that such thinking had been designed merely to play on their fears.” (p.234) (Which contradicts Urwand’s earlier axiom that profits were primary and fears of increased antisemitism were either minor or submerged in the lust for shekels.)
Ben Hecht is the only good Jew in Urwand’s book; indeed his departure from his early Zionism seems to have inspired Urwand. But Urwand hasn’t cited PERFIDY (by Hecht) that displayed Hecht’s own social climbing and insult at the home of an antisemitic New York socialite, while Hecht went on to blame Rudolf Kastner, a Hungarian Jew, for collaboration with the Nazis. (See http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Power-and-Politics-Perfidy-revisited. This is a big and apparently unresolved fight.) Urwand is following longstanding trends among left-wing Jews: apparently to condemn anti-Semitism (thus distinguishing themselves from contemptible commercial Jews), while separating antisemitism from anti-Zionism. The remainder of this blog considers the distinction between “intellectual Jews” (like Urwand and his mentors at UC Berkeley) and “commercial Jews” (like the moguls). [Update: since writing this blog, I have read Hecht’s autobiography, and Urwand utterly misunderstood Hecht’s objection to “Zionists.” Hecht supported the Irgun and called the Anglophile Jewish Agency members “Zionists.” Could Urwand have even read the final section of A CHILD OF THE CENTURY? See my blog on that subject https://clarespark.com/2013/12/07/ben-hecht-v-ben-urwand-the-un-jewish-left-and-assimilated-jews/.)
The money-grubbing commercial Jews. I write these thoughts on Yom Kippur eve, September 13, 2013. I have asked the question, “What is a Jew”? Urwand and multiculturalists in general, take ruling definitions of Jewishness for granted. As readers of my blogs know by now, the multiculturalists in the dominant culture define Jewish identity by race. It is not only a practice and belief system, much of which I share as a secular Jew. Rather, the “intellectual Jews” [liberals and leftists] are put in a different box from the lower-class and unseemly “commercial Jews.”
I first heard this distinction in 1959, at a party hosted by the Harvard Law Review. It might have been a prominent professor who made that statement, and being twenty one years old and a babe in the woods, I had no comeback, and it would have been impolite to embarrass my fiancé, whom I married shortly afterward. His name was Ron Loeb, and he told me at the time how recruiters from the big NYC and Washington law firms would come to Harvard, warning that “our clients don’t want Jewish lawyers in our firms.” Ron (who made Law Review) told them that was really too bad, because 18 out of the 25 Harvard Law Review third year crop were Jewish. Note the date. It is 1959.
Reading Urwand’s book gave me anxiety attacks. It was not only horribly written from a historian’s point of view, for it was based almost entirely on speculation and innuendo, not to speak of its subtextual identification of Jews with Nazis. Yet, in today’s ideological atmosphere, so toxic to “the Jews” (all of whom may be imagined exactly like the immigrant Jews who were prominent in founding the international business of cinema, unless as acceptable, assimilated Jews they are antisemitic themselves). Though Urwand’s book will find even more kvetchy reviewers, the fundamental questions will remain unanswered: “What is a Jew” and what institutional constraints have figured in the censorship of movies?
So far, besides the constraints of an international market, I have found through reading, the Will Hays Office (supported by Joe Kennedy), Joseph Breen and the Legion of Decency, and the Office of War Information (described in detail in Koppes and Black). But more than these censors, like other immigrants, the early movie moguls adapted to the regnant populism that appealed to the mass market, inhabited as it was by other immigrants. (Upper and middle class WASPs were mostly off elsewhere uplifting urban folk.) And the movies remain populistic, with the support of movie critics and other journalists who partake of the general sadism and masochism we see all around us.
The following photo and caption was used in David Denby’s New Yorker review (linked above), but not in the Urwand book.
“Breen (center) had power to censor anti-Nazi films”
The Godfather, Jamie Wyeth Gorgon, culture wars and rustic chivalry
Tags: Andres Serrano, Andrew Wyeth, Citizen Kane, Condorcet, culture wars, Elia Kazan, film noir, Francis Ford Coppola, Godfather Part II, Helen Brooke Taussig, Jamie Wyeth, Joseph P. Kennedy, McCarthyism, Michael Corleone, moral relativism, movie moguls, N.C. Wyeth, NEA, On The Waterfront, Philip Roth, Richard Bolton, Robert Mapplethorpe, The Big Chill, urban ethnics, Vertigo
Jamie Wyeth unsettles Dr. Taussig
I was gone for a week, and ONLY 52 viewers (outside of regulars who come to the home page) came to my last blog (https://clarespark.com/2013/08/13/victor-hugos-93-and-condorcet/), which quoted from Victor Hugo’s 93. I haven’t had numbers that low since I started the website. What was unattractive about this contrast of Terror and Mercy? Was a preference for absolute standards in morality the problem? Be warned, as a historian, I understand that morality is culture-specific, though the Enlightenment popularized the notion of universalist ethics as first advanced by the early French Revolution, and before the Reign of Terror. The Enlightenment philosophes were looking to a future where all people would live in republics and abide by the rule of law.
While gone I had three or four interesting encounters with popular and high culture.
First, the New York Times article about the controversy regarding Jamie Wyeth’s long-hidden painting of a famous female doctor. See http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/arts/design/a-showing-for-jamie-wyeths-portrait-of-a-cardiac-pioneer.html?pagewanted=all. Helen Brooke Taussig was the subject, but when her portrait was unveiled in May 1964, male doctors/colleagues freaked out. Look at the portrait yourselves and leave comments if you care to. (Jamie Wyeth preceded by famous painters and illustrators N. C. Wyeth, grandfather, and Andrew Wyeth, father and realist painter.)
Second, I have been reading both academic and coffee table studies (written by professors here and in Germany) of the history of the movies. Before that I read a recent biography of Joseph P. Kennedy, and to leave him out of the story where dopy Jewish moguls (all by themselves) are said to have caused mass degeneracy and a misreading of history in our most popular art form, and without mentioning either Joe Kennedy, Will Hays, Joseph Breen, and the Catholic Legion of Decency, is yet another depressing episode in the cultural history we teach to our eager beaver tech-savvy children who adore images and are virtually on their own in finding out how stories and images can shape their emotions and politics. What the “history of the movies” reveals, for these liberal writers, is the inevitability of radical subjectivism, mystery, and the unknowability of even the most famous, documented lives. A running theme in many of these film histories: McCarthyism caused brain drain in Hollywood, so the 1950s were beneath contempt, except for Vertigo (Hitchcock learned from the German refugees) and On the Waterfront (“cold war liberalism,” thumbs down on snitch Elia Kazan).
The recent film histories, obviously directed to an upper-class readership, are glitzy, often lavishly illustrated, sensitive in a superficial English major way, and hardly do justice to individual artifacts. If these English professors or culture studies specialists ever turned in such hasty plot summaries to a graduate seminar, they would possible be thrown out of school. As for film noir, blame it on the German refugees and their immersion in German Expressionism and post Great War angst, which, though partly true, does not fully explain disillusion and cultural pessimism (See https://clarespark.com/2011/04/27/james-m-cains-gorgon-gals-2/, retitled Film Noir, decoded.)
Speaking of angst, on the flight home I watched all of The Godfather (175 minutes). Like zillions of others, I thought it was a powerful and well-made movie; I have done zero research on it yet, but here are some guesses ahead of my future study. First, it was obviously Coppola’s FU to the Hollywood system. The first villain, though not identified as Jewish, was vulgar (rather like Citizen Kane/Cain). His name was Woltz (sounds German, could be German-Jewish). The corruption of Hollywood stands for a society that is utterly bought and sold by criminal elements: politicians, law enforcement, newspapers, everybody that shapes public opinion or protects us from the bad guys: (more Citizen Kane). The transformation of war hero, Ivy-educated Michael from “civilian” to his father’s successor as head of the family “business” could signify that brutalization of the young that is said by many historians to have followed the Great War. Note that conflicts between gang bosses are always referred to as wars, not disputes between criminals. In the world we see depicted everybody is guilty, except for the women, who are merely hysterical when they are not putting up with spousal abuse or neglect. They are both protected from the world of men, or are contented to be Sicilian breeders and feeders. Finally, I noted the importance of neighborhood, religion, family and ethnicity to Southern Italian immigrants. The Godfather series came out during the height of the social policy transition from an emphasis on class, to an emphasis on the durability of ethnic ties over class ties. The Corleone family has not assimilated, and doesn’t care. They hew to the colorful ways of 19th and 20th century urban ethnics with their scofflaw patronage systems, or in the case of the Corleones, Sicilian peasants and the patriarchal system. In comes localism, radical historicism, and multiculturalism. In other mass media offerings, the demonic is celebrated, in dangerous neo-Romantic fashion, see https://clarespark.com/2013/03/30/philip-roth-the-following-and-identification-with-the-aggressor/.
Third, I found a copy of a documentary study and chronology of the Culture Wars, that covers the censorship of artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano, and focuses primarily on events during the Reagan administration and the first years of Bush 41. The introduction that I raced through made the claim that the artist freedom jeopardized by right-wing kvetching about tax dollars going to the National Endowment for the Arts, was tied to working class benefits. It does have a useful chronology of government funding of the arts since the Kennedy administration, and it is something to look into. How “high art” that many Americans see as handmaidens to the wealthy became a matter of interest to the labor movement and other ‘slobs’ defies comprehension. Artist Richard Bolton explains away this seeming contradiction, “It is more than passing interest that ‘populist’ conservatives, while rejecting ‘high culture’ in the name of the masses, also detest the popular culture–television, music, and film—commonly shared by these same masses. And in matters of policy, conservative activists and officials have consistently opposed government programs that would benefit the typical worker….” (Culture Wars, ed. Richard Bolton, p.5) Bolton goes on to describe statist interventions against the market that ostensibly benefit the working class. In other words, Bolton’s ‘populist’ conservatives are hypocrites. Mapplethorpe and Serrano et al are the true populists.
But there was solidarity of a sort evident in the movie The Big Chill that I watched on my way back East. This cloying cluster of U. of Michigan graduates, ex-radicals who have gone bourgeois in their forties and feel guilty about it, is hardly worth mentioning, though it was interesting to see how major movie stars looked when much younger. The one Jewish character was something of a geek (played by Jeff Goldblum) whose attempts to fit in were ludicrous.
Give me Cavalleria Rusticana transferred to post WW2 America any day over 60s-70s nostalgia felt by successful hippies. Or perhaps The Big Chill was a less obvious form of rustic chivalry as the Glenn Close character makes a gift of her husband (Kevin Kline) for a night to fertilize the egg of her chum (played by Mary Kay Place). After all, the story was set in the South.
About Clare Spark
About the Yankee Doodle Society (YDS)
Ron Paul: Anarchist-in-Chief
SCANDAL's "inclusive" feminism
Ayn Rand's rational modernism
The Hunger Games trilogy: reactionary and postmodern
The Americanization of Ziva David (NCIS)?
The Cold War, a moderate liberal version
The culture war over US and World History Standards
Bohemia and the New Left
Richard Hofstadter on Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1865-1915 (1944)
Four books on Hitler and the Rise of Nazism.
Melodrama, Jeffrey Epstein, and “The Loudest Voice” Finale
“Mental Health” as Ideology
The Loudest Voice: social democratic or communistic?
Is “America” racist?
The “women of color” meme is bogus
“Health care” and the Body
Bad “Fathers”
Re-reading Herman Melville (part two)
Archives Select Month January 2020 (2) December 2019 (4) October 2019 (1) August 2019 (2) July 2019 (3) June 2019 (3) April 2019 (3) March 2019 (4) February 2019 (2) January 2019 (2) December 2018 (2) November 2018 (2) October 2018 (3) September 2018 (3) August 2018 (3) July 2018 (1) June 2018 (1) May 2018 (7) April 2018 (2) March 2018 (1) February 2018 (3) January 2018 (2) December 2017 (1) November 2017 (7) October 2017 (2) September 2017 (2) August 2017 (4) July 2017 (2) June 2017 (3) May 2017 (2) April 2017 (2) March 2017 (3) February 2017 (1) January 2017 (1) December 2016 (4) November 2016 (2) October 2016 (5) September 2016 (3) August 2016 (4) July 2016 (6) June 2016 (7) May 2016 (5) April 2016 (4) March 2016 (3) February 2016 (5) January 2016 (3) December 2015 (7) November 2015 (5) October 2015 (6) September 2015 (4) August 2015 (3) July 2015 (9) June 2015 (7) May 2015 (8) April 2015 (6) March 2015 (6) February 2015 (7) January 2015 (10) December 2014 (9) November 2014 (7) October 2014 (7) September 2014 (8) August 2014 (6) July 2014 (8) June 2014 (9) May 2014 (8) April 2014 (13) March 2014 (13) February 2014 (11) January 2014 (5) December 2013 (6) November 2013 (7) October 2013 (9) September 2013 (12) August 2013 (9) July 2013 (11) June 2013 (11) May 2013 (14) April 2013 (11) March 2013 (17) February 2013 (9) January 2013 (14) December 2012 (15) November 2012 (11) October 2012 (10) September 2012 (20) August 2012 (9) July 2012 (8) June 2012 (5) May 2012 (8) April 2012 (7) March 2012 (14) February 2012 (8) January 2012 (11) December 2011 (4) November 2011 (5) October 2011 (10) September 2011 (3) August 2011 (6) July 2011 (4) June 2011 (15) May 2011 (10) April 2011 (9) March 2011 (9) February 2011 (7) January 2011 (11) December 2010 (3) November 2010 (11) October 2010 (5) September 2010 (8) August 2010 (6) July 2010 (8) June 2010 (10) May 2010 (9) April 2010 (8) March 2010 (9) February 2010 (8) January 2010 (4) December 2009 (8) November 2009 (23) October 2009 (26) September 2009 (29) August 2009 (19) July 2009 (6) June 2009 (3) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (1) November 2007 (2)
Alexander Hamilton American exceptionalism antisemitism Ayn Rand Barack Obama Benjamin Disraeli Bill O'Reilly Captain Ahab Charles Krauthammer Charles Olson Charles Sumner Clare Spark culture wars Donald J. Trump Edmund Burke education reform Eric Hobsbawm Ernest Hemingway fascism FDR feminism Foucault Fox News Channel French Revolution Freud George Orwell Goethe Gordon Allport Gunnar Myrdal Hannah Arendt harold lasswell Henry A. Murray Herbert Marcuse Herder Herman Melville Hillary Clinton Hitler Hunting Captain Ahab identity politics J. A. Hobson Jay Leyda Lenin Martha Gellhorn Marx Michael Rogin Milton Friedman misogyny Moby-Dick moderate men multiculturalism New Left noam chomsky Obamacare Pacifica Radio Paradise Lost Picasso Pierre or the Ambiguities Pierrot political correctness Popular Front populism postmodernism primitivism progressivism racism Ralph Bunche sadomasochism Sigmund Freud social democracy statism Talcott Parsons the big lie Thomas Jefferson totalitarianism Woodrow Wilson
YDS: The Clare Spark Blog


View Items All Items (22) Alaska (1) California (3) Maine (2) Massachusetts (2) Michigan (4) Minnesota (1) New York (2) Oregon (1) Washington (5) Wisconsin (1)
U.S. Lighthouse Society
Lighthouse Vacation Auction
Welcome to the U.S. Lighthouse Society's
Ninth Annual Lighthouse Vacation Auction!
Auction Begins: Monday December 9th - 12:00 PM EST
Auction Ends: Sunday December 15th - 7:00 PM EST
You can see bidding options by state, or can click the "View All Categories" button for a list of all the lighthouse vacations and B&B's available through this special U.S. Lighthouse Society fundraiser. Good luck, and thank you in advance for your generous support!
We consider ourselves fortunate to have so many amazing partners that have donated their unique lodging experience in order to support our mission to preserve lighthouses and their history.
Each lighthouse vacation location offers its own unique charm and unforgettable experience and once again, we have included several amazing B&B's and Inns located near lighthouses.
Bid Extension
This year there will not be a bid extension at the end of the auction. So the highest bid at the end of the auction, will win!
Who is the U.S. Lighthouse Society?
The U.S. Lighthouse Society is a national nonprofit organization that started the lighthouse preservation movement in America over 30 years ago. Education is at the forefront of Society operations, and to that end it produces a highly respected lighthouse journal and operates educational excursions around the world.
The Society is considered the hub of communication for everything lighthouse, and has been the proud recipient of numerous preservation awards including a special commendation from The White House.
To date, the U.S. Lighthouse Society is made up of many thousands of members and supports lighthouse preservation projects nationwide. The Society serves as an important voice and a beacon of hope for those who are passionate about these national maritime treasures, and is dedicated to the continued preservation of lighthouses for future generations.
(415) 362-7255 / USLHS.org
Have questions? Please contact us!


Explore ships
Cruiselines
Explore ports
Amazon Gift card Deal
+ Cruise Itinerary Aggregator
Quick login via social networks
Or login using your account on CruiseBe
Why do I need to login?
Being a registered user gives you privilege to save all cruise itineraries that you build in your account and access them later on any device.
* By using the website, you accept Terms and Conditions
Don`t have an account? Register now
I'm not a spammer
What to do in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Rating Title
Maracas Beach, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Port of call:
Asa Wright Nature Centre, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Dattatreya Temple, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Royal Botanic Gardens, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Monday-Sunday 6:00-18:00
Emperor Valley Zoo, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Las Cuevas Beach, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
National Museum and Art Gallery, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Fort George, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Maracas Falls, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Blanchisseuse, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Cedros, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Fort San Andres, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Caroni Swamp, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Pitch Lake, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
The Red House, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Mayaro Bay, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
San Fernando Hill, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Manzanilla Beach, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Downtown Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Chaguaramas, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Hall of Justice, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Memorial Park, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
History and museums
Cruise Lines International Association Member №00435435
© 2020 CruiseBe INC


Servant Keeper Blog
4 Steps to Encourage End of Year Generosity
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GivePlus-Holiday-hand-pop-up-2-blog-header-01.png 242 600 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2019-12-18 15:09:042019-12-18 15:09:044 Steps to Encourage End of Year Generosity
Track and Manage Ministry Health
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dashboard-email-play-2.png 261 450 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2019-06-05 19:40:492019-06-05 20:20:23Track and Manage Ministry Health
To Screen or Not to Screen
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/to-screen-or-not-to-screen-high-res-2.png 324 250 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2019-02-15 17:25:522019-02-15 17:30:52To Screen or Not to Screen
How to Create a Culture of Service with the Help of Ministry Scheduling Software
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ministry-scheduler-pro-ebook-cover.jpg 247 325 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-11-08 16:43:202018-11-08 17:56:26How to Create a Culture of Service with the Help of Ministry Scheduling Software
Volunteer Recognition - An eToolkit
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Volunteer-recognition-etoolkit.jpg 224 219 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-08-15 16:54:522018-08-15 16:57:31Volunteer Recognition - An eToolkit
Top 10 Background Screening Best Practices for VBS and Children's Ministry
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ten-screening-best-practices-capture.jpg 446 399 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-07-26 20:00:112018-07-27 14:21:18Top 10 Background Screening Best Practices for VBS and Children's Ministry
How This Church Manages Ministry Better with Servant Keeper
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Inside-Sanctuary-2000-002.jpg 1978 1585 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-07-25 21:00:182018-07-26 13:22:17How This Church Manages Ministry Better with Servant Keeper
Make Your VBS Safer in 24 Hours
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/lightstock_340735_medium_VBS-Girl_small.jpg 333 500 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-05-15 20:39:362019-03-26 15:54:15Make Your VBS Safer in 24 Hours
See How Easy it Can Be to Send Out Contribution Statements
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/V8-Video-Contribution-8-Producing-Donor-Statements.jpg 540 960 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-03-28 15:43:442018-05-17 16:09:47See How Easy it Can Be to Send Out Contribution Statements
Fast Contribution Entry (Video)
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Contribution-Entry-Screen.jpg 983 1502 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-03-28 13:34:572018-05-10 12:47:59Fast Contribution Entry (Video)
Finding the Right Accounting Solution for Your Ministry
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/calculator-calculation-insurance-finance-accounting.jpeg 353 600 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-03-23 20:46:162018-04-30 14:49:07Finding the Right Accounting Solution for Your Ministry
Technology Churches Need in 2018: Email Campaigns
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/woman-typing-writing-windows.jpg 400 600 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-03-09 21:09:522018-04-30 14:53:59Technology Churches Need in 2018: Email Campaigns
Technology Churches Need in 2018: Online Directory
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/online-directory-400.jpg 283 400 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2018-01-29 17:56:102018-04-27 19:59:41Technology Churches Need in 2018: Online Directory
2017 Churchgoer Giving Study: See what Vanco has Revealed
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Churchgoer-Giving-Study_Thumbnail_Servant-keeper-002.jpg 388 300 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2017-12-15 17:02:302018-04-30 15:08:482017 Churchgoer Giving Study: See what Vanco has Revealed
Enhance Your Volunteer Lifecycle
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/enhancing-volunteer-lifecycle-ebook-cover.jpg 250 500 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2017-11-30 14:51:362018-04-30 15:46:10Enhance Your Volunteer Lifecycle
With Checks and Cash in Decline, What's Filling Your Collection Plate?
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Disappearing-Check_cover-3.jpg 243 432 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2017-11-21 16:04:392018-04-30 15:55:55With Checks and Cash in Decline, What's Filling Your Collection Plate?
Using Groups to Better Manage Ministry (Video)
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/smart-groups-choir.jpg 271 550 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2017-10-27 21:04:462018-04-30 15:56:22Using Groups to Better Manage Ministry (Video)
A Quick Look at Reporting for Churches (Video)
https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/shared-reports.jpg 308 450 Amy Bechdel https://www.servantpc.com/spcwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo.jpg Amy Bechdel2017-10-27 20:35:402019-07-25 14:00:43A Quick Look at Reporting for Churches (Video)
4 Steps to Encourage End of Year GenerosityDecember 18, 2019 - 3:09 pm
How Your Church can Avoid the Scariest Part of Trunk or...October 20, 2016 - 2:59 pm
Effective Church Event Promotion on a Limited BudgetOctober 24, 2016 - 4:51 pm
6 Signs It’s Time for an (Improved) Online Church...November 2, 2016 - 4:06 pm
Track and Manage Ministry HealthJune 5, 2019 - 7:40 pm
To Screen or Not to ScreenFebruary 15, 2019 - 5:25 pm
How to Create a Culture of Service with the Help of Ministry...November 8, 2018 - 4:43 pm
[…] Servant Keeper is proficient, efficient and straightforward...November 29, 2017 - 8:00 am by Ministry of Administration - The Ministry of Administration
Attendance Background Check Cloud contribution Directory eBook egiving Events Giving group Member Notes Reports smart groups Staff Vanco Verified Volunteer Visitor Volunteer


Home Magazine Society Forum discusses social policy in 1st half of president’s term
Assistant Deputy Minister of Education Seo Yoo-mi on Dec. 17 gives a keynote speech at a forum on the results and remaining tasks of the social policy of President Moon Jae-in’s administration in the first half of his term at Seoul’s Koreana Hotel. (Ministry of Education)
By Oh Hyun Woo and Kim Minji
A forum on the results and remaining tasks of social policy in the first half of President Moon Jae-in’s term term was held on Dec. 17 at Seoul’s Koreana Hotel.
The event was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Education and a network of 19 research bodies in social policy sectors such as education, welfare and labor.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hae, in a congratulatory speech via video, said “The Moon administration proposed ‘an innovative, inclusive nation where everyone prospers together’ as a vision of national administration and has promoted various social policies.”
“As a result, overall living conditions have improved from two years ago, according to a survey by Statistics Korea,” she said, adding, “Related ministries should work together to improve daily life for the people and ensure that the process is based on inclusiveness, innovation and fairness.”
Cho Heung-seek, president of Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, and representatives from local governments, civic organizations and specialized entities gave presentations at the forum on the administration’s results and tasks from the viewpoints of inclusiveness, innovation and fairness.
“The government is achieving inclusiveness through a citizen-friendly welfare policy,” Cho said, adding, “The issues of social polarization and elderly poverty should be resolved through the expansion of welfare policy and stronger taxation.”
Ra Young-sun, president of Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, said, “The results of (the government’s) policy of enhancing human resource capacity are being verified through select indicators,” adding, “Social policy should actively perform the function of accumulating and utilizing human capital.”
In a discussion session after the presentations, four participants including Ku In-hoe, a social welfare professor at Seoul National University, and Hong Seon-mee, a social welfare professor at Hanshin University, explored remaining tasks in social policy and shared opinions on its direction.
Ex-nat’l soccer coach Cha to receive German honor


Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) waits outside the paint to prepare for a potential rebound as a free throw shot is about to be attempted during a game against Old Dominion in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) makes an inbound pass to a teammate during a game against Old Dominion in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) calls for a pass with her hands raised high as an opposing Old Dominion defender keeps close during a game in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) prepares to play defense in the post during a game against Old Dominion in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) gets into a defensive stance during a game against Old Dominion in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) attempts to slow down a driving opponent near the paint during a game against Old Dominion in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) runs up the court during a game against Old Dominion in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) plays post-up defense against an opposing Old Dominion player who calls for the ball during a game in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) attempts to grab a rebound but an opposing Old Dominion player grabs the ball first during a game in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Overview 2001 University of Denver (DU) Pioneers women's basketball player Stacey Koralewski (50) grabs the ball and prepares to move during a game against Old Dominion in the Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.


Android News / Android News / Alcatel 1T7, 1T10 Tablets Feature Android Oreo & Kids Mode – MWC 2018
Alcatel 1T7, 1T10 Tablets Feature Android Oreo & Kids Mode – MWC 2018
By John Anon
In addition to announcing a number of smartphones, Alcatel has also today unveiled two new Android tablets at MWC 2018. Although, they are essentially the same tablet made available in two different sizes. These are the Alcatel 1T7 and 1T10 Android tablets, both of which are designed to be highly affordable options, with the 1T7 set to arrive with a starting price of €69,99 and the 1T10 starting at €99.99. According to Alcatel, both models are set to become available in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, beginning in the second quarter of 2018.
Starting with the smaller of the two, the Alcatel 1T7 features a 7-inch IPS display along with a 1,024 x 600 resolution. Inside, the Alcatel 1T7 comes loaded with 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, and is powered by a MediaTek MT8321A/D quad-core processor. This tablet includes a 2-megapixel rear camera along with a VGA front-facing camera. MicroSD card support is included, as is a 2,580 mAh battery – which is rated to offer up to seven hours of usage off a single charge. As for the Alcatel 1T10, its larger size results in a 10.1-inch display along with a 1,280 x 800 resolution. Inside, and while the RAM is the same as the 1T7 (1GB), the storage has been boosted up to 16GB, and the processor in use is the standard MediaTek MT8321. Likewise, the same 2-megapixel rear camera is in play, although the front-facing camera on this occasion is a second 2-megapixel camera. Another noticeable difference is in the battery department as the Alcatel 1T10 comes loaded with a 4,000 mAh battery – which the company states will offer up to eight hours of usage per charge.
Some of the other features on offer with both models are the employment of Android 8.0 (Oreo), along with the inclusion of an 'Eye Care Mode' (designed to reduce the effects of blue light) and a 'Kids Mode.' The latter of which is a version of the operating system designed with younger users in mind. Not only does this mode offer a selection of pre-installed apps and games suitable for younger users, but it also comes with additional settings to allow parents to pre-set various aspects such as usage limits.
Alcatel 1T7
Alcatel 1T 7 inch MWC 2018 1
Alcatel 1T10
Alcatel 1T 10 inch MWC 2018 1
Alcatel 1T 10 inch MWC 2018 10
Detailed Galaxy S20 Series Camera Specs Reveal A Lot
John Anon
John has been writing about and reviewing tech products since 2014 after making the transition from writing about and reviewing airlines. With a background in Psychology, John has a particular interest in the science and future of the industry. John also covers much of the news surrounding audio and visual tech, including cord-cutting, the state of Pay-TV, and Android TV. Contact him at [email protected]


Dot Da Genius
Profile NEWS Songs Mixtapes Albums Videos
Oladipo Omishore
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
HeadBanga Muzik Group
Dot da Genius is an American record producer and mixing engineer from Brooklyn, New York City. He is perhaps best known for producing "Day 'n' Nite", the debut single of longtime friend and collaborator, American recording artist Kid Cudi, with whom he later formed a rock band known as WZRD. Engaged in various music production ventures, Dot da Genius has also signed a publishing deal with Universal Music Group, launched his own label HeadBanga Muzik Group and has since employed a mix engineer (Jay Powell). He has also collaborated with several prominent artists in the music industry, such as King Chip and Jhené Aiko, among others.


The Genesis
The establishment of ISID followed a course that is quite different from that of most of the fellow ICSSR institutes. The journey started in the late seventies as an assembly of a few committed and competent scholars and now has reached a stage where it can support long term research programme on diverse aspects relating to the country’s industrial development, after overcoming many hardships and uncertainties over a prolonged period of more than two and a half decades. The journey had been arduous for two main reasons. One: ISID did not have the additional active support of a state government or national and international organisations. Two: the institute chose to shun funding which can potentially influence public policy research.
The influence exercised by big business and large private corporations on the polity was a matter of intense debate in India both during the pre- and post-independence periods. Understandably, after the initial planning experience, the question arose as to how the increase in national income, emerging from planned development, was being distributed in the country. To examine this issue, Jawaharlal Nehru, as Chairman of the Planning Commission, set up an expert committee headed by Dr P.C. Mahalanobis, in 1960. Subsequently, the Monopolies Inquiry Commission (1965) looked into the existence and effect of concentration of economic power.
Soon after, the Industrial Licensing Policy Inquiry Committee (1969) was assigned the task of examining whether larger industrial houses benefited unduly from the operation of the Industrial Licensing System and the public financial institutions. The paucity of relevant data and information, however, made this task extremely difficult and time consuming. This experience underlined the need to have an agency which could provide appropriate data in readily usable form.
Professor S.K. Goyal, who was closely associated with this Committee as Honorary Economic Adviser, renewed his efforts at undertaking studies in the area of monopolies and concentration of economic power, at the Indian Institute of Public Administration. The study Monopoly Capital and Public Policy: Business and Economic Power (1979) further emphasised the absence of an agency to collect, analyse and interpret private corporate data and the sector’s influence on the society, economy and public policy. Professor V.K.R.V. Rao, a member of the Mahalanobis Committee, and who had drafted the chapter on Concentration of Economic Power for the Committee, in his Foreword to Professor Goyal’s study suggested the need for ???establishment of research centers on concentration of economic power in selected universities and institutions of higher research. Subsequently, Professor Goyal completed another major study Impact of Foreign Subsidiaries on India???s Balance of Payments (1979).
This was the background in which the Corporate Studies Group (CSG) at the Indian Institute of Public Administration emerged gradually. The five-year research programme, Regulatory Administration of the Corporate Sector in India, supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), based on the recommendations of the Committee comprising Professors V.K.R.V. Rao (Chairman), Raj Krishna and Amiya Kumar Bagchi, provided a major impetus for the CSG. The Committee in its recommendations underlined the necessity for having much more information and analysis than was available at that time ‘on the working of the corporate sector in India not only from the viewpoint of IDRA, MRTP and FERA but also from the point of view of productivity, efficiency and the cost structure’.
Realising the limitations of conventional data handling methods, the CSG took the lead to harness emerging computer technologies to facilitate better organisation of data and information for and faster, reliable and convenient access to it. Among the initial studies at the CSG was the Ownership and Control Structure of the Indian Press (1981) which was commissioned by the Second Press Commission. Functioning of the Industrial Licensing System (1983), Small Scale Sector and Big Business (1984) and Political Dimensions of the Multinational Corporations (1983) were the defining studies of the Group which received wide coverage in academics and in policymaking circles.
A Committee constituted by the ICSSR, under the chairmanship Prof. CH. Hanumantha Rao, to review the work done under the programme, recommended the continuation of the CSG into an autonomous Centre for Industrial Policy Research because
While industry and the organised sector in India have an important and growing place, there are no specialised centres to undertake research in this field on a continuing basis. This gap in the social sciences and industrial policy research needs to be bridged;
The other members of the Committee were Professor Y.K. Alagh, Professor Deepak Nayyar, Professor T.S. Papola and Shri T.L. Sankar.
Transformation of the CSG into ISID
As a follow up of the recommendations of the Committee, ISID was registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, on October 7, 1986 to undertake, promote and co-ordinate research in the area of industrial development with special emphasis on the problems of India and its relationship with other countries of the world. ISID was brought under the grants-in-aid scheme of the ICSSR towards the end of 1987-88 thus paving the way for its autonomous development.
Even while functioning from temporary sheds on a shoestring budget and uncertain flow of funds for about one and a half decades, which also constrained it from attaining optimal faculty strength, the Institute continued its thrust on research and database building. From 1991 onwards the research agenda was widened gradually keeping in view the changed economic policy environment. Simultaneously, all out efforts were made to establish own permanent campus.
Own Campus
The operations of the Institute were shifted to the new campus in mid-2006. Immediately ISID started consolidating its programme as also further broadening and diversifying into activities like training and capacity building programmes. The period also marked the beginning of some financial stability and meaningful long term planning. The institute thus could renew the efforts to build core minimum faculty.
ISID is the culmination of the vision and tenacity of Professor S.K. Goyal. In realising this dream, many individuals from different walks of life and institutions contributed immensely to tide over difficult situations and to attain stability. Shri Chandra Shekhar, former Prime Minister of India had been a tower of strength providing support and guidance in multiple forms. Among the others who deserve a special mention are: Professor Moonis Raza, Shri Abid Hussain, Shri Madhu Dandavate, Shri Yashwant Sinha, Shri Markandey Singh, Shri T.N. Chaturvedi.
Indian Institute of Public Administration the ICSSR, Centre of Applied Politics, the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission in general and their senior functionaries in particular extended constructive support during various phases of ISID’s development.


KELVIN MACGREGOR - BIOGRAPHY
Kelvin MacGregor is a British author, journalist and singer-songwriter.
An award-nominated internationally published journalist, he has written for publications such as Empire, ELLE and Cosmopolitan.
Kelvin has recently written for The Herald, one of the UK's leading quality national daily newspapers.
His first novel HERE WE GO! was published by Random House. He recently revised and updated his Top 10 international bestselling film biography Kevin Costner: Prince Of Hollywood, which has been translated into several languages including French, Japanese, German, Hungarian.
Kelvin was awarded a Writers' Bursary by the Scottish Arts Council (now Creative Scotland) on the strength of a work-in-progress to write a new novel.
Kelvin is also an unsigned Myspace Top 10 Indie Recording Artist, producing and releasing his own music independently.
A contemporary singer-songwriter with a refreshing throwback retro sound, Kelvin's innovative acoustic, pop, rock songs are given a cool modern spin with catchy tunes, strong, driving beats and heartfelt emotive lyrics delivered with his distinctive soft vocal.
Kelvin's singles The Girl Of My Best Friend, White Horses (Official TV Series Theme Song), Last Christmas and albums The Only One, Forever: The Collection, Maybe I'm Falling In Love, The Life You Dream Of, When You Call It Love are available to buy at iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby and all other online stores as well as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited and other music streaming sites.
Getty Images, the market leader in music licensing, represent the songs of Kelvin MacGregor across film/TV, trailers, commercials & multi-media projects globally.
Kelvin's songs are played on radio stations around the world.
* Click the MUSIC section to listen to Kelvin's songs and for a full listing of singles and album record releases.


STV The Diana Tapes Feature - August 24th 2016
Writer James Clements and Director Wednesday Derrico are interviewed on Live at 5 at Scottish Television about the Edinburgh Workshop production of The Diana Tapes. Watch Video
BBC Radio Scotland - August 24th 2016
Co-Artistic Directors James Clements and Jorge Morales Picó are interviewed by renowned BBC Arts journalist Janice Forsyth on The Janice Forsyth Show. Read More
Broadway World Review - June 27, 2017
Diana, Princess of Wales remains a fascinating figure, despite the two decades that have gone by since her death. The relatively new play, THE DIANA TAPES, by James Clements takes an interesting approach to the princess, her motivations and involvement with the tabloid writer Andrew Morton, when he wrote Diana: In Her Owns Words in 1992. Diana was... Read More
Motif Magazine Review - June 17, 2017
Twenty years after her death, Princess Diana remains a legendary figure. Playwright James Clements’ In Her Own Words: The Diana Tapes is an entrancing look at the creation of Diana: Her True Story, Andrew Morton’s best-selling book about the doomed princess. Diana was a woman who gave birth to a future king, Prince William, and lived much of her life in the glare of the spotlight. Beautifully played by Ana Cristina Schuler, Diana... Read More
Mooney on Theatre Review - October 4, 2017
The Diana Tapes, being performed by What Will The Neighbors Say? Theatre Company at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, focuses on a crucial episode of Diana’s life – the 1992 publication of Andrew Morton’s biography, Diana: Her True Story. The book was a bombshell, revealing Diana’s suicide attempts, her bulimia, and her husband, Prince Charles’, affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles. It ultimately resulted in... Read More
Edge Media Network Review - June 28, 2017
What Will The Neighbors Say? (WWTNS?), a theater company based in New York City, presents "In Her Own Words: The Diana Tapes," a compelling retelling of English journalist Andrew Morton's tumultuous effort to publish his 1992 tell-all book, "Diana: Her True Story," which painted an especially unflattering portrait of the British royal family and effectively ended Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles. Read More
Providence Journal Review - June 14, 2017
One doesn’t have to be an Anglophile to be interested in the backstory of one of this generation’s most glamorized, yet rocky, marriages - and a spare but intriguing Rhode Island theatrical premiere is bringing the sadder side of the life of Britain’s Princess Diana into sharper perspective. The New York City-based theater company What Will the Neighbors Say? is staging “In Her Own Words: The Diana Tapes” locally. Read More


JASON and the Bureaucrats
Pentagon muckety-mucks tried to cut off funding for an elite group of independent scientific overseers. Then Congress intervened.
By Mark Thompson | Filed under analysis | May 02, 2019
(Illustration by POGO)
Back in 1967, members of a secretive government advisory panel of scientists known as JASON started getting nervous as the Vietnam War ground into a stalemate. Its members were alarmed by U.S. war games (conducted by “independent” outsiders like the RAND Corp.) that concluded that nuclear weapons might help tilt the conflict in favor of South Vietnam and its ally, the United States. A top-ranking military officer (within earshot of a Jason, as members of the group are informally known) joined in the rhetoric: “It might be a good idea to toss in a nuke from time to time, just to keep the other side guessing.”
This was enough to electrify some Jasons into producing a secret report, declassified in 2002, showing such thinking was atomic hogwash. “To the extent of my personal knowledge, the talk of using nuclear weapons in that war stopped after the JASON report on the subject,” Seymour Deitchman, who spent 28 years at the federal government’s Institute for Defense Analyses, said in 2003.
So go figure that, after performing for decades what insiders say is critical work, the Pentagon tried to order these mad scientists out of business by cancelling their long-standing Defense Department contract in March. But not to fear, at least not yet: After Congressional criticism of the proposed termination, the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) stepped in on April 25 to keep funding flowing to the JASON program, at least through January.
Though JASON may have gotten a stay of execution, its days still could be numbered.
“NNSA and other agencies have critical national security support studies that JASON is performing or scheduled to perform this year,” NNSA said in explaining its decision. “A gap in coverage that the current contract provides could be harmful to the completion of these studies.”
The news that JASON’s days may be numbered set off alarms inside the military-inquiry complex. “The abrupt, unilateral decision to not renew the long-standing JASON contract damages our national security by depriving not only the Pentagon, but also other national security agencies, of sober and sound advice in confronting some of the nation's most complex threats,” said Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN), chair of the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee—the panel that deals with nuclear weapons. His view counts because JASON has several studies underway for NNSA, which is championing the Trump Administration’s push to spend $1.7 trillion over the next 30 years on nuclear weapon modernization efforts.
For those not deep into Pentagon intrigue, JASON is a low-profile group of physicists and other patriotic eggheads that has quietly whispered wisdom into the Defense Department’s ear for the past 60 years. While the group’s focus is the military’s use of science and technology, it also investigates climate change and other non-military topics. You can glean a sense of the breadth of JASON’s work by reviewing a list of its unclassified reports assembled by the Federation of American Scientists. They include military topics like the technical risks facing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and the Pentagon’s possible future use of artificial intelligence and the human genome. There also are non-military studies into subjects like cheap nuclear power and the impact of solar storms on the electrical grid.
The Pentagon, with a $700 billion budget this year, spends about $7 million every six minutes.
The Defense Department said it made “economic sense” to shutter the shop, which has been costing taxpayers about $7 million a year. But the NNSA, which has JASON producing three studies this year (on cyber-security, the detection of nuclear detonation, and plutonium aging), sees value in JASON’s work. “I found their reports to be fulsome and the members of JASON to be knowledgeable about issues associated with our programs at NNSA,” agency head Lisa Gordon-Hagerty told Congress on April 11.
Regardless of which branch on the federal tree is footing the bill, it’s important to keep that $7 million in perspective. The Pentagon, with a $700 billion budget this year, spends about $7 million every six minutes. “We certainly are a bargain,” says Russell Hemley, JASON’s chair and a professor of physics and chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Pentagon does “need a JASON-type organization, and many people believe that,” he continued.
Jasons and people working closely with the group were gob-smacked that its full-fledged services were apparently no longer needed, at least by the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. “I had no insight this was coming—it was a surprise,” Hemley says. The Pentagon and others are free to ignore JASON’s recommendations, but their expertise often carries an influence and a power of its own. “We are a completely independent body” not beholden to the military services or defense contractors, he adds.
There are echoes in JASON’s threatened demise of an executive branch that isn’t keen on second-guessing.
The research office had been underwriting JASON’s work for the past 17 years. JASON members give up their summers to conduct serious studies for the nation, and take no public credit for it (no one acknowledges their JASON membership except for Hemley, who is the group’s chair, and Vice-Chair Ellen Williams, a professor specializing in chemistry and nanotechnology at the University of Maryland). “They’re doing vital work for the country, instead of enhancing their own career with public research,” one said.
JASON was born in 1959 over post-Sputnik concerns that the Soviet Union was eclipsing the United States in military know-how. After the glory of the Manhattan Project’s atomic bomb, the military felt a need for fresh thinking (but no, JASON doesn’t stand for “Junior Achiever, Somewhat Older Now,” as Pentagon lore has it). There are currently about 40 Jasons producing about 12 to 15 reports a year.
JASON usually meets annually for summer studies to probe the Pentagon’s technical underbelly and give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down (and no, given their annual timetable, their name also doesn’t stand for “July August September October November”). JASON actually is named for the leader of the Argonauts who sought the Golden Fleece in Greek mythology. Mildred Goldberger, wife of Marvin Goldberger, one of the original Jasons, came up with the name because she deemed the Pentagon’s “Project Sunrise” too bland.
In a letter to the Washington Post on April 19, the former top arms-control aide at the State Department during the Clinton Administration praised JASON’s bang for the buck. Peter Zimmerman said he spent $20,000 hiring JASON to review a proposal to build a “hafnium” bomb. Its backers said it would “pack the power of a small atomic bomb into a hand-grenade-size weapon.” JASON’s response was straightforward: “Several of the United States’ most distinguished scientists had found fatal flaws in the idea,” Zimmerman wrote. Soon thereafter, Congress killed the program, “saving at least tens of millions of dollars, far more than the entire JASON budget for the year.”
JASON has dodged a bullet like this before. In 2002, it got into a spat with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), its Pentagon overseer at the time. DARPA wanted to appoint three new JASON members, a decision the Jasons had long reserved for themselves. After a public squabble, the Pentagon shifted funding for the Jasons from DARPA to the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. That office “is believed to be the driving force behind last month’s decision” to terminate funding, Science magazine reported on April 9.
There are echoes in JASON’s threatened demise of an executive branch that isn’t keen on second-guessing. For example, the Navy recently decided to abolish its Naval Research Advisory Committee after 73 years. And the key investigator scrutinizing the $100 billion the United States has spent rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan is finding that the data he needs to do his job is becoming increasingly stealthy. “What we are finding is now almost every indicia, metric for success or failure is now classified or nonexistent,” John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, complained on April 24.
But Hemley won’t go there. JASON has had “remarkable stability” working for the U.S. military for six decades, he says, “regardless of the politics of the day, or the administration in power.” He refrains from suggesting JASON’s possible demise is due to any Trump Administration anti-scientific bias. “We’re at a very delicate time,” one Jason says by way of explanation.
So even though the Jasons may have gotten a stay of execution, their days still could be numbered. In that case, we’ll just have to hope that the next time there’s loose talk about using nuclear weapons, there’s another hardy band of anonymous heroes willing to apply the brakes.
Center for Defense Information
The Center for Defense Information at POGO aims to secure far more effective and ethical military forces at significantly lower cost.
Help us shine a light on government waste, fraud, and corruption.
From rooting out wasteful spending at the Pentagon to defending our constitutional right to privacy, POGO fights day in and day out for a more effective government that better serves the people it’s supposed to serve—you. But we can only continue to do this with your help.
Mark Thompson writes for the Center for Defense Information at POGO.
Oversight National Security Science Congress Department of Defense (DOD) Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Weapons
A New Kind of Nuclear War
Gambling On History: President Trump’s Pentagon Says Nuclear Weapons Save Lives
Panel of Defense Lobbyists and Revolving Door Doyens Calls for More Defense Spending
War…By the Numbers


Texas Court Holds that Mexico’s Legal System is Ineffective
Posted by Jeremy Morley | Jan 14, 2009 | 0 Comments
It is unfortunate that courts are usually extremely reluctant to judge the effectiveness of other countries' legal systems, even when such findings need to be made in international custody and visitation cases. Judges often feel great discomfort in making negative findings as to a sovereign country's judges and courts. They may feel that they are not in a position to make fair evaluations of foreign legal systems; that they might be accused of xenophia or insensitivity to foreign ways; and that “people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.”
However there is no way to evaluate the true risks involved in authorizing or failing to prevent international child visitation and international child relocation without evaluating the effectiveness of the foreign legal systems that will be called upon to remedy a child's wrongful retention in a foreign country.
Judicial reluctance to make the necessary decisions on these issues -- hard as the decision-making task may be -- endangers children when it results in a child being taken to a country which is unlikely to order the child's return to the United States. In the face of strong evidence to the contrary -- which courts should encourage -- courts should not blithely assume that a foreign court will probably do the right thing when it comes to ordering the return (for example) to the United States of the child of a citizen of the country in question.
In some extreme cases the U.S. State Department makes a judge's work much easier. While for diplomatic reasons the State Department is understandably reluctant to cast aspersions on many foreign countries, it does issue critical judgments as to some of the worst offenders.
Such determinations provided the basis for a Texas appeal court to uphold a decision to require supervision of all visitation between a father and his son since there was a serious risk that the father might abduct the child to Mexico. In re Sigmar, --- S.W.3d ----, 2008 WL 4816557 Tex.App.-Waco,2008.
International family lawyers know all too well that it is extremely difficult, and very often entirely impossible, to get an abducted American child back from Mexico. Although Mexico is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction it does not do what it is required to do under the terms of that treaty.
In the Sigmar case the Texas court made findings as to the Mexican legal system and as to safety in that country by relying exclusively on the State Department's published materials. These materials included the State Department evaluations of Mexico's compliance with the Hague Convention, and its published warnings concerning travel in certain parts of the country and concerning trafficking in women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
In reliance on such reports the trial court made rulings, which the appeal court upheld, that Mexico:
§ Has no legal mechanism for the immediate and effective enforcement of a child custody order;
§ Has local laws or practices that would enable the father to prevent the mother from contacting the child without due cause, restrict the mother from freely traveling to or exiting from the country because of gender, nationality, or religion; and restrict the child's ability to legally leave the country when she reaches the age of majority because of gender, nationality, or religion;
§ Is a country for which the State Department has issued a travel warning to U.S. citizens; and
§ Poses a risk to the child's physical health and safety because of her specific circumstances and because of “human rights violations committed against children, including child labor and lack of child abuse laws.”
As a result of those findings and in view of evidence that the father posed a risk of abduction, including the fact that the father was liquidating assets in the United States, the court required that all visitation between father and child be strictly supervised.
While one may certainly applaud the willingness of the Texas courts to make blunt findings concerning a foreign country, one wishes that the trial court had asked both sides to submit evidence on the issue, rather than simply relying on the State Department's conclusions. The State Department is not a judicial body and while its conclusions may be afforded great significance they are not the be-all and end-all when it comes to deciding whether a foreign judicial system is likely to return an abducted child promptly and effectively. Those decisions should be made by the courts after the submission of evidence for and against the proposition.
The case is now on appeal to the Supreme Court of Texas.


Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education
CIRE Home
Why does global inequality in education persist?
On November 8, 2019 By shimmiaIn CIRE news
Tigist Grieve, a member of CIRE at the School of Education, sat with our colleague Clare Walsh to talk about her research for the University of Bristol magazine Nonesuch October 2019 issue. The article is copied below.
International Development Ethnographer and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, Tigist Grieve, is researching marginalised voices in rural Ethiopia in an effort to explain the ongoing difficulties in achieving education for all globally.
In a year where we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of men landing on the Moon, we still can’t achieve access to education for all across the globe.1 I continually ask myself, why not? How is it so hard? We make it complicated by not listening and by not understanding other people’s perspectives. Why is it the trend to look at people living in poverty from a deficit point of view? My work as a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow has given me the opportunity to build on my years of PhD research, which focuses on improving the educational outcomes and empowerment of adolescent girls in Ethiopia. I want to bring those voices of marginalised adolescent girls to the ongoing debate of gender and empowerment, while recognising the effort and resilience that goes unnoticed when we have a deficit-based perspective about certain categories of people.
I want to inspire people to go where others would never expect them to by engaging with relevant stakeholders in Ethiopia and beyond.
In particular, my work is about seeing the social, engaging and responding to local voices. In the words of the writer Arundhati Roy ‘There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.’
My inspiration for examining voice is the inspiring work of Robert Chambers, author of Rural Development: Putting the Last First. I am listening to the everyday lived experience of people. My work is about voice – the voices of children, of women, of the resource-strapped communities in rural areas. Really, international development policy to date hasn’t given adequate space to hear them, it’s not informed by their experiences or by their voices.2 Even where there is a claim for ‘voices of the poor’ it is proxy voices where the privileged few speak on their behalf from a position of assumption.
My work is focused on disseminating my research findings back to target communities in Ethiopia, to spark constructive debate about rural schooling and development. I want to do this in a way that challenges policy makers, development practitioners, donors, teachers, researchers and communities themselves.
I’m researching within two communities in Ethiopia, a peri-urban and rural, chosen because they are under the same local authority, but with considerable geographical differences. I believe there’s a misconception that certain communities don’t understand the value of education, but we need to research why, looking at policy, political economy, culture, social pressure. For example, despite the increasing enrolment, school attendance is very poor, not because education is not valued but because the expectation that children will be working around their homes and farms is greater. Girls’ attendance is much lower than boys because societal pressure is higher on girls. Boys have much better autonomy in how they use their time while girls in rural areas are time-poor. My work confirms the importance of recognising the difficulty of transforming gender relations through schooling alone.
We need to make informed decisions through lessons learned from quality research. The joy of being a researcher at the University of Bristol is the opportunity to collaborate with world-leading multi-disciplinary teams interested in developing ideas to meet the global challenges of development.
In analysing categories of children and childhood experiences, I’ve discovered that children are highly mobile in search of opportunities for them and their families, starting from a very young age. My research showed that the ultimate question in rural Ethiopia is ‘Who is this child to me?’ 16 per cent of children in households in my area of research do not live with their biological families and relatedness matters in this culture. This context is so important in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has such a huge population of children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.3 The concept of family is a complex one and under-theorised in the context of Ethiopia. If you’re related to the head of the household, you have access to better resources.
I’m also looking at issues such as access to water and autonomy of reproductive health (or lack of). These also play a part in preventing girls from obtaining an education. A school without a water source or toilet facilities is not hospitable to children, even less so to adolescent girls dealing with menstruation. Climate change also has a part to play in water scarcity issues, with the African continent identified as one of the parts of the world most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.4
The University’s second cohort of 15 Vice-Chancellor’s Fellows started in the academic year 2018-19, joining the 12 from 2017-18. Alumni and friends have contributed funding for six of the Fellows to date. For more information on the Fellows see our dedicated web page.
1 UIS. (2018). One in Five Children, Adolescents and Youth is Out of School. [Available online at: uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/fs48-one-five-children-adolescents-youth-out-school-2018-en.pdf.] (last accessed 23.08.19).
2 Brock, K. and McGee R., (eds) (2002). Knowing Poverty: critical reflections on participatory research and policy. Earthscan.
3 UNICEF. (2016). For Every Child, End AIDS: Seventh Stocktaking Report, 2016.
4 Serdeczny, O., Adams, S., Baarsch, F., Coumou, D., Robinson, A., Hare, B., Schaeffer, M., Perrette, M., Reinhardt, J. (2016). Climate change impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa: from physical changes to their social repercussions. Regional Environmental Change. 1-16.
Fighting Patriarchy One Woman at a time
Bristol Colombia Week 2019: Opportunities and Challenges for the Colombian Truth Commission
education and sustainable development education governance education inequalities education policy language in education peacebuilding and conflict Quality education teacher education teacher professional development
CIRE Conversations CIRE Guest Speakers CIRE Masters Students CIRE Members CIRE news Dissertation Roundtable Doctoral researchers Fieldwork reflections Special Events Special Projects