The Current read… 
Title: Dawn Powell Novels, 1930-1942
Author: Dawn Powell
Past books...
|
By victoriayates, on August 10th, 2010
Here is a biography I wrote for the LeaderValues newsletter …
Kofi Annan was born in Kumasi Ghana on the 8th of April 1938, part of an elite family in a region where both one of his grandfathers and uncles were tribal chiefs.
At 16, Annan attended the British Methodist Mfantsipim Boarding School where some of his earliest activism came through, leading the student body in a hunger strike for better food in the cafeteria (an action which was a success). Annan lived through the 1950s movement that, led by Kwame Nkrumah, made Ghana the first British colony to become independent.
Annan got his first degree from the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana where he studied economics. During his time there he served as the Vice-President of the Ghanaian Students Union, a role that allowed him to attend a meeting of African Student Leaders in Sierra Leone. The Ford Foundation had sent a scout to the meeting who, impressed with Annan, offered him a full scholarship to Macalester College, Minnesota where he completed his studies.
Initially. on graduation in 1961, Annan had planned on taking a job at a new Pillsbury Mill in Ghana. However when the plans fell through he headed instead to Geneva where he took a postgraduate degree in International Affairs at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales.
His time with the UN began directly after he graduated when he took a job with the World Health Organization as a budget officer. He stayed with the WHO for three years until moving to the Economic Commission for Africa based in Ethiopia where he focused on development projects.
Annan choose to return to the US to complete a Masters in Management at MIT. He returned to Ghana in 1974 as the Director of the Ghana Tourist Development Company in an attempt to give back to his country. He however found himself in a constant struggle with the military during the period of political instability brought about by a chain of coups.
Annan decided to return to the UN and spent the next few years working his way up the ranks through positions in human resources and finance. His first moment of international fame came when in 1990, as the UN budget and finance controller, he successfully negotiated the release of 900 UN personnel and thousands of other western hostages who had been held in Iraq. He spent a year working as the Assistant-Secretary General in 1993 before being appointed the Under-Secretary General of UN Peacekeeping.
His first major job was when he was assigned as the Secretary-General’s special representative for the former Yugoslavia. Washington saw the UN’s involvement in the region as a failure and it was a critically important moment for Annan who gained a good reputation amongst US bureaucrats for overseeing a smooth transition from UN to NATO in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The failure of UN intervention in Rwanda, which ended in withdrawal before stability was achieved, was widely placed at Annan’s door who accepted the results of an independent inquiry and expressed deep remorse.
Annan had married the Swedish attorney Nane Lagergren in 1984. This was his second marriage – his first being to Titi Alakija with whom he had two children. It was partly his marriage that caused Annan to hesitate over whether he wanted the job of Secretary-General when it came up in 1996, because of the marked decrease in personal privacy for them both. Regardless he was elected as the 7thSecretary-General, starting his first term on January 1st 1997.
During his tenure Annan had to negotiate face-to-face with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to ensure his compliance to Security Council regulations. The move was ultimately unsuccessful as UN arms inspectors left the country not to return until 2002. Further challenges included helping end a stalemate between Libya and the Security Council as well as crafting an international response to violence in East Timor.
He also certified the withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon in 2000 and worked hard to forge peace in the Middle East. In April of the same year Annan wrote a report which outlined the role of the UN in the 21st century, covering issues such as the end of poverty, inequality, improving education, reducing HIV/Aids, and protecting people from the effects of violence. It was this work that served as the basis for Millennium declarations from Nation States.
In April 2001 Annan shared a Nobel Peace Prize with the UN for his work in helping to revitalize efforts for stability on the world stage. In the same month Annan issued a ‘call to action’ against HIV/AIDS which he considered his personal priority. Annan proposed the creation of a Global AIDS and Health fund, which has received more than $1.5 billion in contributions to date.
Annan retired from his position as Secretary-General at the end of 2006, at which time he spoke of the continuing issues facing the world and the conflicts he felt had not been solved during his tenure. Since his retirement Annan has continued to be involved with various global organizations. These are largely centered around Africa where he has continued to work for peace and improvement in the region, even mediating in negotiations in Kenya after the civil unrest that followed elections in 2008.
Annan’s life has been one of leadership in some of the world’s greatest, most complex, and most pressing problems. He has shown himself to be untiring in his work to make the world a safer, healthy, and better place. He is a true inspiration who deserves his international reputation and the host of accolades afforded him.
Victoria Yates
By victoriayates, on July 17th, 2010
Here is a biography I wrote for the LeaderValues newsletter …
 Condé Montrose Nast was born in New York City on the 26th of March 1873, one of four children of William Nast and Esther Benoist. Three years later his father left for France where he would remain for the better part of the next thirteen years. Following this move, his mother (French aristocracy by descent) moved her family to Missouri.
The family’s financial needs rested on Esther in the absence of her husband, and her personal fortune dwindled. Regardless, she gave her children a solid upbringing, following in her Catholic faith and learning to play musical instruments and speak foreign languages. In his youth Nast showed traits similar to those of his grandfather, Wilhelm Nast, a leader of the German Methodist movement in the US and himself a publisher, proving to be thorough and neat.
Nast convinced his aunt to finance him through Georgetown University where he met Robert Collier, the son of a successful New York publisher, with whom he edited the school paper and became fast friends. After graduating Nast decided to pursue a Law degree at Washington University in St. Louis. However, Nast decided law wasn’t for him and took a job atCollier’s in 1897, successfully increasing the magazine’s circulation from 19,000 to roughly 560,000 over a ten-year period. Amongst his innovations at the magazine were the introduction of color pages, specialist issues, and two-page spreads. Nast also put emphasis on recognizing that the US had different marketing regions with different audiences that needed catering for.
In 1902 Nast married his first wife Clarisse Couder, a society woman of French origin. The couple’s first child, Charles, followed a year later, and their daughter, Nautica, arrived in 1905. The marriage struggled and in 1919 Clarisse moved out before their formal divorce in 1925. Early into their marriage Nast began negotiations to buy the elite magazine Vogue – which he finally purchased in 1909 at a time when its circulation was 14,000. Nast hoped to make the magazine a technical specialist for women’s fashion and accessories, for which he made some major adjustments to the format and content including the introduction of color pages, increased advertising, more society pages and fashion patterns. The concerns of Nast’s target elite audience became the meat and bones of the magazine, and his aspirations translated into higher advertising rates than any competitor.
The company’s portfolio grew in 1911 with the purchase of House & Garden and Travel. Shortly after, he penned an article in which he described his strategy not as inclusion of as much of the audience as possible but the deliberate exclusion and targeting of an elite group. In 1914 Edna Chase became the magazine’s editor. She was a strong willed leader who had a very precise vision for those involved, setting out a dress code for the women in the company and cultivating the image of what a “Vogue woman” should be. Between them, Nast and Chase believed in the need to separate the fashion in the advertising from what was featured in articles. This was difficult to maintain during the depression when advertisers expected editorial coverage given the prices paid. When the war hit there were very real concerns that the fashion section would struggle as Paris was, at the time, the center of the fashion world. Chase hosted a revolutionary runway show featuring American designers and attended by the society elite, kick-starting a new era of fashion that was no longer solely dominated by Paris.
Nast was the first publisher to print international editions of the magazine, featuring German, Spanish, and French editions. And in 1913 he bought a further two magazines Dress and Vanity Fair, appointing Frank Crowninshield editor of the latter whose vision was to create, for the first time, a women’s magazine that wouldn’t focus on fashion but would instead appeal to their intellects. Crowninshield and Nast became inseparable friends, with Crowninshield moving into Nast’s apartment and the pair attending events and parties together.
One of Nast’s areas of influence was that of fashion photography in which he encouraged a more informal and realistic style. His attention for technical detail was widely noted, making numerous innovations in the field of printing. The 1929 “crash” however meant that his vision could not be financially sustained and Nast, and his company, quickly spiraled into debt. During this time he rejected the advice to buy Life magazine, which went on to be hugely successful, and in 1939 he started a new magazine, Glamour, which focused on Hollywood’s influence on the ‘average’ woman’s fashion and lifestyle choices. With this new creation Nast once again showed his innovative side, utilizing a “crowded page” format never previously seen and proving highly successful.
Sadly in 1941 Nast’s health began to fail. He became dependent on an oxygen tank but managed to keep his difficulties private until he suffered a heart attack followed by a second less than a year later. He died on the 19th of September 1942 at the age of 69. His possessions were auctioned off shortly afterwards to pay his debts. His magazines still remain hugely popular today, with Vogue and Vanity Fair in particular leading the market in terms of reputation and content. He was a pioneer of a new era and an innovative man who altered the face of the publishing industry and started a unique empire that is still going strong today.
Victoria Yates
By victoriayates, on June 7th, 2010
Here is a biography I wrote for the LeaderValues newsletter …
 Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born on the 29 th of April 1899 in Washington D.C to James Edward and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. Despite their modest financial state, James working as a butler and Daisy in various domestic and government positions, the Ellingtons were keen to create an atmosphere of courtliness and civility, something furthered by Daisy in particular who sought to surround their son with dignified women who would help reinforce manners. It was this air of grace and elegance that led to his childhood friends bestowing him the nickname ‘Duke’.
Ellington’s boyhood love was initially baseball, playing on 16th Street where President Roosevelt would sometimes stop and watch their games. After being hit on the head by a bat during a game however, his mother decided it would be the end of his career, hiring Marietta Clinkscales to be his piano teacher. Initially Ellington didn’t take to the idea, skipping the majority of his lessons and instead selling popcorn at Griffith Stadium.
As a boy he adopted his father’s love of finery and graceful living, even requesting that his young cousins bowed to him. But he was still aware of the socially divided world he lived in, regularly attending the Gayety Burlesque theatre where blacks were only allowed on the balcony.
Reaching his teen years, Ellington was immersed in a culture of traditional church music and the more popular dance and ragtime sounds of the time. He began to take his music more seriously, creating his first composition “Soda Fountain Rag” while working as a soda jerk in 1913. Ellington was never greatly interested in academics; his greatest skill for much of his youth being drawing, skipping class to play piano and eventually dropping out of school in 1917.
As a large part of the young male population went to war jobs were easy to come by for Ellington, who took to sign painting and messenger work during the day and playing piano at night – first with various groups before starting his own “The Duke’s Serenaders”. By this time he had married Edna Thompson, a high school peer and neighbour who he married after pressure from both their parents when she was found to be pregnant with his son Mercer. Although they remained married legally for a long time, the pair only lived together for a few years.
He continued to run his sign painting business, using it as a springboard for his band by asking patrons who wanted a sign for a dance hall is they needed entertainment. The Serenaders became a series of bands that were under Duke’s control but with which Duke would only appear for a premium.
In 1923 Ellington left his Washington success for Harlem where he became a prominent member of the Harlem Renaissance. Initially he and his group were discouraged. However in the September they moved to the Hollywood club where they would remain for four years, affording Ellington a solid base from which to build his artistic work. The band was named The Washingtonians, which Ellington came to lead in 1924.
In 1924-25 the group made numerous records, and their first real success came in 1926 when Irving Mills became their manager and publisher. Several pieces came to be synonymous with Ellington such as “Black and Tan fantasy”. This was released shortly before his big break when they became the house band at the Cotton Club whose radio broadcasts made Ellington a household name across America. The group’s golden age spanned the decade from 1932-42.
The money he gained from this meant that he could assemble a band of the best musicians for whom he could compose music specifically. Bubber Miley, a groundbreaking trumpeter, is accredited as having deeply influenced Ellington’s sound with his ‘growl trumpet’ helping create the ‘jungle style’ associated with the band. He was however forced to leave the group due to alcoholism and died in 1932 before the band experienced real fame.
In 1933 and 34 the Ellington orchestra travelled to England and mainland Europe, garnering praise and demonstrating the strength and size of Ellington’s following abroad. He also travelled extensively in America during this time, a move that enabled him to largely escape the effects the depression was having on the music industry. His orchestra was an exception in the sense that they seemed to seamlessly move from the Hot Jazz that typified the 20s to Swing music which came to prominence in the 30s, creating songs that later exemplified the movement such as “It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got that swing)”.
After the death of his mother in 1935 he took a temporary hiatus – but the music industry was changing, the mass distribution of jukeboxes and the growing view of swing as a part of ‘youth culture’ meant that the audience was changing and ‘danceability’ was becoming a key factor in sales. He countered by creating numbers with smaller segments of his orchestra and composed pieces intended for specific instrumentalists. Even with his success finances were tight as the 30s drew to a close and he left Mills for the William Morris Agency.
Throughout the 40s Ellington continually innovated, growing in influence and solidifying his fame. He collaborated closely with a small group of highly talented individuals, writing alongside the handpicked group to create pieces of incredibe musical brilliance.
Ellington’s goal became the extension of the jazz form, although this was something he had previously attempted it became a part of his regular work in the 40s, creating compositions such as “Black, Brown, and Beige”, a narrative of African American history.
The end of the WWII saw a shift away from Big bands and towards soloists such as Sinatra, a move which saw Ellington and his orchestra increasingly at odds with the ever more profit margin focused record companies. Further changes in both jazz and wider musical taste saw Ellington, a steadfast believer in his work, still further adrift from the mainstream.
In the 50s came Ellington’s revival. A rekindled interest in jazz saw Ellington performing at the Newport Jazz Festival, a moment that reintroduced him and his work to a wide audience. He created masterpieces and commercial successes as well as turning to film scores and musical adaptations of novels and classical songs.
His score, created with Strayhorn, for Anatomy of a Murder is widely perceived as a piece of cinematic history, breaking with common conventions of movie music at the time.
In the 1960s Ellington worked with artists whose brand of jazz had slowly pushed him and his work from the limelight, as well as those such as Louis Armstrong who had found themselves in the same position, facing the same sudden revival.
Ellington continued to record work until very close to his death, creating into the late 60s and early 70s. He died of pneumonia and lung cancer on May 24th 1971 at the age of 75.
Ellington’s work has become a cornerstone of American culture, and part of the spirit and fabric of American history. The pioneering work done by him and his band changed the face of Jazz and his stalwart belief in his music led him from fame to mere subsistence to iconic heights.
Victoria Yates
 
By victoriayates, on May 19th, 2010
~Written for the London Student Paper ‘Environmentality’ Column, Issue 13~
Leaking an estimated 5,000 gallons of oil into the sea everyday, the effects of the 20th of April are paramount on the minds of environmentalists and locals throughout the Gulf of Mexico. It is here in the ‘fertile fisheries crescent’ that more than a billion pounds of fish and shellfish are harvested annually, supporting the livelihoods of countless families and individuals, many of whom have ties to their trade that goes back generations. Not only is this an economic disaster for these communities, who felt they had only just begun to fully recover from the aftermath of Katrina, but the effect on the ecosystem is feared to be catastrophic.
Amongst those affected are the species that rely on the marshes, utilizing them as a ‘nursery’ in which to hatch their young. The Brown Pelican was removed from the endangered list at the end of 2009 but its home is on the frontline, set to see the oil roll in any day now, an area that is also one of the most popular for the estimated ½ million birds that migrate through the region every year. But one of the most unusual victims of the oil spill seems to be the climate change bill.
The bill itself is a remarkable feat of political tri-partisanship, having been drafted by Senators Lindsey Graham (Republican), John Kerry (Democrat), and Joe Liebermann (Independent). The bill featured an ‘all of the above’ approach to energy, appeasing some of the most polarized groups in Washington including Oil Companies and Lobbyists. But now there are threats that any bill that includes the expansion of offshore drilling will be, in the words of Bill Nelson, a Florida democrat, “dead on arrival”.
Despite Obama’s recent avowal to expand offshore drilling he has seen himself the voice of a declining number including some of the practice’s most stalwart fans. After championing the plan to allow drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara (a first in California since 1969 when an oil spill led to a moratorium on expansion), Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has publicly withdrawn his support stating,”I see on TV the birds drenched in oil, the fishermen out of work, the massive oil spill and oil slick destroying our precious ecosystem…That will not happen here in California”. This despite the fact that his State is facing a $20billion budget shortfall and the project would have brought with it revenue of $100million annually.
Immigration policy politics might have driven Graham from the negotiation table, but the problems facing the climate change lobby seem to be amassing with the cloud of oil, adding another potential victim to its list.
Victoria Yates
By victoriayates, on May 18th, 2010
Here is a biography I wrote for the LeaderValues newsletter …
Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambresis in the North of France on the 31st of December 1869. His parents owned a seed business in Bohain-en-Vermandois where he grew up, which was at the time a centre for lace making. He decided early that he didn’t want to follow in their footsteps but was ultimately unsure what he would do instead. At the age of 19 he was bedridden for months after an attack of appendicitis (which some have speculated may have actually been depression). It was at this relatively late stage that he was first introduced to art when his mother gave him a ‘painting set’ to cheer him up. It was an experience he later came to describe as the discovery of a ‘sort of paradise’.
 He went to Paris in 1891 to study art at the Academie Julien where he painted in the traditional Flemish style, with still life and a dark palette. He accredits the painter John Peter Russell (who he visited in 1897 and 1898 on an island off the coast of Brittany) as having introduced him to impressionism and color. Still Matisse carried on in Paris with his relatively conformist work garnering little attention. He fell in love with his model, Caroline Joblau, with whom he had a daughter Marguerite in 1894. But he married Améllie Noellie Parayre four years later, and the pair raised his daughter and had two further sons of their own.
His first solo exhibition in 1904 occurred without much success – but what followed it the year later was to change Matisse and his work forever. It was a trip to the small coastal town of Collioure at the age of 36 that seems to have given Matisse the first seeds of inspiration that were to become his signature – his bold use of color. Critically these works were equally admonished as they flew in the face of all conventions of realism, color use, and shading that had been established over time. However, it became obvious to many critics that while they viewed him as a ‘fauve’ or wild beast, he was not someone they could ignore.
 Truly a leader of ideas. What Matisse was doing was creating a canvas that reflected an emotional mood as opposed to forming faithful representations of the scenes witnessed.
Many of Matisse’s greatest works were created between 1906-1917 despite this critical reception. He did however successfully catch the attention of the Russian magnate and avid art collector Sergei Shchukin, who eventually had the largest collection of Matisse works in the world. Shchukin commissioned Matisse to create two large panels for his palace in Moscow in 1909 which lead to the creation of Dance II; a scene of almost primal joy with incredibly simple colors. It has become iconic in modern times but was once again dismissed at the time as hideous by critics.
At the outbreak of WWI Matisse attempted to enlist in the armed forces, only to be told he was too old. His painting from around this time (The Piano Lesson) showed his son Pierre being forced to practice piano – something he later admitted that he abhorred. It is a considerably more somber work in which the depth of Matisse’s emotional portrayal becomes very much evident. His use of simplistic color and form instead of creating light and happiness captured the sense of loss that was permeating France at the time.
In 1917 Matisse moved to Nice where his work became much less transgressive and focused particularly on ‘Odalisques’, a traditional portrayal of nude women in the exotic settings of a harem. These works sold much better than his previous ones but were lacking in the visionary nature of his earlier paintings. It was a trip to New York around 1930 that produced a change in Matisse and seemed to push him back towards his earlier focus on form and color. He was commissioned to create a piece that would fit across three alcoves in the new Barnes Foundation. It was on such a scale that Matisse stood with a charcoal block attached to a bamboo stick tracing out the outlines for what would become The Dance II.
 He and his wife separated in 1939, around the same time he met the Russian Lydia Delectorskaya. Although it isn’t known whether there was a romantic connection, Lydia modeled for him as well as served as his secretary and carer in later life, staying with him until his death. In 1941 Matisse was diagnosed with bowel cancer and underwent surgery in an attempt to stem it. Following the cancer he experienced a surge in creativity. He increasingly simplified his art, coming to use a collage technique to create some of his later works. It was yet another break from any sense of convention in the painting world.
Shortly before he died, in 1951, he completed the Chapel he had begun building for the nunnery in which Sister Jacques-Marie, a former model of his turn Dominican Nun, lived. It was a project that took Matisse’s love of color, light, and serenity to a different plane, featuring stained glass windows that took on forms and colors that are recurrent in his works.
In 1954 Matisse died of a heart attack.
 He was a powerful influence in ways that may be easy to underestimate. And this was not only within the artistic world within which he has many avid admirers – amongst them Mark Rothko who was once brought to tears by Matisse’s The Red Studio which he then sought to emulate in his own painting. Matisse’s exploratory and simple use of color has infiltrated popular culture through fashion, design, and even children’s books.
Dick Bruna adamantly states that without Matisse ‘Miffy’ would not exist. It was Matisse’s simplicity and bold use of color that inspired her creation. His use of colors and patterning has flooded the fashion world from Paul Smith to Yves Saint Laurent.
Matisse pioneered color and form in his works, leading a wave of emotional expression in art and a freeness that is still evident today. He was not a leader in a classical, “heroic” sense, but he followed a very clear vision, learnt from and reflected on events and his surroundings – and left an indelible mark on artists who came after him.
A giant in the world of the creative.
Victoria Yates
By victoriayates, on May 2nd, 2010
~Written for the London Student Paper ‘Environmentality’ Column, Issue 12~
Jeremy Rifkin has an enviable CV that includes being the key architect in the EU’s long-term stability plan whose three core aims are tackling the economic crisis, energy security, and climate change. His talk at the RSA was perhaps one of the best received I’ve ever seen there and was unique in that, he not only presented the biggest problems of our time, he gave real solutions.
Lets start with an understanding that Rifkin underlined about the financial meltdown: it wasn’t the main event. In July 2008, when the price of oil reached an all-time high ($147 a barrel), inflation soared and prices skyrocketed. It was what Rifkin calls “the earthquake that tore asunder the industrial age built on and propelled by fossil fuels”, while the financial meltdown was merely an aftershock. What we saw was that we are entering the ‘endgame’ for the fossil fuel economy, and that we need a new revolution.
For Rifkin, the Third Industrial revolution will be, as are all revolutions, a culmination of new communications and new energy systems, in real terms, the combination of distributed communications of today with distributed renewable energy. He sees the future in locally sourced energy, globally connected, like the internet; our homes and offices will be power-houses in grids who share energy in the same way we currently share files.
His take on human nature underpins the concept. As humans our most natural instinct is empathy, and it expanded in each stage of evolution from our tribe, to believers, to countrymen, now globally, and eventually to the biosphere. If we can extend it this further step, whilst embracing new energy, humanity might make it past the ‘entropy bill’ that every society comes to owe the environment when expanding beyond their means. A brief summary of a brilliant idea.
Victoria Yates
By victoriayates, on April 18th, 2010
Here is a biography I wrote for the LeaderValues newsletter …
 Timur was born on the 8th of April 1336 in Kesh (the Green City) in Transoxiana, modern day Uzbekistan, thirty-six miles south of Samarkand, a cultural center of the time. He was a member of the Barlas, a Turkized Mongol tribe that represented the remnants of Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes. The Mongols lost power in Transoxiana when Timur was 10, and under the Emir’s (warlord’s) reign, Timur developed into an aggressiveindividual, honing his skills in riding and fighting. His primary activity was soldiering, being put at the head of a small army. The Emir’s assassination when Timur was 22 was followed two years later by the return to power of the Mongols, and with it Timur subordinated himself and his army to Mongol governance.
In 1364 he formed a coalition with the grandson, Hussein, of the murdered Emir and attempted to overthrow the new rulers, beating them and forcing a retreat. But the Mongols returned in 1365, beating the pair in the Battle of Mud. Timur was forced to retreat. However the returning Mongols encountered resistance in Samarkand in the form of Islamic rebels, the Serbedar, who took control of the city for a year. When Timur returned he feigned friendship with the group until he had regained enough power within the city to have them executed.
Recognising the necessity for a stable base of support from home, Timur cultivated a feeling of good will amongst his subjects, even offering to help with his own wealth. This quickly saw him solidify his position as the most respected person in Samarkand. Hussein on the other hand was known for his meanness, imposing harsh taxes and paying little attention to his subjects. On the death of Timur’s wife (Hussein’s sister) the tie between the pair was severed, and Timur began hostilities. After a brief truce in which the pair expelled another Mongol incursion, Timur won support from the people and the influential leaders of the region, beating Hussein but granting him passage for a trip to Mecca. Instead, whilst attempting to escape, Hussein was killed by a former general.
By 1370 Timur was the most powerful man in Transoxiana, founding the Timurid Empire. He modelled his army after his ancestor Genghis Khan although it was composed less of horsemen and more of foot soldiers drawn from settled groups. In an attempt to further secure his position, Timur had those close to Hussein executed, with his widows and children “divided up” between Timur and his followers. Timur improved the capital, Samarkand, making improvements to the walls and market places and creating great gardens and palaces that made the city a magnificent and prosperous source of envy for others. At home, he was a true patron of the arts.
However, seeing himself as the new Genghis Khan, Timur didn’t remain settled but choose instead to conquer. Interestingly he never claimed the title of Khan, remaining Emir. He and his army sought to plunder, and first headed east, ravaging the land and forcing subjection to Timur’s rule as he went. By 1380 he occupied an area of Eastern China. Next, his army moved west of Samarkand, overrunning Herat. The stiff resistance the army met in the southern expansion into Sistan led to Timur making an example of the city of Zarendj. Here he massacred men, women, and children, and had everything burned that he and his army could not carry away. His bloody incursions continued, massacring 2000 slaves in the northern city of Sabzavar, and turning their bodies into components in a sculpture.
One of the most formidable of Timur’s opponents was another descendant of Genghis Khan. After having been a refugee in Timur’s court, Tokhtamysh became ruler of the Golden Horde. He quarrelled with Timur over the possession of Khwarizm and Azerbaijan, but still got his support against the Russians. In 1382 Tokhtamysh and the Golden Horde invaded and burned Moscow. It was in 1385 that he finally turned against Timur and invaded Azerbaijan.
The battles between the two warrior’s armies were vast and dangerous. Sarai, Tokhtamysh’s capital, was destroyed by Timur’s forces and the Golden Horde’s (Silk Road) economy was eventually broken. The conflict lasted until 1395 with the battle at the Terek River. Tokhtamysh’s power was broken for good, and Mongol unity in the region was permanently shattered.
In 1386 Timur made it into modern-day Georgia where he waged war against Christians, and then the following year sought control in Armenia. Returning south, he conquered Isfahan, central Persia, a major cultural hub in the Muslim world. The inhabitants rebelled, and reports say that between 70,000 and 100,000 people were killed and crops razed by Timur and his army.
By 1392 Timur choose to counter the continued instability in Persia by waging further wars there. He was also forced to return to prevent Tokhtamysh’s invasion of Georgia, where he looted towns and set them alight before leaving. The continued revolts in Persia angered Timur who set out to destroy whole towns in an effort to create submission through terror.
From 1396 to ’97 Timur stayed in Samarkand before using the excuse that Muslim leaders in India were being too tolerant of Hindus – so giving him a reason to take his army once again to war. He destroyed the Islamic kingdom around Delhi, using his trademark tactics to create devastation where he went. His loot from India included craftsmen, artists, as well as other physical goods. With this new wealth Timur set about building a new Mosque. It was the largest in central Asia but frequent earthquakes meant the building did not survive.
His next conquest was Syria where he occupied Damascus where he asked to see the graves of two of the Prophet’s wives. Finding them in disrepair, he once again raged against Damascus, the city was looted and a fire started that would continue for days. It took the city years to recover from the attack. Instead of marching on Jerusalem, where a plague of locusts was being reported, Timur turned next on Baghdad in 1401, massacring 20,000 people.
Timur also sought war with the Ottomans, a vastly greater empire than his own and seen as a power for all Muslims against the Christians. Not wanting to be seen as starting a war with another Muslim power, Timur set out a list of outrageous demands to the Ottomans. In 1402 the forces clashed at Ankara where Timur, using superior strategy, prevailed. Fearing that his actions had in some way aided Christians, he sent message to the Christian Knights of Rhodes who ruled Smyrna (on the Mediterranean) that they must convert or pay tribute to him, both of which they refused believing their city to be unconquerable. Timur and his army attacked and annihilated the entire population – men, women, and children, of the city, displaying their heads on a Pyramid.
Powers in the west had a growing interest in Timur who they felt could be of help in removing the Turks from the Holy Land. They sent friendly correspondence to Timur who was interested in promoting trade. In 1404 Timur was preparing for his return to China, setting out a year later. He died en route, however, upon which point the army returned to Samarkand and had his body embalmed. His empire eventually disintegrated, but the people of Samarkand continued to see Timur as the great man of their people. His impact on central Asia made him a leader of great importance in the region, while Arab, Indian, and Persian accounts continued to vilify him.
An intelligent and brilliantly tactical warrior whose ruthlessness and ambition rivalled the most revered conquerors of any age made Timur a great leader of his people. He was the founder of the Timurid Empire (1370–1405) and great great grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived until 1857 as the Mughal Empire of India. Yet he was also a patron of arts and learning, making him a fascinating mixture.
Whatever one’s opinion of the man, national hero or violent tyrant, Timur was always successful in what he attempted to do, and he consistently gathered forces around him whose intense loyalty was a personal testament to his skills.
Victoria Yates
By victoriayates, on March 24th, 2010
~Written for the London Student Paper ‘Environmentality’ Column, Issue 11~
Dawn Brancheau was killed after Tilikum, a 6-tonne Killer Whale, whom she had worked with for 16 years at SeaWorld Orlando, dragged her underwater by her ponytail. The case raised familiar questions over our use of animals for entertainment, immediately being followed by a media storm including the predictable calls for his release by animal rights groups. It’s a frightening scenario, particularly given our relatively inconsequential understanding of aquatic animal behavior that means his motives, if any, are never likely to be understood. But it made me think along a slightly different line of argument, and one of a notably different scale.
Dog attacks in the UK have been on the rise in recent years, with statistics estimating the level to be around 4,000 a year. I won’t pretend that the escalation isn’t partially linked to the new culture of ‘protection dogs’ rising up particularly among adolescents and young adults. But what is staggering about the situation is that it is yet another indication that loveable Fido is, at some level, essentially no different from his wild ancestors. Our pets live by instinct, and no matter how cuddly and docile, there is always an element of the unknown. I’m not suggesting we throw off the leashes and release our pets into a world for which they are wholly ill equipped, but it makes you wonder whether keeping animals as we do isn’t simply a facet of the human sense of entitlement to nature. Cesar Millan (The ‘Dog Whisperer’) proves that the majority of ‘behavioral problems’ we see in our dogs result from owners treating them on par with children and not animals.
Now, I am keen to point out that I am no better than any. As I write this I’m watching my rabbit as she goes about life in the midst of a very unnatural London environment. I’m far from a revolutionary crying that the cages be opened, the tanks emptied, and the cat litter, scratch post, and tennis balls burned. But I believe that what makes us better and more responsible citizens of a living, natural world is to question even our most routine beliefs. Animals whose living memory contains traces of freedom are a different concern, granted, but perhaps what this teaches us is that any animal, no matter how domesticated, is still part of something larger than the pet store brochure.
Victoria Yates
|
|
BBC, Al Jazeera and globalisation of news
~Here is a guest blog from Charlie Beckett‘s blog~
This is an edited version of an essay by Polis Summer School student Victoria Yates.
Summer School
The idea of globalization is not new, despite many of the modern connotations attached to the term. The creation of the printing press created much the same revolution in communication, connecting people for the first time in a wide manner beyond traditional dialogical contact.
Benedict Anderson described this “commoditization of the printed word”[4] as “[making] it possible for rapidly growing numbers of people to recognize that there were people much like themselves beyond the face-to-face community. That is, the leap out of the local was made by way of one media technology; or at least that technology in combination with the market”[5].
Since then media technologies have only gone further to connect people at even greater distances and in ever more ‘personal’ ways (first introducing voice, and then visual imagery). What this has done is altered the nature of media to consumer communication. In its foundations it was a dialogical but essentially one-way process.
As technology has evolved the consumer is constantly drawn further into the process of discussion. A major impact therefore of the globalization of news stems from this, in that diversity of news sources now available to the consumer is greater than ever before, affording a wide variety of voices.
A key example of this would be the growth of al-Jazeera. Initially serving as a platform for an Arab perspective on regional news, an attempt to counter-act the “Anglo-American domination of news and current affairs in one of the world’s most geopolitically sensitive areas”[6], al-Jazeera has since expanded to other areas of the world, taking its unique ‘specialist, local’ approach along with it. Hugh Miles predicted that, “in the decades ahead we can expect only more al-Jazeeras, adding to an ever greater torrent of information, as regional ideas spread around the world and become global”[7].
With growth of both alternative and ‘mainstream’ media onto a global stage the consumer has the potential to engage with, and form opinions on, the media’s content in a way never before experienced. It is this empowered populace that is reveling in the growing diversity of media that is placing not only content, but journalistic norms in competition.
Some critics argue that what we are experiencing is the plurality of news sources but not the diversity, the key distinction being that for some the voices and perspectives are the same but available from a wider number of outlets.
For some what we are experiencing is a new form of Western Imperialism on a different stage “given the concentration of international communication hardware and software power among a few dominant actors in the global arena who want an ‘open’ international order created by their own national power and by the power of transnational media and communication corporations”[8].
From this perspective the consumers, far from finding a greater voice, find themselves at the mercy of a new colonial power seeking to control and manipulate the media environment.
In both instances the existence of groups such as al-Jazeera seem to form a counterfoil to the negative interpretations of media as ethnocentrically driven by a ‘Western’ agenda. Even the British group BBC have, arguably, proven both adaptable and impartial in their work, expanding their operations to other countries and proving both popular and well received in varying localities.
Another impact on the citizen that is attached to ideas of globalization in the media is that of value clashes. Each state has their own set of values and ideals that are intensely variable at times. Even amongst countries often grouped together by other social factors, such as “the West”, show a great deal of diversity.
As with any widespread change globalization of news media impacts in differing ways on the citizen, and as it is relatively young in its time, the whole moral and ethical landscape has not yet been fully defined, nor has its impact been understood in its entirety yet. However, I feel that despite the clashes and the difficulties created by in a sense ‘armchair voyeurism’ of other cultures the globalization of media is creating a market for more voices, more connectivity, and ultimately, hopefully a better informed populace.
Bibliography
Giddens, A “Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age” (Stanford University Press: Stanford, 1991) pp.21-25
Hafez, K “Chapter 6 International Broadcasting” in The Myth of Media Globalization (Cambridge: Polity, 2006) pp.118-27
Hannerz, U Transnational Connections (London: Routledge, 1996) pp.17-29, 102-111
Silverstone, R “Chapter 6 Hospitality and Justice” in Media and Morality: on the rise of the mediapolis (Cambridge: Polity, 2006), pp.136-143
Thussu, D.K International Communication: Continuity and Change (London: Hodder Headline Group, 2000), pp.60-65, 130-134, 166-175, 190-192
Websites
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/- Last Visited 10/7/10 14.30pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/24/opinion/24iht-edrojan.html- Last Visited 10/7/10 15.01pm
Other Sources
Cammaerts, B Presentation “Freedom of Speech Contested” 9/7/10
Orgad, S Presentation “Media, News, and Globalization” 12/7/10
Orgad, S Presentation “What’s new about new media?” 7/7/10
Perrin, W Presentation “Talk about Local” 8/7/10
[1] Giddens, A “Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age” (Stanford University Press: Stanford, 1991) p.21
[2] Giddens, A, p.21
[3] Giddens, A, p.22
[4] Hannerz, U Transnational Connections (London: Routledge, 1996) p.20
[5] Hannerz, U, p.20
[6] Thussu, D.K International Communication: Continuity and Change (London: Hodder Headline Group, 2000), p.190
[7] Thussu, D.K p.192
[8] Thussu, D.K p.61
[9] Thussu, D.K p.166
[10] Cammaerts, B Presentation “Freedom of Speech Contested” 9/7/10
[11] http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/- Last Visited 10/7/10 14.30pm
[12] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/24/opinion/24iht-edrojan.html- Last Visited 10/7/10 15.01pm
[13] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/24/opinion/24iht-edrojan.html- Last Visited 10/7/10 15.01pm
[14] Perrin, W Presentation “Talk about Local” 8/7/10
[15] Hafez, K “Chapter 6 International Broadcasting” in The Myth of Media Globalization (Cambridge: Polity, 2006) p.123