text:
Testimony :: Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director - European Roma Rights Center
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Expertise and Interest of the ERRC
General Recommendations to European governments
Recommendations to the United States Government
ERRC Concerns Pertaining to the Education of Romani Children in Europe
Segregation in "special schools" and/or "special classes" for the mentally handicapped
Segregation in mainstream schools
"Ghetto schools"
Exclusion from school
Abuse in school
Conclusion: the effects of racial discrimination
Executive Summary
For Romani children living in today's Europe, equal educational opportunity is a mirage. In some countries, more than half of the Romani child population is sent to schools for mentally handicapped children. In such schools, Romani children do not earn a diploma preparing them for life in a democratic society and competitive labor market. Quite the contrary: they are denied the right to education and emerge stigmatized as "stupid" and "retarded". They will live out their adult lives under-educated, unemployed or condemned to low-paying, menial jobs. They will be unable to realize fundamental rights, and will be deprived of basic dignity.
Elsewhere, Romani children are segregated from non-Romani children in separate classes or schools because of patterns of ghettoized settlement, or because of raw racial discrimination. Isolated from their non-Romani peers and frequently taught by under-qualified instructors, they too emerge from schooling scarred by the experience and ill-equipped for life in a multicultural democracy.
In extreme cases, as a result of the ill will of schooling authorities in specific instances or the unremedied exclusion of whole Romani communities, many Romani children in Europe receive no formal education whatsoever.
Those Romani children who fight the odds, secure a place in -- and manage to remain in -- mainstream schooling, suffer racist humiliation or even physical abuse by their teachers or their peers, since at present in Europe "Gypsies" are loathed, feared and scorned. In addition, few Romani or non-Romani children will ever learn, in the course of their schooling, about Romani culture, history or language, or about the rich contributions Roma have made to the societies in which they live.
Expertise and Interest of the ERRC
The ERRC is an international public interest law organisation which monitors the human rights situation of Roma in Europe and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse. Since its establishment in 1996, the ERRC has undertaken first-hand field research in more than a dozen countries, and has disseminated numerous publications, from book-length studies to advocacy letters and public statements. A primary focus of ERRC activity has concerned the right to education: ERRC publications have focussed on educational issues, and in a number of countries, the ERRC is involved in litigation aimed at securing school desegregation. ERRC publications and additional information about the organisation are available on the Internet at http://errc.org.
The ERRC believes that this Congressional Hearing offers a unique opportunity for U.S. law- and policy-makers to become aquainted with some of the problems facing what is, today, Europe's most persecuted ethnic group. The ERRC is convinced that the unique history of the United States in addressing legacies of racism, and ordering and implementing school desegregation, has much to offer Europe today. This is especially true as more-and-more Romani activists take up U.S. models of civil rights action, and fight for justice and equality, including equal acces to education.
It is the position of the ERRC that the problem of the systematic denial to Roma of the right to education cannot be overcome without the implementation of comprehensive school desegregation programs. While the ERRC recognizes that desegregation is not a universal panacea able to remedy all problems Roma encounter in the school system, it is our contention that without comprehensive school desegregation, real change will be elusive. School desegregation is therefore the framework within which the ERRC approaches the complex of problems faced by Roma in the field of education. We understand, however, that school desegregation is a policy which cannot be pursued by civil society projects and donor interventions alone. Segregated schooling is a problem beyond the reach of small projects and one which can be resolved only via state action and with the sustained and engaged political will of government agencies. At present, however, real political will for school desegregation in Europe is lacking: Although in a few instances governments in Central and Eastern Europe have recently included the concept of desegregation in official programs, where such programs exist, they remain largely unelaborated and fully unimplemented. International involvement is crucial to ensure the real development and implementation in full of comprehensive school desegregation programs. ERRC recommendations to European governments, including recommendations in the area of desegregation, are presented below, followed by ERRC recommendations to the U.S. government:
General Recommendations to European governments
Cease immediately the practice of placing Romani children in "special schools" or "special classes" for the mentally handicapped;
Take immediate measures to ensure that Romani children currently excluded from schooling are swiftly integrated into the mainstream school system;
Develop and implement comprehensive national action plans for the transfer of Romani children presently in "special schools" or "special classes" for the mentally handicapped to mainstream schooling, with accompanying support programs to ease transition;
Develop and implement similar comprehensive action plans for the desegregation of the mainstream school system;
Ensure that adequate resources are allocated for school desegregation action plans and other programs aimed at the integration of Romani children in the school system;
Design pre-school programs for Romani children to learn the primary language of schooling in their country or area, such that they can participate effectively in schooling from the first day of school;
Sanction effectively abuse by schooling authorities, including:
practices of excluding Romani children from schooling;
physical abuse, verbal abuse, or other humiliating treatment of Romani children at schools;
instances in which teachers or school administrators fail to protect Romani children from abuse by their peers, or fail to punish instances of abuse of Romani children by other children;
Develop and implement adult education programs to remedy legacies of substandard education and non-schooling;
Address the root problem of anti-Romani racism in Europe by developing and implementing anti-racism curriculums for schools and anti-racism campaigns for the media. At all levels, European officials must speak out to condemn racism, racist acts and patterns and practices of discrimination and segregation;
Develop curriculum resources for teaching Romani language, culture and history in schools, and make them widely available to all schools; amend school curriculums such that all children learn of the valuable contributions Roma have made to the societies in which they live.
Recommendations to the United States Government
U.S. experience with school desegregation is unparalleled and U.S. desegregation expertise is needed now in Europe. The ERRC requests that the United States government provide support for the development and realization of workable plans for the integrated education of Roma in Europe, in particular:
Ensure U.S. Congressional and State Department involvement at the highest level with the governments of Europe in their efforts to develop and implement comprehensive and effective school desegregation policies in countries where Roma live;
Ensure financial, technical and expert assistance including but not limited to:
Sending U.S. trainers to work with European governments and other experts to develop and implement action plans for school desegregation;
Developing abroad U.S. government programs such as Head Start, in order to close pre-school disparities between Romani and non-Romani children;
Promoting in Europe U.S. models of curriculum reform -- crucial in the development of the United States as a multicultural society in practice and in consciousness -- as one possible method of ending the exclusion of groups such as Roma, as well as of furthering the development of open, democratic societies;
Instructing USAID, the World Bank, and other agencies to make support for comprehensive desegregation programs a top priority in countries where Roma live;
Providing U.S. expert assistance to European ministries of finance and education to analyze the relative costs and benefits of maintaining the existing segregated school systems, as opposed to the costs of school desegregation, in order to promote recognition of the high costs of maintaining segregated education and the continuing the production of a permanent Romani underclass.
Discussion: ERRC Concerns Pertaining to the Education of Romani Children in Europe
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states: "Everyone has the right to education."1 The principle that education, as a fundamental right, shall be free of discrimination is also enshrined in international law: Article 5(e)(v) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), for example, states: "States Parties undertake to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right to everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of [...] [t]he right to education and training."
Notwithstanding the near-universal recognition of the crucial role of education in the development of the free and autonomous individual -- and despite the numerous international instruments which set racial discrimination beyond the pale of permissible action in all spheres of life -- discrimination against Roma in the field of education is pervasive in Europe, generating lasting and crippling effects. In particular, racial segregation is widespread in the educational systems of Europe today.2 Harms suffered regularly by Romani children in European school systems include:
Segregation in schools or classes for the mentally handicapped;
Segregation in substandard schools or classes in the mainstream educational system;
School segregation resulting from residential segregation -- "Gypsy ghetto schools";
Exclusion from the school system;
Abuse in schools, including racially-motivated physical abuse.
Segregation in "special schools" and/or "special classes" for the mentally handicapped
A particularly debilitating form of racial segregation is the practice, prevalent in Central and Eastern Europe, of placing Romani children in so-called "special schools" or "special classes" for the mentally handicapped.
During research in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava, the ERRC found that Romani children in Ostrava outnumbered non-Roma in special schools by a proportion of more than twenty-seven to one.3 Although Roma represented fewer than 5% of all primary school-age students in Ostrava, they constituted over 50% of the "special school" population. Nationwide, as the Czech Government itself conceded, approximately 75% of Romani children attend "special schools", and during the 1998/1999 school year, more than half of all special school students were Romani.4 There is no indication that the situation has changed substantively in the intervening three years since the ERRC conducted intensive research into the situation of Roma in the educational system in the Czech Republic.5 Despite repeated pronouncements by the Czech authorities that far-reaching changes to the school system are planned, to date the Czech school system remains segregated.
The Czech Republic is not the only place where Roma are disproportionately educated in schools or classes for the mentally handicapped. In Hungary, similar trends are evident: A 1998 survey in Borsod County, northeastern Hungary, commissioned by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Ethnic and Minority Rights ("Minority Ombudsman") revealed that 90% of children in special schools were Romani.6
Romani children are also reportedly segregated in special schools and special classes for the mentally handicapped in Romania.7 National statistics on the numbers of Romani children in such schools and classes are not publicly available. However, where rough figures can be established, they are high enough to warrant serious concern. In Cluj-Napoca, for example, the school for the mentally handicapped serves about 200 children, and according to local sources over 70% of them are Romani.8 Discretion on placement is the purview of local schooling authorities, and anti-Romani prejudice plays a significant part in determining whether a child is placed in a special school or a special class. The ERRC has also documented a number of cases in which school authorities have resorted to placing Romani children in special classes -- despite the fact that the children did not show any handicap -- on grounds that they had a "disadvantaged background" or "because the teachers do not know what to do with them."
In addition to the examples cited above, Roma are reportedly over-represented in special schools in Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia and Slovenia. In Slovakia, reportedly more than half of the Romani student population attends special schools for the mentally handicapped.9 According to a report by the Open Society Institute, in Bulgaria, a majority of the 19,000 students in 130 Bulgarian schools for the mentally deficient are Romani.10
Pressure on Romani parents to send their children to "special schools" can be intense. One Romani woman in the Czech Republic, Ms Z.L., told the ERRC that school officials had attempted to bluster her into signing forms consenting to the transfer of her daughter to a school for the mentally handicapped:
My daughter is thirteen. She is in the seventh class. Two years ago they called me up to say, 'We've decided that she should go to remedial special school. Can you come and sign the papers?' I said, 'No, I don't want her to change schools.' They said, 'Well she has to now -- we've already sent all her papers to the special school.' I had to go and make a big fuss to get the papers back. I still don't understand it. They never told me why they had suddenly decided that my daughter should change schools.11
Psychologists and other schooling authorities in the Czech Republic confimed that Romani parents are frequently put under pressure by schooling authorities, including by the psychologists charged with evaluating children, to consent to the transfer of their children to schools for the mentally handicapped. According to one Czech psychologist:
A psychologist or a teacher will say to the parent: 'your child does not have good results in basic school: do you agree?' The parent will agree. The authority will then say 'so your child would be better at remedial special school?' and the parent agrees, without realising that they have just given their 'formal consent' to place their child in remedial special school. And this is the whole conversation.12
In some instances, "special schools" for the mentally handicapped attempt actively to recruit Romani children because of budgetary pressure to maintain high levels of enrolment. One former remedial special school teacher in the Czech Republic told the ERRC of efforts by a school administrator to recruit Romani children for the school:
The deputy director requested that I visit the various doctors in the area to find out how many Romani children were approaching the age of six for that year. The deputy director wanted me to obtain a list of such pupils so that they could all be enrolled into our remedial special school. In particular she explained to me that she wanted to fill up all the places available at the school for the forthcoming year. She also forced me to go to Romani families to request that the children be sent to our remedial special school.13
While the placement of Romani children in special educational programs can occur with relative ease, around the region, reintegration from special classes or special schools into regular schooling is frequently blocked by bureaucratic obstacles and often, in practice, not possible. Conflicts of interest, such as the desire of special school administrators to keep as many pupils as possible for budgetary reasons, frequently hinder authorities' ability to render a decision in the best interests of the child. Some school directors are simply opposed to the transfer of Romani children from special classes to normal classes. In practice, few Romani pupils are ever transferred from special schools or classes to normal classes, and there is virtually no independent monitoring to ensure that placements, once made, continue to be appropriate.
The massive over-representation of Romani children in schools for the mentally handicapped -- embodying the triple harm of racial segregation, substandard education and the stigma of mental handicap -- is fundamentally humiliating to all Roma. As the High Commissioner for National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has recently noted, "[p]erhaps no legally-sanctioned practice affecting Roma is more pernicious than the phenomenon of channeling Romani children to 'special schools' – schools for the mentally disabled. […] Aside from the obvious disadvantage this entails in terms of the sub-standard quality of education made available to Romani children – depriving them of the equal opportunity to learn and to develop as capable and self-reliant citizens – the effect is also automatically to disqualify Romani children from admission to certain secondary and tertiary educational and professional institutions."14
Segregation in mainstream schools
Even when Roma are taught in nominally mainstream schools, they are frequently segregated in Roma-only, remedial or "catch-up" classes and in some cases in separate, substandard buildings. Romani children in segregated classes are frequently taught according to an "adjusted curriculum" not designed to provide education on an equal footing with other students. These pupils experience the humiliation of being cordoned off from their non-Romani peers for what is frequently their entire schooling career. The effect of such schooling arrangements is to exclude Roma from equal education, and Roma suffer permanent harm as a result of their segregation on racial grounds.
In Croatia, the majority of Romani children in the primary schools are relegated to substandard, segregated classes. ERRC research in Croatia in May 2001 revealed that four out of five primary schools in Meÿimurje County had separate classes for Roma. According to information provided by the Meÿimurje County Department of Education, Culture, Sports, and Technical Education, out of the 865 Romani children enrolled in the twelve schools in Meÿimurje County, 511 were educated in separate classes during the 2000/2001 school year.15 Patterns of school segregation also exist in other places in Croatia. For example, in 2000, the Croatian Ombudsman condemned the segregation of Romani children in schools in Varaÿdin County, calling the practice "apartheid".16
Authorities in Romania also segregate Romani children in separate classes in the regular school system solely on the basis of ethnicity.17 The ERRC is also aware of cases in which protests by non-Romani parents and their refusal to let their own children be taught together with Romani children have prevailed with school authorities. Similar allegations have been made with respect to kindergartens in Romania. For example, in Mangalia, according to local activists, parents of non-Romani children reportedly exercised pressure on the authorities of a kindergarten and threatened to transfer their children if Romani children were accepted in the institution. These events reportedly prompted formation of separate facilities for Romani children.18
In Hungary, estimates indicate that Roma make up 84.2 percent of the students in "catch-up" classes in 192 schools surveyed by the Institute for Education Research.19 School authorities reportedly have a stake in maintaining "catch-up" supporting classes because they can receive supplementary grants for the education of minority children, offered under a 1993 law.20 In practice, these classes are frequently substandard, offering poor quality education in spatially segregated areas, such as run-down separate buildings. Most Romani children educated in "catch-up" classes never "catch-up" and are never mainstreamed into the normal school system. Instead, they finish their educational career in the separate system, often as early as the 5th grade. In his 1999 Annual Report, the Hungarian Minority Ombudsman stated that: "the supporting school system is nothing but a 'blind alley' into which unfortunately Roma children are compelled to enter in very large number. In other words, the system of supporting schools could be termed as a very special form of discrimination about young Gypsies, meaning unambiguously segregation, artificial separation."21 This practice, however, has not been curbed since. A 2002 investigation of the Minority Ombudsman established that the Romani students of the Verpelét primary school, Heves County, are educated in separate classes, starting from the first grade, without the express consent or request of their parents.22
Non-Romani parents in Spain have engaged in civic action to attempt to prevent the enrollment of Romani children in schools, actions that have resulted in the effective racial segregation of Romani children in the school system. In an episode which made national headlines in Spain, beginning April 14, 2000, parents of the 633 students of San Juan Bosco school in the northern Spanish town of Barakaldo protested against the admission of three Romani children. The children had been without schooling since March 31, 2000, when the public school they attended was closed. On May 10, 2000, the Romani children had their first day at San Juan Bosco school, but were the only students present. They were accompanied by Mr Jesús Gimenéz of the association Iniciative Gitana, the thirty teachers of the school and a police escort, while parents protested vigorously in the street. The non-Romani parents had voted to boycott the school. Local authorities put the matter in the hands of the district attorney for juvenile affairs, who threatened non-Romani parents with legal action if they did not comply with the obligation to send their children to school. Under this threat, over 90% of the students were back in school on May 15. However, the three Romani children were reportedly placed in a separate classroom with no other students.23
In the Slovenian town of Leskovec pri Krskem, in the local primary school, Romani children in grades 1-4 attend separate classes in a separate school building that stands next to the main building. Similarly, authorities in several towns in southern Poland reportedly took advantage of the existence of a private schooling project aimed at reducing illiteracy among Roma and transferred all local Romani children into separate classes, literate or not.
"Ghetto schools"
In some instances, Roma are placed in inferior quality schools as a result of residential segregation: ghetto children go to ghetto schools. In such schools, the overwhelming majority of children are Romani, and although the schools often formally offer a standard curriculum, education is in practice substandard because teachers lack basic qualifications, textbooks are out-of-date, teaching aids are lacking, and school buildings are run-down and ill-equipped to provide for quality education.
In Bulgaria, for example, generally, ghetto schools are generally dilapidated buildings, often with broken windows covered in barbed wire, paint peeling off the walls, and classrooms with few decorations. Such schools are usually overcrowded and lack basic facilities; classes are not held regularly; some Romani students who graduate from these schools can hardly read or write; and in many cases teachers do not have the qualifications required by law. In addition, underlying negative prejudices towards Roma held by non-Romani teaching staff often result in degrading treatment of Romani school children. It has been estimated that around 70% of all Romani children in Bulgaria attend such schools.24
In many towns and cities in Portugal, there are large communities of shanty-dwellers, and some such communities are predominantly or exclusively Romani. The squalor and deprivation of such sites is often extreme: houses are made of debris and often have no electricity or proper sanitation. Romani settlements frequently have no heating, sanitation or washing facilities. Schools in such communities are substandard ghetto schools in which Romani children are frequently the majority of pupils. Such conditions prevail, for example, in the town of Coimbra, as well as in a number of other communities.
Spatial segregation also leads to the segregation of Romani children in schools in Moldova. For example, the school in the Romani community in Schinoasa is in very poor condition, is staffed with unqualified teachers, and is frequently not open. The school building in Schinoasa is situated in the yard of a Romani family in the community. At the time of an ERRC visit in December 2001, it comprised two small rooms, which were filled with dilapidated desks and blackboards. There were no windows in the building and the glass pane was missing from the window in the entrance door. At the time of the ERRC visit, a book had been placed where the glass once had been. The building also lacked a source of heat and in wintertime the inside of the school is reportedly only slightly warmer than outside. The teaching staff at the school in Schinoasa consists of two non-Romani teachers from the nearby town of Tibirica who reportedly possess only an elementary school education themselves. During several visits by the ERRC to the community, the school was not even open and the teachers were nowhere to be found. Romani children in the community report that the teachers are only present at the school for two hours per day, although not every day. The level of knowledge of the children also attests to this. Many older pupils at the school are unable to read or write. Romani children attending the school in Schinoasa also stated that they have no textbooks, and that their parents cannot afford to purchase notebooks, pens, or pencils, necessary for their lessons. Their parents told the ERRC that they frequently cannot afford food. Romani children in Schinoasa rarely attend classes past the fourth class. From the fifth class, Romani children must travel to Tibirica to attend school. Romani children from Schinoasa attending school in Tibirica -- at the time of a recent visit by the ERRC in December 2001 there were reportedly less than five such children -- are allegedly subjected to violence and ridicule by their classmates and teachers because they are Romani. Students report being beaten by their fellow pupils in Tibirica, and being called names by their teachers. ERRC field research indicates that the situation is similar in other settlements in Moldova as well.25
Exclusion from school
Many Romani children never have the opportunity to attend school at all. In some places, a combination of bureaucratic obstacles and poverty work effectively to exclude many Romani children from the school system entirely. In others, non-Romani parents and/or school officials block the enrolment of Romani children in schools.
Numerous Romani children in Romania, for example, have been blocked from enrolling in schools by officials who have justified their actions with reference to residence permit requirements, as well as with reference to the fact of birth abroad. In the years following the collapse of the Ceauÿescu regime in 1989, Romania was the site of approximately thirty anti-Romani pogroms featuring killings and the expulsion of whole communities from villages. Many of the victims, along with Roma who have left villages in search of work opportunities in cities, now lead extremely marginal existences on the outskirts of Romania's larger towns and cities, most notably Bucharest. Unable to procure residence permits for what is often no more than cardboard box housing, Roma are unable to enroll their children in schools. In other instances, a lack of identity documents has been used as a pretext for denying Romani children access to school.26 In Timiÿoara, near the western border of Romania, Romani parents wishing to enroll their children in a local school were told by authorities that this was impossible because their children did not have birth certificates issued in Romania.27 Similarly, Roma forcibly returned from Germany have been denied access to schooling because education officials in Romania have refused to recognize their schooling abroad.28 Parents in the Zabrÿuÿi neighborhood of Bucharest told the ERRC in February 2001 that their children had been refused enrolment in the local school for years until a member of parliament intervened.29
Similar administrative obstacles to the enrolment of Romani children in schools have been documented in France. The non-governmental organization Socio-Educative Tzigane d'Aquitaine (USETA) reported to the ERRC that during the academic school-year 1999/2000, members of the organization noticed a growing number of obstacles to implement the right to education for Romani schoolchildren. Romani children were refused either in pre-school, elementary or secondary schools for various apparently pre-textual reasons: lack of places, lack of teaching materials, no certificate of schooling to evaluate the academic level of the children. In one school, a pedagogical team reportedly fixed an arbitrary quota on the number of Romani children allowed in school "to prevent conflict situations."30
Journalists from TeleMadrid, a private local television station in Spain, have recently conducted tests of kindergartens using hidden video cameras (a lawful practice in Spain), in order to document discriminatory practices in admissions procedures. One journalist was given extensive advice by a member of the state organization of kindergartens as to how to open a kindergarten such that no Romani children would come to it. The interviewed official sternly admonishes the journalist, who had posed as a person wishing to open a kindergarten, not to admit any "Gypsy children" at all, "or else soon you will be swamped with Gypsies." In the video recording, the same administrator advises the journalist not to explicitly discriminate, "since this would be illegal", but rather to place Romani children indefinitely on a waiting list until the parents' interest in enrolling their children waned. The videotape was broadcast on a number of Spanish television stations and provoked nationwide debate.
Many Romani children in Italy live in segregated "camps for nomads" and effectively have no access to the Italian school system. Distances between segregated camps and schools are often exacerbated by frequent evictions. During raids, police authorities often destroy the school supplies of Romani children. In numerous cases, Roma live in camps far away from schools. Non-citizen Roma threatened with expulsion -- and this category includes persons who have been in Italy for long periods of time or were born there -- have in many cases pulled their children out of school in order to go into hiding.31
In Greece, in November 2000, in an effort to exclude Romani children from school, authorities in the municipality of Halastra near Thessaloniki, Greece, closed a local public primary school for approximately one week. The closing came as a result of pressure from the local non-governmental parents and guardians association, according to information provided to the ERRC by the Thessaloniki-based Drom Network for Gypsy Social Rights. The parents and guardians association reportedly protested the enrolment of Romani children from the Aghia Sophia Gonou community, near Thessaloniki. A compromise was eventually reached, according to which only half of the 16 Romani pupils newly allocated to the school would continue their education there, and the school re-opened one week later.32 Despite Greek legal provisions stating that children should attend school in the school closest to the place where they live, to date, the other eight children concerned attend schools as far as 17 kilometers from their homes.
In other instances, Romani children already enrolled and attending school are driven out of the school system again. There are, for example, widespread reports that Romani children in Hungary are dramatically over-represented among children involved in so-called "private student" arrangements which effectively exclude them from schooling. Pupils can become "private students" if both parents and school officials agree to waive mandatory school attendance and allow the child to learn at home. The provision is intended for especially talented children, but there are disturbing reports of teachers putting pressure on Romani parents to accept private schooling arrangements if their children have discipline problems or on grounds of raw racial prejudice. ERRC field research in the eastern Hungarian town of Berettyóújfalu in 2000 revealed that all nine of the children involved in "private schooling" programs in the town were Romani and that many were repeatedly failing periodic examinations.33 The effect of coercing Romani children into "private student" arrangements is to force them from the school system.
Finally, in countries including Greece, Italy, Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro, non-schooling may be a component of a comprehensive non-integration of Roma. Whole communities of Roma in Romania live on dumpsites, and the efforts of non-governmental organizations to assist Roma in enrolling their children in school have met with obstruction at nearly every official instance. Roma living in so-called "unauthorized camps" in Italy -- temporary roadside shelters erected without permit and frequently knocked down by police and municipal authorities -- are similarly completely excluded from Italian society. In such instances, the non-schooling of Romani children is one component of the complete marginalization of whole Romani communities. Not going to school is both effect and reflection of the total legal non-existence of thousands of Roma in Europe. One result of such exclusion is the reproduction of generations of persons with no prospects and no chances to realize aspirations for a better future.
Abuse in school
Roma suffer abuse in schools by non-Romani children and parents, as well as by schoolteachers and administrators. Teachers and administrators frequently turn a blind eye to racist abuse by non-Romani children. In the worst cases, schooling officials themselves physically abuse Romani children or insult their ethnic origins, bringing home the lesson of racism. At a very young age, many Roma and non-Roma are taught that hate, humiliation and even physical abuse on racist grounds is acceptable or at least tolerated.
An ERRC interview in March 1998 with a ten-year-old Romani girl from the village of Bontida, near Cluj-Napoca in Romania, revealed that her schoolmaster had pulled her ear so hard that it had bled and medical assistance was required.34 One primary school student from the Hungarian town of Dömsöd, approximately fifty kilometers south of Budapest, told the ERRC that her teachers had on one occasion called Romani girls at her school "stinking little Gypsy whores" and had hit a Romani classmate of hers. Although Romani parents complained to authorities at the school about the incident, the teacher in question was reportedly never reprimanded.35 According to ERRC research in Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro, in March 2002, two Romani children from Kosovo temporarily withdrew from school after their mathematics teacher hurled a notebook at them, striking one of them.36 One Romani boy who had been enrolled in both German and Macedonian schools told the ERRC in an interview conducted in August 1997 that he preferred German schools because, "in Macedonian schools, teachers hit me."
In May 2001, an ERRC staff member observed the aftermath corporal punishment in schools first-hand, when she visited a primary school in the northern Croatian village of Orehovica. Noticing a six-year old Romani boy relegated to the corner of the room, she inquired as to why he was being punished and was told that the young boy had been caught writing on the wall and as a result the teacher had hit his head against the wall several times. When later asked about the incident, the teacher justified her actions by saying that, "These children come in with real behavior problems because their parents don't care about them. They need to be taught to behave."37
Non-Romani children also ridicule and humiliate Romani children without effective intervention from instructors. For example, a thirteen-year-old Romani girl from Alexandria, Romania told the ERRC in a 2000 interview that, "[My schoolmates] said that I was Gypsy and that I was not supposed to be there." In Serbia and Montenegro, the Belgrade-based non-governmental organization Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), in cooperation with the ERRC, has documented numerous cases of Romani children being systematically harassed and verbally and physically abused by their non-Romani classmates. For example:
Zaim Beriša, a thirteen-year-old fourth-grade student in Zaga Malivuk primary school in Belgrade, reported that his non-Romani classmates frequently call him names and sometimes hit and kick him. In September 1999, five non-Romani boys reportedly attacked Zaim in the schoolyard, hitting him in the stomach and face. The school janitor reportedly put an end to the attack and informed the school principal of the incident. Zaim's mother, Ms Ljubica Stankoviÿ, confirmed that he came home that day with bruises on his face and a swollen nose, and that she had to take him to the doctor. She complained to the school principal, who promised to speak to the boys and to prevent any further attacks. Nevertheless, a few days later, the same group of boys attacked Zaim and his fifteen-year-old brother, Safet, at the train station as they were returning home from school. This time, one of the boys had a knife. Zaim managed to run away but the attackers beat his brother until a neighbour intervened.
Zoran Miladinoviÿ, a nine-year-old second-grade Romani student at ÿirilo i Metodije school in Belgrade, stated that the non-Romani children slap him and call him names almost every day. Zoran complained to his teacher, who reportedly told him it was best to ignore the other children when they called him names. In September, two boys attacked Zoran in the schoolyard, one of them holding him, while the other punched him in the head. Both of them shouted racist insults. Ms Radmila Miladinoviÿ, Zoran's mother, stated that on that day her son came home from school with a bleeding mouth, complaining that he had been beaten by the other children.
Kristina Stanojeviÿ, an eleven-year-old fifth grade student at Banoviÿ Strahinja school in Belgrade, stated that when she was in the fourth grade her classmates frequently taunted her and her two Romani classmates, calling them names such as "filthy Gypsy", and pushed, slapped and kicked her.
According to HLC, teachers are reluctant to take action to guarantee the safety of Romani pupils in schools throughout Serbia and Montenegro. One Romani parent in the Czech Republic told the ERRC:
Patricia, my youngest daughter, sits in the classroom with a boy who is constantly insulting her. After school I have to pick her up because the boy waits for her and hits her. She is only seven and is very scared. My son Michal is attending eighth grade. He has no friends and sits on his own at the back of the classroom. He is the only Romani pupil in the classroom and the other pupils in the class regularly insult him.38
Conclusion: the effects of racial discrimination
According to a publication by the Open Society Institute, in 1992, only 35 percent of Romani children in Spain completed primary education on time, while 51 percent had failed one grade and 14 percent had failed two or more grades.39 The situation is little changed today, and illiteracy among Roma in Spain is estimated at around 50 percent. Reliable data has recently revealed that the number of Romani children who attend school in Croatia after the fourth grade drastically diminishes.40 In its 2000 report on Croatia, the U.S. Department of State expressed concern that "Romani children face serious discrimination in schools, and nearly all drop out by grade 8."41 In Portugal, according to government statistics, during the 1997/1998 school year 6.8% of Romani pupils dropped out of the lower level of primary education, and 28.6% of Romani children dropped out of the upper level of primary education.42
In crisis and post-crisis areas, the non-schooling of Roma has reached dramatic proportions. For example, according to research conducted by the Sarajevo-based Romani organization Naša buduÿnost (Our Future) for the academic year 1995/96, only one third of Romani children of school age in the Sarajevo Canton actually attended primary schools.43 Among the children of Romani returnees from Western European countries, participation in the formal educational system is even rarer – reportedly only 5% of families of Romani returnees to the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton had children in the Bosnian school system in 1999,44 and among Romani returnees in the Brÿko District, reportedly only 20 children from a total of 206 families were attending school in 2001.45 As primary reasons for non-attendance, Romani parents and children interviewed by various non-governmental organizations have cited pressure caused by extreme poverty for children to become breadwinners, and fears of racially-motivated abuse in the classroom. Bosnian authorities have to date done little to ensure that Roma realize the right to education; nearly all educational projects targeting Roma in Bosnia are non-governmental.
The number of Roma who manage to remain in the educational systems of their countries to the university level are in many cases only in the single digits. To name only one example, although there are probably more than 100,000 Roma in Moldova, according to the Moldovan Government's own data, for the 1999/2000 academic year, there were only eight Romani students registered in the forty-three higher education institutions on the whole territory of Moldova. This situation is actually apparently worse than in the previous academic year, during which there were, according to the government's own reports, forty-three Romani students registered in thirty-eight institutions of higher education.
All over Europe, Roma are failing to realize the right to education, and authorities are doing little or nothing to address this fact seriously. Racism is a primary factor in the non-schooling of Roma in Europe. Non-governmental organizations working to assist Romani children in enrolling in schools report that they have met with hostility from nearly all authorities concerned. As a result, whole Romani communities in Europe receive no schooling whatsoever. In addition, because of racism and the stigma attached to the Romani identity, many of Europe's educated Roma vigorously deny their ethnic origins; at present, such denial seems, sadly, to be among the best strategies for Roma determined to pass successfully through the education systems of Europe.
The preceding pages have provided an outline of the ERRC's most fundamental concerns with respect to the right of Roma to education in today's Europe. The complex of burdens weighing on Romani children in European schools is among other things the result of centuries of coercive policies of assimilation, in which the Romani identity has been the object of intense stigma, and Romani culture, language and history has been denied a place among the legitimate cultures of Europe. Romani/non-Romani relations, played out in the classroom are also, sadly, burdened by a legacy of episodes of the persecution of Roma -- most recently during the Holocaust in World War II -- intense periods of hate and aggression which have never been recognized adequately, let alone redressed. Even if all racist schooling practices against Roma and all practices effectively denying the right of Roma to education were ended tomorrow, European schooling would still require positive, proactive policies for Roma, aimed at overcoming the legacies of such persecution.
Today, however, racist practice in European schools is alive and well. In addition to the concerns detailed above, one could add that almost nowhere do European school curriculums recognize the contributions Roma have made to the histories and cultures of the countries in which they live, almost nowhere do Romani and non-Romani children learn about Romani history and culture in the schools they attend, in few schools is the Romani language offered as a second language, and in none whatsoever is it a language of primary instruction. European schooling is, at present, monochrome.
1 The right to education is elaborated in a number of international laws and instruments, including Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and Article 29 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). European law affirms the right to education for all. Article 2 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention of Human Rights states: "No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions."
2 The ban on racial segregation under international law is unequivocal. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Article 3, stipulates, "States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction."
3 One noteworthy finding of ERRC research was that Romani children are not dramatically over-represented in so-called "auxiliary schools" -- schools for children with medium to profound mental handicap. Over-representation is egregious primarily in "special schools", schools for those children who fall in the gray area where cultural difference and early language difference can easily be mistaken for light to medium mental disability. Indeed, a very high number of the Romani children interviewed by the ERRC in Ostrava had, during original placement, been classified as "borderline cases".
4 For a detailed account of the segregation of Romani children in "special schools" for the mentally handicapped in the Czech Republic, see the ERRC Country Report A Special Remedy: Roma and Schools for the Mentally Handicapped in the Czech Republic, Country Reports Series No. 8, June 1999, on the Internet at: http://errc.org/publications/indices/czechrepublic.shtml.
5 Legal complaints challenging racial segregation of Roma in special schools in the Czech Republic, filed in June 1999 by parents of a group of Romani children in Ostrava, assisted by local counsel and the ERRC, were unsuccessful at the domestic level. In its decision of October 20, 1999, the Czech Constitutional Court, acknowledging the "persuasiveness" of the applicants' arguments, nonetheless rejected the complaints, ruling that it had no authority to consider evidence demonstrating a pattern and practice of racial discrimination in Ostrava or the Czech Republic. The Court effectively refused to apply applicable international legal standards for proving racial discrimination. Having exhausted all domestic remedies, on April 18, 2000, representing 18 Romani children from Ostrava, the ERRC and local counsel filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The case is currently pending before the Court.
6 For further details, see http://errc.org/rr_nr4_1999/snap21.shtml.
7 For more information on Roma and the right to education in Romania, see the ERRC Country Report State of Impunity: Human Rights Abuse of Roma in Romania, September 2001, pp. 104-120, available on the Internet at : http://errc.org/publications/indices/romania.shtml.
8 ERRC field research, September 15, 2000, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
9 Wide Open School Foundation, "Strategic Plan 2001-2003", Slovakia, 2000, p. 11
10 Open Society Institute, Monitoring the EU Accession Process: Minority Protection, Budapest: Central European University Press, 2001, p. 33.
11 ERRC interview, December 11, 1997, Prague, Czech Republic.
12 ERRC interview, May 3, 1999, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
13 ERRC interview, November 15, 1998, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
14 See Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, High Commissioner on National Minorities, "Report on the Situation of Roma and Sinti in the OSCE Area," March 10, 2000, p. 74.
15 According to a recent article in the Croatian press, around 192 Romani children attending one segregated school in Međimurje County must enter the school building via a separate entrance (See Karlovacki List, July 24, 2001).
16 See Jutarnji List, September 7, 2000.
17 See ERRC, State of Impunity, pp. 110-111.
18 See ERRC, State of Impunity, pp. 111-112.
19 See Open Society Institute, EU Accession Monitoring Program, Monitoring the EU Accession Process: Minority Protection, 2001, p. 228, as well as information provided in the Hungarian daily Népszava, October 17, 2000.
20 Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities.
21 For more information see, The Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights, report 1999, at: http://www.obh.hu/nekh/en/reports/reports.htm.
22 Roma Press Center, Electronic Weekly, February 25, 2002.
23 For further information on the incident, see http://errc.org/rr_nr2_2000/snap9.shtml.
24 For further information on ghetto schools in Bulgaria see especially: http://www.errc.org/rr_nr3_2000/noteb3.shtml, as well as European Roma Rights Center and the Open Society Institute, "Conference Report: The Desegregation of 'Romani Schools': A Condition for an Equal Start for Roma, Sofia, Bulgaria, April 27, 2001".
25 For further information on the situation of Roma in Moldova, see http://errc.org/publications/indices/moldova.shtml.
26 Human rights researcher Ina Zoon has written recently on the importance of documents for -- and the role of a lack of documents in precluding Roma from -- realizing basic rights in Romania: "The existence of identification documents is the sine qua non for accessing social welfare benefits, health services, or public housing. Not having such documents seriously affects the exercise of many other rights by placing a person's freedom in danger, jeopardizing his or her participation in community life, and barring access to employment and education. The lack of documents is one of the most important problems confronting a large segment of the Roma population in Romania. [...] The most frequently mentioned missing documents are birth certificates and identification cards. The lack of civil marriage certificates raises difficult legal issues but also sensitive cultural ones related to the acceptance of the civil institution of marriage within the Roma community. [...] Birth certificates may be missing because children are born at home, and parents neglect or postpone registering the newborn. Legal provisions that provide high fines for delays in registering children, the social workers' lack of interest in assisting Roma, and the corruption within the administration are additional obstacles to obtaining birth certificates. Experts describe the lack of birth certificates, identity cards, and civil marriage certificates as a 'mass phenomenon'. Thousands do not have legal documents that reflect their family relationships and legal status correctly." (See Zoon, Ina, Op. cit., pp.35-36). In the extreme case, the Roma concerned may be stateless. A forthcoming report by Save the Children UK estimates that 1200-6000 Roma in Romania may be stateless (Save the Children Fund UK, "Denied a Future? The Right to Education of Roma/Gypsy and Traveler Children", draft May 2001 (final report, forthcoming, October 2001), p. 25). The recently published Romanian Government "Strategy of the Government of Romania for Improving the Condition of Roma" acknowledges that statelessness is a problem among Roma when it lists "solving the cases of stateless Roma in Romania" as a goal of government policy (The Government of Romania, Ministry of Public Information, "Strategy of the Government of Romania for Improving the Condition of the Roma", Bucharest 2001, adopted as Government Resolution 430, official translation, p. 8).
27 For further details of the case, see ERRC, State of Impunity, p. 109.
28 OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities found that, "Although some of the children in question attended school while abroad (not a few of them thrived; among those who emigrated to Germany, many quickly mastered the German language), the local schools in Timişoara did not recognize their foreign schooling for purposes of placement." See Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, High Commissioner on National Minorities, Op. cit., p. 73.
29 See ERRC, State of Impunity.
30 For more information on the issue, see http://errc.org/rr_nr3_2000/noteb6.shtml.
31 For further information on the situation of Roma in Italy in general, as well as in the Italian educational system in particular, see the ERRC Country Report Campland: Racial Segregation of Roma in Italy, October 2000, available on the Internet at: http://errc.org/publications/indices/italy.shtml.
32 For more information see http://errc.org/rr_nr1_2001/snap30.shtml.
33 Full statistical information on the schooling situation of Romani children in Berettyóújfalu in the 2000-2001 school year is available at: http://errc.org/rr_nr3_2000/noteb5.shtml.
34 For further details of the case, see ERRC, State of Impunity, p. 116.
35 For more information on the case, see http://errc.org/rr_sum1998/notebook_2.shtml.
36 ERRC interviews, Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro, March 14, 2002.
37 For more information, see http://errc.org/rr_nr4_2001/field1.shtml.
38 For further details of the case, see ERRC, A Special Remedy, p. 95.
39 McDonald, Christina, Judit Kovacs, Csaba Fenyes eds., The Roma Education Resource Book, Budapest: Open Society Institute, pg. 28.
40 For example, according to information from the Međimurje County Department on Education, Culture, Information, Sports, and Technical Education, in the school year 2001/2002, in four of the schools in the County (Podturen, Orehovica, Macinec, and Kuršanec), the total number of Romani children enrolled from the 1st to 4th grade was 398, while their number from the 5th to the 8th grade was 122, or more than 3 times lower (Response of the Međimurje County Department on Education, Culture, Information, Sports, and Technical Education to the Croatian Ministry of Education and Sports about the "Request for information regarding the segregation of Romani children in the primary schools of Međimurje County", Čakovec, 7 December, 2001).
41 See U.S. Department of State, Croatia, Country reports on Human Rights Practices – 2000, February 23, 2001, at: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/eur/716.htm.
42 According to official sources, in the Portuguese city of Coimbra, in the 1997/1998, 136 Romani pupils enrolled for in lower primary education, but only seven enrolled for upper primary education. In the Ingote primary school, the main primary school for the Romani community in Coimbra, in the year 1998/1999, 15.2% left school; 21% failed the year; 25.6% were absent more than regulations allow.
43 See Save the Children, Denied a Future?, London, 2001.
44 Helsinki Citizens Assembly and Roma Associations from Tuzla, "Analysis on the Current Status of the Roma Returnees to the Tuzla Canton", 1999, quoted in Save the Children, Denied a Future?, London, 2001.
45 Sae Roma, "Bulletin No. 17", Tuzla, 2001.


text:
In Parliament yesterday, longtime video game industry critic Keith Vaz (Labour) quizzed Siôn Simon (left), Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Culture, Media & Sport about PEGI ratings and the controversial Japanese game RapeLay.
Conservative Mark Field jumped in on the topic, appearing to suggest the pursuit of a global content rating system for video games. Surprisingly, Simon said that the UK's recent adoption of the European PEGI system was viewed by the Gordon Brown government as "the building block to moving towards a global regulatory future."
The conversation went something like this:
Keith Vaz: What recent discussions has [Simon] had with pan-European game information on the age classification of video games?
Siôn Simon: I have spoken to the Video Standards Council—the current UK agents for the PEGI system—about the classification of video games and have another meeting scheduled with it very soon. I have also had discussions with the British Board of Film Classification. Both organisations are working hard to ensure the success of the new system.
Keith Vaz: I thank the Minister for his answer and welcome the steps that the Government are taking on this issue. However, it is still a matter of concern that a game such as "RapeLay", which shows extreme violence against women, can be downloaded from the internet. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that such games are not accessed from the internet, so that children and young people are properly protected?
Siôn Simon: We should be clear that [RapeLay] was not classified, but was briefly available on Amazon and then was banned. The point that my right hon. Friend is making is about games that, like other brutal, unpleasant, illegal content, can be available on the internet. All steps that apply to any other content on the internet will apply to games. Specifically, as part of the Byron review we set up the UK Council for Child Internet Safety to work with content providers, internet service providers and all aspects of Government to make sure that such content cannot be accessed, particularly by children.
Mark Field: The Minister will know that Britain is a great leader in video and computer games, and while I take on board many of the concerns expressed by Keith Vaz, will the Minister recognise that this is a global industry, not simply a European one, and in so far as we are going to have the safeguards to which the right hon. Gentleman refers, we will clearly also need to have global regulation along those lines?
Siôn Simon: The system of regulation for which we have opted—the PEGI system—is pan-European, and as such, we see it as the building block to moving towards a global regulatory future. The key principle is that the markings on games should make it clear to parents which games are suitable for adults and which are suitable and unsuitable for children and young children. Adults should be allowed to access adult content; children most certainly should not.
GP: Readers, what do you think of the idea of a global content rating system? Is it even possible? If so, is it desirable?
Source: They Work For You

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Don't use profanity, it ruins others' time.
...where shoes are always free!
Click for Open Bowling times
Click Here To Make Online Reservations
Location:2750 Monroe Avenue,Rochester New York 14618[ view map / directions ]
ATM available on site
All major credit cards accepted.
Free Wireless Internet Access
Full service bar
Joomla template created with Artisteer.


text:
The Royals Hall of Fame opens FRIDAY – here's a sneak peek!
The Royals will dedicate the new Royals Hall of Fame with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 4:05 on Friday. After the brief ceremony, the Hall of Fame will be open to fans. No separate ticket is required for the Hall of Fame for fans with game tickets. Fans will be admitted every 15 minutes in groups of 40 to tour the Hall of Fame, which features interactive displays and exhibits that chronicle Kansas City's baseball history from 1884 to the present.
The Royals Hall of Fame will be open during all home games and will operate daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. during the baseball season. On Thursday, there was a media tour and a reception for the Hall of Fame Classic. Royals photographer Chris Vleisides snapped a few pictures of Royals greats George Brett and Frank White as they took their first glimpses at the new displays. They say pictures are worth a thousand words…or in this case, 3,154…the number of hits George had, and the number of baseballs in this display.


text:
June, 25th, 2013
Taipei, Taiwan, collocating with ACM MobiSys 2013
Speakers: Jie Liu, Dimitrios Lymberopoulos, Bodhi Priyantha, and Jacky Shen
Slides are now online.
Location is a fundamental service in device mobility. The mobile and sensing research communities have made remarkable progress in location sensing in the recent years. This full-day tutorial by Microsoft Research will give in-depth discussions on the principles and practices of location sensing in mobile devices. The goals are to give students and researchers of interests a broad view of the state of the art, and help practitioners to select and build the right technologies into solutions.
9:00AM: Dimitrios Lymberopoulos
Introduction: Mobile Location and Location-Based Services (Slides)
9:15AM: Bodhi Priyantha
Location Sensing Fundamentals and Infrastructure-Based Approaches (Slides)
10:15AM: Break
10:45AM: Jie Liu
GPS Principle (Slides)
Cloud Offloaded GPS: device & service (Slides)
12:30PM: Lunch
14:00PM: Dimitrios Lymberopoulos
Signature-Based approaches: such as using WiFi, FM, magnetic field, and sound signals (Slides)
15:30PM: Break
16:00PM: Jacky Shen
Mobile Location Tracking
Map-based tracking (Slides)
Inertial navigation + landmarks (Slides)
17:30PM: Concluding Remarks


text:
Out of Stock
Item # URG000A
Don't worry though, we have a lot more Mountain Helmets in stock than that.View Similar Products
Urge Endur-O-Matic Helmet $0.00
We'd love to call the Urge Endur-O-Matic Helmet "new and improved," but that wouldn't make any sense (if it's new, by definition, it can't be an improved version of something). Born from DH and enduro designs but meant for all-around trail and all-mountain riding, what the Endur-O-Matic is, however, is a serious upgrade for your dome piece in case you happen to be looking to scrap that old egg shell that wanted to retire three years ago.
Urge is a relatively new name in the helmet game, utilizing sustainable materials and eco-friendly manufacturing processes wherever possible, but that doesn't mean its earth-hugging ways come at a compromise of protection. The Endur-O-Matic utilizes "in-mould" formation technology in shaping the recycled EPS shock-absorbing liner into the helmet's shell, which itself offers very generous coverage. The 30mm-diameter circular air vents are strategically placed to create what Urge calls its internal Venturi effect for head cooling, and for additional comfort and fit precision, the padding is removable, washable, and replaceable by any of the included replacement pads of varying densities and thicknesses. And the Endur-O-Matic's super deluxe bonus feature? No, it's not the super light and flexible visor. The Gangsta pad, a thick pad that goes over the brow and is ventilated via external ducts to rapidly evacuate moisture and keep your cranium cooler than it already is.
The Urge Endur-O-Matic Helmet comes in two sizes — S/M (54-57.5cm) and L/XL (57.5-60cm) — and in two color schemes: Original UB Black/gold, and Airlines Black/green. As mentioned, replacement pads are included, and the helmet weights approximately 319 grams.
Tech Specs
View more Mountain Helmets
Size chart
|Head Circumference
|21.3 - 22.4in
|22.8 - 23.6in
- How to Measure:
- For best results, take measurements over your underwear.
- Hats:
- Measure around your head where your hat would fit comfortably.


text:
How do I know what is the optimum setup for my bowhunting rig in terms of delivering the most penetration at 40 yards?
Right now, I shoot an 2011 Elite Pulse bow set at 55 lbs with a 28.5 draw length. With some practice, I could probably work that up to 60 lbs. I shoot Slik Trick 100 gr. broadheads and Whitetail Hunter 5575 carbon arrows with 2 inch blazer vanes.
How do I know if a different arrow/broadhead combination would give me more energy for penetration? Does it even matter until I get out to longer distances like 50 or 60 yards?
Or, is this just a tradeoff between arrow speed (less drop) and penetration where I have to decide the combination of speed and penetration I want?


text:
|Republican Basin Water Seminars to offer practical farming advice for dry years
There is still time to register for water seminars throughout the Republican Basin that will focus on water management during dry years. The free seminars will be held Feb. 11 at the Chase County Fairgrounds in Imperial; Feb. 12 at the Red Willow County Fairgrounds in McCook; and Feb. 13 at the Ag Center in Holdrege. The meetings will begin at 10 a.m. MST in Imperial and 10 a.m. CST in McCook and Holdrege.


text:
The Everly Brothers will be honored with a tribute concert organized by bosses of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October.
Officials at The Rock Hall announced on Thursday that surviving member Don Everly will appear at the gig, which will take place during the organization's 19th annual Music Masters series.
Everly's younger brother Phil died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in January. Everly said he wishes "Phil were here to share this honor" and thanked Rock Hall bosses "for keeping the Everly Brothers alive".
Country music star Rodney Crowell will act as musical director for the concert, which will take place on Oct. 25 in Cleveland, Ohio. Performers will be announced at a later date.
The Everly Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame in 1986.


text:
About This Product
In alignment with nature, this refreshing fragrance eases us through transitional months, as signs of vitality begin to resurface all around. Bancha's earthy-green notes are inspired by the fresh tones of the traditional Japanese tea of the same name and comprised of essences used in traditional ayurvedic healing, to ensure complete wellness through the scent's simple meditation. Let's welcomes spring's fresh start…
Bancha is comprised of 100% botanical essences.
*EdP sample vials are 1/2 full.


text:
It's been over a year since Jay-Z and Kanye West released Watch the Throne, but tracks from the album are still going strong.
"Niggas in Paris," one of the most popular tracks from the album, hit the triple platinum mark with digital sales eclipsing the 3 million units sold, reports HHNM.
The awards didn't stop there, however, as the duo scored a gold plaque for "No Church in the Wild," the album's opening track. "No Church in the Wild" has been prominently featured in advertisements for cars, movies, and other products since Watch the Throne's release. The song features Frank Ocean.
"Niggas in Paris" became a fixture in Hov and Yeezy's concerts, leading the duo to perform it as much as eleven times during their live shows.
RELATED: Kanye West - "Givenchy Kilt Fitting"


text:
February 3, 2013 - TIMBUKTU, Mali
The afternoon sun is low in the sky, and the clouds and trees reflect in the glass-still water of a canal linking the city to the Niger River, which spans the length of West Africa. In a sky that dwarfs the sandy shores, bruise-dark clouds suggest a far-off storm. In the distance the sounds of children playing, drums beating, and birds chirping convey a peacefulness that is also a deep sigh of relief. For ten months, Timbuktu's few remaining residents cowered in their houses. Music was banned. When they did venture outside, people hurried silently about their business, fearful of/ Read on.


text:
University Park, PA (Sports Network) - Roy Devyn Marble scored 22 points and
made 9-of-11 from the foul line to lead the Iowa Hawkeyes to a 74-72 road
victory over the Penn State Nittany Lions in a Big Ten clash at the Bryce
Jordan Center.
Mike Gesell tallied 13 points, while Melsahn Basabe had 11 points and six
rebounds. The Hawkeyes (16-9, 5-7 Big Ten) have won consecutive games after
dropping their previous two.
D.J. Newbill led Penn State (8-16, 0-12) with a game-high 26 points and eight
rebounds. Jermaine Marshall and Sasa Borovnjak each scored 14 points, while
Marshall also added a career-high 10 assists.
Iowa led 38-34 at intermission thanks in part to its dominating 24-11
advantage on the glass. PSU kept the game close by shooting 45.2 percent in
the opening 20 minutes and forcing seven Iowa turnovers.
The Hawkeyes led throughout the second half despite a late push by Penn State,
which cut the score to 66-64 with 4:08 remaining on a Brandon Taylor 3-
pointer. However, the Nittany Lions would get no closer than that. Leading by
three with less than five seconds remaining, Iowa opted to foul PSU to avoid a
potential game-tying 3-pointer. Marshall made both free throws, then Marble
made 1-of-2 at the other end for Iowa, and PSU wasn't left with enough time
for a desperation heave.
PSU lost despite committing just six turnovers. The Hawkeyes outscored the
Nittany Lions at the foul line, 20-10.
The Sports Network


text:
never. ever. ever.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
it's tuesday and i'm feeling... loved.
never. ever. ever.
50 comments:
you two are my inspiration. so out of this world amazing. i am so happy i have this too :) xxReplyDelete
where is your dress from?? it's presh!ReplyDelete
what a beautiful photo - it really captures the love. It also helps that you two are a gorgeous couple ;)ReplyDelete
He's a pretty lucky guy to have you, too... ;)ReplyDelete
i completely know how you feel :) <3ReplyDelete
hold onto that forever!
xox dana
I love this picture of the both of you. And the love you two share is amazing. You are blessed!ReplyDelete
That is so beautiful. I hope I find this sometime in my life :)ReplyDelete
y'all are so sweet!!! I hope to find a hubby like that one day SOON. Thanks for sharing!!!ReplyDelete
Oh and your dress is adorbs!
Loved the pictures, they were so beautiful!ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
what a great picture, and not to be creepy but I hope I find this one day!ReplyDelete
xo emily
love that pic!ReplyDelete
i feel the exact same way about my husband down to the letter. isn't it the greatest feeling in the world to love someone with everything you have, and have it reflected back. love looks good on the tuckers ;)ReplyDelete
wow- this picture is the sweetest! you guys are what my roomie and i call "SIL" aka... so in love. also, can cami make me a low back ruffle dress? k, thanks.ReplyDelete
ahhh, i love, love! :)ReplyDelete
This picture is so, so sweet. No words.ReplyDelete
This picture makes me smile SO much :) You both are absolutely precious and truly define the meaning of the word love! xoxoReplyDelete
Love this, Sadie!ReplyDelete
This is so sweet. You guys are gorgeous together. And where is that dress from? The back is a-mazing.ReplyDelete
Such. A. Sweet. Photo.ReplyDelete
y'all are presh :) it truly is so amazing to find your perfect soulmate. sweet hubbies are the best! xoxoReplyDelete
Isn't that the best! I so cherish my husband too!ReplyDelete
what an aaammmmaaazziiinnngg photo!!! seriously so cute. and the back of that dress!! swoon!ReplyDelete
i hear ya sister. i'll jump on that bandwagon allll day. #ourhubbiesarethebestestReplyDelete
beautiful photo and beautiful words, and a nice reminder for me today not to take my husband for granted!ReplyDelete
Oh gosh! You two are so cute! I feel the same way about my wonderful husband!ReplyDelete
what an incredibly darling photo!! Love everything about it and everything you said!! xxReplyDelete
sweetest picture ever and your hair is so stinkin adorable!ReplyDelete
You inspire me.ReplyDelete
love that dress. i want one!ReplyDelete
oh, and i love this post.
Lord willing I will make a post like this someday. I love your relationship with your hubby. It is very encouraging.ReplyDelete
love this post and love this pic! <3ReplyDelete
xx Vivian @ http://diamondsandtulle.blogspot.com
This should be a note to self for me too!ReplyDelete
Especially as last night I was like a small petulant spoilt child.
Love this photo, you should so have a copy framed!
LOVVEEEE that photo. and you.ReplyDelete
You two are the cutest. Not only are you both gorgeous but sounds as though you have just a gorgeous of hearts. Amazing.ReplyDelete
Your love for one another is just beautiful...ReplyDelete
beautiful photoReplyDelete
Sweetest post I've read all week! ( :ReplyDelete
you guys are such cuties! love this pic!ReplyDelete
What a gorgeous photo! I think that's a really great attitude, and try to remind myself of the same thing with my husband every day :)ReplyDelete
That is so beautiful. Exactly what marriage is supposed to look like :) Someone you can just wrap your arms around and hold on to forever...ReplyDelete
And the dress-well, we all know it is ridiculous. She should sell those!
xoxo, Anna
So sweet! And such a gorgeous photo! :)ReplyDelete
BEAUTIFUL couple. & so obviously in LOVE. :)ReplyDelete
ahhhhh this reminds me of the dave concert a trillion bazillion years ago in west palm! the pic is identical! perfection!ReplyDelete
This makes my heart smile...so lovely and you deserve it! So happy for you both!ReplyDelete
Liesl :)
I think you two are my heroes :)ReplyDelete
and inspiration.


text:
MTV's Stephen Totilo writes about the gamers who submitted video questions for tonight's CNN/YouTube Republican Presidential Debate.
In particular, Totilo focuses on 18-year-old Jesse Vetters, whose video inspired nearly two dozen fellow gamers to participate in the debate process by creating game issue-oriented videos of their own. Totilo writes:
Over the summer, Vetters started searching YouTube to see what questions had been asked during the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate. "I saw there was nothing on there about anything I really cared about, video games being the main thing…"
Vetters posted his 39-second question to YouTube… and asked aloud what politicians would do to make sure that games weren't vilified by the government.
Totilo also spoke with Entertainment Consumers Association president Hal Halpin, who, after seeing Vetters' video, decided to encourage others to follow suit by offering a free ECA t-shirt to those who submitted their own videos. Halpin commented:
Whenever I'm dealing with the mainstream media, their vision of gamers is apathetic, uninvolved, don't get out to vote. And here's this high school kid (Vetters) willing to jump into the deep end.
Halpin related an experience which occurred at PAX in August when a gamer approached him with a political question:
He was torn between [Barack] Obama and Hillary [Clinton]… [their position on video games is] the issue that could be a tipping point. I bet other gamers out there feel similarly. And that gave me a whole new perspective on what this could mean.
No one knows whether any of the gamer videos will make the final cut. But plenty of gamers will be watching.


text:
Celebs Sip On Slurpees: It's 7/11 Today! (PHOTOS)
The majority of a Slurpee may be corn syrup, but they taste like summertime. Today is 7/11, but even if your local mini-mart is out of free Slurpees, you can at least revel in how even your favorite celebs cannot resist the sweet, frozen, chemical perfection.
Want to see Joe Jonas, Bethenny Frankel, Ashley Benson, and others sippin' on Slurpees? Click through the gallery for some syrupy sweet photos!


text:
Hello .....
I hope you want to make a map for me.
i sketched one for you already
I would be happy if you make one but in better resolution or something
here are some WANTS:
Many city's are near the coast line.
The city of endeavour is located at the whole Endeavour Bay
Its in modern -> Future time
Modern great city's
Californian deserts, to the tropical regions of japan/china/Hawaii to the coldness of The Netherlands, Canada and antartica
Has some vissible Military Bases ( Military Harbors, Military land bases, airports and spaceports)
the bigest citys are absolutely Endeavour (capital) , Great Lymric (Entertainment hollywood like L.A City) and New Port ( New york city, chicago and miami)
Nice US of A / Germany highways.
Nice coasts
Dont care about the city names, vilages names, and highway names and military base names, only Endeavour, Great Lymric and New port should be made , all other citys are youré choice
Put you name somewhere, it means you made it
Map should be editable (like from colourfull to black and white.
look to the flag, count the stars, it are all the states of this Virtual Nation, keep in mind that i wille copy the map and draw other stuff on it like political borders and stuff..
Many rivers , and anything water related..
Aditional info:
will be hosted on Photobucket or something, will be showed on Nationstates.com, will be used in battles and information maps..
, you can put youré name on it. and this logo http://www.networking4all.com/nl/dom...namen+aan+bzk/
You put the logo near the map title called Legendardisch, and you name, but dont keep it big.
Thank you if you make this map, you will be thankfull, cus i am still learning the basic's!


text:
We use cookies to help give you the best possible experience on our site.By using our website or closing this message, you are agreeing to our use of cookies > Our Cookies Explained >
Cleaning & Hygiene Shop
Cook Shop
Ergonomic Shop
Fashion Stationery Shop
Filing Shop
Furniture Shop
New Products Shop
Packaging & Mailing Shop
School Shop
Special Offers
Technology Shop
Apple Shop
3M Shop
Bic Shop
Karcher Shop
Pilot Shop
Guildhall Shop
Samsung Shop
Canon Shop
DYMO Shop
Nescafé Shop
Leitz Shop
Select Country:
All the inspiration your office needs!
Viking is one of the UK's leading office suppliers, offering an extensive range of office supplies for home or business use at fantastic prices. Our range of office supplies includes everything from ink cartridges by leading brands such as Epson and Canon to a wide selection of office furniture and office chairs. Our range of office supplies also includes a fantastic range of stationery and other office essentials. We offer free delivery on all office supplies orders over £30 and we can also provide next day delivery on certain orders.
Browse our range of office supplies and order online today. Viking has all the inspiration your office needs! View the recently launched Viking Blog for news, updates, competitions and more.
*0844 412 3435. Calls cost 7p per minute plus your phone company's access charge2000 - 2016 Viking. All Rights Reserved.


text:
The Memory Thief
|Release Date: May 09, 2008
|Running Time: 95 mins.
|MPAA Rating: None
|Genre: Drama
Mark Webber
Rachel Miner
Jerry Adler
Douglas Spain
All Cast & Crew >>
Summary:Lukas, an aimless, young man in contemporary L.A., buries thoughts of his own past in the humdrum routine of a tollbooth clerk. A chance encounter with a Holocaust survivor suddenly brings into focus a world and an identity he embraces with frightening intensity--the victimized Jews of World War II. As he begins to enthusiastically act out his newfound obsession, Lukas, a non-Jew, discovers that survivor's guilt isn't just for the Jews anymore.


text:
Originally posted on Rockies Review | Last updated 3/5/13
No need to rush Nolan Arenado to the big leagues.One year later, the talk is very much the same.Colorado Rockies prospect Nolan Arenado is turning heads at spring training in Scottsdale. On Monday, in a 16-6 loss to the Seattle Mariners, the third baseman launched his fourth home run of the spring, and the third in as many days.After winning the Arizona Fall League MVP honors in 2011, beating out Bryce Harper, Arenado was talked about as the next big thing for the Rockies. In fact, some thought that he had made such a huge impression that he could be the starting third baseman for the Rockies, despite never playing above Single-A.Arenado was quickly recognized by most publications as the Rockies top prospect, and was listed as one of the top 50 prospects in the game. The biggest question was not if, but when Arenado would make his debut with the Rockies in 2012.The 2012 spring was a slow one for Arenado, and the idea of him starting the year with the Rockies quickly went out the window. The thought from most fans was that the club would bring him up in July, avoiding the possibility that he would qualify as a "Super-2," meaning he hits arbitration eligibility one year earlier because of service time.However, Arenado's fast-track to the big leagues became less than certain when he started having issues at the Double-A level, where he ended up looking more like a 21-year-old and less like a phenom who belonged at a higher level. He finished the 2012 season with 56 RBIs, a far cry from the 122 he drove in a year prior for Modesto, leading all Rockies minor leaguers. He finished with a .285 batting average and a .428 slugging percentage, while reaching base at a .337 clip.The numbers, however, were not the biggest issue. The Rockies made it very clear to anyone willing to ask that Arenado had an attitude problem. It seemed that he wasn't very happy with his quick dismissal from the big league team in spring training, and the Rockies felt that he sulked about it.With the past behind him, Arenado is proving that he isn't a bust. He is showing that his 2012 was a fluke and that the aberration was the season in Tulsa, not the one in Modesto.The power is remarkable, as is the fact that he was once seen as a bad defender, and has since turned his defense into a strong point in his game.The temptation for the Rockies to bring Arenado to the big leagues has to be there. Especially with fans clamoring for him.However, the Colorado Rockies need to exercise patience.There is no reason to rush Arenado to the big leagues. The talent is clearly there. That isn't in doubt. However, after watching him stumble in Double-A a year ago, there is no reason to determine that one good spring training means he is ready for the challenges of Major League Baseball.Keep in mind, Arenado won't turn 22-years-old until the middle of April. He is still very young. This isn't a kid who is pushing his mid-20's and needs to prove that he can be a big leaguer right away. There is still plenty of time for him to develop and learn the game.In this situation, the risks outweigh the benefits for the Rockies in giving Arenado an Opening Day roster spot.The Rockies have a solid group of players who can fill in the gap at third base. Despite not getting much credit, Jordan Pacheco has done nothing but hit. He proved that he is a capable hitter, and despite lacking the power traditionally seen at third base, he has done nothing to suggest that he can't get on base. The kid can flat hit.Behind Pacheco is Chris Nelson, DJ LeMahieu and even Eric Young, Jr. All three of those guys are capable of playing the position well enough to suggest that the Rockies don't have a gap at third base.An even bigger reason is that the Rockies are coming off of a season in which they lost 98 games. They stand to be a better baseball team, with a new manager and new attitude, but reality suggests that everything would have to go right for them in order for them to improve significantly enough to be a contender.If the Rockies aren't going to be contenders, why make Arenado swim in the deep end when he could get more seasoning at the Triple-A level?Let him start in Colorado Springs. Let him see another level, with some older players who know how to pitch more than Double-A talent. If Arenado proves that he can hit Triple-A pitchers well enough, then bring him up after the All-Star game. That way, the Rockies don't risk him becoming a Super-2, and they also don't risk ruining the confidence of one of their brightest young stars.Give him 250-300 at-bats in Triple-A, then make the decision. The upside for the Rockies is far bigger than than downside of leaving him in the minors when he is ready for the big leagues.Follow me on Twitter @RockiesReview. Like me on Facebook, search "Rockies Review"
MLB News
Delivered to your inbox
You'll also receive Yardbarker's daily Top 10, featuring the best sports stories from around the web. Customize your newsletter to get articles on your favorite sports and teams. And the best part? It's free!
Follow us on Twitter
|Best of Yardbarker
|NFL News
|MLB News
|NBA News
|NHL News
Today's Best Stuff
For Publishers
Company Info
Follow Yardbarker
|© 2016 Yardbarker, Inc. All rights reserved. Use of this website (including any and all parts and components) constitutes your acceptance of these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. (What's New?)


text:
Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Blake Griffin recorded a double-double with
22 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday, as the Los Angeles Clippers
steamrolled the San Antonio Spurs, 106-84, at Staples Center.
DeAndre Jordan and Chris Paul each registered a double-double as well, as
Jordan tallied 20 points and 11 boards and Paul finished with 10 points and 12
assists for the Clippers, who were swept by the Spurs in the second round of
the playoffs last season.
Danny Green scored a team-high 12 points, while Tim Duncan added 10 points and
six rebounds as the Spurs took their first loss of the season after opening
the year with four consecutive victories.
The Sports Network


text:
This Huawei E585 wireless router sends out a Wi-Fi signal to give you internet connection whenever you need it. With your own mobile Wi-Fi connection (known as MiFi) so you can connect different Wi-Fi enabled devices at once and get fast internet speeds with no wires, no hassles and no need for a Wi-Fi hotspot.
The unlocked E585 router is really easy to use and fits in your pocket. Just turn on your wireless router, switch on connection to the Three network, and select the Wi-Fi function. Then choose the Wi-Fi option on whichever device you're using. There's no need to load any software to get online using the Huawei E585. The wireless modem gives you download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps and comes with a battery that lets you stay connected to the internet for up to 5 hours.
E585 display screen
2 Network speed
3 Wi-Fi enabled, Number of devices connected
4 Internet connection
5 New messages, Number of new messages
6 Battery level
7 Network
8 Data used
9 Connection time
10 International roaming
You can charge the E585 while you're using it and it comes with on-board software that starts each time you connect it to a PC or laptop using the USB cable. The software allows you to manage your Three account, send and receive text messages and change settings for your Wi-Fi connection.
You may also like another hot sale modem - Huawei E583C, it is the new generation of E5830 and E585 with better performance, and more optional functions, which looks more fashionable.
Useful and popular articles and tutorials about E585:
How to Set up Huawei E585 Router
How to Change Unlocked Huawei E585 APN Settings
Huawei E585 FAQ
What are the Differences between E583c, E585, and E5830
Brand new 21.6 Mbps Huawei E586 MiFi router now available for you. Enjoy 21M high speed HSPA+ network with E586!
|Brand Name
|Yes. Ready to use with global services.
|Network Band
|HSUPA / HSDPA / UMTS - 2100/900 MHz
GSM / GPRS / EDGE - 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WiFi: 802.11.b/g
|Data Speed
|Download up to 7.2 Mbps
Upload up to 5.76 Mbps
|Internal Antenna
|Lithium Ion 1500 mAh 3.7 Volt
Operation time: Up to 5 hours
Standby time: Up to 100 hours
|Supported System
|Windows XP, Vista, 7, Mac OS Linux
|OLED Screen: shows signal strength, speed of connection, automatically power down over a period of time
|Internal 128MB Flash
MicroSD Slot up to 32GB
|Power Supply
|AC 100 Volt 240 Volt
DC 5.3 Volt 650 mAh
|Send and Receive message
Encryption: WEP, WPA, WPA2
One-Key operation.much more convenient and easier
Advanced OLED screen
Plug & Play
|86 x 46.5 x 10.5mm
Weight: 90g
|Package Contents
|Huawei 3.5G Wireless Modem
USB Cable
Power adapter
Original Package
|1 year warranty
Customer Reviews
- Review by Joe.W
Price Value Quality
I have been using this router for a couple of days now and love it! Connect with my iPad WiFi, laptop, phone and printer!
I have used a 3 SIM and a Vodafone SIM so far and the unit makes it very simple... when you insert the SIM the device provides a list for you to choose your supplier (e.g. when you insert the 3 SIM you select 3 from the list it provides)... simply select your provider and connect - QUICK & EASY!
No manual entry of dial numbers or APN settings are needed for set up saving time and stress!! This works for UK, European and US service providers so you could even save money using local providers when you travel!!
(Posted on 8/14/11)
- Review by Peter W
Price Value Quality
It works great with 3G network, I opened this e585 inserted sim switched it on and my iPad and iPod also can connect to the 3G internet networrk through the device, Extremely impressed with this device. Cheers! (Posted on 6/29/11)


text:
Essences Articles

As part of their smutty sponsorship, Herbal Essences is dedicating a special section to "personal essence". To tell you the truth, I was afraid of coming across like that sh*t you read in self-helpy, self-love books and the whole Oprah philosophy. Everyone has their own personal essence; here's mine. I know that Mischa Barton broke my arm, I love dogs, my mother is a Chinese Squawking Chicken, I gambled away my rent in 4th year, and I'd rather watch shoe porn than Dancing with the Stars. Seriously…why do people waste their time??? And why aren't more of you watching Friday Night Lights? That pretty much sums up the "essence" you'll find on this page over the next few weeks.

Sponsored Smut: The Essence of TIFF
We are just days away - the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). It'll be my third time covering the event for eTalk and the blog and since eTalk is literally festival headquarters with the most exclusive interviews and unprecedented access, needless to say, for 10 days, it's balls to the wall, full on exhilaration and exhaustion. Full Story
The Essence of the Annual Summer Crush
It happens every summer. Every summer I develop a sick ass crush – an embarrassing crush for a 15 year old let alone a woman about to turn 35. Like scripted daydreams. Like scripted detailed daydreams about how we meet, what we say to each other, what I'm wearing. Sometimes I change the outfits. Full Story
The Essence of Radiohead
My husband and I, we were long distance for the first 3 months. Then I packed up my things, gave up my job and my life, to move across the country from Toronto to Vancouver. I was That Girl. Those first days, on the phone, it was all about sleepless nights, that awful rush in the pit of your stomach, and sharing Radiohead when hearing each other breathe on the other line wasn't possible. Full Story
The Essence of Sisterhood
I am an only child. This is probably why I'm such a bitch. At the same time, I never missed having a sibling, even when my parents ruined my life by splitting up. And getting back together when I was 16. The reason: my cousin Cat. We fought over everything. We fought over Michael Jackson. Who loved him more? She used to lord it over me because they share the same birthday August 29th. Full Story
The Essence of Beef & Tomato
My comfort food - mentioned it in an article a while back. Since then, many have written for the recipe. Recipe is below. But not in a Martha Stewart way. My people, we don't learn to cook like that. There were no measuring cups back in the village. And beef and tomato is all about the village. It's village food. Full Story
The Essence of Nelson
Marcus is my first dog. But I have a dog because of Nelson. I was Nelson's nanny for the first few weeks after Julie brought him home. He'd come over and we'd hang out. He'd pee all over my floor. He'd sleep in his crate and snore like a volcano erupting. He'd fart like a champion bulldog… because that is what they do. Full Story
The Essence of Mischa Barton…
Is in my left arm. I broke it in Cannes because she bailed on her professional commitments. As a result, as you can see, there are now 2 rods holding together my elbow. The French surgeons did a great job…only the end of both rods are too close to the point which means I can literally feel them under my skin and worst still, it hurts. Full Story


text:
LinkedIn Mistakes: 4 Small Things That Will Kill Your Chances
LinkedIn is fast replacing the traditional resume as the main tool used to impress hiring managers. In fact, recruiters are skipping the job boards and proactively searching on LinkedIn for passive candidates (aka, people who they think would fit the job they need to fill). Which means your LinkedIn profile... Continue Reading