Ivan Dimitrov Dochev () (7 January 1906 – 14 May 2005) was a Bulgarian far-right politician active either side of the Second World War.

Early years
Born in Shumen the son of an army colonel, Dochev worked in the civil service from 1926 to 1932 when he went to Sofia University to study law and politics. It was at university that he first became involved in politics, taking charge of the student organisation.

Fascism
In 1933 he was a founder of the Union of Young National Legions and became part of the triumvirate that officially led this movement. The group was initially anti-communist and nationalist but it soon came under the influence of Italian fascism and Nazism and added corporatism and anti-Semitism to its platform. In 1934 Dochev went to Nazi Germany with Nikola Zhekov and met both Adolf Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg. Dochev failed to come fully to terms with Hitler however as he would not support the Nazi demand for the Legions to overthrow King Boris.

His movement adopted its more familiar name of the Union of Bulgarian National Legions in 1937 and the following year it split with Dochev leading one wing away from the main group under Hristo Lukov.

War-time and European exile
Dochev was reconciled to Lukov during the Second World War and became one of the main supporters of the pro-Nazi general. His pro-German stance made him unpopular however, especially as the war neared its end. As a result, he joined Aleksandar Tsankov in accepting German-sponsored exile in Vienna in 1944 and he served out the war there. After the war Dochev was given three separate death sentences in absentia for crimes such as sending Jews to extermination camps whilst mayor of Silistra although he denied committing the crimes.

The sentences were not carried out however as he remained in exile and before long he returned to political activism, with his journal Bulgaria appearing in Salzburg in 1945 followed by the formation of the virulently anti-communist Bulgarian National Front in 1947. Meanwhile, in 1948 he was awarded a doctorate by the University of Heidelberg for a thesis on the Bulgarian economy. Dochev had intended to settle in Germany but the waiting period for German citizenship was too long and so he emigrated to Canada in 1951.

North American activity
Dochev continued his political activity in Canada, organising the Bulgarian National Front both there and in the United States as soon as he arrived in 1951. His new journal Borba soon became central to anti-communist activity amongst North America-based Bulgarians.

Eventually Dochev moved to the United States and settled in New York City. Whilst there he became Bulgarian National President of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations to which his Bulgarian National Front was affiliated. In 1982 he published the book Half century struggle against communism for the freedom of Bulgaria, detailing his political activities.

Final years
Dochev, by then Honorary Chairman of the Bulgarian National Front, returned to Bulgaria late in 1991, still unsure about whether or not his death sentence continued to stand, with even President Zhelyu Zhelev uncertain. By this time he claimed to be a supporter of the Union of Democratic Forces although he also stated that he retained the same political ideas that he had had in the Legions. Ultimately he faced no sentence and Dochev—99 years old—died in 2005.

References

1906 births
2005 deaths
Bulgarian anti-communists
Bulgarian fascists
Bulgarian nationalists
Bulgarian collaborators with Nazi Germany
Bulgarian emigrants to Canada
Canadian people of Bulgarian descent
Bulgarian male writers
Mayors of places in Bulgaria
Sofia University alumni
Heidelberg University alumni
People from Shumen
Nazis sentenced to death in absentia

Ivan Dochev


Gerardus Johannes Maria "Gerrit" Braks (23 May 1933 – 12 July 2017) was a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He was born in Uden, North Brabant.

He was a member of the Catholic People's Party from 1975 until 1980 when this party became part of the Christian Democratic Appeal. He was a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands in 1977–1980, 1981–1982, 1986 and 1989. He was minister of farming and fishery in 1980–1981, and 1982–1989, and was in this function during the Chernobyl disaster.

In 1989 he was minister of education and sciences and he was minister of farming, nature management and fishery in 1989–1990. He was a member of the Senate of the Netherlands from 11 June 1991 until 10 June 2003. And as such he was parliamentary group leader in the senate from 18 June 1999 until 2 October 2001 when he became president of the Senate until 2003.

Braks died on 12 July 2017 in Sint-Michielsgestel, North Brabant, of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 84.

References

Other websites

  Ir. G.J.M. (Gerrit) Braks Parlement.com
  Ir. G.J.M. Braks (CDA) Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal

1933 births
2017 deaths
Christian Democratic Appeal politicians
Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage
Dutch mayors
Dutch Roman Catholics
Members of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands
Members of the Senate of the Netherlands
Government ministers of the Netherlands
Politicians from North Brabant
Presidents of the Senate of the Netherlands

Gerrit Braks


Dmitry Nikolaevich Chechulin (; , in Shostka – 29 October 1981, in Moscow) was a Russian Soviet architect, city planner, author, and leading figure of Stalinist architecture.

Life
Born in Shostka (Sumy Oblast, today in Ukraine) to a working-class family, after service in the Red Army Chechulin enrolled in the state school Vkhutemas and graduated in 1929, doing post-graduate work under Alexey Shchusev.

In the 1930s Chechulin was awarded commissions for four stations of the Moscow Metro, and developed his career to design a list of familiar Moscow landmarks.  From 1945 through 1949 he served as chief architect of Moscow.

Chechulin's work intersects with the Palace of the Soviets competition (the major event in Soviet architectural history) at multiple points.  He was among the twelve finalists in the final round.  He is credited for the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building, one of the seven Moscow vysotki (tall buildings) commissioned by Stalin after World War II as a "frame" for, and then in lieu of, the unbuilt Palace.  Chechulin had produced plans for the unbuilt eighth tower, the Zaryadye skyscraper, in 1947.  And when, after decades of neglect and delay, the huge excavation for the Palace of the Soviets finally became the world's largest open-air swimming pool in 1958, he was the architect.

Chechulin wrote nearly 40 books, pamphlets, monographs and articles on architecture, urban planning and design issues.  Among his many awards were Hero of Socialist Labour (1976), People's Architect of the USSR (1971), two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour, the Order of Honour, and three Stalin Prizes (1941, 1949, 1953).

He died 29 October 1981 and is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.

Work

The following works are in Moscow unless otherwise indicated:

 Komsomolskaya (Sokolnicheskaya Line) station, Moscow Metro, 1935
 vestibules for Okhotny Ryad Metro station, 1935
 Kievskaya (Filyovskaya Line) Metro station, 1937
 vestibules for the Dynamo Metro station, 1938
 the Moscow Pavilion at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, now the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, 1939
 Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, 1940
 the Victory Bridge (with sculptor Nikolai Tomsky), 1943
 the Stalinist skyscraper at the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment (one of the Seven Sisters), 1947–1952
 the Peking Hotel, 1955
 Moskva Pool, 1958
 the White House, 1965–1981
 the Rossiya Hotel, Moscow, on the site of the unbuilt Zaryadye tower, 1967 (razed 2006)

Sources
 Chechulin's Palace of the Soviets entry
 list of buildings

1901 births
1981 deaths
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Soviet architects
Full Members of the USSR Academy of Arts
Recipients of the Stalin Prize
Vkhutemas alumni
20th-century Russian architects
Heroes of Socialist Labour

Dmitry Chechulin


Nuclear proliferation is when a country starts making nuclear objects. On the right is a map showing who has nuclear reactors and weapons, and who could have them. When a country starts making nuclear weapons, they become a nuclear power.

Dual use technology

Dual use technology means to the possibility of military use of civilian nuclear technology for generating electricity. Many technologies and materials associated with the creation of a nuclear electricity program have a dual-use capability. These items can be used to make nuclear weapons if a country chooses to do so. When this happens a nuclear electricity program can lead to making atomic bombs. The crisis over Iran's nuclear activities is an example.

References

Nuclear weapons

Nuclear proliferation


S.K.H. St. Christopher's Home () is a child-focused Christian social service organisation in Hong Kong founded by Bishop R.O. Hall in 1935. It is the largest non-governmental organisation in Hong Kong providing small group home service for children who cannot receive adequate family care.

Mission
The mission of St. Christopher's Home is to create and sustain a healthy environment for children and youths to grow, to develop potentials and to live a life of fullness.

Background

Sheng Kung Hui St. Christopher's Home was founded in 1935 by Bishop Ronald Hall in Tai Po. It is named after a saint, Christopher, the "bearer of Christ", who carried the Christchild across the dangerous river. It began as a small orphanage which would take care of just a few homeless children. In response to the society's changing needs, the home has extended its services beyond residential care for children to a wide range of child-focused social services, such as pre-primary education services, children health development services and support for needy newly arrived children from the mainland from 1993.

Services

Residential Child Care Services
Residential Child Care services are divided into two categories, namely the Small Group Home and the Foster Care Service.

Small Group Home
In seeing that many young children are unable to receive adequate care and proper attention due to family crisis and problems, St. Christopher's Home set up small group homes to compensate for what these children lack. Small group homes basically serve three purposes including: Protecting and promoting the health and welfare of children, taking care of their development (physically and mentally) and last but not least, enhancing their potential development, sense of responsibility, self-respect and self-care abilities.

This service targets at children aged 4–18, hoping to provide them with temporary 24-hour family-like residential care until they are able to return home or settle down in another long term residential home placement. Small group homes are mainly located in public housing estates including Sau Mau Ping Estate in Kwun Tong, On Yam Estate in Kwai Chung, Cheung Hang Estate in Tsing Yi, Tin Shui Estate and Tin Yiu Estate in Tin Shui Wai and Lok Man Road in Chai Wan.

The Home creates a home-like environment for children and provide counselling as well as welfare plans for them in which all of these are done by registered social worker. Moreover, it helps children to develop social and self-care skills and provide tutorial classes for them to act as outside classroom supplement.

Foster Care Service
St. Christopher's Home has established three types of foster care services, each with different objectives to facilitate the functions and underlying purposes of the scheme.

Being able to be brought up with family care and support is essential for children's physical and holistic health, hence these services aim at allowing children to grow up healthily and more importantly, enjoy a stable and sound family life for the protection and promotion their welfare and development.

Children with special needs especially those who are mildly physical or mentally handicapped children and children with health problems are rendered to special foster care services to accommodate their needs.

Ordinary Foster Care Service
This is designed for children who lacked the basic and sufficient care due to difficult situations and problems that existed in their family such as family financial problems etc. To combat this and allow these children to receive adequate family care and continue a happy family life, they would be placed under the care of foster families until they are able to live on their own, join an adoptive family or their original families' condition allow them to return home.

Emergency Foster Care Service
This is designed for children who are deterred from adequate family care due to family crisis or emergencies among the family such as child abuse. Similar to ordinary foster care service, these children are arranged to foster families where they could receive family care as well as sheltered under a healthy family life. Not until their original family situation allows them to return home or have they secured a long term residential placement will they be leaving the foster homes.

Together with ordinary foster care services, emergency foster care services are only eligible for children who are 18 years old or below.

Day Foster Care Service
This service is designed for assisting parents who are unable to take care of their children during daytime due to other obligations such as work duties. Unlike the previous two foster care services, children would be assigned to foster families during the daytime while their parents are away for work and would return home in the evening.

Only children under the age of 10 are accessible to the day foster care services.

Services available

 Matching: Arranging foster children to appropriate foster families so that they are able to receive adequate family care and live a normal and secure family life.
 Supervision: The Home would also advise, supervise and provide support to foster families so as to ensure the quality of care given to foster children and also the well being of the foster family.
 Counseling: Regular visits from the Social Welfare Department are conducted to provide counselling for foster children to monitor their mental condition. Their individual needs would also be taken care of through welfare plans prepared for them.

Pre-primary Education Services

Apart from providing physical and mental care services for children who are in need, St. Christopher's Home also engage in education provision. The Home launched pre-school education service programmes for children aged 2–6 in 2006 to enable children in need to get access to primary school preparation. Two nurseries were also established in both Wanchai and Kwai Chung in which each nursery could accommodates around 100 children; providing services to 200 children at their full capacity.

Pre-primary Education Services aim at helping children with their development in problem solving skills as well as multiple intelligence, i.e. interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, logical-mathematical and verbal linguistic skills. Apart from assisting children in their all-rounded development, the Home also involve in education work to train them to become independent, and help them enrich their communication skills when interacting with different people. On top of that, they aimed at establishing a happy and relaxing learning environment for children to enhance their creativity.

What differentiates the education services provided by the Home from traditional pre-school curriculums is that its emphasis in injecting enjoyable element in educational activities. Visits to different places would be arranged to arouse students' interest as well as fulfilling educational objectives. Computer and information technology learning would also be included in the curriculum to make it more attractive. In seeing the importance of trilingualism in the future society, the Home also provide programmes to enhance the language and communication skills in Cantonese, English as well as Mandarin. Moreover, the schools adopted the continuous assessment policy to keep track of students' performance throughout the school year.

Qualified and experienced pre-school education professionals certified with degree and diploma level in pre-school education would be teaching students to ensure the teaching quality.

Children Health Development Services

Health does not only refer to the absence of disease of a physical body or access to nutritious food, it also includes the well being of a person's mental state and social life. In view of this, the Home has launched a programme called "Kidsmind" aiming at promoting the welfare and health care of children.

Kidsmind
Kidsmind was launched not only to merely promote the health care of children, but they also targeted at providing comprehensive health information and establishing a healthy living environment for children.

Children aged 0 –12, parents and care givers are hoped to benefit from this programme.

A comprehensive set of services are available for target groups to enjoy, namely:

 Health guidance and training services for children
 Health assessment and integrated intervention for children
 School-based and community-based health education
 Children health surveys
 Children health promotion activities
 Children health educational kits
 Health talks, seminars, workshops and playgroups

Project for New Arrivals

With the large inflow of new arrivals (NA), supporting services in all kinds are in great demand. In October 1999, the Home launched the Project for New Arrivals in Shatin so as to provide various supporting services to the new arrival children and their families. Eligible beneficiaries are those NA migrated to Hong Kong within four years. The home provides a loving environment for after-school activities where new arrival children can catch up on their English and computer skills and make friends.

The Project aim at guiding NA to adapt to the new lives in Hong Kong, reinforcing family and all kinds of supportive network of the NA, as well as cultivating a harmonic atmosphere amongst the NA and local citizens. The service targets are approached actively in a dynamic way. Comprehensive services are provided such as information for community resources, adjustment programs, support groups, integration programs, counselling and referrals. The project also train mainland mothers in Hong Kong to teach Putonghua and thus increase their self-esteem and sense of independence.

Clinical Psychological Services
This serves as a platform for comprehensive psychological assessment and intervention service to members of the Home including the staff with professional support. It aims at providing for children comprehensive psychological assessment, diagnosis and intervention service. On top of that, it supports staff through facilitating multi-disciplinary and offering professional staff supporting programs, and providing case consultations and counselling services to them.

The Services are extensive programs including individualised psychological assessment and diagnosis, individualised counselling, group therapy, case consultations, skill training talks and workshops and psychological education.

Support

"Lok-lok and Yiu-yiu" Sponsorship Scheme
The public can provide support to this organisation by simply bringing vibrant colours to the dreary lives of the children by donations. There is a sponsorship scheme called "Lok-lok & Yiu-yiu" Sponsorship Scheme. Regular donors who contribute at least HK$50 per month or $600 per year would be entitled a pair of dolls called "Lok-lok & Yiu Yiu" as souvenir.  The contributions will be designated for providing accommodation, academic support, emotional counselling, development opportunities and horizon-broaden activities and community support for the children from broken families and low-income groups.

Children Emergency Fund
Children of the Home are facing complicated difficulties due to the growing acuteness of family problems and society problems.  This fund serves to provide aid to the needy children of the Home upon urgent and sudden incidents.

Voluntary Specialist Recruitment Scheme
Everyone can lend a hand to children to live a life of fullness by being volunteers of the Home. The "Voluntary Specialist Recruitment Scheme", recruiting voluntary helpers with special talents such as photography, video production, home design, graphic design, translation, communication, database management, etc. was set up for eagar youths who wish to assist in the activities organised by the Home. Applications for individual volunteers aged 21 or above, who are mature and independent, are welcomed to join in the big family.

Also, general donation and charity sales activities aiming at improving the general service quality and expanding further services to the Home are organised. On top of that, designated use of donation according to donor's specific desire or preference are also available within the organisation.

Publications
Helping Parents to Improve and Level Up the 8 Types of Intelligence of Children (published in July 2007)Introduction: Through daily activities and interaction, parents can always help their children in developing and improving the eight intelligence of children namely: Language, Mathematical and logical solving, physical movements, Nature Observation, Interpersonal skills, Visual Ability, Music and Self Conscience. By very simple and inexpensive methods, it helps children to build up their confidence as well as igniting their inner abilities. This book recorded different methods and experiences from other parents on these aspects.

Healthy Lesson Package (published in March 2007)Introduction:  It is important for children to adopt a healthy life style when they are young. The package is divided into 7 parts: Food and drinks, Sports, Rest, Personal Hygiene, Emotions, Friends and Healthy Learning. Each part provides eight activities and interactive games to teach children about health.

'Health follows me' Exercise Package (published in March 2006)Introduction:  According to a research from the World Health Organization, it is estimated that 35 million people died due to chronic disease. One major cause for chronic disease is lack of exercise. Exercise is very important to healthy life. In view of this, the Home published this package to provide interesting and convenient ways to do exercise, and at the same time promotes the importance of regular exercise.

Children Study: Move Move, Run More! Impact on Psychomotor and Self-Worth Development (published in December 2005)Introduction:  This publication aims at promoting health issues to children as well as the importance of exercise in leading a healthy and balanced life. From a recent research of children's health, obese problem among children is getting serious in Hong Kong due to the lack of exercise and the fast food diet they are adopting every now and then. From 2004 February to June, the Baptist University did a research about the volume of exercise done by primary school student. The research aims at raising the concern about the issue and encourages children to participate more in sports.

Criticisms

In a ruling on 27 January 2010, the Court of First Instance upheld a Board of Review decision that Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui was liable for profit tax amounted for HK$180 million on Deerhill Bay project. This project was launched under a joint venture set up by both Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui and Cheung Kong Holdings in 1993. In return, the church could receive 129 apartments and 94 parking spaces from the developer according to their agreement.

By 2006, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui had made HK$1.119 billion from the properties' sale. Before the site underwent redevelopment, the land had been occupied by an orphanage, the S.K.H. St. Christopher's Home, for almost 50 years from 1935. In the mid 1980s, the Hong Kong government decided the reallocation of the home.

In the appeal, Anthony Neoh SC, for the church, claimed that all the received money coming from the Deerhill Bay project had been used for charitable purposes only. However, the court held that the church had failed to prove it. The Hong Kong Council of Social Service says that it is necessary for all government-subsidized non-government organisations to return audit reports to the Social Welfare Department every year and Deerhill Bay's case served as an important reminder to all welfare groups. In addition, The profit generated has to be used for charity to qualify for tax exemption.

See also
 Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui

References

External links

 Official website of S.K.H. St. Christopher's Home
 "Lok-lok & Yiu-yiu" Sponsorship Scheme

 S.K.H. St. Christopher's Nursery (Kwai Chung)
 S.K.H St. Christopher's Home Youtube Channel
 Youtube video (English Version): St. Christopher's Home – Love Lessons (part 1)
 Youtube video (Chinese Version): 聖基道兒童院-愛在陽光中:我最喜愛的家長 (第一節)
 Love Sharing Trip to Mainland – Organized by S.K.H. St. Christopher's Home 2009 (Together with Aeon Education and Environment Fund)

Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui
Charities based in Hong Kong
Child-related organisations in Hong Kong
1935 establishments in Hong Kong

S.K.H. St. Christopher's Home


Don't Dream is a collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror stories by author Donald Wandrei.  It was released in 1997 by Fedogan & Bremer in an edition of 2,000 copies.  The collection also includes a number of Wandrei's essays and prose poems.  Many of the stories, essays and poems originally appeared in the magazines The Minnesota Quarterly, Weird Tales, Astounding Stories, Fantasy Magazine, Argosy, Esquire, Unknown and Leaves.

Contents
 Editors' Note, by Philip J. Rahman & Dennis E. Weiler
 Introduction, Helen Mary Hughesdon
 Fiction
 "A Fragment of a Dream"
 "The Shadow of a Nightmare"
 "The Green Flame"
 "The Tree-Men of M'bwa"
 "When the Fire Creatures Came"
 "The Lives of Alfred Kramer"
 "The Fire Vampires"
 "Spawn of the Sea"
 "The Lady in Gray"
 "The Man Who Never Lived"
 "The Nerveless Man"
 "The Chuckler"
 "A Scientist Divides"
 "The Destroying Horde"
 "The Monster from Nowhere"
 "The Witch-Makers"
 "The Eye and the Finger"
 "The Painted Mirror"
 "Uneasy Lie the Drowned"
 "Giant-Plasm"
 "Don't Dream"
 "It Will Grow On You"
 "Strange Harvest"
 "Nightmare"
 "The Crater"
 "Delirium of the Dead"
 Prose Poems, Essays, and Marginalia
 "The Messengers"
 "The Pursuers"
 "The Woman at the Window"
 "The Purple Land"
 "Dreaming Away My Life"
 "Black Flame"
 "The Shrieking House"
 "The Phantom City"
 "The Kingdom of Dreams"
 "The Lotus and the Poppy"
 "Unforgotten Night"
 "Santon Merlin"
 "Cigarette Characterization"
 "The Imaginative Element in Modern Literature"
 "Of Donald Wandrei, August Derleth and H.P.Lovecraft", by D. H. Olson

References

1997 short story collections
Science fiction short story collections by Donald Wandrei
Fantasy short story collections
Horror short story collections
American poetry collections
Fedogan & Bremer books

Don't Dream


Busselskabet Aarhus Sporveje colloquially known as Aarhus Sporveje is a bus company operating in Jutland, Denmark. It is the primary bus operator in the city and municipality of Aarhus and the former municipal bus operator of Aarhus Municipality. The company maintains all bus operations in Aarhus Municipality through 3 contracts with the Central Denmark Region public transit organization Midttrafik. Two contracts were won in bids in 2008 and 2012 and the third, a holdover from when the company was a municipal entity, will be tendered in 2017.

Aarhus Sporveje employs about 650 people and daily services 24 routes with 1.268 stops.

History
In 1883 Aarhuus Sporvejsselskab was founded and it maintained a horse-drawn tram route from the central station to the cathedral until 1895 when it stopped operations. The year after in 1896 an omnibus route opened which operated until 1903 when electrification made electric trams practical. The company Aarhus Elektriske Sporvej was founded the same year and began running the first trams in 1904 under a 25-year concession. In 1928 Aarhus Municipality took over the company in order to expand services and the new municipal company was named Aarhus Sporveje.

In 1944 the Aarhus Sporveje tram depot was bombed in an act of schalburgtage during the occupation of Denmark and most of the trams were destroyed. The routes were subsequently serviced by busses and the tram fleet were never fully restored. In 1971 the tram system was abolished and Aarhus has been serviced only by busses ever since. In 2007 Aarhus Sporveje was merged into the regional operator Midttrafik as part of the municipal reform of 2007 and was renamed Busselskabet Aarhus Sporveje.

External links
 Busselskabet Aarhus Sporveje

References

Transport in Aarhus

Busselskabet Aarhus Sporveje


The history of the Jews in Ivory Coast dates back at least 50 years. A small Jewish community has emerged in the capital city of Abidjan. Most Ivorian Jews are either local converts or foreign-born residents.

History
The emerging Jewish community in Ivory Coast has its roots in the International Kabbalah Centres that have been established throughout Africa. A group of Kabbalah practitioners led by Cornet Alexandre Zouko decided to begin practicing Orthodox Judaism. Under Zouko's guidance, members of the community began to learn how to daven and observe Jewish holidays, as well as studied Hebrew. Unlike many African Jews who live in poverty, the emerging Jewish community in Abidjan is primarily middle class. The community reached out to the organization Kulanu in 2014, a group that helps isolated and emerging Jewish communities in Africa and elsewhere. Kulanu donated a Sefer Torah to the community, along with siddurim, machzorim, and other Judaica.

According to the U.S. Department of State, there have been no known acts of antisemitism in Ivory Coast.

In 2017, a Jewish conversion panel traveled to Abidjan to finalize the conversion of 42 people to Judaism. Converts were immersed in a mikveh and male converts were circumcised.

In 2018, a Chabad house was established in Abidjan to primarily serve Israeli residents and visitors. The Chabad house in Abidjan is the seventh community founded by Chabad of Central Africa, which maintains a presence throughout Central and West Africa.

In December 2022, representatives of Jewish communities throughout sub-Saharan Africa met in Abidjan in order to create an umbrella organization to represent Jewish communities throughout Central and West Africa. The group announced plans to build a new synagogue in Abidjan.

See also

History of the Jews in Ghana

References

External links
Chabad of Côte d'Ivoire official website

Ethnic groups in Ivory Coast
Jews and Judaism in West Africa
Religion in Ivory Coast

History of the Jews in Ivory Coast


Judith Murray (born 1941) is an American abstract painter based in New York City. Active since the 1970s, she has produced a wide-ranging, independent body of work while strictly adhering to idiosyncratic, self-imposed constants within her practice. Since 1975, she has limited herself to a primary palette of red, yellow, black and white paints—from which she mixes an infinite range of hues—and a near-square, horizontal format offset by a vertical bar painted along the right edge of the canvas; the bar serves as a visual foil for the rest of the work and acknowledges each painting's boundary and status as an abstract object. Critic Lilly Wei describes Murray's work as "an extended soliloquy on how sensation, sensibility, and digressions can still be conveyed through paint" and how by embracing the factual world the "abstract artist can construct a supreme and sustaining fiction."

Murray has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and National Endowment for the Arts. She has exhibited internationally, including solo shows at MoMA PS1, the Clocktower Gallery and Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, and group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museo di Palazzo Grimani (Venice Biennale), Museo de Arte Moderno (Mexico City), and National Academy Museum. Murray lives and works in New York City and Sugarloaf Key, Florida with her husband, artist Robert Yasuda.

Early life and career
Murray was born in New York City, in 1941 but spent much of her childhood near the coast of southern Florida. She began to paint and study painting in childhood, during a period of prolonged illness. She continued her studies at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1958, earning a BFA in 1962. After attending Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain in 1963, she returned to Pratt and completed an MFA (1964). Following graduation, Murray worked with the United States Information Agency as an artist-in-residence in conjunction with the Grafica Americanska Exhibition held throughout Poland behind the Iron Curtain. Upon returning to the U.S., she accepted teaching positions at the University of Hawaii and the New York Institute of Technology; she would later teach and lecture at Long Island University, Pratt Institute, and Princeton University.

In the early 1970s, Murray was one of the pioneer artists that lived and worked in the lower Manhattan area that later became known as SoHo. She exhibited in solo shows at the historic Betty Parsons/Jock Truman Gallery (1976) and the Clocktower Gallery (1978) in New York and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (1982), among others. During that decade, she was also featured in the Whitney Biennial (1979) and group shows at PS1, Hallwalls and the Weatherspoon Art Museum, as well as the exhibition, "Art in Our Time," which traveled to the Milwaukee Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center, and the High Museum of Art.

In her early career, Murray showed with the Pam Adler Gallery in New York (1979–86) and the Jan Turner Gallery in Los Angeles.  Since then, she has had solo and two-person shows at MoMA PS1 (2001), Sundaram Tagore Gallery (New York, Beverly Hills and Singapore, 2002–18), and FiveMyles Gallery (2019), among others.

Work and reception
Critics describe Murray as "an ardent, if non-doctrinaire, modernist" and colorist, whose "inclusive, open-ended formalism" has charted a distinct course regardless of art-world fashions within, for, or against abstraction. MoMA PS1 founder Alanna Heiss suggests that Murray has avoided predictability through a slow but constant evolution from her early hard-edged geometric abstraction to her later expressive style using gesture and impasto to evoke perceptual and tactile experiences. Her work suggests influences including the early modernists, New York School and Abstract Expressionists, El Greco and Albert Pinkham Ryder, as well as Eastern influences;<ref name="Green07">Green, Denise. "New York, New York," Art Monthly Australia, #196, 2007.</ref> her colors and compositions are also informed by places, art and culture she has encountered in travels to India and Asia, South America, and the tropics.Wei, Lilly. "Endlessly," Judith Murray: Tempest, 2018. Retrieved August 25, 2020. She works primarily in oil on linen canvases, producing paintings noted most for their luminous color, sense of light, and varied, tactile surfaces and markmaking;Wei, Lilly. "Judith Murray: Continuum," The Brooklyn Rail, June 2009. Retrieved August 25, 2020. critic Richard Kalina writes that her practice has "displayed clarity, discipline, and structure that function in marvelous counterpoint to the intuitive, the playful, and the evocative."

Hard-edged abstraction (1974–1991)
Murray's early oil paintings were modestly sized, spare works in the hard-edged abstract tradition.Perreault, John. "Ten Best Exhibitions of 1976," The SoHo Weekly News, January 1977. They featured irregular geometric forms in reds, opaque whites and yellows floating on sensuous black fields and explored problems of balance and stability without relying on symmetry (e.g., her "Ballast" series, 1976).Kingsley, April. "Planes...in...Space," The Village Voice, April 16, 1979, p. 84–5. Retrieved August 25, 2020. These ambiguous "figures"—compared to sails, wings, kites, moons, exotic sea creatures or decadent, even dangerous, spiky plants—derived less from the natural world than from the imagination or subconscious. Reviewing Murray's first major solo exhibition (Parsons-Truman, 1976), SoHo Weekly News critic John Perreault described her as a "non-conformist painter" whose images suggest an open-ended but withheld logic, like signs or diagrams; the Village Voice counted her "eccentric abstractions" among the highlights of the 1979 Whitney Biennial (e.g., Red Angle and Broadway, both 1978).

The work Murray exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts employed tapering arcs, dynamic lines, and splinter- and scimitar-like forms in more complex, energized compositions that recall Russian constructivism (e.g., Red Wing, 1980; Smoke, 1979–82). The Dallas Times Herald noted the "sheer visual dazzle" of their varied matte, gloss and slightly textured surfaces and "rhythms answered by counter-rhythms" that were anchored by thin, right-edge tan bars. In the mid-1980s, Murray began experimenting with raised areas of thick pigment, layered underpainting and dappled, gently modeled figures and grounds in paintings that the New York Times noted for contrasts of mysterious light and blackness and dynamic versus subdued, gradually clarified forms (e.g., Mercury or Bishop, 1983–4). Los Angeles Times critic Kristine McKenna described them as "anthropomorphic abstractions" built around "Jungian shapes freighted with inexplicable meaning" that coursed with energy and suggestions of the struggle toward consciousness.

Expressive abstraction (1992–2006)
Murray began to focus on the space around her forms in the 1990s, gradually eliminating hard-edges. These more dispersed compositions emphasize texture, atmosphere and a sense of pulsating light through vigorous, feathered gestures that create mosaic-like surfaces (e.g., Madurai, 1994 or Mars, 1997). By the end of the decade, Murray was producing paintings up to 8' x 9' that increasingly evoked the natural world, such as experiences of the Florida Keys—not literally, but as abstractly conveyed sensations (light, energy, sky, water, land, plants). Critic Barry Schwabsky wrote that this new work revealed "romantic affinities" and a sense of urgency and drama; he characterized Murray as "a temperate lyricist" combining sensibility (spirited brushwork, flickering light and tactility) and restraint (coherent architectures in each work). Many of her titles—some suggested by the poetry of Wallace Stevens—evoked the poetics of place or nocturnal moods: Night Fishing (1998), Camouflage for the Moon (1997), Shadows in Our Sun (1999–2000). Lilly Wei describes these works as vibrant, staccato "landscapes without landscapes, plumbing the referential, not the representational."

In the 2000s, critics continued to highlight Murray's lyrical expression, ethereal brushwork, sense of light, and increasingly, her sculptural use of paint, which lent her work depth, motion and a tangible physicality. Alanna Heiss and Edward Leffingwell suggest that while Murray's subject is "paint itself," she simultaneously evokes real sensations such as evening light on water (the grays and calligraphic white marks of Primary Document, 2006) or the reds and pinks of a fiery sunset (Royal Flush, 2006). The atmospheric work Magnetic South (2006), a sunny, fluctuating field of thick yellow and pink strokes, is often cited as a bravura display of the Murray's ability to achieve equilibrium and coherent structure through dense, abstract gestures and color organization. The painting's creation—much of it on a ladder—was tracked over a three-month period in the episodic Albert Maysles/Mark Ledzian documentary, Judith Murray: Phases and Layers.Maysles, Albert and Mark Ledzian. Judith Murray: Phases and Layers, 2006. Retrieved August 25, 2020.

Later painting (2007– )

Critic Barbara MacAdam writes that Murray's later work assumes "a daring position … steadfastly sticking to abstract gestural work." These paintings feature deep, seductive colors and complex, modulated roses, grays, creams, oranges, golds and silvers, as well as a sense of discontinuous space that together bridge Eastern influences—(Rajput painting, Persian carpets and textiles, Chinese painting)—and Western impressionistic or pointillistic techniques.

Lilly Wei described Murray's "Continuum" show (2009) as continuing her shift to a more painterly mode with "explosive, complex, imbricated rhythms" that conjure "landscapes in flux, worlds in transition and the roiling energy of the cosmos." Murray's "Without Borders" show (2012) signaled "a stunning departure" and "breakthrough" to critics Lawrence Osgood and David Cohen, respectively, synthesizing her early hard-edged work and current expressive style. She continued to employ accumulated, Cézanne-like short brushstrokes, lively patterns and the right-edge bar, while introducing small, scattered geometric shapes recalling, in miniature, her 1970s figures; eccentric, crystalline and almost heraldic, these forms seemingly "invade" the now-signature all-over patterns of works such as First Day and A Night in Tunisia (both 2011).

Murray's aptly named exhibition, "Tempest" (2018), featured mosaic-like, whirlwind compositions, overflowing with richly colored, energetic brushstrokes that reviews compare to swarms of bees or schools of fish crossing the picture plane. Its centerpiece was the large diptych, Once in the Morning (2014), which featured a sense of deep space and a blanket of gold marks that critics likened to the opulence of a Klimt interior. The show also introduced a new, late-career development: small, uncharacteristically quick-looking 11" x 14" canvasses employing a wider bar (to maintain the illusion of the square format), intersecting perspectives and interruptive gestures (e.g., Poof, Junction and Gaggle'', 2017–8); they suggest buoyancy, movement and natural forces run amok.

Public collections and recognition
Murray's work belongs to the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, The Library of Congress, New York Public Library, British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Carnegie Institute, Honolulu Museum of Art, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, National Museum of Art (Poland), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, U.S. Department of State, Walker Art Center, and Yale University Art Gallery, among other public and private collections.

She has been recognized with fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2002) and National Endowment for the Arts (1983) and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award (2005). She was inducted into the National Academy of Design in 2009, and has been a member of the American Abstract Artists since 1985. She has also been commissioned Lincoln Center to create artwork for posters and prints for several Mozart Festival events.

References

External links
Judith Murray official website
Judith Murray: Phases and Layers, 2006, directed by Albert Maysles and Mark Ledzian
Judith Murray Guggenheim Fellowship page
Judith Murray artist page, Sundaram Tagore Gallery

21st-century American artists
20th-century American artists
20th-century American women artists
Abstract painters
Artists from New York City
Pratt Institute alumni
1941 births
Living people
21st-century American women artists

Judith Murray (artist)


The Wicker Man is a series of two horror films directed by  British author and director Robin Hardy. The films are not directly linked to one another, but all deal with the theme of paganism in the modern world.

The 2006 American remake of The Wicker Man is not a part of the series, and Hardy had dissociated himself from it.

Films

The Wicker Man (1973)

The Wicker Man was released in 1973. The film was directed by Robin Hardy and written by Anthony Shaffer, who based his screenplay loosely on the David Pinner novel Ritual.

The story follows a Scottish police officer, Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), who visits the isolated island of Summerisle in the search for a missing girl named Rowan Morrison. The inhabitants of Summerisle all follow a form of Celtic paganism, which shocks and appalls the devoutly Christian sergeant. Howie discovers that the pagans, led by their laird, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), are planning a virgin sacrifice in the hopes that it will appease the gods and restore their crops. Believing that Rowan Morrison will be sacrificed, Howie strives to rescue her, only to discover that her supposed disappearance was just a ploy to lure him to the island. The pagans imprison Howie in a wicker man and set it ablaze, burning him to death.

The Wicker Man is generally very highly regarded by critics. Film magazine Cinefantastique described it as "The Citizen Kane of Horror Movies", and in 2004 the magazine Total Film named The Wicker Man the sixth greatest British film of all time. It also won the 1978 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. A scene from this film was #45 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

The Wicker Tree (2011)
In 2006, Robin Hardy published a follow-up novel to The Wicker Man storyline entitled Cowboys for Christ. It follows two young Americans, Beth and Steve, who leave Texas to spread Christianity in Tressock, Scotland. They are welcomed by Sir Lachlan Morrison and his wife, Delia Morrison; unbeknown to Beth and Steve, they are in grave danger from a Celtic pagan community in the village.

A film adaptation, entitled The Wicker Tree, was produced in 2009, with Hardy directing from his own screenplay. It had a film festival showing in 2011. A limited theatrical release occurred in January 2012 in the U.S., followed by a DVD release in April 2012. It was the second highest ordered DVD on Amazon for the first three months after its release, a fact that director Robin Hardy was very proud of.

The Wrath of the Gods (unproduced)
The Wrath of the Gods was a planned romantic black comedy film written and to have been directed by Hardy, and based on Twilight of the Gods, the final part of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. In this film, "the gods get their comeuppance." Hardy announced plans for a trilogy in a 2007 interview with The Guardian newspaper, though the first film in the trilogy, The Wicker Man, was originally made in 1973, 34 years before. The third film was originally intended to be set primarily in Iceland; however, Hardy decided that filming there would be too impractical, and rewrote the script, re-setting the story in Shetland, with some scenes to be shot in Los Angeles. Since Shetland has a largely Scandinavian folklore rather than Celtic, this allows the story to remain focused on Norse mythology. Production status of the third film in the trilogy is unknown given Hardy's death on 1 July 2016.

Plot

The film is divided into two parts. The protagonists are a young couple, Siegfried and Brynne. Siegfried is handsome but "incredibly stupid", and he has been overtaken by his own hubris and sporting ability. Brynne loves him despite his flaws, and she succeeds in teaching him to make love in a "triumphal moment". Hardy said that the film is ultimately about "what happens to the gods, not just to the people who are offering sacrifices to them. The gods themselves get sucked into the mêlée in the third film. I looked for a suitable carapace to put that in and the last act of the Ring cycle seems to work very well – and it allows me to mix full-blast Wagner."

Another of the film's key characters is Brynne's father, a chief of police. He has a tragic romance with a middle-aged woman, who has been accused of murder in Canada. Hardy stated that the chief of police will have to turn her in because he is an honourable man.

The main antagonist of The Wrath of the Gods is Mr Odin, a one-eyed Hollywood studio executive who decides to create a theme park based on the Norse sagas which originated in Iceland.

Production
The Wrath of the Gods was originally intended to begin shooting in 2011, but was delayed. Filming was then intended to start in June or July 2012. The film was planned to be shot on 35mm film. Once the film's production was complete, Hardy planned for the sets to become a tourist attraction.

According to Hardy's 2011 casting announcements, Brynne would have been played by Icelandic actress Hatla Williams. Mr Odin would have been played by James Mapes, the actor who played Reverend Moriarty in Hardy's previous film, The Wicker Tree. Hardy intended to cast French actress Juliette Binoche as the murder suspect.

In a 2013 Q&A session at the University of Hertfordshire, at a special screening of The Wicker Man, Hardy confirmed that he intended to begin shooting in the middle of 2013.

In an interview the same year with ScreenDaily.com, ahead of the release of The Wicker Man: The Final Cut, Hardy stated that he was in the opening stages of financing the third film, and hoped to make it the following year.

Soundtrack
The film's score was written by Scottish composer Keith Easdale, and was inspired by Richard Wagner's compositions. Hardy wanted to find amusing ways to implement music in the film. Each of the characters will have their own theme: for example, Brynne will have a light melodic motif. Hardy compared this to Leonard Bernstein's work on West Side Story, where variations on a single melody were used to create many musical themes. Hardy was also inspired by the music of Shetland's Up Helly Aa fire festivals.

References

British horror films
English-language films
Horror film series
Paganism in Europe

The Wicker Man (film series)


Neo-capitalism is an economic ideology which blends some elements of capitalism with other systems. This form of capitalism was new compared to the capitalism in the era before World War II.

Social and economic ideology that arose in the second half of the 20th century and in which the capitalist doctrine becomes deeper, being based on technological revolution and on the internationalization of the markets.

It is a term used to designate a new form of capitalism that is characterized for correcting its excesses by means of the application of measures that guard over the social well-being.

The important aspects include a great economic freedom, attaching the private property of the industries and companies, moderated with a centralized economic planning, which can include that the state is an owner of some means of production.

It tries to support a balance between the economic growth, lower inflation, low levels of unemployment, good conditions of work, social assistance and good public services, across the intervention of the state in the economy.

It arises in the technological companies reconstructed in the postwar period.

One of its more outstanding representatives is the Keynesian economist Paul Samuelson.

See also
 State monopoly capitalism
 Neoliberalism

References

Capitalist systems
Cooperatives
Economic ideologies
Economic liberalism
Ideologies
Social philosophy

Neo-capitalism


The Workers' Federation of Sports (), often just called the AIF, was a sporting organization in Norway between 1924 and 1946. As of 1935, AIF had around 50,000 members. AIF published the magazine Arbeideridrett.

Foundation and early growth
The first explicit workers' sports club in Norway was Arbeidernes TIF, founded in 1909 and renamed to Fagforeningernes TIF in 1916. In the 1920s, the Norwegian Wrestling Federation banned fifteen members of this club for taking part in a "politicized" wrestling meet where "The Internationale" was played. This helped spur the creation of a workers' federation of sports, although a Workers' Sports Opposition () had existed since 1922.

The decision to found AIF was taken (with 51 votes against 4) at the third national conference of the Workers' Sports Opposition in Folkets Hus in Oslo on June 8 and 9, 1924. Harald Liljedahl was elected as chairman of AIF, with 29 votes against 9 for Olaf Thorsen (a communist and executive member of the Red Sport International). The conference unanimously decided to appeal for membership in the Red Sport International.

AIF grew rapidly. Initially an Oslo-based movement, AIF began forming clubs in different parts of the country. At the time of its foundation, the organization had affiliated clubs with a combined membership of 4,810. By the end of the year, it had 85 sports teams and a combined membership of 5,686. In 1925, AIF had 96 sports teams and a combined membership of 6,608. The stronghold was still Oslo and Akershus, whereas Sogn og Fjordane did not have a single workers' sports club.

Political complications
The foundation of AIF was not met with complete enthusiasm in the Norwegian Labour Party. Trygve Lie opposed the idea of having a politicized sporting organization. The national party conference of 1925 did however decide that the party would back the new organization, rejecting Lie's criticism.

At the AIF national conference of 1926, the communist and trade unionist Oskar Hansen was elected as new chairman with 56 votes against 31 for Rolf Hofmo. The new AIF board was dominated by communists.

Political contradictions intensified in AIF after the Labour Party reunified with the Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway in 1927. The merger conference, the unified party declared that it would continue to support AIF but that their support was condition with the 'end to Communist Party cell activity' in AIF. At the AIF national conference in April 1927 the incumbent AIF leadership was severely criticized. The communist candidate for chairman, Kristoffer Mikkelsen, was defeated. The Labour Party-supported Thor Jørgensen was elected chairman, with 68 votes against 42 for Mikkelsen.

Oslo Winter Spartakiad
The timing of the political shift in AIF was problematic for the Red Sport International, as AIF was due to host the Winter Spartakiad in February 1928. The Winter Spartakiad was however held in Oslo, in a grand fashion, co-organized by AIF and the Red Sport International. However, the attempts by the Labour Party-wing of AIF to tone down the propagandistic character of the event was severely disliked by the Red Sport International, and the Winter Spartakiad marked a deterioration of the relations between the two bodies.

Communist come-back
At the April 1928 national conference, the communists decided to launch Thorvald Olsen. Olsen, a national wrestling champion, was a Labour Party member but seen as more sympathetic towards the Red Sport International. In the election, Olsen defeated the incumbent Jørgensen. Moreover, the communist managed to get their party comrade Johs. Mortensen elected as editor of Arbeideridrett. Five out of ten members of the new board were communists.

In the spring of 1929, Ola Brandstorp wrote an article in Den Røde Ungdom where he suggested that AIF would withdraw from the Red Sport International. The article sparked a debate, and at a Red Sport International executive meeting in Kharkiv (in which Brandstorp participated) he was ordered to resign from the executive committee. AIF interpreted this move as an ultimatum. The November 1929 AIF national conference voted in favour of retaining membership in the Red Sport International, but demanding that the International would not interfere in the links between AIF and the Labour Party and Norwegian Trade Union Confederation. According to the decision passed at the conference, AIF became subordinated to these two bodies. Brandstorp was elected new editor of Arbeideridrett.

Split and Labour Party hegemony
The communist sector of AIF began to organize itself an oppositional tendency, and had direct links with the Red Sport International. The AIF national conference of May 1931 decided that AIF withdrew from the Red Sport International. Trygve Lie was elected AIF chairman. The communists responded by forming their own sporting organization, Rød Sport.

AIF sent 42 athletes to the 1931 Workers' Olympiad in Vienna, organized by the Socialist Workers' Sport International.

Reunification
During the 1930s, there were several fruitless negotiations with Rød Sport (initiated on behalf of the communist side) regarding unity between the two organizations. In the end, the issue was settled after direct talks between AIF and the Soviet High Council of Physical Culture in Moscow in 1934. The reunification between AIF and Rød Sport was finalized at the 1935 AIF national conference. The reunification of the Norwegian workers' sport movement has been described as an early expression of the popular front line.

In 1935 the Norwegian government instituted a sports commission, trying to achieve unity between AIF and the bourgeois federation NLI. In 1936, the effort bore fruit and an agreement of cooperation between AIF and NLI came into force.

During the German occupation of Norway in 1940-1945, erstwhile rivals AIF and NLI joined forces in a sports boycott. The 'sportsfront', the opposition to the occupation from the sports movement, can be seen as an early expression of the Norwegian resistance.

NLI and AIF merged in 1946, forming the Norwegian Confederation of Sports (NIF).

See also
Østfold Workers' Sports Association

References

Sports governing bodies in Norway
Red Sport International
Sports organizations established in 1924
Organizations disestablished in 1946

Workers Federation of Sports


Liubangosaurus (meaning "Liubang lizard", after the name of the holotype locality) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now China. The type and only species is Liubangosaurus hei, first described by Mo Jinyou, Xu Xing and Eric Buffetaut in 2010. Liubangosaurus is known from the holotype NHMG8152, five nearly complete and articulated middle-caudal dorsal vertebrae that were collected from the Xinlong Formation in Fusui County, Guangxi Province. Jinyou et al. (2010) found that Liubangosaurus belonged to the clade Eusauropoda.

A 2013 comprehensive analysis of basal titanosauriforms found Liubangosaurus to nest in the Somphospondyli, either in Euhelopodidae or Saltasauridae.

References

Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia
Fossil taxa described in 2010
Taxa named by Xu Xing
Macronarians
Paleontology in Guangxi

Liubangosaurus


The East Coast of the United States, is the Atlantic coastline of the United States. It is also called the "Eastern Seaboard" or "Atlantic Seaboard".

The coastal states are the farthest eastern states of the United States. These states touch the Atlantic Ocean all the way up to Canada. Sometimes people use it to mean only the Northeastern United States. Other times they mean the thirteen original states plus Maine, Washington, D.C. and Florida.

Regions of the United States

East Coast of the United States


Daniel Dorisse, known professionally as Dany Doriz (born 7 September 1941 in Boissy-Saint-Léger) is a French jazz and blues vibraphonist and bandleader.

Doriz learned saxophone and piano as a youth in addition to vibraphone, the latter of which he studied under Geo Daly. In the late 1950s and 1960s, he worked as a sideman for Mickey Baker, Don Byas, Dominique Chanson, Bill Coleman, Peanuts Holland, Memphis Slim, Tete Montoliu, and Albert Nicholas. In the early 1960s, he began founding his own ensembles, working with Gérard Badini, Charles Barrié, Al Jones, Michel Sardaby, and Yannick Singery. From 1970 he was a nightclub owner in Paris. Later associations include work with Georges Arvanitas, Lou Bennett, Milt Buckner, Wild Bill Davis, Michel Denis, Lionel Hampton, Eddie Jones, Duffy Jackson, and Butch Miles.

References
Michel Laplace, "Dany Doriz". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. 2nd edition, ed. Barry Kernfeld.

1941 births
Living people
French jazz vibraphonists
French jazz bandleaders
Black & Blue Records artists

Dany Doriz


The Arlequin is a cinema in Paris, noted for its spacious modernist main theatre and its former role as a showcase of Soviet film.

History

Opened in 1934 as the Lux Rennes, the cinema was situated in the building of its patron, the Compagnie parisienne d'électricité. The art-deco, air-conditioned 500-seat theatre, with 12-metre screen and adjacent bar, was somewhat luxurious for the period.

In 1962 Jacques Tati acquired the cinema and renamed it L'Arlequin. In 1978 it was bought by a company specialised in import-export with the USSR, which changed its name to Le Cosmos and focused its programming on Soviet films. L'Arlequin regained its current name in 1992.

Two screens were added in 1998 with the incorporation of part of an adjacent cabaret theatre.

Programming

L'Arlequin is known for its specialisation in German and Russian films.

References

Cinemas in Paris

L'Arlequin


The concept of the First World was originally one of the "Three Worlds" formed by the global political landscape of the Cold War, as it grouped together those countries that were aligned with the Western Bloc of the United States. This grouping was directly opposed to the Second World, which similarly grouped together those countries that were aligned with the Eastern Bloc of the Soviet Union. However, as the Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the definition largely shifted to instead refer to any country that boasts a well-functioning democratic system with little prospects of political risk, in addition to a strong rule of law, a capitalist economy with economic stability, and a high standard of living. Various ways in which these metrics are assessed are through the examination of a country's GDP, GNP, literacy rate, life expectancy, and Human Development Index. In colloquial usage, "First World" typically refers to "the highly developed industrialized nations often considered the Westernized countries of the world".

History
After World War II, the world split into two large geopolitical blocs, separating into spheres of communism and capitalism. This led to the Cold War, during which the term First World was often used because of its political, social, and economic relevance. The term itself was first introduced in the late 1940s by the United Nations. Today, the terms are slightly outdated and have no official definition. However, the "First World" is generally thought of as the capitalist, industrial, wealthy, and developed countries. This definition includes the countries of North America and Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. In contemporary society, the First World is viewed as countries that have the most advanced economies, the greatest influence, the highest standards of living, and the greatest technology. After the Cold War, these countries of the First World included member states of NATO, U.S.-aligned states, neutral countries that were developed and industrialized, and the former British Colonies that were considered developed.

According to Nations Online, the member countries of NATO during the Cold War included:

 Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The US Aligned States included:

 Israel, Japan, and South Korea.

Former British Colonies included:

 Australia and New Zealand.

Neutral and more or less industrialized capitalist countries included:

 Austria, Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Shifting in definitions
Since the end of the Cold War, the original definition of the term "First World" is no longer necessarily applicable. There are varying definitions of the First World; however, they follow the same idea. John D. Daniels, past president of the Academy of International Business, defines the First World to be consisting of "high-income industrial countries". Scholar and Professor George J. Bryjak defines the First World to be the "modern, industrial, capitalist countries of North America and Europe". L. Robert Kohls, former director of training for the U.S. Information Agency and the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C., uses First World and "fully developed" as synonyms.

Other indicators
Varying definitions of the term First World and the uncertainty of the term in today's world leads to different indicators of First World status. In 1945, the United Nations used the terms first, second, third, and fourth worlds to define the relative wealth of nations (although popular use of the term fourth world did not come about until later). There are some references towards culture in the definition. They were defined in terms of Gross National Product (GNP), measured in U.S. dollars, along with other socio-political factors. The first world included the large industrialized, democratic (free elections, etc.) nations. The second world included modern, wealthy, industrialized nations, but they were all under communist control. Most of the rest of the world was deemed part of the third world, while the fourth world was considered to be those nations whose people were living on less than US$100 annually. If we use the term to mean high-income industrialized economies, then the World Bank classifies countries according to their GNI or gross national income per capita. The World Bank separates countries into four categories: high-income, upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income, and low-income economies. The First World is considered to be countries with high-income economies. The high-income economies are equated to mean developed and industrialized countries.

Three-world model

The terms "First World", "Second World", and "Third World" were originally used to divide the world's nations into three categories. The model did not emerge to its endstate all at once. The complete overthrow of the pre–World War II status quo, known as the Cold War, left two superpowers (the United States and the Soviet Union) vying for ultimate global supremacy. They created two camps, known as blocs. These blocs formed the basis of the concepts of the First and Second Worlds.

Early in the Cold War era, NATO and the Warsaw Pact were created by the United States and the Soviet Union, respectively. They were also referred to as the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The circumstances of these two blocs were so different that they were essentially two worlds, however, they were not numbered first and second. The onset of the Cold War is marked by Winston Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech. In this speech, Churchill describes the division of the West and East to be so solid that it could be called an iron curtain.

In 1952, the French demographer Alfred Sauvy coined the term Third World in reference to the three estates in pre-revolutionary France. The first two estates being the nobility and clergy and everybody else comprising the third estate. He compared the capitalist world (i.e., First World) to the nobility and the communist world (i.e., Second World) to the clergy. Just as the third estate comprised everybody else, Sauvy called the Third World all the countries that were not in this Cold War division, i.e., the unaligned and uninvolved states in the "East-West Conflict". With the coining of the term Third World directly, the first two groups came to be known as the "First World" and "Second World" respectively. Here the three-world system emerged.

Post–Cold War
With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Eastern Bloc ceased to exist and with it, the perfect applicability of the term Second World. The definitions of the First World, Second World, and Third World changed slightly, yet generally describe the same concepts.

Relationships with the other worlds

Historic
During the Cold War era, the relationships between the First World, Second World and the Third World were very rigid. The First World and Second World were at constant odds with one another via the tensions between their two cores, the United States and the Soviet Union, respectively. The Cold War, as its name suggests, was a primarily ideological struggle between the First and Second Worlds, or more specifically, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Multiple doctrines and plans dominated Cold War dynamics including the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan (from the U.S.) and the Molotov Plan (from the Soviet Union). The extent of the tension between the two worlds was evident in Berlin -- which was then split into East and West. To stop citizens in East Berlin from having too much exposure to the capitalist West, the Soviet Union put up the Berlin Wall within the actual city.

The relationship between the First World and the Third World is characterized by the very definition of the Third World. Because countries of the Third World were noncommittal and non-aligned with both the First World and the Second World, they were targets for recruitment. In the quest for expanding their sphere of influence, the United States (core of the First World) tried to establish pro-U.S. regimes in the Third World. In addition, because the Soviet Union  (core of the Second World) also wanted to expand, the Third World often became a site for conflict.  Some examples include Vietnam and Korea. Success lay with the First World if at the end of the war, the country became capitalistic and democratic, and with the Second World, if the country became communist. While Vietnam as a whole was eventually communized, only the northern half of Korea remained communist. The Domino Theory largely governed United States policy regarding the Third World and their rivalry with the Second World. In light of the Domino Theory, the U.S. saw winning the proxy wars in the Third World as a measure of the "credibility of U.S. commitments all over the world".

Present
The movement of people and information largely characterizes the inter-world relationships in the present day. A majority of breakthroughs and innovation originate in Western Europe and the U.S. and later their effects permeate globally. As judged by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, most of the Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years were from former First World countries (e.g., the U.S. and countries in Western Europe).

The disparity between knowledge in the First World as compared to the Third World is evident in healthcare and medical advancements. Deaths from water-related illnesses have largely been eliminated in "wealthier nations", while they are still a "major concern in the developing world". Widely treatable diseases in the developed countries of the First World, malaria and tuberculosis needlessly claim many lives in the developing countries of the Third World. Each year 900,000 people die from malaria and combating the disease accounts for 40% of health spending in many African countries.

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that the first Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) would be available in the summer of 2010. These include non-Latin domains such as Chinese, Arabic, and Russian. This is one way that the flow of information between the First and Third Worlds may become more even.

The movement of information and technology from the First World to various Third World countries has created a general "aspir(ation) to First World living standards". The Third World has lower living standards as compared to the First World. Information about the comparatively higher living standards of the First World comes through television, commercial advertisements and foreign visitors to their countries. This exposure causes two changes: a) living standards in some Third World countries rise and b) this exposure creates hopes and many from Third World countries emigrate—both legally and illegally—to these First World countries in hopes of attaining that living standard and prosperity. In fact, this emigration is the "main contributor to the increasing populations of U.S. and Europe". While these emigrations have greatly contributed to globalization, they have also precipitated trends like brain drain and problems with repatriation. They have also created immigration and governmental burden problems for the countries (i.e., First World) that people emigrate to.

Environmental footprint
Some have argued that the most important human population problem for the world is not the high rate of population increase in certain Third World countries per se, but rather the "increase in total human impact". The per-capita footprint—the resources consumed and the waste created by each person—varies globally.  The highest per-person impact occurs in the First World and the lowest in the Third World: each inhabitant of the United States, Western Europe and Japan consumes 32 times as many resources and puts out 32 times as much waste as each person in the Third World. However, China leads the world in total emissions, but its large population skews its per-capita statistic lower than those of more developed nations.

As large consumers of fossil fuels, First World countries drew attention to environmental pollution. The Kyoto Protocol is a treaty that is based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was finalized in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio. It proposed to place the burden of protecting the climate on the United States and other First World countries. Countries that were considered to be developing, such as China and India, were not required to approve the treaty because they were more concerned that restricting emissions would further restrain their development.

International relations
Until the recent past, little attention was paid to the interests of Third World countries. This is because most international relations scholars have come from the industrialized, First World nations. As more countries have continued to become more developed, the interests of the world have slowly started to shift. However, First World nations still have many more universities, professors, journals, and conferences, which has made it very difficult for Third World countries to gain legitimacy and respect with their new ideas and methods of looking at the world.

Development theory
During the Cold War, the modernization theory and development theory developed in Europe as a result of their economic, political, social, and cultural response to the management of former colonial territories. European scholars and practitioners of international politics hoped to theorize ideas and then create policies based on those ideas that would cause newly independent colonies to change into politically developed sovereign nation-states. However, most of the theorists were from the United States, and they were not interested in Third World countries achieving development by any model. They wanted those countries to develop through liberal processes of politics, economics, and socialization; that is to say, they wanted them to follow the liberal capitalist example of a so-called "First World state". Therefore, the modernization and development tradition consciously originated as a (mostly U.S.) alternative to the Marxist and neo-Marxist strategies promoted by the "Second World states" like the Soviet Union. It was used to explain how developing Third World states would naturally evolve into developed First World States, and it was partially grounded in liberal economic theory and a form of Talcott Parsons' sociological theory.

Globalization
The United Nations's ESCWA has written that globalization "is a widely-used term that can be defined in a number of different ways". Joyce Osland from San Jose State University wrote: "Globalization has become an increasingly controversial topic, and the growing number of protests around the world has focused more attention on the basic assumptions of globalization and its effects." "Globalization is not new, though. For thousands of years, people—and, later, corporations—have been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, people and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact, many of the features of the current wave of globalization are similar to those prevailing before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914."

European Union
The most prominent example of globalization in the first world is the European Union (EU). The European Union is an agreement in which countries voluntarily decide to build common governmental institutions to which they delegate some individual national sovereignty so that decisions can be made democratically on a higher level of common interest for Europe as a whole. The result is a union of 27 Member States covering  with roughly 450 million people. In total, the European Union produces almost a third of the world's gross national product and the member states speak more than 23 languages. All of the European Union countries are joined together by a hope to promote and extend peace, democracy, cooperativeness, stability, prosperity, and the rule of law. In a 2007 speech, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Commissioner for External Relations, said, "The future of the EU is linked to globalization...the EU has a crucial role to play in making globalization work properly...". In a 2014 speech at the European Parliament, the Italian PM Matteo Renzi stated, "We are the ones who can bring civilization to globalization".

Just as the concept of the First World came about as a result of World War II, so did the European Union. In 1951 the beginnings of the EU were founded with the creation of European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). From the beginning of its inception, countries in the EU were judged by many standards, including economic ones. This is where the relation between globalization, the EU, and First World countries arises. Especially during the 1990s when the EU focused on economic policies such as the creation and circulation of the Euro, the creation of the European Monetary Institute, and the opening of the European Central Bank.

In 1993, at the Copenhagen European Council, the European Union took a decisive step towards expanding the EU, what they called the Fifth Enlargement, agreeing that "the associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe that so desire shall become members of the European Union". Thus, enlargement was no longer a question of if, but when and how. The European Council stated that accession could occur when the prospective country is able to assume the obligations of membership, that is that all the economic and political conditions required are attained. Furthermore, it defined the membership criteria, which are regarded as the Copenhagen criteria, as follows:

 stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities
 the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union
 the ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union

It is clear that all these criteria are characteristics of developed countries. Therefore, there is a direct link between globalization, developed nations, and the European Union.

Multinational corporations
A majority of multinational corporations find their origins in First World countries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, multinational corporations proliferated as more countries focused on global trade. The series of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and later the World Trade Organization (WTO) essentially ended the protectionist measures that were dissuading global trade. The eradication of these protectionist measures, while creating avenues for economic interconnection, mostly benefited developed countries, who by using their power at GATT summits, forced developing and underdeveloped countries to open their economies to Western goods.

As the world starts to globalize, it is accompanied by criticism of the current forms of globalization, which are feared to be overly corporate-led. As corporations become larger and multinational, their influence and interests go further accordingly. Being able to influence and own most media companies, it is hard to be able to publicly debate the notions and ideals that corporations pursue. Some choices that corporations take to make profits can affect people all over the world. Sometimes fatally.

The third industrial revolution is spreading from the developed world to some, but not all, parts of the developing world. To participate in this new global economy, developing countries must be seen as attractive offshore production bases for multinational corporations. To be such bases, developing countries must provide relatively well-educated workforces, good infrastructure (electricity, telecommunications, transportation), political stability, and a willingness to play by market rules.

If these conditions are in place, multinational corporations will transfer via their offshore subsidiaries or to their offshore suppliers, the specific production technologies and market linkages necessary to participate in the global economy. By themselves, developing countries, even if well-educated, cannot produce at the quality levels demanded in high-value-added industries and cannot market what they produce even in low-value-added industries such as textiles or shoes. Put bluntly, multinational companies possess a variety of factors that developing countries must have if they are to participate in the global economy.

Outsourcing
Outsourcing, according to Grossman and Helpman, refers to the process of "subcontracting an ever expanding set of activities, ranging from product design to assembly, from research and development to marketing, distribution and after-sales service". Many companies have moved to outsourcing services in which they no longer specifically need or have the capability of handling themselves. This is due to considerations of what the companies can have more control over. Whatever companies tend to not have much control over or need to have control over will outsource activities to firms that they consider "less competing". According to SourcingMag.com, the process of outsourcing can take the following four phases.

 strategic thinking
 evaluation and selection
 contract development
 outsourcing management

Outsourcing is among some of the many reasons for increased competition within developing countries. Aside from being a reason for competition, many First World countries see outsourcing, in particular offshore outsourcing, as an opportunity for increased income. As a consequence, the skill level of production in foreign countries handling the outsourced services increases within the economy; and the skill level within the domestic developing countries can decrease. It is because of competition (including outsourcing) that Robert Feenstra and Gordon Hanson predict that there will be a rise of 15–33 percent in inequality amongst these countries.

See also
 Developed country
 Developing country
 Digital divide
 East–West dichotomy
 First World privilege
 First World problem
 Fourth World
 Global North and Global South
 Globalization
 List of countries by total wealth
 Multinational corporation
 Second World
 Third World
 Three-world model
 World-systems theory

References

Cold War terminology
Economic country classifications
Imperialism studies
Politics by region

First World


Norman J. Kretzmann (4 November 1928 – 1 August 1998) was a professor of philosophy at Cornell University who specialised in the history of medieval philosophy and the philosophy of religion.

Biography
Kretzmann joined Cornell's Department of Philosophy in 1966. His work as a teacher and scholar was recognized in 1970, when he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Philosophy, and in 1977 when he was elected a Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy by the University Board of Trustees. In 1992, he received a Graduate Teaching Award from the Northeastern Association of Graduate Deans for his excellence and creativity in the teaching of graduate students. He became a Susan Linn Sage Professor Emeritus in 1995. He published numerous books, articles, essays, and editions of medieval texts. He served as the principal editor of The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy (1982), and as an editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Kretzmann was brought up a Lutheran and descended from a long line of Lutheran pastors, but he lost his Lutheran faith while at college. He was for many years an active member of the Society of Christian Philosophers.  In his early sixties, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and given less than two years to live; in the event, he lived seven more years and completed two volumes of his projected three-volume work on Aquinas's Summa contra Gentiles.

Notes and references

1928 births
1998 deaths
Deaths from multiple myeloma
American philosophy academics
Cornell University faculty
Philosophers of religion
Analytical Thomists

Norman Kretzmann


Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), also known as Green tags, Renewable Energy Credits, Renewable Electricity Certificates, or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs), are tradable, non-tangible energy certificates in the United States that represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource (renewable electricity) and was fed into the shared system of power lines which transport energy. Solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) are RECs that are specifically generated by solar energy.

Background
There are two main markets for renewable energy certificates in the United States – compliance markets and voluntary markets.

Compliance markets are created by a policy that exists in 29 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, called Renewable Portfolio Standard. In these states, the electric companies are required to supply a certain percent of their electricity from renewable generators by a specified year. For example, in California the law is 33% renewable by 2020, whereas New York has a 24% requirement by 2013. Electric utilities in these states demonstrate compliance with their requirements by purchasing RECs; in the California example, the electric companies would need to hold RECs equivalent to 33% of their electricity sales.

Voluntary markets are ones in which customers choose to buy renewable power out of a desire to use renewable energy. Most corporate and household purchases of renewable energy are voluntary purchases. Renewable energy generators located in states that do not have a Renewable Portfolio Standard can sell their RECs to voluntary buyers, usually at a cheaper price than compliance market RECs.

Marketers
RECs can be traded directly from buyer to seller, but third party marketers, brokers, or asset managers are commonly found in the marketplace. Renewable generation facilities will often sell their credits to these entities, who then resell them on the market at a later date.

Texas developed the first comprehensive RECs system in the U.S., a web-based platform that provides for the issuance, registration, trade, and retirement of RECs. The Texas REC Program, which only tracks renewable energy certificates, started operating in July 2001.

In the Western United States RECs are traded on the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS) as part of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). The WECC encompasses 14 states, 2 Canadian provinces, and the northern Baja Mexico.

Prices
Prices depend on many factors, such as the vintage year the RECs were generated, location of the facility, whether there is a tight supply/demand situation, whether the REC is used for RPS compliance, even the type of power created. Solar renewable energy certificates or SRECs, for example, tend to be more valuable in the 16 states that have set aside a portion of the RPS specifically for solar energy. This differentiation is intended to promote diversity in the renewable energy mix which in an undifferentiated, competitive REC market, favors the economics and scale achieved by wind farms.

In the United States, spot prices for SRECs generally decreased from 2010 to 2014. In New Jersey, the spot price for a 2010 SREC was $665.04 in July 2010 and about $160 in May 2014 for SRECs generated in different years. In Delaware, the spot price for a 2010 SREC was $255 in July 2010 and about $50 in May 2014 for SRECs generated in different years. Rates for 2015 to 2017 RECS purchased have averaged between $0.15—$0.045 per kWh produced. In 2021, SREC prices range from $10 to over $400 depending on the state SREC market.

In Canada, 2008–09 BCHydro offers $3 /MWh for "green attributes", for long-term contracts, 20 plus years. Many Independent Power Producers (IPPs) believe that this is much less than "fair market value", but have no alternative.

While the value of RECs fluctuate, most sellers are legally obligated to "deliver" RECs to their customers within a few months of their generation date. Other organizations will sell as many RECs as possible and then use the funds to guarantee a specific fixed price per MWh generated by a future wind farm, for example, making the building of the wind farm a financially viable prospect. The income provided by RECs, and a long-term stabilized market for tags can generate the additional incentive needed to build renewable energy plants.

Certification
RECs are known under functionally equivalent names, such as Green Tags or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs), depending on the market. The U.S. currently does not have a national registry of RECs issued. Though the Center for Resource Solutions and other groups claim to offer programs to prevent double counting, allowing two entities to take environmental credit for the same electricity is, in effect, the same. Under the Green-e Energy program, participants are required to submit to an annual Verification Process Audit of all eligible transactions to ensure the RECs meet the requirements for certification. The certification process requires 3rd party verification to be performed by an independent certified public accountant or a certified internal auditor. CRS maintains a list of auditors who meet the criteria to be listed on the program website. Increasingly RECs are being assigned unique ID numbers and tracked through regional tracking systems/registries such as WREGIS, NEPOOL, GATS, ERCOT, NYGATS, NAR, MIRECS, NC-RETS, NVTREC and M-RETS.

Qualifying technologies
The following generation technologies qualify as producers of RECs:
 Solar electric
 Wind
 Geothermal
 Low Impact Hydropower (small-run-of-the-river facilities, not ones that require large dams and reservoirs, or affecting river flows adversely.)
 Biomass, biofuels and landfill to gas
 Fuel cells (only if powered by hydrogen produced by one of the above approved generators, not from fossil fuels).
 In some states, combined heat and power systems

Additionality

"Additionality" in the context of greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations means that a purchased renewable energy certificate introduces new renewable energy onto the electricity grid beyond what would have happened without the project or "business as usual". The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) favors performance-based measures of additionality, such as the megawatt-hour (MWh) equivalent per REC.

Critics argue "additionality" amounts to a subsidy for renewable energy, that business as usual (supply and demand) prevents unnecessary/duplicative renewable energy from being sold in some markets where overgeneration (excess supply in relation to demand) threatens grid reliability.

Whereas air and water pollution travels across state and national boundaries irrespective of its origin, the value of RECs and the emergence of RECs markets depend very much on the markets created state by state through legislative action to mandate a Renewable Portfolio Standard. Such a balkanized approach to establishing RECs markets and incentives state by state creates issues of equity as some states could legitimately claim that their neighboring states (and their electricity consumers) with voluntary RPS are operating as free riders of pollution prevention, paid for by states (and their electricity consumers) with mandatory RPS. We can learn from EPA's SOx and NOx cap and trade program regarding how the principle of additionality with a national standard provided a benchmark for measuring and validating the commodification of pollution prevention credits that lead to market-driven initiatives with proven results in improving regional and national air quality.

In states with a Renewable Portfolio Standard, a RECs purchase enables the utility company to meet its minimum renewable electricity percentage without having to install that renewable generating capacity itself, regardless of the source of generating renewable energy. By analogy, in the EPA cap and trade program, a "clean" utility in one state can sell its NOx credits to a "dirty" utility in another state that would otherwise have to install additional smokestack scrubbers.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency claims to have the highest percentage use of green power of any federal agency. In 2007, it offset the electricity use of 100% of its offices. The Air Force is the largest purchaser in the US government in absolute terms, purchasing 899,142 MWh worth of RECs. Among colleges and universities, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia is the largest purchaser of RECs, buying 192,727 MWh of RECs from wind power. The corporate leader is Intel, with 1,302,040 MWh purchased in 2007, and the largest purchaser among retailers is Whole Foods, which purchased 509,104 MWH, or enough RECs to offset 100% of its electricity needs.

Research shows that RECs purchased and retired voluntarily in the United States (i.e., not for compliance with a Renewable Portfolio Standard) do not lead to any significant additional renewable energy investment or generation.

Criticism
Critics have attacked renewable energy certificates/credits for allowing renewables producers to double-count the clean energy contribution of the energy they represent. By separating clean energy "attributes" from the energy itself, then selling them in the form of certificates to fossil fuel producers, they allow two entities to take clean-energy credit for the same electricity. Corresponding electricity from the fossil fuel producer is recorded as sourceless "null" energy, effectively scrubbing greenhouse gases emitted during its production from the record.

Though both sources are properly credited financially, double-counting permits states to report emissions as being up to 50% lower than they actually are, making claims of progress in meeting climate goals dubious. For renewables producers, selling the certificates may be in violation of federal law. Severin Borenstein, director of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, writes, "If the certificates are stripped off...separately from the electricity, the FTC [Federal Trade Commission] says...it is deceptive for the TPO [third party owner] to advertise or tell solar buyers they are getting 'clean', 'renewable', or maybe even 'solar' electricity with their lease or power purchase agreement."

See also

 Carbon offset
 Climate change in Sweden#Policy - Renewable energy certificate system
 Energy accounting
 Energy development
 Energy economics
 Energy Efficiency Credit
 Green certificate (Europe)
 Green energy
 Green tax shift
 Guarantee of origin
 Renewable Energy Certificates Registry – Australia
 Renewable Energy Certificate System – Europe
 Renewable energy development
 Renewable Energy Payments
 Renewables
 Renewables Obligation (UK)
 Solar-charged vehicle
 Solar Renewable Energy Certificates

References

External links
Green Power Network's RECs page (EERE).
 Green Power Partnership (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).
EPA
REC Tracking Systems
U.S. Department Of Energy – Green Power Markets Comparison Table
Drax Renewable Energy Certificates
 It's Not Easy Going Green - Reveal investigative report on RECs

Carbon finance
Climate change in the United States
Renewable energy certification
Renewable electricity
Renewable energy

Renewable Energy Certificate (United States)