Misa Criolla and Alfonsina y el Mar are probably his best known compositions. The Misa, a mass for tenor, chorus and orchestra, is based on folk genres such as chacarera, carnavalito and estilo pampeano, with Andean influences and instruments. It is also one of the first masses to be celebrated in a modern language - being contemporary to the Second Vatican Council.

Ramírez wrote the piece in 1963-1964 and it was recorded in 1964 by Philips Records, directed by Ramírez himself with Los Fronterizos as featured performers (Philips 820 39 LP, including Navidad Nuestra). It was not publicly performed until 1967 in Düsseldorf, Germany, during a European tour which eventually brought Ariel Ramírez before Pope Paul VI. Equally famous are the recordings with the solo voices of George Dalaras (1989), José Carreras (1990), and Mercedes Sosa (1999). Plácido Domingo recorded the Kyrie (i.e. the first movement of the Misa) with Dominic Miller on guitar (2003).

Albeit not sharing the same worldwide success, Alfonsina y el Mar enjoys great popularity in Latin America and Spain, being one of the most regarded songs in Argentinian folk music. The piece pays homage to poet Alfonsina Storni, evoking her tragical suicide in 1938, when she walked into the sea at La Perla beach in Mar del Plata, and the poem she wrote as a goodbye message, I Am Going to Sleep. Artists of the stature of Mercedes Sosa, Violeta Parra, Alfredo Kraus and José Carreras (with Pasión Vega) have made recordings of the song, as well as many other popular singers including Shakira, Miguel Bosé, Andrés Calamaro and Paloma San Basilio.

Other major compositions by Ramírez include the Cantata Sudamericana (again with text by Félix Luna, 1972) and another mass: Misa por la paz y la justicia (with liturgical texts by Félix Luna and Osvaldo Catena, 1980).

Ariel Ramírez was born in Santa Fe, Argentina. He began his piano studies in Santa Fe, and soon became fascinated with the music of the gauchos and creoles in the mountains. He continued his studies in Córdoba where he met the great Argentinian folk singer and songwriter Atahualpa Yupanqui. Following a suggestion from Yupanqui, he visited the North East of Argentina and deepened his research into the traditional rhythms of South America. At the same time continuing his academic studies as a composer at the Conservatorio Nacional of Buenos Aires. In 1946 he made his first recording, with RCA.

Ramírez went on to study classical music in Madrid, Rome and mainly in Vienna, from 1950 to 1954. Back in Argentina, he collected over 400 folk and country songs and popular songs and founded the Compañía de Folklore Ariel Ramírez.

The movie is about a journey, which frame after frame, or wave by wave leads to the very heart of women. The fascinating experience that it triggers isn’t suitable for all audiences… there is a boundless sea, a sea made of women, with whom to stroll, coexists, talk about trivial things… the rhythm can be calm, moderately rough, but sometimes it turns into gale force… nothing to worry about though, a safe landing is almost always within reach.

It follows then, that there are women such as Angela who are like an open sea with no shelter in sight, which is where you can meet the great wave… a massive body of water that contains all the energy of the world. This huge wave will turn you upside down… there are those who don’t survive and drown… those who barely make it and launch an SOS distress signal, manage to get back on land and swear not to sail ever again.

But there are boats that - despite the damage - straighten themselves out, repair the damage and sail once more along those ancient but ever pristine routes. Deep down inside they know that they’ll never abandon that sea again. Behold the miracle of women.

SINOPSI: “L’era della debolezza” è il libro che Angela Altieri MacDonald ha tratto dal suo seguitissimo blog. Non bisogna farsi trarre in inganno, né dalla copertina, con quei petali precipitati, né dal titolo… di “debolezza” - in questo libro - non c’è quasi traccia. Piuttosto si tratta di un viaggio che può condurre, onda dopo onda, verso il cuore dell’energia delle donne.

Non è un viaggio adatto a tutte le barche… C’è il mare delle donne, con cui si passeggia, si convive, si parla del più e del meno… può essere calmo, moderatamente mosso, a volte in burrasca… niente di preoccupante… gli approdi sicuri sono quasi sempre facilmente raggiungibili.

Ma poi c’è il mare delle donne come Angela… mare aperto… nessun riparo all’orizzonte. E’ qui che si può incontrare l’onda anomala… una massa d’acqua che racchiude tutta l’energia del mondo. E’ l’onda che ti capovolge sotto sopra… C’è chi non sopravvive e affonda… c’è chi se la cava per un pelo, lancia un S.O.S., torna a terra e giura che smetterà di navigare…

Ma ci sono barche che - magari un po’ malconce - si raddrizzano, riparano i danni e ripartono su rotte antiche ma sempre nuove… Dentro di loro sanno che quel mare non lo vorranno lasciare mai più. Ecco il miracolo dell’energia delle donne.

Angela esiste?

What is Progetto Continenti: “Since 1989 we have cooperated with partners and civil associations of developing countries carrying out development projects in education, professional training, health protection, human rights, local economy through small micro-credit projects, and protection of the natural environment .

Progetto Continenti was set up by a group of friends following a “solidarity” trip to Central America at the end of 1988. The association was legally constituted on the 11th May 1989. In 1991 it achieved official recognition to operate with the European Commission, and since July 1998 it has been registered as an ONLUS (non-profit organisation for social good). In 1999 Progetto Continenti was also officially recognised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since 1990 the association has been part of CISPI, an Italian laic NGOs network, and CONCORD, the network of European NGOs that cooperate with the European Union.

Progetto Continenti means the interdependence of people from all continents for peace, sustainable development, justice and the right to life.

The guiding principles of our activities are:

Self-development of people; improvement of living conditions can be achieved only if local people are main actors of the development process.

Partnership with local organizations and institutions on development projects; the strengthening of local partners is fundamental to ensure the continuity of initiatives when external aid is no longer present.

Participation of local target communities in the implementation of projects.

Overcoming of inequalities, through concrete projects offered to the poorest people in order to give access to basic services.

In our daily work we try to live and promote values: of solidarity in social life as well as in economic relations and activities; of direct participation on the part of citizens and communities to build a world on a human scale; of peace based on justice and respect for people, cultures and religious diversity”.

www.progettocontinenti.org

© 2009 Laura Landi & Claudio Maria Lerario / Longway Factory
Original soundtrack © 2009 Hilario German Baggini & Andrés Langer

Frequent food shortages and periodic famine-like conditions continue to put children at risk. With inadequate health care services, many children die before reaching the age of five. Of those that survive, only 36 percent of children attend primary or secondary school. In addition, the HIV/AIDS crisis is devastating families at a rate that is destabilizing entire communities, leaving many children orphaned and at risk for exploitation.

- 6 percent of births are attended by a skilled health professional;
- many women die in pregnancy or childbirth;
- 4 million children are orphaned, nearly 1 million by AIDS;
- Only 18 percent of children reach grade five.

The major diseases affecting children under-five, such as acute respiratory infection, diarrhoeal diseases, measles, malaria and malnutrition are responsible for 70 per cent of childhood morbidity and mortality.

Diarrhoeal disease that could be treated with simple solution accounts to about 46 per cent and acute respiratory infections to 24 per cent of under-five mortality.

Measles is one of the major childhood illnesses. Measles-related cases fatality rates range from 3-5 per cent in normal circumstances and 15-20 per cent during outbreaks.

Malaria prevalent in 75 per cent of the country represents another important threat to children’s rights to survival and health. It accounts for seven per cent of diagnoses for under-ones visiting outpatient departments. It is also estimated that only 20 per cent of under-fives who experience malaria episodes come into contact with the existing clinics. Malnutrition is associated with poverty, household food and water insecurity and inadequate care of children.

Malnutrition weakens children’s ability to resist attacks of the infectious diseases. It also has a negative impact on children’s cognitive development. Fifty two per cent of children in Ethiopia are stunted, 11 per cent suffers from wasting, and 47 per cent suffer from severe and moderate underweight. 15 per cent of infants are with low birth weight. Low birth weight closely associated with maternal nutrition.

The early life of children in Ethiopia is mostly rural-based. Only 16 per cent of the population live in urban area.

ABOUT ETHIOPIA

Officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an estimated population of over 78,000,000. Its capital is Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world and Africa’s second-most populous nation. Ethiopia has yielded some of humanity’s oldest traces, making the area a primary factor in the origin and developmental history of humanity, with recent studies claiming the vicinity of present-day Addis Ababa as the point from which human beings migrated around the world. Ethiopian dynastic history traditionally began with the reign of Emperor Menelik I in 1000 BC.

The roots of the Ethiopian state are similarly deep, dating with unbroken continuity to at least the Aksumite Empire (which officially used the name “Ethiopia” in the 4th century) and its predecessor state, D`mt (with early 1st millennium BC roots). After a period of decentralized power in the 18th and early 19th centuries known as the Zemene Mesafint (”Era of the Judges/Princes”), the country was reunited in 1855 by Kassa Hailu, who became Emperor Tewodros II, beginning Ethiopia’s modern history.

Ethiopia’s borders underwent significant territorial expansion to its modern borders for the rest of the century due to several migrations and commercial integration as well as conquests, especially by Emperor Menelik II and Ras Gobena, culminating in its victory over the Italians at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 with the military leadership of Ras Makonnen, and ensuring its sovereignty and freedom from colonization. It was brutally occupied by Benito Mussolini’s Italy from 1936 to 1941, ending with its liberation by British Commonwealth and Ethiopian patriot forces..

The country is famous for its 1984 devastating famine as well as for its famous Olympic distance athletes, rock-hewn churches and as the origin of the Coffee bean. Having converted during the fourth century AD, it is also the second-oldest country to have become officially Christian, after Armenia. Ethiopia also has a considerable Muslim minority since the earliest days of Islam - being the site of the first Hijra in Islam history, the earliest 9th century Sultanates, the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash and home to the fourth holiest Muslim city of Harar - but the country has been secular since 1974. Historically a relatively isolated mountain country, Ethiopia by the mid 20th century became a crossroads of global international cooperation under the leadership of Emperor Haile Selassie I.

It became a member of the League of Nations in 1923, signed the Declaration by United Nations in 1942, and was one of the fifty-one original members of the United Nations (UN). The headquarters of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) is in Addis Ababa, as is the headquarters of the African Union (formerly the Organisation of African Unity), of which Ethiopia was the principal founder. There are about forty-five Ethiopian embassies and consulates around the world.

It is not certain how old the name Ethiopia is; its earliest attested use is in the Iliad, where it appears twice, and in the Odyssey, where it appears three times. The earliest attested use in the region is as a Christianized name for the Kingdom of Aksum in the 4th century, in stone inscriptions of King Ezana. The Ge’ez name ʾĪtyōṗṗyā and its English cognate are thought by some recent scholars to be derived from the Greek word Αἰθιοπία Aithiopia, from Αἰθίοψ Aithiops ‘an Ethiopian’, derived in turn from Greek words meaning “of burned face”.

However, the Book of Aksum, a Ge’ez chronicle compiled in the 15th century, states that the name is derived from “‘Ityopp’is” — a son (unmentioned in the Bible) of Cush, son of Ham, who according to legend founded the city of Axum. Pliny the Elder similarly states the tradition that the nation took its name from someone named Aethiops. A third etymology, suggested by the late Ethiopian scholar and poet laureate Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, traces the name to the “old black Egyptian” (sic) words Et (Truth or Peace) Op (high or upper) and Bia (land, country), or “land of higher peace”.

In English and generally outside of Ethiopia, the country was also once historically known as Abyssinia, derived from Habesh, an early Arabic form of the Ethiosemitic name “Ḥabaśāt” (unvocalized “ḤBŚT”), modern Habesha, the native name for the country’s inhabitants (while the country was called “Ityopp’ya”). In a few languages, Ethiopia is still called by names cognate with “Abyssinia,” e.g., and modern Arabic Al Habeshah, meaning land of the Habesha people.

The term Habesha, strictly speaking, refers only to the Amhara and Tigray-Tigrinya people who have historically dominated the country politically, and which combined comprise about 36% of Ethiopia’s population. Sometimes, the term is used to label the nearly 45% of Ethiopian population who used Semetic languages since ancient times like the Amharic (30.1% of Ethiopian population), Tigray (6.2%), Gurage (4.3%) and other smaller Semetic speaking communities like the Harari people in South east Ethiopia.

Though since Amharic become the official language of the country, most of the population of the SNNPR and a significant portion of the Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz regions use it as a second language. In contrast, in contemporary Ethiopia, the word Habesha is often used to describe all Ethiopians and Eritreans. Abyssinia can strictly refer to just the North-Western Ethiopian provinces of Amhara and Tigray as well as central Eritrea, while it was historically used as another name for Ethiopia.

Early history

Human settlement in Ethiopia dates back to prehistoric times. Fossilized remains of the earliest ancestors to the human species, discovered in Ethiopia, have been assigned dates as long ago as 5.9 million years. Together with Eritrea and the southeastern part of the Red Sea coast of Sudan (Beja lands), it is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt (or “Ta Netjeru,” meaning land of the Gods), whose first mention dates to the twenty-fifth century BC.

Around the eighth century BC, a kingdom known as Dʿmt was established in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital at Yeha in northern Ethiopia. Most modern historians consider this civilization to be a native African one, although Sabaean-influenced due to the latter’s hegemony of the Red Sea, while others view Dʿmt as the result of a mixture of Sabaeans and indigenous peoples. However, Ge’ez, the ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia, is now thought not to have derived from Sabaean (also South Semitic).

There is evidence of a Semitic-speaking presence in Ethiopia and Eritrea at least as early as 2000 BC. Sabaean influence is now thought to have been minor, limited to a few localities, and disappearing after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the Ethiopian civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.

The Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt (roughly 743-656 BC) was actually an Ethiopian dynasty. During this period Ethiopia ruled Egypt. Their most accomplished pharaoh during this time was Taharqa who wore two snakes on his crown signifying sovereignty of both Egypt and Ethiopia.

After the fall of Dʿmt in the fourth century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller successor kingdoms, until the rise of one of these kingdoms during the first century BC, the Aksumite Kingdom, ancestor of medieval and modern Ethiopia, which was able to reunite the area. They established bases on the northern highlands of the Ethiopian Plateau and from there expanded southward. The Persian religious figure Mani listed Aksum with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his time.

In 316 AD, a Christian philosopher from Tyre, Meropius, embarked on a voyage of exploration along the coast of Africa. He was accompanied by, among others, two Syro-Greeks, Frumentius and his brother Aedesius. The vessel was stranded on the coast, and the natives killed all the travelers except the two brothers, who were taken to the court and given positions of trust by the monarch. They both practiced the Christian faith in private, and soon converted the queen and several other members of the royal court. Upon the king’s death, Frumentius was appointed regent of the realm by the queen, and instructor of her young son, Prince Ezana.

A few years later, upon Ezana’s coming of age, Aedesius and Frumentius left the kingdom, the former returning to Tyre where he was ordained, and the latter journeying to Alexandria. Here, he consulted Athanasius, who ordained him and appointed him Bishop of Aksum. He returned to the court and baptized the King Ezana, together with many of his subjects, and in short order Christianity was proclaimed the official state religion again. For this accomplishment, he received the title “Abba Selama” (”Father of peace”).

At various times, including a fifty-year period in the sixth century, Aksum controlled most of modern-day Yemen and some of southern Saudi Arabia just across the Red Sea, as well as controlling southern Egypt, northern Sudan, northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Somalia.

Islam in Ethiopia dates back to the founding of the religion; in 615, when a group of Muslims were counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and travel to Ethiopia via modern day Eritrea, which was ruled by Ashama ibn Abjar, a pious Christian king. Moreover, Bilal, the first muezzin, the person chosen to call the faithful to prayer, and one of the foremost companions of Muhammad, was from Abyssinia (Eritrea, Ethiopia etc).

The line of rulers descended from the Aksumite kings was broken several times: first by the Jewish Queen Gudit around 950 (or possibly around 850, as in Ethiopian histories). It was then interrupted by the Zagwe dynasty; it was during this dynasty that the famous rock-hewn churches of Lalibela were carved under King Lalibela, allowed by a long period of peace and stability.

Restored contact with Europe

In the early fifteenth century Ethiopia sought to make diplomatic contact with European kingdoms for the first time since Aksumite times. A letter from King Henry IV of England to the Emperor of Abyssinia survives. In 1428, the Emperor Yeshaq sent two emissaries to Alfonso VI of Aragon, who sent return emissaries that failed to complete the return trip. The first continuous relations with a European country began in 1508 with Portugal under Emperor Lebna Dengel, who had just inherited the throne from his father.

This proved to be an important development, for when the Empire was subjected to the attacks of the Adal General and Imam, Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi (called “Grañ”, or “the Left-handed”), Portugal responded to Lebna Dengel’s plea for help with an army of four hundred men, who helped his son Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule. However, when Emperor Susenyos converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest followed resulting in thousands of deaths. The Jesuit missionaries had offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and on 25 June 1632 Susenyos’ son, Emperor Fasilides, declared the state religion to again be Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and other Europeans.

Zemene Mesafint

All of this contributed to Ethiopia’s isolation from 1755 to 1855, called the Zemene Mesafint or “Age of Princes”. The Emperors became figureheads, controlled by warlords like Ras Mikael Sehul of Tigray, and by the Oromo Yejju dynasty, which later led to 17th century Oromo rule of Gondar, changing the language of the court from Amharic to Afaan Oromo. Ethiopian isolationism ended following a British mission that concluded an alliance between the two nations; however, it was not until 1855 that Ethiopia was completely united and the power in the Emperor restored, beginning with the reign of Emperor Tewodros II. Upon his ascent, despite still large centrifugal forces, he began modernizing Ethiopia and recentralizing power in the Emperor, and Ethiopia began to take part in world affairs once again.

By the 1880s, Sahle Selassie, as king of Shewa, and later as Emperor Menilik II, with the help of Ras Gobena’s Shewan Oromo militia, began expanding his kingdom to the South and East, expanding into areas that hadn’t been held since the invasion of Ahmed Gragn, and other areas that had never been under his rule, resulting in the borders of Ethiopia of today.

European Scramble for Africa

The 1880s were marked by the Scramble for Africa and modernization in Ethiopia, when the Italians began to vie with the British for influence in bordering regions. Asseb, a port near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, was bought in March 1870 from the local Afar sultan, vassal to the Ethiopian Emperor, by an Italian company, which by 1890 led to the Italian colony of Eritrea. Conflicts between the two countries resulted in the Battle of Adwa in 1896, whereby the Ethiopians defeated Italy and remained independent, under the rule of Menelik II. Italy and Ethiopia signed a provisional treaty of peace on 26 October 1896.

Selassie years

Haile Selassie’s reign as emperor of Ethiopia is the best known and perhaps most influential in the nation’s history. He is seen by Rastafarians as Jah incarnate.

The early twentieth century was marked by the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I, who came to power after Iyasu V was deposed. It was he who undertook the modernization of Ethiopia, from 1916, when he was made a Ras and Regent (Inderase) for Zewditu I and became the de facto ruler of the Ethiopian Empire. Following Zewditu’s death he was made Emperor on 2 November 1930.

Being born from parents of the three main Ethiopian ethnicities of Oromo, Amhara and Gurage, and after having played a leading role in the formation of the African Union, Haile Selassie was known as a uniting figure both inside Ethiopia and around Africa.

The independence of Ethiopia was interrupted by the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and Italian occupation (1936–1941). During this time of attack, Haile Selassie appealed to the League of Nations in 1935, delivering an address that made him a worldwide figure, and the 1935 Time magazine Man of the Year. Some of Ethiopia’s infrastructure (roads most importantly) was built by the fascist Italian occupation troops (not by corvee) between 1937 and 1940.

Following the entry of Italy into World War II, the British Empire forces together with patriot Ethiopian fighters liberated Ethiopia in the course of the East African Campaign (World War II) in 1941, which was followed by sovereignty on 31 January 1941 and British recognition of full sovereignty (i.e. without any special British privileges) with the signing of the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement in December 1944. During 1942 and 1943 there was an Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia. On 26 August 1942 Haile Selassie I issued a proclamation outlawing slavery.

In 1952 Haile Selassie orchestrated the federation with Eritrea which he dissolved in 1962. This annexation sparked the Eritrean War of Independence. Although Haile Selassie was seen as a national hero, opinion within Ethiopia turned against him due to the worldwide oil crisis of 1973, food shortages, uncertainty regarding the succession, border wars, and discontent in the middle class created through modernization.

Haile Selassie’s reign came to an end in 1974, when a Soviet-backed Marxist-Leninist military junta, the “Derg” led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, deposed him, and established a one-party communist state.

Communism

The ensuing regime suffered several coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and a massive refugee problem. In 1977, there was the Ogaden War, when Somalia captured the whole of the Ogaden region, but Ethiopia was able to recapture the Ogaden after serious problems, due to a massive influx of Soviet military hardware and a Cuban military presence coupled with East Germany and South Yemen the following year.

Hundreds of thousands were killed due to the red terror, forced deportations, or from the use of hunger as a weapon under Mengistu’s rule. The Red Terror was carried in response to what the government termed “White Terror”, supposedly a chain of violent events, assassinations and killings carried by the opposition. In 2006, after a long trial, Mengistu was found guilty of genocide.

In the beginning of 1980s, a series of famine hit Ethiopia that affected around 8 million people, leaving 1 million dead. Insurrections against Communist rule sprang up particularly in the northern regions of Tigray and Eritrea. In 1989, the Tigrayan Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF) merged with other ethnically-based opposition movements to form the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

Concurrently the Soviet Union began to retreat from building World Communism under Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika policies, marking a dramatic reduction in aid to Ethiopia from Socialist bloc countries. This resulted in even more economic hardship and the collapse of the military in the face of determined onslaughts by guerrilla forces in the north. The Collapse of Communism in general, and in Eastern Europe during the Revolutions of 1989, coincided with the Soviet Union stopping aid to Ethiopia altogether in 1990. The strategic outlook for Mengistu quickly deteriorated.

In May 1991, EPRDF forces advanced on Addis Ababa and the Soviet Union did not intervene to save the government side. Mengistu fled the country to asylum in Zimbabwe, where he still resides. The Transitional Government of Ethiopia, composed of an 87-member Council of Representatives and guided by a national charter that functioned as a transitional constitution, was set up. In June 1992, the Oromo Liberation Front withdrew from the government; in March 1993, members of the Southern Ethiopia Peoples’ Democratic Coalition also left the government. In 1994, a new constitution was written that formed a bicameral legislature and a judicial system.

The first free and democratic election took place in May 1995 in which Meles Zenawi was elected the Prime Minister and Negasso Gidada was elected President. Though it is widely suspected that Meles Zenawi rigged the election. This suspicion is supported by Zenawi’s very low approval rating in Ethiopia.

Recent

In 1993 a referendum was held and supervised by the UN mission UNOVER, with universal suffrage and conducted both in and outside Eritrea (among Eritrean communities in the diaspora), on whether Eritreans wanted independence or unity with Ethiopia. Over 99% of the Eritrean people voted for independence which was declared on May 24, 1993.

In 1994, a constitution was adopted that led to Ethiopia’s first multi-party elections in the following year. In May 1998, a border dispute with Eritrea led to the Eritrean-Ethiopian War that lasted until June 2000. This has hurt the nation’s economy, but strengthened the ruling coalition. On 15 May 2005, Ethiopia held another multiparty election, which was a highly disputed one with some opposition groups claiming fraud. Though the Carter Center approved the preelection conditions, it has expressed its dissatisfaction with postelection matters.

The 2005 EU election observers continued to accuse the ruling party of vote rigging. Many from the international community are divided about the issue with Irish officials accusing the 2005 EU election observers of corruption for the “inaccurate leaks from the 2005 EU election monitoring body which led the opposition to wrongly believe they had been cheated of victory.”

In general, the opposition parties gained more than 200 parliament seats compared to the just 12 in the 2000 elections. Despite most opposition representatives joining the parliament, some leaders of the CUD party were wrongly imprisoned following the post-election violence. Amnesty International considered them “prisoners of conscience” and they were consequently released.

The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Swaziland is the highest in the world at 38.8%, and is much higher than that of sub-Saharan Africa overall (7.5%) and globally (1.1%). Life expectancy at birth in Swaziland is little above 30 years.

King Sobhuza II, who died in 1982, was one of the longest reigning monarchs of all time.

History

Artifacts indicating human activity dating back to the early Stone Age 200,000 years ago have been found in the kingdom of Swaziland. Prehistoric rock art paintings date from ca. 25,000 B.C. and continue up to the 19th century.

The earliest inhabitants of the area were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. They were largely replaced by the Bantu tribes during Bantu migrations. Evidence of agriculture and iron use dates from about the 4th century, and people speaking languages ancestral to current Sotho and Nguni languages began settling no later than the 11th century.

The ruling Dlamini lineage had chiefships in the region in the 18th century. An enlarged Swazi (occasionally also written as Suozi[citation needed]) kingdom was established by King Sobhuza I in the early 19th century. Soon thereafter the first whites started to settle in the area. In the 1890s the South African Republic in the Transvaal claimed sovereignty over Swaziland but never fully established power. After the Second Boer War of 1899–1902, Swaziland became a British protectorate. The country was granted independence within the Commonwealth of Nations on 6 September 1968. Since then, Swaziland has seen a struggle between pro-democracy activists and the monarchy.

Swaziland has been under a State of Emergency since 1973.

Politics

The head of state is the king or Ngwenyama (lit. Lion), currently King Mswati III, who ascended to the throne in 1986 after the death of his father King Sobhuza II in 1982 and a period of regency.

By tradition, the king reigns along with his mother or a ritual substitute, the Ndlovukati (lit. She-Elephant). The former was viewed as the administrative head of state and the latter as a spiritual and national head of state, with real power counter-balancing that of the king, but during the long reign of Sobhuza II the role of the Ndlovukati became more symbolic.

As the monarch, the king not only appoints the prime minister — the head of government — but also appoints a small number of representatives for both chambers of the Libandla (parliament). The Senate consists of 30 members, while the House of Assembly has 82 seats, 55 of which are occupied by elected representatives, (elections are held every five years in November).

In 1968, Swaziland adopted a Westminster-style constitution, but in 1973 King Sobhuza suspended it under a royal decree backed by the royalist majority of parliament: in effect a coup by the government against its own constitution. The State of Emergency has since been lifted, or so the government claims even though political activities, especially by pro-democracy movements, are suppressed. In 2001 King Mswati III appointed a committee to draft a new constitution. Drafts were released for comment in May 2003 and November 2004. These were strongly criticized by civil society organizations in Swaziland and human rights organizations elsewhere. In 2005, the constitution was put into effect, though there is still much debate in the country about the constitutional reforms. From the early seventies, there was active resistance to the royal hegemony.

Despite calls for international solidarity against the oppressive royal regime, Swaziland’s human rights record remains largely ignored by the international community. The South African trade union COSATU has been the most vocal supporters of the rights of the Swazi people to govern themselves by democratic means, in line with the Freedom Charter adopted by democratic parties on the country.

Thanks to Maury’s efforts in standardization, and recent major advances in observational methods— especially through remote sensing, the development of theoretical understanding, and increasingly powerful computers — today we benefit from high standards in weather forecasting. For example, ‘sea winds’ is an orbiting microwave radar device that is used to predict big storms. It measures wind, rain, and even ice on the world’s oceans, and data from it is supplemented by readings from ocean radio transmitting buoys. It is particularly useful for surfers looking for outsize waves.

Our weather is generated by the disparity in the amounts of radiant energy received from the sun at polar and tropical latitudes. In the tropics, as the warmed air rises, it is replaced by air coming from the poles. At the poles the cold air is continually sinking. This generates a basic pattern of convection, in which winds in the lower atmosphere blow towards the equator, while those in the upper atmosphere blow towards the poles. Once the air begins to move latitudinally, Coriolis force comes into play and rotates its direction. So the basic pattern of airflow is broken up globally into a series of circulation cells.

Weather is latitudinally zoned. Near the equator are the doldrums, the trade winds blow between the latitudes of 10° and 20°, and then around 30° are the horse latitudes, which are high-pressure zones. At temperate latitudes cyclonic and anticyclonic pressure systems generate more variable weather patterns. At 60° is a zone of low-pressure systems, and finally over the poles high pressure dominates. The contrast in the high and low pressure systems between these high latitude regions fluctuates, and leads to decadal cycles in climate. In the North Atlantic this cycle is known as the North Atlantic Oscillation. In the tropics there are also significant variations in the geographical location of features like the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), which irregularly generates El Niño events.

The water cycle plays a central role in determining weather patterns. The evaporation of water vapour from the ocean’s surface cools the sea surface temperature. In the atmosphere, water vapour is the third most abundant gas, although only about 0.001% of all the water on earth is in the atmosphere at any one time. The warmer the air the more water vapour it can contain. Conversely, if air is cooled some of the water condenses into cloud and mist. When the air rises, the atmospheric pressure it is subjected to falls, so it expands and cools, and clouds are formed. Where there are coastal hills and mountains, onshore winds are forced up by the topography so a line of clouds forms along the coast. In the days of sail, clouds on the horizon were a useful indication of the proximity of land. Clouds affect the heat balance of the ocean, as they insulate the surface of the ocean surface from much of the sun’s radiant heat. Winds accelerate the rate at which heat is exchanged across the ocean’s surface; the fiercer the wind the faster heat is exchanged. Convection resulting from rapid heat exchange in the tropics can generate tropical storms.

In the atmosphere there are air masses, which are analogous to the water masses in the ocean. Boundaries between different air masses are also called fronts. The main front between the cold polar air masses and the warm subtropical air masses is thrown into a series of long meandering waves that slowly travel around the globe. These meanders are regularly perturbed to form large-scale eddies about 1,000 kilometres (625 mls.) across that are low-pressure or high-pressure systems; the former are depressions and the latter anticyclones, both familiar features of weather forecasts. Within a depression the boundaries between different air masses are either warm or cold fronts depending on which air mass is advancing. The cooler air mass pushes under a warmer one, so along the fronts air rises. The approach of a cold front is heralded by the cloud formations—changing from high-level cirrus, to lower cirro- and altocumulus clouds (mackerel sky), and then to lower-level stratocumulus clouds. These heavier, lower clouds along the fronts often bring rain. Clouds and rain tend to be heavier with the passage of a cold front because the gradient of the front between the air masses is steeper. Winds associated with depressions blow anticlockwise (veering) in the northern hemisphere and parallel to the isobars (lines of equal atmospheric pressure) rather than across them. So as a depression passes through the wind direction reverses.

“…I always wish to go forward… to travel… disappearing behind the horizon… to see what I could find there…” (Mette S. Bråthe)

Sakte, men sikkert dør den som gir seg

Sakte, men sikkert dør den som blir slave av vanen
den som hver dag velger å følge samme sti
den som aldri bytter gir
den som aldri tar en risk, eller forandrer fargen på klærne sine
den som aldri snakker med mennesker den ikke kjenner

Sakte, men sikkert dør den som viker unna når en lidenskap melder seg.
Den som foretrekker sort på hvitt og prikker over i’ene
i stedet for sammensetningen av følelser
de følelsene som får øynene til å skinne
og som forvandler et gjesp til et smil,
de som får hjertet til å banke ved feil og ved sentimentalitet.

Sakte, men sikkert dør den som aldri kaster alle baller i luften,
eller velter bord overende.
Den som er ulykkelig på jobb,
den som, for å kunne følge en drøm ikke risikerer det sikre for det usikre,
den som, i det minste en gang i livet, tillater seg å ikke følge ”fornuftige” råd

Sakte, men sikkert dør den som ikke reiser noe sted,
den som ikke leser
den som ikke hører på musikk
den som ikke finner selvtilfredshet og glede i seg selv

Sakte, men sikkert dør den som ødelegger kjærligheten til seg selv.
Den som ikke vil ta imot hjelp,
den som tilbringer dagen med å klage over sin egen ulykke, eller
over regnet som ikke holder opp.

Sakte, men sikkert dør den som forlater et prosjekt før det er begynt.
Den som ikke stiller spørsmål ved ukjente argumenter,
den som ikke svarer når noen spør om ting som den vet.

Vi unngår døden i små doser
ved alltid å huske på at:
Det å leve krever en styrke langt større
enn det enkle faktum at vi må puste.
Bare en intens utholdenhet
vil bringe oss en fantastisk lykke.

Pablo Neruda
(fritt oversatt av Mette Bråthe)

During the 1970s, while the developed world was considering the effects of the global population explosion, pollution and consumerism, the developing countries, faced with continued poverty and deprivation, regarded development as essential - to meet their need for the necessities of food, clean water and shelter.

The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm was the UN’s first major conference on international environmental issues and marked the beginning of global cooperation in developing environmental policies and strategies. In 1980 the International Union for Conservation of Nature published its influential World Conservation Strategy, followed in 1982 by its World Charter for Nature, which drew attention to the decline of the world’s ecosystems. Confronted with the differing priorities of the developed and developing world, the United Nation’s World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) worked for two years to try and resolve the apparent conflict between the environment and development.

The Commission concluded that the approach to development must change: it must become sustainable development. Development, in the Commission’s view needed to be directed to meeting the needs of the poor in a way that no longer caused environmental problems, but rather helped to solve them or, in the words of the Commission in 1987:

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

In the same year the Commission’s influential report Our Common Future was published. The 1992 UN Environmental Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil produced the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development Earth Summit (1992) with an action agenda, Agenda 21, overseen by the Commission on Sustainable Development.

At Rio negotiations also began for an international agreement on climate change (which eventually led to the Kyoto Protocol); agreements on forestry were forged and the Convention on Biological Diversity was initiated. By the time of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Earth Summit 2002), held in Johannesburg, delegates included representatives from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and thousands of local governments reporting on how they had implemented Local Agenda 21 and the Cities for Climate Protection program.

A broad-based consensus had been reached on what was to be done. This Summit, building on the 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration, produced eight Millennium Development Goals for 2015 (adopted by 189 countries) and established the “WEHAB” targets for water, energy, health, agriculture, and biodiversity.

The 2005 World Summit on sustainable development in New York declared that, to be effective, action on sustainability must involve cooperation across three sustainability “pillars”: environment, society and economy. Although it is critical that there is cooperation between the three pillars, in practice this often entails negotiation between competing interests.

The path of international sustainable development has never been smooth; it has many detractors. It treads the difficult path between opulent western consumer societies and the abject poverty of the developing countries of the world; between economic demands for local and global growth and environmental demands for biological and resource conservation; closely linked to these concerns are social factors that impact on environmental sustainability, such as global security, international migration, population control and global environmental legislation including the Convention on Biological Diversity, agreements on forestry, climate change, desertification, etc.

The Canal Harbour is the main axis of the old town, the center of the society life where citizens and tourist have their walk. The Port can be also considered the main historic building of the town (see the map), as it follows the drawing of Leonardo who in 1502 was asked to improve the design of the former landing place. Besides the Marine Museum, along the Port you can also find the Antiquarium, Casa Moretti, Piazza Pisacane with a monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi and its solemn inscription, the old Fish Market and the wide Ciceruacchio square, where the perimeter of the old Pretorian Tower used in the past to defend the port against the Barbary pirates is still visible.

Today, near the lighthouse, the imposing Vinci’s gates defend the town from sea storms: this is a real example of modern technology carried out basing on Leonardo’s drawings.

The picturesque Piazzetta delle Conserve located in the middle of the old town is named after the structures dug in the ground where the fish was preserved with layers of snow and pressed ice for a long time before the invention of refrigerators. Four of these preserving structures, so numerous in the raised area called Il Monte (the mountain), have been recently restored and are well visible together with the upper part of another still underground preserving structure.

The Ground Section of the Marine Museum, located inside a new building expressly designed following the concept of an ancient shipyard, offers the visitors a wide and a stimulating tour dedicated to the traditional marine of the High and Middle Adriatic.

The Museum Pavilion hosts in its center two sailing boats typical of the marine history of the High Adriatic: a trabaccolo ( fishing lugger) and a bragozzo (two–masted trawler) completely equipped with their lugsails. During the first part of the tour, dedicated to “structure and construction”, it is possible to touch the simple sailing materials and technologies used for thousands of years. Among the shown pieces you can find a ropemaker’s wheel and the reconstruction of its functioning and complete marine carpenter’s workshop of the nineteenth century.

The second part is dedicated to “propulsion and steering”: here modern and ancient anchors are shown; among them you can also find two pieces of wreckage dated back to the 17th century. There are also some teaching installations where it is possible to try one’s ability in manoeuvring, making knots and bowseing. A great part is dedicated to sailing equipments, while a series of engines testify the passage from the traditional boats to the motorized ones.

From two projecting terraces of the upper level all details of the sails and masts can be closely examined. Following the exhibition tour it is then possible to admire typical items of life on board used to fish, trade and sail or magic-religious symbols (like the “eyes” in relief on the bow) and the dangers of sailing.

The museum uses many rare videos and 3D animations.

The Floating Section of the Marine Museum is located just in front of the new Ground Section, in the inner and oldest part of the Leonardesque canal harbour where 10 typical Adriatic boats with their coloured lugsails, decorated with the symbols of the fishers’ families, and the ancient propitiatory decorations.

A visit to the wide hold and cabins of the big trabaccolo (transport lugger) “Giovanni Pascoli” gives the idea of the harsh life of fishers.

During Christmas holidays, the Floating Section becomes a picturesque crib with life-size fishers’ statues on the boats.

Thanks also to the Marine Museum of Cesenatico, an organization called “Mariegola” was born some years ago in Romagna ports; this ancient word meaning “brotherhood” currently represents an organization coordinating the summer activity of the traditional boats with sails in the third and the working ones, dealing with summer events and historic sailing races. Trabaccolo “Barchet” and bragozzo “Raffaele”, the sailing boats of the Marine Museum of Cesenatico, take part to these events and, thanks to their size, they are the flagships of the Romagna boats’ fleet.

Following the example of the Marine Museum, many private citizens have restores their small boats, that can be now seen in the Canal Harbour.

Crib on the boats of the maritime museum is an happy tradition that - in Cesenatico (see the map) - has been renewed for years. The floating section of the Maritime Museum is illuminated with lights and animated with artistic statues which tell the Nativity story in marine style.

The statues have been created by sculptors Maurizio Bertoni, Mariangela Gualtieri and Mino Savadori.

The characters (fishermen, carpenter, puppeteer, musicians, together with the Holy Family) have been fashioned in a most original manner: the exposed parts of the body have been sculpted from Swiss pine and the clothes are draped fabric stiffened with hot-brushed wax.

Year after year the Crib grows bigger and bigger as new statues and new characters are costantly added.

Location: Cesenatico Maritime Museum
Period: From 30 November/to 6 January