title: Alternate reality game

text: Also launched in March 2010, an ARG produced by David Varela at nDreams featured the 2008 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton; entitled "", the game ran throughout the 2010 Formula 1 season, in nine languages, with live events in a dozen cities around the world.


title: Alternate reality game

text: In July 2013, Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development and The Walt Disney Studios launched The Optimist, built around "a story of Walt Disney, the Imagineers, and other visionary thinkers and their potential involvement in a secret project that sought to build a better future." The game culminated at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, Calif., August 9–11, 2013. Players participated over a six-week period, using social media, mobile devices, and apps, while visiting locations from the story in and around Los Angeles.


title: Alternate reality game

text: An ARG accompanying the Kickstarter campaign for "Frog Fractions 2" began in March 2014 and completed in 2016. "Frog Fractions 2" will be the sequel to Twinbeard Studio's much acclaimed "Frog Fractions", although the ARG itself is often referred to as "Frog Fractions 1.5" in reference to an in-ARG puzzle solution. The ARG took about two years to solve, involving clues buried in 23 independent games and real-life locations, allowing the game, secretly already uploaded under the guise of a different game, to become unlocked in December 2016.


title: Alternate reality game

text: On the release of the expansion "Afterbirth" for "" in October 2015, players discover clues hinting towards an ARG related to the game, based on the community's previous attempts to hack the game to discover any secret characters. The ARG included location information near Santa Cruz, California, where the game's developer Edmund McMillen lived. The ARG was successfully completed in November 2015, with the community working together and enabling a new character and additional content to be unlocked for the game.


title: Alternate reality game

text: Oddworld Inhabitants has started an ARG in anticipation of their newest game Oddworld: Soulstorm and tasked fans with finding a mysterious entity, which would later turn out to be a character named Ed – a Mudokon slave who is speculated to be working in Necrum mines. A second website was then discovered showing existence of a Mudokon resistance formed after Abe shut down RuptureFarms and rescued his brothers during the events of .


title: Alternate reality game

text: On June 12, 2020, the band Twenty One Pilots started an ARG based on their new song "Level of Concern." The ARG contained a series of 20 codes that each led to a downloadable file. In the files, were pictures and videos of the band and clues for the next codes. To receive the 20th code, fans will have to wait until June 15, 2020.


title: Alternate reality game

text: "Inscryption", a video game by Daniel Mullins based on a metafiction narrative, including a post-game ARG that involved real-world clues and references to Mullins' past games in conjunction with in-game materials, leading to additional narrative and endings for the game.


title: Alternate reality game

text: In December 2020, a long-unsolved puzzle from Perplex City, "Billion to One", was solved. The puzzle focused on exploring the concept of Six degrees of separation by presenting a man's photograph and his first name, "Satoshi", asking players to locate him. In 2020, Tom-Lucas Säger used image recognition software and located Satoshi, reporting it to Laura E. Hall, who ran the website tracking information about the hunt. In 2022, a documentary, "Finding Satoshi", explored the Perplex City puzzle and its solution.


title: Alternate reality game

text: Before the development of the ARG genre, television sought to extend the reality of its shows onto the web with websites that treated their world as real, rather than discussing it as fiction. An early example was Fox's Freakylinks, developed by Haxan, creators of "The Blair Witch Project", who would later go on to develop the well-known ARGs The Art of the Heist and Who Is Benjamin Stove. Freakylinks employed a website designed to look like it had been created by amateur paranormal enthusiasts to generate internet interest in the show, which gathered a cult following but was canceled after 13 episodes. In September 2002, following a successful initial foray into ARG-like territory with 2001's "Alias" web game, ABC brought alternate reality gaming more definitively to the television screen with the show "Push, Nevada". Produced and co-written by Ben Affleck, the show created a fictional city in Nevada, named Push. When advertising the show, LivePlanet advertised the city instead, with billboards, news reports, company sponsors, and other realistic life-intruding forms. During each episode of the show, highly cryptic clues would be revealed on screen, while other hidden clues could be found on the city's website. The show was canceled mid-season, and all of the remaining clues were released to the public. Clever watchers eventually figured out that the show would still be paying out its $1 million prizes during "Monday Night Football". The last clue was revealed during half-time, prompting those fortunate enough to have solved the puzzle to call a telephone number. The first person to call received $1 million. In October 2004, the "ReGenesis" extended reality game launched in tandem with the Canadian television series "ReGenesis". Produced by Xenophile Media in association with Shaftesbury Films, clues and stories from the series sent players online to stop a bioterrorist attack.


title: Alternate reality game

text: In 2006, the TV tie-in ARG began to come into its own when there was a surge of ARGs that extended the worlds of related television shows onto the Internet and into the real world. As with "Push, Nevada", ABC led the way, launching three TV tie-in ARGs in 2006: "Kyle XY", Ocular Effect (for the show "Fallen") and The Lost Experience (for the show "Lost"). ABC joined with Channel 4 in the UK and Australia's Channel 7 in promoting a revamped website for The Hanso Foundation. The site was focused on a fictitious company prevalent in the storyline of the TV series, and the game was promoted through television advertisements run during "Lost" episodes. The Fallen Alternate Reality Game was launched in tandem with the "Fallen" TV movie for ABC Family and was originally conceived by Matt Wolf and created by Matt Wolf (Double Twenty Productions) in association with Xenophile Media. Wolf accepted the Emmy for The Fallen Alternate Reality Game at the 59th Annual Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 8, 2007.


title: Alternate reality game

text: launched through an in-show reference to the website for Primatech Paper, a company from the show, which turned out to be real. Text messages and emails led players who applied for "employment" at the site to secret files on the show's characters.


title: Alternate reality game

text: In May 2007, the BBC commissioned Kudos and Hoodlum to produce an interactive ARG for their flagship drama series "Spooks", "Spooks Interactive". The game enlists players to become MI5 agents who join the Section D team on missions crucial to the security of the UK and launched on 26 September. In 2008 it won the Interactivity Award at the British Academy Television Awards and the Interactive Innovation – Content Award at the British Academy Craft Awards.


title: Alternate reality game

text: The 9 November 2007 episode of "Numb3rs" entitled "Primacy" featured alternate reality gaming, and launched the ARG Chain Factor, which centered on players using a flash-based puzzle game to unknowingly destroy the world's economy on the whim of one of the characters from the "Primacy" episode.


title: Alternate reality game

text: In January 2008, BBC launched "Whack the Mole" for the CBBC show "M.I. High", in which viewers are asked to become M.I. High field agents and complete tasks to capture a mole that has infiltrated the organization.


title: Alternate reality game

text: On 16 March 2011, BitTorrent promoted an open licensed version of the feature film "Zenith" in the United States. Users who downloaded the BitTorrent client software were also encouraged to download and share Part One of three parts of the film. On 4 May 2011, Part Two of the film was made available on VODO. The episodic release of the film, supplemented by an ARG transmedia marketing campaign, created a viral effect and over a million users downloaded the movie.


title: Alternate reality game

text: USA Network sponsored a game in 2016 for the TV show "Mr. Robot", that started with a phone number shown on a box in a video clip. Prizes were awarded to the first 509 solvers.


title: Alternate reality game

text: That same year, "Gravity Falls" creator Alex Hirsch conducted an ARG called "Cipher Hunt". Hirsch started the game with the posting of an initial clue on his Twitter account, followed by the rules. It lasted from July to August 2016, and its goal was to find the clues hidden in various places around the world leading to the location of a statue of Bill Cipher. Said statue could be seen briefly after the ending credits of the .


title: Alternate reality game

text: In 2021, the "Doctor Who" bosses began an ARG called "FindTheDoctor". The game initially began on 26 July with the San Diego Comic Con panel revealing the trailer for Series 13, in which at the very end screen an barely visible "/mystery" was written at the bottom, which lead to a page on the "Doctor Who" website containing the ""Welcome to a mystery across space and time. Work together to solve the hiDden clues and reveal a password below. #FindTheDoctor It begins: 13:13.13"". Real enough on 13 August at the time 13:13, a new "hidden" video was added to the "Doctor Who" YouTube Channel, again containing the a message at the end, this time the letter C. The clues extended to Google Maps as well as to museums around the United Kingdom and the ultimate goal was to uncover a password for a locked page on the "Doctor Who" website. The entire thing was made up in order to engage fans around the world in anticipation for the upcoming Series 13, the final adventures of the then-current Thirteenth Doctor actor Jodie Whittaker and showrunner Chris Chibnall.


title: Alternate reality game

text: ARG are traditionally punctual events, mostly because they first appeared as promotional stunts and as their reactive nature requires massive resources to keep running. However, Alice & Smith, the company behind Funcom and "" started a crowdfunding campaign in 2014 to create a "permanent" ARG (PARG) called "The Black Watchmen", which would run until players stop subscribing and funding the project. The campaign started with a smaller ARG in which a player flew from Dallas to Montreal to live the final mission in real-life. The results of the crowdfunding campaign can be seen on Kickstarter, and the game was released on Steam in June 2015.


title: Alternate reality game

text: The permanent ARG "HUMINT" by Cold Code Labs claimed to follow in the footsteps of "The Black Watchmen" as a persistent ARG while adding location-based mobile game technology, in a Cold War-themed setting. Meta-Earth is a permanent ARG that was released in April of 2022 and allows players to roll-in their character from other alternate reality games. It is developed by Ten Rings.


title: Alternate reality game

text: ARGs have been recognized by the mainstream entertainment world: The Ocular Effect, an ARG promoting the TV movie "The Fallen" and produced in the autumn of 2007 by Xenophile Media Inc. was awarded a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Achievement for an Interactive Television Program. Xenophile Media Inc.'s ReGenesis Extended Reality Game won an International Interactive Emmy Award in 2007 and in April 2008 The Truth About Marika won the iEmmy for Best Interactive TV service. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts recognizes Interactivity as a category in the British Academy Television Awards.


title: Alternate reality game

text: Likewise, Year Zero was widely heralded following its release. Such acclaim is signified in the ARG's Grand Prix Cyber Lions award, viewed as "the most prestigious of all advertising awards," at Cannes. Adweek published a quote from the selection committee on the award decision, explaining that "42 Entertainment's [viral campaign for Nine Inch Nails] impressed the jury because of its use of a variety of media, from outdoor to guerrilla to online, and how digital [media] can play a central role of a big idea campaign."


title: Alternate reality game

text: In turn, Why So Serious also won a Grand Prix Award, alongside a Webby for interactive advertising. World Without Oil was recognized for its achievements, too, earning the Activism award at the 2008 SXSW Web Awards.


title: Alternate reality game

text: Project Architeuthis, created for the U.S. Navy as a recruiting device for its cryptology division, won numerous awards, including the 2015 Warc Grand Prix for Social Strategy.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted 11 years, enveloped the country, and left over 50,000 dead.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: During the first year of the war, the RUF took control of large swathes of territory in eastern and southern Sierra Leone, which were rich in alluvial diamonds. The government's ineffective response to the RUF, and the disruption in government diamond production, precipitated a military "coup d'état" in April 1992 by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC). By the end of 1993, the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) had succeeded in pushing the RUF rebels back to the Liberian border, but the RUF recovered and fighting continued. In March 1995, Executive Outcomes (EO), a South Africa-based private military company, was hired to repel the RUF. Sierra Leone installed an elected civilian government in March 1996, and the retreating RUF signed the Abidjan Peace Accord. Under UN pressure, the government terminated its contract with EO before the accord could be implemented, and hostilities recommenced.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In May 1997, a group of disgruntled SLA officers staged a coup and established the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) as the new government of Sierra Leone. The RUF joined with the AFRC to capture Freetown with little resistance. The new government, led by Johnny Paul Koroma, declared the war over. A wave of looting, rape, and murder followed the announcement. Reflecting international dismay at the overturning of the civilian government, Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) forces intervened and retook Freetown on behalf of the government, but they found the outlying regions more difficult to pacify.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In January 1999, world leaders intervened diplomatically to promote negotiations between the RUF and the government. The Lome Peace Accord, signed on 27 March 1999, was the result. Lome gave Foday Sankoh, the commander of the RUF, the vice presidency and control of Sierra Leone's diamond mines in return for a cessation of the fighting and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to monitor the disarmament process. RUF compliance with the disarmament process was inconsistent and sluggish, and by May 2000, the rebels were advancing again upon Freetown.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: As the UN mission began to fail, the United Kingdom declared its intention to intervene in the former colony and Commonwealth member in an attempt to support the weak government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. With help from a renewed UN mandate and Guinean air support, the British Operation Palliser finally defeated the RUF, taking control of Freetown. On 18 January 2002, President Kabbah declared the Sierra Leone Civil War over.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In 1961, Sierra Leone gained its independence from the United Kingdom. In the years following the death of Sierra Leone’s first prime minister Sir Milton Margai in 1964, politics in the country were increasingly characterized by corruption, mismanagement, and electoral violence that led to a weak civil society, the collapse of the education system, and, by 1991, an entire generation of dissatisfied youth were attracted to the rebellious message of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and joined the organization. Albert Margai, unlike his half-brother Milton, did not see the state as a steward of the public, but instead as a tool for personal gain and self-aggrandizement and even used the military to suppress multi-party elections that threatened to end his rule.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: When Siaka Stevens entered politics in 1968, Sierra Leone was a constitutional democracy. When he stepped down, seventeen years later, Sierra Leone was a one-party state. Stevens' rule, sometimes called "the 17 year plague of locusts", saw the destruction and perversion of every state institution. Parliament was undermined, judges were bribed, and the treasury was bankrupted to finance pet projects that supported insiders. When Stevens failed to co-opt his opponents, he often resorted to state sanctioned executions or exile.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In 1985, Stevens stepped down, and handed the nation’s preeminent position to Major General Joseph Momoh, a notoriously inept leader who maintained the status quo. During his seven-year tenure, Momoh welcomed the spread of unchecked corruption and complete economic collapse. With the state unable to pay its civil servants, those desperate enough ransacked and looted government offices and property. Even in Freetown, important commodities like gasoline were scarce. But the government hit rock bottom when it could no longer pay schoolteachers and the education system collapsed. Since only wealthy families could afford to pay private tutors, the bulk of Sierra Leone’s youth during the late 1980s roamed the streets aimlessly. As infrastructure and public ethics deteriorated in tandem, much of Sierra Leone’s professional class fled the country. By 1991, Sierra Leone was ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world, even though it benefited from ample natural resources including diamonds, gold, bauxite, rutile, iron ore, fish, coffee, and cocoa.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The Eastern and Southern districts in Sierra Leone, most notably the Kono and Kenema districts, are rich in alluvial diamonds, and more importantly, are easily accessible by anyone with a shovel, sieve, and transport. Since their discovery in the early 1930s, diamonds have been critical in financing the continuing pattern of corruption and personal aggrandizement at the expense of needed public services, institutions, and infrastructure. The phenomenon whereby countries with an abundance of natural resources tend to nonetheless be characterized by lower levels of economic development is known as the "resource curse".


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The presence of diamonds in Sierra Leone invited and led to the civil war in several ways. First, the highly unequal benefits resulting from diamond mining made ordinary Sierra Leoneans frustrated. Under the Stevens government, revenues from the National Diamond Mining Corporation (known as DIMINCO) – a joint government/DeBeers venture – were used for the personal enrichment of Stevens and of members of the government and business elite who were close to him. When DeBeers pulled out of the venture in 1984, the government lost direct control of the diamond mining areas. By the late 1980s, almost all of Sierra Leone's diamonds were being smuggled and traded illicitly, with revenues going directly into the hands of private investors. In this period the diamond trade was dominated by Lebanese traders and later (after a shift in favor on the part of the Momoh government) by Israelis with connections to the international diamond markets in Antwerp. Momoh made some efforts to reduce smuggling and corruption in the diamond mining sector, but he lacked the political clout to enforce the law. Even after the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) took power in 1992, ostensibly with the goal of reducing corruption and returning revenues to the state, high-ranking members of the government sold diamonds for their personal gain and lived extravagantly off the proceeds.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Diamonds also helped to arm the RUF rebels who used funds harvested from the alluvial diamond mines to purchase weapons and ammunition from neighbouring Guinea, Liberia, and even SLA soldiers. But the most significant connection between diamonds and war is that the presence of easily extractable diamonds provided an incentive for violence. To maintain control of important mining districts like Kono, thousands of civilians were expelled and kept away from these important economic centers.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Although diamonds were a significant motivating and sustaining factor, there were other means of profiting from the Sierra Leone Civil War. For instance, gold mining was prominent in some regions. Even more common was cash crop farming through the use of forced labor. Looting during the Sierra Leone Civil War did not just center on diamonds, but also included that of currency, household items, food, livestock, cars, and international aid shipments. For Sierra Leoneans who did not have access to arable land, joining the rebel cause was an opportunity to seize property through the use of deadly force. But the most important reason why the civil war should not be entirely attributed to conflict over the economic benefits incurred from the alluvial diamond mines is that the pre-war frustrations and grievances did not just concern that of the diamond sector. More than twenty years of poor governance, poverty, corruption and oppression created the circumstances for the rise of the RUF, as ordinary people yearned for change.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: As a result of the First Liberian Civil War, 80,000 refugees fled neighboring Liberia for the Sierra Leone – Liberian border. This displaced population, composed almost entirely of children, would prove to be an invaluable asset to the invading rebel armies because the refugee and detention centers, populated first by displaced Liberians and later by Sierra Leoneans, helped provide the manpower for the RUF’s insurgency. The RUF took advantage of the refugees, who were abandoned, starving, and in dire need of medical attention, by promising food, shelter, medical care, and looting and mining profits in return for their support. When this method of recruitment failed, as it often did for the RUF, youths were often coerced at the barrel of a gun to join the ranks of the RUF. After being forced to join, many child soldiers learned that the complete lack of law – as a result of the civil war – provided a unique opportunity for self-empowerment through violence and thus continued to support the rebel cause.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Muammar al-Gaddafi both trained and supported Charles Taylor. Gaddafi also helped Foday Sankoh, the founder of Revolutionary United Front.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Russian businessman Viktor Bout supplied Charles Taylor with arms for use in Sierra Leone and had meetings with him about the operations.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The initial rebellion could have easily been quelled in the first half of 1991. But the RUF – despite being both numerically inferior and extremely brutal against civilians – controlled a significant portion of the country by the year’s end. The SLA’s equally poor behavior made this outcome possible. Often afraid to directly confront or unable to locate the elusive RUF, government soldiers were brutal and indiscriminate in their search for rebels or sympathizers among the civilian population. After retaking captured towns, the SLA would perform a ‘mopping up’ operation in which the towns people were transported to concentration camp styled ‘strategic hamlets’ far from their homes in Eastern and Southern Sierra Leone under the pretense of separating the population from the insurgents. However, in many cases, this was followed by much looting and theft after the villagers were evacuated.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The SLA's sordid behavior inevitably led to the alienation of many civilians and pushed some Sierra Leoneans to join the rebel cause. With morale low and rations even lower, many SLA soldiers discovered that they could do better by joining with the rebels in looting civilians in the countryside instead of fighting against them. The local civilians referred to these soldiers as ‘sobels’ or ‘soldiers by day, rebels by night’ because of their close ties to the RUF. By mid-1993, the two opposing sides became virtually indistinguishable. For these reasons, civilians increasingly relied on an irregular force called the Kamajors for their protection.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: A grassroots militia force, the Kamajors operated invisibly in familiar territory and was a significant impediment to marauding government and RUF troops. For displaced and unprotected Sierra Leonans, joining the Kamajors was a means of taking up arms to defend family and home due to the SLA’s perceived incompetence and active collusion with the rebel enemy. The Kamajors clashed with both government and RUF forces and was instrumental in countering government soldiers and rebels who were looting villages. The success of the Kamajors raised calls for its expansion, and members of street gangs and deserters were also co-opted into the organization. However, the Kamajors became corrupt and deeply involved in extortion, murder, and kidnappings by the end of the conflict.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Within one year of fighting, the RUF offensive had stalled, but it still remained in control of large territories in Eastern and Southern Sierra Leone leaving many villages unprotected while also disrupting food and government diamond production. Soon the government was unable to pay both its civil servants and the SLA. As a result, the Momoh regime lost all remaining credibility and a group of disgruntled junior officers led by Captain Valentine Strasser overthrew Momoh on 29 April 1992. Strasser justified the coup and the establishment of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) by referencing the corrupt Momoh regime and its inability to resuscitate the economy, provide for the people of Sierra Leone, and repel the rebel invaders. The NPRC’s coup was largely popular because it promised to bring peace to Sierra Leone. But the NPRC’s promise would prove to be short lived.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In March 1993, with much help from ECOMOG troops provided by Nigeria, the SLA recaptured the Koidu and Kono diamond districts and pushed the RUF to the Sierra Leone – Liberia border. The RUF was facing supply problems as the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) gains inside Liberia were restricting the ability of Charles Taylor’s NPFL to trade with the RUF. By the end of 1993, many observers thought that the war was over because for the first time in the conflict the Sierra Leone Army was able to establish itself in the Eastern and the Southern mining districts.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: However, with senior government officials neglectful of the conditions faced by SLA soldiers, front line soldiers became resentful of their poor conditions and began helping themselves to Sierra Leone’s rich natural resources. This included alluvial diamonds as well as looting and ‘sell game’, a tactic in which government forces would withdraw from a town but not before leaving arms and ammunition for the roving rebels in return for cash. Renegade SLA soldiers even clashed with Kamajor units on a number of occasions when the Kamajors intervened to halt the looting and mining. The NPRC government also had a motivation for allowing the war to continue, since as long as the country was at war the military government would not be called upon to hand over rule to a democratically elected civilian government. The war dragged on as a low intensity conflict until January 1995 when RUF forces and dissident SLA elements seized the SIEROMCO (bauxite) and Sierra Rutile (titanium dioxide) mines in the Moyamba and Bonthe districts in the country's south west, furthering the government’s economic struggles and enabling a renewed RUF advance on the capital at Freetown.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In March 1995, with the RUF within twenty miles of Freetown, Executive Outcomes, a private military company from South Africa, arrived in Sierra Leone. The government paid EO $1.8 million per month (financed primarily by the International Monetary Fund), to accomplish three goals: return the diamond and mineral mines to the government, locate and destroy the RUF’s headquarters, and operate a successful propaganda program that would encourage local Sierra Leoneans to support the government of Sierra Leone. EO’s military force consisted of 500 military advisers and 3,000 highly trained and well-equipped combat-ready soldiers, backed by tactical air support and transport. Executive Outcomes employed black Angolans and Namibians from apartheid-era South Africa’s former 32 Battalion, with an officer corps of white South Africans. Harper’s Magazine described this controversial unit as a collection of former spies, assassins, and crack bush guerrillas, most of whom had served for fifteen to twenty years in South Africa’s most notorious counter insurgency units.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: As a military force, EO was remarkably effective and conducted a highly successful counter insurgency against the RUF. In just ten days of fighting, EO was able to drive the RUF forces back sixty miles into the interior of the country. EO outmatched the RUF forces in all operations. In just seven months, EO, with support from loyal SLA and the Kamajors battalions, recaptured the diamond mining districts and the Kangari Hills, a major RUF stronghold. A second offensive captured the provincial capital and the largest city in Sierra Leone and destroyed the RUF’s main base of operations near Bo, finally forcing the RUF to admit defeat and sign the Abidjan Peace Accord in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire on 30 November 1996. This period of relative peace also allowed the country to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in February and March 1996. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (of the Sierra Leone People's Party [SLPP]), a diplomat who had worked at the UN for more than 20 years, won the presidential election.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The Abidjan Peace Accord mandated that Executive Outcomes was to pull out within five weeks after the arrival of a neutral peacekeeping force. The main stumbling block that prevented Sankoh from signing the agreement sooner was the number and type of peacekeepers that were to monitor the ceasefire. Additionally, continued Kamajor attacks and the fear of punitive tribunals following demobilization kept many rebels in the bush despite their dire situation. However, in January 1997, the Kabbah government – beset by demands to reduce expenditures by the International Monetary Fund – ordered EO to leave the country, even though a neutral monitoring force had yet to arrive. The departure of EO opened up an opportunity for the RUF to regroup for renewed military attacks. The March 1997 arrest of RUF leader Foday Sankoh in Nigeria also angered RUF members, who reacted with escalated violence. By the end of March 1997, the peace accord had collapsed.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: After the departure of Executive Outcomes, the credibility of the Kabbah government declined, especially among members of the SLA, who saw themselves being eclipsed by both the RUF on one side and the independent but pro-government Kamajors on the other. On 25 May 1997, a group of disgruntled SLA officers freed and armed 600 prisoners from the Pademba Road prison in Freetown. One of the prisoners, Major Johnny Paul Koroma, emerged as the leader of the coup and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) proclaimed itself the new government of Sierra Leone. After receiving the blessing of Foday Sankoh, who was then living under house arrest in Nigeria, members of the RUF – supposedly on its last legs – were ordered out of the bush to participate in the coup. Without hesitation and encountering only light resistance from SLA loyalists, 5,000 rag-tag rebel fighters marched 100 miles and overran the capital. Without fear or reluctance, RUF and SLA dissidents then proceeded to parade peacefully together. Koroma then appealed to Nigeria for the release of Sankoh, appointing the absent leader to the position of deputy chairman of the AFRC. The joint AFRC/RUF leadership then proclaimed that the war had been won, and a great wave of looting and reprisals against civilians in Freetown (dubbed "Operation Pay Yourself" by some of its participants) followed. President Kabbah, surrounded only by his bodyguards, left by helicopter for exile in nearby Guinea.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The AFRC junta was opposed by members of Sierra Leone's civil society such as student unions, journalists associations, women's groups and others, not only because of the violence it unleashed but because of its political attacks on press freedoms and civil rights. The international response to the coup was also overwhelmingly negative. The UN and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) condemned the coup, foreign governments withdrew their diplomats and missions (and in some cases evacuated civilians) from Freetown, and Sierra Leone's membership in the Commonwealth was suspended. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also condemned the AFRC coup and demanded that the new junta return power peacefully to the Kabbah government or risk sanctions and increased military presence by ECOMOG forces.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: ECOMOG’s intervention in Sierra Leone brought the AFRC/RUF rebels to the negotiating table where, in October 1997, they agreed to a tentative peace known as the Conakry Peace Plan. Despite having agreed to the plan, the AFRC/RUF continued to fight. In March 1998, overcoming entrenched AFRC positions, the ECOMOG forces retook the capital and reinstated the Kabbah government, but let the rebels flee without further harassment. The regions lying just beyond Freetown proved much more difficult to pacify. Thanks in part to bad road conditions, lack of support aircraft, and a revenge driven rebel force, ECOMOG’s offensive ground to a halt just outside Freetown. ECOMOG’s forces suffered from several weakness, the most important being, poor command and control, low morale, poor training in counterinsurgency, low manpower, limited air and sea capability, and poor funding.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Unable to consistently defend itself against the AFRC/RUF rebels, the Kabbah regime was forced to make serious concessions in the Lome Peace Agreement of July 1999.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Given that Nigeria was due to recall its ECOMOG forces without achieving a tactical victory over the RUF, the international community intervened diplomatically to promote negotiations between the AFRC/RUF rebels and the Kabbah regime. The Lome Peace Accord, signed on 7 July 1999, is controversial in that Sankoh was pardoned for treason, granted the position of Vice President, and made chairman of the commission that oversaw Sierra Leone’s diamond mines. In return, the RUF was ordered to demobilize and disarm its armies under the supervision of an international peacekeeping force which would initially be under the authority of both ECOMOG and the United Nations. The Lome Peace Agreement was the subject of protests both in Sierra Leone and by international human rights groups abroad, mainly because it handed over to Sankoh, the commander of the brutal RUF, the second most powerful position in the country, and control over all of Sierra Leone’s lucrative diamond mines.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Following the Lome Peace Agreement, the security situation in Sierra Leone was still unstable because many rebels refused to commit themselves to the peace process. The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration camps were an attempt to convince the rebel forces to literally exchange their weapons for food, clothing, and shelter. During a six-week quarantine period, former combatants were taught basic skills that could be put to use in a peaceful profession after they return to society. After 2001, DDR camps became increasingly effective and by 2002 they had collected over 45,000 weapons and hosted over 70,000 former combatants.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In October 1999 the UN established the United Nations Mission to Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). The main objective of UNAMSIL was to assist with the disarmament process and enforce the terms established under the Lome Peace Agreement. Unlike other previous neutral peacekeeping forces, UNAMSIL brought serious military power. The original multi-national force was commanded by General Vijay Jetley of India. Jetley later resigned and was replaced by Lieutenant General Daniel Opande of Kenya in November 2000. Jetley had accused Nigerian political and military officials at the top of the UN mission of "sabotaging peace" in favor of national interests, and alleged that Nigerian army commanders illegally mined diamonds in league with RUF. The Nigerian army called for General Jetley's resignation immediately after the report was released, saying they could no longer work with him.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: UNAMSIL forces began arriving in Sierra Leone in December 1999. At that time the maximum number of troops to be deployed was set at 6,000. Only a few months later, though, in February 2000, a new UN resolution authorized the deployment of 11,000 combatants. In March 2001 that number was increased to 17,500 troops, making it at the time the largest UN force in existence, and UNAMSIL soldiers were deployed in the RUF-held diamond areas. Despite these numbers, UNAMSIL was frequently rebuffed and humiliated by RUF rebels, being subjected to attacks, obstruction and disarmament. In the most egregious example, in May 2000 over 500 UNAMSIL peacekeepers were captured by the RUF and held hostage. Using the weapons and armored personnel carriers of the captured UNAMSIL troops, the rebels advanced towards Freetown, taking over the town of Lunsar to its northeast. For over a year later, the UNAMSIL force meticulously avoided intervening in RUF controlled mining districts lest another major incident occur. After the UNAMSIL force had essentially rearmed the RUF, a call for a new military intervention was made to save the UNAMSIL hostages and the government of Sierra Leone. After Operation Palliser and Operation Khukri the situation stabilized and UNAMSIL gain control.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In late 1999, the UN Security Council asked Russia for participation in a peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone. The Federation Council of Russia decided to send 4 Mil Mi-24 attack helicopters with 115 crew and technical personnel into Sierra Leone. Many of them had combat experience in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The destroyed Lungi civil airfield in the suburbs of Freetown became their base of operations. A Ukrainian Detached Recovery and Restoring Battalion, and aviation team were stationed near Freetown. The two post-Soviet troop contingents got along well, and left together after the UN mandate for peacekeeping operations ended in June 2005.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Operation Khukri was a unique multinational operation launched in the United Nations Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), involving India, Nepal, Ghana, Britain and Nigeria. The aim of the operation was to break the two-month-long siege laid by armed cadres of the RUF around two companies of 5/8 Gorkha Rifles (GR) Infantry Battalion Group at Kailahun by affecting a fighting break out and redeploying them with the main battalion at Daru. About 120 special forces operators commanded by Major (now Lt. Col.) Harinder Sood were airlifted from New Delhi to spearhead the mission to rescue 223 men of the Gorkha Rifles who were surrounded and besieged by the RUF rebels for over 75 days. The mission was a total success which resulted in safe rescue of all the besieged men and inflicted several hundreds of casualties on the RUF, where Indian troops were part of a multinational UN peacekeeping force.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In May 2000, the situation on the ground had deteriorated to such an extent that British paratroopers were deployed in Operation Palliser to evacuate foreign nationals and establish order. They stabilized the situation, and were the catalyst for a ceasefire that helped end the war. The British forces, under the command of Brigadier David Richards, expanded their original mandate, which was limited to evacuating commonwealth citizens, and now aimed to save UNAMSIL from the brink of collapse. At the time of the British intervention in May 2000, half of the country remained under the RUF’s control. The 1,200 man British ground force – supported by air and sea power – shifted the balance of power in favor of the government and the rebel forces were easily repelled from the areas beyond Freetown.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Several factors led to the end of the civil war. First, Guinean cross-border bombing raids against villages believed to be bases used by the RUF working in conjunction with Guinean dissidents were very effective in routing the rebels. Another factor encouraging a less combative RUF was a new UN resolution that demanded that the government of Liberia expel all RUF members, end their financial support of the RUF, and halt the illicit diamond trade. Finally, the Kamajors, feeling less threatened now that the RUF was disintegrating in the face of a robust opponent, failed to incite violence like they had done in the past. With their backs against the wall and without any international support, the RUF forces signed a new peace treaty within a matter of weeks.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: On 18 January 2002, President Kabbah declared the eleven-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War officially over. By most estimates, over 50,000 people had died during the war. Countless more fell victim to the reprehensible and perverse behavior of the combatants. In May 2002 President Kabbah and his SLPP, won landslide victories in the presidential and legislative elections. Kabbah was re-elected for a five-year term. The RUF's political wing, the Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP), failed to win a single seat in parliament. The elections were marked by irregularities and allegations of fraud, but not to a degree that significantly affected the outcome.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: During the Sierra Leone Civil War numerous atrocities were committed including war rape, mutilation, and mass murder, causing many of the perpetrators to be tried in international criminal courts, and the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission. A 2001 overview noted that there had been "serious and grotesque human rights violations" in Sierra Leone since its civil war began in 1991. The rebels, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), had "committed horrendous abuses". The report noted that "25 times as many people" had already been killed in Sierra Leone than had been killed in Kosovo at the point when the international community decided to take action. "In fact, it has been pointed out by many that the atrocities in Sierra Leone have been worse than was seen in Kosovo."


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Cry Freetown the 2000 documentary film directed by Sorious Samura shows accounts of the victims of the Sierra Leone Civil War and depicts the most brutal period with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels burning houses and The ECOMOG soldiers summarily executing suspects. Sorious Samura films Nigerian soldiers executing suspects without trial including women and children.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: On 28 July 2002 the British withdrew a 200-strong military contingent that had been in country since the summer of 2000, leaving behind a 140-strong military training team with orders to professionalize the SLA and Navy. In November 2002, UNAMSIL began a gradual reduction from a peak level of 17,800 personnel. Under pressure from the British, the withdrawal slowed, so that by October 2003 the UNAMSIL contingent still stood at 12,000 men. As peaceful conditions continued through 2004, however, UNAMSIL drew down its forces to slightly over 4,100 by December 2004. The UN Security Council extended UNAMSIL’s mandate until June 2005 and again until December 2005. UNAMSIL completed the withdrawal of all troops in December 2005 and was succeeded by the United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL).


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The Lome Peace Accord called for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to provide a forum for both victims and perpetrators of human rights violations during the conflict to tell their stories and facilitate healing. Subsequently, the Sierra Leonean government asked the UN to help set up a Special Court for Sierra Leone, which would try those who "bear the greatest responsibility for the commission of crimes against humanity, war crimes and serious violations of international humanitarian law, as well as crimes under relevant Sierra Leonean law within the territory of Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996." Both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Special Court began operating in the summer of 2002.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: After the war many of the children who were abducted and used in the conflict needed some form of rehabilitation, debriefing and care after the conflict came to an end. Only a handful of the children could be immediately sent home after six weeks of debriefing at a center for ex-combatants. This is due to many of the children suffering from drug withdraw symptoms, brainwashing, physical and mental wounds, as well as a lack of memory of who they were or where they came from before the conflict.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: There was an estimated one to two million displaced persons and refugees who wanted to or needed to be returned to their villages.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Reportedly thousands of small villages had been severely damaged due to looting, and targeted destruction of property that was held by perceived enemies. There was also heavy destruction of clinics and hospitals, leading to a concern about infrastructure stability.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The European Union [EU] sent budgetary support with the support of the IMF, the World Bank and the UK in an effort to stabilize the economy and the government. The amount; €4,75 million was made available by the EU from 2000 to 2001, for the government finance "interalia," and social services. After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force, the government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali an honorary official language in December 2002.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Diamond revenues in Sierra Leone have increased more than tenfold since the end of the conflict, from $10 million in 2000 to about $130 million in 2004, although according to the UNAMSIL surveys of mining sites, "more than 50 per cent of diamond mining still remains unlicensed and reportedly considerable illegal smuggling of diamonds continues".


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: On 13 January 2003, a small group of armed men tried unsuccessfully to break into an armory in Freetown. Former AFRC-junta leader Koroma, after being linked to the raid, went into hiding. In March, the Special Court for Sierra Leone issued its first indictments for war crimes during the civil war. Sankoh, already in custody, was indicted, along with notorious RUF field commander Sam "Mosquito" Bockarie, Koroma, the Minister of Interior and former head of the Civil Defense Force, Samuel Hinga Norman, and several others. Norman was arrested when the indictments were announced, while Bockarie and Koroma remained at large (presumably in Liberia). On 5 May 2003, Bockarie was killed in Liberia. President Taylor expected to be indicted by the Special Court and had feared Bockarie’s testimony. He is suspected of ordering Bockarie's murder, although no indictments are pending.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Several weeks later, word filtered out of Liberia that Koroma had been killed as well, although his death remains unconfirmed. In June the Special Court announced Taylor’s indictment for war crimes. Sankoh died in prison in Freetown on 29 July 2003 from a pulmonary embolism. He had been ailing since a stroke the year prior.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In August 2003 President Kabbah testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on his role during the civil war. On 1 December 2003, Major General Tom Carew, who had been the Chief of Defence Staff for the Government of Sierra Leone and an important figure in the SLA, was reassigned to civilian duties. In June 2007, the Special Court found three of the eleven people indicted – Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu – guilty of war crimes, including acts of terrorism, collective punishments, extermination, murder, rape, outrages upon personal dignity, conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces, enslavement and pillage.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In 2000, the Sierra Leonean journalist, cameraman and editor, Sorious Samura released his documentary "Cry Freetown". The self-funded film depicted the most brutal period of the civil war in Sierra Leone with RUF rebels capturing the capital city in the late 1990s and the subsequent fight by ECOMOG and loyal government forces' to take back control of the city. The film won, among other awards, an Emmy Award and a Peabody.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The documentary movie "Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars" tells the story of a group of refugees who fled to Guinea and created a band to ease the pain of the constant difficulty of living away from home and community after the atrocities of war and mutilation.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The title and lyrics of American rapper Kanye West's 2005 hit song Diamonds from Sierra Leone, from his second studio album Late Registration, were based on one of the key circumstances surrounding the civil war (conflict/blood diamonds). West was inspired to record the song after reading about the issue of conflict diamonds and how their sales were continuing to fuel the violent civil war in Sierra Leone. The song won Best Rap Song at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, and won one of the Pop Awards at the 2006 BMI London Awards, before being named by "Slant Magazine" as among the best singles of the 2000s decade.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The civil war also served as the background for the 2006 movie "Blood Diamond", starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly. During the end of the movie "Lord of War", Yuri Orlov (played by Nicolas Cage) sells arms to militias during the civil war. The militias are allied with André Baptiste (Eamonn Walker), who is based on Charles Taylor.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: The use of children in both the rebel (RUF) military and the government militia is depicted in Ishmael Beah's 2007 memoir, "A Long Way Gone".


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Mariatu Kamara wrote about being attacked by the rebels and having her hands chopped off in her book "The Bite of the Mango". Ishmael Beah wrote a foreword to Kamara's book.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: In the 2012 Documentary "La vita non perde valore", by Wilma Massucco, former child soldiers and some of their victims talk about the way how they feel and live, ten years after the Sierra Leone civil war ending, thanks to the personal, familiar and social rehabilitation provided to them by Father Giuseppe Berton, an Italian missionary of the Xaverian order. The documentary has been analyzed in different Universities, becoming subject of various degrees.


title: Sierra Leone Civil War

text: Jonathon Torgovnik wrote about eight women that he interviewed after the war had ended in his book; "Girl Soldier: Life After War in Sierra Leone". In the book he describes the experiences of the eight women who were abducted during the war and forced to fight in it.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak (; born 1975) is an Emirati Government official and business leader. Al Mubarak holds senior positions within the Government of Abu Dhabi, including as: a member of the Executive Council since 2006, a member of the Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs, and as the founding chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority. He also fulfills responsibilities for the UAE Federal government and has served as Presidential Special Envoy to the People's Republic of China since 2018.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Al Mubarak is chief executive officer and managing director of Mubadala Investment Company. He is also chairman of Manchester City FC, Melbourne City FC and Mumbai City FC. Al Mubarak is on the board of the UAE business ADNOC, and serves as the Chairman of the Boards of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, and Emirates Global Aluminium.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: He is from a family of diplomats, religious and judicial scholars. Khaldoon's father was the former UAE diplomat and ambassador to France, Khalifa Ahmed Abdulaziz Al-Mubarak, who was assassinated in Paris in 1984.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Khaldoon's grandfather was the late (Al Sheikh) Ahmed Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Mubarak, former Judge and Chairman of the Shari'a Judicial Department in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, he was appointed by founder of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. His great-grandfather Professor (Al Sheikh) Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Mubarak, a judicial scholar, also played a significant role to the UAE educational system, where he established the country's first school in the Emirate of Dubai; he was an advisor to Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Khaldoon has three siblings, two of whom are senior government officials: Rasha; Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, managing director and board member of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi and the managing director for the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund; and Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi and member of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and Chairman of Aldar Properties PJSC.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Khaldoon attended the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. In 1997, he obtained a degree in Economics and Finance from Tufts University.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Al Mubarak has worked for the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and the UAE Offsets Group. He was executive vice-president-corporate of Dolphin Energy.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Al Mubarak has interests in mining projects in South America, specifically in Colombia, as he directs the state-owned Mubadala Investment Group, the company that owns Minesa, a company created in 2013 to obtain the exploitation license, from the Colombian government, to extract gold from the Páramo de Santurbán, Soto Norte province, Santander department, with reserves calculated in the subsoil of approximately 9 million ounces. There has been fierce opposition from environmentalists and political leaders in the region due to the threat posed by the contamination of the water reserve that nourishes more than 4 million inhabitants, a product of possible mismanagement that Minesa gives to the cyanide and mercury residues necessary to extract the gold as well as the destruction of the páramo ecosystem, becoming even a matter of national and international interest. However, the investment made in the country during the 2010s, seeking the favor of the government and productive sectors of the country in favor of the exploitation of the páramo, is being put at risk as Minesa's request is filed by the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA in "spanish"), declaring deficient the Environmental Impact Study in the area made by the mining company. After an appeal process by Minesa, the ANLA ordered in January 2021 the final file of the environmental license for the mining megaproject.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Al Mubarak was appointed CEO and managing director of the government-owned investment company Mubadala Development. In 2017 he was appointed managing director and chief executive officer of the Mubadala Investment Company, after Mubadala Development merged with International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC). In March 2020, Mubadala Investment Company was managing a $230 billion portfolio. The company owns stakes in numerous companies, including a 5 percent share in Ferrari, an 8.1 percent share in AMD, and a 7.5 percent share in the Carlyle Group. In May 2005, he was appointed vice-chairman of Oasis International Leasing, an Abu Dhabi-based leasing company. Through Mubadala Investment Company, Al Mubarak is vice-chairman of Piaggio Aero, and vice-chairman of LeasePlan. During Al Mubarak's tenure Mubadala invested into new markets, among them projects of Brazilian magnate Eike Batista.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: He has been characterized as "one of the royal family’s most trusted advisers" and having "a close relationship with the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan." When the Abu Dhabi government was restructured in 2006, Al Mubarak became chairman of Executive Affairs Authority and a member of the Executive Council for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. He is also an Abu Dhabi Education Council member, a director of the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development (ABCED), and chairman of the Organization & Administration Department. Al Mubarak is co-chair of the United States Chamber of Commerce's US–U.A.E. Business Council, which was established in 2007, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Media Zone Authority, and vice-chairman of the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council which was established in 2007.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Al Mubarak is also a board member of the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) of the Government of Abu Dhabi and the chairman of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. He is also co-chair of the Abu Dhabi-Singapore Joint Forum. Within the UAE, Mubarak is considered to be one of the key investors, and plays a major role in the Economic diversity plan to move away from oil and put more focus into aerospace, manufacturing and utilities. He sits on boards including ALDAR Properties, the Emirates Foundation and the First Abu Dhabi Bank, which was formed by a merger of First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi. He is the chairman of Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA), an aluminum conglomerate. Al Mubarak is chairman of the advisory board for the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS), which is a joint initiative by the UAE Ministry of Economy and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). In 2018, Al Mubarak was appointed as the first Presidential Special Envoy to China by UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Al Mubarak is a member of the Board of Trustees for New York University, and oversaw the development of a campus in Abu Dhabi. Al Mubarak was the first chairman of board of Imperial College London Diabetes Center (ICLDC) which opened in Abu Dhabi in 2006.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Al Mubarak, as chairman of the Abu Dhabi Motor Sport Management Company (ADMM), worked to bring auto racing to the region and negotiated the deal with FIA for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula One motor race. The deal was officially announced in early 2007 at the Abu Dhabi F1 Festival in the UAE.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: In early September 2008, and after negotiations led by Dubai-born businessman Sulaiman Al-Fahim on behalf of the Abu Dhabi side, the owners of English Premier League football club Manchester City, including chairman Thaksin Shinawatra, agreed to sell the entirety of their shares to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi. On Tuesday 23 September 2008, the deal was concluded and the shares were transferred to Abu Dhabi United Group, a United Arab Emirates-based private equity firm owned by Sheikh Mansour, in a deal that was both welcomed and questioned by some observers. In September 2008, the new owner appointed Al Mubarak as chairman of the board of directors of the club, with Garry Cook as Chief Executive. Cook would later resign in 2011 and be replaced by Ferran Soriano


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: On 14 May 2011, City won the F.A. Cup, their first silverware after a drought of 35 years, by beating Stoke City F.C. 1–0 at the final. On 13 May 2012, with two goals scored in stoppage time in the last game of the season, played at their home stadium, and amidst "scenes of near bedlam," Manchester City were crowned champions of the Premier League, winning the top-division title again, for the first time since the 1967–68 season. The club's finances reached a loss of £98 million loss in 2011–12 but improved to show an £11 million profit in 2014–15, and then in the 2015–16 season a profit of £20.5 million with "record" revenues of £398.1 million.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Since 2013, Mubarak is also the chairman of City Football Group, a holding company that invests in and manages various international football-related businesses, including Manchester City FC, New York City FC, Mumbai City FC and Melbourne City FC. In 2019, the City Football Group decided under his leadership to sell a 10 per cent stake to Silver Lake for $500 million.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: A decade after the UAE acquired Manchester City, documents by Football Leaks revealed that the Abu Dhabi owner and chairman together circumvented the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, which were introduced by UEFA. Mansour bin Zayed and Khaldoon Al Mubarak were essentially alleged by rights groups of attempting to “sportswash” the “deeply tarnished image” of their country by funneling money into the club.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: In 2018, a report by German magazine "Der Spiegel", based on leaked internal emails and documents, alleged that Sheikh Mansour's Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) financed the sponsorship payments himself. In order to escape the FFP rules, direct money from Emirati owners was wired to sponsor companies based in UAE, including Etihad Airways and Aabar Investment, which was then transferred into the club. ADUG's accounts were managed by Mubarak's Abu Dhabi government agency, Executive Affairs Authority (EAA). Besides, the money flows from government into the team were approved by Mubarak. The Emirati owners also created a “closed payment loop”, where they set up a shell company, Fordham Sports Management, to pay players for their image rights. Usually players are paid by the club for their image rights. But for City, it was Fordham, which received £11 million annually from the Abu Dhabi owners. The channel allowed the club to hide expenditure, and to save €30 million in marketing income. A main person involved in such deals and negotiations between Abu Dhabi and City was Simon Pearce, an Australian who worked in EAA. Before making any multimillion-euro transfers to the club, Pearce was supposed to seek for permission from the chairman, Mubarak, who would approve all the transactions.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Manchester City replied to the reports stating that they were based on “hacked or stolen” emails or documents, but did not say that the leaked emails were not fake. In March 2019, UEFA opened the investigation into the alleged breach of FFP rules by the City owner and the chairman. In February 2020, the club was banned from the Champions League for 2 years, with a fine of €30 million. But, in July 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) lifted the ban and reduced the fine to €10 million, stating that majority of the violations were “either not established or time-barred”. In April 2022, leaked emails were re-published by Der Spiegel. The report claimed that Manchester City was being investigated by the Premier League in terms of three allegations– The club pressured underage players to sign with City, disguising owner's funding as sponsorship payments, and secretly paid compensation to Roberto Mancini through Al Jazira Club.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: Al Mubarak is married to Nadia Sehweil. The couple first met when they were both in high school, and they have three children. Nadia, who is of Palestinian descent, runs a yoga, pilates, and dance studio called Bodytree Studio in Abu Dhabi with her mother.


title: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

text: In 2007, Al Mubarak was made Commander of the Star of the Order of the Italian Solidarity for supporting the "economic relationship" between Italy and the UAE. In 2013, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and received the "Grand Gwanghwa Medal", the highest class of the South Korean Order of Diplomatic Service Merit. Al Mubarak is a recipient of the Asian Business Leadership Forum's (ABLF) Award in 2016. He was named as one of the 100 world's most influential and powerful Arabs in 2017 and 2018 by Arabian Business.


title: 1Q84

text: The novel's first printing sold out on the day it was released and sales reached a million within a month. The English-language edition of all three volumes, with the first two volumes translated by Jay Rubin and the third by Philip Gabriel, was released in North America and the United Kingdom on October 25, 2011. An excerpt from the novel appeared in the September 5, 2011 issue of "The New Yorker" magazine as "Town of Cats". The first chapter of "1Q84" had also been read as an excerpt in the Selected Shorts series at Symphony Space in New York.


title: 1Q84

text: While well received in Japan, "1Q84" was met with mixed reviews from international critics, who condemned the novel's excessive repetition, clichéd writing, clumsy styling and unyielding plot. "Literary Review" nominated one excerpt from the book for its annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award.


title: 1Q84

text: The events of "1Q84" take place in Tokyo during a fictionalized year of 1984, with the first volume set between April and June, the second between July and September, and the third between October and December.


title: 1Q84

text: The book opens with a woman named as she rides a taxi to a work assignment. She hears the "Sinfonietta" by Leoš Janáček playing on the radio and immediately recognizes it, somehow having detailed knowledge of its history and context. When the taxi gets stuck in a traffic jam on the Shibuya Route of the Shuto Expressway, the driver suggests she climb down an emergency escape to reach her meeting, warning her that it might change the very nature of reality. Aomame follows the driver's advice. Eventually, Aomame makes her way to a hotel in Shibuya and poses as an attendant in order to kill a guest. She performs the murder with an ice pick that leaves no trace on its victim. It is revealed that Aomame's job is to kill men who have committed domestic violence.


title: 1Q84

text: Aomame starts to notice new details about the world that are subtly different. For instance, she notices police officers carrying semi-automatic pistols, having previously carried revolvers. Aomame checks the archives of major newspapers and finds several recent news stories of which she has no recollection. One of these concerns a group of extremists who had a stand-off with police in the mountains of Yamanashi. She concludes she must be living in an alternative reality, which she calls "1Q84," and suspects she entered it upon hearing the "Sinfonietta".


title: 1Q84

text: The novel's other main character, , is introduced. Tengo is a writer and teacher of mathematics at a cram school. , Tengo's editor and mentor, asks him to rewrite , an awkwardly written but promising manuscript by a 17-year-old girl named Eriko Fukada, under the pseudonym "." Komatsu wants to submit the novel for a prize and promote its author as a child prodigy. Tengo has reservations, and wishes to meet with Fuka-Eri and ask for her permission. Once the two meet, Fuka-Eri tells Tengo to do as he likes with the manuscript.


title: 1Q84

text: Soon it becomes clear that Fuka-Eri, who is dyslexic, did not write the manuscript on her own. Tengo's discomfort with the project deepens; to address his concerns, Fuka-Eri takes Tengo to meet her current guardian, , or simply "Sensei" to Fuka-Eri. Tengo learns that Fuka-Eri's parents were members of a commune called . Her father, was Ebisuno's former friend and colleague. Fukada thought of Takashima as a utopia; Ebisuno found it turned people into unthinking robots. Fuka-Eri, or to Ebisuno, was only a child at the time.


title: 1Q84

text: In 1974, Fukada founded a new commune called . Eventually, disagreements led a radical faction of Sakigake to form a new commune called . The Akebono commune eventually had a gunfight with police near in Yamanashi. Shortly after, Fuka-Eri appeared on Ebisuno's doorstep, unable to speak. Ebisuno failed to contact her father, and thereby became her guardian; neither have heard from her parents for seven years.


title: 1Q84

text: While living with Ebisuno, Fuka-Eri composes "Air Chrysalis" by dictating it to , Ebisuno's daughter. The story is about a girl's life in a commune, where she met a group of mystical beings known as . Tengo begins to suspect the events described in the novel actually happened.


title: 1Q84

text: Meanwhile, Aomame recovers psychologically from her killing of the hotel guest. It is revealed that her employer is an older wealthy woman referred to as .


title: 1Q84

text: Aomame is sexually unfettered, and sometimes releases stress by picking up older men in singles bars. During one of these outings, she meets Ayumi (あゆみ), a likeminded policewoman, and they become fast friends. One day, Aomame learns that Ayumi had been strangled to death in a hotel.


title: 1Q84

text: The Dowager introduces Aomame to a 10-year-old girl named Tsubasa (つばさ), who she wishes to adopt. Tsubasa and her parents have been involved with Sakigake. Tsubasa has been forcefully abused by the cult leader, known only as "The Leader". As Tsubasa sleeps in the Dowager's safe house, the "Little People" mentioned in "Air Chrysalis" appear from Tsubasa's mouth and begin creating a cocoon. Tsubasa mysteriously disappears from the safehouse, never to return.


title: 1Q84

text: The Dowager researches Sakigake. In addition to Tsubasa, other prepubescent girls had been sexually abused there. The Dowager asks Aomame to murder the Leader. Aomame meets with the Leader, who is, in fact, Tamotsu Fukada. A physically enormous person with muscle problems that cause him chronic, severe pain, he reveals that he has powers like telekinesis, and has dealings with the "Little People". Knowing that Aomame was sent to kill him, Fukada strikes a deal with her: she will kill him and he will protect Tengo from harm. After a long conversation with the Leader, Aomame kills him and goes into hiding at a prearranged location set up by the Dowager and Tamaru (たまる), her bodyguard.


title: 1Q84

text: Aomame and Tengo's parallel worlds begin to draw closer to each other. Tengo is pursued by a private investigator, Ushikawa (うしかわ), who was hired by Sakigake. He follows Tengo to gather information on "Air Chrysalis". Following the Leader's murder, Ushikawa is also ordered to find Aomame. The novel begins to follow Ushikawa, once a lawyer who made a good living representing criminals. He got into legal trouble and had to abandon his career. His wife and two daughters left him, and ever since he has worked as a private detective.


title: 1Q84

text: Ushikawa focuses on Tengo, Aomame, and the Dowager as suspects in his investigation. He decides to stake out Tengo's apartment to find information on Aomame. He rents a room in the apartment building and sets up a camera to take pictures of the residents. He witnesses Fuka-Eri, who has been hiding at Tengo's apartment, entering the building. Fuka-Eri notices Ushikawa's presence and takes off. Ushikawa later sees Tengo return after a visit to his dying father. Finally, Ushikawa spots Aomame leaving the building after she herself followed Ushikawa there in order to find Tengo.


title: 1Q84

text: Before he can report to Sakigake, Tamaru sneaks into Ushikawa's room and interrogates the detective. Tamaru finds that Ushikawa knows too much, and kills him. Tamaru then phones Ushikawa's contact at Sakigake and has them recover the detective's body.


title: 1Q84

text: Aomame and Tengo eventually find each other via Ushikawa's investigation and with Tamaru's help. They were once childhood classmates, though they had no relationship outside of a single classroom moment where Aomame tightly grasped Tengo's hand. That moment signified a turning point in both Aomame's and Tengo's lives, and they retained a fundamental love for each other. After 20 years, Aomame and Tengo meet again, both pursued by Ushikawa and Sakigake. They manage to make it out of the strange world of "1Q84", which has two visible moons, into a new reality that they assume is their original world, though there are small indications that it is not. The novel ends with them standing in a hotel room, holding hands, looking at the one bright moon in the sky.


title: 1Q84

text: The novel was originally published in Japan in three hardcover volumes by Shinchosha. Book 1 and Book 2 were both published on May 29, 2009; Book 3 was published on April 16, 2010.


title: 1Q84

text: In English translation, Knopf published the novel in the United States in a single volume hardcover edition on October 25, 2011, and released a three volume paperback box-set on May 15, 2015. The cover for the hardcover edition, featuring a transparent dust jacket, was created by Chip Kidd and Maggie Hinders. In the United Kingdom the novel was published by Harvill Secker in two volumes. The first volume, containing Books 1 and 2, was published on October 18, 2011, followed by the second volume, containing Book 3, published on October 25, 2011.


title: 1Q84

text: Murakami spent four years writing the novel after coming up with the opening sequence and title. The title is a play on the Japanese pronunciation of the year 1984 and a reference to George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four". The letter Q and 九, the Japanese number for 9 (typically romanized as "kyū", but as "kew" on the book's Japanese cover), are homophones, which are often used in Japanese wordplay. The title is similar, yet not a reference to Arthur Herzog's 1978 sci-fi novel "IQ 83".


title: 1Q84

text: Before the publication of "1Q84", Murakami stated that he would not reveal anything about the book, following criticism that leaks had diminished the novelty of his previous books. "1Q84" was noted for heavy advance orders despite this secrecy.


title: 1Q84

text: As in many of his previous works, Murakami makes frequent reference to composers and musicians, ranging from Bach to Vivaldi and Leoš Janáček, whose "Sinfonietta" pops up many times at crucial points in the novel. A verse from the 1933 song "It's Only a Paper Moon" by Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg and Billy Rose, appears in the book and is the basis for a recurring theme throughout the work. In addition, Murakami refers to other artists such as Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus and The Rolling Stones.


title: 1Q84

text: The text also quotes a lengthy passage about the Gilyak people from the travel diary "Sakhalin Island" (1893–94) by Anton Chekhov.


title: 1Q84

text: The structure of the novel refers to Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" (alternate "major key" Aomame and "minor key" Tengo story lines forming 48 chapters of Books 1 and 2) and "Goldberg Variations" (Book 3).


title: 1Q84

text: In accordance with many of Murakami's novels, "1Q84" is dominated by religious and sacred concepts. "1Q84" plot is built around a mystical cult and two long-lost lovers who are drawn into a distorted version of reality. "1Q84" assigns further meaning to his previous novels and draws a connection between the supernatural and the disturbing. Readers are often cited as experiencing a religious unease that is similar to postmodern sensibilities. This unease is accomplished through Murakami's creation of characters whose religious prescriptions are presented as oppressive, as exemplified in the character of Leader, who is the founder of the Sakigake cult.


title: 1Q84

text: Religious othering is a major theme in "1Q84", as Murakami places sacred ideas as existing separately from everyday reality. This separation is often cited as emphasizing that Murakami has a view of religion as a negative force, which lies in opposition to normal, everyday life; Murakami himself is quite silent about his personal religious beliefs.


title: 1Q84

text: " 1Q84" received mixed reviews, scoring a 54% rating and a "Not Recommended by Critics" label from the review aggregator iDreamBooks based on 44 reviews (the lowest among Murakami's novels).


title: 1Q84

text: Among the negative reviews, "Time"s Bryan Walsh found "1Q84" to be the weakest of Murakami's novels in part because it eschews his typical first-person narrative. A negative review from "The A.V. Club" had Christian Williams calling the book "stylistically clumsy" with "layers of tone-deaf dialogue, turgid description, and unyielding plot"; he awarded a "D" rating. Also criticizing the book was Sanjay Sipahimalani, who felt the writing was too often lazy and clichéd, the Little People were risible rather than menacing, and that the book had too much repetition. Janet Maslin called the novel's "1000 uneventful pages" "stupefying" in her review for "The New York Times." She had previously picked Murakami's earlier work, "Kafka on the Shore", as one of the best 10 novels in 2005. William Ambler of "Huffington Post" panned the book for being "too absorbed in its own games to offer something so humble as resolution, and too turgid and lumbering to offer any more rarified satisfactions". Writing for "The Wall Street Journal", Sam Sacks criticized the dullness of Murakami's prose in the novel, calling it "banal and cliché-strewn".


title: 1Q84

text: Among the positive reviews, "The Guardian"s Douglas Haddow has called it "a global event in itself, [which] passionately defends the power of the novel". One review described "1Q84" as a "complex and surreal narrative" which "shifts back and forth between tales of two characters, a man and a woman, who are searching for each other." It tackles themes of murder, history, cult religion, violence, family ties and love. In another review for "The Japan Times", it was said that the novel "may become a mandatory read for anyone trying to get to grips with contemporary Japanese culture", calling "1Q84" Haruki Murakami's "magnum opus". Similarly, Kevin Hartnett of "The Christian Science Monitor" considers it Murakami's most intricate work as well as his most ambitious and Charles Baxter of "New York Review of Books" praised the ambition of the novel down to the typography and attention to detail. Malcolm Jones of "Newsweek" considers this novel emblematic of Murakami's mastery of the novel, comparing him to Charles Dickens.


title: 1Q84

text: The novel was longlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize and, in November, placed No. 2 in Amazon.com's top books of the year.


title: 1Q84

text: In 2019, in a survey conducted by "The Asahi Shimbun" amongst 120 Japanese literary experts, "1Q84" was voted the best book published during the Heisei era (1989-2019).


title: 1Q84

text: "Literary Review" nominated the sexual encounter between Tengo and Fuka-eri for the 2011 Bad Sex Award.


The 2020 United States presidential election in Florida was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election, in which all 50 states and the District of Columbia participated. Florida voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent president Donald Trump, and his running mate, Vice President Mike Pence, against Democratic Party nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, and his running mate, United States senator Kamala Harris, of California. Florida has 29 electoral votes in the Electoral College.


title: 2020 United States presidential election in Florida

text: Florida was one of five states as well as Washington, D.C. where Trump received a greater percentage of the two-party vote than he did in 2016.


text: Miami Beach, Florida, which hosted the 1972 Democratic National Convention, was a finalist to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention. The other finalists were Milwaukee and Houston; Milwaukee was chosen. Florida was Trump's state of residency for this election; New York was his home state in 2016. Trump was the first nominee of either major party to be a Florida resident. Biden was selected as the Democratic nominee in the 2020 Florida Democratic presidential primary on March 17, 2020.


text: Before the election, aggregate polls had Biden in the lead in Florida by up to almost 3 percentage points. Despite this, Trump won the state by a 3.4-point margin, improving on his margin from 2016, over Hillary Clinton, by 2.2 points; it was the largest margin for any presidential election in Florida since 2004. The main reason was increased support for Trump among Latino voters in the state, particularly in Miami-Dade County, which Biden carried by 7.4 points, significantly less than Clinton's 29.4-point margin in 2016 and Obama's 23.7-point margin in 2012. Trump carried the Cuban vote with 56%, while Biden carried the Puerto Rican vote with 66%, and Trump and Biden split the South American vote with 50% each. Overall, Biden won 54% of Latinos. In this election, Florida voted 7.8 points right of the nation as a whole, the furthest it has voted from the nation since 1988, when the state voted 14.6 points right of the national result.


text: The Florida secretary of state declared Rocky De La Fuente to be a major candidate and thus worthy of automatic inclusion on the ballot.


text: Three Democrats were still in the race by the time Florida held its primaries: Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, former vice president Joe Biden, and representative from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard.


text: The first Democratic debate took place in Miami over two nights at the end of June 2019. It was broadcast on several of the NBC networks.


text: This election was the first time since 1992, and only the second time since 1960, that Florida went to the losing candidate in a presidential election. It was also the first time since 1960 that both Ohio and Florida have voted for the losing candidate in a presidential election, the first time since 1992 that Florida voted Republican while neighboring Georgia voted Democratic, and the first time since 1992 that Florida voted more Republican than North Carolina. Trump also became the first Republican candidate to win Florida with a majority of the state's popular vote since George W. Bush did so in 2004.


text: Despite his loss statewide, Biden became the first Democrat to win Duval County—consolidated with Jacksonville—since Southerner Jimmy Carter in 1976, and the first Democrat to win Seminole County since Harry Truman in 1948. Biden also flipped Pinellas County back to the Democratic Party. Biden became the first Democrat to win the presidency without carrying St. Lucie County since Bill Clinton in 1992, the first Democrat to win the presidency without carrying Jefferson County since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, and the first Democrat to win the presidency without carrying Monroe County since Grover Cleveland in 1884.


text: Also, this is the first time since 1888 that Florida increased its margin to an incumbent that lost re-election nationally. Florida is one of three states that voted twice for both Barack Obama and Trump, the other two are Ohio and Iowa.


text: United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, located in Atlanta, ruled that ex-felons could not vote in Florida unless they pay fines and fees. Florida voters approved amendment 4 in November 2018, which restored voting for felons upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation, except for those who committed murders or were involved in sex crimes. The Republican-controlled legislature then passed a law which required ex-felons to settle their financial obligation in courts. United States District Court in Tallahassee ruled against it in May, but the circuit court overturned it in September, which was speculated to have created further problems for ex-felons when they voted in November. Civil rights organizations including American Civil Liberties Union opposed the decision by the court.


text: In Miami-Dade County, the majority of Trump support came from the west and the majority of Biden support came from the east. People of Mexican, Haitian, and African descent tended to vote for Biden, while people of Cuban, Chilean and Colombian descent did so for Trump, as well as the critical Venezuelan vote swinging Republican. Trump won approximately two thirds of the vote in Hialeah, whereas it was nearly evenly split four years prior. Sabrina Rodriguez of "Politico" wrote "a vote for Trump has become about more than just him, or even the Republican Party. It's about patriotism." Due to the heavy presence of the Cuban-American community, Hialeah traditionally, as of 2020, leaned towards Republican politics. Trump's coattails played a role in the election of Miami Republicans Carlos A. Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar to the House of Representatives.


text: Residents of Cuban descent often had an antagonism against leftist movements due to associations with Fidel Castro. Trump sought to attract these voters by implementing anti-Cuba policies.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: The economy of Singapore is a highly developed free-market economy with dirigiste characteristics. Singapore's economy has been previously ranked as the most open in the world, the joint 4th-least corrupt, and the most pro-business. Singapore has low tax-rates and the second-highest per-capita GDP in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is headquartered in Singapore.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: Alongside the business-friendly reputation for global and local privately held companies and public companies, various national state-owned enterprises play a substantial role in Singapore's economy. The sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings holds majority stakes in several of the nation's largest bellwether companies, such as Singapore Airlines, SingTel, ST Engineering and MediaCorp. With regards to foreign direct investment (FDI), the Singaporean economy is a major FDI outflow-financier in the world. In addition, throughout its history, Singapore has benefited from the large inward flows of FDI from global investors, financial institutions and multinational corporations (MNCs) due to its highly attractive investment climate along with a stable and conducive political environment throughout its modern years.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: Singapore relies on an extended concept of intermediary trade to entrepôt trade, by purchasing raw goods and refining them for re-export in order to sustain its high levels of export-oriented industrialization, such as in the wafer-fabrication industry and in oil refining. Singapore has a strategic port which makes it more competitive than many of its neighbours in carrying out such entrepôt activities. Singapore's trade-to-GDP ratio is among the highest in the world, as of 2020 the ratio was 320%. The Port of Singapore is the second-busiest in the world by cargo tonnage and is the busiest transshipment port in the world.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: Singapore is also a regional, continental and global hub for the management and operations of various MNCs, because of its strategic location in close proximity with other Asia-Pacific markets, along with its advanced connectivity and infrastructure (airline hub and maritime port with a diverse array of destinations, Gigabit fiber-optic communications, efficient road transport and public transport) and its immigration policies in welcoming global talent. In addition, Singapore is a popular international tourist destination for various types of tourism (Business tourism, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) tourism, Medical tourism, Urban tourism).


title: Economy of Singapore

text: The country's main exports include electronics, chemicals and services. Singapore is the regional hub for wealth management. Water is scarce in Singapore and a sizeable percentage of water is imported from Malaysia, therefore it is defined as a precious resource.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the Singapore's economic landscape. SMEs contribute 43% of Singapore's GDP (S$428 bil) and employ 70% of Singapore's total workforce of 3.35 million.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: Singapore has limited arable land, meaning that Singapore is heavily reliant on agrotechnology parks (particularly vertical hydroponic farms) for agricultural production. As a result, Singapore imports 90% of its food supply and has a wide variety of supplier countries in order to achieve its food security; Singapore is ranked as among the most food secure in the world.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: Apart from its strategic location at the cross-roads of trade between the East and the West, Singapore has little to no natural resources, hence human resources is a pivotal issue for the health of the Singaporean economy; the services and manufacturing sectors of the economy are heavily reliant on a highly-educated and highly-skilled 'Professional, Managerial, Executive and Technical' (PMET) workforce composed of residents and expatriates. The economy of Singapore ranked 2nd overall in the Scientific American Biotechnology ranking in 2014, with the featuring of Biopolis.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: To preserve its international standing and to further its economic prosperity in the 21st century, Singapore has taken measures to promote innovation, to encourage entrepreneurship and to retrain its workforce. The Ministry of Manpower (MoM) has the prime responsibility for setting, adjusting, and enforcing immigration rules for foreign workers, in order to achieve the dual mandate of maximum employment of the local resident population and maximum economic growth for the nation. Approximately 29% of the total population within Singapore are non-resident foreigners, including 255,800 foreign domestic workers (FDWs) who operate in Singapore.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2021 (with IMF staff estimates in 2022–2027). Inflation below 5% is in green.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: In 1819, Stamford Raffles, at the time Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen, established a trading post in Singapore. Raffles had been searching for a new settlement that could be used as an outpost of the British Empire. He left Calcutta and set out to explore much of South-East Asia. At the time, the Dutch Empire and British Empire were close economic rivals. Colonization enabled both parties to gain vast control of resources from civilizations whose economic might was not as advanced. Raffles was looking for a new settlement to replace Malacca that could provide a key economic advantage over the Dutch Empire. The former was handed over to the Dutch during the Treaty of Vienna. Raffles found Singapore to be a perfect location, sitting just of the edge of the Straights of Malacca, nowadays one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. As well, the territory had key economic resources which would benefit the British. There was abundant timber and fresh water, and a natural deep water harbor which would be beneficial for the British fleet. He arrived at the mouth of the Singapore River, where there was a small Malay settlement. At the time Accompanied by William Farquhar, Raffles met with Temenggong Abdul Rahman, the leader of the settlement, to negotiate the right to establish a trading post on the island, under the British Empire. The island was ruled by the Sultan of Johor, Tengku Rahman, who was a heavily influenced by the Dutch and the Bugis. However, the Sultanate was weakened by factional division within his people and Temenggong Abdul Rahman and his officials were loyal to Rahman's elder brother Tengku Hussein (or Tengku Long) who was living in exile in Riau. With the Temenggong's help, Raffles managed to smuggle Hussein back into Singapore. He offered to recognize Hussein as the rightful Sultan of Johor and provide him with a yearly payment; in return, Hussein would grant the British the right to establish a trading post on Singapore. On 6 February 1819 Raffles successfully arranged for the territory to be incorporated into the British Empire as an aforementioned trading post. Much of the wealth accumulated early within the region was to be accredited to it hosting one of the major seaport hubs.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: On 17 November 1869, the Suez Canal opens, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. This allowed for an decrease in travel time, which resulted in a rise in trade volume. The nation saw a $32 million rise just a year after its opening.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: Trade volume reached $105 million Straits dollars in 1879, during which entrepot trade was the main source of income and trade alone accounted for more than one-third of GDP.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: In the 1950s, the region saw social unrest which resulted in colonial powers deciding to relinquish some decision making. With spurs of race riots the colonial powers sought to empower and establish a formidable local government. With most of the unrest resulting from high unemployment, the local government was directed to solve this issue. The Economic Development Board was formed to empower the Singapore government in establishing, developing, and financing industrial undertakings.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: Upon independence from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore faced a small domestic market, and high levels of unemployment and poverty. 70 percent of Singapore's households lived in badly overcrowded conditions, and a third of its people squatted in slums on the city fringes. Unemployment averaged 14 percent, GDP per capita was US$516, and half of the population was illiterate.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: After Lee Kuan Yew was elected, he oversaw significant economic reforms to the country. Structural change and machinery propelled the economy during his tenure. Singapore was a small and densely populated nation, with very few natural resources and little space to grow outwards. Recognizing this, Lee identified that the key advantage that Singapore held was its human capital, and its ability to provide highly educated citizens capable of competing in global industry and trade. On 1 August 1961, the Singapore Government established the Economic Development Board to spearhead an investment drive, and make Singapore an attractive destination for foreign investment. FDI inflows increased greatly over the following decades, and by 2001 foreign companies accounted for 75% of manufactured output and 85% of manufactured exports. Meanwhile, Singapore's savings and investment rates rose among the highest levels in the world, while household consumption and wage shares of GDP fell among the lowest. The beginning of Lee's tenure was marked with success and from 1965–1973, annual growth of real GDP was 12.7%. He directed spending to repair and improve infrastructure. This effort spurred economic productivity and put in place the foundations needed to build up basic industry. As of 2019, Singapore's infrastructure is ranked the best in terms of quality, with a score of 95.4 out of 100. The period from 1973-1979 marked a struggle for Singapore as they pivoted away from basic infrastructure spending and moved towards more sustainable economic progress. The 1973 oil crisis raised government awareness of issues such as economic concentration. It forced the government to hold new forum to discuss ways of adapting the countries economy to economic change. GDP growth during this time was slightly lower than the preceding years, at 8.5% annually. However, unemployment was virtually 0%, and most of the population had experienced great strides in productivity. The government highlighted a focus in technology and education to be the new wave of economic gain. In addition, they identified financial services as a key area in which Singapore could diversify and attract new growth. During this time, the government invested heavily in its budding financial services industry. It managed to minimize inflation and provide workers with the proper equipment and machinery to sustain growth.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: As a result of this investment drive, Singapore's capital stock increased 33 times by 1992, and achieved a tenfold increase in the capital-labour ratio. Living standards steadily rose, with more families moving from a lower-income status to middle-income security with increased household incomes.


title: Economy of Singapore

text: In 1987, Lee claimed that (based on the government's home ownership criterion) 80% of Singaporeans could now be considered to be members of the middle-class. Under Lee, Singapore had both low inflation and unemployment. However, much unlike the economic policies of Greece and the rest of Europe, Singapore followed a policy of individualising the social safety net. This led to a higher than average savings rate and a very sustainable economy in the long run. Without a burdensome welfare state or its likeliness, Singapore has developed a very self-reliant and skilled workforce well versed for a global economy.