title: Reichswehr

text: After the election of Paul von Hindenburg as Reich President in 1925, his status as victor in the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg made him a figure with whom Reichswehr soldiers identified. Seeckt was forced to resign on 9 October 1926 because he had invited the son of the former emperor Wilhelm II to attend army maneuvers in the uniform of the old imperial First Foot Guards without first seeking government approval. It created a storm when the republican press publicized the transgression. Reichswehr Minister Otto Geßler told President von Hindenburg that Seeckt had to resign or he would himself resign. He was supported by the cabinet, so Hindenburg asked for and received Seeckt's resignation.


title: Reichswehr

text: Seeckt was succeeded by Wilhelm Heye, although it was primarily Kurt von Schleicher who gained additional power. Under his leadership, the Reichswehr intervened in politics more often in order to achieve its goals, with the result that the Republic and the Reichswehr moved closer together.


title: Reichswehr

text: In February 1927 the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control, which until then had supervised disarmament, withdrew from Germany.


title: Reichswehr

text: The 1928 decision to build the pocket battleship "Deutschland", which was in compliance with the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles and was a matter of prestige, caused problems for the Social Democrat Reich Chancellor Hermann Müller because his party had campaigned against the ship, but his cabinet members voted for it in order to save the coalition government. For the Reichswehr leadership, the vote was a landmark political decision. The 1929 budget included the first installment for the "Deutschland’s" sister ship, the "Admiral Scheer".


title: Reichswehr

text: The rapprochement between the Republic and the Reichswehr brought the greatest gains to the Reichswehr. It achieved an increase in the defense budget, and criticism of the increase was seen as an attack on the Reichswehr and thus on the state.


title: Reichswehr

text: Because of Reich President Hindenburg’s support for the Reichswehr, the presidential cabinets from 1930 onward increased its power. Chancellor Heinrich Brüning was embraced as a former soldier by the Reichswehr, and he spared it from his unpopular austerity measures. Franz von Papen and General Kurt von Schleicher, the two Reich chancellors who followed Brüning, considered using the Reichswehr to abolish democracy. In addition, one of the presidential cabinets’ main objectives was a revision of the Treaty of Versailles in the interest of the Reichswehr.


title: Reichswehr

text: In 1931 and 1932, a series of actions by the Reichswehr and its leadership showed its increasing power and drift towards the Nazis:


title: Reichswehr

text: According to historian Klaus-Jürgen Müller, the German military strove for Germany to obtain a "position of world power". He identified two tendencies that were united in this long-term goal but that advocated different methods. One "adventurous" direction, represented by Hans von Seeckt, espoused a German-Soviet war of revenge against Poland and France. The other, more "modern" direction, represented by Kurt von Schleicher, which prevailed at the end of the 1920s, relied on a combination of political, military and economic factors. Firstly, Germany's economic position was to be strengthened and France relegated to the role of a junior partner. The supremacy thus gained in Europe was to form the basis for a position of world power. Müller sees in this one of the "lines of continuity" of German development from the Empire to National Socialism and the cause of an "entente" between groups of the traditional military elites and the Hitler movement in 1933. Hitler was dependent on their support in seizing power, while the latter in turn needed Hitler's supporters as a "mass base".


title: Reichswehr

text: In spite of Wilhelm Groener’s 1918 assurance in the Ebert-Groener Pact of the military’s loyalty to the government, most military leaders refused to accept the democratic Weimar Republic as legitimate. The Reichswehr under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt operated largely outside of the control of the politicians. Members of the Reichswehr did not have the right to vote, were subject to internal Reichswehr jurisdiction, and were thus detached from the social and political world. Because of the Ebert-Groener Pact and the Reichswehr's direct subordination to the Reich President, it was able to ensure itself of extensive internal autonomy. It used this to refuse to obey the Reich government, as it did for example during the Kapp Putsch. The autonomy, which included the selection of personnel as well as its code of values and belief that it served the state rather than the form of government, combined with its own jurisdiction under the Reich President to make the Reichswehr a ‘state within a state’ that was difficult to control.


title: Reichswehr

text: In 1928 the Reichswehr created the , or Office of Ministerial Affairs, under Kurt von Schleicher, to lobby politicians. The German historian Eberhard Kolb wrote that “from the mid-1920s onwards the Army leaders had developed and propagated new social conceptions of a militarist kind, tending towards a fusion of the military and civilian sectors and ultimately a totalitarian military state.”


title: Reichswehr

text: After becoming chancellor at the end of January 1933, Adolf Hitler presented his government program to the generals on 3 February. Among other things, he promised them that the Reichswehr would remain Germany's sole armed force and announced the reintroduction of conscription. The Reichswehr hoped for increased efforts to revise the Treaty of Versailles and the building of a strong military and firm state leadership. But it also feared that the Reichswehr would be supplanted by the 3 million member SA. SA leader Ernst Röhm and his colleagues thought of their force as the future army of Germany, replacing the smaller Reichswehr and its professional officers. The Reichswehr supported Hitler in taking power away from the SA in the summer of 1934. Röhm wanted to become Minister of Defense, and in February 1934 demanded that the much smaller Reichswehr be merged into the SA to form a true people's army. This alarmed both political and military leaders, and to forestall the possibility of a coup Hitler sided with conservative leaders and the military. In the Night of the Long Knives (30 June–2 July 1934) Röhm and the leadership of the SA were murdered along with many other political adversaries of the Nazis, including Reichswehr generals Kurt von Schleicher and Ferdinand von Bredow. The Reichswehr officer corps acknowledged the murders without objection.


title: Reichswehr

text: During 1933 and 1934 the Reichswehr began a secret program of expansion. In December 1933 the army staff decided to increase the active strength to 300,000 men in 21 divisions. On 1 April 1934, between 50,000 and 60,000 new recruits entered the force and were assigned to special training battalions. The original seven infantry divisions of the Reichswehr were expanded to 21, with military district headquarters increased to the size of a corps headquarters on 1 October 1934. These divisions used cover names to hide their divisional size, but during October 1935 they were dropped. Also during October 1934, the officers who had been forced to retire in 1919 were recalled. Those who were no longer fit for combat were assigned to administrative positions, thus releasing fit officers for front-line duties.


title: Reichswehr

text: On 2 August 1934, the day Reich President Paul von Hindenburg died, Reichswehr Minister Werner von Blomberg, who was originally to have helped ‘tame’ the Nazis, had the Reichswehr swear its oath personally to Hitler. Under the Weimar Republic the oath had been to the constitution.


title: Reichswehr

text: On 1 March 1935, the Luftwaffe was established and on 16 March universal conscription reintroduced, both of which violated the Treaty of Versailles. In the same act the Reichswehr was renamed the "Wehrmacht". On 1 June 1935 the (the army contingent of the Reichswehr) was renamed ‘’ (‘army’) and the Reichsmarine became the ‘"Kriegsmarine"’ (‘war navy’).


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: Alan Jay Pakula (; April 7, 1928 – November 19, 1998) was an American film director, writer and producer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture for "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), Best Director for "All the President's Men" (1976) and Best Adapted Screenplay for "Sophie's Choice" (1982).


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: Pakula was also notable for directing his "paranoia trilogy": "Klute" (1971), "The Parallax View" (1974) and "All the President's Men" (1976).


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: Pakula was born in The Bronx, New York, to Polish Jewish parents, Jeanette (née Goldstein) and Paul Pakula. He was educated at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and Yale University, where he majored in drama.


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: Pakula started his Hollywood career as an assistant in the cartoon department at Warner Brothers. In 1957, he undertook his first production role for Paramount Pictures. In 1962, he produced "To Kill a Mockingbird", for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Pakula had a successful professional relationship as the producer of movies directed by "Mockingbird" director Robert Mulligan from 1957 to 1968. In 1969, he directed his first feature, "The Sterile Cuckoo", starring Liza Minnelli.


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: In 1971, Pakula released the first installment of what would informally come to be known as his "paranoia trilogy". "Klute", the story of a relationship between a private eye (played by Donald Sutherland) and a call girl (played by Jane Fonda, who won an Oscar for her performance), was a commercial and critical success. This was followed in 1974 by "The Parallax View" starring Warren Beatty, a labyrinthine post-Watergate thriller involving political assassinations. The film has been noted for its experimental use of hypnotic imagery in a celebrated film-within-a-film sequence in which the protagonist is inducted into the Parallax Corporation, whose main, although secret, enterprise is domestic terrorism.


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: Finally, in 1976, Pakula rounded out the "trilogy" with "All the President's Men", based on the bestselling account of the Watergate scandal written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who were played in the movie by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, respectively. It was another commercial hit, considered by many critics and fans to be one of the best thrillers of the 1970s.


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: Pakula scored another hit in 1982 with "Sophie's Choice", starring Meryl Streep. His screenplay, based on the novel by William Styron, was nominated for an Academy Award. Later commercial successes included "Presumed Innocent", based on the bestselling novel by Scott Turow, and another political thriller, "The Pelican Brief", an adaptation of John Grisham's bestseller. His final film was the crime drama thriller film "The Devil's Own", where he reunited with Harrison Ford.


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: From October 19, 1963, until 1971, Pakula was married to actress Hope Lange. He was married to his second wife, Hannah Pakula (formerly Hannah Cohn Boorstin) from 1973 until his death in 1998.


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: He had two stepchildren from his marriage with Hope Lange, Christopher and Patricia Murray and three stepchildren from his second marriage. They are Louis, Robert and Anna Boorstin. He also spoke very openly about his stepson's battle with depression before his death.


title: Alan J. Pakula

text: On November 19, 1998, Pakula was driving on the Long Island Expressway in Melville, New York, when a driver in front of him struck a metal pipe, causing it to crash through Pakula's windshield, striking him in the head. His car swerved off the road and into a fence. He was taken to North Shore University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: Eve's Bayou is a 1997 American Southern Gothic drama film written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, who made her directorial debut with this film. Samuel L. Jackson served as a producer, and starred in the film with Lisa Nicole Carson, Jurnee Smollett, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Meagan Good and Diahann Carroll. The film premiered at the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in theaters on November 7, 1997. The film grossed $14 million domestically on a budget of $4 million, making it the most commercially successful independent film of 1997.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: In 2018, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was made a part of The Criterion Collection on October 25, 2022.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: Eve Batiste, a 10-year-old girl, lives in a prosperous Creole-American community in Louisiana with her younger brother Poe and her older sister Cisely in the 1960s. Their parents are Roz and Louis, a well-respected doctor in Louisiana's "colored" community who claims descent from the French aristocrat who founded the town of Eve's Bayou. One night after a raucous party, Eve accidentally witnesses her father having sex with Matty Mereaux, a family friend. However, Cisely, who has a very affectionate relationship with her father, convinces Eve that she misinterpreted an innocent moment. The unreliability of memory and observation remain important themes throughout the film.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: The summer quickly becomes a chaotic and stressful one for the Batiste family. Eve's relationship with her parents becomes more strained as she discovers more evidence of her father's serial infidelity. Cisely comes into conflict with both her sister and mother as she enters puberty and tries to navigate the difficult transition to adulthood, particularly with regard to her appearance and sexuality. Roz eventually begins to suspect her husband's infidelity, prompting conflict between the two as well.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: Throughout the duration of the film, Eve often seeks refuge with her Aunt Mozelle, who works as a Hoodoo Practitioner with a neighborhood reputation as "The Black Widow". Eve, who also has the Spiritual gift of sight, has a premonitory dream shortly before an accident occurs, claiming Mozelle's third husband.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: Mozelle's gift also brings her into direct conflict with Elzora, a fortune teller and possible witch with similar abilities. When asked for a reading by Roz, Elzora implies that an unexpected "solution" to her problem will arise, but to wait and look to her children in the meantime. When Mozelle grudgingly makes a similar request, Elzora forces her to look and address the truth she refuses to see. Meanwhile, Eve, frustrated by her father's infidelity, begins to act out, bringing her into conflict with the other members of her family. Cisely begins to behave strangely as well, isolating herself from the family after experiencing her first period.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: Cisely later confides in Eve the secret behind her strange mood. She tells her that one night, after their parents had a vicious argument, Cisely went to comfort her father and he, while drunk, attempted to molest her. Enraged, Eve seeks out Elzora to commission a voodoo spell to put a fatal curse on her father. While on her way to visit the witch, Eve runs into Lenny Mereaux and questions him about his teaching job that keeps him away from home. In the conversation, she alludes to a possible tryst between his wife, Matty, and her father.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: When Eve finally arrives to Elzora's home, she finds her to be not as scary as she expected but rather normal instead. While her expectation is to receive a voodoo doll of her father, she is simply told that the curse has been placed per her request. With regret, and in an attempt to save her father, Eve rushes to bring him home after finding him in a bar chatting with Matty Mereaux. At the same time, a drunken Lenny arrives to take Matty home. After a confrontation, Lenny and Matty leave the bar, and Lenny tells Louis that he will kill him if he talks to Matty again. After Louis says goodbye to Matty, Lenny shoots and kills Louis.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: After her father's funeral, Eve soon finds a letter which her father wrote to Mozelle, disputing the accusations. In it, he claims that Cisely had come to him that night and kissed him, first as a daughter and then as a lover. In his drunken state, he reacted violently, slapping her and pushing her to the ground, which made her angry with him. Eve confronts Cisely and uses her second sight to discover what really happened. It ends with the sisters holding hands, gazing at the sunset.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: Kasi Lemmons first wrote the screenplay in 1993. Lemmons said the screenplay "originated as a series of short stories, and the children were the first layers in the short stories." Lemmons was inspired by childhood trips she took to Louisiana, saying she "wanted to write a story about people who were like royalty in a small town. Louisiana has a unique history in the U.S. It was one of the only places where slaves could buy their freedom. Even in the 1700s, there were free people of color who had citizenship because the state was owned by the French." Though the story is not autobiographical, Lemons said "there are definitely pieces of my family in it", and that the writing process was therapeutic, as it allowed her to process "things that happened to me—things that I was still wrestling with...At the core of Eve, it’s me and my childhood and wrestling with how powerful I was as a child. How did I fight my way through uncomfortable situations and the distress that I felt?”


title: Eve's Bayou

text: When Lemons and producer Caldecot Chubb could not find interest from studios to finance the film or potential directors to helm the production, Lemons decided to direct it herself. After reading the script, Samuel L. Jackson came on board as both a producer and lead actor. Jackson said, "Louis Batiste was definitely someone I hadn't seen before. A family man with interesting conflicts and a romantic and glamorous life. I don't get to play those kinds of guys." In 1996, the independent company Trimark Pictures agreed to finance the film.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: Lemmons had known many of the film's principals actors from her days acting in New York theatre. Meagan Good was originally cast as 10-year-old Eve Batiste, but by the time the film's financing came together, Good had grown out of the role and was instead cast as Eve’s older sister Cisely.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: Filming took place in the fall of 1996 in Covington and Madisonville in Louisiana. The Otis House at Fairview-Riverside State Park was used as the Batiste family estate.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: The film received positive reviews, with the "Chicago Sun-Times" Roger Ebert naming it the best film of 1997. CNN's Paul Tatara, "Empire", "Entertainment Weekly", the "Los Angeles Times", "The New York Observer", "The New York Times", "Time", "Variety", and "The Washington Post" also enthusiastically praised the film and its performances.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 61 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Eve's Bayou" marks a striking feature debut for director Kasi Lemmons, layering terrific performances and Southern mysticism into a measured meditation on disillusionment and forgiveness."


title: Eve's Bayou

text: In a 2017 retrospective essay for "Vulture", Angelica Jade Bastién wrote, "The film operates deftly on multiple levels: It’s a stunning coming-of-age tale (an exceedingly rare example of one that privileges the experience of young black girls); an honest, hyperspecific portrait of black life in rural Louisiana; and one of the greatest writer-director debuts in American cinematic history."


title: Eve's Bayou

text: The film received multiple accolades, including Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards and Outstanding Directorial Debut for Kasi Lemmons from the National Board of Review Awards. Debbi Morgan's performance would be her most honored film role to date, with awards for Best Supporting Actress from the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards, alongside four other nominations. The film is also seen as a breakthrough for Jurnee Smollett; up to that point, she had primarily worked as a TV actress. For her performance, Smollett won a Critics' Choice Award and a San Diego Film Critics Society Award.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: On February 22, 2009, Debbi Morgan's portrayal of Mozelle Batiste Delacroix was included in PopMatters' 100 Essential Female Film Performances list.


title: Eve's Bayou

text: In 2012, Jurnee Smollett's role as Eve Batiste was included in "Essence"'s 25 Best Roles for Black Actresses list.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir El Haddadi Mohamed (; born 1 September 1995), or simply Munir, is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Getafe and the Morocco national team.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir began his career in the youth ranks of Atlético Madrid before transferring to Barcelona in 2011, where he won the 2013–14 UEFA Youth League. He made his debut for the B-team in March 2014, and scored in his first match for the senior team in August of that year, at the start of a season in which they won the treble. The following year, he was one of five top scorers in the Copa del Rey, which his team won. He also played in La Liga on loan at Valencia and Alavés, and permanently at Sevilla and Getafe, winning the UEFA Europa League with Sevilla in 2020.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Born in Spain to Moroccan parents, Munir earned one cap for the Spain national team against Macedonia in 2014. He switched his allegiance to Morocco in 2021, following FIFA's change of rules that year, and went on to represent the side at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir was born in El Escorial, Madrid, and grew up in nearby Galapagar on a street likened to a "Little Morocco" by "El Mundo". His Moroccan father, Mohamed El Haddadi Arbrqui, came to Spain in a fishing boat at age 18 and is now a chef. His mother, Saida Mohamed Haddou, hails from the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla on the north coast of Africa; she is a former kitchen hand who now looks after Munir's three siblings. Up to the age of 14, Munir was a fan of Real Madrid.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: After starting at Galapagar and DAV Santa Ana, Munir scored 32 goals in 29 matches playing for CF Rayo Majadahonda's Cadete A team, on loan from Atlético Madrid, after impressing during a trial in 2010. However, both Atlético and Real Madrid turned down the opportunity to bring him into their ranks. As a result, he attracted interest from a number of sides such as Manchester City, but signed for Barcelona's youth academy the following summer.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir made his UEFA Youth League debut with the Juvenil side against Ajax U19, where he scored two goals. He scored braces against Milan U19 and Copenhagen U19, finishing the tournament scoring 11 goals in 10 matches. He scored a brace in the final against Benfica U19. On 3 March 2014, he extended his "Barça" contract until June 2017.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: After being an unused substitute against Tenerife and Deportivo de La Coruña, Munir made his professional debut for Barcelona B on 2 March 2014 in a 1–2 away win against Mallorca in the second division, coming as a 72nd-minute substitute for Sandro. He scored his first goal as a senior player in a 2–1 home win against Girona on 19 April.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 24 August 2014, Munir made his official debut for the first team in La Liga, against Elche at Camp Nou. He started the match and scored the second goal of an eventual 3–0 win before being substituted after 67 minutes for Pedro. Eight days short of his 19th birthday, he became Barcelona's third-youngest goalscorer after Bojan and Lionel Messi. Munir was a nominee for the 2014 Golden Boy Award.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 22 February 2015, Munir was sent off for two bookings in Barcelona B's 0–1 defeat at Llagostera, as the season ended with relegation to Segunda División B. He played three matches apiece in Barcelona's successful runs in the Copa del Rey and UEFA Champions League, but was not included in the matchday squads for either final.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir was an unused substitute for their 5–4 win over Sevilla in the 2015 UEFA Super Cup on 11 August. On 2 December, he scored his first Barcelona goals since his debut, scoring two in a 6–1 win over Villanovense as Barcelona advanced by the same score on aggregate in the domestic cup. On 17 December, starting due to Messi and Neymar's injuries in the semi-finals of the year's FIFA Club World Cup in Yokohama, Munir won a penalty kick when fouled by Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao's Huang Bowen, from which Luis Suárez finished his hat-trick to send Barcelona into the final, 3–0. The South American duo returned for the final, which Barcelona won 3–0 against River Plate with Munir unused.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 13 January 2016, profiting from Suárez's suspension, Munir scored both goals in a cup win at city rivals Espanyol, putting Barcelona into the quarter-finals 6–1 on aggregate. He was unused for the final, a 2–0 extra-time win over Sevilla on 22 May, but with five goals was one of as many players to finish as the tournament's top scorer, among them Messi and Suárez.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 14 August 2016, Munir came on as substitute on the 76th-minute and scored to double Barcelona's lead over Sevilla in the 2016 Supercopa de España first leg to give Barcelona a lead of two goals in the second leg.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 30 August 2016, Munir moved to fellow La Liga club Valencia on a season-long loan. He was handed the number 9 previously worn by Paco Alcácer, who had moved in the opposite direction. Munir made his debut on 11 September, replacing Santi Mina after 63 minutes of a home game against Real Betis, and his rebounded header was scored by Ezequiel Garay in a 2–3 defeat. On 22 October, he scored his first goal for "Los Che", coming on at half-time for Martín Montoya and equalising at the Mestalla against his parent club in a loss by the same score.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 1 September 2017, Munir joined Deportivo Alavés on a season-long loan deal. He made his debut nine days later in a 1–0 loss at Celta de Vigo, replacing Enzo for the final 33 minutes. On 30 September he scored his first goal for the Basques, opening a 2–1 win at UD Levante. In the reverse fixture the following 1 March, he was sent off for diving in a 1–0 win at the Mendizorrotza Stadium.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir was offered the chance to renew his contract with Barcelona before its expiration in the summer, but refused to do so. Barcelona assured him that he would not play for the club again and has been favored to be sold by Coach Ernesto Valverde, saying "it would be for the best". Several clubs from England and Italy were interested in the forward, but, in January 2019, Sevilla was able to claim him for a fee of around €1 million. The transfer was able to be completed before the transfer windows closed in January, rather than during the summer.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 13 January, Munir made his Sevilla debut in a 2–0 loss at Athletic Bilbao, replacing Roque Mesa for the final 12 minutes. He scored his first goals in March, one in each leg of a Europa League last-16 tie against SK Slavia Prague, who nonetheless won 6–5 on aggregate, and finished the league season with five goals in 16 games including in a 2–0 win against Athletic on the final day to qualify for the continental tournament again.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir scored a hat-trick on 7 November 2019 in a 5–2 Europa League group win at F91 Dudelange, which put his team through to the last 32 and bought his tally in the competition to five.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 24 November 2020, Munir scored his first Champions League goal in a 2–1 away win over Krasnodar in the 2020–21 season, that goal came in the stoppage time to grant his team a place in the knockout stages.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir was born and raised in Spain, the son of a Moroccan father, and was eligible to represent either nation internationally. It was rumoured Qatar had offered Munir a financial deal to take that country's nationality and represent the nation, which is set to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 29 August 2014, Munir was called up for the first time as one of 21 players for Albert Celades' Spain under-21 team to face Hungary and Austria in September. However, after an injury to Diego Costa, Vicente del Bosque called Munir up to the senior squad for the first time ahead of a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifier against Macedonia on 8 September. He made his debut in that match, replacing Koke for the final 13 minutes of a 5–1 victory at the Estadi Ciutat de València. He said after the match he never considered playing for Morocco.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: In June 2017, it was reported Munir and the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) had contacted FIFA to change his allegiance to Morocco. However, a FIFA spokesman denied any contact and said the player was ineligible for a switch. On Munir and the FRMF's request, the Court of Arbitration for Sport began debating FIFA's rules on switching allegiances in April 2018. His appeal to represent Morocco was denied on 14 May.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: On 1 October 2020, following a rule change by FIFA that allowed a player to change their national team provided they had made three or fewer appearances in qualifiers before the age of 21, Munir once again attempted to switch from Spain to Morocco and was called up to their national team. Nevertheless, this switch was also rejected by FIFA, on the grounds that Munir had played for the Spain U21 team in September 2016, after turning 21. On 28 January 2021, FIFA published the eligibility requirements for national teams, and Munir received the green light to represent Morocco, as he played once for Spain before he turned 21.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir made his debut for Morocco on 26 March 2021, playing the full 90 minutes as the team drew 0–0 away to neighbouring Mauritania to qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. Four days later at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, he scored the only goal of the game against Burundi.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: Munir was called up for the final tournament, held in January 2022 in Cameroon. After two substitute appearances, he started in the quarter-finals, a 2–1 extra-time loss to Egypt.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: As a child, Munir idolised Messi and Moroccan international Adel Taarabt. A report from "FourFourTwo" magazine noted his composure on the ball, tricks, speed and highlighted his finishing ability and set-pieces; his ability with his weaker right foot was criticised.


title: Munir El Haddadi

text: After his goalscoring debut, Barcelona manager Luis Enrique praised Munir as a player whose effort in training matches that on the pitch, but warned against getting carried away with his performance.


title: Battle Tendency

text: Set in North America and Europe in 1938–39 around 50 years after "Phantom Blood", the story follows Joseph Joestar and Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli, descendants of Jonathan Joestar and Will A. Zeppeli from "Phantom Blood" who can manipulate sunlight-based energy called Hamon. Along with the Hamon master Lisa Lisa, Joseph and Caesar seek to prevent ancient humanoids called the Pillar Men, who invented the stone masks from "Phantom Blood", from obtaining a powerful stone called the Super Aja, which would evolve them into ultimate beings and conquer their vulnerability to sunlight.


title: Battle Tendency

text: In 2012, "Battle Tendency" was digitally colored and released as digital downloads for smartphones and tablet computers. A four-volume re-release under the title "JoJonium" was published in 2014. This version was licensed and released in North America by Viz Media in 2015 and 2016.


title: Battle Tendency

text: "Battle Tendency" was adapted as part of the first season of David Production's 2012 anime television series "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure".


title: Battle Tendency

text: In the series' backstory, 102,000 years ago in a place that would be modern-day Mexico, it started with a mysterious but powerful race with incredibly long lifespans and the ability to absorb life forces from plants and animals, although they had the disadvantage of being easily disintegrated if exposed to sunlight and thus lived underground instead. Kars, an underground-dwelling humanoid being known as a Pillar Man, created a stone mask which grants immortality by absorbing life energy to conquer the sun (which kills his kind). He slaughtered all but four of the tribe. As the Pillar Men's bodies were already immortal, they required more power for them to become ultimate beings. In 39 AD, three of the Pillar Men, Kars, Wamuu, and Esidisi, came to the Roman Empire to find a perfectly cut known as the Kars, Wamuu, and Esidisi developed fighting styles to counter Hamon, an energy with the same properties as the energy from sunlight, and nearly wiped out the Hamon tribe, but the stone narrowly escaped them. Following this, the Pillar Men went into a 2,000-year sleep.


title: Battle Tendency

text: In 1889, Erina Joestar's husband Jonathan was killed by Dio Brando on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Erina survived and saved the life of a baby girl, whose parents were killed by the stone mask. The girl, Elizabeth, was raised by the Hamon master Straizo, who taught her to use Hamon and gave her the Super Aja. Elizabeth married Erina's son George and they had a son called Joseph. When Joseph was a baby, George was killed by a zombie that blended in as a commander of the Royal Flying Corps and his death was covered up. Upon killing the zombie in an act of revenge, a warrant for Elizabeth's arrest was sent out. She went into hiding and adopted the alias Lisa Lisa. Joseph was raised by Erina. He inherited Hamon abilities from Jonathan.


title: Battle Tendency

text: At the start of the series, in the fall of 1938, as the World War II looms, Joseph and Erina move from London to New York. Meanwhile, former thug turned oil baron Robert E. O. Speedwagon invites Straizo to Mexico to destroy a sleeping Pillar Man with Hamon. Straizo instead wounds Speedwagon, and uses a stone mask near the Pillar Man and Speedwagon's blood to become an immortal vampire. Straizo goes to New York to destroy Joseph and Erina, believed to be the last people who know about the stone mask. When Joseph defeats Straizo, Straizo tells him that the Pillar Man is about to awaken and he will meet the Pillar Man soon. Straizo then commits suicide by channeling Hamon through himself, destroying his vampire body. Intrigued, Joseph goes to Mexico and is informed that Speedwagon was taken to detention by the Nazis, who also hold the ambition to study the Pillar Men to serve Adolf Hitler's world conquest. Joseph saves Speedwagon, who survived, from the awakened Pillar Man named Santana, and with the help of Rudol von Stroheim, the Nazi Major wounded by Santana, tricks Santana into being turned to stone by the sunlight reflected from a well.


title: Battle Tendency

text: Joseph and Speedwagon travel to Rome, where they meet Caesar Zeppeli, a man who trained in Hamon to continue the legacy of his father Mario and grandfather Will. However, the group arrives too late to prevent Kars, Wamuu, and Esidisi from awakening. Joseph plays on Wamuu's pride and convinces Wamuu to let him live to be a more worthy opponent. Both Wamuu and Esidisi implant poison-filled rings in his aorta and windpipe, giving Joseph 33 days to get the antidotes from each of them.


title: Battle Tendency

text: Joseph and Caesar train in Hamon under Lisa Lisa on Air Suplena Island off the coast of Venice. Esidisi raids the island and is challenged by Joseph. Joseph destroys Esidisi's body and takes his antidote, but Esidisi's brain is able to possess Lisa Lisa's handmaid, Suzi Q, to steal the Super Aja and ship it off to Kars and Wammu. Joseph and Caeser work together to purge Esidisi's influence on Suzi Q and destroy him for good. The group tracks down Kars and Wamuu to Switzerland. Caesar is killed fighting Wamuu one-on-one, and takes the antidote for Joseph before dying. Joseph and Lisa Lisa then confront Kars and Wamuu for the Super Aja, Lisa Lisa bluffing that she has a timed explosive that will destroy the stone. Joseph kills Wamuu in battle.


title: Battle Tendency

text: On February 28, 1939, Kars acquires the Super Aja and uses it along with the stone mask to become the ultimate being, despite efforts by Joseph and his newfound allies von Stroheim to prevent it. Now immune to the sun and able to use Hamon, Kars's only desire is to kill Joseph. Joseph steals a Nazi plane and tries to crash it and Kars into the volcanic island of Vulcano. Joseph and Kars escape, but the shock of the plane crash causes a volcanic eruption. Kars attempts to kill Joseph with Hamon, but Joseph instinctively holds up the Super Aja, which causes the energy to prompt an eruption climax, sending Joseph and Kars flying into the sky on a large rock. Kars is knocked into space by volcanic debris. He tries to return to Earth, but his body freezes over and turns to stone. Unable to perish even though he desperately wants to, he drifts through space for eternity, eventually ceasing to think. Returning to Earth, Joseph is nursed to health by Lisa Lisa's assistant Suzi Q, whom he marries. In the epilogue, set in 1987, an aged Joseph takes a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Japan, where his daughter and grandson live, directly leading in to the first chapters of the following story arc, "Stardust Crusaders".


title: Battle Tendency

text: Because it was "unprecedented" to kill off the main character in a "Weekly Shōnen Jump" manga in 1987, Hirohiko Araki made the protagonist of "Battle Tendency" look very similar to Part 1's Jonathan, but with a more adventurous and confrontational personality. Araki called Joseph a swindler in comparison to the gentlemanly Jonathan, because he is constantly looking to win and will do insane things without hesitation. This was not only to create contrast between the two, but also because the author wanted to shift from the physical battles in Part 1 to more "cerebral" fights. He wanted Joseph to be a "shōnen manga" hero who bends the rules as he fights, like the protagonist of his earlier series "Cool Shock B.T.", winning by cunning and logic, instead of bravery and perseverance.


title: Battle Tendency

text: Having not been able to show a friendly rivalry between Jonathan and Dio Brando in Part 1, Araki introduced Caesar Zeppeli to present a more positive friendly rivalry between him and Joseph since "Weekly Shōnen Jump" is a "shōnen" magazine. Because Joseph and Caesar both inherited the bloodlines of their grandfathers, the author wanted to connect their individual Hamon abilities to their last names. Thus he gave Joseph a "trickster" style, and Caesar the seemingly fleeting-bubbles as a "representation of his fate and the burden he is carrying." Having never been a fan of the main character receiving some unbeatable ability, Araki enjoys giving characters weapons with faults and having them make up for it with strategy. He noted that the spherical shape of the bubbles allowed him to morph them into discs or use them as lenses. The author also stated that these "spheres" were inherited by both Gyro Zeppeli in "Steel Ball Run" and Josuke Higashikata in "JoJolion".


title: Battle Tendency

text: Araki stated that at the time, female characters in "shōnen manga" were typically cute and designed to be "a man's ideal woman." He said readers were not interested in realistic portrayals of women, but rather the type of girl "that giggles during a conversation" with heart marks next to her. He believes this made the warrior-type Lisa Lisa feel fresh and "unheard of" in both manga and society in general and said it was exciting to challenge people's expectations with her. Araki also said that the supernatural basis of the fights in his series evened the battlefield for women and children to match up against strong men. This idea that looks are irrelevant in supernatural battles led to the introduction of Stands in "Stardust Crusaders". Because the Hamon master in Part 1, Will A. Zeppeli, was very gentle, he wanted to give Lisa Lisa a "sadistic" personality. The author based her on a smart and intimidating neighborhood girl who tutored him in elementary school. He stated that at the time it was hard to get Japanese readers to remember a foreign name, so he chose something with repetition. He also said that Lisa Lisa phonetically resembles Japanese to an extent.


title: Battle Tendency

text: Needing the Pillar Men to surpass Dio, Araki said he had to up the ante to the level of gods, and so based their designs on Roman statues, Egyptian sphinxes and Japanese "nio" statues to give them godlike features. Araki designed Kars with a turban to show his superior intelligence and that he is their king. He said that if you compared the Pillar Men to "Mito Kōmon", Kars would be Kōmon, Esidisi would be Suke-san, and Wamuu would be Kaku-san. Kars' ability Brilliant Bone Blade is a "Light Mode" because Araki thought a shining blade would be a godlike technique and would visually express that defeating him was impossible. He speculated that many readers were probably reminded of the similar Reskiniharden Saber Phenomenon technique from his series "Baoh", and admitted that aspects of Kars' goal to become the ultimate being somewhat overlapped with the earlier work. Visually speaking, Araki also really enjoys drawing flesh and blade merge as something that is only possible in manga.


title: Battle Tendency

text: The original volumization and Shueisha's 2002 re-release use different chapter titles. In the original volumization, chapters 45–47 are collected in volume 5, listed on the "Phantom Blood" page.


title: Battle Tendency

text: Ōtarō Maijō's 2012 novel "Jorge Joestar", follows the titular character, the father of Joseph Joestar, and his story as a child in the Canary Islands and pilot in the Royal Air Force, as well as an alternate version who lives in Japan and is investigating strange events regarding alternate dimensions.


title: Battle Tendency

text: The arc was adapted as part of the first season of David Production's anime television adaptation, airing between December 7, 2012, and April 5, 2013. Warner Bros. Entertainment released this series in English on July 28, 2015.


title: Battle Tendency

text: The young Joseph of this series appears as a playable character, alongside his older self, in Capcom's 1998 arcade fighting game, "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure". Joseph, Caesar, Wamuu, Esidisi and Kars appear as playable characters in Bandai Namco Games' 2013 fighting game, "", with Lisa Lisa later appearing as a downloadable character. Joseph, Caesar, Stroheim, Lisa Lisa, Wamuu, Esidisi, and Kars also appear in "", also by Bandai Namco.


title: Battle Tendency

text: Anime News Network's Rebecca Silverman described "Battle Tendency" as "less urgent" than Part 1, which allows for more humor and insanity, while still letting the reader get attached to the characters. She felt positively about how strikingly different the protagonist Joseph is from Part 1's Jonathan. However, she wrote that Araki's art had gotten even more "physically improbable," making it difficult to distinguish body parts. When discussing his views on having characters die in a series, writer Gen Urobuchi cited "Battle Tendency"s Caesar Zeppeli as a character who became "immortal" thanks to his death.


title: Education Index

text: An Education index is a component of the Human Development Index published every year by the United Nations Development Programme. Alongside the Economical indicators and Life Expectancy Index, it helps measure the educational attainment, GNI (PPP) per capita and life expectancy are also used with the education index to get the HDI of each country.


title: Education Index

text: Since 2010, the education index has been measured by combining average adult years of schooling with expected years of schooling for students under the age of 25, each receiving 50% weighting. Before 2010, the education index was measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting).


title: Education Index

text: Education is a major component of well-being and is used in the measure of economic development and quality of life, which is a key factor determining whether a country is a developed, developing, or underdeveloped country.


title: Education Index

text: formula_2, expected years of schooling, is a calculation of the number of years a student is "expected" to attend school, or university. In most countries, a master's degree represents the highest obtainable level of education, and obtaining one reflects 18 years of education. This means that if every student in a country enrolled in a master's degree that country's EYS index would be 1.0.


title: Education Index

text: formula_3, mean years of schooling, is a calculation of the average number of years of education a student over the age of 25 has "actually" received. It's based on education attainment levels of the population converted into years of schooling based on theoretical duration of each level of education attended. 15 years is the projected maximum of this indicator for 2025 and is thus used as the maximum for the index. This means that a country whose citizens all attained 15 years of education by the age of 25, would have an MYS index of 1.0.


title: Education Index

text: Worldwide education indexes are provided by the UNDP's Human Development Report derived from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and other sources.


title: Pet Shop Boys discography

text: English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys have released 14 studio albums, five live albums, seven compilation albums, four remix albums, five soundtrack albums, three extended plays and over seventy singles. The duo's debut single, "West End Girls", was first released in 1984 but failed to chart in most regions. However, the song was entirely re-recorded in late 1985, and this newly recorded version became their first number-one single, topping the UK Singles Chart, "Billboard" Hot 100 and Canadian Singles Chart. Parlophone released the duo's debut album, "Please", in the United Kingdom in March 1986. The album peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It also peaked at number seven on the "Billboard" 200 in the United States and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The following summer they released "It's a Sin", the lead single from their second album, "Actually". The single became another UK number one and also reached number nine in the US. This was followed by "What Have I Done to Deserve This?", with Dusty Springfield, which peaked at number two in both the UK and US. In the summer of 1987, the Pet Shop Boys recorded a cover of Brenda Lee's song "Always on My Mind", which became their third UK number-one single over Christmas 1987. This was followed by another UK number one, "Heart", in spring 1988. The album "Actually" was released in September 1987, peaked at number two in the UK and was certified three-times platinum by the BPI.


title: Pet Shop Boys discography

text: The duo's third album, "Introspective", was released in October 1988 and peaked at number two in the UK and Germany and was certified two-times platinum by the BPI. Next album "Behaviour", came in 1990 and became their third album in a row to debut and peak at number two in the UK. The duo then released their first hits compilation, "", which included all of their single releases as well as two new tracks. In 1993 they released a cover of the Village People single "Go West", which reached number two in the UK. The duo's fifth album, "Very", followed and is the only Pet Shop Boys album, so far, to reach number one in the UK. In 1994 they recorded the Comic Relief charity single, "Absolutely Fabulous", under the pseudonym of Absolutely Fabulous. The duo do not consider it as a Pet Shop Boys single release and it was not included on any of their "best-of" albums. The duo then released a B-side collection album, "Alternative" in 1995. "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)", was released in the summer of 1996, a Latin American music-inspired track, featuring a drum sample, which preceded the sixth Pet Shop Boys album, "Bilingual".


title: Pet Shop Boys discography

text: "Nightlife", the duo's seventh album came in 1999, followed by the modestly successful album "Release" in 2002. In November 2003, Pet Shop Boys released a second greatest hits album, "". The ninth Pet Shop Boys studio album, "Fundamental", came in May 2006, reaching number five in the UK. Also in 2006, "Concrete" was released, a live album recorded at the Mermaid Theatre, London. Released in UK in March 2009, "Yes", was a critical success and hit number four, their highest album chart peak in more than a decade. The Pet Shop Boys also received the BPI's award for "Outstanding Contribution to British Music", at the 2009 Brit Awards ceremony. In December 2009, they released an EP of covers, remixes, and new material, titled "Christmas".


title: Pet Shop Boys discography

text: "Ultimate", the one-disc compilation, was released on 1 November 2010 to celebrate 25 years since the band's first single release. The special version included a DVD with over three hours of BBC TV performances of 27 singles by Pet Shop Boys, released by arrangement with BBC Music. As well as the complete Glastonbury Festival performance from June 2010. Ultimate peaked at 27 on the UK charts. The second B-side compilation album, "Format", was released on 6 February 2012, reaching number 26 in the UK. The duo released their eleventh studio album, "Elysium", in late 2012, reaching number 9 in the UK. Elysium spawned the singles "Winner", "Leaving" and "Memory of the Future".


title: Pet Shop Boys discography

text: In March 2013, the Pet Shop Boys started a new chapter in their career when they left their long-term label, Parlophone, and signed with Kobalt Label Services. A new album, "Electric", was released in July 2013, reaching number 3 in the UK and number 26 in the United States, their highest-peaking album for nearly 20 years in both countries. The singles from this album were "Axis", "Vocal", "Love is a Bourgeois Construct", "Thursday" (featuring Example) and "Fluorescent". The duo undertook a worldwide tour to support the album. In November 2014, they returned to the studio to begin working on their next album. With Stuart Price returning as producer, "Super" was announced on 21 January 2016 for release on 1 April. "Inner Sanctum" was released as a teaser track. The first single proper was "The Pop Kids", released on 26 February 2016.


title: Aardwolf

text: The aardwolf (Proteles cristata) is an insectivorous species of hyena, native to East and Southern Africa. Its name means "earth-wolf" in Afrikaans and Dutch. It is also called maanhaar-jackal (Afrikaans for "mane-jackal"), termite-eating hyena and civet hyena, based on its habit of secreting substances from its anal gland, a characteristic shared with the African civet.


title: Aardwolf

text: Unlike many of its relatives in the order Carnivora, the aardwolf does not hunt large animals. It eats insects and their larvae, mainly termites; one aardwolf can lap up as many as 250,000 termites during a single night using its long, sticky tongue. The aardwolf's tongue has adapted to be tough enough to withstand the strong bite of termites.


title: Aardwolf

text: The aardwolf lives in the shrublands of eastern and southern Africa – open lands covered with stunted trees and shrubs. It is nocturnal, resting in burrows during the day and emerging at night to seek food.


title: Aardwolf

text: The aardwolf is generally classified with the hyena family Hyaenidae, though it was formerly placed in its own family Protelidae. Early on, scientists felt that it was merely mimicking the striped hyena, which subsequently led to the creation of Protelidae. Recent studies have suggested that the aardwolf probably diverged from other hyaenids early on; how early is still unclear, as the fossil record and genetic studies disagree by 10 million years.


title: Aardwolf

text: The aardwolf is the only surviving species in the subfamily Protelinae. There is disagreement as to whether the species is monotypic, or can be divided into subspecies "P. c. cristatus" of Southern Africa and "P. c. septentrionalis" of East Africa.


title: Aardwolf

text: A 2006 molecular analysis indicates that it is phylogenetically the most basal of the four extant hyaenidae species.


title: Aardwolf

text: The generic name "proteles" comes from two words both of Greek origin, "protos" and "teleos" which combined means "complete in front" based on the fact that they have five toes on their front feet and four on the rear. The specific name, "cristatus", comes from Latin and means "provided with a comb", relating to their mane.


title: Aardwolf

text: The aardwolf resembles a very thin striped hyena, but with a more slender muzzle, black vertical stripes on a coat of yellowish fur, and a long, distinct mane down the midline of the neck and back. It also has one or two diagonal stripes down the fore- and hind-quarters, along with several stripes on its legs. The mane is raised during confrontations to make the aardwolf appear larger. It is missing the throat spot that others in the family have. Its lower leg (from the knee down) is all black, and its tail is bushy with a black tip.


title: Aardwolf

text: The aardwolf is about long, excluding its bushy tail, which is about long, and stands about tall at the shoulders. An adult aardwolf weighs approximately , sometimes reaching . The aardwolves in the south of the continent tend to be smaller (about ) than the eastern version (around ). This makes the aardwolf, the smallest extant member of the Hyaenidae family. The front feet have five toes each, unlike the four-toed hyena. The teeth and skull are similar to those of other hyenas, though smaller, and its cheek teeth are specialised for eating insects. It does still have canines, but, unlike other hyenas, these teeth are used primarily for fighting and defense. Its ears, which are large, are very similar to those of the striped hyena.


title: Aardwolf

text: As an aardwolf ages, it will normally lose some of its teeth, though this has little impact on its feeding habits due to the softness of the insects that it eats.


title: Aardwolf

text: Aardwolves live in open, dry plains and bushland, avoiding mountainous areas. Due to their specific food requirements, they are only found in regions where termites of the family Hodotermitidae occur. Termites of this family depend on dead and withered grass and are most populous in heavily grazed grasslands and savannahs, including farmland. For most of the year, aardwolves spend time in shared territories consisting of up to a dozen dens, which are occupied for six weeks at a time.


title: Aardwolf

text: There are two distinct populations: one in Southern Africa, and another in East and Northeast Africa. The species does not occur in the intermediary miombo forests.


title: Aardwolf

text: Aardwolves are shy and nocturnal, sleeping in burrows by day. They will, on occasion during the winter, become diurnal feeders. This happens during the coldest periods as they then stay in at night to conserve heat.


title: Aardwolf

text: They have often been mistaken for solitary animals. In fact, they live as monogamous pairs with their young. If their territory is infringed upon, they will chase the intruder up to or to the border. If the intruder is caught, which rarely happens, a fight will occur, which is accompanied by soft clucking, hoarse barking, and a type of roar. The majority of incursions occur during mating season, when they can occur once or twice per week. When food is scarce, the stringent territorial system may be abandoned and as many as three pairs may occupy a single territory.


title: Aardwolf

text: The territory is marked by both sexes, as they both have developed anal glands from which they extrude a black substance that is smeared on rocks or grass stalks in -long streaks. Aardwolves also have scent glands on the forefoot and penile pad. They often mark near termite mounds within their territory every 20 minutes or so. If they are patrolling their territorial boundaries, the marking frequency increases drastically, to once every . At this rate, an individual may mark 60 marks per hour, and upwards of 200 per night.


title: Aardwolf

text: An aardwolf pair may have up to 10 dens, and numerous feces middens, within their territory. When they deposit excreta at their middens, they dig a small hole and cover it with sand. Their dens are usually abandoned aardvark, springhare, or porcupine dens, or on occasion they are crevices in rocks. They will also dig their own dens, or enlarge dens started by springhares. They typically will only use one or two dens at a time, rotating through all of their dens every six months. During the summer, they may rest outside their den during the night and sleep underground during the heat of the day.


title: Aardwolf

text: Aardwolves are not fast runners nor are they particularly adept at fighting off predators. Therefore, when threatened, the aardwolf may attempt to mislead its foe by doubling back on its tracks. If confronted, it may raise its mane in an attempt to appear more menacing. It also emits a foul-smelling liquid from its anal glands.


title: Aardwolf

text: The aardwolf feeds primarily on termites and more specifically on "Trinervitermes". This genus of termites has different species throughout the aardwolf's range. In East Africa, they eat "Trinervitermes bettonianus", in central Africa, they eat "Trinervitermes rhodesiensis", and in southern Africa, they eat "T. trinervoides". Their technique consists of licking them off the ground as opposed to the aardvark, which digs into the mound. They locate their food by sound and also from the scent secreted by the soldier termites. An aardwolf may consume up to 250,000 termites per night using its long, sticky tongue.


title: Aardwolf

text: They do not destroy the termite mound or consume the entire colony, thus ensuring that the termites can rebuild and provide a continuous supply of food. They often memorize the location of such nests and return to them every few months. During certain seasonal events, such as the onset of the rainy season and the cold of midwinter, the primary termites become scarce, so the need for other foods becomes pronounced. During these times, the southern aardwolf will seek out "Hodotermes mossambicus", a type of harvester termite active in the afternoon, which explains some of their diurnal behavior in the winter. The eastern aardwolf, during the rainy season, subsists on termites from the genera "Odontotermes" and "Macrotermes". They are also known to feed on other insects, larvae, eggs, and, some sources say, occasionally small mammals and birds, but these constitute a very small percentage of their total diet.


title: Aardwolf

text: Unlike other hyenas, aardwolves do not scavenge or kill larger animals. Contrary to popular myths, aardwolves do not eat carrion, and if they are seen eating while hunched over a dead carcass, they are actually eating larvae and beetles. Also, contrary to some sources, they do not like meat, unless it is finely ground or cooked for them. The adult aardwolf was formerly assumed to forage in small groups, but more recent research has shown that they are primarily solitary foragers, necessary because of the scarcity of their insect prey. Their primary source, "Trinervitermes", forages in small but dense patches of . While foraging, the aardwolf can cover about per hour, which translates to per summer night and per winter night.


title: Aardwolf

text: The breeding season varies depending on location, but normally takes place during autumn or spring. In South Africa, breeding occurs in early July. During the breeding season, unpaired male aardwolves search their own territory, as well as others, for a female to mate with. Dominant males also mate opportunistically with the females of less dominant neighboring aardwolves, which can result in conflict between rival males. Dominant males even go a step further and as the breeding season approaches, they make increasingly greater and greater incursions onto weaker males' territories. As the female comes into oestrus, they add pasting to their tricks inside of the other territories, sometimes doing so more in rivals' territories than their own. Females will also, when given the opportunity, mate with the dominant male, which increases the chances of the dominant male guarding "his" cubs with her. Copulation lasts between 1 and 4.5 hours.


title: Aardwolf

text: Gestation lasts between 89 and 92 days, producing two to five cubs (most often two or three) during the rainy season (November–December), when termites are more active. They are born with their eyes open, but initially are helpless, and weigh around . The first six to eight weeks are spent in the den with their parents. The male may spend up to six hours a night watching over the cubs while the mother is out looking for food. After three months, they begin supervised foraging, and by four months are normally independent, though they often share a den with their mother until the next breeding season. By the time the next set of cubs is born, the older cubs have moved on. Aardwolves generally achieve sexual maturity at one and a half to two years of age.


title: Aardwolf

text: The aardwolf has not seen decreasing numbers and is relatively widespread throughout eastern Africa. They are not common throughout their range, as they maintain a density of no more than 1 per square kilometer, if food is abundant. Because of these factors, the IUCN has rated the aardwolf as least concern. In some areas, they are persecuted because of the mistaken belief that they prey on livestock; however, they are actually beneficial to the farmers because they eat termites that are detrimental. In other areas, the farmers have recognized this, but they are still killed, on occasion, for their fur. Dogs and insecticides are also common killers of the aardwolf.


title: Aardwolf

text: Frankfurt Zoo in Germany was home to the oldest recorded aardwolf in captivity at 18 years and 11 months.


title: Lateral thinking

text: Lateral thinking is a manner of solving problems using an indirect and creative approach via reasoning that is not immediately obvious. It involves ideas that may not be obtainable using only traditional step-by-step logic. The term was first used in 1967 by Maltese psychologist Edward de Bono in his book "The Use of Lateral Thinking". De Bono cites the Judgment of Solomon as an example of lateral thinking, where King Solomon resolves a dispute over the parentage of a child by calling for the child to be cut in half, and making his judgment according to the reactions that this order receives. Edward de Bono also links lateral thinking with humour, arguing it entails a switch-over from a familiar pattern to a new, unexpected one. It is this moment of surprise, generating laughter and new insight, which facilitates the ability to see a different thought pattern which initially was not obvious. According to de Bono, lateral thinking deliberately distances itself from the standard perception of creativity as "vertical" logic, the classic method for problem solving.


title: Lateral thinking

text: Critics have characterized lateral thinking as a pseudo-scientific concept, arguing de Bono's core ideas have never been rigorously tested or corroborated.


title: Lateral thinking

text: Lateral thinking has to be distinguished from critical thinking. Critical thinking is primarily concerned with judging the true value of statements and seeking errors whereas lateral thinking focuses more on the "movement value" of statements and ideas. A person uses lateral thinking to move from one known idea to new ideas. Edward de Bono defines four types of thinking tools:


title: Lateral thinking

text: The thinker chooses an object at random, or a noun from a dictionary and associates it with the area they are thinking about. De Bono exemplifies this through the randomly-chosen word, "nose", being applied to an office photocopier, leading to the idea that the copier could produce a lavender smell when it was low on paper.


title: Lateral thinking

text: A provocation is a statement that we know is wrong or impossible but used to create new ideas. De Bono gives an example of considering river pollution and setting up the provocation, "the factory is downstream of itself", causing a factory to be forced to take its water input from a point downstream of its output, an idea which later became law in some countries. Provocations can be set up by the use of any of the provocation techniques—wishful thinking, exaggeration, reversal, escape, distortion, or arising. The thinker creates a list of provocations and then uses the most outlandish ones to move their thinking forward to new ideas.


title: Lateral thinking

text: The purpose of movement techniques is to produce as many alternatives as possible in order to encourage new ways of thinking about both problems and solutions. The production of alternatives tends to produce many possible solutions to problems that seemed to only have one possible solution. One can move from a provocation to a new idea through the following methods: extract a principle, focus on the difference, moment to moment, positive aspects or special circumstances.


title: Lateral thinking

text: A tool which is designed to ask the question, "Why?", in a non-threatening way: why something exists or why it is done the way it is. The result is a very clear understanding of "Why?", which naturally leads to new ideas. The goal is to be able to challenge anything at all, not those that are problematic. For example, one could challenge the handles on coffee cups: The reason for the handle seems to be that the cup is often too hot to hold directly; perhaps coffee cups could be made with insulated finger grips, or there could be separate coffee-cup holders similar to beer holders, or coffee shouldn't be so hot in the first place.


title: Lateral thinking

text: Ideas carry out concepts. This tool systematically expands the range and number of concepts in order to end up with a very broad range of ideas to consider.


title: Lateral thinking

text: Based on the idea that the majority is always wrong (as suggested by Henrik Ibsen and by John Kenneth Galbraith), take anything that is obvious and generally accepted as "goes without saying", question it, take an opposite view, and try to convincingly disprove it. This technique is similar to de Bono's "Black Hat" of "Six Thinking Hats", which looks at identifying reasons to be cautious and conservative.


title: Lateral thinking

text: The purpose of fractionation is to create alternative perceptions of problems and solutions by taking the commonplace view of the situation and break it into multiple alternative situations in order to break away from the fixed view and see the situation from different angles, thus being able to generate multiple possible solutions that can be synthesized into more comprehensive answers.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: Affirmative action in the United States is a set of laws, policies, guidelines, and administrative practices "intended to end and correct the effects of a specific form of discrimination" that include government-mandated, government-approved, and voluntary private programs. The programs tend to focus on access to education and employment, granting special consideration to historically excluded groups, specifically racial minorities or women. The impetus toward affirmative action is redressing the disadvantages associated with past and present discrimination. Further impetus is a desire to ensure public institutions, such as universities, hospitals, and police forces, are more representative of the populations they serve.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: In the United States, affirmative action included the use of racial quotas until the Supreme Court ruled that quotas were unconstitutional. Affirmative action currently tends to emphasize not specific quotas but rather "targeted goals" to address past discrimination in a particular institution or in broader society through "good-faith efforts ... to identify, select, and train potentially qualified minorities and women." For example, many higher education institutions have voluntarily adopted policies which seek to increase recruitment of racial minorities. Outreach campaigns, targeted recruitment, employee and management development, and employee support programs are examples of affirmative action in employment. Nine states in the United States have banned race-based affirmative action: California (1996), Washington (1998), Florida (1999), Michigan (2006), Nebraska (2008), Arizona (2010), New Hampshire (2012), Oklahoma (2012), and Idaho (2020). Florida's ban was via an executive order and New Hampshire and Idaho's bans were passed by the legislature. The other six bans were approved at the ballot. The 1996 "Hopwood v. Texas" decision effectively barred affirmative action in the three states within the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit—Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas—until "Grutter v. Bollinger" abrogated it in 2003.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: Affirmative action policies were developed to address long histories of discrimination faced by minorities and women, which reports suggest produced corresponding unfair advantages for whites and males. They first emerged from debates over non-discrimination policies in the 1940s and during the civil rights movement. These debates led to federal executive orders requiring non-discrimination in the employment policies of some government agencies and contractors in the 1940s and onward, and to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited racial discrimination in firms with over 25 employees. The first federal policy of race-conscious affirmative action was the Revised Philadelphia Plan, implemented in 1969, which required certain government contractors to set "goals and timetables" for integrating and diversifying their workforce. Similar policies emerged through a mix of voluntary practices and federal and state policies in employment and education. Affirmative action as a practice was partially upheld by the Supreme Court in "Grutter v. Bollinger "(2003), while the use of racial quotas for college admissions was concurrently ruled unconstitutional by the Court in "Gratz v. Bollinger" (2003).


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: Affirmative action remains controversial in American politics. Opponents argue that these policies constitute racism and/or amount to discrimination against other racial and ethnic groups, such as Asian Americans and White Americans, which entails favoring one group over another based upon racial preference rather than achievement, and many believe that the diversity of current American society suggests that affirmative action policies succeeded and are no longer required. Opponents also argue that it tends to benefit the most privileged within minority groups at the expense of the least fortunate within majority groups, or that when applied to universities it can hinder minority students by placing them in courses too difficult for them. Supporters of affirmative action argue that it promotes equality and representation for groups which are socioeconomically disadvantaged or have faced historical discrimination or oppression and counteracts continuing bias and prejudice against women and minorities. Supporters also point to contemporary examples of conscious and unconscious biases, such as the finding that job-seekers with African American sounding names may be less likely to get a callback than those with white-sounding names, as proof that affirmative action is not obsolete.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: The policy now called affirmative action came as early as the Reconstruction Era (1863–1877) in which a former slave population lacked the skills and resources for independent living. In 1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman proposed, for practical reasons, to divide the land and goods from Georgia and grant it to black families, which became the "Forty acres and a mule" policy. The proposal was never widely adopted due to strong political opposition, and Sherman's orders were soon revoked by President Andrew Johnson. Nearly a century later (1950s–1960s), the discussion of policies to assist classes of individuals reemerged during the Civil Rights Movement. Civil rights guarantees that came through the interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment affirmed the civil rights of people of color.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: The first appearance of the term 'affirmative action' was in the National Labor Relations Act, better known as the Wagner Act, of 1935. Proposed and championed by U.S. Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York, the Wagner Act was in line with President Roosevelt's goal of providing economic security to workers and other low-income groups. During this time period it was not uncommon for employers to blacklist or fire employees associated with unions. The Wagner Act allowed workers to unionize without fear of being discriminated against, and empowered a National Labor Relations Board to review potential cases of worker discrimination. In the event of discrimination, employees were to be restored to an appropriate status in the company through 'affirmative action'. While the Wagner Act protected workers and unions it did not protect minorities, who, exempting the Congress of Industrial Organizations, were often barred from union ranks. This original coining of the term therefore has little to do with affirmative action policy as it is seen today, but helped set the stage for all policy meant to compensate or address an individual's unjust treatment.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: FDR's New Deal programs often contained equal opportunity clauses stating "no discrimination shall be made on account of race, color or creed", but the true forerunner to affirmative action was the Interior Secretary of the time, Harold L. Ickes. Ickes prohibited discrimination in hiring for Public Works Administration funded projects and oversaw not only the institution of a quota system, where contractors were required to employ a fixed percentage of Black workers, by Robert C. Weaver and Clark Foreman, but also the equal pay of women proposed by Harry Hopkins. FDR's largest contribution to affirmative action, however, lay in his Executive Order 8802 which prohibited discrimination in the defense industry or government. The executive order promoted the idea that if taxpayer funds were accepted through a government contract, then all taxpayers should have an equal opportunity to work through the contractor. To enforce this idea, Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) with the power to investigate hiring practices by government contractors.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: Following the Sergeant Isaac Woodard incident, President Harry S. Truman, himself a combat veteran of World War I, issued Executive Order 9808 establishing the President's Committee on Civil Rights to examine the violence and recommend appropriate federal legislation. Hearing of the incident, Truman turned to NAACP leader Walter Francis White and declared, "My God! I had no idea it was as terrible as that. We've got to do something." In 1947 the committee published its findings, To Secure These Rights. The book was widely read, influential, and considered utopian for the times: "In our land men are equal, but they are free to be different. From these very differences among our people has come the great human and national strength of America." The report discussed and demonstrated racial discrimination in basic freedoms, education, public facilities, personal safety, and employment opportunities. The committee was disturbed by the state of race relations, and included the evacuation of Americans of Japanese descent during the war "made without a trial or any sort of hearing...Fundamental to our whole system of law is the belief that guilt is personal and not a matter of heredity or association." The recommendations were radical, calling for federal policies and laws to end racial discrimination and bring about equality: "We can tolerate no restrictions upon the individual which depend upon irrelevant factors such as his race, his color, his religion, or the social position to which he is born." To Secure These Rights set the liberal legislative agenda for the next generation that eventually would be signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: To Secure These Rights also called for desegregation of the Armed Forces. "Prejudice in any area is an ugly, undemocratic phenomenon, but in the armed services, where all men run the risk of death, it is especially repugnant." The rationale was fairness: "When an individual enters the service of the country, he necessarily surrenders some of the rights and privileges which are inherent in American citizenship." In return, the government "undertakes to protect his integrity as an individual." Yet that was not possible in the segregated Army, since "any discrimination which...prevents members of the minority groups from rendering full military service in defense of their country is for them a humiliating badge of inferiority." The report called for an end to "all discrimination and segregation based on race, color, creed, or national origins in...all branches of the Armed Services."


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: In 1947 Truman and his advisors came up with a plan for a large standing military, called Universal Military Training, and presented it to Congress. The plan opposed all segregation in the new post-war Armed Forces: "Nothing could be more tragic for the future attitude of our people, and for the unity of our nation" than a citizens' military that emphasized "class or racial difference."


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: On February 2, 1948, President Truman delivered a special message to Congress. It consisted of ten objectives that Congress should focus on when enacting legislation. Truman concluded by saying, "If we wish to inspire the peoples of the world whose freedom is in jeopardy, if we wish to restore hope to those who have already lost their civil liberties, if we wish to fulfill the promise that is ours, we must correct the remaining imperfections in our practice of democracy."


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: In June, Truman became the first president to address the NAACP. His speech was a significant departure from traditional race relations in the United States. In front of 10,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial, the president left no doubt where he stood on civil rights. According to his speech, America had "reached a turning point in the long history of our country's efforts to guarantee freedom and equality to all our citizens...Each man must be guaranteed equality of opportunity." He proposed what black citizens had been calling for – an enhanced role of federal authority through the states. "We must make the Federal government a friendly, vigilant defender of the rights and equalities of all Americans. And again I mean all Americans."


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: On July 26, Truman mandated the end of hiring and employment discrimination in the federal government, reaffirming FDR's order of 1941. He issued two executive orders on July 26, 1948: Executive Order 9980 and Executive Order 9981. Executive Order 9980, named Regulations Governing for Employment Practices within the Federal Establishment, instituted fair employment practices in the civilian agencies of the federal government. The order created the position of Fair Employment Officer. The order "established in the Civil Service Commission a Fair Employment Board of not less than seven persons." Executive Order 9981, named Establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, called for the integration of the Armed Forces and the creation of the National Military Establishment to carry out the executive order.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: On December 3, 1951, Truman issued Executive Order 10308, named Improving the Means for Obtaining Compliance with the Nondiscrimination Provisions of Federal Contracts, which established an anti-discrimination committee on government contract compliance responsible for ensuring that employers doing business with the federal government comply with all laws and regulations enacted by Congress and the committee on the grounds of discriminatory practices.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: When Eisenhower was elected president in 1952 after defeating Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson, he believed hiring practices and anti-discrimination laws should be decided by the states, although the administration gradually continued to desegregate the Armed Forces and the federal government. The President also established the Government Contract Committee in 1953, which "conducted surveys of the racial composition of federal employees and tax-supported contractors". The committee, chaired by Vice President Richard Nixon, had minimal outcomes in that they imposed the contractors with the primary responsibility of desegregation within their own companies and corporations.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: In the 1960 presidential election, Democratic candidate and eventual winner John F. Kennedy "criticized President Eisenhower for not ending discrimination in federally supported housing" and "advocated a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission". Shortly after taking office, Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925 in March 1961, requiring government contractors to "consider and recommend additional affirmative steps which should be taken by executive departments and agencies to realize more fully the national policy of nondiscrimination... The contractor will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin". The order also established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (PCEEO), chaired by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Federal contractors who failed to comply or violated the executive order were punished by contract cancellation and the possible debarment from future government contracts. The administration was "not demanding any special preference or treatment or quotas for minorities" but was rather "advocating racially neutral hiring to end job discrimination". Turning to issues of women's rights, Kennedy initiated a Commission on the Status of Women in December 1961. The commission was charged with "examining employment policies and practices of the government and of contractors" with regard to sex.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: In June 1963, President Kennedy continued his policy of affirmative action by issuing another mandate, Executive Order 11114. The order supplemented to his previous 1961 executive order declaring it was the "policy of the United States to encourage by affirmative action the elimination of discrimination in employment". Through this order, all federal funds, such as "grants, loans, unions and employers who accepted taxpayer funds, and other forms of financial assistance to state and local governments," were forced to comply to the government's policies on affirmative action in employment practices.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: Lyndon B. Johnson, the Texan Democrat and Senate Majority Leader from 1955 to 1961, began to consider running for high office, and in doing so showed how his racial views differed from those held by many White Americans in the traditional South. In 1957, Johnson brokered a civil rights act through Congress. The bill established a Civil Rights Division and Commission in the Justice Department. The commission was empowered to investigate allegations of minority deprivation of rights.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: The first time "affirmative action" is used by the federal government concerning race is in President John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10925, which was chaired by Vice President Johnson. At Johnson's inaugural ball in Texas, he met with a young black lawyer, Hobart Taylor, Jr., and gave him the task to co-author the executive order. "Affirmative action" was chosen due to its alliterative quality. The term "active recruitment" started to be used as well. This order, albeit heavily worked up as a significant piece of legislation, in reality carried little actual power. The scope was limited to a couple hundred defense contractors, leaving nearly $7.5 billion in federal grants and loans unsupervised.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: NAACP had many problems with JFK's "token" proposal. They wanted jobs. One day after the order took effect, NAACP labor secretary Herbert Hill filed complaints against the hiring and promoting practices of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Lockheed was doing business with the Defense Department on the first billion-dollar contract. Due to taxpayer-funding being 90% of Lockheed's business, along with disproportionate hiring practices, black workers charged Lockheed with "overt discrimination." Lockheed signed an agreement with Vice President Johnson that pledged an "aggressive seeking out for more qualified minority candidates for technical and skill positions.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: This agreement was the administration's model for a "plan of progress." Johnson and his assistants soon pressured other defense contractors, including Boeing and General Electric, to sign similar voluntary agreements indicating plans for progress. However, these plans were just that, voluntary. Many corporations in the South, still afflicted with Jim Crow laws, largely ignored the federal recommendations.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: This eventually led to LBJ's Civil Rights Act, which came shortly after President Kennedy's assassination. This document was more holistic than any President Kennedy had offered, and therefore more controversial. It aimed not only to integrate public facilities, but also private businesses that sold to the public, such as motels, restaurants, theaters, and gas stations. Public schools, hospitals, libraries, parks, among other things, were included in the bill as well. It also worked with JFK's executive order 11114 by prohibiting discrimination in the awarding of federal contracts and holding the authority of the government to deny contracts to businesses who discriminate. Maybe most significant of all, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act aimed to end discrimination in all firms with 25 or more employees. Another provision established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as the agency charged with ending discrimination in the nation's workplace.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: Conservatives said that Title VII of the bill advocated a de facto quota system, and asserted unconstitutionality as it attempts to regulate the workplace. Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey corrected this notion: "there is nothing in [Title VII] that will give power to the Commission to require hiring, firing, and promotion to meet a racial 'quota.' [. . .] Title VII is designed to encourage the hiring on basis of ability and qualifications, not race or religion." Title VII prohibits discrimination. Humphrey was the silent hero of the bill's passing through Congress. He pledged that the bill required no quotas, just nondiscrimination. Doing so, he convinced many pro-business Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (IL) to support Title VII.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: On July 2, 1964, the Act was signed into law by President Johnson. A Harris poll that spring showed 70% citizen approval of the Act.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: The strides that the Johnson presidency made in ensuring equal opportunity in the workforce were further picked up by his successor Richard Nixon. In 1969, the Nixon administration initiated the "Philadelphia Order". It was regarded as the most forceful plan thus far to guarantee fair hiring practices in construction jobs. Philadelphia was selected as the test case because, as Assistant Secretary of Labor Arthur Fletcher explained, "The craft unions and the construction industry are among the most egregious offenders against equal opportunity laws . . . openly hostile toward letting blacks into their closed circle." The order included definite "goals and timetables." As President Nixon asserted, "We would not impose quotas, but would require federal contractors to show 'affirmative action' to meet the goals of increasing minority employment."


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: It was through the Philadelphia Plan that the Nixon administration formed their adapted definition of affirmative action and became the official policy of the US government. The plan was defined as "racial goals and timetables, not quotas".


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: After the Nixon administration, advancements in affirmative action became less prevalent. "During the brief Ford administration, affirmative action took a back seat, while enforcement stumbled along." Equal rights was still an important subject to many Americans, yet the world was changing and new issues were being raised. People began to look at affirmative action as a glorified issue of the past and now there were other areas that needed focus. "Of all the triumphs that have marked this as America's Century –...none is more inspiring, if incomplete, than our pursuit of racial justice."


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: In the first half of the 20th century segregation was considered fair and normal. Due to changes made in American society and governmental policies the United States is past the traditional assumptions of race relations.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: "Affirmative action is a national policy that concerns the way Americans feel about race, past discrimination, preferences, merit – and about themselves. This is why it is an American dilemma, and that is why we must understand how it developed and how its rationale and definition have changed since the 1960s."


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: In 1983, Reagan signed Executive Order 12432, which instructed government agencies to create a development plan for Minority Business Enterprises. While the Reagan administration opposed discriminatory practices, it did not support the implementation of quotas and goals (Executive Order 11246). Bi-partisan opposition in Congress and other government officials blocked the repeal of this Executive Order . Reagan was particularly known for his opposition to affirmative action programs. He reduced funding for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, arguing that "reverse discrimination" resulted from these policies. However, the courts reaffirmed affirmative action policies such as quotas. In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that courts could order race-based quotas to fight discrimination in worker unions in "Sheet Metal Workers' International Association v. EEOC", 478 U.S. 42. In 1987, in "Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County, California", 480 U.S. 616, the Supreme Court ruled that sex or race was a factor that could be considered in a pool of qualified candidates by employers.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: After the election and inauguration of Barack Obama in the 2008 election, a huge excitement swept the nation for the first African-American president of the United States. Many supporters and citizens began to hope for a future with affirmative action that would be secure under a black president. However, progress was not as apparent within the first few years of president Obama's administration. In 2009, education statistics denote the problems of college admissions in the US: "The College Board recently released the average 2009 SAT scores by race and ethnicity. They found that the gap between Black and Latino student versus White and Asian students has widened, despite the College Board's recent efforts to change questions to eliminate cultural biases." To the administration, it was apparent that more work was needed to better the situation. The following year in 2010, Obama presented his plan regarding the past administration's policy, under George W. Bush, called the "No Child Left Behind Act." Unlike the No Child Left Behind Act, president Obama's policy would instead reward schools and institutions for working with minorities and oppressed students. Additionally, in an indirect manner, the Obama administration aimed to garner support for more federal money and funds to be allocated to financial aid and scholarships to universities and colleges within the United States. They also have endorsed the decision of Fisher vs. University of Texas where the Supreme Court decision which endorses "the use of affirmative action to achieve a diverse student body so long as programs are narrowly tailored to advance this goal."


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: The Trump administration supported rolling back Obama-era policies on affirmative action, and Trump advocated that institutions, including universities, colleges, and schools, should use "race-neutral alternatives" concerning admissions. The guidelines the administration set were aimed to curb the Supreme Court decision's in "Fisher v. University of Texas".


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: In 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled in "Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College", a lawsuit alleging discrimination in admission against Asian Americans by the college, that Harvard's system, while imperfect, nonetheless passed constitutional muster.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: The case has been appealed, and in January 2022, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case together with a similar case related to admissions practices at the University of North Carolina. The case was argued on October 31, 2022.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: In 2010, Arizona voters passed a constitutional ban on government-sponsored affirmative action known as Proposition 107.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: As of January 1, 2012 (House Bill 623), affirmative action is not allowed in college admissions and employment.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: During the November 6, 2012 election, a majority of Oklahoma voters voted to pass Oklahoma State Question 759, which ended affirmative action in college admissions and public employment.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: President Kennedy stated in Executive Order 10925 that "discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin is contrary to the Constitutional principles and policies of the United States"; that "it is the plain and positive obligation of the United States Government to promote and ensure equal opportunity for all qualified persons, without regard to race, creed, color, or national origin, employed or seeking employment with the Federal Government and on government contracts"; that "it is the policy of the executive branch of the Government to encourage by positive measures equal opportunity for all qualified persons within the Government"; and that "it is in the general interest and welfare of the United States to promote its economy, security, and national defense through the most efficient and effective utilization of all available manpower".


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: Some individual American states also have orders that prohibit discrimination and outline affirmative action requirements with regard to race, creed, color, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, and disability status.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: Proponents of affirmative action argue that by nature the system is not only race based, but also class and gender based. To eliminate two of its key components would undermine the purpose of the entire system. The African American Policy Forum believes that the class based argument is based on the idea that non-poor minorities do not experience racial and gender based discrimination. The AAPF believes that "Race-conscious affirmative action remains necessary to address race-based obstacles that block the path to success of countless people of color of all classes". The group goes on to say that affirmative action is responsible for creating the African American middle class, so it does not make sense to say that the system only benefits the middle and upper classes.


title: Affirmative action in the United States

text: A study conducted at the University of Chicago in 2003 found that people with "black-sounding" names such as Lakisha and Jamal are 50 percent less likely to be interviewed for a job compared to people with "white-sounding" names such as Emily or Greg.