title: Brooks Brothers riot

text: Hundreds of people, including many Republican staffers, descended upon South Florida to protest the state's recounts. The demonstration was organized by these operatives, sometimes referred to as the "Brooks Brothers Brigade", to oppose the recount of ballots during the Florida election recount. The official canvassers, to speed up the process and meet their deadline, moved the counting process into a new room, and members of the media were restricted to a distance of 25 feet away.


title: Brooks Brothers riot

text: Republicans objected to this change of plans. John E. Sweeney of New York, nicknamed "Congressman Kick-Ass" by President Bush for his work in Florida, set the incident in motion by telling an aide to 'stop them' and to "Shut it down." The demonstration turned violent and, according to "The New York Times", "several people were trampled, punched or kicked when protesters tried to rush the doors outside the office of the Miami-Dade supervisor of elections. Sheriff's deputies restored order." Democratic National Committee aide Luis Rosero claimed to be kicked and punched outside of Leahy's office. Within two hours after the event, the canvassing board unanimously voted to shut down the count, in part due to perceptions that the process was not open or fair, and in part because the court-mandated deadline had become impossible to meet, due to the interference.


title: Brooks Brothers riot

text: Sweeney defended his actions, arguing that his aim was not to stop the hand recount, but to restore the process to public view. Other Bush supporters acknowledged they hoped to end the recount. "We were trying to stop the recount; Bush had already won," said Evilio Cepero, a reporter for WAQI, an influential Spanish talk radio station in Miami. "We were urging people to come downtown and support and protest this injustice." A Republican lawyer commented, "People were pounding on the doors, but they had an absolute right to get in." The protest interfered with attendance by official observers and hindered access by members of the press. In a radio interview in Albany on November 28, Sweeney said, "What I essentially told my people is, 'You've got to stop them'." "Whether I said, 'You've got to shut it down' or 'stop them,' I frankly don't quite recall."


title: Brooks Brothers riot

text: Several of the protestors were identified as Republican congressional staffers. A number of the demonstrators later took jobs in the incoming Bush administration.


title: Brooks Brothers riot

text: According to conversations leaked to "The Washington Post" by journalist and liberal activist Sarah Ashton-Cirillo—who had worked for the Nevada Republican Party under an assumed hard-right, Trumpist persona—a vice president at consultancy McShane LLC claimed that Republican congressman Paul Gosar was planning a "Brooks Brothers Riot" in Arizona to disrupt the counting of votes in the 2020 United States presidential election, and told Ashton-Cirillo to "get the Proud Boys out" for a similar event in Clark County, Nevada. Gosar denies having discussed any protests with the McShane vice president.


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" is a song by English rock band Arctic Monkeys. The song was released through Domino Recording Company as the band's first single from their debut studio album, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" (2006). It debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 23 October 2005, and remains one of the band's best-known songs in the UK.


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: Arctic Monkeys performed the track at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics. The song was ranked at number 7 on "NME"s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: The video is a live recording of the band playing the song in a studio with a small audience watching with both the video and audio taken live. Alex Turner introduces the band and the song and asks viewers not to "believe the hype". The video was shot using three Ikegami 3-tube colour television cameras from the 1980s to give it a more aged effect.


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: On 23 February 2006, the track won "Best Track" at the 2006 NME Awards—one of three awards won by Arctic Monkeys.


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: One of the B-sides, "Chun-Li's Spinning Bird Kick", was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in the 2007 Grammy Awards.


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: In October 2011, "NME" placed it at number 11 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". It was later ranked seventh on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time," with "NME" noting that the song is "the perfect encapsulation of what it is to be young, pissed, lusty, angry and skint in modern day Britain."


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: The Vines released a cover of the song as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of their album "Future Primitive", released 3 June 2011.


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: On 1 July 2007, Tom Jones and Joe Perry of Aerosmith performed their own version of the song at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium.


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: In May 2007, "NME" magazine placed "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" at number 10 in its list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever.


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: In February 2008, Alan Wilder, the former member of Depeche Mode, criticised the mastering of the song in an open letter on the "Side-Line" Magazine website. He described its sound as "a bombardment of the most unsubtle, one-dimensional noise."


title: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

text: The line "Your name isn't Rio, but I don't care for sand" is a reference to Duran Duran's song "Rio".


title: Marise Payne

text: Marise Ann Payne (born 29 July 1964) is an Australian politician who served in the Morrison Government as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2018 to 2022 and as Minister for Women from 2019 to 2022. She has been a Senator for New South Wales since 1997, representing the Liberal Party.


title: Marise Payne

text: Payne was born in Sydney and attended the University of New South Wales. She was the first woman to serve as federal president of the Young Liberals (1989–1991). Payne was appointed to the Senate in 1997, in place of Bob Woods. She was elected to a full term in 2001, and has since been re-elected four more times. Payne was first added to the shadow ministry in 2007, and when the Coalition returned to power in 2013 she was made Minister for Human Services in the Abbott Government. Payne was appointed Minister for Defence when Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister, becoming the first woman to hold the position. After Turnbull was replaced by Scott Morrison in August 2018, it was announced that she would replace Julie Bishop as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the new government. She is currently the longest serving female senator in Australia's history.


title: Marise Payne

text: Payne was born in Sydney, the daughter of Ann Noreen (née Johns) and William Elliott Payne. Her father was a World War II veteran who worked as an accountant and farmer. Payne grew up in Bardwell Park, in Sydney's southern suburbs. She attended MLC School before going on to the University of New South Wales, where she graduated with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees. In her second year at university, she was involved in a road accident near Michelago. She was a passenger in a car which rolled over and she received serious injuries to her neck, fracturing her odontoid process.


title: Marise Payne

text: Payne joined the Liberal Party in 1982, and was state president of the New South Wales Young Liberals from 1987 to 1988. She then served as federal president of the Young Liberals from 1989 to 1991, the first woman to hold the position, and as a member of the state executive of the New South Wales Liberals from 1991 to 1997. In 1991, Payne was an unsuccessful candidate to fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Peter Baume. At the time she was serving as private secretary to Senator Robert Hill.


title: Marise Payne

text: In 1994, Payne was appointed vice-chair of the Australian Republican Movement, serving under chairman Malcolm Turnbull. At the time, she was working as an adviser to Premier John Fahey and serving on the Liberal Party's state executive. Tony Abbott, who was then the national executive director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, criticised her for accepting the position, stating "anyone who does not support constitutional monarchy is at odds with the party". John Howard accused her of a "conflict of interest", stating she had joined "an organisation dominated by Labor sympathisers".


title: Marise Payne

text: Following the resignation of Senator Bob Woods in March 1997, Payne was chosen by the Liberal Party to fill the casual vacancy. She took office on 9 April 1997, and has subsequently been re-elected to the Senate at the 2001, 2007, 2013, and 2016 elections. Her office is located in Parramatta, in Sydney's western suburbs.


title: Marise Payne

text: Payne was a backbencher for her first decade in the Senate, from 1997 to 2007. When she took her seat, "The Sydney Morning Herald" ran a headline describing her as "The Senator John Howard Didn't Want". She was preselected in third place on the Coalition ticket at the 2001 election, with Howard intervening to ensure Helen Coonan ranked ahead of her as the first Liberal candidate. Prior to the 2007 election, members of the Liberal Party's conservative faction attempted to have Payne removed from the ticket. However, for the sake of unity Howard and Bill Heffernan intervened to ensure that she retained a winning place on the Coalition ticket. Payne served on various Senate committees during that time, notably as chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee.


title: Marise Payne

text: Payne was appointed as a shadow parliamentary secretary after the Coalition lost the 2007 election, with responsibility for foreign affairs (2007–2008) and international development assistance and indigenous affairs (2008–2009). When Tony Abbott became Leader of the Opposition in December 2009, she was appointed Shadow Minister for COAG and Modernising the Federation. After the 2010 election, she was instead made Shadow Minister for Housing and Shadow Minister for Indigenous Development and Employment.


title: Marise Payne

text: When the Coalition won the 2013 federal election, Payne was appointed Minister for Human Services in the Abbott Government. In March 2014, she announced that Medicare offices would close on Saturdays, as there had been a "60 per cent reduction in walk-ins into Medicare shopfronts on Saturdays". In June 2014, she announced the creation of "myGov hybrid government shopfronts", which are designed to assist customers with setting up online accounts for government services such as Centrelink, Medicare, the Australian Taxation Office, and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.


title: Marise Payne

text: After Malcolm Turnbull defeated Tony Abbott in a leadership spill, Payne was elevated to the cabinet and appointed Minister for Defence in the Turnbull Government from 21 September 2015. She was the first woman to hold the position, which has existed since Federation in 1901. Neil James, the executive director of the Australia Defence Association, welcomed her appointment, stating: "Too many defence ministers have been shoved sideways into this portfolio in the twilight of the parliamentary careers because it's seen as a badge of seniority, and defence suffers. Marise Payne is a politician with a large part of her parliamentary career still ahead of her, and with this appointment, unlike the last few, there’s more to be optimistic about than to be pessimistic about."


title: Marise Payne

text: Payne oversaw the final months of the long-anticipated 2016 Defence White Paper, which she launched in February 2016 with Turnbull and Chief of the Defence Force Mark Binskin. She also launched the government's Integrated Investment Program and the Defence Industry Policy Statement. A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry criticised the white paper for its "negative" remarks about the South China Sea. Payne responded that "we have a strong defence relationship [with China] but we do have a point of difference in this regard and we are certainly not going to take a backward step in articulating our position". In April 2016, she and Turnbull announced that French firm DCNS, now called Naval Group, had been awarded a $50 billion contract to build a new fleet of submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. The submarine project will be undertaken in Adelaide rather than in France, generating 2,800 jobs. Payne had abdominal surgery in late 2016, which resulted in the deferral of the "two-plus-two" meeting between the foreign and defence ministers of Australia and Japan.


title: Marise Payne

text: In January 2018, the "Australian Financial Review" reported that Turnbull had considered replacing Payne with Christopher Pyne in the December 2017 cabinet reshuffle. She would then have been appointed to succeed Mark Higgie as the Australian Ambassador to NATO and the European Union. Her department reportedly began preparing briefing papers for the new minister, but in the end the move was not carried out.


title: Marise Payne

text: Malcolm Turnbull was replaced by Scott Morrison as Liberal leader and prime minister on 24 August 2018. Foreign minister Julie Bishop, an unsuccessful candidate for the Liberal leadership, announced her resignation from cabinet on 26 August. Morrison subsequently announced that Payne would succeed Bishop as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the new government. She was sworn in on 28 August, becoming Australia's second female foreign minister.


title: Marise Payne

text: After the government's re-election at the 2019 election, Payne was also appointed Minister for Women.


title: Marise Payne

text: On 19 April 2020, Payne called for a global inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic including China's handling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan. She called for the inquiry to be conducted independently of the World Health Organization. Payne's call was supported by the opposition Labor Party's Health spokesperson Chris Bowen, who urged the Morrison Government to win international support for the inquiry.


title: Marise Payne

text: Payne welcomed the normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as a positive and important step towards a peaceful and secure Middle East, adding that she welcomed the suspension of Israel's plans to annex parts of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank.


title: Marise Payne

text: In mid-April 2021, Payne visited her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta to discuss several issues of concern to Australia-New Zealand relations including New Zealand deportees from Australia, the ISIL bride Suhayra Aden and the two government's differing approaches towards China and the Five Eyes alliance.


title: Marise Payne

text: In early June 2021, Marise contacted her Saudi Arabian counterpart to address the plight of a dual national, Osama al-Hasani, extradited from Morocco and being allegedly kept in detention in the Kingdom. Payne took the measure following increasing pressure from human rights groups concerning al-Hasani’s detention. The dual Saudi-Australia citizen was arrested on 8 February by Moroccan authorities and extradited to Saudi Arabia, due to alleged accusations of stealing Range Rovers from a car dealership in 2015. Human Rights Watch claims that al-Hasani was cleared of all wrongdoings as per a 2019 affidavit it viewed.


title: Marise Payne

text: Following the 2021 Hong Kong legislative election, Payne and her fellow foreign ministers from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and the US Secretary of State issued a joint statement criticising the exclusion of opposition candidates, the Hong Kong national security law, and the curtailment of media freedoms. The joint statement also urged Beijing to abide by its international obligations to protect human rights and freedoms in Hong Kong including those guaranteed by the Sino-British Joint Declaration.


title: Marise Payne

text: Payne is viewed as a member of the Liberal Party's moderate or "small-l liberal" wing. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Payne is a member of the Moderate/Modern Liberal faction of the Liberal Party. In a 2008 interview, she stated: "I am a liberal, I am a member of the Liberal Party. I have always called myself a liberal. If I had wanted to be a conservative I would have gone to London and joined the Conservative Party." Payne is a republican, and served as vice-chair of the Australian Republican Movement in the 1990s. According to Senator Simon Birmingham, she argued forcefully against the Northern Territory National Emergency Response in the Liberal partyroom. In 2002, she said she had "very real concerns" about how mandatory detention of illegal immigrants affected women and children, proposing that they instead be released into the community. In 2004, in response to calls for the federal government to withdraw Medicare funding of abortions, she stated "people should not be prepared to see the rights and health of Australian women go backwards".


title: Marise Payne

text: Payne is in a long-term relationship with her domestic partner Stuart Ayres, who was a minister in the New South Wales state government. The couple met while campaigning together at the 2007 federal election. As of 2010, they were building a home together in Mulgoa.


title: Aceclofenac

text: Aceclofenac is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) analog of diclofenac. It is used for the relief of pain and inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.


title: Aceclofenac

text: Aceclofenac should not be given to people with porphyria or breast-feeding mothers, and is not recommended for children. It should be avoided near term in a pregnant woman because of the risk of having a premature closure of ductus arteriosus leading to fetal hydrops in the neonate.


title: Aceclofenac

text: Aceclofenac (CHClNO), chemically [(2-{2, 6-dichlorophenyl) amino} phenylacetooxyacetic acid], is a crystalline powder with a molecular weight of 354.19. It is practically insoluble in water with good permeability. It is metabolized in human hepatocytes and human microsomes to form [2-(2',6'-dichloro-4'-hydroxy- phenylamino) phenyl] acetoxyacetic acid as the major metabolite, which is then further conjugated. According to the Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS) drug substances are classified to four classes upon their solubility and permeability. Aceclofenac falls under the BCS Class II, poorly soluble and highly permeable drug.


title: Aceclofenac

text: Aceclofenac works by inhibiting the action of cyclooxygenase (COX) that is involved in the production of prostaglandins (PG) which is accountable for pain, swelling, inflammation and fever. The incidence of gastric ulcerogenicity of aceclofenac has been reported to be significantly lower than that of the other frequently prescribed NSAIDs, for instance, 2-folds lesser than naproxen, 4-folds lesser than diclofenac, and 7-folds lesser than indomethacin.


title: Aceclofenac

text: Aceclofenac is available in Hungary as a prescription only medicine. The cost of the drug is low, around US$0.14 per 100 mg tablet ().


title: Aceclofenac

text: Aceclofenac is available in Europe and CIS countries. Known trades names include: Acecgen (Generics UK), Aflamin (Gedeon Richter Plc.), AklofEP (ExtractumPharma) and Flemac (Aramis Pharma).


title: Manic Street Preachers discography

text: Manic Street Preachers are an alternative rock band formed in 1986 in Blackwood, Wales, UK. Their discography consists of 14 studio albums, three compilation albums, four video albums, 71 music videos, six extended plays, 57 singles, 208 B-sides, plus appearances on various artist compilations.


title: Manic Street Preachers discography

text: For singles releases, the band has a record 34 UK Top 40 hits (two of which reached number 1), with a total of 97 weeks in the Top 40. The band has spent 179 weeks in the UK Singles Chart, with the longest unbroken chart run being "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" with 17 weeks.


title: Manic Street Preachers discography

text: Between 1996 and 2007, all of the band's singles charted in the Top 20 in the UK, starting with 1996's "A Design for Life" and ending with 2007's "Indian Summer". The band also holds the record for most consecutive Top 40 hits between 1991 and 2010, starting with "Stay Beautiful" which peaked at number 40, and ending with "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love", the band's last Top 40 hit, charting at number 28 in the UK Singles Chart.


title: Manic Street Preachers discography

text: Of albums, the most successful is "Everything Must Go" (1996), which spent 102 weeks in the top 75. "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours" (1998) was the band's first number 1 album, having enjoyed 74 weeks in the chart. The band has released 14 studio albums, all of which charted within the Top 15, with the lowest being "Generation Terrorists" (1992) and "Lifeblood" (2004) which peaked at number 13. The band has a record of 240 weeks in the UK Albums Chart, 145 of those spent in the Top 40 in the UK. After the UK, the band has been most successful in Ireland and Finland, reaching number one in those countries, as well as in Sweden. Since "Send Away The Tigers" (2007), the Manic Street Preachers have achieved consistent top-five placements in the UK. "Futurology" (2014) and "Resistance Is Futile" (2018) both reached number two and "The Ultra Vivid Lament" (2021) was the band's first number-one album in 23 years.


title: Sen Anlat Karadeniz

text: Sen Anlat Karadeniz (English title: "Tell me about the Black Sea") is a Turkish drama television series, starring Ulaş Tuna Astepe, İrem Helvacıoğlu, Mehmet Ali Nuroğlu, Sinan Tuzcu and Öykü Gürman. It premiered on ATV on January 24, 2018.


title: Sen Anlat Karadeniz

text: Nefes was only 16 years old when she was sold to a rich abusive man, Vedat Sayar, under the name of "marriage". Nefes had a tough life and had been locked up in house, tortured for 8 years long in Vedat’s mansion in Istanbul. In her 25th attempt, Nefes manages to escape from the "living hell" with her 7 years old son, Yigit, who was a result of a rape. Her escape was a complete coincidence that happened during a visit of a small town, cultural family from The Black Sea region. One of the sons, Tahir, who didn't know Nefes and her son are hiding in his car trunk, discovers that when he arrives to his home country, Trabzon, that is 562 miles away. As a man born and raised in the Black Sea Region, Tahir is ready to give his life for any person treated unjustly. Tahir sacrifices himself to save Nefes and her son. While doing so, he faces many challenges including exposing himself and his family to the threat of Nefes' kidnapper, who was also known as her abuser, Vedat, as well as the rejection of his family and his country to Nefes; as protecting a "married" woman with a child is considered "against traditions" in his hometown.


title: Banda music

text: Banda is a genre of Regional Mexican music and type of ensemble in which wind (mostly brass) and percussion instruments are performed.


title: Banda music

text: The history of banda music in Mexico dates from the middle of the 19th century with the arrival of piston brass instruments, when community musicians tried to imitate military bands. The first bandas were formed in Southern and Central Mexico. Many types of bandas exist in different territories and villages, playing traditional or modern music, organized privately or municipally.


title: Banda music

text: Brass instruments in the state of Oaxaca that date back to the 1850s have been found. The repertoire of the bands of Morelos, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Michoacán covered "gustos", "sones", "vinuetes", "funeral pieces", "marches", "danzones", "valses", "corridos", "paso dobles", "polkas", "rancheras", "alabanzas", and "foxes".


title: Banda music

text: Traditional bands that play Yucatecan Jarana are instrumented with clarinet, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, trumpet, trombone, timbales, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, and güiro.


title: Banda music

text: Traditional Oaxacan bands use a mix of saxophones and clarinets, fewer trumpets and more tenor trombones, and the bass drum and cymbals are played separately.


title: Banda music

text: One of the oldest bands recorded in history is the Banda de Tlayacapan of the state of Morelos, founded approximately in 1870 and being one of the first to play "la danza del Chinelo".


title: Banda music

text: Brass bandas play a wide variety of song styles and instrumentals including rancheras, corridos, cumbias, charangas, ballads, boleros, salsas, bachatas, sones, chilenas, jarabes, mambos, danzones, tangos, sambas, bossa novas, pasodobles, marches, polkas, waltzes, mazurkas, chotís, and swing.


title: Banda music

text: Perhaps the most popular song played by bandas is "El Sinaloense" ("The Sinaloan"), written by Severiano Briseño in 1944. "El Sinaloense" has been recorded by hundreds of bandas, in both lyrical and instrumental versions. The song has become so popular that many Sinaloans consider it their unofficial anthem.


title: Banda music

text: Banda music in Mexico dates from the middle of the 19th century with the arrival of piston metal instruments, when the communities tried to imitate the military bands. In each village of the different territories there are certain types of wind bands, whether traditional, private or municipal.


title: Banda music

text: Banda music was established in the 1880s in the Mexican state of Jalisco and expanded to other nearby states in the 1890s. Its roots come from the overlapping of Mexican music with German polka music. At the time, many German Mexicans lived in the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Jalisco and Nuevo León. This greatly influenced northern Mexican music. Immigrants from northern Mexico brought the music to the United States. Initially popular in the southwest United States, primarily in Texas, California, and Arizona, banda has followed the movement of Mexican immigrants to the Midwest United States and the rest of the country. Mexicans who came in contact with Latin-based Jazz of Chicanos or Mexicans born and raised in the United States adopted jazz-like sounds in banda to further enrich the music type.


title: Banda music

text: Despite some having provided the music for solo vocalists such as José Alfredo Jiménez and Antonio Aguilar in years past, when it came time to record their own music, brass bandas almost exclusively performed instrumentals. In 1989, Banda el Recodo was the first brass banda to record songs with its own official vocalist, inspiring most bandas to follow suit. Famous banda soloists include Julio Preciado, Lupillo Rivera, Valentín Elizalde, Pepe Aguilar, Joan Sebastian, José Manuel Figueroa, Pancho Barraza, El Chapo de Sinaloa, El Coyote, El Potro de Sinaloa, Adán Sánchez, Sergio Vega, Espinoza Paz, Roberto Tapia, Julión Álvarez, Larry Hernández, Gerardo Ortíz, Regulo Caro, Luis Coronel, El Dasa, Leonardo Aguilar, Remmy Valenzuela, and Alfredo Olivas. Chalino Sánchez and Juan Gabriel also contributed to banda music.


title: Banda music

text: Throughout the 20th century, brass banda music's mainstream popularity was traditionally confined to the state of Sinaloa. However, starting in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, it gained ground in the rest of Mexico’s pacific states, as well as a number of central states. By the new millennium, however, brass banda


title: Banda music

text: started to become popular throughout the rest of Mexico, eventually becoming the most popular Regional Mexican subgenre in the 21st century.


title: Banda music

text: Despite banda being male-dominated, there are a number of female soloist banda singers such as Graciela Beltran, Diana Reyes, Beatriz Adriana, and Yolanda Pérez. Jenni Rivera, the highest-earning solo banda singer of all time, has been credited with bringing a female perspective to what had historically been a male-dominated genre. While not known primarily as banda singers, Ana Bárbara and Ninel Conde have also recorded in the genre.


title: Banda music

text: The 2010s wave of popularity of the tuba in Southern California has been credited to its presence in banda music. As of 2017, El Salvador started having its own Banda music.


title: Banda music

text: A standard Sinaloa-style banda is made up of brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The most notable instrument is the tambora, a type of bass drum with a head made from animal hide, with a cymbal on top. Bandas were previously called "tamboras," named after this drum. The tambora is played in a strong and embellished manner, which provides the drive for the rest of the band. The percussion section also includes the tarola, which is a snare with timbales resembling the tom-toms on a regular drum set, cowbells, and cymbals. Banda el Recodo, one of the most famous bandas, features three trumpets, four clarinets, three valve trombones or slide trombones, two E alto horns, and one sousaphone.


title: Banda music

text: Most banda arrangements feature three-part harmony and melodic sections which contrast the timbres of the clarinet, trumpet, and valve trombone or slide trombone sections.


title: Banda music

text: Historically, bandas were village brass bands called on to entertain the town, and would play anything from opera overtures to big band jazz. This tradition continues today in many towns, especially during festivals and celebrations.


title: Banda music

text: Bandas usually have a strong percussion. The percussionists generally provide the accents and do not usually play all the time or keep a 'groove'. Often the percussionists will enter only when the singer is not singing, such as in an instrumental chorus. The groove is mostly provided by the sousaphone (or bass guitar in a few recordings) playing the bass line, and the alto horns playing sharp upbeats. Typically when a banda plays a cumbia, the alto horn players switch to Latin percussion instruments such as timbales, maracas, cowbell, congas, bongos and guiro.


title: Banda music

text: Bandas generally contain between 10 and 20 members. They usually have a lead singer and a second voice, and occasionally a third voice. The voice often consists of a duet, but solo singers and trios are also common.


title: Banda music

text: Besides the typical instrumentation, banda music, as well as many other forms of Regional Mexican music, is also noted for the grito mexicano, a yell that is done at musical interludes within a song, either by the musicians and/or the listening audience.


title: Banda music

text: In the late 1970s, a new style of Regional Mexican music was developed in the state of Nayarit called Technobanda. Pioneered by bands such as Banda Machos, Banda Maguey and Banda Arkángel R-15, it is essentially a hybrid of traditional banda with Grupero music. Beginning in the late 1980s, its popularity spread to the rest of Mexico’s western states as well as a number of central states, and among the Mexican population in United States from said regions. The 1990s was the peak of Technobanda’s popularity. In this subgenre, some or all of the horns are replaced by electric instruments. A typical Technobanda will substitute a sousaphone with an electric bass and the alto horns with an electronic keyboard and an electric guitar. The clarinets are frequently replaced with saxophones, while a drum set replaces the snare drums. The genre popularized the dance style Quebradita. Technobandas had already established vocalists within their repertoire before brass bandas officially added their own vocalists.


title: Banda music

text: In the late 1980s, another style of Regional Mexican music was developed in the state of Michoacan called Tierra Caliente. Like Technobanda, it includes vocals, electric instruments like a bass guitar and electronic keyboard, as well as brass instruments such as trumpets, trombones, saxophones and drums. Some bands also use accordions. Tierra Caliente's popularity was originally limited to the regions of Mexico it is named after as well as among the Mexican population living in the United States from said regions, but starting in the mid-2000s, it gained popularity throughout a number of Mexico’s central states, as well as in the United States among the Mexican population from said regions.


title: Banda music

text: Duranguense was created in the early 1990s. It first became prominent in Chicago, Illinois and surged to widespread popularity during the mid to late 2000s among the Mexican and Mexican-American community at large in the United States, as well as in many parts of Mexico. The instrumental line-up includes vocals, saxophones, trombones, keyboards, drums and a tambora. This genre popularized the dance style Pasito Durangense.


title: Banda music

text: The main differences between Technobanda, Tierra Caliente and Duranguense is that the synthesizer riffs are different for all three styles of music, and the fact that Duranguense includes a tambora, while the others do not. Also, Technobanda may include an electric guitar, while the other two traditionally do not, and each subgenre has between one and three vocalists per band. The three subgenres simultaneously produce rancheras, corridos, cumbias, charangas, ballads, boleros, sones, chilenas, polkas and waltzes.


title: Banda music

text: Tamborazo is closely related to traditional brass banda. However, Tamborazo uses saxophones instead of clarinets. Another difference from banda is that Tamborazo uses its drum consistently, as opposed to banda which distributes the use of the other instruments throughout a song. Tamborazo originated in Villanueva in the state of Zacatecas. It is traditionally popular in that state, as well as in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and San Luis Potosi, and among the Mexican population from said states residing in the United States.


title: Banda music

text: Tamborazo bands tend to focus more on instrumental sones, polkas, waltzes, marches, cumbias and mambos.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The economy of Jordan is classified as an emerging market economy. Jordan's GDP per capita rose by 351% in the 1970s, declined 30% in the 1980s, and rose 36% in the 1990s. After King Abdullah II's accession to the throne in 1999, liberal economic policies were introduced. Jordan's economy had been growing at an annual rate of 8% between 1999 and 2008. However, growth has slowed to 2% after the Arab Spring in 2011. The substantial increase of the population, coupled with slowed economic growth and rising public debt led to a worsening of poverty and unemployment in the country. As of 2019, Jordan has a GDP of US$44.4 billion, ranking it 89th worldwide.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan has Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the United States, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, the European Union, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Turkey and Syria. More FTA's are planned with Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, the GCC, Lebanon, and Pakistan. Jordan is a member of the Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement, the Euro-Mediterranean free trade area, the Agadir Agreement, and also enjoys advanced status with the EU.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan's economic resource base centers on phosphates, potash, and their fertilizer derivatives; tourism; overseas remittances; and foreign aid. These are its principal sources of hard currency earnings. Lacking coal reserves, hydroelectric power, large tracts of forest or commercially viable oil deposits, Jordan relies on natural gas for 93% of its domestic energy needs. Jordan used to depend on Iraq for oil until the American-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Jordan also has a plethora of industrial zones producing goods in the textile, aerospace, defense, ICT, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic sectors. Jordan is an emerging knowledge economy.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The main obstacles to Jordan's economy are scarce water supplies, complete reliance on oil imports for energy, and regional instability. Just over 10% of its land is arable and the water supply is limited. Rainfall is low and highly variable, and much of Jordan's available ground water is not renewable.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: In the last few years Jordan's economic growth has slowed, averaging around 2%. Jordan's total foreign debt in 2011 was $19 billion, representing 60% of its GDP. In 2016, the debt reached $35.1 billion representing 93.4% of its GDP. This substantial increase is attributed to effects of regional instability causing: decrease in tourist activity; decreased foreign investments; increased military expenditure; attacks on Egyptian pipeline supplying the Kingdom with gas; the collapse of trade with Iraq and Syria; expenses from hosting Syrian refugees and accumulated interests from loans. According to the World Bank, Syrian refugees have cost Jordan more than $2.5 billion a year, amounting to 6% of the GDP and 25% of the government's annual revenue. With the presence of Syrian refugees in Jordan, wage growth went considerably down as a result of competition for jobs between refugees and Jordan citizens. The downturn that began in 2011, continued until 2018. The country's top five contributing sectors to GDP, government services, finance, manufacturing, transport, and tourism and hospitality were badly impacted by the Syrian civil war. Foreign aid covers only a small part of these costs, 63% of the total costs are covered by Jordan. An austerity programme was adopted by the government which aims to reduce Jordan's debt-to-GDP ratio to 77% by 2021. The programme succeeded in preventing the debt from rising above 95% in 2018. The yearly growth rate of the economy was 2% from 2016 to 2019, compared to 6.4% from 2000 to 2009.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The Central Bank of Jordan commenced operations in 1964 and is the sole issuer of Jordanian currency, the Jordanian dinar, which is pegged to the US dollar. The following chart of the trend of gross domestic product of Jordan at market prices by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of Jordanian dinars.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan is classified by the World Bank as an "upper middle-income country." According to the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom, Jordan has the third freest economy in the Middle East and North Africa, behind only Bahrain and Qatar, and the 32nd freest in the world. Jordan ranked as having the 35th best infrastructure in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Index of Economic Competitiveness. The Kingdom scored higher than many of its peers in the Persian Gulf and Europe like Kuwait, Israel. and Ireland. The 2010 AOF Index of Globalization ranked Jordan as the most globalized country in the Middle East and North Africa region. Jordan's banking sector is classified as "highly developed" by the IMF along with the GCC economies and Lebanon.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The official currency in Jordan is the Jordanian dinar and divides into 100 qirsh (also called piastres) or 1000 fils. Since 23 October 1995, the dinar has been officially pegged to the IMF's special drawing rights (SDRs). In practice, it is fixed at 1 US$ = 0.709 dinar, which translates to approximately 1 dinar = 1.41044 dollars. The Central Bank buys US dollars at 0.708 dinar, and sell US dollars at 0.7125 dinar, Exchangers buys US dollars at 0.708 and sell US dollars at 0.709.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The Jordanian market is considered one of the most developed Arab markets outside the Persian Gulf states. Jordan ranked 18th on the 2012 Global Retail Development Index which lists the 30 most attractive retail markets in the world. Jordan was ranked as the 19th most expensive country in the world to live in 2010 and the most expensive Arab country to live in.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan has been a member of the World Trade Organization since 2000. In the 2009 Global Enabling Trade Report, Jordan ranked 4th in the Arab World behind the UAE, Bahrain, and Qatar. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States that went into effect in December 2001 would phase out duties on nearly all goods and services by 2010.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The flows of remittance to Jordan had experienced rapid growth rates, particularly during the end of the 1970s and 1980s, where Jordan had started exporting high skilled labour to the Persian Gulf States. The money that migrants send home, remittances, represents today an important source of external funding for many developing countries, including Jordan. According to the World Bank data on remittances, with about US$3000 million in 2010, Jordan ranks at 10th place among all developing countries. Jordan has ranked constantly among the top 20 remittances-recipient countries over the last decade. In addition, the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) statistics in 2010 indicate that Jordan was the third biggest recipient of remittances among Arab countries after Egypt and Lebanon. The host countries that have absorbed most of the Jordanian expatriates are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab of Emirates (UAE), where the available recorded number of the Jordanian expatriates, working abroad, indicates that about 90% of these migrants are working in Persian Gulf countries.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The proportion of skilled workers in Jordan is among the highest in the region. Many of the world's major software and hardware IT companies are present in Jordan. The presence of such firms underlines Jordan's attractiveness as a stable base with high-calibre human resources from which to serve the wider region. According to a report published in January 2012 by the founder of venture capital firm Finaventures, Rachid Sefraoui, Amman is one of the top 10 best cities in the world to launch a tech start-up.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan has high unemployment rates, 11.9% in the fourth quarter of 2010 but some estimate it to be as high as a quarter of the working-age population. Unemployment has continued to rise, hitting 25% in 2021, the highest level in more than 25 years, 6% points more than in 2019, and more than double the amount in 2011. Unemployment is a major issue, particularly for young people, women, and those with a university degree, with rates of unemployment exceeding 45%, 30%, and 30%, respectively.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: An estimated 13.3% of citizens live under the poverty line. Since the mid-1970s, migrants' remittances are Jordan's most important source of foreign exchange, and a decisive factor in the country's economic development and the rising standard of living of the population.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Agriculture in Jordan constituted almost 40% of GNP in the early 1950s; on the eve of the June 1967 War, it was 17%. By the mid-1980s, agriculture's share of GNP in Jordan was only about 6%.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan hosts SOFEX, the world's fastest growing and region's only special operations and homeland security exhibition and conference. Jordan is a regional and international provider of advanced military goods and services. The KADDB Industrial Park, specialized in defense manufacturing, was opened in September 2009 in Mafraq. By 2015, the park is expected to provide around 15,000 job opportunities whereas the investment volume is expected to reach JD500 million. A report by Strategic Foresight Group has calculated the opportunity cost of conflict for the Middle East from 1991 to 2010 at $12 trillion. Jordan's share in this is almost $84 billion.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan has a 138% mobile phone penetration rate and a 63% internet penetration rate. 41.6% of all mobile phones in Jordan are smartphones, compared with 40% in the United States and 26% in the United Kingdom. 97% of Jordanian households own at least one television set while 90% have satellite reception. Furthermore, 61% of Jordanian households own at least one personal computer or laptop.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: According to an investment survey, Jordan ranked as the 9th best outsourcing destination worldwide. Amman is one of the top 10 cities in the world to launch a tech start-up in 2012 and is becoming referred to as the "Silicon Valley of the Middle East".


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan has hosted the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa six times and plans to hold it again at the Dead Sea for the seventh time in 2013. Amman also hosts the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week semiannually and is the only city in the region to hold such a prestigious event that is usually held by the likes of New York, Paris, and Milan.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan is one of the most liberal countries in the Middle East allowing a debate to consider introducing a secular government. In the 2010 Human Development Index, Jordan was placed in the "high human development" bracket and came 7th among Arab countries, after the Persian Gulf states and Lebanon. The 2010 Quality of Life Index prepared by "International Living" magazine ranked Jordan second in the MENA with 55.0 points after Palestine.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Decades of political stability and security and strict law enforcement make Jordan one of the top 10 countries worldwide in security. In the 2010 Newsweek "World's Best Countries" list, Jordan ranked 53rd worldwide, and 3rd among Arab countries after Kuwait and the UAE. Jordan is also among the top ten countries whose citizens feel safest walking the streets at night.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: As of 2011, 63% of working Jordanians are insured with the Social Security Corporation, as well as 120,000 foreigners, with plans to include the rest of Jordanian workers both inside and outside the kingdom as well as students, housewives, business owners, and the unemployed. Only 1.6% of Jordanians make less than $2 a day, one of the lowest in the developing world according to the Human Poverty Index.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: In the 2010 Gallup Global Wellbeing Survey, 30% of Jordanians described their financial situation as "thriving", surpassed most of the Arab countries with the exception of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. In 2008, the Jordanian government launched the "Decent Housing for a Decent Living" project aimed at building 120,000 affordable housing units within the next 5 years, plus an additional 100,000 housing units if the need arises.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Despite increases in production, the agriculture sector's share of the economy has declined steadily to just 2.4 percent of gross domestic product by 2004. About 4 percent of Jordan's labor force worked in the agricultural sector in 2002. The most profitable segment of Jordan's agriculture is fruit and vegetable production (including tomatoes, cucumbers, citrus fruit, and bananas) in the Jordan Valley. The rest of crop production, especially cereal production, remains volatile because of the lack of consistent rainfall. Fishing and forestry are negligible in terms of the overall domestic economy. The fishing industry is evenly divided between live capture and aquaculture; the live weight catch totaled just over 1,000 metric tons in 2002. The forestry industry is even smaller in economic terms; approximately 240,000 total cubic meters of roundwood were removed in 2002, the vast majority for fuelwood.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Potash and phosphates are among the country's main economic exports. In 2003 approximately 2 million tons of potash salt production translated into US$192 million in export earnings, making it the second most lucrative exported good. Potash production totaled 1.9 million tons in 2004 and 1.8 million tons in 2005. In 2004 approximately 6.75 million tons of phosphate rock production generated US$135 million in export earnings, placing it fourth on Jordan's principal export list. With production totaling 6.4 million tons in 2005, Jordan was the world's third largest producer of raw phosphates. In addition to these two major minerals, smaller quantities of unrefined salt, copper ore, gypsum, manganese ore, and the mineral precursors to the production of ceramics (glass sand, clays, and feldspar) are also mined.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The industrial sector, which includes mining, manufacturing, construction, and power, accounted for approximately 26 percent of gross domestic product in 2004 (including manufacturing, 16.2 percent; construction, 4.6 percent; and mining, 3.1 percent). More than 21 percent of the country's labor force was reported to be employed in this sector in 2002. The main industrial products are potash, phosphates, pharmaceuticals, cement, clothes, and fertilizers. The most promising segment of this sector is construction. In the past several years, demand has increased rapidly for housing and offices of foreign enterprises based in Jordan to better access the Iraqi market. The manufacturing sector has grown as well (to nearly 20 percent of GDP by 2005), in large part as a result of the United States–Jordan Free Trade Agreement (ratified in 2001 by the U.S. Senate); the agreement has led to the establishment of approximately 13 Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZs) throughout the country. The QIZs, which provide duty-free access to the U.S. market, produce mostly light industrial products, especially ready-made garments. By 2004 the QIZs accounted for nearly US$1.1 billion in exports according to the Jordanian government.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan's free trade agreement (FTA) with the US – the first in the Arab world – has already made the US one of Jordan's most significant markets. By 2010, it would have barrier-free export access in almost all sectors. A number of trade agreements with countries in the Middle Eastern and North African regions and beyond should also reap increasing benefits, not in the least the Agadir Agreement, which is seen as a precursor to an FTA with the EU. Jordan also recently signed an FTA with Canada. Furthermore, Jordan's plethora of industrial zones offering tax incentives, low utility costs and improved infrastructure links are helping incubate new developments. The relatively high skills level is also a key factor in promoting investment and stimulating the economy, particularly in value-added sectors. Despite the fact that Jordan has few natural resources it does benefit from abundant reserves of potash and phosphates, which are widely used in the production of fertilisers. Exports by these industries are expected to have a combined worth of $1bn in 2008. Other important industries include pharmaceuticals, which exported around $435m in 2006 and $260m in the first half of 2008 alone, as well as textiles, which were worth $1.19bn in 2007. Although the value of Jordan's industrial sector is high, the kingdom faces a number of challenges. Because the country is dependent on importing raw materials, it is vulnerable to price volatility. Shortages in water and power also make consistent development difficult. Despite these challenges, Jordan's economic openness and long-standing fertiliser and pharmaceutical industries should continue to provide a solid source of foreign currency.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan has a plethora of industrial zones and special economic zones aimed at increasing exports and making Jordan an industrial giant. The Mafraq SEZ is focused on industry and logistics hoping to become the regional logistics hub with air, road, and rail links to neighboring countries and eventually Europe and the Persian Gulf. The Ma'an SEZ is primarily industrial focusing on satisfying domestic demand and reducing reliance on imports. With a national rail system under construction, Jordan expects trade to grow significantly and Jordan will mostly become the trade hub of the Levant and even the Middle East region as a whole due to its geography and natural resources.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Telecommunications is a billion-dollar industry with estimates showing that core markets of fixed-line, mobile and data service generate annual revenue of around JD836.5m ($1.18bn) per year, which is equivalent to 13.5% of GDP. Jordan's IT sector is the most developed and competitive in the region due to the 2001 telecom liberalization. Market share of the mobile sector, the most competitive telecoms market, is currently fairly evenly divided between the three operators, with Zain, owned by MTC Kuwait, maintaining the largest share (39%), followed by France Telecom's brand Orange (36%) and Umniah (25%), which is 96% owned by Bahrain's Batelco. End of year figures for 2007 show that the market trend is towards greater parity, with Zain's share falling in the space of a year from 47% in 2006 and the other two operators picking up subscribers. The increased competition has led to pricing that is more favourable to consumers. Mobile penetration is currently around 80%.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Ambitious subsequent national strategies were formulated already since Y 2000 as a private sector initiative directly led by his majesty the king of Jordan. Information technology association in Jordan (int@j ) was established to kick off a private sector process that would focus on preparing Jordan for the new economy through IT and shall reflect the national objectives towards automation and modernization in co-operation with the ministry of information technology in Jordan the (MOICT). The latest strategy will take the sector through to 2011, aims to bring Jordan to precise objectives. The ICT sector currently accounts for over a 14% (indirect) of the kingdom's GDP. This figure includes foreign investment and total domestic revenue from the sector. Employment growth in the sector was progressive and reached up to 60.000 (indirect ) by 2008. The government is working to address employment issues and education related to sector by developing ICT training and opportunities to increase the overall penetration of ICT in Jordanian society. The policy outlines a number of objectives for the country to reach within the next three years, including almost doubling the size of the sector to $3bn, and pushing internet user penetration up to 50%.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The early founder of Int@j and its first chairman of the board is Karim Kawar and early activists who drove the national strategic objectives and helped formulate an action plan through the developing pillars were Marwan Juma Jordan's minister of ICT, Doha Abdelkhaleq on labour and education. Humam Mufti on advocacy and Nashat Masri on Capital and finance amongst others.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Such an infrastructure made Jordan a suitable location for IT startups that operate in the fields of web development, mobile application development, online services, and investment in IT businesses.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The IT industry in Jordan in the year 2000 and beyond got a very big boost after the Gulf War of 1991. This boost came from a large influx of immigrants from the Gulf countries to Jordan, mostly from Jordanian expatriates from Kuwait, totaling few hundred thousands. This large wave impacted Jordan in many ways, and one of them was on its IT industry.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Energy remains perhaps the biggest challenge for continued growth for Jordan's economy. Spurred by the surge in the price of oil to more than $145 a barrel at its peak, the Jordanian government has responded with an ambitious plan for the sector. The country's lack of domestic resources is being addressed via a $14bn investment programme in the sector. The programme aims to reduce reliance on imported products from the current level of 96%, with renewables meeting 10% of energy demand by 2020 and nuclear energy meeting 60% of energy needs by 2035. The government also announced in 2007 that it would scale back subsidies in several areas, including energy, where there have historically been regressive subsidies for fuel and electricity. In another new step, the government is opening up the sector to competition, and intends to offer all the planned new energy projects to international tender.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Unlike most of its neighbors, Jordan has no significant petroleum resources of its own and is heavily dependent on oil imports to fulfill its domestic energy needs. In 2002 proved oil reserves totaled only . Jordan produced only in 2004 but consumed an estimated . According to U.S. government figures, oil imports had reached about in 2004. The Iraq invasion of 2003 disrupted Jordan's primary oil supply route from its eastern neighbor, which under Saddam Hussein had provided the kingdom with highly discounted crude oil via overland truck routes. Since late 2003, an alternative supply route by tanker through the Al Aqabah port has been established; Saudi Arabia is now Jordan's primary source of imported oil; Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are secondary sources. Although not so heavily discounted as Iraqi crude oil, supplies from Saudi Arabia and the UAE are subsidized to some extent.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: In the face of continued high oil costs, interest has increased in the possibility of exploiting Jordan's vast oil shale resources, which are estimated to total approximately 40 billion tons, 4 billion tons of which are believed to be recoverable. Jordan's oil shale resources could produce of oil, enabling production of about . The oil shale in Jordan has the fourth largest in the world which currently, there are several companies who are negotiating with the Jordanian government about exploiting the oil shale like Royal Dutch Shell, Petrobras and Eesti Energia.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Natural gas is increasingly being used to fulfill the country's domestic energy needs, especially with regard to electricity generation. Jordan was estimated to have only modest natural gas reserves (about 6 billion cubic meters in 2002), but new estimates suggest a much higher total. In 2003 the country produced and consumed an estimated 390 million cubic meters of natural gas. The primary source is located in the eastern portion of the country at the Risha gas field. Until the early 2010s, the country imported the bulk of its natural gas via the Arab Gas Pipeline that stretches from the Al Arish terminal in Egypt underwater to Al Aqabah and then to northern Jordan, where it links to two major power stations. This Egypt–Jordan pipeline supplied Jordan with approximately 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. Gas supplies from Egypt were halted in 2013 due to insurgent activities in the Sinai and domestic gas shortages in Egypt. In light of this, a liquified natural gas terminal was built in the Port of Aqaba to facilitate gas imports. In 2017, a low-capacity gas pipeline from Israel was completed which supplies the Arab Potash factories near the Dead Sea. As of 2018, a large capacity pipeline from Israel is under construction in northern Jordan which is expected to begin operating by 2020 and will supply the kingdom with 3 BCM of gas per year, thereby satisfying most of Jordan's natural gas consumption needs.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The state-owned National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) produces most of Jordan's electricity (94%). Since mid-2000, privatization efforts have been undertaken to increase independent power generation facilities; a Belgian firm was set to begin operations at a new power plant near Amman with an estimated capacity of 450 megawatts. Power plants at Az Zarqa (400 megawatts) and Al Aqabah (650 MW) are Jordan's other primary electricity providers. As a whole, the country consumed nearly 8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2003 while producing only 7.5 billion kWh of electricity. Electricity production in 2004 rose to 8.7 billion kWh, but production must continue to increase in order to meet demand, which the government estimates would continue to grow by about 5% per year. About 99 percent of the population is reported to have access to electricity.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The transportation sector on average contributes some 10% to Jordan's GDP, with transportation and communications accounting for $2.14bn in 2007. Well aware of the sector's importance to the country's service and industry-oriented economy, in 2008 the government formulated a new national transport strategy with the aim to improve, modernise and further privatise the sector. With no imminent solution to the ongoing security crisis in Iraq in sight, prospects for the Jordanian transport sector as a whole look bright. The country will arguably remain one of the major transit points for both goods and people destined for Iraq, while the number of tourists visiting Jordan is set to continue to increase. The main events to follow in the near future are the relocation of Aqaba's main port, a national railway system, and the construction of a new terminal at QAIA. Volatility in fuel prices is almost certainly going to have negative effects on operational costs and as such may hamper the sector's average annual growth of around 6%. However, uncertain fuel prices also offer a great deal of incentive to boost private investments in alternative modes of transport such as public buses and improved trains.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Although the state remains a major influence, Jordan's media sector has seen significant privatisation and liberalisation efforts in recent years. Based on official rack rates, research firm Ipsos estimated that the advertisement sector spent some $280m towards publicity in Jordan's media, 80% of which was spent on newspapers, followed by TV, radio and magazines. The biggest event of 2007 was the cancelled launch of ATV, the kingdom's first private broadcaster. As a result, the state-owned Jordan TV (JTV) remains the country's sole broadcaster. In recent years, Jordan has also seen a spectacular rise in the number of blogs, websites and news portals as sources of news information. The increasing diversification of Jordan's media is a good sign and should boost advertising revenues and private initiatives.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Recording growth of 30%, 2007 turned out to be yet another outstanding year for Jordan's advertising industry. Following nearly a decade of double-digit growth, however, most publicity specialists expect to see a relative slowdown in 2008. Unlike 2007, no major campaigns were planned for the first part of 2008. Additionally, the Jordanian advertising had some catching up to do with the rest of the region in terms of average expenditure per capita. As the sector matures, it is only normal for growth figures to gradually decrease. Since 2000 total ad spend increased from $77m to $280m in 2007, an increase of 260%. The Jordanian telecoms sector was the biggest ad spender in 2007, accounting for around 20% of the market, followed by the banking and finance sector (12%), services industry (11%), real estate (8%) and the automotive sector (5%). In the next year, particularly if there is a downturn, it would become increasingly important for the sector to develop good vocational training and to begin to take advantage of new media markets.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Services accounted for more than 70 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004. The sector employed nearly 75 percent of the labor force in 2002.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan's banking system consists of 25 commercial banks, three Islamic banks, and nine foreign banks, with total assets of Jordanian dinar, JOD 57 billion (or EUR69.6 billion). Between 2010 and 2020, the sector's total assets climbed by 5% on average, led by a 7% increase in lending.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The banking sector is widely regarded as advanced in both regional and international terms. In 2007, total profits of the 15 listed banks rose 14.89% to JD640m ($909m). Jordan's strong growth of 6% in 2007 was reflected in a 20.57% expansion in net credit to JD17.9bn ($25.4bn) by the end of the year. The most improvement was in trade, construction and industry. Many banks suffered from the sharp correction in the Amman Stock Market in 2006, encouraging them to focus on core banking business in 2007, and this was reflected in a 16.65% rise in net interest and commission income to JD1.32bn ($1.87bn). The stock market also picked up in 2007 and total portfolio income losses decreased. Although Jordan's banking sector is small by global standards, it has attracted strong interest from regional investors in Lebanon and the GCC. New regulations introduced by the CBJ, in addition to political stability, have helped to create a favourable investment environment. Its conservative policies helped Jordan avoid the global financial crisis of 2009, Jordanian banks was one of the only countries that posted a profit in 2009.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Banking sector profitability was momentarily impacted (in 2020) by the COVID-19-induced economic downturn, but it already recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels in 2021. The Jordanian banking sector's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio remained at 5.5% during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a survey conducted in 2021, the pandemic's impact on credit supply in Jordan has been quite limited, with two-thirds of the banks surveyed indicating a constant or growing availability of loans. 50% of banks also reported an increase to loan supply for SMEs. For corporates, the increase was 25%.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: 90% of Banks believed that the pandemic will also affect the digitization of internal processes. 81% believed that banks' daily operations will be impacted and 90% believed that banks' online offerings will be improved.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Contributing an estimated JD477.5m ($678.05m), or 4.25% of Jordan's GDP, according to figures from the Central Bank, the construction sector performed strongly in 2007. The Great Amman Municipality (GAM) completed its master plan for the capital, which is expected to grow from 700 km today to 1700 km by 2025. Amman is changing from a predominantly horizontal to a largely vertical city due to various clusters of high-rises. Significant developments outside Amman include the rapid residential build-up of Zarqa, the transformation of Aqaba into a commercial and tourist centre, and the construction of a series of high-end hotels and tourist resorts along the Dead Sea. A new airport terminal, Amman ring road and a light rail between the capital and Zarqa are being constructed.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Despite recording a relative slowdown compared to the expansion of recent years, Jordan's construction and real estate market continued to grow in 2007. Trading totaled JD5.6bn ($8bn), up from JD5.2bn ($7.4bn) in 2006, according to Jordan's Land and Survey Department. Although the years of astounding growth—some 75% in 2004 and 48% in 2005—seem to have passed, the future looks bright for real estate, as demand continues to outstrip supply, while Jordan remains a very attractive investment destination for foreign businesses, second-home buyers and Jordanians working abroad. With Jordan's continuing sharp population growth, as well as its strategic location at the heart of the Middle East, the kingdom's main market drivers indicate a bright future for years to come. Although a number of class-A office space developments are currently under construction, it would take a few years to close the gap between demand and supply. The Amman retail market may become more saturated in the short term. Consequently, developers may turn to other cities to build supermarkets and malls.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan's insurance market, with 29 companies operating in a country of just 5.7 million people, is saturated, despite regulatory encouragements for mergers and acquisitions. In terms of market share based on premiums, motor coverage accounts for 42.4%, medical insurance 18.6%, fire and property damage 17%, life 9.8%, marine and transport 7.9% and other insurance the remaining 4.3%. The insurance sector made up 2.52% of GDP in 2006, up from 2.43% in 2005. Current plans call for increasing the sector's GDP contribution to 7% in the short term and 10% in the long term. The sector holds great potential but remains underdeveloped. Region-wide price increases and a lack of consumer understanding of products are two major challenges. In addition, cultural considerations, including religion, make improving market penetration difficult. The cost of living has also risen, and the IMF forecasts that the inflation rate would reach 9% in 2008. Salaries have remained unchanged, however, leaving consumers with less disposable income. Other than mandatory motor coverage, insurance products are considered a luxury by average Jordanians, who must often prioritise spending. There would likely only be a few changes to the market in the coming year. Members of the sector would like to see greater coordination among the regulators and those working for the kingdom's legal system in order to improve insurance laws.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The state of the tourism sector is widely regarded as below potential, especially given the country's rich history, ancient ruins, Mediterranean climate, and diverse geography. Despite personal appeals by the king and an increasingly sophisticated marketing campaign, the industry is still adversely affected by the political instability of the region. More than 5 million visitors entered Jordan in 2004, generating US$1.3 billion in earnings. Earnings from tourism rose to US$1.4 billion in 2005. The fact that the bulk of Jordan's tourist trade emanates from elsewhere in the Middle East should contribute to the industry's growth potential in the years ahead, as Jordan is relatively stable, open, and safe in comparison to many of its neighbors. The tourism sector remains an important element of the Jordanian economy, directly employing some 30,000 Jordanians and contributing 10% to the kingdom's GDP. Despite a decline in Arab and Gulf visitors, 2007 marked a year of steady growth for the tourism sector. Revenues jumped 13% to nearly $2.11bn during the first 11 months, up from $1.86bn for the same period in 2006. The sector is overseen by the government's National Tourism Strategy (NTS), which was established in 2004 to take the industry through 2010. NTS aimed to double tourism revenues during the period and to increase tourism-related jobs to 91,719. The first goal has already been met but the second one might be more of a challenge: between 2004 and 2007 the total number of people employed in the sector rose from 23,544 to 35,484. This is impressive growth, but less than half the 90,000-or-more goal. NTS hopes to place Jordan as a boutique destination for high-end tourists. The strategy identifies seven priorities or niche markets: cultural heritage (archaeology); religion; ecotourism; health and wellness; adventure; meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE); and cruises. The Jordan Tourism Board's (JTB) marketing budget has increased in the past year from JD6m ($8.52m) to JD11.5m ($16.3m). These are positive times for tourism in Jordan, with steady growth and major projects in the pipeline. The sector has to make improvements in infrastructure and marketing, but overall the industry has been improving for the past several years.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Jordan's real GDP fell by 1.6% in 2020, with a dramatic reduction in tourism—a crucial economic sector—being one of the primary transmission routes of the crisis. Tourism provides for about 40% of Jordan's export receipts and 10–15% of GDP, with 3.8 million international tourists every year. The sector's GDP share fell to 3% in 2020, and the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to be slow.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Since 1995, economic growth has been low. Real GDP has grown at only about 1.5% annually, while the official unemployment has hovered at 14% (unofficial estimates are double this number). The budget deficit and public debt have remained high and continue to widen, yet during this period inflation has remained low due mainly to stable monetary policy and the continued peg to the United States Dollar. Exports of manufactured goods have risen at an annual rate of 9%. Monetary stability has been reinforced, even when tensions were renewed in the region during 1998, and during the illness and ultimate death of King Hussein in 1999.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: Expectations of increased trade and tourism as a consequence of Jordan's peace treaty with Israel have been disappointing. Security-related restrictions to trade with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have led to a substantial decline in Jordan's exports there. Following his ascension, King Abdullah improved relations with Arabic states of the Persian Gulf and Syria, but this brought few real economic benefits. Most recently the Jordanians have focused on WTO membership and a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. as means to encourage export-led growth.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The stock market capitalisation of listed companies in Jordan was valued at $37.639 billion in 2005 by the World Bank.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: According to the 2015 Middle East and North Africa Salary Survey conducted by Bayt.com, Respondents from GCC (49%) seem somewhat happier with the raise they received in 2014, as compared to respondents from Levant (42%):


title: Economy of Jordan

text: The population of Aqaba is only 100,000 people and is set to double over the next 10 years. The town benefits from some natural advantages. Located at the southern tip of the country, between Saudi Arabia and Israel on the shores of the Red Sea, the city is close to the Suez Canal, with easy access to key trade centres in both the Middle East and Africa. Aqaba is also the kingdom's only deep-water port town, taking up most of Jordan's scant of coastline. The Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ) has been responsible for most of this development since it opened in 2001.


title: Economy of Jordan

text: It covers 375 km and offers tax and tariff incentives, as well as full repatriation rights and more flexible operating regulations. There is a 5% flat tax on most economic activities, no tariffs on imported goods, no currency restrictions and no property taxes for corporate land. Additionally – and somewhat controversially, given Jordan's past issues with unemployment – companies based in ASEZ are allowed to employ up to 70% foreign workers in their operations. Jordan's investment profile has been growing nationally, but according to the Jordan Investment Board (JIB), the ASEZ has exceeded investment targets by 33%. By 2006 it had already brought in around $8bn in investment, some $2bn more than the original target of $6bn by 2020. ASEZ expects to attract a further $12bn spread across a number of sectors, including tourism, finance and industry. The Development Law of 2008 set in place a universal framework for special development areas based on the Aqaba model.


title: Tower 42

text: Tower 42, commonly known as the NatWest Tower, is a skyscraper in the City of London. It is the fifth-tallest tower in the City of London, having been overtaken as the tallest in 2010 by the Heron Tower. It is the fifteenth-tallest in London overall. Its original name was the National Westminster Tower, having been built to house NatWest's international headquarters. Seen from above, the shape of the tower resembles that of the NatWest logo (three chevrons in a hexagonal arrangement).


title: Tower 42

text: The tower, designed by Richard Seifert and engineered by Pell Frischmann, is located at 25 Old Broad Street in the ward of Cornhill. It was built by John Mowlem & Co between 1971 and 1980, first occupied in 1980, and formally opened on 11 June 1981 by Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Tower 42

text: The construction cost was £72 million (approximately £ in ). It is high, which made it the tallest building in the United Kingdom until the topping out of One Canada Square at Canary Wharf in 1990. It was the tallest building to have been built in London in the 1980s. It held the status of tallest building in the City of London for 30 years, until it was surpassed by the Heron Tower in December 2009.


title: Tower 42

text: The building today is multi-tenanted and comprises Grade A office space and restaurant facilities, with restaurants on the 24th and 42nd floors. In 2011, it was bought by the South African businessman Nathan Kirsh for £282.5 million.


title: Tower 42

text: The National Westminster Tower's status as the first skyscraper in the city was a coup for NatWest, but was extremely controversial at the time, as it was a major departure from the previous restrictions on tall buildings in London. The original concept dates back to the early 1960s, predating the formation of the National Westminster Bank. The site was then the headquarters of the National Provincial Bank, with offices in Old Broad Street backing onto its flagship branch at 15 Bishopsgate.


title: Tower 42

text: Early designs envisaged a tower of ; this developed into a design with a tower as its centrepiece, proposed in 1964 by architect Richard Seifert. The plan attracted opposition, partly because of the unprecedented height of the design and partly because of the proposed demolition of the 19th-century bank building at 15 Bishopsgate, which dated from 1865 and was designed by architect John Gibson. Seifert, who had developed a reputation for overcoming planning objections, organised an exhibition in which he presented two alternative visions: his preferred design, and a second design featuring a tower with an "absurdly squat" second tower alongside. Visitors were invited to vote and overwhelmingly chose the single tower design. The final design preserved the Gibson banking hall and the tower's height was reduced to .


title: Tower 42

text: Demolition of the site commenced in 1970 and the tower was completed in 1980. The building was constructed by John Mowlem & Co around a huge concrete core from which the floors are cantilevered, giving it great strength but significantly limiting the amount of office space available.


title: Tower 42

text: In total, there are 47 levels above ground, of which 42 are cantilevered. The lowest cantilevered floor is designated Level 1, but is in fact the fourth level above ground. The cantilevered floors are designed as three segments, or leaves, which approximately correspond to the three chevrons of the NatWest logo when viewed in plan. The two lowest cantilevered levels (1 and 2) are formed of a single "leaf"; and the next two (3 and 4) are formed of two leaves. This pattern is repeated at the top, so that only levels 5 to 38 extend around the whole of the building.


title: Tower 42

text: The limitations of the design were immediately apparent - even though the building opened six years before Big Bang, and so there was less of a requirement for large trading floors, the bank decided not to locate its foreign exchange and money market trading operation ("World Money Centre") in the tower; the unit remained in its existing location at 53 Threadneedle Street. Other international banking units, such as International Westminster Bank's London Branch and the Nostro Reconciliations Department remained at their locations (at 41 Threadneedle Street and Park House, Finsbury Square, respectively) due to lack of space in the tower.


title: Tower 42

text: Innovative features in the design included double-decked lifts, which provide an express service between the ground/mezzanine levels and the sky lobbies at levels 23 and 24. Double-decked lifts and sky lobbies were both new to the UK at the time. Other innovative features included an internal automated "mail train" used for mail deliveries and document distribution; an automated external window washing system; and computer controlled air conditioning. The tower also had its own telephone exchange in one of the basement levels – this area was decorated with panoramic photographs of the London skyline, creating the illusion of being above ground.


title: Tower 42

text: Fire suppression design features included pressurised stairwells, smoke venting and fire retardant floor barriers. However, at the time of design, fire sprinkler systems were not mandatory in the UK and so were not installed.


title: Tower 42

text: The cantilever is constructed to take advantage of the air rights granted to it and the neighbouring site whilst respecting the banking hall on that adjacent site, as only one building was allowed to be developed. For a time it was the tallest cantilever in the world.


title: Tower 42

text: Following NatWest's refurbishment of the tower, the bank renamed it the International Finance Centre, in 1997.


title: Tower 42

text: The building was subsequently acquired by Hermes Real Estate and BlackRock's UK property fund in 1998 for 226 million. In 2010 they put the property on the market at an expected price of 300 million. This would potentially have been the largest single commercial property sale in the City of London in 2010. In July 2010 it was reported that Chinese Estates Group had entered exclusive discussions to buy Tower 42. but this deal did not conclude and it was sold in 2011 to South African businessman Nathan Kirsh for £282.5 million.


title: Tower 42

text: Upon completion, the tower was occupied by a large part of NatWest's International Division. The upper floors were occupied by the division's executive management, marketing, and regional offices, moving from various locations in the City of London. The lower floors were occupied by NatWest's Overseas Branch, moving from its previous location at 52/53 Threadneedle Street.


title: Tower 42

text: The adjacent annexe building at 27 Old Broad Street was occupied by NatWest's Overseas Branch cashiers and foreign notes and coin dealing operation.


title: Tower 42

text: In 1993, NatWest had planned a major premises relocation that would have seen the International Banking Division move from the tower and be replaced with its Domestic Banking Division, enabling the bank to terminate its lease of the Drapers Gardens tower. These plans had to be abandoned after the tower was damaged in the April 1993 Bishopsgate bombing, a Provisional Irish Republican Army truck bombing in the Bishopsgate area of the City of London. The bomb killed one person and extensively damaged the tower and many other buildings in the vicinity, causing a total of over £1 billion worth of damage to the area. The tower suffered severe damage and had to be entirely reclad and internally refurbished at a cost of £75 million. (Demolition was considered, but would have been too difficult and expensive.) The external re-clad was carried out by Alternative Access Logistics with the use of a multi-deck space frame system to access three floors at once with the ability to move up and down the whole building.


title: Tower 42

text: On 17 January 1996, during the repairs and possibly from the welding being undertaken, a fire started at the top of the building. Five hundred workmen were evacuated and smoke was seen coming out of the top of the building. A helicopter using thermal imaging equipment pinpointed the source of the fire, which was on the 45th floor in a glass-fibre cooling tower. After refurbishment, NatWest decided not to re-occupy and renamed the building the International Financial Centre, then sold it.


title: Tower 42

text: Previous owners, UK property company Greycoat, renamed it Tower 42 in 1995, in reference to its 42 cantilevered floors. It is now a general-purpose office building.


title: Tower 42

text: In June 2012, a Capix LED multi-media lighting system was installed around levels 39 to 45. This replaced the previous high-energy floodlighting at the top of the building. The lighting system is formed of thousands of pixels mounted on a chain netting that is affixed to the surface of the building. Each pixel is formed of three RGB LED units, allowing a variety of lighting designs and colours to be displayed. The system was designed by SVM Associates and Zumtobel.


title: Tower 42

text: The display featured the Olympic Rings during the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Paralympic Agitos during the London 2012 Paralympic Games.


title: Tower 42

text: The National Westminster Tower was the tallest building in London and the United Kingdom for 10 years. At its completion in 1980, it claimed this title from the 189-metre (620 ft) with antenna Post Office Tower, a transmission tower located at 60 Cleveland Street in Fitzrovia, London.


title: Tower 42

text: As of 2022, Tower 42 is now the sixth-tallest tower in the City of London, and the eightheenth-tallest in London overall.


title: Tower 42

text: An annual fundraising event called Vertical Rush takes place inside Tower 42. It is a vertical run of 932 steps to the top of the tower.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: Han Gong-ju () is a 2013 South Korean film written and directed by Lee Su-jin, starring Chun Woo-hee in the title role. It was inspired by the infamous Miryang gang rape case of 2004.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: The film premiered at the 2013 Busan International Film Festival where it won the CGV Movie Collage Award and the Citizen Reviewers' Award.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: As it traveled the international film festival circuit, "Han Gong-ju" won several top prizes, including the Golden Star at the 2013 Marrakech International Film Festival, the Tiger Award (given to films that "give young filmmakers a voice" and "push boundaries") at the 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam, and the Jury Prize, the Critics' Prize, and the Audience Award at the 2014 Deauville Asian Film Festival.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: The Rotterdam jury praised it as "a skillfully crafted and highly accomplished debut. Deviating from a typical chronological narrative structure, the film lures the spectator to participate in the pleasures of storytelling through an extraordinary and intricate narrative puzzle."


title: Han Gong-ju

text: The movie starts with Gong Ju (Chun Woo hee) facing a crowd of disparaging adults as she tells them she did nothing wrong. The scene shifts to her teacher from her current school, Lee Nan do (Jo Dae Hee), helping her pack her luggage as she is about to be transferred to another school in a different town. As they eat lunch he tells her that it was not her fault but to wait for the results of the trial before deciding what to do next and meanwhile not to answer any phone calls. Lee manages to make her school transition as smooth as possible despite it being mid semester. He then brings Gong Ju to the convenience store owned by his mother, Mrs. Cho, for possible boarding in her house. Initially the mother refuses but eventually allows her to stay.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: In a flashback to the past, Gong Ju is working as a cashier at a convenience store when a friend/classmate and son of the store owner, Dong Yoon (Choi Yong Jun), walks in visibly beaten as he grabs some food and heads back out to see his friends. The next day at school she meets her friend Hwa Ok (Kim So Young) and they talk about the incident.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: One day at school in the present, Gong Ju is walking down the hall and peers through a classroom window where a small group of girls are rehearsing an a cappella song. When the leader of the group, Eun Hee (Jung In Sung), sees her she quickly walks away. Gong Ju attends swimming lessons and meets Eun Hee who tries to befriend her after hearing her sing in the changing room. Eun Hee asks Gong Ju to join the a cappella group. Although Gong Ju is not interested, she asks Eun Hee for the loan of her phone to help with directions so she can find her mother. They take a bus and Gong Ju goes to her mother's work but ultimately, she is rejected and dismissed. Eun Hee overhears the conversation. Gong Ju confronts her and recalls her friend Hwa Ok. Afterwards, she angrily visits her mother's boyfriend's shop and forcefully kisses and bites him before running away.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: Gong Ju stops by the empty music room at school and starts to sing where she is heard by Eun Hee and her friends. Slowly, she begins to open up to the girls and shares with them that her goal is to learn to swim at least 25 metres. Gong Ju's friends decide to post a video of her singing and details about her on the Internet so she can start a fan club, but upon hearing this Gong Ju becomes angry and demands that they remove the video immediately. Her friends are puzzled by her reaction and an argument ensues.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: Shortly afterwards, a cluster of angry parents barge in and interrupt the class to harass Gong Ju for having put their sons in jail. Gong Ju runs away and hides in an empty room.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: Another flashback is shown where Hwa Ok is being gang raped in Gong-Ju's house. Before that, Gong Ju arrives at her house where Dong Yoon, Hwa Ok and at least 15 guys are hanging out and drinking. Dong Yoon is shown being bullied by his friends. Although Gong Ju does not drink, Dong Yoon insists she drink a beer that, unbeknownst to her, has been drugged. Gong Ju takes the drink as Dong Yoon reassures her that the guys will leave if she does so. Under the influence of the drug, she is gang raped as well. The “party” ends when Dong Yoon's father arrives and takes Dong Yoon, who was just in the midst of his turn of raping one of the girls, home; his father notices but ignores that the other girls is currently raped too.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: Soon afterwards, Hwa Ok commits suicide by jumping off a bridge. The scene returns to the present where Gong Ju is sitting with the principal as he advises her he will discuss the situation with the board, not having known about her past. Mrs. Cho's boyfriend doubts her innocence and urges her to kick Gong Ju out of the house but Gong Ju leaves willingly, after telling them Hwa Ok was pregnant but she did not do anything to help her.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: Gong Ju's friends at school find out about the rape, they text her to ask where she is and to say that it is not her fault. Eun Hee and her friends are horrified after seeing the video of Hwa Ok being raped, but she does not immediately answer a call from Gong Ju. Meanwhile, Gong Ju is seen walking towards a bridge where she jumps into the water; an underwater shadow is then shown swimming away, swimming much more adroitly than she ever managed. A background voice is heard asking Gong Ju why she wants to swim so badly. Gong Ju's response is “In case I want to start over because my mind could change.” Her friends are heard chanting and cheering her name as she drowns.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: "Han Gong-ju" was released on just over 200 screens (a sizeable exposure for a Korean independent film), and through strong word of mouth, it was a hit with critics and audiences. On its opening day on April 17, 2014, approximately 10,000 people watched the film, but this increased at an unprecedented pace, crossing the 100,000 admissions mark (an enormous benchmark for a Korean independent production) in just nine days, which was quicker than the pace of recent indie favorites, such as "Breathless" (2009) in 19 days and "Bedevilled" (2010) in ten. As of April 29, it reached the 150,000 audience mark, breaking the record of "Jiseul" (2013), which sold 140,490 tickets in 12 days.


title: Han Gong-ju

text: By May 9, "Han Gong-ju" exceeded 200,000 viewers, making it one of the most successful Korean independent films of all time. Amid the opening of such large scale commercial films as "The Fatal Encounter", "The Target" and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2", it continued to attract average audiences of 2,000 a day. At the end of its run, the film had a total of 223,297 admissions.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into the Sixth Form since 2008 and the school has been co-educational since 2015. As of Michaelmas Term 2020, the school has 807 pupils: 544 boys and 263 girls. There are eight boys' boarding houses, four girls' boarding houses and two for day pupils. There are approximately 130 day pupils.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: The foundation of the school followed a petition in 1542 to Henry VIII from the townspeople of Shrewsbury for a free grammar school, requesting that some portion of the estates of the town's two then recently dissolved Collegiate Churches of St Mary (established by King Edgar in the 10th century) and St Chad (established in the 1200s) in the town might be devoted to its support. These two collegiate churches would have had an educational role in the medieval town prior to their dissolution, and there is mention of a grammar school at Shrewsbury in a court case of 1439.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: The school began operation in a house and land purchased from John Proude in 1551, together with three rented half-timbered buildings, which included Riggs Hall, built in 1450, these are now the only remaining part of the original buildings occupied by the institution. Archaeological excavations of the sites of these first buildings in 1978 brought up finds going back to the Saxon period, along with relics of the school, now in the town collections.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: The early curriculum was based on Continental Calvinism, under its foundational headmaster, Thomas Ashton (appointed 1561) and boys were taught the catechism of Calvin. The school attracted large numbers of pupils from Protestant families in Shrewsbury, Shropshire and North Wales, with 266 boys on its roll at the end of 1562. Early pupils lodged with local families; Sir Philip Sidney (who had a well-known correspondence with his father about his schooling) lodged with George Leigh, Member of Parliament for Shrewsbury. Sidney attended the school along with his lifelong friend Fulke Greville (later Lord Brooke).


title: Shrewsbury School

text: Having achieved a reputation for excellence under Ashton, in 1571 the school was augmented by Queen Elizabeth I. By 1581, the school had 360 pupils and was described by William Camden in 1582 as "the best filled [school] in all England"; the population of the town grew by about 5% when the boarders returned during term time during this period. In 1585 the schoolboys stood in battle array with bows and arrows by the castle gates when the Earl of Essex entered the town.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: Although Ashton had resigned from his headmastership in 1568, he returned to Shrewsbury in 1578 to help draw up the ordinances governing the school, which were in force until 1798; under them, the borough bailiffs (mayors after 1638) had the power to appoint masters, with Ashton's old St John's College, Cambridge having an academic veto. Shrewsbury has retained links with the college, with the continued appointment of Johnian academics to the Governing Body, and the historic awarding of 'closed' Shrewsbury Exhibitions.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: Scholars from the school were from time to time employed by the local community to draw and witness bonds for illiterate tradesmen in this period; for instance Richard Langley (whose father, a prosperous tailor, had purchased the abbey site after the dissolution), could remember being asked by a cooper in 1556 to witness a bound "at what time he was a scholar in the free school of Shrewsbury" aged about fifteen.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: The stone buildings on Castle Gates, including a chapel, dormitories, library and classrooms were completed by 1630, with the Ashton's successor, John Meighen, founding a chained library in 1606, though the library had begun making acquisitions by 1596, with a terrestrial globe by the first English globe maker Emery Molineux being its first acquisition. The book cases (with the books chained to them) in the library projected from the walls between the windows on both sides of the room forming alcoves for study: an arrangement that may still be see in the Duke Humphrey's Library—the completion of this room was celebrated by the masters and Bailiffs on 1 October 1612 by taking cake and wine in the new space.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: In 1608 the town and the school were in fierce dispute about who should be appointed second master. The headmaster, John Meighen, wished to promote the third master, Ralph Gittins; the town wished to appoint Simon Moston on the recommendation of St John's College, whose fellows had a say in the appointment of new masters. When the town's bailiffs came to install their preferred candidate on 31 August 1608, the building has already been occupied by about 60 women from the town (including three spinsters, two widows, the wives of mercers, tailors, weavers, butchers, shoemakers, tanners, glovers, carpenters and coopers) taking the headmaster's side and preferring Gittins on the basis that only the son of a burgess could serve as second master. Jamming the school benches against the doors they barricaded themselves in the school until the following Saturday, passing a "great hammer" between themselves which had been used to gain entry to the school. The authorities sought to read the Statute on Rebellion, but the women made such a noise nobody could hear it. The incident provoked a mass of litigation in the courts of Chancery and Star Chamber in Westminster.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: A house was also built for the school in 1617 in the nearby village of Grinshill as a retreat in times of plague.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: Shrewsbury was occupied on behalf of the King during the Civil War. A council of war was appointed for the whole district, of which Lord Capel was president. This council held its meetings in the school library, and some of the school's books were damaged during this time.


title: Shrewsbury School

text: A contentious "Royal Loan" was made to Charles I around September 1642 of £600 (around 75% of the money in the school exchequer at the time); a further £47 was lent to the corporation of the town. The loan was acknowledged under seal by the king in the following terms: Charles Rex