Etymology.

There are different theories as to the origin of the name Aruba:

History.

Pre-colonial era.

There has been a human presence on Aruba from as early as circa 2000 BC. The first identifiable group are the Arawak Caquetío Amerindians who migrated from South America about 1000 AD. Archaeological evidence suggests continuing links between these native Arubans and Amerindian peoples of mainland South America.

Arrival of Europeans and Spanish period.

The first Europeans to visit Aruba were Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda in 1499, who claimed the island for Spain. Both men described Aruba as an "island of giants", remarking on the comparatively large stature of the native Caquetíos. Vespucci returned to Spain with stocks of cotton and brazilwood from the island and described houses built into the ocean. Vespucci and Ojeda's tales spurred interest in Aruba, and the Spanish began colonising the island. Alonso de Ojeda was appointed the island's first governor in 1508. From 1513 the Spanish began enslaving the Caquetíos, sending many to a life of forced labour in the mines of Hispaniola. The island's low rainfall and arid landscape meant that it was not considered profitable for a slave-based plantation system and the type of large-scale slavery so common on other Caribbean islands never became established on Aruba.

Early Dutch period.

The Netherlands seized Aruba from Spain in 1636 in the course of the Thirty Years' War. Peter Stuyvesant, later appointed to New Amsterdam (New York), was the first Dutch governor. Those Arawak who had survived the depredations of the Spanish were allowed to farm and graze livestock, with the Dutch using the island as a source of meat for their other possessions in the Caribbean. Aruba's proximity to South America resulted in interactions with the cultures of the coastal areas; for example, architectural similarities can be seen between the 19th-century parts of Oranjestad and the nearby Venezuelan city of Coro in Falcón State. Historically, Dutch was not widely spoken on the island outside of colonial administration; its use increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Students on Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire were taught predominantly in Spanish until the late 18th century.  During the Napoleonic Wars the British Empire took control of the island, occupying it between 1806 and 1816, before handing it back to the Dutch as per the terms of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. Aruba subsequently became part of the Colony of Curaçao and Dependencies along with Bonaire. During the 19th century an economy based on gold mining, phosphate production and aloe vera plantations developed, however the island remained a relatively poor backwater.

20th and 21st centuries.

The first oil refinery in Aruba was built in 1928 by Royal Dutch Shell. The facility was built just to the west of the capital city Oranjestad and was commonly called the Eagle. Immediately following this, another refinery was built by Lago Oil and Transport Company in an area now known as San Nicolas on the east end of Aruba. These refineries processed crude oil from the vast Venezuelan oil fields, bringing greater prosperity to the island. The refinery on Aruba grew to become one of the largest in the world.  During World War II, the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. In 1940, the oil facilities in Aruba came under the administration of the Dutch government-in-exile in London, causing them to be attacked by the German navy in 1942.  In August 1947, Aruba presented its first "Staatsreglement" (constitution) for Aruba's "status aparte" as an autonomous state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, prompted by the efforts of Henny Eman, a noted Aruban politician. By 1954, the Charter of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was established, providing a framework for relations between Aruba and the rest of the Kingdom. This created the Netherlands Antilles, which united all of the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean into one administrative structure. Many Arubans were unhappy at the arrangement, however, as the new polity was perceived as being dominated by Curaçao. In 1972, at a conference in Dutch Guiana, Betico Croes, a politician from Aruba, proposed the creation of a Dutch Commonwealth of four states: Aruba, the Netherlands, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles, each to have its own nationality. Backed by his newly-created party (the Movimiento Electoral di Pueblo), Croes sought greater autonomy for Aruba, with the long-term goal of independence, adopting the trappings of an independent state in 1976 with the creation of a flag and national anthem. In March 1977, a referendum was held with the support of the United Nations; 82% of the participants voted for complete independence from the Netherlands. Tensions mounted as Croes stepped up the pressure on the Dutch government by organising a general strike in 1977. Croes later met with Dutch Prime Minister Joop den Uyl, with the two sides agreeing to assign the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague to prepare a study for independence, entitled "Aruba en Onafhankelijkheid, achtergronden, modaliteiten, en mogelijkheden; een rapport in eerste aanleg" (Aruba and independence, backgrounds, modalities, and opportunities; a preliminary report) (1978).  In March 1983, Aruba reached an official agreement within the Kingdom for its independence, to be developed in a series of steps as the Crown granted increasing autonomy. In August 1985, Aruba drafted a constitution that was unanimously approved. On 1 January 1986, after elections were held for its first parliament, Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles, officially becoming a country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with full independence planned for 1996. However, Croes was seriously injured in a traffic accident in 1985, slipping into a coma; he died in 1986, never seeing the enaction of "status aparte" for Aruba for which he had worked over many years. After his death in 1986, Croes was proclaimed "Libertador di Aruba". Thus Henny Eman of the Aruban People's Party (AVP) became the first Prime Minister of Aruba. Meanwhile, Aruba's oil refinery shut, negatively impacting the economy. As a result, Aruba pushed for a dramatic increase in tourism, with this sector growing to become the island's largest industry.  At a convention in The Hague in 1990, at the request of Aruba's Prime Minister Nelson Oduber, the governments of Aruba, the Netherlands, and the Netherlands Antilles postponed indefinitely Aruba's transition to full independence. The article scheduling Aruba's complete independence was rescinded in 1995, although the process could be revived after another referendum.

Geography.

Aruba is a generally flat, riverless island in the Leeward Antilles island arc of the Lesser Antilles in the southern part of the Caribbean. It lies west of Curaçao and north of Venezuela's Paraguaná Peninsula. Aruba has white sandy beaches on the western and southern coasts of the island, relatively sheltered from fierce ocean currents. This is where the bulk of the population live and where most tourist development has occurred. The northern and eastern coasts, lacking this protection, are considerably more battered by the sea and have been left largely untouched.  The hinterland of the island features some rolling hills, such as Hooiberg at and Mount Jamanota, the highest on the island at above sea level. Oranjestad, the capital, is located at.  The Natural Bridge was a large, naturally formed limestone bridge on the island's north shore. It was a popular tourist destination until its collapse in 2005.

Cities and towns.

The island, with a population of about 116,600 people (July 2018 est.) does not have major cities. It is divided into six districts. Most of the island's population resides in or around the two major city-like districts of Oranjestad (the capital) and San Nicolaas. Oranjestad and San Nicolaas are both divided into two districts for census purposes only. The districts are as follows:

Fauna.

The isolation of Aruba from the mainland of South America has fostered the evolution of multiple endemic animals. The island provides a habitat for the endemic Aruban Whiptail and Aruba Rattlesnake, as well as an endemic subspecies of Burrowing Owl and Brown-throated Parakeet.

Flora.

The flora of Aruba differs from the typical tropical island vegetation. Xeric scrublands are common, with various forms of cacti, thorny shrubs, and evergreens. Aloe vera is also present, its economic importance earning it a place on the Coat of Arms of Aruba.  Cacti like "Melocactus" and "Opuntia" are represented on Aruba by species like "Opuntia stricta". Trees like "Caesalpina coriaria" and "Vachellia tortuosa" are drought tolerant.

Climate.

By the Köppen climate classification, Aruba has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSh"). Mean monthly temperature in Oranjestad varies little from to, moderated by constant trade winds from the Atlantic Ocean, which come from the north-east. Yearly rainfall barely exceeds in Oranjestad, although it is extremely variable and can range from as little as during strong El Niño years (e.g. 1911/1912, 1930/1931, 1982/1983, 1997/1998) to over in La Niña years like 1933/1934, 1970/1971 or 1988/1989.

Demographics.

In terms of country of birth, the population is estimated to be 66% Aruban, 9.1% Colombian, 4.3% Dutch, 4.1% Dominican, 3.2% Venezuelan, 2.2% Curaçaoan, 1.5% Haitian, 1.2% Surinamese, 1.1% Peruvian, 1.1% Chinese, 6.2% other.  In terms of ethnic composition, the population is estimated to be 75% multiracial, 15% black and 10% Asians, Mestizo, Indians, and Latins. Arawak heritage is stronger on Aruba than on most Caribbean islands; although no full-blooded Aboriginals remain, the features of the islanders clearly indicate their genetic Arawak heritage. Most of the population is descended from Caquetio Indians and Dutch settlers, and to a lesser extent the various other groups that have settled on the island over time, such as various African peoples, Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, and Sephardic Jews.  Recently, there has been substantial immigration to the island from neighbouring South American and Caribbean nations, attracted by the higher paid jobs. In 2007, new immigration laws were introduced to help control the growth of the population by restricting foreign workers to a maximum of three years residency on the island. Most notable are those from Venezuela, which lies just to the south.

Language.

The official languages are Dutch and Papiamento. However, whilst Dutch is the sole language for all administration and legal matters, Papiamento is the predominant language used on Aruba. It is a creole language, spoken on Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, that incorporates words from Portuguese, various West African languages, Dutch, and Spanish. English is also spoken, its usage having grown due to tourism. Other common languages spoken, based on the size of their community, are Portuguese, German, Spanish, and French.  In recent years, the government of Aruba has shown an increased interest in acknowledging the cultural and historical importance of Papiamento. Although spoken Papiamento is fairly similar among the several Papiamento-speaking islands, there is a big difference in written Papiamento. The orthography differs per island, with Aruba using etymological spelling, and Curaçao and Bonaire a phonetic spelling. Some are more oriented towards Portuguese and use the equivalent spelling (e.g. "y" instead of "j"), where others are more oriented towards Dutch.  The book "Buccaneers of America", first published in 1678, states through eyewitness account that the natives on Aruba spoke Spanish already.Spanish became an important language in the 18th century due to the close economic ties with Spanish colonies in what are now Venezuela and Colombia. Venezuelan TV networks are received on the island, and Aruba also has significant Venezuelan and Colombian communities. Around 12.6% of the population today speaks Spanish. Use of English dates to the early 19th century, when the British took Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire. When Dutch rule resumed in 1815, officials already noted wide use of the language.  Aruba has four newspapers published in Papiamento: "Diario", "Bon Dia", "Solo di Pueblo", and "Awe Mainta", and three in English: "Aruba Daily", "Aruba Today", and "The News"."Amigoe" is a newspaper published in Dutch. Aruba also has 18 radio stations (two AM and 16 FM) and two local television stations (Telearuba and Channel 22).

Religion.

Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion, practiced by about 45% of the population. Various Protestant denominations are also present on the island.

Regions.

For census purposes, Aruba is divided into eight regions, which have no administrative functions:

Government.

Along with the Netherlands, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten, Aruba is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with internal autonomy. Matters such as foreign affairs and defense are handled by the Netherlands. Aruba's politics take place within a framework of a 21-member Staten (Parliament) and an eight-member Cabinet; the Staten's 21 members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve a four-year term. The governor of Aruba is appointed for a six-year term by the monarch, and the prime minister and deputy prime minister are indirectly elected by the Staten for four-year terms.  Aruba was formerly a part of the (now-defunct) Netherlands Antilles; however, it separated from that entity in 1986, gaining its own constitution.  Aruba is designated as a member of the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) and is thus officially not a part of the European Union, though Aruba can and does receive support from the European Development Fund.

Politics.

The Aruban legal system is based on the Dutch model. In Aruba, legal jurisdiction lies with the "Gerecht in Eerste Aanleg" (Court of First Instance) on Aruba, the "Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie van Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, en van Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba" (Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba) and the "Hoge Raad der Nederlanden" (Supreme Court of Justice of the Netherlands). The "Korps Politie Aruba" (Aruba Police Force) is the island's law enforcement agency and operates district precincts in Oranjestad, Noord, San Nicolaas, and Santa Cruz, where it is headquartered.  Deficit spending has been a staple in Aruba's history, and modestly high inflation has been present as well. By 2006, the government's debt had grown to 1.883 billion Aruban florins. In 2006, the Aruban government changed several tax laws to reduce the deficit. Direct taxes have been converted to indirect taxes as proposed by the IMF.

Foreign relations.

Like Bonaire and a few other Dutch dependencies, Aruba maintains economic and cultural relations with European Union and United States of America.

Military.

Defence on Aruba is the responsibility of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Dutch Armed Forces that protect the island include the Navy, Marine Corps, and the Coastguard including a platoon sized national guard.  All forces are stationed at Marines base in Savaneta. Furthermore, in 1999, the U.S. Department of Defense established a Forward Operating Location (FOL) at the airport.

Education.

Aruba's educational system is patterned after the Dutch system of education. The government of Aruba finances the public national education system.  Schools are a mixture of public and private, including the International School of Aruba, the Schakel College and mostly the Colegio Arubano  There are two medical schools, Aureus University School of Medicine and Xavier University School of Medicine, as well as its own national university, the University of Aruba.

Economy.

The island's economy is dominated by four main industries: tourism, aloe export, petroleum refining, and offshore banking. Aruba has one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean region. The GDP per capita (PPP) for Aruba was estimated to be $37,500 in 2017. Its main trading partners are Colombia, the United States, Venezuela, and the Netherlands.  The agriculture and manufacturing sectors are fairly minimal. Gold mining was formerly important in the 19th century. Aloe was introduced to Aruba in 1840 but did not become a big export until 1890. Cornelius Eman founded Aruba Aloe Balm, and over time the industry became very important to the economy. At one point, two-thirds of the island was covered in Aloe Vera fields, and Aruba become the largest exporter of aloe in the world. The industry continues today, though on a smaller scale.  Access to biocapacity in Aruba is much lower than world average. In 2016, Aruba had 0.57 global hectares of biocapacity per person within its territory, much less than the world average of 1.6 global hectares per person. In 2016 Aruba used 6.5 global hectares of biocapacity per person - their ecological footprint of consumption. This means they use almost 12 times the biocapacity that Aruba contains. As a result, Aruba is running a biocapacity deficit.  The official exchange rate of the Aruban florin is pegged to the US dollar at 1.79 florins to US$1. Because of this fact, and due to a large number of American tourists, many businesses operate using US dollars instead of florins, especially in the hotel and resort districts.

Tourism.

About three-quarters of the Aruban gross national product is earned through tourism and related activities. Most tourists are from North America, with a market-share of 73.3%, followed by Latin America with 15.2% and Europe with 8.3%.  For passengers whose destination is the United States, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has a full pre-clearance facility in Aruba which has been in effect since 1 February 2001 with the expansion of Queen Beatrix Airport. Since 2008, Aruba has been the only island to have this service for private flights.

Culture.

Aruba has a varied culture. According to the "Bureau Burgelijke Stand en Bevolkingsregister" (BBSB), in 2005 there were ninety-two different nationalities living on the island. Dutch influence can still be seen, as in the celebration of "Sinterklaas" on 5 and 6 December and other national holidays like 27 April, when in Aruba and the rest of the Kingdom of the Netherlands the King's birthday or "Dia di Rey" (Koningsdag) is celebrated.  On 18 March, Aruba celebrates its National Day. Christmas and New Year's Eve are celebrated with the typical music and songs for gaitas for Christmas and the Dande for New Year, and "ayaca", "ponche crema", ham, and other typical foods and drinks. On 25 January, Betico Croes' birthday is celebrated. Dia di San Juan is celebrated on 24 June. Besides Christmas, the religious holy days of the Feast of the Ascension and Good Friday are also holidays on the island.  The festival of Carnaval is also an important one in Aruba, as it is in many Caribbean and Latin American countries. Its celebration in Aruba started in the 1950s, influenced by the inhabitants from Venezuela and the nearby islands (Curaçao, St. Vincent, Trinidad, Barbados, St. Maarten, and Anguilla) who came to work for the oil refinery. Over the years, the Carnival Celebration has changed and now starts from the beginning of January until the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, with a large parade on the last Sunday of the festivities (the Sunday before Ash Wednesday).  Tourism from the United States has recently increased the visibility of American culture on the island, with such celebrations as Halloween in October and Thanksgiving Day in November.

Infrastructure.

Aruba's Queen Beatrix International Airport is located near Oranjestad.  Aruba has two ports, Barcadera and Playa, which are located in Oranjestad and Barcadera. The Port of Playa services all the cruise-ship lines, including Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Lines, NCL, Holland America Line, Disney Cruise Line and others. Nearly one million tourists enter this port per year. Aruba Ports Authority, owned and operated by the Aruban government, runs these seaports.  Arubus is a government-owned bus company. Its buses operate from 3:30 a.m. until 12:30 a.m., 365 days a year. Small private vans also provide transportation services in certain areas such Hotel Area, San Nicolaas, Santa Cruz and Noord.  A street car service runs on rails on the Mainstreet.

Utilities.

Water-en Energiebedrijf Aruba, N.V. (W.E.B.) produces potable industrial water at the world's third largest desalination plant. Average daily consumption in Aruba is about. N.V. Elmar is the sole provider of electricity on the island of Aruba.

Communications.

There are two telecommunications providers: Setar, a government-based company and Digicel, which is privately owned. Setar is the provider of services such as internet, video conferencing, GSM wireless technology and land lines. Digicel is Setar's competitor in wireless technology using the GSM platform.

Aruba (,, ) is an island and a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the southern Caribbean Sea, located about west of the main part of the Lesser Antilles and north of the coast of Venezuela. It measures long from its northwestern to its southeastern end and across at its widest point. Together with Bonaire and Curaçao, Aruba forms a group referred to as the ABC islands. Collectively, Aruba and the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Dutch Caribbean.

Aruba je ostrov v Karibském moři, který tvoří jednu z konstitučních zemí Nizozemského království. Ostrov má rozlohu 180 km2 a rozkládá se západně od Curaçaa a 30 kilometrů od severního pobřeží Venezuely. Povrch ostrova je převážně kopcovitý, ale nejvyšší bod ostrova Jamanota dosahuje pouze nadmořské výšky 189 metrů. Jižní pobřeží je lemováno množstvím korálových útesů. Správním střediskem ostrova je město Oranjestad. V roce 2019 žilo na ostrově přibližně 112 tisíc osob.


Geography.

This inland sea of some is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz; and its western end is marked by the major river delta of the Shatt al-Arab, which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. In Iran this is called "Arvand Rood", where "Rood" means "river". Its length is, with Iran covering most of the northern coast and Saudi Arabia most of the southern coast. The Persian Gulf is about wide at its narrowest, in the Strait of Hormuz. The waters are overall very shallow, with a maximum depth of and an average depth of.  Countries with a coastline on the Persian Gulf are (clockwise, from the north): Iran; Oman's Musandam exclave; the United Arab Emirates; Saudi Arabia; Qatar, on a peninsula off the Saudi coast; Bahrain, on an island; Kuwait; and Iraq in the northwest. Various small islands also lie within the Persian Gulf, some of which are the subject of territorial disputes between the states of the region.

Extent.

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the Persian Gulf's southern limit as "The Northwestern limit of Gulf of Oman". This limit is defined as "A line joining Ràs Limah (25°57'N) on the coast of Arabia and Ràs al Kuh (25°48'N) on the coast of Iran (Persia)".

Oceanography.

The Persian Gulf is connected to the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz. Writing the water balance budget for the Persian Gulf, the inputs are river discharges from Iran and Iraq (estimated to be per second), as well as precipitation over the sea which is around /year in Qeshm Island. The evaporation of the sea is high, so that after considering river discharge and rain contributions, there is still a deficit of per year. This difference is supplied by currents at the Strait of Hormuz. The water from the Persian Gulf has a higher salinity, and therefore exits from the bottom of the Strait, while ocean water with less salinity flows in through the top. Another study revealed the following numbers for water exchanges for the Persian Gulf: evaporation = -/year, precipitation = /year, inflow from the Strait = /year, outflow from the Strait = -/year, and the balance is 0 m (0 ft)/year. Data from different 3D computational fluid mechanics models, typically with spatial resolution of and depth each element equal to are predominantly used in computer models.

Oil and gas.

The Persian Gulf and its coastal areas are the world's largest single source of petroleum, and related industries dominate the region. Safaniya Oil Field, the world's largest offshore oilfield, is located in the Persian Gulf. Large gas finds have also been made, with Qatar and Iran sharing a giant field across the territorial median line (North Field in the Qatari sector; South Pars Field in the Iranian sector). Using this gas, Qatar has built up a substantial liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petrochemical industry.  In 2002, the Persian Gulf nations of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE produced about 25% of the world's oil, held nearly two-thirds of the world's crude oil reserves, and about 35% of the world's natural gas reserves. The oil-rich countries (excluding Iraq) that have a coastline on the Persian Gulf are referred to as the "Persian Gulf States". Iraq's egress to the Persian gulf is narrow and easily blockaded consisting of the marshy river delta of the Shatt al-Arab, which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, where the east bank is held by Iran.

Name.

In 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire established the first ancient empire in Persis ("Pars", or modern "Fars"), in the southwestern region of the Iranian plateau. Consequently, in the Greek sources, the body of water that bordered this province came to be known as the "Persian Gulf".  During the years 550 to 330 BC, coinciding with the sovereignty of the Achaemenid Persian Empire over the Middle East area, especially the whole part of the Persian Gulf and some parts of the Arabian Peninsula, the name of "Pars Sea" is widely found in the compiled written texts.  In the travel account of Pythagoras, several chapters are related to description of his travels accompanied by the Achaemenid king Darius the Great, to Susa and Persepolis, and the area is described. From among the writings of others in the same period, there is the inscription and engraving of Darius the Great, installed at junction of waters of Red Sea and the Nile river and the Rome river (current Mediterranean) which belongs to the 5th century BC where Darius the Great has named the Persian Gulf Water Channel: "Pars Sea" ("Persian Sea"). King Darius says:  Considering the historical background of the name Persian Gulf, Sir Arnold Wilson mentions in a book published in 1928 that "no water channel has been so significant as the Persian Gulf to the geologists, archaeologists, geographers, merchants, politicians, excursionists, and scholars whether in past or in present. This water channel which separates the Iran Plateau from the Arabia Plate, has enjoyed an Iranian Identity since at least 2200 years ago." Before being given its present name, the Persian Gulf was called many different names. The classical Greek writers, like Herodotus, called it "the Red Sea." In Babylonian texts, it was known as "the sea above Akkad."

Naming dispute.

The name of this gulf, historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf after the land of Persia (Iran), has been disputed by some Arab countries since the 1960s. Rivalry between Iran and some Arab states, along with the emergence of pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism, has seen the name "Arabian Gulf" become predominant in most Arab countries. Names beyond these two have also been applied to or proposed for this body of water.

History.

Ancient history.

Earliest evidence of human presence on Persian Gulf islands dates back to Middle Paleolithic and consist of stone tools discovered at Qeshm Island. The world's oldest known civilization (Sumer) developed along the Persian Gulf and southern Mesopotamia. The shallow basin that now underlies the Persian Gulf was an extensive region of river valley and wetlands during the transition between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the start of the Holocene, which, according to University of Birmingham archaeologist Jeffrey Rose, served as an environmental refuge for early humans during periodic hyperarid climate oscillations, laying the foundations for the legend of Dilmun.  For most of the early history of the settlements in the Persian Gulf, the southern shores were ruled by a series of nomadic tribes. During the end of the fourth millennium BC, the southern part of the Persian Gulf was dominated by the Dilmun civilization. For a long time the most important settlement on the southern coast of the Persian Gulf was Gerrha. In the 2nd century the Lakhum tribe, who lived in what is now Yemen, migrated north and founded the Lakhmid Kingdom along the southern coast. Occasional ancient battles took place along the Persian Gulf coastlines, between the Sassanid Persian empire and the Lakhmid Kingdom, the most prominent of which was the invasion led by Shapur II against the Lakhmids, leading to Lakhmids' defeat, and advancement into Arabia, along the southern shore lines. During the 7th century the Sassanid Persian empire conquered the whole of the Persian Gulf, including southern and northern shores.  Between 625 BC and 226 AD, the northern side was dominated by a succession of Persian empires including the Median, Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian empires. Under the leadership of the Achaemenid king Darius the Great (Darius I), Persian ships found their way to the Persian Gulf. Persian naval forces laid the foundation for a strong Persian maritime presence in Persian Gulf, that started with Darius I and existed until the arrival of the British East India Company, and the Royal Navy by mid-19th century AD. Persians were not only stationed on islands of the Persian Gulf, but also had ships often of 100 to 200 capacity patrolling empire's various rivers including Shatt-al-Arab, Tigris, and the Nile in the west, as well as Sind waterway, in India.  The Achaemenid high naval command had established major naval bases located along Shatt al-Arab river, Bahrain, Oman, and Yemen. The Persian fleet would soon not only be used for peacekeeping purposes along the Shatt al-Arab but would also open the door to trade with India via Persian Gulf.  Following the fall of Achaemenid Empire, and after the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid empire ruled the northern half and at times the southern half of the Persian Gulf. The Persian Gulf, along with the Silk Road, were important trade routes in the Sassanid empire. Many of the trading ports of the Persian empires were located in or around Persian Gulf. Siraf, an ancient Sassanid port that was located on the northern shore of the Persian gulf, located in what is now the Iranian province of Bushehr, is an example of such commercial port. Siraf, was also significant in that it had a flourishing commercial trade with China by the 4th century, having first established connection with the far east in 185 AD.

Colonial era.

Portuguese influence the Persian Gulf lasted for 250 years, however since the beginning of the 16th century portuguese dominance of the Persian Gulf contended with the local powers and the Ottoman Empire. Following the arrival of the English and the Dutch, the Safavid Empire allied with the newcomers to contest Portuguese dominance of the seas in the 17th century.  Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century following Vasco da Gama's voyages of exploration saw them battle the Ottomans up the coast of the Persian Gulf. In 1521, a Portuguese force led by commander Antonio Correia invaded Bahrain to take control of the wealth created by its pearl industry. On April 29, 1602, Shāh Abbās, the Persian emperor of the Safavid Persian Empire expelled the Portuguese from Bahrain, and that date is commemorated as National Persian Gulf day in Iran. With the support of the British fleet, in 1622 'Abbās took the island of Hormuz from the Portuguese; much of the trade was diverted to the town of Bandar 'Abbās, which he had taken from the Portuguese in 1615 and had named after himself. The Persian Gulf was therefore opened to a flourishing commerce with the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Spanish and the British merchants, who were granted particular privileges. The Ottoman Empire reasserted itself into Eastern Arabia in 1871. Under military and political pressure from the governor of the Ottoman Vilayet of Baghdad, Midhat Pasha, the ruling Al Thani tribe submitted peacefully to Ottoman rule. The Ottomans were forced to withdraw from the area with the start of World War I and the need for troops in various other frontiers.  In World War II, the Western Allies used Iran as a conduit to transport military and industrial supply to the USSR, through a pathway known historically as the "Persian Corridor". Britain utilized the Persian Gulf as the entry point for the supply chain in order to make use of the Trans-Iranian Railway. The Persian Gulf therefore became a critical maritime path through which the Allies transported equipment to Soviet Union against the Nazi invasion.The piracy in the Persian Gulf was prevalent until the 19th century. Many of the most notable historical instances of piracy were perpetrated by the Al Qasimi tribe. This led to the British mounting the Persian Gulf campaign of 1819. The campaign led to the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 between the British and the Sheikhs of what was then known as the 'Pirate Coast'. From 1763 until 1971, the British Empire maintained varying degrees of political control over some of the Persian Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates (originally called the Trucial States) and at various times Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar through the British Residency of the Persian Gulf.

Modern history.

The United States' role in the Persian Gulf grew in the second half of the Twentieth Century. On July 3, 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the U.S. military (which had mistaken the Airbus A300 operating the flight for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat) while it was flying over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people on board. The United Kingdom maintains a profile in the region; in 2006 alone, over 1 million British nationals visited Dubai. In 2018, the UK opened a permanent military base,, in the Persian Gulf, the first since it withdrew from East of Suez in 1971 and is developing a support facility in Oman.

Islands.

The Persian Gulf is home to many islands such as Bahrain, an Arab state. Geographically the biggest island in the Persian Gulf is Qeshm island located in the Strait of Hormuz and belongs to Iran. Other significant islands in the Persian Gulf include Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Kish administered by Iran, Bubiyan administered by Kuwait, Tarout administered by Saudi Arabia, and Dalma administered by UAE. In recent years, there has also been addition of artificial islands for tourist attractions, such as The World Islands in Dubai and The Pearl-Qatar in Doha. Persian Gulf islands are often also historically significant, having been used in the past by colonial powers such as the Portuguese and the British in their trade or as acquisitions for their empires.

Cities and population.

Eight nations have coasts along the Persian Gulf: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The Persian gulf's strategic location has made it an ideal place for human development over time. Today, many major cities of the Middle East are located in this region.

Wildlife.

The wildlife of the Persian Gulf is diverse, and entirely unique due to the Persian gulf's geographic distribution and its isolation from the international waters only breached by the narrow Strait of Hormuz. The Persian Gulf has hosted some of the most magnificent marine fauna and flora, some of which are near extirpation or at serious environmental risk. From corals, to dugongs, Persian Gulf is a diverse cradle for many species who depend on each other for survival. However, the Persian gulf is not as biologically diverse as the Red Sea.  Overall, the wild life of the Persian Gulf is endangered from both global factors, and regional, local negligence. Most pollution is from ships; land generated pollution counts as the second most common source of pollution.

Aquatic mammals.

Along the mediterranean regions of the Arabian Sea, including the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Kutch, the Gulf of Suez, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Gulf of Aden, and the Gulf of Oman, dolphins and finless porpoises are the most common marine mammals in the waters, while larger whales and orcas are rarer today. Historically, whales had been abundant in the Persian gulf before commercial hunts wiped them out. Whales were reduced even further by illegal mass hunts by the Soviet Union and Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. Along with Bryde's whales, these once common residents can still can be seen in deeper marginal seas such as Gulf of Aden, Israel coasts, and in the Strait of Hormuz. Other species such as the critically endangered Arabian humpback whale, (also historically common in Gulf of Aden and increasingly sighted in the Red Sea since 2006, including in the Gulf of Aqaba), omura's whale, minke whale, and orca also swim into the Persian gulf, while many other large species such as blue whale, sei, and sperm whales were once migrants into the Gulf of Oman and off the coasts in deeper waters, and still migrate into the Red Sea, but mainly in deeper waters of outer seas. In 2017, waters of the Persian Gulf along Abu Dhabi were revealed to hold the world's largest population of Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins.  One of the more unusual marine mammals living in the Persian Gulf is the dugong ("Dugong dugon"). Also called "sea cows", for their grazing habits and mild manner resembling livestock, dugongs have a life expectancy similar to that of humans and they can grow up to in length. These gentle mammals feed on sea grass and are closer relatives of certain land mammals than are dolphins and whales. Their simple grass diet is negatively affected by new developments along the Persian Gulf coastline, particularly the construction of artificial islands by Arab states and pollution from oil spills caused during the "Persian Gulf war" and various other natural and artificial causes. Uncontrolled hunting has also had a negative impact on the survival of dugongs. After Australian waters, which are estimated to contain some 80,000 dugong inhabitants, the waters off Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi Arabia make the Persian Gulf the second most important habitat for the species, hosting some 7,500 remaining dugongs. However, the current number of dugongs is dwindling and it is not clear how many are currently alive or what their reproductive trend is. Unfortunately, ambitious and uncalculated construction schemes, political unrest, ever-present international conflict, the most lucrative world supply of oil, and the lack of cooperation between Arab states and Iran, have had a negative impact on the survival of many marine species, including dugongs.

Birds.

The Persian Gulf is also home to many migratory and local birds. There is great variation in color, size, and type of the bird species that call the Persian gulf home. Concerns regarding the endangerment of the "kalbaensis" subspecies of the collared kingfishers were raised by conservationists due to real state development by the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Estimates from 2006 showed that only three viable nesting sites were available for this ancient bird, one located from Dubai, and two smaller sites in Oman. Such real estate expansion could prove devastating to this subspecies. A UN plan to protect the mangroves as a biological reserve was ignored by the emirate of Sharjah, which allowed the dredging of a channel that bisects the wetland and construction of an adjacent concrete walkway. Environmental watchdogs in Arabia are few, and those that do advocate the wildlife are often silenced or ignored by developers of real estate many of whom have governmental connections.  Real estate development in the Persian Gulf by the United Arab Emirates and Oman also raised concerns that habitats of species such as the hawksbill turtle, greater flamingo, and booted warbler may be destroyed. The dolphins that frequent the Persian gulf in northern waters around Iran are also at risk. Recent statistics and observations show that dolphins are at danger of entrapment in purse seine fishing nets and exposure to chemical pollutants; perhaps the most alarming sign is the "mass suicides" committed by dolphins off Iran's Hormozgan province, which are not well understood, but are suspected to be linked with a deteriorating marine environment from water pollution from oil, sewage, and industrial run offs.

Fish and reefs.

The Persian Gulf is home to over 700 species of fish, most of which are native. Of these 700 species, more than 80% are reef associated. These reefs are primarily rocky, but there are also a few coral reefs. Compared to the Red Sea, the coral reefs in the Persian Gulf are relatively few and far between. This is primarily connected to the influx of major rivers, especially the Shatt al-Arab (Euphrates and Tigris), which carry large amounts of sediment (most reef-building corals require strong light) and causes relatively large variations in temperature and salinity (corals in general are poorly suited to large variations). Nevertheless, coral reefs have been found along sections of coast of all countries in the Persian gulf. Corals are vital ecosystems that support multitude of marine species, and whose health directly reflects the health of the Persian gulf. Recent years have seen a drastic decline in the coral population in the Persian gulf, partially owing to global warming but majorly due to irresponsible dumping by Arab states like the UAE and Bahrain. Construction garbage such as tires, cement, and chemical by products have found their way to the Persian Gulf in recent years. Aside from direct damage to the coral, the construction waste creates "traps" for marine life in which they are trapped and die. The end result has been a dwindling population of the coral, and as a result a decrease in number of species that rely on the corals for their survival.

Flora.

A great example of this symbiosis are the mangroves in the Persian gulf, which require tidal flow and a combination of fresh and salt water for growth, and act as nurseries for many crabs, small fish, and insects; these fish and insects are the source of food for many of the marine birds that feed on them. Mangroves are a diverse group of shrubs and trees belonging to the genus "Avicennia" or "Rhizophora" that flourish in the salt water shallows of the Persian gulf, and are the most important habitats for small crustaceans that dwell in them. They are as crucial an indicator of biological health on the surface of the water, as the corals are to biological health of the Persian gulf in deeper waters. Mangroves' ability to survive the salt water through intricate molecular mechanisms, their unique reproductive cycle, and their ability to grow in the most oxygen-deprived waters have allowed them extensive growth in hostile areas of the Persian gulf. However, with the advent of artificial island development, most of their habitat is destroyed, or occupied by man-made structures. This has had a negative impact on the crustaceans that rely on the mangrove, and in turn on the species that feed on them.

The Persian Gulf () is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean (Gulf of Oman) through the Strait of Hormuz and lies between Iran to the northeast and the Arabian Peninsula to the southwest. The Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline.

Perský záliv je záliv Indického oceánu a představuje pokračování Ománského zálivu, se kterým je spojen Hormuzským průlivem. Rozkládá se mezi Arabským poloostrovem a Íránem. V důsledku ústupu moře, se záliv za poslední 2000 let znatelně zkrátil (například starověké město Ur leželo na jeho pobřeží, zatímco v současnosti leží jeho pozůstatky ve vnitrozemí Iráku).


History of Saint Helena.

Early history (1502–1658).

Most historical accounts state that the island was sighted on 21 May 1502 by Galician navigator João da Nova sailing in the service of Portugal, and that he named it Santa Helena after Helena of Constantinople. A paper published in 2015 observes that 21 May is probably a Protestant rather than a Catholic or Orthodox feast day, and the date was first quoted in 1596 by Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, who was probably mistaken because the island was discovered several decades before the Reformation and the start of Protestantism. An alternative discovery date of 3 May is suggested as being historically more credible; it is the Catholic feast day of the finding

East India Company (1658–1815).

In 1657, Oliver Cromwell granted the English East India Company a charter to govern Saint Helena and, the following year, the company decided to fortify the island and colonise it with planters. The long tradition that the early settlers included many who had lost their home in the 1666 Great Fire of London has been shown to be a myth. The first governor, Captain John Dutton, arrived in 1659, making Saint Helena one of Britain's earliest colonies outside North America and the Caribbean. A fort and houses were

British rule (1815–1821) and Napoleon's exile.

In 1815, the British government selected Saint Helena as the place of detention for Napoleon Bonaparte. He was taken to the island in October 1815. Britain also took the precaution of sending a garrison of

British East India Company (1821–1834).

After Napoleon's death, the thousands of temporary visitors were withdrawn and the East India Company resumed full control of Saint Helena. Between 1815 and 1830, the EIC made the packet schooner "St Helena" available to the government of the island, which made multiple trips per year between the island and the Cape, carrying passengers both ways and supplies of wine and provisions back to the island. Napoleon praised Saint Helena's coffee during his

Crown colony (1834–1981).

Under the provisions of the 1833 India Act, control of Saint Helena passed from the East India Company to the British Crown, and it became a crown colony. Subsequent administrative cost-cutting triggered a long-term population decline: those who could afford to do so tended to leave the island for better opportunities elsewhere. The latter half of the 19th century saw the advent of steamships not reliant on trade winds, as well as the diversion of Far East trade away from the traditional South Atlantic shipping lanes to a route via the Red Sea (which, prior to the building of the Suez Canal, involved a short overland section). So the number of ships calling at the island fell from 1,100 in 1855 to only 288 in 1889.  In 1840, a British naval station established to suppress the African slave trade was based on the island, and between 1840 and 1849 over 15,000 freed slaves, known as "Liberated Africans", were landed there.  In 1858, the French emperor Napoleon III purchased, in the name of the French government, Longwood House and the lands around it, the last residence of Napoleon I (who died there in 1821). It

1981 to present.

The British Nationality Act 1981 reclassified Saint Helena and the other Crown colonies as British Dependent Territories. The islanders lost their right of abode in Britain. For the next 20 years, many could find only low-paid work with the island government, and the only available employment outside Saint Helena was on the Falkland Islands and Ascension Island. The Development and Economic Planning Department (which still operates) was formed in 1988 to contribute to raising the living standards of the

Geography.

Located in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, more than from the nearest major landmass, Saint Helena is one of the most remote places in the world. The nearest port on the continent is Moçâmedes in southern Angola; connections to Cape Town in South Africa are used for most shipping needs, such as the cargo boat that serves the island, the MS "Helena".  The island is associated with two other isolated islands in the southern Atlantic, also British territories: Ascension Island about due northwest in more equatorial waters and Tristan da Cunha, which is well outside the tropics to the south. The island is situated in the Western Hemisphere and has the same longitude as Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Despite its remote location, it is classified as being in West Africa by the United Nations.  The island of Saint Helena is in area, and is composed largely of rugged terrain of volcanic origin (the last volcanic eruptions occurred about 7 million years ago). Coastal areas are covered in volcanic rock and are warmer and drier than the centre. The highest point of the island is Diana's Peak at. In 1996 it became the island's first national park. Much of the island is covered by New Zealand flax, a legacy of former industry, but there are some original trees augmented by plantations, including those of the Millennium Forest project, which was established in 2002 to replant part of the lost Great Wood and is now managed by the Saint Helena National Trust. The Millennium Forest is being planted with indigenous gumwood trees.  When the island was discovered, it was covered with unique indigenous vegetation, including a remarkable cabbage tree species. The island's hinterland must have been a dense tropical forest but the coastal areas were probably also quite green. The modern landscape is very different, with widespread bare rock in the lower areas, although inland it is green, mainly due to introduced vegetation. There are no native land mammals, but cattle, cats, dogs, donkeys, goats, mice, rabbits, rats and sheep have been introduced, and native species have been adversely affected as a result. The dramatic change in landscape must be attributed to these introductions. As a result, the string tree ("Acalypha rubrinervis") and the Saint Helena olive ("Nesiota elliptica") are now extinct, and many of the other endemic plants are threatened with extinction.  There are several rocks and islets off the coast, including: Castle Rock, Speery Island, the Needle, Lower Black Rock, Upper Black Rock (South), Bird Island (Southwest), Black Rock, Thompson's Valley Island, Peaked Island, Egg Island, Lady's Chair, Lighter Rock (West), Long Ledge (Northwest), Shore Island, George Island, Rough Rock Island, Flat Rock (East), the Buoys, Sandy Bay Island, the Chimney, White Bird Island and Frightus Rock (Southeast), all of which are within one kilometre () of the shore.  The national bird of Saint Helena is the Saint Helena plover, known locally as the wirebird, on account of its wire-like legs. It appears on the coat of arms of Saint Helena and on the flag.

Administrative divisions.

Saint Helena is divided into eight districts, with the majority housing a community Centre. The districts also serve as statistical divisions. The island is a single electoral area and elects 12 representatives to the Legislative Council of 15. NOTE: The

Population.

Demographics.

Saint Helena was first settled by the English in 1659., the island had a population of 4,897 inhabitants, mainly descended from people from Britain – settlers ("planters") and soldiers – and slaves who were brought there from the beginning of settlement – initially from Africa (the Cape Verde Islands, Gold Coast and west coast of Africa are mentioned in early records), then India and Madagascar. The importation of slaves was made illegal in 1792, thus preventing any further increase in their numbers.  In 1840, Saint Helena became a provisioning station for the British West Africa Squadron, preventing the transportation of slaves to Brazil (mainly), and many thousands of slaves were freed on the island. These were all African, and about 500 stayed while the rest were sent on to the West Indies and Cape Town, and eventually to Sierra Leone.  Imported Chinese labourers arrived in 1810, reaching a peak of 618 in 1818, after which

Religion.

Most residents are Anglican and are members of the Diocese of St Helena, which has its own bishop and includes Ascension Island. The 150th anniversary of the diocese was celebrated in June 2009.  Other Christian denominations on the island include the Roman Catholic (since 1852), the Salvation

Government.

Executive authority in Saint Helena is vested in Queen Elizabeth II and is exercised on her behalf by the Governor of Saint Helena. The Governor is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the British government. Defence and foreign affairs remain the responsibility of the United Kingdom.  There are 15 seats in the Legislative Council of Saint Helena, a unicameral legislature, in addition to a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker. Twelve of the 15 members are elected in elections held every four years. The three "ex officio" members are the Chief Secretary, Financial Secretary and Attorney General, currently Susan O'Bey, Dax Richards and Allen Cansick respectively. The Executive Council is presided over by the Governor and consists of three "ex officio" officers and five elected members of the Legislative Council appointed by the Governor. There is no elected Chief

Human rights.

In 2012, the government of Saint Helena funded the creation of the St. Helena Human Rights Action Plan 2012–2015. Work is being done under this action plan, including publishing awareness-raising articles in local newspapers, providing support for members of the public with human rights queries, and extending several UN Conventions on human rights to St. Helena.  Legislation to set up an Equality and Human Rights Commission was passed by Legislative Council in July 2015. This commenced operation in October 2015.

Child abuse scandal.

In 2014, there were reports of child abuse in Saint Helena. Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was accused of lying to the United Nations about child abuse in Saint Helena to cover up allegations, including cases of a police officer having raped a four-year-old girl and of a police officer having

Same Sex Marriage.

In 2017, a St Helenian made an application to the Registrar to get married to his same-sex partner on St Helena. The laws at the time had referred to marriages between men and women and it was not clear whether same-sex marriages

Biodiversity.

Saint Helena has long been known for its high proportion of endemic birds and vascular plants. The highland areas contain most of the 400 endemic species recognised to date. Much of the island has been identified by BirdLife International as being important for bird conservation, especially the endemic Saint Helena plover or wirebird, and for seabirds breeding on the offshore islets and stacks, in the north-east and the south-west Important Bird Areas. On the basis of these endemics and an exceptional range of habitats, Saint Helena is on the United Kingdom's tentative list for future UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Economy.

The island had a monocrop economy until 1966, based on the cultivation and processing of New Zealand flax for rope and string.  Saint Helena's economy is now developing, but is almost entirely sustained by aid from the British government. The public sector dominates the economy, accounting for about 50% of gross domestic product. However, the commencement of regular air services has meant that there has been a rise in tourism, and the Government is encouraging investment on the Island, as can be shown by their Investment Policy and Strategy and the Investor Prospectus for potential investors. In 2019, St Helena achieved its first ever ‘Investment Grade’ Credit Rating, a Credit Rating of BBB- (stable), from global credit-rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P).  St Helena's Sustainable Economic Development Plan, 2018-28, was developed through over 6 months of local and international consultation in 2017-18, led by the Head of the Economic Development Committee, Hon Lawson Henry, and the Chief Government Economist, Nicole Shamier. The document represents a 10 year plan to kick start the economy after air access and fibre connectivity and moved away from relying purely on Tourism for growth, to a mantra to "increase exports, and decrease imports". The SEDP stated that the Island's comparative advantages are its Natural Resources and Geography, its status as a British Overseas Territory, its currency the Pound, £, relatively inexpensive labour and property costs and low crime. Targeted export growth sectors include Tourism, Fisheries, Coffee, Satellite Ground Stations, Work from Home Jobs (Digital Nomads), Academia, Research and Conferences, Liquor, Wines and Beers, Ship Registry and Sailing Qualifications, Traditional Products, Honey and Honey Bees and Film Location. Growth sectors for Import Substitution include Agriculture, Timber, Bricks, Blocks, Minerals and Rocks and Bottled Water. The SEDP is likely to see some tweaks in 2020-21 to include Company Registry and Digital Nomads.  The tourist industry is heavily based on the promotion of Napoleon's imprisonment as well as nature activities such as scuba diving, swimming with whale sharks, whale watching, bird watching, marine tours and hiking. A golf course also exists and there is a possibility for sportfishing. Several hotels, B&Bs and Self-Catering apartments operate on the island, and the arrival of tourists is linked to the Saint Helena Airport (and in the past, the arrival and departure schedule of the now-retired RMS "St Helena").  Saint Helena produces what is said to be the most expensive coffee in the world. It also produces and exports Tungi Spirit, made from the fruit of the prickly or cactus pears, Opuntia ficus-indica ("Tungi" is the local St Helenian name for the plant), and Coffee Liqueur, Gin, and Rum in its local distillery. Due to the absence of parasites and disease in bees, beekeepers collect some of the purest honey in the world.  St Helena has a small fishing industry, landing mostly tuna. The fishery is committed to one by one fishing using the motto 'one pole one line one fish at a time'. Some of St Helena's exported tuna has been served in restaurants in Cape Town.  Like Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, St Helena is permitted to issue its own postage stamps, an enterprise that provides an income. St Helena also issues domains under.sh.

Transport.

Saint Helena is one of the most remote islands in the world. It has one commercial airport, and the island has become somewhat more accessible since air traffic opened in 2017.

Sea.

A freight ship, M/V "Helena", handles all freight to the island (some express mail is transported by air). It sails from Cape Town to Saint Helena and Ascension Island, from the beginning of 2018. It uses a wharf at Ruperts Bay which was built to assist the airport construction. It can take a few passengers.  Until 2017, the Royal Mail Ship ran between Saint Helena and Cape Town on a five-day voyage, then the only scheduled connection to the

Air.

In March 2005, the British government announced plans to construct the Saint Helena Airport. On 22 July 2010, the British government agreed to help pay for the new airport. In November 2011, a deal was signed between the British government and South African civil engineering company Basil Read, and the airport was scheduled to open in February 2016 with flights to and from South Africa and the UK. The cost was £250 million. This is aimed at helping the island become more

Local.

A minibus offers a basic service to carry people around Saint Helena, with most services designed to take people into Jamestown

Media and communications.

Radio.

Radio Saint Helena started operations on Christmas Day 1967, and provided a local radio service that had a range of about from the island, and also broadcast internationally on shortwave radio (11092.5 kHz) on one day a year. The station presented news, features, and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper the "St Helena Herald". It closed on 25 December 2012 to make way for a new three-channel FM service, also funded by St. Helena Government and run by the South Atlantic Media Services (SAMS), formerly St. Helena Broadcasting (Guarantee) Corporation.  SAMS provides two radio channels to St Helena. SAMS Radio 1 is

Online.

St Helena Online is a not-for-profit Internet news service run from the UK by a former print and BBC journalist, working in partnership with Saint FM and the "St Helena Independent".  St Helena Local offers a news service and online user forum offering information about St Helena. This website is run from overseas but is open to contribution from anyone who has an interest in St Helena.  Saint Helena Island Info is an online resource featuring the history of St. Helena from its discovery to the present day, plus photographs and information about

Television.

Sure South Atlantic Ltd (Sure) offers television for the island via 17 analogue terrestrial UHF channels, offering a mix of British, US, and South African programming. The channels are from DSTV and include

Telecommunications.

Sure provides the telecommunications service in the territory through a digital copper-based telephone network including ADSL broadband service. In August 2011 the first fibre-optic link was installed on the island, which connects the television reception antennas at Bryant's Beacon to the Cable & Wireless plc Technical Centre in the Briars.  A satellite ground station with a satellite dish installed in 1989 at The Briars is the only international connection providing satellite links through Intelsat 707 to Ascension island and the United Kingdom. Since all international telephone and Internet communications are relying on this single satellite link, both

Internet.

Saint Helena was granted the use of.sh as its own Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD). This is formally shared with Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, British Overseas Territories. Registrations of internationalized domain names are also accepted under this TLD so, for example, the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein uses the.sh domain for some quasi-governmental sites. In practice several sites dedicated to aspects of life on Saint Helena are run from elsewhere in the world, so use other TLD's, such as the Saint Helena Web site which is based in Sweden.  St Helena had a 10/3.6 Mbit/s Internet link via Intelsat 707 (deactivated January 2011)

Satellite Ground Stations / Earth Stations.

In February 2018 St Helena Government launched the project to attract operators of satellite ground stations to the island who would lease capacity on the planned submarine cable for backhauling and so contribute to the operational costs of

Local newspapers.

The island has two local newspapers, both of which are available on

Culture and society.

Education.

The Education and Employment Directorate, formerly the Saint Helena Education Department, in 2000 had its head office in The Canister in Jamestown. Education is free and compulsory between the ages of five and 16 At the beginning of the academic year 2009–10, 230 students were enrolled in primary school and 286 in secondary school. The island has three primary schools for students of age four to 11: Harford, Pilling, and St Paul's. Prince Andrew School provides secondary education for students aged 11

Sport.

Historically, the St Helena Turf Club organised the island's first recorded sports events in 1818 with a series of horse races at Deadwood. Saint Helena has sent teams to a number of Commonwealth Games. Saint Helena is a member of the International Island Games Association. The Saint Helena cricket team made its debut in international cricket

Scouting.

There are Scouting and Guiding Groups on Saint Helena and Ascension Island. Scouting was established on Saint Helena island in

Cuisine.

In 2017 Julia Buckley of "The Independent" wrote that due to the lack of nouveau cuisine, the food is "Pretty retro, at

Namesake.

St Helena, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, was named after the island.

Saint Helena () is a remote volcanic tropical island in the South Atlantic Ocean, belonging to the United Kingdom. The island lies some 1,950 kilometres (1,210 mi) west of the coast of southwestern Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro on the South American coast. It is one of three British Overseas Territory grouped as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Saint Helena measures about 16 by 8 kilometres (10 by 5 mi) and has a population of 4,534 (2016 census). It was named after Saint Helena of Constantinople. It is one of the most isolated islands in the world and was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in 1502. It was an important stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa for centuries.

Svatá Helena je tropický ostrov sopečného původu v jižním Atlantiku. Od roku 2009 je součástí britského zámořského území s vlastní ústavou a názvem Svatá Helena, Ascension a Tristan da Cunha (anglicky Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha), jehož guvernér spravuje i uvedené okolní ostrovy. Podle sčítání z roku 2008 na něm žije 4 255 obyvatel.


Youth, education and family.

Cave was born on 22 September 1957 in Warracknabeal, a small country town in the Australian state of Victoria, to Dawn Cave (née Treadwell) and Colin Frank Cave. As a child, he lived in Warracknabeal and then Wangaratta in rural Victoria. His father taught English and mathematics at the local technical school; his mother was a librarian at the high school that Nick attended. Cave's father introduced him to literary classics from an early age, such as "Crime and Punishment" and "Lolita", and also organised the first symposium on the Australian bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly, with whom Nick was enamoured as a child.  When Cave was 9 he joined the choir of Wangaratta's Holy Trinity Cathedral. At 13 he was expelled from Wangaratta High School. In 1970, having moved with his family to the Melbourne suburb of Murrumbeena, he became a boarder and later day student at Caulfield Grammar School. He was 19 when his father was killed in a car collision; his mother told him of his father's death while she was bailing him out of a St Kilda police station where he was being held on a charge of burglary. He would later recall that his father "died at a point in my life when I was most confused" and that "the loss of my father created in my life a vacuum, a space in which my words began to float and collect and find their purpose".  After his secondary schooling, Cave studied painting at the Caulfield Institute of Technology in 1976, but dropped out the following year to pursue music. He also began using heroin around the time that he left art school.  Cave attended his first music concert at Melbourne's Festival Hall. The bill consisted of Manfred Mann, Deep Purple and Free. Cave recalled: "I remember sitting there and feeling physically the sound going through me." In early 1977, he saw Australian punk rock groups Radio Birdman and the Saints live for the first time. Cave was particularly inspired by the latter band's show, saying that he left the venue "a different person".

Music career.

Early years and the Birthday Party (1973–1983).

In 1973, Cave met Mick Harvey (guitar), Phill Calvert (drums), John Cochivera (guitar), Brett Purcell (bass), and Chris Coyne (saxophone); fellow students at Caulfield Grammar. They founded a band with Cave as singer. Their repertoire consisted of rudimentary cover versions of songs by Lou Reed, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Roxy Music and Alex Harvey, among others. Later, the line-up slimmed down to four members including Cave's friend Tracy Pew on bass. In 1977, after leaving school, they adopted the name The Boys Next Door and began playing predominantly original material. Guitarist and songwriter Rowland S. Howard joined the band in 1978.  They were a leader of Melbourne's post-punk scene in the late 1970s, playing hundreds of live shows in Australia before changing their name to the Birthday Party in 1980 and moving to London, then West Berlin. Cave's Australian girlfriend and muse Anita Lane accompanied them to London. The band were notorious for their provocative live performances which featured Cave shrieking, bellowing and throwing himself about the stage, backed up by harsh pounding rock music laced with guitar feedback. Cave utilised Old Testament imagery with lyrics about sin, debauchery and damnation. Cave's droll sense of humour and penchant for parody is evident in many of the band's songs, including "Nick the Stripper" and "King Ink". "Release the Bats", one of the band's most famous songs, was intended as an over-the-top "piss-take" on gothic rock, and a "direct attack" on the "stock gothic associations that less informed critics were wont to make". Ironically, it became highly influential on the genre, giving rise to a new generation of bands.  After establishing a cult following in Europe and Australia, the Birthday Party disbanded in 1983. Later that year, Cave performed several shows in the United States as part of The Immaculate Consumptive, a short-lived "super-group" with Marc Almond, Lydia Lunch and Clint Ruin.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1984–present).

The band with Cave as their leader and frontman has released seventeen studio albums. Pitchfork Media calls the group one of rock's "most enduring, redoubtable" bands, with an accomplished discography. Though their sound tends to change considerably from one album to another, the one constant of the band is an unpolished blending of disparate genres, and song structures which provide a vehicle for Cave's virtuosic, frequently histrionic theatrics. Critics Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Steve Huey wrote: "With the Bad Seeds, Cave continued to explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America, and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock, and arty post-punk."  Reviewing 2008's "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" album, "NME" used the phrase "gothic psycho-sexual apocalypse" to describe the "menace" present in the lyrics of the title track. Their most recent work, "Ghosteen", was released in October 2019.  In mid-August 2013, Cave was a 'First Longlist' finalist for the 9th Coopers AMP, alongside artists such as Kevin Mitchell and the Drones. The Australian music prize is worth A$30,000. The prize ultimately went to Big Scary.  In September 2013 interview, Cave explained that he returned to using a typewriter for songwriting after his experience with the "Nocturama" album, as he "could walk in on a bad day and hit 'delete' and that was the end of it". Cave believes that he lost valuable work due to a "bad day".

Solo work.

In addition to his performances with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave has, since the 1990s, performed live'solo' tours with himself on piano/vocals, Warren Ellis on violin/accordion and various others on bass and drums.

Grinderman.

In 2006 Cave formed Grinderman – himself on vocals, guitar, organ & piano, Warren Ellis (tenor guitar, electric mandolin, violin, viola, guitar, backing vocals), Martyn P. Casey (bass, guitar, backing vocals) and Jim Sclavunos (drums, percussion, backing vocals).  The alternative rock outfit was formed as "a way to escape the weight of The Bad Seeds." The band's name was inspired by a Memphis Slim song, "Grinder Man Blues," which Cave is noted to have started singing during one of the band's early rehearsal sessions. The band's eponymous debut studio album, "Grinderman", was released in 2007 to extremely positive reviews and the band's second and final studio album, "Grinderman 2", was released in 2010 to a similar reception.  Grinderman's first public performance was at All Tomorrow's Parties in April 2007 where Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream accompanied Grinderman on backing vocals and percussion.  In December 2011, after performing at Meredith Music Festival, Cave announced that Grinderman was over. Two years later, Grinderman performed both weekends at the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, as did Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.

Music in film and television drama.

Cave's work was featured in a scene in the 1986 film, "Dogs in Space" by Richard Lowenstein. Cave performed parts of the Boys Next Door song "Shivers" twice during the film, once on video and once live.  Another early fan of Cave's was German director Wim Wenders, who lists Cave, along with Lou Reed and Portishead, as among his favorites. Two of Cave's songs were featured in his 1987 film "Wings of Desire". Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds also make a cameo appearance in this film. Two more songs were included in Wenders' 1993 sequel "Faraway, So Close!", including the title track. The soundtrack for Wenders' 1991 film "Until the End of the World" features Cave's "(I'll Love You) Till the End of the World." His most recent production, "Palermo Shooting", also contains a Nick Cave song, as does his 2003 documentary "The Soul of a Man".  Cave's songs have also appeared in a number of Hollywood blockbusters – "There is a Light" appears on the 1995 soundtrack for "Batman Forever", and "Red Right Hand" appeared in a number of films including "The X-Files", "Dumb & Dumber"; "Scream", its sequels "Scream 2" and "3", and "Hellboy" (performed by Pete Yorn). In "Scream 3", the song was given a reworking with Cave writing new lyrics and adding an orchestra to the arrangement of the track. "People Ain't No Good" was featured in the animated movie "Shrek 2" and the song "O Children" was featured in the 2010 movie of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1."  In 2000 Andrew Dominik used "Release the Bats" in his film "Chopper". Numerous other movies use Cave's songs including "Box of Moonlight" (1996), "Mr In-Between" (2001), "Romance & Cigarettes" (2005), "" (2009), "The Freshman", "Gas Food Lodging", "Kevin & Perry Go Large", "About Time"  His works also appear in a number of major TV programs among them "Trauma", "The L Word", "Traveler", "The Unit", "I Love the '70s", "Outpatient", "The Others", "Nip/Tuck", and "Californication". Most recently his work has appeared in the Netflix series "After Life", BBC series "Peaky Blinders" and the Australian series "Jack Irish". "Red Right Hand" is the theme song for "Peaky Blinders" and renditions of the track can be heard throughout the series, including the cover by the alternative-rock band Arctic Monkeys. In a Vice interview, Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy mentioned that Cave personally approved the usage of the song for the series after watching a pre-screening of the show.

Collaborations.

Cave played with Shane MacGowan on cover versions of Bob Dylan's "Death is Not the End" and Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". Cave also performed "What a Wonderful World" live with the Flaming Lips. Cave recorded a cover version of the Pogues song "Rainy Night in Soho", written by MacGowan.  MacGowan also sings a version of "Lucy", released on "B-Sides and Rarities". On 3 May 2008, during the "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" tour, MacGowan joined Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on stage to perform "Lucy" at Dublin Castle in Ireland. Pulp's single "Bad Cover Version" includes on its B-side a cover version by Cave of that band's song "Disco 2000". On the Deluxe Edition of Pulp's "Different Class" another take of this cover can be found.  In 2000, one of Cave's heroes, Johnny Cash, covered Cave's "The Mercy Seat" on the album "American III: Solitary Man", seemingly repaying Cave for the compliment he paid by covering Cash's "The Singer" (originally "The Folk Singer") on his "Kicking Against the Pricks" album. Cave was then invited to be one of many rock and country artists to contribute to the liner notes of the retrospective "The Essential Johnny Cash" CD, released to coincide with Cash's 70th birthday. Subsequently, Cave recorded a duet with Cash on a version of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" for Cash's "" album (2002). A similar duet, the American folk song "Cindy", was released posthumously on the "Johnny Cash: Unearthed" boxset. Cave's song "Let the Bells Ring" is a posthumous tribute to Cash. Cave has also covered the song "Wanted Man" which is best known as performed by Johnny Cash but is a Bob Dylan composition.  In 2004, Cave gave a hand to Marianne Faithfull on the album, "Before the Poison". He co-wrote and produced three songs ("Crazy Love", "There is a Ghost" and "Desperanto"), and the Bad Seeds are featured on all of them. He is also featured on "The Crane Wife" (originally by the Decemberists), on Faithfull's 2008 album, "Easy Come, Easy Go".  Cave collaborated with the band Current 93 on their album "All the Pretty Little Horses", where he sings the title track, a lullaby. For his 1996 album "Murder Ballads", Cave recorded "Where the Wild Roses Grow" with Kylie Minogue, and "Henry Lee" with PJ Harvey.  Cave also took part in the "X-Files" compilation CD with some other artists, where he reads parts from the Bible combined with own texts, like "Time Jesum...", he outed himself as a fan of the series some years ago, but since he does not watch much TV, it was one of the only things he watched. He collaborated on the 2003 single "Bring It On", with Chris Bailey, formerly of the Australian punk group, The Saints. Cave contributed vocals to the song "Sweet Rosyanne", on the 2006 album "Catch That Train!" from Dan Zanes & Friends, a children's music group.  In 2010 Nick Cave began a series of duets with Debbie Harry for The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project.  In 2011, Cave recorded a cover of the Zombies' "She's Not There" with Neko Case, which was used at the end of the first episode of the fourth season of "True Blood".  In 2014, Cave wrote the libretto for the opera Shell Shock (opera) by Nicholas Lens. The opera premiered at the Royal Opera House La Monnaie in Brussels on 24 October 2014.

Film scores and theatre music.

In 2001, Cave recorded a cover of the Beatles' "Let It Be" for the film "I Am Sam", and co-wrote and recorded the song "To Be By Your Side," for the soundtrack of the 2001 French documentary "Le Peuple Migrateur" (called "Winged Migration" in the US).  Cave creates original film scores with fellow Bad Seeds band member Warren Ellis—they first teamed up in 2005 to work on "The Proposition", for which Cave also wrote the screenplay.  In 2006, Cave and Ellis composed the music for Andrew Dominik's adaptation of Ron Hansen's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". By the time Dominik's film was released, Hillcoat was preparing his next project, "The Road", an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel about a father and son struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Cave and Ellis wrote and recorded the score for the film, which was released in 2009.  In early 2011, Cave and Ellis composed the music for the Mexican film "Dias de Gracias". Later in 2011, they reunited with Hillcoat to score his latest picture, "Lawless". Cave also authored this screenplay based on the novel by Matt Bondurant. Set in Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, the film was released in August 2012 (US) and September 2012 (UK).  Cave and Ellis also have documentary-score composition experience. In 2007, the pair composed the score for Geoffrey Smith's film, "The English Surgeon", which traces Dr. Henry Marsh's struggle to bring modern neurosurgery to the confusion of post-Soviet Ukraine. They also wrote the score for "The Girls of Phnom Penh", Matthew Watson's 2009 film exploring Cambodia's "virginity trade".  Cave's novel "The Death of Bunny Munro", published in 2009, was released as an audiobook and Cave worked with Ellis, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard on the soundtrack. Forsyth and Pollard referred to the soundtrack as a 3D experience and stated: "We've not heard anything like this before – the result sits somewhere between a film soundtrack, a radio play and an hallucination."  Cave and Ellis created music for the Vesturport productions "Woyzeck", "The Metamorphosis" and "Faust".

Writing.

Cave released his first book, "King Ink", in 1988. It is a collection of lyrics and plays, including collaborations with Lydia Lunch. In 1997, he followed up with "King Ink II", containing lyrics, poems, and the transcript of a radio essay he did for the BBC in July 1996, "The Flesh Made Word," discussing in biographical format his relationship with Christianity.  While he was based in West Berlin, Cave started working on what was to become his debut novel, "And the Ass Saw the Angel" (1989). Significant crossover is evident between the themes in the book and the lyrics Cave wrote in the late stages of the Birthday Party and the early stage of his solo career. "Swampland", from "Mutiny", in particular, uses the same linguistic stylings ('mah' for'my', for instance) and some of the same themes (the narrator being haunted by the memory of a girl called Lucy, being hunted like an animal, approaching death and execution). On 21 January 2008, a special edition of Cave's novel "And the Ass Saw the Angel" was released. Cave's second novel "The Death of Bunny Munro" was published on 8 September 2009 by Harper Collins books. Telling the story of a sex-addicted salesman, it was also released as a binaural audio-book produced by British Artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and an iPhone app. The book originally started as a screenplay Cave was going to write for John Hillcoat.  Aside from movie soundtracks, Cave also wrote the screenplays for John Hillcoat's "The Proposition" (2005) and "Lawless" (2012).  As proof of his interest in scripture, so evident in his lyrics and his prose writing, Cave wrote the foreword to a Canongate publication of the "Gospel according to Mark", published in the UK in 1998. The American edition of the same book (published by Grove Press) contains a foreword by the noted American writer Barry Hannah.  Cave is a contributor to a 2009 rock biography of the Triffids, "Vagabond Holes: David McComb and the Triffids", edited by Australian academics Niall Lucy and Chris Coughran.  In 2015 he released "The Sick Bag Song".

Acting.

Cave's first film appearance was in Wim Wenders' 1987 film "Wings of Desire", in which he and the Bad Seeds are shown performing at a concert in Berlin.  Cave has made occasional appearances as an actor. He appears alongside Blixa Bargeld in the 1988 Peter Sempel film "Dandy", playing dice, singing and speaking from his Berlin apartment. He is most prominently featured in the 1989 film "Ghosts... of the Civil Dead", written and directed by John Hillcoat, and in the 1991 film "Johnny Suede" with Brad Pitt.  Cave appeared in the 2005 homage to Leonard Cohen, "", in which he performed "I'm Your Man" solo, and "Suzanne" with Julie Christensen and Perla Batalla. He also appeared in the 2007 film adaptation of Ron Hansen's novel "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford", where he sings "The Ballad of Jesse James". Cave and Warren Ellis are credited for the film's soundtrack. Nick Cave and his son Luke performed one of the songs on the soundtrack together. Luke played the triangle.  His interest in the work of Edward Gorey led to his participation in the BBC Radio 3 programme "Guest + Host = Ghost", featuring Peter Blegvad and the radiophonic sound of the Langham Research Centre.  Cave has also lent his voice in narrating the animated film "The Cat Piano". It was directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson (of the People's Republic of Animation), produced by Jessica Brentnall and features music by Benjamin Speed.

Screenwriting.

Cave wrote the screenplay for "The Proposition", a film about bushrangers in the Australian outback during the late 19th century. Directed by John Hillcoat and filmed in Queensland in 2004, it premiered in October 2005 and was later released worldwide to critical acclaim. Cave explained his personal background in relation to writing the film's screenplay in a 2013 interview: I had written long-form before but it is pure story-telling in script writing and that goes back as far as I can remember for me, not just with my father but with myself. I slept in the same bedroom as my sister for many years, until it became indecent to do so and I would tell her stories every night—that is how she would get to sleep. She would say "tell me a story" so I would tell her a story. So that ability, I very much had that from the start and I used to enjoy that at school so actually to write a script—it suddenly felt like I was just making up a big story.  The film critic for British newspaper "The Independent" called "The Proposition" "peerless," "a star-studded and uncompromisingly violent outlaw film." The generally ambient soundtrack was recorded by Cave and Warren Ellis.  At the request of his friend Russell Crowe, Cave wrote a script for a proposed sequel to "Gladiator" which was rejected by the studio.  An announcement in February 2010 stated that Andy Serkis and Cave would collaborate on a motion-capture movie of the Brecht and Weill musical "The Threepenny Opera". As of September 2019, the project has not been realised.  Cave wrote a screenplay titled "The Wettest County in the World", which was used for the 2012 film "Lawless", directed again by John Hillcoat, starring Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf.

Blogging.

Cave currently maintains a personal blog and an online correspondence page with his fans called "The Red Hand Files" which is seen as a continuation of "In Conversation," a series of live personal talks Cave had held in which the audience were free to ask questions. On the page, Cave discusses various issues ranging from art, religion, current affairs and music, as well as using it as a free platform in which fans are encouraged to ask personal questions on any topic of their choosing. Cave's intimate approach to the Question & Answer format on "The Red Hand Files" was praised by "The Guardian" as "a shelter from the online storm free of discord and conspiracies, and in harmony with the internet vision of Tim Berners-Lee."

Personal life.

Cave left Australia in 1980 and moved with his family to Brighton, England, United Kingdom. A film about Cave's life, titled "20,000 Days on Earth" and directed by artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, was released in mid-2014, shortly before his 57th birthday.  In 2017, Cave told "GQ" magazine that he and his family were moving from Brighton to Los Angeles as, after the death of his 15-year-old son, Arthur, they "just find it too difficult to live here."

Partners and children.

Cave dated Anita Lane from the late 1970s to mid-1980s. Cave and Lane recorded together on a few occasions. Their most notable collaborations include Lane's 'cameo' verse on Cave's Bob Dylan cover "Death Is Not The End" from the album "Murder Ballads", and a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin song "Je t'aime... moi non plus/ I love you... me neither". Lane co-wrote the lyrics to the title track for Cave's 1984 LP, "From Her to Eternity", as well as the lyrics of the song "Stranger Than Kindness" from "Your Funeral, My Trial". Cave, Lydia Lunch and Lane wrote a comic book together, entitled "AS-FIX-E-8", in the style of the old "Pussy Galore"/Russ Meyer movies.  Cave then moved to São Paulo, Brazil, in 1990, where he met and married his first wife, Brazilian journalist Viviane Carneiro. She gave birth to their son Luke in 1991. Nick and Viviane were married for six years and divorced in 1996.  Cave's second son, Jethro, was also born in 1991 and grew up with his mother, Beau Lazenby, in Melbourne, Australia. Cave and Jethro did not meet one another until Jethro was about seven or eight.  Cave briefly dated PJ Harvey during the mid-1990s.  In 1997, Cave met British model Susie Bick. Bick was the cover model on the Damned's 1985 album "Phantasmagoria" and a Vivienne Westwood model. Bick is also the model on the cover of the album "Push the Sky Away". She gave up her job when they married in 1999. Bick's and Cave's twin sons, Arthur and Earl, were born in Brighton in 2000.  Cave's son Arthur, 15, fell from a cliff at Ovingdean, near Brighton, England, and died from his injuries on 14 July 2015. Cave's family released a statement on the death, saying, "Our son Arthur died on Tuesday evening. He was our beautiful, happy loving boy. We ask that we be given the privacy our family needs to grieve at this difficult time." The effect of Arthur's death on Cave and his family was explored in the 2016 documentary film "One More Time with Feeling", the 2016 album "Skeleton Tree", and the 2019 album "Ghosteen".  Cave is the godfather to Michael Hutchence's daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily. Cave performed "Into My Arms" at the televised funeral of Michael Hutchence, but insisted that the cameras cease rolling during his performance.

Religion.

Nick Cave is an avid reader of the Christian Bible. In his recorded lectures on music and songwriting, Cave said that any true love song is a song for God, and ascribed the mellowing of his music to a shift in focus from the Old Testament to the New. When asked if he had interest in religions outside of Christianity, Cave quipped that he had a passing, skeptical interest but was a "hammer-and-nails kind of guy."  Cave restated this when interviewed by Jarvis Cocker on 12 September 2010, for his BBC Radio 6 show "Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service", saying, "I believe in God in spite of religion, not because of it." Moreover, Cave has always been open about his doubts. When asked in 2009 about whether he believed in a personal God, Cave's reply was "No,". The following year, he stated, "I'm not religious, and I'm not a Christian, but I do reserve the right to believe in the possibility of a god. It's kind of defending the indefensible, though; I'm critical of what religions are becoming, the more destructive they're becoming. But I think as an artist, particularly, it's a necessary part of what I do, that there is some divine element going on within my songs.  These doubts were once a source of discomfort to Cave, but he eventually concluded: In 2019, Cave expressed his personal disagreement with both organised religion and atheism (in particular New Atheism) when questioned about his beliefs by a fan during a Question and Answer session on his "Red Hand Files" blog.

Politics.

In November 2017, Cave resisted demands from fellow artists Brian Eno and Roger Waters to cancel two concerts in Tel Aviv after Eno and Waters published a letter asking Cave to avoid performing in Israel while "apartheid remains". Cave went on to describe the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions movement as "cowardly and shameful", and that calls to boycott the country are "partly the reason I am playing Israel – not as support for any particular political entity but as a principled stand against those who wish to bully, shame and silence musicians." He furthermore responded with an open letter to Eno to defend his position.  In 2019, Cave wrote in defense of singer Morrissey after the latter expressed a series of controversial political statements during the release of his "California Son" album which led to some record stores refusing to stock it. Cave argued that Morrissey should have that right to freedom of speech to state his opinions while everyone should be able to "challenge them when and wherever possible, but allow his music to live on, bearing in mind we are all conflicted individuals." He also added it would be "dangerous" to censor Morrissey from expressing his beliefs.  In response to a fan asking about his political beliefs, Cave expressed a disdain for "atheism, organised religion, radical bi-partisan politics and woke culture" on his "Red Hand Files" blog. He in particular singled out woke politics and culture for criticism, describing it as "finding energy in self-righteous belief and the suppression of contrary systems of thought" and "regardless of the virtuous intentions of many woke issues, it is its lack of humility and the paternalistic and doctrinal sureness of its claims that repel me." Cave has also described himself as a supporter of free speech in both his live "In Conversation" events and on his blog.

Legacy.

In 2010, Cave was ranked the 19th greatest living lyricist in "NME". Flea called him the greatest living songwriter in 2011. Rob O'Connor of Yahoo! Music listed him as the 23rd best lyricist in rock history. "The Art of Nick Cave: New Critical Essays" was edited by academic John H. Baker and published in 2013. In an essay on the album "The Boatman's Call", Peter Billingham praised Cave's love songs as characterized by a "deep, poetic, melancholic introspection." Carl Lavery, another academic featured in the collection, argued that there was a "burgeoning field of Cave studies". Dan Rose argued that Cave "is a master of the disturbing narrative and chronicler of the extreme, though he is also certainly capable of a subtle romantic vision. He does much to the listener who enters his world."

Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian singer, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional actor, best known for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Cave's music is generally characterised by his baritone voice, emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love and violence.

Nick Cave (rodným jménem Nicholas Edward Cave; * 22. září 1957 Warracknabeal, Austrálie) je australský zpěvák, hudební skladatel, textař, herec a spisovatel. Hudbě se začal věnovat počátkem sedmdesátých let, kdy spolu s multiinstrumentalistou Mickem Harveyem založil svou první skupinu, jejíž název se po několika změnách ustálil na The Birthday Party. Ta se rozpadla v roce 1983, ale Cave spolu s Harveyem založili skupinu Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, ve které působí do současnosti; Harvey ze skupiny odešel v roce 2009, po více než pětatřicetileté spolupráci s Cavem. V letech 2006 až 2011 působil Cave ve skupině Grinderman, se kterou vydal dvě studiová alba. V roce 2000 získal italské hudební ocenění Premio Tenco a roku 2005 spolu s Warrenem Ellisem australskou cenu Australian Film Institute Awards za nejlepší hudbu k filmu "The Proposition".