Mission.

The National Archives of Brazil (AN) fulfills part of its institutional mission by offering guidance, technical assistance and training to the servants of other federal public administration bodies throughout Brazil in the area of management, preservation, technical processing, access and dissemination of documents under the Archival Documents Management System (in Portuguese: Sistema de Gestão de Documentos de Arquivo – SIGA). Through its conservation area, the National Archives of Brazil guarantees the protection of the fundamental documentary heritage for the country. These actions are complemented by the technical treatment of its fonds, to make it available to the public through search systems and research instruments.  Thus, the National Archives offers thousands of documents in its custody accessible anywhere in the world through the Internet; On the other hand, it is possible to consult the documents in person at your two units (in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia) or the distance or by email. The National Archives currently has 10 electronic sites, 7 databases and 42 research tools that allow its users access to information on the document, as well as information about its activities and events. The Information System of the National Archives – SIAN is its main system. The access to information and documents of the National Archives of Brazil is enhanced by various dissemination actions, such as electronic research sites, exhibitions and publications. Among them, the Arquivo em Cartaz – International Archives Film Festival, Revista Acervo, National Archives Week; Memórias Reveladas; besides having a great presence in social medias, joining in 2017 the GLAM project of the Wikicommons. The Archives also holds pre-1959 diplomatic records between Brazil and the United States of America. It may be necessary to contact Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to access some of the records.

History.

The Public Archives of the Brazilian Empire.

The regulation No. 2, of January 2, 1838, created the Public Archives of the Brazilian Empire, as provided for in the Constitution of 1824, provisionally established in the Secretariat of State for the Business of the Empire. The creation of the National Archives, together with the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute, which added to the Imperial Academy of the Arts, joined the regency effort of Pedro de Araújo Lima, future Viscount and Marqués de Olinda, for the construction of an imperial State.  The Public Archives of the Empire was intended to safeguard public documents and was organized into three sections: Administrative, responsible for the documents of the Executive and Moderator powers; Legislative, in charge of the custody of the documents produced by the Legislative Power and the Historical Section, responsible for the most important documents for the history of Brazil. Its first headquarters was located in the building of the Ministry of the Empire, in the street of the Guarda Velha Street, current Treze de Maio Avenue. In 1844, the Public Archives of the Empire came to stay in Praça do Comércio, on Direita Street, today Primeiro de Março Avenue, Rio de Janeiro.  Initially the organ functioned as a distribution attached to the Secretariat of State for the Business of the Empire, becoming autonomous in 1840. However, it occupied the secretarial building until 1854, when it was transferred to the upper floor of the Convent of Santo Antônio. In 1860, decree n. 2,541 reformed the institution, maintaining the same division of the sections, however, detailing a little more the attributions of each one.  From the decade of 1870, a greater structuring of the organ is observed. In the year 1870, the archive came to occupy the old building of the Recolhimento do Parto dos Terceiros da Ordem do Carmo. In 1873, Joaquim Pires Machado Portella became director of the institution, and in the following year the archive was opened for public consultation. A new regulation was adopted, approved by Decree n. 6.164, of March 24, 1876, determining various transformations and establishing more detailed work procedures. With the Republic, in 1911, the organ had its name altered for National Public Archives, like many other institutions that possessed the term "Imperial" in their names.

The Reformation of José Honório Rodrigues.

For José Honório Rodrigues, director from 1958 to 1964, the National Archives "was stagnant, impervious to initiative, as a model of archaic institution, a ghost of other times". In order to change that situation, as director of the National Archives, José Honório Rodrigues himself achieved the approval of a new Regulation by Decree No. 44,862, of November 21, 1958, which defines the Archive as a national distribution, establishes the archives policy, its attributions and objectives, defends and extends the collection selected throughout the national territory and in all sources of federal documentation; it extends to the defense by the preservation of documents in films, discs, photographs; it creates research and historical information services, relating them to equal services in the Armed Forces and in other public and private institutions". Thus, "with this proposal of a centralizing body for the regulation of archival procedures, it is reaffirmed the idea of Archives as a space of Power". During José Honório Rodrigues' period, one can also observe the development of various courses related to the training of professionals able to work in archives. Such courses, in 1977, gave rise to the first course of graduation in Archival science, at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro.

The institutional modernization of the 1980s.

With the approval in 1975 of a new regulation an important step was taken, when the idea of document management was incorporated, through the Pre-Archive Division, which was installed itself in Brasilia the following year, demonstrating the Archives concern with its actions before the public administration in the capital. The preservation of documents of the public power as a purpose of the National Archives System (SINAR) was one of the conquests of the late 1970s. With the National Archives as the central organ, the system was composed of the bodies of the direct and indirect federal administration that had intermediate and permanent archiving activities.  Following the suggestion of UNESCO, at the request of the general director of the National Archives, Celina Vargas do Amaral Peixoto, of a "pilot project of modernization of traditional type within an archives institution" and to guarantee a radical change, it was necessary to translation to a new headquarters; the identification of all the documents kept in the National Archives; the census of the fonds not collected and the training of the workers of the institution. These were the conditions required for the preparation of federal legislation and a new structure for the National Archives. The result of an agreement between the Ministry of Justice and the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the Administrative Institutional Modernization Project of the National Archive was signed in 1981, as the subsequent passage of the Archives to the autonomous body of the direct administration in the structure of the Ministry and the transfer to the building attached to the old Casa da Moeda, in January 1985, the interest of international organizations in that decade was awakened.  Thus, on January 3, 1985 the National Archives os Brazil moved to its current headquarters, which occupies one of the buildings of the old Casa da Moeda (1868–1983), one of the most beautiful buildings built in the nineteenth century style in the Praça da República. After an award-winning restoration process, in 2004, it occupies the historical part of that architectural ensemble. In Brasilia, while it does not havea specific building, the AN uses since 1988 part of the facilities of the National Press (Imprensa Nacional), having 18 thousand meters of shelves for guard of documents in its regional coordination – at the moment, the only one outside Rio de Janeiro.

Collections.

In its two units in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, the National Archives of Brazil safeguards about 55 km of text documents; 1.74 million photographs and negatives, 200 photo albums, 4 thousand cartoons and drawings, 3 thousand posters, a thousand postcards, 300 drawings and 20 thousand illustrations, as well as maps, films and sound recordings.  The textual documentation from the federal Executive, Moderator, Judicial and Legislative powers also includes private collections. Correspondence and legislation originated around the Portuguese ultramarine empire, the archives brought with the court of João VI in 1808, among others, describe the beginning of Brazilian society. With the rupture of the colonial past, the formation of the imperial state can be known through the documents generated by the ministries and the judiciary, such as the Casa da Suplicação, the General Audit of Marinha, in addition to the original Constitution of 1824 and the Golden Law.  Among the documents produced by the republican regime, stand out the entry records of immigrants, patents of inventions, books of civil registry, civis and criminal proceedings, sightings of UFOs, urbanization and sanitation projects related to the first years of the 20th century. The constitutions from the year 1891, the processes of the National Security Court, the Supreme Military Court and the Supreme Federal Court, the censorship bodies, the documents of entities such as the National Information Service, which compose the repressive apparatus to the Political struggles of the Military Dictatorship (1964–1985) and several other governmental institutions reflect the formation of contemporary Brazil and relevant aspects of the country's recent history. In addition to the documents of the information and counter-information body of the military regime, personal archives and private entities are important, including Eusébio de Queirós, Duque de Caxias, Bertha Lutz, Luis Carlos Prestes, Salgado Filho, San Tiago Dantas, Goes Monteiro, Apolônio de Carvalho, Mário Lago, Zelia Pedreira Abreu Magalhães, Maria Beatriz Nascimento, the presidents of Republic Floriano Peixoto, Prudente de Moraes, Afonso Pena, João Goulart, the Brazilian Academy of Letters, the Brazilian Federation for Female Progress, the Institute of Pesquisa e Estudos Sociais (IPES) and the Association of Brazilian Archivists.  Composed of maps and architectural plans, the cartographic documentation has more than 44,000 titles on the geography of different regions of the world and Brazil from the 17th to the 20th century. In reference to Brazil, the planning and urban infrastructure projects stand out, such as the buildings of the Central Avenue, current Rio Branco Avenue, in Rio de Janeiro, as well as railroads, telegraphs, ports, rivers and canalization of the systems of water supply.  The iconographic documentation has its starting point in the 1860s, coinciding with the expansion of photography. Of the universe of images produced by important national and foreign photographers who worked in Brazil and abroad, the archives of the National Agency (1930–1979), the newspaper Correio da Manhã (1901–1974) and the Ferrez family stand out (1839–2000), as well as private records of the Collection of Single Photographs.  The collection of sound documents covers the period from 1902 to the year 1990 and consists of more than 11 thousand articles, including records and audio tapes of National Agency fond, Presidency of the Republic, Radio Mayrink Veiga, Humberto Franceschi, Radio Jornal do Brasil, Casa Edison and Public Amusement Censorship Service, as well as collections of classical and popular music.  The set of moving images has impressive records of Brazilian history and culture. There are 33 thousand titles, in a total of 124 thousand rolls of film and 4 thousand videomagnetic tapes. They are part of the collection newsreels, documentaries, fiction films and advertising, family and film clippings that were censored, derived from the National Agency, the Division of Public Diversity Censorship, TV Tupi and the National Energy Commission Nuclear, among other fonds and collections.

Documents nominated by Unesco as Memory of the World.

The National Archives, in addition to supporting the functioning of the National Committee of Brazil, under the Ministry of Culture, has nominated some documents in the Memory of the World Program, of UNESCO.

Libraries.

The National Archives of Brazil has two reference libraries, especially in the areas of Brazilian History and Archival science. The library of the headquarters of the institution in Rio de Janeiro, called Biblioteca Maria Beatriz Nascimento, was created in 1876 through Decree No. 6164 of March 24, 1876. The regional library unit in Brasilia was constituted in 2016. Together, they have about 111 thousand books, brochures, magazines, theses, dissertations, CDs and DVDs, in more than twenty different languages, with 23 thousand rare books – being that of Rio de Janeiro considered the largest library in Brazil for the Archival science, especially after the reception of the bibliographic collection of the Association of Brazilian Archivists extinguished in 2015.

Architecture.

The current building was designed by engineers Antonio Pinheiro Guimarães Francisco and Teodoro Antonio de Oliveira in the Neoclassical style and uses gneiss. and it is one of the first property cataloged by the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute in 1938. From 1868 to 1983, the building housed the old Brazilian Mint. Access to the building is through a classical portal with three pediments on the same facade. Located in the center of the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the Praça da República, next to Radio MEC and the Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, near the Central Station of Brazil. In addition to its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, the National Archives of Brazil has, since 1988, a unit in the federal capital, Brasilia, currently located in the graphic industry sector, next to the National Press (Imprensa Nacional).

The National Archives of Brazil (in Portuguese: "Arquivo Nacional") were created in 1838 as the Imperial Public Archives. The Archives were renamed in 1911, and are located in Rio de Janeiro. The National Archives of Brazil is the Brazilian institution responsible for the management, preservation and dissemination of federal government documents. Since 2011 it is subordinated to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

Das Nationalarchiv von Brasilien, amtlich, ist ein Staatsarchiv in Rio de Janeiro. Es wurde am 2. Januar 1838 gegründet und ist dem Justizministerium unterstellt. Untergebracht ist es in dem Gebäude, in dem von 1868 bis 1983 die brasilianische Münzstätte Casa da Moeda do Brasil war.


Origins.

Monkey Day was created and popularized by contemporary artists Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin, beginning in 2000 when they were both art students at Michigan State University. Sorrow jokingly scribbled Monkey Day on a friend's calendar, and then they first celebrated the holiday with other MSU art students. The holiday gained notoriety when Sorrow and Millikin began including Monkey Day in their artwork and alternative comics that they published online and exhibited internationally along with other artists.  Since then, Monkey Day has been widely celebrated across countries such as the United States, Canada, Germany, India, Pakistan, Estonia, United Kingdom, Colombia, Thailand, Turkey and Scotland. Hallmark Cards describes the holiday as a "day when monkey business is actually encouraged." "The Washington Post" describes Monkey Day as a day to "learn something about these adorable and highly intelligent primates. Or you could use this day to act like a monkey."  Monkey Day is particularly popular among animal rights and environmental activists, and visual artists and art institutions. Monkey Day's celebrants and supporters include Jane Goodall, Greenpeace, National Geographic, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Louvre Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Traditional celebrations.

Zoo and animal sanctuary events.

Many zoos hold annual Monkey Day events. For example, the Lahore Zoo in Pakistan holds an annual World Monkey Day celebration that includes art competitions and educational events about monkeys, including over a hundred children wearing monkey masks, poetry readings about monkeys, and performances to highlight the threats monkeys face as well as monkey evolution. The Tallinn Zoo in Estonia celebrates Monkey Day by auctioning artwork created by chimpanzees and performing intelligence tests on Japanese macaques. The Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in India organizes Monkey Day programs to educate children about wildlife issues and encourage people to adopt monkeys. The Faruk Yalçın Zoo and Botanical Park in Darıca, Turkey, hosts Monkey Day events to draw attention to declining monkey populations. The Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland uses Monkey Day events including monkey story telling to raise awareness of the dangers that primates face worldwide. Since 2009, the Colombian Association Primatological "APC" (for its acronym in Spanish) has celebrated Monkey Day. During the week of Monkey Day, the National Zoo & Aquarium in Australia holds a range of activities and educational talks, raising awareness for all primates and raising money for conserving critically endangered species like Cotton-top Tamarins in Columbia.

Art exhibitions.

Prominent artists like Sorrow, Millikin, Rob Balder, and David Malki have created Monkey Day themed comics and artwork.  For Monkey Day 2012, "USA Weekend" published "The 12 Stars of Monkey Day", a series of paintings by Millikin that were "in part inspired by the many pioneering space monkeys who rode into the stars on rockets, leading the way for human space flight." In 2013, Eric Millikin created a mail art series where he mailed Monkey Day cards to strangers, including Koko the sign-language gorilla and President Barack Obama. For Monkey Day 2014, Millikin created a 3D monkey experience. Since 2016, Millikin has created the "Danger Beast" series of street art portraits of endangered animals created out of endangered plants, including a portrait of Harambe the gorilla made from Venus flytraps.  In addition to his monkey-themed artwork, Sorrow also maintains a comprehensive "Monkeys in the News" blog with stories on topics like monkey attacks, monkey smuggling, and monkey science. Every Monkey Day, Sorrow's "Monkeys in the News" blog counts down the previous year's "top 10 Monkey and Primate News highlights".

Fundraising.

Often, celebrations involve raising money for primate-related issues. In 2008, the official Monkey Day celebrations included an art show and silent auction to benefit the Chimps Inc. animal sanctuary; the show and auction included art by human artists as well as paintings from chimps Jackson and Kimie, residents of the sanctuary. The Biddle Gallery in Detroit also celebrated Monkey Day in 2008 with an annual Monkey Day art sale that included a free banana with each purchase. For 2013, the International Primate Protection League is celebrating Monkey Day and raising money for conservation by offering life-drawing classes where people can learn to draw portraits of Gary the gibbon. Greenpeace says "Monkey Day is the perfect time to swing into action and help protect primate habitat by becoming a forest defender."

Parties.

The holiday is also celebrated with costume parties intended to help draw attention to issues related to simians, including medical research, animal rights, and evolution. Often there are competitions to see who has the best costumes, who can act like a monkey the longest or perform the most amusing impression of one, or speed knitting of monkey dolls. Other Monkey Day activities include going on shopping sprees for Paul Frank "Julius the Monkey" fashions, eating Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream, and spending the day at the zoo. Often when monkeys cause trouble, such as a monkey driving away in a stolen bus, the monkey is said to be honoring the traditions of Monkey Day.

Movies and music.

In 2005, Peter Jackson's "King Kong" was released on the fifth anniversary of Monkey Day. For Monkey Day 2014, the creators of "" released a short feature starring Crystal the Monkey. Mainstream American films like "King Kong" and "Planet of the Apes" films are popular at Monkey Day parties, as well as monkey Kung Fu films like "Lady Iron Monkey". Monkey-themed songs, such as Major Lance's "The Monkey Time" and The Rolling Stones song "Monkey Man", are also part of Monkey Day festivities.

Monkey Day is an unofficial international holiday celebrated on December 14. The holiday was created and popularized in 2000 by artists Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin when they were art students at Michigan State University. Monkey Day celebrates monkeys and "all things simian", including other non-human primates such as apes, tarsiers, and lemurs. Monkey Day is celebrated worldwide and often also known as World Monkey Day and International Monkey Day.

Der Affentag ist ein international begangener aber inoffizieller Feier- und Gedenktag, der alljährlich am 14. Dezember begangen wird. Er wurde im Jahre 2000 von den Kunststudenten Casey Sorrow und Eric Millikin an der Michigan State University begründet und propagiert.


Plot.

On the planet Cybertron, the Autobot resistance, led by Optimus Prime, is on the verge of losing the civil war against the Decepticons, and prepares to evacuate the planet. A Decepticon force, led by Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave, intercepts them during the evacuation, and Optimus sends the Autobot scout B-127 to Earth in an escape pod, in order to set up a base of operations where the Autobots can regroup. B-127 reaches Earth alone, crash-landing in California and disrupting a training exercise by Sector 7, a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Colonel Jack Burns presumes B-127 to be a hostile invader and attacks. B-127 scans a Willys MB jeep and flees to a mine, where Decepticon Seeker Blitzwing ambushes him. When B-127 refuses to reveal Optimus's whereabouts, Blitzwing tears out his voice box and damages his memory core; despite this, B-127 stabs and destroys Blitzwing with one of his own missiles. B-127 flees from the soldiers, scans a nearby 1967 Volkswagen Beetle and collapses from his injuries.  In 1987, teenager Charlie Watson remains traumatized by the death of her father, and resentful of her mother Sally’s new boyfriend Ron. Charlie finds a yellow Volkswagen Beetle in a scrapyard belonging to Hank, who gives it to her as an 18th-birthday present. When trying to start it, Charlie unknowingly activates a homing signal that is detected by Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick as they interrogate and execute the Autobot Cliffjumper on one of Saturn's moons. The Decepticons head to Earth, and acquire Earth vehicle forms. They meet Sector 7, pretending to be peacekeepers, and persuade them to help capture B-127, despite Burns' objections.  While Charlie attempts to fix the Beetle, it transforms into B-127, whom she befriends and nicknames "Bumblebee". She then unknowingly unlocks a message from Optimus urging Bumblebee to defend Earth in their absence, which restores some of his memories. They are discovered by Charlie's neighbor Memo, who agrees to protect their secret due to his feelings for Charlie, and Bumblebee begins using songs from the radio to communicate. Left alone, Bumblebee accidentally destroys Charlie's home and causes an energy spike that attracts Sector 7's attention. When Sally blames Charlie for the destruction, Charlie finally expresses her pain over her father's death and angrily leaves with Bumblebee and Memo, only to be intercepted by Sector 7 and the Decepticons. Bumblebee is captured while Charlie and Memo are returned home.  Charlie convinces her brother Otis to cover for her and Memo as they follow Burns to the Sector 7 outpost where Bumblebee is being held. Shatter and Dropkick torture Bumblebee and activate the message from Optimus Prime, discovering that the Autobots are coming to Earth. They shoot and leave Bumblebee for dead after revealing their plan to bring the rest of the Decepticons to Earth. After alerting Burns to the truth about the Decepticons, Dr. Powell is killed by Dropkick.  Charlie electroshocks Bumblebee back to life, restoring his memories, causing him to attack and drive off Burns' obstruction. After escaping the pursuing military with the help of Memo and her family, Charlie and Bumblebee attempt to prevent the Decepticons from contacting Cybertron using a radio tower at a nearby harbor. Shatter shoots down Burns' helicopter when he also tries to intervene, but he is saved by Bumblebee. Bumblebee binds Dropkick with a chain, and rips him apart when he transforms. Charlie deactivates the Decepticon beacon, only to be pursued by Shatter. Bumblebee destroys a dam wall, triggering a flood that causes a cargo ship to crush and destroy Shatter. Burns gives Bumblebee and Charlie time to escape before the army arrives. Charlie and Bumblebee arrive on a cliff overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, where Charlie, realizing that Bumblebee has a greater purpose on Earth, says goodbye. Bumblebee takes on a new 1977 Chevrolet Camaro form and drives off, and Charlie reunites with her family and Memo.  Now using his new name, Bumblebee reunites with Optimus Prime, who praises Bumblebee for keeping Earth safe as they watch more Autobots arrive through Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, Charlie finally finishes repairing the Corvette she and her father were working on, and takes it for a drive.

Cast.

Humans.

In addition, Nick Pilla plays Sector 7 agent Seymour Simmons, an older version of whom was portrayed by John Turturro in previous "Transformers" films. Fred Dryer plays Sheriff Lock, a sheriff who enters into a high-speed chase with Charlie, Memo, and Bumblebee, while Edwin Hodge plays Danny Bell, an agent of Sector 7. Tim Martin Gleason appears as Charlie and Otis' father and Sally's husband, who died of a heart attack prior to the film's events.

Voices.

Transformers who appear in non-speaking roles include Ironhide, an Autobot weapons specialist, and Starscream, a Decepticon seeker and the second-in-command of the Decepticons. The Decepticon forces consist of numerous generic Decepticon seekers, multiples of whom use color schemes based on the pre-existing Transformers characters Skywarp, Thundercracker, Acidstorm and Sunstorm. The Autobot supercomputer, Teletraan 1, also appears as one of the main computers on the launchpad tower.

Production.

Development.

On February 12, 2016, it was announced that the sixth film in the "Transformers" series, "Transformers 6", was slated for release on June 8, 2018, and it was later revealed that the film would be an untitled spin-off, featuring Bumblebee. On November 11, 2016, "Deadline" reported that Paramount Pictures was moving forward with the project, with Christina Hodson announced as having written the script for the spin-off; Hodson was one of the female writers Paramount and Michael Bay had hired for the series' "writers room." Kelly Fremon Craig performed a rewrite of the script, but was ultimately not credited in the final product. Hodson said the film hadn't changed much since her initial 2015 pitch, and 2016 first draft, with the key elements and broad emotion strokes all staying true, although she notes the film had gotten bigger and more fun, including the addition of visiting Cybertron. Hodson elaborated "Pretty early on, I knew I wanted to tell the story of two broken people who are healing each other. So the broken girl and the broken car kind of felt like a romantic notion."  On March 2, 2017, "Deadline" reported that Travis Knight was set to direct the film. In May 2017, it was revealed that the film's story would be set in the 1980s, and that it would feature fewer robots. In the same month, it was announced that the film's title was then "Transformers Universe: Bumblebee". Knight compared working in live action to his previous work in stop motion, and said he treated scenes featuring the robots as if they were animated scenes, making extensive use of storyboards, breaking down the script and planning out all the details. The scene where Bumblebee explores Charlie's home, he described as "trying to get familiar with this unfamiliar world, it was a lot kind of like Sorcerer’s Apprentice". Knight chose to set the film in the 1980s since it was the decade that the original "Transformers" TV series, of which he was a fan of, was released. In spite of Knight's direction differing from the previous films' style, Bay never tried to force Knight to change the film's more story-focused direction, instead supporting Knight during production. Knight also used many elements from the original TV series and the in the film, including the characters' original designs. Knight originally included Megatron when storyboarding the opening battle scenes on Cybertron but used other characters instead to keep continuity with Michael Bay's "Transformers".

Casting.

In May 2017, it was reported that Hailee Steinfeld was in talks for the female lead in the film, and she confirmed her involvement later in June. On July 11, 2017, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. joined the cast as the male lead. On July 12, 2017, The Tracking Board reported that Rachel Crow had been cast as well, though she did not appear in the finished film. The following day, more core cast was announced, including Jason Drucker, Abby Quinn, Ricardo Hoyos and Gracie Dzienny, though Quinn ultimately did not appear in the film. On July 22, 2017, it was reported that Pamela Adlon had been cast to play Steinfeld's character's mother. On July 31, 2017, John Cena was added as a lead, with Kenneth Choi and Stephen Schneider set for supporting roles, though Choi did not appear in the final cut. On October 2, 2017, in an interview promoting the home media release of "", Peter Cullen revealed he would reprise his role of Optimus Prime in the film. On December 11, 2017, it was rumored that actor Martin Short had joined the film's voice roster, though his scene was cut after test screenings. On May 31, 2018, Jess Harnell revealed he would reprise his role as the voice of Barricade from the 2007 film and "The Last Knight", but the character did not appear in the final product.  On July 13, 2018, it was announced that Angela Bassett and Justin Theroux would be voicing a pair of new Decepticons, respectively called Shatter and Dropkick, the main antagonists of the film. On August 26, 2018, voice actor David Sobolov, who had previously voiced Depth Charge in "", Brawl in the 2007 video game, and Shockwave in "", confirmed he would voice Blitzwing. On December 3, 2018, Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed to IGN that Dylan O'Brien would voice Bumblebee. On December 9, 2018, about a week before the film's release, voice actress Grey Griffin stated at a special fan screening that she is reprising her role as Arcee from "". On the same day, voice actor and long-time "Transformers" fan Jon Bailey also detailed that he voiced both Shockwave and Soundwave in the film, both of which were previously voiced by Frank Welker, in "".

Filming.

Principal photography on the film began on July 31, 2017, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Vallejo, and Mare Island, California, and was scheduled to finish on November 16, 2017, under the working title "Brighton Falls". Filming concluded six days ahead of schedule, on November 10, 2017. Scroggins Aviation Mockup & Effects was hired to supply the two Bell UH-1H Huey helicopters in the film. One Huey was used for motion base (gimbal) stage work at Long Beach, California studios and the other filming location was at Mare Island peninsula in Vallejo, California where Bumblebee catches the shot up Huey piloted by actor John Cena before crashing.  Later in November 2017, the film was revealed to have changed its title to "Bumblebee: The Movie" (later being called simply "Bumblebee"), as well as having wrapped up filming.

Visual effects.

Visual effects for the film were provided by Industrial Light & Magic, Cantina Creative, and The Third Floor, with Jason Smith and Tony Lupoi serving as the main visual effects supervisors.  The special effects team built a life size model of Bumblebee for reference, and to help Hailee Steinfeld act against on set. They built a full size copy of Bumblebee's head, chest and upper arms, with paint detail and light-up eyes.

Music.

Soundtrack.

Hailee Steinfeld's single "Back to Life", from the soundtrack, was released on November 2, 2018. The soundtrack featured several songs from the 1980s and was released on December 21, 2018.

Score.

Dario Marianelli, who previously scored Knight's "Kubo and the Two Strings", provided the music score for the film, making this the first time Steve Jablonsky has not scored one of the films in the franchise. The score was released on December 21, 2018.

Release.

"Bumblebee" was released in the United States on December 21, 2018, by Paramount Pictures. The film is available in 2D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D. The date had initially been set for June 8, 2018. The first trailer was released on June 5, 2018, and two new trailers, including an international trailer, on September 24, 2018. The international trailer showed that Bumblebee was disguised as an old [1941-45 military style Willys MB] before he became a Volkswagen Beetle.  On November 21, 2018, Paramount announced it would hold one-day previews for the film on Saturday, December 8, 2018, similar to the promotions Amazon Prime and Sony Pictures ran with the films, "" and "", and to fellow December 2018 release, "Aquaman".

Home media.

"Bumblebee" was released on Digital HD on March 19, 2019, and was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on April 2, 2019. "Bumblebee" was also released on VHS on April 1, 2019, as a limited edition promotional item, but not for retail sale.

Reception.

Box office.

"Bumblebee" grossed $127.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $340.8 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $468 million, against an estimated production budget of $135 million.  In the United States and Canada, "Bumblebee" was released alongside "Aquaman", "Welcome to Marwen", and "Second Act", and was projected to gross $20–25 million in its opening weekend, and $35–40 million over its first five days. Prior to its release, the film made about $500,000 at 325 theaters from its December 8 screenings, an "impressive" average of $1,500 per venue. The film made $8.5 million on its first day, including $2.15 million from Thursday night previews (a total of $2.85 million including the early screenings). It went on to debut to $21 million, finishing third, behind "Aquaman" and "Mary Poppins Returns". It then grossed $3.8 million on Monday and $8.9 million on Christmas Day, for a five-day total of $34.2 million. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an 85% overall positive score and a 68% "definite recommend".  In its second weekend, the film made $20.5 million, dropping 5% and remaining in third, and then earned $12.8 million in its third weekend, finishing fifth.

Critical response.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 237 reviews, with an average rating of 6.97/10. The website's critical consensus read, ""Bumblebee" proves it's possible to bring fun and a sense of wonder back to a bloated blockbuster franchise -- and sets up its own slate of sequels in the bargain." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It is the highest-rated "Transformers" film on both websites.  Liz Shannon Miller of IndieWire gave the film a "B+" and wrote, "...there are many scenes where giant robots fight each other, and in those scenes, you can actually see what's happening. The Autobots and Decepticons toss each other around with slick judo-like moves and blast each other with abandon, and the cinematography and editing hold still long enough to let you enjoy each moment." Peter Debruge of "Variety" called the film a "quieter, more character-driven "Transformers" origin story" and wrote that ""Bumblebee" is basically the movie that fans of the 1980s animated series wanted all along." James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" writes "Surprisingly, "Bumblebee" is one of the best escapist films of the season" and "The movie works in large part because of the depth of Steinfeld’s performance. We haven’t seen such a well-realized character in any of the other "Transformers" movies." Glenn Kenny of "The New York Times" says the film is "springy yet coherent, not, like previous films in the series, a digital-image blender set on high" and praises Steinfeld's in particular for her performance. Leah Greenblatt of "Entertainment Weekly" says John Cena "does get a disproportionate share of the script’s best lines" and although the film is full of "sweet ‘80s nostalgia" Greenblatt praises Knight for using it "in ways that feel both familiar and somehow fresh."  Jesse Hassenger of "The A.V. Club" praised Hailee Steinfeld, saying, "her screen presence is the best thing about "Bumblebee"". He compared the film to "The Iron Giant", but while finding many improvements over other "Transformers" films, Hassenger called the film "disappointing in the end, because it's still a careless stretch of blockbusting", giving it a "C+". Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com is critical of the lack of originality and notes the various tropes borrowed from the films of executive producer Steven Spielberg. Abrams does not think the film even succeeded on its own merits, and says "There's not only nothing new here, there's nothing convincing either".

Accolades.

"Bumblebee" was nominated for The Razzie Redeemer Award at the 39th Golden Raspberry Awards, in the "Biggest Surprise of the Year" category at the 18th Annual Golden Schmoes Awards, and the category of "Best Song/Score - Trailer" at the 9th Hollywood Music in Media Awards. It was one of the 20 films among the 100 highest-grossing titles of 2018 to receive The ReFrame Stamp. "Bumblebee" was nominated in three categories for the 2019 Teen Choice Awards for "Choice Action Movie", "Choice Action Movie Actor - John Cena", and "Choice Action Movie Actress - Hailee Steinfeld". The film was also nominated for Best Science Fiction Film and Hailee Steinfeld for Best Supporting Actress at the Saturn Awards.

Sequel.

In December 2018, when asked about the future of the "Transformers" franchise, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura stated that "another big "Transformers" movie" would be produced and that it would be "different than the ones that we've done before." He described the process as more of an "evolution", saying "There's more freedom than I think we originally thought in terms of what we can do". After the success of "Bumblebee", he acknowledged that the series will make some changes in tone and style, inspired by the film.  Director Travis Knight said his goal was to return to his animation studio Laika, though he acknowledged that he has a few ideas for a "Bumblebee" sequel. In January 2019, John Cena expressed interest in reprising his role in a sequel. Writer Christina Hodson said that "[she] knows where [she wants] to go with the next one." In late January, a sequel was announced, due to the film's international box office performance. In March 2019, di Bonaventura confirmed they were developing a script for a "Bumblebee" sequel.

Bumblebee, (also known as Transformers: Bumblebee), is a 2018 American science fiction action film centered on the "Transformers" character of the same name. It is the sixth installment of the live-action "Transformers" film series. Developed as a spin-off and prequel, it was later declared a reboot of the franchise. Directed by Travis Knight and written by Christina Hodson, the film stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Ortiz, Jason Drucker, and Pamela Adlon and stars Dylan O'Brien (as the title character), Angela Bassett, Justin Theroux, and Peter Cullen in voice roles. It was Knight's first live-action film, as well as the first live-action "Transformers" film not to be directed by Michael Bay, who instead acts as a producer. Principal photography on the film began on July 31, 2017, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.

Bumblebee ist ein US-amerikanischer Action- und Science-Fiction-Spielfilm von Travis Knight aus dem Jahr 2018. Bei dem Film handelt sich um ein Spin-off der "Transformers"-Filmreihe, in dem die menschlichen Hauptrollen von Hailee Steinfeld, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. und John Cena gespielt werden. Die Weltpremiere fand am 10. Dezember 2018 in Berlin statt, in die deutschen Kinos kam der Film am 20. Dezember.


Career.

She has a degree in Journalism from USP and a Masters in Business and Economic Reporting from New York University, with a scholarship. She is the author of Lua de Mel em Kobane, a book published by Companhia das Letras e Índia - from misery to power by Editora Planeta. She is a senior fellow at the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI).

International Coverage.

From 2006 to 2010, she was a correspondent in Washington for the State of São Paulo. She covered the American economic crisis, the war in Afghanistan, the elections of 2008, 2012, 2016. At the White House, she interviewed President George W Bush. She also covered the attacks of September 11, 2001. She conceived the award-winning "World of Walls" project, a multimedia special about the migration crisis made in four continents.  She has been to Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Libya, Lebanon and Kenya several times reporting on refugees and the war. She was also the only Brazilian reporter who, in 2014 and 2015, covered the ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone.

2018 Elections in Brazil.

She gained prominence in the context of the 2018 presidential election in Brazil when she signed a report on alleged electoral crimes in the campaign of candidate Jair Bolsonaro. She published that there was illegal funding for the Bolsonaro campaign on social networks conducted by party entrepreneurs. For her report, she was the target of persecution and hate attacks. Subsequently, in response to a questioning by the Supreme Electoral Court, statements from major social networks claimed that the Bolsonaro campaign did not buy content boost. However, these same social networks refused to provide information on the financing of content boost by entrepreneurs and companies linked to Bolsonaro, the subject of the article by Mello. In June, she published two more reports on the use of WhatsApp during the elections, this time with foreign marketing agencies. In July, nine months after the opening of investigations into the illegal use of WhatsApp shots in the 2018 election, not a single suspect had been heard by the police. In September 2019, almost a year after the election campaign, WhatsApp admitted for the first time that the 2018 Brazilian election had illegal use of massive messaging, with automated systems hired from companies.

Case Jair Bolsonaro.

On February 18, 2020, during an interview with a group of sympathizers in front of the Dawn Palace, Bolsonaro insulted the journalist with a sexual innuendo: "She wanted to give the scoop at any price against me."  The statement to CPMI to which the president referred was from Hans River do Rio Nascimento, who worked for Yacows, a company specializing in digital marketing, during the 2018 election campaign. Several parties and politicians and journalistic entities, who considered the speech an attack on democracy, repudiated the president's attitude.

Patrícia Campos Mello is a Brazilian journalist. She works at "Folha de S.Paulo" as a news reporter. In 2016, she received the Troféu Mulher Imprensa award.

Patrícia Campos Mello (* 6. April 1975 in São Paulo) ist eine brasilianische Journalistin und Autorin. Sie arbeitet als Auslandskorrespondentin und Investigativjournalistin für die brasilianische Tageszeitung Folha de S. Paulo.


History.

Huỳnh Phú Sổ faced a great deal of trouble when he began to spread the ideas of his religion, a large part of which was Vietnamese nationalism, a dangerous idea in that time of French colonial rule. He was put in an asylum because of his preaching, but supposedly converted his doctor to the Hòa Hảo belief. As the popularity of Hòa Hảo grew, Huỳnh Phú Sổ made a series of prophecies about the political future of Vietnam. He said that the "true king" would return to lead Vietnam to freedom and prosperity, which caused most Hòa Hảo to support the Nguyễn pretender: Marquis Cường Để, living abroad in Japan.  During World War II, the Hòa Hảo supported the Japanese occupation and planned for Cường Để to become Emperor of Vietnam. However, this never happened and the Hòa Hảo came into conflict with the communists both because the Việt Minh were anti-Japanese and because of their Marxist opposition to all religion. During the State of Vietnam (1949–1955), they made arrangements with the Head of State Bảo Đại, much like those made by the Cao Đài religion and the Bình Xuyên gang, which were in control of their own affairs in return for their nominal support of the Bảo Đại regime. In fact, the control of this government by France meant that most Hòa Hảo opposed it.  During the early years of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, An Giang Province and its capital Long Xuyên were among the few places in the Mekong Delta where Viet Cong activity was minimal and American and South Vietnamese troops could move without fear of sniper attack. After the war, the Hòa Hảo were allowed to remain, but like all religions, under strict Communist control.

Buu Son Ky Huong religion.

The Buu Son Ky Huong religion was described by its adherents as "committed to the world". The basis of the Buu Son Ky Huong religion was the Buddha Master's claim to be a messenger from Heaven who had come into the world to warn mankind of the imminence of apocalypse. The key to this cult was simplicity, flexibility, and frugality. No one could plead lack of means or difficult circumstances as a justification for not carrying out his own religious duties and for relying instead on monks, but these duties were kept to a minimum. The Buddha Master's advocacy of ritual frugality probably attracted many poor peasants by allowing them to turn practical necessity into religious virtue. Because of the overwhelmingly domestic nature of the cult, the French observer Georges Coulet called it in 1926 the " Third Buddhist Order, " explaining that it was neither monastic nor congregational but mostly lay. However, he observed, there were days when adepts were expected to gather in pagodas that belonged to the sect: " This cult is sensibly a Buddhist cult. It consists of the observance of fasts and abstinences, of the daily recitation of prayers, of invocations which must be said at certain hours of the day or night: it imposes visits to mountain pagodas on the fifteenth day of the first, seventh, and tenth months of the Annamite year. Fasts and abstinences can be once a month, once every two months, once a week, once every two weeks, or perpetual... Offices are celebrated thrice a day: at dawn, noon, and dusk. At these times, candles are lit on the altar, and joss-sticks are placed in the incense-burner; the caretaker of the temple gives several strokes of the bell and the faithful perform several prostrations in front of the altar, bowing their heads to the ground. Prayers are said in low voice; a few beads are recited. Finally, in exchange for a contribution in money or goods, amulets are distributed by a monk of the pagoda; these amulets preserve from death, illness, and misfortune.

Huynh Phu So.

Background.

The founder of the Hoa Hao was Huynh Phu So, who took for the name of his sect the village of Hoa Hao, in the Thot Not District of what is now An Giang Province. So's background is not completely known; but most authorities agree that he was a mystic who saw a vision instructing him to launch a new religion. He organised his sect in 1930, declared himself a prophet, and began to preach a doctrine based on simplicity and faith. Within a year, he had gathered a following of over 100,000 converts; and through his preaching, he established contact with another two million people in the Mien Tay region.

Beliefs.

Huynh Phu So taught that each member of the sect could achieve direct communion with the Lord Buddha, and that internal faith was more important than external ceremony. Moreover, the care of the living has priority over the welfare of the dead. Huynh Phu So restated that the doctrine was lay-oriented, and he advocated the reduction of cultic expenses not only in the practice of Buddhism but also on all ceremonial occasions. He attacked the custom of overspending at the New Year, of bankrupting one's family at funerals and weddings, and of trying to outdo one's neighbors in conspicuous consumption. It was wrong to conceive of religious piety as something separate from the rest of life, as a set of exercises that were to be performed on an occasional basis. Huynh Phu So's stated objective was to "combine the ideal of universal love and charity with a new method of organizing society in order to serve better our people and mankind.” But he had no real understanding of the workings of a complex social system and therefore could not evolve a strategy for bringing about the new order of things, except through the violent expansion of his sect. Huynh Phu So embroidered the idea that money is the source of evil, both for those who had not enough and for those who had too much.  While Huynh Phu So is regarded by most commentators as a traditionalist, and indeed many of his teachings support such an interpretation, he also had a well-defined modernizing vision, evident, for example in his imprecation against superstition.

Influence.

No Vietnamese leader of the time possessed personal charisma to quite the same degree as Huynh Phu So. A measure of Huynh Phu So's powers of persuasion is that he made his mark as a healer despite his own well-publicised ill-health. Throughout his career, healing remained an important feature of his work; a substantial number of pamphlets describing the herbal remedies employed by Huynh Phu So still exist. So divided diseases into two categories: those that were the result of ordinary ill-fortune, and those that were the result of karmic retribution. The latter was not amenable to treatment; only repentance could alleviate it. Each of these new recruits were people of little education, interested in action rather than in doctrinal or political questions. They put themselves entirely at the service of Huynh Phu So. By August 1940, the Can Tho authorities were alarmed by their activities and by the destabilizing influence of Huynh Phu So. He was summoned for a psychiatric examination at Can Tho hospital. Huynh Phu So was taken to Cho Quan hospital in Cho Lon and put under the care of a Vietnamese doctor named Nguyen van Tam. The latter's verdict was more charitable: "This monk has never presented signs of agitation or insanity. He is mentally weak, with a disharmony of the intellectual faculties." In spite of being considered "mentally weak," So converted several of the hospital wardens and, more important, his own doctor. For a man who had never had any qualms about being called the Mad Monk, this was a resounding triumph which the sect exploited to the full. The doctor became a devoted follower of Huynh Phu So, until he was assassinated by the Viet Minh in 1948. In May 1945 Huynh Phu So issued a pamphlet called "Guidelines for the Practice of Religion" (Ton Chi Hanh Dao), in which he codified Hoa Hao cultic practices and for the first time imposed rules on admission into the sect. His adepts were exhorted to uphold the Three Bonds: between ruler and subject (transmuted into patriotism), father and son, and husband and wife. They were to observe the Five Virtues of benevolence, loyalty, propriety, intelligence, and integrity. Above all, they were to live in accord with one another. Whatever the usefulness of such a code of ethics in a modern, industrial society, it was quite effective within the confines of the average Hoa Hao village. Among themselves, the adepts relied on trust and did not bother to put doors on their houses to guard their belongings.

Death.

Huynh Phu So was invited to a unity conference at a Viet Minh stronghold in the Plain of Reeds. On the way, he was led into a trap in which he and his escort were assassinated. The Viet Minh quartered his body and scattered it to prevent the Hoa Hao from recovering his remains and building a martyr's shrine. This rash and barbarous act resulted in a rupture incapable of subsequent reconciliation. The Hoa Hao vowed to wage eternal war against the Communists.

Teachings.

Impact.

Hoa Hao religion combines the two kinds of Buddhism into one orientation: prescribing that all should strive to become monks for life but doing so at home and supporting themselves rather than turning into a caste of specialists permanently dependent on the community. The proscription on displaying Buddha statues on the household altar is borrowed from Islam’s proscription on the worship of images. The presence of a significant Islamic community in the local area has an impact on the Hoa Hao religion. A large community of ethnic Cham converts to Islam live in close proximity to Hoa Hao village. The surrounding area is full of mosques and its residents number many devout Muslims. Huynh Phu So, the founder of the Hoa Hao went to school in Tan Chau, in a heavily Muslim area. The influences are evident in the Hoa Hao’s religious practices; doctrine and architecture; the approach to prayer and preaching houses. A number of the towers, such as the one located by the Mekong River in Tan Chau town, have ornate sculpted decorations in an Islamic style and domed roofs. The Hoa Hao religion has been open to a range of different influences, including Marxism and US-style modernization ideology. For example, the combination of nationalist sentiments with the cult of heroes, the concept of a supreme being and US civic religion is found in this statement made by a contributor to a Hoa Hao Buddhist journal in the USA on the prospects for the democratization of Vietnam: I am praying to a higher power and to the sacred soul of the land, to the souls of heroes who have fallen on behalf of their beliefs and for the defense of the nation, so that they can prod and move and defeat this wave of atheism which is currently washing over Vietnam so that our people can welcome the light of Freedom and Democracy.

Development.

Return of the French colonial regime was a major disappointment to the Hoa Hao, as it was to Vietnamese nationalists of all political persuasions. Huynh Phu So had hoped that his sect would become the de facto ruling power throughout most of Cochinchina. But the return of the French in strength too numerous for the Hoa Hao "army" to oppose effectively put a temporary end to such hopes. The Hoa Hao turned their attention inward, both to solidify their sectarian strength and to increase their political influence in the Delta. The French, becoming increasingly distrustful of the Viet Minh, soon gave the Hoa Hao territorial hegemony in the southwestern Delta. Huynh Phu So for his part was willing to engage in alliances with the colonialists in return for support against the Viet Minh. Eventually the French provided arms for some 20,000 Hoa Hao troops. Such an accommodation was not considered by the Hoa Hao as a betrayal of their nationalist goals, because the ultimate aim of sectarian independence was not compromised. The Hoa Hao had long been suspicious of the National Front and the Viet Minh, and had actively fought the latter for years. The shift in loyalty from the colonialists to the National Front movement did not represent a major break for the Hoa Hao. As in their prior maneuverings, their action was primarily a move to solidify their own control of the western Delta. Strengthened by French armaments, the Hoa Hao now turned against the French because they were convinced that colonial rule in Vietnam was destined to be ended by Asians. The Hoa Hao were certain that the French could and would be forced out of Indochina in the not-too-distinct future. But the Hoa Hao "alliance" with the Viet Minh was short-lived. It soon became clear that religious autonomy and the attendant political freedom demanded by the Hoa Hao were incompatible with Viet Minh plans. Before long, Huynh Phu So was preaching with growing frenzy against the Viet Minh, which he now perceived as an even greater threat to the sect than the French. The struggle with the Viet Minh became a fanatical religious war. So preached that any Hoa Hao killing ten Viet Minh would have a straight pathway to heaven. Although the Hoa Hao had an "army" of four combat battalions, they were eventually defeated by Saigon's much larger forces. The final Saigon victories in 1962 signaled the end of the independent Hao Hao army. But despite military defeat at the hands of Saigon, the Hoa Hao continued to maintain their religious and political hold over the territory west of the Bassac River and the Delta capital city of Can Tho. They also held onto their arms, and organized militia forces to defend the geographical heartland of the movement. The Hoa Hao were too strong a force to allow the Saigon government the luxury of continued political or religious warfare. As a result, the Hoa Hao were thereafter left alone, and won tacit permission to maintain a kind of sovereignty in the Transbassac. In return, the Hoa Hao recognized the authority of the Saigon regime. No longer forced to devote their military forces to the struggle against the central government, they were able to resume their feud with the Communists. The Hoa Hao took full advantage of this new-found independence to wage total war against the Communists, now known as the Viet Cong. While political influence was welcome, the Hoa Hao had also achieved their primary goal-religious independence. Being a Hoa Hao was no longer a bar to participation in government, and the sect was no longer subject to religious discrimination by the orthodox Buddhist hierarchy. But it was the military strength of the Hoa Hao that gave the sect its strongest lever of influence, and its ability to provide a high degree of local security in the provinces it controlled. Huynh Phu So insisted on being referred to by his proper name of So and on using for his sect the name of his native village of Hoa Hao which meant "peace and plenty." He would no longer be one of many healers and preachers but the prophet of a distinct religious movement with its own name, built on the Buu Son Ky Huong tradition rather than simply part of it.  The sect expanded rapidly under Japanese protection. Even though Huynh Phu So was unable to leave Saigon, his apostles recruited on his behalf, using the familiar mixture of doom-laden predictions and veiled threats against those who did not join and distributing cures and amulets. By 1943, the Hoa Hao sect was thus moving in the direction of greater institutionalization. The death of Huynh Phu So thus marked the end of the Hoa Hao millenarianism and the beginning of purely communal politics. Within the Hoa Hao communities, the preachers of old were replaced by lay administrators who were elected and unpaid. Healing was now the province of a health service operated free of charge by the sect. Evangelizing took the form of religious and academic education. The sect opened schools at all levels, and in the early 1970s it even established a university. Western technology in fact provided the sect with a new tool of mass education when the focus of Hoa Hao village life, the reading-room, was connected to a public-address system. The sayings of Patriarch Huynh were thus broadcast daily over loudspeakers. Charity also became organized: the sect offered relief for veterans and prisoners, for victims of floods and fire, for old people and orphans. Life in Hoa Hao villages continued to be led along simple lines. The adepts were guided by Huynh Phu So's teachings concerning cultic practices and daily conduct, and they kept the number of ceremonies low and the expenses connected with them minimal. Neither adepts nor leaders were particularly interested any longer in promoting radical change or even in pursuing the violent expansion of the sect. Their energies were now devoted to the preservation of the communitarian style of life which was the other Buu Son Ky Huong ideal. But communitarianism proved ill-suited to the social complexities of an urban environment. Furthermore, the adepts are virtually leaderless. The establishment of the sectarian infrastructure helped preserve their cohesion, but the corollary de-emphasis on charisma made it harder to mobilize the collectivity of the adepts into action.

General features.

The Hoa Hao works images of globes into their iconography which is an aesthetic expression of universalism reflecting an imagining of the spatial condition as global. This symbol has a mnemonic function as one of the four injunctions of the Hoa Hao faith is to recognize one’s debt to humanity. Yet it is also a reminder to followers that the propagation of the Hoa Hao faith is considered a sacred mission in order to reform mankind. This value is also reinforced in the prescribed color for the altar cloth and flag, which is brown. As brown is considered the combination of all colors, it is used to symbolize human harmony and the connectedness and interdependence of all people. Hoa Hao Buddhism is generally considered an apocalyptic religion: believers are held to anticipate the impending destruction of the world and seek refuge provided by faith. This illuminates the history of violence in which the Hoa Hao have been involved.

Goal.

The ultimate goal of the Hoa Hao religion is the preservation of their religious identity and independence. Temporary alliances with past enemies were formed only as a means of survival and to gain strength for the future. Originally concerned only with religious autonomy, the Hoa Hao became a nationalist anti-French movement before World War II; then increasingly anti-Communist as it struggled for supremacy with the Viet Minh; then overtly pro-Japanese for purely tactical reasons. With the end of the war, the Hoa Hao joined with their old enemy, the French colonialists, to strengthen themselves against a more serious foe, the Viet Minh. But the ultimate goal of the movement was always to control its own destiny without interference from any outside source.

Followers.

The earliest followers of the Hoa Hao were not just landless peasants impoverished by capitalism but small holders and there are those who work in transport, light industry and trade. The leaders of the Hoa Hao faith were recruited from schoolteachers, itinerant drivers and motor coach and river launch conductors, people on the nodes of the most important communicative pathways of colonial society. Today, some of the most cosmopolitan people in the delta, boat captains, traders, café owners and physicians, belong to this religion. Taylor has found members of the faith, like many residents of the Mekong delta, to have wide horizons. They are informed about and engaged with current developments, interested in news of the outside world, focused on social work, improving the physical infrastructure of their locale and the building of a moral community.

Followers contributions.

Of a less revolutionary order of activity, members of the faith are also very active in health care provision, community development activities and philanthropy. Such activities in accordance with the Master’s injunction to social engagement represent a viable and promising basis for the Hoa Hao to secure broader political support.

Followers thoughts about the future of the religion.

The Hòa Hảo followers with whom Taylor spoke consider their home at the epicentre of world Buddhism, the Buddha having re-incarnated as Huynh Phu So. Many believe that Hoa Hao Buddhism spread from Vietnam to the rest of the world, following his overseas travels. In each land he visited the creed has been adapted to the local customs and is called by a different name. Today many members of the Hoa Hao still consider themselves engaged in a desperate struggle for survival, Some followers with whom Taylor spoke in Vietnam believed that the religion has recently secured limited recognition because of the large number of Hoa Hao believers who are in the local party and state administration quietly pushing for change.

Reported persecution.

Although Hòa Hảo Buddhism is an officially recognized religion in Vietnam, many members refuse the forceful governmental affiliation which is entailed by official recognition and an unknown number of religious leaders have been detained for this reason. Two Hòa Hảo Buddhists self-immolated in 2005 to protest against religious persecution and more recently, after a wave of arrests of Hòa Hảo Buddhists, nine more were imprisoned in May 2007. Hòa Hảoists reportedly do not believe their founder died under torture. They surmise that he is still among the living. In 2007, the Vietnamese government had the printed prophesies of the founder seized and reprinted to a volume slightly more than half the original size. The ceremonies commemorating the birth of this prophet were outlawed. Since then, Hòa Hảo split into two factions – more and less militant.  Some Hòa Hảo adherents migrated to the United States. The largest number of Hòa Hảo-ists live in Santa Ana, California, USA.  Hoa Hao claim to have faced restrictions on their religious and political activities after 1975, in part because of their previous armed opposition to Communist forces. A tentative easing of control on the religion began in 1999. There were, however, crackdowns in the face of demands that the government speed up this process. In 2001 there were again serious protests and arrests; a female member of the religion reportedly committed self-immolation to protest against restrictions on religious freedom

Teachings.

Hoa Hao Buddhism draws upon an earlier Buddhist millenarian movement called Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương and reveres Đoàn Minh Huyên (14 November 1807 - 10 September 1856) who started the movement as a living, healing Buddha. He is referred to as Phật Thầy Tây An or "Buddha Master of the Western Peace". However, the founder of Hoa Hao Buddhism, Huynh Phu So, also organized Hoa Hao teachings into a more structured movement focused on self-cultivation, filial piety and reverence toward the Three Treasures of Buddhism (the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha).  As a lay-Buddhist organization primarily focused on Vietnamese peasants, it also eschews elaborate Buddhist rituals, maintains no monastic order, and teaches home practice.

Đạo Hòa Hảo (, Chữ Hán: ), also Hoahaoism, is a quasi-Buddhist religion, founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ (Popularly called Phật thầy, "Buddha Master" in Vietnamese), a native of the Mekong River Delta region of southern Vietnam. Adherents consider Sổ to be a prophet, and Hòa Hảo a continuation of a 19th-century Buddhist ministry known as Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương (Sino-Vietnamese ). The founders of these traditions are regarded by Hòa Hảo followers as living Buddhas—destined to save mankind from suffering and to protect the Vietnamese nation. Hòa Hảo claims approximately ten million followers throughout Vietnam; in some provinces near its Delta birthplace, as many as 90 percent of the population practice this tradition. An important characteristic of this movement is its emphasis on peasant farmers, exemplified by the old slogan, "Practicing Buddhism While Farming Your Land". Hòa Hảo stresses the practice of Buddhism by lay people in the home, rather than focusing primarily on temple worship and ordination. Aid to the poor is favored over pagoda-building or expensive rituals; religious and social ceremonies are ideally simple and modest, and are not to include the food offerings, divination services, and elaborate wedding and funeral customs found in some manifestations of Southeast Asian life. These are viewed as a waste of money which would be better spent helping the needy.

Hòa Hảo (vietn. "Đạo Hòa Hảo" und "Phật giáo Hòa Hảo", selten "Hoahaoismus") ist der Name einer buddhistischen neuen religiösen Bewegung („Sekte“), die im Jahr 1939 vom erst neunzehnjährigen Huỳnh Phú Sổ im Mekongdelta im Süden Vietnams – zu diesem Zeitpunkt Cochinchina unter französischer Kolonialherrschaft – gegründet wurde. "Hòa Hảo" war dabei der Name seines Heimatdorfes im Kreis Phú Tân der Provinz An Giang, bedeutet aber wörtlich auch „Harmonie“ oder „Eintracht“.


History.

The myth was first reported in 16th-century Europe and gained prominence in 19th-century Victorian England as a cure for syphilis and gonorrhea among other sexually transmitted diseases. The origin is unknown, but historian Hanne Blank writes that the idea may have evolved from Christian legends of virgin–martyrs, whose purity served as a form of protection in battling demons.

Prevalence.

People all over the world have heard this myth, including in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.  A survey by the University of South Africa (UNISA) in South Africa found that 18 percent of laborers thought that having sex with a virgin cures HIV/AIDS. An earlier study in 1999 by sexual health educators in Gauteng reported that 32 percent of the survey participants believed the myth.  According to Betty Makoni of the Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe, the myth is perpetuated by traditional healers advising HIV-positive men to cure their disease by having sex with virgin girls. In Zimbabwe, some people also believe that the blood produced by raping a virgin will cleanse the infected person's blood of the disease.  In 2002, psychologist Mike Earl-Taylor wrote that the virgin cure myth may explain the staggering rise in child or infant rapes in South Africa, which is facing an HIV/AIDS epidemic. UNICEF has attributed the rape of hundreds of girls to the virgin cleansing myth.  However, it is unknown exactly how common the myth is and to what degree rapes happen because of the belief in it. The claim that the myth drives either HIV infection or child sexual abuse in Africa is disputed by researchers Rachel Jewkes and Helen Epstein, as well as by research on convicted sex offenders in Malawi, where no evidence was found to support the idea that the virgin cleansing myth prompted any rapes.

Importance of education.

Ignorance with regards to HIV and AIDS infection serves as a barrier to prevention in numerous African nations.  Education has helped women such as Betty Makoni speak out against the myth and attempt to dissuade people from believing the virgin cleansing myth.  According to UNICEF, culture-based gender roles that prize innocence and ignorance in girls and that accept sexual licentiousness in men promote this myth. Other cultural factors, such as girls being married to older men, increase the likelihood of HIV transmission. The stigma attached to AIDS also stops many people from seeking information or health services to shield their status, contributing to further transmission.

In popular culture.

The virgin cleansing myth is referenced in the Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon". The minor character Mattumbo is stopped from raping a baby based on the belief that sex with a virgin will cure his AIDS. During the song "Making Things Up Again", Elder Cunningham tells Mattumbo that raping babies is against God's will, and invents a passage in the Book of Mormon in which God tells Joseph Smith to instead have sex with a frog to cure his AIDS.

The virgin cleansing myth (also referred to as the virgin cure myth, virgin rape myth, or simply virgin myth) is the belief that having sex with a virgin girl cures a man of HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases.

Der Jungfrauen-Reinigungsmythos (auch bekannt als Jungfrauen-Heilungsmythos, Jungfrauen-Vergewaltigungsmythos oder Jungfrauenmythos (engl. Virgin rape myth/ virgin cleansing myth)) ist der irrtümliche Glaube, dass man sich durch Sex mit einer Jungfrau von HIV/AIDS oder anderen sexuell übertragbaren Krankheiten heilen kann.