You Came Along

You Came Along (working title Don't Ever Grieve Me) is a 1945 romantic comedy-drama film set in World War II, directed by John Farrow. The original Robert Smith screenplay was rewritten by Ayn Rand. "You Came Along" stars Robert Cummings and in her film debut, Lizabeth Scott.
The plot involves a US Army Air Forces (USAAF) officer who tries to hide his terminal medical condition from a U.S. Treasury Department public relations staff member, whom he just met before a war bond drive. They become romantically involved, agreeing it's "just fun up in the air." When she finds out the truth, she makes a fateful decision to make the most of the little time they have together.
"You Came Along" opens with a stanza from the poem "The Sermon of St. Francis" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Plot.
During World War II, three highly decorated USAAF officers return to Washington, D.C. after a combat tour in Europe:Major Robert "Bob" Collins (Robert Cummings), Captain W. "Shakespeare" Anders (Don DeFore) and Lieutenant R. "Handsome" Janoschek (Charles Drake). Shakespeare and Handsome are assigned to fly cross-country in a Beech C-45 Expeditor for a war bond tour. Bob, at first is not allowed to accompany them.
In a running gag, the three officers are expecting to meet "I. V. Hotchkiss," from the Treasury Department. During a press conference at the airport, Bob slips away to find Mr. Hotchkiss who turns out to be Ivy (Lizabeth Scott),a beautiful young woman, whose name was misspelled in Bob's orders. Her boss was injured in a car accident on the way to the airport, so she took over. Bob is incredulous at the idea of an ingénue being the chaperone of three older men, and requests a "briefing room." Despite being miffed at his patronizing attitude, she complies. The airport manager warns that her charges have the appearance of being "wolves," but Ivy replies "But I don't happen to be Little Red Riding Hood."
Returning to the room, Ivy breaks up the kissing session between the officers and their girlfriends, dragging the unwilling men to the aircraft. At first stern and commanding, her demeanor softens somewhat on the flight to Boston as Bob nicknames her "Hotcha."
In Boston, the three officers slip away from the bond drive, forcing Ivy to bring them back from a local nightclub, partying with showgirls in a dressing-room. Despite warming up to Ivy, Bob still regards her as a killjoy, but back at the hotel, due to a mixup, he undresses for bed in Ivy's room, unaware that she is already asleep in bed. After Ivy's shock of waking up to the sight of Bob in his underwear, Shakespeare and Handsome rush into Ivy's room, adding to the chaos.
During the flight to Chicago, Ivy discovers that Shakespeare has an injured shoulder and Handsome has a prosthetic leg. When she inquires about Bob, the two men become sullen and evasive. In Chicago, Shakespeare and Handsome attend a fashion show, where they pay 50/50 for an expensive dress sent to Ivy, with a card signed "Anonymous" twice, due to Handsome's insistence that he is entitled to an "Anonymous" too. Later she and the three officers go to a nightclub. During the dance, the pair fall in love.
In Seattle, while in a café with Shakespeare, Ivy sings "Out of Nowhere" as she plays the piano. By happenstance, a flight surgeon, Colonel Stubbs (Rhys Williams), passes by and recognizes Shakespeare. Stubbs mentions treating an unnamed Air Force officer for leukemia. Although Shakespeare tries to pretend that Stubbs' patient died two weeks previously, Ivy guesses the patient is really Bob and that he does not have long to live. She now realizes why Shakespeare and Handsome never leave Bob alone—they do not want Bob to think about his impending death.
In Riverside, California, at the Mission Inn Fliers' Chapel, Bob attends the wedding of Ivy's sister Frances (Kim Hunter), who marries a naval aviator named Bill Allen (Robert Sully), despite having to leave overseas for combat duty. Frances "tells Ivy that she would marry her navy husband even if she knew he would not return." Inspired by her sister's example, Ivy marries Bob, the couple vowing to live life to the fullest, as long as they can. They buy a house in Long Island, New York, near the air base where Shakespeare, Handsome and Bob will be assigned. Shortly after, Bob is ordered to report to duty overseas. He tells Ivy that he is flying to London.
At the airfield, Bob and Ivy see each other off. While embracing Bob, Ivy spots Colonel Stubbs boarding Bob's flight. Then the truth of the situation hits her. Bob and Ivy agree to "No good-byes". After Bob's aircraft takes off, Ivy asks a ground crew member the direction of London — he points in the opposite direction. At home, Ivy calls Stubbs' office and finds out that he is traveling to Walter Reed Hospital, in Washington D.C.
Stoically, Ivy goes along with the charade and receives letters bearing a British address, which "are cleared through a friend of (Bob's) in England ..."One afternoon, when Shakespeare and Handsome visit Ivy's house to take her out, she receives a telegram reporting Bob's death at the hospital.
After the funeral, Shakespeare and Handsome again stop by Ivy's house and the trio toast Bob. When an aircraft buzzes the neighborhood, Ivy "hears” Bob's voice as if speaking from heaven.
Production.
Screenplay.
The first version of the screenplay was written by Robert Smith, based on his short story, "Don't Ever Grieve Me", which became the working title for the film. Originally conceived as a Barbara Stanwyck vehicle, producer Hal Wallis hired Ayn Rand to rewrite the script. , Rand wrote, "As to 'You Came Along', it was originally a very cute story—not profound, but clever and appealing." However, Rand felt Smith's screenplay was badly written. "I kept whatever was good in the original script and wrote the rest; I got second credit which was fine even though I saved it." The Bob Collins character was originally called "Ace" in the Smith–Rand screenplays. Lizabeth Scott's own encounter with Rand would begin a lifelong friendship. Scott would later claim that Rand "was one of the few in Hollywood whom (Scott) felt understood her ability."
The Production Code Administration subjected the screenplay to censorship from the start. Much concern was shown for the "immoral" heterosexual behavior of the three Air Force officers, as well as the alleged homosexuality of the Franklin Pangborn character. As England was a close ally of the US during the war, the American censors were concerned by the anglophobia displayed in the film and warned Paramount that the film would be censored by the British Board of Film Censors.
Casting.
Cummings signed a four-year contract with Wallis in January 1945. The first film was to be "Don't Ever Grieve Me".
Filming.
"To remind audiences that "You Came Along" heralded an actress's debut, Wallis added a separate credit to the main title: Introducing Lizabeth Scott." At the age of 22 in her film debut, Lizabeth Scott was already an experienced stage actress, but was met with skepticism by the production crew. Despite Scott's initial difficulties with Cummings; Jimmie Fidler and other Hollywood columnists reported feuding between Cummings and Scott on the set. She soon gained his respect with her performance and force of personality. After shooting, Cummings even went out of his way to quench rumors that he would never work with Scott again.
Cummings and Scott would again costar in "Paid in Full" (1950). However, Scott never made any headway with the director, John Farrow. Farrow lobbied for Teresa Wright and when he did not get her, he made his displeasure known to Scott throughout the production. "You Came Along", remains, however, Scott's favorite of all the films she made. Scott as late as her 1996 interview, however, remembered John Farrow's hostility toward her on the set.
Production ran February 6–April 6, 1945. The Fliers' Chapel depicted in the film was a replica. Cummings married actress Mary Elliott at the real Fliers' Chapel on March 3, 1945.
A C-45 Expeditor aircraft was used for the air scenes, which were shot at the Metropolitan Airport in Van Nuys, California. Other aircraft that were seen, include Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft, Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters as well as North American AT-6 Texan and Vultee BT-13 Valiant trainers. Julie Bishop was the wife of the film's technical advisor, Colonel Clarence A. Shoop. "Robert Cummings was on leave from the Army Air Corps as a civilian flight instructor to make the film. Director John Farrow, who was sent home wounded in 1941 with the rank of commander in the Royal Canadian Navy, was recalled to service after the completion of this film." Edith Head designed Lizabeth Scott's wardrobe. Head would continue as Scott's principal dress designer to the end of Scott's film career in the late 1950s.
Music.
The theme song of "You Came Along", "Out of Nowhere" (1931), was composed by Johnny Green, with lyrics by Edward Heyman. The song previously appeared in Paramount's western comedy Dude Ranch (1931). The first line of the original lyrics was changed from "You came to me out of nowhere" to "You came along out of nowhere," which provided the title of the 1945 film. A recording sung by Helen Forrest and sheet music were released by Paramount in 1945, both renamed in movie tie-ins, "You Came Along (Out of Nowhere)". Though Forrest sung the original lyrics in the film and on the record, the changed lyrics appeared in the sheet music and is "sung by an offscreen chorus over the final scene and end title. In the café scene with Don DeFore, Lizabeth Scott herself sings "Out of Nowhere" as she plays the piano. This would be the first and last time Scott would be permitted in Hollywood to be heard singing with her real voice, despite voice training beginning in childhood. Her singing would be dubbed in all her succeeding films, invariably being dubbed by Trudy Stevens.
Radio.
To promote the film, Lizabeth Scott and Don DeFore reprised their roles in a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on January 7, 1946, starring Van Johnson in the Cummings role. George N. Neise played Janoschek.
Reception.
"You Came Along" premiered in Los Angeles on August 2, 1945. The most prominent critic of the era, Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times", in his review, was not favourably impressed: "To a new and quite clearly inexperienced little actress named Lizabeth Scott is given the job of making the girl in the story seem real. Except that Miss Scott has a fragile and appealingly candid face, she had little else, including script and direction, to help her toward that end. Robert Cummings is glibly mechanical as the hero who is tragically doomed, and Don DeFore and Charles Drake are average cut-ups as his Rover Boyish wolfing-drinking pals." When Crowther's review appeared, Scott recalled, "Being very young and naïve at the time, I didn't know you weren't to do such things, so I called him up and complained. I told him how hard everyone worked to make such a beautiful movie, and I couldn't understand how he could be so cruel. I must say he took it awfully well, and was very kind to me."
During the shooting of "You Came Along", Hal Wallis showed Scott's screen test to Hollywood columnist Bob Thomas. Almost four months before the release of Scott's first film, his March 16, 1945 column was the first to make an unfavorable comparison between Lauren Bacall and Scott, thus beginning a critical trend to marginalize Scott in favor of Bacall: "Her throaty voice may well make Lauren Bacall sound like a mezzo soprano." Wallis told Thomas: "Notice how her eyes are alive and sparkling ... Once in a while she reads a line too fast, but direction will cure that. That voice makes her intriguing." The Thomas meme would continue to haunt Scott's reputation decades later.
Despite the negative reviews by Crowther and Thomas, most critics of the period were positive, praising the film, Robert Cummings' performance and welcoming Hal Wallis' new discovery, Lizabeth Scott. "Time" described Cummings' performance as "almost flawless."


John Peel (Leicester MP)

Sir William John Peel (16 June 1912 – 8 May 2004) was a British Conservative politician who served as Member of Parliament for Leicester South East from 1957 to 1974.
He attended Wellington College and Queens' College, Cambridge. His first career was in the Colonial Service; he survived imprisonment by the Japanese during the Second World War, when he was stationed in Singapore, to later serve terms as British Resident in Brunei and then Resident Commissioner in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony (now Kiribati and Tuvalu) before retiring in 1951. His father Sir William Peel had been Governor of Hong Kong.
Peel was elected as a member of the House of Commons at a by-election in 1957. In 1959, he provoked an angry response from both sides of the House when he reacted to the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya by saying: "There are obvious risks in dealing with desperate and sub-human individuals." In the resulting debate, Peel's remarks were denounced by Enoch Powell, and it was emphasised that Britain needed to accord the same standards of human rights to all continents. Though Peel's tenure of minor government positions was uninterrupted, he never reached the Cabinet.
He was a zealous advocate of British involvement in Europe, through the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, and eventually membership—of which he was a leading advocate—in the European Communities. In 1972, he was chosen President of the North Atlantic Assembly. In the following year he was knighted, and also became one of the first British members of the European Parliament.


Kwantung Army

The Kwantung Army was an army group of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945.
The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a security force for the Kwantung Leased Territory and South Manchurian Railway Zone after the Russo-Japanese War, and was expanded into an army group during the Interwar period to support Japanese interests in China, Manchuria, and Mongolia. The Kwantung Army became the most prestigious command in the Imperial Japanese Army, and many of its personnel were promoted to high positions in the Japanese military and civil government, including Hideki Tōjō and Seishirō Itagaki. The Kwantung Army was largely responsible for the creation of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and was one of the main Japanese fighting forces during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937.
In August 1945, the Kwantung Army was engaged by Soviet troops during the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. The Kwantung Army surrendered to the Soviets the day after the Surrender of Japan and was subsequently dissolved. The Kwantung Army was responsible for many of the worst Japanese war crimes during World War II, including the sponsorship of Unit 731 which performed biological warfare and human experimentation on civilians and prisoners of war.
History.
Formation.
In 1895, Qing China had granted the Kwantung Leased Territory, a valuable concession territory on the Liaodong Peninsula, to the Empire of Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after their victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. The term "Kwantung" () means "east of Shanhaiguan", a guarded pass west of Manchuria, which was rendered in Japanese as "Kantō". The Russian Empire had particular interest in Kwantung, being one of the few areas in the region with potential to develop ice-free ports for its own expansion in the Far East, and Qing authorities withdrew the lease from the Japanese following the Triple Intervention, only weeks after it had been granted. Kwantung was leased to Russia in 1898, becoming Russian Dalian (Дальний) and developing the territory into a thriving trade port. The Russo-Japanese War was fought between Russia and Japan from 1905 to 1906 over their rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. Japanese victory led to the Republic of China returning the lease of Russian Dalian (re-establishing the Kwantung Leased Territory) and Japan gaining influence in the areas adjacent to the South Manchurian Railway.
The Kwantung Garrison was established in 1906 to defend this territory, and originally was composed of an infantry division and a heavy siege artillery battalion, supplemented with six independent garrison battalions as railway guards deployed along the South Manchurian Railway Zone, for a total troop strength of 14,000 men. It was headquartered in Port Arthur (known as "Ryojun" in Japanese) and was administered as a department in the Kwantung Government-general, and the governor general served concurrently as its commander. In 1919 the Kwantung Government general was replaced by separate civilian and military administration, the Kwantung agency for civilian operations, and the Kwantung army command.
In the highly politicized Imperial Japanese Army of the 1920s and 1930s, the Kwantung Army was a stronghold of the radical "Imperial Way Faction" ("Kōdōha"), and many of its senior leaders overtly advocated political change in Japan through the violent overthrow of the civilian government to bring about a Shōwa Restoration, with a reorganization of society and the economy along state fascist lines. They also advocated a more aggressive, expansionist foreign policy regarding the Asian mainland. Members or former members of the Kwantung Army were active in numerous coup attempts against the civilian government, culminating with the February 26 Incident of 1936, where the "Kōdōha" faction was dissolved.
Independent actions.
Although the Kwantung Army was nominally subordinate to the Imperial General Headquarters and the senior staff at the Army General Staff located in Tokyo, its leadership often acted in direct violation of the orders from mainland Japan without suffering any consequence. Conspirators within the junior officer corps of the Kwantung Army plotted and carried out the assassination of Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin in the Huanggutun Incident of 1928. Afterward, the Kwantung Army leadership engineered the Mukden Incident and the subsequent invasion of Manchuria in 1931, in a massive act of insubordination ("gekokujo") against the express orders of the political and military leadership based in Tokyo.
Presented with the "fait accompli", Imperial General Headquarters had little choice but to follow up on the actions of the Kwantung Army with reinforcements in the subsequent Pacification of Manchukuo. The success of the campaign meant that the insubordination of the Kwantung Army was rewarded rather than punished. In 1932, the Kwantung Army was the main force responsible for the foundation of Manchukuo, the puppet state of Japan located in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. The Kwantung Army played a controlling role in the political administration of the new state as well as in its defense. With the Kwantung Army, administering all aspects of the politics and economic development of the new state, this made the Kwantung Army's commanding officer equivalent to a Governor-General with the authority to approve or countermand any command from Puyi, the nominal Emperor of Manchukuo. As testament to the Kwantung Army's control over the government of Manchukuo was the fact that the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army also doubled as the Japanese Ambassador of Manchukuo.
Second World War.
After the campaign to secure Manchukuo, the Kwantung Army continued to fight in numerous border skirmishes with China as part of its efforts to create a Japanese-dominated buffer zone in Northern China. The Kwantung Army also fought in Operation Nekka during the preceding phase of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and various actions in Inner Mongolia to extend Japanese domination over portions of northern China and Inner Mongolia. When full-scale war broke out in the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937, its forces participated in Battle of Beiping-Tianjin and Operation Chahar. Later, Kwantung forces supported the war in China from time to time.
However, by the late 1930s the Kwantung Army's vaunted reputation was severely challenged during the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts that Japan had fought against the Soviet Union in northern Manchukuo since 1932. The Japanese force stalemated with the Soviet Union's Red Army in the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938, and lost the decisive Battle of Nomonhan in 1939, during which time it sustained heavy casualties. After the "Nomonhan incident", the Kwantung Army was purged of its more insubordinate elements, as well as proponents of the "Hokushin-ron" ("Northward Advance") doctrine who urged that Japan concentrate its expansionist efforts on Siberia rather southward towards China and Southeast Asia.
The Kwantung Army was heavily augmented over the next few years, up to a strength of 700,000 troops by 1941, and its headquarters was transferred to the new Manchukuo capital of Hsinking. The Kwantung Army also oversaw the creation, training, and equipping of an auxiliary force, the Manchukuo Imperial Army. During this time, Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda worked as liaison officer between the Imperial house and the Kwantung Army. Although a source of constant unrest during the 1930s, the Kwantung Army remained remarkably obedient during the 1940s. As combat spread south into Central China and Southern China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and with the outbreak of the Pacific War, Manchukuo was largely a backwater to the conflict. However, as the war situation began to deteriorate for the Imperial Japanese Army on all fronts, the large, well-trained, and well-equipped Kwantung Army could no longer be held in strategic reserve. Many of its front line units were systematically stripped of their best units and equipment, which were sent south to fight in the Pacific War against the forces of the United States in the Pacific Islands or the Philippines. Other units were sent south into China for Operation Ichi-Go.
Surrender of the Kwantung Army.
By 1945, the Kwantung Army consisted of 713,000 personnel, divided into 31 infantry divisions, nine infantry brigades, two tank brigades, and one special purpose brigade. It also possessed 1,155 light tanks, 5,360 guns, and 1,800 aircraft. The quality of troops had fallen drastically, as all the best men and materiel were siphoned off for use in other theaters. These forces were replaced by militia, draft levies, reservists, and cannibalized smaller units, all equipped with woefully outdated equipment. The Kwantung Army had also bacteriological weapons, prepared for use against Soviet troops (see Unit 731). The bulk of military equipment (artillery, tanks, aircraft) was developed in the 1930s, and very few of the soldiers had sufficient training or any real experience.
The final commanding officer of the Kwantung Army, General Otozō Yamada, ordered a surrender on August 16, 1945, one day after Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan in a radio announcement. Some Japanese divisions refused to surrender, and combat continued for the next few days. Marshal Hata received the "ultimatum to surrender" from Soviet General Georgii Shelakhov in Harbin on August 18, 1945. He was one of the senior generals who agreed with the decision to surrender, and on August 19, 1945, Hata met with Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky, but asked that he be stripped of his rank of Field Marshal in atonement for the Army's failures in the war.
The remnants of the Kwantung Army were either dead or on their way to Soviet prisoner-of-war camps. Over 500,000 Japanese prisoners of war were sent to work in Soviet labor camps in Siberia, Russian Far East and Mongolia. They were largely repatriated, in stages, over the next five years, though some continued to be held well into the 1950s.
War crimes and trials.
After the surrender of Japan, the Soviet Red Army discovered secret installations for experimenting with and producing chemical weapons and biological weapons of mass destruction centered around secret Army Unit 731 and its subsidiaries. At these locations, the Kwantung Army was also responsible for some of the most infamous Japanese war crimes, including the operation of several human experimentation programs using live Chinese, American and Russian civilians, and POWs, directed by Dr. Shiro Ishii.
Arrested by the American occupation authorities, Ishii and the 20,000 members of Unit 731 received immunity from prosecution of war-crimes before the Tokyo tribunal of 1948, in exchange for germ warfare data based on human experimentation. On May 6, 1947, General Douglas MacArthur wrote to Washington that "additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as 'War Crimes' evidence". The deal was concluded in 1948. However, twelve members of Unit 731 and some members of the World War II leadership of the Kwantung Army were sentenced as war criminals by the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials, while others were taken into custody by the United States, and sentenced at the 1948 International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo. Among those sentenced to death were former generals Seishirō Itagaki, Iwane Matsui, Kenji Doihara, Hideki Tōjō and Akira Mutō.


Hwata dynasty

Claims are in dispute.
The Hwata dynasty ruled over part of present-day Zimbabwe from about 1760 until British colonisation in the late 19th century, and played a prominent part in the First Chimurenga war of 1896-7.
History.
Origin.
Three brothers, Shayachimwe, Nyakudya and Gutsa who were of the Shava Dynasty and Museyamwa totem, migrated northwards from Buhera (Va Hera) in the south of Zimbabwe in the late eighteenth century. Legend has it that Gutsa was a volatile warrior who killed some relatives, and the three brothers ran away together between 1760 and 1780. The three brothers were invited by elder brother, Chief Seke Mutema to settle in the Harava area. Later, Gutsa was introduced by Seke to Chief Mbare of the Shumba Gurundoro totem, who resided on the modern day city of Harare, as a useful iron-monger. Chief Mbare settled the three brothers on the Barapata hill. For a while, Shayachimwe, Gutsa and Nyakudya lived under Chief Mbare, but a plot was hatched by Chief Seke, and the Va Hera brothers killed Chief Mbare and took his lands, which stretched to the south of modern-day Harare.
In due course, the three brothers moved north and defeated Chief Zumbo at Mazoe. The Zumbo people nicknamed Shayachimwe "Hwata" because he had long legs and walked like a "hwata", the secretarybird.
These northern Va Hera did not form a single dynasty, but instead formed a confederacy of two units which reported to Seke. The Hwata Dynasty was founded by Shayachimwe Mukombami about 1760 and the Chiweshe dynasty was founded by Nyakudya's son Nyangambiri. The Hwata dynasty became more dominant and stretched from present day Harare, past the Mazoe Dam (then commonly known as pagomba) to modern day Glendale and to the heads of the Mazoe, Tateguru and Murowodzi valleys. Gutsa, the youngest brother, did not form a dynasty of his own. Shayachimwe and Nyangambiri abandoned their praise name of Museyamwa. Hwata Shayachimwe assumed the new praise name of Mufakose which means (I have lost both ways) while Chiweshe Nyangambiri assumed the praise name of Mutenhesanwa. Hwata Shayachimwe established his capital at Barapata Hill on the modern Mufakose suburb in Salisbury now called Harare, capital city of Zimbabwe.
First Chimurenga (1896–1897).
The first half of the nineteenth century saw a considerable rise in the prosperity of the Va Hera who settled in the area around present day Harare between 1760 and 1780. The Hwata dynasty took control of the Shawasha gold fields and a succession of Hwata rulers, the sons of Shayachimwe, dominated trade with Portuguese from the East. This prosperity attracted attention, and the Va Hera were raided and defeated by the Ndebele from 1861 to 1864. Hwata Gwindi travelled to King Lobengula in 1864, to discuss end of hostilities so that they can face common enemy, the British South Africa Company which was occupying parts of the country and taking over their mines and lands.
On 12 September 1890, white settlers of British extraction led by a hunter Selous, hoisted the British flag in the territory of Hwata, in present-day Harare in Mashonaland Zimbabwe. They claimed the land as a British discovery in the name of the Queen of Great Britain. They called the country Southern Rhodesia.
Hwata Chiripanyanga who became Chief Hwata in 1892, played a leadership role in the First Chimurenga war of Southern Rhodesia in June 1896. He worked with Nehanda Nyakasina to organise resistance by the Hwata people against British settlers who had invaded their lands at PaGomba in Mazoe valley. Hwata lost the lives of 100 fighters in guerrilla type battles with British settlers. He surrendered together with Mbuya Nehanda after being sold out by Mhasvi who was a police officer and they were executed in 1898 for their participation in the war. Mbuya Nehanda is referred to as Nyanda in most early history records. Other families that have branches from Hwata Dynasty include Mhembere, Katambarare, Mabvurambudzi; Meda; Warambwa; Garwe, Kanengoni, Chivero, Mandaza, Goredema, Muringai, Chiverere, Ndewere, Chakuchichi, Mandizha, Mutambirwa, Matsvetu, Ngoshi, Kaseke.
Battle of Mazoe (June 1896).
In June 1896 Chief Mashayamombe led a rebellion against white occupation in the Mhondoro-Hartely (now Chegutu) area. Hwata Chiripanyanga and Nehanda Nyakasikana Ambuya Nehanda also referred to as the witch Nyanda in British records of that period, heard this news and organised uprising against the British settlers from their lands at Mazoe. (A film in which Stella Chiweshe played the role of Ambuya Nehanda, died 1896, has been made.)
Hwata Chiripanyanga, the grandson of Shayachimwe Mukombami and son of Guvamombe, became Mambo (King) of the Hwata people in 1892. Succession of Hwata Mambos and their subjects had bought guns over the years from Portuguese traders in exchange for gold from the Mazoe and Chishawasha mines. The guns were used for hunting and protecting themselves against Ndebele invasions. When the news of the Mashayamombe rebellion reached Mazoe, Mambo Hwata summoned all his subjects and asked them to bring their guns (zvigidi). Mambo Hwata then asked the family spirit medium, Charwe Nyakasikana Known as Mbuya Nehanda to consult the ancestors. Mbuya Nehanda gave the assurance to the Hwata people that they were fighting a good cause and that the spirits of the forefathers (masvikiro), would protect them in the same way that they had led them from Buhera through many conquests.
War strategy.
A British South Africa Company policeman called Mhasvi, of the Nyandoro clan of Harava, deserted the British to join the rebellion at Mazoe. He was made commander of the army and trained the Hwata men on how to shoot with guns. Mambo Hwata gave orders to cut telephone lines and gave his men letters to take to all British families in the area, with the instruction that the men should attack and kill all British men who came out to receive the fake letters. This news reached the British families in the area and they sought refuge at Mazoe Mine. An initial army of 20 villagers attacked a British convoy of 6 British men (Faull, Cass, Dickensen, Pascoe, Fairbairn and Stoddart) who had left Mazoe mine driving a donkey cart towards Salisbury. They had left their wives at Mazoe Mine. The villagers shot and killed Cass, followed by one Dickenson. Shortly after, the Hwata soldiers attempted to ambush the remaining four British men by pretending to be friendly Mashona. The four became suspicious of their knobkerries, and started to open fire. The donkey kart was hastily turned around, with one Pascoe and Faull scrambled in front, and a Fairbairn and Stobbart following behind. After travelling a hundred yards, the Hwata shot at Faull, and his body slumped to the ground. Fairbairn returned fire and killed a Hwata youth. There was exchange of fire between the Hwata villagers and the remaining two British men, who fled to the mine after Fairbairn's gun jammed. Meanwhile, Blakiston, Darling, Spreckley and Hendrik who had remained at the mine decided to accompany the three women on a wagonette to Salisbury. They were attacked by fifty armed villagers, and they immediately returned unharmed to the mine. Later, Blakiston persuaded Routledge to accompany him to the grass thatched hut to send a rescue telegraph to Salisbury. They managed to send a message that read: "We are surrounded. Dickensen, Cass, Faull killed ... for God's sake ..." and "We are surrounded, send us help, this is our only chance. Goodbye". Blakiston, standing in the doorway of the pole and dagga hut scanning the grass and bush, shouted as he saw the villagers swarming their line of retreat. Off they set, with Routledge on the saddle and Blakiston running at his side. Bullets whistled round their heads as the natives swarmed towards their line of retreat, but they managed to cover half the journey in safety until they were in full view of their colleagues at the mine. Suddenly the horse was seen to fall and Routledge was thrown to the ground; he rose and made for cover, but was shot. Blakiston gained cover of the bush hotly pursued by the villagers; shots were heard, and Blakiston was never seen again. Six British men had been killed at Mazoe in a day.
Judson rescue party.
On 18 June 1896, concerned about the safety of the party at Mazoe Mine, the Administrator for Harare, Judge Vincent organised Dan Judson and four men (Honey, Godfrey King, Hendriks, Guyen and Stamford Brown) to travel from Harare to Mazoe to rescue the besieged inhabitants. Judson's party left Harare just after sunset and followed the old Mazoe road via Marlborough. They were joined by another five men at Mount Hampden, going past the Salvation Army farm where the late Cass lived. A mile later, they came under fierce gun attack from dense bush. Niebuhr's was shot in the hand and his horse died. Rawson's horse was also shot dead and the two got rides from Judson and Hendrik. They rode through the bush horses were shot and Niebuhr was injured seriously. Three villagers were killed. The Judson party survived the hail of gunshots and arrived safely at Mazoe mine. However, the mine remained under heavy attack. Rawson acknowledges in his report that Mhasvi managed to keep up a steady fire with great accuracy. There were no further casualties at the mine on this day. However, later than evening, Charles Annesty, a prospector who was returning to the mine from Chipadze kraal riding a donkey, was shot dead by the locals. The assault on the mine resumed at damn on 19 June 1896 with barrages of gunfire which continued until midday.
Nesbitt Mazoe patrol.
Meanwhile, in Salisbury, Judge Vincent dispatched another patrol of 13 men to assist Dan Judson at Mazoe mine. They left at 10.30 pm under the command of Captain Nesbbitt. Their departure was noticed by Africans who sent their traditional fire messages at hilltops that warned others of approaching danger. Captain Nesbitt's party endured gun attack from the Hwata people and suffered injury of only one man and his horse. They arrived at the mine safely at dawn on 20 June 1896. The party of 30 men and 3 women departed from Mazoe for Salisburyat midday on 20 June 1896 with a wagon of 6 horses and 12 men on foot. The Hwata people commenced attack from both sides of the road after just half a mile but with no injury. The gun attack intensified when the party reached Chomukoreka near Vesuvius Mine. Every tree or rock appeared to hide a Hwata man and they were invisible because of the tall grass. At this spot, Troopers McGeer and Jacobs were shot dead, together with the horses belonging to Captain Nesbitt and Trooper Edmonds. Pascoe decided to sit on the roof of the wagon to look out for the enemy, and survived, except for a bullet that went through his hat. Bullets continued to hail on the sides of the wagon which was protected by metal sheets. There were about 50 Hwata men in pursuit with a wide variety of guns which included Lee-Metfords, Martini Henry's, and muzzle loaders into which they crammed nails and stones. The grass swarmed with black people, and Trooper Van Staden died after his head was blown off and Ogilvie and Burton were wounded. Another bullet ripped through the face of Burton and fell into the wagon to be tendered by the women. Hendrikz who had split from the main party, received a bullet which passed through both cheeks, taking with it a piece of his tongue and jawbone. When the men reached the Tatagura river, they failed to quench their raging thirst as the firing never let up. When the party reached open land, just before Gwebi river the Hwata people pulled back after they received information that reinforcements with a Maxim gun (nganunu) were to be sent from Salisbury. This plan had however not been followed through and Nesbitt's party was able to proceed to Salisbury. The Hwata people celebrated their success in driving white British people from their lands. Captain Randolph Crosby Nesbitt received the Victorian Cross from the Queen of Great Britain.
British revenge.
The triumph of the Hwata people was short lived. The BSAC reorganised and returned to Mazoe with many soldiers to re-establish control. They established a base at Fort Mazoe from where they hunted down the leaders of the rebellion. They found many homes deserted. Some villagers had fled north to Chiweshe lands, while others went and hid in the Shavarunzwe caves. Those in Shavarunzwe caves were smoked out with dynamite which destroyed part of the Hwata shrine. British soldiers went from village to village where they shot and killed any males that fled, burnt several huts of the villagers and stole cattle and grain. The purge went on for three months and to save their people, Mambo Hwata, Nehanda Nyakasikana and Mhasvi came out from hiding and surrendered to the police. No evidence could be found for their participation in the rebellion which killed many British people. However, they were tried for the murder of the Mazoe Native Commissioner, Pollard and sentenced to death. Mhasvi was surprisingly pardoned for exemplary behaviour after his arrest.
When she was sentenced to death by the Southern Rhodesia colony of Great Britain, Mbuya Nehanda left her ritual authority with Mandaza. Mandaza was the grandson of Hwata Shayachimwe's fourth son, Kamuteku. Mandaza's descendants are Goredema, Muringai, Chiverere and Ndewere families.
As a consequence of this defeat both Hwata Chiweshe lost all their lands, stretching from Harare to Mazoe and Mvurwi. Their subjects were placed under the rule of other chiefs such as Negomo and Matope. Although a large part of Mazoe District is named Chiweshe, these are, in fact, lands of the MaKorekore Negomo and Matope Dynasties, descendants of Nyatsimba Mutota founder of the Munhumutapa Empire. A small section of the Hwata family founded a dynasty at Dande in Guruve under a new Mambo Hwata Chitsinde in the Zambezi valley in 1959, but the majority of descendants of Hwata remain scattered in the Chiweshe communal lands. Some have moved away to find new homes elsewhere in Zvimba, Mhondoro Hurungwe, Chinamhora, Mrewa, Goromonzi and Guruve. A number of Mufakose families related to Nehanda, Goredema and Zumba have been making claims to be returned to the land of their ancestors since 1980. These lands have not yet been returned to the Hwata people, and instead, other people who are in the echelons of government have been given vast tracts of land seized from white farmers since year 2000.
Second Chimurenga (1973–1980).
The Hwata people endured the brunt of the Second Chimurenga, the war of liberation that finally defeated the white rulers of Southern Rhodesia. Many Hwata youths took up arms to participate in the war of liberation between 1973 and 1979 which brought independence from British rule on 18 April 1980.
However, due to lack of public records of their role (this one just being discovered thanks to Internet), Mambo Hwata and Mhasvi have not yet been recognised for their contribution to First Chimurenga by the Zimbabwe Government. Mashayamombe, another leader of First Chimurenga has not been recognised either. Their spirit mediums however, Nehanda Nyakasikana and Kaguvi respectively, have received much recognition, with a road in Harare and a maternity wing at Parirenyatwa Hospital being named after Mbuya Nehanda, while a prominent government building has been named after Kaguvi. Other less deserving contributors to the struggle against white domination like Rekayi Tangwena are buried at the country's heroes acre.
Hwata religion.
Nehanda Charwe also known as Mbuya Nehanda and referred to as Nyanda in other literature was a Mhondoro (svikiro) of the Hwata Zezuru people. She was the spirit medium to the higher God called Mwari. The traditional Hwata did not believe in Christianity although they acknowledge the existence of God. When Mbuya Nehanda was executed, she refused to be baptised before being killed. Her last words was a request to pass on her ritual equipment to Mandaza Goredema, a descendant of the fourth Mambo Hwata Kamuteku, and son of Goredema Mazarura, who was the Chief when died in 1890. Goredema Mazarura is the ancestor of the Goredema, Mandaza, Mazarura, Ziwange, Muringai, Kupara, Chiverere and Ndewere families. The svikiro (spirit mediumi) of Mbuya Nehanda can only be appeased by the Goredema Hwata people. Mbuya Nehanda (Charwe) is not a Shava Mufakose spirit medium and is different from Nehanda Nyakasikana who was Nyamhika, daughter of Nyatsimba Mutota (Korekore tribe) of the Nzou Samanyanga totem and founder of the Munhumutapa Empire in 1430. Writers confuse these two spirit mediums.
Hwata chieftainships.
History.
Shayachimwe Mukombami was the founding father of the Hwata Mufakose people. When Hwata Shayachimwe died, his elder daughter, Tete Minge, succeeded as Queen, in trust for her young minor brother, Prince Kamuteku, son of the Vahosi (First Wife). Tete Minge was overwhelmed by the responsibilities of leadership, and she passed on the tsvimbo (crown) to her half brother, Kaviya, son of the second wife. When King Kaviya died, Prince Kamuteku then became King.
Hwata Shayachimwe had ten sons. These took turns to be Mambo (King) according to their ages. Prince Mpfeki Mukodzonge was Shayachimwe's first son. However, he did not succeed to the throne because he predeceased his father. His children did not inherit the right to the throne. In Hwata Shona tradition, when the father dies, the tsvimbo (crown) passes down to his next eldest brother from the main house (Yavahosi). The crown does not pass down the descendants of the reigning Prince as practiced in the English kingdom. Prince Pfeki Mukodzonge's children did not become Mambo. Their male line uncles (babamudiki) took turns in succession to be Mambo.
Mambos.
Listed below are the Mambos recorded by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mazoe District based at Concession, Mashonaland Central, Zimbabwe, and in the genealogy recorded by J. D. White (1986).


Brody Lovett

Brody Lovett is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live", portrayed by Mark Lawson from April 24, 2008 to January 13, 2012.
Storylines.
Brody is a former Navy SEAL brought to Llanview by Adriana Cramer to distract Gigi Morasco from Adriana's fiancé Rex Balsom. A hardened veteran of the war in Iraq, Brody had been "stop-lossed" several times during his tours of duty.
Gigi establishes in 2007 that Brody, the father of her son Shane, had died heroically overseas while she had still been pregnant. Threatened by Gigi's connection to her high school sweetheart Rex, Adriana sends her mother Dorian Lord to get information on the deceased Brody in 2008. Meeting Brody's sister Nadine, Dorian discovers that Brody is in fact alive; disapproving of the match, Brody's mother had told Gigi he had died, and had told Brody that Gigi had moved on to another man. Further, Adriana's suspicions that Gigi had already been pregnant when she had met Brody — and that Rex is most likely Shane's father — are confirmed. She is even more discouraged to discover that Brody and Gigi's relationship was platonic, despite Brody's willingness to give her son a name and his hopes of building a family with Gigi.
With her wedding to Rex approaching — and Gigi and Rex getting closer — Adriana pays the hard-drinking and volatile Brody to come to Llanview. Adriana hopes Brody can distract Gigi from Rex and help keep the secret of Shane's paternity from coming out, which she fears will cement Gigi and Rex forever and doom Adriana's relationship with him. Traumatized by his experiences in the Iraq War and embittered by what he believes was Gigi's abandonment of him, Brody still has feelings for Gigi but is hesitant to disrupt her life. Convinced by Adriana that Gigi and Shane need him, Brody finally makes his presence known to a shocked Gigi and elated Shane at Rex and Adriana's wedding.
With Rex married to Adriana, Gigi and Brody keep up the pretense that Brody is Shane's father; Gigi feels as though she has no choice but to allow Brody back into her life, as she is unwilling to disrupt Rex's marriage or crush her son's hopes and dreams of finally knowing his "father." Brody hopes to pursue a real relationship with Gigi, but she is soon wrapped up again with Rex, who separates from Adriana after discovering her machinations. Meanwhile, Brody focuses his attentions and affection on Shane, to whom he grows very close, thinking of the boy as "his son" in every respect. Brody sees in Shane an opportunity for a new start, and takes the initiative to find employment and begin attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. When Gigi leaves town to pursue the missing Rex to Texas, a jealous Brody takes charge of Shane and the household. Having grown dependent on Shane's love and validation, Brody fears that if Gigi and Rex are to reunite, he will lose access to the most important person in his life. When local psychic Madame Delphina cryptically warns Brody that Gigi and Rex may be "gone for good," Brody panics, fearing that Social Services will put Shane into the foster care system if he is unable to assert paternity. Brody uses Rex's DNA from a toothbrush to fake a paternity test which "proves" Brody to be Shane's father and therefore, his legal guardian in Gigi's absence. Brody's hopes are dashed, however, when Gigi and Rex return to Llanview together, Rex knowing the truth about Shane's paternity and the couple ready to tell Shane.
Despondent, Brody suffers a mental breakdown, trashing Gigi's house and accidentally injuring her friend Marcie McBain. Lapsing into "combat mode," Brody outmaneuvers Gigi and Rex by picking up Shane from school and taking him to Llantano Mountain. Once there, a delusional and armed Brody dons his old combat fatigues and begins to tell Shane about his experiences in Iraq. Losing track of reality, Brody suffers vivid hallucinations from his tours of duty, including the image of an Iraqi boy he had accidentally killed during a raid. Brody is cornered by the Llanview Police Department, accompanied by Gigi and Rex; initially, Brody uses Shane as a human shield, but soon declares he could never hurt "his son" and sends the boy to his mother. Police Commissioner Bo Buchanan, a former Vietnam vet, tries to talk Brody down, but an unstable Brody fires wildly, accidentally shooting Rex. Brody is arrested and taken into custody, where his condition worsens due to his severe case of posttraumatic stress disorder. Now aware of Brody's deep trauma stemming from his war experiences, a recovered Rex decides not to press charges, and a stabilized Brody is admitted to St Ann's sanitarium for treatment.
At St. Ann's, Brody befriends Jessica Buchanan, who is recovering from her latest bout of dissociative identity disorder following the death of her husband Nash Brennan. Realizing his conflicting memories of the encounter in which he had shot the Iraqi boy, Brody learns that the boy had not been armed as he had been led to believe; a fellow soldier had put a gun in the child's hand to protect Brody. This realization helps Brody recover and secure his release, and he eventually begins a romantic relationship with Jessica. Brody helps Jessica through a relapse of her illness and the stillborn birth of Nash's baby, and becomes a Llanview Police officer.
Jessica's evil biological father Mitch Laurence returns and subjects her to electroshock therapy; she loses all memory beyond her senior year of high school. Believing she is still in love with her high school boyfriend Cristian Vega, Jessica repeatedly rejects Brody. May 21, 2010 a drunk and dejected Brody sleeps with Jessica's sister Natalie; Jessica regains her memory the same night while being seduced by Robert Ford. Brody and Natalie decide to keep their encounter a secret from both Jessica and Natalie's boyfriend John McBain. Natalie and Jessica both discover that they are pregnant; Brody assumes he is the father of Jessica's baby, but she keeps the secret that it may be Ford. Natalie is also fearful that Brody is her baby's father rather than John, and she confesses as much to a shocked Brody. On July 29, 2010 Brody proposes, and Jessica accepts. Brody is later furious to discover he may not be the father of her baby, but he and Jessica reconcile. Paternity tests declare Brody the father of both children, but Natalie never tells him that. She tells him her test says John is the babies father, which in reality it is since the paternity results were changed by accident by Clint's assistant.
In January 2011, Jessica gives birth to her baby by c-section. They later name the baby Ryder Asa Lovett. Both of Brody's "sons" are born on the same day. On Brody/Jessica's and John/Natalie's double wedding the truth about both babies fathers are revealed and Tess comes back. Natalie and Brody grow closer and become a couple. On June 30, 2011 Brody finds out he is not Liam's father. On July 21, 2011, Brody finds Vimal's letter on John's desk and goes to find him at "The Sun" to warn him to keep his mouth closed. Marty, Victor, Vimal, Jack and Brody are the only ones who know the truth about baby Liam's paternity.
In September 2011, Brody proposed to Natalie and she accepts. It is also revealed that John is still in love with Natalie but he hasn't told her yet. Brody and Natalie's wedding doesn't go as planned when Natalie finds out that John is Liam's father and Brody has known for months. During the week of November 14, Brody goes off the deep end after losing Natalie and Liam, which causes him to kidnap Liam and hold Natalie and John at gun point. After thinking it over, Brody tearfully gives Liam back to his parents. On December 1, 2011, Brody is last seen having a conversation with Jessica in St. Ann's. The two vow to remain friends and stay in touch. Jessica says goodbye to Brody and tearfully leaves him behind.
During the series finale on January 13, 2012, Brody returns to Llanfair and informs Jessica that he has been released from St. Ann's. He also apologizes for the death of Ford and tells her that he has been offered another job in the Navy. She tells him to take care of himself. He tells her that if there is anything that she needs, he will be there for her. Even though things were rough between them, he will always care for her. She says that she really appreciates it, and with that Brody leaves town.


Rubens Paiva

Rubens Paiva (December 26, 1929 – January 20, 1971) was a Brazilian civil engineer and politician who, as a Congressman at the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, opposed the implementation of a military dictatorship in Brazil in 1968, for which he was tortured and murdered.
Biography.
Early life.
Rubens Paiva was born in Santos, São Paulo. He was son of Jaime Almeida Paiva, a lawyer and a farmer, and Araci Beyrodt. He was married to Maria Lucrécia Eunice Facciolla Paiva, with whom he had five children: Marcelo Rubens Paiva, Vera Silvia Facciolla Paiva, Maria Eliana Facciolla Paiva, Ana Lucia Facciolla Paiva and Maria Beatriz Facciolla Paiva.
He graduated from the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, in São Paulo, with a BA in Civil Engineering in 1954. He joined the "Oil is ours" nationalist campaign as a member of the student council. During his college years, he was the president of the Academic Center of the Civil Engineering Students and vice-president for the São Paulo Union of Students.
Political career.
Paiva's political career began to rise in October 1962, when he was elected Congressman for the State of São Paulo by the Brazilian Labour Party. He took office in February of the next year and participated in the Investigation Committee created to examine the activities of both the Institute for Social Research and Studies (Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Sociais) and the Brazilian Institute for Democratic Action (Instituto Brasileiro de Ação Democrática). Those two organizations were supposedly funding commentators and writers who warned about the "red menace" in Brazil. The Committee discovered that some checks were being deposited in the accounts of military officers; this scheme was sponsoring the upcoming coup d'état. With the 1964 coup, Paiva had his mandate revoked by the junta on April 10, 1964.
Exile and return.
After the coup, Rubens Paiva exiled himself in Yugoslavia and in Paris, France. Nine months later, he was supposed to fly to Buenos Aires for a meeting with the deposed leaders João Goulart and Leonel Brizola. During the lay over in Rio de Janeiro though, he said to the flight hostess that he was leaving to buy cigarettes. Then, he boarded on another flight to São Paulo, heading to his house, where his wife and children lived. Paiva moved with them to Rio de Janeiro and returned to work as a civil engineer, but still kept contact with the exiled left-wing militants.
Rubens Paiva founded, alongside editor Fernando Gasparian, the newspaper "Jornal de Debates" and was the last director of "Última Hora" in São Paulo, before Samuel Weiner sold it to Octávio Frias' Grupo Folha.
After a visit to Santiago, Chile, in order to help the exiled daughter of his friend Bocaiúva Cunha, Paiva returned to Brazil. On his trip, he was mistakenly identified as a contact of "Adriano", which was the contact of Carlos Lamarca, then the top name on the most wanted list kept by Brazil's dictatorship regime.
Arrest and disappearance.
Hoping to catch "Adriano" and thus reach Lamarca, the repression forces invaded Paiva's house in Rio de Janeiro on January 20, 1971. The invasion was conducted by armed men that claimed being members of the Brazilian Air Force.
Since then, Paiva was reported missing. According to documents published by the Brazilian military, the car that was conducting Paiva to the Centro de Operações de Defesa Interna (Center for Internal Defense Operations) prison collided with another and was attacked by unknown individuals that rescued him.
Eunice, Paiva's wife, was arrested and remained incommunicable for twelve days. Eliana, one of the couple's daughter, then a 15-year-old young woman, was arrested for 24 hours. Eunice and Eliana were interrogated in the same DOI-CODI room where people supposedly were tortured. They claim to have seen blood, the feared pau de arara and the portrait of Paiva in the tokens of recognition. They also heard the screams from prisoners apparently being tortured.
While his wife and daughter were being interrogated, Paiva was transferred to the Destacamento de Operações Internas (Department of Internal Operations). Though his body was never found, accounts given decades later to the National Truth Commission by an army doctor and former military officers revealed that Paiva died on the second day after his arrest from injuries related to torture at the army barracks where he had been held.
In a 1971 letter, Eunice wrote, based on witnesses, that her husband was tortured on the same day she was arrested at the III Aerial Zone, located near Santos Dumont Airport, then under the command of João Paulo Burnier, also accused of torturing and killing Stuart Angel.


Military Ordinariate of Slovakia

The Military Ordinariate of Slovakia () is a Latin military ordinariate (pseudo-diocese) of the Roman Catholic Church for the Slovak armed forces.
It is exempt, i.e. immediately subject to the Holy See (not part of any ecclesiastical province and its Roman Congregation for Bishops.
The Cathedral episcopal see is Katedrála sv. Šebastiána, dedicated to Saint Sebastian, in the Slovak national capital Bratislava, which in 2009 replaced the Cathedral of St. John of Matha and St. Felix of Valois ("Katedrála sv. Jána a sv. Felixa z Valois"), also in Bratislava.
History.
The military ordinariate, without precursor, was established by Pope John Paul II on 20 January 2003, ten years after the country's independence by the dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
Statistics.
As per 2014, it provides pastoral care to Roman Catholics serving in the Slovak Armed Forces and their families in 56 parishes with 54 priests (46 diocesan, 8 religious), 1 deacon and 8 lay religious brothers.


List of assets owned by the Kuomintang

The Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is a political party active in the Republic of China (Taiwan) (ROC). It has purportedly been among the world's most wealthiest political parties. In recent years much attention, whether deemed necessary or not, has been paid to the party's businesses and real estate. Claims have been made by party rivals that many of its assets were obtained illegally while the KMT ruled Taiwan under a one-party system. However, in recent years, the party has been hit with many financial and legal difficulties.
The KMT's total assets are said to total nearly NT$40 billion but most of the party's capital was tied in enterprise and real estate, and not as cash.
Kuomintang-owned Enterprises.
Media


Cao Keqiang

Cao Keqiang () (born October 1921) is a Chinese diplomat.
Career.
Cao was Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Syria (1968–1974), Dominion of Ceylon now Sri Lanka (1969–1970), Sweden (1979–1982), Djibouti (1982–1983) and France (1983–1986).


Theodore C. Diers

Theodore Carl Diers (December 4, 1880 – December 11, 1942) was an American politician, actor, and writer who served as a member of the Wyoming Senate as a Democrat.
Early life.
Theodore Carl Diers was born in Seward, Nebraska, to Herman Diers and Anna Schulte on December 4, 1880, and was educated in Seward public schools. In 1897, he graduated from the Lincoln Business College and became a bookkeeper at the First National Bank of Seward. In 1902, he went to New York to become an actor and attended the Chicago Musical College and while in Chicago he studied vocals under Oscar Saenger and piano under Rudolph Ganz. In 1909, he moved to Clearmont, Wyoming and became a cashier at the Clearmont State Bank until 1910, when he became a cashier at the Citizens' State Bank of Sheridan. In 1911, he became the president of the Clearmont State Bank. In 1931, he received a BFA degree from the University of Nebraska.
Career.
Politics.
During World War I he served as the Federal Food Administrator for Wyoming. From 1913 to 1915, he served in the Wyoming House of Representatives. Diers then served in the Wyoming Senate from 1915 to 1919, to succeed John B. Kendrick, who was elected as governor, and was a member of the Mines and Mineral Products, Sanitary and Medical Affairs, Railroads and Transpiration, and Judiciary committees. In 1920, he served as the chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party's state convention and was a member of the resolutions committee at the 1920 Democratic National Convention.
Music.
In 1924, he joined the staff of Transylvania University. In 1925, he became the radio director for the University of Nebraska and in 1932, became the supervisor of the university's music division and served in both positions until November 30, 1940, when he resigned to become the Nebraska Federal Music Project music supervisor. In 1929, he became the secretary of the Nebraska Writers Guild and served until 1940.
Death.
On December 11, 1942, he died at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska from a heart attack and following his death "A Prayer for Peace", one of his unpublished songs, was sung by Carl Schaefer at his funeral.


Military Ordinariate of El Salvador

The Military Bishopric in El Salvador () is a modern Army bishopric with the canonical pseudo-diocesan status of military ordinariate ("Ordinariato Militar") of the Roman Catholic Church.
It is exempt, i.e. immediately subject to the Holy See (not part of any ecclesiastical province) and its Roman Congregation for Bishops.
It is headquartered Calle Los Eucaliptos y Avda. Las Gardenias 157, Colonia Las Mercedes in San Salvador, the national capital of El Salvador, in Central America.
History.
It was established as a Military vicariate of El Salvador on 25 March 1968, with the first military vicar appointed on 4 November 1968.
It was elevated to a military ordinariate on 21 July 1986.
According to an online news brief from Catholic News Service (CNS) posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2012, Bishop Abarca and former guerrilla commander Raul Mijango have mediated an often-doubted but so far successful cease-fire between El Salvador's two most prominently violent gangs: MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), and Barrio 18, which had roots in civil war-era young Salvadorans who illegally entered the U.S. and experienced the gangs there before deportation.
Statistics.
As per 2014, it provides pastoral care to Roman Catholics serving in the Armed Forces of El Salvador and their families in 37 parishes with 38 priests (diocesan) and 6 seminarians.


Gabrielle Petit

Gabrielle Alina Eugenia Maria Petit (20 February 1893 – 1 April 1916) was a Belgian woman who spied for the British Secret Service during World War I. She was executed in 1916, and became a Belgian national heroine after the war's end.
Life.
Petit was born on 20 February 1893 in Tournai to working-class parents. She was raised in a Catholic boarding school in Brugelette following her mother's early death. At the outbreak of the First World War, she was living in Brussels as a saleswoman. She immediately volunteered to serve with the Belgian Red Cross.
Petit's espionage activities began in 1914, when she helped her wounded soldier fiancé, Maurice Gobert, cross the border to the Netherlands to reunite with his regiment. She passed along to British Intelligence information about the Imperial German army acquired during the trip. The British soon hired her, gave her brief training, and sent her to spy on the enemy. She proceeded to collect information about enemy troop movements using a number of false identities. She was also an active distributor of the clandestine newspaper "La Libre Belgique" and assisted the underground mail service "Mot du Soldat". She helped several more young men across the Dutch border.
Petit was betrayed by a German who represented himself as Dutch. She was arrested by the German military in February 1916. She was imprisoned at the Prison de Sint-Gillis (a suburb of Brussels), tried, and convicted for espionage, with the death sentence imposed on the following 1 March. During her trial, Petit refused to reveal the identities of her fellow agents, despite offers of amnesty. Among such agents, Germaine Gabrielle Anna Scaron, 23 years of age, daughter of a local magistrate, and a close friend of Mlle Petit, was arrested with her on similar charges, imprisoned but spared and, despite the opposition of German military, released later for lack of sufficient evidence, which Petit had refused to divulge.
On 1 April 1916, Gabrielle Petit was, at the insistence of German military, shot by a firing squad at the Tir national execution field in Schaerbeek. Her body was buried on the grounds there.
Legacy.
Petit's story remained unknown until after the war, when she began to be seen as a martyr for the nation. In May 1919 a state funeral was held for her, attended by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Cardinal Mercier of Brussels and Prime Minister Léon Delacroix, after which her remains (and those of fellow agents A. Bodson and A. Smekens) were buried with full military honors at Schaerbeek Cemetery.
A statue of Petit was erected in Brussels and this was said to be the first of a working-class woman. In her native Tournai, a square was named after her. After the war several books were written and films were made about her life. The reference to Germaine Scaron stems from this commentator's family oral history. Scaron was but one of Petit's many acquaintances gathered during the two years of her active life as a British spy and Belgian heroine.


Nzanga Mobutu

François-Joseph Mobutu Nzanga Ngbangawe (born 24 March 1970 in Kinshasa) is a Congolese politician. A son of the long-time President Mobutu Sese Seko, he served in the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo under President Joseph Kabila from 2007 to 2011, initially as Minister of State for Agriculture and subsequently as Deputy Prime Minister for Basic Social Needs. He was dismissed from the government in March 2011. In 2008, he founded the Union of Mobutist Democrats as the successor to his father's Popular Movement of the Revolution and has led the party since.
Background.
Nzanga Mobutu is the eldest son of Mobutu Sese Seko by his second wife, Bobi Ladawa. Nzanga studied in Belgium, France and Canada before returning to Congo in the mid-1990s. He then worked as a communications adviser to his father but fled into exile in Morocco along with his father when rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila captured Kinshasa in May 1997.
2006 election.
He launched a political career as leader of the Union of Mobutist Democrats (UDEMO), a party advocating the restoration of peace, national unity and territorial integrity. He is most popular in the northwestern province of Équateur, whence his father hailed. In the 2006 presidential election, he ran as a candidate and placed fourth, with about 4.8% of the vote. Following the first round of voting, Mobutu entered into a platform political coalition with the incumbent president Joseph Kabila to try to rally votes from the Equateur region where Jean-Pierre Bemba was favored to win. The coalition also involved the political party PALU of Antoine Gizenga.
His younger brother, Giala Mobutu, and eight other UDEMO candidates were elected to the National Assembly in the 2006 election.
Government minister.
Gizenga became Prime Minister in December 2006, and Mobutu was named Minister of State for Agriculture when Gizenga's government was announced on February 5, 2007, ranking second in the government after Gizenga. When Gizenga was succeeded by Adolphe Muzito, Mobutu was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister for Basic Social Needs in Muzito's government, which was named on October 26, 2008. In March 2011 President Kabila dismissed Mobutu from the government for inactivity. Explaining the move, government spokesman Lambert Mende accused Mobutu of "abandonment of service" for staying in Europe since November 2010 "without any explanation". Mende stressed that the move was directed only against Mobutu and not his party. Reportedly Kabila had tried to cultivate a good relationship with Mobutu, but the latter allegedly neglected his work and seemed uninterested in it. Following his dismissal, he again ran for office in the 2011 presidential elections against the incumbent president. In subsequent years he lived in the United States, with his brother Giala leading UDEMO.
He is married to Catherine Bemba, a daughter of businessman Bemba Saolona and sister of Jean-Pierre Bemba, with whom he has three children: Njiwa, Bobi, and Sese.


Richard Jordan (RAF officer)

Air Marshal Sir Richard Bowen Jordan, (7 February 1902 – 24 April 1994) was a bomber pilot and squadron commander during the Second World War, a senior Royal Air Force officer during the post-war years and the sixth Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps (1949–51).
Early Royal Air Force career.
Educated at Marlborough College Sir Richard was one of the first cadets at the new RAF College Cranwell in 1921, at the age of 19, where he learned to fly. He represented the college at both cricket and rugby having been appointed in the rank of flight cadet sergeant. On graduation he was granted a permanent commission in the rank of pilot officer in 1922 and posted as a pilot to No. 2 Squadron. Promoted to flying officer in June 1924 he moved to No. 28 Squadron in February 1926.
On 12 December 1928, Jordan was promoted to flight lieutenant and the following month he transferred to India as a Headquarters Staff officer at No. 2 (Indian Wing) Station, RAF Risalpur. Returning to the UK two years later he was held as a supernumerary officer at the RAF Central Depot before embarking on an eight-year secondment as a test pilot at the Royal Aircraft Establishment’s military experimental division at Farnborough. During his time there, he was promoted to squadron leader in 1936.
In January 1938 he temporarily ceased flying duties and took up an appointment as a Staff Officer in the RAF's Directorate of Peace Organisation. Returning to operational flying Jordan was promoted to wing commander and appointed as Officer Commanding No. 83 Squadron in August 1939. Posted to RAF Manston briefly as Station Commander he then became Officer Commanding No. 214 Squadron. On the night of 2 June 1941 Jordan took off from RAF Stradishall in Vickers Wellington No. W5450 for a bombing operation over Berlin. His squadron successfully attacked the target and turned for home. At 06:00, having crossed the English coast, Jordan's aircraft stalled and crashed 7 miles south west of Bury St Edmunds. Although it crashed into a copse of trees, there was no fire and most of the crew were unhurt, returning to the Stradishall on the back of a farm cart. Jordan was awarded with the Distinguished Flying Cross on 22 August 1941.
Over a three-year period he held several transient ranks in quick succession, including temporary group captain, acting air commodore, group captain (War Substantive) and temporary air commodore while serving as the Director of Overseas Transport Operations.
Just after the Second World War finished Jordan was promoted to the substantive rank of air commodore and served as Air Officer Commanding (AOC) RAF India and Pakistan from July 1947 until February 1948 when he was appointed as AOC RAF Gibraltar.
Royal Observer Corps.
On 1 February 1949 Jordan took over the appointment as Commandant Royal Observer Corps at RAF Bentley Priory from Air Commodore the Earl of Bandon. In April 1949 Jordan was additionally appointed Aide de Camp to King George VI. Jordan was Commandant ROC when, on 1 March 1950 the Air Officer Commanding in Chief, RAF Fighter Command assumed direct administrative control of the Corps. Under this change Headquarters Royal Observer Corps continued to operate in its existing form but assumed a status that was comparable with that of a Fighter Command group headquarters.
After lengthy negotiations with Buckingham Palace staff, Jordan formally invited His Majesty King George VI to assume the position of Air Commodore in Chief of the ROC. On 11 April 1950 in recognition of the Corps' record of service during the twenty-five years of its existence, His Majesty King George VI honoured the Corps by accepting the invitation.
Later Royal Air Force appointments.
On 20 March 1951 Jordan handed over the Commandant ROC position to Air Commodore Gordon Vasse. Jordan was promoted to air vice marshal and appointed as AOC No. 25 Group. In 1953 he became Director General of RAF Organisation, an appointment he held until January 1956. That month he was promoted to air marshal and took up his final posting as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Maintenance Command. A Companion of the Order of the Bath since 1947 he was further honoured by being knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the Queen's Birthday Honours of May 1956. In June 1958 his personal De Havilland Devon crashed near Largs in Scotland while apparently en route to his headquarters at RAF Andover to collect passengers: he was not on board at the time.
Jordan retired from the RAF on 2 June 1958. He died on 24 April 1994 at the age of 92.


Sudono Salim

Sudono Salim (July 16, 1916 – June 10, 2012), also known as Liem Sioe Liong, was a Chinese-born Indonesian businessman of Fuqing origin. He was the richest individual in Indonesia. He was the founder and chairman of the conglomerate Salim Group before turning over its management to his youngest son Anthoni Salim (now the fifth wealthiest person in Indonesia) in 1992.
Early life.
In 1916, Salim was born as Lim Sioe Liong (Lin Shaoliang), in Fuqing, Fujian, China, the second son of a father. According to the Chinese zodiac, he was born in the Year of the Dragon, on the seventh day of the seventh month.
In 1936, he left Fujian to join his brother Lim Ke Lok and brother-in-law Zheng Xusheng in Medan, North Sumatra. Salim diversified their peanut oil trading business into the clove market, which was growing rapidly from demand for production. While in Medan, he supplied soldiers of the Indonesian National Revolution with medical supplies and came into contact with Suharto, an officer of the army. Salim denied allegations that he also provided arms to Indonesian soldiers to resist Dutch forces. As soldiers seized Dutch businesses following independence, his business absorbed many of their assets and gained a monopoly in the clove market, but he denied working with Suharto in expanding his ventures.
Business career and family.
In 1952, after moving to Jakarta, Salim expanded his trading business by establishing connections with other ethnic Chinese businessmen in Singapore and Hong Kong. His soap factory became one of the primary suppliers to the Indonesian National Armed Forces. He later expanded into textiles and banking, eventually establishing the largest private bank in Indonesia—the Bank Central Asia (BCA). The bank was nationalized following the Asian financial crisis.
In 1968, after a merger, he gained the right to a monopoly on clove importation. Bogasari, a joint venture with another Hokchia businessman became the largest producer of flour in Indonesia. These two companies were said to have provided him with the capital to establish the cement giant Indocement in 1973.
In 1990, he established the food manufacturer Indofood, the country's largest maker of instant noodles.
In 1992, Salim handed over management of the conglomerate Salim Group to his son Anthoni Salim.
By 1997, the Salim Group possessed US$20 billion in assets and included more than 500 companies employing over 200,000 Indonesians. When the Asian Financial Crisis hit, the conglomerate incurred US$4.8 billion in debts and had to give up control of Bank Central Asia in 1998 to the government. BCA was 30% owned by two offspring of Suharto.
During the May 1998 riots, Salim fled to Singapore after a mob burned his home in Jakarta; his son remained to fight off the mobs and formed the Salim Group. He eventually settled in Los Angeles in the United States. "Forbes" magazine listed him as the 25th wealthiest businessperson in Southeast Asia in 2004 with a net worth of US$655 million.
Salim has three sons and one daughter.
Death.
On June 10, 2012, a month before his 96th birthday, Salim died from natural causes in Raffles Hospital, Singapore. He is buried at the Lim Chu Kang Cemetery.


Tang Te-chang

Tang Te-chang (; 6 January 1907 – 13 March 1947), also known as , was a Taiwanese lawyer of Japanese descent, born in Tainan during Japanese rule. He was killed in the February 28 Incident.
Life.
Tang's parents Tokuzo Sakai and Tang Yu married in 1902. At the time, marriages between Japanese and Taiwanese were illegal, and Tang took his maternal surname. Tang's father was a police officer. He died when Tang was eight years old, as a result of attacks on police stations organized by supporters of . The family was not compensated, and Tang grew up poor. He received some financial help from a traditional Chinese physician named Yang Chuan. He graduated from Tapani Elementary School, but dropped out of Tainan Normal School (now the National University of Tainan), and worked on his family's farm, and then later at a sugar refinery. At that time, he enhanced his knowledge and fighting skills by learning Chinese language, Four Books and Five Classics, Chinese martial arts and Japanese martial arts. In 1927, he passed the formal civil service examination and became a Tainan Prefecture Patrol officer deployed to . He married a year later. Tang left law enforcement to pursue legal studies in Japan at the age of 32. He returned to Taiwan in 1943.
February 28 Incident.
Tang Te-chang was elected mayoral candidate by all Tainan senators, leaders of villages citizen organizations, and student representatives in 1947, when the February 28 Incident occurred.
After the 21st Division of National Revolutionary Army (NRA) descended on Tainan, about twenty gendarmes broke into Tang's house on 11 March 1947, to arrest him for the crime of rebellion. During his arrest, Tang burned a list containing the names of people on the Settlement Committee, an action regarded to have saved their lives. Tang was interrogated by NRA soldiers regarding his ancestry, to which Tang reportedly replied, "I was born in Taiwan, I was raised in Taiwan. Am I not Taiwanese?" They insisted he was Japanese and Tang challenged them to question him in the Japanese language. The next day, Tang was hung upside down, tortured and paraded. On 13 March, Tang was shot at Taishō Park (大正公園).


B. J. Habibie

Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie (; 25 June 1936 – 11 September 2019) was an Indonesian engineer and politician who was the third president of Indonesia from 1998 to 1999. Less than three months after his inauguration as the seventh vice president in March 1998, he succeeded Suharto who resigned after 31 years in office. His presidency is seen as a landmark and transition to the Reformation era. Upon becoming president, he liberalized Indonesia's press and political party laws, and held an early democratic election three years sooner than scheduled, which resulted in the end of his presidency. His 517-day presidency and 71-day vice presidency are the shortest in the country's history.
Early life.
Habibie was a native of Parepare, in South Sulawesi. Habibie is an ethnic Gorontalese-Javanese descent from Kabila, Gorontalo and Yogyakarta. His parents, Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie, an agriculturist of Gorontalese descent, and R. A. Tuti Marini Puspowardojo, a Javanese noblewoman from Yogyakarta, met while studying in Bogor. Habibie's family comes from Kabila, a village now sits in the eastern part of Gorontalo Province. He was the fourth of eight children. Habibie's father died when he was 14 years old.
Studies and career in Europe.
Habibie went to Delft, the Netherlands, to study aviation and aerospace at the Technische Hogeschool Delft (Delft University of Technology), but for political reasons (the West New Guinea dispute between the Netherlands and Indonesia), he had to continue his study at the Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH Aachen University) in Aachen, Germany. In 1960, Habibie received an engineer's degree in Germany with the title "Diplom-Ingenieur". He remained in Germany as a research assistant under Hans Ebner at the Lehrstuhl und Institut für Leichtbau, RWTH Aachen to conduct research for his doctoral degree.
In 1962, Habibie returned to Indonesia for three months on sick leave. During this time, he was reacquainted with Hasri Ainun, the daughter of R. Mohamad Besari. Habibie had known Hasri Ainun in childhood, junior high school and in senior high school at SMA Kristen Dago (Dago Christian Senior High School), Bandung. The two married on 12 May 1962, returning to Germany shortly afterwards.
Habibie and his wife settled in Aachen for a short period before moving to Oberforstbach. In May 1963 they had a son, Ilham Akbar Habibie.
Habibie later found employment with the railway stock firm Waggonfabrik Talbot, where he became an advisor in designing train wagons. Due to his work with Makosh, the head of train construction offered his position to Habibie upon retirement three years later, but Habibie refused the position.
In 1965, Habibie delivered his dissertation in aerospace engineering and received the grade of "very good," giving him the title "Doktoringenieur" (Dr.-Ing.). The same year, he accepted Hans Ebner's offer to continue his research on "Thermoelastisitas" and work toward his Habilitation, but he declined the offer to join RWTH as a professor. His thesis about light construction for supersonic or hypersonic states also attracted offers of employment from companies such as Boeing and Airbus, which Habibie again declined.
Habibie did accept a position with Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in Hamburg. There, he developed theories on thermodynamics, construction, and aerodynamics known as the Habibie Factor, Habibie Theorem, and Habibie Method, respectively. He worked for Messerschmitt on the development of the Airbus A-300B aircraft. In 1974, he was promoted to vice president of the company.
Career in Indonesia.
In 1974, Suharto recruited Habibie to return to Indonesia as part of his drive to industrialize and develop the country. Habibie initially served as a special assistant to Ibnu Sutowo, chief executive officer of the state oil company Pertamina and Chair of Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (, BPPT). Two years later, Habibie was made CEO of the new state-owned enterprise "Industri Pesawat Terbang Nurtanio" (IPTN; Nurtanio Aircraft Industry), which in 1985 changed its name to "Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara" (Nusantara Aircraft Industry; also abbreviated as IPTN) and is known as Indonesian Aerospace (PT. Dirgantara Indonesia) since 2000). In 1978, he was appointed as State Minister of Research and Technology (, Menristek). He continued to play an important role in IPTN other "strategic" industries in this post. By the 1980s, IPTN had grown considerably, specializing in the manufacture of helicopters and small passenger planes. Under Habibie's leadership, IPTN became a manufacturer of aircraft including Puma helicopters and CASA planes. It pioneered a small passenger airplane, the N-250 Gatotkaca, in 1995, but the project was a commercial failure. In developing Indonesia's aviation industry, he adopted an approach called "Begin at the End and End at the Beginning". In this method, elements such as basic research became the last things upon which to focus, whilst actual manufacturing of the planes was placed as the first objective.
By 1991, Habibie oversaw ten state-owned industries including ship- and train-building, steel, arms, communications, and energy. A 1993 estimate determined that the estimates used nearly $2 billion a year in state funding, although the government's opaque accounting practices meant that the size of the industries was not completely known.
As minister, Habibie created the OFP (Overseas Fellowship Program), STMDP (Science Technology and Manpower Development Program) and STAID (Science and Technology for Industrial Development). These three programs provided scholarships to thousands of high school graduates to earn their bachelor's degrees in the STEM fields and for other technical professionals to continue their study for master's and doctorate program in the United States, Europe, Japan, and other countries.
Habibie was, continuously, a member of six Indonesian cabinets for over 20 years. After his initial appointment in 1978, he served in another five cabinets (including the Development Reform Cabinet which, as president he formed after the resignation of Suharto in May 1998):
In Suharto's regime, as was expected of senior government executives, Habibie became a member of the Golkar organisation. Suharto appointed him as deputy daily coordinator for the chairman of the executive board in 1992, and the following year he became the daily coordinator.
While serving in cabinet, Habibie was also elected as the first Chair of the Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) in 1990. This modernist Muslim organization provided him with a political base, linked to but independent of the Suharto administration.
Vice presidency.
In January 1998, after accepting nomination for a seventh term as President, Suharto announced the selection criteria for the nomination of a vice president. Suharto did not mention Habibie by name, but his suggestion that the next vice president should have a mastery of science and technology made it obvious he had Habibie in mind.
In that year, in the midst of the Asian Financial Crisis, this suggestion was received badly, causing the rupiah to fall. Despite this, Habibie was elected as Vice President in March 1998.
Presidency.
On 21 May 1998, just two months into Habibie's vice presidency, Suharto announced his resignation. Habibie, as the Constitution says, succeeded him as president. The following day, Habibie announced the Development Reform Cabinet, which removed some of the most controversial ministers in Suharto's last cabinet while maintaining others - with no major figures from the opposition. Within days of his appointment, he asked his relatives to resign from government positions, promised an early election, repealed some legislation, and ordered the release of political prisoners.
East Timor.
Habibie was opposed to East Timorese Independence but did offer East Timor special autonomy.
Timorese independence forces led by the National Council of Timorese Resistance had been calling for a referendum in the territory for some time. Its chief diplomat, Jose Ramos Horta, proposed a transitional period of autonomy leading up to a referendum. In late 1998, John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, sent a letter to Habibie suggesting that Indonesia defuse the East Timorese issue by providing autonomy to be followed by the promise of a referendum in the long run, following the method used by France to settle New Caledonian demands for independence. Wishing to avoid the impression that Indonesia ruled East Timor as a colony, Habibie surprised some by announcing that a referendum, offering a choice between special autonomy and independence, would be held immediately in East Timor. Leaders of the Indonesian armed forces (ABRI) were not consulted on this decision.
On 30 August 1999, the referendum was held and the East Timorese people overwhelmingly chose Independence. Subsequently, pro-Indonesia militias killed and displaced large numbers of people during the 1999 East Timorese crisis. On 10 September, General Wiranto allegedly threatened to stage a military coup if Habibie allowed in peacekeeping forces, causing Habibie to back down. On 12 September, however, Habibie accepted a UN-mandated peacekeeping force to halt violence. A UN administration followed and East Timor became independent in 2002.
Suharto's corruption charge.
The MPR Special Session in November 1998 decried the presence of corruption in Indonesia, focusing particularly on Suharto. In response to this, Habibie then appointed Andi Muhammad Ghalib as Attorney General. A tape of a telephone conversation between Habibie and Ghalib was made public. It raised concerns about the veracity of the investigation by suggesting that the interrogation of Suharto was intended only for public appearances.
Under Habibie, the Indonesian government also began investigating and prosecuting Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra (commonly known as Tommy Suharto). Ghalib charged Tommy in December 1998 in conjunction with the Goro scandal, where the government, under pressure from Tommy, allegedly gave him a desirable parcel and below-market loan for the construction of a Goro supermarket. However, Tommy was found innocent in the case after several key witnesses, including Habibie aide Rahardi Ramelan, changed their testimony and declared that the deal did not cause losses to the state.
Habibie's government stabilized the economy in the face of the Asian financial crisis and the chaos of the last few months of Suharto's presidency. Habibie's government began to make conciliatory gestures towards Chinese-Indonesians who, because of their elite status, were targeted in the riots of 1998. In September 1998, Habibie issued a 'Presidential Instruction' forbidding use of the terms "pribumi" and "non-pribumi" to differentiate indigenous and non-indigenous Indonesians.
In May 1999, Habibie directed that an ID card was sufficient proof of Indonesian citizenship, revoking the previous requirement for a 'Letter of Evidence of Republic of Indonesia Citizenship' (SBKRI). Additionally, he lifted restrictions on the teaching of Mandarin Chinese.
Political reform.
Under Habibie, Indonesia made significant changes to its political system that expanded competition and freedom of speech. Shortly after taking office, in June 1998, Habibie's government lifted the Suharto-era restriction on political parties and ended censorship by dissolving the Information Ministry. He also quickly committed to holding democratic elections, albeit on an initially vague timetable. In December, he proposed political reform laws that were passed by the legislature and MPR. These laws set elections for December 1999, reduced the number of seats in parliament held by the military, and barred political activity by civil servants.
However, political opponents criticized Habibie for allowing the military to retain some seats in parliament, and taking little action on other military and judicial reforms.
Habibie's government also passed laws which granted significant autonomy to regional governments, namely at the regency and city level. The laws resulted in indirect elections for mayors and regents, and allowed local legislatures to hold said executives accountable, though it was not implemented until after his presidency.
End of presidency.
Although he had been viewed as leading a transitional government, Habibie seemed determined to continue as president. He was initially unclear about whether he would seek a full term as president when he announced parliamentary elections in June 1998. Habibie faced opposition from many within the government party, Golkar; in July 1998, he struggled to win control of Golkar by appointing Akbar Tandjung as chair of the party, but was ultimately able to defeat a rival camp including former Vice President Try Sutrisno, Defence Minister Edi Sudrajat, Siswono Yudhohusodo, and Sarwono Kusumaatmadja. Habibie began to lose support from Akbar Tandjung and a faction in Golkar, composed of both reformers and hardliners, that wanted to oust him. In March 1999, Golkar put forth five presidential nominees: Habibie, Tandjung, Wiranto, Hamengkubuwono X, and Ginandjar Kartasasmita. In May 1999, after extensive lobbying, Golkar announced that Habibie would be their presidential candidate, but a large faction in the party remained loyal to Tandjung and opposed to Habibie. His political credibility was tarnished by the exposure of the 1999 Bank Bali scandal, in which banking funds were funneled to members of Habibie's re-election team.
At the 1999 MPR General Session in October, Habibie delivered an accountability speech. MPR members then began voting to decide if they would accept or reject his speech. Habibie attempted to win the support of the military by offering the vice-presidency to General Wiranto, but his offer was declined. Tandjung's Golkar faction broke ranks and voted against him, and his accountability speech was rejected by 355 votes to 322, and Habibie withdrew his nomination as President. He was succeeded by Abdurrahman Wahid.
Post-presidency, final years and death.
After relinquishing the presidency, Habibie spent more time in Germany than in Indonesia, though he was active during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's presidency as a presidential adviser. During this time, he established the Habibie Centre, an independent think tank.
In September 2006, he released a book called "Detik-Detik Yang Menentukan: Jalan Panjang Indonesia Menuju Demokrasi" (Decisive Moments: Indonesia's Long Road Towards Democracy). The book recalled the events of May 1998 which led to his rise to the Presidency. In the book, he controversially accused Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, Suharto's son-in-law (at that time) and the Kostrad Commander, of planning a coup d'état against him in May 1998.
In early September 2019, he was admitted to Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital, where he was undergoing treatments for heart problems, namely cardiomyopathy, and died on 11 September 2019. He became the first Indonesian President to be buried at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery, next to his wife's grave.
In response to his death, the Government of Indonesia announced a three-day national mourning period starting on 12 September, and announced that the Indonesian flag is to be flown at half-staff during the period.
On 12 September 2019, video was released showing East Timor's former President, Xanana Gusmão, visiting Habibie in hospital on 22 July 2019. Gusmão is shown talking briefly to Habibie while crying, then kissing Habibie on the forehead and lowering his face to Habibie’s chest, with the other holding his head. A wreath in Gusmão’s name was at the funeral, with a sign reading: "Profound Condolences – With heartfelt sympathy for the loss of Big Brother President B.J. Habibie – Timorese people will remember you forever – Rest in Peace - Xanana Gusmão".
Family.
Habibie was married to Hasri Ainun Besari, a medical doctor, from 12 May 1962 until her death on 22 May 2010. Their wedding was held in Javanese and Gorontalese culture. The couple had two sons, Ilham Akbar Habibie and Thareq Kemal Habibie.
B. J. Habibie's brother, Junus Effendi Habibie, was Indonesian ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. After his wife's death, Habibie published a book titled "Habibie & Ainun" which recounts his relationship with Hasri Ainun from their courtship until her death. The book was adapted into a film of the same name which was released on 20 December 2012.
Honours, decorations, and distinctions.
Habibie received several honorary degrees for his contributions in the fields of technology and science, e.g. he was awarded an Honorary DSc degree from the Cranfield Institute of Technology (United Kingdom) and Dr.h.c. degrees from Chungbuk National University and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (South Korea) for his services to aircraft technology. In 2010, Habibie was honored with an Honorary PhD degree in Technology by the University of Indonesia for his contribution to science in practice as a technocrat.
Habibie was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 1990. In 1993, he was awarded an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (HonFRAeS). He was also named an honorary member of several professional bodies, including:
Timor-Leste named a bridge and park in Dili after Habibie shortly before his death.
As vice president, and later president of Indonesia, he was automatically bestowed the highest class of all civilian and military Star Decorations from Indonesia and received some foreign decorations, namely:
In popular culture.
Movies.
Habibie has been portrayed in several biopic movies based on both his political and personal life. In the first installment of "Habibie & Ainun" (2012) and its prequels, "Rudy Habibie" (2016) and "" (2019), Habibie is portrayed by Reza Rahadian, while Bima Azriel and Bastian Bintang Simbolon portrayed Habibie during his childhood, and teenage years in "Rudy Habibie" respectively.
In the movie "Di Balik 98", Habibie was portrayed by Agus Kuncoro.
External links.
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[[Category:Indonesian Muslims]]
[[Category:Politicians from South Sulawesi]]
[[Category:Bandung Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Javanese people]]
[[Category:Presidents of Indonesia]]
[[Category:Vice presidents of Indonesia]]
[[Category:Suharto family and associates]]
[[Category:Habibie family|Bacharuddin]]
[[Category:RWTH Aachen University alumni]]
[[Category:Golkar politicians]]
[[Category:German people of Indonesian descent]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of Germany]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:People from Parepare]]
[[Category:Indonesian engineers]]