text:
Kamal Salibi
The Maronite Experiment

Among the Christians of the Islamic world, the Maronites have been politically the most successful. Among Arab Christians, they alone can claim a history for their community which goes beyond — far beyond — the purely ecclesiastical. While Islam, on its territory, made a point of setting the rules by which its non-Moslem subjects were expected to abide, the Maronites in their home territory of Mount Lebanon, normally managed to live by their own rules. This was in the days of the great Islamic empires — caliphates or sultanates — which succeeded one another in the control of Syria between the seventh century and the early twentieth. This does not mean that the Maronites, during these centuries, were politically independent of the Islamic empires. What it does mean is that in Mount Lebanon, the restrictions under which the other non-Moslem subjects of the caliphs or sultans were expected to live did not apply to them. Remarkably, they managed to get away with this without giving offence to Islam.

Barring two minor persecutions, one in 1365, the other in 1440, the relations of the Maronites with Islamic rule were good, and at times excellent. Under the later Mamluks,their chiefs in the Bsharri district of the northern Lebanon were officially recongnised by the state, whom they served as local fiscal agents. One Mamluk sultan, Barquq, in 1390, was so pleased with them that he established endowments for their monasteries in the Qadisha valley, in the same district. Under the Ottomans, the Maronites were encouraged and even assisted to evict the Shiite Moslems from the Kisrawan region, in the central Lebanon, and take over their villages. Nothing was done to stop them from turning the local mosques into churches. This was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While the punishment for apostacy from Islam was nothing short of death, the Marnites received converts from Sunnite and Shiite Islam and also from among the Druzes with impunity. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, no less distinguished a family than the ruling branch of the Sunnite Shihabs, who governed most of Mount Lebanon by Ottoman appointment, felt free to convert to Christianity as Maronites — discreetly at first, but publicly by the nineteenth century — to the enhancement rather than jeopardy of their political status. In the seventeenth century, one Maronite chief of the northern Lebanon — Sheikh Karam of Ihdin — took advantage of this Ottoman permissiveness towards his Community to push too far. He first publicly converted to Islam, then as publicly reconverted to Christianity, and made a point of riding ceremonially through the streets of Moslem Tripoli as a reconverted Christian. Naturally, the man was arrested and condemned to death on the pale as a renegade. His family, however, were left unmolested as sheikhs in Ihdin — a status which they maintain, socially, to this day.

How did the Maronites manage to get away with all this? Was it because of the ruggedness of their mountain territory? Because they pursued especially wise policies? Because, as Uniate Roman Catholics from about 1180, they could always count on some form of help or support from Christian Europe? Certainly, the fact that the Maronites inhabited a rugged mountain territory in the Lebanon helped, yet this territory was never beyond the reach of the Islamic state. The Maronites were also a prudent and circumspect people who knew how to find their way around difficulties, and they had important connections with Western Europe which they could barter against privileges from their Moslem rulers; but this does not explain everything. All things considered, the secret of the political success of the Marnonites in Mount Lebanon under Islam may lie in the fact that they were not only a religious community, as other Arab Christians such as the Melchites, Jacobites, Copts and Kestorians were. The Maronites were also a tribe or grouping of tribes among whom the sense of political community as Shaab Marun (or "Marun People") rivalled and even transcended that of religious community. In this sense, they were much like their Druze neighbours in the southern Lebanon, who were also as much a tribe or grouping of tribes as a sect of Islamic dissidents. To the Maronites, as to the Druzes, the Islamic state accorded the treatment normally reserved for tribes. Provided these tribes showed the required minimum of loyalty, and were serviceable in one way or another; provided at the bare least that they gave no trouble; they were left alone to live by their own norms, as herdsmen or peasants in the mountains or as bedouins in the desert, and manage as they pleased.

Certainly, the Maronites were not the only Christian Arabs who were tribal. Among the Syrian Melchites, for example, there were numerous tribes, some in the Anti-Lebanon; others in the Hawran and Golan regions; yet others in Galilee, Palestine, Transjordan, and perhaps elsewhere. The difference here is that the Melchites as a sect were organised only as a church, not also as a tribe; and they were certainly not concentrated mainly in one place, and a rugged mountain territory at that. Nowhere, and at no time, did the Melchites or any Arab Christians other than the Maronites identify themselves as a Shaab, or people. Outside Mount Lebanon, the urban Maronites of Aleppo, having lost their tribal character, were only religiously Maronites. In Aleppo, they had to observe the restrictions imposed by the Islamic state on other non-Moslem communities. Politically, they did not count.

To understand the Maronites historically, it would be best to think of them as being basically a tribe. My own conviction, based on evidence which I presented in an earlier paper, is that the Maronites first arrived in Syria as a fugitive Christian Arab tribe from the Najran region of the Yemen, to settle in the territory straddling the valley of the Orontes river, from Aleppo to the northern Lebanon, in the last decades of the sixth century. There they were organised as a church by their paramount priest-chief John Marun of Sarum, who became their special patron, although this fourth-to-fifth century saint was and continues to be revered by the Melchites of Syria as well. Because they had arrived in Syria from South Arabia with a special Christology, into the nature of which I shall not enter now, the Maronites fell afoul with Byzantine orthodoxy, whose representatives in Syria were the Melchites. The Moslem conquest of Syria, however, which was completed between 634 and 641, spared them direct conflict with the Byzantines for more than three centuries. When the Byzantines returned to northern Syria in 969, they proceeded to occupy the valley of the Orontes but failed to establish a permanent footing in Mount Lebanon, while Aleppo remained under Moslem rule. By the time the Byzantines had retreated from the area in the course of the eleventh century, no Maronites in the Orontes valley were left. The only ones that remained were those of the northern Lebanon, and a much smaller community in Aleppo and its vicinity.

In the northern Lebanon, the early organisation of the Maronite church was much like that of a tribe. The Maronites had forty bishops, none of whom had a fixed diocese or defined functions. One has the impression that these bishops represented the more important Maronite clans, each of them depending on his own clan for support. The bishops elected the patriarch, who appears to have been more of a paramount tribal chief than the head of a church. For this patriarch, as for the bishops, there was no fixed residence; each patriarch appears to have stayed where he could count on the support of his own clasmen if his authority for one reason or another was challenged. When the Franks arrived in Syria by the twelfth century, and established the County of Tripoli in the wake of the First Cursade, to include the northern Lebanon, some Maronites supported them, while others did not. The Franks thereupon began to intervene to secure the election of the Maronite patriarchs from among their partisans, one such intervention being definitely attested. This produced a division among the Maronites which outlasted the Cursades, continuing until the last decades of the fifteenth century. Meanwhile, in about 1180, the Franks prevailed on the Maronites who supported them to convert to Roman orthodoxy and accept a formal union of their church with Rome. The Frankish historian William of Tyre, writing at the time, pronounced this momentous event in the history of the Maronites as a miracle involving a "wonderful change of heart".

From the point of view of the Islamic state, the military help which the Maronites offered the Franks must have been seen as nothing more than the ordinary Arab tribal perfidy, which had long come to be taken for granted. While a number of the contemporary Frankish historians dwelt on it, the Moslem historians gave it no notice whatsoever. There was hardly a time when one Arab tribe  or another did not ally itself with the enemies of the Islamic state against it. Once the Franks had been thrown out of Syria, the victorious Mamluks took no punitive action against the Maronites; at least, no such action is on record. Having become the new masters of Syria, the first thought of the Mamluks, as champions of Sunnite Islam, was how to root out Shiite heterodoxy rather than Christianity there; hence their three expeditions against the Shiites of the Kisrawan, in the central Lebanon, in 1291, 1300, and 1305. Nor did the Mamluks try in any way to stop the Maronites under their rule from maintaining indirect relations with Rome. In 1291, having completed the eviction of the last Franks from Syria, the Mamluks, who maintained excellent commercial and political relations with Christian Venice, permitted the Franciscans to establish their Terra Santa mission in Jerusalem, with a branch in Beirut. From Beirut, the Franciscans were allowed to maintain uninterrupted contact with the Maronites on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. Nothing is known to have been done to stop the Fransiscans, after 1450, from appointing resident advisers to the Maronite patriarchs, who not only introduced reforms into Maronite church practices, but also sent at least three young Maronites to study and receive Roman Catholic clerical training in Italy.

Of the two minor persecutions of the Maronites in the Mamluk period, the first, in 1363, was tangential to a more violent persecution of Christians throughout Egypt and Syria, in retaliation to a massive naval raid on Alexandria by the Franks of Cyprus. There is no record of any general attack on the Maronites at the time; only of some Maronite clerics having had to take cover in precaution, possibly because they had personal contacts with the Cypriot Franks, considering that there was by then a Maronite community of some size in Cyprus. In 1367, a Maronite patriarch, Gabriel of Hajula, was condemned by a Moslem court in Tripoli to burn at the stake. According to the Maronite sources (as the Moslem sources make no mention of the event), this was because a party among the Maronites themselves had brought charges of adultery or fornication against him — an indication of the continuing division among the Maronites at the time, rather than of Mamluk hostility against them as a community. The second persecution, in 1440, was provoked by the undue interest shown by the Maronite patriarch John, of Jaj in the proceedings of the Council of Florence, which sought to reunite the Eastern churches with Rome for purposes which were political as well as ecclesiastical. This persecution was limited to one attack by a Moslem mob from Tripoli on the residence of the Maronite patriarch south of the city. A delegation of Maronite notables intervened with the Mamluk authorities in Tripoli at the time to stop the attack and prevent it from spreading. Subsequently, the Maronite patriarchs took the precaution of establishing a fixed residence for themselves further away from Tripoli, in the cliffs of the Qadisha valley, in the  Bsharri district.

By now, the patriarchs were ceasing to serve as  paramount tribal chiefs to the Maronites. The union with Rome was already beginning to transform the Maronite curia into a real church, at the expense of its former traditional status as part church, part tribal council. To replace the patriarch and the bishops in the tribal leadership of the community, a new class of secular chiefs — the muqaddams of the villages, and the sheikhs of the clans — was beginning to emerge to the fore. The more closely the Maronite church became united with Rome, the more it became pure church, and the stronger became the secular leadership of the community. To maintain some political control over their people, the patriarchs resorted to giving the more prominent muqaddams and sheikhs clerical appointment as shidyaqs, or hypodeacons, short of the sacrament of ordination. This practice continued to some extent until the early years of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, the independence of the secular from the clerical leadership among the Maronites continued to grow, and the rift between the two types of leadership continued to widen.

It was actually during the Ottoman period that the Maronite church became fully reorganised as a Uniate communion under the sponsorship of Rome. In 1585, a Maronite College was established in Rome for the training of Maronite clergy. Meanwhile, special Protectors to the Maronites had come to be appointed from among the Roman Cardinals, the first of them, under Pope Gregory XIII, being Cardinal Caraffa. In 1596, the Jesuit Father Joseph Dandini was sent by the Pope to Mount Lebanon to introduce the first major reforms in the Maronite church administration, and prevailed on the Maronite patriarch to convene the first general Maronite synod for the purpose. An attempt on Dandini's life in Cyprus, presumably instigated by the partisans of the Maronite patriarch who was initially reluctant to accept the reforms, did not deter the Jesuit from his mission. For some time, the Maronite church had fallen under the mismanagement of a succession of corrupt patriarchs from the Ruzzi family. One of these patriarchs died while the synod of 1596 was being held, and Dandini could not prevent the election of a nephew of his, another Ruzzi, as his successor. In 1608, however, a graduate of the Maronite College in Rome, John Makhluf, succeeded as Maronite patriarch for the first time, to be followed by others. One of them, Stephen Duwayhi, succeeding in 1668, chartered the foundation of the first regular Maronite monastic order. In 1736, a second general synod, again sponsored by Rome, completed the reorganisation of the Maronite church. From now on, each Maronite bishop was assigned a fixed parish, and the method of electing the patriarch was regularised. A church with a modern structure thereupon came to be imposed on the Maronite community which, certainly in the northern Lebanon, was still essentially tribal. During the seventeenth century, two Maronite patriarchs who were none other than John Makhluf and Stephen Duwayhi, faced by stiff opposition from the Maronite chiefs of the Basharri district, were forced to flee southwards to seek refuge for a time with the emirs of the Druzes. The first of them, John Makhluf, was actually advised by the Pope to do so, and the document which gave him this advice is still there.

Meanwhile, during the same Ottoman period, massive Maronite migrations from the northern Lebanon southwards took place, which modified the nature of the community. The first such migration was into the territory of Kisrawan, in the central Lebanon, in the sixteenth century. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while the migration into the same territory continued, ultimately to transform Kisrawan into a solidly Maronite region, other migrations into the Druze territory of the Shuf, in the southern Lebanon, gained ground, which finally turned the Druzes there into a minority on their historical home grounds. In both areas, the Maronite tribal newcomers settled to become peasants. Those were the days of the growth of silk production in Mount Lebanon, and the immigrant Maronites found ready employment, particularly in the Shuf, in tending the vast mulberry groves needed for the local sericulture, growing the silkworms, and gathering the silk harvest. In Kisrawan, the Maronite settlers served the rich Maronite notables who had bought over the land there from the Shiites, to emerge as a class of Maronite feudal sheikhs, as distinct from the older Maronite tribal sheikhs of the north. In the Shuf, they settled on lands belonging to Druze tribal sheikhs, who became feudal sheikhs to them. To the Druzes among whom they came to live, the same sheikhs remained tribal, not feudal chiefs. Eager to have the Maronites settle in their territory and work their lands, the Druze sheikhs encouraged the Maronite monsatic orders to establish monasteries in different parts of the Shuf, and endowed these monasteries with rich lands. To the local Maronite peasants, the monks who manned these monasteries came to provide in time the needed community leadership. In fact, throughout the new areas of Maronite settlement, in both Kisrawan and the Shuf, the reorganised Maronite church came to exercise its authority in a new way, unimpeded by the tribal contentions which continued to frustrate its ambitions in the northern Lebanon. This may partly explain why the Maronite patriarchs, while maintaining a seasonal, summer residence in the north, moved their main residence to the village of Bkerke, in Kisrawan, in the early nineteenth century.

Meanwhile, social change had set in. In Kisrawan, and more so in the Shuf, enterprising Maronites left their mulberry groves to become silk factors and brokers, some moving to Beirut, Sidon or Acre to establish themselves there as merchants and money-lenders. A new class of well-to-do Maronite villagers and townsmen thus emerged, to include families of considerable wealth who, in the mountains, became landowners in their own rights. By the nineteenth century, even Maronite peasants, particularly in the Druze Shuf, were beginning to invest their savings in the purchase of land. In Kisrawan, by the middle decades of that same century, the ambitions of a rapidly evolving Maronite peasantry came to be pitted against the entrenched position of the Maronite feudal sheikhs. This was the background of the peasant revoltion of 1858 in the area. Significantly, the Maronite church there came out in support of the peasants against the sheikhs. here, as more noticeably in the Shuf, the Maronites, though long transformed by then from tribesmen into peasants, had not lost their traditional tribal sense of social community by the change of milieu. In the Shuf, on the contrary, where the Maronites found themselves living among the staunchly tribal Druzes, their own tribal sense of community became stronger, developing a sharper edge, and the church, represented locally by the great monastic foundations no less than by the bishops and the secular clergy, became its chief symbol. When the Maronites here, at the same time as in Kisrawan, felt strong enough to challenge the power of their feudal lords, who in this case were the Druze tribal sheikhs, they foundt hemselves inadvertently clashing, at a more fundamental level, with Druze tribalism. In 1860, when the Druzes fell on the Maronites of the Shuf and massacred them, what was involved was not so much a religious persecution as a tribal bloodbath. For reasons into which we need not enter here, this tribal bloodbath in the Shuf, in which Christians happened to be the victims, triggered off a wave of religious persecutions of Christians by Moslems throughout Syria, which included a particularly ghastly massacre of Christians in Damascus. These Syrian persecutions, however, must be understood at a different historical level.

To the Maronites, it was politically important to present the Shuf massacres, no less than those of Damascus, as pure religious persecution. By the autumn of 1860, a European political intervention on their behalf, spearheaded by the landing of French forces in Beirut, compelled the Ottomans to accept special administrative arrangements for Mount Lebanon under international guaranty. An autonomous civic order was now imposed there in which the Maronites and Druzes, along with other minority communities, were forced to share, with the Maronites as the clear numerical majority keeping the upper hand. A determined attempt was made to reduce the tribalism which was still rompant in the country by absorbing it into a unified bureaucracy and gendarmerie, in which key posts were reserved for the Maronite and Druze sheikhly class, but the attempt proved only superficially successful. Among the Maronites, the privileges accorded to them by the arrangement were interpreted by most as no more than a first step towards the realisation of their historical claims as a people. These claims, as interpreted by the turn of the century, involved no less than the establishment of a "Greater Lebanon", economically viable within what were argued to be its natural and historical borders, independent of the Ottoman empire, sponsored by France as the trusted friend and protector of the Maronites, and placed under Maronite political and administrative dominance. In 1920, following the destruction of the Ottoman empire in consequence of the First World War, the Maronites were finally satisfied when this Greater Lebanon was created for them, exactly as demanded.

Until this turning point in their history, the Maronites had lived in the world of Islam. At one level, Islam was a religion to which the Maronites, as a Christian people, were under no obligation to subscribe. Among its followers, it also inspired a quasi-tribal sense of Community solidarity which the Maronites, as a tribal people, could readily understand and come to terms with. At another level, Islam was the broader historical society within which they had lived, and of whose history their own particular history had always formed part. When Patriarch Duwayhi, in the late seventeenth century, wrote down the annals of the Maronites for the first time, he made a point of setting them within a general chronicle of Islamic history. Islam, moreover, had also been an imperial state which had traditionally accorded them recognition as a people, and to whose minimal demands they had been used to accomodate. In this last respect, circumstances were by now radically changed. The historical Islamic state was no longer there; the concept of it had died with the death of the Ottoman empire. As the State of Greater Lebanon came into existence, to be reconstituted in 1926 as the Lebanese Republic, the Maronites found themselves in it as part of an Arab Moslem world where the new political bond was pan-Arab nationalism. At the theoretical level, this Arab nationalism was secular, and as such ostensibly in their interest as a religious minority living in overwhelmingly Islamic surroundings. However, Arab nationalism, again in theory, was a modern civic ideal which could not accommodate the tribal particularism of the Maronites as a people, as Islam historically had done. Moreover, among its Moslem Arab adherents, particularly at the noisy level of the masses, Arabism, more disturbingly, tended to be confused with Moslem — especially Sunnite Moslem — Community sentiment, drawing much if not most of its social force from the primordial imperative of Islamic Community solidarity.

While this new Arabism, being in theory secular, seemed to many Arab Christians to be the ideal way out of their uncomfortable historical predicament, albeit with varying measures of reserve, the Maronites instinctively recognised it as a threat and made no secret of the matter. Historically, overt political Islam had always condoned their particularism as a people who happened to be Christian, but who could just as well have been something else. Now Arabism, which they diagnosed as covert political Islam, threatened to rob them of their particularism, and all the freedoms and privileges that went with it, in the name of secularism, civility and pan-Arab nationality, and so reduce them to the status of a religious minority in the Moslem Arab world, surviving at the mercy of the Moslem majority. This the Maronites were determined not to be. Before them was the example of other Christian Arabs whose backs, historically, had been schooled to meekness by the exacting discipline of having to live as religious minorities by the rules of Islam which were not particularly harsh rules, but rules nevertheless. Such Christians they regarded as being essentially unfree. Their publicised zeal for Arabism, which Moslem Arabs lauded with patronising praise, they dismissed and denounced as obsequious hypocrisy.

What made matters worse was that the same Moslem Arabs who lavished praise on the Christian Arabs who sang their political tune were always quick and ready to find fault with the Maronites, sometimes with a show of patronising tolerance (which was what the Maronites resented most), sometimes with unconcealed hostility. While other Arab states, no less than Lebanon, had been formed by France and Britain out of the ruins of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman empire, they singled out Lebanon, which was so precious to the Maronites, as being the creature of Western imperialism in a soecial way, artificially put together out of bits and pieces of Syria to suit the particularism of a Community whose heart was more with the West than with the Arab world. In a way, this was true; in another, more subtle way, it was only partly true, and at a fundamental level blatantly untrue. The Maronites knew that they were ethnically Arab. When the fact was not used to compromise them politically, they admitted it with pride. In the nineteenth century,Maronite scholars and men of letters had played a leading role in initiating the modern Arab cultural revival, and even contributed to the development of the idea of Arab nationalism. Since then, there have been many Maronite poets who, under no social or political compulsion, have freely sung the glories and hopes of Arabism with sincerity and unexcelled eloquence. If they had to be politically Arab in the contemporary world, however, the Maronites were determined to be so, as in the past, by their own rules, and not by rules imposed on them by others. In a way, it was only when this proved impossible that the Maronites, as a community, felt compelled to qualify, and in extremity to deny their Arabism, lest the declared precepts of pan-Arabism, which they deeply distrusted, be effectively used against them as a political ploy, to rob them of their historical achievement.

 To what extent were the original Maronite fears of pan-Arabism justified or unjustified? Different people would give different answers to this question. The fact remains, however, that the Maronites have found themselves politically in conflict with pan-Arabism from the very beginning, and most of all since their dream of a Greater Lebanon under their political dominance was realised, within the setting of the contemporary Arab world, after the First World War. Throughout this time, mutual recriminations between the Maronite and pan-Arab political platforms, on one issue or another, have added fervour to the conflict and deepened the political rift between the two sides. To follow the successive stages of the conflict and deepening rift — since 1920, or since 1943, when the Lebanese Republic gained its independence — would serve no purpose in a general presentation of the case, such as the present one. Since 1975, the continuing conflict has assumed a particularly nasty and violent form under the guise of the Lebanese civil war.

Sooner or later, all conflicts are resolved: by the triumph of one side over the other; by each side going its own way; by the subtle transformation of one type of conflict into another; or, ideally, by intelligent accommodation. In the case at hand, it is hardly imaginable that the Maronites can ultimately find a way out of their present predicament by a military triumph. There are too few of them, in too limited a territory, for them to opt successfully for going their own way. Considering the fundamentally tribal nature of their conflict with their surroundings, within Lebanon and in the Arab world at large, it is unlikely that it can be resolved by turning into another type of conflict where tribalism does not count. Short of a military defeat of the Maronites, which hardly any thoughtful Arab would desire, the only option left is intelligent accommodation. For such an accommodation to be feasible, it would certainly be necessary for the Maronites to make their peace with Arabism and declare themselves again to be fully Arab, committed not only to their own particularism, but also to the interests of other communities with whom they share Lebanon, and to the interests of other Arabs elsewhere. On the other hand, it would be necessary for Arabism to recognize that it can never be what it claims to be unless it sheds its archaic content and accepts the right of different Arabs to be what they want to be, starting with the Maronites as the supreme test case. As many politically responsible Arabs are beginning to realise, the Maronites are too precious a part of the heritage of Arabism to be inadvertently lost. By challenging Arabism as it stands, to the extent of taking up arms against it, they have actually been rendering the idea a service, though this may not be generally recognised : they have kept Arabism on its feet by highlighting its archaic aspects and flaws, which ideally should make it rethink its position, just as the Maronites should rethink theirs. Will this ultimately happen, as it should to the best interests of all concerned? The difficulties, at present, appear to be insurmountable. Miracles, however, can always happen; and what is easier, as a miracle, than the one of which the Maronites already  had the historical experience — As William of Tyre once put it, "a wonderful change of heart"?

Amman, 17 August 1986

question: Amongst which group have the Maronites been the most successful politically?

answer: Among the Christians of the Islamic world

question: When were the Maronites briefly persecuted?

answer: In 1365 and in 1440

question: How did the Maronites manage to survive?

answer: It helped that they inhabited a rugged mountain territory in Lebanon

question: What important connections did the Maronites have?

answer: Connections in Western Europe could be bartered against privileges from their Moslem rulers.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer:
The author describes the Maronite Experiment and their political successes among the Christians of the Islamic world. Maronites endured two persecutions in 1365 and in 1440, however the relations with Islamic rule were mostly good or excellent.
The rugged mountain territory in Lebanon helped the Maronites get away with it all. Though the territory was never beyond the reach of the Islamic state. Their important connections with Western Europe also helped.


split: train

text:
The BRIT AWARD FOR BRITISH FEMALE SOLO ARTIST is an award given by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), an organisation which represents record companies and artists in the United Kingdom.[1] The accolade is presented at the Brit Awards, an annual celebration of British and international music.[2] The winners and nominees are determined by the Brit Awards voting academy with over one-thousand members, which comprise record labels, publishers, managers, agents, media, and previous winners and nominees.[3] The award was first presented in 1977 as British Female Solo Artist.

British Female Solo Artist has been won by Annie Lennox the most times, with six wins and have received the most nominations, with nine, followed by Kate Bush with eight.

Winners and nominees

[Shirley Bassey was the first recipient of the award in 1977] [Six-time winner Annie Lennox as most nominations and awards] [Two-time winner Alison Moyet] [1987 winner and eight-time nominee Kate Bush] [Two-time winner Lisa Stansfield] [2011 winner Laura Marling is one of three folk artist to receive the award] [2014 winner Ellie Goulding] [2015 winner and 4 time nominee Paloma Faith] [Two-time recipient Adele] [Two time winner Emeli Sandé] [2018 winner Dua Lipa]

  -------------------------------------------------------
  Year   Recipient         Nominees
  ------ ----------------- ------------------------------
  1977   SHIRLEY BASSEY    -   Cleo Laine
                           -   Dusty Springfield
                           -   Petula Clark

  1982   RANDY CRAWFORD    -   Sheena Easton
                           -   Toyah Willcox

  1983   KIM WILDE         -   Mari Wilson
                           -   Sheena Easton
                           -   Toyah Willcox

  1984   ANNIE LENNOX      -   Alison Moyet
                           -   Bonnie Tyler
                           -   Toyah Willcox
                           -   Tracey Ullman

  1985   ALISON MOYET      -   Annie Lennox
                           -   Kim Wilde
                           -   Sade Adu
                           -   Tracey Ullman

  1986   ANNIE LENNOX      -   Alison Moyet
                           -   Kate Bush
                           -   Sade Adu
                           -   Bonnie Tyler

  1987   KATE BUSH         -   Jaki Graham
                           -   Joan Armatrading
                           -   Kim Wilde
                           -   Sade Adu

  1988   ALISON MOYET      -   Kate Bush
                           -   Kim Wilde
                           -   Samantha Fox
                           -   Sinitta

  1989   ANNIE LENNOX      -   Mica Paris
                           -   Sade Adu
                           -   Tanita Tikaram
                           -   Yazz

  1990   ANNIE LENNOX      -   Kate Bush
                           -   Lisa Stansfield
                           -   Mica Paris
                           -   Yazz

  1991   LISA STANSFIELD   -   Betty Boo
                           -   Caron Wheeler
                           -   Dusty Springfield
                           -   Elizabeth Fraser

  1992   LISA STANSFIELD   -   Annie Lennox
                           -   Beverley Craven
                           -   Cathy Dennis
                           -   Zoë

  1993   ANNIE LENNOX      -   Kate Bush
                           -   Lisa Stansfield
                           -   Siobhan Fahey
                           -   Tasmin Archer

  1994   DINA CARROLL      -   Beverley Craven
                           -   Gabrielle
                           -   PJ Harvey
                           -   Shara Nelson

  1995   EDDI READER       -   Des'ree
                           -   Kate Bush
                           -   Lisa Stansfield
                           -   Michelle Gayle

  1996   ANNIE LENNOX      -   Joan Armatrading
                           -   PJ Harvey
                           -   Shara Nelson
                           -   Vanessa-Mae

  1997   GABRIELLE         -   Dina Carroll
                           -   Donna Lewis
                           -   Eddi Reader
                           -   Louise Redknapp

  1998   SHOLA AMA         -   Beth Orton
                           -   Lisa Stansfield
                           -   Louise Redknapp
                           -   Michelle Gayle

  1999   DES'REE           -   Billie Myers
                           -   Billie Piper
                           -   Hinda Hicks
                           -   PJ Harvey

  2000   BETH ORTON        -   Beverley Knight
                           -   Gabrielle
                           -   Geri Halliwell
                           -   Melanie C

  2001   SONIQUE           -   Dido
                           -   Jamelia
                           -   PJ Harvey
                           -   Sade Adu

  2002   DIDO              -   Geri Halliwell
                           -   PJ Harvey
                           -   Sade Adu
                           -   Sophie Ellis-Bextor

  2003   MS. DYNAMITE      -   Alison Moyet
                           -   Beth Orton
                           -   Beverley Knight
                           -   Sophie Ellis-Bextor

  2004   DIDO              -   Amy Winehouse
                           -   Annie Lennox
                           -   Jamelia
                           -   Sophie Ellis-Bextor

  2005   JOSS STONE        -   Amy Winehouse
                           -   Jamelia
                           -   Natasha Bedingfield
                           -   PJ Harvey

  2006   KT TUNSTALL       -   Charlotte Church
                           -   Kate Bush
                           -   Katie Melua
                           -   Natasha Bedingfield

  2007   AMY WINEHOUSE     -   Corinne Bailey Rae
                           -   Jamelia
                           -   Lily Allen
                           -   Nerina Pallot

  2008   KATE NASH         -   Bat for Lashes
                           -   KT Tunstall
                           -   Leona Lewis
                           -   PJ Harvey

  2009   DUFFY             -   Adele
                           -   Beth Rowley
                           -   Estelle
                           -   M.I.A.

  2010   LILY ALLEN        -   Bat for Lashes
                           -   Florence and the Machine
                           -   Leona Lewis
                           -   Pixie Lott

  2011   LAURA MARLING     -   Cheryl
                           -   Ellie Goulding
                           -   Paloma Faith
                           -   Rumer

  2012   ADELE             -   Florence and the Machine
                           -   Jessie J
                           -   Kate Bush
                           -   Laura Marling

  2013   EMELI SANDÉ       -   Amy Winehouse
                           -   Bat for Lashes
                           -   Jessie Ware
                           -   Paloma Faith

  2014   ELLIE GOULDING    -   Birdy
                           -   Jessie J
                           -   Laura Marling
                           -   Laura Mvula

  2015   PALOMA FAITH      -   Ella Henderson
                           -   FKA Twigs
                           -   Jessie Ware
                           -   Lily Allen

  2016   ADELE             -   Amy Winehouse
                           -   Florence and the Machine
                           -   Jess Glynne
                           -   Laura Marling

  2017   EMELI SANDÉ       -   Anohni
                           -   Ellie Goulding
                           -   Lianne La Havas
                           -   Nao

  2018   DUA LIPA          -   Jessie Ware
                           -   Kate Tempest
                           -   Laura Marling
                           -   Paloma Faith

  2019   JORJA SMITH       -   Anne-Marie
                           -   Florence + the Machine
                           -   Jess Glynne
                           -   Lily Allen

  2020   MABEL             -   Charli XCX
                           -   FKA Twigs
                           -   Freya Ridings
                           -   Mahalia
  -------------------------------------------------------

Multiple nominations and awards

  Nominations                Artist
  -------------------------- ------------------
  9                          Annie Lennox
  8                          Kate Bush
  7                          PJ Harvey
  6                          Sade
  Lisa Stansfield
  5                          Laura Marling
  Alison Moyet
  Amy Winehouse
  4                          Lily Allen
  Paloma Faith
  Florence and the Machine
  Jamelia
  Kim Wilde
  3                          Adele
  Bat for Lashes
  Dido
  Sophie Ellis-Bextor
  Gabrielle
  Ellie Goulding
  Beth Orton
  Jessie Ware
  Toyah Willcox
  2                          Joan Armatrading
  Natasha Bedingfield
  Dina Carroll
  Beverley Craven
  Des'ree
  Sheena Easton
  FKA Twigs
  Michelle Gayle
  Jess Glynne
  Geri Halliwell
  Jessie J
  Beverley Knight
  Leona Lewis
  Shara Nelson
  Mica Paris
  Eddi Reader
  Louise Redknapp
  Emeli Sandé
  Dusty Springfield
  KT Tunstall
  Bonnie Tyler
  Tracey Ullman
  Yazz

  : Artists that received multiple nominations

  Awards            Artist
  ----------------- --------------
  6                 Annie Lennox
  2                 Adele
  Dido
  Alison Moyet
  Emeli Sandé
  Lisa Stansfield

  : Artists that received multiple awards

[1]

[2]

[3]

question: Define the Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist.

answer: It is an award given by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), an organization that represents record companies and artists in the United Kingdom. The accolade is presented at the Brit Awards, an annual celebration of British and international music.

question: Summarize everything relating to Annie Lennox.

answer: She has won the British Female Solo Artist award six times and has received the most nominations (9).

question: Who is Shirley Bassey?

answer: Shirley Bassey was the first recipient of the British Female Solo Artist in 1977.

question: How are the winners and nominees of the Brit Award chosen?

answer: The winners and nominees are determined by the 1,000-member Brit Awards voting academy, comprised of record labels, publishers, managers, agents, media, and previous winners and nominees.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: The Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist is an award given by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), an organization that represents record companies and artists in the United Kingdom. The accolade is presented at the Brit Awards, an annual celebration of British and international music. The winners and nominees are chosen by the Brit Awards voting academy made up of artists, record labels, the media, and other industry personalities. Shirley Bassey was the first recipient of the award in 1977. Annie Lennox has won the award a record six times.


text:
In a season full of holiday spectacle, the rarely performed _The Second Shepherds’ Play_ stands out for its sweet simplicity. With only a small three-piece band of expert musicians and modest, yet effective, staging and design, director and adapter Mary Hall Surface and her cast create a gentle bit of Christmas magic that is uniquely their own.

Dating back to the Middle Ages, _The Second Shepherds’ Play_ is a piece from the mystery cycles, a series of European liturgical dramas that followed the events of the bible. Members of craft guilds performed these plays once a year over the course of several days, with each guild responsible for one section of the cycle. _The Second Shepherds’ Play _is one of the most famous of the surviving mystery plays, due to its unusual focus on everyday people (rather than biblical characters) and mix of low farce and high religion.

[Ryan Sellers and Tonya Beckman in the 2016 production of The Second Shepherd's Play at Folger Theatre (Photo: Brittany Diliberto)]
Ryan Sellers and Tonya Beckman in the 2016 production of _The Second Shepherd’s Play_ at Folger Theatre (Photo: Brittany Diliberto)
The play follows the journey of three shepherds in the hours before the birth of Christ. They are searching for one of their finest and fattest sheep, which has been stolen by the comically scheming Mak (Ryan Sellers). Mak, who has stolen the sheep to feed his family, and his wife Gill (Tonya Beckman) hide the sheep from its owners by putting it in a cradle and pretending Gill has just given birth (mirroring the image of infant Jesus in the manger). The ruse is discovered, but rather than have Mak severely punished, the shepherds opt to show him mercy. Here, the tone takes a sudden serious shift. As if summoned by the shepherds’ choice to be merciful, an angel (Emily Noël ) appears bringing news of  Christ’s birth. The shepherds journey to Bethlehem to meet the child and offer gifts and blessings.

[Matthew R. Wilson (left), Megan Graves, and Louis E. Davis sing along to a medieval English tune played by musicians Robert Eisenstein, Daniel Meyers, and Brian Kay in The Second Shepherds’ Play. at Folger Theatre (Photo: Brittany Diliberto)]
Matthew R. Wilson (left), Megan Graves, and Louis E. Davis sing along to a medieval English tune played by musicians Robert Eisenstein, Daniel Meyers, and Brian Kay in The Second Shepherds’ Play. at Folger Theatre (Photo: Brittany Diliberto)
Likewise, the farcical elements (which are of the “take my wife, please” variety) may not appeal to modern audiences, especially those interested in plays that better represent women. These scenes read like less sophisticated versions of The Honeymooners or the Marx Brothers. Which is both delightful, in that there is such familiarity in a script from the Middle Ages, and difficult in that the humor is casually misogynistic and a bit too under-developed to be out-and-out hilarious in contemporary times. But for those who are interested, you could hardly find a better introduction to medieval era theatre and music.

The key to the success of this production is the warmth and affection the artists bring to the material. Surface and ensemble balance the low farce with sincerity and modest production elements that feel at home in the world of this play. The set (Tony Cisek) has just a few key elements that suggest the outdoor stages and wagons on which the mystery plays were originally produced. The costumes (Adalia Tonneyck) look homespun. Simple and clever effects, such as using ribbons to represent wind, and the use of puppetry provide just the right touch of theatre magic.

_The Second Shepherds’ Play_ is produced by Folger Consort, the Folger Shakespeare Library’s early music ensemble, and right from the beginning when the trio of musicians and their period instruments (Robert Eisenstein on fiddle, viol and recorder, Brian Kay on lute, lyre and komuz, and Daniel Meyers on recorder, flute, bagpipe, and other instruments) take the stage it is clear that music will be central to this production. Surface and music director Eisenstein have interspersed the text with medieval-era music, both instrumentals and carols. The carols are sung with spirit by the cast, though not always with perfect pitch. Most notable is the lovely voice of the featured singer Emily Noël who also brings her soaring soprano to the role of the Angel. The music of the era is rhythmic and features multiple interwoven melodies at the same time, similar to rounds. It is the kind of celebratory music that beckons you to clap, sing and dance along – perfect for the holiday season.

_The Second Shepherds’ Play_ may not appeal to all contemporary theatre-goers, but it is a delightful holiday present to audiences looking for a Christmas play that is warm-hearted and sincere.

————————

_The Second Shepherds’ Play,_ adapted and directed by Mary Hall Surface. Music Direction by Robert Eisenstein. Featuring Tonya Beckman, Danny Cackley, Louis E. Davis, Robert Eisenstein, Megan Graves, Brian Kay, Daniel Meyers, Emily Noël, Lilian Oben, Malinda Kathleen Reese, Ryan Sellars, Matthew R. Wilson. Scenic Designer: Tony Cisek. Lighting Designer: Andrew Cissna. Costumer: Adalia Tonneyck. Puppet Designer: Aaron Crombie. Choreographer: Emma Jaster. Produced by Folger Consort. Reviewed by Amy Couchoud.

question: What does the article say about the play's appeal to a modern audience?

answer: The farcical elements may not appeal to modern audiences, especially those interested in plays that better represent women. The humor is casually misogynistic and a bit too under-developed to be hilarious in contemporary times. The play may not appeal to all contemporary theatre-goers.

question: Summarize everything relating to religion.

answer: The Second Shepherds' Play focuses on everyday people rather than biblical characters and is a mix of low farce and high religion. The play follows the journey of three shepherds in the hours before the birth of Christ. There is a farcical scene that mirrors the image of Jesus in the manger. At the end of the play, an angel appears and brings news of Christ's birth. The shepherds journey to Bethlehem to meet the child.

question: Summarize everything relating to the play's origins.

answer: The play dates back to the Middle Ages. It belongs to the mystery cycles, a series of European liturgical dramas that followed the events of the bible. It is one of the most famous of the surviving mystery plays.

question: Summarize everything relating to the play's original cast.


text:
by:

Posted: Jun 4, 2017 / 03:17 PM PDT / Updated: Jun 4, 2017 / 03:17 PM PDT

[bith control_569660]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – An Albuquerque Walgreens is under fire, after a mother said a pharmacist wouldn’t fill her teenage daughter’s prescription because it was related to birth control.

What was supposed to be a typical prescription pick up at the Walgreens Pharmacy on Coors and Montano, turned into a mother’s fight for her daughter’s rights.

“A mother and her daughter who were discriminated against when they attempted to pick up a prescription related to the daughter’s birth control at a Walgreens pharmacy here in Albuquerque,” said Erin Armstrong, an ACLU Reproductive Rights Attorney.

It’s led to the ACLU filing a complaint against Walgreens. According to the complaint, in 2016 that mom tried to pick up a prescription of Misoprostol for her daughter. It’s a drug used to prepare patients for getting an IUD, a form of birth control.

However, when she tried to get that prescription filled, the pharmacist on duty denied her, stating personal reasons.

“None of us should have to worry when we go into a pharmacy that we might be turned away because of someone’s personal beliefs and not because of a medical reason,” said Armstrong.

It’s an incident that’s all too familiar to Susanne Koestner. She said it happened to her in 2012, at the Walgreens Pharmacy at Eubank and Central when she tried to get her birth control prescription filled.

“He said he wouldn’t fill it because of his religious beliefs,” said Koestner.

The ACLU also filed a complaint in 2012. Walgreens, at the time, said if filling a prescription went against an employee’s belief, another pharmacist would step in. Koestner said she’s disappointed that’s still not happening.

“It’s not about what our intent is with the medicine. That’s for our doctor and the patient to decide,” she said.

KRQE News 13 did speak to the pharmacist accused of not filling the teen’s prescription. He told us he did not want to comment. He was only filling in that day, and works at the Walgreens in Espanola.

Walgreens sent a statement addressing the situation:

  Our policy is to allow pharmacists and other employees to step away from completing a transaction to which they may have a moral objection, and requires the pharmacist or other employee to refer the transaction to another employee or manager on duty to complete the customer’s request.

  The policy’s objective is to ensure that in these rare instances, patients – both male and female – are offered reasonable alternatives to access legally prescribed medications.

  We have expressed our desire to work closely with the ACLU of New Mexico to address its concerns, and also as we review our policies and evaluate other services to help meet the needs of patients and customers.

  Additionally, we have taken the opportunity to retrain all of our pharmacists and store leadership in New Mexico on policies and procedures relating to conscientious objection, to ensure that we’re providing the highest level of patient care and service.

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question: Why was a mother fighting for her daughter's rights?

answer: The mother and daughter were discriminated against when they attempted to pick up a type of birth control medication for the daughter. The pharmacist said he couldn't fill the prescription due to his religious beliefs.

question: Did Walgreens make a statement about the incident?

answer: Yes, they described their policy, their policy's objective, and expressed their desire to work closely with the ACLU of New Mexico. They also said they were taking the opportunity to retrain their pharmacists and store leadership in New Mexico.

question: What was the daughter's prescription?

answer: It was Misoprostol, a drug used to prepare patients for getting an IUD.

question: What is the ACLU?

answer: The document does not define it, but it seems it is a rights group.

question: Was the pharmacist fired?

answer: Based off the document, it does not seem that he was fired. He was only filling in for the day at that particular Walgreens, and works at a different one.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The document describes when an Albuquerque Walgreens came under fire due to a mother claiming that a pharmacist refused to fill her daughter's birth control related medication. It led to an ACLU filing against Walgreens. Walgreens released a statement in response.


text:
	Cameron Stiles sat in his foxhole staring off in the direction of the enemy lines.  You never could really know where the bastards were in the God forsaken jungle.  Cameron was 19 years old, short, wiry, with a shock of bright red hair.  Fresh out of Light Infantry school, Cameron had only joined the Legion 15 months ago.  He'd thought Legion Basic and LI school had been hell.  Before that, he believed hell was some kind of fiery pit the dead went to when they finally departed the living.  Now he knew he'd been wrong on both counts.  Now he knew that hell was actually a jungle paradise called Cyradon.
	As he sat contemplating the path that had brought him into this living nightmare, it started raining.  The Cyradonians loved to use the cover of the rain to sneak up on you in your foxhole.  He checked the chamber of his MK33 rifle.  There was the dull flash of lead.  Good.  Ready to shoot; ready to kill.  Again.  When Cameron arrived at LI school after Legion Basic, he'd been slotted to be a rifleman.  All the time he'd spent in outdoors hunting gave him an edge over his classmates though, and by the end of the cycle he'd earned a spot as a squad designated marksman.  This meant he'd been issued to carry a MK33 instead of the standard issue MK32 carbine.  Thirty-nine and a half inches long, and 11.7 pounds it was a monster of a weapon.  A bullpup assault rifle with a 36 inch barrel and chambered in 7.62×54mm, it was accurate out to 1200 meters.  Cameron had tested that fact on multiple occasions.  Three months in theater and he already had 49 confirmed kills.  They'd be sending him to Sniper School at this rate
	He steadied his rifle on the edge of his foxhole, and began scanning his sector.  Staff Sergeant Connor had begun posting Cameron far ahead of the rest of the squad as a picket.  All that time hunting had sharpened his field craft as well as his marksmanship skills.  The Cyradonians had not been able to ambush the squad in over a week.
	Cameron froze as he heard a rustle in the brush ahead of him.  He quickly pressed his eye to rifle's scope, ready to shoot.  A baby jungle cat rushed out of the brush chasing some kind of invisible prey.  Or running from something... Only two things could scare a jungle cat, even a baby one.  Fire... or a snake.  Cameron shivered, but kept his weapon steady.  Snakes scared the shit out of him.  Because on Cyradon, a snake wasn't just a snake.  Two hundred feet long, 30 feet in diameter, and 40 tons of pure hunger and predatory instinct.  The snakes were the reason the Cyradonians built their cities in the treetops, 300 feet above the jungle floor.  At least the snakes weren't venomous.  Then again, they didn't need to be.  All of the fighting and killing and warm human bodies seemed to put them into a feeding frenzy.  They were a bitch to kill too.  Without anti-tank rockets or a lot of bravery, insanity or stupidity, and even more incendiary grenades it was impossible to do.  The one time Cameron had seen it done another Legionaire had jumped in the snake's open mouth and thrown six incendiaries down it's throat.  Neither combatant had survived the encounter.
	Cameron saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, off to his left.  He swung in that direction, focusing his crosshairs on the source of the disturbance.  The camouflaged face of a man pushed slowly out of the underbrush.  His eyes widened when he saw Cameron.  Cameron's eyes widened as well, even has he pulled the trigger.  The rifle cracked loudly and the man's face disappeared in a fine mist of blood, brains, and bone fragments.  The world went silent for a moment.  Even the rain seemed to be holding it's breath.  Then everything erupted in a storm of fire and death.
	Cameron ducked as little lead hornets rushed over his head, hunting for him.  Gunfire began rattling behind him as well as first his squad then, gradually, the rest of his platoon began returning fire.  Cameron poked his head up over the top of his foxhole, confident now that the enemy didn't know his position, was just firing blindly hoping to kill something.  Cameron began targeting the muzzle flashes.  Inhale, squeeze, exhale.  Inhale, squeeze, exhale.  Every time he squeezed the trigger, another muzzle would stop flashing.  Sometimes, the man behind the muzzle would begin firing again.  Other times, he wouldn't.  Cameron didn't even feel the sick to his stomach feeling be bad anymore.  It was just a part of him, like his hand or leg.  It had been that way since his first kill.  It had filled him then, threatened to overwhelm him.  Now, he never noticed it, even though it was always present.
	Slowly, the firing slackened.  The unspoken rule on Cyradon was that a firefight never lasted longer than exactly three minutes and seventeen seconds.  Any longer than that and the snakes began to take notice.  No one on either side wanted that kind of attention.  Finally, the shooting stopped entirely, like a fire starved of oxygen.  The world returned to a serene silence, blissfully unaware of the death and tragedy that had just taken place on the surface of it's skin.
	Cameron could see his fellow Legionaires beginning to stir, to come out from their hidden lairs.  They came out to count the enemy fallen for the inevitable countless reports that must be written, to salvage what equipment they could from the enemy, and to satisfy that morbid curiosity every soldier has about his enemy.  SSG Connor came crawling up to Cameron's position for a report.  After he finished explaining exactly what had happened, Cameron left his foxhole.  He'd never felt that strange curiosity before, but now it burned like a fire.  Never before had any man, or beast, noticed Cameron's presence if he didn't wish them too.  Yet that first man had not only known he was there, but had spotted him immediately.
	Cameron crawled out to where his body lay.  It was impossible to tell how old he was.  His face was ruined, with only his forehead, left cheek and part of his jaw intact.  Cameron looked at what used to be the man's face dispassionately.  Men's faces always looked like that after catching a 7.62×54mm round from only 50 meters away.  The rest of his body told Cameron little as well.  He was tall and lanky, 6' 4”, and maybe 156 pounds.  The uniform showed signs of hard use, but held no insignia to indicate the man was anything other than an ordinary infantryman.  Caught by an irresistible urge, Cameron checked the man's chest pockets.  In the left pocket, he found an ID card.  Aware that he had been out of cover for too long, Cameron began crawling back to his hole.  As he crawled, Cameron realized it had stopped raining.  Oh well.  It would start raining again soon enough.
	When he got back to his hole, he began examining the ID.  The man was Miles Sullivan, private attached to the 2nd Rifles Regiment.  Regular infantry grunts then.  The poor bastards had never stood a chance.  Cameron continued perusing the card.  Dark brown hair, blue eyes, 6' 4”, 156 pounds.  Cameron smiled, proud of his estimations.  He flipped the card over and froze.  Couldn't believe what he was seeing.  Looked again.  Nothing had changed.  Date of birth, March 17, 2143.  Next to the date was a full color picture.  A picture of a boy with a tangle of dark brown hair, bright blue eyes and permanent dimples as if normally he couldn't stop smiling, with baby fat still on his cheeks.  2143.  The boy wasn't a man at all, was only 17 years old.  As Cameron stared in shocked disbelief at the card, the rain started falling again.
	A few meters away, SSG Connor lay watching the scene.  SSG Connor was a 10 year veteran of the Imperial Legion, had attended both LI and Marine Legion schools.  He had almost six years of combat time.  He was also a good judge of men.  He could see how the rest of his squad, even the older men, respected PFC Cameron Stiles.  He knew they all looked up to PFC Cameron Stiles for his calm demeanor, even when under fire.  That was why he was glad it started raining again.  Because it wouldn't do for the rest of his squad to see what he had just seen.  It wouldn't do for the rest of the squad to see PFC Cameron Stiles crying.

title: A short war story. I haven't actually given it a name yet. 1457 words.

question: What is the setting of this passage?

answer: The passage is set in a Cyradonian jungle during wartime.

question: Who are Cyradonians?

answer: Not explicitly answered, but they seem to be an alien species.

question: Who is Cameron fighting?

answer: Cameron is part of a squadron fighting the Cyradonian.

question: Who is the man that Cameron finds?

answer: The man is Miles Sullivan, a private attached 2nd Rifles Regiment.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: Cameron Stiles, a 19 soldier who is fresh out of Light Infantry school, sits in a foxhole in the jungles of Cyradon. He sees a camouflaged man and shoots at him, which sets off a barrage of gunfire. After a small skirmish, Camera finds the body of the man he shot initially, and discovers that he is a 17 year old boy named Miles Sullivan. Cameron begins to cry.


text:
US based "church", the Satanic Temple has temporarily placed a bronze statue of a goat-headed, winged creature called Baphomet at the Arkansas State Capitol.

The statue was the centrepiece of a rally to call for the removal of a Ten Commandments monument already mounted on Capitol grounds.

About 150 Satanists, atheists and Christians attended the First Amendment rally on Thursday.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Lucien Greaves, spokesman for The Satanic Temple, with a statue of Baphomet.

The Satanic Temple says the Ten Commandments monument violates US constitutional freedom of religion rights and that the installation of their 2.3-metre-tall statue showing the 14th century idol seated and accompanied by smiling children would demonstrate religious tolerance.

READ MORE: SATANIC TEMPLE HOLDS PUBLIC SCULPTURE UNVEILING IN DETROIT

"If you're going to have one religious monument up then it should be open to others, and if you don't agree with that then let's just not have any at all," said Satanic Arkansas co-founder Ivy Forrester, a rally organiser.

AP

The Satanic Temple unveils its statue of Baphomet, a winged-goat creature, at a rally for the first amendment in Little Rock, Ark., Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. The Satanic Temple wants to install the statue on Capitol grounds as a symbol for religious freedom after a monument of the Biblical Ten Commandments was installed in 2017. (AP Photo/Hannah Grabenstein)

The statue of Baphomet can't be installed under a 2017 state law that requires legislative sponsorship for consideration of any monument. The Satanist group removed the statue later Thursday.

The Ten Commandments monument at the Arkansas Capitol was sponsored by Republican Sen. Jason Rapert and installed quietly in 2017.

Less than 24 hours after its installation, a man drove his car into the monument, smashing it to pieces . The same man also destroyed a Ten Commandments monument outside Oklahoma's state Capitol.

The Satanic Temple ended its campaign to install Baphomet there, after Oklahoma's Supreme Court ruled the Ten Commandments monument was unconstitutional and it was taken down.

Rapert said in an online statement that he respects the protesters' First Amendment rights, but also called them "extremists" and said "it will be a very cold day in hell before an offensive statue will be forced upon us to be permanently erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol."

There was a significant police presence at the peaceful rally. A small group of counter-protesters holding signs with Bible verses stood quietly nearby, occasionally singing Christian songs.

One speaker - a Christian minister - was interrupted by a yelling counter- protester, but police escorted the man who was holding a large wooden stick away from the stage.

The Satanic Temple wants to join a religious discrimination lawsuit against Arkansas brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. A judge has to yet rule on whether the Satanists can join the case.

AAP

question: Why did the Satanic Temple place a bronze statue of Baphomet at the Arkansas State Capitol?

answer: They placed the statue there in protest for the removal of the Ten Commandments monument already placed at the Capitol.

question: Why does the Satanic Temple want the Ten Commandments monument removed from the Capitol?

answer: They claim that the monument violates the US Constitutional freedom of religion rights.

question: What is Baphomet?

answer: It is a winged-goat creature.

question: Did the Satanic Temple accomplish their goal of getting the Ten Commandments monument removed?

answer: Not according to the article. The Satanic Temple had to remove their statue of Baphomet because placing it on the Capitol grounds without legislative sponsorship.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The Satanic Temple of Arkansas placed a statue of Baphomet at the Capitol in protest for the removal of the Ten Commandments monument already placed at the Capitol.


text:
_QUOYA DILATATA_ is a flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a low, spreading shrub with its branches and leaves densely covered with a layer of white, woolly hairs. The leaves are wrinkled or crinkly and the tube-shaped flowers are orange-red and hairy on the outside.

Description

_Quoya dilatata_ is a spreading shrub, growing to a height of and which has its branches and leaves densely covered with a layer of white, woolly hairs. The leaves are egg-shaped to spoon-shaped with the narrow end towards the base, long, wide. The upper surface is wrinkled or crinkly and the lower has a network of veins.[1][2]

The flowers are usually solitary in the upper leaf axils, forming a long, leafy spike of flowers. Each flower has a thin, hairy stalk long and is surrounded by leaf-like bracts and bracteoles which are woolly-hairy on the lower surface and glabrous on the upper surface. The five sepals are long, spoon-shaped and joined at their bases to form a very short tube. The sepals are thin and thickly woolly-hairy on the outside and glabrous on the inside. The petals are orange-red in colour, long, forming a tube which gradually widens towards the five lobes on the end. The tube is densely hairy on the outside and glabrous inside, except for a ring of hairs around the ovary. The lowest petal lobe is musch larger than the others, more or less egg-shaped, long, wide. The other four lobes are about equal in size, with two lobes erect and the two on each side of the end of the tube. The four stamens extend beyond the end of the petal tube, the lower pair longer than the other. Flowering occurs in September, October or November and is followed by fruit which is almost spherical, in diameter and densely hairy with the sepals remaining attached.[3][4][5]

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1868 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name _Chloanthes dilatata_. The description was published in _Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae_ from a specimen collected by James Drummond near the Murchison River.[6] In 1870, George Bentham changed the name to _Pityrodia dilatata_[7] but in 2011, Barry Conn and Murray Henwood changed the name to _Quoya dilatata_ and published the change in _Australian Systematic Botany_.[8][9] The specific epithet (_dilatata_) is a Latin word meaning “spread” or “expanded”.[10]

Distribution

_Quoya dilatata_ mainly occurs between Perth and Carnamah but has also been found near Northam and Cowcowing, in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions. The only known collection near the Murchison River was of the type specimen.[11][12][13]

Conservation

_Quoya dilatata_ is classified as “not threatened” by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.[14]

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[13]

[14]

title: Quoya dilatata

question: What part of the plant is covered in white hairs?

answer: The branches and leaves

question: What shape are the leaves?

answer: Egg-shaped or spoon-shaped, with the narrow end towards the base

question: What color are the flowers?

answer: Orange-red

question: When does the plant typically flower?

answer: Between September and November

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Quoya Dilatata is a flowering plant endemic to Western Australia. It has egg-shaped or spoon-shaped leaves, which are covered in white hairs, and produces orange-red flowers, typically sometime between September and November each year.


text:
DAVID LEE CALLIES (born April 21, 1943) is the Benjamin A. Kudo Professor of Law at the University of Hawai'i's Manoa School of Law. His focus is on the topics of land use, real property, and state and local government.[1] In 2015 he was honored with the Owners' Counsel of America's Crystal Eagle Award for his lifetime of scholarship about land use, eminent domain, and regulatory takings.[2]

Education and career

Callies earned his B.A. at DePauw University. He obtained his J.D. degree at the University of Michigan Law School and his LL.M. at the University of Nottingham. Prior to becoming faculty at the University of Hawai{{'}}i, Callies practiced local government and land-use law in Chicago with the firm of Ross & Hardies. He taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning. He also served as an Assistant State's Attorney.[3]

Publications

Callies has authored twenty books, including _The Taking Issue_ (1973); _The Role of Customary Law in Sustainable Development_ (2006); _Land Use Controls in the United States_; _Regulating Paradise: Land Use Controls in Hawaii_ (1984); _Preserving Paradise: Why Regulation Won't Work_ (1994); _Taking Land: Compulsory Purchase and Land Use Regulation in the Asia-Pacific_ (2002); and _Property and the Public Interest_ (2007). In addition to his books, he has authored more than one-hundred articles and chapters.[4]

Honors and accolades

-   Board Member; Institute for Planning, Zoning, & Eminent Domain
-   Past Chair; Hawai'i State Bar Association, Real Property and Financial Services Section
-   Past Chair; American Bar Association, State and Local Government Law Section
-   Lifetime Achievement Award (2006); American Bar Association, State and Local Government Law Section
-   Past Chair; American Association of Law Schools, State and Local Government Law Section
-   Past Chair; Academics Forum
-   Council Member; International Bar Association, Asia Pacific Forum
-   Member; American Law Institute (ALI)
-   Member; American Institute of Certified Planners (FAICP), College of Fellows
-   Member; American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL)
-   Co-editor; Land Use and Environmental Law Review
-   Board Member; Social Science Association of Honolulu[5]
-   Crystal Eagle Award (2015); Owners' Counsel of America[6]
-   Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize (2017); William & Mary Law School[7]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

title: David L. Callies

question: Who is David Lee Callies?

answer: He is the Benjiman A. Kudo Professor of Law at the University of Hawai'i's Manoa School of Law.

question: Describe Callies's personal life.

answer: That information can't be found.

question: How many publications does Callies have?

answer: He has authored 20 books and more than 100 articles and chapters.

question: Summarize Callies's education.

answer: Callies earned a B.A. at DePauw University. he then obtained his J.D. degree at the University of Michigan Law School and his LL.M. at the University of Nottingham.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: David L. Callies is a professor of law at the University of Hawai'i's Manoa School of Law. He has authored 20 books and more than 100 articles and chapters. The article lists the honors and accolades he has received.


text:
-   Jan. 4, 1988
-

[]

Credit...The New York Times Archives

See the article in its original context from
January 4, 1988

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Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

Chinese organized crime's involvement in extortion, prostitution, loan sharking, gun smuggling and murder is sharply on the rise in the New York area, law-enforcement officials say.

As the Mafia declines and Chinese criminal activity spreads beyond Chinatown in Manhattan, some law-enforcement officials say they fear that Chinese organized crime could eventually achieve as much wealth and influence as Italian organized crime has had over the last half century.

Officials say that New York City has become the hub for Chinese criminal operations that extend to Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Portland, Ore., and other cities.

In New York City, the victims of Chinese organized crime include Queens merchants, who must now offer ''red envelopes,'' or payoffs, to extortionists as well as young Asian women held almost as slaves in brothels. More Potent Heroin

And the effect is being felt in black and Hispanic neighborhoods where Chinese are supplying heroin that is 3 to 10 times more potent than the drug available in years past.

Federal drug agents said early last year that Chinese criminals had become the dominant force in the city's multibillion-dollar heroin industry. Since then, law-enforcement officials said they have been alarmed by the rapid growth of Chinese criminal activities in other illegal enterprises in the metropolitan area.

In response, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York recently reassigned 30 agents from cases involving the Mafia to Chinese cases.And the administrator of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration authorized the agency's New York City office to double the number of agents pursuing Chinese criminals to more than two dozen.

''Chinese criminals are the No. 1 emerging organized-crime group in New York - not just in drugs, but in many, many things,'' said James D. Goldman, a senior special agent with the Federal Immigration and Naturalization Service. ''Their activities are no longer limited to Chinatown. It has spread to the five boroughs, Long Island and upstate.'' Extortion Threats Increase

Since August, the Drug Enforcement Administration in New York City has raised its estimate of the share of the city's illegal heroin market controlled by Chinese criminals to between 60 and 70 percent, up from 40 percent.

At the same time, specialists in Asian crime in the New York City Police Department last year reported an increase in extortion threats by Chinese gangsters against merchants in Queens and Brooklyn. They also reported a rise in homicides associated with Chinese criminals. Comparing Chinese With the Mafia

Chinese criminals are a particularly difficult target for law-enforcement agencies because they often speak dialects the police do not understand and use aliases that they constantly change. In addition, they work in temporary alliances that have neither the structure nor the predictability of traditional Italian organized crime groups.

''They are following a trend almost identical to La Cosa Nostra,'' said Thomas L. Sheer, the outgoing head the New York office of the F.B.I.

In many ways the evolution of Chinese organized crime is a old American tale, a repeat of the story of Irish, Jewish and Italian criminals in decades past: With each wave of immigrants comes a small minority of criminals, who at first prey upon their own countrymen. With time, however, the most successful criminals rise to head criminal organizations that attempt to move out into society at large.

The modern Mafia came into existence when Italian criminals moved out of their immigrant communities to supply Americans with illegal liquor during the Prohibition. Today, ''Chinese organized crime is roughly where the Italian mob was when Prohibition hit in 1919,'' Mr. Sheer said. ''That was just the point when they started going corporate.''

Chinese criminals are still not as organized as the five Mafia families of New York City, the authorities say. The dozens of Chinese criminal groups in New York City range from a handful of thugs who intimidate neighborhood merchants to large organizations with dozens of young gang members at their command and divisions in charge of gambling, extortion and drug operations.

Many have initiation ceremonies, titles and ranks similar to Chinese secret criminal societies active in Hong Kong and other Asian cities.

Experts in Chinese crime warn, however, that the current structure of the groups is less important for law-enforcement officials to understand than the culture from which they come - an ever-shifting underworld society that runs through Hong Kong, Bangkok, Amsterdam, New York City and dozens of other cities outside mainland China.

The more successful Chinese criminals appear to travel effortlessly between the continents, using old contacts to form new organizations wherever criminal opportunities arise. Chinese Involvement In Crime Widens

In Hong Kong, which is being returned to China's control in 1997, such criminals see New York as a city fertile with opportunity. They perceive New York as a place where the Chinese population is swelling, where the Mafia is losing its grip on key enterprises and where the police still have little understanding of their language and ways.

Members Chinese secret societies, or triads, have come to New York from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and some have used their contacts with one another to start criminal enterprises. Although there is some disagrement among law-enforcement officials, most say the Asian triads are not active as criminal organizations in New York.

At most, law-enforcement officials say, criminals are a tiny fraction of the Chinese immigrants in New York City. Joseph P.C. Mei, the president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, an umbrella organization for 60 Chinese groups in New York City, said that he saw no evidence of a growth of Chinese organized crime here. He said he believed youth gangs were responsible for most of the crime in Chinatown.

''Everywhere there are youth gangs,'' he said. ''How are you going to control them?''

According to the police, however, Chinese organized crime reaps large profits from extortion and loan sharking, crimes that are accepted as a part of life on the narrow streets of Chinatown and that are now spreading to neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn.

Chinese merchants attempting to open a store on a mob-controlled street soon learn that they must provide an initial ''red package,'' or special gift, to the local criminal organization. Payment may be for $333, $666 or $888, since the numbers three, six and eight represent good forturne. Red packages rarely include the number four, which represents death.

Thereafter, merchants will be expected to pay $50 to $1,000 a month depending on how profitable their businesses are. If they miss payments, they may be beaten or they may receive envelopes containing bullets as a warning that they could be shot.

Within the structure of the Chinese mob, the enforcers who carry out beatings or killings are called ''red sticks.'' They also hold a rank designated with the number 462. The terms come from ancient Chinese secret societies.

''Chinese extortion is now growing in Flushing and in Jackson Heights all along Roosevelt Avenue,'' said a ranking police officer familiar with Chinese organized crime. In the last year, he said, ''we have been getting some reports of this kind from every precinct in Queens.''

Loan sharks now have more than $2 million in debts on the streets of Chinatown, drawing interest rates of 240 percent or more a year, according to those familiar with Chinese extortion and loan shark practices. Their most common victims are young women who work as hostesses in Chinese nightclubs and generally borrow money to pay gambling debts.

But, according to Mr. Sheer of the F.B.I., there are increasing reports of Chinese loan sharks using the same loan debts to take over legitimate businesses in Manhattan and Queens. Running Brothels Across the Country

Another way through which Chinese gangsters have extended their influence in recent years is prostitution, both in massage parlors employing Asian women in New York City - businesses that cater to customers of all races - and in brothels that specialize in Chinese clientele.

Many of the dozens of Oriental massage parlors that sprang up in New York City in the 1970's are operated by Korean managers and employ Korean women. But Chinese gangsters demand protection money from management and often own a share of the business, the authorities say.

''If you want to open up a Korean massage parlor, you have to pay them protection or they will put you out of business,'' said Lieut. Michael Duffy of the public morals division of the New York City Police Department. ''It's just like traditional organized crime.''

In a recent case, agents of the Immigration Service found that a ring of Chinese criminals recruited nearly 100 young women in Taiwan, promising them work as hostesses in nightclubs in the United States. The women signed pledges saying they owed the organization from $3,000 to $5,000 and were illegally smuggled from Central America across the Mexican border to an apartment in Queens. From there, they were shipped to brothels across the United States.

The organization operated two brothels in Manhattan, three in San Francisco, one in Lakewood, Colo., and one in Houston. The women received no income and were not allowed to leave the brothel for at least a year until, the organization told them, they worked off their debts. If they ran away, the women were told, criminals in Taiwan would harm their relatives. The case resulted in the conviction of four Taiwanese on conspiracy charges in Manhattan last year. Creating New Alliances With the Mafia

There has also been a sharp increase in the smuggling and illegal sale of firearms by Chinese groups in the last year, according to Robert J. Creighton, the special agent in charge of the New York district of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

''They are not just arming themselves and their associates - they are selling them for profit,'' Mr. Creighton said. Recent cases, he said, ''show extensive networks starting in New York and working out to other areas of the country.''

In addition to operating all-night Chinese gambling houses, some Chinese criminals have entered into agreements with the Mafia in Chinatown to operate bookmaking operations on horse racing. At a restaurant near the Offtrack Betting office in Chatham Square, for example, customers can place bets on horse races with a 10 percent discount on OTB prices. The Chinese operators, in turn, pay a protection fee to Italian-American criminals who dominate the bookmaking industry.

But increasingly there is talk among younger Chinese criminals about the Mafia being aged and vulnerable. In the last two years, younger Chinese criminals have replaced the Mafia by selling Southeast Asian heroin, or China White, directly to black and Hispanic drug distributors in poor neighborhoods. The more potent heroin increases the chances of overdoses and may result in more severe addictions.

And much like Mafiosi in decades past, those younger criminals have disregarded warnings from their elders that the drug business is too dangerous.

''The youngsters of the Chinese, they think they are tough, and a lot of Italians are getting old,'' said one Chinese person familiar with Chinese criminals. ''They can put people in the cement. We can just shoot them out on the street.''

question: Where/how was this article originally published?

answer: The article is from the archives of The New York Times, 1988 and was digitized.

question: What is the article about?

answer: As the Mafia declines, Chinese criminal activity is spreading. New York City is the hub for Chinese criminal operation that extend to Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, and Portland, Or.

question: Why are the Chinese difficult targets for the police?

answer: They often speak dialects the police don't understand, and use aliases that they constantly change.

question: What crimes are the organized Chinese groups involved in?

answer: extortion, prostitution, loan sharking, gun smuggling, and murder

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: As the Mafia declines, Chinese criminal activity is spreading. New York City is the hub for Chinese criminal operation that extend to Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, and Portland, Or.


text:
I sent this as a text message to a friend around 11 one night, hence the good night at the end, she said I should publish it, this is close enough.

Warning, the following text is meant to be funny, but is a true story.

My worst nightmare just came true. There I was, all ready to go to bed, all i had left to do was brush my hair. As I was brushing my hair, I turned around and saw the most horrible thing. It was one of those giant centipedes. There he was, just sitting there, in the 1/2 inch gap between my door frame and the wall. I was scared. I could never squish them cause I could feel their guts explode and it felt weird. So here I was, at 11 p.m. I was at a loss for words. Then I remembered seeing my dad's light on not 15 minutes earlier. I opened my door in the hopes that he was still awake. His light was off. I was on my own.

There was no way I could go to sleep knowing he was there. I had to muster up the strength to kill him. I stood there nearly 10 minutes contemplating my actions. I grabbed a notepad that I use to squash bugs. I thought about if he would be one if the smart ones that would run away as soon as he saw a shadow. I guess he wasn't smart. I finally garnered up the courage, and pressed the notepad against the wall. He fell to the ground, albeit a few legs short. He crawled to the corner. I used this opportunity to squash him once and for all, or so I hoped. He wasn't quite dead yet. I could hear his unattached legs moving on the paper. I quickly scooped him up and put him in the trash. Making sure to squash him once more for good measure.

So there you have it. I conquered my worst nightmare. What an amazing story it was. Now good night my dear readers. And may you never have to face such a terrible horror.

title: My Worst Nightmare short story

question: What does the narrator see on the wall?

answer: A giant centipede.

question: What is a centipede?

answer: A bug with a lot of legs.

question: What was the narrator doing when they saw the centipede?

answer: Brushing their hair.

question: How long did the narrator wait before killing the bug?

answer: Approximately 10 minutes.


text:
PICKEL is an unincorporated community in Ste. Genevieve County, in the U.S. state of Missouri.[1]

History

A variant spelling was “Pickle”.[2] A post office called Pickle was established in 1898, and remained in operation until 1905.[3] The community was named after William Pickles, the original owner of the town site.[4]

[1]

[2]

[3]

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title: Pickel, Missouri

question: What is Pickel?

answer: Pickel is an unincorporated community in Ste. Genevieve County, in the U.S. state of Missouri.

question: When was a post office called Pickle established?

answer: Pickle was established in 1898.

question: Who was Pickle named after?

answer: Pickle was named after William Pickles.

question: Who was William Pickles?

answer: William Pickles was the original owner of the town site.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Pickel is an unincorporated community in Ste. Genevieve County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. A post office called Pickle was established in 1898, and remained in operation until 1905.


text:
MAHATMA GANDHI ROAD or M.G. ROAD, formerly known as HARRISON ROAD,[1] is a principal East-West thoroughfare in Kolkata (Previously known as Calcutta), the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. M.G. Road makes the boundary of North and Central Kolkata.[2] In 1889 this was the first street of the city to be lit by electricity.

History

[Calcutta. Harrison Road. 1890] Mahatma Gandhi road was initially known as Harrison Road. After the independence of India in 1947 the Harrison Road in Kolkata was renamed Mahatma Gandhi Road (M.G. Road) and the name of Chowringhee Road was changed to Jawaharlal Nehru road.[3] In 1889 when Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) started promoting electricity in the city, this Harrison road was the first street in the city to be lit by the authority.[4] Calcutta Improvement Trust (CIT) decided to build the Central Avenue in 1911. By 1926, Harrison Road was stretched to Beadon Street in the north and to Bowbazar in the south.[5]

Charu Guha, a pioneer of the city's studio photography, started her first studio in the Harrison Road in 1920.[6] During India's independence movement, this street was previously considered as “communally sensitive” neighbourhood of the city.[7] On 1 April 1930, _The Vancouver Sun_ newspaper reported— “four more were killed in rioting this afternoon in Harrison Road, which is the usual storm quarter in this region.”[8]

Location and operation

The road is arterial in maintaining east–west connection in Kolkata. It is of the shortest distance between two major rail stations in Kolkata Metropolitan Area — Sealdah Station and Howrah Station. Several important places are on this road, such as Sealdah Station, Surya Sen Street crossing, Amherst Street crossing, College Street/Bidhan Sarani crossing, Chittaranjan Avenue crossing, Rabindra Sarani (Chitpur Road) crossing, Netaji Subhas Road crossing, Burrabazar and Strand Road crossing/Howrah Bridge.[9]

M.G. Road runs from Sealdah Flyover (Vidyapati Setu) in the eastern limit to the threshold of Howrah Bridge in the west.[10]

The road is bi-directional throughout the day. Certain crossings are, however, unidirectional, that is, in certain crossings, vehicles can turn only in a specific direction.

Culture

Education institutions

[Hindu School— it is located on College Street, adjacent to Mahatma Gandhi Road]

Several educational institutions are located on or near Mahatma Gandhi Road, [11] such as Anglo Arabic Secondary School, Gyan Bharati Vidyapith, St. Paul's School, Hindu School, Lawrence Day School, Shri Jain Vidyalaya and St. Pauls' Mission School.

Restaurants

Some popular restaurants in or near Mahatma Gandhi Roadare [12] Shreeram Dhaba, Aahar Restaurant, Madhuri Restaurant, Basanta Cabin.

Cinema halls

Several cinema halls are located on or near the road, such as Aruna, Chhabighar, Naaz, Purabi, Prabhat.[13]

In popular culture

Rabindranath Tagore in this poem _Ekdin Rate_ mentioned this street. The lines of the poem were— _Howrah-r bridge chole mosto she bichhe, Harrison road chole tar pichhe, pichhe_ (the approximate English translation: The Howrah Bridge is moving as if a large centipede and the Harrison Road moves behind it). [14]

Saradindu Bandopadhyay's famous fictional character, Byomkesh Bakshi - India's foremost detective, lived on Harrison Road in the second floor of a three-storied building along with his friend and associate Ajit Banerjee and domestic help, Putiram.

Gallery

File:Mahatma Gandhi Road - Strand Road View - Kolkata 2016-10-11 0591.JPG|MG Road and Strand Road Crossing File:Kolkata Tram on Mahatma Gandhi road IMG 20181215 101007.jpg|Kolkata tram route no. 18 on MG Road near Howrah Bridge File:Mahatma Gandhi Road - College Street Crossing - Kolkata 2015-02-09 2278.JPG|MG Road and College Street Crossing File:Mahatma Gandhi Road - Amharst Street Crossing - Kolkata 2015-02-09 2282.JPG|MG Road and Amherst Street Crossing File:Mahatma Gandhi Road and Surya Sen Street Crossing - Kolkata 2014-01-01 1787.JPG|MG Road and Surya Sen Street Crossing File:Vidyapati Setu - Mahatma Gandhi Road - Sealdah - Kolkata 2015-08-11 1974.JPG|Vidyapati Setu, MG Road, Sealdah

West Bengal

-   College Street
-   Amherst Street

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[14]

title: Mahatma Gandhi Road (Kolkata)

question: What does the story say about the history of Mahatma Gandhi Road in Kolkata?

answer: Mahatma Gandhi Road was initially known as Harrison Road and was renamed Mahatma Gandhi Road after the independence of India in 1947. It was the first street in the city to be lit by the authority. During India's independence movement, this street was considered as a “communally sensitive” neighbourhood of the city.

question: What does the article say about the cost of Mahatma Gandhi Road in Kolkata?