8 million by Oct 1st 2008 & Win!

[bokajinn]

Can you feel the

[Aleck79]

^ wtf?

+7

[MikeFu84]

+8

What pain?

[Sethos]

981

[brentaal]

******* (or ###### in British English) is slang for the anus and can be used to describe an unpleasant person. It is formed from arse, which according to the Oxford English Dictionary has been used since the 11th century to refer to the rump of an animal and since the 14th century to refer to a person's buttocks. The combined form ###### is first attested from 1500 in its literal use to refer to the anus. The metaphorical use of the word to refer to the worst place in a region (e.g., "the ###### of the world") is first attested in print in 1865; the use to refer to a contemptible person is first attested in 1933.[1] Its first appearance as an insult term in a newspaper indexed by Google News is in 1965.[2] But as with other vulgarities, these uses of the word may have been common in oral speech for some time before their first print appearances. By the 1970s, Hustler magazine featured people they didn't like as "******* of the month."[3]

[Sethos]

982

[Aleck79]

^ Mythbusters!

+8

[brentaal]

[MikeFu84]

+9

Confirmed, Plausible, or Busted?

[Aleck79]

^ 56k warning anyone?

+9

[brentaal]

Idiot is a word derived from the Greek ἰδιώτης, idiōtēs ("person lacking professional skill," "a private citizen," "individual"), from ἴδιος, idios ("private," "one's own").[1] In Latin the word idiota ("ordinary person, layman") preceded the Late Latin meaning "uneducated or ignorant person."[2] Its modern meaning and form dates back to Middle English around the year 1300, from the Old French idiote ("uneducated or ignorant person"). The related word idiocy dates to 1487 and may have been analogously modeled on the words prophet[3] and prophecy.[4][5] The word has cognates in many other languages.

History

"Idiot" was originally created to refer to "layman, person lacking professional skill", "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning".[6][7] Declining to take part in public life, such as democratic government of the polis (city state), such as the Athenian democracy, was considered dishonorable. "Idiots" were seen as having bad judgment in public and political matters. Over time, the term "idiot" shifted away from its original connotation of selfishness and came to refer to individuals with overall bad judgment?individuals who are "stupid". In modern English usage, the terms "idiot" and "idiocy" describe an extreme folly or stupidity, and its symptoms (foolish or stupid utterance or deed). In psychology, it is a historical term for the state or condition now called profound mental retardation.[8]

Disability

In 19th and early 20th century medicine and psychology, an "idiot" was a person with a very severe mental retardation, or a very low IQ level, as a sufferer of cretinism, defining idiots as people whose IQ were below 20 (with a standard deviation of 16).

In current medical classification, these people are now said to have profound mental retardation, and the word "idiot" is no longer used as a scientific term.

United States law

Until 2007, the California Penal Code Section 26 stated that "Idiots" were one of six types of people who are not capable of committing crimes. In 2007 the code was amended to read "persons who are mentally incapacitated."[9]

In several states, "idiots" do not have the right to vote:

* Arkansas Article III, Section 5[10]

* Iowa Article II, section 5[11]

* Kentucky Section 145[12]

* Mississippi Article 12, Section 241[13]

* New Jersey (Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 6)[14]

A resolution was passed by the State Legislature in January 2007 to remove "idiot or insane", and to add the qualifying phrase "who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting." As the resolution put it succintly, "This proposed amendment to the Constitution shall be submitted to the people at the next general election occurring more than three months after the final agreement. This constitutional amendment shall become part of the New Jersey Constitution upon approval by the voters." [15] The amendment passed the referendum on November 6, 2007. Hence, "New Jersey" is now crossed out in this list. [16]

* New Mexico Article VII, section 1[17]

* Ohio (Article V, Section 6)[18]

[Aleck79]

yawn

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Cool is an aesthetic of attitude, behavior, comportment, appearance, style and Zeitgeist. Because of the varied and changing connotations of cool, as well its subjective nature, the word has no single meaning. It has associations of composure and self-control (cf. the OED definition) and often is used as an expression of admiration or approval.

Contents

[hide]

* 1 Overview

o 1.1 Africa and the African diaspora

+ 1.1.1 African Americans

# 1.1.1.1 Cool pose

o 1.2 East Asia

o 1.3 Europe

+ 1.3.1 Aristocratic and artistic cool

+ 1.3.2 European inter-war Cool

+ 1.3.3 Postwar Cool

+ 1.3.4 The Polish Cool

o 1.4 The Middle East

+ 1.4.1 United States pop-culture cool

* 2 Theories of cool

o 2.1 Cool as social distinction

o 2.2 Cool as an elusive essence

o 2.3 Cool as a marketing device

* 3 Cool defined

* 4 See also

* 5 Further reading

* 6 References

Overview

A timeline of cool, adapted from Dick Pountain and David Robins, Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude

A timeline of cool, adapted from Dick Pountain and David Robins, Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude

While each generation feels that "real" cool is something pure and existential known only to them, that it was founded in their time by them, there is not one single concept because one of the main aspects of cool is its mutability?what is seen as cool will change from time to time, from place to place and from generation to generation.[1]

Nick Southgate writes that, although some notions of cool can be traced back to Aristotle, whose notion of cool is to be found in his ethical writings, most particularly the Nicomachean Ethics,[2] it is not confined to one particular ethnic group or gender.

The sum and substance of cool is a self-conscious aplomb in overall behavior, which entails a set of specific behavioral characteristics that is firmly anchored in symbology, a set of discernible bodily movements, postures, facial expressions and voice modulations that are acquired and take on strategic social value within the peer context.[3]

Cool was once an attitude fostered by rebels and underdogs, such as slaves, prisoners, bikers and political dissents, etc., for whom open rebellion invited punishment, so it hid its defiance behind a wall of ironic detachment, distancing itself from the source of authority rather than directly confronting it.

Cool is also an attitude widely adopted by artists and intellectuals, who thereby aided its infiltration into popular culture. Sought by product marketing firms, idealized by teenagers, a shield against racial oppression or political persecution and source of constant cultural innovation, cool has become a global phenomenon that has spread to every corner of the earth.[2] According to Dick Pountain and David Robins, concepts of cool have existed for centuries in several cultures.[1]

Cool has been used to describe a general state of well-being, a transcendent, internal peace and serenity.[4] It can also refer to an absence of conflict, a state of harmony and balance as in, "The land is cool," or as in a "cool [spiritual] heart." Such meanings, according to Thompson, are African in origin. Cool is related in this sense to both social control and transcendental balance.[4]

While slang terms are usually comprised of short-lived coinages and figures of speech, cool is an especially ubiquitous slang word, most notably among young people. As well as being understood throughout the English-speaking world, the word has even entered the vocabulary of several languages other than English.

Cool can be used to describe composure and absence of excitement in a person, especially in times of stress, and can refer to something that is aesthetically appealing. It is also used to express agreement or assent. Cool is often used as a general positive epithet or interjection which has a range of related adjectival meanings. Among other things, it can mean calm, stoic, impressive, intriguing, or superlative.

Africa and the African diaspora

Yoruba bronze head sculpture from the city of Ife, Nigeria c. 12th century A.D

Yoruba bronze head sculpture from the city of Ife, Nigeria c. 12th century A.D

Author Robert Farris Thompson, professor of art history at Yale University, suggests that Itutu, which he translates as 'mystic coolness,'[5] is one of three pillars of a religious philosophy created in the 15th century.[6] by Yoruba and Ibo civilizations of West Africa. Cool or Itutu contained meanings of conciliation and gentleness of character, the ability to defuse fights and disputes, of generosity and grace. It was also associated with physical beauty. Typical for Itutu is the reference to water because to the Yoruba coolness retained its physical connotation of temperature.[7] He cites a definition of cool from the Gola people of Liberia, who define it as the ability to be mentally calm or detached, in an other-worldly fashion, from one's circumstances, to be nonchalant in situations where emotionalism or eagerness would be natural and expected.[4] Joseph M. Murphy writes that "cool" is also closely associated with the deity ?sun of the Yoruba religion.[8]

Although, Thompson acknowledges similarities between African and European cool "Africa and Europe share notions of self-control and imperturbability, expressed under a metaphysical rubric of coolness, viz, notions of sang-froid and coolheadedness"[7] Thompson finds the cultural value of cool in Africa which influenced the African diaspora to be different from that held by Europeans, who use the term primarily as the ability to remain calm under stress. According to Thompson, there is significant weight, meaning and spirituality attached to cool in traditional African cultures, something which, Thompson argues, is absent from the idea in a Western context.

"Control, stability, and composure under the African rubric of the cool seem to constitute elements of an all-embracing aesthetic attitude." African cool, writes Thompson, is "more complicated and more variously expressed than Western notions of sang-froid (literally, "cold blood"), cooling off, or even icy determination." (Thompson, African Arts)

The telling point is that the "mask" of coolness is worn not only in time of stress, but also of pleasure, in fields of expressive performance and the dance. Struck by the re-occurrence of this vital notion elsewhere in tropical Africa and in the Black Americas, I have come to term the attitude "an aesthetic of the cool" in the sense of a deeply and completely motivated, consciously artistic, interweaving of elements serious and pleasurable, of responsibility and play.[9]

African Americans

Ronald Perry writes that many words and expressions have passed from African American Vernacular English into Standard English slang including the contemporary meaning of the word "cool."[10] The black jazz scene in the U.S. and among expatriate musicians in Paris, helped popularize notions of cool in the U.S. in the 1940s, giving birth to "Bohemian", or beatnik culture.[2] Shortly thereafter, a style of jazz called cool jazz appeared on the music scene, emphasizing a restrained, laid-back solo style.[11] Notions of cool as an expression of centeredness in a Taoist sense, equilibrium and self-possession, of an absence of conflict are commonly understood in both African and African American contexts well. Expressions such as, "Don't let it blow your cool," later, chill out, and the use of chill as a characterization of inner contentment or restful repose all have their origins in African American Vernacular English.[12]

When the air in the smoke-filled nightclubs of that era became unbreathable, windows and doors were opened to allow some "cool air" in from the outside to help clear away the suffocating air. By analogy, the slow and smooth jazz style that was typical for that late-night scene came to be called "cool".[13]

Marlene Kim Connor connects cool and the post-war African-American experience in her book What is Cool?: Understanding Black Manhood in America. Connor writes that cool is the silent and knowing rejection of racist oppression, a self-dignified expression of masculinity developed by black men denied mainstream expressions of manhood. She writes that mainstream perception of cool is narrow and distorted, with cool often perceived merely as style or arrogance, rather than a way to achieve respect.[14]

Designer Christian Lacroix has said that "...the history of cool in America is the history of African-American culture".[15]

Cool pose

Malcolm X "embodied essential elements of cool".

Malcolm X "embodied essential elements of cool".

'Cool', though an amorphous quality--more mystique than material--is a pervasive element in urban black male culture.[16] Majors and Billson address what they term "cool pose" in their study and argue that it helps Black men counter stress caused by social oppression, rejection and racism. They also contend that it furnishes the black male with a sense of control, strength, confidence and stability and helps him deal with the closed doors and negative messages of the "generalized other." They also believe that attaining black manhood is filled with pitfalls of discrimination, negative self-image, guilt, shame and fear.[17]

"Cool pose" may be a factor in discrimination in education contributing to the achievement gaps in test scores. In a 2004 study, researchers found that teachers perceived students with African American culture-related movement styles, referred to as the "cool pose," as lower in achievement, higher in aggression, and more likely to need special education services than students with standard movement styles, irrespective of race or other academic indicators.[18] The issue of stereotyping and discrimination with respect to "cool pose" raises complex questions of assimilation and accommodation of different cultural values. Jason W. Osborne identifies "cool pose" as one of the factors in black underachievement.[19] Robin D. G. Kelley criticizes calls for assimilation and sublimation of black culture, including "cool pose." He argues that media and academics have unfairly demonized these aspects of black culture while, at the same time, through their sustained fascination with blacks as exotic others, appropriated aspects of "cool pose" into the broader popular culture.[20]

George Elliott Clarke writes that Malcolm X, like Miles Davis, embodies essential elements of cool. As an icon, Malcolm X inspires a complex mixture of both fear and fascination in broader American culture, much like "cool pose" itself.[16]

East Asia

The ethic of the Samurai caste in Japan, warrior castes in India and East Asia all resemble cool.[1]. The samurai-themed works of film director Akira Kurosawa are among the most praised of the genre, influencing many filmmakers across the world with his techniques and storytelling. Notable works of his include The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and The Hidden Fortress. The latter was one of the primary inspirations for George Lucas's Star Wars, which also borrows a number of aspects from the samurai, for example the Jedi Knights of the series. Samurai have been presented as cool in many modern Japanese movies such as Samurai Fiction,[21] Kagemusha[22] and Yojimbo,[23] which was appropriated in American movies such as Ghost Dog[24] and The Last Samurai[25]

In The Art of War, a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC, general Sun Tzu, a member of the landless Chinese aristocracy, wrote in Chapter XII:

Profiting by their panic, we shall exterminate them completely; this will cool the King's courage and cover us with glory, besides ensuring the success of our mission.

Prof. Paul Waley considers Tokyo one of the world's "capitals of cool."

Prof. Paul Waley considers Tokyo one of the world's "capitals of cool."

Asian countries have developed a tradition on their own to explore types of modern 'cool' or 'ambiguous' aesthetics.

In a Time Asia article "The Birth of Cool" author Hannah Beech describes Asian cool as "a revolution in taste led by style gurus who are redefining Chinese craftsmanship in everything from architecture and film to clothing and cuisine" and as a modern aesthetic inspired both by a Ming-era minimalism and a strenuous attention to detail.[26]

Paul Waley, professor of Human Geography at the University of Leeds, considers Tokyo along with New York, London and Paris to be one of the world's "capitals of cool"[27] and the Washington Post called Tokyo "Japan's Empire of Cool" and Japan "the coolest nation on Earth".

Analysts are marveling at the breadth of a recent explosion in cultural exports, and many argue that the international embrace of Japan's pop culture, film, food, style and arts is second only to that of the United States. Business leaders and government officials are now referring to Japan's "gross national cool" as a new engine for economic growth and societal buoyancy.[28]

The term "gross national cool" was coined by Journalist Douglas McGray. In a June/July 2002 article in Foreign Policy magazine,[29] he argued that as Japan's economic juggernaut took a wrong turn into a ten-year slump, and with military power made impossible by a pacifist constitution, the nation had quietly emerged as a cultural powerhouse: "From pop music to consumer electronics, architecture to fashion, and food to art, Japan has far greater cultural influence now than it did in the 1980s, when it was an economic superpower."[30] The notion of Asian 'cool' applied to Asian consumer electronics is borrowed from the cultural media theorist Eric McLuhan who described 'cool' or 'cold' media as stimulating participants to complete auditive or visual media content, in sharp contrast to 'hot' media that degrades the viewer to a merely passive or non-interactive receiver.

[Aleck79]

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i need to code a bot to do this posting for me...

[brentaal]

Zimbabwe (pronounced /zɪmˈbɑːbweɪ/), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe and formerly Southern Rhodesia, the Republic of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe Rhodesia, is a landlocked country, located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest, and Mozambique to the east. The official language of Zimbabwe is English. However, the majority of the population speaks Shona, which is the native language of the Shona people, a Bantu language; the country's other native language is Sindebele, which is spoken by the Matabele people.

The country is ruled by President Robert Mugabe, who is accused by rights groups of massive violations of human rights.[1] Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a hard currency shortage, which has led to hyperinflation and chronic shortages in imported fuel and consumer goods. President Mugabe's critics blame his program of land reform. However, Mugabe claims that massive financial isolation through American, British, and European Union legislation such as the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 is the actual cause of hyperinflation. Under ZDERA, the United States is prohibited from supporting any efforts by the International Monetary Fund and other financial institutions to extend loans, credit or debt cancellation to the Zimbabwean government.

Zimbabwe's current economic and food crisis, described by some observers as the country's worst humanitarian crisis since independence, has been attributed, in varying degrees, to government economic mismanagement, government prohibitions on relief efforts from foreign non-governmental organizations, a drought affecting the entire region, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.[2]

Contents

[hide]

* 1 Etymology

* 2 History

o 2.1 Colonial era (1888?1965)

o 2.2 UDI and civil war (1965?1979)

o 2.3 Independence (1980)

o 2.4 Decline

* 3 Geography

* 4 Administrative divisions

* 5 Government and politics

* 6 Human rights

* 7 Military

o 7.1 Zimbabwe National Army

* 8 Economy

* 9 Demographics

o 9.1 Refugee crisis

* 10 Education

* 11 Culture and recreation

o 11.1 Food

o 11.2 Birthplace of Scouting

* 12 Tourism

* 13 National symbols, insignia and anthems

o 13.1 Zimbabwe Bird

o 13.2 Balancing Rocks

o 13.3 National anthem

* 14 See also

* 15 References

* 16 External links

[edit] Etymology

The name Zimbabwe derives from "Dzimba dza mabwe" meaning "great house of stone" in the Shona language.[3] Its use as the country's name is a tribute to Great Zimbabwe, site of the capital of the Empire of Great Zimbabwe. In other languages, such as German, the initial Z is replaced with an S so as to produce the same sound in the phonics of the said language; for example Zimbabwe is spelled "Simbabwe".[4]

[edit] History

Main article: History of Zimbabwe

Khoisan people, occupied the area about 5000 years ago or earlier. They depicted scenes of life in rock paintings across Zimbabwe; these are known as the Bushman paintings.[5] Iron Age Bantu-speaking peoples began migrating into the area around AD 300, eventually displacing the earlier hunters. These included the ancestors of the Shona, who account for roughly four-fifths of the country's population today.[6][7]

The Great Zimbabwe ruins in Masvingo.

The Great Zimbabwe ruins in Masvingo.

By the Middle Ages, there was a Bantu civilization in the region, as evidenced by ruins at Great Zimbabwe and other smaller sites, whose outstanding achievement is a unique dry stone architecture. Around the early 10th century, trade developed with Phoenicians on the Indian Ocean coast, helping to develop Great Zimbabwe in the 11th century. The state traded gold, ivory, and copper for cloth and glass.From circa 1250?1629, the area that is known as Zimbabwe today was ruled under the Mutapa Empire, also known as Mwene Mutapa, Monomotapa or the Empire of Great Zimbabwe, which was renowned for its gold trade routes with Arabs. However, Portuguese settlers destroyed the trade and began a series of wars which left the empire in near collapse in the early 17th century. In 1834, the Ndebele people arrived while fleeing from the Zulu leader Shaka, making the area their new empire, Matabeleland. In the 1880s, the British arrived with Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company. In 1898, the name Southern Rhodesia was adopted. It ceased to be the leading Shona state in the mid-15th century. In 1837-8, the Shona were conquered by the Ndebele, who arrived from south of the Limpopo and forced them to pay tribute and concentrate in northern Zimbabwe.[8]

[edit] Colonial era (1888?1965)

Main articles: Southern Rhodesia and Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

Matabeleland in the 1800s.

Matabeleland in the 1800s.

In 1888, British colonialist Cecil Rhodes obtained a concession for mining rights from King Lobengula of the Ndebele peoples.[9] Cecil Rhodes presented this concession to persuade the government of the United Kingdom to grant a royal charter to his British South Africa Company (BSAC) over Matabeleland, and its subject states such as Mashonaland. Permission was sought by Rhodes to negotiate similar concessions covering all territory between the Limpopo River and Lake Tanganyika, then known as 'Zambesia'. In accordance with the terms of aforementioned concessions and treaties, [10] Cecil Rhodes promoted the colonisation of the region's land, and British hegemony over labour, precious metals and other mineral resources.[11] In 1895 the BSAC adopted the name 'Rhodesia' for the territory of Zambesia, in honor of Cecil Rhodes. In 1898 'Southern Rhodesia' became the official denotation for the region south of the Zambezi,[12] which later became Zimbabwe. The region to the north was administered separately by the BSAC and later named Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia.

The Shona staged unsuccessful revolts (known as Chimurenga) against encroachment upon their lands, by clients of BSAC and Cecil Rhodes in 1896 and 1897.[13] Following the failed insurrections of 1896-97 the Ndebele and Shona groups became subject to Rhodes's administration thus precipitating European settlement en masse which led to land distribution disproportionately favouring Europeans, displacing the Shona, Ndebele, and other indigenous peoples.

Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony in October 1923, subsequent to a 1922 referendum. Rhodesians served on behalf of the United Kingdom during World War II, mainly in the East African Campaign against Axis forces in Italian East Africa.

In 1953, in the face of African opposition,[14] Britain consolidated the two colonies of Rhodesia with Nyasaland (now Malawi) in the ill-fated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland which was dominated by Southern Rhodesia. Growing African nationalism and general dissent, particularly in Nyasaland, admonished Britain to dissolve the Union in 1963, forming three colonies. On 11 November 1965, the prime minister of Southern Rhodesia Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom. As colonial rule was ending throughout the continent, and as African-majority governments assumed control in neighbouring Northern Rhodesia and in Nyasaland, the white-minority Rhodesia government led by Ian Smith made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965. The United Kingdom deemed this an act of rebellion, but did not re-establish control by force. The white-minority government declared itself a "republic" in 1970. It was not recognised by the UK or any other state. A civil war ensued, with Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU and Robert Mugabe's ZANU using assistance from the governments of Zambia and Mozambique. Although Smith's declaration was not recognized by the United Kingdom nor any other significant power, Southern Rhodesia dropped the designation 'Southern', and claimed nation status as the Republic of Rhodesia in 1970.[15][16]

[edit] UDI and civil war (1965?1979)

Main articles: Rhodesia, Rhodesian Bush War, and Zimbabwe Rhodesia

Ian Smith signing the Unilateral Declaration of Independence on 11 November 1965 with his cabinet watching.

Ian Smith signing the Unilateral Declaration of Independence on 11 November 1965 with his cabinet watching.

After the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), the British government requested United Nations economic sanctions against Rhodesia as negotiations with the Smith administration in 1966 and 1968 ended in stalemate. The Smith administration declared itself a republic in 1970 which was recognised only by South Africa,[17][18] then governed by its apartheid administration. Over the years, the guerrilla fighting against Smith's UDI government intensified. As a result, the Smith government opened negotiations with the leaders of the Patriotic Fronts?Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). ZANU was led by Robert Mugabe and ZAPU was led by Joshua Nkomo.

In March 1978, with his regime near the brink of collapse, Smith signed an accord with three African leaders, led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who offered safeguards for white civilians. As a result of the Internal Settlement, elections were held in April 1979. The United African National Council (UANC) party won a majority in this election. On 1 June 1979, the leader of UANC, Abel Muzorewa, became the country's prime minister and the country's name was changed to Zimbabwe Rhodesia. The internal settlement left control of the country's police, security forces, civil service, and judiciary in white hands. It assured whites of about one-third of the seats in parliament. It was essentially a power-sharing arrangement which did not amount to majority rule.[19] However, on June 12, the United States Senate voted to end economic sanctions against Zimbabwe Rhodesia.

Following the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Lusaka from 1-7 August 1979, the British government invited Muzorewa and the leaders of the Patriotic Front to participate in a constitutional conference at Lancaster House. The purpose of the conference was to discuss and reach agreement on the terms of an independence constitution, and that elections should be supervised under British authority to enable Rhodesia to proceed to legal independence and the parties to settle their differences by political means. Lord Carrington, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, chaired the conference.[20] The conference took place from 10 September?15 December 1979 with 47 plenary sessions. On 1 December 1979, delegations from the British and Rhodesian governments and the Patriotic Front signed the Lancaster House Agreement, ending the civil war.[21]

[edit] Independence (1980)

Main article: Lancaster House Agreement

Britain's Lord Soames was appointed governor to oversee the disarming of revolutionary guerrillas, the holding of elections and the granting of independence to an uneasy coalition government with Joshua Nkomo, head of ZAPU. In the free elections of February 1980, Mugabe and his ZANU won a landslide victory.[22] Mugabe won the re-election.

In 1982, Joshua Nkomo was ousted from his cabinet, sparking fighting between ZAPU supporters in the Ndebele-speaking region of the country and the ruling ZANU. A peace accord was negotiated in 1987, resulting in ZAPU's merger (1988) into the ZANU-PF.

[MikeFu84]

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[brentaal]

Never means "at no point in time". The term comes from the words "not" and "ever", meaning that something is not ever going to happen.

It may also refer to:

* Nevers, a commune in central France

* Never, Russia, a former urban-type settlement in Amur Oblast, Russia; since 2001?a village[1]

* Never (Heart song), a 1985 single by Heart

* Never (Keyshia Cole song), a 2004 single by Keyshia Cole

* Never (Ozzy Osbourne song), a 1986 song by Ozzy Osbourne

* Never, a song by Marcy Playground from their 1999 album Shapeshifter

* Nevere, a song by Bella Morte

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Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: Михаи́л Серге́евич Горбачёв??i, ISO 9: Mihail Sergeevič Gorbač?v, Russian pronunciation: [mʲɪxɐˈil sʲɪrˈgʲeɪvʲɪtɕ gərbɐˈtɕof]; born 2 March 1931 in Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai), is a Russian politician. He was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1985 until its collapse in 1991.

Gorbachev's attempts at reform?perestroika and glasnost?as well as summit conferences with United States President Ronald Reagan, contributed to the end of the Cold War, and also ended the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Gorbachev is currently the leader of the Union of Social-Democrats,[1] a political party founded after the official dissolution of the Social Democratic Party of Russia on 20 October 2007.

Contents

[hide]

* 1 Early life

* 2 Political career

* 3 General Secretary of the CPSU

o 3.1 Domestic reforms

+ 3.1.1 1985

+ 3.1.2 1986

+ 3.1.3 1987

+ 3.1.4 1988

+ 3.1.5 1989

o 3.2 'New Thinking' Abroad

o 3.3 Collapse of the Soviet Union

+ 3.3.1 Crisis of the Union, 1990-91

+ 3.3.2 The August 1991 coup

+ 3.3.3 Aftermath of the coup and the final collapse

* 4 Activities after resignation

* 5 Honors and accolades

* 6 Religious affiliation

* 7 Health

* 8 Naevus flammeus

* 9 See also

* 10 Other meanings

* 11 References

* 12 Further reading

o 12.1 Primary sources

o 12.2 Secondary sources

* 13 External links

Early life

Gorbachev faced a very tough childhood under the totalitarian leadership of Joseph Stalin. His paternal grandfather was sentenced to nine years in the gulag for withholding grain from the collective's harvest.[2] He lived through World War II, during which, starting in August 1942, German troops occupied Stavropol. Although they left by February 1943, the occupation increased the hardship of the community and left a deep impression on the young Gorbachev.[3] From 1946 to 1950, he worked during the summers as an assistant combine harvester operator at the collective farms in his area.[3] He would take an increasing part in promoting peasant labour, which he describes as "very hard" because of enforced state quotas and taxes on private plots. Furthermore, as peasants were not issued passports, their only opportunity to leave their peasant existence was through enlisting in 'orgnabor' (organised recruitment) labour projects, which prompted Gorbachev to ask "what difference was there between this life and serfdom?"[4]

Political career

Despite the hardship of his background, Gorbachev excelled in the fields and in the classroom. He was considered one of the most intelligent in his class [2], with a particular interest in history and mathematics. After he left school he helped his father harvest a record crop on his collective farm. As a result, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, at just 16 (1947). It was rare for someone his age to be given such an honour. It was almost certain that this award, coupled with his intelligence, helped secure his place at Moscow University, where he studied law from September 1950.[3] Gorbachev may never have intended to practice law, however he simply may have seen it as preparation for working in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He became a candidate member of the Party that same year.[3] While living in Moscow, he met his future wife, Raisa Maksimovna Titarenko.[3] They married on 25 September 1953 and moved to Gorbachev's home region of Stavropol in southern Russia when he graduated in June 1955, where he immersed himself in party work.[3] Upon graduating, he briefly worked in the Prokuratura (Soviet State Procuracy) before transferring to the Komsomol, or Communist Union of Youth. He served as First Secretary of the Stavropol City Komsomol Committee from September, 1956, later moving up to the Stavropol Krai (regional) Komsomol Committee, where he worked as Second Secretary from April 1958 and as First Secretary from March 1961.[3] Raisa would give birth to their first child, a daughter named Irina, on 6 January 1957.[4]

Gorbachev attended the important XXII CPSU Party Congress in October 1961, where Khrushchev announced a plan to move to a Communist society within 20 years and surpass the U.S. in per capita production. Gorbachev was promoted to Head of the Department of Party Organs in the Stavropol Agricultural Kraikom in 1963.[3] By 1966, at age 35, he obtained a correspondence degree as an agronomist-economist from the Agricultural Institute.[3] His career moved forward rapidly. In 1970, he was appointed First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Kraikom, becoming one of the youngest provincial party chiefs in the USSR.[3] In this position he helped to reorganise the collective farms, improve workers' living conditions, expand the size of their private plots, and give them a greater voice in planning.[3] His work was evidently effective, because he was made a member of the CPSU Central Committee in 1971. In 1972, he headed a Soviet delegation to Belgium,[3] and two years later, in 1974, he was made a Representative to the Supreme Soviet, and Chairman of the Standing Commission on Youth Affairs. He was subsequently appointed to the Central Committee Secretariat for Agriculture in 1978, replacing Fyodor Kulakov, who had backed his rise to power, after Kulakov died of a heart attack.[3][4]

In 1979, Gorbachev was promoted to the Politburo as a candidate member, and received full membership in 1980. Gorbachev owed his steady rise to power to the patronage of Mikhail Suslov, the powerful chief ideologist of the CPSU, and Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB and also a native of Stavropol, and was promoted during Andropov's brief time as leader of the Party before Andropov's death in 1984.[5] With responsibility over personnel, working together with Andropov, 20% of the top echelon of government ministers and regional governors were replaced, often with younger men. During this time Grigory Romanov, Nikolai Ryzhkov and Yegor Ligachev were elevated, the latter two working closely with Gorbachev, Ryzhkov on economics, Ligachev on personnel. He was also close to Konstantin Chernenko, Andropov's successor, serving as Second Secretary.[6]

Gorbachev's positions within the CPSU created more opportunities to travel abroad and this would profoundly affect his political and social views in the future as leader of the country. In 1975, he led a delegation to West Germany, and in 1983 he headed a delegation to Canada to meet with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and members of the Commons and Senate. In 1984, he travelled to the UK, where he met the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

General Secretary of the CPSU

Only 3 hours after the death of Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev, at the age of 54, was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party on 11 March 1985 when Politburo supporters of Grigory Romanov had been out of Moscow [1]

He became the Party's first leader to have been born after the Revolution. As de facto ruler of the USSR, he tried to reform the stagnating Party and the state economy by introducing glasnost ("openness"), perestroika ("restructuring"), demokratizatsiya ("democratization"), and uskoreniye ("acceleration", of economic development), which were launched at the 27th Congress of the CPSU in February 1986.

Domestic reforms

Domestically, Gorbachev implemented economic reforms that he hoped would improve living standards and worker productivity as part of his perestroika programme. However, many of his reforms were considered radical at the time by orthodox apparatchiks in the Soviet government.