#vietnam visa san francisco

[hajsadhku]

Vietnam Tourist & Business Visa Service San Diego, CA, Phoenix, AZ

If you are seeking to apply for Vietnam visa tourist or business, Get in touch with Express travel services in San Diego for expedited or rush Vietnam visa.

[intelligence365]

Want to get Vietnam visa quickly? ETS Vietnam business visa and tourist visa services

Want to get a Vietnam visa quickly? Contact ETS Vietnam Visa San Diego Services now

[justforbooks]

Eamonn McCabe, who has died suddenly aged 74, was a photographer, photo editor, educator and broadcaster, and served as the Guardian’s picture editor for 13 years. And when he wasn’t shooting, editing or talking about images, he was collecting awards for doing so. His work won him picture editor of the year an unprecedented six times and sports photographer of the year four times, creating groundbreaking photographs for the Observer. From his early pictures, such as one of a table tennis player with a very high throw, or an image of Björn Borg’s gimlet eyes on a tennis ball, it was recognised that Eamonn, like Borg, had his own way of perceiving the world. He was bringing something different to sports photography and his trophy cupboard started to fill.

In 1985 he won news photographer of the year for his photographs of the Heysel stadium disaster in Brussels. He was there to cover a football match, but sport was forgotten when the tragic events unfolded. He said that witnessing this horror had a lasting effect on him and perhaps hastened his departure from sports photography. “I went as a sports photographer, thrilled to be covering Juventus against Liverpool, and ended up a news photographer, as the whole thing turned into a terrifying disaster in which 39 supporters were killed … I never processed the films from the game itself. They didn’t seem to be very important.”

Editing pictures became the route out of weekly witnessing English football at its worst, and in 1988 Eamonn was recruited as picture editor of the Guardian by its then editor, Peter Preston, to help the paper see off the new Independent with its well-printed photography. Eamonn’s unique way of seeing and framing the world worked as well behind a desk as behind his cameras. He understood how a news or feature photograph is used and cropped is often as important as its content.

Eamonn was born in Highgate, north London. His father, James McCabe, was a taxi driver and his mother, Celia (nee Henchy), a hotel receptionist. They went on to open a hotel in Manor House opposite Finsbury Park. The young Eamonn grew up among the same postwar streets as another photography great, Don McCullin. At Challoner school in Finchley, it seems he spent most of the time playing football and boxing – he left school with just a couple of O-levels. He started work in a solicitor’s office, then in the accounts department of a brewery, but ledgers and spreadsheets were not for him and he got a job as a junior in an advertising agency. A previous incumbent of his lowly position had been David Bowie.

After a couple of years he got the travel bug, left the ad agency and headed to the capital of flower power in the 60s, San Francisco. He enrolled for a film-making course, but discovered a love for stills photography rather than movies. Eventually he had to leave – with the visa he held, he was in danger of being sent to Vietnam. But first he had a Rolling Stones gig to go to: “Mick Jagger laid on a free Stones concert on 6 December 1969 at the Altamont Speedway, northern California. Three hundred thousand people turned up. I had my cameras and pushed my way upfront to the tiny stage that had been hastily produced. By most accounts, the Hells Angels were hired as security for $500 worth of beer. If Woodstock was the dream, Altamont was the nightmare – the stage was much too low and the Angels didn’t like the sight of nudity and weighed into the crowd with snooker cues. A big guy next to me got the worst of it and I just ran. You don’t argue with the Angels high on beer.”

Returning to the UK, he worked in the photo unit of Imperial College, followed by a job with the London Photo Agency (LPA). He worked in the darkrooms and took pictures at rock concerts. This was a far more exciting world for a 23-year-old. Eamonn said: “The Rolling Stones, the Who, the Beach Boys – they were our heroes. Theirs was the music we listened to anyway ... there was a rawness about them that made good pictures.”

However, in the LPA building, there was another picture agency, Sporting Pictures, where Eamonn got some shifts shooting football matches. He had always been keen on sport, specifically football, and he was a lifelong Tottenham Hotspur fan. Like many sports photographers, if he hadn’t been sent to an event to take pictures, he might well have been there as a fan.

In 1974 Eamonn decided to set up his own picture agency in north London – working for the local papers in the area, but crucially shooting all the home matches of the north London rivals Spurs and Arsenal. He distributed pictures to the national papers. Within a couple of years he landed a contract with the Observer. The paper allowed and encouraged him to develop a style – what became known as “an Eamonn McCabe picture” – a different angle, perhaps away from the peak of the action; a detail; something graphic; a strong use of black and white; a touch of humour. The Guardian’s sports photographer Tom Jenkins said: “Formal shape and a whimsical sense of humour played a large part in McCabe’s sports work, like his picture of the bald Bristol City goalkeeper John Shaw looking like he was about to boot his own head into the centre-circle. Eamonn was always on the lookout for something different.”

According to Jenkins, a picture of the boxer Sylvester Mittee wrapping his hands with bandages before a training session is a prime example of this: “A close-up moment that probably no other photographer at the time would have bothered with.” Eamonn himself explained the choice of lens: “I grabbed a 180mm lens, quite long for indoor work, but it paid off. The effect was to throw everything out of focus except the bandaging and texture of his fingers.”

He documented just about every sport and covered three Olympic Games. And he photographed the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer – as a sports photographer he was able to capture the kiss on the palace balcony with his long cricket lens.

The peerless sports journalist Hugh McIlvanney wrote of being Eamonn’s colleague at the Observer in a foreword to his first book, Sports Photographer (1982): “Working with Eamonn McCabe can be hazardous to a reporter’s ego. His photographs often convey the essence of an event or a performer with such dramatic succinctness that the writer assigned to the same job is left with the feeling of having turned in a 1,500-word caption.”

As well as shooting sport, Eamonn also played for an amateur team, the Nine Elms Dynamos: “One morning, when we were getting a real spanking,” he wrote, “a long-haired centre forward scored yet another goal and ran back past me as I was lying face down in the mud: ‘You didn’t get a picture of that one, did you?’”

After Heysel, Eamonn was offered his first picture-editing job, on a new magazine, Sportsweek. It seemed a perfect journal for the move from shooting to editing photography. Unfortunately, the proprietor was Robert Maxwell. It was a good product with great photography, edited by Eamonn, but it lost money and Maxwell soon tired of the losses. The Guardian needed a new picture editor. Perhaps an award-winning sports photographer with very little editing experience might not have been everyone’s choice, but Preston knew it could work.

Paul Johnson, until recently deputy editor of the Guardian, said that Eamonn “transformed the look and feel of the newspaper almost overnight. Some senior colleagues felt the photographs were just too big and were squeezing out words, until gently reminded, with a smile, that no reader had ever complained about the lack of words in the Guardian (the wrong words, yes, all the time, but not lack of them).”

Eamonn recruited new photographers and ensured that photography was not an afterthought. He got his picture choice printed on 20in x 16in paper by the Guardian darkroom and argued hard for his selection in news meetings. Johnson said: “Eamonn had a compelling visual literacy but also warmth and charisma. People loved working for him, people loved working with him.”

Eamonn was in his element as the Guardian covered the big news events that seemed to come with increasing frequency at the time – the downing of the Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, the Clapham rail crash, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

In 2001 Eamonn decided to “go back on the road”. He had a need to create his own images. He stayed on at the Guardian, but this time shooting something a bit quieter: portraits. He photographed many notable people, from Tony Blair to Iris Murdoch, Lou Reed to Desmond Tutu. The Guardian feature writer Simon Hattenstone said: “Eamonn was astonishingly quick, he never panicked, and he was fantastically unobtrusive. Often the photo was done before the subjects had time to smile or stiffen up.” He favoured a direct approach with his portraits. He liked his subjects to confront his camera and, by extension, the viewer.

Many of these photographs are in the National Portrait Gallery collection. He also photographed artists and their studios for the Guardian and the Royal Academy magazine, including Frank Auerbach, Grayson Perry, Bridget Riley, Howard Hodgkin and Maggi Hambling.

Eamonn was keen to pass on his knowledge and inspire others. A steady stream of hopefuls brought portfolios to his desk, where he dispensed advice and encouragement. His educational work extended to TV programmes such as Britain in Focus (2017) for the BBC. He was often chosen by the broadcast media as a photo pundit – he was recently interviewed about imagery of Queen Elizabeth – and his relaxed manner and thorough knowledge made him a natural on TV or radio. He published six books – the last one, on aerial photography, demonstrates the breadth of his photographic knowledge.

As well as honorary professorships at Thames Valley (Preston responded to the appointment by nicknaming him “Prof”) and Staffordshire universities, Eamonn was visiting senior fellow in photography at the University of Suffolk and held an honorary doctorate from the University of East Anglia.

He moved to Suffolk a few years ago and immediately got involved with photography in the county. He taught at the university in Ipswich and when PhotoEast – the Ipswich-based photo festival – was founded, Eamonn was asked if he would become the patron. He agreed without question.

Eamonn was always a dapper dresser and, once he had left his sports photographer’s waterproofs behind, his tweed coat and jaunty hats looked the part in the small town of Saxmundham where he lived. Although he was a Londoner who enjoyed the pubs, jazz clubs and art galleries of the city, life in the country gave him land- and seascapes to photograph and a vegetable garden to tend. He swapped soccer for golf – he played a round two days before he died.

On hearing the news of his death, Eamonn’s erstwhile neighbour McCullin said: “McCabe was like all great photographers – he never stopped working. Like most of us, his life was photography.” The answer to which is one of Eamonn’s favourite sayings, “It’s better than working, Rog”.

In July 1997 Eamonn asked Rebecca Smithers, a Guardian journalist, to marry him while they were on a press trip to New York – they were married at City Hall a couple of days later. He is survived by Rebecca and their daughter, Mabel; by Ben, his son from a previous marriage, to Ruth Calvert, that ended in divorce; and by Marian, his sister.

Alan Rusbridger writes: The email from Eamonn McCabe popped into my inbox just after breakfast one day in the spring of 2009. “What is it with X [here was the name of an internationally acclaimed fashion photographer whose work had been featured in that day’s Guardian]? I don’t get it. That photograph (?) of Y [here was the name of the subject in the offending portrait] has to be one of the worst we have ever printed ... I spent years trying to get that sort of crap out of the pages. What next, handshakes and big cheques?”

I revisited the image this week. It was, indeed, sensationally bad – poorly lit, awkward shadows, overexposed, lazily composed, clumsily cropped and barely in focus.

I don’t think Eamonn was bitter about the prices his fellow lensman could command (upwards of £40k for a plate). More likely, he felt puzzled – and, on behalf of press photographers the world over, a bit insulted. As a former picture editor, he knew that a dozen or more staff or freelance photographers – none of them remotely household names – would have come up with a better photograph given five minutes and a bare wall.

Eamonn was a press photographer to his fingertips. As a sports photographer on the Observer, he had lightning reactions and an instinctive eye for composition. Even if you didn’t know the name, you’d recognise many of the iconic images from his years on the touchline.

The former Times writer, Simon Barnes, wrote of his images: “People in sports journalism talk about an ‘Eamonn McCabe shot’ even when McCabe did not take the picture. They are talking about a style, a vision, a way of looking at sport.”

It was an inspired move when my predecessor as editor of the Guardian, Peter Preston, hired Eamonn to be picture editor in 1988 – the time of a crucial redesign. The paper had always employed distinguished staff photographers, but they were often let down by the quality of printing and by lacklustre design. Eamonn did, indeed, ban the “crap” – especially the cliched picture that told you nothing. He favoured the bold, the unexpected – images that not only caught your eye but lingered in the mind. He was encouraging to young photographers; always approachable … and always up for a pint or two at the end of his shift.

He was a late convert to the power of colour – once railing against the distracting glare of hi-vis jackets in an image of rescue workers at a train crash. But, in time, he came to accept the inevitable.

And then, remarkably, he had a third career (via a flirtation with landscape) as a portrait photographer, usually illustrating the culture pages’ profile of distinguished writers, artists and musicians. Unlike some internationally acclaimed photographers he could mention, he might only be given a few minutes and inadequate light in which to bag his shot. Nine times out of 10 he memorably and sensitively captured his subject.

It’s difficult to think of a comparable figure in photography – one who successfully crossed genres and who also had a spell generously editing the work of his peers. He was also one of the warmest and most collaborative figures in Fleet Street.

“Journalists are far too bashful to refer to any of their newspaper work as ‘art’,” wrote Barnes in an introduction to Eamonn’s work in 1987. Hence, perhaps, Eamonn’s snort of derision for the picture in the Guardian back in 2009. But Eamonn was truly a kind of artist, as well as an unpretentious pressman. He was a very rare thing.

🔔 Eamonn McCabe, photographer, born 28 July 1948; died 2 October 2022

📷 Photo above: Eamonn McCabe looking at his negatives in the press room during the 1988 British Open Golf Championships in Lytham St Annes.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[newstfionline]

Thursday, June 20, 2024

National debt will exceed $50 trillion by 2034, budget watchdog estimates (Washington Post) As lawmakers grapple with increasing defense demands and spending on social safety net programs, the Congressional Budget Office projected Tuesday that the federal debt will equal 122 percent of the United States’ annual economic output by 2034, far surpassing the high set in the aftermath of World War II. The deficit will swell to $1.9 trillion this fiscal year and keep growing until the overall national debt hits $50.7 trillion a decade from now, Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper said in its latest report. And Medicare and Social Security are running low on funds, which could force a benefit cut for tens of millions of Americans just as the national debt crescendos.

New wildfires grow in Northern California as firefighters gain ground against big blaze in the south (AP) Big new wildfires challenged California firefighters Tuesday even as they increased containment of earlier blazes that erupted as dry north winds arrived over the weekend. Evacuations were ordered after the Aero Fire erupted Monday and spread over more than 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) near Copperopolis, a small community in Calaveras County, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) east of San Francisco in the state’s historic Gold Country region. The Aero Fire is among the latest blazes to erupt in California in a matter of days as a quiet start to fire season suddenly became active, with flames consuming drying grasses and brush encouraged by back-to-back wet winters. Most of the fires have been kept small, but a handful have charred thousands of acres.

Deaths, drownings and destruction as heavy rains move through Central America. 3 killed in Guatemala (AP) Three men drowned in Guatemala when two of them tried to help another who had tried to cross an overflowing river, as heavy rains caused death and destruction across Central America, authorities said Tuesday. The three fatalities on Monday were the latest in a series of deaths caused by heavy rains in the region in recent days. In neighboring El Salvador, 11 people have died over the past week. Both countries have canceled school, and El Salvador has opened shelters for the displaced. Two weather systems—one along Guatemala’s Pacific coast and the other in the Gulf of Mexico—have brought saturating rains to southern Mexico and Central America.

Strict asylum rules and poor treatment of migrants are pushing people north to the UK (AP) Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants are pushing immigrants north. While the U.K. government has been hostile, too, many migrants have family or friends in the U.K. and a perception they will have more opportunities there. EU rules stipulate that a person must apply for asylum in the first member state they land in. This has overwhelmed countries on the edge of the 27-nation bloc such as Italy, Greece and Spain. Some migrants don’t even try for new lives in the EU anymore. They are flying to France from as far away as Vietnam to attempt the Channel crossing after failing to get permission to enter the U.K., which has stricter visa requirements.

Hungary’s Orbán is going MEGA at the European Union’s helm for six months (AP) Hungary’s populist government announced on Tuesday that its upcoming presidency of the European Union will be held under the motto “Make Europe Great Again,” but played down any parallels with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement in the United States. “This is a reference to an active presidency,” Hungary’s EU Affairs Minister János Bóka said as he outlined Budapest’s program and ambitions for its six months at the helm of the world’s biggest trading bloc, starting on July 1. Asked about the similarities to the former U.S. president’s Make America Great Again slogan, Bóka insisted it was focused on Europe, saying: “I don’t know if Donald Trump ever wanted to make Europe great again.” The EU presidency rotates among its member countries. The post holds little real power but it does allow countries to put national priorities high on Europe’s agenda.

‘Drone sanctions’ burn Russian oil reserves (Guardian) A Ukrainian defence source confirmed a drone attack was used to blow up oil storage tanks near the town of Azov in Rostov, southern Russia. Agence France-Presse said the defence source described it as a “successful” attack and said it caused “powerful fires in the installations”. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) “will continue to impose ‘drone sanctions’ on Russia’s oil refining complex and reduce the enemy’s economic potential, which provides the aggressor with resources to wage war against Ukraine”. Video published by Russia’s emergencies ministry showed thick smoke and flames billowing out of what appeared to be multiple oil storage tanks over a large area. About 200 Russian firefighters and emergency personnel were sent in. The Rostov region sits directly across the border from Ukraine and is home to the operational headquarters overseeing Russia’s invasion.

In Ukraine, Concerns Mount Over Narrowing Press Freedoms (NYT) A Ukrainian reporter who revealed that a state news agency tried to bar interviews with opposition politicians said he received a draft notification the next day. Ukraine’s domestic spy agency spied on staff members of an investigative news outlet through peepholes in their hotel rooms. The public broadcaster has decried what it says is political pressure on its reporting. Journalists and groups monitoring press freedoms are raising alarms over what they say are increasing restrictions and pressures on the media in Ukraine under the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky that go well beyond the country’s wartime needs. “It’s really disturbing,” said Oksana Romanyuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information, a nonprofit that monitors media freedoms. That is particularly true, she said, in a war where Ukraine is “fighting for democracy against the values of dictatorship embodied by Russia.”

Russia and North Korea sign partnership deal (AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement Wednesday that pledges mutual aid if either country faces “aggression,” a strategic pact that comes as both face escalating standoffs with the West. Details of the deal were not immediately clear, but it could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. Both leaders described it as a major upgrade of their relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties. The summit came as Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years and the U.S. and its allies expressed growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Philippines accuses China of ‘piracy’ after ship boarded, sailor injured (Washington Post) The Chinese coast guard boarded a Philippine navy vessel and damaged and confiscated equipment in a confrontation that left a sailor severely injured earlier this week, the Philippines announced Wednesday in a stark escalation of tensions over the disputed South China Sea. According to Philippine officials, Chinese vessels on Monday rammed Philippine ships to stop them from resupplying a warship, the Sierra Madre, which has long been beached on a half-submerged reef 120 miles away from the Philippine province of Palawan and is at the center of the dispute between the two countries. Chinese coast guard used knives and machetes to puncture Philippine rubber dinghies that were attempting to reach the outpost and confiscated equipment on Philippine navy vessels, officials said. One sailor’s hand was severely injured. Chinese coast guard officials, in turn, said a Philippine supply ship had “deliberately and dangerously” approached a Chinese ship, causing a minor collision.

U.S. Pier for Gaza Aid Is Failing, and Could Be Dismantled Early (NYT) The $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. military built on short notice to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza has largely failed in its mission, aid organizations say, and will probably end operations weeks earlier than originally expected. In the month since it was attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 10 days. The rest of the time, it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart, detached to avoid further damage or paused because of security concerns. The pier was never meant to be more than a stopgap measure while the Biden administration pushed Israel to allow more food and other supplies into Gaza through land routes, a far more efficient way to deliver relief. But even the modest goals for the pier are likely to fall short, some American military officials say. Officials now hope to pressure Israel to open more land routes into the territory, which is facing extreme levels of hunger.

Relatives search for missing in Saudi Arabia as hajj death toll tops 900 (AFP) Relatives scoured hospitals and pleaded online for news, fearing the worst after temperatures hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, on Monday. About 1.8 million people from all over the world, many old and infirm, took part in the days-long, mostly outdoor pilgrimage, held this year during the oven-like Saudi summer. An Arab diplomat told AFP that deaths among Egyptians alone had jumped to "at least 600", from more than 300 a day earlier, mostly from the unforgiving heat. That figure brought the total reported dead so far to 922, according to an AFP tally of figures released by various countries.

Ship attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in fatal assault sinks in Red Sea in their second sinking (AP) A bulk carrier sank days after an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels believed to have killed one mariner on board, authorities said early Wednesday, the second ship sunk in the rebels’ campaign. The sinking of the Tutor in the Red Sea marks what appears to be a new escalation by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their campaign targeting shipping through the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The attack comes despite a monthslong U.S.-led campaign in the region that has seen the Navy face its most-intense maritime fighting since World War II, with near-daily attacks targeting commercial vessels and warships.

Can you inherit memories from your ancestors? (Guardian) Scientists working in the emerging field of epigenetics have discovered the mechanism that allows lived experience and acquired knowledge to be passed on within one generation, by altering the shape of a particular gene. This means that an individual’s life experience doesn’t die with them but endures in genetic form. The impact of the starvation your Dutch grandmother suffered during the second world war, for example, or the trauma inflicted on your grandfather when he fled his home as a refugee, might go on to shape your parents’ brains, their behaviours and eventually yours. [This] could support us to do everything we can to be the ancestors our descendants need. Conflict, neglect and trauma induce unpredictable and far-reaching changes. But so do trust, curiosity and compassion. Doing the right thing today could indeed cascade across generations.

‘Boommates’ (Washington Post) Cynthia Holzapfel, 76, knows what it’s like to share a home with someone else—or even 30 others. As one of the early residents of the Farm, a 1970s-era commune in Summertown, Tenn., Holzapfel lived under the same roof with multiple couples and more than a dozen children in a five-bedroom house where everything from the laundry room to meals was shared. The Farm is no longer a commune, although the land is still owned collectively by its residents. Yet one thing never changed for Holzapfel: housemates. Over the last 20 years, she has rented her basement to seven families. Holzapfel is among the growing number of baby boomers, the 76 million people born in the United States from 1946 to 1964, living with intergenerational housemates. And they just may be part of the solution to America’s grinding housing crisis. Several generations living under one roof would help ease the housing crunch and the loneliness epidemic affecting half of U.S. adults. “We’ve had a really delightful time with almost everyone that’s come through here,” says Holzapfel, adding some of their youngest housemates have become like grandchildren.

[indiavietnamphotoblog]

With one month off of school, the ongoing grad student strike, and a temporary pause to the whitefly and melon research, I decided to go to India and then Vietnam for my 2022-2023 Winter break. Before even arriving here in India it was a very eventful trip. My initial EVisa application was rejected due to some glare on the passport photo, so I tried getting a paper visa from the Indian consulate via the company VFS Global. This proved to be a huge mistake as the processing was incredibly slow and the required forms were very unclear. Ultimately, with less than a week left before flying I canceled the paper visa and applied again for the Evisa, getting it less than 24 hours. I then spent the whole week calling VFS and trying to contact them any possible way to get my passport back from them in time to leave. I finally was able to talk to a person in the San Francisco office on Friday and they mailed the passport that day. It arrived from the UPS overnight shipping at 10:30 am, just one hour before I had to drive to LAX catch my flight. We made it to the airport in Delhi around 1am the next day and were cleared through customs quickly. Some friends of Shubhy’s drove us to Shubhy’s sister (Shagun’s) apartment in Sector D, southwest of the city center. We were greeted warmly that evening with many tasty snacks. It was also nice to be back to bathrooms with sprayer style bidets, after so long in the US using less functional bathroom facilities. When we woke up we got to enjoy a nice simple breakfast cooked by the servant, and then planned out our day in Delhi.

[history-matters]

MISSING COMFORT

ROBERT SIVARD of USIA

The Russian bakery scene was painted when Sivard was in Moscow negotiating for the 1959 exposition there, which resulted in the “kitchen conversation.” This exhibit of US culture and productivity covered ten acres.

Robert Paul Sivard - b NY 12/7/1914. Pratt Inst. of Fine and Applied Arts, cert. 38. US Army 42-46 capt with the Army Evacuation Hospitals in England, France and Germany. PRIV EXPER muralist, commercial artist 38-40, created works for the Oregon State Capitol, the New York and San Francisco World’s Fairs, and the La Guardia Airport; art director Lexicon Advertising Agency and for Fawcett Publications 40-41, 41-42, 46-48. Geneva, consultant to art director for the International Refugee Organization 48-50. ECA Paris S-2 visa info officer 2/50, prog and plan off 8 /53-6 / 54. Dept. economic analyst 55. USIA Agcy spec asst to dep dir 9/54, S-1 12/56, chief Exhibits Div 9/58, R-2 1/59, CR-2 7/61, GS-16 10/62 art dir 12/66, R-2 12/71, design coord 5/74. Time Magazine featured his Paris paintings in articles with color reproductions in 1955 and again in 1963. He had an exclusive arrangement with the Midtown Galleries of New York throughout most of his career in fine art.

Ruth Leger Sivard (1915-2015) was born in Queens, New York, the daughter of George Leger, a fabric salesman, and Susan Zieten Leger, a German immigrant who worked as a seamstress. After graduation from Flushing High School, Sivard attended Smith College, earning a degree in Sociology in 1937. She later earned a Master's degree in Economics at New York University in 1942. Sivard then went to work for the Office of Price Administration in Washington during World War II. When the war ended, she went to work for the newly created UNRRA in Austria and the International Refugee Organization in Switzerland. She was deputy chief research branch of ECA in Paris 1949-53. USIA consultant 1957-60, consultant to the White House 1960-61. In 1961, Sivard joined the Federal Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, eventually serving as head of the economics division there, crafting reports that compared military and social spending in the US and around the world. In 1970 then Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird complained to President Nixon that these widely read reports made his job of getting the Defense budget through Congress difficult, especially as opposition to the Vietnam War grew. Sivard was ordered to stop releasing her comparative reports and, in response, she resigned from the Agency in 1971. Sivard went on to form the non-profit organization, World Priorities, Inc., based in Washington. Between 1974 and 1996, World Priorities published sixteen editions of the highly acclaimed"World Military and Social Expenditures,"clearly showing the costs of militarism, especially as the arms race escalated during the 1980s. In 1944, Ruth Leger married a high school classmate, Robert Sivard. Their marriage lasted forty-six years, until his death in 1990, and produced two children.

[acrostical]

Safe Haven

On December 8, 1941—the day after “a date which will live in infamy”—then-president Aurelia Henry Reinhardt wrote a letter to all Mills families. With the hindsight of nearly 80 years, it’s a surreal read; the main point of the letter was not to offer solace or organize war efforts, but to reassure parents that the Mills campus was unlikely to face any danger from a Japanese attack. “The English Channel is 26 miles wide; New York is 3,500 miles from Europe; California is 5,500 miles from Japan and 2,500 miles from our nearest possession in the Hawaiian group,” she wrote. “May I assure you that there exists no reason to change in any way the schedule and curriculum of this college in the spring term which begins Monday, January 5.”

At that point, no one knew that many students of Japanese descent would soon opt to leave Mills, hoping to avoid separation from their families as they were forced into internment camps across the United States. In the years leading up to World War II, President Reinhardt had approached a number of European artists and intellectuals to offer them a place at Mills as the Third Reich marched across the continent and sent to concentration camps anyone it deemed a threat, including Darius Milhaud and other notable figures in the College’s history, but that welcoming spirit couldn’t protect some of her own students.

When it comes to political and cultural forces outside the campus gates, the College has historically been limited in what it can do to protect its students. But as an institution, Mills has long welcomed members of marginalized communities, and outside restrictions have not altered the campus culture of acceptance.

In recent years, the term “sanctuary” has become a buzzword in our charged political environment. But in a historical sense, the concept originated with the sacred. In ancient Greece, spaces that honored the gods provided some measure of immunity to individuals escaping laws of the state (with limited success), and in Rome, Romulus established a zone on Capitoline Hill where asylum seekers from other places could find refuge. For centuries, places of worship have operated as spaces where people could take shelter, and it’s still happening today—churches around the world house migrants seeking to avoid deportation back to war-torn homelands.

The idea of sanctuary gained popularity in the United States in the 1980s when Central Americans began to flee their home countries in the wake of civil unrest, but Mills took on the responsibility of offering it 60 years earlier in the early days of World War II. In the 1961 book Aurelia Henry Reinhardt: Portrait of a Whole Woman, Chaplain George Hedley wrote that President Reinhardt contacted the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars (later Foreign Scholars) to invite intellectuals to Mills as soon as Hitler took power in Germany in 1933. Hedley noted that legends were told of Reinhardt physically transporting those scholars to campus herself.

A number of professors soon made their way to Oakland, including Alfred Neumeyer, who taught art history and directed what was then the Art Gallery, and the married couple Bernhard Blume and Carlotta Rosenberg. A German playwright, Bernhard headed up the German Department at Mills until 1945, and Rosenberg was a proponent of educating workers and women.

Of course, the most well-known Mills expats were the musician Darius Milhaud and his wife, Madeleine. In speaking with the author Roger Nichols in 1991, Madeleine detailed her family’s reaction when the Nazis entered Paris in June 1940: “We knew… that Milhaud was among the first on a list of intellectuals to be arrested because he was well known in Germany as a Jewish composer, and also because he did not share their right-wing ideals.”

The Milhauds made their way to Lisbon with plans to fly to New York, using an invitation from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to obtain visas. But upon arrival in Portugal, their plane tickets were declared invalid because they had been bought with French francs. The three—Darius, Madeleine, and their son—were just about to board an American freighter to cross the Atlantic when a telegram arrived with an offer to teach at Mills. The San Francisco-based French conductor Pierre Monteux had contacted President Reinhardt after learning that Milhaud was fleeing to America and connected the two.

Milhaud cabled his acceptance of the position and, a few months after arriving on campus, Dean of Faculty Dean Rusk (later US Secretary of State during the Vietnam War) wrote to the State Department to plead his case for Milhaud’s continued residency in the United States, which hinged on his history of contribution to the arts. Milhaud taught on and off at Mills from 1940 until 1971.

Milhaud’s influence on the Music Department (and the rest of the College) is well known, though he was not the only academic who molded Mills in indelible ways during this time. Helene Mayer, a champion German fencer at the 1928 Olympics, was studying at Scripps College when Hitler rose to power in her home country. She then enrolled at Mills for a master’s in French. While on campus studying for her MA and, later, teaching German literature, she founded the Mills College Fencing Club, jump-starting an organization that lasted for decades. And it’s to the credit of these scholars that the German Department at Mills built a strong enough foundation to eventually send many of its students abroad as Fulbright scholars.

The situation with students of Japanese descent was not nearly as easy to solve, however, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishing internment camps less than three months after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Alumnae who were at Mills during the attack remember that day as a sunny one, with word of the incident filtering in as they arrived back in their residence halls after Sunday chapel service. Japanese American students soon found their freedoms curtailed bit by bit, starting with an Army-ordered curfew that restricted their movement even on the Mills campus.

May Ohmura Watanabe ’44, who was born in California to American citizens, wrote about her experiences in multiple issues of the Quarterly. “I remember Dr. Hedley, the chaplain, was very upset and angry. I can still feel his hand tightly holding mine, his body slightly bent forward as he hurried to look at the curfew proclamation posted on the telephone pole just outside the campus,” she wrote in 1985. “He even took me to the Army’s headquarters in San Francisco to protest and to state his disbelief. All in vain.”

Watanabe soon left Mills and returned home to Chico so that she wouldn’t be sent to a different internment camp than her parents and brother. She spent a year at the Tule Lake Relocation Center near the Oregon border, then was released as part of a program allowing some detainees to work or attend school in special approved zones. Watanabe was allowed to transfer her credits to Syracuse University, where she studied nursing. “I remember the special arrangements Mills made for me before evacuation to take my exams in Chico supervised by my high school dean,” she wrote.

The late Grace Fujii Kikuchi ’42 made a similar choice to leave Mills to avoid separation from her family. As a senior, she was more easily able to bring her time at Mills to a close, though it wasn’t a happy time. “My professors at Mills had arranged for me to take my [exam] at a nearby high school,” she wrote in the same Quarterly issue. “All I know is that I was graduated in absentia with my class. Not to be able to attend my commencement after four hard years of work was a bitter disappointment to me.”

The frustrations of the Mills administration during this era were captured in a play by Catherine Ladnier ’70, which she based on actual letters President Reinhardt received from students who left the College due to World War II, including Japanese American students in internment camps. Titled A Future Day of Radiant Peace, the play details the personal turmoil these students experienced as they abandoned their bustling lives at Mills for the uncertainty of the camps. It also demonstrates what little power anyone on campus had to prevent the exodus.

In the aftermath of the war, however, Mills was able to provide sanctuary to several students whose home countries were suffering. Catherine Cambessedes Colburn ’47 and Noramah Sumakno Peksopoetranto ’56 traveled to the College from France and Indonesia, respectively. In the spring 1997 issue of the Quarterly, Colburn wrote about the strangeness of going from a country recovering from war to a land of plenty.

“Mills had sent a list of what I would need, and I owned next to none of the items, nor could I get them. Coupons, given out rarely, were required to buy anything. Besides, the stores were next to empty,” she wrote. “I exchanged my wine ration with a friend for her fabric coupon and my cigarette ration with another for hers, and got enough material for two clothing items.”

Peksopoetranto earned her opportunity to attend Mills through a one-year scholarship from the Edward H. Hazen Foundation. At the end of the year, Dean Anna Hawkes offered her room and board for a bachelor’s degree in education; she spent that summer staying in the home of Librarian Elizabeth Reynolds.

On October 29, 2018—two days after 11 were killed in a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—President Elizabeth L. Hillman sent an email to the Mills community. In it, she harkened back to the College’s history of providing sanctuary to Jewish scholars during World War II and the inspiration they provided to generations of students. “Higher education institutions like Mills have a special role to play in creating and sharing knowledge across boundaries of faith, race, gender, and background,” she wrote. “We can only fulfill our mission when everyone in our community is safe, respected, and able to grow and learn.”

In the last few years, President Hillman has sent a number of similar emails to the campus community after attacks, in the United States and abroad, that have targeted historically marginalized groups. According to Dean of Students Chicora Martin, the typical campus response finds its roots in Mills history. “Whenever an incident happens, we’re among a community where people may not always know what to do, but they are prepared to do something,” they said. “It’s part of our culture.”

“In times of immense crisis and identity-based violence, there is this depth of emotion and despair, but also a desire to be in community,” says Dara Olandt, campus chaplain and director of spiritual and religious life. “It has been very moving for me to see the ways in which students have offered leadership and shown up for each other.”

Olandt attributes the campus-wide attitude of acceptance and protection to the College’s past religiosity—in particular, President Reinhardt was the first woman moderator of the American Unitarian Association. (Olandt herself was ordained by the Unitarian Universalist church.) The chapel “is a refuge, and a place of deep hospitality. That’s what the forebears [who created] this chapel were really about,” Olandt says. “There’s power in this symbolic place where people are welcome in the fullness of their lives, no matter their identities.”

She also counsels those who travel to Mills from outside the country and hail from distinctly different societal and religious backgrounds than their US-born peers. That demographic has naturally been part of the student body for decades, but provides a different set of challenges due to the requirements of F-1 and J-1 student entry visas. Dean Martin serves as the principal designated school official on the Mills campus, so they are the first point of contact for the US government. “Every year, we have someone who can’t make it here because they can’t get a visa,” they say. “There are lots of restrictions with international students, and there’s a lot of documentation that you have to provide just for them to do normal-ish things, like getting a Social Security card or a driver’s license.”

Over the last four years, the legal status of undocumented students has been called into question across the country, and as a Hispanic Serving Institution, Mills has been prompted to respond. Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which began in 2012, undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US before they turned 18 could be granted renewable two-year periods where they would not be deported. When Donald Trump was elected to the presidency, he pledged to end the program—and set off a chain reaction at colleges and universities across the country, which became known as the “sanctuary campus” movement.

On November 16, 2016, President Hillman was one of hundreds of signatories to the Statement in Support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program, which underscored the contributions that its recipients have made to college communities across the country. “America needs talent—and these students, who have been raised and educated in the United States, are already part of our national community,” the statement reads. “They represent what is best about America, and as scholars and leaders they are essential to the future.”

Hillman also joined with more than two dozen college leaders in December 2017 as founding members of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, which advocates for fair treatment of DACA and international students, and she continues to contribute to amicus briefs compiled by the alliance on behalf of DACA students.

In practical terms, Martin says that Mills provides grants to affected DACA students to cover the legal paperwork required to renew their statuses, and the College will provide financial assistance to any undocumented student in the same amount the student would have received from a Pell Grant, which is a federal program and therefore off-limits to non-citizens.

But in terms of sanctuary? If immigration officials asked Mills to turn over student records, the College is theoretically protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which prohibits the disclosure of student information, including immigration status, to parties beyond those that need to know for the purposes of that student’s education. Nothing like that has happened yet, but administrators say that it’s really not the point. The last few years have, in the end, cemented the kind of institution Mills wants to be.

“We were asking questions about our own values. The government’s now actively not supporting [these] students, so we have to come out very strongly with concrete statements and actions that clarify for our community where our values lie,” Martin says.

“Aurelia Reinhardt was deeply motivated by her values, which had roots in her religious and spiritual background,” Olandt adds. “She was very much anchored in a spirit of service and what we call today solidarity with marginalized folks. How can we uphold the best of humanity and live a moral and ethical life in the face of challenge?”

[roundtheworldrambles]

Luang Prabang, Laos - Part 1

Day 161 – Chiang Mai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos

In the afternoon, I packed up my bag and hailed a Red Songthaew to Chiang Mai’s airport, boarding a small, propeller plane that would take me to Luang Prabang, Laos. The flight was short, about an hour and a half east, over the mountainous green highlands. The air outside was thick and hazy, caused by smoke from burning farmer’s fields. I learned that between February-April, this was fairly common for northern Thailand and Laos, as farmers burn their fields before reseeding the soil.

Arriving at the small, red roofed airport in Luang Prabang, I quickly passed through customs, paying for my visa on arrival with US dollars. It was an interesting visa experience for me, as the visa application fee varied depending on the home country of the traveller – with Canadians paying the highest amount of any listed country. After doing some research after the fact, it appears that this is based on the reciprocal cost a Laotian would need to pay to visit Canada. Furthermore, the visa costs are also apparently related to the amount of international aid provided to Laos, where citizens of countries which have provided a higher level of aid pay lower visa costs as a result. I had not given much thought to the reciprocity of international visas before my arrival in Laos, and this was an eye-opening, educational experience for me.

As I was negotiating for a ride into town in the arrivals hall, I had the very good fortune of meeting a fellow traveller from San Francisco, Tonya, who was also travelling by herself. We quickly found out that we were also staying at the same guesthouse, and became immediate friends! Sharing a ride into town on a multi-coloured tuk-tuk, we also realized that we had a very similar itinerary planned around Asia for the coming few months! After settling into our hostel for the evening, we headed out into the town as the sun was setting.

Luang Prabang

The small city of Luang Prabang is built on a peninsula at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers, surrounded by lush green mountains. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, Luang Prabang was once the capital of the historic Lane Xang Kingdom from the 14th to 16th centuries (also known as the “Kingdom of a Million Elephants”). Luang Prabang was also a historic trade centre in Southeast Asia, given its proximity to the meandering Mekong Rivier, which runs for almost 5,000 km through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Luang Prabang is also known for being the centre for Buddhism in Laos, and has many active temples, or “Vats” scattered throughout the town centre. The town was part of a French protectorate between 1893 and 1954, and the colonial influences of this era can still be seen in the architecture throughout the urban centre. Modern day Luang Prabang showcases traditional and French colonial styles throughout the town. Given the current UNESCO protections, the historic town centre was also remarkably free of the overdevelopment that can come with tourism. It was evident to me that the town had taken great care to protect their cultural heritage and architecture, with conservation and sustainability in mind.

Luang Prabang Night Market

As evening fell, Tonya and I wandered over a short distance to Sisavangvong Road, the main street through the peninsula, which was bustling with a vibrant night market.  The street had been closed off to vehicles and scooters, and there were hundreds of red and blue covered stalls and bamboo mats lining the street, selling countless beautiful and unique wares. There was an incredible collection of handicrafts, ceramics, silks, clothing, antiques and other souvenirs for sale. Many of the items sold were handmade by ethnic groups in the nearby hills, although some stalls also sold cheap, imported trinkets. Overall, the market had a relaxed atmosphere, with the vendors typically waiting for the visitor to inquire about the items rather than making sales pitches. One stall in particular caught my eye – where the trader was selling jewellery and cutlery which were apparently made by recycling fragments of bombs which had been dropped on Laos by the United States during the Vietnam War.

I had no previous knowledge of the bombing campaign in Laos during the war, and was stunned to learn that there were close to 600,000 bombing campaigns in Laos between 1964-1973, with the goal to cut off supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail running into Vietnam. To this day, there are estimated to be almost 80 million unexploded bombs throughout the country, which continue to kill innocent men, women and children who happen to come upon them – near half a century later. It sickened me to think about all of the bombs lying dormant in fields and forests throughout this picturesque, welcoming country.

Tonya and I briefly stopped by a money exchange to switch out our US dollars to Laotian Kip. The local denominations were huge - with banknote amounts ranging between K500 to K100,000. For the remainder of my time in Laos, this made it quite challenging to monitor just how much money I had, as the many “zeros” on the banknotes automatically tricked my brain into thinking I had more money than I actually did!

One of the Many Fresh Smoothie Stands in the Market

We spent the remainder of the evening browsing the night market, sampling spicy Laotian dishes at the food stalls along the street, and enjoying passionfruit smoothies. It was a great first day in Laos, and I was lucky to have equally terrific company with Tonya!

Day 162 – Luang Prabang

After grabbing breakfast at our hostel and befriending a few other travellers, Tonya and I headed out to explore town, passing first through the morning farmer’s market just along the street outside. The vendors start setting up before sunrise, and it was already busy as we walked through around 8:30am. Local produce and the catch-of-the-day were set up for sale on mats on the ground. Ready-to-eat snacks were also for sale, such as charcoal-grilled honeycomb, baelfruit, mung-bean rice cakes, Mok Pa (a dish cooked with catfish caught in the Mekong), Lao Khao Soi, various meats cooked in banana leaf, Khao Jee Pate (a Laotian take on a Banh Mi Baguette sandwich) barbecued frog, water buffalo sausage, coconut milk pancakes, young coconuts, various noodle dishes, and even grilled rat – just to name a few snacks! We enjoyed stolling along the street, chatting with the friendly vendors, and taking in the vibrant colours, sights and smells of the market.

We continued onwards to the bank of the Mekong River, lined with palm and banana trees. Long, shallow river boats churned through the milky brown water below. Beyond the wide, lazy river, we could see lush green mountains in the distance. As we walked along the embankment, various tour operators approached us, trying to sell us tours in these slow riverboats. While we were certainly interested, Tonya and I had done our research on reputable tours, and planned to purchase our trip up the Mekong for the following day.

Drying Orange Robes in a Monastery in Luang Prabang

Turning inland, we began to meander along the quieter streets of town, lined with traditional Lao houses and guesthomes, many of which were constructed with bamboo materials during the colonial period. The UNESCO protections in the town continued to be evident, as there were no high-rise buildings or large tour buses anywhere in the town centre. Tuk-tuks and scooters were by far the most common means of transportation for locals and visitors. As we walked, we occasionally passed some active Buddhist monasteries, and while we could not enter, we could see the laundered orange robes of the monks hanging out to dry.  

Wat Xieng Thong

We visited one of the best-known monasteries in the town centre, Wat Xieng Thong. Dating back to the 16th century, the temple complex housed a gilded ordination hall, with large, sweeping roofs, along with numerous stupas, chapels, a library, a drum tower, and a funeral carriage - historically used to carry the urns of Lao royalty. The architecture throughout Wat Xieng Thong was simply stunning, with every structure richly decorated with engravings, colourful mosaics, paintings, gilding and elaborate sculptures.  

A close-up of mosaics at Wat Xieng Thong

Ready for some shade and bite to eat, Tonya and I headed to the banks of the Nam Khan River, crossing a bamboo footbridge to the far bank. The bamboo bridges of Luang Prabang are built by local families on an annual basis, facilitating the journey to and from the old quarter of the city. Incredibly, though these bridges are solely built from bamboo and rope, they are very sturdy! As visitors to Luang Prabang, Tonya and I paid a small toll to cross the bridge, which contributes to the upkeep and annual bridge replacement.

Bamboo Bridge across the Nam Khan River

On the far banks of the river, we arrived at Dyen Sabai  – a restaurant recommended by a friend of mine from Western, Brandon - who had briefly lived abroad in Laos, and had generously given me all sorts of local recommendations! He had highly recommended that I visit Dyen Sabai for their Lao Buffalo Fondue. The setting was peaceful – Tonya and I sat on low futons at a riverside table, surrounded by a beautiful bamboo garden. The buffalo fondue dish turned out to be cooked in a similar way to Chinese hot pot/Korean BBQ. The servers prepared a small charcoal fire in a metal container built into the table, before placing a specialized cover overtop. This set-up allowed Tonya and I to cook the meat ourselves on the grill and cook the vegetables in the broth. It was a delicious (and interactive!) meal, a recommendation well worth it.

Buffalo Fondue at Dyen Sabai

After lunch, we traversed back over the bridge, and walked along the banks of the Nam Khan river to Utopia, a outdoor bar and bucket-list destination for any backpacker to the area (I think I had about 10 different friends recommend I go!). Tonya and I spent several hours of the late afternoon enjoying several Beer Lao while sitting on the floor cushions, chatting with other travellers and taking in the incredible ambiance of this lively riverside bar.

Nam Khan River

As evening began to fall, we returned to the town centre to climb Mount Phousi for sunset. A small mountain located in the heart of the historic town centre, Phou-si literally translates to “sacred hill”, and stands approximately 100m tall. While it was a bit of a climb to the top, I was happy for the exercise! Along the trail as we ascended were many gilded statues of Buddha, with a small temple and golden stupa at the summit. Arriving just on time for sunset, we took in an incredible 360-degree view of Luang Prabang, the Mekong River shimmering in a deep shade of orange, reflecting the mesmerizing sky above. The distant mountains were blanketed in a smoky haze from the burning of brush and farmers fields.  While the hill was packed with tourists who had the same idea as us – it was still a wonderful way to end a day of exploring the city. Ready to tuck into some more of Laos’ famous street food, Tonya and I returned to the night market along Sisavangvong Road, taking in the brightly lit red and blue booths framed by tall palm trees and the opulent Royal Palace. After sharing and sampling countless delicious dishes, we headed back to our hostel, stopping at a booth on the main road to purchase tickets for our boat trip up the Mekong River the following day. I crashed almost immediately, as I was planning to wake up before dawn to view the morning Almsgiving ceremony, a daily tradition of local Buddhist monks.

Sunset from Mount Phousi

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Illegal Aliens joining the Moonies in San Francisco

The Pittsburg Press   December 20, 1982

By Katherine Ellison

On a recent autumn evening, in a spacious living room in San Francisco, a former South Vietnamese army commander, four former Cuban and Nicaraguan businessmen and one former Salvadoran soldier munched on cheddar cheese and crackers and listened to a handsome young man in prep-school clothes encourage them to: “Be like a fisherman; just be patient.”

“Cast your lines,” said the young man, Mike Cardone. “It hasn’t happened yet, but when it does, we’ll be ready.”

Smiling down on the group from a shelf above the fireplace was a photograph of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the South Korean-based Unification Church.

And in the darkness outside, federal immigration agents were recording license plate numbers from cars parked near the house.

The discussions at that evening’s meeting did not directly involve Moon or his controversial church.

But the meeting – organized by a Moon-affiliated group – underscored the church’s keen interest and increasing participation in right-wing politics.

That interest has drawn the attention of San Francisco immigration investigators, who fear Moon’s followers, known as “Moonies,” are using political causes to entice illegal aliens into their church.

It has also raised the curiosity of San Francisco police, who are concerned that political meetings and rallies sponsored by Moon-affiliated groups might erupt in violence.

“They believe they can setup a world government,” said officer Sandy Gallant, a San Francisco police investigator specializing in cult group activities. “That’s where we’ve really got to take a hard look at what they’re doing.”

The evening meeting in San Francisco last month was sponsored by the Coalition for a Free World, formed nearly a year ago. The group counts among its San Francisco Bay area members emigré Nicaraguans, Cubans, Poles, Ukrainians, Vietnamese, Salvadorans and Afghanis as well as Eldridge Cleaver, a former Black Panther turned “born-again” patriot and Unification Church supporter.

The coalition was organized by CARP, the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles. Dan Fefferman, CARP’s national president in New York, describes the group – founded 28 years ago in South Korea – as “a Reverend Moon organization, but not a Unification Church organization.”

“CARP is legally separate from the church, and primarily educational.” Fefferman said.

Both former Moonies and police, however, contend that CARP is a major recruiting arm of the church.

Local events sponsored by CARP members and, more recently, the coalition, have included twice-monthly political discussions, a May flag-burning ceremony in front of the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco, a march last year to honor visiting then-President José Napoleón Duarte of El Salvador, and a September news conference with militarist Nicaraguan exile José “Chicano” Cardenal.

The march in support of Duarte ended with 11 people injured when marchers clashed with opponents of the Salvadoran regime.

An internal directory for the Coalition for a Free World shows many of its members have become newsmakers in their own right.

One affiliate is the National Unified Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, which has organized rallies and fund-raising activities in several U.S. cities. The front’s leaders claim to have sent men as well as money to aid resistance efforts in Vietnam.

Nguyen Ngan, who said he was a military police officer in Vietnam, is listed as the front’s contact for the coalition in Oakland.

“We join together to fight for freedom, we join with anyone who fights the communists,” he said in broken English when asked about his involvement in the group. Ngan added that he has attended coalition meetings since last May, but knew nothing about the group’s association with Moon.

Cardone, a member of both CARP and the Unification Church, said he has been trying to unite two rival Nicaraguan exile factions in the San Francisco Bay area.

One, represented by Cardenal and with U.S. political headquarters in Miami, includes ex-members of deposed dictator Anastasio Somoza’s national guard, who are currently carrying out raids into Nicaragua from bases in Honduras. That group, the Nicaraguan Democratic Front, reportedly has been receiving clandestine aid in Honduras from the Honduran military and the CIA.

The other group is led by dissident members of the Nicaraguan Sandinista government who have repeatedly refused to deal with Somoza’s ex-followers, the Somocistas.

Describing the intent of the Coalition for a Free World, Cardone said: “We’re trying to create a platform where (the exiles) can express their ideology – we’d like them to have a clear idea of how and why we’re fighting.

“We’re not promoting violence,” he added. “I mean, granted, (Cardenal’s) got an army. But what are his motivations, his ideals? The guy’s coming from somewhere, and we want to help him explain to the American public what his problem is.”

In Washington, spokesmen for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service insist they are not paying special attention to Unification Church activities in this country.

In San Francisco, however, immigration agents have become increasingly interested in – and outspoken about — Moonie activities.

“I foresee the recruitment (into the church) of more Spanish-speaking people,” INS assistant district director Robert Moschorak said when asked about the Coalition for a Free World. He added that he believes recruiters may be using some Spanish-speaking converts to attract others.

The church, Moschorak said, is “absolutely recruiting illegal aliens.”

INS agents in San Francisco say they are studying more than 100 cases of suspected illegal aliens associated with the Unification Church. Many of these are tourists who overstayed their visas after joining the church. Efforts to find them, however, have been hindered, Moschorak said, by Church attempts to “thwart” the INS.

Last March, seven Moonie illegal aliens were arrested in an INS raid in San Francisco. Among them was John Biermans, the former executive secretary to a Canadian Cabinet minister. INS agents say Biermans came to the United States eight years ago on what relatives said was a planned 10-day vacation, but which apparently became an indefinite stay alter he became involved with the church.

Investigators’ concerns about the church have been heightened by evidence of Moon’s broad range of activities around the world, testimony of former Moonies, and the church leader’s own public speeches – primarily his pledge to “conquer and subjugate the world.”

“I don’t think they really can take over the world – but they believe they can – and that’s where they’re scary.” said San Francisco officer Gallant.

Church officials claim about 3 million members, active in 127 nations. Critics, however, say the membership is much smaller. Gallant estimates that worldwide church membership is only 50,000.

However, those scaled-down estimates have not reduced concern about the church’s activities.

For more than a decade, the Unification Church has actively recruited members and raised money in the United States. Church members have stirred controversy with both their techniques and their goals – an alchemy of religion, commerce and politics.

Travelers have complained of being harassed by young flower vendors in airports. Parents have claimed that their children have been brainwashed. A profession of “deprogrammers” has sprung up to coax recruits back to their families.

At the same time, the church has been branching out into a wide range of industries around the world.

Recruits are believed to plow their earnings from selling flowers, toys and pins into Moon’s personal business empire – a multinational network that includes Tong Il Industries, a major South Korean defense contractor producing rifles, anti-aircraft guns and other weapons; Korean pharmaceutical and industrial companies; and, in the United States, a vast number of newspapers, restaurants, bands, fishing companies and cultural foundations.

Moon also bankrolled the $46 million “Inchon,” one of the most expensive films ever made. The U.S. Army in South Korea assisted in production and rental of military equipment, Army spokesman Donald Baruch said. But after officials discovered Moon’s name was to be featured prominently in the credits, the Army insisted that reference to the help be deleted – to avoid “embarrassment” Baruch said.

“The public does not have a clear understanding of the covert activities going on,” said Steve Hassan, a former church official and now president of Ex-Moon Inc., an association of dissident former members.

Within the United States, Hassan said, Moonies use groups such as the San Francisco coalition both to recruit new members and to help the church infiltrate communities around the world.

CARP president Fefferman said coalition rallies and meetings in the San Francisco Bay area tie in with CARP’s aims to expand into Africa and South America in this decade.

At the same time, the church has been expanding its commercial presence in Latin America. Last year, the Moonies invested $65 million in a five-star hotel and gambling casino in Montevideo, Uruguay. They also established a new Moonie newspaper and an anti-communist civic group in the Uruguayan capital.

▲ The tall extension building behind the hotel contains the casino.

_______________________________________________

Suicide of Japanese ‘Moon money mule’ in Uruguay. She was the mother of three children

Sun Myung Moon organization activities in Central & South America

1. Introduction 2. ‘Illegal Aliens Joining Moonies’ – The Pittsburg Press 3. Moon’s ‘Cause’ Takes Aim At Communism in the Americas – Washington Post 4. Moon in Latin America: Building the Bases of a World Organisation – Guardian 5. Guatemala 6. Nicaragua 7. Honduras 8. Costa Rica 9. Bolivia 10. Uruguay 11. Paraguay 12. Brazil

Atrocities in Nicaragua: In 1981 the Moonies sponsored a news conference for Contra chief “Chicano” Cardenal

Robert Parry’s investigations into Sun Myung Moon

Sun Myung Moon: The Emperor of the Universe, transcript and links

[babsajdx382]

Why You Should Focus On Improving Immigration History

How The History Of Immigration Policies Can Save You Time and Money

Table of ContentsWhat to do About Historical Overview Of Immigration Policies Before it's Too Late19 You Always Wondered About Immigration In American Economic HistoryWhat to do with History Of Immigration in 2021How to Learn About U.s. Immigration Before 1965 in Your Spare Time

All The Things The Real History Of American Immigration Has Changed

The majority of settlers consider on their own Britons, yet Paine makes the situation for a brand-new American. "Europe, as well as not England, is actually the moms and dad country of The United States. This brand-new planet have actually been actually the insane asylum for the persecuted fanatics of public and also spiritual right from every aspect of Europe," he writes. Our lawmakers passes the initial legislation concerning that must be given UNITED STATE (chart).

The Naturalization Action of 1790 allows any type of free of charge white individual of "really good figure," who has actually been residing in the USA for pair of years or even longer to request citizenship - chart. Without citizenship, nonwhite individuals are refused essential constitutional securities, featuring the right to recommend, own residential property, or demonstrate in judge.

demographics occurs. The English are actually the biggest indigenous group among the 3. 9 thousand people counted, though virtually one in 5 Americans are actually of www.immigrationhelpla.com/ African heritage. Unity is re-established between the USA and Britain after the War of 1812 - map. Immigration coming from Western Europe switches coming from a flow into an emerge, which creates a switch in the demographics of the USA. irish.

Between 1820 and also 1860, the Irishmany of them Catholicaccount for a predicted one-third of all immigrants to the United States. Some 5 million German immigrants additionally relate to the UNITED STATE, most of them creating their method to the Midwest to get ranches or clear up in areas including Milwaukee, St (brief). Louis and Cincinnati.

The migrants overwhelm major slot areas, including New york city, Boston, Philadelphia and Charleston. In action, the USA passes the Steering Action of 1819 needing much better conditions on ships arriving to the nation. The Act also requires ship leaders to send demographic relevant information on guests, developing the 1st federal government reports on the cultural arrangement of migrants to the USA - law.

What to do about Rise Of Industrial America in 2021

What to do about History Of U.s. Immigration Laws in 2021

Adhering to the Civil War, some conditions passed their personal migration rules. In 1875 the Supreme Courtroom declares that it is actually the responsibility of the federal government to make and also enforce migration laws - brief. As The United States begins a fast time period of industrialization and also urbanization, a 2nd immigration boom begins. In between 1880 and 1920, much more than twenty thousand immigrants arrive.

A number of all of them clear up in major USA areas and also job in factories (map). The Mandarin Exemption Show elapseds, which bans Mandarin immigrants from getting in the USA Beginning in the 1850s, a steady circulation of Mandarin workers had actually immigrated to The United States. They functioned in the gold mines, and also garment manufacturing plants, constructed railroads, as well as took agrarian tasks.

Although Chinese migrants comprise merely 0 (policy). 002 per-cent of the USA populace, white workers blame them for reduced wages. The 1882 Action is the very first in United States past to position vast regulations on specific immigrant groups. The Immigration Action of 1891 additional omits that can easily enter the USA, disallowing the migration of polygamists, people founded guilty of specific crimes, as well as the unwell or even diseased.

The very first immigrant processed is Annie Moore, an adolescent from Region Cork in Ireland. Much more than 12 million migrants would certainly enter the United States via Ellis Island in between 1892 and 1954.: USA immigration reaches the top, along with 1. 3 million people getting in the country with Ellis Isle alone. Amidst bias in The golden state that an inflow of Eastern workers would certainly set you back white workers cultivating work as well as sadden wages, the United States as well as Asia authorize the Gentlemen's Deal.

Review This Report on History Of U.s. Immigration Laws

In profits, Head of state Theodore Roosevelt urges San Francisco to finish the partition of Japanese students coming from white colored pupils in San Francisco institutions. An estimated three-quarters of The big apple Area's population contains new immigrants and first-generation Americans. Prejudice connects with brand new high up on the eve of American engagement in World war - law.

Why U.s. Immigration Trends is so Popular

The Migration Show of 1924 restrictions the variety of migrants permitted into the United States yearly via race allocations. Under the new quota unit, the USA problems migration visas to 2 per-cent of the complete variety of folks of each race in the United States at the 1890 poll - law.

Simply three countries, Great Britain, Ireland as well as Germany make up 70 percent of all available visas. Migration from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe was confined. The Action entirely excludes migrants from Asia, other than the Philippines, after that an American colony (chart).: Back the numerical limits set up through the 1924 legislation, illegal migration to the USA raises.

Border Watch is actually created to break down on unlawful immigrants going across the Mexican and Canadian perimeters right into the United States - policy. Most of these very early border crossers were actually Chinese and various other Eastern migrants, that had been barred coming from getting into officially. Labor deficiencies during the course of World War II cause the USA and also Mexico to develop the Bracero System, which permits Mexican agricultural laborers to get in the USA temporarily.

The USA passes the nation's very first refugee as well as resettlement law to handle the increase of Europeans finding permanent home in the USA after Globe War II.The McCarran-Walter Act formally ends the exemption of Eastern immigrants to the United States.: The USA accepts about 38,000 immigrants coming from Hungary after a fallen short uprising versus the Soviets.

The United States will confess over 3 thousand evacuees in the course of the Tension.: Around 14,000 unaccompanied children get away Fidel Castro's Cuba as well as relate to the United States as portion of a secret, anti-Communism program contacted Operation Peter Skillet. The Migration and also Nationality Action revamps the United States migration system. The Act ends the national source percentages performed in the 1920s which favored some genetic and also nationalities over others.

What to do about Usa Immigration History in 2021

Upon signing the brand-new costs, Head of state Lyndon B - brief. Johnson, phoned the old migration device "un-American," and mentioned the brand new expense will correct a "heartless and long-lasting inappropriate in the conduct of the United States Nation - map." Over the following five years, migration coming from war-torn areas of Asia, featuring Vietnam and also Cambodia, would greater than quadruple.

immigration (policy).: During the Mariel boatlift, about 125,000 Cuban evacuees create an unsafe sea crossing in jammed boats to arrive on the Florida coast seeking political asylum. Head Of State Ronald Reagan signs into law the Simpson-Mazzoli Action, which gives amnesty to much more than 3 million migrants residing unlawfully in the United States.: U.S..

[hajsadhku]

Want to get Vietnam visa quickly? ETS Vietnam business visa and tourist visa services

Want to get a Vietnam visa quickly? Contact ETS Vietnam Visa San Diego Services now!

[blackkudos]

Marsha Hunt

Marsha Hunt (born April 15, 1946) is an American actress, novelist, singer and former model, who has lived mostly in Britain and Ireland. She achieved national fame when she appeared in London as Dionne in the long-running rock musical Hair. She enjoyed close relationships with Marc Bolan and Mick Jagger, who is the father of her only child Karis.

According to Hunt, The Rolling Stones' controversial hit song "Brown Sugar" was based on her. She has written three novels, as well as three volumes of autobiography, which include a frank account of life as a breast cancer sufferer.

Early life

Hunt was born in Philadelphia in 1946 and lived in North Philadelphia, near 23rd and Columbia, then in Germantown and Mount Airy, for the first 13 years of her life. Hunt remembers Philadelphia with affection, particularly the "Philadelphia steak sandwiches and the bad boys on the basketball court".

Hunt's mother, Inez, was her primary parent and worked as a librarian in a local library. Hunt's father, Blaire Theodore Hunt, Jr., was one of America's first black psychiatrists but he did not live with Hunt; she found out when she was 15-years old that he had committed suicide three years previously. Hunt was brought up by her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother; three strong but very different women. Hunt describes her mother Inez as "extremely intelligent and education-minded", her Aunt Thelma as "extremely Catholic but very glamorous", and her grandmother Edna as an "extremely aggressive...ass-kicking" independent Southern woman.

Hunt credits the experience of having been poor with teaching her not to be materialistic. Her family put a great deal of emphasis on academic performance, and Hunt did very well in school. In 1960, the family moved to Kensington, California, which Hunt still regards as home, so that her brother and sister could attend Oakland High School and prepare to attend the University of California, Berkeley. Hunt also went to Berkeley, in 1964, where she joined Jerry Rubin on protest marches against the Vietnam War. In her book Undefeated she recalled that during her time at Berkeley they "were sitting in for the Free Speech Movement, smoking pot, experimenting with acid, lining up to take Oriental philosophy courses, daring to co-habit, and going to dances in San Francisco."

Move to London

In February 1966, Hunt moved to Britain and for a time lived in Edinburgh, Scotland. Hunt has said that in London in the 1960s "anything seemed possible."

Marriage to Mike Ratledge

In late 1966, Hunt met Mike Ratledge of Soft Machine. Hunt was having trouble getting a visa extension to stay in England and proposed to Ratledge. Ratledge and Hunt were married on April 15, 1967. The Soft Machine were heavily booked and there was no time for a honeymoon, but Ratledge and Hunt were able to spend two months together before the band headed for France later that year. Hunt said in 1991 that she and Ratledge never held hands and never kissed, though "...he comes for Easter. But that's what we called 'married'." While the two have remained good friends, Hunt says the secret to a happy marriage is to "separate immediately." When Hunt and Ratledge reached their 40th wedding anniversary, Hunt called Ratledge up and said, jokingly, "We should renew our vows."

Music

Although Hunt indicates that she had no great musical talent, she worked as a singer for 18 months after arriving in England. In February 1967, Hunt took a singing job with Alexis Korner's trio "Free at Last" so that she could earn her fare back home. She did not use it, but remained, and in 1968, joined the group The Ferris Wheel. That same year, Hunt achieved national fame in England when she appeared as "Dionne" in the rock musical Hair, a box-office smash on the London stage. Hunt only had two lines of dialogue in Hair, but she attracted a lot of media attention and her photo appeared in many newspapers and magazines. Her photograph was used on the poster and playbill of the original London production, photographed by Justin de Villeneuve. Her 1968 photo also replaced the original LP artwork when Readers Digest re-issued the LP in Europe in 1976. Hunt says that the role was a perfect fit for her, expressing who she actually was. She was one of three Americans featured in the London show, and when the show began she had no contract to perform. When the show opened she was featured in so many stories that she was offered a contract right away.Hunt played at the Jazz Bilzen and Isle of Wight music festivals in August 1969 with her backup band "White Trash". Hunt's first single, a cover of Dr John's "Walk on Gilded Splinters", produced by Tony Visconti, was released on Track Records in 1969; it became a minor hit. An album, Woman Child (also produced by Tony Visconti) (in Germany released under the title Desdemona), followed in 1971. In May 1977, an album with disco songs was released in Germany with the title Marsha. It was recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich and produced by Pete Belotte (co-producer with Giorgio Moroder of many Donna Summer albums)

Hunt met Marc Bolan in 1969 when she went to the studio where Bolan's group was recording "Unicorn". Tony Visconti said that when Bolan and Hunt met, "[y]ou could see the shafts of light pouring out of their eyes into each other.... We finished the session unusually early, and Marc and Marsha walked out into the night hand in hand." According to Hunt, the relationship between the two was based on more than physical attraction, though she also recalled that her commercial visibility put her in opposition to Bolan's philosophy that "the serious art of music...was validated by obscurity."

In 1973, as a member of a panel organised by British magazine Melody Maker to discuss women in music and options open to black women, Hunt suggested that black women needed to make use of the "side-door" in the industry, entering as "the statuary representative" before they could make music under their own terms.

In addition to her husband, Korner and Bolan, Hunt was professionally associated with such musicians as Long John Baldry, John Mayall and Elton John.

In the 1970s, for a while, Hunt co-presented with Sarah Ward a popular late-night radio show, Sarah. Marsha and Friends, on London's Capital Radio.

Modelling

Three months after Hair opened, Hunt was on the cover of British high-fashion magazine Queen, the first black model to appear on their cover. In 1968, Hunt posed nude for photographer Patrick Lichfield after the opening night for Hair and the photo appeared on the cover of British Vogue's January 1969 issue. Almost 40 years later Hunt again posed nude for Litchfield, recreating the pose for her Vogue cover five weeks after she had had her right breast and lymph glands removed to halt the spread of cancer. The photo appeared on the cover of her 2005 book Undefeated, about her battle with cancer. She was pleased to work with the photographer under such differing circumstances, though in her autobiography she expressed confusion as to why the photo has been so often reprinted. Hunt has also been photographed by Lewis Morley, Horace Ové, and Robert Taylor.

Relationship with Mick Jagger

In 1991, Hunt said that she met Mick Jagger when The Rolling Stones asked her to pose for an ad for "Honky Tonk Women", which she refused to do because she "didn't want to look like [she'd] just been had by all the Rolling Stones." Jagger called her later, and their nine or 10-month affair began. According to Christopher Sanford's book Mick Jagger: Rebel Knight, Hunt told journalist Frankie McGowan that Jagger's shyness and awkwardness won her over, but that their relationship was conducted mostly in private because their social scenes were very different. In London, November 1970, Hunt gave birth to Jagger's first and her only child, Karis. According to Hunt, the pair planned the child but never intended to live together. According to Tony Sanchez in Up and Down with the Rolling Stones, Jagger considered proposing to Hunt but did not because he did not think he loved Hunt enough to spend the rest of his life with her, while Hunt, for her part, did not think they were sufficiently compatible to co-habit satisfactorily.

In 1973, when Karis was two years old, Hunt asked the courts in London for an affiliation order against Jagger and eventually settled out of court. Jagger called the suit "silly." He agreed to set up a trust fund for Karis and pay $17 a week for her support until she reached 21, but he was allowed to deny his paternity on record. In 1978, Hunt filed a paternity suit in Los Angeles asking for $580 a week and for Jagger to publicly claim their daughter. At the time Hunt was unemployed and received welfare payments from Aid to Dependent Children. In 1979, Hunt won the paternity suit saying she wanted "only to be able to say to my daughter, when she's 21, that I didn't allow her father to neglect his responsibilities." Through the years Jagger became close to Karis; he took her on holiday with his family when she was a teenager, attended her Yale University graduation and her 2000 wedding, and he was at the hospital for the birth of her son in 2004. As of 2008, he continued to see her and her family. Citing the binding tie of a child, Hunt says she still sees Jagger, but has a closer relationship with Jagger's mother. In 1991, Hunt indicated that she left the door open for Jagger to come back to his child and admired the fact that he did.

Commenting on rumours about her life, Hunt said of an apocryphal story: "You must have read that on the internet. One reason I haven't had it removed is that it is proof that the internet is full of absolute bullshit. Ridiculous things have been written about me so often that we won't even go there."

In December 2012, Hunt sold a series of love letters written to her in the summer of 1969 by Mick Jagger. The letters were sold by Sotheby's of London. The letters sold for £182,250 ($301,000).

"Brown Sugar"

Christopher Sanford writes in his book Mick Jagger that when the Rolling Stones released the song "Brown Sugar" there was immediate speculation that it referred to Hunt or to soul singer Claudia Lennear. In her autobiography, Real Life (1985), Hunt acknowledged that "Brown Sugar" is about her, among a few other songs, a fact she reiterated in her book Undefeated (2006). When Hunt was asked for an interview with the Irish Times in 2008 how she felt about the song, she said: "it doesn't make me feel any way at all."

Writing

Autobiography

Hunt began writing in 1985, and her first book was her autobiography, Real Life: The Story of a Survivor (1986). She found the process of writing more difficult than she expected, but did not stop there, continuing in 1996 with another autobiography, Repossessing Ernestine: A Granddaughter Uncovers the Secret History of Her American Family, about her search for her father's mother Ernestine who was placed in an asylum for nearly 50 years. After Hunt's father committed suicide when she was 12-years old, Hunt's contact with her father's family was sporadic. Hunt tracked down her father's father Blair Hunt shortly before he died in 1978 to find him living sedately in a seedy part of town with his companion of 60 years. Hunt discovered that her grandfather had been a public school administrator and a leading member of Memphis's black community. Blair Hunt talked about his "poor dear sick wife" who he had "put away" many years before. Hunt discovered that her father's mother, Ernestine, had been born in 1896 as a free black and that she grew up in Memphis, "an intelligent, remarkably beautiful young woman who excelled in school and was greatly envied for her pale skin, blue eyes and blonde hair." Hunt tracked her grandmother down to a rundown nursing home, and although Hunt was unable to discover why Ernestine spent 50 years behind bars, Hunt wrote that the reasons may have had more to do with racism and sexism than insanity.

In 2005, Hunt released her memoir about her battle with cancer, Undefeated.

Novelist

In 1990, Hunt published her first novel, Joy, about a woman who grew up to join a singing group reminiscent of The Supremes before dying an early death. Set in a posh New York apartment in the course of one day in the spring of 1987, the novel contains frequent flashbacks that describe life in a black neighbourhood in the 1950s and 1960s. The book also deals with stardom in the music business and some people's inability, despite their riches, to make their own American Dream come true and to lead fulfilled lives. Hunt indicates that within her novel, all the characters are victims who are also guilty, a reflection of real life where "[w]e get hurt, but we're also hurting each other all the time." Hunt wrote Joy while touring England with a group performing Othello and said her fellow actors made fun of her while she was writing the book; given her reputation, she feels, they may have thought her an aspiring Joan Collins. Hunt says Joy is also about the colourism that existed within black society at the time, where girls with fairer skin and longer hair were preferred to girls with kinky hair and more stereotypically Black characteristics. Hunt said that living in England and exploring its accents taught her how beautiful Black language was, a "culturally important" feature she preserved in her novel.

Hunt's second novel, Free, published in 1992, tells the story of freed slaves and their children living in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1913. Hunt's novel Like Venus Fading (1998) is inspired by the lives of Adelaide Hall, known as the "lightly-tanned Venus", Josephine Baker and Dorothy Dandridge.

Hunt wrote her first four books whilst living in isolation in a remote hideaway in France called La montagne. With no one for company but a barn cat who came to eat each morning, and the people she saw once a day at a nearby patisserie, she was inspired to write by silence and boredom.

Editor

In 1999, Hunt sought a job of writer-in-residence at Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison and later collected selected writings from the prisoners and edited The Junk Yard: Voices From An Irish Prison. The book contains 15 stories divided into five sections: Childhood, Family Life, The Score, Criminal Life and Prison Life. One publisher was critical of the repetitive themes of urban poverty, addiction, and life in prison, but Hunt responded by asserting that it is worth considering why the inmates had such similar tales to tell. The Junk Yard: Voices From An Irish Prison became a number-one bestseller in Ireland in 1999.

Activist

In 1995, Hunt set up the Saga Prize, to unearth new British-born black literary talent and recognise the literature emerging from indigenous black Britons' experiences. Awarded to "the best unpublished novel by a writer born in Great Britain or The Republic of Ireland having a black African ancestor", the prize, while attracting criticism from the Commission for Racial Equality, ran for four years until 1998, winners including Diran Adebayo and Joanna Traynor.

During the 1997 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Hunt staged a one-woman protest, picketing Charlotte Square about the "shoddy administration" of the festival. The director of the festival was fired in the aftermath of her protest.

Current projects

Hunt has been working on a book about Jimi Hendrix that she considers her life work. She indicates that no one alive can share her perspective on the matter, "because he and I shared something – black Americans who came to London were transformed and re-packaged for the U.S., although I never became successful there and he did." No release date has been given.

Acting

Theatre

In 1971, Hunt played Bianca in Catch My Soul, the rock-and-roll stage version of Othello produced by Jack Good. In 1973, she wrote, produced and directed a new London show entitled Man to Woman, the music from which was released on vinyl in 1982 by Virgin Records, featuring vocals by Robert Wyatt. In 1975, Hunt appeared as Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth. In 1991, Hunt appeared as Nurse Logan in the world premier of Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mount Morgan at London's Wyndham's Theatre. Hunt became a member of the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

In 1994, Hunt performed a one-woman play in Scotland at the Edinburgh Festival playing Baby Palatine, a 60-year-old woman who becomes the wardrobe mistress to a female pop group. The play is based on Hunt's novel Joy (1990). Hunt was directed in the play by her daughter Karis Jagger, who has said that it was her mother's idea. Jagger says that the pair "spent six weeks rehearsing in France. Because the weather was so good we marked out the shape of the stage with my teddy bears and rehearsed in the garden."

Film

Hunt's film career included appearances in Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), Britannia Hospital (1982) directed by Lindsay Anderson, The Sender (1982), Never Say Never Again (1983), Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985), and Tank Malling (1989). In 1990, Hunt played Bianca in the BBC television production of Othello directed by Trevor Nunn.

Documentaries

In 1997, when Irish documentary filmmaker Alan Gilsenan made God Bless America, featuring six American cities seen through the eyes of six American authors, Hunt was invited to participate, and her participation resulted in Marsha Hunt's Philadelphia. According to Gilsenan, Hunt attributes the success of American democracy and capitalism to the crime of slavery, a crime that must be understood if America is to have peace. Hunt fell in love with Gilsenan and moved to the Wicklow mountains near Dublin with him, where in 1999 she helped him fight colon cancer, drawing on her own experiences with the disease. Hunt is no longer romantically involved with Gilsenan, who has since married and fathered a child, but as of 2008 still sees him.

Hunt has also been the subject of a documentary, Beating Breast Cancer on ITV, broadcast on September 26, 2005.

Cancer

In late 2004, Hunt was diagnosed with breast cancer and was told to have surgery to remove her right breast and her lymph nodes. Hunt postponed seeking treatment for five months, later wondering if she would have faced first stage rather than third stage cancer had she not. When she chose to have surgery, she decided to have it done in Ireland, because she felt that the Irish are more supportive and comfortable with illness than people in the U.S.; she envisaged that treatment in the U.S. would feel impersonal. Hunt decided to have a complete mastectomy with no following reconstruction. She says, "Reconstruction – as if the breast is miraculously put back to the way it was. In fact, pretty much all you get is your cleavage back; you don't get any feeling or sensitivity... They take muscles from your back, skin from your thighs, fat from your stomach. You had a breast removed, but the rest of you was fine. Now half your body is hacked about – and for what?" On the day of her operation Hunt wrote a note on her breast to the surgical team, telling them to have fun, make sure they took the right breast off and drew them a flower.

Once the operation was over Hunt says she did not mourn the loss of her breast, but felt happy that the cancer had been removed. Her view of the experience of mastectomy states that the surgery left her with a "battle scar" that makes her feel sexier, as it is a memento of what she has survived.In July 2007 Hunt spoke about her breast removal with a 12-year-old boy, telling him that she is now like the Amazons of old who would have a breast removed so that when they went into battle they could use their bow without their breast getting in the way when they let their arrows fly.

After her mastectomy, she contracted the superbug MRSA and had to be treated with Zyvox. She also had chemotherapy. Not wanting to wait for her hair to fall out naturally, she decided to control it herself, throwing a party where her guests took turns cutting off locks of her hair.

The Irish Independent reported on August 27, 2008, that Hunt stood on a table at the opening of the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin to let everyone see that she had survived third-stage breast cancer after a treatment of chemotherapy, radiation and Herceptin therapy at the hospital.

Personal life

Hunt says that the biggest misconception people have about her is that she is wealthy, though she describes herself as "rich in spirit". Hunt has been true to her belief that wealth is not necessary for happiness and has lived the "writing life" for the past two decades. She enjoys the solitude of living on her own and finds that being single means she has encounters and experiences that she would not have if she were part of a couple, where others might choose not to intrude and where she would have to co-ordinate her schedule with another. Hunt has lived in Ireland since 1995. She also lives in France, where she owns a home in the countryside about 60 miles from Paris.

Black/American identity

When Hunt came to live in Europe she found that people there called her an American, not an African American or Black. She herself describes her skin colour as "oak with a hint of maple", and notes that "[o]f the various races I know I comprise—African, American Indian, German Jew and Irish—only the African was acknowledged." Hunt invented her own word to describe herself, based on the French word melange (mixture) and the word melanin: Melangian.

Hunt said in 1991 that there is a pain inflicted by the black community on itself, which it fears to communicate openly. She also says that living overseas for most of her life has made her a foreigner in the US. She said, "I'm scared to walk through Harlem... more scared than you, because if I walked through Harlem with the weird shoes and the weird accent, I'd get my butt kicked faster than you. In a way, I'm the betrayer."

Hunt is featured in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a Smithsonian Institution museum in Washington D.C. that opened in 2016 at a ceremony led by President Barack Obama.

[kimminstudying]

Case Study - 001

Warning: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Note: I chose to do this one first because for my Forensic Science class we had to investigate a case of our choice, write and report, and do a powerpoint for it and this was basically my final project for the class. Enjoy!

The span of these crimes was from 1983-1985 and the victims were lured to a bunker in the woods through ads that were posted of stolen goods. If the respondents were male, they were beaten, robbed from, and then shot often within a day of their capture. Female respondents were tied up, tortured, forced into submission, then raped. They would be shot and killed after their “services were no longer needed.”  Families or couples that were brought to the bunker had the same outcomes.

Charles Ng (pronounced as ing) was born Christmas Eve of 1960 in Hong Kong. Ng was a compulsive Kleptomaniac as a child and he was sent to several boarding schools in both China and London. He was granted a student visa in 1978 to study in the U.S and his parents hoped a new life in another country would set their son straight. Briefly attending the College of Notre Dame, Ng dropped out after one semester to join the Marines. 

To do so, Ng lied about his birthplace in order to keep his criminal record a secret. He was caught stealing guns, explosives, and other weaponry before being sentenced to 18 months in Leavenworth prison after his dishonorable discharge from the U.S Marines. 

Leonard Lake was born on October 29, 1945, in San Francisco. His parents separated when he was six years old, leaving him and his siblings in the care of his grandparents. 

Growing up, Lake was described as very cunning but sinister as he would collect mice and other small animals to dissolve them in acidic chemicals. He developed a pornography addiction during this time and Lake would force his sisters into taking sexual photos of themselves or performing sexual acts in exchange for protection from their abusive brother Dom. This incestual behavior was encouraged by Lake’s grandmother. 

Lake attended the University of San Jose State but also dropped out after a single semester. He also joined the Marines in 1965 when he was 19 years old and served two tours as a radar operator during Vietnam. He received a medical diagnosis of Schizoid Personality Disorder, an uncommon condition in which people avoid social activities and consistently shy away from interaction with others and also have a limited range of emotional expression, which caused him to be medically discharged in 1971. 

After his diagnosis, he received psychotherapy treatments and joined a hippie commune afterward. At the commune, Lake was directing and starring in adult films that involved bondage and/or sadomasochism. He met his first wife at the commune but the marriage didn’t last long when she discovered Lake’s film industry and after he kept insisting that she star in said films.

Lake was remarried to Claralyn “Cricket” Balazs in 1981 after Lake was imprisoned in 1980 for car theft, she was the “woman of his dreams” as she willingly complied to his sexual interests. It is suspected that Cricket had some knowledge of her husband’s behavior and that she assisted in the luring of Ng and Lake’s victims. 

She once admitted in a police interview that Lake would often bring in children or various ages and genders and that she wondered what it would feel like to do stuff to them. 

The bunker in the woods where the crimes took place also belonged to Balazs.

Lake had believed a nuclear holocaust was near and needed sex slaves to repopulate the earth. When he met Ng he passed this plan on to the susceptible, younger male. As chronicled in a series of video diaries, Ng and Lake are caught on tape raping, beating, and killing their victims along with their own personal monologues. 

There was also a typed journal with a list of Lake’s Rules for his behavior and treatment to his victims. They had more of a mentor-mentee relationship; Ng was the Sheep and Lake was the Shepard. Ng had always had such ideas but he was too shy of a man to commit to his urges by himself. 

The Victims (Confirmed):

Harvey Dubs

Deborah Dubs

Sean Dubs (infant)

Lonnie Bond Sr. (Lake’s Neighbor)

Brenda O’Connor (Bond’s Wife)

Lonnie Bond Jr. (infant)

Clifford Peranteau

Jeffrey Gerald

Michael Carroll

Kathleen Allen (boyfriend was Ng’s cellmate)

Robin Scott Stapley

Both men are suspected of being responsible for the disappearances of up to 25 people. The women were kept in the bunker for at least a few days or up to a week before they were shot and killed after they were tortured and raped repeatedly while their family watched and then got shot right in front of her eyes. The men were used for financial gain, although they and the children were not the main priority of Ng and Lake. Men and children were killed within the same day as their abduction.

Lake’s Possible Victim’s

Charles Gunnar: Military friend of Lake’s. Lake’s best man in both of his weddings. Went missing during ‘83-’85 and Lake was using Gunnar’s ID at one point in time. His remains were discovered at the ranch in September of 1992.

Donald “Dom” Lake: Leonard Lake’s younger brother. The one he used as a threat during his childhood in order to get sexual favors from his sisters in exchange for protection. Vanished in 1983 and was presumed dead. His remains were also found on the ranch in September 1992.

Paul Cosner: Police found out that the real Robin Stapley was missing for several weeks at the time of Lake’s arrest and that Lake’s car belonged to Paul Cosner, 39, who had also been missing for eight months in November 1984. 2001: a San Francisco judge found Ng and Lake responsible for the murder of Paul Cosner, a missing auto trader who was presumed dead.

Donald Giulietti: The FBI estimates their kidnapping and killing spree started within a month of their reunion. In July 1984, Donald Giuletti, a San Francisco disc jockey, and his roommate, Richard Carrazza, were shot by an Asian man who broke into their apartment and robbed them. 

Giulietti died in the attack but Carrazza survived and would later identify Charles Ng as his attacker. The pistol used in the attack was found at the Wilseyville site.

Lake and Ng got caught when they went to the store to buy a new vise on June 2, 1985. The store owner was immediately suspicious since Lake used Stapely’s ID; Stapely was 26 but Lake looked far from it. Ng couldn’t control his instincts and tried to steal from the store only to have the owner catch Ng in the act. The police were called but Ng fled from the scene, leaving Lake behind to go into hiding.

Lake stayed behind in an attempt to pay for the goods in order to elude arrest. In his car, police found a .22 revolver with an illegally equipped silencer, which is why they were allowed to arrest him at that moment. Since Ng was nowhere to be found, police investigated the bunker.

Police discovered the bodies of 11 people and 45 pounds of unidentifiable bones, caches of weapons and explosives, personals from the victims such as clothes and forms of ID, and the videotape diaries. 

Ng escaped to Canada but got caught shoplifting at another store. Only this time, he panicked and drew a gun, which led to one of the officers getting shot in the hand. He was charged with robbery, attempted robbery, possession of a firearm, and attempted murder in Canada; Ng did his time there for the crimes committed there before being turned over to American authorities. 

In questioning, Lake told the police about Ng, where the bunker was located and gave a hint about what their master plan was. He asked the officer for a cup of water and a pen with paper. While the officer went to fetch the water, Lake wrote his suicide note. He used the water to swallow two cyanide pills that he had sewn into his coat collar. Police thought Lake was going to put his confession in writing when he asked them for pen and paper so they happily complied. 

Lake was rushed to the hospital and fell into a coma, survived on life support for four days before he died on June 6, 1985.

The trial was overly complicated because of Ng’s lie about his nationality and the fact that Ng would often fire lawyers, change the location of the trial, and attempt to defend himself in order to buy himself time and hopefully avoid a trial. Eventually, he faced trial for the first time in 1991.

The final trial took place in 1999 and it lasted for eight months. The jury deliberated for about two weeks until Ng was found guilty for the murder of six men, three women, and two baby boys. He was sentenced to death after he and Lake were caught and was sent to San Quentin. While no sentencing date is set, Ng is appealing his conviction to this day.

Side Notes:

Ng’s Military Cellmate said in a television interview that Ng professed to hating some ethnic groups and homosexuals so much that he killed a gay man by burning him alive.

“The Collector” by John Fowles is a novel about a lonely young man who works as a clerk in a city hall and collects butterflies in his spare time. 

The man becomes obsessed with a female art student and instead of coming up to her he watches her from a distance because it appears that he is socially underdeveloped. 

He then kidnaps the woman after moving into an isolated lodge and adds her to his collection of preserved beauties. He promises not to hurt her, only to shower her with his spoils. 

He is convinced that she would learn to love him over time, but she becomes ill and dies. 

Lake is said to have been obsessed with this novel. 

Kenneth Ng, Charles Ng’s father, blames himself for his son’s role in the killing spree on the physical abuse he did to his son during his childhood.

He testified in court that during that time, there was almost no line between discipline and child abuse. He meant to bring up his son in a narrow and straight path, which sometimes meant tethering him and whipping him with a stick. 

"I tried to bring him up right. Unfortunately, I used the wrong way. I thought this was normal. But now I know how wrong I am." 

Mr. Ng wanted his son to be sentenced to life in prison instead of to death, “I do hope I still have him in jail, instead of dead," he said.

Relatives of the victims said they were not swayed by the testimony, but expressed sympathy for Kenneth Ng. 

It was reported that Ng held his head down for the testimony and cried silently as his father spoke. 

~brianna

[rockandrollstorytime]

Rock and Roll Storytime #8: The Rolling Stones at Altamont (AKA One of the Worst Concert Disasters of All Time)

The year 1969 had been a hectic one, both for the world in general (with the continuing Vietnam War, the Chappaquiddick incident, and the moon landings) and especially for rock and roll (with the death of Brian Jones, Woodstock, and the Beatles starting to head full-steam down the road that led them to their break-up in April 1970). Capping off this year full of highs and lows, there was Altamont, which has been labelled by many as the death of the 60′s. At the very least, it certainly brought a premature end to the idealism that the youths of that generation held dear.

Lord knows, I will always say that Brian Jones should have had a chance to get back on his feet and I’m super salty that he’s dead, but honestly, I’m glad he missed out on this one. 

Before I tell the story of Altamont though, I must ask… Whose bright idea was it to hire the Hell’s Angels as security for a Rolling Stones concert and pay them with $500 of beer?

Well, to answer that question, I’m going to have to begin this story with the ending of another. Truly, the roots of this ill-thought-out decision lies within events that had happened that summer. 

I’ve mentioned Brian Jones already, but to give those of you who are new to this the rundown, Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was the Stones’ first guitarist, and at the start, he was the brains of the band. Seven years, a bunch of internal conflict with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Andrew Loog Oldham, a messy relationship with Anita Pallenberg, drug abuse and alcoholism, two drug trials, and a fuck-ton of stress later, Brian was in a state we’d call “mental exhaustion” (didn’t help that his physical health was shit too). Where in 1966 he was contributing some of the best parts of the Stones’ early music, such as the sitar on “Paint It Black”, in 1969, he’d rarely show up to the studio, and if he did, he would usually be too intoxicated to properly contribute. In fact, on Let It Bleed, he only contributed to two songs: “Midnight Rambler” (congas) and “You’ve Got the Silver” (autoharp).

In June 1969, the Stones decided they wanted to go on tour again, but then, they found out that due to the fact that Brian had twice been convicted of drug possession, it’d be unlikely that he could receive a visa to perform in the U.S.A., if at all. Ultimately, Mick and Keith decided that their best option would be to fire Brian, and so, on June 8, 1969, they went down to Brian’s home, Cotchford Farm, to tell him that he would no longer be with the group. According to those present, Brian had been expecting this, and in the various press releases, it was made to appear as if Brian had left the band on his own terms. His statement read, in part, “I no longer see eye to eye with the others over the discs we are cutting. We no longer communicate musically. The Stones’ music is not to my taste any more. The work of Mick and Keith has progressed at a tangent, at least to my way of thinking. I have a desire to play my own brand of music rather than that of others, no matter how much I appreciate their musical concepts.”

At this point in time, whether Brian was accepting of this turn of events or not is up to conjecture. 

In either case, the Stones brought in 20-year-old Mick Taylor (previously of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers) to replace Brian, and at a press conference on June 13, the Stones announced that they would be holding a free concert on July 5 in order to properly introduce their new guitarist. 

And then, just three days before the concert was set to take place, Brian drowned in his backyard swimming pool, being just twenty-seven years old. Although the coroner ruled it death by misadventure (which personal research seems to support), theories have long persisted that Brian was, in fact, murdered, but that is, of course, a story for another day. 

The Stones in the Park concert quickly became a tribute to Brian Jones, and at the start, Mick read two verses of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Adonais, and as the band launched into “I’m Yours and I’m Hers” by Johnny Winters (one of Brian’s favourite songs), thousands of butterflies were released, though this was against park stipulation, as they were voracious Cabbage White butterflies, and many had died due to the boxes not being properly ventilated. 

What’s important to this story about the concert at Hyde Park is that the London chapter of the Hell’s Angels was there providing security that day. It is also important to note that the Grateful Dead (who, incidentally, also had a member of the 27 Club in their line-up) had also hired the Hell’s Angels as security numerous times. 

Several months later, the Stones had been having a pretty good run with their American tour, which was able to slightly mitigate some of the shady business practices Allen Klein had subjected them to, but throughout, fans and journalists kept complaining about high ticket prices. If you ask me though, those bitches were lucky. I’d rather be paying three to eight dollars (equivalent to $21.21 to $56.57 in 2019) as opposed to a minimum of $159 that tickets to a Rolling Stones concert now sell for. Not to mention, Woodstock had happened in August that year, and that was a big success, so in Mick Jagger’s 26-year-old, immature, unwise brain, that obviously meant that they should have another free concert like the one at Hyde Park. Really, in his mind, the peace and love movement was only just beginning, so what could go wrong?

As Murphy’s Law will tell you, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong” 

Oh, and go wrong it did. 

The first major problem was that they couldn’t get a venue. 

The concert was set for December 6, and their tour manager, Sam Cutler, struggled to get them a venue. He tried San Jose’s State University, but there had been a three-day festival recently, and the city wasn’t exactly in the mood for another batch of hippies storming the city so soon afterward, so that was out of bounds. He then tried gunning for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, but there was a football game between the Chicago Bears and the San Francisco 49-ers taking place in the same general location, which made use of the venue impractical. He then tried getting Sears Point Raceway on board, but disputes quickly arose over filming distribution rights and an up-front fee of $300,000.

Finally, just two days before the concert was set to take place, the Stones’ management managed to get a hold of Altamont Speedway (it helped that the owner, Dick Carter, apparently offered the venue for free). 

As you can imagine, there was a whole shit-ton of problems that arose from that, and Rolling Stone magazine, in its piece on the tragedy, listed the following logistical problems: 

“1) Promise a free concert by a popular rock group which rarely appears in this country. Announce the site only four days in advance.

2) Change the location 20 hours before the concert.

3) The new concert site should be as close as possible to a giant freeway.

4) Make sure the grounds are barren, treeless, desolate.

5) Don’t warn neighboring landowners that hundreds of thousands of people are expected. Be unaware of their out-front hostility toward long hair and rock music.

6) Provide one-sixtieth the required toilet facilities to insure that people will use nearby fields, the sides of cars, etc.

7) The stage should be located in an area likely to be completely surrounded by people and their vehicles.

8) Build the stage low enough to be easily hurdled. Don’t secure a clear area between stage and audience.

9) Provide an unreliable barely audible low fidelity sound system.

10) Ask the Hell’s Angels to act as ‘security’ guards.”

Most sane people would have quit while they were ahead, but this is the Rolling Stones we’re talking about. Between Brian Jones having five kids by the age of twenty-three, Mick Jagger allegedly sleeping with over 4,000 women (and don’t get me started on him and David Bowie), Keith Richards’ drug habits and his snorting his dad’s ashes, Bill Wyman dating a teenager while he was in his forties, and Charlie Watts punching Mick Jagger in the face, we are absolutely not dealing with the most sane bunch of individuals on the planet. 

And let’s not forget that some idiot decided it’d be a great idea to pay the Hell’s Angels in $500 of beer (the equivalent of $3,535.43 in 2019).

Yeah, if you listened closely to the sounds of the earth in 1969, I can guarantee you, you probably would have heard a barely-cold-in-the-ground Brian Jones spinning in his grave over this stupidity (because he was acting as the band’s manager for a time in their early days before Andrew Oldham came on board). 

Let’s also not forget that they hired a particularly notorious batch of Hell’s Angels from Oakland, California, whereas the Grateful Dead found their “security bikers” in Sacramento. Apparently, Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully even tried to warn the Stones about the “real” Hell’s Angels after seeing the footage from Hyde Park, but obviously, they didn’t take whatever warning he tried to give them to heart. The hippies in general had a romanticized image of the Hell’s Angels in their heads, seeing them as “outlaw brothers of the counterculture.”

No points for guessing how that worked out, but let’s continue regardless. 

Set to perform that night were Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, the Grateful Dead, and of course, the Rolling Stones. 

They would all be performing on a stage that was just thirty-nine inches off the ground and surrounded on all sides by over 300,000 attendees. Apparently, this had been planned to create a more “intimate” experience. 

From what I could tell, waivers were not involved. 

For the sake of time, I can’t give you a minute-by-minute analysis of the event, but I can still provide a basic timeline of all that happened. 

So, everything went relatively smoothly as Santana performed their set, but it was only downhill from there. As the day progressed, the crowd started fighting each other, and the “security” sure as hell didn’t help matters. At some point, someone knocked over one of the Angel’s motorcycles, which was likely an accident. However, the Angels were already pretty pissy, and plus, rule number one when it comes to the Angels is “Don’t mess with the motorcycles.” So, the Angels, already high thanks to someone spiking the beer with acid, started indiscriminately assaulting audience members they didn’t like with sawed-off pool cues and motorcycle chains, including a guy who was running around naked and someone else who was trying to take pictures of the stage. One woman who called in to a radio station the next day reported that she saw five fistfights, and the Angels were involved in every last one. She tried to intervene, but the people around her warned her not to, fearing for both their safety and hers. 

During Jefferson Airplane’s set, Marty Balin was knocked unconscious when he tried to intervene in a fight between the audience members and Hell’s Angels. When Paul Kantner grabbed a mic and sarcastically thanked the Angels, Bill Fritsch grabbed the mic from him and started arguing with him about it. In addition, Denise Jewkes, lead singer of Ace of Cups, was hit in the head with a beer bottle and suffered a skull fracture. Her husband, Noel, had to lead his six-month pregnant wife through the sea of people so she could get medical attention. The Stones later paid her medical expenses. By this point, news of what was going on out front was beginning to seep into the backstage areas and even back to the Stones at their hotel room, but most of the acts decided to press on regardless. However, after hearing about what happened to Marty from Michael Shrieve, the guys from the Grateful Dead decided to book it. 

Yeah. Thanks a bunch, assholes.

The crowd did calm down a bit for the Flying Burrito Brothers’ set, because really, who can say no to Gram Parsons? However, that calm was only temporary. When the Stones arrived by helicopter, it wasn’t even ten seconds before someone punched Mick Jagger in the face. Also, Bill Wyman missed the first helicopter out, so the Stones were already going to be late.

And then Mick Jagger decided he wanted to be all dramatic and shit, so the crowds were forced to wait until nightfall for the Stones’ set.

Meanwhile, during Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s set, a “stoned out” Angel reportedly stabbed Stephen Stills in the leg whenever he stepped forward to sing, leaving trails of blood running down his leg.

By the time the Stones were anywhere near ready to take the stage, things started to degenerate even further, to the point where the Angels (who already despised Mick’s scrawny, English arse) pretty much forced the Stones to go out on stage regardless of whether they were ready or not, just to prevent a full-scale riot.

It was in that moment Mick knew… he fucked up royally.

As Mick observed the constant fighting between the audience members and Hell’s Angels during the show as he sang “Sympathy for the Devil”, he desperately, defeatedly, pleaded for calm, his usual bravado completely absent for once in his adult life. However, it was clear that the Angels already weren’t going to listen to the flamboyant musician they clearly hated, and tensions had been simmering too long throughout the day, so Mick’s pleas for peace practically went completely unheard. 

Mick Taylor later said, “The Hell’s Angels had a lot to do with it. The people that were working with us getting the concert together thought it would be a good idea to have them as a security force. But I got the impression that because they were a security force they were using it as an excuse. They’re just very, very violent people. I think we expected probably something like the Hell’s Angels that were our security force at Hyde Park, but of course they’re not the real Hell’s Angels, they’re completely phony. These guys in California are the real thing — they’re very violent. I had expected a nice sort of peaceful concert. I didn’t expect anything like that in San Francisco because they are so used to having nice things there. That’s where free concerts started, and I thought a society like San Francisco could have done much better. We were on the road when it was being organized, we weren’t involved at all. We would have liked to have been. Perhaps the only thing we needed security for was the Hell’s Angels. I really don’t know what caused it but it just depressed me because it could have been so beautiful that day”

(I feel so sorry for Mick Taylor. The kid was just twenty years old when he saw all this bullshit going down.)

Now, what I’m going to do with this go-around, before I describe what happened next, is tell you a little bit about Meredith Hunter. He was just eighteen when he went to Altamont with his girlfriend, Patti Bredehoft. The only reason he had a gun that day, according to his family, was for self-protection, given that he was basically a young black man with a white girlfriend in a sea of white people, at a time and place where racism was still very much prevalent. Allegedly, the gun didn’t even have any bullets in it; it would just be a last resort to deter anyone giving him trouble. Like most 18-year-olds, he was also a bit naive, and though his girlfriend wanted to leave, he convinced her to stay for the Rolling Stones’ set. At one point, he was already set upon by Hell’s Angels, but that time, it was only a scuffle. What is known is that he was high on methamphetamines, but what isn’t known for sure is his general demeanour. Some said he had a crazy look in his eye, while others said that he seemed calm, though he was upset at the violence. 

And then, all hell broke loose. 

As “Under My Thumb” was ending, cameras found an opening into the crowd, into which stumbled Meredith Hunter. He grabbed his gun, a .22 calibre revolver, which was visible to cameras against Patti’s dress. When Alan Passaro saw this, he immediately assumed that Hunter was trying to shoot somebody, and started stabbing him (this was, again, in plain view of a bunch of cameras). Subsequently, he was repeatedly kicked in the head, trying to tell his attackers that he wasn’t trying to kill anybody. However, the Angels were convinced that he was attempting to shoot somebody, and that’s essentially what the narrative became- that a crazed black kid high on meth tried to shoot Mick or one of the other Rolling Stones (which, believe me, I’d be salty about even if I hadn’t read a Rolling Stone article about him).

It was little Mick Taylor who managed to keep things rolling (a bit) by suggesting they play “Brown Sugar”, which had only been recorded the previous Tuesday. 

Somehow, after the vicious beating he’d suffered, Meredith was still alive, and a doctor at the scene looked at him and recommended that he get immediate medical attention, or else he’d die. However, the only helicopter at the scene was reserved for the Rolling Stones, and the pilot made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that no one else was allowed on board. Hunter ended up dying of his injuries while they waited for emergency responders. 

I don’t quite know how well the situation was explained, but still, dick move on the part of the helicopter pilots. 

In addition to Hunter, three other people died, one after falling into a fast-moving irrigation duct while tripping on LSD, and two others were killed in their sleeping bags during a hit-and-run accident. There were also four reported births, one of which occurred during Jefferson Airplane’s set. 

The day after the concert, the Stones flew back to London, as the news slowly disseminated throughout the world. 

In 1971, a documentary about the tragedy, Gimme Shelter, was released to the public. However, in the years since, many have argued that is meant to excuse the Stones’ actions and is an apologist piece of media. Still, the footage itself does show a chilling account of what happened that day, if you can ignore that overall narrative (though you really shoudn’t ignore that). 

Alan Passaro was later charged with Meredith’s murder, but was acquitted by an all-white jury, who likely either excused the crime due to racism, or just didn’t have the full story.

After Altamont, just about everybody turned on each other. The audience members, many of whom undoubtedly still live with the scars of that fateful night blamed the Hell’s Angels, whereas the Angels laid some of the blame on the audience members, and most of it on the people who hired them, whilst the Stones said they’d never work with the Hell’s Angels again (which, allegedly, almost resulted in some of them trying to assassinate Mick Jagger). 

In my honest, humble, not-so-professional opinion, I say the blame should be laid with the Stones’ management, Mick Jagger, the Grateful Dead, and the Hell’s Angels. The concert should have been planned over a matter of months instead of weeks, held in a proper venue, and above all else, not had fucking Hell’s Angels as security guards. 

While the Grateful Dead came out of it rather unscathed (mostly because they didn’t play), it’s been said that the Stones lost quite a bit of their edge. It’s easy to say that they grew up a lot because of this event, becoming a lot humbler, and a lot less greedy and risky as a direct result of this. It’s even to a point where people haven’t liked much of what they’ve put out since the 1980’s. Santana and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young declined to have their performances shown in Gimme Shelter, and have since spoken very little about the event. Meanwhile, Alan Passaro drowned in 1985, though the circumstances of his death are suspicious, to say the least. Meanwhile, Meredith Hunter’s family still deals with the trauma of his death, and aside from a $10,000 ($70,708.59) settlement, the Stones never even approached the family to offer their condolences, or even a half-assed explanation (I don’t recommend the latter approach). The Hell’s Angels also had their reputations as dangerous outsiders cemented by this event, given that they’d caused at least 75-90% of the violence that took place that day. 

Keith Richards has maintained his “fuck-all” attitude about this through the years, even writing in his 2010 autobiography “In actual fact, if it hadn’t been for the murder, we’d have thought it a very smooth gig by the skin of its fucking teeth.”

There is a reason that many of the dreams of the 60′s died at Altamont, and all the evidence you really need is the footage that was shot that night and the words of the people who saw the fiasco first hand. 

Sources: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/remembering-meredith-hunter-the-fan-killed-at-altamont-630260/ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-rolling-stones-disaster-at-altamont-let-it-bleed-71299/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidchiu/2019/12/03/altamont-at-50-the-disastrous-concert-that-brought-the-60s-to-a-crashing-halt/#535871c31941 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-chaos-of-altamont-and-the-murder-of-meredith-hunter https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-altamont-festival-brings-the-1960s-to-a-violent-end https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/altamont-wasnt-the-end-of-the-60s-it-was-the-start-of-rock-n-roll-disasters https://worldhistoryproject.org/1969/12/6/altamont-free-concert Altamont by Joel Selvin Life by Keith Richards https://allthatsinteresting.com/altamont-speedway-free-concert https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/lifestyle/altamont-rolling-stones-50th-anniversary/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Free_Concert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Meredith_Hunter http://timeisonourside.com/chron1969.html https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/02/01/altamont-free-concert-in-1969/ https://www.ranker.com/list/altamont-free-concert-facts/jen-jeffers http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/On-This-Day–Deaths-at-Rolling-Stones–Altamont-Concert-Shocks-the-Nation.html https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/altamont.php https://westegg.com/inflation/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUlyVSfhgaM https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-rolling-stones/1969/altamont-speedway-tracy-ca-43d6fbb3.html https://slate.com/culture/2018/07/just-a-shot-away-a-history-of-altamont-by-saul-austerlitz-reviewed.html

[bountyofbeads]

Coronavirus Travel Restrictions, Across the Globe https://nyti.ms/2Wdr0kk

CORONAVIRUS TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS, ACROSS THE GLOBE.... Nations across the world have imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Here, the current list of countries limiting entry.

By Ernesto Londoño and Aimee Ortiz |

Published March 14, 2020 Updated March 15, 2020, 3:42 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted March 15, 2020 |

Countries across the world have imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus. This list, pulled from official government reports and the United States State Department, will be updated as new measures are announced.

AFRICA

KENYA 🇰🇪

On March 15, the Kenyan government announced the suspension of all travelers from countries that have reported Covid-19 cases. Only Kenyan citizens will be allowed into the country “with self quarantine or government-designated facility,” officials said on Twitter. The measure is in place for 30 days.

“All who arrived within the last 14 days must self quarantine,” officials added.

MOROCCO 🇲🇦

As of March 15, the Moroccan government has suspended all flights to Algeria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, as well as passenger ferry services. The government also shut down the land borders with Ceuta and Melilla, the autonomous Spanish territories on the coast of Morocco.

Travelers arriving in Morocco “will be asked to fill out a health questionnaire on arrival and may be subject to temperature and other screening,” according to officials.

AMERICA'S

ARGENTINA 🇦🇷

Starting March 17, Argentina is halting all flights from Europe and the United States for at least 30 days.

People arriving to Argentina from areas with a significant number of cases — including the United States, Europe, South Korea, Japan and Iran — will be required to go into quarantine for 14 days.

BRAZIL 🇧🇷

As of March 14, Brazil had not imposed travel restrictions. Its health ministry recommended that all passengers who arrive on international flights remain at home for at least seven days and seek medical help if they develop coronavirus symptoms.

CANADA 🍁

Canada has not banned the entry of any foreigners. But it has required that anyone arriving in Canada from Hubei Province in China, Italy or Iran “self-isolate and stay at home” for 14 days and contact public health authorities within 24 hours of arrival.

The government added that all other passengers returning from overseas consider self-isolating for 14 DAYS.

COLOMBIA 🇨🇴

The government announced on March 13 that it would shut down the seven border crossings along its border with Venezuela. Starting March 16, Colombia will bar entry to any foreigner who has been to Europe or Asia within the past 14 days. Colombians who return from affected areas will be subject to mandatory quarantine for 14 days.

EL SALVADOR

On March 11, El Salvador announced it would bar entry to all foreigners, except accredited diplomats and legal permanent residents.

GUATEMALA 🇬🇹

Effective March 16, Guatemala will bar the entry of citizens of the United States, Canada, South Korea, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, China and Iran.

MEXICO 🇲🇽

As of March 14, Mexico had not imposed any travel restrictions.

PERU 🇵🇪

Peru on March 12 announced it would halt all flights from Asia and Europe, but it did not specify when the measure would take effect.

UNITED STATES🇺🇲

On March 11 the United States barred the entry of all foreign nationals who had visited China, Iran and a group of European countries during the previous 14 days.

The ban applies to countries in the Schengen Area, which are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Effective March 16, the ban will apply to foreign nationals departing from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

As of March 13, all American citizens and legal permanent residents who have been in high-risk areas and return to the United States are required to fly to one of the following 13 airports:

Boston-Logan International Airport (BOS), Massachusetts

Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Illinois

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Texas

Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW), Michigan

Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Hawaii

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Georgia

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York

Los Angeles International Airport, (LAX), California

Miami International Airport (MIA), Florida

Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), New Jersey

San Francisco International Airport (SFO), California

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Washington

Washington-Dulles International Airport (IAD), Virginia

URUGUAY 🇺🇾

On March 13, Uruguay announced that all passengers arriving from China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Iran, Spain, Italy, France and Germany must go into mandatory quarantine for 14 days.

VENEZUELA 🇻🇪

On March 12, Venezuela announced it would suspend all flights from Colombia and European countries for at least a month.

ASIA

CHINA 🇨🇳

Travelers in China who have recently visited South Korea, Japan and Italy — countries with “severe outbreaks” — and are headed toward Beijing or Shanghai, or provinces such as Guangdong and Sichuan, will be quarantined for two weeks in a Chinese facility.

INDIA 🇮🇳

As of March 13, the Indian government suspended most travel and tourism visas, with the exception of “diplomatic, official, U.N. or International Organizations, employment and project visas” until April 15.

Additionally, the country is enforcing a two-week quarantine on all passengers, including Indian nationals, “arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany” after Feb. 15.

JAPAN 🇯🇵

As of March 15, Japan had banned entry for foreign travelers with Chinese passports issued by Hubei/Zhejiang Provinces as well as those who had visited regions in China that have affected by the virus, South Korea, Iran or Italy within the last 14 days.

SINGAPORE 🇸🇬

As of March 15, “all new visitors with recent travel history to France, Germany, Italy and Spain within the last 14 days will not be allowed entry into or transit through Singapore,” according to officials.

Singapore residents and pass-holders who have been to those countries in the past 14 days will be issued a “Stay-Home Notice,” which will require them to quarantine for two weeks.

SOUTH KOREA

South Korea has restricted the entry of travelers with passports from China’s Hubei Province as well as anyone who has visited that region in the past 14 days. Additionally, Korean visas that were issued to travelers in Hubei are canceled.

Visa-free entry to Jeju Island for all foreigners, as well as visa-free entry for Chinese nationals and travelers who are headed to China, are both suspended.

THAILAND 🇹🇭

As of March 12, travelers from China, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Italy and Iran who are headed to Thailand need to present a health certificate confirming a negative coronavirus test when checking in before their flight. These travelers must also show proof of insurance with coverage of at least $100,000.

All passengers arriving in Thailand will need to answer a questionnaire and their temperatures will be taken. Anyone transiting the restricted countries for less than 12 hours will not have to present a certificate or fill out the questionnaire, but they will be subject to enhanced screening.

As of March 13, according to officials, “travelers entering the Kingdom of Thailand who have been in the United States within the prior 14 days are subject to self-monitoring and reporting requirements.”

VIETNAM 🇻🇳

As ofMarch 15, Vietnam will refuse visitors from Europe’s Schengen Area and Britain, according to officials.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

🇦🇺 AUSTRALIA

On March 15, the Australian government announced that all international arrivals will have to self-isolate for 14 days and that cruise ships arriving from foreign ports will be banned for 30 days.

NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand announced tight border control measures on March 14 that include requiring all incoming travelers, including its own citizens, to self-isolate for two weeks.

ISRAEL 🇮🇱

Since March 12, foreign travelers, including United States citizens, who arrived in Israel from any country have been “required to remain in home quarantine until 14 days have passed since the date of entry into Israel.”

The quarantine also applies to Israeli citizens and residents. Self-quarantine in a hotel or dormitory is not allowed.

EUROPE

AUSTRIA 🇦🇹

Citizens from countries outside the European Union who have been in coronavirus hot spots, which the Austrian Foreign Ministry currently lists as France, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and parts of China in the past 14 days will have to present a medical certificate confirming a negative test result for the new coronavirus upon entry to the country. The Austrian government also announced that all passengers, regardless of citizenship, will also have to provide a certificate confirming a negative test result if they’re entering Austria from Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein (from March 16).

The certificate, which must be dated within four days of arrival, needs to be signed by a licensed medical practitioner and be in English, German, Italian or French.

🇭🇷 CROATIA

Travelers arriving in Croatia from specific hard-hit areas, such as Italy, Iran and China’s Hubei province, must spend two weeks in government quarantine facilities at the expense of the traveler, according to officials.

The Croatian government also implemented health monitoring for passengers from several countries affected by the virus like Spain, the United States and Sweden. Travelers from these countries should self-isolate for two weeks, according to officials, “and report their condition to the nearest epidemiologist for further instructions.”

CZECH REPUBLIC

The Czech Republic, which declared a state of emergency, has banned passengers from “high risk countries” and prohibited Czech citizens from visiting these places.

As of March 14, bus, train and boat transport from the Czech Republic to Germany and Austria was also banned. Air travel was also partially restricted, according to officials.

🇩🇰 DENMARK

Denmark closed its borders to most foreign travelers for the next month as of March 14.

“All tourists, all travel, all vacations, and all foreigners who cannot demonstrate a credible reason to enter Denmark will be denied entrance at the Danish border,” Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister, said at a news conference, according to Reuters.

🇩🇪 GERMANY

Starting March 16, Germany will close its borders with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland, the country’s interior minister said on March 15.

🇮🇹 ITALY

In Italy, where the virus has taken hold and already killed more than 1,000 people, government officials implemented strict orders placing the country on lockdown in an attempt to stop the spreading infection.

As of March 3, passengers with a temperature higher than 99.5 degrees were not allowed to board flights to the United States.

All travelers flying into Italy are subject to temperature screening in Italy’s major airports, and the country has suspended flights from China and Taiwan.

🇳🇱 NETHERLANDS

On March 13, the Dutch government announced the suspension of flights from “risk countries” — mainland China, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy and South Korea. The ban is in place through at least March 27.

🇳🇴 NORWAY

On March 12 the Norwegian Directorate of Health said that regardless of whether they have symptoms or not, anyone coming into Norway from outside Nordic countries should be quarantined at home for two weeks from their arrival. The measure is set to last through March 26.

On March 13, the municipality for Oslo, the nation’s capital, said on its website that “foreign travelers from countries outside the Nordics arriving at Oslo airport will have to return home.” Reuters reported.

🇵🇱 POLAND

As of March 15, Poland will ban foreigners from the country, suspend international air and rail services for citizens and border controls will be temporarily restored, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland said on Twitter. All Polish citizens returning from abroad must voluntarily quarantine for two weeks, according to officials.

🇷🇺 RUSSIA

The Russian government banned entry of Chinese nationals, except for transit, on Feb. 20, and on Feb. 28 it banned the entry of all Iranian citizens. On March 1, Russia restricted travel by South Koreans, mandating they enter the country only via Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. As of March 13, the government banned Italian citizens from entry into Russia.

“Effective March 16, air travel between Russia and countries of the European Union, Norway, and Switzerland will be limited to flights between Moscow and capital cities,” according to officials.

On March 14, Russian officials announced plans to close the country’s land border with Poland and Norway to foreigners, according to Reuters.

Slovakia 🇸🇰

The Slovak Republic closed all three international airports on March 12, and since March 13, “all the persons coming to Slovakia from abroad are obliged to remain in quarantine for 14 days.”

Additionally, international bus and rail travel have been suspended, according to officials.

Ukraine 🇺🇦

On March 14, Ukraine announced the suspension of all commercial passenger travel, including flights, trains and buses, to and from Ukraine, starting March 17. The Ukrainian government said all foreigners would be barred from entering the country starting March 16.

______

If you know of a travel restriction that should be on this list, please email us, including an official source, at travel@nytimes.com.

*********

[visaonlinevietnam-blog1]

How to get Vietnam visa from United States 2020?

Approved by the Immigration Department and basing on the legal function of an international tourist company, we specialize in processing entry visa for millions of passengers yearly from all countries over the world. So, online application for a visa with our website at Visaonlinevietnam is fully legitimate and we ensure that 100% passengers on our website will be received an entry visa to Vietnam easily by approval letters which we apply for passengers with the Immigration Department and send back to you by email: sales@visaonlinevietnam.com United States is one of the nations which the Vietnam Government accepts legally for tourists or businessmen to get a Vietnam visa on arrival at the airport (VOA).

Vietnam visa on arrival is effective for citizens who are living far away from the Vietnamese Embassies and do not want to lose money and their important documents (passport, personal papers) by postal mail. You can choose the following way to get Vietnam visa  on arrival from the United States: A. Get Vietnam Visa on Arrival and Visa stamped at Vietnam International Airports by applying online in website Visaonlinevietnam.com 1. Access the website Visaonlinevietnam and  apply online to get Vietnam Visa on Arrival (Visa stamped at any Vietnam International Airports) 2. Choose a suitable service for your trip/plan 3. Follow 3 Steps on our website to complete the application of Pre-arranged Visa on Arrival

-  Fill Online Form (Name And Email/ Your info details and arrival date/ Type of visa service); -  Make Payment online by Credit Card (or) Bank Transfer; - Required Documents:  No need to send any important documents (ie: original passport) 4. Processing service time after confirmed payment

- Normal: from 1 to 2 working days. - Urgent: from 4-8 working hours - In rush service, you can get visa Vietnam in 30 minutes to 4 hours even at weekends and National holidays 5. The result of processing service on our website

- An approval letter for your information on our website issued by the Immigration Department. 6. What should you do when receiving our result back by email to your application online?

- Print this approval letter which we send back as result by email. - Bring it with your travel and prepare  2 photos, stamping fee  (ruled by the Immigration Department:45 USD for single entry or 65 USD /95 USD for multiple entries ) to depart for Vietnam trip Further information, please visit the application process. * Please note that you can also take this approval letter get Vietnam visa stamped on your passport at the Vietnam Embassy nearest to your home B.  Get Vietnam Entry Visa at Vietnam Embassies in the United States

If you apply for the visa to Vietnam in person at the Vietnam Embassy in the United States, you need to know: - Visa administrative Institution: Vietnam Embassy - Processing time: it depends on how fast you need. But for sure, you should make a call to Vietnam Embassy for details. - Required Documents: passport, money and 1 new envelope with the stamp on it and your exact home address in order to avoid losing issues.

Embassy of Vietnam in Washington DC, United States

Address: 1233, 20th St., NW, Suite 400, Washington DC, 20036, USA Phone: (1-202) 861 073 Fax: 1-202) 861 0917 Email: consular@vietnamembassy.us

Visa Section of the Embassy

Opening hours: 9:30 -- 12:30 Monday through Friday. Phone: (202) 861- 2293, (202) 861- 0694 and (202) 861- 0737 ext. 221, 222, 236, 237 during 10:00 -- 12:00 AM and 2:30 -- 5:30 PM Monday through Friday Fax: (202) 861- 1297 and (202) 861- 0917

Consulate General of Vietnam in San Francisco, United States

Address: 1700 California St, Suite 430 San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone: (1415) 922 1577 Fax: (1415) 922 1848 Email: info@vietnamconsulate-sf.org

Note: - Before applying for a Vietnam visa, make sure your passport has a minimum 6 months validity and left pages. - Visa on arrival is applicable for those traveling by air to Vietnam. For any further information, please kindly contact us. We are willing and pleased to assist you at our best!