Archive for May, 2007
Posted on May 19, 2007 - by admin
Voice of Israel author
Abba Eban (Hebrew: אבא אבן, born February 2, 1915, died November 17, 2002), voice of israel author, was an Israeli diplomat and politician.
{mosimage}Born with the name Aubrey Solomon Meir in Cape Town, South Africa, Eban moved to England at an early age. He was educated at St Olave's Grammar School before studying Classics and Oriental languages at Queens' College, Cambridge. After graduating with a "Triple-Starred First", he researched Arabic and Hebrew as a Fellow of Pembroke College from 1938–1939. At the outbreak of World War II, Eban went to work for Chaim Weizmann at the World Zionist Organization in London from December 1939. A few months later he joined the British Army as an intelligence officer, where he rose to the rank of major. He served as a liaison officer for the Allies to the Jewish Yishuv of Palestine. Drawing on his linguistic skills, In 1947 he translated from Arabic a 1937 novel by Tawfiq Al Hakim(1898-1987): Maze of Justice: Diary of a Country Prosecutor.
Eban moved back to London briefly to work in the Jewish Agency's Information Department, from where he was posted to New York, where the General Assembly of the United Nations was considering the "Palestine Question". In 1947, he was appointed as a liaison officer to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, where he was successful in attaining approval for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab segments—Resolution 181. At this stage, he changed his name to the Hebrew word Abba (however it was seldom used informally), meaning "Father", as he could foresee himself as the father of the nation of Israel. Eban spent a decade at the United Nations, and also served as his country's ambassador to the United States at the same time. He was renowned for his oratorical skills. In the words of Henry Kissinger:
"I have never encountered anyone who matched his command of the English language. Sentences poured forth in mellifluous constructions complicated enough to test the listener’s intelligence and simultaneously leave him transfixed by the speaker’s virtuosity."
His polished presentation, grasp of history, and powerful speeches gave him authority in a United Nations that was generally skeptical of Israel or even hostile to it. He was fluent in ten languages. In 1952, Eban was elected Vice President of the UN General Assembly.
Eban left the United States in 1959 and returned to Israel, where he was elected to the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) as a member of the Mapai party. He served under David Ben-Gurion as Minister of Education and Culture from 1960 to 1963, then as deputy to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol until 1966. Through this entire period (1959–1966), he also served as president of the Weizmann Institute at Rehovot.
From 1966 to 1974, Eban served as Israel's foreign minister, defending the country in the Six-Day War. Nonetheless, he was a strong supporter of giving away the territories occupied in the war in exchange for peace. He played an important part in the shaping of UN Security Council Resolution 242 in 1967 (as well as UN Security Council Resolution 338 in 1973). Eban was at times criticized for not voicing his opinions in Israel's internal debate.
His comment that "Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity [for peace]," made after the Geneva peace talks in December 1973, is often quoted.
In 1988, after three decades in the Knesset, he lost his seat over internal splits in the Israeli Labour Party. He devoted the rest of his life to writing and teaching, including serving as a visiting academic at Princeton University and Columbia University. He also narrated television documentaries including Heritage: Civilization and the Jews (PBS, 1984), for which he was host, Israel, A Nation Is Born (1992), and On the Brink of Peace (PBS, 1997).
In 2001, Eban received the Israel Prize, his country's highest honor. He died in 2002 and was buried in Kfar Shmaryahu, north of Tel Aviv.
Abba Eban's brother-in-law is the late Chaim Herzog, the 6th president of Israel. Herzog's son Isaac Herzog is a minister in Israel's Knesset. Eban's cousin, Oliver Sacks, is a neurologist and author and his son, Eli Eban, is a renowned clarinetist who teaches at Indiana University. Eli has two children, Yael and Omri Eban. His nephew, Jonathan Lynn is a film-maker and script-writer known for satirical BBC shows Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. Lynn recounts that the plot of an episode of Yes, Prime Minister, which involved the British Prime Minister bypassing his own Arab-centric bureaucracy by taking the Israeli ambassador's advice, was based on an actual incident narrated to him by Eban.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Abba Eban".
Posted on May 19, 2007 - by admin
To Fly and Fight Author – “Bud” Anderson
About to fly and fight author….. Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson, is a retired officer in the United States Air Force and a "triple ace" in World War II.
{mosimage}Anderson was born in Oakland, California, and raised on a farm near Newcastle, California. In January 1942 he enlisted in the United States Army as an aviation cadet and received his wings and commission as a second lieutenant in September 1942.
Anderson flew two tours of combat against the Luftwaffe in Europe while with the 363rd Fighter Squadron of the 357th Fighter Group, based at RAF Leiston, England, and was the group's 3rd leading ace with 16 1/4 aerial victories. His P-51, nicknamed Old Crow, carried him safely through 116 missions without being hit by fire from enemy aircraft and without Anderson ever having to turn back for any reason. He returned to the United States in February 1945 in the rank of captain.
With over thirty years of military service, Anderson was a test pilot at Wright Field (where he also served as Chief of Fighter Operations) and Edwards Air Force Base (where he was Chief of Flight Test Operations and Deputy Director of Flight Test), served two tours at the The Pentagon and commanded three fighter organizations. From June to December 1970 he commanded the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing, an F-105 unit, during its final months of service in the Vietnam War, and retired in March 1972. He was decorated twenty-five times for his service to the United States.
After his retirement from active duty as a colonel, he became the manager of the McDonnell Aircraft Company's Flight Test Facility at Edwards AFB, serving there until 1984.
During his career, he flew over 100 types of aircraft, and logged over 7,000 hours. Anderson is possibly best known for a close friendship with Chuck Yeager from World War II, where both served in the 363rd Fighter Squadron, to the present.
In 1990, Anderson co-authored the book To Fly & Fight–Memoirs of a Triple Ace.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bud Anderson".
Posted on May 19, 2007 - by admin
Fairy Book by Cicely Mary Baker
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Cicely Mary Baker (1895-1973)
Here is an wonderful example of a fairy book by cicely mary baker. I love to collect children's books from the 1800's and was lucky enough to acquire one of these precious fairy books a few years back.
Cicely M Barker was born in Croydon, a small town south of London, on 28th June 1895. In 1907 her family came to live at 17 The Waldrons where they stayed until their move to number 23 in 1924. Cicely enrolled in evening classes at the Croydon School of Art and in 1910 she began to make postcards, a popular means for artists to bring their art to the public.
Cicely furthered her artistic career by sketching children and translating them into pictures of children at work, at play, in religious, literary and national themes during the First World War. The best known are 'Shakespeare's Children', 'Children of the Allies' and the delightful early 'Fairy Cards'. When Cicely's father died in 1912 she began to dedicate her art to the Pre-Raphaelite movement In the peaceful atmosphere of The Waldrons, Cicely began to create the Flower Fairies. First published in 1923 and reprinted many times the books have passed into our literary and artistic history as children's classics.
Cicely Mary Barker died in Worthing Hospital in 1973. The centenary of her birth (1995) rekindled local and professional interest once more. Publishers Frederick Warne, who had reissued all the original Flower Fairy books, produced a biography 'Cicely Barker and her Art' by Jane Laing to co-incide with the centenary.
