title: Swansea

text: Throughout the 19th century, the Vivian family did much to develop Swansea. Their wealth and influence came from large copper-mining, smelting and trading businesses in Swansea (Vivian & Sons), and is still visible today in their former family residences: Singleton Abbey (now used by Swansea University), Sketty Hall, Clyne Castle and Clyne Gardens. Henry Vivian became the first Lord Swansea in 1893.


title: Swansea

text: Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in Swansea. He was educated at the state-sector Dynevor School, Swansea before reading theology at Christ's College, Cambridge. Catherine Zeta-Jones was born and raised in Swansea and still owns a home in Mumbles. Swansea is the home town of Non Stanford, the 2013 ITU Triathlon World Champion. The thriller writer, Mark Ellis was educated in Swansea.


title: Swansea

text: The American-born philosopher of Welsh descent Rush Rhees taught at Swansea University from 1940 to 1966 and is buried at Oystermouth Cemetery in Mumbles.


title: Swansea

text: People from Swansea are known locally as Swansea Jacks, or just Jacks. The source of this nickname is not clear. Some attribute it to Swansea Jack, the life-saving dog.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea City A.F.C. (founded 1912) is the city's main football association team. Originally playing at the Vetch Field, they moved to the Swansea.com Stadium (then known as the Liberty Stadium) at the start of the 2005–06 season, winning promotion to League One in their final year at their old stadium. The team presently play in the English Championship, after spending seven seasons in the English Premier League. The Football Association of Wales had decided that for the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, Wales would play all of their home ties at either the Cardiff City Stadium or the Liberty Stadium.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea has four association football clubs that play in the Welsh football league system: Swansea University F.C., Garden Village, South Gower and West End.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea is home to Swansea Rugby Football Club (Swansea RFC), a founder member of the Welsh Rugby Union and one of the most important teams in the early history of Welsh rugby union. Playing out of St Helens Rugby and Cricket Ground the club not only produced several of the greatest Welsh rugby superstars, including Billy Bancroft and Billy Trew, they also hosted national touring sides from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Known as the 'All Whites', Swansea kept a constant supply of players that filled the Welsh ranks in the early history of the game. In 1935 Swansea became the first club side to beat the All Blacks.


title: Swansea

text: In 2003, Swansea RFC merged with Neath RFC to form the Ospreys. Swansea RFC remained at St Helen's in semi-professional form, but the Ospreys moved into the Liberty Stadium in Landore for the start of the 2005–06 season. Neath-Swansea rugby games used to be hotly contested matches, such that there was some debate about whether a team incorporating both areas was possible. The team came fifth in the Celtic League in their first year of existence and topped that league in their second year. By 2012 they had won the league a then-record four times.


title: Swansea

text: St Helens Rugby and Cricket Ground is the home of Swansea RFC and Glamorgan County Cricket Club have previously played matches there. In this ground, Sir Garfield Sobers hit six sixes in one over; the first time this was achieved in a game of first-class cricket. The final ball landed on the ground past the Cricketers' pub just outside the ground. It is also the home of the tallest floodlight stand in Europe.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea's rugby league side plays from Swansea in the small town of Ystalyfera. They are known as the Swansea Valley Miners but were formed as the Swansea Bulls in 2002.


title: Swansea

text: The Swansea Bowls Stadium opened in early 2008. The stadium hosted the World Indoor Singles and Mixed Pairs Championship in April 2008 and the Gravelles Welsh International Open Bowls Championships in 2009.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea City Centre is undergoing a £1 billion transformation scheme. A large area of the city is earmarked for redevelopment. A new city-centre retail precinct is planned involving demolition of the dilapidated St. David's Shopping Centre which has three or four traders, about 13% of the retail space in the centre and the Quadrant Shopping Centre. Including relocation of the Tesco Superstore near to the city's Sainsbury's store in Parc Tawe, the new retail precinct will be almost four times the size of the Quadrant Centre. The city centre is also being brightened up with street art and new walkways, along with the first phase of the David Evans – Castle Street development. New green spaces will be provided in conjunction with the proposed Quadrant Square and Grand Theatre Square. Redevelopment of the Oxford Street car park and Lower Oxford Street arcades are also planned.


title: Swansea

text: At the sea front, The Tower, Meridian Quay is now Wales's tallest building at a height of with a restaurant on the top (29th) floor. It was under construction adjacent Swansea Marina until 2010.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea originally developed as centre for metals and mining, especially the copper industry, from the beginning of the 18th century. The industry reached its apogee in the 1880s, when 60% of the copper ores imported to Britain were smelted in the Lower Swansea valley. However, by the end of the Second World War these heavy industries were in decline, and over the post-war decades Swansea shared in the general trend towards a post-industrial, service sector economy.


title: Swansea

text: Of the 105,900 people estimated to work within the City and County of Swansea, over 90% are employed in the service sectors, with relatively high shares (compared to the Welsh and UK averages) in "public administration, education & health" and "banking, finance & insurance", and correspondingly high proportions of employment in occupations associated with the service sector, including professional, administrative/secretarial and sales/customer service occupations. The local authority believes this pattern reflects Swansea's role as a service centre for South West Wales.


title: Swansea

text: Economic activity and employment rates in Swansea were slightly above the Welsh average in October 2008, but lower than the UK average. In 2005, GVA per head in Swansea was £14,302 – nearly 4% above the Welsh average but 20% below the UK average. Median full-time earnings in Swansea were £21,577 in 2007, almost identical to the Welsh average.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea is home to the DVLA headquarters in Morriston, which employs around 6,000 people in the city. Other major employers in the city are Admiral Group, HSBC, Virgin Media, Swansea Bay University Health Board, BT and Amazon.co.uk. Virgin Atlantic also maintains its largest worldwide contact centre in Swansea; including reservations, sales, baggage claims, and customer relations.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea University has a campus in Singleton Park overlooking Swansea Bay. Its engineering department is recognised as a centre of excellence with pioneering work on computational techniques for solving engineering design problems. The department of physics is renowned for its research achievements at the frontiers of theoretical physics, particularly in the areas of elementary particle physics and string theory. Many other departments including history, computer science and German have been awarded "excellent" inspection ratings. In 2015 Swansea University opened a new Bay Campus situated in the Jersey Marine area of Swansea. The university was awarded "The Times" Higher Education Supplement Award for the UK's "best student experience" in 2005. In 2017, Swansea University Medical School was ranked as the third best medical school in the United Kingdom, behind Oxford and Cambridge universities.


title: Swansea

text: Other establishments for further and higher education in the city include University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Gower College Swansea and also Swansea College. Trinity Saint David was formed on 18 November 2010 through the merger of University of Wales Lampeter and Trinity University college Carmarthen under Lampeter's royal charter of 1828. On 1 August 2013, Swansea Metropolitan University became part of University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD). Swansea Metropolitan University was particularly well known for its Architectural Glass department, as well as its Teaching and Transport & Logistics degrees. Trinity Saint David also took over the Swansea Business School, which was formerly part of the Metropolitan University. It continues to provide higher education in the field of business including an MBA programme. Swansea Sixth Form College Wales (sscwales) was founded in 2013 and 2021 changed its name to Swansea College.


title: Swansea

text: In the local authority area, there is one nursery school; six infant schools and five junior schools. There are 77 primary schools, ten of which are Welsh-medium, and six of which are voluntary aided. There are 15 comprehensive schools under the remit of the local education authority, of which two are Welsh-medium. In addition, there are six special schools.


title: Swansea

text: The oldest school in Swansea is Bishop Gore School, founded in 1682. The largest comprehensive school is Olchfa School. There is one Roman Catholic comprehensive school – Bishop Vaughan Catholic Comprehensive School. Other secondary schools include Birchgrove Comprehensive School, Cefn Hengoed Community School, Dylan Thomas School, Pentrehafod Comprehensive School, Morriston Comprehensive School and Gowerton School. There are 2 Welsh-medium secondary schools in Swansea: Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Gŵyr and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe.


title: Swansea

text: The local newspaper is the Swansea edition of the South Wales Evening Post. The Swansea Herald of Wales was a free newspaper which was distributed every week to residential addresses until 2011 when the paper ceased to be in print. The Cardiff edition of the free daily paper Metro is distributed throughout the city. The council also produces a free monthly newspaper called the Swansea Leader. Swansea Life is a monthly lifestyle magazine published and distributed in Swansea.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea has three local radio stations: The Wave on 96.4 FM and DAB, its sister station Greatest Hits Radio South Wales on DAB, and Easy Radio on 102.1 FM and DAB. There is a community radio station Radio Tircoed and two regional radio stations: Heart South Wales on 106.0 FM and Nation Radio Wales on 107.3 FM and DAB.


title: Swansea

text: The patients and staff at Singleton Hospital can listen to the hospital radio station, Radio City 1386AM and Swansea University also runs its own radio station, Xtreme Radio, on 1431 AM. Providing the DAB service, the local multiplex called Swansea SW Wales is broadcast from Kilvey Hill. This transmitter also provides digital terrestrial television in the Swansea area. As well as Kilvey Hill the city is in the catchment areas of the Wenvoe transmitter (in the Vale of Glamorgan) and the Carmel transmitter in Carmarthenshire.


title: Swansea

text: Since 1924, the BBC has maintained a studio in the city; Dylan Thomas worked here in the interwar years, when the studio was used for the BBC Regional Programme. Currently it has facilities to broadcast live radio and television and is listed as a BBC regional studio.


title: Swansea

text: In mid-2008, the BBC included Swansea in its "Big Screen" project, and a large live permanent television screen has been sited in Castle Square.


title: Swansea

text: Independent filmmakers Undercurrents and Studio8 are based in Swansea, and the city plays host to the BeyondTV Film Festival. BeyondTV is annual event organised by Undercurrents to showcase the best of activism filmmakers. Swansea has also hosted the annual Swansea Bay Film Festival, where past-winning directors have included Gareth Evans, Anthony James, Alun D Pughe and Andrew Jones.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea has been used as a location for films such as "Only Two Can Play", "Submarine" and "Twin Town", the TV series "Mine All Mine" and in episodes of "Doctor Who".


title: Swansea

text: Swansea was the first city in Wales to feature in its own version of the board game Monopoly. The Swansea edition of Monopoly features 33 local landmarks, including the Mumbles Pier and the National Waterfront Museum; the game has been produced in both English and Welsh.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea was also featured in a television documentary titled Swansea Love Story as part of the Rule Britannia series on VBS.tv. The film is of a rather graphic nature and features heroin users, as well as community members affected by the narcotic, while trying to provide some explanation for the increase in use. Swansea was featured in several Yes Minister series as an undesirable civil service posting, in particular the vehicle licensing centre.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea is the hometown of Edward Kenway, the main protagonist of the video game "". This is because Matt Ryan, the voice actor of Edward, is from Swansea.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea is policed by the South Wales Police. The regional headquarters for the Swansea area is Swansea Central Police Station.


title: Swansea

text: Ambulance services are provided by the Welsh Ambulance Service, and fire services by the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service. Swansea Airport is one of the country's three Wales Air Ambulance bases, the others being Welshpool and Caernarfon.


title: Swansea

text: Local public healthcare services are operated by Swansea Bay University Health Board, who operate two hospitals in Swansea, Singleton Hospital and Morriston Hospital; the latter provides Accident and Emergency services. Singleton Hospital has one of Wales's three radiotherapy departments.


title: Swansea

text: Waste management services are coordinated by the local council, which deals with refuse collection and recycling and operates five civic amenity sites.


title: Swansea

text: Welsh Water provides drinking water supply and wastewater services to Swansea. There is a water treatment works at Crymlyn Burrows. Reservoirs which supply Swansea include the Cray reservoir and the Lliw Reservoirs, which are operated by Welsh Water.


title: Swansea

text: There was a high rate of car crime during the 1990s. In 2002, the BBC described Swansea as a "black spot for car crime". Car crime is a central theme in the film "Twin Town", which was set in and around Swansea and Port Talbot.


title: Swansea

text: The football violence that Swansea experienced during the 1970s–1990s has considerably reduced, the only major clashes occurring between Swansea City supporters and Cardiff City supporters. Many matches between these sides have ended in violence in both Swansea and Cardiff. These two clubs have a long history of intense rivalry, so much so that it is described in the media as "tribal".


title: Swansea

text: The M4 motorway, with junctions 44 to 47, bypasses Swansea, replacing the A48 as the main east–west route. Both the M4 and the A48 connect with Neath, Port Talbot and Cardiff to the east and Carmarthen to the west. The A483 dual carriageway links the city centre with the motorway at junction 42 to the east and junction 47 to the north west.


title: Swansea

text: On departing Swansea to the north, the A483 multiplexes with the A48 before continuing through mid Wales and terminating at Chester. The A4067 connecting Mumbles with the city centre and continuing up the Swansea Valley towards Brecon is also a dual carriageway for much of its route through Swansea. Other notable local roads include the A484, which provides a link from Fforestfach west to Llanelli, and the A4118, the main route westwards from the city centre across Gower to Port Eynon.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea railway station is approximately a fifteen-minute walk from Swansea bus station. Services calling at Swansea operate to Llanelli, Carmarthen, Haverfordwest, Milford Haven, Tenby, Pembroke Dock and Fishguard Harbour (connecting with the Stena Line to Rosslare Europort and Irish Rail to Dublin Connolly) to the west, Shrewsbury to the northeast via the Heart of Wales Line with four trains each way, Monday–Saturday, and Cardiff Central, Newport, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Reading and London Paddington to the east run by Great Western Railway. There are also suburban stations in Gowerton, Llansamlet and in Pontarddulais which are served by Transport for Wales Rail, as well as longer-distance services to Hereford, Shrewsbury, Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea Airport is a minor aerodrome situated in the Gower providing recreational flights only. Further development of the airport is strongly resisted by the local communities and environmental groups. Swansea is served by Cardiff Airport, east, in the Vale of Glamorgan, which provides scheduled domestic and international flights. It is approximately 40 minutes away by road or 70 minutes by rail. Pembrey Airport, to the west, is available for private flights.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea Marina to the south of the city centre has berths for 410 leisure boats. An addition 200 berths for leisure boats are located near the mouth of the River Tawe. Further leisure boating berths are being constructed at the Prince of Wales Dock in the Swansea Docks complex. The Swansea Docks complex is owned and operated by Associated British Ports and is used to handle a range of cargo ranging from agribulks and coal to timber and steel. Swansea Docks consists of three floating docks and a ferry terminal.


title: Swansea

text: Fastnet Line operated a Swansea Cork Ferry roll-on/roll-off service until November 2011, when the service was ended. A proposal for a catamaran-based passenger ferry service from Ilfracombe to Swanseascheduled to begin in time for Easter in 2010 has yet to launch. It would have had two return trips a day taking around 50 minutes each way and carried cycles.


title: Swansea

text: Bus routes within Swansea are operated predominantly by First Cymru, while smaller bus and coach operators such as NAT Group, South Wales Transport, Lewis Coaches, First Call Travel and DANSA also operate some routes in the city, most of which serve Swansea bus station. First Cymru operated the Swansea Metro, a road-based FTR bus rapid transit route, introduced between Morriston Hospital and Singleton Hospital in 2009. In late 2015 the fleet of Wright StreetCar articulated buses that served the Swansea Metro route were removed from service and replaced with standard non-articulated Wright StreetLite vehicles. First Cymru introduced the "Cymru Clipper" and "Swansea & The Bay" liveries in 2014 and 2019 respectively with services originating from Swansea bus station. The "Cymru Clipper" operations serve several rural communities across South West Wales, while the "Swansea & The Bay" services operate within Swansea and Neath Port Talbot.


title: Swansea

text: Veolia used to operate the rural services around the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw Valley - branded Gower Explorer and Lliw Link respectively. Since Veolia's withdrawal from Swansea, these services were operated by First Cymru for several years, and are now operated by NAT Group.


title: Swansea

text: Park and ride services are operated from car parks at Landore and Fabian Way. During busy periods of the year, additional services are operated from the Brynmill recreation ground.


title: Swansea

text: City cruiser pedal vehicles are being introduced to the city centre in a joint venture between the council and Swansea Business Improvement District.


title: Swansea

text: In November 2007 a new bridge was completed over the Fabian Way which provides a one way park and ride bus lane and a shared-use pedestrian and NCN route 4 cycle way. The leaf-shaped bridge was shortlisted for the 2008 British Constructional Steelwork Association Structural Steel Design Awards.


title: Swansea

text: A number of beaches around Swansea Bay are promoted to visitors. Surfing is possible at Langland Bay, Caswell Bay and Llangennith, with the latter winning accolades from two national newspapers for the quality of its waves. The promenade from the Marina to Mumbles offers views across Swansea Bay. The seaside village of Mumbles has a Victorian pier, small, independent shops and boutiques, restaurants and cafes. The south coast of Gower is the chief magnet for walkers, with a path stretching from Mumbles Head across the cliff tops, beaches and coastal woodland to Rhossili.


title: Swansea

text: On the Waterfront, Swansea Bay has a sweep of coastline which features a beach, promenade, children's lido, leisure pool, marina and maritime quarter featuring the museums the National Waterfront Museum and Swansea Museum, the oldest museum in Wales. Also situated in the maritime quarter is the Dylan Thomas Centre, which celebrates the life and work of the author with its permanent exhibition 'Dylan Thomas – Man and Myth', and Mission Gallery, a unique art gallery also in the heart of the Maritime Quarter which hosts a range of exhibitions from various art disciplines; it also host a craft space, with ranging works from local and international artists. The Dylan Thomas Centre is the focal point for the annual Dylan Thomas Festival (27 October – 9 November). There is a permanent exhibition at the Dylan Thomas Birthplace and Home for 23 years in Uplands which has been restored to its condition as a new house when bought by the Thomas family in 1914 a few months before Dylan was born in the front bedroom. The SA1 Waterfront area is the latest development for living, dining and leisure.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea Bay, Mumbles and Gower are home to various parks and gardens and almost 20 nature reserves. Clyne Gardens is home to a collection of plants set in parkland and host to 'Clyne in Bloom' in May. Singleton Park has acres of parkland, a botanical garden, a boating lake with pedal boats, and crazy golf. Plantasia is a tropical hothouse pyramid featuring three climatic zones, housing a variety of unusual plants, including several species which are extinct in the wild, and monkeys, reptiles, fish and a butterfly house. Other parks include Cwmdonkin Park, where Dylan Thomas played as a child, and Victoria Park which is close to the promenade on the seafront.


title: Swansea

text: Oxwich Bay on the Gower Peninsula was named the most beautiful beach in Britain by travel writers who visited more than 1,000 beaches around the world in search of the perfect sands (2007). "The Travel Magazine" praised Oxwich for "magnificent and unspoilt" scenery and as a "great place for adults and children to explore". It has over three miles (5 km) of sand and "The Guardian" named it one of Britain's blue-riband top 10 category beaches (2007). "The Independent" newspaper hailed Rhossili Bay as "the British supermodel of beaches" (2006) and the best beach in Britain for breathtaking cliffs (2007), whilst "The Sunday Times" listed it as one of the 25 best beaches in the world (2006). Thanks to its clear air and lovely golden sand, this romantic stretch of sand was voted the best place in the UK to watch the sun set ("Country Living" magazine 2005) and one of the top romantic spots in the country ("The Guardian" 2007).


title: Swansea

text: Llangennith Beach, with its soft sands, consistent beach break and great facilities, was listed as the best place to learn how to surf in Britain by The Observer (2006) and one of the 10 'classic surfing beaches by "The Guardian" (2007). Gower also claims Britain's Best Beach, Three Cliffs Bay. The Gower landmark topped the BBC Holiday Hit Squad nationwide competition (2006) and was voted Britain's best camping beach by "The Independent" thanks to its superb setting and quiet location (2007). Three Cliffs Bay also made the final of the ITV series Britain's Favourite View – the only nomination in Wales and backed by singer Katherine Jenkins. Nearby Brandy Cove came sixth in an online poll to find the UK's top beach for the baby boomer generation (2006). Beaches which won 2006 Blue Flag Beach Awards are: Bracelet Bay, Caswell Bay, Langland Bay, Port Eynon Bay and Swansea Marina (one of the few Blue Flag Marinas in Wales). All of these beaches also won a Seaside Award 2006. Limeslade was awarded the Rural Seaside Award and the Green Coast Award. Other Green Coast Awards went to Pwll Du, Rhossili Bay and Tor Bay.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea has a range of activities including sailing, water skiing, surfing, and other watersports, walking and cycling. Part of the Celtic Trail and the National Cycle Network, Swansea Bay provides a range of traffic-free cycle routes including along the seafront and through Clyne Valley Country Park. The Cycling Touring Club CTC has a local group in the area. Swansea Bay, Mumbles and Gower have a selection of golf courses.


title: Swansea

text: Prior to closure in 2003, Swansea Leisure Centre was one of the top ten visitor attractions in the Wales; it has been redeveloped as an indoor waterpark, rebranded the 'LC', and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 7 March 2008. The Wales National Pool is in Swansea.


title: Swansea

text: Swansea has a number of pubs, bars, clubs, restaurants and a casino. Swansea had two casinos until 30 August 2012 when Aspers closed. The majority of city centre bars are situated on Wind Street, with various chains represented including JD Wetherspoon, Revolution, Varsity and Walkabout. Some venues feature live music. The Mumbles Mile, described by the BBC as "one of Wales's best-known pub crawls", declined in the early 21st century and a number of local pubs were converted into flats or restaurants.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed "the poet of apprehension" by novelist Graham Greene.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Her first novel, "Strangers on a Train", has been adapted for stage and screen, the best known being the 1951 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Her 1955 novel "The Talented Mr. Ripley" has been adapted for film multiple times. Writing under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, Highsmith published the first lesbian novel with a happy ending, "The Price of Salt", in 1952, republished 38 years later as "Carol" under her own name and later adapted into a 2015 film.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith was born Mary Patricia Plangman in Fort Worth, Texas. She was the only child of artists Jay Bernard Plangman (1889–1975), who was of German descent, and Mary Plangman ("née" Coates; September 13, 1895 – March 12, 1991). The couple divorced ten days before their daughter's birth.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: In 1927, Highsmith, her mother and her adoptive stepfather, artist Stanley Highsmith, whom her mother had married in 1924, moved to New York City. When she was 12 years old, Highsmith was sent to Fort Worth and lived with her maternal grandmother for a year. She called this the "saddest year" of her life and felt "abandoned" by her mother. She returned to New York to continue living with her mother and stepfather, primarily in Manhattan, but also in Astoria, Queens.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: According to Highsmith, her mother once told her that she had tried to abort her by drinking turpentine, although a biography of Highsmith indicates Jay Plangman tried to persuade his wife to have the abortion but she refused. Highsmith never resolved this love–hate relationship, which reportedly haunted her for the rest of her life, and which she fictionalized in "The Terrapin", her short story about a young boy who stabs his mother to death. Highsmith's mother predeceased her by only four years, dying at the age of 95.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith's grandmother taught her to read at an early age, and she made good use of her grandmother's extensive library. At the age of nine, she found a resemblance to her own imaginative life in the case histories of "The Human Mind" by Karl Menninger, a popularizer of Freudian analysis.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Many of Highsmith's 22 novels were set in Greenwich Village, where she lived at 48 Grove Street from 1940 to 1942, before moving to 345 E. 57th Street. In 1942, Highsmith graduated from Barnard College, where she studied English composition, playwriting, and short story prose. After graduating from college, and despite endorsements from "highly placed professionals," she applied without success for a job at publications such as "Harper's Bazaar", "Vogue", "Mademoiselle", "Good Housekeeping", "Time", "Fortune", and "The New Yorker".


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Based on the recommendation from Truman Capote, Highsmith was accepted by the Yaddo artist's retreat during the summer of 1948, where she worked on her first novel, "Strangers on a Train".


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith endured cycles of depression, some of them deep, throughout her life. Despite literary success, she wrote in her diary of January 1970: "[I] am now cynical, fairly rich ... lonely, depressed, and totally pessimistic." Over the years, Highsmith had female hormone deficiency, anorexia nervosa, chronic anemia, Buerger's disease, and lung cancer.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: According to her biographer, Andrew Wilson, Highsmith's personal life was a "troubled one". She was an alcoholic who, allegedly, never had an intimate relationship that lasted for more than a few years, and she was seen by some of her contemporaries and acquaintances as misanthropic and hostile. Her chronic alcoholism intensified as she grew older.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: She famously preferred the company of animals to that of people and stated in a 1991 interview, "I choose to live alone because my imagination functions better when I don't have to speak with people."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Otto Penzler, her U.S. publisher through his Penzler Books imprint, had met Highsmith in 1983, and four years later witnessed some of her theatrics intended to create havoc at dinner tables and shipwreck an evening. He said after her death that "[Highsmith] was a mean, cruel, hard, unlovable, unloving human being ... I could never penetrate how any human being could be that relentlessly ugly. ... But her books? Brilliant."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Other friends, publishers, and acquaintances held different views of Highsmith. Editor Gary Fisketjon, who published her later novels through Knopf, said that "She was very rough, very difficult ... But she was also plainspoken, dryly funny, and great fun to be around." Composer David Diamond met Highsmith in 1943 and described her as being "quite a depressed person—and I think people explain her by pulling out traits like cold and reserved, when in fact it all came from depression." J. G. Ballard said of Highsmith, "The author of "Strangers on a Train" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was every bit as deviant and quirky as her mischievous heroes, and didn't seem to mind if everyone knew it." Screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, who adapted "The Price of Salt" into the 2015 film "Carol", met Highsmith in 1987 and the two remained friends for the rest of Highsmith's life. Nagy said that Highsmith was "very sweet" and "encouraging" to her as a young writer, as well as "wonderfully funny."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith loved cats, and she bred about three hundred snails in her garden at home in Suffolk, England. Highsmith once attended a London cocktail party with a "gigantic handbag" that "contained a head of lettuce and a hundred snails" which she said were her "companions for the evening."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: She loved woodworking tools and made several pieces of furniture. Highsmith worked without stopping. In later life, she became stooped, with an osteoporotic hump. Though the 22 novels and 8 books of short stories she wrote were highly acclaimed, especially outside of the United States, Highsmith preferred her personal life to remain private.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: As an adult, Patricia Highsmith's sexual relationships were predominantly with women. She occasionally engaged in sex with men without physical desire for them, and wrote in her diary: "The male face doesn't attract me, isn't "beautiful" to me." She told writer Marijane Meaker in the late 1950s that she had ""tried" to like men. I like most men better than I like women, but not in bed." In a 1970 letter to her stepfather Stanley, Highsmith described sexual encounters with men as "steel wool in the face, a sensation of being raped in the wrong place—leading to a sensation of having to have, pretty soon, a boewl movement," stressing, "If these words are unpleasant to read, I can assure you it is a little more unpleasant in bed." Phyllis Nagy described Highsmith as "a lesbian who did not very much enjoy being around other women" and the few sexual dalliances she had had with men occurred just to "see if she could be into men in that way because she so much more preferred their company."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: In 1943, Highsmith had an affair with artist Allela Cornell who, despondent over unrequited love from another woman, committed suicide in 1946 by drinking nitric acid.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: During her stay at Yaddo, Highsmith met writer Marc Brandel, son of author J. D. Beresford. Even though she told him about her homosexuality, they soon entered into a short-lived relationship. He convinced her to visit him in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he introduced her to Ann Smith, a painter and designer with a previous métier as a "Vogue" fashion model, and the two became involved. After Smith left Provincetown, Highsmith felt she was "in prison" with Brandel and told him she was leaving. "[B]ecause of that I have to sleep with him, and only the fact that it is the last night strengthens me to bear it." Highsmith, who had never been sexually exclusive with Brandel, resented having sex with him. Highsmith temporarily broke off the relationship with Brandel and continued to be involved with several women, reuniting with him after the well-received publication of his new novel. Beginning November 30, 1948, and continuing for the next six months, Highsmith underwent psychoanalysis in an effort "to regularize herself sexually" so she could marry Brandel. The analysis was brought to a stop by Highsmith, after which she ended her relationship with him.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: After ending her engagement to Marc Brandel, she had an affair with psychoanalyst Kathryn Hamill Cohen, the wife of British publisher Dennis Cohen and founder of Cresset Press, which later published "Strangers on a Train".


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: To help pay for the twice-a-week therapy sessions, Highsmith had taken a sales job during Christmas rush season in the toy section of Bloomingdale's department store. Ironically, it was during this attempt to "cure" her homosexuality that Highsmith was inspired to write her semi-autobiographical novel "The Price of Salt", in which two women meet in a department store and begin a passionate affair.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Believing that Brandel's disclosure that she was homosexual, along with the publication of "The Price of Salt", would hurt her professionally, Highsmith had an unsuccessful affair with Arthur Koestler in 1950, designed to hide her homosexuality.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: In early September 1951, she began an affair with sociologist Ellen Blumenthal Hill, traveling back and forth to Europe to meet with her. When Highsmith and Hill came to New York in early May 1953, their affair ostensibly "in a fragile state", Highsmith began an "impossible" affair with the homosexual German photographer Rolf Tietgens, who had played a "sporadic, intense, and unconsummated role in her emotional life since 1943." She was reportedly attracted to Tietgens on account of his homosexuality, confiding that she felt with him "as if he is another girl, or a singularly innocent man." Tietgens shot several nude photographs of Highsmith, but only one has survived, torn in half at the waist so that only her upper body is visible. She dedicated "The Two Faces of January" (1964) to Tietgens.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Between 1959 and 1961, Highsmith was in love with author Marijane Meaker. Meaker wrote lesbian stories under the pseudonym "Ann Aldrich" and mystery/suspense fiction as "Vin Packer", and later wrote young adult fiction as "M. E. Kerr." In the late 1980s, after 27 years of separation, Highsmith began corresponding with Meaker again, and one day showed up on Meaker's doorstep, slightly drunk and ranting bitterly. Meaker later said she was horrified at how Highsmith's personality had changed.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith was attracted to women of privilege who expected their lovers to treat them with veneration. According to Phyllis Nagy, she belonged to a "very particular subset of lesbians" and described her conduct with many women she was interested in as being comparable to a movie "studio boss" who chased starlets. Many of these women, who to some extent belonged to the 'Carol Aird'-type and her social set, remained friendly with Highsmith and confirmed the stories of seduction.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: An intensely private person, Highsmith was remarkably open and outspoken about her sexuality. She told Meaker: "the only difference between us and heterosexuals is what we do in bed."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith died on February 4, 1995, at 74, from a combination of aplastic anemia and lung cancer at Carita Hospital in Locarno, Switzerland, near the village where she had lived since 1982. She was cremated at the cemetery in Bellinzona; a memorial service was conducted in the Chiesa di Tegna in Tegna, Ticino, Switzerland; and her ashes were interred in its columbarium.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: She left her estate, worth an estimated $3 million, and the promise of any future royalties to the Yaddo colony, where she spent two months in 1948 writing the draft of "Strangers on a Train". Highsmith bequeathed her literary estate to the Swiss Literary Archives at the Swiss National Library in Bern, Switzerland. Her Swiss publisher, Diogenes Verlag, was appointed literary executor of the estate.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith was a resolute atheist. Although she considered herself a liberal, and in her school years had gotten along with black students, in later years she believed that black people were responsible for the welfare crisis in America. She disliked Koreans because "they ate dogs".


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith was an avowed antisemite; she described herself as a "Jew hater" and described The Holocaust as "the semicaust". When she was living in Switzerland in the 1980s, she used nearly 40 aliases when writing to government bodies and newspapers deploring the state of Israel and the "influence" of the Jews. Highsmith was an active supporter of Palestinian rights, a stance which, according to "Carol" screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, "often teetered into outright antisemitism."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith described herself as a social democrat. She believed in American democratic ideals and in "the promise" of U.S. history, but was also highly critical of the reality of the country's 20th-century culture and foreign policy. Beginning in 1963, she resided exclusively in Europe. She retained her United States citizenship, despite the tax penalties, of which she complained bitterly while living for many years in France and Switzerland.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith aligned herself with writers such as Gore Vidal, Alexander Cockburn, Noam Chomsky and Edward Said in supporting Palestinian self-determination. As a member of Amnesty International, she felt duty-bound to express publicly her opposition to the displacement of Palestinians. Highsmith prohibited her books from being published in Israel after the election of Menachem Begin as prime minister in 1977. She dedicated her 1983 novel "People Who Knock on the Door" to the Palestinian people:


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: The inscription was dropped from the U.S. edition with permission from her agent but without consent from Highsmith.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith contributed financially to the Jewish Committee on the Middle East, an organization that represented American Jews who supported Palestinian self-determination. She wrote in an August 1993 letter to Marijane Meaker: "USA could save 11 million per day if they would cut the dough to Israel. The Jewish vote is 1%."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: After graduating from Barnard College, before her short stories started appearing in print, Highsmith wrote for comic book publishers from 1942 and 1948, while she lived in New York City and Mexico. Answering an ad for "reporter/rewrite", she landed a job working for comic book publisher Ned Pines in a "bullpen" with four artists and three other writers. Initially scripting two comic-book stories a day for $55-a-week paychecks, Highsmith soon realized she could make more money by freelance writing for comics, a situation which enabled her to find time to work on her own short stories and live for a period in Mexico. The comic book scriptwriter job was the only long-term job Highsmith ever held.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: From 1942 to 1943, for the Sangor–Pines shop (Better/Cinema/Pines/Standard/Nedor), Highsmith wrote "Sergeant Bill King" stories, contributed to Black Terror and Fighting Yank comics, and wrote profiles such as Catherine the Great, Barney Ross, and Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker for the "Real Life Comics" series. From 1943 to 1946, under editor Vincent Fago at Timely Comics, she contributed to its "U.S.A. Comics" wartime series, writing scenarios for comics such as Jap Buster Johnson and The Destroyer. During these same years she wrote for Fawcett Publications, scripting for Fawcett Comics characters "Crisco and Jasper" and others. Highsmith also wrote for "True Comics", "Captain Midnight", and "Western Comics".


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: When Highsmith wrote the psychological thriller novel "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1955), one of the title character's first victims is a comic-book artist named Reddington: "Tom had a hunch about Reddington. He was a comic-book artist. He probably didn't know whether he was coming or going."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith's first novel, "Strangers on a Train", proved modestly successful upon publication in 1950, and Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film adaptation of the novel enhanced her reputation.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Highsmith's second novel, "The Price of Salt", was published in 1952 under the pen name Claire Morgan. Highsmith mined her personal life for the novel's content. Its groundbreaking happy ending and departure from stereotypical conceptions about lesbians made it stand out in lesbian fiction. In what BBC 2's "The Late Show" presenter Sarah Dunant described as a "literary coming out" after 38 years of disaffirmation, Highsmith finally acknowledged authorship of the novel publicly when she agreed to the 1990 publication by Bloomsbury retitled "Carol". Highsmith wrote in the "Afterword" to the new edition:


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: The paperback version of the novel sold nearly one million copies before its 1990 reissue as "Carol". "The Price of Salt" is distinct for also being the only one of Highsmith's novels in which no violent crime takes place, and where her characters have "more explicit sexual existences" and are allowed "to find happiness in their relationship."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Her short stories appeared for the first time in "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" in the early 1950s.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Her last novel, "", was rejected by Knopf (her usual publisher by then) several months before her death, leaving Highsmith without an American publisher. It was published posthumously in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing in March 1995, and nine years later in the United States by W. W. Norton.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: In 1955, Highsmith wrote "The Talented Mr. Ripley", a novel about Tom Ripley, a charming criminal who murders a rich man and steals his identity. Highsmith wrote four sequels: "Ripley Under Ground" (1970), "Ripley's Game" (1974), "The Boy Who Followed Ripley" (1980) and "Ripley Under Water" (1991), about Ripley's exploits as a con artist and serial killer who always gets away with his crimes. The series—collectively called "The Ripliad"—are some of Highsmith's most popular works.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: The "suave, agreeable and utterly amoral" Ripley is Highsmith's most famous character, and has been critically acclaimed for being "both a likable character and a cold-blooded killer." He has typically been regarded as "cultivated", a "dapper sociopath", and an "agreeable and urbane psychopath."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Sam Jordison of "The Guardian" wrote, "It is near impossible, I would say, not to root for Tom Ripley. Not to like him. Not, on some level, to want him to win. Patricia Highsmith does a fine job of ensuring he wheedles his way into our sympathies." Film critic Roger Ebert made a similar appraisal of the character in his review of "Purple Noon", René Clément's 1960 film adaptation of "The Talented Mr. Ripley": "Ripley is a criminal of intelligence and cunning who gets away with murder. He's charming and literate, and a monster. It's insidious, the way Highsmith seduces us into identifying with him and sharing his selfishness; Ripley believes that getting his own way is worth whatever price anyone else might have to pay. We all have a little of that in us." Novelist Sarah Waters esteemed "The Talented Mr. Ripley" as the "one book I wish I'd written."


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: The first three books of the "Ripley" series have been adapted into films five times. In 2015, "The Hollywood Reporter" announced that a group of production companies were planning a television series based on the novels. The series is currently in development.


title: Patricia Highsmith

text: Several of Highsmith's works have been adapted for other media, some more than once. In 1978, Highsmith was president of the jury at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: 38 Special (also stylized as .38 Special or spelled out as Thirty-Eight Special) is an American rock band that was formed by Donnie Van Zant and Don Barnes in 1974 in Jacksonville, Florida.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: They are best known for their early 1980s hit singles "Hold On Loosely" and "Caught Up in You", along with other Top 40 hits on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the 1980s and early 1990s, including Rockin' into the Night, "You Keep Runnin' Away", "If I'd Been the One", "Back Where You Belong", "Teacher, Teacher", "Like No Other Night", "Second Chance", and "The Sound of Your Voice".


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Donnie Van Zant, the younger brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd founder Ronnie Van Zant, began playing music himself during his teen years, forming the band Standard Production in 1968, which paved the way for Sweet Rooster, Donnie's first professional outfit that he formed in 1969 with guitarist Jeff Carlisi and bassist Ken Lyons, soon joined by drummer Steve Brookins. Carlisi left Sweet Rooster after graduating high school to study architecture at Georgia Tech and was replaced by Don Barnes in 1970. Brookins also left to work as a truck driver and Sweet Rooster was defunct by 1973.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Nevertheless, Van Zant, Barnes and Lyons, while continuing their day jobs and working in other bands, began working on composing original songs in their spare time. By 1974, they decided it was time to get serious and form "the ultimate band" that would be their "one last shot" at success. Briefly, Van Zant was considering a higher-paying position for the railroad at which he worked, but was finally convinced by brother Ronnie to stick with music since it was "in his blood".


title: 38 Special (band)

text: The new outfit comprised Van Zant, Barnes, Lyons, Brookins, second drummer Jack Grondin and a returning Carlisi. The band's name was thought up after an incident which found the boys practicing in a warehouse out in the middle of nowhere. When police arrived after being notified by locals of the noise, the band members were unable to come out because of a padlock on the door. One of the cops said, "That's all right. We'll let this .38 special do the talking", and shot off the lock.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Now that they had their name, the group spent most of 1975 and 1976 playing a steady grind of one-nighters, mostly in the South and the Midwest. Eventually, big brother Ronnie figured Donnie and the gang had paid enough dues and set them up with Skynryd's manager Peter Rudge, who also handled the Who and was tour manager for the Rolling Stones. Rudge quickly set the group up to open shows for red-hot acts, like Peter Frampton, Foghat and Kiss, and got them signed to A&M Records, who assigned Dan Hartman (of Edgar Winter Group fame) to produce their first album, ".38 Special", which was released in May 1977.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Just before the record's release, bassist Ken Lyons decided to leave the band. He was replaced by their friend and original Lynyrd Skynyrd member Larry Junstrom.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Also in 1977, the band added two female backup singers, Carol Bristow and Dale Krantz. Krantz was replaced by Nancy Henderson (1979–1981), Lu Moss (1981–1984) and Lynn Hineman (1986–1987) before backup singers were dispensed with in 1987.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: In October 1977 Ronnie Van Zant was killed when Skynyrd's plane crashed. Donnie wrote "Take Me Back" as a tribute to his brother, which appeared on the band's second album, "Special Delivery" (March 1978), also produced by Hartman.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: The band's first two albums had a strong Southern rock influence. By the early 1980s, .38 Special had shifted to a more accessible guitar-driven arena rock style without completely abandoning its Southern rock roots. This shift helped to usher in a string of successful albums and singles. Engineer Rodney Mills, who had worked with Atlanta Rhythm Section and others, assumed the producer's reins from here on and Survivor co-founder Jim Peterik became a frequent songwriting collaborator of the band's from 1979 on, which helped account for this change in sound and subsequent success.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: "Rockin' into the Night", the title track from the group's third album (released in October 1979), which Peterik and his bandmates had originally written for Survivor, found its way to 38 Special's manager, Mark Spector, and was given to the band. Sung by 38's guitarist Don Barnes (who would sing lead vocals on all of the band's hits through 1987), the tune became their first song to receive national airplay, peaking at No. 43 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in early 1980.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: This paved the way for their platinum-selling fourth record, "Wild-Eyed Southern Boys" (January 1981), and its bigger hit "Hold On Loosely" (which reached No. 27 in 1981).


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Their next release, "Special Forces" (May 1982), contained the Top 10 hit "Caught Up in You" (just like "Hold On Loosely", composed by Barnes and Carlisi with Peterik) which hit No. 1 on the "Billboard" Rock Tracks chart, as did the single, "If I'd Been the One" (October 1983), from their November 1983 release "Tour de Force". "You Keep Runnin' Away" (August 1982) and "Back Where You Belong" (February 1984) continued the sequence of hit radio favorites.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: In the fall of 1984, they had another hit with "Teacher, Teacher", from the soundtrack of the 1984 film "Teachers", written by Jim Vallance and Bryan Adams. The song climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard Top Tracks Chart, spending ten weeks on the chart.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: In 1984 38 Special toured with the up-and-coming Huey Lewis and the News, who were just breaking huge with their "Sports" album, and in 1986 they shared the bill with the soon-to-be-platinum-selling hard rock band, Bon Jovi.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: By 1987, Don Barnes had decided to leave the band to go out on his own. He recorded an album called "Ride the Storm", which, though slated for release in 1989, was shelved after A&M Records was sold and did not see the light of day until 2017 – some 28 years later.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: In the meantime, the group moved on, bringing in guitarist Danny Chauncey, after drummer Steve Brookins also decided to leave, and singer/keyboardist Max Carl, from West Coast rhythm and blues unit Jack Mack & the Heart Attack.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: The next release, "Rock & Roll Strategy" (June 1988), saw the group playing down their heavy guitar sound and putting forth a more 1980s pop keyboard-oriented approach, led by Carl's more R&B-style voice. "Second Chance" (taken from "Rock & Roll Strategy") was a No. 1 hit on "Billboard"'s adult contemporary chart in early 1989.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Carl was also lead singer on "The Sound of Your Voice" ("Billboard" Hot 100 No. 33 in 1991) from "Bone Against Steel" (July 1991), which saw the group moving from A&M to the British label Charisma Records. That same year, Bobby Capps came aboard as keyboardist/co-singer and drummer Scott Meeder replaced Jack Grondin after the latter decided to leave the music business. But the band found themselves without a home after Charisma folded in 1992.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: After touring with the band through the spring of 1992, Max Carl decided to depart, making way for the return of Don Barnes. Since that time, the band has mostly concentrated on touring, with an occasional release of new material. Scott Hoffman took over the drum chair from Meeder later in 1992. Donny Baldwin (ex-Jefferson Starship) filled in for Hoffman on some 1996 tour dates after Hoffman was down with a broken arm, but Gary "Madman" Moffatt (formerly of Cactus) has been the band's drummer since 1997.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Through the small Razor & Tie label, 38 Special released "Fade to Blue" from the album "Resolution" (June 1997). The single hit No. 33 on the Mainstream Rock chart in 1997.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Since 1997's "Resolution", two more releases have followed on the CMC International and Sanctuary Records labels, respectively "A Wild-Eyed Christmas Night" (September 2001) and "Drivetrain" (July 2004).


title: 38 Special (band)

text: In 2007, .38 Special was the opening act on Lynyrd Skynyrd and Hank Williams Jr.'s Rowdy Frynds Tour. Also, on September 27, 2008, they filmed a CMT Crossroads special with country singer Trace Adkins, performing both artists' hits from over the years.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Van Zant missed a handful of shows in 2011, and in 2012 a notice was posted on 38 Special's website saying Donnie Van Zant would not tour with the band due to health issues related to inner-ear nerve damage, although he would continue to write and record with the band. But in 2013, after nearly a year of missing performances, it was confirmed that Van Zant had officially left 38 Special after 39 years and was retiring from music.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: In 2014 longtime bassist Larry Junstrom was replaced by Barry Dunaway (a veteran of many classic rock outfits, including Pat Travers Band, Yngwie Malmsteen and Survivor). Dunaway had previously filled in for Junstrom for a handful of shows in 2011 and a few shows in 2013 as well. Junstrom was then forced to retire due to a hand injury that required surgery.


title: 38 Special (band)

text: Since 2019, the band's lineup has consisted of Don Barnes, keyboardist/vocalist Bobby Capps, drummer Gary Moffatt, Dunaway, and guitarist Jerry Riggs. This leaves Don Barnes as the only original member, although Barnes was absent from the band from 1987 until 1992.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: The Maersk Alabama hijacking began on 9 April 2009, when four pirates in the Indian Ocean seized the U.S. cargo ship at a distance of southeast of Eyl, Somalia. The siege ended after a rescue effort by the United States Navy on 12 April.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: The incident was the first successful pirate seizure of a ship registered under the U.S. flag since the early 19th century. Many news reports cited the last pirate seizure as being during the Second Barbary War in 1815, although other incidents are believed to have occurred until at least 1822. It was the sixth vessel in a week to be attacked by pirates, who had previously extorted ransoms of tens of millions of dollars.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: At the time of the hijacking, "Maersk Alabama" was owned by the Danish shipping company Maersk Line. The ship has since been acquired by Element Shipmanagement SA and has been renamed . , the ship is still in active service.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: The story of the incident was reported by Captain Richard Phillips, who had been master of the vessel at the time of the incident, in the 2010 book "A Captain's Duty", which he co-wrote with Stephan Talty. The book was later adapted as the U.S. 2013 film "Captain Phillips", starring Tom Hanks.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: With a crew of 23 and of cargo, the ship, originating from Salalah, Oman, was bound for Mombasa, Kenya, after a stop in Djibouti. The crew members of "Maersk Alabama" had received anti-piracy training from union training schools, and had drilled aboard the ship a day prior to the attack of 8 April. Their training included the use of small arms, anti-terror, basic safety, first aid, and other security-related courses.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: On 8 April 2009, four pirates based on attacked the ship. All four of the pirates were between 15 and 18 years old, according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. When the pirate alarm sounded, Chief Engineer Mike Perry brought 14 members of the crew into a secure room that the engineers had been fortifying for such a purpose. As the pirates approached, the remaining crew fired flares. In addition, Perry and First Assistant Engineer Matt Fisher swung the ship's rudder, which swamped the pirate skiff.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: Nonetheless, the ship was boarded. Perry had initially taken main engine control away from the bridge and Fisher had taken control of the steering gear. Perry then shut down all ship systems and the entire vessel "went black." The pirates captured Captain Richard Phillips and several other crew members minutes after boarding, but soon found that they could not control the ship.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: Perry remained outside the secure room lying in wait, knife in hand, for the pirates to locate the missing crew members in order to gain control of the ship and presumably sail it to Somalia. Perry tackled the ringleader of the pirates, Abduwali Muse, and took him prisoner after a cat-and-mouse chase in a darkened engine room. Muse cut his hand trying to keep Perry's knife away from his neck. Muse was then tied up and his wounds were treated by Second Mate Ken Quinn.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: Later, after suffering in the overheated secure room for hours, the crew attempted to exchange the pirate whom they had captured for the captain, but the exchange went awry and the pirates refused to honor the agreement after the crew released their captive. Phillips escorted the pirates to a lifeboat to show them how to operate it, but then the pirates fled in the lifeboat with Phillips as a hostage.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: On 8 April, the United States Navy guided-missile destroyer and the guided-missile frigate were dispatched to the Gulf of Aden in response to the hostage situation, "Halyburton" carrying two SH-60B Seahawk helicopters on board. The ships reached "Maersk Alabama" early on 9 April. "Maersk Alabama" was then escorted from the scene to its original destination of Mombasa where Captain Larry D. Aasheim took command of the ship. Phillips had relieved Aasheim nine days earlier. CNN and Fox News quoted sources stating that the pirates' strategy was to await the arrival of additional hijacked vessels carrying more pirates and additional hostages to use as human shields.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: A stand-off began on 9 April, between "Bainbridge", "Halyburton", and the pirates' lifeboat from "Maersk Alabama", on which they held Phillips hostage. The lifeboat was covered and contained plenty of food and water but lacked basic comforts, including a toilet or ventilation. "Bainbridge" was equipped with a ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle and rigid-hulled inflatable boats. Both vessels stayed several hundred yards away, out of the pirates' range of fire. A P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft secured aerial footage and reconnaissance. Radio communication between the two ships was established. Four foreign vessels held by pirates headed towards the scene. A total of 54 hostages were on two of the ships, citizens of China, Germany, Russia, the Philippines, Tuvalu, Indonesia, and Taiwan.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: On 10 April, Phillips attempted to escape from the lifeboat, but was recaptured after the captors fired shots. The pirates then threw a phone and a two-way radio dropped to them by the U.S. Navy into the ocean, fearing the Americans were somehow using the equipment to give instructions to Phillips. The U.S. Navy dispatched another amphibious assault ship, , to the site off the Horn of Africa. The pirates' strategy was to link up with their comrades, who were holding various other hostages, and to get Phillips to Somalia where they could hide him and make a rescue more difficult for the Americans. Anchoring near shore would allow them to land quickly if attacked. Negotiations were ongoing between the pirates and the captain of "Bainbridge" and FBI hostage negotiators. The captors were also communicating with other pirate vessels by satellite phone.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: However, negotiations broke down hours after the pirates fired on "Halyburton" not long after sunrise on Saturday, 11 April. The American frigate did not return fire and "did not want to escalate the situation". No crew members of "Halyburton" were injured from the gunfire, as the shots were fired haphazardly by a pirate from the front hatch of the lifeboat. "We are safe and we are not afraid of the Americans. We will defend ourselves if attacked," one of the pirates told Reuters by satellite phone. Phillips' family had gathered at his farmhouse in Vermont awaiting a resolution to the situation. Later that day, "Maersk Alabama" arrived in the port of Mombasa under U.S. military escort. An 18-man security team was on board. The FBI then secured the ship as a crime scene. Commander Frank Castellano of USS "Bainbridge" stated that as the winds picked up, tensions rose among the pirates and "we calmed them" and persuaded the pirates to be towed by the destroyer.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: On Sunday, 12 April, United States Navy SEAL snipers of Red Squadron, Naval Special Warfare Development Group armed with semi-automatic rifles engaged and killed the three pirates on the lifeboat. Captain Phillips was rescued uninjured. Commander Castellano, with prior authorization from higher authority, ordered the action after determining Phillips' life was in immediate danger, citing reports that a pirate was pointing an AK-47 rifle at Phillips' back. Snipers fired multiple shots from "Bainbridge"s fantail, killing the three pirates with bullets to the head.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: The SEALs had arrived Friday afternoon after being parachuted into the water near "Halyburton", which later joined with "Bainbridge". At the time, "Bainbridge" had the lifeboat under tow, approximately astern. One of the pirates killed was Ali Aden Elmi, the last name of another was Hamac, and the third has not been identified in English-language press reports.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: A fourth pirate, Abduwali Muse, aboard "Bainbridge" and negotiating for Phillips' release while being treated for an injury sustained in the takeover of "Maersk Alabama", remained in custody. The bodies of the three dead pirates were turned over by the U.S. Navy to unidentified recipients in Somalia in the last week of April 2009.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: Muse, the surviving pirate, was held in 's afloat brig and was eventually flown to the United States to stand trial. Prosecutors brought charges in a federal courtroom in New York City that included piracy, conspiracy to seize a ship by force, and conspiracy to commit hostage-taking.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: Muse's lawyers asked that he be tried as a juvenile, alleging that he was either 15 or 16 years old at the time of the hostage-taking, but the court ruled that Muse was not a juvenile and would be tried as an adult. He later admitted that he was 18 years old, and pleaded guilty to hijacking, kidnapping, and hostage-taking charges in lieu of piracy charges. He received a prison sentence of 33 years and 9 months.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: On 27 April 2009, "Maersk Alabama" crew member Richard E. Hicks filed a lawsuit against his employer, Waterman Steamship Corporation and Maersk Line, Ltd., for knowingly sending him into pirate-infested waters near Somalia. Houston attorney Terry Bryant, representing Hicks, said the ship owners knowingly exposed their employees to imminent danger and took no steps to provide appropriate levels of security and safety for their employees. He filed a notice of non-suit on December 2, 2009, ending the case, likely pursuant to a settlement agreement.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: The owners of "Maersk Alabama" donated the bullet-marked 5-ton fiberglass lifeboat upon which the pirates held Captain Phillips hostage to the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida, in August 2009. The lifeboat had recently been on loan to National Geographic for its "Real Pirates" exhibition at the Nauticus marine science museum in Norfolk, Virginia.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: The producers of the "Captain Phillips" film visited the Museum while re-creating the lifeboat and interiors for the set. The lifeboat from "Maersk Alabama" is at the Museum. An example of the Boeing Insitu ScanEagle used to monitor the crisis is also on display. The actual ScanEagle used in the mission is on display along with shell casings at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.


title: Maersk Alabama hijacking

text: Two former DEVGRU Navy SEAL have claimed participation in the rescue, Matt Bissonnette (pseudonym Mark Owen) and Robert O'Neill. Both also participated in Operation Neptune's Spear that killed Osama bin Laden.


title: National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005

text: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 or MNREGA, earlier known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. This act was passed in 23 August 2005 under the UPA government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following tabling of the bill in parliament by the Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.


text: It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to at least one member of every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Women are guaranteed one third of the jobs made available under the MGNREGA. Another aim of MGNREGA is to create durable assets (such as roads, canals, ponds and wells). Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant's residence, and minimum wages are to be paid. If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to an unemployment allowance. That is, if the government fails to provide employment, it has to provide certain unemployment allowances to those people. Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement. Apart from providing economic security and creating rural assets, other things said to promote NREGA are that it can help in protecting the environment, empowering rural women, reducing rural-urban migration and fostering social equity, among others."


text: The act was first proposed in 1991 by P.V. Narasimha Rao. It was finally accepted in the parliament and commenced implementation in 625 districts of India. Based on this pilot experience, NREGA was scoped up to cover all the districts of India from 1 April 2008. The statute was praised by the government as "the largest and most ambitious social security and public works programme in the world". In 2009 the World Bank had chided the act along with others for hurting development through policy restrictions on internal movement. However in its World Development Report 2014, the World Bank termed it as a "stellar example of rural development". MGNREGA is to be implemented mainly by gram panchayats (GPs). The law stated it provides many safeguards to promote its effective management and implementation. The act explicitly mentions the principles and agencies for implementation, list of allowed works, financing pattern, monitoring and evaluation, and detailed measures to ensure transparency and accountability.


text: Since 1960, 30 years were expended in struggling to find suitable employment schemes in India's vast rural hinterland. The experiences of these decades provided important lessons to the government. These included the 'Rural Manpower Programme' which exposed the tribulations of financial management, the 'Crash Scheme for Rural Employment' on planning for outcomes, a 'Pilot Intensive Rural Employment Programme' of labour-intensive works, the 'Drought Prone Area Programme' of integrated rural development, 'Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers Scheme' of rural economic development, the ‘Food for Work Programme’ (FWP) of holistic development and better coordination with the states, the ‘National Rural Employment Programme’ (NREP) of community development, and the ‘Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme’ (RLEGP) of focus on landless households. The Planning Commission later approved the scheme and it was adopted on national scale.


text: In April 1989, to converge employment generation, infrastructure development and food security in rural areas, the government integrated NREP and RLEGP into a new scheme Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY). The most significant change was the decentralization of implementation by involving the local people through local village governments or Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and hence a decreasing role of bureaucracy. In October 1993, the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) was initiated to provide employment to agricultural hands during the lean agricultural season. The role of PRIs was reinforced with the local self-government at the district level called the 'Zilla Parishad' as the main implementing authority. Later, EAS was merged with Sampoorna Gramin Rojgar Yojana (SGRY) in 2001.


text: On 1 April 1999, the JRY was revamped and renamed to Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) with a similar objective. The role of PRIs was further reinforced with the local self-government at the village level called the ‘Village Panchayats’ as the sole implementing authority. In 2001, it was merged with SGRY. On 25 September 2001 to converge employment generation, infrastructure development and food security in rural areas, the government integrated EAS and JGSY into a new scheme SGRY. The role of PRIs was retained with the 'Village Panchayats' as the sole implementing authority. Due to implementation issues, it was merged with NREGA in 2006. In January 2001, the government introduced a FWP similar to the one that was initiated in 1977. Once NREGA was enacted, the two were merged in 2006. The total government allocation to these precursors of NREGA had been about three-quarters of . Employment generation programmes created after 2005 include the Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).


text: The registration process involves an application to the Gram Panchayat and issue of job cards. The wage employment must be provided within 15 days of the date of application. The work entitlement of 100 days per household per year may be shared between different adult members of the same household. The law lists permissible works: water conservation and water harvesting; drought proofing including afforestation; irrigation works; restoration of traditional water bodies; land development; flood control; rural connectivity; and works notified by the government. The Act sets a minimum limit to the wage-material ratio as 60:40. The provision of accredited engineers, worksite facilities and a weekly report on worksites is also mandated by the Act. The Act sets a minimum limit to the wages, to be paid with gender equality, either on a time-rate basis or on a piece-rate basis. The states are required to evolve a set of norms for the measurement of works and schedule of rates. Unemployment allowance must be paid if the work is not provided within the statutory limit of 15 days. The law stipulates Gram Panchayats to have a single bank account for NREGA works which shall be subjected to public scrutiny. To promote transparency and accountability, the act mandates 'monthly squaring of accounts'. To ensure public accountability through public vigilance, the NREGA designates ‘social audits’ as key to its implementation.


text: The most detailed part of the Act (chapter 10 and 11) deals with transparency and accountability that lays out role of the state, the public vigilance and, above all, the social audits. For evaluation of outcomes, the law also requires management of data and maintenance of records, like registers related to employment, job cards, assets, muster rolls and complaints, by the implementing agencies at the village, block and state level. The legislation specifies the role of the state in ensuring transparency and accountability through upholding the right to information and disclosing information proactively, preparation of annual reports by the Central Employment Guarantee Council for the Parliament and State Employment Guarantee Councils for state legislatures, undertaking mandatory financial audits by each district along with physical audit, taking action on audit reports, developing a Citizen's Charter, establishing vigilance and monitoring committees, and developing a grievance redressal system.


text: The Act recommends establishment of 'Technical Resource Support Groups' at district, state and central level and active use of information technology, like creation of a 'Monitoring and Information System (MIS)' and a NREGA website, to assure quality in implementation of NREGA through technical support. The law allows convergence of NREGA with other programmes. As NREGA intends to create ‘additional’ employment, the convergence should not affect employment provided by other programmes.


text: The Act aims to follow the Directive Principles of State Policy enunciated in Part IV of the Constitution of India. The law by providing a 'right to work' is consistent with Article 41 that directs the State to secure to all citizens the right to work. The statute also seeks to protect the environment through rural works which is consistent with Article 48A that directs the State to protect the environment.


text: In accordance with the Article 21 of the Constitution of India that guarantees the right to life with dignity to every citizen of India, this act imparts dignity to the rural people through an assurance of livelihood security. The Fundamental Right enshrined in Article 16 of the Constitution of India guarantees equality of opportunity in matters of public employment and prevents the State from discriminating against anyone in matters of employment on the grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, place of residence or any of them. NREGA also follows Article 46 that requires the State to promote the interests of and work for the economic uplift of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and protect them from discrimination and exploitation.


text: Article 40 mandates the State to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government. Conferring the primary responsibility of implementation on Gram Panchayats, the Act adheres to this constitutional principle. Also the process of decentralization initiated by 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India that granted a constitutional status to the Panchayats is further reinforced by the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA that endowed these rural self-government institutions with authority to implement the law.


text: Academic research has focused on many dimensions of the NREGA: economic security, self-targeting, women's empowerment, asset creation, corruption, how the scheme impacts agricultural wages.


text: An early overall assessment in 2008 in six north Indian states suggested that NREGA was "making a difference to the lives of the rural poor, slowly but surely." The composition of NREGA workers included the poorest and socially and economically deprived. A majority of them live in kaccha houses, belong to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, are illiterate and do not have electricity at home. Self-targeting evidence suggests that there is a lot of unmet demand for work.


text: Agricultural wages have increased, especially for women, since the inception of the scheme. This indicates that overall wage levels have increased due to the act, however, further research highlights that the key benefit of the scheme lies in the reduction of wage volatility. This highlights that NREGA may be an effective insurance scheme. A particular focus has been to understand whether the scheme has reduced migration into urban centres for casual work.


text: Studies have suggested that women's participation has remained high, though there are inter-state variations. One study in border villages of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat studied the effect on short term migration and child welfare and found that among children who do not migrate, grade completed is higher. The study found that demand for NREGA work is higher, even though migrant wages are higher.


text: A few studies focusing on the potential for asset creation under NREGA suggest that (a) the potential is substantial; (b) in some places, it is being realized, and (c) lack of staff, especially technical staff, rather than lack of material are to blame for poor realization of this potential. Others have pointed out that water harvesting and soil conservation works promoted through NREGA "could have high positive results on environment security and biodiversity and environment conservation" A study conducted by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science and other collaborators found that activities related to natural resource management under the MGNREGA can capture 249 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030. India has placed emphasis on MGNREGA as a contributor to carbon sequestration in its Third Biennial Update Report submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2021.


text: Improvements in reducing corruption are attributable to the move to pay NREGA wages through bank and post office accounts. Some of the success in battling corruption can also be attributed to the strong provisions for community monitoring. Others find that "the overall social audit effects on reducing easy-to-detect malpractices was mostly absent".


text: A few papers also study the link between electoral gains and implementation of NREGA. One studies the effect in Andhra Pradesh - the authors find that "while politics may influence programme expenditure in some places and to a small extent, this is not universally true and does not undermine the effective targeting and good work of the scheme at large." The two other studies focus on these links in Rajasthan and West Bengal. Several local case studies are also being conducted to identify the regional impacts of NREGA.


text: The second performance audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India covered 3,848 gram panchayats (GPs) in 28 states and 4 union territories (UTs) from April 2007 to March 2012. This comprehensive survey by the CAG documents lapses in implementation of the act.


text: The main problems identified in the audit included: a fall in the level of employment, low rates of completion of works (only 30.3 per cent of planned works had been completed), poor planning (in one-third of Gram Panchayats, the planning process mandated by the act had not been followed), lack of public awareness partly due to poor information, education and communication IEC) by the state governments, shortage of staff (e.g., Gram Rozgar Sewaks had not been appointed in some states) and so on. Not withstanding the statutory requirement of notification, yet five states had not even notified the eight-years-old scheme.


text: The comprehensive assessment of the performance of the law by the constitutional auditor revealed serious lapses arising mainly due to lack of public awareness, mismanagement and institutional incapacity. The CAG also suggested some corrective measures.


text: Even though the mass social audits have a statutory mandate of Section 17 (As outlined in Chapter 11 of the NREGA Operational Guidelines), only seven states have the institutional capacity to facilitate the social audits as per prescribed norms. Although the Central Council is mandated to establish a central evaluation and monitoring system as per the NREGA Operational Guidelines, even after six years it is yet to fulfill the NREGA directive. Further, the CAG audit reports discrepancies in the maintenance of prescribed basic records in up to half of the gram panchayats (GPs) which inhibits the critical evaluation of the NREGA outcomes. The unreliability of Management Information System (MIS), due to significant disparity between the data in the MIS and the actual official documents, is also reported.


text: To improve management of outcomes, it recommended proper maintenance of records at the gram panchayat (GP) level. Further the Central Council is recommended to establish a central evaluation and monitoring system for "a national level, comprehensive and independent evaluation of the scheme". The CAG also recommends a timely payment of unemployment allowance to the rural poor and a wage material ratio of 60:40 in the NREGA works. Moreover, for effective financial management, the CAG recommends proper maintenance of accounts, in a uniform format, on a monthly basis and also enforcing the statutory guidelines to ensure transparency in the disposal of funds. For capacity building, the CAG recommends an increase in staff hiring to fill the large number of vacancies.


text: For the first time, the CAG also included a survey of more than 38,000 NREGA beneficiaries. An earlier evaluation of the NREGA by the CAG was criticized for its methodology.


text: The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh released an anthology of research studies on the MGNREGA called "MGNREGA Sameeksha" in New Delhi on 14 July 2012, about a year before the CAG report. Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey said that "the MGNREGA Sameeksha is a significant innovation to evaluate policy and delivery". The anthology draws on independent assessments of MGNREGA conducted by Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and others in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published from 2008 to 2012.


text: The Prime Minister said, "The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA story in numbers is a story worth telling... (but) statistics do not tell the whole truth": Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh says in the 'MGNREGA Sameeksha':


text: Proponents of the scheme enumerate number of benefits. For example, Rejaul Karim Laskar, an ideologue of the Congress party- the largest constituent of the UPA Government which introduced the scheme, claims that the scheme has multifarious benefits including "reduction in poverty, reduction in migration, women empowerment, improvement of productivity of agricultural land and regeneration of water resources".


text: Civil society organisations (CSOs), nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), political representatives, civil servants and workers of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh collectively organise social audits to prevent corruption under the NREGA. As the corruption is attributed to the secrecy in governance, the 'Jansunwai' or public hearing and the right to information (RTI), enacted in 2005, are used to fight this secrecy. Official records obtained using RTI are read out at the public hearing to identify and rectify irregularities. "This process of reviewing official records and determining whether state reported expenditures reflect the actual monies spent on the ground is referred to as a social audit." Participation of informed citizens promotes collective responsibility and awareness about entitlements.


text: A continuous process of social audit on NREGA works involves public vigilance and verification at the stipulated 11 stages of implementation: registration of families; distribution of job cards; receipt of work applications; selection of suitable public works; preparation of technical estimates; work allocation; implementation and supervision; payment of wages; payment of unemployment allowance; evaluation of outcomes; and mandatory social audit in the Gram Sabha or Social Audit Forum. The Gram Panchayat Secretary is designated as the authority responsible for carrying out the social audit at all stages. For some stages, the programme officer and the junior engineer is also responsible along with Sarpanch.


text: The statute designates the Gram Sabha meetings held to conduct social audit as the 'Social Audit Forums' and spells out three steps to make them effective: publicity and preparation of documents; organizational and procedural aspects; and the mandatory agenda involving questions verifying compliance with norms specified at each of the 11 stages of implementation.


text: An application under the RTI to access relevant official documents is the first step of the social audit. Then the management personnel of the social audit verify these official records by conducting field visits. Finally, the 'Jansunwai' or public hearing is organised at two levels: the Panchayat or village level and the Mandal level. The direct public debate involving the beneficiaries, political representatives, civil servants and, above all, the government officers responsible for implementing the NREGA works highlights corruption like the practice of rigging muster rolls (attendance registers) and also generates public awareness about the scheme.


text: These social audits on NREGA works in Rajasthan highlight: a significant demand for the scheme, less that 2 per cent corruption in the form of fudging of muster rolls, building the water harvesting infrastructure as the first priority in the drought-prone district, reduction of out-migration, and above all the women participation of more than 80 per cent in the employment guarantee scheme. The need for effective management of tasks, timely payment of wages and provision of support facilities at work sites is also emphasised.


text: To assess the effectiveness of the mass social audits on NREGA works in Andhra Pradesh, a World Bank study investigated the effect of the social audit on the level of public awareness about NREGA, its effect on the NREGA implementation, and its efficacy as a grievance redressal mechanism. The study found that the public awareness about the NREGA increased from about 30 per cent before the social audit to about 99 per cent after the social audit. Further, the efficacy of NREGA implementation increased from an average of about 60 per cent to about 97 per cent. In 2014 a large number of localities did not conduct NREGA social audits. Social audits have been found lacking in terms of quality and retrievability.


text: Wage transfer processes in relation to NREGA have undergone significant changes since its initial implementation. In 2011/2016, the wage payment method was shifted to the National electronic Fund Management System (Ne-FMS), a Direct Benefit Transfer system. The Consumer Price Index-Agriculture Labour (CPI-AL) now provides a guide to fixing MGNREGA wages. The scheme has resulted in an increase in the growth rate of wages when the initial pre and post NREGA years are considered.


text: As of 2019, the wages are less than the minimum wages in a majority of states and union territories. Since 2009 wages stipulated under MGNREGA are disconnected from wages determined by the Minimum Wages Act. There has been some debate with regard to comparison between the two wages. One day is considered as 9 hours of work with one hour of rest. Payment is on a piece work basis.


text: Wage payments face delays, in some cases up to 200 days. Center-state disunity, compliance, and "infrastructural bottlenecks" are some of the causes of delay. By 2021, 99.7% of payments under the Act were through electronic transfer. These are also affected by "last mile" issues. Ideal financial inclusion in still lacking. While the scheme stipulates 100 days, in practice the average is around 45 days.


text: Assets created include rural connectivity assets such as pucca roads and brick soling, land development assets which improve productivity of land such as the creation of new plantations, unskilled construction such as poultry shelters, cattle shelters and fish drying yard platform. Water-related assets include village tanks and ponds, check dams, water harvesting tanks, bunding, irrigation channels, renovation of existing water assets. Infrastructure construction also includes sanitation works and grain storage facilities. The act also provides for maintenance of created assets. Asset creation varies widely between states with five states accounting for a majority of the assets. The focus of MNREGA has also shifted to quality of assets and skilling workers to map assets.


text: Over the last decade, it has been observed that more than half the NREGA funds have been spent on water related projects. This was very much needed because water bodies have been shrinking, especially in rural India. India became a water deficient nation 5 years ago, and every year since then, the water level has shrunk further. Though over Rs 20,000 crores under MGNREGA has been spent each year during the last decade on developing rural water bodies, wells, aquifers, catchment areas, etc, these were not permanent assets.


text: There has been increasing rationale for convergence of MNREGA with other government schemes. Assets created under the act have been converged with aligning assets from other schemes such as housing and sanitation schemes. Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme was converged in 2012. Trekking trails have been planned in Himachal Pradesh. Convergence calls for greater inter-department cooperation. While convergence has been seen as a way to save resources, at the same time it weakens income means for those availing the scheme.


text: In 2013-14, the ratio of young workers among total MGNREGA workers was 13.64 per cent which came down to 7.73 percent in 2017-18 before rising to 9.1 percent in 2018-19 and 10.06 percent in 2019-20.The trend shows that a steady decline in the proportion of young workers, those between 18 and 30, under the Act has halted and has begun to rise in the wake of demonetisation and the rollout of GST. This has been projected by a section of analysts as a reflection of rural distress intensifying.


text: Union Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari proposed to limit MGNREGA programmes within tribal and poor areas. He also proposed to change the labour: material ratio from 60:40 to 51:49. As per the new proposal, the programme will be implemented in 2,500 backward blocks. Both proposals came in for sharp criticism. A number of economists with diverse views opposed the idea of restricting or "focusing" implementation in a few districts or blocks.


text: In the November 2014 cabinet expansion, Birender Singh replaced Nitin Gadkari as rural development minister. Among the first statements made by the new minister was an assurance that NREGA would continue in all districts. Around the same time, however, NREGA budget saw a sharp cut, and in the name of 'focusing' on a few blocks the programme has been limited to those blocks.


text: In September 2014 'Save MGNREGA' is a set of demands proposed during the joint meeting of the national leadership of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU), All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) and All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) in New Delhi. The agenda was to discuss the dilution of MGNREGA scheme by the new government. Following demands were proposed:


text: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced Rs. 48,000 crore to be allocated to the MGNREGA as a part of 2017 Union budget of India.


text: A major criticism of the MGNREGA is that a lot of money disbursed by the government gets siphoned off by middlemen, thus leaving a number of MGNREGA workers either with unpaid wages or less than standard wages. In Mahuadand, Jharkhand, most of the people who had worked under the MGNREGA did not get paid, while some either got paid less than stipulated or were given 5 kg of rice by private contractors instead. Following allegations of corruption in the scheme, the NDA government ordered a re-evaluation of MNREGA in 2015. Between 2017 and 2021 about 1000 crore of funds were stolen in the form of bribes, ghost accounts and fake material rates. However there are proponents that claim NREGA is relatively successful in reducing corruption.


text: Another criticism of NREGA is that it is making agriculture less profitable. Landholders often oppose it on these grounds. The big farmer's point of view can be summed up as follows: landless labourers are lazy and they don't want to work on farms as they can get money without doing anything at NREGA worksites; farmers may have to sell their land, thereby laying foundation for the corporate farming.


text: Economists like Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya have described NREGA as "an inefficient instrument of shifting income to the poor" – the general notion being that it takes five rupees to transfer one rupee to NREGA workers. Economists including Surjit Bhalla have termed it as unsuccessful suggesting that schemes such as the NREGA need to be junked, saying that any scheme with 85 percent leakages can't be proclaimed to be "working successfully".


text: The workers points of view can be summed up as: labourers do not get more than Rs. 80 in the private agricultural labour market, there is no farm work for several months; few old age people who are jobless for at least 8 months a year; when farm work is available they go there first; farmers employ only young and strong persons to work in their farms and reject the others and hence many go jobless most of the time.


title: Girl from Nowhere

text: Girl from Nowhere (; ; lit. "New Girl") is a Thai mystery thriller anthology television series created by studio SOUR Bangkok and starring actress Chicha "Kitty" Amatayakul in the lead role.


title: Girl from Nowhere

text: The first season was released on August 8, 2018, on GMM 25. A second season was released globally on Netflix on May 7, 2021, which exposed the show to international fame. It has hit number one on the currently most watched Netflix shows in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, while also ranking in the top 10 in countries around the world such as Brazil. The show has been critically acclaimed for the usage of unconventional storytelling and takes on modern high school society.


title: Girl from Nowhere

text: The plot revolves around Nanno, an enigmatic girl who transfers to different private schools in Thailand and exposes the students and faculty's stories of lies, secrets, and hypocrisy. Nanno on occasion lies to provoke others. She is revealed to be an immortal entity, punishing wrongdoers for their crimes and misdeeds. In Season 2, Nanno meets her match in newfound rival Yuri, who has a different, more revenge focused ideology and wants to take over Nanno's duties.


title: Girl from Nowhere

text: The storylines in the episodes are inspired by actual real news reports where schoolgirls were victimized, but with the intent of showing how the victims will ultimately become the victor. For instance, "Minnie and the Four Bodies" was based on an incident where a student had run into a university van killing nine people, and had avoided the consequences because of her family's wealthy connections.


title: Girl from Nowhere

text: "SOTUS" was also based on an incident where a senior punishes a junior for failing to follow the hazing rules, resulting in homicide.


title: Girl from Nowhere

text: Lead actress Amatayakul used "Tomie", a Japanese horror manga featuring a succubus-like woman, as her reference for the series.


title: Girl from Nowhere

text: Days before auditioning for the role of Yuri, Chanya McClory had just started recovery for having an operation for removing a brain tumor. Her determination to get the role won over the casting crew and inspired her to empower her character.


title: Girl from Nowhere

text: The first season of "Girl From Nowhere" was released on August 8, 2018, on GMM 25. It was also released on Netflix on October 31, 2018.