title: Dean Koontz

text: Since then, 12 hardcovers and 14 paperbacks written by Koontz have reached number one on "The New York Times" Best Seller list.


title: Dean Koontz

text: Bestselling science fiction writer Brian Herbert has stated, "I even went through a phase where I read everything that Dean Koontz wrote, and in the process I learned a lot about characterization and building suspense."


title: Dean Koontz

text: In 1997, psychologist Katherine Ramsland published an extensive biography of Koontz based on interviews with his family and him. This "psychobiography" (as Ramsland called it) often showed the conception of Koontz's characters and plots from events in his own life.


title: Dean Koontz

text: Early author photos on the back of many of his novels show a balding Koontz with a mustache. After Koontz underwent hair transplantation surgery in the late 1990s, his subsequent books have featured a new, clean-shaven appearance with a fuller head of hair. Koontz explained the change by claiming that he was tired of looking like G. Gordon Liddy.


title: Dean Koontz

text: Many of his novels are set in and around Orange County, California. As of 2006, he lives there with his wife, Gerda (Cerra), in Newport Coast, California, behind the gates of Pelican Hills. In 2008, he was the world's sixth-most highly paid author, tied with John Grisham, at $25 million annually.


title: Dean Koontz

text: In 2019, Koontz began publishing with Amazon Publishing. At the time of the announcement, Koontz was one of the company's most notable signings.


title: Dean Koontz

text: One of Koontz's pen names was inspired by his dog, Trixie Koontz, a Golden Retriever, shown in many of his book-jacket photos. Trixie originally was a service dog with Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), a charitable organization that provides service dogs for people with disabilities. Trixie was a gift from CCI in gratitude of Koontz's substantial donations, totaling $2.5 million between 1991 and 2004. Koontz was taken with the charity while he was researching his novel "Midnight", a book which included a CCI-trained dog, a black Labrador Retriever, named Moose.


title: Dean Koontz

text: In 2004, Koontz wrote and edited "Life Is Good: Lessons in Joyful Living" in her name, and in 2005, Koontz wrote a second book credited to Trixie, "Christmas Is Good". Both books are written from a supposed canine perspective on the joys of life. The royalty payments of the books were donated to CCI. In 2007, Trixie contracted terminal cancer that created a tumor in her heart. The Koontzes had her euthanized outside their family home on June 30. After Trixie's death, Koontz has continued writing on his website under the name "TOTOS", standing for "Trixie on the Other Side". Trixie is widely thought to have been his inspiration for his November 2007 book, "The Darkest Evening of the Year", about a woman who runs a Golden Retriever rescue home, and who rescues a "special" dog, named Nickie, which eventually saves her life. In August 2009, Koontz published "A Big Little Life", a memoir of his life with Trixie.


title: Dean Koontz

text: In October 2008, Koontz revealed that he had adopted a new dog, Anna. Eventually, he learned that Anna was the grandniece of Trixie. Anna died on May 22, 2016. Koontz then adopted a new dog, Elsa, on July 11, 2016.


title: Dean Koontz

text: A number of letters, articles, and novels were ostensibly written by Koontz during the 1960s and 1970s, but he has stated he did not write them. These include 30 erotic novels, allegedly written together by Koontz and his wife Gerda, including books such as "Thirteen and Ready!", "Swappers Convention", and "Hung", the last one published under the name "Leonard Chris". They also include contributions to the fanzines "Energumen" and "BeABohema" in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including articles that mention the erotic novels, such as a movie column called "Way Station" in "BeABohema".


title: Dean Koontz

text: Koontz wrote in "How to Write Best Selling Fiction", a much revised and updated version of 'Writing Popular Fiction' (1972), "During my first six years as a full-time novelist ... I wrote a lot of ephemeral stuff; anything that would pay some bills ... I did Gothic romance novels under a pen-name ... Like many writers, I did some pornography too, and a variety of other things, none of which required me to commit my heart or my soul to the task. (This is not to say I didn't bother to do a good job; on the contrary, I never wrote down to any market, and I always tried to give my editors and readers their money's worth.)" The Gothic novels are identifiable, but none of Koontz's acknowledged work fits into the latter category.


title: Dean Koontz

text: Koontz has stated on his website that he used only the ten known pen names and "there are no secret pen names used by Dean"; he adds that his own identity was stolen by "a person he had previously worked with professionally", who submitted letters and some articles to fanzines under Koontz's name between 1969 and at least the early 1970s. Koontz has stated that he was only made aware of these bogus letters and articles in 1991 in a written admission from the identity thief. He has stated that he will reveal this person's name in his memoirs.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The People's Socialist Republic of Albania () was the Marxist–Leninist one party state that existed in Albania from 1946 to 1992 (the official name of the country was the People's Republic of Albania from 1946 until 1976 and the Republic of Albania from 1991 until its dissolution in 1992). From 1944 to 1946, the state of Albania was known as the Democratic Government of Albania.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: During this time period, the country was ruled by Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour of Albania. They ruled Albania by establishing a Albanian stalinist style of state administration and adhering to policies which stressed national unity and self-reliance. Travel and visa restrictions made Albania one of the most difficult countries to visit or travel from. Former President Ilir Meta called it the "North Korea of Europe" during an interview with Euronews. Being Europe's only Muslim-majority country, it declared itself the world's first atheist state in 1967. But after the fall of communism in Albania in 1991, the practice of religion slowly increased. It was the only Warsaw Pact member to formally withdraw from the alliance before 1990, an action which was occasioned by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. The government implemented reforms which were aimed at modernizing Albania and they resulted in significant gains in the areas of industry, agriculture, education, the arts, and culture, which contributed to a general increase in the Albanian population's standard of living. However, these developments coincided with political repression by the secret police, the Sigurimi, for the purposes of preventing a counter-revolution, which included dismissal from employment, imprisonment in forced labor camps and executions. The first multi-party elections in Socialist Albania took place on 31 March 1991 – the Communists gained a majority in an interim government. The Republic of Albania was proclaimed on 29 April 1991 and the country's first parliamentary elections were held on 22 March 1992. The People's Socialist Republic of Albania was officially dissolved on 28 November 1998 upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Albania.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: On 29 November 1944, Albania was liberated by the National Liberation Movement (In Albanian: Lëvizja Nacional-Çlirimtare LNC). The Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council, formed in May, became the country's provisional government.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The government, like the LNC, was dominated by the two-year-old Communist Party of Albania, and the party's first secretary, Enver Hoxha, became Albania's prime minister. From the start, the LNC government was an undisguised Communist regime. In most of the rest of what became the Eastern Bloc, the Communist parties were nominally part of a coalition government for a few years before seizing full control and creating one-party states.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Having sidelined the nationalist Balli Kombëtar after their collaboration with the Nazis, the LNC quickly moved to consolidate its power, liberate the country's tenants and workers, and fraternally link Albania with other socialist countries. King Zog I was permanently barred from returning to Albania.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The internal affairs minister, Koçi Xoxe, "an erstwhile pro-Yugoslavia tinsmith", presided over the trial of many non-communist politicians who were condemned as "enemies of the people" and "war criminals". Many were sentenced to death. Those spared were imprisoned for years in work camps and jails and later settled on state farms built on reclaimed marshlands.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In December 1944, the provisional government adopted laws allowing the state to regulate foreign and domestic trade, commercial enterprises, and the few industries the country possessed. The laws sanctioned confiscation of property belonging to political exiles and "enemies of the people." The state also expropriated all German- and Italian-owned property, nationalized transportation enterprises, and canceled all concessions granted by previous Albanian governments to foreign companies.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In August 1945, the provisional government adopted the first sweeping agricultural reforms in Albania's history. The country's 100 largest landowners, who controlled close to a third of Albania's arable land, had frustrated all agricultural reform proposals before the war. The communists' reforms were aimed at squeezing large landowners out of business, winning peasant support, and increasing farm output to avert famine. The government annulled outstanding agricultural debts, granted peasants access to inexpensive water for irrigation, and nationalized forest and pastureland.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Under the Agrarian Reform Law, which redistributed about half of Albania's arable land, the government confiscated property belonging to absentee landlords and people not dependent on agriculture for a living. The few peasants with agricultural machinery were permitted to keep up to of land. Landholdings of religious institutions and peasants without agricultural machinery were limited to . Finally, landless peasants and peasants with tiny landholdings were given up to , although they had to pay nominal compensation.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In December 1945, Albanians elected a new People's Assembly, but voters were presented with a single list from the Communist-dominated Democratic Front (previously the National Liberation Movement). Official ballot tallies showed that 92% of the electorate voted and that 93% of the voters chose the Democratic Front ticket.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The assembly convened in January 1946. Its first act was to formally dethrone Zog, abolish the monarchy and to declare Albania a "people's republic." However, the country had already been under out-and-out Communist rule for just over two years. After months of angry debate, the assembly adopted a constitution that mirrored the Yugoslav and Soviet constitutions. A couple of months later, the assembly members chose a new government, which was emblematic of Hoxha's continuing consolidation of power: Hoxha became simultaneously prime minister, foreign minister, defense minister, and the army's commander in chief. Xoxe remained both internal affairs minister and the party's organizational secretary.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In late 1945 and early 1946, Xoxe and other party hard-liners purged moderates who had pressed for close contacts with the West, a modicum of political pluralism, and a delay in the introduction of strict communist economic measures until Albania's economy had more time to develop. Hoxha remained in control despite the fact that he had once advocated restoring relations with Italy and even allowing Albanians to study in Italy.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The government took major steps to introduce a Stalinist-style centrally planned economy in 1946. It nationalized all industries, transformed foreign trade into a government monopoly, brought almost all domestic trade under state control, and banned land sales and transfers. Planners at the newly founded Economic Planning Commission emphasized industrial development and in 1947 the government introduced the Soviet cost-accounting system.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Until Yugoslavia's expulsion from the Cominform in 1948, Albania was effectively a Yugoslav satellite. In repudiating the 1943 Albanian internal Mukaj agreement under pressure from the Yugoslavs, Albania's communists had given up on their demands for a Yugoslav cession of Kosovo to Albania after the war. In January 1945, the two governments signed a treaty establishing Kosovo as a Yugoslav autonomous province. Shortly thereafter, Yugoslavia became the first country to recognize Albania's provisional government.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In July 1946, Yugoslavia and Albania signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation that was quickly followed by a series of technical and economic agreements laying the groundwork for integrating the Albanian and Yugoslav economies. The pacts provided for coordinating the economic plans of both states, standardizing their monetary systems, and creating a common pricing system and a customs union. So close was the Yugoslav-Albanian relationship that Serbo-Croatian became a required subject in Albanian high schools.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Yugoslavia signed a similar friendship treaty with the Bulgarian People's Republic, and Marshal Josip Broz Tito and Bulgaria's Georgi Dimitrov talked of plans to establish a Balkan Federation to include Albania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. Yugoslav advisers poured into Albania's government offices and its army headquarters. Tirana was desperate for outside aid, and about 20,000 tons of Yugoslav grain helped stave off famine. Albania also received US$26.3 million from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration immediately after the war but had to rely on Yugoslavia for investment and development aid.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Joint Albanian–Yugoslav companies were created for mining, railroad construction, the production of petroleum and electricity, and international trade. Yugoslav investments led to the construction of a sugar refinery in Korçë, a food-processing plant in Elbasan, a hemp factory at Rrogozhinë, a fish cannery in Vlorë, and a printing press, telephone exchange, and textile mill in Tirana. The Yugoslavs also bolstered the Albanian economy by paying three times the international price for Albanian copper and other materials.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Relations between Albania and Yugoslavia declined, however, when the Albanians began complaining that the Yugoslavs were paying too little for Albanian raw materials and exploiting Albania through the joint stock companies. In addition, the Albanians sought investment funds to develop light industries and an oil refinery, while the Yugoslavs wanted the Albanians to concentrate on agriculture and raw-material extraction. The head of Albania's Economic Planning Commission, and Hoxha's right-hand man, Nako Spiru, became the leading critic of Yugoslavia's efforts to exert economic control over Albania. Tito distrusted the intellectuals (Hoxha and his allies) of the Albanian Party and, through Xoxe and his loyalists, attempted to unseat them.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In 1947, Yugoslavia acted against anti-Yugoslav Albanian communists, including Hoxha and Spiru. In May, Tirana announced the arrest, trial, and conviction of nine People's Assembly members, all of whom were known for opposing Yugoslavia, on charges of antistate activities. A month later, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia's Central Committee accused Hoxha of following "independent" policies and turning the Albanian people against Yugoslavia. This was the closest Hoxha ever came to being removed from power. Apparently attempting to buy support inside the Albanian Communist Party, Belgrade extended Tirana credits which were worth 40 million USD, an amount which was equivalent to 58% of Albania's 1947 state budget. A year later, Yugoslavia's credits accounted for nearly half of Albania's 1948 state budget. Relations worsened in the fall, however, when Spiru's commission developed an economic plan that stressed self-sufficiency, light industry, and agriculture. The Yugoslavs complained bitterly. Subsequently, at a November 1947 meeting of the Albanian Economic Central Committee, Spiru came under intense criticism, which was spearheaded by Xoxe. Failure to win support from anyone within the party (he was effectively a fall guy for Hoxha) he committed suicide the very next day.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The insignificance of Albania's standing in the communist world was clearly highlighted when the emerging Eastern European nations did not invite the Party of Labour of Albania to the September 1947 founding meeting of the Cominform. Rather, Yugoslavia represented Albania at Cominform meetings. Although the Soviet Union gave Albania a pledge to build textile and sugar mills and other factories and provide agricultural and industrial machinery to Albania, Joseph Stalin told Milovan Djilas, at the time a high-ranking member of Yugoslavia's communist hierarchy, that Yugoslavia should "swallow" Albania.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The pro-Yugoslav faction wielded decisive political power in Albania well into 1948. At a party plenum in February and March, the communist leadership voted to merge the Albanian and Yugoslav economies and militaries. Hoxha even denounced Spiru for attempting to ruin Albanian-Yugoslav relations. During a party Political Bureau (Politburo) meeting a month later, Xoxe proposed appealing to Belgrade to admit Albania as a seventh Yugoslav republic. However, when the Cominform expelled Yugoslavia on 28 June, Albania made a rapid about-face in its policy towards Yugoslavia. Three days later, Tirana gave the Yugoslav advisers in Albania 48 hours to leave the country, rescinded all bilateral economic agreements with its neighbor, and launched a virulent anti-Yugoslav propaganda blitz that transformed Stalin into an Albanian national hero, Hoxha into a warrior against foreign aggression, and Tito into an imperialist monster.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Albania entered an orbit around the Soviet Union, and in September 1948 Moscow stepped in to compensate for Albania's loss of Yugoslav aid. The shift proved to be a boon for Albania because Moscow had far more to offer Albania than hard-strapped Belgrade had. The fact that the Soviet Union had no common border with Albania also appealed to the Albanian regime because it made it more difficult for Moscow to exert pressure on Tirana. In November at the First Party Congress of the Albanian Party of Labor (APL), the former Albanian Communist Party which renamed itself at Stalin's suggestion, Hoxha pinned the blame for the country's woes on Yugoslavia and Xoxe. Hoxha had Xoxe sacked as Albania's internal affairs minister in October, and he was replaced with Mehmet Shehu. After a secret trial in May 1949, Xoxe was executed. The subsequent anti-Titoist purges in Albania brought the liquidation of 14 members of the party's 31 person Central Committee and 32 of the 109 People's Assembly deputies. Overall, the party expelled about 25% of its members. Yugoslavia responded by launching a propaganda counterattack and canceling its treaty of friendship with Albania and in 1950, it withdrew its diplomatic mission from Tirana.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Albania's relations with the West soured after the Communist government's refusal to allow free elections in December 1945. Albania restricted the movement of United States and British personnel in the country, charging that they had instigated anti-Communist uprisings in the northern mountains. Britain announced in April that it would not send a diplomatic mission to Tirana; the United States withdrew its mission in November; and both the United States and Britain opposed admitting Albania to the United Nations (UN). Albania feared that the United States and Britain, which were supporting anti-Communist forces in the ongoing civil war in Greece, would back Greek demands for territory in southern Albania; and anxieties grew in July when a United States Senate resolution backed the Greek demands.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: A major incident between Albania and Britain erupted in 1946 after Tirana claimed jurisdiction over the channel between the Albanian mainland and the Greek island of Corfu. Britain challenged Albania by sailing four destroyers into the channel. Two of the ships struck mines on 22 October 1946, and 44 crew members died. Britain complained to the UN and the International Court of Justice which, in its first case ever, ruled against Tirana.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: After 1946 the United States and the United Kingdom began implementing an elaborate covert plan to overthrow Albania's Communist government by backing anti-Communist and royalist forces within the country. By 1949 the United States and British intelligence organizations were working with King Zog and the mountainmen of his personal guard. They recruited Albanian refugees and émigrés from Egypt, Italy, and Greece; trained them in Cyprus, Malta, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany); and infiltrated them into Albania. Guerrilla units entered Albania in 1950 and 1952, but Albanian security forces killed or captured all of them. Kim Philby, a Soviet double agent working as a liaison officer between the British intelligence service and the United States Central Intelligence Agency, had leaked details of the infiltration plan to Moscow, and the security breach claimed the lives of about 300 infiltrators.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Following a wave of subversive activity, including the failed infiltration and the March 1951 bombing of the Soviet embassy in Tirana, the Communist authorities implemented harsh internal security measures. In September 1952, the assembly enacted a penal code that required the death penalty for anyone over eleven years old who was found guilty of conspiring against the state, damaging state property, or committing economic sabotage. Political executions were common and between 5,000 and 25,000 people were killed in total during the Communist era.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Albania primarily depended on Soviet assistance and know-how after its break with Yugoslavia in 1948. In February 1949, Albania gained membership in the communist bloc's organization for coordinating economic planning, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon). Tirana soon entered into trade agreements with Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Soviet and East European technical advisers took up residence in Albania, and the Soviet Union also sent Albania military advisers and built a submarine installation on Sazan Island. After the Soviet-Yugoslav split, Albania and Bulgaria remained the only countries that the Soviet Union could use to supply war material to the communists fighting in Greece. What little strategic value Albania offered the Soviet Union, however, gradually shrank as nuclear-arms technology developed.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Aligned with the Orthodox line of Stalin, Albania's Communist Party implemented elements of Stalinist policy and economics. In 1949 Albania adopted the basic elements of the Soviet fiscal system, under which state enterprises paid direct contributions to the treasury from their profits and kept only a share authorized for self-financed investments and other purposes. In 1951 the Albanian government launched its first five-year plan, which emphasized utilizing the country's oil, chromite, copper, nickel, asphalt, and coal resources; expanding electricity production and the power grid; increasing agricultural output; and improving transportation. The government began a program of rapid industrialization after the APL's Second Party Congress and a campaign of collectivization of farmland in 1955. At the time, private farms still produced about 87% of Albania's agricultural output, but by 1960 the same percentage came from collective or state farms.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Soviet-Albanian relations remained warm during the last years of Stalin's life, although Albania was an economic liability for the Soviet Union. Albania conducted all its foreign trade with Soviet European countries in 1949, 1950, and 1951 – and over half its trade with the Soviet Union itself. Together with its satellites, the Soviet Union underwrote shortfalls in Albania's balance-of-payments with long-term grants.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Although far behind Western practice, health care and education improved dramatically for Albania's 1.2 million people in the early 1950s. The number of Albanian doctors increased by a third to about 150 early in the decade (although the doctor-patient ratio remained unacceptable by most standards), and the state opened new medical-training facilities. The number of hospital beds rose from 1,765 in 1945 to about 5,500 in 1953. Better health-care and living conditions produced an improvement in Albania's dismal infant-mortality rate, lowering it from 112.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1945 to 99.5 deaths per 1,000 births in 1953. The education system, geared towards cementing communism and creating the academic and technical cadres necessary for construction of a socialist state and society, also improved dramatically. The number of schools, teachers, and students doubled between 1945 and 1950. Illiteracy declined from perhaps 85% in 1946 to 31% in 1950. The Soviet Union provided scholarships for Albanian students and supplied specialists and study materials to improve instruction in Albania. The State University of Tirana (later the University of Tirana) was founded in 1957 and the Albanian Academy of Sciences opened 15 years later.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Stalin died in March 1953, and apparently fearing that the Soviet Secretaries demise might encourage rivals within the Albanian party's ranks, neither Hoxha nor Shehu risked traveling to Moscow to attend his funeral. The Soviet Union's subsequent movement toward rapprochement with the Yugoslavs alarmed the two Albanian leaders. Tirana soon came under pressure from Moscow to copy, at least formally, the new Soviet model for collective leadership. In July 1953, Hoxha handed over the foreign affairs and defense portfolios to loyal followers, but he kept both the top party post and the premiership until 1954, when Shehu became Albania's prime minister. The Soviet Union, responding with an effort to raise the Albanian leaders' morale, elevated diplomatic relations between the two countries to the ambassadorial level.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Despite some cautious expressions of enthusiasm, Hoxha and Shehu quickly turned against Nikita Khrushchev's programs of "peaceful coexistence" and "different roads to socialism". Raising concerns over supposed steps towards Marxist Revisionism, the Albanian Communists relationship with the Union began to decline. Tirana and Belgrade renewed diplomatic relations in December 1953, but Hoxha refused Khrushchev's repeated appeals to posthumously rehabilitate the pro-Yugoslav Xoxe as a gesture to Tito. The Albanian duo instead entrenched their political position, expanding their control over their country's domestic life and letting the propaganda war with the Yugoslavs grind on. In 1955 Albania became a founding member of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, better known as the Warsaw Pact, the only military alliance the nation ever joined. Although the pact represented the first promise Albania had obtained from any of the communist countries to defend its borders, the treaty did nothing to assuage the Albanian leaders' deep mistrust of Yugoslavia.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Hoxha and Shehu, utilizing their immediate successes and Albanians' deep-seated fear of Yugoslav domination, were able to successfully maintain power during the Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, when Khrushchev denounced Stalin's Administration in his "secret speech". Hoxha, deeply alarmed by the denunciation, defended Stalin and refused to follow Khrushchev's attempt at stepping away from the prior Soviet Administration. As the first years of the Khrushchev Administration passed, Hoxha continued to maintain this position, including through the disturbances in Poland and the rebellion in Hungary in 1956. Hoxha during this period purged party moderates with pro-Soviet and pro-Yugoslav leanings, however toned down his anti-Yugoslav rhetoric after an successful April 1957 trip to Moscow. This trip proved pivotal for the Albanian State, Hoxha having won cancellation of about US$105 million in outstanding loans and about US$7.8 million in additional food assistance. By 1958, however, tensions had re-sparked between Hoxha and Tito, with continued conflict over the issue of Albanians in Kosovo. There was further tension over a Comecon plan for integrating the East European economies, which called for Albania to produce agricultural goods and minerals instead of emphasizing the development of heavy industry. On a twelve-day visit to Albania in 1959, Khrushchev reportedly tried to convince Hoxha and Shehu that their country should aspire to become "socialism's orchard".


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Albania played a pronounced role in the Sino-Soviet split. By 1958 Albania stood with the People's Republic of China (PRC) in opposing Moscow on issues of peaceful coexistence, de-Stalinization, and Yugoslavia's "separate road to socialism" through decentralization of economic life. The Soviet Union, other Eastern European countries, and China all offered Albania large amounts of aid. Soviet leaders also promised to build a large Palace of Culture in Tirana as a symbol of the Soviet people's "love and friendship" for the Albanians. But despite these gestures, Tirana was dissatisfied with Moscow's economic policy towards Albania. Hoxha and Shehu apparently decided in either May or June 1960 that Albania was assured of Chinese support, and when sharp polemics erupted between the PRC and the Soviet Union, they openly sided with the former. Ramiz Alia, at the time a candidate-member of the Politburo and Hoxha's adviser on ideological questions, played a prominent role in the rhetoric.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The Sino-Soviet split burst into the open in June 1960 at a Romanian Workers' Party congress, at which Khrushchev attempted to secure condemnation of Beijing. Albania's delegation, alone among the European delegations, supported the Chinese. The Soviet Union immediately retaliated by organizing a campaign to oust Hoxha and Shehu in the summer of 1960. Moscow cut promised grain deliveries to Albania during a drought, and the Soviet embassy in Tirana overtly encouraged a pro-Soviet faction in the Party of Labour of Albania (APL) to speak out against the party's pro-Chinese stance. Moscow also apparently involved itself in a plot within the APL to unseat Hoxha and Shehu by force. But given their tight control of the party machinery, army, and Shehu's secret police, the Directorate of State Security (Drejtorija e Sigurimit të Shtetit—Sigurimi), the two Albanian leaders easily parried the threat. Four pro-Soviet Albanian leaders, including Teme Sejko and Tahir Demi, were eventually tried and executed. The PRC immediately began making up for the cancellation of Soviet wheat shipments despite a paucity of foreign currency and its own economic hardships.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Albania again sided with the People's Republic of China when it launched an attack on the Soviet Union's leadership of the international communist movement at the November 1960 Moscow conference of the world's 81 communist parties. Hoxha inveighed against Khrushchev for encouraging Greek claims to southern Albania, sowing discord within the APL and army, and using economic blackmail. "Soviet rats were able to eat while the Albanian people were dying of hunger," Hoxha railed, referring to purposely delayed Soviet grain deliveries. Communist leaders loyal to Moscow described Hoxha's performance as "gangsterish" and "infantile," and the speech extinguished any chance of an agreement between Moscow and Tirana. For the next year, Albania played proxy for China. Pro-Soviet Communist parties, reluctant to confront China directly, criticized Beijing by castigating Albania. China, for its part, frequently gave prominence to the Albanians' fulminations against the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, which Tirana referred to as a "socialist hell."


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Hoxha and Shehu continued their harangue against the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia at the APL's Fourth Party Congress in February 1961. During the congress, the Albanian government announced the broad outlines of the country's Third Five-Year Plan (1961–65), which allocated 54% of all investment to industry, thereby rejecting Khrushchev's wish to make Albania primarily an agricultural producer. Moscow responded by canceling aid programs and lines of credit for Albania, but China again came to the rescue.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: After additional sharp exchanges between Soviet and Chinese delegates over Albania at the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Twenty-Second Party Congress in October 1961, Khrushchev lambasted the Albanians for executing an allegedly pregnant, pro-Soviet member of the Albanian party Politburo Liri Gega, and the Soviet Union finally broke diplomatic relations with Albania in December. Moscow then withdrew all Soviet economic advisers and technicians from the country, including those at work on the Palace of Culture, and halted shipments of supplies and spare parts for equipment already in place in Albania. In addition, the Soviet Union continued to dismantle its naval installations on Sazan Island, a process that had begun even before the break in relations.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: China again compensated Albania for the loss of Soviet economic support, supplying about 90% of the parts, foodstuffs, and other goods the Soviet Union had promised. China lent Albania money on more favorable terms than Moscow, and, unlike Soviet advisers, Chinese technicians earned the same low pay as Albanian workers and lived in similar housing. China also presented Albania with a powerful radio transmission station from which Tirana sang the praises of Stalin, Hoxha, and Mao Zedong for decades. For its part, Albania offered China a beachhead in Europe and acted as China's chief spokesman at the United Nations. To Albania's dismay, however, Chinese equipment and technicians were not nearly as sophisticated as the Soviet goods and advisers they replaced. Ironically, a language barrier even forced the Chinese and Albanian technicians to communicate in Russian. Albanians no longer took part in Warsaw Pact activities or Comecon agreements. The other East European communist nations, however, did not break diplomatic or trade links with Albania. In 1964, the Albanians went so far as to seize the empty Soviet embassy in Tirana, and Albanian workers pressed on with construction of the Palace of Culture on their own.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The shift away from the Soviet Union wreaked havoc on Albania's economy. Half of its imports and exports had been geared toward Soviet suppliers and markets, so the souring of Tirana's relations with Moscow brought Albania's foreign trade to near collapse as China proved incapable of delivering promised machinery and equipment on time. The low productivity, flawed planning, poor workmanship, and inefficient management at Albanian enterprises became clear when Soviet and Eastern European aid and advisers were withdrawn. In 1962, the Albanian government introduced an austerity program, appealing to the people to conserve resources, cut production costs, and abandon unnecessary investment.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In October 1964, Hoxha hailed Khrushchev's fall from power, and the Soviet Union's new leaders made overtures to Tirana. It soon became clear, however, that the new Soviet leadership had no intention of changing its basic policies to suit Albania, and relations failed to improve. For decades, Tirana's propaganda continued to refer to Soviet officials as "treacherous revisionists" and "traitors to Communism," and in 1964, Hoxha said that Albania's terms for reconciliation were a Soviet apology to Albania and reparations for damages which it had inflicted on the country. Albania had also been feuding with Moscow over suggestions that Albania should focus on agriculture to the detriment of industrial development. Soviet-Albanian relations dipped to new lows after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Albania felt that the Soviet Union had become too liberal since the death of Joseph Stalin. The invasion served as the tipping point, and within one month (September 1968) Albania formally withdrew from the Warsaw Pact. Leonid Brezhnev made no attempt to force Albania to remain.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In the mid-1960s, Albania's leaders grew wary of a threat to their power by a burgeoning bureaucracy. Party discipline had eroded. People complained about malfeasance, inflation, and low-quality goods. Writers strayed from the orthodoxy of socialist realism, which demanded that art and literature serve as instruments of government and party policy. As a result, after Mao Zedong unleashed the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966, Hoxha launched his own Cultural and Ideological Revolution. The Albanian leader concentrated on reforming the military, government bureaucracy, and economy as well as on creating new support for his system. The regime abolished military ranks, reintroduced political commissars into the military, and renounced professionalism in the army. Railing against a "white-collar mentality," the authorities also slashed the salaries of mid- and high-level officials, ousted administrators and specialists from their desk jobs, and sent such persons to toil in the factories and fields. Six ministries, including the Ministry of Justice, were eliminated. Farm collectivization even spread to the remote mountains. In addition, the government attacked dissident writers and artists, reformed its educational system, and generally reinforced Albania's isolation from European culture in an effort to keep out foreign influences.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: After the 5th Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania and Enver Hoxha's speech on 6 February 1967, the authorities launched a violent campaign to extinguish religious life in Albania, claiming that religion had divided the Albanian nation and kept it mired in backwardness. Student agitators combed the countryside, forcing Albanians to quit practicing their faiths. Despite complaints, even by APL members, all churches, mosques, monasteries, and other religious institutions were closed or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, and workshops by year's end. A special decree abrogated the charters by which the country's main religious communities had operated. The campaign culminated in an announcement that Albania had become the world's first atheistic state, a feat which was trumpeted as one of Enver Hoxha's greatest achievements. While the Albanian Constitution had formally guaranteed freedom of religion to the Albanian people right up until that time, religious freedom was virtually non-existent after 1967. The 1976 Constitution of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania later stipulated in Article 37 that "The state recognizes no religion whatever and supports atheist propaganda for the purpose of inculcating the scientific materialist world outlook in people" and Article 55 explicitly forbade the formation of "any type of organization of a fascist, anti-democratic, "religious," and anti-socialist character" and stated that "Fascist, anti-democratic, "religious", war-mongering, and anti-socialist activities and propaganda, as well as the incitement of national and racial hatred are prohibited."


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: On 1 November 1977, Enver Hoxha claimed in his Report submitted to the 7th Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania on the activity of the Party's Central Committee that the 1976 Constitution was an embodiment of the free will of the Albanian people, because genuine democracy was necessary in order for socialism to actually exist. He said that, "the broad masses of the working people freely aired their views on the new Fundamental Law of our state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. About 1,500,000 people, practically the entire adult population of the country, participated in the meetings which were held, and about 300,000 people contributed to the discussion... The great popular discussion, characterized by a free and fruitful thrashing out of opinions, by lively and constructive debate, was a clear expression of our socialist democracy in action and the genuine sovereignty of the people. It demonstrated in practice that in socialist Albania the people are the masters, that nothing is done against their will." The numerous testimonies of those who suffered under the religious persecution of this era, however, casts serious doubts into how "free and fruitful" the thrashing out of opinions in this grand debate were, and consequently as critics of the regime would argue, the genuinely socialist character of Albania's socialist democracy.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: During the Cultural and Ideological Revolution, traditional kinship links in Albania, which were centered on the patriarchal family, were shattered by the postwar repression of clan leaders, collectivization of agriculture, industrialization, migration from the countryside to urban areas, and suppression of religion. The postwar regime brought a radical change in the status of Albania's women. Considered second-class citizens in traditional Albanian society, women did most of the work at home and they also did most of the work in the fields. Before World War II, about 90% of Albania's women were illiterate, and in many areas, they were regarded as chattel under ancient tribal laws and customs. During the Cultural and Ideological Revolution, the party encouraged women to take jobs outside the home in an effort to compensate for labor shortages and overcome their conservatism. Hoxha himself proclaimed that anyone who trampled on the party's edict on women's rights should be "hurled into the fire."


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Albanian-Chinese relations had stagnated by 1970, and when China began to reemerge from isolation and the Cultural Revolution in the early 1970s, Mao and the other Chinese leaders reassessed their commitment to Albania. In response, Albania began to broaden its contacts with the outside world. Albania opened trade negotiations with France, Italy, and the recently independent Asian and African states, and in 1971 it normalised relations with Yugoslavia and Greece. Albania's leaders abhorred the contacts of China with the United States in the early 1970s, and its press and radio ignored President Richard Nixon's trip to Beijing in 1972. Albania actively worked to reduce its dependence on China by diversifying trade and improving diplomatic and cultural relations, especially with Western Europe. But Albania shunned the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and it was the only European country that refused to take part in the Helsinki Conference of July 1975. Soon after Mao's death in 1976, Hoxha criticized the new leadership as well as Beijing's pragmatic policy towards the United States and Western Europe. China retorted by inviting Tito to visit Beijing in 1977 and ending assistance programs for Albania in 1978.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The Sino-Albanian split left Albania with no foreign benefactor. Albania ignored calls to normalize relations by the United States and the Soviet Union. Instead, Albania expanded its diplomatic ties with Western Europe and the developing nations and it also began to stress the principle of self-reliance as the keystone of the country's strategy for economic development. Albania, however, did not have many resources of its own, and Hoxha's cautious opening to the outside world was not enough to bolster Albania's economy, and nascent movements for change stirred up inside Albania. Without Chinese or Soviet aid, the country began to experience widespread shortages of everything from machine parts to wheat and animal feed. Infrastructure and living standards began to collapse. According to the World Bank, Albania netted around US$750 in gross national product per capita throughout much of the 1980s. As Hoxha's health slipped, muted calls arose for the relaxation of party controls and greater openness. In response, Hoxha launched a fresh series of purges that removed the defense minister and many top military officials. A year later, Hoxha purged ministers who were responsible for the country's economy and replaced them with younger people.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: As Hoxha began to experience more health problems, he progressively withdrew from state affairs and took longer and more frequent leaves of absence. Meanwhile, he began to plan an orderly succession. He worked to institutionalize his policies, hoping to frustrate any attempt which his successors might make to venture from the Stalinist path which he had blazed for Albania. In December 1976, Albania adopted its second Stalinist constitution of the postwar era. The document guaranteed Albanians freedom of speech, the press, organization, association, and assembly but subordinated these rights to the individual's duties to society as a whole. The constitution continued to emphasize national pride and unity, the idea of autarky was enshrined in law and the government was prohibited from seeking financial aid or credits or forming joint companies with partners from capitalist or revisionist communist countries. The constitution's preamble also boasted that the foundations of religious belief had been abolished in Albania.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In 1980, Hoxha tapped Ramiz Alia to succeed him as Albania's communist patriarch, overlooking his long-standing comrade-in-arms, Mehmet Shehu. Hoxha first tried to convince Shehu to voluntarily step aside, but when this move failed, Hoxha arranged for all of the members of the Politburo to rebuke him for allowing his son to become engaged to the daughter of a former bourgeois family. Shehu allegedly committed suicide on 17 December 1981. Some suspect that Hoxha had him killed. Hoxha had Shehu's wife and three sons arrested, one of whom killed himself in prison. In November 1982, Hoxha announced that Shehu had been simultaneously working as a foreign spy for the United States, British, Soviet, and Yugoslav intelligence agencies in planning the assassination of Hoxha himself. "He was buried like a dog," Hoxha wrote in the Albanian edition of his book, "The Titoites".


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In 1983 Hoxha relinquished many of his duties due to poor health, and Alia assumed responsibility for Albania's administration. Alia traveled around Albania extensively, standing in for Hoxha at major events and delivering addresses laying down new policies and intoning litanies to the enfeebled president. Hoxha died on 11 April 1985. Alia succeeded Hoxha to the presidency and became the legal secretary of the APL two days later. In due course, he became a dominant figure in the Albanian media, and his slogans were painted in crimson letters on signboards across the country.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: After Hoxha's death, Ramiz Alia maintained firm control of the country and its security apparatus, but Albania's desperate economic situation required Alia to introduce some reforms. Continuing a policy set by Hoxha, Alia reestablished diplomatic relations with West Germany in return for development aid and also courted Italy and France. The very gradual and slight reforms intensified as Mikhail Gorbachev introduced his new policies of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the collapse of communist governments across Central and Eastern Europe.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: After Nicolae Ceaușescu (the leader of Communist Romania) was executed in a revolution in December 1989, Alia expedited his reforms, apparently concerned about violence and his own fate if radical changes were not made. He signed the Helsinki Agreement (which was signed by other countries in 1975) which respected some human rights. On 11 December 1990, under enormous pressure from students and workers, Alia announced that the Party of Labor had abandoned its guaranteed right to rule, that other parties could be formed, and free elections would be held in the spring of 1991.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: Alia's party won the elections on 31 March 1991—the first free elections held in decades. Nevertheless, it was clear that the change would not be stopped. The position of the communists was confirmed in the first round of elections under a 1991 interim law, but two months later, it fell during a general strike. A committee of "national salvation" took over but it also collapsed within six months. On 22 March 1992, the Communists were trumped by the Democratic Party in national elections. The change from dictatorship to democracy came with many challenges. The Democratic Party had to implement the reforms it had promised, but they were either too slow or did not solve the country's problems, so people were disappointed when their hopes for fast prosperity went unfulfilled.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: In the general elections of June 1996 the Democratic Party tried to win an absolute majority by manipulating the results. This government collapsed in 1997 in the wake of additional collapses of pyramid schemes and widespread corruption, which caused chaos and rebellion throughout the country. The government attempted to suppress the rebellion by military force but the attempt failed, due to long-term corruption of the armed forces, forcing other nations to intervene. Pursuant to the 1991 interim basic law, Albanians ratified a constitution in 1998, establishing a democratic system of government based upon the rule of law and guaranteeing the protection of fundamental human rights.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: According to the Albanian constitution of 1976, legislative powers were vested in the People's Assembly, which the constitution described as "the supreme organ of state power". Its competences included directing the internal and external policies of Albania, approving and amending the constitution and laws, approving plans for economic and cultural development as well as state budget, ratifying international treaties, granting amnesty, defining the "administrative and territorial structure", and deciding on popular referendums. It also elected and dismissed the Presidium of the Peoples Assembly, the Council of Ministers, and the Supreme Court of Albania. The People's Assembly was composed of 250 deputies who were "elected in constituencies with an equal number of inhabitants" for a term of four years. It met in normal session twice per year.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The Presidium of the People's Assembly was described as "a superior organ of the state power with permanent activity" in the 1976 constitution. It was composed of a President, three Vice-Presidents, one Secretary, and ten other members.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The supreme and executive organ of the government was the Council of Ministers. They were appointed from among the ranks of the People's Assembly. Like the People's Assembly, it also had its own presidium, which was composed of a Chairman and Vice-Chairmen.


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The policies which were pursued by Enver Hoxha and his followers influenced political and economic thought around the world. Thus, Hoxhaist parties were founded in many countries and they based their ideology on Enver Hoxha's ideas as to how a communist state should be constructed and embraced his strict adherence to Marxism–Leninism. Following the fall of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania in 1991, the Hoxhaist parties regrouped as an international conference and the publication "Unity and Struggle".


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: A 2016 survey conducted by the "Institute for Development Research and Alternatives" (IDRA), showed that 42% of Albanians believe that Enver Hoxha had a positive impact on history – not much less than 45% who see his impact as negative. Citizens in the regions of southern and southwestern Albania that were interviewed, had the most positive view of Hoxha, with 55%. Approximately 35% of respondents said that the communist past was not a problem for them, while 62% saw it as "at least somewhat problematic".


title: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

text: The Albanian People's Army (, UPSh) was the term for the national army of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania from 1946 to 1990. After withdrawing from Warsaw Pact activities in 1968, it conducted a self-reliance policy for national defence. It was dissolved in 1990 and is retained in its current form through the Albanian Armed Forces.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: The Name of the Rose is a 1986 historical mystery film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on the 1980 novel of the same name by Umberto Eco. Sean Connery stars as the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, called upon to solve a deadly mystery in a medieval abbey. Christian Slater portrays his young apprentice, Adso of Melk, and F. Murray Abraham his Inquisitor rival, Bernardo Gui. Michael Lonsdale, William Hickey, Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Valentina Vargas, and Ron Perlman play supporting roles.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: This English-language film was an international co-production between West German, French, and Italian companies and was filmed in Rome and at the former Eberbach Abbey in the Rheingau. It received mixed to positive reviews from critics and won several awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Sean Connery. Another adaptation was made in 2019 as a television miniseries for RAI.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and his novice, Adso of Melk, arrive at an early 14th century Benedictine abbey in Northern Italy. A mysterious death has occurred ahead of an important theological Church conference. William, known for his deductive and analytical mind, confronts the worried Abbot and gains permission to investigate the death – a young illuminator appears to have committed suicide. Over the next few days, several other bizarre deaths occur.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: William and Adso make the acquaintance of Salvatore, a hunchback who speaks gibberish in various languages, and his handler and protector, Remigio da Varagine. William deduces from Salvatore's speech that he had once been a member of a heretical sect and infers that Salvatore and Remigio may have been involved in the killings. Meanwhile, Adso encounters a beautiful feral peasant girl who snuck into the abbey to trade sexual favors for food, and is seduced by her.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: Investigating and keen to head off accusations of demonic possession, the protagonists discover and explore a labyrinthine library in the abbey's forbidden principal tower. William finds that it is "one of the greatest libraries in all Christendom," containing dozens of works by Classical masters such as Aristotle, thought to have been lost for centuries. William deduces that the library is kept hidden because such advanced knowledge, coming from pagan philosophers, is difficult to reconcile with Christianity. William further deduces that all of those who died had read the only remaining copy of Aristotle's "Second Book of Poetics".


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: His investigations are curtailed by the arrival of Bernardo Gui of the Inquisition, summoned for the conference and keen to prosecute those he deems responsible for the deaths. The two men clashed in the past, and the zealous inquisitor has no time for theories outside his own. Salvatore and the girl are found fighting over a black cockerel while in the presence of a black cat. Gui presents this as irrefutable proof that they are in league with Satan and tortures Salvatore into a false confession. Salvatore, Remigio, and the girl are dragged before a tribunal, where Gui intimidates the Abbot into concurring with his judgment of heresy. But William, also "invited" by Gui to serve on the panel of judges, refuses to confirm the accusations of murder, pointing out that the murderer could read Greek, a skill that Remigio doesn't possess. Gui resorts to extracting a confession from Remigio by the threat of torture, and clearly plans to take care of William for good.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: When the head Librarian succumbs like the others, William and Adso ascend the forbidden library, and come face to face with the Venerable Jorge, the most ancient denizen of the abbey, with the book, which describes comedy and how it may be used to teach. Believing laughter and jocularity to be instruments of the Devil, Jorge has poisoned the pages to stop the spread of what he considers dangerous ideas: those reading it would ingest the poison as they licked their fingers to aid in turning pages. Confronted, Jorge throws over a candle, starting a blaze that quickly engulfs the library. William insists that Adso flee, as he manages to collect an inadequate armload of invaluable books to save; the volume of "Poetics", Jorge, and the rest of the library are lost.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: Meanwhile, Salvatore and Remigio have been burned at the stake. The girl has been slated for the same fate but local peasants take advantage of the chaos of the library fire to free her and turn on Gui. Gui attempts to flee but they throw his wagon off a cliff, to his death. William and Adso later take their leave of the Abbey. On the road, Adso is stopped by the girl, silently appealing for him to stay with her, but Adso continues on with William. In his closing narration, a much older Adso reflects that he never regretted his decision, as he learned many more things from William. Adso also states that the girl was the only earthly love of his life, yet he never learned her name.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: Director Jean-Jacques Annaud once told Umberto Eco that he was convinced the book was written for only one person to direct: himself. He felt personally intrigued by the project and other things because of a lifelong fascination with medieval churches and a great familiarity with Latin and Greek.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: Annaud spent four years preparing the film, traveling throughout the United States and Europe, searching for the perfect multi-ethnic cast with interesting and distinctive faces. He resisted suggestions to cast Sean Connery for the part of William because he felt the character, who was already an amalgam of Sherlock Holmes and William of Occam, would become too overwhelming with "007" added. Later, after Annaud failed to find another actor he liked for the part, he was won over by Connery's reading, but Eco was dismayed by the casting choice, and Columbia Pictures pulled out because Connery's career was then in a slump.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: Christian Slater was cast through a large-scale audition of teenage boys. For the wordless scene in which the Girl seduces Adso, Annaud allowed Valentina Vargas to lead the scene without his direction. Annaud did not explain to Slater what she would be doing in order to elicit a more authentic performance from the actors.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: The exterior and some of the interiors of the monastery seen in the film were constructed as a replica on a hilltop outside Rome and ended up being the biggest exterior set built in Europe since "Cleopatra" (1963). Many of the interiors were shot at Eberbach Abbey, Germany. Most props, including period illuminated manuscripts, were produced specifically for the film.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: The film was very successful in Germany with a gross of $25 million. However, the film did poorly at the box office in the United States where it played at 176 theaters and grossed $7.2 million. However, it was popular in other parts of Europe (including Italy, France and Spain) and grossed over $77.2 million worldwide.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of a possible 4, writing "What we have here is the setup for a wonderful movie. What we get is a very confused story...It's all inspiration and no discipline.""Time Out" gave the film a positive review: "As intelligent a reductio of Umberto Eco's sly farrago of whodunnit and medieval metaphysics as one could have wished for...the film simply looks good, really succeeds in communicating the sense and spirit of a time when the world was quite literally read like a book." The film has a rating of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews.


title: The Name of the Rose (film)

text: In 2011, Eco was quoted as giving a mixed review for the adaptation of his novel: "A book like this is a club sandwich, with turkey, salami, tomato, cheese, lettuce. And the movie is obliged to choose only the lettuce or the cheese, eliminating everything else – the theological side, the political side. It's a nice movie."


title: Holly

text: Ilex (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. "Ilex" has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. The type species is "Ilex aquifolium", the common European holly used in Christmas decorations and cards.


title: Holly

text: The genus is widespread throughout the temperate and subtropical regions of the world. It includes species of trees, shrubs, and climbers, with evergreen or deciduous foliage and inconspicuous flowers. Its range was more extended in the Tertiary period and many species are adapted to laurel forest habitats. It occurs from sea level to more than with high mountain species. It is a genus of small, evergreen trees with smooth, glabrous, or pubescent branchlets. The plants are generally slow-growing with some species growing to tall. The type species is the European holly "Ilex aquifolium" described by Linnaeus. Plants in this genus have simple, alternate glossy leaves, frequently with a spiny leaf margin. The inconspicuous flower is greenish white, with four petals. They are generally dioecious, with male and female flowers on different plants.


title: Holly

text: The small fruits of "Ilex", although often referred to as berries, are technically drupes. They range in color from red to brown to black, and rarely green or yellow. The "bones" contain up to ten seeds each. Some species produce fruits parthenogenetically, such as the cultivar 'Nellie R. Stevens'. The fruits ripen in winter and thus provide winter colour contrast between the bright red of the fruits and the glossy green evergreen leaves. Hence the cut branches, especially of "I. aquifolium", are widely used in Christmas decoration. The fruits are generally slightly toxic to humans, and can cause vomiting and diarrhea when ingested. However, they are an important food source for birds and other animals, which help disperse the seeds. Unfortunately this can have negative impacts as well. Along the west coast of North America, from California to British Columbia, English holly ("Ilex aquifolium"), which is grown commercially, is quickly spreading into native forest habitat, where it thrives in shade and crowds out native species. It has been placed on the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board's monitor list, and is a Class C invasive plant in Portland.


title: Holly

text: "Ilex" in Latin means the holm-oak or evergreen oak ("Quercus ilex"). Despite the Linnaean classification of "Ilex" as holly, as late as the 19th century in Britain, the term "Ilex" was still being applied to the oak as well as the holly – possibly due to the superficial similarity of the leaves. The name "holly" in common speech refers to "Ilex aquifolium", specifically stems with berries used in Christmas decoration. By extension, "holly" is also applied to the whole genus. The origin of the word "holly" is considered a reduced form of Old English "", Middle English "Holin", later "Hollen".


title: Holly

text: The French word for holly, ', derives from the Old Low Franconian (Middle Dutch ). Both are related to Old High German ', "huls", as are Low German/Low Franconian terms like ' or '. These Germanic words appear to be related to words for holly in Celtic languages, such as Welsh ', Breton ' and Irish "".


title: Holly

text: Several Romance languages use the Latin word "acrifolium", literally "sharp leaf" (turned into "aquifolium" in modern time), so Italian ', Occitan ', etc.


title: Holly

text: The phylogeography of this group provides examples of various speciation mechanisms at work. In this scenario ancestors of this group became isolated from the remaining "Ilex" when the Earth mass broke away into Gondwana and Laurasia about 82million years ago, resulting in a physical separation of the groups and beginning a process of change to adapt to new conditions. This mechanism is called allopatric speciation. Over time, survivor species of the holly genus adapted to different ecological niches. This led to reproductive isolation, an example of ecological speciation. In the Pliocene, around five million years ago, mountain formation diversified the landscape and provided new opportunities for speciation within the genus.


title: Holly

text: The fossil record indicates that the "Ilex" lineage was already widespread prior to the end of the Cretaceous period. Based on the molecular clock, the common ancestor of most of the extant species probably appeared during the Eocene, about 50million years ago, suggesting that older representatives of the genus belong to now extinct branches. "Ilex sinica" seems to be the most basal extant species. The laurel forest covered great areas of the Earth during the Paleogene, when the genus was more prosperous. This type of forest extended during the Neogene, more than 20million years ago. Most of the last remaining temperate broadleaf evergreen forests are believed to have disappeared about 10,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene. Many of the then-existing species with the strictest ecological requirements became extinct because they could not cross the barriers imposed by the geography, but others found refuge as a species relict in coastal enclaves, archipelagos, and coastal mountains sufficiently far from areas of extreme cold and aridity and protected by the oceanic influence.


title: Holly

text: The genus is distributed throughout the world's different climates. Most species make their home in the tropics and subtropics, with a worldwide distribution in temperate zones. The greatest diversity of species is found in the Americas and in Southeast Asia.


title: Holly

text: "Ilex mucronata", formerly the type species of "Nemopanthus", is native to eastern North America. "Nemopanthus" was treated as a separate genus with eight species. of the family Aquifoliaceae, now transferred to "Ilex" on molecular data; it is closely related to "Ilex amelanchier".


title: Holly

text: In Europe the genus is represented by a single species, the classically named holly "Ilex aquifolium", and in continental Africa by this species and "Ilex mitis". "Ilex canariensis", from Macaronesia, and "Ilex aquifolium" arose from a common ancestor in the laurel forests of the Mediterranean. Australia, isolated at an early period, has "Ilex arnhemensis". Of 204 species growing in China, 149 species are endemic. A species which stands out for its economic importance in Spanish-speaking countries and in Brazil is "Ilex paraguariensis" or "Yerba mate". Having evolved numerous species that are endemic to islands and small mountain ranges, and being highly useful plants, many hollies are now becoming rare.


title: Holly

text: Often the tropical species are especially threatened by habitat destruction and overexploitation. At least two species of "Ilex" have become extinct recently, and many others are barely surviving.


title: Holly

text: They are extremely important food for numerous species of birds, and also are eaten by other wild animals. In the autumn and early winter the fruits are hard and apparently unpalatable. After being frozen or frosted several times, the fruits soften, and become milder in taste. During winter storms, birds often take refuge in hollies, which provide shelter, protection from predators (by the spiny leaves), and food. The flowers are sometimes eaten by the larva of the double-striped pug moth ("Gymnoscelis rufifasciata"). Other Lepidoptera whose larvae feed on holly include "Bucculatrix ilecella", which feeds exclusively on hollies, and the engrailed ("Ectropis crepuscularia").


title: Holly

text: Holly can contain caffeic acid, caffeoyl derivatives, caffeoylshikimic acid, chlorogenic acid, feruloylquinic acid, quercetin, quinic acid, kaempferol, tannins, rutin, caffeine, and theobromine.


title: Holly

text: Holly berries can cause vomiting and diarrhea. They are especially dangerous in cases involving accidental consumption by children attracted to the bright red berries. Ingestion of over 20 berries may be fatal to children.


title: Holly

text: Leaves of some holly species are used by some cultures to make daily tea. These species are Yerba mate ("I. paraguariensis"), "Ilex guayusa", Kuding ("Ilex kaushue"), Yaupon ("I. vomitoria") and others. Leaves of other species, such as gallberry ("I. glabra") are bitter and emetic. In general little is known about inter-species variation in constituents or toxicity of hollies.


title: Holly

text: Many of the holly species are widely used as ornamental plants in temperate/European gardens and parks, notably:


title: Holly

text: Hollies are often used for hedges; the spiny leaves make them difficult to penetrate, and they take well to pruning and shaping. Many hundreds of hybrids and cultivars have been developed for garden use, among them the very popular "Highclere holly", "Ilex" × "altaclerensis" ("I. aquifolium" × "I. perado") and the "blue holly", "Ilex" × "meserveae" ("I. aquifolium" × "I. rugosa"). The cultivars "I." × "meserveae" = 'Conablu' and = 'Conapri' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Another hybrid is "Ilex" × "koehneana", with the cultivar 'Chestnut Leaf'.


title: Holly

text: Holly – more specifically the European holly, "Ilex aquifolium" – is commonly referenced at Christmas time, and is often referred to by the name "Christ's thorn". In many Western Christian cultures, holly is a traditional Christmas decoration, used especially in wreaths and illustrations, for instance on Christmas cards. Since medieval times the plant has carried a Christian symbolism, as expressed in the traditional Christmas carol "The Holly and the Ivy", in which the holly represents Jesus and the ivy represents the Virgin Mary. Angie Mostellar discusses the Christian use of holly at Christmas, stating that:


title: Holly

text: In heraldry, holly is used to symbolize truth. The Norwegian municipality of Stord has a yellow twig of holly in its Coat-of-arms.


title: Holly

text: The Druids held that "leaves of holly offered protection against evil spirits" and thus "wore holly in their hair".


title: Holly

text: In some traditions of Wicca, the Holly King is one of the faces of the Sun God. He is born at midsummer and rules from Mabon to Ostara.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a 2006 war drama film directed by Ken Loach, set during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) and the Irish Civil War (1922–1923). Written by long-time Loach collaborator Paul Laverty, this drama tells the fictional story of two County Cork brothers, Damien O'Donovan (Cillian Murphy) and Teddy O'Donovan (Pádraic Delaney), who join the Irish Republican Army to fight for Irish independence from the United Kingdom.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: The film takes its title from Robert Dwyer Joyce's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley", a song set during the 1798 rebellion in Ireland and featured early in the film. The film is heavily influenced by Walter Macken's 1964 novel "The Scorching Wind".


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: Widely praised, the film won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Loach's biggest box office success to date, the film did well around the world and set a record in Ireland as the highest-grossing Irish-made independent film, until surpassed by "The Guard".


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: County Cork, Ireland, 1920. Damien O'Donovan is about to leave his native village to practice medicine in a London hospital. Meanwhile, his brother Teddy commands the local flying column of the Irish Republican Army. After a hurling match, Damien witnesses the summary execution of his friend, Micheál Ó Súilleabháin, by British Black and Tans, for refusing to say his name in English. Although shaken, Damien rebuffs his friends' entreaties to stay in Ireland and join the IRA, saying that the war is unwinnable. As he is leaving town, Damien witnesses the British Army vainly trying to intimidate a railway personnel for refusing to permit the troops to board. In response, Damien decides to stay and is sworn into Teddy's IRA brigade.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: After drilling in the mountains, the column raids the village's Royal Irish Constabulary barracks to acquire revolvers, then uses them to assassinate four Auxiliaries. In the aftermath, Anglo-Irish landowner Sir John Hamilton coerces one of his servants, IRA member Chris Reilly, into passing information to the British Army's Intelligence Corps. As a result, the entire brigade is arrested. In their cell, Damien meets the train driver, Dan, a union official who shares Damien's socialist views.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: Meanwhile, British officers interrogate Teddy, pulling out his fingernails when he refuses to give them the names of IRA members. Johnny Gogan, a British soldier of Irish descent, helps the prisoners escape, but three are left behind. After the actions of Sir John and Chris are revealed to the IRA's intelligence network, both are taken hostage. As Teddy is still recovering, Damien is temporarily placed in command. News arrives that the three remaining IRA prisoners have been tortured and shot. Simultaneously, the brigade receives orders to "execute the spies".


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: Despite the fact that Chris is a lifelong friend, Damien shoots both him and Sir John. Later, the IRA ambushes and wipes out a convoy of the Auxiliary Division, and in retaliation another detachment of Auxiliaries loots and burns the farmhouse of Damien's sweetheart, Cumann na mBan member Sinéad Sullivan. Sinéad is held at gunpoint while her head is roughly shorn, her scalp being wounded in the process. Later, as Damien treats her, a messenger arrives with news of a formal ceasefire between Britain and the IRA.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: After the Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, the brigade learns that a partitioned Ireland will only be granted Dominion status within the British Empire. As a result, the brigade divides over accepting the terms of the Treaty. Teddy and his allies argue that accepting the Treaty will bring peace now while further gains can be made later. Others oppose the Treaty, proposing to continue fighting until a united Irish Republic can be obtained. Dan and Damien further demand the collectivisation of industry and agriculture. Any other course, declares Dan, will change only "the accents of the powerful and the colour of the flag".


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: Soon the Irish Free State replaces British rule, and Teddy and his allies begin patrolling in National Army uniforms. Meanwhile, Damien and his allies join the Anti-Treaty IRA. When the Battle of Dublin launches the Irish Civil War, the Anti-Treaty column commences guerrilla warfare against Free State forces. As the violence escalates, Teddy expresses fear that the British will invade if the republicans gain the upper hand. His position is: "They take one out, we take one back. To hell with the courts."


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: Soon after, Dan is killed and Damien is captured during a raid for arms on an Irish Army barracks commanded by Teddy. Sentenced to execution, Damien is held in the same cell where the British Army imprisoned them earlier. Desperate to avoid executing his brother, Teddy pleads with Damien to reveal where the Anti-Treaty IRA is hiding the stolen rifles. In return, Teddy offers Damien full amnesty, a life with Sinéad, and the vision of an Ireland where Pro- and Anti-Treaty Irishmen can raise families side by side. Insulted, Damien responds by saying that he will never "sell out" the Republic the way Chris Reilly did and Teddy leaves the cell in tears. Damien writes a goodbye letter to Sinéad, expressing his love for her, and quoting Dan's words: "It's easy to know what you're against, quite another to know what you're for". But he says that he knows what he stands for and is not afraid to die for it and tells Sinéad to look after Teddy. At dawn, Damien dies before a firing squad commanded by a heartbroken yet obstinate Teddy. Teddy delivers Damien's letter to Sinéad who is distraught and heartbroken. She attacks Teddy and orders him to leave her land.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: The film stars mostly Irish actors and was made by British director Ken Loach. It is an international co-production between companies in Ireland, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Switzerland.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: The title derives from the song of the same name, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley", by 19th-century author Robert Dwyer Joyce. The song made the phrase "the wind that shakes the barley" a motif in Irish republican song and poetry. Loach took some of the inspiration for Damian's character from the memoirs of republican leader Ernie O'Malley. University College Cork historian Dr. Donal Ó Drisceoil was Loach's historical adviser on the film.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: The film was shot in various towns within County Cork during 2005, including Ballyvourney and Timoleague. Some filming took place in Bandon, County Cork: a scene was shot along North Main Street and outside a building next to the Court House. The ambush scene was shot on the mountains around Ballyvourney while the farmhouse scenes were filmed in Coolea. Damien's execution scene was shot at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin, where many leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisoned and some executed by the British and latterly in 1923 by the Irish Free State.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: Many of the extras in the film were drawn from local Scout groups, including Bandon, Togher and Macroom. Many of the British soldiers seen in the film were played by members of the Irish Army Reserve, from local units.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: Among the songs on the film's soundtrack is "Óró sé do bheatha abhaile", a 17th-century Irish Jacobite song whose lyrics the nationalist leader Pádraig Pearse changed to focus upon republican themes.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: The commercial interest expressed in the UK was initially much lower than in other European countries and only 30 prints of the film were planned for distribution in the United Kingdom, compared with 300 in France. However, after the Palme d'Or award the film appeared on 105 screens across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: The Respect Party, on whose national council Ken Loach was at the time, called for people to watch the film on its first weekend in order to persuade the film industry to show the film in more cinemas.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: According to director Ken Loach, the film attempts to explore the extent that the Irish revolution was a social revolution as opposed to a nationalist revolution. Loach commented on this theme in an interview with Toronto's "Eye Weekly" (15 March 2007):


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" became the most popular independent Irish film ever released in Ireland, earning €377,000 in its opening weekend and €2.7 million by August 2006.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: The film received positive reviews from film critics. As of 2022, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 90% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 117 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bleak and uncompromising, but director Ken Loach brightens his film with gorgeous cinematography and tight pacing, and features a fine performance from Cillian Murphy." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 82 out of 100, based on 30 reviews.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: The "Daily Telegraph"'s film critic described it as a "brave, gripping drama" and said that director Loach was "part of a noble and very English tradition of dissent". A "Times" film critic said that the film showed Loach "at his creative and inflammatory best", and rated it as 4 out of 5. The "Daily Record" of Scotland gave it a positive review (4 out of 5), describing it as "a dramatic, thought-provoking, gripping tale that, at the very least, encourages audiences to question what has been passed down in dusty history books."


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: Michael Sragow of "The Baltimore Sun" named it the 5th best film of 2007, and Stephen Hunter of "The Washington Post" named it the 7th best film of 2007.


title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

text: Jim Emerson, Roger Ebert's editor, gave the film a 4 star review, calling it "breathtakingly authentic", and declared it ranked "among the best war films ever made." In a generally positive review, the Irish historian Brian Hanley suggested that the film might have dealt with the IRA's relationship with the Protestant community, as one scene in its screenplay did.


title: FODMAP

text: FODMAPs or fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols are short chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine and are prone to absorb water and ferment in the colon. They include short chain oligosaccharide polymers of fructose (fructans) and galactooligosaccharides (GOS, stachyose, raffinose), disaccharides (lactose), monosaccharides (fructose), and sugar alcohols (polyols), such as sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, and maltitol. Most FODMAPs are naturally present in food and the human diet, but the polyols may be added artificially in commercially prepared foods and beverages.


title: FODMAP

text: FODMAPs may cause digestive discomfort in some people. The reasons are hypersensitivity to luminal distension, and/or a proclivity to excess water retention and gas production and accumulation, but they do not cause intestinal inflammation. In fact, naturally occurring FODMAPs may help avert digestive discomfort for some people because they produce beneficial alterations in the gut flora. They are not the cause of these disorders, but a low-FODMAP diet, restricting FODMAPs, might help to improve digestive symptoms in adults with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID). Avoiding all FODMAPs long-term may have a detrimental impact on the gut microbiota and metabolome.


title: FODMAP

text: FODMAPs, especially fructans, are present in small amounts in gluten-containing grains and have been identified as a possible cause of symptoms in people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity. They are only minor sources of FODMAPs when eaten in the usual standard quantities in the daily diet. As of 2019, reviews conclude that although FODMAPs present in wheat and related grains may play a role in non-celiac gluten sensitivity, they only explain certain gastrointestinal symptoms, such as bloating, but not the extra-digestive symptoms that people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity may develop, such as neurological disorders, fibromyalgia, psychological disturbances, and dermatitis. The use of a low FODMAP diet without a previous medical evaluation could cause health risks because it can ameliorate and mask digestive symptoms of celiac disease, delaying or avoiding its correct diagnosis and therapy.


title: FODMAP

text: Some FODMAPs, such as fructose, are readily absorbed in the small intestine of humans via GLUT receptors. Absorption thus depends on the appropriate expression and delivery of these receptors in the intestinal enterocyte to both the apical surface, contacting the lumen of the intestine (e.g. GLUT5), and to the basal membrane, contacting the blood (e.g. GLUT2). Improper absorption of these FODMAPS in the small intestine leaves them available for absorption by gut flora. The resultant metabolism by the gut flora leads to production of gas and potentially results in bloating and flatulence.


title: FODMAP

text: Nevertheless, although FODMAPs can cause certain digestive discomfort in some people, not only do they not cause intestinal inflammation, but they help to prevent it because they produce beneficial alterations in the intestinal flora that contribute to maintain the good health of the colon.


title: FODMAP

text: FODMAPs are not the cause of irritable bowel syndrome nor other functional gastrointestinal disorders, but rather a person develops symptoms when the underlying bowel response is exaggerated or abnormal.


title: FODMAP

text: Fructose malabsorption and lactose intolerance may produce IBS symptoms through the same mechanism but, unlike with other FODMAPs, poor absorption of fructose is found in only a minority. Lactose intolerance is found in a majority of adults with the exception of certain geographic populations, notably those of European descent. Many who benefit from a low FODMAP diet need not restrict fructose or lactose. It is possible to identify these two conditions with hydrogen and methane breath testing and thus eliminate the necessity for dietary compliance if possible.


title: FODMAP

text: The significance of sources of FODMAPs varies through differences in dietary groups such as geography, ethnicity, and other factors. Commonly used FODMAPs comprise the following:


title: FODMAP

text: Sources of fructans include wheat, rye, barley, onion, garlic, Jerusalem and globe artichoke, beetroot, dandelion leaves, the white part of leeks, the white part of spring onion, brussels sprouts, savoy cabbage, and prebiotics such as fructooligosaccharides (FOS), oligofructose and inulin. Asparagus, fennel, red cabbage and radicchio contain moderate amounts but may be eaten if the advised portion size is observed.


title: FODMAP

text: Pulses and beans are the main dietary sources (although green beans, canned lentils, sprouted mung beans, tofu (not silken), and tempeh contain comparatively low amounts). Supplements of the enzyme supplement alpha-galactosidase may reduce symptoms if brands containing other FODMAPs, such as polyol artificial sweeteners, are avoided.


title: FODMAP

text: Polyols are found naturally in some fruit (particularly stone fruits), including apples, apricots, avocados, blackberries, cherries, lychees, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, prunes, watermelon, and in some vegetables, including cauliflower, mushrooms, snow peas and mange-tout peas. Cabbage, chicory, and fennel contain moderate amounts, but may be eaten in a low-FODMAP diet if the advised portion size is observed.


title: FODMAP

text: Polyols used artificially as bulk sweeteners added to commercially prepared food and beverages include isomalt, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol. As noted above, they exacerbate the effect of galactans when consumed.


title: FODMAP

text: People following a low-FODMAP diet may be able to tolerate moderate amounts of fructose and lactose, particularly if they have lactase persistence.


title: FODMAP

text: A low-FODMAP diet consists in the global restriction of all fermentable carbohydrates (FODMAPs), that is recommended only for a short time. A low-FODMAP diet is recommended for managing patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and can reduce digestive symptoms of IBS including bloating and flatulence.


title: FODMAP

text: A low-FODMAP improves digestive symptoms in adults with irritable bowel syndrome in several studies, but its long-term use can have negative effects because it causes a detrimental impact on the gut microbiota and metabolome. It should only be used for short periods of time and under the advice of a specialist. More studies are needed to evaluate its effectiveness in children with irritable bowel syndrome.


title: FODMAP

text: There is only a little evidence of its effectiveness in treating functional symptoms in inflammatory bowel disease from small studies that are susceptible to bias. More studies are needed to assess the true impact of this diet on health.


title: FODMAP

text: FODMAPs that are present in gluten-containing grains have been identified as a possible cause of gastrointestinal symptoms in people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity, in place of, or in addition to, gluten and other proteins in gluten-containing cereals, named amylasetrypsin inhibitors (ATIs). The amount of fructans in these cereals is small. In rye they account for 3.6%–6.6% of dry matter, 0.7%–2.9% in wheat, and barley contains only trace amounts. They are only minor sources of FODMAPs when eaten in the usual standard amounts in the daily diet. Wheat and rye may comprise a major source of fructans when consumed in large amounts.


title: FODMAP

text: In a 2018 double-blind, crossover research study on 59 persons on a gluten-free diet with challenges of gluten, fructans or placebo, intestinal symptoms (specifically bloating) were borderline significantly higher after challenge with fructans, in comparison with gluten proteins (P=0.049). Although the differences between the three interventions was very small, the authors concluded that fructans are more likely to be the cause of gastrointestinal symptoms of non-celiac gluten sensitivity, rather than gluten. In addition, fructans used in the study were extracted from chicory root, so it remains to be seen whether the wheat fructans produce the same effect.


title: FODMAP

text: A 2018 review concluded that although fructan intolerance may play a role in non-celiac gluten sensitivity, it only explains some gastrointestinal symptoms, but not the extra-digestive symptoms that people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity may develop, such as neurological disorders, fibromyalgia, psychological disturbances, and dermatitis; and that FODMAPs cause digestive symptoms when the person is hypersensitive to luminal distension.


title: FODMAP

text: A 2019 review concluded that wheat fructans can cause certain IBS-like symptoms, such as bloating, but they are not likely to cause immune activation nor extra-digestive symptoms since, in fact, many people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity report resolution of their symptoms after removing gluten-containing cereals while they continue to eat fruits and vegetables with high FODMAPs content in their diet.


title: Muhammad Yunus

text: Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that "lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty" and that "across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development". Yunus has received several other national and international honours. He received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.


title: Muhammad Yunus

text: In February 2011, Yunus together with Saskia Bruysten, Sophie Eisenmann and Hans Reitz co-founded Yunus Social Business – Global Initiatives (YSB). YSB creates and empowers social businesses to address and solve social problems around the world. As the international implementation arm for Yunus' vision of a new, humane capitalism, YSB manages incubator funds for social businesses in developing countries and provides advisory services to companies, governments, foundations and NGOs.


title: Muhammad Yunus

text: In 2012, he became Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, a position he held until 2018. Previously, he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University in Bangladesh. He published several books related to his finance work. He is a founding board member of Grameen America and Grameen Foundation, which support microcredit.


title: Muhammad Yunus

text: Yunus also served on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to support UN causes from 1998 to 2021.


title: Muhammad Yunus

text: The third of nine children, Muhammad Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 to a Bengali Muslim family in the village of Bathua, by the Kaptai road in Hathazari, Chittagong in the Bengal Presidency of the British Raj, present Bangladesh. His father was Hazi Dula Mia Shoudagar, a jeweler, and his mother was Sufia Khatun. His early childhood was spent in the village. In 1944, his family moved to the city of Chittagong, and he moved from his village school to Lamabazar Primary School. By 1949, his mother was afflicted with psychological illness. Later, he passed the matriculation examination from Chittagong Collegiate School ranking 16th of 39,000 students in East Pakistan. During his school years, he was an active Boy Scout, and travelled to West Pakistan and India in 1952, and to Canada in 1955 to attend Jamborees. Later, while Yunus was studying at Chittagong College, he became active in cultural activities and won awards for drama. In 1957, he enrolled in the Department of Economics at Dhaka University and completed his BA in 1960 and MA in 1961.


title: Muhammad Yunus

text: After his graduation, Yunus joined the Bureau of Economics as a research assistant to the economics researches of Nurul Islam and Rehman Sobhan. Later, he was appointed lecturer in economics in Chittagong College in 1961. During that time, he also set up a profitable packaging factory on the side. In 1965, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States. He obtained his PhD in economics from the Vanderbilt University Graduate Program in Economic Development (GPED) in 1971. From 1969 to 1972, Yunus was assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.


title: Muhammad Yunus

text: During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Yunus founded a citizen's committee and ran the Bangladesh Information Center, with other Bangladeshis in the United States, to raise support for liberation. He also published the "Bangladesh Newsletter" from his home in Nashville. After the War, he returned to Bangladesh and was appointed to the government's Planning Commission headed by Nurul Islam. However, he found the job boring and resigned to join Chittagong University as head of the Economics department. After observing the famine of 1974, he became involved in poverty reduction and established a rural economic programme as a research project. In 1975, he developed a Nabajug (New Era) Tebhaga Khamar (three share farm) which the government adopted as the Packaged Input Programme. In order to make the project more effective, Yunus and his associates proposed the "Gram Sarkar" (the village government) programme.


title: Muhammad Yunus

text: Introduced by president Ziaur Rahman in the late 1970s, the Government formed 40,392 village governments as a fourth layer of government in 2003. On 2 August 2005, in response to a petition by Bangladesh Legal Aids and Services Trust (BLAST), the High Court declared village governments illegal and unconstitutional.


title: Muhammad Yunus

text: His concept of microcredit for supporting innovators in multiple developing countries also inspired programmes such as the Info lady Social Entrepreneurship Programme.