title: Ethan Ampadu

text: Ampadu is a Welsh international footballer. After playing for England at under-16 level, he played for Wales at under-16, under-17 and under-19 level, before making his senior debut for Wales in November 2017. He was part of the Wales squad that reached the round of 16 at UEFA Euro 2020. He was part of the first Welsh squad to qualify for a FIFA World Cup since 1958.


title: Ethan Ampadu

text: Born in Exeter, Devon, Ampadu is the son of former professional footballer Kwame Ampadu. A product of the Exeter City youth academy, appearing for the under-18 squad at the age of 14, he made his senior debut – aged – in an EFL Cup first round match against Brentford at St James Park on 9 August 2016, playing the full 120 minutes of a 1–0 victory. He became the club's youngest ever player, breaking an 87-year-old record set by Cliff Bastin, and being named man of the match. Ampadu's record was beaten by Ben Chrisene in August 2019. A week later, he made his league debut in a 1–0 home defeat against Crawley Town in EFL League Two.


title: Ethan Ampadu

text: On 1 July 2017, Ampadu signed a contract with Premier League club Chelsea. The two clubs had entered negotiations over a compensation fee for the player in an attempt to reach a fee that both found acceptable for the then 16-year-old. Yet, in November 2017, Exeter City chairman Julian Tagg said that, whilst there was still a positive relationship between the two clubs, there was also a "massive disparity" in both clubs' valuation of the player. It was set to go to a tribunal.


title: Ethan Ampadu

text: On 20 September 2017, Ampadu made his debut for Chelsea in an EFL Cup third round match against Nottingham Forest, coming on in the 55th minute for Cesc Fàbregas. Doing so made him the first player born in the 2000s to play for the Chelsea senior team. At 17 years and six days old, he also became the youngest player to debut for the club in over ten years. On 12 December 2017, he made his Premier League debut for Chelsea, coming on as a substitute against Huddersfield Town in the 80th minute.


title: Ethan Ampadu

text: In July 2019, new manager Frank Lampard confirmed that Ampadu would spend the 2019–20 season out on loan at another club. In that period, Ampadu joined RB Leipzig on a season-long loan deal.


title: Ethan Ampadu

text: On 7 September 2020, Ampadu joined fellow Premier League club Sheffield United on a season-long loan. He played 29 games in all competitions for the Blades, who were relegated.


title: Ethan Ampadu

text: On 31 August 2021, Ampadu joined Italian side, Venezia on a season-long loan after signing a new three-year deal with Chelsea.


title: Ethan Ampadu

text: Ampadu plays internationally for the Wales national football team. He qualifies for Wales through his Welsh mother. He was previously also eligible to represent England, Republic of Ireland and Ghana.


title: Ethan Ampadu

text: On 26 May 2017, at the age of 16, Ampadu was called into the senior Wales squad ahead of their World Cup qualifier with Serbia. He was called up again on 1 November 2017 for friendlies against France and Panama, and made his debut aged 17 on 10 November 2017 against France at the Stade de France, coming on as a 63rd-minute substitute for Joe Ledley in a 2–0 defeat.


title: Ethan Ampadu

text: In May 2021, Ampadu was selected for the Wales squad for the delayed UEFA Euro 2020 tournament. On 20 June, in the 55th-minute of Wales' 1–0 defeat to Italy, he received a straight red card for a late challenge on Federico Bernardeschi, becoming the youngest player to receive one at the European Championships. In November 2022 he was named in the Wales squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Port-au-Prince ( , ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is defined by the IHSI as including the communes of Port-au-Prince, Delmas, Cite Soleil, Tabarre, Carrefour and Pétion-Ville.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The city of Port-au-Prince is on the Gulf of Gonâve: the bay on which the city lies, which acts as a natural harbor, has sustained economic activity since the civilizations of the Taíno. It was first incorporated under French colonial rule in 1749. The city's layout is similar to that of an amphitheater; commercial districts are near the water, while residential neighborhoods are located on the hills above. Its population is difficult to ascertain due to the rapid growth of slums in the hillsides above the city; however, recent estimates place the metropolitan area's population at around 3.7 million, nearly half of the country's national population. The city was catastrophically affected by a massive earthquake in 2010, with large numbers of structures damaged or destroyed. Haiti's government estimated the death toll to be 230,000. Gang violence is extensive, and kidnappings, massacres and gang-rapes are common occurrences, often with the complicity of police officers and politicians.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: A theory is that the place is named after "Le Prince", a ship captained by de Saint-André which arrived in the area in 1706.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: However, the islets in the bay had already been known as as early as 1680, predating the ship's arrival.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Furthermore, the port and the surrounding region continued to be known as , named after the filibusters' hospital.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: French colonial commissioner Étienne Polverel named the city "Port-Républicain" on 23 September 1793 "in order that the inhabitants be kept continually in mind of the obligations which the French Revolution imposed on them." It was later renamed back to Port-au-Prince by Jacques I, Emperor of Haiti.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: When Haiti was divided between a kingdom in the north and a republic in the south, Port-au-Prince was the capital of the republic, under the leadership of Alexandre Pétion. Henri Christophe renamed the city "Port-aux-Crimes" after the assassination of Jacques I at Pont Larnage (now known as Pont-Rouge, and located north of the city).


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The Port-au-Prince area was part of the Xaragua chiefdom with the capital city, Yaguana being in Léoganes. There were multiple Taino settlements in the area such as Bohoma and Guahaba. It is understood that most of the plain area was used as hunting grounds.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The Bahoruco mountain range in the north-east of Port-au-Prince was the scene of a Taino rebellion led by Enriquillo resulting in a treaty with the Spanish.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the island of Hispaniola was inhabited by the Taíno people, who arrived in approximately 2600 BC in large dugout canoes. They are believed to come primarily from what is now eastern Venezuela. By the time Columbus arrived in 1492 AD, the region was under the control of Bohechio, Taíno cacique (chief) Xaragua. He, like his predecessors, feared settling too close to the coast; such settlements would have proven to be tempting targets for the Caribs, who lived on neighboring islands. Instead, the region served as a hunting ground. The population of the region was approximately 400,000 at the time, but the Taínos were gone within 30 years of the arrival of the Spaniards.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: With the arrival of the Spaniards, the Amerindians were forced to accept a protectorate, and Bohechio, childless at death, was succeeded by his sister, Anacaona, wife of the cacique Caonabo. The Spanish insisted on larger tributes. Eventually, the Spanish colonial administration decided to rule directly, and in 1503, Nicolas Ovando, then governor, set about to put an end to the régime headed by Anacaona. He invited her and other tribal leaders to a feast, and when the Amerindians had drunk a good deal of wine (the Spaniards did not drink on that occasion), he ordered most of the guests killed. Anacaona was spared, only to be hanged publicly some time later. Through violence, introduced diseases and murders, the Spanish settlers decimated the native population.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Direct Spanish rule over the area having been established, Ovando founded a settlement not far from the coast (west of Etang Saumâtre), ironically named "Santa Maria de la Paz Verdadera", which would be abandoned several years later. Not long thereafter, Ovando founded "Santa Maria del Puerto". The latter was first burned by French explorers in 1535, then again in 1592 by the English. These assaults proved to be too much for the Spanish colonial administration, and in 1606, it decided to abandon the region.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: For more than 50 years, the area that is today Port-au-Prince saw its population drop off drastically, when some buccaneers began to use it as a base, and Dutch merchants began to frequent it in search of leather, as game was abundant there. Around 1650, French , running out of room on the Île de la Tortue, began to arrive on the coast, and established a colony at Trou-Borded. As the colony grew, they set up a hospital not far from the coast, on the Turgeau heights. This led to the region being known as .


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Although there had been no real Spanish presence in Hôpital for well over 50 years, Spain retained its formal claim to the territory, and the growing presence of the French "flibustiers" on ostensibly Spanish lands provoked the Spanish crown to dispatch Castilian soldiers to Hôpital to retake it. The mission proved to be a disaster for the Spanish, as they were outnumbered and outgunned, and in 1697, the Spanish government signed the Treaty of Ryswick, renouncing any claims to Hôpital. Around this time, the French also established bases at Ester (part of Petite Rivière) and Gonaïves.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Ester was a rich village, inhabited by merchants, and equipped with straight streets; it was here that the governor lived. On the other hand, the surrounding region, Petite-Rivière, was quite poor. Following a great fire in 1711, Ester was abandoned. Yet the French presence in the region continued to grow, and soon afterward, a new city was founded to the south, Léogâne.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: While the first French presence in Hôpital, the region later to contain Port-au-Prince was that of the "flibustiers"; as the region became a real French colony, the colonial administration began to worry about the continual presence of these pirates. While useful in repelling foreign pirates, they were relatively independent, unresponsive to orders from the colonial administration, and a potential threat to it. Therefore, in the winter of 1707, Choiseul-Beaupré, the governor of the region sought to get rid of what he saw as a threat. He insisted upon control of the hospital, but the "flibustiers" refused, considering that humiliating. They proceeded to close the hospital rather than cede control of it to the governor, and many of them became "habitans" (farmers) the first long-term European inhabitants in the region.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Although the elimination of the "flibustiers" as a group from Hôpital reinforced the authority of the colonial administration, it also made the region a more attractive target for marauding buccaneers. In order to protect the area, in 1706, a captain named de Saint-André sailed into the bay just below the hospital, in a ship named "Le Prince". It is said that M. de Saint-André named the area "Port-au-Prince" (meaning "Port of the Prince"), but the port and the surrounding region continued to be known as "Hôpital", but the islets in the bay had already been known as "les îlets du Prince" as early as 1680.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Pirates eventually refrained from troubling the area, and various nobles sought land grants from the French crown in Hôpital; the first noble to control Hôpital was Sieur Joseph Randot. Upon his death in 1737, Sieur Pierre Morel gained control over part of the region, with Gatien Bretton des Chapelles acquiring another portion of it.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: By then, the colonial administration was convinced that a capital needed to be chosen, in order to better control the French portion of Hispaniola (Saint-Domingue). For a time, Petit-Goâve and Léogâne vied for this honor, but both were eventually ruled out for various reasons. Neither was centrally located. Petit-Goâve's climate caused it to be too malarial, and Léogane's topography made it difficult to defend. Thus, in 1749, a new city was built, Port-au-Prince.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: In 1770, Port-au-Prince replaced Cap-Français (the modern Cap-Haïtien) as capital of the colony of Saint-Domingue.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: In November 1791, it was burned in a battle between attacking black revolutionaries and defending white plantation owners.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: In 1804, it became the capital of newly independent Haïti. When Jean-Jacques Dessalines was assassinated in 1806, Port-au-Prince became the capital of the mulatto-dominated south (Cap-Haïtien was the capital of the black-dominated north). It was re-established as the capital of all of Haiti when the country was unified again in 1820.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: During the American occupation of Haiti (1915–1934), Port-au-Prince, garrisoned by American Marines and Haitian gendarmes, was attacked twice by caco rebels. The first battle, which took place in 1919, was a victory of the American and Haitian government forces, as was the second attack in 1920.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: On 12 January 2010, a 7.0 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, devastating the city. Most of the central historic area of the city was destroyed, including Haiti's prized Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince, the capital building, Legislative Palace (the parliament building), Palace of Justice (Supreme Court building), several ministerial buildings, and at least one hospital. The second floor of the Presidential Palace was thrown into the first floor, and the domes skewed at a severe tilt. The seaport and airport were both damaged, limiting aid shipments. The seaport was severely damaged by the quake and was unable to accept aid shipments for the first week.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The airport's control tower was damaged and the US military had to set up a new control center with generators to get the airport prepared for aid flights. Aid has been delivered to Port-au-Prince by numerous nations and voluntary groups as part of a global relief effort. On Wednesday, January 20, 2010, an aftershock rated at a magnitude of 5.9 caused additional damage.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The worst hurricane season experienced by Haiti occurred in 2008 when four storms Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike negatively impacted Haiti. Nearly 800 people were killed; 22,000 homes were destroyed; 70% of the country's crops were lost, according to reliefweb.org. Then, in 2012, Hurricane Sandy, while not making direct impact, resulted in 75 deaths, $250 million in damage and a resurgence of cholera that was estimated to infected 5,000 people. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew caused catastrophic damage across Haiti, and over 500 deaths were associated with the storm in Haiti alone, along with at least $3 billion in damages. The storm also caused a massive humanitarian crisis shortly after.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The metropolitan area is subdivided into various communes (districts). There is a ring of districts that radiates out from the commune of Port-au-Prince. Pétion-Ville is an affluent suburban commune located southeast of the city. Delmas is located directly south of the airport and north of the central city, and the rather poor commune of Carrefour is located southwest of the city.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The commune harbors many low-income slums plagued with poverty and violence in which the most notorious, Cité Soleil, is situated. However, Cité Soleil has been recently split off from Port-au-Prince proper to form a separate commune. The Champ de Mars area has begun some modern infrastructure development as of recently. The downtown area is the site of several projected modernization efforts in the capital.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Port-au-Prince has a tropical wet and dry climate (Aw) and relatively constant temperatures throughout the course of the year. Port-au-Prince's wet season runs from March through November with rainfall peaking from April to May and from August to October, with the city experiencing a relative break in rainfall during the months of June and July. The city's dry season covers the remaining three months. Port-au-Prince generally experiences warm and humid conditions during the dry season and hot and humid conditions during the wet season.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The majority of the population is of African descent, but a prominent biracial minority controls many of the city's businesses. There are sizable numbers of Hispanic residents, Asians, as well as a number of Europeans (both foreign-born and native-born).


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Citizens of Arab (particularly Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian) ancestry are a minority with a presence in the capital. Arab Haitians (a large number of whom live in Port-au-Prince) are, more often than not, concentrated in financial areas where the majority of them establish businesses. Most of the biracial residents of the city are concentrated within wealthier areas.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Port-au-Prince is one of the nation's largest centers of economy and finance. The capital exports its most widely consumed produce of coffee and sugar, and has, in the past, exported other goods, such as shoes and baseballs. Port-au-Prince has food-processing plants as well as soap, textile and cement factories. Despite political unrest, the city also relies on the tourism industry and construction companies to move its economy. Port-au-Prince was once a popular place for cruises, but has lost nearly all of its tourism, and no longer has cruise ships coming into port.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Unemployment in Port-au-Prince is high, and compounded further by underemployment. Levels of economic activity remain prominent throughout the city, especially among people selling goods and services on the streets. Informal employment is believed to be widespread in Port-au-Prince's slums, as otherwise the population could not survive. Port-au-Prince has several upscale districts in which crime rates are significantly lower than in the city center.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Port-au-Prince has a tourism industry. The Toussaint Louverture International Airport (referred to often as the Port-au-Prince International Airport) is the country's main international gateway for tourists. Tourists often visit the Pétion-Ville area of Port-au-Prince, with other sites of interest including gingerbread houses.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: There are a number of hospitals including le Centre Hospitalier du Sacré-Cœur, Hôpital de l'Université d'État d'Haïti (l'HUEH), Centre Obstetrico Gynécologique Isaie Jeanty-Léon Audain, Hôpital du Canapé-Vert, Hôpital Français (Asile Français), Hôpital Saint-François de Sales, Hôpital-Maternité Sapiens, Hôpital OFATMA, Clinique de la Santé, Maternité de Christ Roi, Centre Hospitalier Rue Berne and Maternité Mathieu.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: After the 2010 earthquake, two hospitals remained that were operational. The University of Miami in partnership with Project Medishare has created a new hospital, L'Hôpital Bernard Mevs Project Medishare, to provide inpatient and outpatient care for those impacted by the January 2010 earthquake. This hospital is volunteer staffed and provides level 1 trauma care to Port-au-Prince and the surrounding regions.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: CDTI (Centre de Diagnostique et de Traitement Intégré) closed in April 2010 when international aid failed to materialize. It had been considered the country's premiere hospital.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The culture of the city lies primarily in the center around the National Palace as well as its surrounding areas. The National Museum is located in the grounds of the palace, established in 1938. The National Palace was one of the early structures of the city but was destroyed and then rebuilt in 1918. It was destroyed again by the earthquake on 12 January 2010 which collapsed the center's domed roof.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Another popular destination in the capital is the Hotel Oloffson, a 19th-century gingerbread mansion that was once the private home of two former Haitian presidents. It has become a popular hub for tourist activity in the central city. The Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince is a famed site of cultural interest and attracts foreign visitors to its Neo-Romantic architectural style.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The Musée d'Art Haïtien du Collège Saint-Pierre contains work from some of the country's most talented artists, and the Musée National is a museum featuring historical artifacts such as King Henri Christophe's actual suicide pistol and a rusty anchor that museum operators claim was salvaged from Christopher Columbus's ship, the "Santa María". Other notable cultural sites include the Archives Nationales, the Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library) and Expressions Art Gallery. The city is the birthplace of internationally known naïve artist Gesner Abelard, who was associated with the Centre d'Art.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Port-au-Prince is the only city anywhere in the world to have a main avenue named for American abolitionist hero John Brown. Another is named for another abolitionist hero, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner..


title: Port-au-Prince

text: There is a celebration of Bawon Samdi and Gran Brigi called Fet Gede, which takes place from the Day of the Dead on November 1 through the third day of the month. This occurs in the national cemetery of Haiti. While celebrating, people wear Vodou white cotton clothing and purple headscarves. During the celebration, the cemetery becomes packed with people. Those who are celebrating make sacrifices of food for the spirits (mange lwa) and pour liquor on the gravestones among other festivities.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The mayor of Port-au-Prince is Ralph Youri Chevry, who headed the city at the time of the 2010 earthquake. The city's separate districts (primarily the districts of Delmas, Carrefour, and Pétion-Ville) are all administered by their own municipal councils. The seat of the state, the Presidential Palace, is located in the Champ de Mars, square plaza of the city. The PNdH ("Police Nationale d’Haïti") is the authority governing the enforcement of city laws.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The national police force as of recently, have been increasing in number. However, because of its ailing ineffectiveness and insufficient manpower, a significant number of UN personnel is present throughout the city as part of the stabilization mission in Haiti.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The City Hall (Mairie de Port-au-Prince) and most of the city's other government municipal buildings were destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Port-au-Prince various educational institutions, ranging from small vocational schools to universities. Influential international schools in Port-au-Prince include Union School, founded in 1919, and Quisqueya Christian School, founded in 1974. Both schools offer an American-style pre-college education. French-speaking students can attend the Lycée Français (Lycée Alexandre Dumas), located in Bourdon. Another school is Anís Zunúzí Bahá'í School north west of Port-au-Prince which opened its doors in 1980 which survived the 2010 Haiti earthquake and its staff were cooperating in relief efforts and sharing space and support with neighbors.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: A clinic was run at the school by a medical team from the United States and Canada. Its classes offered transition from Haitian Creole to the French language but also a secondary language in English. The State University of Haiti ("Université d'État d'Haïti" in French or UEH), is located within the capital along other universities such as the Quisqueya University and the "Université des Caraïbes". There are many other institutions that observe the Haitian scholastic program. Many of them are religious academies led by foreign missionaries from France or Canada. These include Institution Saint-Louis de Gonzague, École Sainte-Rose-de-Lima, École Saint-Jean-Marie Vianney, Institution du Sacré-Coeur, and Collège Anne-Marie Javouhey.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The Ministry of Education is also located in downtown Port-au-Prince at the Palace of Ministries, adjacent to the National Palace in the Champ de Mars plaza.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The Haitian Group of Research and Pedagogical Activities (GHRAP) has set up several community centers for basic education. UNESCO's office at Port-au-Prince has taken a number of initiates in upgrading the educational facilities in Port-au-Prince.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: A 2012 independent study found that the murder rate in the capital Port-au-Prince was 60.9 murders per 100,000 residents in February 2012. In the 22 months after the end of the President Aristide era in 2004, the murder rate for Port-au-Prince reached a high of 219 murders per 100,000 residents per year.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: High-crime zones in the Port-au-Prince area include Croix-des-Bouquets, Cité Soleil, Carrefour, Bel Air, Martissant, the port road (Boulevard La Saline), urban route Nationale 1, the airport road (Boulevard Toussaint-Louverture) and its adjoining connectors to the New ("American") Road via Route Nationale 1. This latter area in particular has been the scene of numerous robberies, carjackings, and murders.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: In the Bel Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the murder rate reached 50 murders per 100,000 residents at the end of 2011, up from 19 murders per 100,000 residents in 2010.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: All of the major transportation systems in Haiti are located near or run through the capital. The northern highway, Route Nationale #1 (National Highway One), originates in Port-au-Prince. The southern highway, Route Nationale #2 also runs through Port-au-Prince. Maintenance for these roads lapsed after the 1991 coup, prompting the World Bank to lend US$50 million designated for road repairs. The project was canceled in January 1999, however, after auditors revealed corruption. A third major highway, the Haitian Route Nationale #3, connects Port-au-Prince to the central plateau; however, due to its poor condition, it sees limited use.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The most common form of public transportation in Haiti is the use of brightly painted pickup trucks as taxis called "tap-taps."


title: Port-au-Prince

text: The seaport, Port international de Port-au-Prince, has more registered shipping than any of the over dozen ports in the country. The port's facilities include cranes, large berths, and warehouses, but these facilities are in universally poor shape. The port is underused, possibly due to the substantially high port fees compared to ports in the Dominican Republic.


title: Port-au-Prince

text: Toussaint Louverture International Airport (Maïs Gâté), which opened in 1965 (as François Duvalier International Airport), is north of the city. It is Haiti's major jetway, and as such, handles the vast majority of the country's international flights. Transportation to smaller cities from the major airport is done via smaller aircraft. Companies providing this service include Caribintair and Sunrise Airways.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: Ibram Xolani Kendi (born Ibram Henry Rogers, August 13, 1982) is an American author, professor, anti-racist activist, and historian of race and discriminatory policy in America. In July 2020, he assumed the position of director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: Kendi was born in the Jamaica neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens, to middle-class parents, Carol Rogers, a former business analyst for a health-care organization, and Larry Rogers, a tax accountant and then hospital chaplain. Both of his parents are now retired and work as Methodist ministers. He has an older brother, Akil.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: From third to eighth grade, Kendi attended private Christian schools in Queens. After attending John Bowne High School as a freshman, at age 15, Kendi moved with his family to Manassas, Virginia in 1997 and attended Stonewall Jackson High School for his final three years of high school, from which he graduated in 2000.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: In 2005, Kendi received dual B.S. degrees in African American Studies and magazine production from Florida A&M University. In 2007, Kendi earned an M.A. and in 2010 a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University. Kendi's dissertation was titled "The Black Campus Movement: An Afrocentric Narrative History of the Struggle to Diversify Higher Education, 1965-1972". His advisor was Ama Mazama.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: From 2008 to 2012, Kendi was an assistant professor of history in the department of Africana and Latino Studies within the department of history at State University of New York at Oneonta. From 2012 to 2015, Kendi was an assistant professor of Africana Studies in the department of Africana Studies as well as the department of history at University at Albany, SUNY. During this time, from 2013 to 2014, Kendi was a visiting scholar in the department of Africana Studies at Brown University, where he taught courses as a visiting assistant professor in the fall of 2014.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: From 2015 to 2017, Kendi was an assistant professor at the University of Florida history department's African American Studies program.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: In 2017, Kendi became a professor of history and international relations at the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and School of International Service (SIS) at American University in Washington, D.C. In September 2017, Kendi founded the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, serving as its executive director. In June 2020, it was announced that Kendi would join Boston University as a professor of history. Upon accepting the position, Kendi agreed to move the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University to Boston University, where he will serve as the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: During the 2020–2021 academic year, Kendi served as the Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: Kendi has published essays in both books and academic journals, including "The Journal of African American History", "Journal of Social History", "Journal of Black Studies", "Journal of African American Studies", and "The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture". Kendi is also a contributing writer at "The Atlantic".


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: In 2016, Kendi won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for "Stamped from the Beginning", which was published by Nation Books. He was the youngest author to ever win the prize. Titled after an 1860 speech given by Jefferson Davis at the U.S. Senate, the book builds around the stories of historical figures Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, William Lloyd Garrison, and W.E.B. Du Bois, as well as the current figure, Angela Davis.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: A New York Times #1 Best Seller in 2020, "How to Be an Antiracist" is Kendi's most popular work thus far. Professor Jeffrey C. Stewart called it the "most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind". Afua Hirsch praised the book's introspection and wrote that it was relatable in the context of ongoing political events. In contrast, Andrew Sullivan wrote that the book's arguments were simplistic and criticized Kendi's idea of transferring government oversight to an unelected Department of Antiracism. Kelefa Sanneh noted Kendi's "sacred fervor" in battling racism, but wondered if his definition of racism was so capacious and outcome-dependent as to risk losing its power. John McWhorter criticized the book as being simple, and challenged Kendi's claim that all racial disparities are necessarily due to racism.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: Kendi argues that policy outcomes are central in measuring and effecting racial equity. He has said, "All along we've been trying to change people, when we really need to change policies." When speaking in November 2020 to the Alliance for Early Success, Kendi was asked if that even means abiding racist behavior and attitudes if it leads to winning an antiracist policy. Kendi answered with a definitive yes. "I want things to change for millions of people – millions of children – as opposed to trying to change one individual person."


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: On May 27, 2020, Kendi appeared before the United States House Committee on Ways and Means about the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on African Americans, saying: "This is the racial pandemic within the viral pandemic".


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: Kendi has been a long-time outspoken critic of police killings of black men and women. In 2020, speaking to "The New York Times" after "How to Be an Antiracist" saw renewed interest during the George Floyd protests, Kendi called the mood in the United States during the protests "a signature, significant distinct moment of people striving to be antiracist".


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: Before the protests, Kendi published a proposal for a constitutional amendment in the U.S. to establish and fund the Department of Anti-Racism (DOA). This department would be responsible for "preclearing all local, state and federal public policies to ensure they won’t yield racial inequity, monitor those policies, investigate and be empowered with disciplinary tools to wield over and against policymakers and public officials who do not voluntarily change their racist policy and ideas".


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: Kendi provoked controversy when he tweeted about Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump's third Supreme Court nominee, and two of her seven children, who had been adopted from an orphanage in Haiti. Kendi said: Some White colonizers 'adopted' Black children. They 'civilized' these 'savage' children in the 'superior' ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity. And whether this is Barrett or not is not the point. It is a belief too many White people have: if they have or adopt a child of color, then they can't be racist. His remarks were interpreted as criticizing interracial adoption. A substantial backlash against Kendi ensued. He later said his comments were taken out of context and that he had never said that white parents of black children are inherently racist.


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: In 2013, Kendi married Sadiqa Edmonds Kendi, a pediatric emergency medicine physician, in Jamaica. Both sets of parents participated in a symbolic sand ceremony. The wedding ceremony ended with a naming ceremony of their new last name, "Kendi", which means "the loved one" in the language of the Meru people of Kenya. Kendi changed his middle name to Xolani, a Xhosa and Zulu word for "peace".


title: Ibram X. Kendi

text: In January 2018, a colonoscopy indicated that Kendi had cancer. A further test revealed that he had stage 4 colon cancer that had spread into his liver. After six months of chemotherapy and surgery that summer, Kendi was declared cancer free.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: Some Kind of Wonderful is a 1987 American romantic drama film directed by Howard Deutch and starring Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Lea Thompson. It is one of several successful teen dramas written by John Hughes in the 1980s.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: The film is set against the strict social hierarchy of an American public high school in the San Fernando Valley. Blue-collar mechanic and aspiring artist Keith Nelson is best friends with tomboy drummer Watts. Keith's father is obsessed with sending him to college for business, as he would be the first in their family to go.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: Keith is enamored with Amanda Jones, one of the most popular girls in school, and he spends much of his time drawing her. She is dating Hardy Jenns, a spoiled and selfish boy from a wealthy neighborhood. However, Amanda herself is not wealthy: she lives in the same working-class district as Watts and Keith, and she borrows her fashionable clothes from her friends. Hardy treats Amanda as his "property" while also fooling around with another girl. Watts is dismissive of Keith's crush, saying that he and Amanda are too different. Hearing that Amanda will be in detention for the foreseeable future, Keith gets himself in trouble to spend time with her. However, Amanda talks her way out of detention, and he is stuck with the school criminals, eventually making friends with troublemaker Duncan.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: When Amanda breaks up with Hardy, Keith asks her out. Mainly to spite Hardy, Amanda accepts. Meanwhile, seeing Keith with Amanda makes Watts realize that she loves him as more than just a friend. Watts pretends to like another boy to try and make Keith jealous, and she continues to discourage Keith from being with Amanda, to no avail.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: Hardy plots trouble for Keith by inviting him and Amanda to a party after their date, where he plans to have Keith beaten up. Through his sister Laura, Keith finds out about the scheme and believes Amanda is a part of it. He decides to go to the party anyway and face Hardy.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: Amanda's wealthy and popular friends start to shun her for being with Keith, and he tries to plan the perfect date to prove he is worthy of Amanda. With Watts in tow, he uses his college money to buy a pair of diamond earrings. Watts tells him that Amanda will appreciate a good kisser, and she kisses Keith under the guise of teaching him how to do it. Still, Keith is oblivious to Watts' attraction to him. When Keith's father discovers the college fund has been emptied, he is livid, but Keith ultimately convinces his father to respect the right to make his own decisions.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: On the night of the date, Keith picks up Amanda, with Watts serving as their chauffeur. They go to an expensive restaurant for dinner, however they initially argue. Then, Keith brings Amanda to an art museum and shows her a painting he did of her. He gives her the earrings, and they kiss while Watts watches them from a distance.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: Finally, they go to Hardy's party. Keith is about to get beaten by Hardy's friends when Duncan and the other school criminals arrive to help him. Hardy tries to talk his way out of the predicament, exposing himself as a coward in front of the party guests. Amused, Keith tells Hardy he is "over," after which Amanda slaps Hardy.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: After they leave the party, Watts apologizes to Amanda. Watts then leaves them and starts to walk home in tears. Amanda suddenly realizes that Keith and Watts have feelings for each other. She gives the earrings back to Keith and urges him to go after Watts. Keith, realizing that he is in love with his best friend, bids Amanda goodbye. He catches up to Watts, and they kiss. He then gives the earrings to a delighted Watts, who admits that she wanted them. She puts them on and asks Keith how they look, and he replies, "You look good wearing my future."


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: Deutch and Hughes were not happy with the ending of their previous collaboration "Pretty in Pink" (1986); in the script and the original cut of the film Andy (Molly Ringwald) wound up with her best friend Duckie (Jon Cryer). Test audiences disliked that ending, however, so a new ending was shot where Andy wound up with Blane (Andrew McCarthy).


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: With "Some Kind of Wonderful", Hughes decided to re-tell the story, but with the genders of the main characters switched. Hughes named the three main protagonists—Keith, Watts, and Amanda Jones—as an inside-joke tribute to the Rolling Stones (Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and the Stones' song "Miss Amanda Jones", respectively). Hughes wanted Ringwald to play the female lead role of Watts, but she declined in order to pursue more adult roles; she also thought the character of Amanda seemed too similar to the character she played in "The Breakfast Club". Hughes took this refusal personally, and it led to the end of Hughes and Ringwald's working relationship.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: Martha Coolidge was signed to direct "Some Kind of Wonderful". Mary Stuart Masterson was cast as Watts. In addition to Masterson, Coolidge cast Eric Stoltz as Keith. Coolidge's vision of the film, which was darker than the eventual product, attracted Stoltz to the role.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: Unhappy with Coolidge, Hughes fired her and hired Deutch to direct. Original cast members Kim Delaney (Amanda Jones) and Kyle MacLachlan (Hardy Jenns) were fired shortly after. Deutch offered Lea Thompson the role of Amanda, but she initially turned him down. However, after the Thompson-starring "Howard the Duck" flopped at the box office, she accepted a second offer to take the role. Deutch and Thompson started dating after filming was completed, and they got married in 1989.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: The film was shot in Los Angeles in the summer of 1986. Locations include San Pedro High School, Hancock Park, and the Hollywood Bowl.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 76% based on 45 reviews, with the site's consensus: ""Some Kind of Wonderful" is above-average '80s teen fare for people who need as much John Hughes in their lives as possible." On Metacritic the film has a score of 55 out of 100 based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on a scale of A to F.


title: Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" praised the film, calling it worthwhile and entertaining. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" stated that "Some Kind of Wonderful" is the "much-improved, recycled version of the "Pretty in Pink" story". Richard Schickel of "Time" criticized the film for being unrealistic. Masterson's performance was singled out for praise by several critics.


title: Alex Haley

text: Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book "." ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of black American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.


title: Alex Haley

text: Haley's first book was "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with Malcolm X.


title: Alex Haley

text: He was working on a second family history novel at his death. Haley had requested that David Stevens, a screenwriter, complete it; the book was published as "." It was adapted as a miniseries, "Alex Haley's Queen", broadcast in 1993.


title: Alex Haley

text: Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, on August 11, 1921, and was the eldest of three brothers (the other two being George and Julius) and a half-sister (from his father's second marriage). Haley lived with his family in Henning, Tennessee, before returning to Ithaca with his family when he was five years old. Haley's father was Simon Haley, a professor of agriculture at Alabama A&M University, and his mother was Bertha George Haley (née Palmer), who had grown up in Henning. The family had Mandinka, other African, Cherokee, Scottish, and Scottish-Irish roots. The younger Haley always spoke proudly of his father and the obstacles of racism he had overcome.


title: Alex Haley

text: Like his father, Alex Haley was enrolled at Alcorn State University, a historically black college in Mississippi and, a year later, enrolled at Elizabeth City State College, also historically black, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The following year, he withdrew from college. His father felt that Alex needed discipline and growth, and convinced him to enlist in the military. On May 24, 1939, Alex Haley began what became a 20-year career in the United States Coast Guard.


title: Alex Haley

text: Haley enlisted as a mess attendant. Later he was promoted to the rate of petty officer third-class in the rating of steward, one of the few ratings open to blacks at that time. It was during his service in the Pacific theater of operations that Haley taught himself the craft of writing stories. During his enlistment other sailors often paid him to write love letters to their girlfriends. He said that the greatest enemy he and his crew faced during their long voyages was not the Japanese forces but rather boredom.


title: Alex Haley

text: After World War II, Haley petitioned the U.S. Coast Guard to allow him to transfer into the field of journalism. By 1949 he had become a petty officer first-class in the rating of a journalist. He later advanced to chief petty officer and held this rank until his retirement from the Coast Guard in 1959. He was the first chief journalist in the Coast Guard, the rating having been expressly created for him in recognition of his literary ability.


title: Alex Haley

text: Haley's awards and decorations from the Coast Guard include the Coast Guard Good Conduct Medal (with 1 silver and 1 bronze service star), American Defense Service Medal (with "Sea" clasp), American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Korean Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and the Coast Guard Expert Marksmanship Medal. The Republic of Korea awarded him the War Service Medal, ten years after he died. The United States Coast Guard dedicated the cutter formerly known as USS "Edenton" to Haley by recommissioning it as in July 1999. The cutter currently serves from Kodiak, Alaska.


title: Alex Haley

text: After retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard, Haley began another phase of his journalism career. He eventually became a senior editor for "Reader's Digest" magazine. Haley wrote an article for the magazine about his brother George's struggles to succeed as one of the first black students at a Southern law school.


title: Alex Haley

text: Haley conducted the first interview for "Playboy" magazine. Haley elicited candid comments from jazz musician Miles Davis about his thoughts and feelings on racism in an interview he had started, but not finished, for "Show Business Illustrated", another magazine created by "Playboy" founder Hugh Hefner that folded in early 1962. Haley completed the interview and it appeared in "Playboy"'s September 1962 issue. That interview set the tone for what became a significant feature of the magazine. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Playboy" Interview with Haley was the longest he ever granted to any publication.


title: Alex Haley

text: Throughout the 1960s Haley was responsible for some of the magazine's most notable interviews, including one with George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party. He agreed to meet with Haley only after gaining assurance from the writer that he was not Jewish. Haley remained professional during the interview, although Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout it. (The interview was recreated in "", with James Earl Jones as Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell.) Haley also interviewed Muhammad Ali, who spoke about changing his name from Cassius Clay. Other interviews include Jack Ruby's defense attorney Melvin Belli, entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., football player Jim Brown, TV host Johnny Carson, and music producer Quincy Jones.


title: Alex Haley

text: "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", published in 1965, was Haley's first book. It describes the trajectory of Malcolm X's life from street criminal to national spokesman for the Nation of Islam to his conversion to Sunni Islam. It also outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. Haley wrote an epilogue to the book summarizing the end of Malcolm X's life, including his assassination in New York's Audubon Ballroom.


title: Alex Haley

text: Haley ghostwrote "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" based on more than 50 in-depth interviews he conducted with Malcolm X between 1963 and Malcolm X's February 1965 assassination. The two men had first met in 1960 when Haley wrote an article about the Nation of Islam for "Reader's Digest". They met again when Haley interviewed Malcolm X for "Playboy".


title: Alex Haley

text: The initial interviews for the autobiography frustrated Haley. Rather than discussing his own life, Malcolm X spoke about Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam; he became angry about Haley's reminders that the book was supposed to be about Malcolm X. After several meetings, Haley asked Malcolm X to tell him something about his mother. That question drew Malcolm X into recounting his life story.


title: Alex Haley

text: "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" has been a consistent best-seller since its 1965 publication. "The New York Times" reported that six million copies of the book had sold by 1977. In 1998 "Time" ranked "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" as one of the 10 most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.


title: Alex Haley

text: In 1973 Haley wrote his only screenplay, "Super Fly T.N.T.". The film starred and was directed by Ron O'Neal.


title: Alex Haley

text: In 1976 Haley published "", a novel based on his family's history, going back to slavery days. It started with the story of Kunta Kinte, who was kidnapped in the Gambia in 1767 and transported to the Province of Maryland to be sold as a slave. Haley claimed to be a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, and his work on the novel involved twelve years of research, intercontinental travel, and writing. He went to the village of Juffure, where Kunta Kinte grew up and listened to a tribal historian (griot) tell the story of Kinte's capture. Haley also traced the records of the ship, "The Lord Ligonier", which he said carried his ancestor to the Americas.


title: Alex Haley

text: Haley stated that the most emotional moment of his life occurred on September 29, 1967, when he stood at the site in Annapolis, Maryland, where his ancestor had arrived from Africa in chains exactly 200 years before. A memorial depicting Haley reading a story to young children gathered at his feet has since been erected in the center of Annapolis.


title: Alex Haley

text: "Roots" was eventually published in 37 languages. Haley won a special Pulitzer Prize for the work in 1977. The same year, "Roots" was adapted as a popular television miniseries of the same name by ABC. The serial reached a record-breaking 130 million viewers. "Roots" emphasized that black Americans have a long history and that not all of that history is necessarily lost, as many believed. Its popularity also sparked a greatly increased public interest in genealogy.


title: Alex Haley

text: In 1979 ABC aired the sequel miniseries, "", which continued the story of Kunta Kinte's descendants. It concluded with Haley's travel to Juffure. Haley was portrayed at different ages by Kristoff St. John, "The Jeffersons" actor Damon Evans, and Tony Award winner James Earl Jones. In 2016, History aired a remake of the original miniseries. Haley appeared briefly, portrayed by Tony Award winner Laurence Fishburne.


title: Alex Haley

text: Haley was briefly a "writer in residence" at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he began work on "Roots". He enjoyed spending time at a local bistro called the Savoy in nearby Rome, where he would sometimes pass the time listening to the piano player. Today, there is a special table in honor of Haley at the Savoy, and a painting of Haley writing "Roots" on a yellow legal tablet.


title: Alex Haley

text: "Roots" faced two lawsuits that charged plagiarism and copyright infringement. The lawsuit brought by Margaret Walker was dismissed, but Harold Courlander's suit was successful. Courlander's novel "The African" describes an African boy who is captured by slave traders, follows him across the Atlantic on a slave ship, and describes his attempts to hold on to his African traditions on a plantation in America. Haley admitted that some passages from "The African" had made it into "Roots", settling the case out of court in 1978 and paying Courlander $650,000.


title: Alex Haley

text: Genealogists have also disputed Haley's research and conclusions in "Roots". The Gambian "griot" turned out not to be a real "griot", and the story of Kunta Kinte appears to have been a case of circular reporting, in which Haley's own words were repeated back to him. None of the written records in Virginia and North Carolina line up with the "Roots" story until after the Civil War. Some elements of Haley's family story can be found in the written records, but the most likely genealogy would be different from the one described in "Roots".


title: Alex Haley

text: Haley and his work have been excluded from the "Norton Anthology of African-American Literature", despite his status as the United States' best-selling black author. Harvard University professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the anthology's general editors, has denied that the controversies surrounding Haley's works are the reason for this exclusion. In 1998, Dr. Gates acknowledged the doubts surrounding Haley's claims about "Roots", saying, "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. "Roots" is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship."


title: Alex Haley

text: Early in the 1980s, Haley worked with the Walt Disney Company to develop an Equatorial Africa pavilion for its Epcot Center theme park. Haley appeared on a CBS broadcast of Epcot Center's opening day celebration, discussing the plans and exhibiting concept art with host Danny Kaye. Ultimately, the pavilion was not built due to political and financial issues.


title: Alex Haley

text: Late in the 1970s, Haley had begun working on a second historical novel based on another branch of his family, traced through his grandmother Queen; she was the daughter of a black slave woman and her white master.


title: Alex Haley

text: He did not finish the novel before dying in Seattle, Washington, of a heart attack on February 10, 1992. He was buried beside his childhood home in Henning, Tennessee.


title: Alex Haley

text: At his request, the novel was finished by David Stevens and was published as "". It was subsequently adapted as a miniseries of the same name in 1993.


title: Alex Haley

text: Late in Haley's life he had acquired a small farm in Clinton, Tennessee, although at the time it had a Norris, Tennessee address. The farm is a few miles from the Museum of Appalachia, and Haley lived there until his death. After he died, the property was sold to the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), which calls it the Alex Haley Farm. The nonprofit organization uses the farm as a national training center and retreat site. An abandoned barn on the farm property was rebuilt as a traditional cantilevered barn, using a design by architect Maya Lin. The building now serves as a library for the CDF.


title: Alex Haley

text: The University of Tennessee Libraries, in Knoxville, Tennessee, maintains a collection of Alex Haley's personal works in its Special Collections Department. The works contain notes, outlines, bibliographies, research, and legal papers documenting Haley's "Roots" through 1977. Of particular interest are the items showing Harold Courlander's lawsuit against Haley, Doubleday & Company, and various affiliated groups.


title: Alex Haley

text: Portions of Alex Haley's personal collection is also located at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center's Special Collections and Archives in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The keeper of the Word Foundation in Detroit, Michigan maintains Alex Haley's Coast Guard notes, writings, and love letter notes that developed Haley's writings. Along with the digital unpublished "Autobiography of Malcolm X" and "Epilogue", omitted introduction and chapters, outline, letters, handwritten notes, Haley's complete interviews of Malcolm X's, poetry and edited notes, and digital rights.


title: Alex Haley

text: In the city dock section of Annapolis, Maryland, there is a memorial to mark the arrival location of Kunta Kinte in 1767. The monument, dedicated on June 12, 2002, also celebrates the preservation of African-American heritage and family history.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: Michael David Rosenberg (born 17 May 1984), better known by his stage name Passenger, is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Previously the main vocalist and songwriter of Passenger, Rosenberg opted to keep the band's name for his solo work after the band dissolved in 2009. In 2012, he released the song "Let Her Go", which topped the charts in 16 countries and accumulated more than 3.3 billion views on YouTube; it is the most-viewed Australian YouTube video of all time. In 2014, the song was nominated for the Brit Award for British Single of the Year, and he received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Most Performed Work.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: Rosenberg was born on 17 May 1984 in Brighton to Quaker parents, English mother Jane and American Jewish father, Gerard Rosenberg, originally from Vineland, New Jersey. Rosenberg learned classical guitar at a young age and at around 14–15 started to write songs. Rosenberg left school at the age of 16 to pursue a career in the music industry and spent the next few years as a busker in England and Australia.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: Rosenberg did his first performance when he was 16. Rosenberg's father, a film production worker, introduced him to former member of the band Faithless, Jamie Catto, in 2001; this led to Rosenberg getting a two-song spot at the Free Burma Campaign benefit gig at the Royal Court in London in 2002. On the night, Rosenberg met his future writing partner Andrew Phillips and established contact with the IE Music label. Back in Brighton, Phillips and Rosenberg pooled their musical influences (from Simon & Garfunkel to DJ Shadow), and started to write songs at Phillips’ in-house studio in Hove. In 2003, they formed the Mike Rosenberg Band, engaging Marcus O’Dair (bass), Alon Cohen (drums) and Richard Brinklow (keyboards) through connections within the Brighton music scene.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: Rosenberg founded the band Passenger with Andrew Phillips in 2003 in Brighton and Hove. The name of the band was stylised as /Passenger. (with a slash at the beginning and a dot at the end). The five-person band's only album, "Wicked Man's Rest", was released in 2007, on Chalkmark. Rosenberg wrote the majority of the album's tracks, with the exception of "Four Horses", which was written by Phillips. The band broke up in 2009.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: After the break-up of Passenger, Rosenberg kept the band's name as his personal stage name, and took to busking for a solo music career. In October 2009 he went to Australia, where he supported acts such as Lior and Sydneysiders Elana Stone and Brian Campeau. He then played at One Movement, a major music industry-focused festival in Perth. This earned him a following in Australia and he was selling out 500-seater venues across Australia. His debut solo album, "Wide Eyes Blind Love", was released in 2009. It was produced and mixed by former bandmate Andrew Phillips, who also provided backing vocals, and played guitar and other instruments, and featured vocals by Isobel Anderson. Rosenberg also played various shows in the United Kingdom during this time, including a support slot for Turin Brakes' tenth anniversary show at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: Rosenberg produced a fans-only limited release "Divers and Submarines", again supported by former bandmate Andrew Phillips and vocalist Isobel Anderson. His third studio album, "Flight of the Crow," was recorded in Australia and saw him joined in the studio by various Australian independent musical talents including Lior, Kate Miller-Heidke, Boy & Bear, Josh Pyke and Katie Noonan.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: Rosenberg's fourth album, "All the Little Lights", was released in the summer of 2012 in North America on Nettwerk Records. Recorded at Linear Recording in Sydney, Rosenberg worked with a core Australian band that included Boy & Bear drummer Tim Hart, jazz bassist Cameron Undy, and keyboards player Stu Hunter, from Katie Noonan and The Captains. During the summer and autumn of 2012, Rosenberg toured the UK, opening for Jools Holland and Ed Sheeran, the latter of whom he had known since Sheeran was about 15 while living in Cambridge. He joined Australian acts the John Butler Trio, and Josh Pyke with a co-headlined UK tour. He also opened for Ed Sheeran's 2012 North American tour and also in Paris. He also opened for Ed Sheeran on four of his five sell-out dates in Ireland in January 2013 and in Australia and New Zealand in early 2013, and supported Sheeran in his Brighton dates and in Reading. Rosenberg performed "All the Little Lights" at the Children in Need Rocks concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, broadcast on BBC One on 14 November 2013..


title: Passenger (singer)

text: On 24 March 2014, Rosenberg unveiled "Whispers", the title track of his new album, as part of his set at the Teenage Cancer Trust charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London where he also performed alongside Ed Sheeran. On 26 March 2014 Rosenberg announced details of his fifth studio album. He released "Whispers" on 9 June 2014. Talking to Digital Spy about the album, he said: "This is easily the most 'up' album I've ever made, it's quite cinematic. There are lots of big stories and big ideas. There are also some sombre moments about loneliness and death but hey, it wouldn't be a Passenger album without those". He released "Hearts on Fire" as the album's lead single on 14 April 2014.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: Rosenberg recorded "Whispers II" at the same time as recording "Whispers". "Whispers II" was released on 20 April 2015. All profits from the album go to the UNICEF UK initiative to help children in Liberia.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: On 16 June 2016, the music video for "Somebody's Love" was uploaded to his YouTube channel, thereby announcing his seventh album, "Young as the Morning, Old as the Sea". A second track from the album, "Anywhere" was released on 19 August 2016. "Young as the Morning, Old as the Sea" was released on 23 September 2016, and became Passenger's first UK number one album.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: On 25 July 2017, at the end of his "Young as the Morning, Old as the Sea" tour, Rosenberg announced via the Passenger Facebook page that his performance on Sunday 23 July would be "my/our last gig for a while". The following day, he announced that his eighth album, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", would be released two days later on 28 July 2017. The album was announced with a livestream of the album performed live in its entirety, broadcast from Passenger's studio simultaneously to YouTube and Facebook. The album charted at number 5 in the Official UK Charts.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: On 18 May 2018, Passenger released the song "Hell or High Water". It was recorded in a variety of different national parks across Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California In the following days, he also announced an autumn European tour and teased fans through social media with a cover for a new album.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: On 25 May 2018, he formally announced his ninth studio album, "Runaway", and released a live acoustic version of "Hell or High Water" recorded in Venice, Los Angeles. Passenger described "Runaway" as a concept album, as he realised many of the songs had a strong sense of Americana. He also believed the songs would work well accompanied by American visuals and thus, alongside long-time collaborators Jarrad Seng, Stu Larsen and Chris Vallejo, embarked on a three-week-long road trip through the United States to film videos for each track. Additionally, they recorded acoustic videos for each track, filmed in a variety of different locations. Rosenberg plans to release a song every three weeks, sharing both the official and acoustic videos, plus behind-the-scenes footage. "Runaway" was released on 31 August 2018.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: On 18 March 2019, Passenger released the song "Restless Wind" on YouTube. Two more songs, "Helplessly Lost" and "Paper Cut, Chinese Burn," were subsequently released a month later, as well as a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide". On 2 May 2019, Passenger both announced and released his tenth album, "Sometimes It's Something, Sometimes It's Nothing at All". Unlike more recent Passenger albums, the record is arranged entirely for vocals, acoustic guitar and a string quartet. All the profits from sales will be donated to Shelter, a UK-based homeless charity.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: At the end of January, Passenger announced a world tour including dates in the UK, Europe, Australia, North America, and New Zealand. On 20 March 2020, he announced and released his new single "The Way That I Love You" with a video. On 1 May 2020, he released his new single "London In The Spring". On 10 July 2020, Passenger released his eleventh album "Patchwork". The album was written and recorded during the coronavirus lockdown alongside producer Chris Vallejo and guest musicians Andrew Phillips (a collaborator of Rosenberg's and formerly of the band Passenger) and Richard Brinklow. The record was released as a funding project for The Trussell Trust, an NGO and charity that works to end the need for food banks in the UK.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: On 8 January 2021, Passenger released "Songs for the Drunk and Broken Hearted". The record was supposed to be released by early 2020, but later delayed due to the coronavirus lockdown. The record's release supports both Ecologi and Eden Reforestation Projects, non-profit organisations aiming to rebuild natural landscapes destroyed by deforestation. A tree will be planted for every physical copy of the album sold via the Passenger store.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: On April 14 2022, Passenger released his 14th studio album, "Birds That Flew and Ships That Sailed". The album was released independently, without a record label or a press team. The record release supports Plastic Bank, a social enterprise that combats plastic pollution in the ocean. The record debuted at Number 35 on the Official UK Albums Chart, marking Passenger's 8th album to enter the UK Top 40.


title: Passenger (singer)

text: Rosenberg currently lives in Brighton. He is a fan of English football club Arsenal F.C. In a 2021 interview, he said he became an Arsenal supporter despite being from Brighton after watching Arsenal beating Sheffield Wednesday F.C. in the FA Cup Final in 1993. In May 2015, Rosenberg appeared at Arsenal's 'A Night to Inspire' event and played a version of the '49 Undefeated' fan chant.


title: Lahna Turner

text: Lahna Turner is a stand up comedian and actress. She is primarily known for being married to comedian, Ralphie May. She is also largely considered by Ralphie's friends and family as the main instigation towards his mental and physical decline that eventually lead to his death.


title: Lahna Turner

text: As a child, Turner and her family moved from Canada to Houston, Texas for her father’s career with Exxon.


title: Lahna Turner

text: Turner attended Texas State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in fine arts with a focus in photo technology. Turner worked full-time as a photographer throughout her college career. At the age of 19, she started an unofficial internship with the Associated Press, which eventually led to a freelance position with the organization.


title: Lahna Turner

text: Turner began her comedy career post-college in Houston where she performed three comedic songs at a local open mic night. She booked her first paying gig two months later. In 2004, Turner released her first comedy album, "Dick Jokes & Other Assorted Love Songs". She later recorded "If These Lips Could Talk" (2012), her first one-hour special "So…. I Wrote a Song About It" (2014) and "Limeade" (2017), the first ever comedy visual album. Turner’s albums have received airplay at top radio stations across the country as well as National Lampoon's Top 40 comedy countdown, and are in rotation on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. She also has an early, non-comedy album called "Life as a Human".


title: Lahna Turner

text: Turner made her big-screen debut in "Teacher of the Year" where she played Ursula Featherstone. She also appeared in "This Is Meg" (2017), "Brand New Old Love" (2018) and is a producer of "What’s Eating Ralphie May?" (2019). She is also the Executive Producer for the documentary: 360 Degrees Down.


title: Lahna Turner

text: Turner married fellow comedian Ralphie May on July 3, 2005, they have two children together. May died in 2017.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Since the division of Korea after the end of World War II, North Koreans have fled from the country in spite of legal punishment for political, ideological, religious, economic, moral, personal, or nutritional reasons. Such North Koreans are referred to as North Korean defectors by the North Korean regime. Alternative terms in South Korea, where the defectors often end up, include "northern refugees" (, "talbukja" or , "talbukmin") and "new settlers" (, "saeteomin").


title: North Korean defectors

text: During the North Korean famine of the 1990s, there was an increase in defections, reaching a peak in 1998 and 1999. Some of the main reasons for the falling number of defectors, especially since 2000, are the strict border patrols and inspections, forced deportations, and the rising cost of defection. The most common strategy of North Korean defectors is to cross the Chinese border into Jilin and Liaoning provinces in northeast China. About 76% to 84% of defectors interviewed in China or South Korea came from the Northeastern provinces bordering China.


title: North Korean defectors

text: The defectors usually flee to a third country due to China being a relatively close ally of North Korea. China, being the most influential of the few economic partners of North Korea while the country has been under U.N. sanctions for decades, is also the largest, and has been a continuous aid source of the country. To avoid worsening the already tense relations with the Korean Peninsula, China refuses to grant North Korean defectors refugee status and considers them illegal economic migrants. If the defectors are caught in China, they are repatriated back to North Korea, where rights groups say they often face harsh interrogations and years of punishment, or even death, in "kwalliso" prison camps (such as the Pukch'ang camp), or in "kyohwaso" reeducation camps (such as the Chungsan camp or Chongo-ri camp).


title: North Korean defectors

text: Different terms, official and unofficial, refer to North Korean refugees. On 9 January 2005, the South Korean Ministry of Unification announced the use of "saeteomin" (, "people of new land") instead of "talbukja" (, "people who fled the North"), a term about which North Korean officials expressed displeasure. A newer term is "bukhanitaljumin" (), which has the more forceful meaning of "residents who renounced North Korea".


title: North Korean defectors

text: North Korean expert Andrei Lankov has criticized the term "defectors", since most people fleeing the country do not seek refuge because of political dissent, but are instead motivated by material deprivation.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Since 1953, 100,000–300,000 North Koreans have defected, most of whom have fled to Russia or China. 1,418 were registered as arriving in South Korea in 2016. In 2017, there were 31,093 defectors registered with the Unification Ministry in South Korea, 71% of whom were women. In 2018, the numbers had been dramatically dropping since Kim Jong-un took power in 2011, trending towards less than a thousand per year, down from the peak of 2,914 in 2009.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Professor Courtland Robinson of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University estimated that in the past the total number of 6,824 and 7,829 children were born to North Korean women in the three Northeastern Provinces of China. Recently, survey results conducted in 2013 by Johns Hopkins and the Korea Institute for National Unification (also known as KINU) showed that there were about 8,708 North Korean defectors and 15,675 North Korean children in China's same three Northeastern Provinces which are Jilin, Liaoning and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Most North Korean refugees reportedly leave the country due to economic reasons. Based on a study of North Korean defectors, women make up the majority of defections. In 2002, they comprised 56% of defections to South Korea (1,138 people), and by 2011, the number had grown to 71% (2,706 people). More women leave the North because they are more likely to suffer financial hardships. This is due to the prevalence of women in service sector jobs whereas men are employed in the military. According to South Korean government data, 45% of defectors cited economic reasons for defecting. According to NK News, men had a higher tendency to leave the country due to political, ideological or surveillance pressure. In the first half of 2018, women made up 88% of defectors to the South.


title: North Korean defectors

text: South Korea's Ministry of Unification is a government organization that is in charge of preparing for a future reunification between North and South Korea. It is responsible for north–south relations including economic trade, diplomacy, and communication, and education of reunification, which involves spreading awareness in schools and among the public sphere. The Ministry of Unification is thus the main organization that manages North Korean defectors in South Korean territory by establishing admission processes and resettlement policies. It also has regional sub-organs called Hana Centers that help defectors in their day-to-day life for a more smooth transition into South Korean society. The number of defectors since the 1950–1953 Korean War is more than 26,000. Military defections across the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) are few in number, with only 20 defectors since 1996.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In 1962, the South Korean Government introduced the "Special law on the protection of defectors from the North" which, after revision in 1978, remained effective until 1993. According to the law, every defector was eligible for an aid package. After their arrival in the South, defectors would receive an allowance. The size of this allowance depended on the category to which the particular defector belonged (there were three such categories). The category was determined by the defector's political and intelligence value. Apart from this allowance, defectors who delivered especially valuable intelligence or equipment were given large additional rewards. Prior to 1997 the payments had been fixed in gold bullion, not in South Korean won—in attempts to counter ingrained distrust about the reliability of paper money.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In 2004, South Korea passed controversial new measures intended to slow the flow of asylum seekers because of concern that a growing number of North Koreans crossing the Amnok and Duman Rivers into China would soon seek refuge in the South.


title: North Korean defectors

text: The regulations tighten defector screening processes and slash the amount of money given to each refugee from ₩28,000,000 ($24,180) to ₩10,000,000 ($8,636). South Korean officials say the new rules are intended to prevent ethnic Koreans living in China from entering the South, as well as stop North Koreans with criminal records from gaining entry.


title: North Korean defectors

text: As of 2006, the state provided some defectors with apartments, and all those who wished to study were granted the right to enter a university of their choice. For a period of time after their arrival, defectors were also provided with personal bodyguards.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In 2016, defectors past retirement age received Basic Livelihood Benefits of about ₩450,000 ($390) per month, which covered basic necessities, but left them amongst the poorest of retirees.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Defectors who are willing to condemn the north and are able to provide information that is helpful to the United States and South Korean forces are offered ₩1,000,000,000 (equivalent to approximately $870,000 USD).


title: North Korean defectors

text: According to the Ministry of Unification, over 33,000 North Korean refugees have resettled in South Korea in the year 2019. North Korean refugees arriving in the South first face joint interrogation by authorities having jurisdiction including the National Intelligence Service and the National Police Agency to ensure that they are not spies. They are then sent to Hanawon, a government resettlement center where they are provided a 12-week social adaptation mandatory course, mainly focused on economic and political education and job training. After three months of resettlement training, the government provides assistance in residence, employment, and health insurance. However, apart from these essential trainings for social adaptation, psychological needs such as mitigating traumatic experiences and vulnerable mental health statuses are not appropriately addressed.


title: North Korean defectors

text: There are also non-profit and non-governmental organizations that seek to make the sociocultural transition easier and more efficient for the refugees. One such organization, Saejowi, provides defectors with medical assistance as well as an education in diverse topics ranging from leadership and counseling techniques to sexual violence prevention and avoidance. Another organization, PSCORE, runs education programs for refugees, providing weekly English classes and one-on-one tutoring.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Children can attend local South Korean schools or specific schools for North Korean refugee children. At South Korean school they may suffer discrimination and cruelty from other children, but the refugee schools do not prepare them well for South Korean society. North Korean students generally fall behind South Korean peers academically. Until up to age 35, they can go to graduate college without paying any fees.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In 2021, 56% of defectors had a low income. Nearly 25% were in the lowest income bracket so they were given national basic livelihood subsidies, which are six times the proportion in the general South Korean population.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Results of a survey conducted by the North Korean Refugees Foundation show that approximately 71% of North Koreans to have defected to South Korea since about 1998 are female. The percentage of female defectors has risen from 56% in 2002 to a high of 85% in 2018.


title: North Korean defectors

text: As of February 2014, age demographic of North Korean defectors show that 4% were ages 0–9, 12% were ages 10–19, 58% were ages 20–39, 21% were ages 40–59, and 4% were over 60. More than 50% of defectors come from North Hamgyong Province.


title: North Korean defectors

text: The employment status of defectors before leaving North Korea was 2% held administrative jobs, 3% were soldiers (all able-bodied persons are required to serve 7–10 years in the military), 38% were "workers", 48% were unemployed or being supported by someone else, 4% were "service", 1% worked in arts or sports, and 2% worked as "professionals".


title: North Korean defectors

text: According to a poll by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, around 50% of defectors said they had experienced discrimination because of their background. The two major issues were their inability to afford medical care and poor working conditions. Many complained of disrespectful treatment by journalists. According to the World Institute for North Korea Studies, a young female defector who does not attend a university has little chance of making a living in the South.


title: North Korean defectors

text: North Korean refugees who resettle in South Korea have been exposed to various forms of traumatic experiences in their home countries before migration. 49–81% of adult North Korean refugees have reported to experiencing or witnessing at least one type of traumatic event, directly and/or indirectly. These events include witnessing public executions, starvation, torture, and being sent to a correctional facility. Moreover, during migration, they are subjected to additional trauma through multiple relocations before arriving in South Korea. Once resettled, many experience acculturation stress that includes homesickness, cultural shock, alienation, perceived discrimination, and feelings of marginalization. As a consequence, in a survey of over 24,000 of North Koreans who migrated to South Korea between August and December 2012, 607 identified as suffering from depression, anxiety, or suicidal ideation. Moreover, North Korean refugees exhibit post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms which are not addressed properly through governmental agencies. A study of 182 defectors has shown that, due to mutual mistrust between North and South Koreans, defectors are often unable to receive medical help. With limited government-sponsored programs for migrants, North Koreans face vocational, medical, and educational difficulties assimilating in South Korea and rely on nongovernmental organizations. Intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations have repeatedly urged recipient nations of North Korean defectors to better identify defectors who are at high risk for poor mental health and to provide them with appropriate medical and social support.


title: North Korean defectors

text: About 15% of North Korean refugees say they have suicidal thoughts, compared to 5% for South Koreans overall.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Identity politics play a monumental factor in the cultural division among North and South Koreans. Contrary to the popular belief of outside nations, South Koreans and North Koreans share the same sense of nationalism and patriotism; however, most South Koreans harbour negative attitudes towards their Northern neighbors. In 2010, the Korean General Social Survey (KGSS) conducted face-to-face research of over 1,000 South Koreans on their perspectives on the ethnic identity of North Korean defectors assimilating into South Korea. The results reveal that South Koreans generally do not support the reunification of the Koreans. This is because some South Koreans have grown suspicious of defectors and their true intentions of migrating. South Koreans' antagonism against North Korea is mainly targeted at its Communist regime and a strict division of national identity. The outcome from the KGSS survey rules that the idea of "one nation, two countries" does not exist anymore. According to a 2015 UC Santa Cruz paper, many interviewed defectors wanted to resettle in China or emigrate to a Western country, due to discrimination, difficulty with the competitive nature of South Korea, and disappointment with unfulfilled promises of wealth and riches by missionaries and the government.


title: North Korean defectors

text: North Korean asylum seekers and defectors have been rising in numbers in Canada since 2006. Radio Free Asia reports that in 2007 alone, over 100 asylum applications were submitted, and that North Korean refugees have come from China or elsewhere with the help of Canadian missionaries and NGOs. The rapid increase in asylum applications to Canada is due to the limited options, especially when receiving asylum is becoming more difficult. On 2 February 2011, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper met Hye Sook Kim, a North Korean defector and also received advice from Dr. Norbert Vollertsen, "Canada can persuade China, among others, not to repatriate the North Korean refugees back to North Korea but, instead, let them go to South Korea and other countries, including Canada." 780 North Koreans lived in Canada in 2016.


title: North Korean defectors

text: According to the US State Department estimates, 30,000 to 50,000 out of a larger number of hiding North Koreans have the legal status of refugees. China does not grant asylum or refugee status to North Koreans and, with few exceptions, considers them illegal immigrants and deports them back to North Korea. According to an ETH Zurich report, China does this to avoid jeopardising relations with Pyongyang. A 2009 world refugee study found that around 11,000 North Korean refugees remained in hiding in China close to the North Korean border.


title: North Korean defectors

text: These refugees are not typically considered to be members of the ethnic Korean community, and the Chinese census does not count them as such. Some North Korean refugees who are unable to obtain transport to South Korea marry ethnic Koreans in China and settle there; they blend into the community but are subject to deportation if discovered by the authorities. Those who have found brokers and traffickers try to enter the South Korean consulate in Shenyang. The brokers are often Korean-Chinese or South Korean missionaries, or other North Korean defectors. As of 2002, the Chinese government has tightened the security and increased the number of police outside the consulate.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In 2015, the number of defectors crossing the border illegally to China was reported to be dropping due to increased border security, improved economy in North Korea, and Kim Jong-un's new promotion of legitimate labour migration. Lankov wrote that the vast majority of refugees would first move to China to earn money, and later decide to continue on to South Korea. According to documentarian Cho Cheon-hyeon in February 2021, most North Koreans in China preferred to stay there or return to the North rather than go to South Korea.


title: North Korean defectors

text: During the mid-1990s, the percentages of male and female defectors were relatively balanced. In early to mid-1990s, male labour was valuable since North Korean defectors could work in Chinese countrysides and factories and secure hideout in return. However, due to rising social security issues including crime and violence involving North Koreans, the value of male labour decreased. Females, on the other hand, were able to find easier means of settlement including performing smaller labour tasks and marrying Chinese locals (mostly ethnic Korean). As of today, 80–90% of North Korean defectors residing in China are females who settled through "de facto" marriage; a large number of them experience forced marriage and human trafficking.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Before 2009, over 70% of female North Korean defectors were victims of human trafficking. Due to their vulnerability as illegal migrants, they were sold for cheap prices, around 3,000 to 10,000 yuan. According to defector testimonies, those repatriated to North Korea are sentenced to penal-labour colonies (and/or executed), where Chinese-fathered babies are executed "to protect North Korean pure blood," and pregnant repatriates get forced abortions. After 2009, the percentage of female North Korean defectors with experience of human trafficking decreased to 15% since large numbers of defectors began to enter South Korea through organized groups led by brokers. Academics Andrei Lankov and Kyunghee Kook have disputed the label of human trafficking or forced marriages for some cases. Lankov wrote in 2010 that many Chinese husbands attempt to improve their Korean wives' official standing and may try expensively bribing the officials to get them a Chinese Resident Identity Card where they are registered as China-born ethnic Koreans.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In the early to mid-1990s, the Chinese government was relatively tolerant with the issue of North Korean defectors. Unless the North Korean government sent special requests, the Chinese government did not display serious control of the residence of North Koreans in Chinese territory. However, along with intensified North Korean famine in the late 1990s, the number of defectors sharply increased, which raised international attention. As a result, China stepped up the inspection of North Korean defectors and began their deportations. According to a 2014 paper from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korean authorities in China would generally be unable (or unwilling) to help North Korean escapees who approached them, although there were exceptions where South Korea had requested Chinese permission for the transfer of a North Korean escapee who entered a South Korean diplomatic compound. Requests have usually been granted after 1–3 years.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In June 2002, a diplomatic row broke out between China and South Korea after Chinese security guards dragged a would-be asylum seeker from Seoul's embassy in Beijing. Before the incident, China had reportedly allowed North Koreans inside other foreign missions to go to South Korea by way of a third country, including a North Korean family who was detained in Shenyang on May. In 2012, Beijing allowed 5 defectors to leave for South Korea after they had spent three years in China.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In February 2012, Chinese authorities repatriated 19 North Korean defectors being held in Shenyang and five defectors in Changchun from the same location. The case of the 24 detainees, who had been held since early February, garnered international attention due to the North's reported harsh punishment of those who attempted to defect. Human-rights activists say those repatriated face harsh punishment, including torture and imprisonment in labour camps. North Korean repatriation gained Chinese media coverage on 2012, and drew sympathy towards the refugees from Chinese netizens.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In August 2014, 11 North Koreans detained by China on the Laos border was reported by Sky News to have been released rather than repatriated after talks between Chinese and South Korean diplomats.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In April 2016, China allowed 13 North Korean restaurant workers to defect to South Korea, with spokesman Lu Kang saying they all had valid identity documents. The case became controversial 2 years later after 4 waitresses said they were brought to the South against their will, with the restaurant manager claiming he had been pressured by South Korea's intelligence agency.


title: North Korean defectors

text: South Korean human-rights activists have held rallies at the Chinese embassy in Seoul and have appealed to the U.N. Human Rights Council to urge China to stop the deportation of the refugees. The North Korea Freedom Coalition has created a list alleging that thousands of North Korean defectors have been repatriated by China. For some of them the fate after repatriation to North Korea ranges from torture, detention, prison camp to execution. The list includes humanitarian workers, who were assassinated or abducted by North Korean agents for helping refugees.


title: North Korean defectors

text: In 2014, research by the human rights organisation the "European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea" claims that there are around 1,400 North Korean refugees in Europe. Citing UNHRC statistics, the report identified North Korean communities in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.


title: North Korean defectors

text: As of 2015, the largest North Korean community in Europe resides in New Malden, South West London. Approximately 600 North Koreans are believed to reside in the area, which is already notable for its significant South Korean community.


title: North Korean defectors

text: According to a Eurostat report, a total of 820 North Koreans became citizens of European Union countries in the 2007–2016 period, with nearly 90 percent of them living in Germany and Britain.


title: North Korean defectors

text: According to a 2020 Waseda University paper, Japanese diplomats and NGOs quietly collaborated with Chinese authorities to fly a number of defectors to Japan. China stopped collaborating with Japan on this issue in 2010 after relations deteriorated from the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute.


title: North Korean defectors

text: There have been three cases of North Korean defectors who have escaped directly to Japan by boat. In January 1987, a stolen boat carrying 13 North Koreans washed ashore in Fukui Port in Fukui Prefecture and then continued to South Korea via Taiwan. In June 2007, after a six-day boat ride a family of four North Koreans was found by the Japan Coast Guard off the coast of Aomori Prefecture. They later settled in South Korea. In September 2011, the Japan Coast Guard found a wooden boat containing nine people, three men, three women and three boys. The group had been sailing for five days towards South Korea but had drifted towards the Noto Peninsula and thought they had arrived in South Korea. They were found in good health.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Japan resettled about 140 ethnic Koreans who managed to return to Japan after initially immigrating to North Korea under the 1959–1984 mass "repatriation" project of ethnic Koreans from Japan. This supposed humanitarian project, supported by Chongryon and conducted by the Japanese and North Korean Red Crosses, had involved the resettlement of around 90,000 volunteers (mostly from South Korea) in North Korea, which Chongryon hailed as a "paradise on earth". Some of the Koreans who were repatriated, including Kim Hyon-hui, a student of Yaeko Taguchi, revealed evidence about the whereabouts of Japanese citizens who had been kidnapped by North Korea.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Public Radio International reported in 2011 that Laos, along with Vietnam and Myanmar, were largely unsympathetic to North Korean refugees. In 2013 nine defectors were arrested and sent back to North Korea causing international outrage partially because one of the defectors is the son of a Japanese abductee.


title: North Korean defectors

text: A much shorter route than the standard China-Laos-Thailand route is straight to Mongolia, whose government tries to maintain good relations with both North and South Korea but is sympathetic to North Korean refugees. North Korean refugees who are caught in Mongolia are sent to South Korea, effectively granting them a free air ticket. However, using this route requires navigating the unforgiving terrain of the Gobi Desert. Also, tighter border control with China has made this route less common.


title: North Korean defectors

text: The Philippines has in the past been used as a transit point for North Korean refugees, often arriving from China and then being sent on to South Korea. A 2005 US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks suggested that for 2 years, the South Korean embassy in Beijing facilitated the transit of nearly 500 refugees annually to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for transfer to South Korea. As of 2010, there are 4,846 North Koreans in the Philippines. The country has been hard to reach due to the fact refugees have to cross China and get on a boat to the island chain nation.


title: North Korean defectors

text: A study by Kyung Hee University estimated that roughly 10,000 North Koreans live in the Russian Far East; many are escapees from North Korean work camps there. Both South Korean diplomatic missions and local ethnic Koreans are reluctant to provide them with any assistance; it is believed that North Korea ordered the assassination of South Korean consul Choi Duk-gun in 1996 as well as two private citizens in 1995, in response to their contact with the refugees. As of 1999, there were estimated to be only between 100 and 500 North Korean refugees in the area. In 2014, Russia and North Korea drafted an agreement to deport illegal immigrants found to be living in either country.


title: North Korean defectors

text: Thailand is generally the final destination of North Koreans escaping through China. While North Koreans are not given refugee status and are officially classified as illegal immigrants, the Thai government will deport them to South Korea instead of back to North Korea. This is because South Korea recognizes native Koreans from the entire Korean Peninsula as citizens. These North Korean escapees are subject to imprisonment for illegal entry; however, most of these sentences are suspended. Recognizing this, many North Koreans will in fact surrender themselves to the Royal Thai Police as soon as they cross the border into Thailand.


title: North Korean defectors

text: On 5 May 2006, unnamed North Koreans were granted refugee status by the United States, the first time the U.S. accepted refugees from there since President George W. Bush signed the North Korean Human Rights Act in October 2004. The group, which arrived from an unnamed Southeast Asian nation, included four women who said that they had been the victims of forced marriage. Since this first group of refugees, the U.S. has admitted approximately 170 North Korean refugees by 2014. Between 2004 and 2011, the U.S. has admitted only 122 North Korean refugees and only 25 have received political asylum. A number of North Koreans have entered illegally, estimated at 200, and generally settle in the ethnic Korean community in Los Angeles. An aunt and uncle of Kim Jong-un have lived in the United States since 1998.