همس القمر
14-10-2005, 05:08 PM
Name: David Robert Joseph Beckham .
Date of Birth: 02 May 1975
Birthplace: Leytonstone, London
Nationality: English
Height: 180 cm (5ft 11in)
Weight: 67 kg (10st)
Eyes: Green.
Hair: Brown.
Residence: Hertfordshire and Madrid (Spain).
Martial status: Married to Victoria.
Current club: Real Madrid (Spain).
Position: Midfield.
Squad number: 23
Career Highlights
Previous Clubs: *
Preston North End (England), Manchester United (England), Real Madrid (Spain)
1991 - Signs as trainee for Manchester United.
1992 - Wins FA Youth Cup.
1992 - Makes senior team debut with Manchester Utd in Coca Cola Cup.
1993 - Signs as professional for Manchester United.
1995 - Plays five games on loan to Preston North End.
1995 - Makes league debut for Manchester Utd against Leeds.
1996 - Manchester Utd win FA Premiership.
1996 - Manchester Utd win FA Cup.
1996 - Makes International debut for England against Moldova. *
• Player of the Month - August 1996
• Sky Sports/Panasonic Young Player award.
• Sky Sports/Panasonic Fans' Footballer award.
1997 - Manchester Utd win FA Charity Shield.
1997 - Manchester Utd win FA Premiership.
• PFA Young Player of the Year.
• Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year.
1999 - Manchester Utd win FA Premiership.
1999 - Manchester Utd win FA Cup.
1999 - Manchester Utd win UEFA Champions League.
• UEFA Most Valuable Player.
• UEFA Best Midfielder.
2000 - Manchester United win FA Premiership.
2000 - Appointed England national team captain.
• Voted second in World and European Player of the Year awards.
2001 - Manchester United win FA Premiership.
• Voted Sportsman of the Year by Sports Writers Association.
• Voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
• Voted second in FIFA World Player of the Year.
2003 - Manchester United win FA Premiership.
2003 - Beckham awarded OBE.
2003 - Signs for Real Madrid for £25m.
2003 - Makes his debut for Real Madrid against Dragon Team IX (China).
2003 - Scores his first goal for Real Madrid against FC Tokyo.
2003 - Makes his Spanish debut in friendly against Valencia.
2003 - Real Madrid win Spanish Super Cup.
2003 - Makes La Liga debut against Real Betis
Career History *
Love him or loathe him there is only one David Beckham. His footballing skill is without doubt a shining example for all other footballers to follow. And with every game he plays, be it domestic or international, his reputation, for producing only the best football and the scoring of some spectacular goals, gathers greater foundation.
David Beckham was born in Leytonstone on 02 May 1975. David and Manchester United first met when he became the TSB Bobby Charlton Soccer skills champion for his age group in December 1986 aged 11. The prize included a presentation at Old Trafford and a two-week trip to train with Terry Venables' Barcelona side at the Nou Camp. Attending every United game played in London he was made team mascot the following year for the game against West Ham.
After having trials with Leyton Orient and Tottenham Hotspur's school of excellence he joined Manchester United as a trainee on 8 July 1991. Thus fulfilling his dream of playing for the team he had supported and following in the footsteps of the players he had admired from afar. His success started almost immediately along with team mates, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes. They won the FA Youth Cup 1992.
This led to him making his first senior team debut on 23 September 1992, the following season, for a Rumbelows league cup match against Brighton and Hove Albion coming on late in the game for Andrei Kanchelskis.
Beckham became a professional player four months later but didn't get to play another senior team game for over another season. On 21 September 1994 he made his first full appearance against Port Vale in the League Cup. This was followed two months later with his first goal for United against Galatasaray in the Champions League. Despite winning the match 4-0, United were knocked out of the competition.
The 1994-1995 season saw Beckham play for two teams in two different divisions. To give him more experience Alex Ferguson loaned him to Preston North End in league Division 3. He played only five matches but scored two goals, the first in his first game for Preston against Doncaster Rovers having come on in the second half. His stay at Preston though was short lived and he was recalled to United to play in his Premiership debut against Leeds United on 2 April 1995.
His first Premiership goal came against Aston Villa in the first game of the 1995/1996 season. United were beaten that day and were chastised by Alan Hansen who stated "You can't win anything with kids". Beckham and the United team were to prove him very wrong. Scoring eight goals himself that season, United went on to win the Premiership and then the FA Cup, completing the double. The season saw David firmly established himself in the first team taking on the right midfield position with the departure of Andrei Kanchelskis.
The 1996/1997 season is where Beckham made his name and the start of his celebrity. Scoring in the Charity Shield match and defeat of Newcastle and then on to score the goal of the season against Wimbledon, in the first match, with a spectacular goal from the half-way line. These goals made him an instant household name. His form in this and previous seasons hadn't gone unrecognised and resulted in his call up for England.
Although he had represented England at under-21 level in the previous two seasons he made his first full international appearance against Moldova, a World Cup 98 qualification match. He was the only player to have started every qualifying game for France 98 and ended the season winning the Premiership with United and being voted by his peers as the PFA Young Player of the Year and second in the Player of the Year voting.
The following season was controversial and not one Beckham would want to remember.
The season was hard - United were knocked out of the Champions League by Monaco and they lost the Premiership title to Arsenal by one point. World Cup 98 in France was to prove more demanding. He was left out of the starting line up in the first two games but scored a beautiful free kick against Colombia. However, four days later he made himself a national pariah through being sent off for aiming a kick at Argentina's Diego Simone. It was the first sending-off of his professional career.
Undeterred Beckham knuckled down and proved all the critics wrong. In his first match of the 1998/1999 season he scored one of his trademark free kicks against Leicester. It would be the start of his best season yet. United got into temendous form and went on to win the Premiership title and the FA Cup. The seasons' successes were not over. In perhaps one of the best Champions League finals of recent years two goals from Sheringham and Solskjaer in the final minutes of the game, against Bayern Munich, won United the European Cup and an amazing treble. That same year David had become a father to Brooklyn in March 1999 and then in July married Victoria Adams of the Spice Girls. His rehabilitation was complete.
The following season was mixed. United went on to win the 1999/2000 season Premiership title but lost out to Real Madrid for the European Cup. England's Euro 2000 campaign did not live up to expectations but United's dominance of domestic football was unquestioned. Beckham was rapidly becoming a number one celebrity in the press and went on to come second to Rivaldo in the voting for World and European Player of the Year as well as runner-up in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
The following seasons saw Beckham rise to new heights. The arrival of Sven Goran Eriksson as the new England manager saw Beckham take up the role of England Captain with both bringing a new fresh vigour to the national team. Beckham single-handedly scoring a crucial goal against Greece to send England to the World Cup Finals in Korea/Japan. But not everything went all smoothly as Beckham was to break a toe bone in a Champions League match and the nation held it's breath to see if it would heal in time for the finals. Needless to say it did just that and 'Captain Fantastic' led England to the Quarter finals only to be defeated by the eventual champions - Brazil.
Beckham was now at a sporting and celebrity high and this was reflected in his growing following on the pitch but more intensely off it. It was this "celebrity factor" which began to put Beckham out of favour in the eyes of Alex Ferguson. Beckham continued to give his all on the pitch but was increasingly seen by the United manager as giving England and his celebrity lifestyle more of a priority than United. This of course wasn't the case but resulted in Beckham being left on the sidelines against Real Madrid in the Champions League and a reported rift between tha player and manager developed after a dressing room "incident" where Beckham was hit in the face by a boot kicked by Ferguson.
United and Beckham went on to win the 2003 Premiership title but press reports on the rift and speculation on a possible transfer grew and grew. It all came toa head in June whilst David was on a promotional tour in the USA. Barcelona's presidential candidate Joan Laporta announced he would sign Beckham if elected and to everyone's suprise Manchester United agreed to sell Beckham in such an event. In a counter move Beckham announced that he would sign a four year contract with Real Madrid for a fee of £25m. The Beckham and United love affair was at an end.
Beckham now starts a new chapter in his career. Despite his new haircuts and his star status, he will not detract from his football for which he continues to tune and perfect.
عن ديفيد بيكهام
انا توني مسويته اذا انتي من مدرسة النور لا تسوينه
لانه مثلي
تحياتي
.. هذا عن نلسون مانديلا ..
Profile of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Nelson Mandela's greatest pleasure, his most private moment, is watching the sun set with the music of Handel or Tchaikovsky playing.
Locked up in his cell during daylight hours, deprived of music, both these simple pleasures were denied him for decades. With his fellow prisoners, concerts were organised when possible, particularly at Christmas time, where they would sing. Nelson Mandela finds music very uplifting, and takes a keen interest not only in European classical music but also in African choral music and the many talents in South African music. But one voice stands out above all - that of Paul Robeson, whom he describes as our hero.
The years in jail reinforced habits that were already entrenched: the disciplined eating regime of an athlete began in the 1940s, as did the early morning exercise. Still today Nelson Mandela is up by 4.30am, irrespective of how late he has worked the previous evening. By 5am he has begun his exercise routine that lasts at least an hour. Breakfast is by 6.30, when the days newspapers are read. The day s work has begun.
With a standard working day of at least 12 hours, time management is critical and Nelson Mandela is extremely impatient with unpunctuality, regarding it as insulting to those you are dealing with.
When speaking of the extensive travelling he has undertaken since his release from prison, Nelson Mandela says: I was helped when preparing for my release by the biography of Pandit Nehru, who wrote of what happens when you leave jail. My daughter Zinzi says that she grew up without a father, who, when he returned, became a father of the nation. This has placed a great responsibility of my shoulders. And wherever I travel, I immediately begin to miss the familiar - the mine dumps, the colour and smell that is uniquely South African, and, above all, the people. I do not like to be away for any length of time. For me, there is no place like home.
Mandela accepted the Nobel Peace Prize as an accolade to all people who have worked for peace and stood against racism. It was as much an award to his person as it was to the ANC and all South Africa s people. In particular, he regards it as a tribute to the people of Norway who stood against apartheid while many in the world were silent.
We know it was Norway that provided resources for farming; thereby enabling us to grow food; resources for education and vocational training and the provision of accommodation over the years in exile. The reward for all this sacrifice will be the attainment of freedom and democracy in South Africa, in an open society which respects the rights of all individuals. That goal is now in sight, and we have to thank the people and governments of Norway and Sweden for the tremendous role they played.
Personal Tastes
Breakfast of plain porridge, with fresh fruit and fresh milk.
A favourite is the traditionally prepared meat of a freshly slaughtered sheep, and the delicacy Amarhewu (fermented corn-meal).
Biographical Details
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in a village near Umtata in the Transkei on the 18 July 1918. His father was the principal councillor to the Acting Paramount Chief of Thembuland. After his father s death, the young Rolihlahla became the Paramount Chief s ward to be groomed to assume high office. However, influenced by the cases that came before the Chief s court, he determined to become a lawyer. Hearing the elders stories of his ancestors valour during the wars of resistance in defence of their fatherland, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.
After receiving a primary education at a local mission school, Nelson Mandela was sent to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute where he matriculated. He then enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare for the Bachelor of Arts Degree where he was elected onto the Student's Representative Council. He was suspended from college for joining in a protest boycott. He went to Johannesburg where he completed his BA by correspondence, took articles of clerkship and commenced study for his LLB. He entered politics in earnest while studying in Johannesburg by joining the African National Congress in 1942.
At the height of the Second World War a small group of young Africans, members of the African National Congress, banded together under the leadership of Anton Lembede. Among them were William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver R. Tambo, Ashby P. Mda and Nelson Mandela. Starting out with 60 members, all of whom were residing around the Witwatersrand, these young people set themselves the formidable task of transforming the ANC into a mass movement, deriving its strength and motivation from the unlettered millions of working people in the towns and countryside, the peasants in the rural areas and the professionals.
Their chief contention was that the political tactics of the old guard' leadership of the ANC, reared in the tradition of constitutionalism and polite petitioning of the government of the day, were proving inadequate to the tasks of national emancipation. In opposition to the old guard', Lembede and his colleagues espoused a radical African Nationalism grounded in the principle of national self-determination. In September 1944 they came together to found the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).
Mandela soon impressed his peers by his disciplined work and consistent effort and was elected to the Secretaryship of the Youth League in 1947. By painstaking work, campaigning at the grassroots and through its mouthpiece Inyaniso' (Truth) the ANCYL was able to canvass support for its policies amongst the ANC membership. At the 1945 annual conference of the ANC, two of the League s leaders, Anton Lembede and Ashby Mda, were elected onto the National Executive Committee (NEC). Two years later another Youth League leader, Oliver R Tambo became a member of the NEC.
Spurred on by the victory of the National Party which won the 1948 all-White elections on the platform of Apartheid, at the 1949 annual conference, the Programme of Action, inspired by the Youth League, which advocated the weapons of boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non-co-operation was accepted as official ANC policy.
The Programme of Action had been drawn up by a sub-committee of the ANCYL composed of David Bopape, Ashby Mda, Nelson Mandela, James Njongwe, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. To ensure its implementation the membership replaced older leaders with a number of younger men. Walter Sisulu, a founding member of the Youth League was elected Secretary-General. The conservative Dr A.B. Xuma lost the presidency to Dr J.S. Moroka, a man with a reputation for greater militancy. The following year, 1950, Mandela himself was elected to the NEC at national conference.
The ANCYL programme aimed at the attainment of full citizenship, direct parliamentary representation for all South Africans. In policy documents of which Mandela was an important co-author, the ANCYL paid special attention to the redistribution of the land, trade union rights, education and culture. The ANCYL aspired to free and compulsory education for all children, as well as mass education for adults.
When the ANC launched its Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws in 1952, Mandela was elected National Volunteer-in-Chief. The Defiance Campaign was conceived as a mass civil disobedience campaign that would snowball from a core of selected volunteers to involved more and more ordinary people, culminating in mass defiance. Fulfilling his responsibility as Volunteer-in-Chief, Mandela travelled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation. Charged and brought to trial for his role in the campaign, the court found that Mandela and his co-accused had consistently advised their followers to adopt a peaceful course of action and to avoid all violence.
For his part in the Defiance Campaign, Mandela was convicted of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act and given a suspended prison sentence. Shortly after the campaign ended, he was also prohibited from attending gatherings and confined to Johannesburg for six months.
During this period of restrictions, Mandela wrote the attorneys admission examination and was admitted to the profession. He opened a practice in Johannesburg, in partnership with Oliver Tambo. In recognition of his outstanding contribution during the Defiance Campaign Mandela had been elected to the presidency of both the Youth League and the Transvaal region of the ANC at the end of 1952, he thus became a deputy president of the ANC itself.
Of their law practice, Oliver Tambo, ANC National Chairman at the time of his death in April 1993, has written:
To reach our desks each morning Nelson and I ran the gauntlet of patient queues of people overflowing from the chairs in the waiting room into the corridors... To be landless (in South Africa) can be a crime, and weekly we interviewed the delegations of peasants who came to tell us how many generations their families had worked a little piece of land from which they were now being ejected... To live in the wrong area can be a crime... Our buff office files carried thousands of these stories and if, when we started our law partnership, we had not been rebels against apartheid, our experiences in our offices would have remedied the deficiency. We had risen to professional status in our community, but every case in court, every visit to the prisons to interview clients, reminded us of the humiliation and suffering burning into our people.
Nor did their professional status earn Mandela and Tambo any personal immunity from the brutal apartheid laws. They fell foul of the land segregation legislation, and the authorities demanded that they move their practice from the city to the back of beyond, as Mandela later put it, miles away from where clients could reach us during working hours. This was tantamount to asking us to abandon our legal practice, to give up the legal service of our people... No attorney worth his salt would easily agree to do that, said Mandela and the partnership resolved to defy the law.
Nor was the government alone in trying to frustrate Mandela s legal practice. On the grounds of his conviction under the Suppression of Communism Act, the Transvaal Law Society petitioned the Supreme Court to strike him off the roll of attorneys. The petition was refused with Mr Justice Ramsbottom finding that Mandela had been moved by a desire to serve his black fellow citizens and nothing he had done showed him to be unworthy to remain in the ranks of an honourable profession.
In 1952 Nelson Mandela was given the responsibility to prepare an organisational plan that would enable the leadership of the movement to maintain dynamic contact with its membership without recourse to public meetings. The objective was to prepare for the contingency of proscription by building up powerful local and regional branches to whom power could be devolved. This was the M-Plan, named after him.
During the early fifties Mandela played an important part in leading the resistance to the Western Areas removals and to the introduction of Bantu Education. He also played a significant role in popularising the Freedom Charter, adopted by the Congress of the People in 1955.
In the late fifties, Mandela s attention turned to the struggles against the exploitation of labour, the pass laws, the nascent Bantustan policy, and the segregation of the open universities. Mandela arrived at the conclusion very early on that the Bantustan policy was a political swindle and an economic absurdity. He predicted, with dismal prescience, that ahead there lay a grim programme of mass evictions, political persecutions, and police terror. On the segregation of the universities, Mandela observed that the friendship and inter-racial harmony that is forged through the admixture and association of various racial groups at the mixed universities constitute a direct threat to the policy of apartheid and baasskap, and that it was to remove that threat that the open universities were being closed to black students.
During the whole of the fifties, Mandela was the victim of various forms of repression. He was banned, arrested and imprisoned. For much of the latter half of the decade, he was one of the accused in the mammoth Treason Trial, at great cost to his legal practice and his political work. After the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, the ANC was outlawed, and Mandela, still on trial, was detained.
The Treason Trial collapsed in 1961 as South Africa was being steered towards the adoption of the republic constitution. With the ANC now illegal the leadership picked up the threads from its underground headquarters. Nelson Mandela emerged at this time as the leading figure in this new phase of struggle. Under the ANC's inspiration, 1,400 delegates came together at an All-in African Conference in Pietermaritzburg during March 1961. Mandela was the keynote speaker. In an electrifying address he challenged the apartheid regime to convene a national convention, representative of all South Africans to thrash out a new constitution based on democratic principles. Failure to comply, he warned, would compel the majority (Blacks) to observe the forthcoming inauguration of the Republic with a mass general strike. He immediately went underground to lead the campaign. Although fewer answered the call than Mandela had hoped, it attracted considerable support throughout the country. The government responded with the largest military mobilisation since the war, and the Republic was born in an atmosphere of fear and apprehension.
Forced to live apart from his family, moving from place to place to evade detection by the government s ubiquitous informers and police spies, Mandela had to adopt a number of disguises. Sometimes dressed as a common labourer, at other times as a chauffeur, his successful evasion of the police earned him the title of the Black Pimpernel. It was during this time that he, together with other leaders of the ANC constituted a new specialised section of the liberation movement, Umkhonto we Sizwe, as an armed nucleus with a view to preparing for armed struggle. At the Rivonia trial, Mandela explained : "At the beginning of June 1961, after long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I and some colleagues came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force.
It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle, and to form Umkhonto we Sizwe...the Government had left us no other choice."
In 1961 Umkhonto we Sizwe was formed, with Mandela as its commander-in-chief. In 1962 Mandela left the country unlawfully and travelled abroad for several months. In Ethiopia he addressed the Conference of the Pan African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa, and was warmly received by senior political leaders in several countries. During this trip Mandela, anticipating an intensification of the armed struggle, began to arrange guerrilla training for members of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Not long after his return to South Africa Mandela was arrested and charged with illegal exit from the country, and incitement to strike.
Since he considered the prosecution a trial of the aspirations of the African people, Mandela decided to conduct his own defence. He applied for the recusal of the magistrate, on the ground that in such a prosecution a judiciary controlled entirely by whites was an interested party and therefore could not be impartial, and on the ground that he owed no duty to obey the laws of a white parliament, in which he was not represented.
Mandela prefaced this challenge with the affirmation: I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.
Mandela was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment. While serving his sentence he was charged, in the Rivonia Trial, with sabotage. Mandela s statements in court during these trials are classics in the history of the resistance to apartheid, and they have been an inspiration to all who have opposed it. His statement from the dock in the Rivonia Trial ends with these words:
I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and started his prison years in the notorious Robben Island Prison, a maximum security prison on a small island 7Km off the coast near Cape Town. In April 1984 he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town and in December 1988 he was moved the Victor Verster Prison near Paarl from where he was eventually released. While in prison, Mandela flatly rejected offers made by his jailers for remission of sentence in exchange for accepting the bantustan policy by recognising the independence of the Transkei and agreeing to settle there. Again in the 'eighties Mandela rejected an offer of release on condition that he renounce violence. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Only free men can negotiate, he said.
Released on 11 February 1990, Mandela plunged wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after being banned for decades, Nelson Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.
Nelson Mandela has never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite terrible provocation, he has never answered racism with racism. His life has been an inspiration, in South Africa and throughout the world, to all who are oppressed and deprived, to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.
In a life that symbolises the triumph of the human spirit over man s inhumanity to man, Nelson Mandela accepted the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace to our land.
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A Brief Biography
Mandela's words, "The struggle is my life," are not to be taken lightly.
Nelson Mandela personifies struggle. He is still leading the fight against apartheid with extraordinary vigour and resilience after spending nearly three decades of his life behind bars. He has sacrificed his private life and his youth for his people, and remains South Africa's best known and loved hero.
Mandela has held numerous positions in the ANC: ANCYL secretary (1948); ANCYL president (1950); ANC Transvaal president (1952); deputy national president (1952) and ANC president (1991).
He was born at Qunu, near Umtata on 18 July 1918.
His father, Henry Mgadla Mandela, was chief councillor to Thembuland's acting paramount chief David Dalindyebo. When his father died, Mandela became the chief's ward and was groomed for the chieftainship.
Mandela matriculated at Healdtown Methodist Boarding School and then started a BA degree at Fort Hare. As an SRC member he participated in a student strike and was expelled, along with the late Oliver Tambo, in 1940. He completed his degree by correspondence from Johannesburg, did articles of clerkship and enrolled for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand.
In 1944 he helped found the ANC Youth League, whose Programme of Action was adopted by the ANC in 1949.
Mandela was elected national volunteer-in-chief of the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He travelled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation.
He was given a suspended sentence for his part in the campaign. Shortly afterwards a banning order confined him to Johannesburg for six months. During this period he formulated the "M Plan", in terms of which ANC branches were broken down into underground cells.
By 1952 Mandela and Tambo had opened the first black legal firm in the country, and Mandela was both Transvaal president of the ANC and deputy national president.
A petition by the Transvaal Law Society to strike Mandela off the roll of attorneys was refused by the Supreme Court.
In the 'fifties, after being forced through constant bannings to resign officially from the ANC, Mandela analysed the Bantustan policy as a political swindle. He predicted mass removals, political persecutions and police terror.
For the second half of the 'fifties, he was one of the accused in the Treason Trial. With Duma Nokwe, he conducted the defence.
When the ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, he was detained until 1961 when he went underground to lead a campaign for a new national convention.
Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC, was born the same year. Under his leadership it launched a campaign of sabotage against government and economic installations.
In 1962 Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria and to arrange training for other MK members.
On his return he was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He conducted his own defence. He was convicted and jailed for five years in November 1962. While serving his sentence, he was charged, in the Rivonia trial, with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment.
A decade before being imprisoned, Mandela had spoken out against the introduction of Bantu Education, recommending that community activists "make every home, every shack or rickety structure a centre of learning".
Robben Island, where he was imprisoned, became a centre for learning, and Mandela was a central figure in the organised political education classes.
In prison Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other prisoners.
During the 'seventies he refused the offer of a remission of sentence if he recognised Transkei and settled there.
In the 'eighties he again rejected PW Botha's offer of freedom if he renounced violence.
It is significant that shortly after his release on Sunday 11 February 1990, Mandela and his delegation agreed to the suspension of armed struggle.
Mandela has honorary degrees from more than 50 international universities and is chancellor of the University of the North.
He was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994 - June 1999
Nelson Mandela retired from Public life in June 1999. He currently resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei.
انتهى
The Dolphins
Dolphins are delicate creatures that have a long history. They can live almost everywhere on earth except the Polar Regions. They have great adaptability for climate changes.
Dolphins Thought to be one of the most intelligent and beautiful creatures in our oceans and rivers, dolphins also take on a persona that is adored worldwide. We see them jumping, playing, and even hear them laughing as they have fun in the ocean. Dolphins are some of the most highly intelligent creatures on earth. These warm-blooded mammals belong to a group of mammals called Cetaceans which also encompass all whales. Dolphins are referred to as "toothed whales" or Odontocetes differentiated from Baleen whales which have horny plates connected to their upper jaw.
Dolphins come in many colors from the black and white Killer whale (which is actually in the dolphin family) to the False Killer whales and Pilot whales which are almost solid black.
There are 67 total species of dolphins 32 of them oceanic with River dolphins, Sperm whales, Beaked whales, Beluga, Narwhal and Porpoises rounding out the other 35 species. Porpoises are often confused with dolphins, but while dolphins have rounded interlocking teeth, porpoise teeth are squared. Pacific Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) are the variety most commonly observed in and around the Banderas Bay area.
Migration and Distribution:
Bottlenose dolphins inhabit temperate and tropical waters throughout the world - from deep ocean waters to harbors, bays, lagoons, gulfs and estuaries. In general, the coastal ecotype seems to be adapted for warm, shallow waters. Its smaller body and larger flippers suggest increased maneuverability and heat dissipation. The offshore ecotype seems to be adapted for cooler, deeper waters, with a larger body that helps conserve heat and defend against predators
Variations in water temperature, migration of food fish and feeding habits account for the seasonal movements of some dolphins to and from certain areas. Some coastal animals stay within a limited home range (an area in which individuals or groups regularly move about during day-to-day activities). Home ranges may overlap although most dolphins undergo seasonal movements, probably as a response to variations in water temperature and food availability.
The worldwide population of Bottlenose dolphins is unknown. Specific Bottlenose dolphin populations have been approximated in a few areas, and based on those calculations the Bottlenose dolphin population worldwide is estimated to be near 125,000. Although protected by laws in many countries, Bottlenose dolphins are not endangered.
Reproduction:
On the west coast of Mexico calving generally happens in the fall months. Deliveries can be either tail or head first. "Auntie" dolphins, either male or female may assist with the birth and are generally the only other dolphin allowed near the calf. Dolphins have a relatively close relationship with their offspring with a long period of parental care through maturation. Dolphins are birthed like most mammals via the birth canal in the female abdomen. Generally there is only a single offspring.
When a new baby dolphin is born it immediately heads for the surface of the water with the help of its mother for its first breath. It is nursed on the surface as the mother turns on her side to allow the calf to breathe easily while nursing.
The baby will generally nurse for up to 18 months, while the milk, which is about 33% fat helps the calf establish a thick layer of blubber for insulation. The rapid growth of the baby dolphin is related largely to the high fat, calcium and phosphorus ******* of the mother's milk. In zoological environs calves can start to take a few fish at about 90 to 120 days. Mother-calf bonds are long-lasting with calves staying with their mother 3 to 6 years or more. An average bottlenose dolphin calf is a little over 3 feet at birth and can grow to eight or nine feet long. After the gestation period that ranges from 9.5 to 17 months.
Where am I?
Although the dolphins have large eyes located near the corners of their mouths with acute vision both in and out of the water, a great deal of their ******** of food is done through echo********. The term echo******** refers to an ability that dolphins possess that enables them essentially to "see" with their ears by listening for echoes. Dolphins echo locate by producing clicking sounds and then receiving and interpreting the resulting echo. Dolphins produce directional clicks in trains. Each click lasts far less than a second.
The click trains pass through the melon (the rounded region of a dolphin's forehead), which is made up mostly of fatty tissue. The melon acts as an acoustical lens to focus these sound waves into a beam, which is projected forward into water in front of the animal. Sound waves travel through water at a speed of about one mile per second which is 4.5 times faster than sound traveling through air. These sound waves bounce off objects in the water and return to the dolphin in the form of an echo.
High frequency sounds don't travel far in water. Because of their longer wavelength and greater energy, low frequency sounds travel farther. Echo******** is most effective at about 5 to 200 m for objects about 2 to 6 inches in length. The returning sound is received in the fatty portions of the lower jaw where they are then sent to the ear and onto the brain.
Through this echo******** dolphins are able to determine the size, shape, direction and speed of objects in the water. Many details of this ability in dolphins have yet to be understood fully by science.
Dolphin Talk:
Bottlenose dolphins identify themselves with a signature whistle. However, scientists have found no evidence of a dolphin ********. Sounds are probably produced by movements of air in the trachea and nasal sacs. During some vocalizations, Bottlenose dolphins actually release air from the blowhole, but scientists believe that these bubble trails and clouds are a visual display and not necessary for producing sound.
Bottlenose dolphins produce clicks and sounds that resemble moans, trills, grunts, squeaks, and creaking doors. They also produce whistles. They make these sounds at any time and at considerable depths. The sounds vary in volume, wavelength, frequency, and pattern. A mother dolphin may whistle to her calf almost continuously for several days after giving birth. This acoustic imprinting helps the calf learn to identify its mother.
The Senses:
The dolphin's senses are very highly developed, with acute hearing, eyesight and sense of touch. Like all toothed whales dolphins have a limited sense of smell. Little is known about a dolphin's sense of taste, although they do have taste buds and show strong preferences for certain types of food fishes.
Going for a Swim:
Bottlenose dolphins can often be found "surfing" on the bow of a boat, this is done for the purpose of "hitching a ride" on the currents pushed forward by the boat and considered to be good luck by boaters around the world. The bottlenose routinely swims at speeds of about 3 to 7 miles per hour and can burst to speeds of 18 to 22 miles per hour for short periods.
Although Bottlenose dolphins generally do not need to dive very deep to catch their food, they regularly dive to depths of up to 150 feet. Under experimental conditions a deep trained dive was made to over 1,700 feet. They can dive for up to 8 to ten minutes and maintain a slower heartbeat while diving to slow the metabolism of oxygen.
Dolphins are quite acrobatic and can be seen doing complex and artful aerial maneuvers that awe spectators both in marine parks and in the wild. They are able to execute spins and flips that place them well out of the water during mating, demonstrations of hierarchical dominance or even just while being playful.
Family Ties:
Dolphins live in groups referred to as pods. Pods are coherent, long-term social units that vary in size and structure although composition is largely based on age, sex and reproductive condition. Many pods are composed of mother-calf pairs and pods of mature females and their recent offspring while others occur in mixed-sex and single sex groups. Some adult males are observed to be alone, in pairs or occasional trios, moving between female groups in their age range, pairing up with females for brief periods. Adult males rarely associate with sub-adult males. Does this sound familiar? At times several pods may join for short periods to form herds or aggregations of up to several hundred animals. This is seen often and throughout the year in our bay. Whatever the size of the group, social hierarchy may often be observed in bottlenose dolphins.
A Long, Full Life:
Census data from various conservation organizations and scientific study of dental material suggests that the average lifespan of a Bottlenose dolphin is about 20 years or less. While currently not endangered, it is important for us all to help conserve this beautiful creature. Their predators are generally various types of sharks, killer whales and disease such as bacteria and parasites. Pollution is also a factor in many areas, having caused the deaths of large numbers of dolphins in coastal areas. Many conservation organizations are making efforts to prevent this type of ecological disaster.