vips

LETTER N° 23

From 03 to 09 June

03
Peru

Presidential election. Results :

Alejandro Toledo wins the presidential election runoff with about 52% of the vote, against 48% for Alan García.

One of 16 children, Toledo was born and raised in the grimy port village of Chimbote. His father was a bricklayer and his mother sold fish at markets, and he himself worked as a shoeshine boy. At age 16, with the guidance of members of the Peace Corps, Toledo enrolled at the University of San Francisco on a one-year scholarship. He continued his education, obtaining a partial soccer scholarship and making up the difference by pumping gas. In addition to two masters degrees, he earned a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford, where he met his wife, Elaine Karp, a Belgian-born American anthropologist. Currently a business-school professor, Toledo previously served as chief economic adviser to the president of the Central Bank and minister of labor under President Fernando Belaúnde. He also did a stint at the World Bank.

03
Somaliland

Referendum. Results :

The authorities in the self-declared independent state of Somaliland, in northwestern Somalia, have announced that the final results of referendum showed that 97.09 percent of the voters supported the new constitution, a senior official told IRIN.

The new constitution contains a clause which confirms Somaliland's independence. Somaliland declared unilateral independence in May 1991, but has so far received no international recognition.

04
Nepal

Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah becomes king.

05
Turkey

Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit sacks Interior Minister Sadettin Tantan and replaces him with Rüstü Kazim Yücelen.

05
Canada

(British Columbia)

Gordon Campbell is sworn in as premier.

Born Jan. 12, 1948 and raised in British Columbia, Gordon Campbell attended school in Vancouver. After graduation, he was offered a scholarship to Dartmouth College and he graduated in 1970 with a B.A. in English. Soon after graduation, Campbell married his current wife, Nancy. The two of them soon moved to Nigeria, where he taught English and History as well as coaching basketball and track for the Canadian University Services Overseas. Campbell spent two years in Nigeria before returning to Vancouver. Between 1972 and 1976 he served as an assistant to former Vancouver mayor Art Phillips. In 1976, Campbell began work at Marathon Realty and in 1981, he formed his own realty company. 1984 marked Campbell's first step into politics. He ran for Vancouver city council and won his seat. In 1986 he was elected mayor and served three consecutive terms in office. Campbell moved into provincial politics in 1993 when he was elected the leader of the B.C. Liberal party. He was elected to the legislature in 1994 and led his party into the 1996 election where they won 33 seats with 41.8% of the vote. He now serves as the Leader of the Opposition.

05
U. S. A.

(Los Angeles)

Mayoral election. Results :

City Attorney James K. Hahn was elected mayor of Los Angeles 54%, defeating former state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa 46%, who had sought to become the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century. He will take office July 1.

Jim Hahn was born on July 3, 1950, to Kenneth and Ramona Hahn, and has been a lifelong resident of Los Angeles. Hahn attended Los Angeles city schools and graduated Magnum Cum Laude from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles where he majored in English and minored in journalism. Hahn graduated from Pepperdine Law School with a Juris Doctor degree in 1975 and was admitted to the California Bar later that same year. After being admitted to the California Bar, Hahn joined the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office in 1975 and worked as a city prosecutor for four years. The people of Los Angeles elected Hahn to the Office of City Controller on June 2, 1981 on his first run for public office. On April 9, 1985, Hahn was elected Los Angeles City Attorney in the primary election, and was sworn in on July 1 of that year. He has since been re-elected to three additional four-year terms--in the April 1989 primary election, when he was unopposed, and the April 1993 and April 1997 primary elections. He was sworn in on July 1, 1997, to begin his fourth and final term as City Attorney which expires on July 1, 2001.

07
Bolivia

Former president (1952-56, 1960-64, 1985-89) Víctor Paz Estenssoro dies.

Víctor Paz Estenssoro born in Tarija, Bolivia in 1907. An attorney and economist, he was a founder (1941) of the National Revolutionary Movement (MNR). He helped lead the revolt that brought the party into power in 1943, but he was forced to flee to Argentina in 1946. While in exile he was elected (1951) president of Bolivia. The army annulled the election, provoking a bloody but successful MNR revolt (Apr., 1952), which gave Paz the presidency. Paz immediately launched a program of revolutionary measures. He expropriated the largest tin mines and improved the lot of the Bolivians of indigenous descent by granting them suffrage and instituting land, educational, and welfare reforms. Prohibited a second consecutive term by the constitution, he was succeeded (1956) by his vice president, Hernán Siles Zuazo. Paz was reelected president in 1960, at which time he was faced with a deteriorating economy and a growing rift within the MNR. He aroused considerable opposition by amending the constitution to permit his reelection in 1964, and although he was reelected, both the right and the left factions bolted his party. In Nov., 1964, Paz was ousted by a military coup. He later settled in Peru, returning to Bolivia in 1971. At the age of 77 he was again elected (1985) president. In his last term he instituted a sweeping austerity program, reducing the government's role in the economy and controlling inflation, but with enormous social costs.In 6 August 1989 Jaime Paz Zamora is new President of Bolivia.

07
United Kingdom

Parliamentary elections. Results :

Labour Party wins 413 of 659 seats (42.1% of the vote), the Conservative Party 166 (32.7%), the Liberal Democrats 52 (18.8%), Ulster Unionist Party 6, Scottish National Party 5, Democratic Unionist Party 5, Plaid Cymru 4, Sinn Féin 4, Social Democratic and Labour Party 3, independent 1. Turnout is about 60%.

07
Ireland

Referendum about Nice Treaty.

The vote, 54 percent opposed to the treaty and 46 percent in favor of it, will surely delay plans to expand the European Union.

08
Iran

Presidential election. Results :

Mohammad Khatami wins more than 75% of the vote, followed by Ahmad Tavakoli with just over 15% and Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani with about 3%.

Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami, the fifth President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was born in Ardakan, in the central Province of Yazd in 1943 to a religious family. Son of respected Ayatollah Ruhollah Khatami, President Khatami finished his early school years in his homeland. Then he entered Qom Theology School in 1961. Later, he received his B.A in philosophy from Isfahan University,and completed the senior level of religious studies at Qom Seminary. Having entered the post-graduate course in educational sciences at Tehran University in 1970 he later returned to Qom to study the courses in Ijtihad ( Practice of religious leadership ) at the Seminary. President Khatami was involved in political activities and anti-Shah campaign by preparing, duplicating and distributing political statements, especially those issued by the Founder of the Islamic Republic, late Imam Khomeini. He began his political activities at the Association of Muslim Students of Isfahan University, worked closely with Imam Khomeini's late son, Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Khomeini and Martyr Mohammad Montazeri and organized religious and political debates. President Khatami chaired the Islamic Center of Hamburg in Germany before the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution an the recommendation of Martyr Mohammad Beheshti. The Center turned into an Islamic campaign center when the late Imam Khomeini went to France. He represented Ardakan and Meibod constituencies in the first term of the Majlis [Parliament] in 1980. He was appointed as the head of Kayhan Institute by late Imam Khomeini in 1981. In 1982, he was appointed minister of culture and Islamic guidance during the premiership of Mirhossein Mousavi. During the 1980 - 1988 Iraqi imposed war, he served at different resonsibilities including deputy and head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces and chairman of the War Propaganda Headquarters. He was once again appointed minister of culture and Islamic guidance by President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1989. Following his resignation in 1992, President Khatami was appointed as cultural advisor to President Rafsanjani and head of Iran's National Library He is acquainted with three languages , English, German and Arabic. He has written number of books and articles in different fields. He married in 1974 and has two daughters and a son.

08
United Kingdom

Prime Minister Tony Blair unveils his new cabinet.

SEE NEW GOVERNMENT

This week :

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EGYPT

THIS WEEK'S STORY

June 6, 1683

The Ashmolean opens

The Ashmolean, the world's first university museum, opens in Oxford, England. At the time of the English Restoration, Oxford was the center of scientific activity in England. In 1677, English archaeologist Elias Ashmole donated his collection of curiosities to Oxford University, and the school's directors planned the construction of a building to display the items permanently. Acclaimed English architect Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned for the job, and on June 6, 1683, the Ashmolean opened. The first modern museum, the Ashmolean was designed to display its collections, organized so that Oxford University could use it for teaching purposes, and was regularly opened to the public. In 1845, architect Charles R. Cockerell completed the construction of a new home for the museum's rapidly growing collection on Oxford's Beaumont Street. Today, the collection at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology ranges in time from the earliest implements of man, made about 500,000 years ago, to 20th century works of art. Among the collection of antiquities and artwork are curiosities like Guy Fawkes' lantern and relics like the Alfred Jewel.

Elias Ashmole, the antiquary, was born in Breadmarket Street In 1617, the son of a saddler and a lady of good family. He attended Lichfield Grammar School and showed promise in several scholarly fields and in music. In the years leading up to the English Civil War he worked in London as a lawyer, but soon after the outbreak of war he moved to Oxford where he was in communication with the Royalist armies in Lichfield. Also at Oxford he began his passionate interest in astrology and other magical studies. After returning to London in 1646 he added botany, alchemy, anatomy, logic and medicine to his varied list of interests. His first wife, Eleanor had died in 1641 in childbirth, and by his second marriage to Lady Manwaring, a lady 20 years his senior, he was able, with the help of her wealth, to form an important collection of astrological, medical and historical manuscripts. His collection was enormously enriched in 1659 when the famous botanist, John Tradescant, presented his natural history specimens to Ashmole. After the Restoration of Charles II, Ashmole's loyalty was rewarded by being made Windsor Herald, a post which enabled him to continue his research into the Order of the Garter. In 1672 these led to the publication of his most famous work, 'The Institutions, Laws and Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter'. Despite his attachment to magic, he was a founder member of the Royal Society, a group dedicated to practical scientific research. In 1675 Ashmole began to make arrangements for his scholarly collection to be handed over to Oxford University, where it was to be housed in a special museum. This building - now known as the Old Ashmolean -was completed in 1683, the first public museum in the British Isles. As befitted a man with Ashmole's intense curiosity, it was also to be a centre for scientific research and remained so for over a century and a half. Ashmole did not forget his native city; as well as charitable gifts, he gave several music manuscripts to the Cathedral, and a beautiful silver drinking vessel to the city, the Ashmole Cup, which can still be seen in the Treasury in the Lichfield Heritage Centre.

SEE Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

ALSO SEE

Chiefs of State and Heads of Government Foreign Affairs World Parliaments Federated States and Provinces World Governments International Organizations

03 Peru		Presidential election. Results : Alejandro Toledo wins the presidential election runoff with about 52% of the vote, against 48% for Alan García. One of 16 children, Toledo was born and raised in the grimy port village of Chimbote. His father was a bricklayer and his mother sold fish at markets, and he himself worked as a shoeshine boy. At age 16, with the guidance of members of the Peace Corps, Toledo enrolled at the University of San Francisco on a one-year scholarship. He continued his education, obtaining a partial soccer scholarship and making up the difference by pumping gas. In addition to two masters degrees, he earned a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford, where he met his wife, Elaine Karp, a Belgian-born American anthropologist. Currently a business-school professor, Toledo previously served as chief economic adviser to the president of the Central Bank and minister of labor under President Fernando Belaúnde. He also did a stint at the World Bank.
03 Somaliland		Referendum. Results : The authorities in the self-declared independent state of Somaliland, in northwestern Somalia, have announced that the final results of referendum showed that 97.09 percent of the voters supported the new constitution, a senior official told IRIN. The new constitution contains a clause which confirms Somaliland's independence. Somaliland declared unilateral independence in May 1991, but has so far received no international recognition.
04 Nepal		Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah becomes king.
05 Turkey		Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit sacks Interior Minister Sadettin Tantan and replaces him with Rüstü Kazim Yücelen.
05 Canada (British Columbia)		Gordon Campbell is sworn in as premier. Born Jan. 12, 1948 and raised in British Columbia, Gordon Campbell attended school in Vancouver. After graduation, he was offered a scholarship to Dartmouth College and he graduated in 1970 with a B.A. in English. Soon after graduation, Campbell married his current wife, Nancy. The two of them soon moved to Nigeria, where he taught English and History as well as coaching basketball and track for the Canadian University Services Overseas. Campbell spent two years in Nigeria before returning to Vancouver. Between 1972 and 1976 he served as an assistant to former Vancouver mayor Art Phillips. In 1976, Campbell began work at Marathon Realty and in 1981, he formed his own realty company. 1984 marked Campbell's first step into politics. He ran for Vancouver city council and won his seat. In 1986 he was elected mayor and served three consecutive terms in office. Campbell moved into provincial politics in 1993 when he was elected the leader of the B.C. Liberal party. He was elected to the legislature in 1994 and led his party into the 1996 election where they won 33 seats with 41.8% of the vote. He now serves as the Leader of the Opposition.
05 U. S. A. (Los Angeles)		Mayoral election. Results : City Attorney James K. Hahn was elected mayor of Los Angeles 54%, defeating former state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa 46%, who had sought to become the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century. He will take office July 1. Jim Hahn was born on July 3, 1950, to Kenneth and Ramona Hahn, and has been a lifelong resident of Los Angeles. Hahn attended Los Angeles city schools and graduated Magnum Cum Laude from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles where he majored in English and minored in journalism. Hahn graduated from Pepperdine Law School with a Juris Doctor degree in 1975 and was admitted to the California Bar later that same year. After being admitted to the California Bar, Hahn joined the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office in 1975 and worked as a city prosecutor for four years. The people of Los Angeles elected Hahn to the Office of City Controller on June 2, 1981 on his first run for public office. On April 9, 1985, Hahn was elected Los Angeles City Attorney in the primary election, and was sworn in on July 1 of that year. He has since been re-elected to three additional four-year terms--in the April 1989 primary election, when he was unopposed, and the April 1993 and April 1997 primary elections. He was sworn in on July 1, 1997, to begin his fourth and final term as City Attorney which expires on July 1, 2001.
07 Bolivia		Former president (1952-56, 1960-64, 1985-89) Víctor Paz Estenssoro dies. Víctor Paz Estenssoro born in Tarija, Bolivia in 1907. An attorney and economist, he was a founder (1941) of the National Revolutionary Movement (MNR). He helped lead the revolt that brought the party into power in 1943, but he was forced to flee to Argentina in 1946. While in exile he was elected (1951) president of Bolivia. The army annulled the election, provoking a bloody but successful MNR revolt (Apr., 1952), which gave Paz the presidency. Paz immediately launched a program of revolutionary measures. He expropriated the largest tin mines and improved the lot of the Bolivians of indigenous descent by granting them suffrage and instituting land, educational, and welfare reforms. Prohibited a second consecutive term by the constitution, he was succeeded (1956) by his vice president, Hernán Siles Zuazo. Paz was reelected president in 1960, at which time he was faced with a deteriorating economy and a growing rift within the MNR. He aroused considerable opposition by amending the constitution to permit his reelection in 1964, and although he was reelected, both the right and the left factions bolted his party. In Nov., 1964, Paz was ousted by a military coup. He later settled in Peru, returning to Bolivia in 1971. At the age of 77 he was again elected (1985) president. In his last term he instituted a sweeping austerity program, reducing the government's role in the economy and controlling inflation, but with enormous social costs.In 6 August 1989 Jaime Paz Zamora is new President of Bolivia.
07 United Kingdom		Parliamentary elections. Results : Labour Party wins 413 of 659 seats (42.1% of the vote), the Conservative Party 166 (32.7%), the Liberal Democrats 52 (18.8%), Ulster Unionist Party 6, Scottish National Party 5, Democratic Unionist Party 5, Plaid Cymru 4, Sinn Féin 4, Social Democratic and Labour Party 3, independent 1. Turnout is about 60%.
07 Ireland		Referendum about Nice Treaty. The vote, 54 percent opposed to the treaty and 46 percent in favor of it, will surely delay plans to expand the European Union.
08 Iran		Presidential election. Results : Mohammad Khatami wins more than 75% of the vote, followed by Ahmad Tavakoli with just over 15% and Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani with about 3%. Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami, the fifth President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was born in Ardakan, in the central Province of Yazd in 1943 to a religious family. Son of respected Ayatollah Ruhollah Khatami, President Khatami finished his early school years in his homeland. Then he entered Qom Theology School in 1961. Later, he received his B.A in philosophy from Isfahan University,and completed the senior level of religious studies at Qom Seminary. Having entered the post-graduate course in educational sciences at Tehran University in 1970 he later returned to Qom to study the courses in Ijtihad ( Practice of religious leadership ) at the Seminary. President Khatami was involved in political activities and anti-Shah campaign by preparing, duplicating and distributing political statements, especially those issued by the Founder of the Islamic Republic, late Imam Khomeini. He began his political activities at the Association of Muslim Students of Isfahan University, worked closely with Imam Khomeini's late son, Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Khomeini and Martyr Mohammad Montazeri and organized religious and political debates. President Khatami chaired the Islamic Center of Hamburg in Germany before the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution an the recommendation of Martyr Mohammad Beheshti. The Center turned into an Islamic campaign center when the late Imam Khomeini went to France. He represented Ardakan and Meibod constituencies in the first term of the Majlis [Parliament] in 1980. He was appointed as the head of Kayhan Institute by late Imam Khomeini in 1981. In 1982, he was appointed minister of culture and Islamic guidance during the premiership of Mirhossein Mousavi. During the 1980 - 1988 Iraqi imposed war, he served at different resonsibilities including deputy and head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces and chairman of the War Propaganda Headquarters. He was once again appointed minister of culture and Islamic guidance by President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1989. Following his resignation in 1992, President Khatami was appointed as cultural advisor to President Rafsanjani and head of Iran's National Library He is acquainted with three languages , English, German and Arabic. He has written number of books and articles in different fields. He married in 1974 and has two daughters and a son.
08 United Kingdom		Prime Minister Tony Blair unveils his new cabinet. SEE NEW GOVERNMENT