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Threat to Domain of Dongria Kondh Adivasi in Orissa

For the Dongria Kondh tribe of eastern India, the Niyamgiri Hills in which they have lived for thousands of years, are sacred. But now a mining company with its eye on rich mineral deposits is about to displace the entire tribe, and end their way of life for ever. By Peter Foster

With a broad smile on his face and a narrow-bladed axe hanging from his shoulder, the tribesman steps from the verdant jungles of eastern India to offer us 'welcome'. In keeping with the traditions of the Dongria Kondh people who inhabit the Niyamgiri Hills in the Indian state of Orissa, we outsiders are given gifts without solicitation or hesitation. The man offers freely from what little he has, ordering his wife to stoop so that he can take handfuls of freshly harvested oranges from a pannier balanced on her head. The fruit is green, but after a six-mile walk through the humid forest, the bitter flesh provides the perfect refreshment.

As we stand spitting pith and pips into the undergrowth, our unexpected benefactor is introduced as 'Kalya'. According to the most recent census of Indian tribes, Kalya is one of 7,952 surviving members of the Dongria – literally 'hill people' – themselves a dwindling sub-section of the Kondh peoples, who have inhabited the forests of eastern India for several thousand years. We are en route to a Dongria village where we will stay the night. Kalya points the way up a well-trodden path that winds beneath the thick forest canopy. Our journey, he says, is nearly at an end. The village of Gorta is less than a mile away, in the next clearing, after crossing a small stream.

Armed with these jungle directions we walk on, deeper into the Niyamgiri Hills. After four hours of walking, the afternoon is just starting to fade into evening. The rays of a softening sun fall on distant hillsides where dots of red and blue can be seen tending the hill gardens that the Dongria carve from the jungle in ragged squares. In season, they produce copious quantities of oranges and bananas, ginger and turmeric, sweet papaya and the massive, pendulous jackfruit. The trees pop and whistle with the call of unseen birds and from up in the hills comes the distant sound of beating drums. It seems incredible to think that in a few short years this world could be lost for ever.

A thousand miles away in the Indian capital, New Delhi, men in black cloaks and stiff white collars are arguing over the future of Kalya and his tribe. While we suck oranges, the lawyers in India's Supreme Court petition the bench, the murmur of their voices floating upwards into the great dome above their heads. Ceiling fans suspended on metal poles beat lethargically in the hot air. The case has been going on for three years, but decision time is fast approaching. The arguments for both sides are stark and, despite the years of debate, apparently without compromise. At stake is the future of the Dongria Kondh and the Niyamgiri Hills.

On one side sits the government of India, the state government of Orissa and the Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a FTSE-100 British mining corporation. They are applying for permission to dig up the Niyamgiris – rich in bauxite, the base mineral used in the manufacture of aluminium – at the rate of three million tons a year and then pour them into a £400 million alumina refinery, which has already been constructed at the foot of the hills. This important work, Vedanta and its supporters in the Indian government argue, is vital for the development of the new Indian nation and will bring jobs and infrastructure to some of the poorest people on the planet.

Opposing them is a coalition of environmentalists, social anthropologists, left-wing politicians and – perhaps uniquely – the court's own 'centrally empowered' fact-finding committee. Digging up the Niyamgiris will be a social and environmental catastrophe, they say, destroying rivers and streams on which tens of thousands of people depend to irrigate their crops, polluting rivers with the toxic 'red mud' that is a by-product of aluminium manufacture and – most importantly, according to the anthropologists – wiping out the Dongria Kondh, who worship the sacred hills named after their god, Niyamraja.

The cause of the Dongria protesters is not without hope. Twenty years ago a similar alliance of tribal people, Dalits (formerly Untouchables) and Hindu activists succeeded in blocking plans to mine bauxite from the Gandhamardan mountain range in Orissa on environmental and religious grounds. Today only a derelict compound built for workers stands as a reminder of that victory, which was won after hundreds of protesters had endured police beatings as local women laid their children on the ground to stop the advance of the heavy mining plant. But today's protesters are fighting for their mountain in a more modern India – a country hungry for raw materials and ever mindful of creating a favourable investment climate for foreign investors and multinationals.

Back in those lush hills, in the village of Gortha, the court's dry deliberations seem a world away. Just before we enter the clutch of mud-and-thatch houses, we pause at a small 'pooja' (prayer) stand constructed from four upright sticks and lined with a bed of leaves. A few grains of rice and a dead pigeon squab are evidence of a recent sacrifice to the village deity. Until the British arrived in the early 19th century and forced them to give up the practice, the Dongria used human sacrifices to propitiate their gods. Today the buffalo is the largest animal to go under the sacrificial knife.

The village, a single line of houses surrounded by a low wattle fence, is preparing for nightfall. Without electricity life revolves around the rising and setting of the sun. A fire is being lit, and from the hillside comes a swaying line of brown cows, whose arrival is heralded by the clonking wooden bells hanging from their necks. They ignore the few chickens scratching around in the dust and the goat kids that skitter among their plodding hooves. The village is plagued by grumpy jungle mutts who, when not copulating, seem to growl at everything that passes – human or animal, friend or foe.

After the cows, as the last ambient light of dusk fades behind the hills, comes Dodi, the village headman, accompanied by three other male villagers. They are all drunk; glassy-eyed and swaying gently on their feet. The Hindu festival for the goddess Durga is a few days away and the men have been out to a nearby village for a warm-up celebration, drinking sago-palm 'toddy' – a forest-brewed wine that has kept the Dongria pleasantly drunk for centuries. Drinking is part of the ritual of life. The sago palm takes 15 years to mature and in Dongria lore its sweet, white sap is compared to breast-milk. The first sap, or 'sindi', is likened to a pubertal girl, on the threshold of womanhood.

Drink has always been part of the Dongria culture, but is taken only after the hard work needed to live off the fruits of the forest is done. As Dodi shuffles away to sleep off his binge, another villager is preparing to leave for his fruit garden high up on the hillside. He will spend 10 days there protecting precious crops from elephants, wild boars and light-fingered monkeys, warning them off with tribal songs and the banging of drums. After he leaves, a scrawny cockerel is killed for supper. The feathers are burnt off in the fire before the women get to work drawing and dicing the bird. Stewed for an hour, and served with rice on leaf 'plates', the meat is still shoe-leather tough.

For all the temptations to romanticise Dongria life, it is a hard existence, lived – to Western eyes at least – without comfort. By UN standards, many of the children are undernourished, and less than five per cent of adults can read or write. The work of collecting wood and water, growing fruits and grazing animals takes all the hours of the day. Money comes from selling goods at market a six-hour walk away. Few can afford medicine. Among the villagers we meet a six-year-old boy, Dasuru, whose neck is scarred with the lesions of glandular tuberculosis. He is listless and weaves his head gently to and fro. His father says he took him to a doctor in the nearby town but the treatment didn't really work. It cost too much. We sleep on the earthen floor of Dodi's house, the air still thick with wood smoke from the cooking fire. Before he returns to his slumbers, Dodi announces that when the sun rises, we will hunt.

The dawn breaks with the chattering of women in the village compound. They are off to market with baskets of fresh produce and bundles of firewood. All day a steady line of colourfully clad women can be seen walking to market with neatly tied faggots on their heads. Piece by piece, the ancient forest is being carted to market to fuel the cooking fires of India's swelling populations. The men, left behind with their hangovers, disappear into the forest and return with an unripe papaya whose white flesh has the density of balsa wood. Stewed with spices, however, the fruit makes a surprisingly good breakfast. The tribesmen eat bowls of cold millet porridge, part of the staple diet which sustains them on the long walks around the hills.

At the first glimpse of guns – crude country-made weapons with percussion-cap firing mechanisms – the five or six village dogs forget their differences and form a cohesive pack. They trot alongside the party as we climb into the jungle on narrow trails. The trees are thick with butterflies of all imaginable colours – copper and blue, yellow and black, crimson and violet. We walk fast until Dodi stops to examine some boar tracks visible in the soft mud of a stream. After a few minutes he gloomily pronounces them to be yesterday's and we move on, higher into the hills.

The Dongria know their jungle as intimately as an Englishman knows his house. The greenery all around is classified as parts of the human body. According to a Dongria creation myth the forest grew out of the body of a demon killed by a Dongria king called Biridanga. The big, thick-trunked trees are the bones of his legs, the grass his body hair, the scrubby bushes his pubic hair, the creeper-vines that festoon the trees, his intestines.

We walk for several hours but fail to find our quarry. Dodi isn't fussy; a monkey, a boar, a samba deer, anything will do. By midday we reach the top of the hillside and settle on a promontory to rest.

From his vantage point, Dodi points to a nearby ridgeline a few miles away. Over that hill, he says, is 'the factory' – the alumina refinery that wants to take away their sylvan existence. The Supreme Court's formal go-ahead for the bauxite blasting to begin is expected soon. In the tranquillity of his surroundings, it is easy to understand how Dodi sounds so disconnected from the implications of that decision. 'We have heard about the factory and how if they start mining it will dry up our streams and leave us with nothing to take to market to earn money,' he says. 'There is talk of a protest meeting in the state capital [of Orissa, Bhubaneshwar] but I haven't decided yet whether we should go.'

In many respects it is a miracle that the Dongria Kondh have survived relatively unchanged by the modern world. India's population has doubled in the past 30 years – from 550 million to 1.1 billion people – and will grow to almost 1.5 billion by 2050. As the country develops, competition for resources is intense. The Orissa state government has signed more than £10 billion of mining agreements in the past two years and is planning more. The Dongria are due to be the next casualties of the headlong rush for industrial development. As Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Orissa state, told his legislature, 'No one – I repeat no one – will be allowed to stand in the way of Orissa's industrial development and the people's progress.'

The opponents of the mining spree ask who exactly stands to 'progress' by schemes like the one to dig up the Niyamgiri Hills. Certainly not the Dongria who, according to anthropologists such as Felix Padel, who studied the tribe for his Oxford doctoral thesis, face 'cultural genocide' from the mine. 'The Dongria are hill people, resettling them on the plains is a form of ethnicide. They live in the hills, they worship the hills, they survive off the hills,' he says. 'The Niyamgiri Hills are not simply where the Dongria live, but the very essence of who they are. To resettle them is to destroy them.'

A resettled Dongria village – Sakata – on the edge of the forest would appear to support that gloomy prediction. A few years back, the people were given 'pukka' concrete houses and land to grow crops but have since done nothing with the government's gift. Almost all the men of the village are dead from taking too much of the potent local liquor, which is far stronger than the sago-wine of their tradition. 'With the connection to the forest gone,' a local social worker says, 'the men of the village simply earned enough as day labourers to drink themselves to death.'

For Dr Padel the mining of the Niyamgiri Hills is as economically exploitative as anything done by the East India Company. The mine, he says, will impoverish the already poor, extracting vast wealth for the convenience of the developed world and enriching mostly Vedanta's shareholders – the company's share price has quintupled from £4 to £20 since 2003 – and a cabal of local politicians. For the Dongria, he says, it will bring disaster. Much of the aluminium extracted from the hills will go for export, to make everything from missiles (the arms industry is one of the major users of aluminium) to Coca-Cola cans and cars – essential items in a world in which the Dongria have no stake and little understanding.

And the view that this is ethically and morally insupportable is apparently not confined to anti-globalisation activists and left-wing academics. Last November the government of Norway withdrew all investments in Vedanta after its Ethical Council concluded the company 'has caused serious damage to people and to the environment as a result of its economic activities'.

For its part, Vedanta and its Indian subsidiary Sterlite Industries has pledged to give five per cent of the mine's profits for welfare schemes to help the locals. It sounds impressive, but the history of such pledges, activists say, shows that most of the money will be dissipated through corrupt local bureaucracy, bringing scant benefit to the displaced. Anyway, the Dongria want their hills, not money.

Doitary Kadraka, a Dongria elder, has seen many changes in his 55 years, but says he is not prepared to give up his people and hills just yet. 'The deep forest is already mostly lost; there used to be different types of animals – big bears and tigers – but they are no longer seen. Big snakes are also gone, but the people are still there,' he says. But aren't those people living in poverty? If the mining consortium were to offer them proper houses, electricity, schools, health centres and running water – even motorbikes or cars – would that not be a fair exchange for their sacred mountain?

The old man laughs sadly at the implied logic behind the question. 'Vedanta can give us a helicopter each and we won't give up our hills,' he says. 'We can't go. The hills are who we are.' And when the bulldozers and the mining engineers move in with their blasting caps, what then? Kadraka doesn't hesitate. 'We'll fight,' he says. 'What choice do we have? If we give up the hills we'll die anyway.'

It is time for us to leave. Dodi points to some grooves in the soft bauxite rock, the same rock that the British geologist Cyril Fox identified for its aluminium potential in the 1920s. This was the place, Dodi says, where his ancestors once sat and sharpened their arrows. In those days there was enough game to go round. Now the Dongria hunters use guns, but the superior technology has left their forest increasingly bare of animals. When Dodi was a boy 25 years ago the village hunts never returned empty-handed, but today he trudges back down the hill without any game. The only 'prey' is several handfuls of creamy-skinned oyster mushrooms plucked from the trunk of a tree by Dodi's men, who scale the branches using the thick vines that descend from the jungle canopy.

Back in the village Dodi accepts a few rupees for part of his mushroom haul, a parting exchange of gifts before we walk the five hours back to 'civilisation'. The fungus is deliciously nutty, fried with coriander and garlic at the offices of a Dongria support group run by a local social worker, Bijaya Kumar Baboo, who has worked with the tribes of Orissa since the rice famines in the 1980s.

He is pessimistic about the fight to come, gloomily accepting the inevitability that the Supreme Court will eventually rule in favour of big business and big government. 'The Dongria cannot survive this mine. Their language, their living is different from the people down on the plains,' he says. 'They will just disappear, die out. This is not development. It is destruction, like a kite which swoops down on the village, steals the chickens and then is gone.'

To Bijaya's eyes the decision to mine the Niyamgiris is both unjust and short-sighted. There are, he insists, alternatives. 'Orissa is an astonishingly productive area for fruits and rare medicinal herbs. We could supply the world's entire need for Ayurvedic medicines. If industry switched its focus to this area, how many people could benefit?' But after 25 years in the field, Bijaya is realistic enough to know the quick money on offer from mining is too great a temptation for the politicians to ignore.

'This mine will last for 25 years and it will destroy a world which has been around for many, many centuries. I cannot see the sense in that. The Dongria people have lived on so little for so long without destroying their world. And yet we are destroying our world at an unsustainable rate. Before the Dongria cease to exist, shouldn't we be asking if we have anything to learn from them?'

Telegraph UK, 19 Apr 2008

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The UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) is taking a look at lovation tracking software installed without users knowledge who log into online betting services.

The use of this software may be contravening the Data Protection Act (1998) as this Act requires data subjects to be aware if their personal information is collected and give permission for it to be used in ways they agree to and nothing more.

The timing of this investigation is crucial as GDPR will enter law next May and fines of up to 4% of global turnover will come into force for serious data protection breaches.

If you want to read more about the story click here.

If you want to learn more about Data Protection and GDPR click here.

Watch out gambling guys, the ICO is watching

Gambling affiliates be warned that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is watching for what it considers to be unacceptable levels of ‘spam’ texts to users. A new code of practice is also being introduced with strict requirements for how customer data is used. This is inline with the current Data Protection Act (1998) and ahead of the EU GDPR (new regulation on Data Protection for any data processors using EU citizens’ data) that will be implemented in May 2018. If you want more detail or support on GDPR, please visit our website.

You can read more about it here.

GDPR and the Gambling Industry

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is going to affect all businesses trading in or through the EU and the UK gambling market will also feel it’s impact.

The UK has its own Data Protection Act and the EU Data Protection Directive has been in place since 1995.  But developments in technology and business models have left the rules out of date in many ways and so an overhaul was overdue.

For Gambling, there will be a lot of things to think about and we can’t cover everything in a blog post. But here is some food for thought or a starter at least. You know where we are if you need us.

GDPR will impact all Gambling providers and non-EU providers need to be extra vigilant and take care not to breach these regulations. Most of the regulations are not new but the requirement for compliance will be enforced and a fine of up to 4% of the previous year’s global turnover (or €20,000,000 which is the new, greatly increased, ceiling) for a serious data breach.

Data subjects must be clearly notified their information is being collected and or processed and for what specific purpose. There must be a clearly defined reason for collecting the data that the subject is completely aware of.

Once you have the subjects data, you can only hold and use it for the purpose you collected it for and for no longer than it is required for that purpose. The data subject also needs to to totally clear on who they have lent their data to.

If any ‘data profiling’ takes place, the subject should be informed and of any of the consequences that may arise from it. There should also be a mechanism for the data subjects to withdraw their consent to use their data.

Operators will also be required to notify data subjects within 72 hours of a breach of un-encrypted data.

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Wintering Pests

We all know that when the winter comes, the bugs tend to disappear, but where do they go? Surely they don’t all die off; otherwise how would they come back in the spring? While many do only survive as a species by laying eggs in the ground that hatch once the weather comes up, quite a few actually do normally survive the winter. Here’s a few to look out for.

Bait or Trap? What's Best for Rodent Control

A lot of people have problems with rodents in their homes, offices, vacation houses or other places. As you might have guessed, there are a number of ways to get rid of these unwanted guests in your home. Two of the most popular methods are the bait and the trap method. The first one refers to the act of baiting mice or rats with a treat which contains poison, effectively killing them. The second method refers to trapping mice with a special rodent trap and removing them from your living area in that way. If you are unsure of what READ MORE »

Buying a Used Car in the Winter? Check for mice fi ...

If you’ve bought or are planning to buy a used car during the cold winter months, you should be aware of the potential danger of mice infestation. Rodent will gladly work their way to the warmest spot available, which could easily be the engine compartment of your new vehicle. This is especially true in cases of used car purchase when the vehicle in question has been left outdoors for a prolonged period of time. So instead of parking the car and leaving it be, follow these simple tips for mouse inspection and prevent any possible infestation.

Winter Pest Control: What to Watch Out For

If you think that all of your pest problems will end up as the winter approaches, that’s not necessarily the case. As the cold begins to move in, some winter pests might try to make their way in too as they will be looking for a warm place to survive the upcoming winter. When pests enter homes to overwinter during the fall, they can often go unnoticed. A proper pest control is the only way to prevent them, so here are some things you should know about winter pest control.

8 Best Mosquito Repellent Options

Whether you’re camping in the deep woods or having a BBQ in your backyard, mosquitoes can easily ruin everything. When you’re planning to spend any amount of time outside in the warmer months, especially later in the day, it will benefit you greatly if you protect yourself with some mosquito repellent. A mosquito repellent is a substance that’s applied to human skin or other surfaces in order to prevent these annoying pests from biting or coming around. How to Use Mosquito Repellent Mosquito repellents don’t kill these pests, they just help to make you or an area unattractive to mosquitoes. You should apply READ MORE »

Win a FREE Year of Pest Control Services!

Don’t wait. It’s not too late! Aerex Pest Control is holding a contest that will run through the end of April. Each week, Aerex will choose ONE winner who will receive FREE pest control services for an entire year. The catch? All you have to do is complete our Customer Sign Up. You’ll be glad you did! Sign up and be the first to know about current promotions, specials and deals at Aerex Pest Control! Congratulations to our winners! Last week’s winners were: Mr. Robinson from Chicago Mrs. Singer from Northbrook This week’s winner was: Mrs. Spitz from Buffalo Grove Next READ MORE »

Spring Brings Back Our 8-Legged Friends

Spring is the perfect time of year. The weather is beautiful, flowers are blooming, people are spending more time outdoors, and spiders are…everywhere. When the spring months roll around, humans aren’t the only creatures taking advantage of spring’s warmer weather. In fact, many species of spider wait for spring to start laying their eggs and venturing out into the world. While some spiders are completely harmless and do nothing more than give us the “creepy crawlies” some can be poisonous and harmful to humans. This spring, keep an eye out for these common spiders found in homes and commercial buildings. READ MORE »

Those Blood Hounds! Crawling Insects: Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are about half a centimeter long with a flattened, oval shaped body and are light brown in color. They are nocturnal insects that hide in cracks and crevices in the walls, in the seams of mattresses and under, behind and in cracks in the furniture. Dark stains at the edges of the mattress, caused by the bed bug excreta, accompanied by unpleasant odor are a sure sign of infestation. Bed bugs can be very dangerous pests considering their blood-feeding nature. Although they do not carry any diseases as such, constant bug bites are not only annoying but also READ MORE »

Road Clean Up

Aerex Pest Control has been proudly taking part in the “Adopt a Highway” program for the past 15 years.  Aerex “adopted” the section of Old McHenry road between Darlington Dr and Route 22 in Hawthorn Woods, IL.  Several times a year a crew cleans up the side of the road to keep it looking great!  We want to give a big thanks to the volunteers from Steven High School for cleaning up the road this past weekend.  These volunteers were working to collect money for the American Cancer Association.  What a good deed!  Thanks again to those volunteers for not READ MORE »

Bed Bugs in Chicago

Cimex lectularius Linnaeus. Four cities have more than Chicago does. That’s right; Chicago is fifth, right up there with New York, Philly, Detroit and Cincinnati. They may be considered more nuisance than hazardous to your health, but when the bed bugs in Chicago keep rising in numbers and are blamed in spreading other diseases of humans, its time to do something about them! Bed bugs are tiny, brownish, wingless insects that feed solely on the blood of warm-blooded animals. Cimex lectularius, or common bed bug, is quite well adapted to live with humans, since other related species prefer to feed READ MORE »

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text: After two years of online experiments, Tom van Vianen, CEO, felt certain it was time to fully implement STATER NV’s new “e-servicing” concept with a cohesive strategy. Established in 1997 in The Netherlands and headquartered in Amersfoort, STATER had 27 business clients and serviced over 80 different mortgage portfolios of more than 450,000 mainly residential loans in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Their mortgage service operations and information systems were considered state-of-the-art in 2002, but they were moving business online while simultaneously increasing the types of services provided and expanding operations into Spain, France, and Italy—within the next five years. In a land known for taming the forces of the sea, Tom faced what seemed like a sea of “e-uncertainty.” What exact roles should STATER play in an online loan market? How should they position themselves to lead in those roles? The E-Servicing Steering Committee looked to Tom to direct them, and he knew he needed a clear vision for the next steering committee meeting in two months, in May 2002.


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You know Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, but do you know his teacher’s Church of Saint Francis de Sales?

Montells' greatest work is also an example of sacred architecture.

This 19th-century neo-Gothic church in Barcelona with a single bell tower in its façade doesn’t go unnoticed. Despite the Gothic inspiration, it seems modernist, with Arab influences; heavily decorated, and yet stylized and elegant. Special, inside and out.

Joan Martorell i Montells was the teacher and mentor of Servant of God Antoni Gaudí, the architect who designed the unusual and iconic Basilica of the Holy Family (“Sagrada Familia”) in Barcelona, one of Spain’s most visited landmarks. Perhaps, then, it should be no surprise that Montells’ greatest work is also an example of sacred architecture: the Church of St. Francis de Sales (patron saint of journalists, whose feast day is January 24).

The church is part of the “Way of the Holy Family,” a suggested route for people interested in Gaudí’s monumental basilica and its context, because the church designed by his mentor is both a precedent and an inspiration for the basilica, according to the rector and historian of the church, Ramon Corts i Blay.

Because of its physical location, the church of St. Francis de Sales is in sight of the Basilica of the Holy Family, for which Gaudí was chosen as the architect thanks to a recommendation from Montells. The buildings are only a few hundred yards apart, located in the same part of the city, called Ensanche.

The church was originally part of a monastery of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, a community of sisters founded by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal. They are commonly known as the Salesian Sisters. The cornerstone was laid in 1878, and the building was finished in 1885.

During the Spanish Civil War, the monastery was sacked and burned. There are accounts of how, on July 21, 1936, people shouted at the Salesian Sisters in hate as they watched their church being devastated. After the war, the Marist brothers acquired the property and restored it. Another fire seriously damaged the building in the 1980s; the most recent restoration took place in 2001.

St. Francis de Sales has been the official patron saint of journalists and writers since 1923. Every January 24, all the professional communicators of the diocese meet at the church of St. Francis de Sales in Barcelona to celebrate the Eucharist together, following the example of their patron saint, who according to historians “knew how to communicate without seeking polemics, seeking not to harm anyone with his words.”

According to the church rector, historian Ramon Corts i Blay, “it’s one of the most beautiful churches in Barcelona.”  This evaluation reflects his paternal love, as he is also an expert on Barcelona landmarks including the Basilica of the Holy Family, the church of Saint Mary of the Sea, the church of the Sacred Heart on Mount Tibidabo, and the city’s cathedral, all masterpieces in their own right. The style of the church of St. Francis is eclectic, mixing characteristics of modernism with aspects of Arabic aesthetics in a unique fusion: pinacles and crockets, typical of Gothic architecture, are side by side with enamel and ceramic tiles, characteristic of constructions built by the Muslims who controlled Spain for centuries. The result is an attractive decorative environment.

There are churches dedicated to St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) all around the world. He was the bishop of Geneva, in a society shaped by Protestant Calvinism. His influence extended throughout the world, and his feast day in the Church is a special day for those who work in the area of communication. His feast has also been chosen by the Vatican as World Communications Day, which was celebrated for the 52nd time this year. The pope issued a message for the occasion, as usual—this time, focusing on the topic of post-truth and “fake news,” with the title, “The truth will set you free (Jn 8:32). Fake news and journalism for peace.”

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Ocean's Eleven

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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Oceans eleven.jpg

You gotta be nuts, too. And you're gonna need a crew as nuts as you are!... Who do you got in mind?

This is the story of a crew of expert thieves as they prepare and execute multiple very difficult heists across several movies. It's called Ocean's Eleven because the leader's name is Danny Ocean, and there are eleven of them. Originally a remake of the 1960 film starring Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, it went on to displace the original and spawn two sequels, imaginatively titled Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen.

  • The first film involves Danny, an ex-con fresh out of prison, approaching his buddy Rusty about performing a monumental heist. The goal? Rob the central vault of three casinos at the same time, during a boxing match so that the grand total in the safe would be a little over 160 million dollars. They gather the Eleven and come to learn that the man they are robbing, Terry Benedict, is a man whose principal crime seems to be that he's dating Danny's ex-wife Tess.
  • The second film deals with repercussions of their heist, as Benedict tracks down the Eleven and demands recompense in full, plus interest. Seeing as almost none of the eleven were frugal with their money, this means they have to find some other heist that will pay off an equal amount. Because they are too well known in the US, they travel to Europe and receive an offer from a legendary retired Con Man in which they steal a very famous MacGuffin. They are hounded on one side by a cocky acrobat-thief who wants the same loot, and a Fair Cop Interpol agent on the other.
  • The third is Best Served Cold: a member of the Eleven is double-crossed by an unscrupulous land-owner, Willy Bank (Al Pacino), with whom he was collaborating on the opening of a new casino. Danny convenes his gang to ruin this casino's opening night. This time Benedict joins forces with them, as he has his own issues with Bank.

Each film is not intended as anything other than sheer popcorn fun. Planning out the heists is entertaining, but it is mostly an excuse to get an All-Star Cast together and have them bounce lines off of each other. This was very much the only real purpose of the original film as well, having the Rat Pack get together and look cool.

The crew consist of:

  • Danny Ocean (George Clooney): The gang's mastermind, Ocean knows everything about Vegas and nearly everyone in it. His plan in the first film is to rob the casinos to take revenge on the guy who stole The Chick from him.
  • Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt): Ocean's level-headed right-hand man. A jack-of-all-trades, he plays a number of roles in the heists themselves. A running gag is that he is almost always snacking on something, showing his nonchalance.
  • Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould): A crooked venture capitalist and ex-casino owner who loves Vegas and its charms, he joins the gang as their financial backer to get revenge on Benedict for some past business deals. It is he who invests in Bank's casino in the third movie.
  • Frank Catton (Bernie Mac): A con artist who frequently plays the inside man. In the first heist, he works as a croupier in one of the marked casinos.
  • Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle): A Cockney engineer, Basher is in charge of the heavy machinery involved in the heists. He speaks in an impenetrable combination of Cockney slang and technical jargon.
  • Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison): A tech expert who specializes in electronics and communications. Neurotic and soft-spoken, he's more comfortable with machines than people.
  • Virgil and Turk Malloy (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan): A pair of bickering twins from Utah who do all the simple grunt work, but especially act as the wheel men.
  • Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner): A cranky old-school con artist, Bloom would rather be enjoying a comfortable retirement than having to pull off one more crazy heist.
  • The Amazing Yen (Shaobo Qin): The grease man, Yen is a Chinese acrobat who is in charge of all the dangerous physical stunts. He speaks entirely in Mandarin except when he curses, but appears to understand English well enough. In the first film, Rusty can understand him perfectly, and eventually so can the rest of the gang, but they never speak Mandarin back to him.
  • Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon): A skilled pickpocket and Ocean's new protege. Linus comes from underworld royalty, as both of his parents are famous thieves. He desperately seeks to earn some respect of his own by pulling off big scores.

Also appearing as main roles:

  • Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia): The Big Bad of the first film, owner of the Bellagio, MGM Grand and the Mirage, three of the biggest casinos in Vegas. He provides the impetus for the second film by tracking down the Eleven and demanding repayment (with interest), and later becomes an ad hoc member of the Thirteen, both as a financial backer and The Shill.
  • Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts): The Chick. Ex-wife of Danny Ocean, who by the first film has shacked up with Benedict. She's the main reason why Danny decides to rob Benedict's casinos. She becomes a member of the Twelve after most of the main crew are jailed during a failed heist; the attempt to complete it involves Tess impersonating Julia Roberts.
  • Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones): a Fair Cop who is introduced in the second film. She has been hunting down a master criminal, Gaspar LeMarque, for many years, unaware that he is her father. As LeMarque is the person Ocean's Twelve are stealing the MacGuffin for, she ends up pursuing them as well. Also, Rusty's former love interest.
  • François Toulour (Vincent Cassel): Also known as "The Night Fox," a truly accomplished thief who serves as a one-man Goldfish Poop Gang in the second film. Is also hired by Benedict in the third film to perform a double-cross.
  • Roman Nagel (Eddie Izzard): A genius inventor who appears briefly in the second film and later becomes a member of the Thirteen.
  • Willie Bank (Al Pacino): the Big Bad of the third movie, a Jerkass business mogul who partners with Reuben to build a new hotel casino, only to muscle him out of his share. Reuben suffers a heart attack as a result, prompting the rest of the crew to take revenge.
  • Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin): Bank's Dragon and personal assistant. She's the one who's really in control of everything at his casinos.

Tropes used in Ocean's Eleven include:

What I want; what's most important to me is that Reuben gets his share of the hotel restored.

  • Actor Existence Failure: George Clooney is on the record as stating there will never be another Ocean's movie since Bernie Mac has died. (Not that another is needed, but still.)
  • Acceptable Targets: In-Universe:

"C'mon, we can beat this guy -- he's rich and he's French."

  • Affably Evil: Terry Benedict is unfailingly polite to everyone, though he's never actually friendly with anyone.
  • All-Star Cast
  • As Himself: Bruce Willis is the key to unraveling the Julia Roberts impersonation in the second film. (And, just to throw a wrench through the fourth wall, the credits end with, "And Starring: Tess Ocean as Julia Roberts.")
  • Ambiguously Gay: Reuben
  • And Starring: Parodied
  • Avengers Assemble
  • Badass Family: The Caldwells -- Linus' mom and dad are legendary thieves themselves and save the day in Twelve and Thirteen, respectively.
  • Bavarian Fire Drill
  • Brick Joke:
    • The Oprah Winfrey Show in Thirteen.
    • While discussing the plans to torment the hotel reviewer, Saul is asked if he'd go through that suffering for ten million. He says no, but he'd do it for eleven million. Guess how much money the hotel reviewer wins at the very end of the movie.
  • Butt Monkey: Linus
    • The poor hotel reviewer in Thirteen, played by David Paymer. The crew makes his stay a living hell in order to sink Bank's reputation; Rusty makes it worth his while in the end.
  • The Cameo:
    • Producer Jerry Weintraub as Denny the whale. First appears as a high-roller in Eleven, accidentally gets the guys in trouble with his bragging in Twelve and helps them out as an apology in thirteen.
    • The young 20-something actors in Eleven: (Barry Watson, Topher Grace, Holly Marie Combs, Shane West, and Joshua Jackson), all of whom are terrible at poker. Grace appears again in Twelve.
    • Oprah Winfrey in Thirteen, who is the source of a pretty darn good Brick Joke at the expense of Benedict.
  • The Caper
  • Caper Crew
  • Caper Rationalization: If there is one trope that drives the plot of these films other than The Caper, it's Caper Rationalization. This merry band of crooks all have very good, reasonable, and understandable reasons for ripping people off for tens of millions of dollars per movie.
  • The Cast Showoff: Vincent Cassel is a fantastic dancer. So is François Toulour.
  • Celebrity Paradox/Your Costume Needs Work: Tess, played by Julia Roberts, impersonates Julia Roberts -- badly -- to pull off the heist in Twelve.
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys/Those Wacky Nazis: When Reuben (who's Jewish) is describing why it's impossible to rob a casino.

Reuben: They've got enough armed personnel to occupy Paris! ...okay, bad example.

  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • In Eleven, the pine tree air freshener.
    • in Twelve, it's the black backpack.
  • Chekhov's Skill: In Eleven, Virgil and his remote-controlled cars.
  • The Chew Toy: The hotel reviewer in Thirteen that gets put through hell secretly by the crew so he would give Bank's new hotel a bad review. They make it up to him afterwards.
  • Christmas Cake: Abigail Sponder, Bank's personal assistant, in Thirteen
  • Con Men Hate Guns: Linus chastises the Night Fox for being so crude as to use a gun in 13. The Night Fox leaves it unloaded as a concession to the trope.
  • Conspicuous CG: In one scene, the statues in the art museum in Twelve.
  • Description Cut: When Danny and Rusty go to recruit Livingston:

Danny: How are his nerves?
Rusty: OK. Not so bad that you'll notice.

  • cut to Livingston being a neurotic, skittish control freak while working surveillance with the FBI*
  • Did Not Do the Research: In the third film, two massive tunnel boring machines are used to simulate an earthquake in Bank's casino. They're alleged to be responsible for the Channel Tunnel -- the second is even captioned as "the one that dug from the French side" -- but the "Chunnel" was actually dug using eleven such machines, and most of them are still under the English Channel, sealed into cul-de-sacs alongside the transport lines. Another was auctioned off on eBay.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Benedict is feared because of his tendency to completely destroy the livelihoods of anybody who wrongs him, and everybody related to them as well. While doing recon on him, Linus informs Rusty that Benedict not only had the last guy who cheated in his casino put away for ten years, but he also had the bank seize the guy's house before bankrupting the tractor dealership of the guy's brother-in-law. As Reuben describes Benedict;

Reuben: He'll kill you, and then he'll go to work on you.

  • Dolled-Up Installment: Twelve started out life as a stand-alone heist flick about two dueling master thieves, and was turned into an Ocean's installment when the first film's massive popularity required a sequel as quick as possible. The role of the protagonist was split between Danny (master thief), Rusty (relationship with Europol agent), and (to a certain extent) Linus.
  • DVD Commentary: On the director and writer track for Ocean's Eleven, they comment a few times on the fact that there are probably only three people who bother to listen to these things.
  • Dueling Stars Movie: In both the original Rat Pack and modern versions.
  • The End - or Is It?: The end of the first movie leaves it open as to whether the crew is really safe from Benedict's retaliation. Turns out, they're not.
  • Enemy Mine: In Thirteen Benedict joins the crew in taking down Bank because Bank is an annoying rival.
  • Evilly Affable: Willy Bank in Thirteen, especially when he's muscling Reuben out of his share of the casino.

Reuben: [sarcastically] You gonna throw me off the roof now?
Bank: I don't want to.

  • Fake Brit: American Don Cheadle as Cockney Basher Tarr. No audience member has yet been fooled.
  • Failsafe Failure: Subverted in Thirteen, where the team finds out that the Greco security system automatically shuts down and reboots when it detects a threat to itself, and a side effect of the reboot is that it locks down the control room and cuts off communications for several minutes. They use this to lock Bank inside his own control room, leaving him unable to stop the team's plans.
  • Fallen-On-Hard-Times Job: Several members of all the teams are stuck here at the movies' beginnings.
  • Fixing the Game: These are heist films, but some of the protagonists get side jobs as cheaters. Danny finds Rusty running a bent card game for Flash In The Pan teen beat celebs in the first film.
  • Gambit Roulette
  • Gilligan Cut: In Eleven.

Rusty: I wonder what Reuben will say.
Reuben: You're outta your God damn minds!

  • Give Me Back My Wallet
  • Good for Bad:
    • Twelve had them intend to do this to the Coronation Egg before Toulour stole it, and failed, except not. They actually did it en-route to the museum.
    • Played with in Thirteen, where Linus swapped the Five Diamond awards for fakes, only to have Toulour steal them from him. He actually didn't. He had been there to plant bombs around the case so the entire thing could be stolen. Toulour actually stole the fakes. Again.
  • Grand Staircase Entrance: Tess in the first film.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Danny and Rusty
  • Hey, Wait!
  • Hollywood Law: Especially in the first film, there is a fictitious Nevada Gaming Commission law stipulating that casinos in the state are required to hold a minimum amount of cash on the premises, in the event that a high-roller strikes the grand jackpot. Not surprisingly, the title characters hatch a plan to exploit this.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Linus's patents
  • Hypocritical Humor: Twelve: "Tell him having a sexy assistant is cliche." (Speaker's sexy assistant enters).
  • The Infiltration: Eleven involves an intricate plan which requires numerous small infiltrations of the casino all in order to carry out the biggest infiltration at the end.
  • Involuntary Charity Donation: As payback for an attempted double-cross by Benedict in Ocean's Thirteen, the crew donates his entire share of the profits to charity. The film ends with Danny, Rusty, and Linus watching Benedict talk to Oprah about his sudden burst of generosity.
  • It's Personal: The motivation for the plot of the third film.
    • I think you can consider part of the plot from Twelve -- Benedict was going after each, and you can't tell me that blowing up Rusty's favorite car wasn't personal.
    • File Eleven under it as well. Even Danny doesn't deny that Benedict's relationship with Tess is part of his motivation.
  • "I Know What We Can Do!" Cut: All of the group's planning is done like this.
  • Karmic Thief: The team targets two unscrupulous casino owners and a thief.
  • Kick the Dog: In Thirteen Bank's first moment comes when he reveals he's screwing Reuben out of his share of the casino. He has plenty more throughout the movie. For example, his right-hand-woman, Abigail Sponder, manages to secure a mobile phone Bank wanted. She shows real delight in being able to get it for him, and sends it to him along with a note saying that it's a thank-you present for all the opportunities he's given her. He starts reading the note and rips it in half, obviously bored. He later fires a waitress for gaining 4 pounds between body checks.
  • The Lancer: Rusty to Danny.
  • Large Ham:
    • Andy Garcia is lucky he didn't chip a tooth on the scenes set in a vault.
    • Al Pacino, the Big Bad of the third movie, is a semi-large ham.
    • Basher while impersonating the American stunt man in the third movie.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Seems to befall everyone who tries to pull one over on Danny.
  • Leno Device: Terry Benedict appears on "Oprah" at the end of Thirteen.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: It's right in the title, even!
  • Lost in Transmission: Virtually the canonical example:

Linus: (receiving instruction)
Rusty: ...Don't use three words when one will do; don't shift your eyes. Look always at your mark, but don't stare. Be specific but not memorable; be funny but don't make him laugh. He's gotta like you, and then forget you the moment you've left his sight. And for God's sake, whatever you do, don't, under any circumstances --
Livingston: (off screen) Rust, can you come here a sec?
Rusty: Sure thing. (leaves)
Linus: ...

Rusty: I need a reason. And don't say money. Why do this?
Danny: Why not do it? I just left the joint after losing four years of my life and you're cold-decking Teen Beat cover boys. Because the house always wins. Play long enough, the house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes, you bet big, and then you take the house.
Rusty: ...Been practicing that speech, haven't you?
Danny: Little bit. Did I rush it? I felt like I rushed it.
Rusty: No, it's good, I liked it. Teen Beat thing was harsh.

  • Mythology Gag: The scene where the shootout leads to half of Danny's loot being torched by a flamethrower is almost certain homage to the climax of the original, where Ocean's loot is burned with Bergdorf's body.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Linus' stunt during the theft of the pinch leads directly to Yen's hand getting broken.
  • Nice to the Waiter: Benedict. Rusty notes that he knows the names of most all of his employees, and we hear him asking about their personal lives as he enters the casino. This is part of Benedict's need to be knowledgeable about everything and everyone associated with his casinos.
  • Noodle Implements: The various characters and scenarios Rusty forsees needing for the job in Eleven. A little research can explain these terms.

Rusty: Off the top of my head, I'd say you're looking at a Boesky, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever.

Reuben Tishkoff: Look, we all go way back and uh, I owe you from the thing with the guy in the place and I'll never forget it.
Danny Ocean: That was our pleasure.
Rusty Ryan: I'd never been to Belize.

Terry Benedict: You think this is funny?
Danny Ocean: Well, Terry, it sure as shit ain't sad.

    • Reuben gets one as well early in Eleven, noting that even if somehow Danny and Rusty were able to get into the vault and walk out with $100+ million, "you're still in the middle of the fucking desert!"
  • Production Posse
  • Pseudo Crisis
  • Put on a Bus: Tess and Isabel simply aren't included in the third film, though at least Danny gives a Hand Wave to the fact that he kept them out of it on purpose
  • The Remake: Only the first one.
  • Running Gag: Rusty is eating something almost every time he's on screen. Pitt said the idea behind this was that Rusty was so busy he didn't have time to eat otherwise.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections:

Willie Bank: This town might have changed, but not me. I know people highly invested in my survival, and they are people who really know how to hurt in ways you can't even imagine.
Danny Ocean: Well, I know all the guys that you'd hire to come after me, and they like me better than you.

  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Willie Bank's belief that his riches allow him to go against the code amongst guys who "shook Sinatra's hand", thus giving Reuben a heart-attack, are what sets of the plot of the third movie.
  • Sequel Goes Foreign: Ocean's Twelve went to Europe, justified by the title gang being too high profile to work in the USA without raising alarms (Not that it stopped them in Ocean's Thirteen).
  • Setting Update: The original was made in, and set in, The Sixties.
  • Shout-Out: In the elevator, Linus hits the floor buttons 1, 1, 3, and 8
  • Squick: Used In-universe in Eleven, Rusty gets a case of this when he pays off the stripper for getting him the keycard for Benedict's casino.

Rusty Ryan: Thanks. Say hi to your mother for me.
Stripper: Say it yourself. She's on in five minutes. (leaves)
Rusty Ryan: (Beat) (pulls face, leaves)

  • Slow Electricity: In the remake, when they use the EMP, there is the obligatory shot of the lights going out block by block.
  • Specs of Awesome: Basher
  • Stolen MacGuffin Reveal: In 12, the Egg was stolen before the events of the movie, and the whole movie was a plot to return the original.
  • Take That: Terry's sarcastic advice to not pay cash for an expensive Newport Beach sports car is undoubtedly a dig at Kevyn Wynn's kidnappers.
  • Theme Naming:
    • Roman's personal nemesis is named Greco. "Clearly, you've never served time in a British boarding school."
    • Also Linus's alter ego's surnames in Twelve and Thirteen: Snackwell and Pepperidge, respectively.
  • Thirty Second Blackout: With the excuse that Applied Phlebotinum did it... and with predictable consequences inside the casino.
  • Throw It In: The Running Gag of Rusty eating something during a scene came from Brad Pitt's penchant to eat close to shooting rather than on breaks, so Steven Soderbergh decided to just let him eat on-camera.
  • Title Drop Happens one film too late:

Benedict: Apparently, I'm not the only one looking for Ocean's Eleven.

  • Title In: Played with for shits and giggles in all three films.
  • Trojan Horse: A very elaborate one. See below.
  • True Companions: What drives the crew to avenge Reuben when he's betrayed by Bank in the third film.
  • The Unintelligible: Yen, who mostly speaks rapid-fire Chinese. The only words he ever says in English are "where the FUCK you been?" and "shit."
  • Unwinnable Training Simulation: A trial run of the burglary.
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: If you don't pay attention (and sometimes even if you do) you probably won't understand what exactly the gang is doing for what reason.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Danny takes what would have been Terry's take from the Thirteen plot and donates it (in his name) to a children's charity sponsored by Oprah, leaving Terry with no choice but to go on her show and publicly accept her gratitude for his "selfless act."
  • Waistcoat of Style: Terry's is antique kimono[1] fabric.
  • Xanatos Gambit: A classic version in the second film. The heroes had won the contest before the heist even started. Everything else was just window dressing.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: The team has to do this at least once in all three films when something doesn't go according to plan.
  • X Called. They Want Their Y Back.: Danny's response to Rusty's snark about his clothes as he's leaving prison for the second time.

Rusty: I hope you were the groom.
Danny: Ted Nugent called. He wants his shirt back.

  1. Actually the obi, the thick "belt" that goes around the waist.