Legends

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity. In 1979 she was awarded the most prestigious prize in the world, the Nobel Peace Prize, for her humanitarian work. Her labor made her so worthy that, in reality, she gave honor to the prize, rather than the other way around!

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in 1910 to Albanian parents in Skopje, which at the time was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. (The city is now the capital of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.) When she was 18, she entered the Order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto in Ireland. She trained in Dublin and in Darjeeling, India, before taking her religious vows in 1937. She took the name Teresa from Saint Teresa of Lisieux, the patron saint of foreign missionaries. In September 1946, while riding in a train from Calcutta to Darjeeling to engage in 8 days of spiritual exercises, she received a divine calling from God "to serve Him amongst the poorest of the poor". She served as principal of a Roman Catholic high school in Calcutta, and was moved by the presence of the sick and dying on the city's streets. In 1948 she was granted permission to leave her post at the convent and begin a ministry among the sick. That same year she became an Indian citizen. In 1950 Mother Teresa and her associates were approved within the archdiocese of Calcutta as the Missionaries of Charity. The order was later recognized as a pontifical congregation under the jurisdiction of Rome. Members of the congregation take four vows on acceptance by the religious community. In addition to the three basic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, a fourth vow is required pledging service to the poor, whom Mother Teresa described as the embodiment of Christ. In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart) Home for Dying Destitutes in Calcutta. She and her fellow nuns took in dying Indians off the streets of Calcutta and brought them to this home to care for them during the days before they died, so that they might be able to die in peace and with dignity. In serving the people abandoned by society, Mother Teresa put love into action. Her spirit of giving inspired many to follow her, and her work eventually expanded to many other parts of the world. Today over 5000 sisters, brothers, and volunteers run approximately 500 centers worldwide, feeding 500,000 families and helping 90,000 lepers every year. In recognition of her efforts, Mother Teresa was bestowed many awards, including the Padma Shri award for distinguished service in 1962, The Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Mother Teresa accepted all awards on behalf of the poor, using any money that accompanied them to fund her centers. Mother Teresa was forced to scale back her activities in 1990 because of declining health. On March 13 1997, she stepped down as head of the order and Sister Nirmala was chosen to succeed her as leader of the Missionaries of Charity. On September 5, 1997, at the age of 87, the best loved woman of the century passed away. Her funeral service was on September 13, 1997, the 51st anniversary of her receiving her divine mission from God.

Che Guevara

Ernesto (Che) Guevara was born in Rosario in Argentine in 1928. After studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires he worked as a doctor. While in Guatemala in 1954 he witnessed the socialist government of President Jacobo Arbenz overthrown by an American backed military coup. Disgusted by what he saw, Guevara decided to join the Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, in Mexico.

In 1956 Guevara, Castro and eighty other men and women arrived in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of General Fulgencio Batista. This group became known as the July 26 Movement. The plan was to set up their base in the Sierra Maestra mountains. On the way to the mountains they were attacked by government troops. By the time they reached the Sierra Maestra there were only sixteen men left with twelve weapons between them. For the next few months Castro's guerrilla army raided isolated army garrisons and were gradually able to build-up their stock of weapons.

When the guerrillas took control of territory they redistributed the land amongst the peasants. In return, the peasants helped the guerrillas against Batista's soldiers. In some cases the peasants also joined Castro's army, as did students from the cities and occasionally Catholic priests.

In an effort to find out information about the rebels people were pulled in for questioning. Many innocent people were tortured. Suspects, including children, were publicly executed and then left hanging in the streets for several days as a warning to others who were considering joining the revolutionaries. The   behavior of Batista's forces increased support for the guerrillas. In 1958 forty-five organizations signed an open letter supporting the July 26 Movement. National bodies representing lawyers, architects, dentists, accountants and social workers were amongst those who signed. Castro, who had originally relied on the support of the poor, was now gaining the backing of the influential middle classes.

General Fulgencio Batista responded to this by sending more troops to the Sierra Maestra. He now had 10,000 men hunting for Castro and his 300-strong army. Although outnumbered, Castro's guerrillas were able to inflict defeat after defeat on the government's troops. In the summer of 1958 over a thousand of Batista's soldiers were killed or wounded and many more were captured. Unlike Batista's soldiers, Castro's troops had developed a reputation for behaving well towards prisoners. This encouraged Batista's troops to surrender to Castro when things went badly in battle. Complete military units began to join the guerrillas.

The United States supplied Batista with planes, ships and tanks, but the advantage of using the latest technology such as napalm failed to win them victory against the guerrillas. In March 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower, disillusioned with Batista's performance, suggested he held elections. This he did, but the people showed their dissatisfaction with his government by refusing to vote. Over 75 per cent of the voters in the capital Havana boycotted the polls. In some areas, such as Santiago, it was as high as 98 per cent.

Fidel Castro was now confident he could beat Batista in a head-on battle. Leaving the Sierra Maestra mountains, Castro's troops began to march on the main towns. After consultations with the United States government, Batista decided to flee the country. Senior Generals left behind attempted to set up another military government. Castro's reaction was to call for a general strike. The workers came out on strike and the military were forced to accept the people's desire for change. Castro marched into Havana on January 9,1959, and became Cuba's new leader.

In its first hundred days in office Castro's government passed several new laws. Rents were cut by up to 50 per cent for low wage earners; property owned by Fulgencio Batista and his ministers was confiscated; the telephone company was nationalized and the rates were reduced by 50 per cent; land was redistributed amongst the peasants (including the land owned by the Castro family); separate facilities for blacks and whites (swimming pools, beaches, hotels, cemeteries etc.) were abolished.

In 1960 Guevara visited China and the Soviet Union. On his return he wrote two books Guerrilla Warfare and Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War. In these books he argued that it was possible to export Cuba's revolution to other South American countries. Guevara served as Minister for Industries (1961-65) but in April 1965 he resigned and become a guerrilla leader in Bolivia.

In 1967 David Morales recruited Félix Rodríguez to train and head a team that would attempt to catch Che Guevara. Guevara was attempting to persuade the tin-miners living in poverty to join his revolutionary army. When Guevara was captured, it was Rodriguez who interrogated him before he ordered his execution in October, 1967. Rodriguez still possesses Guevara’s Rolex watch that he took as a trophy.

In their book, Ultimate Sacrifice, published in 2006, Larmar Waldron and Thom Hartmann argued that in 1963 Guevara was involved in a plot with Juan Almeida Bosch to overthrow Fidel Castro.


Bruce Lee

The legendary hero, Bruce Lee, was born on 27th November, 1940 at the Jackson Street Hospital in San Francisco Chinatown. His real name was Jun Fan Lee. With love his parents called him Sai Fung. His father's name was Lee Hoi Chuen. When Bruce Lee was born his father was performing with the Cantonese Opera Company in America. Bruce debuted at the age of three months in "Golden Gate Girl" in San Francisco, CA. He played a role of a female baby, carried by his father. In 1941, His parents returned to there hometown Kowloon, Hong Kong. Bruce Lee entered movies when he was just three years old, with the professional name Li-Siu-Lung, means Little Dragon. His first movie was The Beginning of a Boy. He later did The Birth of Mankind, and My Son, Ah Cheun. In the later years of his childhood, he appeared in 20 more films in Asia. In these films, Bruce's vivid facial expressions begin to develop, and they foreshadow his future expressions in his famous Gung-Fu movies.

At the age of 12, Bruce began to attend La Salle College. In 1953 Bruce Lee started taking Gung-Fu Lessons. He began his training under Sifu Yip Man, a master of the wing chun system of gung-Fu. In 1954, Bruce Lee started learning Cha-cha dance and won the Crown colony Cha-Cha Championship in 1958, he was 18 years old. In 1958 only he did his last movie as a child actor was The orphan, he got the leading role in the movie. This was the only movie where Bruce didn't fight. In the same year Bruce Lee entered Boxing Championships and defeats the reigning three year champion, Gary Elms.In 1959, Bruce's father and mother decided to send Bruce to the United States, because of numerous street fighting, which caused police involvement. The trip was possibly to get him back on the right track. He started working as a waiter in for his father's old friend Ruby Chow restaurant. He lived in a room above her restaurant. He eventually enrolls in Edison Technical School and earned his high school diploma. Bruce started teaching his Martial Art skills in backyards and city parks.

In 1961, Bruce enrolled himself at the University of Washington, to study Philosophy. He continued teaching his Martial Art to school students. In 1963, he started his first jun Fan Gung-Fu institute, after giving notice to Ruby Chow. In1964 at the age 24 Bruce met Jhoon Rhee at the International Karate Championships. Jhoon Rhee will invite Bruce to Washington, D.C. to appear at tournaments. Bruce started his second Jun Fan Gung-Fu Institute in Oakland, CA. His good friend, Taky Kimura, takes over as head instructor.

On 2nd August 1964 was invited to Long Beach, CA by Ed Parker, known as the Father of American Karate (Kenpo), to give a demonstration. Bruce showed off his "one-inch punch," and his two-finger push-ups. He married Linda on 17th August, 1964 at the age of 24. On 1st February,1965 Brandon Bruce Lee was born in Oakland, CA. Bruce's father passed away in Hong Kong on February 8,1965. In 1966 Bruce and family moved to Los Angeles where he worked in a new TV series called The Green Hornet as Kato. He opened his third branch of the Jun Fan Gung-Fu Institute in Los Angeles' Chinatown in 1967. On April 19, 1969 Shannon Lee was born in Santa Monica, CA.

In1973 Warner Bros. signed Lee to star in his signature film, Enter the Dragon, which made money by the truckload. He made his directorial debut in what many consider his best film, 1973's Return of the Dragon. It was the last movie Bruce Lee as an actor could complete. While in Hong Kong filming The Game of Death, Lee collapsed on the set, apparently suffering an epileptic seizure. After taking a pain killer, Lee fell asleep -- and never woke up. Rumors still persist that Bruce Lee was killed by a group of kung fu experts who resented the actor's exposing their "trade secrets" to the world. Whatever the circumstances of his death, Bruce Lee's legend did not die with him. On July 25th,1973 at the age of 33 - A funeral ceremony was held for friends and fans in Hong Kong consisting of over 25,000 people. Bruce was dressed in the Chinese outfit he wore in Enter the Dragon. In 1973 (July 30)- After a smaller second ceremony in Seattle, Washington at Butterworth Funeral Home on East Pine Street, Bruce Lee was buried at Lake View Cemetery. His pallbearers included Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Danny Inosanto, Taky Kimura, Peter Chin, and his brother, Robert Lee. In 1973 August 24 - Enter The Dragon was premiered at Graumann's Chinese Theater. The movie was a success, and Bruce Lee achieves world-wide fame.

In a grimly ironic twist, Bruce Lee's son, actor Brandon Lee, likewise died under mysterious circumstances while making a film in 1993.