The National Anthem of Belize

Belize, formerly British Honduras, is a country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, composed of many cultures and speaking many languages. Although Kriol and Spanish are also widely spoken among the populace, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, Guatemala to the south and west, and the Caribbean sea to the east.

Land of the Free is the national anthem of Belize. The words were written by Samuel Alfred Haynes and the music by Selwyn Walford Young in 1963. It was officially adopted in 1981.

Samuel Haynes (1899-1971) was an African Caribbean Belizean soldier, activist and poet. He was a leader of the 1919 riot by Belizean soldiers who had fought for Great Britain in World War I and refused to accept racial discrimination at home. He also wrote the lyrics of a song named ""Land of the Gods" which later became Belize's national anthem, "Land of the Free".

Also, prominent in the Garvey Movement, Samuel Haynes was once the President of the Pittsburgh Division, editor/writer for the Negro World and for a brief period the Official American Representative for the UNIA-ACL 1929 under the Honorable Marcus Garvey.

Selwyn Walford Young (1899-1977), usually known as Walford Young, was a Belizean musician and composer.

Slovenia Anthem Lyricist

A Toast (Slovene: Zdravljica) is a famous poem by France Prešeren. It was written in 1844 and has been Slovenia's national anthem since September 27, 1989. The most famous is its 7th stanza, for which Stanko Premrl composed a choral composition with the same name. Only the text of the 7th stanza comprises the anthem of Slovenia. In form, the poem is a carmen figuratum because the shape of each stanza resembles a wine cup.

France Prešeren (3 December 1800 – 8 February 1849) was a Slovene Romantic poet. He is considered the Slovene national poet. Although he was not a particularly prolific author, he inspired virtually all Slovene literature thereafter.

Today, Prešeren is still considered one of the leading poets of Slovenian literature, acclaimed not only nationally or regionally, but also according to the standards of developed European literature. Prešeren was one of the greatest European Romanticists. His fervent, heartfelt lyrics, intensely emotional but never merely sentimental, have made him the chief representative of the Romantic school in Slovenia.

Nevertheless, recognition came slow after his death. It was not before 1866 that a real breakthrough in the reception of his role in Slovenian culture took place. In that year, Josip Jurčič and Josip Stritar published a new edition of Prešeren's collection of poems. In the preface, Stritar published an essay which is still considered one of the most influential essays in Slovenian history. In it, he showed the aesthetic value of Prešeren's work by placing him in the wider European context. From then on, his reputation as the greatest poet in Slovene language was never endangered.

Prešeren's legacy in Slovenian culture is enormous. He is generally regarded as the national poet. In 1905, his monument was placed in the central square in Ljubljana, now called Prešeren Square. By the early 1920s, all his surviving work had been cataloged and numerous critical editions of his works had been published. Several scholars were already dealing exclusively with the analysis of his work and little was left unknown about his life.

In 1944, the anniversary of his death, called Prešeren Day, was declared as the Slovenian Cultural Holiday. In 1990, the seventh stanza of his Zdravljica was declared the national anthem of Slovenia, replacing the old Naprej zastava slave. In 1992, his effigy was portrayed on the Slovenian 1000 tolar banknote, and since 2007 his image is on the Slovenian two-euro coin. The highest Slovenian prize for artistic achievements, the Prešeren Award, is named after him.

Running Log

37 minutes treadmill (5K)

The National Anthem of Ukraine

Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy" ("Ukraine's glory has not perished") is the national anthem of Ukraine. The lyrics constitute a slightly modified original first stanza of the patriotic poem written in 1862 by Pavlo Chubynsky, a prominent ethnographer from the region of Ukraine's capital, Kiev. In 1863, Mykhaylo Verbytsky, a western Ukrainian composer and a Greek-Catholic priest composed music to accompany Chubynsky's text. The first choral performance of the piece was at the Ukraine Theatre in Lviv, in 1864. The song was first the national anthem of the Ukrainian People's Republic, Carpatho-Ukraine and later the independent post-Soviet Ukraine.

Pavlo Chubynsky (1839 - 1884) was a Ukrainian poet and ethnographer whose poem "Shche ne vmerla Ukraina" (Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished) was set to music and adapted as the Ukrainian national anthem.

In 1863 the Lviv journal Meta (The Goal) published the poem but mistakenly ascribed it to Taras Shevchenko. In the same year it was set to music by the Galician composer Michael Verbytsky (1815-1870), first for solo and later choral performance.

This song's catchy melody and patriotic text quickly gained broad acceptance, but Pavlo Chubynsky was persecuted for the rest of his life by anti-Ukrainian Russian powers. He was sent to Archangelsk province for "negatively influencing peasants' minds." When his work in that region was recognized internationally by his peers, Chubynsky was sent to Petersburg to work in the Transport Ministry as a low-level official. He eventually became paralyzed in 1880 and died four years later. In 1917 the song with his lyrics was officially adopted as the anthem of the Ukrainian state.

Above is a prestamped cover issued in 2009, of the Ukraine Hymn writer, Pavlo Chubynsky, to commemorate his 170th birth anniversary.

The Anthem of Turkmenistan

The national anthem of Turkmenistan is called the National Anthem of Independent Neutral Turkmenistan (sometimes also Independent, Neutral, Turkmenistan State Anthem, a literal translation from Turkmen). The lyrics were written by the first president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov (also known as Turkmenbashi, Turkmen: Türkmenbaşy). Niyazov died on 21 December 2006, and two years after his death the Parliament adopted a law that changed some of the lyrics – all references to Turkmenbashi in the anthem were replaced with the people.

Saparmurat Ataýewiç Niyazov (19 February 1940 – 21 December 2006) was a Turkmen politician who served as President of Turkmenistan from 2 November 1990 until his death in 2006. He was First Secretary of the Turkmen Communist Party from 1985 until 1991 and continued to lead Turkmenistan for 15 years after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. He was known in English as Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov, the romanization of the Russian spelling Сапармурат Атаевич Ниязов of his Turkmen name.

Turkmen media referred to him using the title "His Excellency Saparmurat Türkmenbaşy, President of Turkmenistan and Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers". His title Türkmenbaşy, or Turkmenbashi, meaning Leader of Turkmens, referred to his position as the founder and president of the Association of Turkmens of the World.

Foreign media criticized him as one of the world's most totalitarian and repressive dictators, highlighting his reputation of imposing his personal eccentricities upon the country, which extended to renaming months after members of his family. Global Witness, a London-based human rights organization, reported that money under Niyazov's control and held overseas may be in excess of US$3 billion, of which $2 billion is supposedly situated in the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund at Deutsche Bank in Germany.

Niyazov became president at the transition of Turkmenistan from a SSR in the Soviet Union to an independent state; his presidency was characterized by a number of factors: an initial crumbling inherited from the centralized soviet model that in many respects was unsuited to function as a separate entity, large amounts of foreign income from gas and petroleum reserves (~2-4billion $ as of 2005), outside concern about press freedom and to a lesser extent religious rights of minority religious groups, a personal attempt to create a background for the new state of Turkmenistan such as writing and promoting the Ruhnama, promoting native culture (and by extension prohibiting foreign culture), as well the creation of new holidays with a specific Turkmen nature.

Niyazov became a substitute for the vacuum left by the downfall of the communist system, with his image replacing those of Stalin, Marx and Lenin; this coupled with his promotion of the Ruhnama and various other decrees, as well as the doting actions of the official Turkmen media gave rise to the clear appearance of a 'cult of personality'. The eccentric nature of some of his decrees, coupled with the vast number of images of the president led to the perception , especially in western countries, of a despotic leader, rich on oil wealth glorifying himself whilst the population gained no benefit.

On December 21, 2006, Turkmen state television announced that President Niyazov had died of sudden cardiac arrest. Niyazov had been taking medication for an unidentified cardiac condition. The Turkmen Embassy in Moscow later confirmed this report.

According to the Constitution of Turkmenistan, Öwezgeldi Ataýew, Chairman of the Parliament, would assume the presidency. Deputy Prime Minister Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was named as head of the commission organizing the state funeral. Due to the imprisonment of Öwezgeldi Ataýew who, under the Constitution is first in line to succeed the presidency, Berdimuhamedow was named as acting president. Berdimuhamedow and the Halk Maslahaty announced on December 26 that the next presidential elections would be held on February 11, 2007.

The circumstances of Niyazov's passing has been surrounded by some media speculation, including that Niyazov had been the victim of poisoning. Some Turkmen opposition sources also claim that Niyazov died several days before the officially announced date of December 21.

The National Anthem of Mali

Le Mali (popularly known as Pour l'Afrique et pour toi, Mali – French: For Africa and for you, Mali or A ton appel Mali – French: At your call, Mali) is the national anthem of Mali. The words were written by Seydou Badian Kouyaté (stamp on the left) and the music was by Banzoumana Sissoko (stamp on the right). Adopted as the national anthem in 1962, its themes are patriotism, national, and African unity. It states the willingness of the people of Mali to lay down their lives for their nation and for liberty. A common theme throughout the song is the desire to strive for a united Africa. Its music is a traditional European style military march.

It was officially adopted less than a year after independence, in 1962. It is traditionally played at state ceremonies by the band of the Garde Républicaine of the Armed Forces of Mali. The Malian Young Pioneer movement of the 1960s translated the anthem in the Bambara language for its rallies.

Seydou Badian Kouyaté, born in 1928 was a Malian writer and politician. Born in Bamako, Kouyaté studied medicine at the University of Montpellier in France before returning to Mali. Under president Modibo Keïta, he wrote the words for Mali's national anthem, Pour l'Afrique et pour toi, Mali. In the Plan of September 17, 1962 he was named Minister of Economic and Financial Coordination; however, with the coup d'état of 1968, and the rise to the presidency of Moussa Traoré, he was deported to Kidal before being exiled to Dakar, in Senegal. Associated from its beginning with the Sudanese Union-African Democratic Rally, he was removed from the party in 1998 for having opposed part of its plan to refuse recognition to certain institutions participating in contested elections.

Kouyaté is also internationally known as a writer; even before Mali's independence, in 1957, he had published his first novel, Sous l'orage. This was followed by two other novels, Le Sang des masques in 1976 and Noces sacrées in 1977. In 2007 his novel La Saison des pièges was published.

Correia- Lyricist of the Anthem of Azores

The Azores are an autonomous province of Portugal, and have their own local, unofficial anthem- "Hino dos Acores" (Hymn of the Azores). The original song was composed by Joaquim Lima during the 1890s when the autonomy movement was growing. Originally without lyrics (yet several unofficial lyrics were penned to promote autonomy), the Azorean government asked Azorean poetess Natália de Oliveira Correia to compose official lyrics for the anthem. The government also adopted Teófilo Frazão's arrangement of the original melody as the official version of the anthem in 1980.

Natália de Oliveira Correia, (b. September 13, 1923 in Fajã de Baixo, São Miguel Island, Azores - March 16, 1993 in Lisbon) was a Portuguese writer, and was the author of the lyrics of Hino dos Açores, the traditional anthem of The Azores.

Correia was born in Fajã de Baixo near downtown Ponta Delgada, on São Miguel island in the Azores on September 13, 1923, daughter of Manuel de Medeiros Correia and wife, married in 1918, writer Maria José de Oliveira (Capelas, Ponta Delgada, May 26, 1892 - Brazil, January 1956). She had an older sister named Carmen de Oliveira Correia, unmarried and without issue. She moved to Lisbon when she was 11. She collaborated in the publication of various periodicals and was the deputy of the Portugues Social Democratic Party. She was one of the most important activists in the fight against fascism in her country, and a prominent defender of culture, human rights and womens' rights in particular. She is considered one of the most important figures in 20th century Portuguese literature.

Correia's deep affection for her native island's native beauty is demonstrated profoundly in the themes, images and symbols portrayed in her works, as well as by her association with contemporaries Antero de Quental and Vitorino Nemésio. She was much influenced by surrealism, Galician-Portuguese poetry, and mysticism, and her works span the spectrum from poetic romanticism to satire. She worked in many different genres: poetry, essays, theatre, and anthologies.

Correia participated in several political oppositional movements, opposing Estado Novo (New State) and supporting MUD (Movimento de Unidade Democrática in 1945). At one point, Correia spent three years in prison, under a suspended penalty, for the publication of a poem deemed offensive by authorities. In 1980 she was elected to Parliament as a member of the PPD (Partido Popular Democrático).

In 1991, Natália Correia received an award from Grande Prémio de Poesia da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores (Grand Premium of Poems of the Portuguese Writers Association) for her book Sonetos Românticos (Romantic Sonnets). In the same year, she was admitted to the Ordem da Liberdade and Ordem de Santiago.

Natália Correia died on March 16, 1993 in Lisbon. She was married four times, all of them without any issue: in 1942 to Álvaro Pereira, in 1949 to William Creighton Hyler, in 1950 to Alfredo Machado and in March 1990 to Dórdio Leal Guimarães (Porto, March 10, 1938 - July 2, 1997).

The National Anthem of Mongolia

The National Anthem of Mongolia was created in 1950. The music is a composition by Bilegiin Damdinsüren (1919 - 1991) and Luvsanyamts Murdorj (1915 - 1996), the lyrics were written by Tsendiin Damdinsüren (1908 - 1988).

Over the twentieth century, Mongolia had several national anthems. The first one was used between 1924 and 1950. The second between 1950 and 1962, and a third one between 1961 and 1991. Since 1991, most of the anthem of 1950 is used again, but the second verse (praising Lenin, Stalin, Sükhbaatar, and Choibalsan) has been removed. On July 6th, 2006 the lyrics were revised by the Mongolian Parliament to commemorate Genghis Khan.

Khatagin Tsendiin Damdinsüren (1908-1986) was a Mongolian writer and linguist. He wrote the text to one version of the national Anthem of Mongolia. Damdinsüren was born in Mongolia 1908, in what is today the Dornod Aimag (province).

As a young man, he was politically active in the Mongolian Revolutionary Youth League, where he was elected into the Central Committee in 1926, and eventually became an editor of its publications. Later he became the chairman of the Council of Mongolian Trade Unions and was involved in the collectivization and seizures . He joined the MPRP in 1932. In 1933 he continued his education in Leningrad.

After returning to Mongolia in 1938, Damdinsüren became an ally of Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal, the future Premier Minister and President. He promoted the switch from the vertically written classical Mongolian script to an adapted Cyrillic script. He was forced to do it as he was politically repressed and imprisoned and was threatened by capital punishment. Later he confessed abandonment of the Classical Mongolian Script as one of the mistakes of his life. Between 1942 and 1946 he was an editor for the party newspaper Unen(The Truth). In 1959 he became chairman of the Committee of Sciences, and between 1953 and 1955 he was chairman of the Writers Union.

Damdinsüren wrote poetry that was well received in Mongolia. He also produced prose and literary studies, and a translation of The Secret History of the Mongols into modern Mongolian. The language of his poems and prose were largely based on the oral literary traditions of Mongolia, which he developed into a classical language of the Mongolian literature of the 20th century. His novel Gologdson huuhen (The Rejected Girl) became one of the popular films of 1960s.

He created the first large Russian-Mongolian dictionary and wrote the text to the national anthem that was in use between 1950 and 1962, and in parts after 1991.

The National Anthem of North Korea

A year before the establishment of North Korea in 1948, the government of the then Soviet-controlled sector of Korea adopted a new anthem (the one in use at that time was the anthem of South Korea). Interestingly, not only does the music of the North Korean anthem sounds vaguely like the South Korean anthem's music, but they also share a title. There has also been a "united Korean anthem" created by blending the melodies of the two nations' anthems seamlessly, used by some to promote Korean re-unification. The lyrics of "Aegukka (Pattiotic Song)were written by Pak Se Yong and the music was composed by Kim Won Gyun. The anthem was adopted for use in 1947.

Kim Won Gyun, was a famous Korean composer, born in 1917 and died in 2002. He dedicated himself to the development of music and the training of reserve artists of the country with distinguished artistic talent. In his honor, the construction of Kim Won Gyun Pyongyang Conservatory was completed as a grand seat for musical education in the Songun era. The conservatory, another monumental edifice, covers a plottage of five hectares on the bank of the River Taedong. His bust can be seen in the main building.

The stamp above, issued in 1998, features the musical notation and lyrics of the North Korean National Anthem, the North Korean flag and the Tower of Juche.

The National Anthem of Sri Lanka

"Sri Lanka Matha" is the national anthem of Sri Lanka. The words and music were written by Ananda Samarakoon in 1940 in the Sinhala language, and was officially adopted as the national anthem on November 22, 1951 by a committee headed by Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne.

The first line of the anthem originally read: "Namo namo matha, apa Sri Lanka". There was some controversy over these words in the 1950s, and in early 1962 they were changed to their present form.

Ananda Samarakoon was born George Wilfred Alwis to a Christian family in Padukka, in Ceylon, on January 13, 1911 in Sri Lanka. In 1936, He had his primary and secondary education at Christian College, Kotte,presently known as Sri Jayawardenapura M.V.Kotte. His Sinhala Guru was Pandit D.C.P. Gamalathge. Later he served his Alma mater as a teacher of Music and Art. Samarakone left for Santiniketan in India to study art and music. After six months he abandoned his studies and returned to Sri Lanka, and changed his name to Ananda Samarakone, embracing Buddhism.

He was very much influenced by Rabindranath Tagore while in India and his fascination and the desire to imitate the great Indian musician would go on to take him in the direction of creating a musical tradition for the Sri Lankan people.

In 1937, the popular music of Sri Lanka comprised of songs derived from the North Indian Ragadhari music. These songs lyrics often contained meaningless phrases with little or no literary merit. Samarakone set out to create a form of a music that can be classified as Sri Lanka's own and came out with the song Endada Menike (1940) that paved the foundation for the artistic Sinhala music.

The love themed song unfolds in the form of a dialogue between a young village boy and a girl. It, poetic and beautifully rustic, became a success and Samarakone followed it with a string of successful songs in the early to mid 1940s, the period considered his golden age.

In 1945 Samarakoon's only son died at the age of five and the grieving Samarakoon left Sri Lanka for India where he pursued a painting career and held eleven art exhibitions there. Though his painting were critically acclaimed, he returned to music in 1951 back in Sri Lanka.

During Samarakoon's stay in India, one of his early compositions, Namo Namo Mata (composed in 1940, recorded in 1946) was nominated as the national anthem and was officially adopted by the State as the Sri Lankan national anthem in 1952. Critics attacked Namo Namo Mata, particularly the "Gana" significance of the introductory words (Namo Namo Matha) which designate disease and ill luck. Samarakone was not a believer in "Gana", and the criticism caused him to write numerous articles counter attacking his critics to defend his composition. However, without his consent, the introductory words were changed to "Sri Lanka Mathaa" so that the "Gana" significance now would designate victory and prosperity.

On April 5, 1962, at the age of fifty one, Samarakoon committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping tablets. Samarakoon's legacy lives on in his music and in the musical style he created.

The stamp above features the anthem composer Ananda Samarakoon issued in 1989

The National Anthem of Maldives

Until the late 1940s the state anthem of the Maldives was a melody with no lyrics. It was called the Salaamathi and was performed by the royal band on state occasions at the Etherekoilu, the official residence of the King.

In 1948 it was determined that the Salaamathi needed replacement with lyrics to accompany a new melody. The words were composed by a young poet and later a chief justice, Mohamed Jameel Didi.

Jameel Didi looked around for a tune to accompany his poem. His uncle, the chief justice Hussain Salahuddine, had just acquired a new-fangled clock that played an excellent tune at the stroke of midday, the Scottish folk song "Auld Lang Syne", and Jameel decided to use that tune for his poem.

Although the Salaamathi survived as the royal anthem until 1964, it did not occur to anyone to adopt it as the national anthem. In 1972, for the first time in history, the Maldives hosted a foreign head of state - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The Maldive government of the time deemed it necessary to compose a different tune for the anthem instead. Hastily they commissioned the composition of a new melody. The new melody of the Maldive national anthem was composed by a distinguished Sri Lankan maestro, Pandit Wannakuwattawaduge Don Amaradeva. The original lyrics were used, with some changes to mark the fact that Maldives has been a republic since 1968.

Wannakulawattawaduge Don Albert Perera (born December 5, 1927 in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka), better known by his adopted name Amaradeva, is a Sri Lankan vocalist and musical composer. Primarily using traditional instruments like sitars, tablas and harmoniums, Amaradeva incoporates Sinhala folk music with Indian ragas in his work.

In the mid-1950s, Amaradeva in his Janagayana project consulted experts of the Kandyan dance tradition like Pani Bharata, Kiriganita, Gunamala, Ukkuva and Suramba in his path to understand what constituted Sinhala folk music. Noting that it mostly revolved around a single melody, he decided to add verses that would lead up to the central melody which would now be a chorus thus forming two parts (unseen earlier in traditional Sri Lankan music) removing restrictions that had existed earlier. In doing so, Amaradeva created a uniquely Sinhalese music style that stayed true to folk tradition while incorporating outside influences. His work was vital in the creation of the sarala gee genre practiced subsequently by artists like Victor Ratnayake, Sunil Edirisinghe and Sanath Nandasiri.

Pandit Amaradeva has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Philippine Ramon Magsaysay Award (2001), Indian Padma Sri Award and Sri Lankan "President's Award of Kala Keerthi" (1986) and Deshamanya Award (1998). He has also represented Sri Lanka in many forums including the UNESCO 1967 Manila Symposium, and composed the melody for the Maldives national anthem, Gaumii salaam, at the request of British Queen Elizabeth II in 1972.

The Olympic Hymn Writer

Kostis Palamas , (13 January 1859 — 27 February 1943) was a Greek poet who wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn. He was a central figure of the Greek literary generation of the 1880s and one of the co-founders of the so-called New Athenian School (or Palamian School) along with Georgios Drosinis and Nikos Kampas.

Born in Patras, he received his primary and secondary education in Missolonghi. In 1880s, he worked as a journalist. He published his first collection of verses, "The Songs of My Fatherland," in 1886. He held a position at the University of Athens between 1897 and 1926. He died during the German occupation of Greece during World War II and his funeral was a major event of the Greek resistance. It ended as a protest of a hundred thousand Greeks against Nazi occupying forces in Athens. Palamas wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn, composed by Spyridon Samaras. It was first performed at the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Olympic Games. The Hymn was then shelved as each host city from then until the 1960 Summer Olympics commissioned an original piece for its edition of the Games, but the version by Samaras and Palamas was declared the official Olympic Anthem in 1958 and has been performed at each edition of the Games since the 1964 Summer Olympics.

He has been called the "national" poet of Greece and was closely associated with the struggle to rid Modern Greece of the "purist" language and with political liberalism. He dominated literary life for 30 or more years and greatly influenced the entire political-intellectual climate of his time. Romain Rolland considered him the greatest poet of Europe and he was twice nominated for the Nobel prize for poetry but never received it. His most important poem ["The twelve lays (or words) of the gypsy]" (1907) is a poetical-philosophical journey. His "Gypsy" is a free thinking, intellectual rebel. He is a Greek Gypsy, in a post classical, post-Byzantine Greek world. He explores work, love, art, country, history, religion and science, keenly aware of his roots and of the contradictions between his classical and Christian heritage.

The stamp above is of the Olympic hymn lyricist, Kostis Palamas issued in 1960. Below, issued in 2007.