Answer the question at the end by quoting:

Jack Abramoff was born on February 28, 1959 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, into a Jewish family. His parents were Jane (nee Divac) and Franklin Abramoff, who was president of the Franchises unit of Diners Club credit card company. Abramoff's family moved to Beverly Hills, California, when he was ten (in 1968). After seeing the film version of Fiddler on the Roof at age twelve, Abramoff decided to practice Orthodox Judaism.
Abramoff spent 10 years in Hollywood. He developed (wrote the story) and produced, with his brother Robert, the 1989 film Red Scorpion. The film ultimately cost $16 million (from an $8 million initial budget) and starred Dolph Lundgren playing the Spetsnaz-like Soviet commando Nikolai, sent by the USSR to assassinate an African revolutionary in a country similar to Angola. Nikolai sees the evil of the Soviets and changes sides, becoming a freedom fighter for the African side. Abramoff also executive-produced its 1994 sequel Red Scorpion 2.  The South African government financed the film via the International Freedom Foundation, a front-group chaired by Abramoff, as part of its efforts to undermine international sympathy for the African National Congress. The filming location was in South-West Africa (now Namibia).  On April 27, 1998, Abramoff wrote a letter to the editor of The Seattle Times rebutting an article critical of him and his alleged role as effectively a Public Relations puppet of the then-apartheid South African military. Abramoff rebutted:  The IFF was a conservative group which I headed. It was vigorously anti-Communist, but it was also actively anti-apartheid. In 1987, it was one of the first conservative groups to call for the release of Nelson Mandela, a position for which it was roundly criticized by other conservatives at the time. While I headed the IFF, we accepted funding only from private individuals and corporations and would have absolutely rejected any offer of South African military funding, or any other kind of funding from any government - good or evil.  During this period in South Africa, Abramoff first met South African-born rabbi David Lapin, who would become his religious advisor. He also met Lapin's brother and fellow rabbi Daniel Lapin, who allegedly introduced Abramoff to Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX) at a Washington, DC dinner shortly after the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994. Lapin later claimed that he did not recall making that introduction.

What are some important things to know about the South Africa connections?

The South African government financed the film via the International Freedom Foundation, a front-group chaired by Abramoff,



Answer the question at the end by quoting:

Mihail Kogalniceanu (Romanian pronunciation: [miha'il kog@lni'tSeanu] ( listen); also known as Mihail Cogalniceanu, Michel de Kogalnitchan; 6 September 1817 - 1 July 1891) was a Moldavian, later Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania on 11 October 1863, after the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities under Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza, and later served as Foreign Minister under Carol I. He was several times Interior Minister under Cuza and Carol. A polymath, Kogalniceanu was one of the most influential Romanian intellectuals of his generation. Siding with the moderate liberal current for most of his lifetime, he began his political career as a collaborator of Prince Mihail Sturdza, while serving as head of the Iasi Theater and issuing several publications together with the poet Vasile Alecsandri and the activist Ion Ghica.
Born in Iasi, he belonged to the Kogalniceanu family of Moldavian boyars, being the son of Vornic Ilie Kogalniceanu, and the great-grandson of Constantin Kogalniceanu (noted for having signed his name to a 1749 document issued by Prince Constantine Mavrocordatos, through which serfdom was disestablished in Moldavia). Mihail's mother, Catinca nee Stavilla (or Stavilla), was, according to Kogalniceanu's own words, "[from] a Romanian family in Bessarabia". The author took pride in noting that "my family has never searched its origins in foreign countries or peoples". Nevertheless, in a speech he gave shortly before his death, Kogalniceanu commented that Catinca Stavilla had been the descendant of "a Genoese family, settled for centuries in the Genoese colony of Cetatea Alba (Akerman), whence it then scattered throughout Bessarabia".  During Milhail Kogalniceanu's lifetime, there was confusion regarding his exact birth year, with several sources erroneously indicating it as 1806; in his speech to the Romanian Academy, he acknowledged this, and gave his exact birth date as present in a register kept by his father. It was also then that he mentioned his godmother was Marghioala Calimach, a Callimachi boyaress who married into the Sturdza family, and was the mother of Mihail Sturdza (Kogalniceanu's would-be protector and foe).  Kogalniceanu was educated at Trei Ierarhi monastery in Iasi, before being tutored by Gherman Vida, a monk who belonged to the Transylvanian School, and who was an associate of Gheorghe Sincai. He completed his primary education in Miroslava, where he attended the Cuenim boarding school. It was during this early period that he first met the poet Vasile Alecsandri (they studied under both Vida and Cuenim), Costache Negri and Cuza. At the time, Kogalniceanu became a passionate student of history, beginning his investigations into old Moldavian chronicles.  With support from Prince Sturdza, Kogalniceanu continued his studies abroad, originally in the French city of Luneville (where he was cared for by Sturdza's former tutor, the abbe Lhomme), and later at the University of Berlin. Among his colleagues was the future philosopher Grigore Sturdza, son of the Moldavian monarch. His stay in Luneville was cut short by the intervention of Russian officials, who were supervising Moldavia under the provisions of the Regulamentul Organic regime, and who believed that, through the influence of Lhomme (a participant in the French Revolution), students were being infused with rebellious ideas; all Moldavian students, including Sturdza's sons and other noblemen, were withdrawn from the school in late 1835, and reassigned to Prussian education institutions.

who was his mother?
Mihail's mother, Catinca nee Stavilla (or Stavilla), was, according to Kogalniceanu's own words, "[from] a Romanian family in Bessarabia".