Despite this unofficial standard, regional variations of American English have not only persisted but have actually intensified, according to linguist William Labov.

Despite its rapid growth, the economy of Benin still remains underdeveloped and dependent on subsistence agriculture, cotton production, and regional trade.

Despite Connecticut's relatively small size, it features wide regional variations in its landscape ; for example, in the northwestern Litchfield Hills, it features rolling mountains and horse farms, whereas in the southeastern New London County, it features beaches and maritime activities.

Despite the Algiers Agreement, tense relations with Ethiopia have continued and led to regional instability.

Despite these efforts, the rank is still below regional peers and an unfavourable investment climate persists.

Despite political corruption and regional instability, Kyrgyzstan is ranked 44th on the Ease of doing Business Index.

Despite the wide regional variations in climate by latitude and other geographic factors, the long-term average global climate is quite stable during interglacial periods, and variations of a degree or two of average global temperature have historically had major effects on the ecological balance, and on the actual geography of the Earth.

Despite periodic efforts to integrate military units, the Commanders recruit largely from regional tribes.

Despite the massive amount of world and storyline development, none of the Living Greyhawk storylines or changes to the setting were considered official, since the regional adventure modules were produced by volunteers, and only received a cursory vetting by the campaign administrators of RPGA, and no review by WotC personnel.

Despite Toledo's repeated call for regional arms reductions, Chile continued purchasing arms, including 10 F-16 fighters from the U. S. and one hundred Leopard 2 tanks from Germany.

Despite this popular regional acclaim, by mid 1955 Sam Phillips's studio experienced financial difficulties, and he sold Presley's contract in November of that year ; RCA Records ' offer of $ 35, 000 beat out Atlantic Records ' offer of $ 25, 000.

Despite limited facilities, the island's athletics club ( North Uist Amateur Athletics Club ) has performed well at local, regional and national athletics competitions.

Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures.

Despite the impact of regional economic decline, Youngstown offers an array of cultural and recreational resources.

Despite these differences, Hazaragi is mutually intelligible with other regional Persian dialects.

Despite this, the MBR-200 remained divided over electoral participation, and spent a year debating the issue in local, regional and national assemblies.

Despite the high approval ratings from the Spanish mainstream, and in particular the personal popularity enjoyed by the current king and queen, the monarchy has been the focus of acute criticism from the extreme left and extreme right of the Spanish political spectrum, and by regional separatists.

Despite intense conflict amongst the FAR regional commanders, Ouane was pivotal in providing local military support against the North Vietnamese Army and the Pathet Lao in the northern regions of Laos.

Despite the lack of regional names on screen, the regional name is usually spoken by the announcer prior to local programmes.

Despite the number of excavations that have taken place, relatively little is known about the regional archaeologically, the data pertaining to the Postclassic period is especially limited.

Despite local phonetic differences, there is a regional movement towards the adoption of a common spelling, called the rfondou walon.

Despite an uncertain start in establishing a consistent comic tone, pic builds into an engaging, light character comedy, played somewhere between the Ealing tradition and contempo regional comedy.

Despite a June 2008 certification by the United Nations that Israel had withdrawn from all Lebanese territory, in August, Lebanon's new Cabinet unanimously approved a draft policy statement which secures Hezbollah's existence as an armed organization and guarantees its right to " liberate or recover occupied lands ".

Despite the move toward workplace democracy, command-and-control organization structures remain commonplace and the de facto organization structure.

Despite yet another losing season, the Mets made history in 2011 when Jason Isringhausen converted his 300th save with the team, the third player in franchise history to reach the milestone while with the organization behind John Franco and Billy Wagner.

Despite his short time as Pope he made a significant contribution to the organization of the Catholic Church.

Despite this, the Eastern Roman / Byzantine armies continued to be influenced by the earlier Roman legions, and were maintained with similar level of discipline, strategic prowess, and organization.

Despite their initial cooperation against " revisionism ," Hoxha denounced Mao as a revisionist, along with almost every other self-identified Communist organization in the world.

" Despite AIM's assertion of political neutrality, it is frequently described by the mainstream media and other media watchdog groups as a conservative organization.

His arguments against the doctrine of revolutionary unions known as anarcho-syndicalism were later developed in a series of articles, where he wrote “ I am against syndicalism, both as a doctrine and a practice, because it strikes me as a hybrid creature .” Despite their drawbacks, he advocated activity in the trade unions, both because they were necessary for the organization and self-defense of workers under a capitalist state regime, and as a way of reaching broader masses.

Despite the new organization and constitution, members continued to leave town.

Despite being the boss of a small crime family, Bufalino was a significant influence in the national Cosa Nostra criminal organization.

Despite his advocacy for modern methods of organization, including crews of soldiers doing the bulk of a family's illegal work under the supervision of a capo, at bottom Maranzano was a " Mustache Pete " — an old-school mafioso too steeped in Old World ways.

Despite the outcome of the congress, the following years saw the Mensheviks gathering considerable support among regular Social Democrats and effectively building up a parallel party organization.

Despite facing public condemnation from FVBC's Loenen, Free Your Vote recruited hundreds of volunteers for the province-wide effort, building a far larger citizen organization than either ECCO or FVBC.

Despite having very little actual battle experience during his brief military career, cut short by the loss of his leg, Adam Trask's father Cyrus joins the GAR and assumes the stature of " a great man " through his involvement with the organization.

Despite being hounded by devotees to Besant, Judge managed his new organization for about a year until his death in New York, whereupon Katherine Tingley became manager.

Despite the death of its namesake, the OT continued to exist as an engineering organization and drew multiple further assignments.

Despite this accusation, the organization as a whole has experienced little censure from U. S. authorities.

Despite these misgivings, the potential of the growing organization appealed to Nearing over the malaise of the fading organization.

Despite a mediocre on-field record, the Gold Miners represented a serious attempt to form a viable professional football organization.

Despite the heavy workload, he joined the school's baseball and debate teams, and participated in the campus ' Jackson Club, an organization for Democrats.

Despite the name of her organization, she has a strong code of morals and only steals for the challenge of it.

Despite the Nation of Islam growing greatly in size and influence during Malcolm X's tenure, however, there is growing resentment of him within the organization.