The Non-Europe Option - 2008 and Canada

Moose, Road Sign, Saguenay River, Quebec, Canada

Priorities in Travel and Adapting

What do those of us do, who are addicted to learning -- with out kids -- by being at the actual places; when, economically, that is no longer feasible at the places we first wanted to go.

We are the same people; our dollar is not.

So, with a son with Down Syndrome -- who probably knows more about history and international relations than Sarah Palin because he has travelled for 10 years, two weeks each year, to a country or area of his choice, we did this:

And remember we do this on the cheap - you wouldn't believe where we eat and sleep, and we have been safe and healthy and felt welcome, even if a curiosity, everywhere we went.

This time to Canada. Quebec, north of the City to

• Jonquierre and Chicoutimi, for an international huge size figures puppet festival with film festival combined, see ://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0004179/;

• and the Saguenay River/ fjord; then
  

• back by ferry across the St. Lawrence River and the south bank -- from a town with the wonderful name of Trois Pistoles, or Three Pistols, and on to Montreal.

We saw astounding things. Here is what we found in a field of grain.

The Sower, and Dan Widing. Sculpture seen in a field, Quebec, with a placard dedicating it to someone's great grandparents who settled and sowed there.

On the way to and back from Quebec, we did a nostalgia trip for me, and for the presidents' birth places for Dan, through New Hampshire and Vermont, old haunts in prior times.

Did we have a great time? Of course. Anyone with Dan comes away enriched. Are you listening, Sarah? Do you know what you are missing here?

Just look at that Sower. Better than any religious person's guardian angel because this one is real. No silly wings.

But would we have preferred Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Scandinavia. Yes. Our government and its policies economically have destroyed that, for now. Don't forget to vote. Will update this to show what wonderful things we found - as we did - closer to home. Ciao and we are angry, in our peacable way. Vote.

Carving and Scratching: The Decorative Arts. People Enriching and Recording their Daily Lives

Column capital, Medieval Battle, Malbork Castle, Poland*

Rather than spend tens of thousands a year on institutional public education, do this: somehow surmount the liability issues, and use part of that money to take very small clusters of students to any foreign country locale, with a castle, and live in that area for two solid weeks.

Learn all you can just by first hand observation and personal research. Knights, armor, types, customs, music, art, crops, trade, plague, religion. Malbork, or Marienburg, Poland is rich in all that.

What the students learn they record. What they don't see themselves, you don't tell them. Just steer their observing. Have them play the instruments, try carving. Was this castle later destroyed? By whom and why? See if they don't come back with a vital interest that does not come with all our dumb passive education feedings year after year.

Hradec Kralove, Sgraffito

The Czech Republic. Go to Hradec Kralove, not just Prague.

Sgraffito - decoration design by scraping away top layer of light plaster to reveal darker layer below, here at Hradec Kralove. See ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgraffito

The child diarist, Petr Ginz, World War II, tells us that his mother used to go back to this, the town of her childhood, from Prague. She came to get away, and return refreshed. See Places of Petr Ginz, Hradec Kralove. Young people can identify with one of their own in a war. Try them. Reading about it is not enough for empathy.

Telc, Sgraffito fooling the eye

Some forms of sgraffito are a trompe l'oeil technique - fool the eye - into seeing three dimensions, when there is really a flat surface.

The lower floor here is flat, with sgraffito. This dates from the second half of the 16th Century - a burgess' house. See ://www.discoverczech.com/telc/square.php4.

Exploring. No better way to learn. Bottoms up, kids.



On the way somewhere, see this in Poland.








Have the kids research it.



It is a visual hook to a pub down the road, for the chaperones.


..........................................

* Malbork Castle, a/k/a Marienburg. See Poland Road Ways: Malbork as Marienburg, Brick Gothic, Archways, walls with roofs, Reconstruction after 1945, Teutonic Knights, Grand Masters.

Op lopveop yopuop - Language sites

Common ground. The world's languages. Learn some French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Chinese, "Other" - at ://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/. Find some Polish there also, and Urdu.

And from another site:

Op lopveop yopuop
Means "I love you"
In "Op."

As in:

La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la means...

Universal human theme.
See the world saying it at ://www.translatum.gr/etexts/i-love-you.htm

Special Ops. Diplomats, soldiers, tourists. Learn to say the basics wherever you go.

Op. Which way is Op? *
Need to meet
Op Ed.

Portunity knocks.

Testing... testing....

...........................................

* Is this Opao, a language in an area near Papua, New Guinea, spoken by some 1116 people? See Ethnologue at //www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=opo

Ethnic group rights or non-rights, migration, immigration and co-existence

Considerations for the world -

1. Which factors more: Equity and fairness, or Time passing since a conquering, and then comes the rule of tough (does England go back to the Saxons, or the Normans, or the Romans or the Celts); and would the US go back to the Native Americans (as a practical matter, hardly); whether the ethnic group now seeking recognition was itself the conquerer or instead followed on the coattails of conquerors since displaced (Kosovo); whether Scotland reverts to the "Scotties" in Ireland, the Basques away on their own from Spain and France, on the lineages cry, let us join with ourselves, and let us be. Then, most recently perhaps, the Tibetans from China.

2. Keep it IYBY. In your back yard.

We have a concept here in the US - NIMBY meaning Not In My Back Yard.That means that a solution to a problem may be fine so long as it does not affect me or my property. Put in the town water tower, but not in my back yard. That also applies to population changes - let them do as they like, so long as I and my lifestyle are not affected.

We look at areas like The Balkans, current borders a far cry from original ethnic borders, given its location as a crossroads for conquerors of religious and military and commercial bents over centuries. And our resolutions may well be too simplistic - these people are not in our back yard, think our officials, so impose a resolution and get on with it.

But would we be so fast to impose that solution in our own country? Doubtful. What criteria would work for multiple separatist situations, not just Kosovo.

3. Get rid. But where or how? And why?

Now, in the US, what to do with immigrants here, without documentation, having crossed open borders like an invitation for years, and the backlash is now against them by many who would like to turn back the clock

The Balkans have dealt with issues of "unwanted" and "uninvited" population groups (like successive conquerors) for centuries. What can we learn from the Balkans?

• The issue moves from the legal or equitable right, of who to what; to a step beyond - what we have now, in 2008, and where to go with it now.
  

4. Dignity. The vital importance of it.

None of the earlier approaches have worked. They all included Rankism - me better than you.
Try the dignitarian approach instead.

We cannot undo history, we can only cope and adjust in a way that reasonably works, while affording full dignity to all groups - a new mindset. See ://www.humiliationstudies.org/news-old/archives/001256.html; rankism and peer to peer studies at .//blog.p2pfoundation.net/dignitarianism-a-p2p-movement/2006/03/08; and rankism at ://www.commondreams.org/views/100700-102.htm.


Ethnic groups worldwide, and how to coexist.

Starting point: Here we are, up there in the top row of 18,000 in Hartford's main city center (listening to Barack Obama).

Background of issue: We were in process of correcting some errors in identifying a certain statue in Zagreb. Croatia - see Croatia Road Ways (our believed Officer Yallatchich turns out to be King Tomas, or Tomislav).

VM, who provided the correct information on Tomislav, asked about another issue common to all countries whose borders include ethnic groups that do not identify with the dominant: what rights attach to the defeated, the conquered, who now seek their own identity in a perhaps more (?) civilized and tolerant world.

Unresolved. But we in the meantime heard candidate Barack Obama here, and we would like to share our thoughts.

Immediate trigger. We heard Senator Barack Obama, with his mixed racial heritage and the claims of blacks and whites, and reds and yellows and blues and the just plain drabs, like me and, as ancestors of all colors and ethnicity we all have somewhere.

Who has what rights to land and identity.

Does power have to mean eradication, or can we get beyond that, for a common good.

Conflicts of laws addresses this in jurisdictional terms, with mixed results in acceptance, so this focuses on how to foster coexistence, so that separatist movements are not needed. People are ok with the arrangement.

• So far in the US, the candidate addressing human issues on a global reference scale, and the dignity of people, is indeed, in our view so far, Barack Obama. He acknowledges all our own weird families and how that plays out in a culture. And uses that commonality to move forward.

• We may well be into new analyses and understandings, as he suggests. We may need to look to the future, while respecting and acknowledging the inequities of the past - move on to consider entire mindsets, and administrations and assimilation, not deportations and population exchanges.

Only so many resources, yet populations at odds.

Can we overcome our fear of each other, that the gain of one group means the diminution of another's opportunities.

This is an open call for comment, because the Balkans have dealt with this for years, and the US is just beginning as a nation, and an identity, and we may yet trip over our own feet.

• A starting point may be that small window of time where Islam in Spain coexisted for so many years with Jews and Christians, with handicaps and taxes to be sure in the "dhimmi" status of the Non Islam population. But it managed, without bloodshed.
  

What models can Europe, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, offer the US. We start with offering a moratorium on acting against undocumented immigrants here, until a new administration can review the situation. See PoseJuxta, Plank, Legal Temporary Immigration Status.

My vote could go here or there because there is time left before decision is needed. But for Obama's speech on race, try this:

http://my.barackobama.com/hisownwords

Is there hope for America? Dare we be audacious? All of us. And hope? Watch the Powers drive it down again. Or try.

For war issues, contemporary, much stemming from missteps and lack of understanding of the dynamics between other countries' ethnic groups or religious divisions, hear his ideas at

http://my.barackobama.com/fiveyearslater.

We are working on ourselves. I may change my mind. But so far, this is the most reasonable, optimistic yet realistic candidate. So there we are.

Believing: Religions. The Orthodox Christian

Ostrog, Montenegro, Orthodox Monastery

History of the Orthodox Christian Church: Since AD 29, Pentecost. Hear some chants, the Russian Orthodox, at ://magnatune.com/artists/albums/monks-orthodox/hifi_play. Find Ukrainian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, many more.

See a timeline - always an efficient way to get started. See the timeline at the site for St. Ignatius of Antioch Orthodox Christian Church in Madison, WI: at ://www.saintignatiuschurch.org/timeline.html. But first, here is the home page (with bells at://www.saintignatiuschurch.org/index.html.

Site information from that timeline is summarized here, with other information as we find it separately listed.

For the first millenium: There was basically one church in claiming the direct line of the apostles since Pentecost, and five centers or patriarchates - Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch and Rome. There have always been other groups that the "one church" called heretic or schismatic - Arians, Bogomils, look up "heretic" - although they saw their interpretations as having as much validity as anyone else's, or better. Most eventually were killed.

954- Orthodox Church in Russia

Meteora, Greece, Orthodox Monastery

In 1051, the Great Schism. By 1054, the Roman Church Patriarch had pulled away in order to pursue his view of the Roman Church as the sole and universal leadership of the Christian faith. The other four patriarchates have remained in full communion with each other. The Roman church also had by then added the "filioque" clause in the Nicene Creed, not only the Father, but the Father "and the Son," with the later phrase not having been part of the first 1000 years' theology.

Rome vs. Orthodox:
Roman Crusades: 1095-1291- with the "sack of Constantinople," obviously a Christian city, in 1204.
Rome omitting to act when Orthodox put to death in Nazi puppet states, Fascist Concentration Camps, WWII, Balkans (elsewhere?)

1453- Turks overran Constantinople, signaling end of the Byzantine Empire. Note the defensive positions of the monasteries on clifftops. A combination, I recall, of inspiration, signs; and necessity.

Rome dividing into other groupings:
1517, Martin Luther's 95 Theses; Protestant Reformation
1529, Church of England; Episcopal. The Anglican Communion.

1538 - Ottomans overrun Moldavia, Romania

1683 - Ottoman Empire was finally stopped at Vienna, see ://www.geocities.com/paintedchurches/

1794- Orthodox missionaries arrive in Alaska

Rome's theology differing from Orthodox: (see 1054, "filioque" clause also)
1854 - Dogma, Immaculate Conception
1870 - Dogma, Papal Infallibility
See also the progression of terms in creeds, what is added, which groups disagree.

Customs, entering: See://aggreen.net/orth_links/orthlink.html. This site is by a technical writer, and easy to navigate. Go to the clothing and conduct section, at ://aggreen.net/laity_guidelines/laity.html.
Nin, Croatia, Early Christian Church (neither Roman nor Orthodox - All one Church then (9th Century?).

The church at Nin predates the schism between Roman and Orthodox, when the Christian Church was one church, and before Rome pulled away from the other four Orthodox patriarchates. This is said to be the smallest Christian Bishopric in the world.

Learn basic manners: Respect, respect. This takes forms that are not familiar to many of us, so read carefully and follow. Regardless of your own views, do as they. Do not cross your legs, that is too informal;. Skirts, are a must in some areas for women, and below the knee (the monasteries in Greece will give you a large square scarf to wrap around on top of your short skirt, or shorts, or jeans); long pants for men, no beach or athletic gear (defined?), no logos on T-shirts (how to get around these - are the scarves offered? I do not recall). Men, remove caps. Women may cover heads, not required. No smoking, including on entry steps, no gum;. When altar doors open, hands at sides or hands folded in front, no folding of arms, or hands in pockets, out of respect. Communion only for Orthodox;. Close doors softly.

Painted Orthodox church, Bucovina, Moldavia, Romania

The paintings are on fresco, see ://www.geocities.com/paintedchurches/. The churches date from the 16th Century, and the paintings are educative, didactic, a way to teach even outside the church. Armies also were mustered there, and walls surround many church complexes - teach the soldiers as well.

Wooden bars pounding, or beating wooden tablets, signal calls to prayer in many places, the Turks having forbidden the use of bells, and also having melted them down for arms. See geocities site.

Similarities in the hierarchical churches: Use of term, but differing meanings.

The "Metropolitan" is the term for the diocesan or "arch" bishop overseeing other, lower-ranked bishops in an area. See ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_bishop to get started. Info there:

Roman Church: "Metropolitan Bishop." In the Roman church, the lesser bishops are known as "suffragan" bishops. Metropolis used to mean the chief Roman city in an area, like a province or "ecclesiastical province."

Greek Orthodox: the "Archbishop" is above "Metropolitan."

Slavic Orthodox: the Metropolitan is above the Archbishop.

Those with distaff side repro apparatus need not apply, because repro apparatus is placed higher than head or heart, and those with other repro apparatus have so ordained, even though the Founder did nothing of the kind. See theological meander at

The Orthodox and the Roman branches offer a verbal ok to thinking on your own, but not to coming to conclusions on your own that differ from the established line. This was not always true - look to the earliest years when Croatians began doing mass in their own language, 900 AD or so.


Gregory, Bishop of Nin, Croatia, 9th Century

Gregory here started doing the services at Nin, Croatia, in the local language, educating the people. This was soon barred by Rome. The Church in Croatia did become Roman Catholic; the Church in neighboring Serbia, Montenegro and much of Bosnia became Orthodox; with Serbia and Bosnia then being overcome by the Ottomans, the Muslims, in many areas.

Facts arriving after the belief has etched are either a threat, so to be suppressed, as in the case of Gregory of Nin; or become unlikely to change anything thereafter, so get 'em believing early, keep facts out (or make up your own) and keep 'em iggerunt. Is that right? See Joy of Equivocating, Emoticon Dominance Theory.

Rub the toe of the Saint for luck. See ://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/nin.html. And why the tall hats?

For a meander on theology and hierarchy in the hierarchical churches, do visit Martin Luther's Stove - Theology Anomaliesy

The Theme of the Arts - No Boundaries

Is it a fairy tale to want to see the arts put on the same educational footing as nuts and bolts?

This, an actual castle in Slovakia, at Bojnice - a 19th Century heir's renovation to an old, old place, to win the heart of his lady (it didn't work).

Still, young people every year put on a week's drama, pageant, dance, narrative, about his life - everybody learns history. Crowds and crowds come.

Thus, this Clearinghouse. This post is about putting in one place all the things about the arts development in various countries, that would be lost if put in the separate country blogs.

Here: Arts. Plays, music, theater, dance, photography, poetry, mime.

Here, Bojnice again.


Arts in other countries: see the rainbow.

Serbians. Some now in Ireland. Meet fiilm-maker, Goran Paskaljevic - "They've had 700 years of the English; we had 500 years of the Turks," says Mr. Paskaljevic in NYT 1/9/08 at E3, article by John Anderson. Both countries have had too-great shares of "internecine warfare, ancient resentments and cultivated hatred," says Anderson. Acknowledges Serbian role in the Bosnian wars that began in 1992 (see Bosnia Road Ways. Films: "Cabaret Balkan", a/k/a "A Powder Keg," dealing with the dissolution of Yugoslavia - attributing much to the "prejudices, beliefs, myths, courage and servility." Also, "Midwinter Night's Dream," a Serbian soldier's return and what he finds. Critics may say he "sensationalizes" but we would like to see the pending remake of "How Harry Became a Tree." The MoMa has a film series about displaced dreamers - that includes Mr. Paskalajevic. Read the list of films and abstracts. Come on, Hartford, we want that, too.

This topic brings a sadness as a former teacher, that these are being downgraded in priority in our educational systems. We have failed our children in basic reading and writing, and demands of technology and practical employment preparation, and now must catch up - but look at the butcher method. We are cutting out much of the arts.

Why not synthesize. Go about teaching writing after seeing a play, for example. Write a poem about a film, about a photograph that you have shown the class. Do it yourself.

Do it all, all at once. No need to compartmentalize.

Live with the bullet holes. If the budget does not permit covering over the bullet holes, as here at Bojnice Castle - leave it and it becomes part of living history.

Living is a totality.

So is educating ourselves.

Bullet holes are part of many lives. So is job-hunting. Reality.

So also are the arts. Support the arts, for everyone.

Battle and Ethnic Memory - Kosovo II. See Legend Overtaking Facts

Mostar, Bosnia (adjacent country to Serbia - Kosovo)

Kosovo is (was?) a province of Serbia, a country next to Bosnia (a bombing-damaged section of Mostar, Bosnia, is shown here for illustration only). Serbia is about to become independent from Serbia. See post Kosovo I, at Europe Road Ways, Kosovo I, History to WWI .

For current news, events and comments on the Balkans and Serbia in particular see B92 Politika at ://www.b92.net/eng/news/headlines.php, and navigate from there.

We are interested in the past here, however, the theme of battles, and ethnic memory, and legend about a country's past overcoming reality (that things may be irrevocably changed by now, or not), and how it impacts on the present. The past always does. Serbia, its Orthodox faith bearing the brunt of Ottoman Expansions, see ://orthodoxwiki.org/Church_of_Serbia, joined its religious beliefs with its fate at a certain battle, at the Plain of Kosovo. The depth of that feeling is not being much recognized, with current haste to simply declare Kosovo (Ottoman heritage through the Albanians who converted to Islam and moved in after the Ottoman conquests.

We could not enter Kosovo (car insurance limitation - no coverage if we did), but see the photos from adjoining Bosnia (one shown here, Mostar, Bosnia) and the inland photos of Montenegro for an idea of the topography. Expect more flat land in Kosovo, however. Do an Images search for it.

Now - Independence tomorrow - see ://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g1zMRGritCtusBjGtSPaGxk1ef-wD8URJIB00. To what extent will the cultural narrative adjust to independence, not ties to Serbia's mythology.

The point of studying Kosovo is to look at the role of ethnic memory in defining history.

History. There is a strong cultural narrative tying Kosovo to Serbia, but Serbia lost Kosovo to the Turks in 1389, and Muslims since entered in vast numbers from Albania, and have made that their home. And, with Serbian ethnic cleansing in the 20th Century, to try to force Muslim Albanians- Kosovo residents back to Albania, it has been a bloody hundred years since WWI.

Review the Battle at Kosovo Polje: The battle at Kosovo Plain 1389. The facts are unclear -unknown or largely undocumented. Still, in memory, and with myth taking over, history was changed. Watch the tellings and retellings of heroism and vast deeds that struck people's hearts and minds. The tellings supplant the reality - but the reality itself may be inaccessible, so what to do. No answers here.

1. Kosovo Plain.

This was the location of the battlefield, Christian vs. Turk, 1389. The Ottoman Expansion. The Plain a/k/a the Field of Blackbirds, north of Pristina, Kosovo. Do an images search for a map. For background, read the prior post on Kosovo I, at Europe Road Ways, Kosovo I, laying out the basic ethnic chronologies, religious groups, when and where, up to about World War I.

2. The Battle of Kosovo Polje, (Kosovo Field/ Plain) 1389.

The summary is roughly this: That Slav leaders by the 14th Century for years had allied with the Turks from time to time in separate alliances as a move against their own Slav enemies from time to time, and these alliances, creating vassalhoods, went back and forth. Then a Bulgarian prince fully joined with the Turks against other Slavs, enabling the Turks to get a foothold in an important area, free of conflict with locals. Sultan Murad I, the Turk, consolidated his forces and attacked. Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic, consolidated his forces and prepared to defend. Much folk literature and ballads about Lazar's next steps, alleging his vision not to fight or, in the alternative, to lead his forces to Christian martyrdom, and the consequences.

A national mythology emerged and grew, the battle was seen as a defeat changing the course of history to some, and with metaphysical and great symbolic import. ://www.britannica.com/eb/article-43571/Serbia#477239.hook. These appear to be true:

3. NOW - The present. In 1989, Slobodan Milosovic (now deceased,see ://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/03/11/milosevic060311.html) addressed 500,000 Serbs on the Plain of Kosovo, Kosovo Polje, Plain of Blackbirds. See ://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/church_history/kesich_kosov_serbian_church.htm.

This marked the 600th anniversary of the Serbs' self-defined "epic loss" to the Turks in 1389 on that field, and 500 years of oppression thereafter. The warning of Mr. Milosevic -battles to come, for protection of the Serbs. But 200,000 Serbs fled in 1999 when Serb forces were removed (UN), and Serbs in Kosovo now seem to prefer ethnic partition, the sides leading parallel lives, to independence under Albanian institutions. Each side has its own narrative of how the battle went, and its aftermath. This battlefield now appears to the Serbs, apparently, as strong an icon as Grunewald (Tannenbaum) to the Poles, that location of repeated battles against Teuton or Russian. See Poland Road Ways, Grunewald Battle 1410.

4. We are looking at why the devotion to Kosovo Plain's battle. A vast resource is the book, "Kosovo" by William Dorich, at ://www.srpska-mreza.com/bookstore/kosovo/kosovo.htm. To get a grounding, see the chronology of rulers in Kosovo at that site. Why the devotion to the battle of Kosovo?

We are finding Serbian Epic Poems - not historical fact - as a motivator, see ://www.kosovo.net/history/battle_of_kosovo.html; and ://www.rastko.org.yu/kosovo/umetnost/serbepic/index.htm. And ://www.serbianunity.net/culture/history/Hist_Serb_Culture/chi/Oral_Tradition.html. *

5. The Dead Hand: Dead hand control is a concept for "Ever-present, oppressive influence of past events." See ://www.thefreedictionary.com/dead+hand. Here, at Kosovo, look at the facts alleged in the epic poems, experienced by Prince Lazar before battle, and stated at://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/church_history/kesich_kosov_serbian_church.htm.

There, the Kosovo Epic Cycle of poetry summarized there parallels the agony of Christ in Lazar, his acceptance of mission, the full story. Please go to that site - it seems to underly the fervors that were mustered after, but were not necessarily part of the times. There also is the part of the Maid of Kosovo, and the mother, etc.

5.1. The battle seems more important as legend later reframed it, than the reality, whatever that reality was or was not. Framing is a way of interpreting, a "cognitive shortcut" to understanding complexity, but also limiting what information is taken in thereafter as relevant. Once framed, like a house, it is difficult to change the configuration. See ://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/framing/.

For the battle accounts based on documentation from the time, see ://www.deremilitari.org/resources/articles/emmert.htm. Also see the work of G. Richard Jansen, his home page at://lamar.colostate.edu/~grjan/index.htm. Read every word. This battle clearly captured imaginations and fervor, and each telling reinforced the view sought, but Jansen's point is that actual events and facts are not clear at all.

5.2. Accounts from the time are unclear who won, if anyone. For an encyclopedia overview of fiction and fact, see ://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-322736/article-9046112. There read of a "vision" of Prince Lazar of the Serbs, by which he was supposedly convinced to lead his forces to martyrdom, is listed there; but is not at the Jansen research on original, contemporary materials.

5.3. Trying to piece it together. It does seem clear that it is the later view that the Turks beat the Serbs (or did they?), and the Ottoman Empire therefore expanded more easily and entrenched around the Balkans through Bosnia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro. In issue, and documentation is spotty with many sources being referrals to letters no longer found, are the circumstances of the deaths of both leaders - Prince Lazar of the Serbs, and Sultan Murad I of the Turks. Cult literature developed around both.

This is history as Process, its role in determining later acts because of interpretation, not history as Fact. Reframing by epic poem later, and by myth.

5.5 Views to explore: Conflicting views.

Either Serbian medieval social structure was defeated at the Battle of Kosovo; or it had fallen apart before, and Prince Lazar was already a vassal to the Turks,. In that view, Lazar then had to be punished for disloyalty to the Turk. So the battle was lost.

Either the Serbs "ought" to have won the Battle of Kosovo, and it was only another soldier's disloyalty, a Bosnian, Vuk Brankovic, that led to the defeat; or that Prince Lazar betrayed them by ordering his army to martyrdom, or not to fight, see vision at #4.

Either the battle resulted in defeat; or it did not - the die was already cast, as to Ottoman successful expansion through the area. The future was clear enough, this event was not pivotal, saved lives probably, and was not treated as significant to history at the time, only created so by later doctrinaire writers.

Other themes:

• The Role of a Vision. Prince Lazar of the Serbs, who was killed at the battle, stood for the proposition that it is God's will that the people submit to a peaceful transfer of authority to the Turk. Death of a soldier became death of a martyr. Thus, the story of the vision arose. See the epic poem laying this story out at ://home.earthlink.net/~markdlew/SerbEpic/thefall.htm. If you are defeated as a martyr, your cause lives on. If you are defeated as a soldier, you lose.
  

• Deaths of leaders. Both did here. It was unusual for both leaders of both armies to die at the same battle event. Lazar died. Yet, Sultan Murad I of the Turks also died - either he was assassinated by the Serb Milos Kobilic in a daring raid on the Sultan's tent, before the battle; or the alternative version, that he was killed after the battle was won by the Turks. Either way, the deaths of both leaders is given great symbolic importance.
  

• Those who lost, won. The Christians won after all, say some - they lived, they did what was asked. They martyred themselves, their cause lives on. For a flavor of the times, see that chronology of rulers in Kosovo at ://www.srpska-mreza.com/bookstore/kosovo/kosovo9.htm
  

• 7. Nobody knows what happened because there is so little documentation. At least, get the cultural context at a site like this: "Kosovo" by William Dorich, article "Prologue to Kosovo: The Era of Prince Lazar" at //www.srpska-mreza.com/bookstore/kosovo/kosovo10.htm
  

• None of the above. The facts do not matter as much as the perception. An eloquent view of the sacrifice of the Serbs (note "sacrifice") is at ://www.srpska-mreza.com/bookstore/kosovo/kosovo13.htm.
  

.Epic poems. Kosovo cannot be understood apart from the famous epic poem cycle from Kosovo, that governs the view of History here. Read the epic poem of the martyrs at the srpska-mreza site. Some are trying to move past the Epic memory, to the future - see ://home.earthlink.net/~markdlew/SerbEpic/- the practical approach to looking forward, not wallowing back.

Then again, the epics are so eloquent, so full of imagery and yearning, how can reality compete?

The storyteller wins over the facts-lister.

See the "Maid of Kosovo" - bringing aid to the wounded on the field, even taking the role of a Mary, with Prince Lazar as a Christ figure. Find her at ://home.earthlink.net/~markdlew/SerbEpic/maiden.htm

So: Does this particular, pivotal conflict, made so by legend and not by facts from the time, particularly exacerbate the ongoing violent boundary, ethnic and religious disputes of Kosovo, this province of Serbia; as it now approaches its declaration of independence from Serbia. It appears so, on a strong emotional level - with strong powers pro and con the independence.


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Compare this to a particular religious overview: Note that this battle precedes the events given in the religious overview given in ://lamar.colostate.edu/~grjan/two_religious_wars.html,. We were surprised to see the Battle of Kosovo left out there - its role in epic may well be more important to the psyches of the people involved than reality, and what is more important? The memory.

US application - Is this phenomenon of choosing fiction over fact like our Plymouth Rock, for example, where myth is taught rather than the hard facts. What if our schools were to teach the real Plymouth? The real Mayflower? Would we prefer the legends because they flatter us and the reality demeans us?

The dead hand having writ, writes on. Until somebody hits "delete." For the sake of all of us moving ahead here.

Is this the moral: f war depends on legend to perpetuate it, is it time to debunk the legends. No, some would say, because then we may have people looking at religions, and those "facts" and debunk what is added later. Can't have that. Not profitable or macho. And, if we debunk war, who would join up, and then what do we do when attacked. Do we need the myth.
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* The Serbian Epic Poems. Are we all in that boat, living and thinking because of legend, not fact - who wants to be the first to debunk Plymouth Rock and its myths? Do read Nathaniel Philbrick's "Mayflower." See http://www.nathanielphilbrick.com/mayflower/index.html; and NYT review at ://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/books/review/04shorto.html?ex=1307073600&en=3ff4700633a5d05c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss.

The concern is, Did anyone listen when that "Mayflower" book was written? Was even one school curriculum changed because of the facts collated in this book?

Who wants to listen. Who cares by now because we live in our chosen reality. We identify with our myths, take them from us and you die! Like a comic book, we are. Another time.

Bottom line. We all fill-in-the-blanks for important matters of memory. Then like it better than reality.

So, those who control the facts, can keep them hidden or spin them, can control our memories of them. In the US, today, and elsewhere. We have a fear of uncertainty, yearn for the connections, and where there are no "facts" to look at, we will otherwise make certain. Is that so? See Joy of Equivocating, Fear of Fog.

Facts? Ask those who go a Rovin'. Facts are inconvenient. Get rid of them and the storytellers can take over - get into hearts and minds of the people with their own message, their own cultural narrative, and sell it, uncontradicted. And that shapes the future.

Look at our own Mayflower era - we have "facts" - but the national "memory" is rather dependent on the later framing, not necessarily what happened. Check the facts out at "Mayflower", by Nathaniel Philbrick, Viking 2006, at ://www.reviewsofbooks.com/mayflower/. Then compare it to what you were taught.

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Overview of religious wars, 1517-1651; and now 1922 to today, by G. Richard Jansen at the University of Colorado, at ://lamar.colostate.edu/~grjan/two_religious_wars.html.

Battle and Ethnic Memory - Kosovo I. Example. History of an Evolving Identity

Kosovo. A province of Serbia. Back in headlines as it declares independence from Serbia. Why has that area been in such turmoil for so long.

1. The Theme here. Cultural narrative, myth, defining history;not the "facts."

Here, the Battle of Kosovo, or Battle of Kosovo Polje (Kosovo Field or Plain). The year was 1389. The Ottoman Empire was expanding, inexorably - this battle for them apparently was not a huge event - just another step forward.

But for the Christians in Serbia on that battlefield in 1389, as they stood in the way of the next step of the virtually inevitable Turkish takeover of their lands, as they lost Kosovo, the defeat was culturally defining: they lost their "heart" - their "heartland." Documentation is sparse about what really occurred' but myths and legends grew to explain it, and heroes and epics arose. The reference to "dead hand" refers to the control of the perceptions of the past, over the perceptions of the present.

This post looks at that battle, and its aftermath, to WWI. The next post, Kosovo II, looks at the chronology of events from WWI to the present, independence for Kosovo. See post at Europe Road Ways, Kosovo II, Dead Hand, WWI to present.

2. KOSOVO, the Place, the Concept. FN 1

2.1. Where Kosovo is. Kosovo is a piece of land bordering Albania. A crossroads. See map at www.zmag.org/kosovo.htm. It is a landlocked province in a landlocked country (Serbia), in the Central Balkans, a circle in the middle of borders with Albania and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the south, Bulgaria to the east, larger Serbia to the north, Montenegro to the west. Sort of.

Farther south: Greece. Around Serbia: Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina. This part of the world has served for centuries as a cultural and migration gateway, and tumult-filled boundary, from Big East to Big West.

We are who we are, largely because of who defended or took what, in these areas, when we were culturally just in knickers; and long before. If they had not served as the buffer for further Ottoman Expansion, there goes Europe. History. No value judgments here. Just the way things go.

Maps. Essential Do an images search for Kosovo, and look close. Go to ://bbsnews.net/bbsn_photos/topics/Maps-and-Charts/kosovo_pol98.jpg. See things called intermediate boundaries, republic boundaries, autonomous province boundaries, national capital, province capital - Kosovo as a province of Serbia. Get another map - at ://www.time.com/time/daily/special/kosovo/kosovomap.html. Or ://www.un.org/peace/kosovo/kosovo.pdf. Whatever it takes to etch its location in your mind.

2.2. Clarification. Sarajevo. Sarajevo is different from Kosovo.

Sarajevo is its own place and history. Sarajevo is a city in neighboring Bosnia (old Bosnia-Herzegovina) where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, a trigger for World War I. See again the map at ://www.time.com/time/daily/special/kosovo/kosovomap.html.

We were prohibited from going both to to Sarajevo or to Kosovo (car insurance limitation) when we were in the Balkans (see Croatia Road Ways, Bosnia Road Ways, Montenegro Road Ways and Slovenia Road Ways at the trips hub, Europe Road Ways). Watch travel advisories anywhere. The issues there were car-jackings and flat tires and bad roads, or just being in the wrong place, wrong time. We do try to be careful.

2.3. Overview of the religious interests/conflicts in Kosovo. For an overview, see //lamar.colostate.edu/~grjan/two_religious_wars.html. America traditionally sees itself as a melting pot, mildly mixing (this changing, perhaps, with immigration overtaking the entitled majority). Over there, it is a boiling cauldron.

2.3a. Orthodox Christian groups in Kosovo.

First, local peoples (see below) existed with "Christians." See ://www.kosovo.net/. Serbian Orthodox. Then, Christianity itself split in 1054 AD into the Eastern Orthodox branch, centered in Byzantium (?); and the Roman Catholic branch centered in Rome. See ://lamar.colostate.edu/~grjan/kosovohistory.html. Out of the Roman branch splintered the reform groups, Protestants and others, another story. The Eastern Orthodox branch became the new "Christians" in this area. This may be new to you. You may want to get an idea of what Eastern Orthodox Christianity is., its ancient traditions.

Orthodox Monastery, Cetinje, Montenegro (a country adjacent to Serbia - Kosovo)

This, is a monastery at Cetinje, in neighboring Montenegro. See shrines, special places: Decani Monastery, Serbian Orthodox, see lovely photographs and narrative at ://www.kosovo.net/news/archive/2007/May_19/1.html.

As an outsider, you can just stand there, coming and going during the service, with everyone else, just watching, some shifting about, hearing, listening to the chants, responses, prayers in another language, and have no desire to look at the clock and leave, priests going behind curtains and walls, then back out, sacred items, incensors, bells, eucharists, a very natural place to be. A mosaic is over the door.

There is a wheelchair there outside, and inside, a young girl was carried in, with what looked like MS - like anywhere.

Religion in the Balkans as anywhere is closely connected often with ethnic groups.

"Albanians" who lived there were largely Christian as well, until osmosed into Islam via the Ottoman Empire in the 14th-15th centuries. Then Christian and Muslim Albanians, and Christian Serbs, still lived together. See this orthodox site, reaffirming the long years of co-existing as neighbors and friends at ://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/church_history/kesich_kosov_serbian_church.htm
and referring specifically to the Kosovo Cycle of Epic Poetry.

2.3b. Jews (research details pending - there were Jews here, and we want to be accurate on the history)

2.3c. The Christians. These, the "Orthodox," were defeated by the Muslims in the Battle of Kosovo .

3. Watershed. The Battle of Kosovo. 1389.

Details are sparse, with few documents, and the Muslims do not regard it as especially pivotal because they would have taken over anyway, but the Serbians see it as the defining moment for their culture.

Epic poems arose to take the place of unknown facts, myths, a Prince/King with visions on the eve of battle so he did not defend but instead let soldiers be sacrificed - believing he would go to heaven if he did not press at that time - the "Maid of Kosovo" appearing on the battlefield, ministering to the dying, closing the eyes of the dead. Do an Images search for Battle of Kosovo to see them all.

Read about the epic poem's role here, see sites with the myths, the Maid of Kosovo, Lazar the King, the ballads, epic poems or other overviews of history:

://www.serbianorthodoxchristian.com/BattleOfKosovo.html
://www.westsrbdio.org/kosovo_history/index.html
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/bookstore/kosovo/kosovo16.htm (go to the home page and read it all). The google search for Kaid of kosovo will bring up google books online about mother figures, religious analogies, art and nationalism.

New religion entered with the Muslim Turks conquering the Balkans, Ottoman Empire 14th-15th Centuries, see 4.4a below. Chronology of Turkish victories in Balkans: 1459 - Serbia and Kosovo; 1465 Bosnia; 1483, Herzegovina.

The status of "Dhimmis" to administer subpopulations in the Muslim lands**

This status was imposed on those Christians and Jews who were conquered by the victorious Ottomans in exchange for the conquered ones. Dhimmis gave up their land, primacy and then paying a special tax. Note these people are not just slaughtered, the preferred Western Christian approach to conquered religious and other groups. Generalizations have flaws, but also contain some truths.

Ottoman victors termed the Balkan area Christians, and Jews, as "dhimmis," or "people of the book," according to their long tradition; and the Christians and Jews were thus entitled to protection by the Turks in exchange for the Turks letting them live. This dhimmis is an ancient status, stemming from the 7th Century, in a kind of dispensation by the Prophet Mohammed with the Jews. At that time, by treaty the Jews gave up their right to their lands, had to defer to the Muslims, and pay a tax. "Dhimmitude" became a term for both the dhimmi status and servitude, and came to be applied to any peoples conquered, including Christians. See "colostate site" below.*

Read about the gradual conversions, not traumatic as had been the Christian course in forcing conversions to Christianity, at this extensive site - the complexity of the area's history comes out in page after page - right to the present - see ://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/church_history/kesich_kosov_serbian_church.htm

4. Continuing Ethnic Conflict. Some groups did not assimilate into the Muslim culture.

These have a long history. See details at "A Short History of Kosovo" by C. Richard Jansen at Colorado State University at ://lamar.colostate.edu/~grjan/kosovohistory.html ("colostate site")

4.1 This is not surprising - see the chronology of settlers, events, history in Kosovo and area, until the Ottoman (Muslim) Invasions:

• 300 BC - area conquered by Alexander the Great
  Illyrians (called that by Romans and Greeks both)
• 400AD - became part of Roman Empire, Dardania
  There were also unromanized Illyrians and Dardanians from Thrace (Greece)
• Albanians claim a direct descendency from the Illyrians/Dardanians. This is contested by scholars who find Albanians arriving through intermarriage with other locals, early middle ages. But they appear to have spoken "Illyrian", and language came to be known as "Albanian," see colostate site. Here to be referred to as "Albanians."
• Slavs. 6th Century AD - say 500-600 - Slavs cross Danube, enter Balkans. See ://www.kirildouhalov.net/history/migration-slavs.html, a Bulgaria news site. Migrations of these Slav groups "weaken" the Byzantine hold, see 4.3a here.
• Albanians move into Kosovo. Soon become secondary to the new Slavs.
• Slavs divide into three: Serbs, Croats, Slovenes.
• Slavs hold. By the 12th Century, all cultivatable land was in Slav hands, Northern Albania and Kosovo, whether Serbs, Croats, Slovenes - Croats gravitated to Croatia, Slovenes to Slovenia, about this time or later?
  
• 12th Century. 1190: Serbs take over Kosovo/ Serbia. Area became known as "Old Serbia." Serbs coalesced there "Serbia," as one of the three Slav groups, and develop Kosovo as its medieval "administrative and cultural center."
  

4.2 Events during the Ottoman Occupation. The old Serbian rule had lasted for 200 years until the invasion of the Turks, the Ottoman Empire, and the battle of Kosovo Polje. They never gave up on their lands, Kosovo.

• 14th Century. Turks. Invade. Ottoman Empire.
• BATTLE OF KOSOVO POLJE 1389. Serbs are defeated in epic memory, but perhaps not according to documentation at the time, see Europe Road Ways, Themes, Kosovo II. Kosovo Plain - Field of Blackbirds, see ://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/church_history/kesich_kosov_serbian_church.htm

• 1443 - Serbian Djuraj joins with Hungarian John Hunyadi and Polish Vladislav Jagiellon and push back the Turks, but not for long.
• 1453 - fall of Constantinople
• 1459 - Serbia falls to the Turks
• 1492 - Serbs began trying to reunify Serbia (need more info)
• 1489 - Turks claim full sovereignty over Kosovo as part of Ottoman Empire.
• 15th Century. Albanians. Albanians begin to move back in, in the wake of the Turkish victory. Albanians still predominantly Orthodox Christian at this time, live peacefully with the Orthodox Christian Serbs.
• Religious Conversions. Subsequent gradual conversions, Albanians to Islam. Less so among Serbs. Note that the Turks did not compel conversions at this time - imposed "dhimmi" status, thus encouraging many to convert on their own to regain economic and other privileges. See 4.3c above
  
• Response of Orthodox Christian Church - Great opposition to Kosovo citizens' conversions to Islam, many seminaries, monasteries in Serbia

5. Many migrated elsewhere in response to Ottoman Occupation

• 17th Century. "The Great Migration;" Displacement; Serb Exodus to Belgrade area. Serbians begin to leave Kosovo, going north, also result of military activity of Turks. New "center of gravity" for Serbs. Has remained.
• Albanians move back in as Serbs left. They filled the by-then underpopulated Kosovo area. Albanians still were both Christian and Muslim.
• 1871 - Serbs establish large, prestigious seminary at Prizren in Kosovo Province (look up a map).
• 1878 - Russo-Ottoman War, Ottoman Turks defeated. Boundaries change: Peace settlement. Serbs get Mitrovica and Prizren in Kosovo; Turks keep rest of Kosovo.
• Muslim Nationalism. Response of Albanians: nationalism. "The Prizren League." Muslim landowners sought to protect interests against Balkan neighbor incursions; intellectuals also sought to unify Albanians under Turkish rule; then toward independence when a pan-Islamic effort by the Sultan appeared to falter. League tended anti-Christian over time, even against Albanian Christians.
• Ethnic Cleansing. Muslim leadership fostered "ethnic cleansing." Serbs again start to leave Kosovo for the north, Serbia.
• 1898 - Serbia independent. Russia was forced at Congress of Berlin to reduce Bulgaria's size, give inhabited Albanian lands back to Ottomans. Serbs and Serb troops forced to withdraw.

6. The Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 19th-20th Centuries

• 19th Century - "Dhimmitude" finally abolished. See dhimmi status, 4.3c above. Condition not really mitigated, however until 1912.
• 1912 - Serbs reoccupy and control Kosovo
• Electoral law - prevents many (most?) from Kosovars from voting because law required knowledge of Turkish language - Kosovars, both Islam and Christian, were not necessarily Turkish speakers, so were left out
  
• 20th Century. "Young Turk" movement, liberal, opposed Sultan (not sure why), opposed nationalism, sought centralized Ottoman power ( how fit with opposing the sultan?)

You can get more detail up at World War I and just before that, at ://lamar.colostate.edu/~grjan/kosovohistory.html

Conclusions so far:

1. The memory of oppression frames and governs present decisions. The dede honde, or dead hand. Old English for "dead hand" - ongoing, malevolent influence, the dead over the living. Or something different? Search for it here - ://www.geko.dk/?p=9C8BF18. What is that? Manus Mortuo. Latin same idea. Nothing new here. Just finding it again and again. ://www.thefreedictionary.com/dead+hand

2. Memory is framed not just by the facts of what happened, but by how it is later spun in epics, legends, myths. Here, a cycle of epic poems about Kosovo appear to have more motivating power than what really happened - which is not at all clear.

3. Conflict and its consequences. A cultural narrative is in many ways like a family narrative. Our present attitudes as a society are often based on how past experiences were spun, interpretations, who told what. Past trauma. And events can be cyclical - the beaten child may well, in turn, beat. A cycle of abuse can also be national - among ethnic groups, as a component of any conflict at any level. Kosovo warring again the loss on the 1389 battlefield. Redemption sought?

4. Cultural narratives are stronger than facts. What if the earlier "abuse" or defeat was the product of legend later, and not the events of that particular time? Are we back to human use of propagandizing for other political and social or religious goals. How to debunk, and would anyone listen, and why bother because the reality has become the myth. Are we that lost. Maybe. Myth of Aryanism, myths of Plymouth Rock? We all are in it.

5. Serbian Epic Poems. Is it true that the Serbian Epic Poems so fully displaced history that we are dealing with conditioned response now. And if so, what next. How do decondition any of us after our indoctinations? See the epic poems at ://home.earthlink.net/~markdlew/SerbEpic/

6. Our other main interest. Components of war. At Studying War, find roles, the stratifying of cultural groups that foster domination by some over others, and other fostered mindsets, that lead to instability and conflict in the long run. All fine, but sterile. What is the tipping point that preceded, motivated that social organization.

7. The "Grab Mindset"**, followed by Persistent Epic and Ethnic Memory. Was there a tipping point, and is it really unique. Was there a take-it mindset on the part of a conqueror, combined with the I-will-not-forget mindset of the defeated, as to ethnic or other battles that changed their/our world, and that just will not rest.

The Grab Mindset* is easy enough to swallow. Is war really just three simple stages: 1) "I want that;" or, "I deserve that;" 2) preparing for The Grab; and 3) perpetuating what is Grabbed - the Enforcement and After-Justification. The mindsets are partially - just as a start - laid out at Studying War, and support that idea. Everybody falls in one line or another; this approach codifies what we all probably experience as "human nature." Get what you can; and awareness can help you move, if you are so inclined.


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• FN 1 KOSOVO - A good example because we could not go into Kosovo - car insurance would not cover, and how to safeguard the car if we took a bus for a few days, and roads iffy and etc. We were close, from Montenegro through numerous checkpoints in the mountains both ways from there through Bosnia and back to Croatia. We are learning here, too.
  
  KOSOVO is again in headlines as it approaches its declaration of independence from Serbia, or not (not all countries agree with independence for Kosovo), see ://www.unmikonline.org/pub/focuskos/oct02/focusklead1.htm (the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, or "UNMIK,"praising Slovenia for its support, and Slovenia heads the EU in 2008);
  
  This looks to history. Is a group that has been defeated to its core (is this part of Serbia's feeling it has lost its "heart" and can never let Kosovo go?) ever able to overcome the memory of that, and the drive to make it right again, the way it should have been except for this or that tipping point that tipped the wrong way.
  
  Dead Hand - "The oppressive influence of past events or decisions." See http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dead+hand

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* The "Grab Mindset" This Grab Mindset also fits with a religious view - for those who want that. We are made from dirt, so it is in our nature to want more dirt (original sin? or, perhaps the Original Mistake in Creation). Therefore, we are Doomed to the consequences of our wallowing in and grabbing more of it. But we can be Saved if we adopt some formula for feeling superior when we do grab. So we say: It's ok for us to grab, but not them. It's ok for me to judge and force, but not them, because I am right. We rechannel the turf-grabbing into areas of religion, "reframe" the old urges and call it religion, not turf-grabbing. Highly successful.

Miracles - Displays, Beliefs, Need, and Littlewood's Law

Context: Preserved saints' bodies. Apparitions. Sudden healings. Places dedicated to miracles, pilgrimage destinations, magic wells, just touch this, and their persistence even after formal repudiation by some authority (debunking). The beliefs are as many as the form taken by the "miracle." See the Medjugorge post, Bosnia Road Ways, Medjugorge post; and the numerous cathedrals with exhibits, grottoes showing where this miracle occurred, or that, and the devotion of followers.

Sometimes: Even after Church authorities say to stop making claims about Medjugorge, that nothing has been affirmed in their processes, the Medjurgorge institution still does, just in a more roundabout way. Watch the buses. People want, the market provides. Maybe the event or vision or healing did occur, but is it a miracle. How about mind-body connections, synchronicity, confirmation bias, coincidence, even hysteria in the older term, all to be looked up.

1. Littlewood's Law. For some, go no further. The assertion is enough. Believe. For some of the rest of us, we would like to know more. At Cambridge University, a Professor J. E. Littlewood framed a law during the course of his work with huge numbers ("Law of Truly Large Numbers") that goes like this:

• a person is awake and alert say 8 hours per day
• during alert periods, a person experiences a thing a second - see this, see that, as the eye darts about
• 35 days of this kind of visual (does the law include things heard, felt, etc?) onslaught means the person experiences some 1,008,000 things while alert during a little more than a month
  
• define a "miracle" as "an exceptional event with particular significance" that occurs "one in a million" times
  
• by all that, a person can expect to experience a miracle about once a month

All this from ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littlewood%27s_Law. The article sites as further reading for the interested, a book by Freeman Dyson at ://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=16991 (debunking pseudo-sciences, esp, telekinesis, and - it says further - learn the magic tricks yourself in order to be convinced, to avoid being deceived). NY Review of Books article is from 3/25/04, vol,51, no.5. "Debunked"

There is also "Miracle on Probability Street," in Scientific American by Michael Shermer, August 2004, at ://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=00094511-E068-10FA-89FB83414B7F0000&colID=13

Is this so?

Back to other topics relevant to whether an event is "miraculous" - mind-body, synchronicity, coincidence, confirmation bias. These can help where the event occurs by dream, or sudden elucidation, or other non-visually or when someone is not alert, for example?

2. This segues us to the delights of Eponymous Laws - where connections/observations get stated as laws and are coined by or attributed to people whose names then get attached to the law. Murphy's Law, for example. See the long list at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adages_named_after_people

Duffy's Law - "Most people are wrong about most things most of the time." Bradford's Law from 1934 - the "exponentially diminishing returns" of a library search. ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adages_named_after_people#B.E2.80.93D. Persi Diaconis, another mathemetician, quoted at ://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/04/miracles.html: he supposedly said that if you study a large enough group long enough, "any damn thing can happen."

So we end this search. Look up testimonials on miracles and you will see what you will see.

Immigration, Secessionism - A Function of Light at the Ends of Tunnels.

Some place else has it better. Go there. For yourself, your family. Your health. A drive eons old.

A forced boundary, an enforced separation. Unstable from the start. People heal the rift. Move across anyway. Go through. Over. Around. This, a view of the Castle District of Budapest.

No group has long been able to keep another group out. All factors are interrelated. No solution can exist on its own, by its own. A status quo takes root, regardless of the sudden indignant gasps of those ignoring the open doors for so long.

The role of brokering to keep the peace, or the boundaries. I give you this if you give me that. I admit you to this if you will give up that. Sometimes a move to independence, as a way of getting out from under, works. But never easily.

Present example - Kosovo: that province of Serbia, mainly made up of ethnic Albanians-Muslims by now (look up vestiges of Turkish conquest). It is declaring its independence (UN administration since about 1999) and that is favored by the US and Germany, and not opposed by France, Britain and Italy; and opposed by Russia, and some other EU countries, like "Spain, Slovakia, Romania and Cyprus," source here is NYT 1/11/2008 A5. No date set yet for the recognition.

The UN Security Council has not been able to agree. Slovenia (independent from Yugoslavia in 1991) holds the presidency of the EU for the next 6 months, and wants to send a UN police and civil force to Kosovo before independence fully declared. Montenegro is already independent of Serbia, leaving it without a port.

The human soup. Once in the pot, the flavors blend. See "The World Fact Book" at ://www.faqs.org/docs/factbook/geos/iz.html. That is a CIA site, but start there or pick your own spot.

Next? KURDS - Sunni. See ://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/feb99/kurdprofile.htm. Carve that out, or what leverage is there to hold this bifurcated group apart?
Iraq. Some 74% Arab, 15% Kurd.
Turkey. Some 80% Turkish, 20% Kurd.

BASQUES - have long said they are not "Spanish" - see ://basque.unr.edu/16/16.1t/16.1.1.faqs1.htm
Spain - does not even give us percentages for Basques, but do give the percentage who speak the language of the Basques at 2%, Castilian at 74%, and Catalan at 17% and Galician (what is that?)
at 7%.

FRANCE - composed of "Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Indochinese and Basque minorities"

US. Soon to be Hispanic majority, with Asian superior test scores, white Euros indignant again, and blacks left floundering as the funding goes elsewhere. Everywhere, similar issues, similar resistances, inclusions, exclusions.
What we do know is that mustering the helicopters to move people won't work and shouldn't. Relax, offer sustenance and healthcare regardless and see if matters don't stabilize.

Pending issues globally: incorporation of minorities and is there any real alternative except carving out homeland after homeland in postage stamp sizes and then how get people there and to stay, and why bother, just stay flexible and mind your own store?

Muslim Conquests - Expansion Theme, and Context

If Islamic studies, movements of culture in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Europe, were not part of your schooling, go to this site for a map of the reach of early Islam - and ask why we teach as though the West is the compass point. Go to Historical Maps Overview, at Map, the Muslim World 814AD. Look at the size of Baghdad.

The roll of the Muslim territorial and religious expansion.

In no time at all, within 10 years, within a century, of the death of the Prophet in 621 AD. In that short span, the new religion had established itself firmly throughout and beyond the Arab lands of origin, and was still going, the rule then moving from the Arabs to include the Turks, and the Ottoman Empire taking over for centuries beating at Europe's doors. Europe, paying others to buffer for them (the Venetians hiring others in the Balkans, so Venice could be uninterrupted in its Empire building, for example), kept up its own religious arguments and internal and external persecutions, geneologies on thrones competing, but was there more that aided the Muslim expansion. This is not to downplay the commitment to belief that drove the movement, but to set it in a context.

Here, the Alhambra Palace, the Fountain of the Lions, at Grenada, Spain.

Black Death. Combined with local violence. Spain, Romania, the Balkans, accounts of battles against the Turks, the reign of Caliphs, what made Eastern and Central Europe so vulnerable. The role of disease and violence in history. The weakening that results, combined with lack of commitment to a relatively fixed belief system. There were differences persisting, and emerging conflicts between cultural social and religious justice-economic systems.

Here: A new book. It seems that the Black Death had a role in religious conquests as well as in other economic, social areas. Look at the speed and efficiency of the Muslim conquests after the death of the Prophet Mohammed.

To be read: "The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In," by Hugh Kennedy, Middleast Correspondent, The Economist, Da Cap Press 2007, see International Herald Tribune, at ://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/04/arts/idbriefs5H.php; Steve Goddard's HistoryWire at ://www.historywire.com/2008/01/book-alert-th-1.html. Highlights from the NYT review by Max Rodenbeck:

1. Chronology provided: Unity and focus of Islam's faith, one text, virtually immediately upon the death of the Prophet Mohammed. Compare to Christianity 10-100 years after the death of Jesus, where people were still arguing over what should be in the Bible or not, "canonized" - see ://gbgm-umc.org/UMW/bible/cea.stm; in the fourth century or so; and still are discussing what happened there; and an additioal current topic - how do later writings relate, see ://www.jefflindsay.com/BOMIntro.shtml.

• 632 AD: death of the Prophet Mohammed

• By 647 AD: followers had "erased" Persia, decimated Byzantium's power, extended an empire's reach "as vast as that of Rome at its height.

• By 732 AD: Muslim armies had reached China to the East, extended 5000 miles to the West, and "had charged across Spain to clash with the Merovingian princes of what is now France."

2. Scope

Military; one faith, uprooting local religions (Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism); severing of "1000 year old links" that had bound south and north Mediterranean areas; linguistic - Arabic supplanted Latin and Greek as main conduit, "repository of human knowledge."

3. Factors primarily identified include:

Timing. "Exploitation of weakness." Plague had reduced populations in Near East and Mediterranean. "Political Turmoil" left Byzantium and Persia profoundly weakened. Areas were unprepared to counter the Muslim attacks.

Christianity was fractured - many Egyptians and Syrians sided with the Arabs against the Byzantines. Byzantines had tried to use force to convert. Muslims were more lenient, in many areas, allowing other worship, without onerous conditions (in many areas, not all). However, resistance could also be met with destruction in others.

4. Double fronts. Arab strength at outset, Turkish strength later in pushes through Balkans, East Indies, Spain. Then, stability of borders, after further upheavals several centuries later, once Spain was reconquered, and Turkish Muslims pushed back from Balkans, East Indies.

Mainly used in the book = texts, rather than archeological evidence, but we are not sure quite what that means. Waiting for the book at the library.

WC- The Necssary

At Telc, in the Czech Republic. Pay your nickel at the restaurant, and follow the stairs, down and out.

No problem.

Then, a castle on the Rhine, Kaub and Burg Gutenfels, I think. See ://www.castle-liebenstein.com/germany/rhine-river-castles/index.html. Note the little outcropping there center left, up near the top level of the castle. There it is.














And at Blarney Castle, in Ireland, the same kind of little outcropping there, toward the top. A little room up there.

We do not have a picture of the one at London Tower, but it is there. People have to trust the tides.


time. Keep change in your pocket, for the 4-5 cents (in koruna increments) up front. You will not get the key until you pay in many places.

Gas stations have free facilities, however, as do most larger restaurants-cafes. Smaller establishments and public WC's charge.


This one may be in Trebic, the Czech Republic, or perhaps Trebon. Pay for what you need.



In many countries, you also will find the kind we were told were "Turkish toilets." See one at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet. They work fine. In Greece, there were many, as in the outlying areas of Romania, the Balkans. See also ://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1153527.

Rip-offs. Currency Conversion, Fees. The Commonest Themes of All

1. Hotel rip off. We expect the big hotels to bill fees off the wall, especially for parking, valet. Sometimes we stay there in a pinch because we are tired, lost, the streets all go the wrong way, and the four-star is right there when you need it, as in Bucharest, Romania. Just expect it, and pay your bill each morning so they do not add up, and so you can move out if need be.

2. Currency conversion. How you pay counts.

2.1 Check your fees in advance. We do not expect the US of A to do it to us, but credit card companies do anyway. We just got a notice of a class action suit against, among others, Mastercard and Visa, for hidden fees for exchanges of currency. Yes. You get home and lose your teeth as you mouth drops open. This is for a settlement, no trial, but watch your mail and apply for it. Maybe we get enough for another trip!

2.2 Without Amex traveler's checks any more, watch out for prepaid cards. Say at AAA (bless their hearts), you put in so much money and expect to be able to draw on it, but you may get a 7% surcharge. Your own credit card may only charge 1%. See NYT 10/21/2007 - even Rick Steves, the travel guru, says to get your advance payments in Euro before you go.

Do use AAA for some of the country's currency before you go. Like yeast. Don't land with nothing; or cross any border without some seed money.

2.3 Mastercard and Visa may charge 1% of the purchase price. The article says that, if the euro is 1 and dollars are at $1.40, a 1% would show as another $1.40. At 3% surcharge, you get hit for $4.20.

Look for the 1% deals and read the fine print. Go to www.bankrate.com/currencyconversion. Do not let anybody convert to dollars when you are there - big surcharges.

2.4 ATM. We use those all the time. Make your $200 per day if need be. But check your own bank for charges. Tell your card people that you are traveling and where because they may freeze your card if odd locations appear. Our card number was stolen in Romania, and thanks to Farmington Savings Bank, they froze the card when new charges appeared six months later, and before before there was a loss.I think it was the fancy hotel. Ha.

Roma origin of a "Black Madonna" ? - and Sara the Black, Sara-la-Kali

The Black Madonnas are in many European and other countries, see overall post here at Europe Road Ways, Black Madonnas. We thought we found one here, in Gdansk Cathedral, Poland.

I assumed it to be another wonderful Black Madonna, but there is no baby. Checking, and do follow the path at Bogomilia, A Site for the Unsung, Sara the Black, this does appear to be Sara the Black, so far.

Now to go back to other Black Madonnas to see which may also be the Gypsy Sara the Black. Start with Wikipedia on this - at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sarah . Find the stories. An Egyptian servant to Mary in Egypt? Other stories? Here is information about an annual pilgrimage of Roma in France, homage to a Sara the Black, see //www.geocities.com/~Patrin/stsm01.htm.

If you look at the crescent here, then at the symbol for Gitans at the website, that also includes a crescent, perhaps you know where to look to see if there is a connection. The crescent also can relate to early two-horned moon symbols, or Mithra's horns, from the bull overcome by Mithra - Mithraism being the dominant religion before Christianity (Mithra ascended after his death in about 200AD?) see //www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/gods&goddesses/mithra.html. See also Bogomilia, A Site for the Unsung, Sara the Black, for more on Mithraism. Do not go to these places if you do not like finding roots.

Apparently the first historical reference dates to 1521, hand-written legends are located at Arles, and she has long been the patron of the Gypsies. There are many stories of her origins and works, including that she accompanied the Two Maries to the tomb and found it empty, and she also announced that event. Or, she was a black servant, and so many versions - go read.

The destination church for the annual May pilgrimage is Saintes-Maries de la Mer. This is a start. A new direction for us in understanding these wonderful paintings and sculptures.

Gypsies, Roma, Romani, Romni, Romney

Where to start with this complex topic. Roma appear in most of Eastern and Western Europe, migrated as did any other group to places from Australia to the United States, show physical characteristics tying them to India, perhaps, and linguistic commonalities also stemming from there.

Here, street musicians in Warsaw (not Dan, on the right, however). See them in horsecarts in Romania, scavenging in dumps there, going with great style into a casino, or watching from a dark doorway as hordes of little children clamber over your car, little fingers reaching, until finally you go, "Whtjshhhht!" With your own hands scissoring fast across each other horizontally, "Whjthshhhhstht!" No more. And the adult calls them back, Dan gets out, stays by the car to see no little one is under a tire, and we creep back out, wave a thank you, Dan pops back in and off.

See our site at Gypsies, Roma, Romani and "Zoli", by Collum McCann, a novel based roughly on the life of the Gypsy poet Branislawa Wajs. Read his book, "Zoli," for a view of the Slovakian -Polish experience 1920's-1980's or so.

Then read, "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca, Alfred A. Knopf NY 1995. Ms. Fonseca lived with various Gypsies and in Gypsy communities. Then let it all steep, because there is so much to try to grasp. They have survived.

And look at the surnames. We all may have some in us. Romney, Rom'ni, the names referring to smiths, blacksmiths, coopers, coopersmiths, on and on. Different groups specializing in different trades, music.

And the slaughter, the prejudice. Focus on that. We have gotten nowhere. Sites for these issues are in the Gypsies Roma site.

Plague -Plague Columns - Marian Columns - Mary the Protector

In Eastern and Central Europe, supplications against recurrence of Plague, and gratitude for deliverance, take the form of Marian Columns in many towns, or Plague Columns. In the Czech Republic, there was a particularly virulent epidemic in about 1680, that led to many towns constructing in about 1715 these Plague or Marian, Columns. Here, at Kutna Hora, in the Czech Republic, see Mary at the top with her crown of stars, and the piles of shapes beneath, leading up like so many agonizing buboes, to where she finally rests. See Czech Republic Road Ways. Read about this town in the Czech Republic that lists its Marian Column. //www.zamekvranov.cz/screen.php?str=pamatky_obce_vranov&jazyk=en. Or, see its extreme form - almost ugly in its representation of lump-like pustules, at Olomuc, CZ. Do your own Images search for Olomouc Marian Column.

How did Mary arise to this position, as somehow a safety source from death? No direct answer, but some religious groups give roundabout ones: www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Annodomini/THEME_11/EN/theme11-7. It looks like when it comes down to absolute devastation, a goddess figure works better. Theologians among us?


How humans react to unfathomable disaster. There are many fountains and other kinds of memorials to the era of the Black Death, and how people tried to expiate whatever forces were bringing it on again and again. There were at least three forms of it.

This fountain showing death, disease and suffering from the Plague I believe was in Oberammergau, Germany, or perhaps Garmisch.

A familiar memorial and way to keep the Plague from coming again is the pledge to act a play out in Oberammergau, Germany, every ten years. The next will be in 2010. See www.neuschwanstein-country.net/hotels/Oberammergau/en-oberam. Other sources:
www3.iath.virginia.edu/osheim/intro.

The Plague affected politics, culture, religion, society. See also "The Black Death, Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe" by Robert S. Gottfried, The Free Press, 1983.

One site focuses on the specific outbreak 1347-1350, and focuses on the rat infestation and rats as carriers of the fleas that passed on the Plague, see www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/.

Climate change - attention, out there - can also be dispositive in how a disease spreads. Other sources say it was not just the rodent infection. That combined with climate change 1050-1347, to extreme cold and wet; then add the movements west of the Huns and others from the East, carrying Plague from where Plague seems to have originated in conditions there, and the carrying of it from port to port. Then, a period of respite, perhaps 8-10 years, maybe more, and it came again. The sick rats died, the survivors began to reproduce again, the infection was still being fostered by the climate and other conditions, and it began again. And again.

Over a hundred years. 1350-1500. Enormous and repetitive depopulation. Overall perhaps a third of the European population died. In each bout, maybe 10% here, 30% there, 50% somewhere else, and then it all began again in differing proportions. And smallpox, measles.

But many modern medicine and religious and literature ideas began with coping with Plague, as did great social and economic change. Bubonic Plague. The Plague. The Black Death.

For more general info, see www.themiddleages.net/plague.

Black Madonnas: Medieval (and earlier); early pagan roots?

Back Madonna at the Church of Saint Mary, Gdansk, Poland. See below for another Black Madonna there, looking like a copy of the Black Madonna at Jasna Gora Monastery, also in Poland.

No further information yet. Note, there is no child. The inscription looks like a Russian reference? See Poland Road Ways.

Black Madonnas are found throughout Europe, and date from the early middle ages, mostly. Some may be earlier, and the legends and stories explaining them are varied. For a background for these, and where they are, black virgin statues at www.ancientquest.com/embark/blackvirgin; and Eann Begg's at www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/blackm/blackm.
There is a theory to fit each person's predisposition as to why. No one explanation fits them all. See saxakali.com/suzar/madonna, for a history of black madonnas.

Here is the Black Madonna at Mont St. Michel, France. See if you agree that our western religious orientation is to downplay the role of the black, and lands connected to our Bible that were in Africa, see Martin Luther's Stove, Translation Serving a Cultural Agenda.

www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/blackm/blackm.


This is the Black Madonna at Altotting, Germany.

We also saw another Black Madonna at Guadalupe, Spain. This was a tiny triangular shaped Madonna with a tinier head, very high up, and with a multitude of costumes on display that change with the seasons and feast days.

These places are usually also pilgrimage destinations.






This is the Black Madonna at Wroclaw, Poland, apparently a copy of the original at Czestochowa, Jasna Gora Monastery, Poland. Do an "images" search for Black Madonna, Jasna Gora, and see the similarities - no photos were permitted of it.

See discussion re the broadly different representation of the Black Madonna in the Jasna Gora gift shop (different dress, and elaborate crowns, and varying skin tones available for purchase, including pale Caucasian white), at Poland Road Ways.

No one explanation fits all the Madonnas. Some charred, others originally black, others buried. This source presents the thesis that white madonnas were later in time than the black madonnas. Some find African origins. See www.africanbynature.com/links/madonnalinks.
Here is a picture of the small and high on the wall Black Madonna at Guadalupe, Spain. Too high for a good picture using my camera: See www.solt3.org/guadalupespain.

Here is a copy of the Jasna Gora Black Madonna at Gdansk, Poland, also showing the same kind of clothing as at Wroclaw.

Even the "images" search shows some versions with the crowns and different dress, and I can't remember the original any more. I thought I was buying a picture of it, but apparently not. Someone go check it out?

This is a different concept from the "inculturated" black madonnas that reflect a cultural depiction, so that there would also be madonnas with the facial features and skin tones of the people whose conversion is sought; or ones with features like those of the faithful in the area. See www.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/blackmdn. What color was Mary? Or Jesus? What does it say about us, that we have to ask?

See this site for connections to pagan black goddesses, see crystalinks.com/blackisis.

I looked up official images of Mary at this site, catholic-forum.com/saints/saintbvm, but found none of the Black Madonnas.

How We Bury Our Dead - Cemeteries, Charnel Houses, and Roots

1. Czech Republic and Poland. Some people were buried in mass graves, then disinterred and the remains put in Charnel houses for reasons including the overwhelm of epidemic, or war.
For Charnel Houses relating to Plague or the Thirty Years' War (early 1600's) see post for the walled church near Kutna Hora CZ, window view shown here, at Czech Republic Road Ways.

See also the post for Kudowa Zdroj at Poland Road Ways. More graphic. No filming was allowed inside; the view there is also
from the outside windows.

We did not visit the monastery at Sedlec, near Kutna Hora CZ where the bones were made into chandeliers and other decorative objects - sconces, etc. Not just lack of time, but also we liked our quiet times at these places and didn't want death with bling. See it here: www.discoverczech.com/multimedia-gallery/picture-detail.php4?obrazek=500600; or do a simple Images search for Sedlec. Forty thousand people in parts for your illumination.

2. Romania. Some graves are hauntingly colorful. Here is the Merry Cemetery in Romania, in Sapinta in the northwestern section near Ukraine.

A woodcarver in the 1930's, I believe, began memorializing people's lives and how they died on their wooden markers. The tradition continues. One here shows, as affirmed by an English-speaking Romanian nearby, a man being shot by a firing squad, or patrol of Germans. See more at Romania Road Ways. Other carvings show butchers, housewives, bed-ridden people, smiling people, children with a car coming at them, stories all.

3. Ireland. Some graves are close to roots. This one is in Ireland, in the middle of someone's commercial opportunity, a monastery ruin in the middle of a golf course.





4. France. An admirer still leaves flowers for WWII singer Edith Piaf at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.


















More France: Here, at the Ossuary at Verdun, from the campaign 1916-1917, are the various remains of some 150,000 unknown soldiers, German and French, Moroccan, Foreign Legion. They are beneath a central spiral in this large memorial, names lining the bays. See World War. This is an original old postcard of ours, a very small collection from Verdun, no date (unused) but very yellowed, with French captioning.
















5. Croatia. And here, a photograph shows us just who this individual 16-year old Terezija was, in Croatia, and she is ever reading.
















6. Bosnia. In some places, graves are cast off.

Here, a graveyard and a road runs through it. Graveyard, Bogomils, old Christian sect 9th-12th Centuries, killed off by the self-proclaimed true church, Bosnia. See history at www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina-HISTORY. Start wiath the home page at the dot com, then move to the specifics if you can.

7. Ireland. Some graves witness specific tragic eras. Famine cemetery, Skibbereen, Ireland.















8. Luxembourg. Some graves seem like an anticlimax, given the publicity given to the person elsewhere.

The great WWII General Patton is buried off in Luxembourg, but is better known for his campaigns elsewhere. He is at the US Military Cemetery at Hamm, Luxembourg. He lies facing his 7-8,000 troops, though. We got here just in time to help with the flag. so far away. Not many Americans do come here, I understand. Excellent. Attention should be paid.

8. The Netherlands. Some graves are remembered with vast speeches and memorial days. Here, festive remembrance. VE Day parade, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The "A Bridge Too Far" bridge is just north, at Arnhem. Nijmegen's bridge is where Americans fought, I understand, as part of Operation Market Garden.











9. Germany. Some graves are mass graves, preserving where huge numbers of people perished.


See Buchenwald Concentration Camp, near Weimar, Germany. See the stones for remembrance, and other cultural-practical roots, at this ground headstone at Buchnwald, Germany. Nearby is the little bear pit, a dear child size zoo thing, where the Nazi's children and families, and any assigned "help," would sit and play and watch the bears while the inmates were just beyond, behind the barbed wire fence over there.

10. France. Here, battlefield at Vimy Ridge, France. Trenches, craters and hills showing where uprooted trees fell, or blasts. WWI. Area cannot be easily mowed, so sheep safely graze there. There are often large ossuaries at WWI grave areas. Fragments so small.




11. Arras, France. Some graves are pocket-size, especially from WWI, where you can find a family member. Here is our grave of relative Lt. Col. Maurice McConaghey, Royal Scots Fusiliers 1917, WWI, Arras, France. See post in WWI Finding Graves.



12. Belgium. Some graves have huge monuments.
Remembering with monuments. Canadian Memorial, Ypres, Belgium, WWI. Uncle Len was there. He was in the Canadian forces, gassed, but survived.







13. Belgium. And the American Memorial, Bastogne, Belgium (WWII). Such admiration and gratitude for the
American soldiers' efforts and heroism here. This - the idea that you are doing good after all - is a legacy that our leaders today are taking from our soldiers, I think.



14. Croatia. Some graves are in large grand mausoleums. See the formal cemeteries at Miragoj Cemetery, Zagreb, Croatia: Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics, and carefully alphabetized and birth-death dates and names of German soldiers, WWII.










15. Croatia. Some graves are virtually forgotten. Here is Jasenovac Concentration Camp site, 1940's, Croatia: The dead here are not only Nazi-targeted groups, but Orthodox Christians, numbers vary 60,000-600,000. Belongings and photos now at Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC. Everything closed up, broken here. Where do families go to find their people?



16. Montenegro. Some graves become rallying points. Here, a firing squad memorial in Montenegro (Cetinje).


17. To find graves, try Geneology sites: www.myheritageresearch.com/. This one uses over 400 sources, including world cemetery regords; and www.familysearch.org/; good for using American and Canadian census materials, death indexes and some marriage and birth records; and www.ancestry.com/. This one includes military records, court, land and some probate records for US, and some UK census. And www.legacy.com/. This has some 5 million recent and old obituaries, daily newspapers, past 6 years only, I think. Check. These overviews are from the Wall Street Journal of June 22, 2006.

18. United States. Some reflect the personality of the person beneath. See an all-American attitude veteran's grave, at Saratoga, NY:




...................................................................................

Cemeteries are for the living, says Jay Walljasper in his book, "The Great Neighborhood Book," New Society Publishers 2007. See him at www.pps.org/info/aboutpps/staff/jwalljasper. Return to them as parks, attractions, for picnics.

There is also a cemetery preservationist at the Connecticut Gravestone Network, Ruth Shapleigh-Brown, see www.ctgravestones.com/Contact_info. who helps with the finding.

Resources:

1. Site for finding overviews of whatever country your people may have come from: www.everyculture.com/multi/index. Overview, Country and Culture.

2. Site for finding graves of famous, infamous and not famous people: www.findagrave.com/index.

Architecture - Gehry and Gehry-type wavy buildings and other Whimsy

Frank O. Gehry, American architect, and his legacy worldwide. Here is the art museum at Bilbao, Spain, see Spain Road Ways.



This fine dragonfly is affixed to a building in Prague, recalling Franz Kafka's character who woke up to find he had morphed to a giant insect.
See Czech Republic Road Ways.
There are other figures and bugs affixed to buildings in Munich and other German cities.

The Dancing House - Fred and Ginger - also in Prague.

See it at pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=651. Architects Vlado Milunk and American Frank O. Gehry. Better yet, just search Images for Dancing House.

Crazy house at Sopot, Poland.

See www.flickr.com/photos/sebarave/13073110/. Or do that famous Images search for Sopot house.

Holocaust, Petr Ginz, and other war diaries, children and adult

War diaries. Holocaust diaries.

1. The Netherlands:

Anne Frank, in hiding and focusing (for lack of other sensory stimulation) on her interior life, see www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/af/htmlsite/; and Etty Hillesum, a young woman in her 20's and the perspective of an unmarried adult. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etty_Hillesum; www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Etty_Hillesum/. See Netherlands Road Ways;

2. Bosnia:

Zlata Filipovic was 11 when her world began to fall apart. She wrote a journal from Sarajevo. More on Zlata at mv.com/Writers-Corner/EVENTS/zlata. She had moved from Bosnia, and was in Paris by 1995. This is a chat session, with schoolchildren. You can also look her up in Wikipedia, search for her name there. Her family survived.

3. Lebanon.

See article in the New York Times, by Tom Zeller, Jr., on July 24, 2006, re a girl who videotaped her escape down the stairs to a shelter during bombing. Her name is Galya Daube. Then there is Finkployd at BloggingBeirut.com.

4. The Czech Republic, then Czechoslovakia:

"The Diary of Petr Ginz 1841-1942," edited by his sister, Chava Pressburger, the diaries logging events in this 12-14 year-old's life in Prague, then he was sent to Theresienstadt, then killed at Auschwitz. See The Places of Petr Ginz; and Czech Republic Road Ways.

5. Poland

"Rutka's Notebook," 1943, Rutka Laskier from Bedzin, Poland. She kept a diary for several months, then was sent to Auschwitz where she died. www1.yadvashem.org/research_publications/temp_publications/temp_index_Rutkas_Notebook.html

Crusades - Here, Templars, Teutonic Knights - Mercy turned mercenary

At the massive, brick castle "Malbork" in Poland, see four of the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights, the group that built it. Overview at www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/malbork.htm. A bare-bones narrative summary of their history is at www.heraldica.org/topics/orders/teutonic.htm.

Overview of crusades and Templars - see the History of Central Europe at http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/misc/europe.htm#Mong.

During the crusades, Teutonic Knights hospitals and otherwise helped and protected the pilgrims and the wounded. When the crusaders lost the Holy Land back to the Saracens, there was no more of that same protective and healing work to be done there. See the pictures and narrative at www.crystalinks.com/teutonicknights.html. See also James Michener's large novel, "Poland." Review at www.allreaders.com/Topics/Info_1544.asp. See the portions on the slaughter of Christians by "Christians."

So they retreated to Venice, built up their economic and political fortunes, and then from there, morphed into mercenaries. They killed Baltic Christians as "infidels" just as they killed other nonbelievers, on grounds that they had to have been converted to Christianity by the Pope's forces and not some earlier saint who did not count. See remus.shidler.hawaii.edu/genes/WPrussia/Teutonic/home.htm.

In other ways, they were a jolly group, says this site, noting their camaraderie and sense of humor. See department.monm.edu/history/urban/articles/humor_of_Teutonic_Knights.htm. Similarities to Chaucer and Boccaccio are shown there.

See Poland Road Ways for posts and cites to Malbork and the Teutonic Knights. The Roman Catholic view is at www.newadvent.org/cathen/14541b.htm.

The Knights are still active. I found a website with a large portrait of Pope Benedict at the top left of the page, and the history and recruiting efforts discussed, modern day opportunities for service. Still looking to find it again.

They founded Brasov, Romania, where the castle named "Bran" is tourist-featured as a place where Vlad Tepes (the Impaler) is said to be associated. See www.maisnie-champenoise.org/uk/teutons.html. See Bran Castle at " Romania Road Ways - Vlad Tepes.

There is a digitalized copy of the F.C, Woodhouse 1879 book, "The Military Religious Orders of the Middle Ages," online. Do a search for modern Teutonic Knights

New URL - and Summary of Themes

We follow people in music, the military, history, invasions, and storybooks. Meet Mozart in Vienna. From this chance encounter, Dan wants to see Salzburg next trip. Perhaps.

This site is a repotting of our earlier Common Thread Road Ways. All the earlier posts are now here, because I could not remember "common thread."

Summary of our themes to date, to which we add Wolfgang Amadeus:

We have no method for our itineraries except what happens to be where we find ourselves. We follow signs for any real or fictional person that looked interesting; and look up festivals or events. We compare issues and concepts, such as the Vlad Tepes (Impaler) sites in Romania, with Bram Stoker's "Dracula." See site at Romania Road Ways Vlad Tepes (Dracula). We take 2-3 guidebooks and then it's off in some direction.

We go to celebrations. And are grateful for our own health and safety each day.

This is at the Dracula Club in Bucharest. At Halloween. Time your trip to match something fun. This site lists festivals by country: www.frootsmag.com/content/festivals/europe/; and goeurope.about.com/od/festivalsineurope/a/summer_fests.

We find some folks by chance - see James Joyce at a cafe in Pula, Croatia, near the old Roman gate, ad our hub site Europe Road Ways.

We found Ernest Hemingway is at Pamplona, Spain, of course. Spain Road Ways.
Joan of Arc is all over northern France. France Road Ways. The Brothers Grimm are in Germany.
The Romans were all over. Germany Road Ways.
Find Napoleon at Austerlitz, Czech Road Ways; and Paris, France Road Ways; and Slovenia, at Bratislava, Slovakia Road Ways.

We dogged Robin Hood, King Arthur, Dickens, Chaucer, Thomas a Becket, and Peter Pan in England. And the Prince of Wales and Edward II in Wales. Wales Road Ways.

There are Robert the Bruce and William Wallace (Freedom!), Nessie and Rob Roy MacGregor in Scotland. Scotland Road Ways.
King Lot at Orkney. Orkney Road Ways.
Samuel Johnson at Dunvegan at Skye. Scotland Road Ways. Samuel Johnson's biography is at justus.anglican.org. Look at the resources, bio 20 section. Also, information on the Huns is at www.imninalu.net, the section on Huns; and how they helped the spread of the Black Death (among many other factors) and other matters about the Plague are at www.themiddleages.net, the section on plague.

Find Robert the Bruce at www.magicdragon.com, the Wallace and then Bruce6 section; Leonardo da Vinci at www.kausal.com/leonardo;
Charles Dickens at www.victorianweb.org, at authors, dickens,dickensbio1;
Julius Caesar and a historical chronology at www.vroma.org/%7Ebmcmanus/caesar.

7. There will be plenty of road signs for big, and little, sights on the way. The emphasis is "on the way." See as you go.

Universal Travel Ambassadors: Down Syndrome

Our son, Dan, has Down Syndrome. Here he is, propping up his Dad at Special Olympics soccer.

Travel. Anywhere. Wherever we go, we see others like him - usually with the nod and smile of recognition, the stop on the walkway, the passing-by and then the return to hover at the table. We couldn't count the exchanges, the nods and thumbs-ups, that this everywhere situation so often produces. Dan literally opens doors. We usually find welcome, and enthusiasm - and somebody who wants to tell us where someone is in the village who is like Dan, and what that person means to them, and does there, where that child was planted. Rural Romania in a farm area local pub, Spain - a storefront offering services inside for Down citizens, in France where people came and sat down with us to talk of their niece, their child, sibling, uncle.

Our only significant negative came in Germany, where people with visible handicaps are hardly ever. I became accustomed to odd looks. We are an unusal couple. At an ordinary American hotel chain, however (never our first choice if local hotels have room) a German diner was offended that we were ushered to a place in the dining roomand spoke to the maitre d' - in French, in case we spoke German, I suppose --"Il n'est pas normale." Thank you, hotel, for placating her somehow and showing her back to her seat. But now I understand why they had walked us 'way to the back to begin with. Traditions get inbred.

Lady, lady. And Germany. Unclench yourselves and open your arms and maybe life can get in.

Dan's response: Questioning, wondering what he did wrong. Dan, who is a bagger at a supermarket, sometimes encounters someone having a bad hair day. He looked over as this little drama was going on (he does not know French except for the grey-poupon exchange). Our usual routine is to that bad hair days are all over the world, probably. And went back to our meal. He handles life pretty well.

Back home. America: The Princeton Inn. They also hustled us from the front door, quickly to the back, where there were high backs to booths, with the effect that we couldn't see out much, and noone could see well in. That was offensive, thank you, but not worth clenching about. Just don't go there.

Or better yet, everyone go there. And with a hey-down-a-down-dilly-down. This ivy league ivy strangled.

Electronic Rest

Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, the rest of Europe. The commonality of the earphone, the cellphone, the internet cafe. And the universal frustration. Witness abroad on your own the humanity-wide yearning for -- ba-da-boom -- electronic rest. *
....................................................
* Electronic rest. Noun. 1. Transitory state where all gadgets with wires, batteries, network connections, internet access, modes, ink, ring tones, passwords, back-ups, virus/spam guards
or touch-pads can be located and actually work. Not to be confused with regularity, predictability, personal merit, meeting times, due dates, or distance from commercially available substitutes down the road. See Nirvana. Terminates within five minutes of awareness of original state; 2. Period of nap, the body's response to the mental illusion of permanence in electronic functioning; 3. Doze of gratitude while cubicled or home-officed, unaware of pending danger. From Old English dysig: foolish.

Open Spaces - Trust and Get Out of the Car

We find lovely remote spots everywhere. Leave the car and take a hike. Ours was fine and right where we left it, when we got back. We had seen people around when we headed off, but either we'd be ok or not, so no sense fussing. Just go.

This is on the way over the Carpathian Mountains, at the Transfagarasan Pass in Romania. There was supposed to be a fine waterfall just beyond, but this was fall and not spring, and we never did find it. Great little hike anyway.

Toilet variations. There will also be a toilet, or not, when you need one. You soon learn to navigate the "Turkish toilets," as they are called both here and in Greece, fully functioning and sensible, but you put your feet on the markers, and squat or aim over the hole between. No problem. Do carry some TP. Facing the door is best. They also flush, as you would expect. But, at the port-a-type, don't get your hopes up. Like here.

Pogonotrophy: Beard-Growing

You are in a different county, and suddenly start noticing that there are more of some things here, or fewer of some things.

Beards, for example. And the reasons for growing them - religious, other cultural, young people, old people. Look up the words for it. Pogonotomy is beard-cutting. Pogonotrophy is beard-cultivation. Tap the "surprise me" tab at this site: www.worldwidewords.org/index.

Some religious traditions call for the beard, as here - a priest in the Orthodox Christian faith, in Romania. He was hitch-hiking and we invited him to join us in our car for the drive from Bistrita to Castel Dracula. See Romania Road Ways. He is married, grew up in the area, and spoke enough English that we could converse, and not just grunt about and nod vigorously, while not really sure what is being said.

Wonderful. For more of interest to the quirky, look up "weird words" and "turns of phrase" in the Worldwide Word site's left side index. If you once thought yourself reasonably educated, give yourself a vocabulary test at these sites and weep. For more of what most of us do not know, see the Colorado lexicon at www.cs.colorado.edu/%7Ejrblack/class/csci3104/f06/hw/wordlst.txt. Again, if the long address form does not work, just go to the home page and try from there - go to cs.colorado.edu, for example.

Quick. The definition of inspissations. See the CMU lexicon at www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Emjs/F06-15123/labs/lab2/172K-words.txt

Links, posts and archives

References to third-party websites for additional information are given here in word form. See direct-link issues raised at www.bitlaw.com. The slow way (you put in your own search to the address, using your own browser) appears prudent. There must be another way. Interests should be protected reasonably, but is hobbling us the answer?

Posting - Post dating is used to arrange the chronology of the posts. This way, we an put similar issues together.

Archives - These are not necessarily earlier posts. Archives may include new posts put with an earlier topic. Do check often.

Technorati Profile

Animal Themes - Duck Types (then on to chickens, turkeys, geese, others)

Here a quack. Go to this site to find duckworld -- www.ansi.okstate.edu/poultry/ducks/index. Look each one up and marvel:

There are Muscovy ducks; Call ducks, usually in red-light ponds? and Cayuga ducks, seriously from Cayauag County, NY and isn't that also Cornell? And Khaki Campbells, Pekin ducks, and are these the restaurant variety? and Rouen ducks (did Joan of Arc recognize them?). They are a kind of hyper-mallard, and more. Site has most of these with pictures, some you have to look up further.

For songs and ditties about ducks that you may have tried to forget after elementary school, see England Road Ways . Then try to forget them again. Gotcha. In your ears.

There are posters abroad that we saw, and should have bought, that have species of goat, sheep, cattle.

Cattle, sheep, goats, horses - identifying breeds

Livestock breeds: You will see so many. See the variety of sheep, goats, cattle, horses: at www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/.

One of the most striking of the cattle we saw is the Belted Galloway, or "oreo" cattle breed. They are black with a wide, white belt around the middle. I believe they are being raised in Maine now, or New Hampshire. There was a newspaper article about someone buying a half of a Belted Galloway with a friend, who got the other half, and all the parts went into the freezer.

See Scotland Road Ways for the heavy-coated highland cattle, very long and shaggy coats. There are also wild donkeys in the Highlands there. See Ireland Road Ways for the brown and white, more familiar, cattle walking on the roadways. And for the sheep and goats also on the roads. They are identified by inked blotches, red, blue, yellow, known to the owners. Donegal sweaters? Is that where the blue and red flecks come from, in the wool?

A Day In Our Life Over There - An Inconsequential Poem

We travel oddly, my son and I.
Pick country, cheap airfare, and rent-a-car.
EZ Pack: one for wash, wear, spare. Mostly.
Direction? Clockwise or not, depending.
Lost again? He decides. Elbows cross.
Fingers point both directions and we go.
No goals, nocall-aheads, hardly. Schmooze.
Find: Standing stones. Vikings. Crusades.
Castles. Family graves. Silent loud stories.
Rules: Ferry sign? Take it. Orkney, 5 A.M.
Sing the towns in songs. Fair Citee. Gra- nah-dah!
Volcano up close. El Greco hands. Bulls run.
Menu mystery: Pick the sixth. Bulls' ears?
And here lies the heart of Robert the Bruce.
Where is the rest? Fill in the gaps.
Personal best: Watch one parent, one child,
Now two adults. Joint venture.
Up-looking re-education with my Down son
Who is always Up. Hey, man. Who are we?
We are the Car-Dan Tour Company.
We master airports.
Thinking in the car.
Log on lap. Pencil.
My line of work ill-chosen for my kind.
A maze, unknowable turnings
With no-one at rest. Waiting for an outcome
From choices made, or found in the wood.
Who chose?
You get away, you think back.
Like after the push
When I went down the street.
Intentionally thrust
By the alien children
Abrupt, when I was four, and new
In the neighborhood.
Thought that long forgotten.
Right off the concrete stairs
Of the new addition.
They were silent after.
And my fingers sticky red running home.
The pitch. Again, there. Loud in its waiting.
The tolling. Ears ring ever after.
The mirror and the office.
Where the place.
All turnings. The mosaic reheaves.
Prom ball. Worldwide.
A technicolor ferris.
Fine ride. Next flight.


More blogs about Common Thread Road Ways.

Myths and Legends Sites - and Connections between Cultures

Reading myths can occupy an entire morning, at least, so do set aside the tme. We see statues of ancient gods and goddesses, references in the country's lore. Try this site before you leave for a country, to get a flavor of the old days - www.mythinglinks.org/euro%7Eeast%7EBalkans%7ERomania.

I especially enjoyed the sections with Romania and Central Europe, but just go to the home page (mythinglinks.org) for the best overall starting point. I am interested in the tree image that cultures use in creation stories and other purposes.

Wars and War Crimes; Propaganda Techniques, And What Lack of Transparency Engenders

Here is Hitler's famous stadium in Nuremberg. See Germany Road Ways. The Nazi Documentation Center there is worth an entire day, if not more. Films, resources, guided seatings and transitions given for exhibits to alter your whole worldview. Things we don't want to acknowledge.

All over Europe are memorials and ruins remaining, statues and other strong reminders of conflict. From that, stems an interest in how governments get people to believe what the government wants them to believe, so the people will support them, and think they are making up their own minds. Not.

An overview of the techniques used to get people to support a cause, see www.propagandacritic.com/. Scroll to the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. Set up in 1937 by our own government to educate us about such techniques, so we could protect ourselves, and before WWII even. Whether the cause is a good one or not, it is the fact that there are known techniques that is more important. We should be self-educating, so we can analyze before swallowing. Who else will do it? Not the persuaders, certainly.

For an overview of the overall war crimes topic, see www.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_warcrimes. The issue comes up in the world wars and the countries involved. Not all agree on who should be tarred and tried as a war criminal. In Bosnia, posters protest against the ongoing search for some people, while trials of others continue at The Hague. Evildoing: Many-sided issue.

Good site for WWI picture history: www.historypictures.com/home_wcppx_l.htm#contents.

This site seems to have it all - news, poetry, songs, and histories and audios: www.firstworldwar.com/index. For military history overviews, various campaigns, see www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/anzio. There are also sites where vets can add their recollections.

Good picture history at Western Civilization Picture Pack, WWII at www.historypictures.com/home_wcppx_n.htm#contents. As with any of these references, go to the home page at the dot com, then use the rest of the address only as needed.
................................................................................................................................................
Where to put people's views of "wars" propagated on us from within, or close to?
Or that show how, without governmental transparency, conclusions of what happened are easily skewed?
Why aren't all the counter-footages, or black boxes, or whatever, showing the areas that now are still withheld, put out there?

• Take your pick here, if you are inclined. These are long, so if you are going to delve in, set the time aside. Let me know of counter-sites that lay issues to rest for you.

• These sites came from a comment on a blog. I did not publish the entire comment.
  

• The sites here to films about these issues, of governmental transparency and remaining questions, are offered only to show a tally of what information is seen as most important by the film-makers, and do not represent a conclusion of the "best" or "right" ones because I am no expert. And, any film reflects the point of view of the film-maker. Do let me know of other film views we all should see for balance before coming to conclusions.

Controlled demolition? See video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6708190071483512003;
related movements at video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5948263607579389947; or
www.scholarsfor911truth.org/. Keep info, ideas flowing.
Already responses: As to 91truth, see a counter-site at 911research.wtc7.net/essays/st911/index.

Amnesia , Persuasion Techniques - and Lili Marlene (Lilli Marleen)

A side mini-rant.

Amnesia is the persuader's friend, all over the world. Represent what happened in a way to elicit certain emotions, perhaps change words, repeat, associate this with that, and people forget what was before, or the other side of the story.

This, in Cetinje, Montenegro. See Montenegro Road Ways.

Is there any country where critical thinking is encouraged, questions are solicited, to fill in details, or where visual and aural persuasion techniques are taught so people can defend against them? Or are persuasion techniques now used everywhere against them. Whether looking at war criminal posters in Bosnia, or seeing war memorials all over, or hearing political rally speakers and people rev up, or hearing war touted again as an answer, we may be at this point, all of us: we have to educate ourselves.

Look up the persuasion techniques listed from 1937 - now being used, at www.propagandacritic.com; and the great prophet of PR, he who could even "warm up" Calvin Coolidge - Edward Bernays from 1928 or so - see the Museum of Public Relations at http://www.prmuseum.com/bernays/bernays_1928.html,
You, too, can do it. Sell. Regardless. See www.aboutpublicrelations.net/. We deserve what we let happen.

Propaganda on a small scale: Lili Marlene. The torch song associated with World War II, both sides singing, hearing Marlene Dietrich's froggy voice, imagining the lamp post in Berlin.

This started with a protest poem by a German soldier in World War I - 1913 - on the way to the Russian front. See www.jazzprofessional.com/report/Norbert%20Schultze.htm#english. That site says that Ron Simmonds (the jazz trumpet player I think) translated the original from 1913. From the words to Lili, perhaps his girlfriend, and the Marleen maybe a nurse, Lili Marleen came about and herself may be already dead in that song. The waste of War. The blood. Who counts the bodies. Who names them. All from pride and greed. That is 1913. Lili Marleen.

But then, the song morphed into its opposite - a torch song in wartime in World War II, and even a Panzer Division marching song. See Germany Road Ways, Lili Marleen post.

So somehow war is not protested in Lili Marlene. It is just a love song. Go to the Germany Road Ways, Lili Marleen post and you can find the audio of the song, in its many variations, and the poem. Small example, but we can't seem to look at truth for long. War protest, too powerful, So turn it into nostalgia for war.

Historical periods, survey sites, UNESCO World Heritage

1. UNESCO World Heritage sites. See http://www.galenfrysinger.com/world_heritage.htm for World Heritage sites he has visited; then roam about his pages for photos all over the world - and organized, sometimes, into other categories than mere countries - the Roman World, for example. Also: UNESCO World Heritage sites: United Kingdom www.thesalmons.org/lynn/wh-england.

2. History.

2.1 Feudal societies, Roman Empire, overview of European migrations and those affecting Europe: see the History of Central Europe at //mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/misc/europe.htm#Mong.

2.2 Sites with different perspectives on history: This site says that our esteemed idea of Renaissance in the 15th century was nothing. Instead, look at the 12th Century. Names names. For an unusual topic, "The Renaissance Myth," see web.maths.unsw.edu.au/%7Ejim/renaissance. There are always new ways of sorting information.

2.3 Overall, for history go to the Internet History Sourcebook site at www.fordham.edu/halsall/. It includes film, everything you could want. You get lost in it, going from one link to another. I used the top menu rather than the side one.

2.4 Middle Ages: try www.ship.edu/%7Ecgboeree/middleages.

2.5 Surveys and commentaries: www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/. See ancient world, voices, photos, Queen Victoria, the death of a child in 1890, and a red light district in 1843, and other focused (not just survey) topics; see also the World Association of International Studies on history at cgi.stanford.edu/group/wais/cgi-bin/index.php?p=587">WAIS on history. These are a series of brief commentaries.

3. Country-specific themes: English towns: see www.trytel.com/%7Etristan/towns/towns. [others are also listed, not in England; and other topics such as plague}

Electric Scotland: www.electricscotland.com/history/journey/jour21.


4. Where to go: Internet "hotlist" on middle ages: www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listthemiddel.

5. Myths - Forest myths around the world: at www.leaf-international.org/Leaf/myths.

6. Monasticism - at aggreen.net/monasteries/monastic.

Belfries and Keeps; Trees on roofs

See this World Heritage site for the role of belfries and keeps in medieval life. The belfry signified independence, the keep signified the power of the overlord, as a summary - and there are apparently 23 of them that are especially beautiful in France and Belgium. See whc.unesco.org/en/list/943 for Keeps and Belfries. We began sketching the different types - witches' hats, onion domes.

Tree-topping for luck. Here is an example of "tree-topping" at Prislop, the Gateway Pass, Romania. This U.S. site says the custom of "tree-topping" is Scandinavian, dating from the Vikings. See www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A225315%20">Trees on Rooftops. If the long address does not work to get yo to the specific section, start with the main dot-com and work your way. The site notes that ironworkers these days may all sign the beam before putting them in place. Then they often put it up with a flag and evergreen tree on it. The tree idea goes back to Scandinavians, Vikings, symbolizing work done well, and promoting good luck for those about to move in. It was American Norwegian ironworkers who added the American flag iere, putting their own touch on the tradition.

For steelworkers, it also signifies, says this next site, that the maximum height has been reached, and the last beam is now in place. And, it notes that the Scandinavians by 700 A.D. used the tree at the top to signal the beginning of the "completion party." Everybody come. See www.aisc.org/Content/ContentGroups/Modern_Steel_Construction3/December_2000/0012_05_christmas.pdf#search=%22luck%20tree%20on%20roof%22. That is a pdf file, at page 1 of 4. Go to the basic aisc.org if the later information does not help.

So much easier if we could link, and if the protections of copyright and intellectual property could still be offered.

In Romania, the trees are also found on reconstructions and on tops of gates leading to a family compound.

A Japanese site also seems to say that cut trees at the entrance are lucky. See www.hkjapaneseclub.org/english/message. Quote from that site: "Good Luck Tree.
We placed two good luck trees on our 38/F & 39/F at the main entrance. Member can hang your wish on the tree. It will all come truth!" Unquote.

Sheelanagigs, in cultures closer to nature

The Normans are also known as Northmen, the Vikings.

Among their conquest achievements is their invasion of England from Normandy, the area of France given to them to keep them from plundering up the Seine any longer. And, from England and Wales, on to Ireland.

After conversion to Christianity, the Normans built churches with distinguishing characteristics, see www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_church_architecture; and www.mondes-normands.caen.fr/angleterre/cultures/GB_FR/culture6_3.

The Normans built their churches wherever they went - see, for example, in Sicily, in the crusades era. See the Monreale post at Sicily Road Ways.

On many in the British Isles, you also will find - if your eyes will tell your brain, and your brain will let it through -- that there are unclothed forms on Norman churches. These are called sheelanagigs, and they can be either gender. They may be up high, as the first one we found at St. Clement's, Rodel, Harris, the Hebrides. The sheelanagig there is midway up the tower, and quite small, but intentionally placed on a course there. See Hebrides Road Ways

Some explanations say they are fertility symbols, some say they stem from old Celtic forms, as at crossroads or patted for luck or for children; others have no explanation. How they look: Some are dignified, some are exhibitionist, some are hag-ish, others are quite lovely. Here is a closeup of the one here at St. Clement's. Do visit this site for long descriptions and many pictures of sheelanagigs. www.sheelanagig.org.

Biography - Following People, Real or Fictional, and Songs

Here is a good overall biography resource: //www.biographybase.com/bio/a.

Follow signs for any real or fictional person. Or, you may just come upon one at a cafe. Here we found James Joyce, in Pula, Istria, Croatia - near the old Roman gate.

Spain. Ernest Hemingway was in Spain in the 1930's, among many other places. See www.timelesshemingway.com/thearoom/generalsec1. See the Hemingway post at
Spain Road Ways

France. Joan of Arc is over much of northern France. See www.archive.joan-of-arc.org; and
France Road Ways

Germany. The Brothers Grimm are centered in Germany. A fine museum is at Kassel. It was hard to find with our map, but we just parked finally, and walked through a large park rather than cope with one-way streets. The Brothers Grimm tales are the subject of www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2. Our culture waters them down ridiculously. Are our children so fragile that they can't hear the real thing? I have an old Grimm from the late 1800's, early 1900's, and Rapunzel becomes "with child," the young man falls off the ladder and is blinded in the briars, she wanders int he wilderness and has twins, and ultimately they meet up again.

Rome. The Romans were over most of southern and central Europe. See www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/; and Germany Road Ways. They knew that it is one thing to conquer, another to administer afterwards, and they did both well - for centuries.

We also dogged these characters, real and fictional - using England as an example of all the springboards:

England. Robin Hood's legacy or compulsory sharing has spawned a New York City anti-poverty effort at www.robinhood.org/home/home.cfm. See character overview at www.boldoutlaw.com/.You can give your opinions at the Robin Hood Society at www.robinhood.ltd.uk/robinhood/index.

England. Find more about King Arthur at www.kingarthursknights.com/.

England. Charles Dickens? see www.helsinki.fi/kasv/nokol/dickens.

England. Chaucer - this site includes music at www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucer.

England. Thomas a Becket. His life and murder at Canterbury Cathedral are described at www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/becket.

England. Peter Pan. Read the story version yourself at www.literature.org/authors/barrie-james-matthew/the-adventures-of-peter-pan/index.

Wales. And the castles regarding the Prince of Wales and Edward II in www.castlewales.com/caernarfon, and Wales Road Ways.

Scotland. There are Robert the Bruce, see www.magicdragon.com/Wallace/Bruce6. And
and William Wallace (Freedom!"); this site says it is getting at the truth: Wallace . The BBC also has a site: William Wallace overview

Nessie, see Loch Ness

and Rob Roy MacGregor in Scotland. See Rob Roy; Scotland Road Ways

Orkney, Ireland, Shakespeare. King Lot at Orkney. Early British Kingdoms

England and Scotland. Samuel Johnson at Dunvegan at Electric Scotland

The Huns, Huns. See the map of the migrations there. There are vestiges in Transylvania also. See Romania Road Ways

Everywhere. The Plague, www.themiddleages.net/plague.

Italy and France. Leonardo, www.mos.org/leonardo/bio.

England again. Dickens, www.online-literature.com/dickens/. Note to parents and teachers - educate yourself about what kind of term paper resource this is. I hadn't looked into them before. More traditional site is www.ontalink.com/literature/charlesdickens/index.

There will be plenty of signs for the other big sights as we go anywhere. We just don't focus on them. Sing whatever song you know about the place name or from the place as you go. Great for Paris and Ireland and Germany.

Brave people overcome: Marketgarden, Uskoks, Vinegar Hill, Templars, Heretics all over

Remember the overrun. Ours is a violent past. Look for this greed and power theme: Who lost out to history?

1. Operation Marketgarden, WWII in The Netherlands (A Bridge Too Far): Nijmegen and Arnhem. See www.rememberseptember44.com/. If the Allies had ultimately lost, what memorial would have lasted at these places for the people who died? History is told by the victors.

Is this true: Who gets in the books, and how, depends on the interest of the victor.

2. Croatia's Uskoks. Go to the city of Senj. See Croatia Road Ways That was an Uskok town, with their fortress at the top of the hill. I understand the Uskoks were refugees as the Turks pressed north and as the Ottoman Empire expanded on and on. The Uskoks settled at Senj and then assisted the Venetians and other Croatians against the Turks.

They were so successful, that the Turks were stopped, but then the Uskoks had to defend against their erstwhile allies, the Venetians, who turned against them, and ultimately demolished them. Greed and force.

3. Ireland and Vinegar Hill. See Ireland Road Ways Go up that hill, and feel how it was for farmboys with pitchforks to ascend against cannon. There is a statue in Wexford showing that. Vinegar Hill at least is remembered in folksong, however - remember Father Murphy. Next St. Patrick's Day. He was with the boys at Vinegar Hill, and was executed for it. Politics and force.

4. Here is a big one. The Knights Templar. Interest stems from seeing Templar castle, off on hill, inaccessible, Croatia. Misguided destruction; then the destruction of the destroyers. Tradition lives on. See the founding of the Knights Templar at users.1st.net/whitacre/templars. And at www.crystalinks.com/templars.

Find out for yourself what they did, what they learned and hid, if anything, and who did them in and why; and from as many sources as you can. Not just the movies or current novels.

Quotation attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux justifying Templar existence at the First Crusade by glorifying killing of non-Christians (in Berry, Steve, The Templar Legacy, Ballantine Books 2006 at p.353 (fiction):

"Neither dealing out death nor dying, when for Christ's sake, contains anything criminal but rather merits glorious reward. The soldier of Christ kills safely and dies the more sarely. Not without cause does he bear the sword. He is the instrument of God for the punishment of evildoers and for the defense of the just. When he kills evildoers it is not homicide,but malicide, and he is considered Christ's legal executioner."

Then the fate of the Templars themselves. Friday the 13th. Slaughter. Remnants? Great fun on internet.

Heretics. People who believed what they believed. See an overview of this concept of "heresy" at www2.kenyon.edu/Projects/Margin/heresy. Lions and tigers and bears? Ultimate issue seems to be the challenge to hierarchy. Gone.

Flags

Know the flag symbols and design before you go, and find out why they are as they are. There may be significant history there, and an excellent start for a conversation. Tell us about your flag.

There is a website on national flags, and how they came to be designed. See flags of the world at www.allstates-flag.com/. Click on the search menu at the top. Go to Serbia-Montenegro (Montenegro is now independent, however) and follow the clicks to its flag - a splendid double-headed gold eagle on a red ground.

Invasions: Crusades, Normans, Mongols, Magyars, Huns, Goths, Vandals, Ottomans, Turks, Persians, Invaders

Here is an excellent summary of the people invading other people: Crusades, Mongols, Khazars, the Rus, Ottomans, Turks, Persians, Mongols, almost you-name-it: at the History of Central Europe, at //mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/misc/europe.htm#Mong




Normans:
Here is the Cathedral at Palermo, in Sicily - Norman and Byzantine mix --and the area a crusader stop point.





Vikings:
The Vikings - Northmen- Normans - slid in their longboats rivers into Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the oceans between, and had more of a culture than you may think. Here is a large website on the topic of Vikings, including Video. See www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/; and for Viking ships: www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/vikingships.htm#Construction; and for their religious beliefs: www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/norse/articles.

They attacked Irish monasteries in about 900, maybe earlier, and the French in Paris (was this at the same time or earlier?) bought them off by giving them Normandy -thus, the Normans. The Vikings then bypassed Paris, and attacked all the way to Burgundy.

For any of these site addresses, use the basic dot-org, and the rest to navigate to where I think the best part is.

Mysteries in photos

We always come home with some pictures we just can't put in a specific place.
Who is this unfortunate cleric, being pulled under by some kind of serpent, while the tall statue lady watches and mourns. It is Croatia somewhere, but we cannot find the story.




Bishop Gregor of Nin, at the left, 10th Century, is not a mystery. He used the local language in Roman Catholic church services, and sharply disputed Rome's position not to do so. See experts.about.com/e/n/ni/Nin. The mystery - or maybe not - is why people like him fail us. The power of a hierarchy, whether religious or political or any aspect of society, takes on a life of its own, and can be overwhelming - and not at all in line, necessarily, with the "founders." Power does what power does.


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These are waiting to be put elsewhere. Just like stuff on the stairs to the second floor.
















Presidents, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, London; and knights preparing for battle, Leeds Castle, England.



William Wallace, Stirling, Scotland.





Joan of Arc, France.
















Guan Yu, China. He was a general, then became God of War. J's picture, his trip to China.
See Guan Yu

Castles

An overview of castles in Europe: go to www.3dphoto.net/world/topics/castles/castles.


Dubrovnik, Croatia. Many, many walled towns on peninsulas and islands along coast here.

Mont St. Michel, France. This has a car causeway now.

Mount St. Michael, near Cornwall, England. No causeway. Walk or boat out. Watch tides.

Bodiam Castle, England.

Castle Stalker, Scotland.

Following ethnic groups - Roma (Gypsies); Basques; Vlachs

Sibiu, Romania. I was uncomfortable taking pictures of Roma girls and women, or interrupting family groups, but they were easily seen, in doorways, with companions in the street, as couples, as families at the bus or anywhere. Brightly colored clothing, long full skirts, beautiful jewelry(for the well-to-do) -distinctive.

These men may not be Roma, but instead traveling merchants from an old tradition that may have begun in the age of the Templars - see Romania Road Ways.

We did see Roma in casual, traditional and formal dress, for some occasion. And families. Very visible.

There are wide misunderstandings about Roma customs, and their history has been extremely difficult, including (according to this site) 500 years of enslavement in Romania. See this government site on the Roma - use only the dot org if the rest is not helpful. Sometimes the sites are so big that you may want assurance that you got to the right place. See www.media-diversity.org/articles_publications/A%20Problem%20Brewing%20Media%20Coverage%20of%20Roma%20in%20Romania. Roma were also subject to the mass exterminations of the holocaust. See, e.g., www.romnews.com/4_6. on the genocide issue. Roma survived and are a growing population, and remain all over Europe. In Slovenia as other places, however, the tensions remain. See Slovenia Road Ways There, the family was forced out, and has not been allowed to return.+

Roma history overall: See www.geocities.com/~patrin/timeline.

Basques: apparently, the cheek samples for DNA link this Spanish group to Celts. And, the Basques were great navigators. See Spain Road Ways. The cheek DNA testing is fascinating - I just saw an account on the History Channel, I think it was, that found a match between a young girl in the mountains of Mongolia, with reddish hair and fair skin, and a burial site of a culture of warrior women in, I believe it was, Macedonia. DNA followed the migration of the group to Mongolia. Even the patterns on the yurt, and clothing and walls in Mongolia were close to those on fabrics in the burial site.

The Vlachs are an ancient sheep-herding, nomadic people found in Romania and Greece, and probably elsewhere. See Greece Road Ways; and Romania Road Ways.

Celebrating

At Salamanca, Spain. A little night music.











At Sighetu Marmetij, Romania. Folk singers at a banquet for town officials in the big old hotel. There also were dancers. This was the Festival of the Cows, when the herds are brought down in the autumn from the higher pastures.












More night music, at Bucharest, Romania. We did buy their CD.




















And at a banquet at Karlovac, Croatia- we were in a side booth, and suddenly music and a large group of people all appeared. Loved it. Much dancing. Also, American music along with the Croatian.

People's religions

Easter morning, Cathedral, Zadar, Croatia. Second largest city after Zagreb. Cosmopolitan. Renovations going on.



Father Stefan. You met him earlier, at the post on beards. We gave him a ride (he was hitchhiking) at Bistrita, Romania, and left him at Piatra Fantenele. He was headed for Vatra Dornei. Much talk along the way. Usually possible to cobble together what each wants to say. English is known well enough by many people, so you can get into discussions.


Horezu, Croatia, at left. Again, Orthodox Christian.





And Wittenburg, Germany, with Martin Luther.

Montenegro: the islands off the town of Perast, Our Lady (manmade, from 550 years of dropping rocks on an underwater ledge, and sinking captured ships and making the island) and St. George's, with the Benedictine monastery.









Schlosskirche, Martin Luther, Wittenberg, Germany, left.


Church, abandoned, near Bogomil graves, road from Sinj, Croatia, to Mostar, Bosnia, at left.




Pilgrimage site, Medjugorje, Bosnia.

Spring, spirits, beseaching ribbons, Ireland, at left.








Glendalough, Ireland.

Teaching by painting the stories. Croatia painted monasteries. Orthodox.

Games and sports - Chess and Soccer

Street life-sized chess, Amsterdam, at left.



Soccer game in a city park, Cetinje, Montenegro, at left.

These boys stopped their game to help us find a hotel and their English was remarkably good. All had on American-logo shirts.


Tried to locate them afterwards to get them copies of their picture, but no answers from either the US consulate or the Cetinje school system.


Sandlot soccer, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, at left.

A whole city block is cleared and fenced in, and sand piled in.





Street soccer, Dubrovnik, Croatia, at left.

Just kids

Rural Romania.



Practicing at a martial arts school, China (J's picture from his trip)



China. J's picture.

Young people, and families, doing what they do

Rural Romania. Waiting for the school bus.


China. Hanging out with Mom.









China. Hanging out with Dad.

Not Car-Dan, but J's pictures on his China trip.









Amsterdam. Street karaoke. This young man held our attention for at least 20 minutes. He was very good. The Netherlands.



Playing pool, in the tower of the Hotel Castel Dracula, Piatra Fantanele, Croatia.


Rock concert in Romania, at Ramniu Valcea, this one to support a political candidate. Looked like the Dixie Chicks.

Active older people

Farmers at left, Guilin, China. J's picture, not Car-Dan this time.

Canadian piper, at VE Day memorial for Canadian troops (one of Dan's grandfathers was Canadian), Grosbeek, The Netherlands.

At Chablis, France: a family- owned winery, and a bottle of its excellence.

At Nin, Croatia, on Easter morning in the rain, parishioner near the bridge going to St. Anselm's Church.













In Bucovina, Romania, farmers, at left.

















At Maramures, Romania, on a feast day (above right) people going to church or just out, and socializing up and down the street with the town.