Tellers

Posted on 19th May 2012 in The monuments of world

Moments

By: Fr. Jerry M. Orbos
Philippine Daily Inquirer

9:59 pm | Saturday, May 19th, 2012

The story is told about a man who declared that he does not entrust his money to banks for safety and secrecy. When asked why, his simple reply was: “There are many tellers there.”

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In today’s Gospel (Mk. 16, 15-20), Jesus said to His disciples: “Go to the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” Our ascension mandate is to go to the whole world and TELL the world of His love!

* * *

Today is Ascension Sunday, when the Risen Lord was lifted up to heaven and took His seat at the right hand of God. Our final destination is to be reunited with Him someday. However, prior to that, we still have to accomplish our mission. And mission not yet accomplished. We still have some tasks to finish.

* * *

Today is also World Communication Sunday. Modern technology and media have made the world a smaller place. However, loneliness is still one of the biggest plagues in our modern society. As it is, we spend more time communicating with the world outside, and have little or no time communicating with the people around us.

* * *

Communication is not just about talk, noise, or gadgets. In fact, some of the deepest and profoundest communications happen in silence and in stillness. Ours is a fast and restless world. Let us give space for our spirit to breathe in silence, reflection and prayer through which we communicate with the Divine and with our real selves.

* * *

Last May 16, I had Mass at the “Kamay ni Hesus” Shrine in Lukban, Quezon, a place for healing started by Fr. Joey Faller. Thousands of people go there to be in touch with the Divine. Aside from the impressive growth and development of the place, what I found interesting was the Noah’s Ark chapel, where I celebrated Mass. There is no cell phone signal inside the church but as soon as you step out, the signal is strong. The message is clear: Inside the church the only important communication is that with God.

* * *

By the way, there is an increasing number of people getting sick with “nomophobia” (no mobile phobia). The symptom of this phobia is extreme attachment to one’s mobile phone, the absence of which could drive one to panic, become anxious, or become disoriented. In short, the absence of mobile phones could make some people feel immobilized.

* * *

Speaking of communication, we had a case of a “lost shepherd” on our way to Quezon: One of our priests was left behind in the restaurant where we had made a toilet stop. Presumption was the culprit, with the passengers of each of our two vans thinking that he was in the other. We realized his absence in our journey when we received his frantic text message: “I have been left behind. Come back!”

* * *

In a way, the Ascension underscores the reality that we have been “left behind” by the Risen Lord but with a promise that He would “come back” for us at the final judgment. In the meantime, we have the mission to go forth and tell the world that we have not been orphaned or abandoned by our Loving God!

* * *

The Ascension Mountain in Jerusalem is the last place where the Risen Lord stood before He was lifted up to heaven. In fact, there is a stone there with a footprint which is said to be that of Jesus. Whether this is true or not, what matters is that the Lord has left His heartprint on His disciples. We, too, will do well to remember that what matters more are not so much the monuments, documents, or achievements that we leave behind as the moments and heartprints we leave in people’s lives.

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Sixteen-year-old Fil-Mexican Jessica Sanchez is such an inspiring and uplifting phenomenon. This fragile-looking, simple, humble girl reminds us that there is strength in gentleness, and that hard work and faith can make us rise above whatever obstacles we have in life. Mabuhay ka, Jessica! Viva!

* * *

I like best the song “Dance with my Father” that was sung by Jessica Sanchez in the semifinals of “American Idol.” She sang it with such a great voice, and with so much heart. The song itself is a beautiful reminder for me of our earthly fathers, and of our Heavenly Father who awaits us after our earthly pilgrimage. Yes, life on earth has a reason and mission.

* * *

The message of the Ascension is powerful.  Let it empower us to rise above and look beyond whatever obstacles or liabilities that come our way. The Ascension message should help us move on with confidence and with hope. The Ascension is all about not becoming stagnant or sliding back. What greater assurance do we have than our Lord telling us, “I am with you always until the end of the world”?

* * *

Bantay Matanda invites you to a lay forum on May 26, 9 a.m. to 12 noon, at Janssen Hall, Christ the King Seminary, E. Rodriguez Blvd. Extension, Quezon City. The topic: Mental Health Concerns in the Elderly by Dr. Deana Santos-Ringor, geriatrician, St. Luke’s Medical Center, Quezon City. For inquiries, please call 373-2262, 998-2548, or 09174167849.

* * *

A moment with the Lord:

Lord, thank You for telling me Your love. Use me to tell the world likewise. Amen.

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In death – as in life – my mother was rescued by love | Jonathan Freedland

Posted on 18th May 2012 in The monuments of world

  • Jonathan Freedland

    • Sara Freedland and family
    Sara Freedland, with son Jonathan and grandson Jacob in 2005. Photograph: Toby Glanville for the Guardian

    Nearly 11 years have passed since I last broke my own rule and wrote in this place about something deeply personal. Then, in the summer of 2001, it was the birth of my first child and the article was a hymn of praise for the National Health Service that had ushered my son into the world.

    Today I write about my mother, who died 10 days ago. Once again – though this is not my only aim – I want to record my praise, even awe, for the people who looked after her. It was not so straightforward this time. Yes, the NHS funded it all, but my mother was tended to – at home in Bournemouth – by a variety of agencies, some public, some voluntary and one private. I confess that before this experience, I would have been wary of such an arrangement. But my prejudices were confounded. The team worked together with perfect efficiency, a coalition of Macmillan and Marie Curie nurses, agency staff, NHS district nurses and care assistants and the local GP. Not once did any information slip through the cracks. It meant we could fulfil our promise to my mother that she would spend her last weeks not in hospital or in a hospice, but at home.

    At no point, despite all the equipment and expertise that came through the front door, was money so much as mentioned. Never were we confronted with a choice of a cheaper option or a limit to our “cover”. My mother got all the care she needed and no one presented her or us with a bill. That is the glory of our national health system, one we take for granted too easily. It is a treasure to be cherished.

    And yet what will stay with me is a thought not about systems or organisations, but about people. Perhaps two dozen different women helped my mother in those last days. They were gentle and sensitive, speaking softly and with great care. Several of them, it turned out, were motivated by past experience of caring for their own, terminally ill relatives. On the last full day of my mother’s life, I noticed that the eyes of one nurse, Sue, were welling with tears. She had been watching me talk to my mother and had, I think, been reminded of her own farewell to her father. When she said goodbye to me, she said something I shall never forget. “Thank you for letting me in.”

    I never asked what any of these remarkable people are paid, but I don’t imagine it’s very much. And yet they do work that is tough, exhausting and priceless. I know the explanation for that paradox but, in truth, it is inexplicable.

    Still, what I’ve been thinking about most during these last 10 days is my mother. She won no prizes, she built no monuments – and yet her life was extraordinary. When I wrote a memoir of three generations of my family, including the lives of relatives involved in some of the epic political events of their era, it was nevertheless her story that touched people most.

    She was born Sara Hocherman in 1936, in the small town of Petach Tikva in what was then Palestine. She was two months premature: the doctors warned that her life was “hanging by a thread”. Her father was an ultra-orthodox Jew who showed his children what might politely be called distracted neglect. He did not provide for them or his wife and, after an older sister died through malnutrition, my mother’s mother returned to her native London with her two surviving children.

    By the time she was five, in 1942, Sara was an evacuee in the Bedfordshire countryside, taken in by a kindly unmarried lady who took a shine to the little girl. But Sara missed her mother terribly. In the spring of 1945, the war’s end approaching, a reunion seemed only weeks away. Then one of the very last V2 rockets to fall on London hit Hughes Mansions in the East End, killing 134 people; 120 of them were Jews, my mother’s 33-year-old mother among them. When everyone else was celebrating VE Day, eight-year-old Sara was in mourning.

    What followed were hard years in the post-war East End, and in 1949 a return to what was now Israel, to witness the earliest years of the state. That period was hard too: my teenage mother had to contend with poverty, family estrangement and disease. In 1955, Sara returned to England where she eventually met and found happiness with my father. Illness would strike again when my mother was 43; once more the doctors would say her life was hanging by a thread. But somehow she survived.

    There is so much to say about all of this, and one way or another I will spend the rest of my life saying it. But three points stand out.

    The first is that my mother’s experience made her much more hawkish than me on matters relating to Israel. To lose her mother (and an aunt) along with so many other Jews to one of Hitler’s bombs meant she had felt the breath of the Shoah on her neck: it entrenched a yearning that she felt as a desperate need, the craving for a place the Jews could call their own. She was not the only one to feel it. Whatever view you ultimately take on the Israel-Palestine question, you cannot hope to understand that conflict unless you also understand this need.

    Second, whenever one contemplates war or military intervention anywhere, one needs to contemplate this unbending fact: that every bomb or rocket that falls, no matter where in the world it lands, is destined to create another Sara Hocherman – a child who has lost a parent. And the pain of that act will live on through the decades and through the generations, as it did in my family.

    Lastly, my mother’s life was proof of the power of love. She was rescued first by her aunt, Yiddi, who took her in, and next by my father, who was with her for 52 years and with her at the very end. Their love ensured that, though my mother was unfathomably strong, she was never hard. She contained next to no bitterness, only oceans of empathy.

    So this weekend, do yourself this favour, if you can. As my mother would have put it, deploying the idiosyncratic grammar that was part Yiddish, part passive-aggressive self-deprecation, “Phone your mother: she’s also a person.”

    Jonathan Freedland has set up a Just Giving page in his mother’s name, for Macmillan Cancer Support

    Twitter: @j_freedland

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    Boston University-led expedition reveals oldest Mayan calendar

    Posted on 10th May 2012 in The monuments of world

    By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

    In the rainforest-covered ruins of a Mayan city dating back more than 1,100 years, a Boston University-led excavation has turned up the oldest evidence of that civilization’s mastery of astronomy — a precise lunar calendar scrawled on what appears to be an ancient blackboard.

    The calendar, consisting of delicately-painted symbols and columns of numbers, was one of a number of texts found on the wall of a room in a residential area of the massive complex of ruins called Xultun in northeast Guatemala, the scientists reported Thursday in the journal Science. It’s four to five centuries older than previous Mayan calendars, and the earliest found on a wall rather than in books.

    The small room where it was found may have been a kind of office for Mayan scribes. With numbers and glyphs scrawled along the wall and over sections of a mural, it suggests scribes had sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and mathematics as early as the ninth century.

    Scholars who study the Maya said the well-preserved room provides insights into the people’s lives beyond those drawn from the more lasting stone monuments and artifacts that archeologists often depend on to reconstruct ancient civilizations. It’s almost as if the researchers can peer over the shoulders of the scribes who were writing and thinking there. The BU-led team reported sections of the wall had been plastered over to make space for new text.

    “For me what’s really amazing is people are erasing and changing it and adapting it,” said Charles Golden, associate professor of anthroplogy at Brandeis University, who was not involved in the research. “You get these works in progress that really humanizes this, it kind of demystifies it.”

    Another set of numbers painted on a section of wall undermines an idea that has been embraced in popular culture — including the movie “2012” — that the Maya predicted the world would end in “13 baktuns” or about 5,000 years, which works out to the end of 2012. That idea has long been dismissed by scholars, who explain that the Maya calendar is like a car’s odometer that turns over when it reaches that date, not a doomsday prediction. The new find reinforces that the Maya’s conception of time was not finite, because it contains a calendar that extends 17 baktuns, about 7,000 years.

    The Maya lived in Mexico and Central America, and were a dominant force in that area, with a written language and an understanding of astronomy and calendars. Their civilization, known for stepped pyramids, spanned from about 2000 B.C. to the arrival of the Spanish about 3,500 years later.

    The room was uncovered by a combination of chance and persistence. A determined BU undergraduate, Maxwell Chamberlain, spotted a faded painting on a patch of wall during his lunch break, while exploring trenches dug by looters. William Saturno, an assistant professor of archeology at BU who led the team, began an excavation, and discovered a magnificent, nearly life-sized portrait of a Maya king, adorned with a brilliant blue feather head-dress. Further excavation, supported by the National Geographic Society, revealed a row of mysterious figures and one badly-damaged wall, which was covered with writing.

    Eventually, a Sudoku-like analysis, using information about what numbers were visible in the table to calculate what numbers the rest of the table must have contained, revealed that the incomplete table was a 13-year lunar calendar. Another set of numbers, the scientists report, seem to record other astronomical and planetary events.

    “We find inside this city that’s been known about for a century, in this little house on the outskirts of town … all these numbers and writings and calculations that involve both the calendar and astronomy and observations and history and the preparations of texts,” Saturno said.

    The modest room has only begun to yield its secrets, with more texts yet to be deciphered. Marc Zender, a visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Tulane University not involved in the research, compared the work to being able to see the notes and scribblings that led to famous mathematical theorems.

    “These astronomical tables are written across some figures at interesting angles, only in the part of the room where light falls through the doorway,” Zender said. Most likely scribes were at work in the room, and “they were probably consulting books, but maybe it was getting onerous to flip through the book; they may have simply copied them on to the wall so they didn’t have to keep opening their bark-paper books.”

    Zender said he hoped to use the tables to look at monuments left behind by the Maya at other sites, to understand whether mathematical and astronomical understanding and calendars were centralized, or whether they were being derived and calculated in different regions of the Mayan empire.

    Saturno said he is investigating whether imaging might be used to reveal what is written beneath areas that have been plastered over. The room has a recessed niche in the back, where the king’s portrait sits, and the archeologists found evidence of a bone rod that would have held a curtain that could cover up the image of the king. On the same wall is a second mysterious figure, a vividly-painted man who holds a stylus in a hand — perhaps a scribe who worked in the room.

    “It’s an astonishing discovery,” said Stephen Houston, a professor of anthropology and archeology at Brown University. Such calculations and tables appear in books from about 500 years later, but “here, we see them instead, painted with some care I might add, in what might seem to be an arbitrary arrangement in an elite chamber.” He said the find raises difficult questions about what the scribes were up to, including why they would have written the tables on the wall.

    Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @carolynyjohnson.

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    Shameful who fled from the battlefield, Saakashvili secretly removed the monument to Stalin’s war-opposition winner

    Posted on 10th May 2012 in The monuments of world

    Labour Party of Georgia demands from Georgian authorities to return the monument to Joseph Stalin in his place in the Centre of the city of Gori. In a special statement, circulated on 9 may victory day held.

    “The Labour Party of Georgia congratulates the people of the former Soviet Union, Europe, with the victory over fascism in the second world war, and demands the return of the monument of Stalin in the Centre of Gori”,-said in a statement.

    The labour party declared the solidarity of all participants and Veterans of the war and considered shameful by the fact that the monument of the Commander-in-Chief of the army, winning the second world war, was secretly removed from the pedestal and pereprâtan. “This order issued a disgraceful who fled from the battlefield the destroyer of their homeland, Wai-President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili,” the statement said.

    The opposition has accused the current leadership of Georgia in destruction and destroying many cultural sites, including monuments erected in honour of the victory over fascism, and demands that the leaders of Member States of the anti-Hitler coalition forced his colleague Saakashvili to recover and return to their former places of deliberately vandalizing destroyed and stolen monuments and memorials.

    “The Opposition neoliberal′no-imposed an oppressive regime is a form of fascism 21-st century, and the world must not turn a blind eye to this bitter reality,” consider the Georgian labour party. Monument

    Stalin was removed from the central square in Gori on the night of 24 June 25, 2010, and moved to a nearby House-Museum of Stalin. In December 2009, the Monument was demolished in Kutaisi military glory, and, during the demolition killed a mother and her teenage daughter. They lived in a house near the monument, and the explosion debris stones fell into the yard of their house. In place of this monument is erected a new building of the Parliament of Georgia.

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    Charming Melaka

    Posted on 5th May 2012 in The monuments of world

    by Karen Bong. Posted on May 6, 2012, Sunday

    THIS old world charm has over 600 years of history reflected in its buildings, mouth-watering cuisine and unique cultural heritage from centuries of Portugese, Dutch and British rule.

    OLDEST PROTESTANT CHURCH: The Christ Church of Melaka, painted in coral red, is a Dutch heritage that serves as reminder of their presence in Melaka.

    Located on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia, about 150km from Kuala Lumpur, Melaka takes only slightly over an hour to reach overland.

    The best mode of travel for tourists and visitors is by bus. Many long-distance expressbuses connect Melaka with Kuala Lumpur, Seremban, Johor Bahru and other parts of the peninsula.

    From Puduraya Bus Station in Kuala Lumpur, you  can choose from several bus operators to go down to Melaka.

    On our journey, our driver, Imran, ran us through a brief but rich historical background of Melaka – from its birth as a simple fishing village to its current status as a World Heritage City.

    Established in 1403, it was an important trading post in Malaysia’s early history and attracted traders the world over.

    We took a walking tour to various parts of the city guided by Imran, noting important landmarks and learning the secret histories behind places such as Porta De Santiago, Melaka Sultanate Palace and Jonker Street. The monuments and architecture took us back to the early beginnings of the many different peoples who have settled here. We caught a glimpse of Melaka as it was lived and felt throughout history.

    Duck tour

    Introduced in 2009, it was dubbed Malaysia’s first land-and-sea escapade. This “duck bus” is an amphibious transport truck developed by the US during World War II.The journey takes about 45 minutes, starting and ending at the Menara Taming Sari.

    The duck named ‘Quaker 1’ starts on land, covering several interesting sites such as A’ Farmosa Fort, Dataran Pahlawan Megamall and Mahkota Parade.It then enters the sea at Melaka Island and cruises along the famous Straits of Melaka with a panoramic view of the historical city, including the floating Selat Negeri Mosque.

    BEAUTIFUL: The floating mosque — Selat Negeri Mosque — looks as if it’s floating when the water rises near the platform level.

    Tickets for the tour – RM38 for adults and RM22 for children – can be purchased at the yellow kiosk next to the Menara Taming Sari.

    The museum at the foot of St Paul’s Hill replicates the palace of Sultan Mansur Shah who ruled Melaka from 1456 to 1477.

    The building is made of only two types of hardwood – cengal and asak – whereas the roof is made of belian wood with only wooden pegs to hold the structure together. Not a single nail is involved.

    It mainly displays exhibits in the form of artefacts, prints, photographs and drawings related to the history and cultural heritage of the Malay Sultanate of Melaka and the various communities which came to settle there during that period.

    The three-storey building is divided into eight chambers and three galleries, including chambers of the Royal band, weaponry, decorative arts, emissaries and gifts, a recreation hall, an audience hall and an Islamic hall.

    Porta De Santiago

    This is only surviving gate of the A’ Famosa Portugese fortress built in 1512 under the command of Portuguese admiral Alfonso d’Albuquerque.It had a strong foundation and thick walls, and used boulders taken from the ruins of palaces, mosques and tombstones.

    Armed with cannons, the fort with its four gates was once an object of fear and respect among the people of this city.It was badly damaged during the Dutch invasion in 1641. The Dutch later repaired it and renamed it VOC. Its significance started to fade when the British settled there in the early 19th century.

    The British had almost destroyed the whole structure when British official Sir Stamford Raffles intervened in 1808. He was able to stop the destruction but unfortunately, what is left today is nothing more than a gateway called Porta de Santiago with an embossed VOC emblem above it.

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    State Rep. in favor of veterans’ memorial bill

    Posted on 5th May 2012 in The monuments of world

    Friday, May 4, 2012 10:02 PM EDT

    State Rep. Frank Nicastro (D-79th District) reported Friday that he voted in the House of Representatives in favor of a bill he co-sponsored to increase the penalties for the intentional desecration of war or veterans’ memorials. The bill unanimously passed the House and Senate and is heading to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.

    “I am so proud of all the men and women veterans and those currently serving in our armed forces. Those great Americans have done so much to protect our freedom and saved millions of other people around the world from tyranny and oppression,” said Rep. Nicastro. “In their memory and honor, we must do what we can to keep thieves and vandals from desecrating those important monuments paid for by their widows, family members, good citizens and surviving veterans.”

    The bill defines two crimes concerning war or veterans’ memorials or monuments — interference with and possession of a memorial or monument, and sets the penalty for them.

    Under the bill, a person is guilty of interference with a war or veterans’ memorial or monument if they intentionally defaces, mutilates, or destroys it, or removes any part of it from its official location.

    A person is guilty of unlawfully possessing a war or veterans’ memorial or monument if he or she possesses, purchases, or attempts to purchase a memorial or monument; or sells, offers for sale, or attempts to sell or transfers war or veterans’ memorial or monument, or any part of one, knowing that it has been unlawfully removed from its official location.

    The bill makes both crimes a class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000, or both.

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    Kurdějov, one of the oldest winegrowing communities in the country

    Posted on 2nd May 2012 in The monuments of world

    South Moravia is well-known for its wine, which has been produced there at least since thirsty Roman soldiers far from home began doing so in the 2nd century. Move forward a thousand years or so, to the 13th century, and wine trading had become one of the most profitable businesses in the region. Those are the days that our destination for today stretches back to.

    KurdějovKurdějov The village of Kurdějov is just a tiny pinprick on the map, about half-way between Brno and Břeclav, and there are just enough inhabitants for each of them to have their own day of the year. But while easy to overlook, Kurdějov is notable for many ancient features, all born of the fact that this is one of the oldest winegrowing communities in the region.

    In fact the first time anyone mentioned Kurdějov in writing it was about wine, specifically the sale of vineyards, in 1286. Such was the local wine then valued that the four sons of the local nobleman agreed, around 80 years later, that “all the wine from the hills of Kurdějov be divided into four parts, so that none might be diluted”. To describe the village of those days is Antonie Němečková, a businesswoman and promoter of Moravian wine.

    “Kurdějov is one of the oldest vineyard communities it the country, and whichever direction you look in, the hills there used to be covered in vineyards. The village was German-speaking and has more than 1,000 inhabitants. It was an affluent community, and between all the fields there were wine cellars. The fortified church is also a testament to the wealth of the village. The fortifications were erected to protect against the raids of those who wanted to plunder the village.”

    There were lots of enemies, to be sure, from Turks and Hungarian rebels to rapacious Swedes. Most of them took the added effort of burning the village down, while the Transylvanian prince Gabriel Bethlen actually took 400 of the villagers as slaves. The people of Kurdějov were ready for the Tartars, at least. During their onslaught the villagers did a great deal of damage to them thanks to the useful presence of a fortified church – today one of the oldest monuments in South Bohemia. The church was here as early as 1350, with the fortifications added later. Miroslav Žemlička, a guide in the church, describes some of its interesting features.

    “The bells come from 1456, 1469 and 1606. During the First Republic their value was estimated at half a million crowns, but today they are priceless. The tower adjacent to the church used to be 53 metres. Today its height is 45 metres because previous repairs and other work had to decrease it to keep it from falling over.”

    Also part of the fortification is the chapel of All Saints.

    “The encroachment of foreign troops or other enemies in the village could be prevented not only from the city walls but also through the crenels, or battlements with arrow slits, on the chapel. Previously the chapel and the church were connected by a bridge. It’s not here today because it collapsed sometime during the 18th century, so the church and the tower can only be reached from the outside.”

    Miroslav ŽemličkaMiroslav Žemlička While lovely today, history has taken away some of the once grand features of the tower. Each floor originally had four smaller turrets, the tops of which had green weathercocks and stars. Harder for time to erase is the set of underground tunnels beneath the tower, accessible from the nearby wine bar, where Miroslav Žemlička offers a local speciality – spirit of almond (the neighbouring town of Hustopeče hosts the only almond orchard in the country). It’s a good courage booster for what lies ahead.

    “Now I’ll be taking you into the local underground corridors. Among other things they served as a hiding place when the village was attacked. There are 340 metres of tunnels here, and one of them went all the way to the church in Hustopeče. If you go by the road, that’s three kilometres away, but in the 15th century these tunnels were 12 kilometres long. With land changing hands over so many years though, and various waves of settlement, the better part of the corridors did not survive. There is this section and then another in Hustopeče in the cellar of a pub.”

    The corridors get narrower and lower and wind around more and more the further one goes. It used to be that neither the church nor the corridors were secured, and Mr Žemlička would visit them as a boy, so he has their every nook well mapped out. Today the area is accessible only on reservation.

    “When you go into the corridors the first tunnel on the right is a dead end. At the end is a flight of stairs and beyond them a metal door. That was the original entrance to the cellars. And if you keep going straight then you’ll come to the church, which you will recognise because there are stairs going up that are covered by concrete slabs. That corridor goes up to the altar. We are about 20 metres under the surface now and it get’s quite damp. I’ll light your candles now and you can go inside…”

    Though Kurdějov was originally a Czech village – which we know, among other things, because almost all of the recorded correspondence was written in Czech), a strong German influence beginning in the Renaissance overcame the settlement in the centuries to come. By 1921 there were 881 Germans, 19 Czechs and 16 ‘foreigners’ living in 212 homes there. After the Second World War, that situation radically changed. Antonie Němečková, again.

    “After the expulsion of the Germans the population here went overnight from 1,000 to two people. So the village was doomed until they began resettling the borders. A lot of the people who received houses here didn’t know how to deal with owning property, they didn’t know how to take care of a house. So when the roof caved in on them they just moved to the next empty house. Gradually almost all the property in the village was destroyed in this way. After the revolution, in 1993, I met a married couple from Austria who were taking a picture of one of the houses, so I invited them to come have a look at what was new in Kurdějov. They had tears in their eyes and said they had been born in that house, not told us not to worry, that they don’t want it back, they had just come to look and see how it was doing.”

    Today Kurdějov is far from a backwater. It is a much sought after retreat for private and business gatherings, with tennis courts, hotels and of course vineyards and wine tastings. There are plenty of different wines from different vintners on hand for you to try out, thanks in part to Mrs Němečkova’s business efforts.

    “We are promoters of Moravian wine, and the way we decided to do that by building the biggest wine bars. We selected one hundred winemakers and took six wines from each. Then we selected from that, and now we support what we believe are thirty truly excellent winemakers.”

    Kurdějov and its surroundings offer a beautiful environment for all kinds of interests, be they historical, sporting, or wine-related, and a visit to the nearby almond orchard in Hustopeče, a botanical rarity, is not to be forgotten. Almonds need a lot more warmth than the Czech Republic would normally offer, and out of what was once tens of thousands of trees only about 800 remain. But the town is determined to hold on to it in spite of the difficulties.

    Photo: Zdeňka Kuchyňová

    The episode featured today was first broadcast on November 9, 2011.

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    Thousands of Bulgarians Meet Russian Patriarch in Plovdiv

    Posted on 28th April 2012 in The monuments of world

    Thousands of people met the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the center of Bulgaria’s second largest city of Plovdiv, chanting “Russia” and accompanying clerics in their procession with church banners.

    Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who arrived in Bulgaria on a visit on Friday, earlier on Saturday met with President Rosen Plevneliev and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

    Prior to arriving in the center of the southern Bulgarian city, the Russian patriarch visited monuments to honor the memory of Russian warriors who fell in the battle for the liberation of Bulgaria in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and World War II.

    The procession ended near the St. Marina Cathedral, where Patriarch Kirill was met by 97-year-old Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria, who came to the city from Sofia for a joint prayer with the head of the sister church, as well as by Metropolitan Nicholas of Plovdiv and top city administration officials.

    The patriarch wished those who gathered that God show mercy to Plovdiv and its residents, and presented an icon of Our Lady of the Sign to the St. Marina Cathedral.

    In a speech in front of the war monuments earlier in the day, the Russian patriarch urged people to retain the idea of sacrifice in modern society, which, he said, is being ousted by “consumption psychology.”

    “We are at a place where you ask yourself what huge importance sacrifice has in a person’s life. If people did not sacrifice, there would have been no great achievements or victories,” the Russian Church leader said.

    “We bow our heads in memory of the heroes who sacrificed themselves for the sake of other people,” Patriarch Kirill told hundreds of locals and journalists near the Plovdiv war monuments.

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    Indian villagers' homes threatened by heritage ruling

    Posted on 26th April 2012 in The monuments of world

  • Jason Burke in Tughluqabad, Delhi

    • Walls of the ruined Tughluqabad fortress in Delhi, India. Image shot 2008. Exact date unknown.
    Food being prepared outside the 14th-century fortress wall in Tughluqabad, where people face eviction after a supreme court judgment. Photograph: Alamy

    With its snuffling boars, motorbikes, samosa stand and Deepak General Stores, the village resembles thousands of similar communities across India. But look up from the rubbish-strewn, potholed main street and what makes Tughluqabad different from the others is very clear: a 700-year-old, 25-metre-high, 10-metre-thick, four-mile-long wall.

    A handful of tourists may drive down through the snarling traffic to reach the village, sited within a complex of forts, tombs and defences built in the 14th century, but otherwise the rich heritage brings little benefit. Indeed it could bring about the village’s destruction. A supreme court judgment last year now means the 60,000 inhabitants are likely to be evicted and their homes demolished as illegal “encroachments” on an archaeological site.

    Though a last-ditch legal fight is under way, people such as Shakunthala, a 60-year-old grandmother who was born in Tughluqabad, are worried. “I’ve lived here all my life. We are poor people. We have nothing. Where will we go? What will we do?” she said.

    Resistance in the village is led by Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, a local politician. Claiming descent from the soldiers and craftsmen who founded the village after building the walls and forts, Bidhuri invoked the “valiant history” of the community, which he said fought British colonial overlords during the 1857 Indian rebellion.

    “The records show that the people of Tughluqabad fought bravely in the first independence war. Now they want to throw us out of the homes we have inhabited for so long,” he said.

    Such conflicts are increasingly common in India. With legislation recently passed, a growing public awareness of the value of India’s architectural heritage and a new political will to boost the lucrative tourist trade, officials from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the government body responsible for maintaining 3,660 of the country’s historical sites, have been charged with clearing them of illegal settlements.

    The Times of India newspaper recently spoke of a “man v monuments conflict” on a national scale.

    “Our job is to conserve and protect the monuments and encroachment is a problem,” said Dr Gautam Sengupta, the ASI director general. “We try to do things amicably but there is little we can do without support from law enforcement agencies.” Sometimes the ASI fulfils its mandate without conflict. Many temples are run in tandem with local trusts or administrative bodies. But hundreds of sites have suffered from the pressure generated across India by land scarcity and a rapidly increasing population and are now home to large numbers of people or used as shops, storehouses or even schools. ASI officials speak of their legal duty to ensure a clear belt of land of up to 300 metres around every site.

    PBS Sengar, the ASI’s director of monuments, said if “encroachments” were not cleared, “ultimately the sanctity of the monument is lost, repairs are not possible, the original historical setting is spoiled and a lot of damage is there”.

    So in the famous desert fortified town of Jaisalmer, a regular stop on the tourist trail of Rajasthan, local families are now facing legal action to force them to dismantle all or part of their homes. At the other end of Rajasthan, in Deeg, the ASI is trying to clear hundreds of people from homes and shops built around the 18th-century fort.

    Even globally recognised sites are not immune. A group of temples at the Khajuraho complex, famous for their erotic sculptures, has disappeared behind hotels, shops and residential houses. Last month a court ordered authorities to clear unauthorised meditation centres, guesthouses and shops from Hampi, the 2,000-year-old temple complex in the southern state of Karnataka, which is one of 28 Unesco world heritage sites in the country.

    Though the Taj Mahal in Agra has been carefully protected in recent years, many other sites in the city have disappeared under makeshift homes, bazaars and even rubbish heaps. These too will have to go, the ASI says.

    Some, however, are pioneering a different approach. In Nizamuddin Basti, a poor Muslim neighbourhood in Delhi, specialists from the Agha Khan Development Network, an international private philanthropic NGO, have developed a “holistic” strategy that combines development and conservation.

    Ratish Nanda, who oversees the restoration of the vast 16th-century tomb of the Mughal emperor Humayun, as well as dozens of other medieval shrines, said the goodwill of local people was essential. “Local people need to benefit from conservation. The community need to see buildings as assets, not burdens,” he said. In Nizamuddin, where 40,000 people exist in narrow lanes and tenements, school reading programmes, clinics and training schemes have been set up alongside the conservation projects. One aim, Nanda said, was to create “an example of what can be done” to inspire authorities in India to change their approach.

    But though ASI officials say they respect the Nizamuddin project, it is unlikely such strategies will be seen elsewhere soon. Government in India is infamous for its lack of transparency or engagement with local communities.

    In Tughluqabad, few have had any contact with officials. “The worst thing is you never know what is happening,” said Ram Bhatti, 73. “Is it going to be the whole village? Or just some of us? And where would they send us? We are always the last to know.”

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    Mayor, solider's family say cross should stay

    Posted on 26th April 2012 in The monuments of world

    WOONSOCKET, R.I. –

    There have been plenty of outcries after an atheist group complained about the cross on top of a World War I memorial outside a city fire station.

    The mayor and the family of the World War I soldier whose name was first on the monument are speaking out.

    More than 90 years after the memorial was dedicated to his Uncle William, who died in the war, Lucien Jolicoeur is upset at the thought that someone would want to remove the cross that adorns the top.

    “I wouldn’t care whose monument it would be,” he said.

    Lucien still keeps picture s of a ceremony at the Woonsocket monument probably sometime in the 1950s. Lucien’s father was there also.

    Family members say he was a driving force behind the memorial to his brother.

    Lucien says faith is important to his family but believes the cross was meant more to replicate those used to mark the graves of fallen troops, like at Arlington National Cemetery.

     “What’s going to be next?  We going to plow all those crosses down?  It’s ridiculous,” says the fallen soldier’s nephew.

     “I believe in separation of church and state as much as the other guy but I don’t think it was meant to be carried out like this.  I think that’s a grave injustice.” It’s frustrating,” he said.

    Woonsocket Mayor Leo Fontaine received a letter from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation saying the cross should be removed because it violates the separation of church and state.

    “There are men and women in this country who gave their lives for our freedom and the last thing we need to be doing is calling into question monuments that pay tribute to them,” Fontaine said.

    The mayor says he sees no problem with the cross. He called those seeking the removal of a cross on city property on constitutional grounds “knuckleheads.”

    Asked if he would be willing to go to court over the situation, the mayor said, “We’re looking at all of our options.” 

    Fontaine said the city will make sure that we do whatever it takes to defend the integrity of the memorial and at the same point doesn’t bring undue burden on the people of this city. But said they would not be moving the memorial anytime soon.

    The mayor says he would like to see the monument more prominently placed.  He says if there’s a silver lining to the controversy it’s that it’s drawing attention to the memorial which is in need of repair. 

    Fontaine said he’s had hundreds of calls and emails, including from law firms offering to defend against a potential lawsuit.

    The station reported that Maj. Gen. Reginald Centracchio, former head of the Rhode Island National Guard, is planning a rally for next week to keep the monument.

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