Napoleon Crossing the Alps (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We all watched and maybe even loved stories of great heroes – kings, queens, generals – leading their armies to victory or glorious defeat. Each country or culture has its own such historical names that may have existed or not, and there are international names acknowledged and respected internationally. Nevertheless, we know about Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon and so on to name some less politically controversial names, but what do we know about all the nameless foot-soldiers that fought in the first lines?
This post will be dedicated to these people and their portrayal in literature and in media, more or less contemporary. (more…)
Well, I’m not going to comment much, for the ones who know how the (not only Communist) propagandisticwooden language sounds like, this post will be as clear as the day, for those who don’t – read my comments, and don’t take any quote literally!
Romanian history is not a chronicle of kings and queens such as British children, learning the history of their own country, once had to commit to memory. True, there were Dacian kings, but the last of these, Decebalus, took his own life when his forces were overwhelmed by the Roman Emperor Trajan in A.D. 106. When the Emperor Aurelian withdrew from Dacia in A.D. 271 a long period of chaos followed until the separate principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia emerged in the fourteenth century. These to principalities merged under A.I. Cuza in 1859 and he may be said to be the first prince of Romania. His reign, however, was brief; he was deposed, and in 1866 Prince Charles de Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, an officer in the Prussian army, was elected Prince of Romania. He was crowned king in 1881. His descendant, King Michael, abdicated in 1947, so the reign of the Hohenzollern kings may be said to be a comparatively brief one. (pp 15-16) (more…)
Bosnia’s National Library was destroyed, thus amputating a crucial component of Sarajevo‘s (and not only!) cultural life. Books for Vijecnica is a site dedicated to the rebuilding of the library by collecting books (as donations) from all over the world. I think donating even a book or two to mend this real tragedy could be a more than noble gesture, especially now, around the Winter Holidays.
This is the letter found on the project‘s webpage homepage:
Welcome to the official site of the BOOKS4VIJECNICA action project, initiated by Humanity in Action Senior Fellow Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina . The purpose of this project is raising awareness about the National Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina – VIJECNICA. Our initiative is to re-establish the destroyed book collection of Vijecnica. During the four-year long Serb siege of Sarajevo , from 1992 till 1995, Vijecnica was repeatedly shelled by the Yugoslav and afterward by the Serbian army. On the fatal date, the 26th of August 1992, the library building was in flame. Around 80 percent of the book collection, around 2 (two) million publications and more than 6000 valuable rare items and documents as well as the interior of the Library were completely destroyed in the fire. From April to August 1992, in an unforeseen set of events, the Library staff evacuated parts of Library collection to various locations in the city – atomic shelters, basement rooms, university buildings or other cultural centers. Inadequate and “temporary” premises, barely sufficient to accommodate retrieved publications, performed all the tasks of the national library. Not much has changed since then. There have been initiatives in repairing the Library building, though not many have been taken in restoring the book collection. Therefore, we, a group of young enthusiasts from SFN BIH, started this action. We believe it is important to restore the destroyed book collection and make Vijecnica the centre of scientific work and teaching in the institutions of higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
PLEASE READ OUR LETTER, and help us in reinstating the book collection of VIJECNICA! I warmly welcome all your questions, ideas or opinions you would like to share with us.
If you think you can help, send the books to the following address:
University of Sarajevo – Campus
Nacionalna Univerzitetska Biblioteka
Zmaja od Bosne bb., 71000 Sarajevo
reference to Mr. Muris Rahmanovic, librarian
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Inspiring! Wintley Phipps tells the history of the song Amazing Grace, its roots in slavery. His rendition of the song gave me chills and brought tears. Hope you enjoy it too.
