Tuesday, August 28, 2012

UKRAINE IN SEPTEMBER

Have to find time to post more often, right?  Too much stuff going on.  Recently finished a translation (Ukrainian into English) of an introduction to an album on a unique and prominent sculptor of the 18th c.  Maybe the book will be ready for the Forum of Publishers in Lviv in September.  Will post more info once I get it.

It just so happens that my trip to Ukraine coincides with this Forum (one of the largest bookfairs in Europe after Frankfurt).  What serendipity!  What could go wrong - books and Orysia!   Oy!  Anyway, really looking forward to the Forum, to being in Ukraine, and to meeting people and wandering the streets.   The last -- just love to do that.  Will start out early morning, have a coffee and/or breakfast on some patio and will watch the world go by.  Then, will just go off madly in some direction -- observing, photographing, reading the historic and cultural plaques on so many buildings, stopping for a coffee or beer, more wandering, deciding where to have lunch or supper.....   Just delightful.  I love it.  Will do the same in Lviv, Kolomyia, Kosiv, and Kyiv.  And there's so much more territory to cover in Kyiv!   Will also be presenting a lecture at the Ivan Honchar Museum in Kyiv - sometime at the end of September. 

This time, as before, will gather information and photographs for a number of articles - on travel, folk arts, restaurants, and whatever inspires me.  I think many non-Ukrainians "discovered" Ukraine during EuroCup, and are interested in learning more.  It is still a hidden gem for travel.

Will keep youse guys posted on my adventures.  And maybe I'll run into some of you there!

Friday, August 17, 2012

AGAIN -- PLACE OF BIRTH, OR ETHNIC ORIGIN

Another example of identifying someone by place of birth rather than ethnic origin --  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19280545

BBC calls Ayn Rand "Russian-American" -- only ten paragraphs down does the article say:   
" Born into a Jewish family called Rosenbaum in St Petersburg, she was just 12 when she witnessed her father's pharmacy being seized by the Bolsheviks." 

The family was not "Russian" (even though they were Russian citizens), but was Jewish.  That's where the credit should go.  So many prominent people get misidentified by just place of birth rather than their family's origins and ethnic background.  Important.  

I wrote about this in previous posts, e.g., 
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8444814993454276150#editor/target=post;postID=1645205368523626549



And the most recent:   Associated Press writes that Koch was "the second of three children of Polish immigrants".   Koch had a different opinion: 
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/koch-epitaph-father-jewish-mother-jewish-jewish-article-1.1253155