1831 map of North America cropped to show Russian Alaska. Original map bought from Dee Longenbaugh, 'The Observatory Antiquarian Books, Maps and Prints,' Juneau, Alaska (Please click on it)

A few months ago, Eva and I visited South Central Alaska. I have lived in Anchorage and Homer during two separate periods for a total of eight winters. Eva, however, had never been in Alaska.

One of the many things about Alaska I wanted Eva to experience was Alaska’s Russian heritage. After all, Alaska was once the major part of Russian America, along with the coastal regions of North America to the south.

There are a great many place names in Alaska recognizable as Russian. In Sitka, the former capital of Russian Alaska, an annual celebration includes the symbolic changing of the Russian imperial flag for that of the USA. Sitka is on Baranoff Island, named after Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, chief manager for the Russian-American Company.

More to the point of this article is the presence of at least 25 Russian Orthodox churches in Alaska, all named after St. Nicholas.

Interior of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, Eklutna, Alaska, 2010

[Eva and I had earlier visited St. Nicholas Church and cemetery in Eklunta, Alaska, where we took several pictures, all of which can be seen here]

We didn’t have time enough to visit the Old Believer village of Nikolaevsk on the Kenai Peninsula, but I was able to point out to Eva a few Old Believers in the City of Homer, about 20 miles further south on the Sterling Highway. They are distinctive, primarily, because of their traditional dress.

These Old Believers in several settlements on the Kenai Peninsula did not arrive directly from Russia, or the Soviet Union. Theirs is a history linked with many other groups of Old Believers who have been leaving Russia and the Soviet Union for more than 200 years, due to a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church.

About 300 Old Believers left Siberia in 1945 to take up residence in Manchuria, China. When that country fell to communism, the group sought a new home. Several South American countries took in the Old Believers. In Brazil, the government did not interfere with their religion, but many of the families found it difficult to make a living. Next, they came to the United States, establishing themselves primarily in Woodburn, Oregon in the early 1960s.

As several years passed by, young people in the community were beginning to fall away from the old ways. A few community elders began considering other more isolated locations for their parishes. One of them discovered that government land was available in the Kenai Peninsula area of Alaska, where the fishing was reputed to be outstanding. The first Old Believer settlers on the Kenai Peninsula received a grant from the Tolstoy Foundation in New York and purchased 640 acres on the peninsula in 1967. Initially, five families moved to Alaska and began building a community there in the summer of 1968. Ten adults, twelve children, eight cows and four calves started Nikolaevsk.

This community of expatriate Russians is descended from ancestors who refused to conform to changes in their traditional Orthodox religion. After almost 16 generations of seeking places to live where they could preserve their culture, they started anew, and called their settlement Nikolaevsk in honor of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of the town’s church.

Old Believer Dress (http://www.sras.org/)

Russian Old Believers from China, Brazil, Iran, Turkey, Australia and other parts of the United States moved to Nikolaevsk. By the second year, homes had running water and electricity. When the growing season in the Alaskan summers proved too short for the production of various favorite vegetables, the Old Believers built greenhouses with wood-fueled stoves in them to extend the season.

On June 19, 1975, fifty-nine Old Believers successfully obtained American citizenship. A ceremony for their naturalization took place in the Anchor Point School gymnasium. In 1979 a second group of Old Believers took the oath of citizenship and became American citizens. Since then, religious and cultural concerns prompted some families to fight against assimilation and leave Nikolaevsk to form new communities.

The initial settlers tried to limit their interaction with outsiders so they could better keep the old rites, even using separate dishes for outsiders who dined with them. They erected a sign that stood at the end of the dirt road: “Village of Nikolaevsk. Private Property. Road Closed.”

Today, the sign is gone, the road is paved and the village is more welcoming to outsiders. The town has modernized. Economically and politically, the residents are integrated. Socially, however, although polite and highly hospitable, they still maintain a sense of social separatism…

Old Believers are having to adapt their culture to their surroundings in order to survive. Many residents are employed in the Anchor Point and Homer areas. A majority of the Russian Old Believers depended on commercial fishing as an income while many of the women worked in the fish processing plants. Uncertainty in the fishing industry, however, with its feast-or-famine price fluctuations, has caused a growing number of Old Believers to seek other jobs, such as construction, and move to new communities outside their Russian village (source).

A more comprehensive history of the Old Believers can be found here.

For readers who have an interest in old maps, here is the full image of the map of which only part is seen at the beginning of this article:

Map of North America, 1831. You have permission to download and copy it if you give credit to me as http://pavellas.com

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A statue modeled after a surreal story by Franz Kafka (1883-1924).

Ron with the great Czech composer, Antonín Dvořák(1841-1904)

Ron with his pal Winston Churchill (1874-1965).

Eva with the great Bohemian composer, Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884).

Smetana is possibly most famous for that portion of his symphonic suite, Má Vlast (“My Country”), which is about the river flowing through Prague, Vltava, or in Smetana’s age, the German usage Moldau. Bohemia was then ruled by the Austrian Empire.

Here is a glimpse of the river from a tower overlooking the city:

It was a most pleasant stay in a friendly, beautiful (and musical) city.

Click here for an album of pictures taken over the five days.

It was a simple and enjoyable trip, and now I get to tell you, briefly, about:

• The Livonian Order of Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire,
• the mineral amber,
• The Freedom Monument in Riga,
• Riga as the Largest city in Sweden,
• cable-stayed bridges,
• the Eastern Orthodox Nativity of Christ Cathedral, and
• the French Embassy in Riga, among other items including the demographics of current day Latvia.

Image Legend: The Livonian Confederation was a loosely organized confederation in present day Estonia and Latvia ruled by the Order of Teutonic Knights of Livonia and which existed from 1228 to the 1560s. It contained five small states: the Livonian Order, Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek, Archbishopric of Riga, Bishopric of Dorpat, and Bishopric of Courland.

In 1621 Riga and the outlying fortress of Daugavgriva came under the rule of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, who intervened in the Thirty Years’ War not only for political and economic gain but also in favor of German Lutheran Protestantism. During the Russo-Swedish War, 1656-1658, Riga withstood a siege by Russians. Riga remained the largest city in Sweden until 1710 during a period in which the city retained a great deal of self-government autonomy. In that year, in the course of Great Northern War, Russia under Tsar Peter the Great invaded Riga. Sweden’s northern dominance ended, and Russia’s emergence as the strongest Northern power was formalized through the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. Riga was annexed by Russia and became an industrialized port city of the Russian empire, where it remained until World War I. By 1900, Riga was the third largest city in Russia after Moscow and Saint Petersburg in terms of numbers of industrial workers. (SOURCE)

Image Legend: Swedish army bombarding the fortress of Dunamunde, a 17th-century etching. Daugavgrīva was a strong fortress commanding the mouth of the Daugava, hence its name. Since 1959, Daugavgrīva has been a district of Riga.

The Freedom Monument

The Freedom Monument is located on the eastern edge of “Old Town.” It honors soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920). It is an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty of Latvia. Unveiled in 1935, the 42-metre (138 ft) high monument often serves as the focal point of public gatherings and official ceremonies in Riga. During World War II, Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union. Soviet propaganda attempted to alter the symbolic meaning of the monument to better fit with Communist ideology, but it remained a symbol of national independence to the general public. On June 14, 1987 about 5,000 people gathered at the monument to commemorate the victims of the Soviet regime and to lay flowers. This rally renewed the national independence movement that culminating three years later in the re-establishment of Latvian sovereignty. (SOURCE)

Image Legend: Top of the Freedom Monument, a monolithic travertine column, topped by a copper figure of Liberty, in the form of a woman lifting three gilded stars, symbolizing the constitutional districts of Latvia: Vidzeme, Latgale and Courland.

Changing of the Guard at the base of the Monument (More pictures from my recent excursion may be seen here).

This memorial is so important to the people of Latvia that I will show more detail of it here (the inserted text is reproduced from the original source):

Main facets at the base: Four corners at the base: Large Panels: Here is the monument in its entirety (please click on the image for more detail):

And now for something a little different: AMBER

Dzintars is the Latvian word for amber. Latvian choral music is brought to audiences abroad by the Dzintars Choir, and dance is presented by the children’s dance ensemble Dzintariņš. The name of Latvia’s perfumery company is Dzintars; Latvians love to put Dzintars cheese spread on their bread at breakfast. Latvians all have somebody called Dzintars or Dzintra among their friends; the name is common among those who live at the shore of Dzintara jūra, the Amber Sea. There are many Latvian songs about amber and the sea that nurtures it. What is this sun-stone caressed by the currents of the Baltic Sea? (SOURCE)

Amber is formed, in its first stage, from resin that oozes from resinous trees. In the second stage, the resin rests up in the soil of an “amber forest”. In the dry, well-aerated sandy soil physical and chemical changes take place in the resin through the action of oxygen. The resin becomes harder and more durable. In the third stage, the resin-bearing deposits are washed out, transported and redeposited in a water-body. Amber is formed when the resin is washed by water rich in oxygen and alkaline sodium compounds. The action of these lead to the formation of succinic acid and its salts. Amber that has been excavated or washed up changes under the influence of oxygen, so unlike the inorganic minerals, amber is unstable and changeable.

In distant antiquity, the people living along the shore of the Baltic Sea not only collected amber for trade, but also made practical use of it as a decorative, curative and religious material. In the territory of present-day Latvia and Lithuania amber processing began in the 4th millennium BC. Amber was widely used as a magical material with curative properties and as a component of religious rituals among the neighboring ancient Slavic peoples in Kievan Rus and Poland. The source of local amber is on the seashore, and part of it is under the sea. The prevailing marine current transports lumps of amber from these sources, to be washed up on the shore of Lithuania and Latvia.

There are amber sellers everywhere in old town, in street stalls and shops, some of the latter more like fine jewelry stores.

The Nativity of Christ Cathedral

The Nativity of Christ Cathedral was built in a Neo-Byzantine style between 1876 and 1883, during the period when the country was part of the Russian Empire. It is the largest Orthodox cathedral in the Baltic provinces built with a blessing of the Russian Tsar Alexander II. The Cathedral is renown for its icons. During the First World War German troops occupied Riga and turned the cathedral into a Lutheran church. In independent Latvia the Nativity of Christ Cathedral once again became an Orthodox cathedral in 1921, although the new government tried to force the change of the liturgy language into Latvian. In the early 1960s Soviet authorities closed down the cathedral and converted its building into a planetarium. The cathedral was restored after Latvia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. (SOURCE)

The Cable Bridge (Latvian: Vanšu tilts) in Riga

A cable-stayed bridge consists of one or more columns (towers or pylons), with cables supporting the bridge deck. The cable-stay design is the optimum bridge for a span length between that of cantilever bridges and suspension bridges. Key advantages of the cable-stayed form:

For a symmetrical bridge (i.e. spans on either side of the tower are the same), the horizontal forces balance and large ground anchorages are not required

Embassy of France in Latvia

The tour bus passed by the French Embassy and, after we de-bused in Old Town, we returned to admire the exterior of building at more leisure, along with the nearby Freedom Monument and Orthodox Cathedral.

As the Regina Baltica passed through the portion of the Daugava River leading from the Gulf of Riga to the City, I noticed very little activity in the many industrial installations and, indeed, some were falling into disrepair. There was at least one modern-looking operation that had a lot of activity. In looking at the current demographic statistics of Latvia, I discerned a reason for this: the economy is now mostly in the service sector.

From the most recent information provided by the CIA World Factbook: Latvia’s economy experienced GDP growth of more than 10% per year during 2006-07. The majority of companies, banks, and real estate have been privatized, although the state still holds sizable stakes in a few large enterprises. Latvia officially joined the World Trade Organization in February 1999. EU membership, a top foreign policy goal, came in May 2004.

Gross Domestic Product by sector:
agriculture: 3.3%……….industry: 22%……….services: 74.7%

Labor force, by occupation:
agriculture: 13%………..industry: 19%………..services: 68%

Here is a major excerpt from the CIA World Factbook to round out this look at the renewing country of Latvia:

The name “Latvia” originates from the ancient Latgalians, one of four eastern Baltic tribes that formed the ethnic core of the Latvian people (ca. 8th-12th centuries A.D.). The region subsequently came under the control of Germans, Poles, Swedes, and finally, Russians. A Latvian republic emerged following World War I, but it was annexed by the USSR in 1940 – an action never recognized by the US and many other countries. Latvia reestablished its independence in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Although the last Russian troops left in 1994, the status of the Russian minority (some 30% of the population) remains of concern to Moscow. Latvia joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.

Area: total: 64,589 sq km; land: 63,589 sq km; water: 1,000 sq km
Border countries: Belarus 141 km, Estonia 343 km, Lithuania 588 km, Russia 276 km
Coastline: 498 km
Climate: maritime; wet, moderate winters
Terrain: low plain

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m; highest point: Galzina Kalns 312 m
Natural resources: peat, limestone, dolomite, amber, hydropower, wood, arable land
Land use: arable land: 28.19%; permanent crops: 0.45%; other: 71.36% (2005)
Irrigated land: 200 sq km. note: land in Latvia is often too wet, and in need of drainage, not irrigation; approximately 16,000 sq km or 85% of agricultural land has been improved by drainage (2003)

Environment current issues: Latvia’s environment has benefited from a shift to service industries after the country regained independence; the main environmental priorities are improvement of drinking water quality and sewage system, household, and hazardous waste management, as well as reduction of air pollution; in 2001, Latvia closed the EU accession negotiation chapter on environment committing to full enforcement of EU environmental directives by 2010

Population: 2,245,423 (July 2008 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 13.4% (male 154,077/female 146,825)
15-64 years: 69.7% (male 760,976/female 803,106)
65 years and over: 16.9% (male 124,658/female 255,781) (2008 est.)

Median age: total: 39.9 years; male: 36.9 years; female: 43 years (2008 est.)

Population growth rate: -0.629% (2008 est.)
Birth rate: 9.62 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Death rate: 13.63 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net migration rate: -2.29 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female; under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female; 15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female; 65 years and over: 0.49 male(s)/female; total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2008 est.)

Infant mortality rate: total: 8.96 deaths/1,000 live births; male: 10.85 deaths/1,000 live births; female: 6.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: total population: 71.88 years; male: 66.68 years; female: 77.35 years (2008 est.)
Total fertility rate: 1.29 children born/woman (2008 est.)

Ethnic groups: Latvian 57.7%, Russian 29.6%, Belarusian 4.1%, Ukrainian 2.7%, Polish 2.5%, Lithuanian 1.4%, other 2% (2002)

Religions: Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox
Languages: Latvian (official) 58.2%, Russian 37.5%, Lithuanian and other 4.3% (2000 census)

—————-

The demographic that seems most troublesome is the decline in population due both to out-migration and low birth rate. The out-migration could possibly be due to ethnic Russians leaving the country, but this is a guess. On the other hand, to replace the population, and assuming no net increase or decrease due to migration, the annual fertility rate should be 2.1 or more children born per woman, on the average. It is now only 1.29.

It was a good trip. Eva and I recommend it to you.

If you missed the first installment of this imaginary trip from San Diego to San Francisco, go to Part 1, published 22 October 2008.

→Please always click on images and links←

We have arrived in Morro Bay, a quaint town that is at the southern end of a two-hour journey (unless you stop to visit along the way) where time seems to disappear—along California’s central coastline (source of map).

We are now on our way to the fabled Hearst Castle at the settlement of San Simeon. You should take the opportunity to go on at least one of the three tours offered when the castle is open for viewing. This castle (or its Hollywood reproduction) was featured in the great, perhaps the greatest, film, Citizen Kane, with Orson Welles playing the fictionalized William Randolph Hearst.

Upon leaving San Simeon, Highway 1 becomes relatively uncivilized, except for a few cafés and petrol stops, until you reach the Big Sur area. The area extends along the coast in the cliffs and mountains above the ocean, generally, until the Big Sur River empties into the Pacific.

From here northward you will touch several lovely cities and places. When you get to Carmel-by-the-Sea (film actor-producer-director Clint Eastwood was Mayor for a while), turn left off Highway 1 through the center of the town to find 17 Mile Drive. This will get you back to the coast. Continue driving by the Pebble Beach golf course and through Asilomar State Beach to Pacific Grove, where author John Steinbeck lived and where the monarch butterflies congregate each year. A few more miles through Pacific Grove along the coast and you will enter the City of Monterey, once the capital of California. I recommend you go to the magnificent Monterey Aquarium before continuing to the harbor area.

Monterey Bay, rotated westerly from true north to fit the page. Note that the City of Monterey is at the lower right and the City of Santa Cruz is at the lower left. [Click on the image]

After visiting the pier at the harbor area of Monterey, continue driving on Del Monte Avenue North until it intersects with Highway 1, also called the Cabrillo Highway. Take the north on-ramp and the freeway continues through large sand dunes at Sand City. When the wind blows from Monterey Bay, which is often, the strands of sand shift over the highway. You are now headed around the edge of Monterey Bay toward Castroville, the “artichoke capital of the world.” But before you turn left as Highway 1 and Highway 156 diverge, be sure to get your fresh artichokes from Pezzini Farms roadside stand by turning right, briefly, off the highway at Nashua Road. There are plenty of other fresh and dried delicacies and accompaniments at this large, open “stand”.After you return to the highway from Pezzini’s, you will pass by the artichoke fields on both sides of Castroville and beyond. The road will curve around as you espy the large smoke stacks from the PG&E Power Plant next to Elkhorn Slough, over which you travel via a wooden bridge (if memory serves) to Moss Landing, a good place to stop and look at the rocky shore and its sea life.

Granddaughters at Capitola, May 2005

The highway continues to parallel the curve of Monterey Bay, but at some distance from the shore as you pass near or through the towns and cities of Watsonville, Freedom, Aptos, Soquel and Capitola, the latter town a good place to appreciate the waters of the Bay.

Capitola beach at the lower right and Santa Cruz Fun Zone and Boardwalk at the lower left (between the pier and the river)

It’s a lovely drive along the cliffs above the sea from Capitola to Santa Cruz. Take the streets in yellow (see map, above), alternating between E. Cliff Drive, Portola Drive and others. The boardwalk and the roller-coaster will become visible as you turn a sharp corner. Before you depart Santa Cruz, you must make one of three choices:

June 2007: Stepdaughter Liv on the grounds of The Palace of the Legion of Honor, overlooking the Golden Gate strait and the famous bridge linking San Francisco and Marin counties.

So what? you may be asking. Well, people in Sweden who plan to travel by car in California (including some born in the States) have occasionally asked me for ideas on what routes to take and what to see. For those who plan a trip along any part of the coast, I recommend state highway number 1. For one of my friends, originally from the USA’s east coast, I suggested an itinerary from San Diego to San Francisco which I now share with you, much expanded. First here are a couple of places to visit after you have arrived in San Diego:

San Diego Zoo: world class & world famous.

After visiting San Diego, get back to →…

…and off to a great adventure northward. Of course you will stop anywhere that suits your fancy, but I wil recommend some places along the way:

From this point you have a choice to continue the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) or to take Interstate Highway 5 toward Anaheim/Disneyland and, eventually Los Angeles. If you take PCH here are some of the towns you will pass through until you reach LA: Continuing on the Pacific Coast Highway (State Highway 1):

City of Newport Beach: My Aunt Bee’s husband, uncle Tommy Thomas, was the general manager and, eventually, part owner of the fish cannery that was the main employer in town for many years before the fish were depleted and the Hollywood crowd invaded. It’s a restaurant now, with many of the old cannery artifacts remaining. We celebrated Aunt Bee’s surprise 85th birthday there 10 years ago. She’s still around, but Uncle Tommy died long ago of a broken heart because the cannery could not succeed despite all his heroic efforts.

You’ll pass through other beach cities and at Long Beach the PCH will go inland for a while. After crossing the bridge over the Los Ageles River you will skirt the base of the hilly Palos Verdes Peninsula, through the City of Torrance and other beach cities between it and LA. I was Acting Administrator of Torrance Memorial Hospital for nine months in 1974-5.

Then it gets more industrial as you head toward Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). You will pass underneath one of the runways and under a flight path as you travel north toward Santa Monica and Venice. You can detour from the PCH here for a visit, eastward, to Hollywood. Take Santa Monica Boulevard.

Please click on the image. Note that highway 1 (the PCH) is at the lower left. Santa Monica Blvd begins here as highway number 2. It goes diagonally to the upper right toward Hollywood

Back to the Pacific Coast Highway, then along the coast to Malibu and beyond, toward Ventura County:

Please click on the image. Note that Santa Monica is at the lower right; Ventura is at the extreme top left

In Ventura County:

As you leave the City of Ventura on the highway that is now both Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) and state highway 101, you will see a sign for state highway 33 toward the City of Ojai. I recommend you to have made arrangements to stay overnight in this magical town. You may wish to spend part of an evening or an early morning at Meditation Mount. Various intellectual and spiritual endeavors find their respective ways to Ojai:

I was the CEO of the local community hospital in 1990 and 1991. I hiked all through the surrounding hills and mountains. I love this place.

Please clink on the image of a small portion of Ojai Valley

After you have had your fill of Ojai, take Highway 150 West, running through the center of town, back to the coast highway at Carpinteria, then north again for a short and lovely drive into Santa Barbara. You may wish to wander State Street and the municipal pier jutting into the Pacific Ocean at its western end. Continue on the Highway north to Gaviota Beach where the highway goes inland for a while, through Gaviota Pass.

You are not far from the Danish town of Solvang, so follow the signs. You have to leave the main highway to go through Solvang, but the signs (north) out of town will lead you easily back (turn left/west on State Highway 154). Highway 101/PCH continues inland, through Santa Maria as a freeway, then over the Santa Maria River into San Luis Obispo County, until you return to the coast at the “Five Cities” area, centered around Pismo Beach.

I recommend you spend a little time at Shell Beach, very slightly north of Pismo Beach. You are now a short highway distance, again traveling inland, from San Luis Obispo City, where “Cal Poly” is located. Here you have a choice to continue inland on Highway 101, or take Highway 1 (PCH) which here diverges from it; Highway 101 runs inland and. roughly, parallel to PCH.

We will continue to take Highway 1 on this journey. Part 2 will be presented in a future journal entry, taking us from Morro Bay to San Francisco.

Morro Rock at Morro Bay, California

Click on the image for a better view

The land that is now Malta, Gozo and Comino emerged from beneath the seas around fifteen million years ago. The land was then a southern extension of the Euro-Asian continental mass, bridging Sicily and Malta to what is now Tunisia. The land bridge subsided some fifteen thousand years ago leaving this three-island archipelago.

It was left uninhabited for thousand of years. The original inhabitants of the Maltese islands probably crossed over by sea from Sicily, which lies 58 miles to the north, sometime before 5000 BC. The temple builders were farmers who grew cereals and raised domestic livestock. They worshipped a Mediterranean mother goddess, uniquely large statues of which are found on Malta.

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered along the coast of modern day Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Phoenician civilization was a maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean between the period of 1200 BC to 900 BC, including to the three islands that now comprise The Republic of Malta.

Mosaic of a Phoenician Trading Ship

The timeline of major events in Malta’s history:

Phoenicians and Carthaginians, 700–218 BC

Concurrent with my private report to The Committee, I wrote a personal journal and, of course, took pictures that can be seen here, along with some accompanying narrative.

Over the Hindu Kush, from Kabul to Kunduz. Please click on the image.

What brings me again to the subject again, 2½ years later, is a lecture I attended given by SIRAP, the Stockholm International Researchers Association (SIRAP). The speaker was Tim Foxley, currently a Guest Researcher at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). He is on a 15 month sabbatical from his previous work as an Afghan political/military analyst in the UK government. In 2006 he spent April to August as an analyst in the international military headquarters in Kabul. He chose Sweden for his career break as he had a pregnant Swedish partner (and the couple now has a beautiful child). At SIPRI he recently researched and wrote a paper entitled: “The Taliban’s propaganda activities: how well is the Afghan insurgency communicating and what is it saying?” Click here for Tim’s blog on Afghanistan. Tim’s address to SIRAP was entitled “Afghanistan: Past, Present and Future?”

Tim Foxley in Afghanistan

Tim’s talk to SIRAP gave us a historical review of the politics and warfare that have beset this region for millennia due, in no small part, to its location as a crossroads between countries, armies and empires at all points of Afghanistan’s compass. In addition, the geography has great influence on the people, given the “Hindu Kush” (Hindu killer) mountains extend from China well into the heart of the country, essentially dividing it into two major regions, north and southeast; and a third region to the west and south where the mountains peter out into what is mostly desert.

The most salient question in the present and for the future of Afghanistan is the attempted resurgence of the Taleban. According to Tim and other sources, the attempts of the Taleban are not well coordinated, but they are persistent and the response from the central government is likewise, apparently, uncoordinated and unfocused, especially in the realm of propaganda and information (take your pick). Afghans, with centuries of conflict between and among external and internal entities, have learned to side with the strongest (or those who seem to be gaining the ascendancy in a conflict) so they can go about with their daily struggle for survival and dealing with personal and family matters.

Water vendor, Kunduz, June 2005

Tim discussed other matters concerning the role of the central government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the various ethnic and religious groups. The concluding paragraphs of my journal of July, 2005, still seem apt:

A final observation: Kabul seems to be a city state that lies within Afghanistan, the country. There is great energy and ambition and many dreams of progress in Kabul, but the rest of the country abides in its rural pace, not greatly affected, in the short term, by the pace of the capital city … How to bring the advantages of western ways to a country that has its own useful and traditional ways without harming the fabric of society? What a great challenge!

In one or two generations we will see a healthy, educated and economically vibrant Afghanistan, Inshallah.

A a complete copy of my personal journal can be downloaded from here: Afghan Journal-R.Pavellas-2005

Afghanistan References:

The Kite Runner (fiction), by Khaled Hosseini, 2003.

Ron in Wardak Province with Hospital leaders, July 2005

I found the Eiffel Tower interesting but not charming. It is an engineering marvel, to be sure, but it is a monument entirely to itself. I dare to say it is a masturbatory erection.

The two churches we visited (Sacré-Coeur and Notre Dame) were awesome in their anachronistic grandeur and reeked of soulfulness and history, but seemed to be used, sad to say, mostly as tourist attractions.

The Metro was quite useful and efficient; we traveled all parts of it during most of the hours of the day.

I enjoyed a great deal the ancient cemetery of Paris, about which I will quote a description:

“The Père La Chaise cemetery is located on top of a hill in the Eastern part of Paris. The famous Parisian dead city’s name comes from Louis XIV’s religious adviser Père La Chaise. With 100 000 tombs for 44 hectares, it is the biggest Parisian cemetery. This place became famous thanks to its woods, narrow paths, shady places and atmosphere of peace, more than for buried celebrities. Pere Lachaise owns its proper streets and history. Starting from 1820 the rich people took possession of the cemetery. Their desire to show their wealth and strength was rendered and written on their tombs. On the 28th of May 1871 the cemetery became a place of tragedy when the last peace protectors of Paris were shot against the “mur des Fédérés”. As any city, the dead city has its own uptown where Oscar Wilde, Proust, Heloïse, Abélard, La Fontaine, Molière, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison decided to rest within the peaceful alleys, the birds, and the statues.”

We could not possibly visit all the tombs, graves and memorials, but we did visit a number of artists, composers and authors. The graves most popular and with fresh flowers, among those that we visited, were of Frederic Chopin, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. I also visited Georges Bizet, Georges Enesco and Luigi Cherubini, among others.

The Picasso Museum was quite good, but as with all museums it is hard to relax with such crowds surrounding and jostling you. One can get only a surface impression of the artist and how he expresses his visions of the universe.

The food was uniformly good to excellent at moderate prices for a big city.

We visited the San Francisco Book Company, a secondhand shop. I chatted with the owner who had had similar shops, beginning in San Francisco and in other US cities, but has settled here. I bought “Freedom or Death” by Nikos Kazantzakis for 7 euros.

Our inexpensive hotel room in the 13th Arrondissement was just big enough to hold two small beds, a dresser and two small night tables, along with a toilet and shower. Just enough.

The Post-election riots were (and still are?) in the 11th Arrondissement, near the Cemetery. Sunday was the day of voting, but I did not see where people voted, despite the 85% turnout.

So, did we enjoy ourselves? Yes. It is necessary to see Paris. There is more to tell, especially if one has read sufficiently about the French Revolution and the years surrounding it, to the present. I highly recommend “Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution” by Ruth Scurr. There are a great many public monuments to heroes and ideals, most of which I find oppressive. I much prefer to watch the colorful people from all over the world that comprise this international capital. It is notable, I think, that one of the great department stores has signs both in English and French.

I took a number of pictures that I put into this album.

We flew on RyanAir and, if you want to know about the experience, ask me, below.