History, Balkans & Mid East

[kaima]

"It should never be forgotten that all the civilization of the Balkan Peninsula is Byzantine in origin, and that that civilization, worked on other lines from that of the West, had other aims and other ideals. The West has since evolved a civilization that it considers so perfect that it is in a hurry to impose it on all the world, and goes on striving, like the Old Man in ´Alice,´ to ´Madly squeeze a right-hand foot into a left-hand shoe.´"

I am reading a fascinating account of an English woman on an aid mission to the Balkans in 1905 and her descriptions of her experiences and observations. It is rather fascinating and rather scary to think that all that separates us from all of the tribalism, ignorance and hatred is 100 years - and that too many of the circumstances she describes appear to still exist in the world (not just the Balkans) today.

I do recommend:

THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS
BY
M. EDITH DURHAM
AUTHOR OF ´THROUGH THE LANDS OF THE SERB´

www.peacelink.nu/Boker/Durham/Durham.html

You might draw your own parallels to the mid-east today or think back on our own involvement in the Yugoslavia crisis in the last 15 years.

I wonder how closely our own unwritten history may resemble parts of life as described here ...

Kai

[bescheid]

Speaking for my self. Thank you Kai for sharing..I am in still the progress of reading through. It is very sensitive and reveling. I would think perhaps Carl will be very interested in this story, as I think, he has Albanian roots and relatives in that area.

Charles