Note- Any of my Serbian readers can translate what is on the page above?
Yesterday I went to the Ivo Andric Museum located near the Parliment building in downtown Belgrade. He was a true Yugoslav, being born and raised in Bosnia and having homes in Croatia and Serbia. He ended spending the majority of his life in his later years in Belgrade. The Ivo Andric Foundation made a museum out of his apartment. It was a modest apartment, and typical from a man that material things did not mean much. He was a man of principles.
Andric's 1961 Nobel Prize
It was interesting to see his small cerca 1976 apartment. The photo above is from his desk. It was also the first time I saw a Nobel Prize medal. He won the 1961 Nobel Prize for literature for his book, Bridge Over the River Drina. I was a chaperone with the grade 11 students from the ISB High School. We stopped at the Hotel Moscow for a cup of coffee before visiting the museum. Andric used to spend a lot of time there and the cafe there was THE place to be in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. All the celebrities, intellectuals, and visiting dignataries made a stop there. The morning gave me a glimpse of how it was back in the time of Tito and Yugoslavia. Sad that they couldn’t keep the federation together – I think everyone would be much better off if they did.
I asked the tour guide if Andric had any living relatives and she said no close ones. There is a group of people that manage the foundation. I wonder what Andric would have thought about Višegrad today. It is the scene of his book and it is much different after the Yugoslav Civil Wars. He probably understood Bosnia better than anyone.
The View of Andric's Apartment Building From Pioneer Park
On Wednesday November 25 we held a discussion about science and science education. A panel of science educators, writers, and scientists discussed the challenges of engaging young people with scientific fields. The over one hour discussion that included questions and comments from the audience, hit on topics such as society’s message to young people in general and girls in particular, that making money is more important that knowledge and being educated. Other topics addressed were what parents can do to raise their children’s interest in science, finding a balance for educators between exposing students to the wonder of science with instilling in them the discipline for long hours of study and concentration. If you are interested in these and other topics with science, I encourage you to listen to the podcast.
Brian Gorodetsky: Brian is from Vancouver, Canada and a IBO Diploma graduate. He has a Bachelors degree in Microbiology from the University of Alberta and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Canada’s leading materials institute at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His research interests were specialized in nanotechnology. He worked for 10 years as a research scientist in fields that ranged from oncology to the design of smart materials and is currently an advocate of science education in Belgrade, Serbia. He is a new teacher at Crnjanski High School and is responsible for organizing an exciting hands-on environmental science class. In addition, Brian is also a pilot and is learning to navigate the skies over Serbia.
Andrew Bridges:Andrew is a longtime reporter, editor and writer with a keen interest in science journalism. Andrew currently works as a science writer for Sally Ride Science, the science education company founded in 2001 by America’s first woman in space. He has written and edited multiple science books for readers ages 8-12. His latest is Clean Air, published in August by Roaring Brook Press. Previously, Andrew worked as a medical and science reporter for The Associated Press, as well as for various newspapers and Web sites, both in the United States and Europe. Andrew has a bachelor’s degree in history and Italian literature from Dartmouth College and a master’s degree in Italian literature from the University of California, Los Angeles. Andrew, wife Maury and son Roland have lived in Belgrade since 2007.
Luiz Mello : Luiz Mello is from Curitiba, Brazil. He has a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences with a double major in plant physiology and Science education. He holds a certificate in Instructional Technology from Harvard University and a master’s degree in Education from Framingham State College. His experiences include 6 years as an ESL instructor and 2 years as a web programmer. He is currently in his 4th year teaching internationally, and in his second year at ISB as our biology teacher. He is married to Betina and his favorite hobbies are playing and coaching soccer.
Ivan B. Jovanović, DVM, MS, PhD: Ivan was born and educated in Belgrade, Serbia. He graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, where he also obtained his Masters and PhD in Animal Morphology and Physiology. He teaches Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to graduate and postgraduate students at FVM. His primary field of research is the biological role of
Selenium and other micro-elements in health and sickness of animals and men.
Branka Srekovic Minic: Branka is from Belgrade, and has a double Serbian/French nationality. She has been working at ISB for 10 years, and has taught MYP French and Humanities. She is currently coordinating the IB MYP and DP, and is a Personal Project Coordinator. She is teaching DP HL History, and is Humanities Head of Department. She is working for the IB as the MYP school authorization and evaluation team member, and is a trained IB MYP Workshop Leader. She is married and has twin daughters who are enrolled at ISB’s grade 11 as the IB DP candidate students.
Chris Slough: Chris is from Colorado, USA and has a B.S. in Physics. He later earned a Masters in Education from the College of New Jersey. He has 10 years teaching experience, 8 in international schools. Besides teaching in Paraguay and Kuwait, he most recently was a science teacher here at the International School of Belgrade. He is currently on sabbatical.
Bill Kralovec: Bill is the Secondary Principal at the International School of Belgrade and will be the moderator of the discussion. He is a former science teacher and has spent a lot of time roaming the forests of South America.
The school held the annual Thanksgiving party last night. It was graciously hosted by the Canadian Ambassador to Serbia. We all ate well and had lots of laughs. I am pictured above with Ivan, who works in the Fine Arts Department at the school.
We don’t have the day off, but I did get a chance to see the Detroit Lions lose on ESPN America. It is one of our special Kralovec family traditions for Thanksgiving. I gave my family a call and my Dad was over at my brother Jim’s place, enjoying a big meal. My brother Andy is on a beach in Ecuador, taking advantage of a long weekend from his school.
We are celebrating Thanksgiving again on Saturday with a meal over at some friends home. Nadia looked beautiful tonight.
Sunday we took a drive over to Kovačica, a small town located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north east of Belgrade. The town is famous for its naive art style painters and its majority Slovak population. Nadia loves art and we’re exposing the kids to art so we decided to go and check out the galleries. Naive art is a genre that emphasizes color, childlike simplicity, and patterns. I never heard of this art style before and was curious to learn more.
The gallery/museum is well maintain and features the works of around 25 artists from the town and neighboring villages. The styles vary, from the more realistic depictions to pure fantasy. The use of color differs also, some being extremely bright and others more subdued. Most of the subject matter is a romanticized, rural lifestyle. For example, many show scenes of the harvest or hunt, sledding in the winter, etc. I preferred the more realistic works of Jan Bačur and Mihal Povolny while Nadia liked the more colorful pieces, especially of Ana Knjazovic. The town of Jagodina in southern Serbia is more famous for its naive painting and maybe someday we’ll visit there.
It was a bitterly cold morning and we walked around the main plaza a bit. It was strange to see a priest walking near our car when we pulled into town. The town is mostly descendants of Slovak immigrants and they have their own church. We usually see the Orthodox holy men with the long beards and black robes. We bought a small piece for our house and some souvenir calendars. It is a nice day trip and better than hanging around the house on a cold, foggy day.
The Kralovec Family is not the best for cold weather!
Owen and Ollie are pictured above in the Magnolia Tree in our garden. Boys will be boys and even in 2009 and the age of video games and computers, they still love climbing trees. The magnolia is the perfect size for them and if they fall, they won’t get hurt. It reminds me of the Frangipani tree we had in our garden in Venezuela.
Ollie Climbs Frangipani in April of 2008
I also took the kids to Hajd Park where there is a public school with a large cement area and wall. It is perfect for playing tennis. Owen is taking tennis lessons at the school and the past two weekends, he asked me to take him to play. We usually play for a while before Ocean, Ollie, and Owen want to climb the bleachers or hillside at the school instead of hitting the tennis ball.
Friday night Nadia and I watched Inglorious Basterds, the latest film from Quentin Tarantino. I absolutely loved it! The movie is about a crack American team of soldiers fighting the Nazis in Vichy France in World War II. Tarantino’s flair for dialogue and violent melodrama is magnificent. Saturday I did a lot of yard work, raking leaves, etc. Nadia redecorated the house by rearranging furniture, etc. On Saturday night we went to our first Slava (more on that later) and on Sunday we visited the Naive Art Gallery in Kovacica (more on that later also.)
The weather has been holding out but Sunday was cold and foggy. School year is flying by!
I just finished reading Michael Schuman’s “The Miracle: The Epic Story of Asia’s Quest for Wealth” and I really enjoyed it. Schuman is a journalist with Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal and has covered Asian economics and news for ten years. Asia is a part of the world that I don’t know much about and I have never been there (Australia excluded), and so the book is a good primer on the recent history of the region. He covers China, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
Schuman gives a brief recent history of each country and chooses an important political figure and businessman for each country to tell his story. Asia since WWII has passed other regions since then in standard of living. He goes into the many reasons. I understand the biggest reason was tapping into the global economy through encouraging foreign investment and increasing the quality of businesses in the country. He also writes that all of the countries put politics and history aside and concentrated on the generating of wealth. That is a good lesson for the Balkans!
I particularly liked the chapter on China. It is an example of one person’s efforts and opinion changing a countries destiny. That is what great leaders can do for a country. He profiles Deng Xiaoping and his reforms of the communist party. It also gave another perspective on Tiananmen Square protests. Deng had the view that China is too large for a democracy and without a single party suppressing it, China would be chaotic. I wonder as Chinese grow richer and better educated, how that will play out.
I also am realizing that India and China have 1/3 the world’s population and their rise will change the current international political and cultural structures. He argues that the USA started this globalization of economies after WWII and when Asia gets richer, it is good for the US. I hope it spurs our schools and our young people to improve as there are a lot of children and teens coming from homes that don’t value learning and a strong work ethic in the USA. We have to compete with Asians for jobs and business.
I recommend reading the book. I think eventually our international careers will take us to Asia. I would like to see for myself what it is like, although I am not a fan of big cities. One thought is to have our children attend Australian universities while we work in international schools in Asia.
Update November 27, 2009 – This post generated a lot of comments which surprised me. Some people called me on my understanding of the Serbian Orthodox Church. I don’t have a fact-checker or the time often to verify everything I write. The comments did inspire me to do a bit of reading and I learned that the Orthodox church prides itself on being the most “original” of all of the Christian sects. Although the Serbian Orthodox Church is not the “official” church of the state, it is so closely tied with politics and the Serbian ethnic identity, that is the de facto official church. All of the political parties are lobbying for their candidate to be named the next Patriarch.
Few of my Belgrade friends attended the funeral and procession. A couple went to pay their respects at the wake. It seemed to me that most people attending the funeral were from smaller towns and outside of Belgrade where religious sentiment is stronger. I think it was good to see that many people gather for a decent man. I love the pagentry and tradition and am following the naming of a successor. I am an atheist so this whole event does not have any religious or deeper meaning for me.
In regards to Pavle’s legacy. It would have been tough to stop the war. I can’t think of any religious leader, besides maybe Ghandi that did stop a war. I think the media is a bit harsh in that respect in judging him. It is my hope that his successor give a message of tolerance and honesty for the people of the Balkans. It would be good for the church to work to heal Bosnia and relations between Serbia and Croatia instead of whether the country moves towards the EU or Russia.
The big news this week in Serbia is the death of the Patriarch Pavle. Pavle (Paul) in English is the name taken by Gojko Stojčević and he was the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Like the Pope to the Catholic, the Patriarch is the supreme leader of the faith. He was 95 years old and his death comes after a long illness – the last two years he was in the hospital.
Pavle died on Sunday and the country declared three days of mourning. People are lined up to pay their respects to the open casket in the cathedral in downtown Belgrade. The funeral will be at St. Sava’s Church on Thursday and the burial will be at the Rakovica Monastery located in the southern suburbs of Belgrade. The BBC reported on his legacy.
Serb interests
Pavle was a respected theologian and linguist, known for personal humility and modesty.
After the fall of communism and rise of Serb nationalism, the Church regained a leading role during his rule.
At the beginning of the Balkan wars that followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Pavle said – according to Serbian state television: “It is our oath not to make a single child cry or sadden a single old woman because they are of another religion or nation.”
But critics accused him of failing to contain hardline bishops and priests who supported Serb paramilitaries against Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims.
After those wars, Pavle became more directly involved – openly criticising Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, after he lost Kosovo following Nato’s intervention.
Since then, the Serbian Orthodox Church has strongly supported the Serbian government in its efforts to stop Kosovo’s independence drive.
“Kosovo is not only a question of territory, it is a question of our spiritual being,” he said after Kosovo’s declaration of independence.
The Serbian Orthodox Church is the official state church. For a long time, it was suppressed by the Turks, Austro-Hungarians, and most recently, the communists. Pavle was the 44th Patriarch and the church officials will announce when a successor will be named. At least 40 days must pass before one can be chosen. Most Serbs I know are not that religious, although because the church is so strongly tied to the state, I feel people support the church out of patriotism. This is so different from my home country of the USA, where there is a clear boundary between the church and state, and no one church is officially sanctioned. The Orthodox Church is the Byzantine side of Roman Catholicism and when they split from the Pope, the orthodox churches in the various countries split into their own administrative units instead of maintaining a single head like the Catholics.
I hope to get a chance tomorrow to go downtown and see the faithful and take some photos. I am working Thursday, so doubt I’ll get a chance to go to the funeral. I am not a believer or member of the Orthodox Church, but I respect the historic significance of the position and his passing. It will be interesting to see who will replace him.
I also think the Serbian Orthodox priests look holy with their long beards, black robes, and hats.
The Patriarch Pavle Visits Monasteries in Kosovo in 2005
The traditional school photos were taken a couple of weeks ago. I usually post the photos for family back home to see the boys as they grow. Above is Owen’s grade 1 photo from this year. He is definitely an improved version of me, thanks to Nadia’s beauty. Oliver’s a handsome fellow also, and his Pre-Kindergarten photo is below.
Oliver Age 4
The boys teachers this year are Ms. Marianne Whaley (Owen) and Ms. Duda Vesić.
Thursday evening Nadia and I attended the Eros Ramazzotti concert at the Belgrade Arena. Nadia is shown above in the suite that we usually get tickets. We have a friend who gets tickets to all of the concerts at the arena. They are free and it is really nice to see so many artists.
Eros Ramazzotti is very famous in the non-English speaking world. He is Italian and is popular in non-English speaking Europe and Latin America. He records songs only in Italian and Spanish. He is most similar to Phil Collins, with a bit more romantic ballads that Collins. He has a very distinctive, nasal toned voice. We enjoyed the concert, especially Nadia because his older songs bring back memories of her growing up in Bolivia. Eros is 46 years old and still going strong, but definitely in the twilight of his career. The music is very pop with the romantic ballads, and medium rock anthems. He put on a good show playing for about 2 hours. The stage lighting and showmanship was very professional.
Owen and Ollie are shown above this morning in our yard. It snowed yesterday a few inches and it temporarily turned Belgrade into a winter wonderland. Sadly, it was warm and sunny today and almost all of the snow melted. The boys did find time after school to make a snowman, although I was not able to because of work. I love when it snows and hope we have more this year.
Schuman gives a brief recent history of each country and chooses an important political figure and businessman for each country to tell his story. Asia since WWII has passed other regions since then in standard of living. He goes into the many reasons. I understand the biggest reason was tapping into the global economy through encouraging foreign investment and increasing the quality of businesses in the country. He also writes that all of the countries put politics and history aside and concentrated on the generating of wealth. That is a good lesson for the Balkans! 
Bill's Blog 