Ideas – Page 7 – Bill's Blog

Latest Reading: “The Czar’s Madman” by Jaan Kross

May 12, 2010billkralovec

When I was visiting Estonia earlier this spring, I picked up a copy of one of the most famous Estonian writers, Jaan Kross. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times and received numerous awards. He passed away in 2007.

“The Czar’s Madman” is work of historical fiction and it is set in 1800’s Estonia. It is the story of a Livonian noble, Timo Von Bock, who suffers from a slight mental illness. The Livonians are Germans who ruled over the peasant Estonians. At this time, Estonia was ruled by Russia and the Czar is friends with the aristocratic Von Bock. Von Bock writes a letter criticizing the Czar and ends up in prison for nine years. He married an Estonian peasant girl and the book is set in a journal format of the girl’s brother. The book follows the family into the next generation and was an exciting read.

The book helped me understand the plight of the Estonians and small ethnic groups in as a whole. The Estonians have been subjugated by larger groups for most of their existence and were treated as second class citizens. I am amazed that the language and identity survived. I wonder what effect that has on today’s Estonians. Is that why they are so quiet? The book was published in 1978 and it is a metaphor also, of the domination of Soviets. Kross really did his research and the book mirrors actual events with Kross, fleshing out the details and plot twists for us. Not only is it a good story, but it has insights on human nature and the brittle nature of life changes.

John Lui “Earth’s Hope”

March 20, 2010March 23, 2010billkralovec

I attended a talk by John Lui at the CEESA Educators’ Conference in Tallinn, Estonia.

He gave a talk on his restoration of a highland wetland in Rwanda. Jarod Diamond gave the reason of the genocide was a fight over scarce resources. He was working at the head waters of the White Nile and Congo River, and environmental problems at that highland, it affects all the way down the river basins. All of these horrible events are caused by deforestation by humans.

He feels this is the “panda” of biome restoration. This is an extremely beautiful place with rare orchids, birdlife, volcanoes, lakes, etc. This is also a place that is coming out of genocide.

Plants are 80-90% water and when they are removed from a hillside, and the rain during the rainy season is not soaked up by the missing plants. This causes sedmintation, even mud slides, which bury villages and kill villagers. No one ever talks about the cause of the mudslides on the news. The cause is deforestation. Another indicator of a degraded environment is when rivers do not flow the whole year. One thing they did in Ethiopia, they make the gullies meander to allow a slower flow and the water infiltrate the soil. This also raised the water table. This is a physical change to aid restoration. The other change is biological, with the planting of trees. The amount and percentage of biomatter is huge.

The determinate of ecosystems is the infiltration of rainfall water. He also feels that biodiversity is separate from the process of water retention. He says that we exist because of wilderness, and we need to nurture biodiversity for the possibilities. He also feels that we are not capable of making good decisions.

He commented on the Copenhagen Summit. Two accomplishments were the setting up a carbon-trading scheme and the second was REDD (Reduction of Carbon Emissions by reducing deforestation). He has been publically speaking for 5 years and it is always accepted by every crowd that has watched his presentations.

All cradles of civilization went through the same process. Cut down the trees, plant on slopes, leading to serious degradation of their environment. The wealth and power of a civilation leaves, but the peasant farmers stay for generation. One example is the Loess Plataue in China, the cradle of the Han people.

Idea of canopies, not only the tree canopy and the grass canopy. There is a microclimate under the trees AND under the grass.

You can click on the “Hope on a Changing Climate” link to see one of John’s movies. There is also a good website that will help educators use his ideas and work in their classrooms. The Environmental Education Media Project web site can help. His main web site is also full of more information.

In Colombia there is a project called Las Gaviotas. They used a pine species to improve the pH of the soil and they are no pruning. I’ll need to look it up.

Holocaust Memorial Day

February 1, 2010February 1, 2010billkralovec

Last week we invited the Israeli Ambassador to Serbia, Arthur Koll to come speak to our students for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Mr. Koll gave a great speech that had all of our students silent for over 3o minutes. Quite an accomplishment!

Both of Mr. Koll’s parents are Holocaust survivors and he talked of his childhood after he immigrated to Israel from Romania. I took alot out of the speech, but especially when he asked the question, why have a special day for the Holocaust, when there were other genocides throughout history. His answer made me think. He pointed out the science of the Nazis that determined the “inferior” race of the Jews, among others, and the systematic obsession to eliminate them, all of them. Mr. Koll told of towards the war’s end, when the Nazis knew they were losing, they still continued to divert precious resources, like trains, to deliver Jews to the death camps instead of using them to transport troops along the Russian front. He also mentioned a concentration camp in Poland, that is mostly forgotten to history, because it wasn’t a work and death camp, but only an elimination camp. No one ever sent to the camp, lived to tell about it.

6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazi Empire. The Ustase Quisling regime here in Serbia had some concentration camps that I would like to know more about. I am shown above thanking Mr. Koll for coming to speak.

Big Mac Index In Serbia

December 26, 2009billkralovec

Last night we took the kids to McDonald’s. I recently read a blog post about the Economist Magazine’s annual article on the Big Mac Index. The Big Mac Index is an informal method of predicting future currency exchange rates between the USA dollar and other currencies. The idea is the Big Mac, the world’s most popular sandwich should cost the same in every country. It there is a difference in prices, then the currency is overvalued or undervalued and should change in the future.

The cost of a Big Mac in Serbia is 200 RSD (Republic of Serbia Dinar). This was at the McDonald’s on Slavija Circle in downtown Belgrade. The current price of a Big Mac in the US is $3.54. Today’s exchange rate is $1 = approximately 67 RSD. That would make the cost of a Big Mac in Belgrade to be $2.99, significantly cheaper than the US. In calculating a purchasing power parity percentage, the RSD is undervalued by 15.68%. The significance is that the power of the RSD should rise in the future and the exchange rate of 67 RSD/dollar should fall.

Interior Dining Area of McDonald's near Terazije Fountain (Aug. 2008 photo)

Dining at McDonald’s in Serbia is not the same experience as the US. Generally speaking, McDonald’s is more of an upscale dining experience in Serbia than in the US. Lower income people in Serbia can’t afford to eat there often while in the US the poor go more often. McDonald’s in the US is viewed as a cheap meal or an eventful experience for families. We go about once every couple of weeks because the kids love it and it is an easy meal for us.

I’ll be interested to see where the exchange rate goes in the first half of 2010. According to the Big Mac index, it should be dropping.

Reading About Romania and Transylvania

December 24, 2009December 28, 2009billkralovec

Update: I read a bit more about Ceausescu in Misha Glenny’s book, “The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-1999.

Ceausescu was elected First Secretary in 1965 after the death of Gheorghe Dej. It took several years for him to establish power and get rid of his rivals. Once he did, he tightened control. It was his vision to turn Romania into a dominant force in s.e. Europe and an industrialized nation. Romania is resource rich and could be independent from USSR. Unfortunately, he centrally-planned the economy and ran it down the toilet.

He was most popular in 1968 after verbally supporting Czechoslovakia’s stand against the USSR invasion. After that, it was all downhill. In 1971 he posted 17 “theses” on the door of the Central Committee and had his own cultural revolution, ala China. He tried to turn a rural, agricultural Romanian society into an urban, industrial country. As he tried to do this, he also monopolized power. For example, he introduced job rotation, forcing party members to rotate jobs often. This stopped them from gaining any expertise and power. It made the administration incompetent. It sounds like Chavez in Venezuela, putting people in important ministries and positions without the expertise or experience, but loyalty. Makes for a poorly run government. His opponents were more in fear of being demoted than worrying about running the government. Ceausescu’s family was exempted from the rotation, of course.

He crowned himself President in 1974 and a cult of personality formed. Ceausescu made Tito seem modest in his material wealth. His economic policies took away from agriculture and lowered consumption, and heavy borrowing from Western banks. He expanded the secret police and the country was full of informers. “The first great socialist industry was the production of personal files.” Speaking to foreigners was prohibited, ownership of a typewriter required a certificate, etc. Penalties included losing a job, banishment from university education, etc. Paul Goma and others spoke out.

I finished re-reading Robert Kaplan’s book, Balkan Ghosts. I focused on the section for Romania as I am preparing for our family to travel to Brasov, Romania, located in the Transylvania region of Romania. The book is a mix of travelogue and history. Kaplan visited several areas of Romania, included two of the cities in Transylvania near Brasov. He was there 20 years ago and the book is now a bit dated, but it did give me a good historical perspective of the area. Romania celebrates the 20th anniversary of end of the “communist” dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. He and his wife were executed 20 years ago tomorrow (Christmas Day). It is an interesting time to visit and my second to the country. We went earlier this fall to the border region with Serbia, to the former Roman bath village of Baile Herculane.

From my reading I learned several things.

1) I didn’t know that parts of Romania used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (The Russians also fought for control of other areas in the north of the country.) Brasov’s original name was the German Kronstadt. I wonder if they still have an influence after so many years of Romanian and communist oppression and control. Are there still Hungarians and Saxon Germans in Romania?

2) I didn’t realize how horrible Ceausescu’s rule was for the Romanians. Besides Stalin and the guy in Albania, I can’t think of a worse ruler. I can see why on my visit in October, the Romanian side of the border was so run down. It will be interesting to see a richer part of the country and are the harmful effects of Ceausescu’s legacy still seen and felt. Is the economy growing? Are the Romanians better off today than 20 years ago?

I found two sources of differing views on Romania. The first is more of a negative view of the country from phot0journalist, Christian Movila and his photo essay in today’s New York Times. The second is a recent book by former US Ambassador to Romania, Jim Rosapepe, entitled Dracula is Dead: How Romanians Survived Communism, Ended It and Emerged since 1989 as the New Italy. I am looking forward to forming my own opinion on the place and also having a good time with my family and friends.

My notes on Transylvania from Robert Kaplan’s book, “Balkan Ghosts” are below.

Vlad the Impaler had his castle on the plain of Wallachia, not T. Bram Stoker’s story Dracula is closer to Bucovina and Moldavia than Transylvania.
Transylvania is more Western than the three areas above. The Turks did not conquer Transylvania. William Penn almost named Pennsylvania Transylvania because he was so impressed with the religious tolerance of the area between Catholics & Protestants.
Hungarians and Saxon Germans repressed the Romanians in Transylvania. Romanians not impressed with the eastern beacon of the West.
For both the Romanians and Hungarians, Transylvania is special. It is where the Romans had the original colony of Dacia, and for the Hungarians, many important victories over the Turks occurred. Bela Bartok and several other famous Hungarians are from the region.
After WWI treaty, Romania got Transylvania from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Romanian names replaced the Hungarian names of cities and towns. Big Orthodox Cathedrals were built during this period.
In WWII, the Hungarians re-took the region, but with Romania changing sides towards the end of the war, the Romanians were once again awarded Transylvania.
Ceausescu forbid all Hungarian language, schools, newspapers, etc. He colonized the area with hundreds of thousands of Moldavian and Wallachian laborers. He also forcibly relocated Hungarians to other parts of Romania. There is a lot of enmity between the two countries.
The 2.1 million Hungarians in Romania helped with the downfall of Ceausescu. They were led by Calvinist pastor Laszlo Tokes of Timisoara (Temesvar in Hungarian).
Kaplan loves the city of Cluj-Napoca, very beautiful.
A great quote on page 155, he was discussing an acquaintance, Nigel Townson, an English professor working at the university in Cluj. He married a Serbian and lived in an apartment in the city with his two children. In 1990 when Kaplan visited, was a time of shortages, when Romania was just coming out of the communist years. “Life wasn’t easy for Nigel, but he had a better elemental grasp of what Romanians and their country were like than any pampered foreign diplomat could ever hope to.”
“Romania was one of those places overflowing with passion, where you meet the best and the worst people…”
Ceausescu was a real tyrant and did horrible things to the majority of Romanian people. Uneducated, from the Appalachians of Romania, he ran the country like a peasant would. Carter invited him to USA during the worst of the atrocities in Romania.
Kaplan thought Marie Windsor Hohenzollern was Romania’s best ruler because she secured the seccessio of Transylvania to Romania after WWI. Slept with troops on battlefields of WWI and Second Balkan War and dressed as pagan warrior goddess of Dacia.
Ceausescu sold visas to Romanian citizens of German and Hungarian descent during his dictatorship. After oil, it was a good source of income.

A Tomb for Boris Davidović by Danilo Kiš

December 1, 2009December 1, 2009billkralovec

These are a collection of short stories set in the first half of this century. The settings include the Spanish Civil War and the Russian revolution.

One thought provoking idea is how history has been changed by people that have died that we don’t know anything about. Danilo follows these people and tells their story. I don’t want to ruin the book, but in all the stories, the main characters mostly end up dying. Methods of death are as follows:

Died of vitamin deficiency in Soviet Work Camp in 1941
Murdered during escape attempt from Russian prison after being captured in Spanish Civil War.
Survived 10 years of prison camp; no unnatural death
Murdered with crowbar by fellow prisoner after both got out of prison camp
Dived into foundary fire rather than go back to prison camp

Initially I thought about how large the prison system role played in the Soviet Union. But in thinking it over, I would guess that today in the USA, the prison system plays a larger role in our society with our stupid ‘war on drugs.’ We probably have more people behind bars percentage-wise than the old Gulag system did.

There are also a few great lines – he is a fantastic writer, even in translation.

Ireland “…for so long marked the boundary of the known world to navigators.”

…”the temporary suffering of existence is worth more than the final void of nothingness.”

“Nature gave her everything: intelligence, talent, and beauty.”

…”man is only a speck of dust in the ocean of timelessness…”

Kis has many references to events and people that I didn’t know about. He also uses uncommon vocabulary. Below are words I learned:

pellagra – A vitamin deficiency disease caused by eating corn-based diet without proteins. It was common in the US south in the 1920’s and 30’s as well as Soviet prison camps.

Ploesti – oil fields in Romania, US bombed them in WWII after Romania joined Germany

Cochin Hen – breed of chicken from China, large bird

Talmud – rabbinic discussions of Jewish law, ethics, etc.

Bukovina – region split between Ukraine and Romania

ad acta – A Latin phrase meaning on the archives (filed away as is an unsolved murder)

farrow – a litter of domestic pigs

brio – the quality of being active, spirited, alive, or vigorous – Kralovec children have lots of this!

Brest-Litvosk Peace Treaty – Signed in Belarus, marks Russia’s exit of WWI

Bolshevik – means “majority” in Russian, eventually became the communist party that founded the Soviet Union

Science Podcast

November 27, 2009November 27, 2009billkralovec

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.

You can listen to the podcast here.

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.

Latest Reading: Michael Schuman’s “The Miracle”

November 19, 2009billkralovec

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.

The Washington Post Review of the Book

BITEF

September 22, 2009September 29, 2009billkralovec

Scene from the “Blue Dragon”, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Nadia and I attended the play, “The Blue Dragon” last week. It is one of the features in the BITEF (Belgrade International Theater Festival). The Festival is as old as I am in its 43rd year. This is quite amazing considering the political tumult Belgrade and Serbia has been through since the festival started.

We thought The Blue Dragon was brilliant. The play was done by Robert LaPage, who is a Canadian playwright and director. We were enthralled with the sets and lighting. It was amazing the scene changes and how real everything looked and felt. They went from a snowy day outside to an airport terminal, inside of an apartment, to biking in the city, throughout the play. The scene above shows La Page demonstrating Chinese symbols and their meaning.

The play was set in modern China and looked at Chinese culture and society, the effects of time on love, among other themes. It made me want to visit China to see it for myself. We were also impressed with the Yugolsav Drama Theater (below).