Babje part 6
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30% of Babje’s human population:
March 9, 2008
Beyond Babje part 5
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Moral of the story:
Nowhere to hide from democracy. It will haunt you, even without television, technology – in the most primitive and blissful of paradises, the candidates will descend upon you from the beyond, manifesting their true face and message through the tent. During the white nights, the candidates gleam through.
Beyond Babje part 4
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This is how we went: Liouba and I in one kayak with our tent and clothes. Sasha harboured the two boys in his kayak. Lionja rowed the whole food supply in the rubber boat and fishing and other artillery.
Beyond Babje part 3
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pictures & text by Layla
Ira, who was expecting their fourth child, stayed at home with little Tihon (3 years old at the time). Lionja took the older two boys, Fadei (6) and Makar (5), and Sasha, Liouba (6) and I took the kayak trip on Tvertsa river.
Still fired up and ready to go.
Beyond Babje part 1
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In the summer of 2000, when we moved to Canada, our dear friends, Ira and Lionja have bought a log house in Babje, a village in the north of the Tver region.
September 12, 2007
In the footsteps of Ukrainian Nationalists
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pictures & text by Layla
On Sunday, 4th of June, Liouba and I boarded the 10 am train to Lvov at the Simferopol Central Station. The plan was to get to Budapest through Lvov/Chop/Zahon’ and also see something of Ukraine.
Once upon a time – and historically speaking not such a long time ago, too, Russia and Ukraine were constituents of Kievan Rus’ – a kingdom pulled together by Riurik, a Varangian (Scandinavian) prince. Kievan Rus’ extended all the way to Yaroslavl in the north, Nizhny Novgorod in the north east and included in its cultural and physical space Novgorod the Great, Ladoga and Pskov. Since the historical sources have always been sponsored by the powerful and thus have mostly been biased (otherwise they would neither be “authoritative”, nor “sources”, nor “historical”) so, they often praise and glorify might and wealth and we know that those qualities depend on quantities, particularly on the extent of exploitation of land, sea, sky and people. That often means that the experience and the point of view of the majority (peasants, for example) is rarely present in the accounts we read.
“Hitler did”, “Charlemagne won”, “Napoleon lost”, “Alexander the Great conquered”…
– “Really?” I sometimes tease. “HE did it all by himself! Just walked over, bullied and grabbed? Wow! Impressive!”
– “No, silly,” am usually told seriuosly. “He raised an army. He was a good strategist. A firm commander. A true leader. And so he conquered”.
Continue reading In the footsteps of Ukrainian Nationalists
August 21, 2007
The Bread and Puppet Theater (part 6)
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The Bread and Puppet Theater (part 5)
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pictures & text by Layla
After the Dances we headed under the barn for a hidden stage. The morbid youth promised a tale of macabre realities and warned that children might not appreciate the spectacle. The Call of Ctulhu promised to expose the dark secrets of Vermont.
Although both shows (the Dances and this) were explicitly described as not child-friendly, I noticed that many people in the audience (including myself) brought along children. Of course, in attachment-parenting situations where do you leave your child? Yet, I noticed how, regardless of age, these children knew perfectly well that this was “play” and trusted their parents, confident in that they would not be exposed to real danger. The children caught on the humour and I heard their astute comments on the allegorical nature of the “horror” show. “It’s the adults who are really scared, because they do get scared so much more easily”. And they are right. Perhaps it is the knowledge of our guilt, where often times we feel overcome by the reality our fellow humans have come to create and in which we, regardless of our intention to resist, succumb in participation. Probably, that is our true horror. But kids; they’re not fully in it yet. Liouba ran off with other children – away from parents to occupy the first row.
The beginning of the tale
The Bread and Puppet Theater (part 4)
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pictures & text by Layla
Delivery of masks and costumes to the New Building
Entrance to the barn stage in the New Building
