The peace of graveyards & a vibrant, café society, historic modern town.
The French and Serbian and German WWI war cemeteries at Bitola. The Jewish cemetery. And the ‘modern’ Magnolia Square.
A remarkable Shrewsbury woman in historic Monastir / Bitola.
Here is the story, in 7 photos taken from a display in Shrewsbury, of a British woman who led a team of nurses and was killed in shelling there. Katherine Harley was a prominent suffragette. The city was called Monastir then (its Ottoman name). I recommend a visit to Bitola and the guides don’t mention these stories. They do tell you about the Serbian and French and German war graves, plus historic Ottoman and Jewish cemeteries. Those are the next photos. Shrewsbury display from the Bear Steps gallery. Larger images in gallery at the end.
Good luck to all my friends in Macedonia for the referendum on Sunday.
Good luck to all my friends in Macedonia for the referendum tomorrow. I really hope that voters vote positively for the Republic of North Macedonia and defeat the extreme nationalists on both sides who want to keep hostility between people alive. This vote is a fantastic opportunity for a country that I love to put people who want neighbours to work together first, for the benefit of all the people of the countries in the region.
Britain has longstanding historical links with Macedonia, mostly forgotten. Here is the first British consulate in Bitola, and site of the one closed a few years ago. Now the town is renowned for its cafe culture. That historic southern city was also on the frontline in World War I (the ‘Salonica front’) of British, French, Serbs and allies against the Austro-Hungarians.
Sefton Coast & Wirral more WW2 heritage neglect.
Cycling several times this Summer along the coast between Crosby and Hightown has reinforced how Sefton Council really is terrible at marking and commemorating World War II history and heritage. You can pass within yards of the gun emplacements defending the mouth of the River Mersey and have no idea that they are there. Fields just inland retain pill boxes but there is no effort to work with farmers to give access to these or mark them, explain what they were for. Nothing to see but they are actual physical reminders of that most terrible conflict and the direct effect that it had on every part of our country as well as the rest of the World. Sefton is also pretty bad on countryside access, maybe because the borough is artificially cut off from its rural West Lancashire hinterland. Hightown, a large commuter settlement in the middle of the borough is totally cut off inland from any on foot or safe cycling access to the countryside.
In Bootle (also Sefton borough) along the Leeds Liverpool canal there are some signs indicating engineering to stop flooding being caused by bomb damage during the War. These look like they were put up by British Waterways / the canal authorities, or a local regeneration initiative rather than directly by the Council. Is Sefton however worse than other boroughs in the Liverpool City Region? From cycling and walking on the Wirral it looks like Wirral is nearly as bad. There is some commemoration done by local public spirited citizens, especially the posters remembering ships bombed in the river Mersey pinned up along the Seacombe, Wallasey, New Brighton promenade. Elsewhere on the Wirral there is the same startling ignoring of World War 2 physical history. There are pill boxes guarding a key strategic bridge near the chemical works at Port Sunlight, between historic Port Sunlight and Bromborough. They are there but nothing is done to explain their significance. Surely those younger than us who were brought up on War films in the 1970s may not appreciate this. There is a prestige housing development next door, has the Wirral Council (Wirral MBC) asked if they would contribute to some upkeep and explanation? A very small but extra historic feature for visitors to Lord Lever’s model workers’ village to see.
It is only once you cross the modern administrative boundary from the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral into the South Wirral district of Neston (under the modern Cheshire West and Chester Council) that there is one really clever, innovative and welcome initiative. A war time pill box turned into a bat box. I first saw a neglected looking pill box crossing the road between Neston and Parkgate on a short walk on the Wirral Way. Turn your head to the right, towards the car park (if heading south) and there it is. I’d cycled past it several times before over some years without ever noticing the structure. A closer look – at this pill box in the actual car park – reveals that it is not neglected at all. It has been turned into a home for bats. A fantastic local environmental initiative that also both utilises and recognises one of our important parts of Second World War infrastructure. Well done to those involved.
Photos:
Explanation for cyclist at pill box photo. Cycling with my friend Dr Jon Clarkson (a World War 2 enthusiast and expert) by chance I saw for the first time this pill box slightly inland of the A565 at Formby. Local GP Jon also pointed out the dragons teeth anti-tank obstacles along the former railway line and drainage ditch at key choke points on Downholland Moss. There are a few still in place of the Quality Street like triangular concrete blocks. These sites are just over the administrative boundary of Sefton MBC into West Lancashire Council. There is no interpretation or information about the features visible.
Parkgate Bat Box. See also about the significance of the pill box location on Station Road explained on the Parkgate Heritage Trail site: http://www.parkgateheritagetrail.org/home/locations/stationroad/
For those interested there is detail on different types of anti-tank obstacle on the Pillbox Study Group site. http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/other-wwii-defensive-structures/anti-tank-obstacles/
The site is a mine (no pun intended) of useful and interesting information.
The real test for Corbyn and the Labour Left is applying the same standard to dodgy regimes that they like.
Surely the test for Corbyn and the Labour ‘Left’ is not whether they compare Israel the same as South Africa, the UK, USA, France, China or Saudi Arabia, but whether Corbyn and the Labour ‘Left’ compare Israel to Putin’s Russia, Saddam’s Iraq, Gaddafi’s Libya, Assad’s Syria, Zimbabwe, Serbia (under Milosevic), Iran, the IRA terrorists and other ideological regimes and groups that they appear to condemn less than any brutal state policies that are White capitalist State or Arab Monarchy led. Despite the Israeli State’s brutal, violent, racist, land stealing policies comparisons with Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, are simply ridiculous – those regimes and their Leaders and minions are off the scale for evil. But Jeremy Corbyn and many on the Labour authoritarian Left seem unwilling to compare their favourite repressive leaders, dictators and violent groups to the same standards that they rightly apply to the Israeli government and its actions.
I disagree that this is anti-semitism:
“• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” I agree with the right of the State of Israel to exist but it can be a valid political position to disagree with a Jewish State established by force in Palestine (just as it is historically fair to point out that the United States of America stole Texas from Mexico after a colonial war). I disagree in general with changing international borders by force because of all the problems that that brings, even though usually arbitrary borders as accidents of history bring themselves many problems. I am not a great fan of the nation state, however denying a right for people who want to be Israelis a state in Israel (excluding the settlements, occupied territories and East Jerusalem) when that state has existed for seventy years is ridiculous.
To my mind it is these points from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism and examples that the British political far Left have a problem with
• Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
• Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
The latter often by language and tone if not directly or even deliberately.
Ironically on the latter they are in company – along a spectrum of extremism – with so-called ‘Islamic’ extremists, and so-called ‘Christian’ far right racists in the US and Europe, and Russia. One thing that separates many US far right from the Russian state backed racist Eastern and Western European far right is that the US ‘evangelical’ ‘Christian’ far right is often very pro the brutal Israeli government. The Russian backed narrative is the same as the racist blame messages rife in the former Russian Empire and Soviet Union and across much of Eastern Europe “Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.” A view shared by many ‘Muslim’ racists. Just as the people of different neighbouring countries with political or popular antagonism often have very much in common, authoritarian, religious and ideological extremists do too. It is a reminder to the peace loving, friendly, tolerant majority to stand up to them all the time.
The IHRA definition of antisemitism found here
https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/sites/default/files/press_release_document_antisemitism.pdf via this page
https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/stories/working-definition-antisemitism
As at 7 September 2018.
It is worth Jewish fanatics, those who steal and occupy land with settlements, those who defend the brutal reaction of the Israeli military to peaceful protests & their use of extreme lethal force against peaceful and non-lethal assaults alike, to remember that it was a Jewish fanatic who destroyed the best chance of peace that existed with the two State initiative supported by President Yitzhak Rabin. Here was a genuine Israeli hero, a soldier and a brave politician, a Statesman, murdered by a cowardly extremist. One of the worst political crimes of our era and one that has held Israelis and Palestinians alike in hostage to violence. We should remember the courage of Yitzhak Rabin and the ability of politicians and leaders to talk to enemies and make compromises for the sake of peace.
If you’re in Zaporizhia South East Ukraine there is a great beer scene growing.
This is a review of AmBar beer bar in Zaporizhia / Zaporizhzhia, a major city in south east Ukraine. The review compares briefly with a few micro-brewery / ‘craft’ beer and brewery bars, and is the original I posted on TripAdvisor. It turns out that TripAdvisor policy is that you cannot compare places with each other, so the review must only be about the particular place. That doesn’t do justice to why I thought AmBar is the best bar in the city to try out a range of Ukrainian beers with food, so I’m posting an expanded version of the original review here.
Out of an increasing choice, this is probably the best bar in the city to try a range of mainstream and speciality Ukrainian beers, along with food. While Beer Book, recommended by American travel writer Meghan Fox and locals, is the only US/AUS/UK style craft beer bar I have found (a small three room basement bar), the beers there tend to be more extreme craft beers. The excessively hoppy or strong types favoured by ‘craft beer’ fans. On the other hand the excellent Tirlo, which does beer and food (and other drinks), has mainly mainstream national and ‘international’ branded beer, and the smart brew pub / craft brewery restaurants Pinta and out of centre Kronsbeer, do their own beer. Kronsbeer has an excellent range in its unlikely setting on a main road next to a car wash. I like bar restaurant AmBar, at Oleksandrivska, 88, behind the Palmyra mall complex, which serves probably the best range of Ukrainian styles of beer, and food that accompanies them (unlike the new small German style Limbier brewery, between the Theatre and Dubovka park, not limited to the dried fish and ‘chips’ – crisps & beer snacks). AmBar is a typical restaurant type ‘bar’ so best visited with friends. https://ambar.net.ua/ Opposite an apparently long established upmarket fish restaurant, Beluga, I’ve never noticed before. My friend and colleague Alesia introduced me to this bar, we visited twice, coming back with another University friend, and I will certainly visit again when I am next in town. The beer bars listed in my review are all expensive for Ukraine but high quality.
Locations. Pinta (traditional theme downstairs, modern glass and metal upstairs), Tirlo (beer hall size basement, sleek and modern) and Beer Book are fairly near each other to the north west (river direction) and a mile away in the centre of the main avenue. AmBar is a few miles away south east end of the Avenue near the University / Cathedral district not far from the Aurora shopping mall. Limbier (small modern brewery with a little bar where you can have a freshly poured pint or get takeaway) is about fifteen or twenty minutes walk from there, on the south west end of Troitska Street, over the tram tracks. Kronsbeer is south, on the edge of the outer Pivdenny District, about a mile from the main railway station. The best way to get between the three areas is to get someone to call a reputable taxi.
Note. Other choices are available. There are many trendy bars and restaurants – especially it seems in the Summer – along Mayakovskogo and surrounding streets but in my experience Ukrainian bars, restaurants and hotels want to sell ‘international’ branded drinks not good Ukrainian beer and wine. (An exception is the cheap and cheerful and good Puzata Khata traditional Ukrainian theme self service restaurant chain). You can also get very cheap takeaway beer – mass produced national and local and some increasingly tasty regional brews – from the numerous beer kiosks, some of which have been smartened up like those in the bigger neighbouring city of Dnipro. Or drink cheap local mass produced beer in some of the dingiest dives you’ve ever seen. Locals can tell you about those; the bars I describe are comparable to good beer bars in Western and Eastern Europe. Bastion should also get a mention here, as the first international type beer bar I found, though I don’t recommend the Carling and you will probably have to reserve a table as it is quite a small cellar when the outdoor seating is not in use, and you have to have a table. It took me several times to find it again after visiting first with a Polish and Belorussian colleagues.