Tag Archives: blog Charlemagne (c.742-814), the medieval emperor who ruled much of Western Europe from 768 to 814, dreamed of traversing the European continent, from the North Sea to the Black Sea by water. All that was needed, in theory, was a trench around 3,000 metres (9,843 ft) long, connecting the Rhine River and the Danube. In the absence of pumps, […]  How can one talk about “the people” or “the culture” of Papua New Guinea? Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world. Comprising the eastern half of the world’s second-largest island, it is home to hundreds of different ethnic groups and 852 known languages. And, who knows how many pockets […]  “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ~Berthold Auerbach I count my many blessings daily – But, some days are still harder than others. I always experience post-holiday (Christmas-New Year-Birthday) blues: a greater-than-usual melancholy that is at least in part the consequence of too much food and alcohol and too many […]  There is an irony in being able to see animals better in the wild than you can at a zoo. My husband and I had grandchildren visiting over the Christmas break, so we took the opportunity to spend a day at Sydney’s beautiful Taronga Zoo. Now, I love this particular zoo (see: A Tale of […]  Rice is absolutely central to Balinese society. In Bahasa Indonesia, the lingua franca in Bali, nasi, the word for rice, also means “meal”. But in Bali, rice is so much more than that: the whole process of growing and harvesting rice is at the very core of the island’s religion and culture. Since around 900 CE, the Balinese have followed […] |
|
