Guest Speaker Eric Dabbs guides us through Ukraine's history, Emma's memorable weekend with fellow exchange students and an Appeal from Charity begins with Me...

 From the Pen of the President....

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

Beautiful rain – some would say too little, some will say too much!! While thousands are affected by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, thousands are also affected closer to home in Mozambique. Roads and bridges closed in the Kruger National Park. The Rotary Clubs in 9400 are donating money and collecting goods to send to Maputo. Please spare a thought for the residents of the city who have been without fresh water for some days and a spread of cholera is feared. The situation has occurred in a matter of days. Keep all affected in your thoughts and prayers.

It is at times like this that people ask how they can help – please contact me if you have any ideas, donations can be targeted. Bearing in mind that we are stronger together!

Have a great week.

Ann

Last Friday....

...our guest speaker was Eric Dabbs, certainly  no stranger to our Club, who gave us a riveting presentation. 

Since his retirement as Professor of Genetics in 2011 Eric Dabbs has travelled to 101 countries and has meticulously researched the history (and pre-history) of these countries. 

 He grew up in Surrey, south east of England and has always achieved academically – his academic qualifications are from Kent University, through Cambridge University and culminated in Harvard University where he received his PhD.

The topic of today’s talk was on the History of Ukraine (which means ‘borderlands’). 

Who knew anything of Ukraine before the recent historical events? We may have been aware of the Great Famine of the 1930's and that USSR premier Nikita Krushchev hailed from Ukraine and we would have heard about the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Eric filled in the gaps in our knowledge of Ukraine’s rich and interesting history.

At the start Eric gave us statistics on Ukraine: it is a country of 43 million (South Africa is 57 million); the average life expectancy is 72years (South Africa’s is 67 and Germany is 82) and the GDP Purchasing Power Parity figure (USD) is 11.6, compared to Romania (which was also previously in the Soviet Bloc) at 40.2; Germany at 59.1  and South Africa at 19.3 (Source: ‘CIA FACTS’, 2022).

Some highlights of this captivating talk were:

·         that the first people in the area were Neanderthals (45 000 to 55000 years ago) and showed how the society had gradually changed to become agrarian.

·        Interestingly, earlier than Stonehedge, around the year 4000BC, in Ukraine, there was the relatively wealthy and sophisticated culture of  Cuouteni-Trypil  that had cities of 3000 dwellings each with around 20 000 people. An interesting fact was that, according to Ruth Tringham, in a ritual ‘cleansing,’ all the houses in those cities were burned to the ground every 60-80 years. Marija Gimbutas, a historian, hypothesized that this matriarchal society of Cuouteni- Trypillian was later replaced by a patriarchal society with classes based on wealth (as indicated by rectangular burial mounds).

·        Around 3500 BC the factor which changed the course of history in Europe (including Ukraine) was the domestication of horses (We know this from cave paintings). The increased mobility and speed of the horse-mounted warriors gave them the upper hand.

·       The Vikings arrived in the area, rowing large warships. A Muslim ambassador who went to the Volga via Ukraine, described with horror that the people of the area were tall, fair, filthy, drunk, immoral and worst of all cremated their dead by setting a boat containing the corpse alight. This fits our image of Vikings well! 

·      Around 370AD The area was populated by the Huns. Curiously, the elite families of the Huns deformed the skulls of the babies. This same anomaly was found in the Mayan culture of South America. The most famous Hun was, of course, Atilla the Hun. The DNA of the Huns reveals that they were a mix of Mongol and West Asians. The Huns were transient – after 100 years, they moved out of the Ukraine area. There were “waves”  of Asiatic Nomadic peoples in this area in the years that followed.

Ar

 T   The Slavs were largely polytheistic, worshipping a chief god Perun.  However Vladimir, the leader of the Slavs in 980AD, adopted Christianity. The result was that the elite became literate, and the new religion was reflected in architecture and in art, primarily icons.

·        Around 1162 Genghis Khan  invaded Ukraine. His armies were ruthless, killing mercilessly. The invasion by the Mongols created the vast Mongol empire. His son succeeded him as leader, but Genghis Khan’s grandson divided the Mongolian Empire into four, and it disintegrated. Fortunately in the Far North-west area of Ukraine, the Slav people were not impacted by the Mongolian invasion. Their leader was Alexander Nevsky and in 1242, he took control but he grovelled to the Mongols and the nation survived!

·    The two Ivan's in Ukraine history were Ivan the Great (iii) and Ivan the Terrible (iv) who killed one of his sons, and the remaining son who succeeded him was an ineffective and weak leader and so the dynasty ended.

·        In the 1700s the Romanov dynasty came to power; there were two notable leaders – Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. At this time, Crimea became part of Russia, but was re-united to Ukraine later.

·         Ukraine, Eric told us, has only had two periods of independence, immediately after the end of the first World War and in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union when  Ukraine became an  independent country.

Eric had researched the history of Ukraine in great depth and the talk was fascinating! It would be wonderful if Eric’s knowledge and research of Ukraine and of other related topics could be captured into a more permanent form such as in videos, podcasts or books, although he has made PowerPoint slides. 

We look forward to hearing Eric present to the Rotary Club again.

 

 Emma makes more Memories....

Last weekend Emma and other long term Rotary Exchange students staying in various parts of Germany met for a memorable skiing adventure in the ski resort of Oberwiesenthal, which is situated on the Czech border less than 3 hours from Weißwasser.

There were exchange students from all parts of the World: France, USA, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and of course Emma representing South Africa.

She reports:

* A meet-and-greet on Friday afternoon, where they built a snowman and then had a good old fashioned snowball fight.

* Two Argentinians Tiziano and Pablo and Emma tried to figure out how to make a fire so that they could have a braai (or asada as they would call it in Argentina).

* That night they went for a walk with burning torches to watch the lights of the neighbouring villages.

* Saturday morning was an early start so that they could attempt the baby slopes. None of them had ever skied beforehand, so they all battled on together.

* Carnival was also in full swing, so they took part in the festivities and only got to bed very late.

* The next day they were all very tired and stiff from their first ski attempts, but they persevered.

* They then took a cable car to the highest "mountain" in Saxony (all of 1000 meters above sea level) at minus 9 degrees Celsius. It was amazing and something she will never forget.

* After that they drank Glühwein and sat around a fire and watched the stars.

No doubt friendships for life were forged that weekend.

Speaking of forging, Emma also attended a Rotary meeting where she was taught to forge.

An Appeal from Charity Begins With Me....

Stephan Ferreira tirelessly and singlehandedly  tries to make a difference and we can assist him to reach his goal. 

New project!!

Winter is fast approaching and I want to make sure all my children have something warm to wear. Many children living in informal settlements walk around with old, worn out clothing.

My goal is to collect 1500 jerseys, jackets, long sleeve tops, or even long sleeve pj's.

(Other clothing items also welcome.)

Please take some time this week / weekend and clean out those closets.

Drop off in Fairland, JHB or send to us via PostNet.

Collection ends 31 March 2023.

Please WhatsApp if you can help.

Stephan

072 5933 866

This Friday...

....join us at Wanderers or on Zoom for our monthly business meeting.