When the Soviet Union fell in 1991 it was the first time in over 50 years that outsiders were able to visit the topic of this episode of Fun with Maps, Kamchatka.
Kamchatka is a 900-mile-long peninsula roughly the size of California, yet only 400,000 people were allowed to live there, and all had to have special military clearances. The reason for the secrecy was Kamchatka's location so near Japan and the US that Soviets could listen in on communications during the Cold War.
Kamchatka is an example of a map having enormous geopolitical implications. Russia may have regrets about ceding the Kuril Islands to Japan, not to mention selling Alaska to the US in 1867. Had they not, how those events may have influenced history we will never know.
Every November, The Cleveland and Parma Ukrainian communities, along with Ukrainian communities and allies around the world, commemorate the victims of the Ukrainian-Famine Genocide of 1932-1933.
The United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio, led by Marta Liscynesky-Kelleher and George Jaskiw, M.D., held a remembrance ceremony on Saturday, November 13, 2021 at the Holodomor Memorial at St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma Ohio.
The program included presentations from youth groups and a service (panakhyda) for the repose of the souls of the deceased.
The Cleveland Museum of Art's highly anticipated exhibition, Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia's Sacred Mountain opened November 14, 2021. The groundbreaking exhibition incorporates mixed reality and reveals the CMA's newly restored Cambodian masterwork, Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan, through an integration of art and experiential digital design.
According to Sanskrit texts, Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, once hoisted a mountain overhead to shelter people and cattle from a mighty storm brought upon them by Indra, the god of rain and lightning, whom Krishna had angered. At the time, the dark-skinned god was just eight years old, and after this feat, his fellow villagers came to recognize him as a divinity. Around the year 600, a sculpture was created for the temple site of Phnom Da in southern Cambodia to honor this feat.
Watch Dan Hanson's video preview of the exhibit which includes comments from Sonya Rhie Mace, CMA's George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art who speaks about the participation of actress Angelina Jolie among other items. It also takes a look at the incredible HoloLens 2 virtual reality tour which includes a life-size holographic representation of the original cave temple on Phnom Da.
At the Cleveland Asian Festival several years ago Marine Brigadier General Daniel D. Yoo (Korean heritage) spoke about the contributions of Asian-Americans in the Marine Corps and other services and singled out 3 Asian-American military heroes. It’s worth at watch.
