The most touching thing I saw in Minsk

This was a small man-made island called the Island of Courage and Sorrow at a wide place in the river where a small chapel had been built surrounded by statues of women most with their hands in prayer for their husbands, fathers, sons or brothers in Afghanistan. One woman’s hands were covering her face in grief and another was holding a baby. Brezhnev had sent the troops there and then died in the first year of the ensuing 10 year war.

As an American this scene was particularly touching since we aided the local tribes to fight back and then armed some with hand held missiles which shot down Soviet helicopters helping bring the war to a close. See the movie” Charlie Wilson’s war” with Tom Hanks playing the Congressman.

Many people came to visit this island while I was there. Juliet said her father had served in Afghanistan but had come back alive. This was very moving for me. To have been on the side trying to get the Soviets out, while walking with a woman whose dad was trying to win the war for the Soviets.

The war was not that long ago so many people who visit the island have personal memories.

And then one of the tribesmen we had trained (Bin Laden) thanked us on 9/11 by bringing down the World Trade Center and we thanked him by killing him in Pakistan.

1/14/2015 Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.A. So that’s my report, Cathy.

RESOURCES

“# EUROMAIDAN: History in the Making”, Osnovy Publishing ISBN 978-966-500-355-7 2014

My file of news clips on Ukraine from a variety of newspapers: Washington Post; Wall Street Journal; The Sacramento Bee; Kyiv Weekly; Kyiv Post and Financial Times

“Lonely Planet: Ukraine” 4^th edition May, 2014

“Lonely Planet: Eastern Europe” 12^th edition October, 2013

Report of Keith F. Mulrooney, Local Government Administration, City of Orhei, Republic of Moldova. February, 1994

Human Resources Management Workshop, Presented by LGI, Albena, Bulgaria. December 2-6, 1996

The Applicability of Western Models of Public Administration and Political Institutions to Post-Communist Countries

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