Slide-stack of Odesa: July 2022

Slide-stack of Odesa: July 2022

• 1.
  Photographs of Odesa, Ukraine 11jul22 IfOdesa really is the ‘Pearl on the Black Sea’, she is the product of several oysters (i.e., Ukrainians, Turks, Greeks, Russians et al.)
• 3.
  1st things 1st:to the obvious. The port is closed and the idle ships look like sorrowful symbols of siege warfare. No Russian navy ships in sight out to the horizon (i.e., ¿ten miles?).
• 4.
  These images may seemfrivolous, but they surely warmed my heart toward the remarkable resilience of Ukrainians. Talk to young and old alike, however, and there is the tension that life could turn very ugly in a day. Also, detectable is a resentment that the Putin’s invasion has made mapping out one’s life impossible. ‘NEMO’ Hotel, Aquarium and board-walk ¡lndiana Jones!
• 5.
  This girl ofseven or eight years old appears to be the poster-child for Odesa. Though the color of her hair changes slightly in some of the bill- boards and bills pasted on telephone poles and walls, she conjures up a mix of a Viking past with her fair complexion and blonde hair, together with the darker eyes of a Turk and, perhaps, some Slavic tone to her features. In the good-will picture I recognize Jennifer Anniston and Richard Branson. But . . . ¿who are the others? As elsewhere, Odesa loves her wall-murals
• 6.
  Odesa, like other Ukrainian cities,wears her spiritual life on her sleeve. Clockwise from top-left: ➢ a mosque; ➢ A Greek Orthodox church; ➢ The R.C. Cathedral; and, ➢ a thousand year old monastery.
• 7.
  In Odesa, likeKyiv and Kharkiv, the Great Patriotic War, is never too far away. The memorial wall to the right is one of several around the cultural city-centre of Odesa. The monument on the left, evidently built in 1960, reminds me of the one in Kyiv, except that it abuts the shore- line of the Black Sea. The marble head-stones down each side commemorate heroes – of Ukraine or Odesa, I know not which – of the ghastly war from 1941-45.
• 8.
  Odesa has beautiful cultural facilitiesand streets. Though l have not seen any buildings damaged from Russian shelling that I can discern, a significant portion of the neighborhoods l encountered had, sadly, slipped into decrepitude.
• 9.
  Is it timefor Ukraine hold the line in Donbass to free up troops and punch a hole in the land-bridge to Crimea? Doing so would likely entail fighting a guerrilla war in Donbass.
• 10.
  COLLAGE of LVIV [1] and[1a] represent two different angles of the central square dominated by the town hall. The sign appeals for the release of Mariupol survivors. [2], [2a], and [2b] portray a restored church and monastery built some eight hundred years ago. Though now Ukrainian Orthodox, the ceiling fresco seems more traditionally R.C. [3] is one of many traditional churches with its stained-glass windows protected. [4] is the ‘Temple’ of Saint John the Baptist, originally dating back a millennium. [6oops] represents a 17th century armory, now museum.