10 Leaders with their country in their name

1. Jomo Kenyatta, first president of Kenya. He took the surname (“Light of Kenya”) when in London in the 1930s.
2. Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, king of Saudi Arabia, or any of his predecessors back to Muhammad bin Saud, who ruled 1726–1765.

3. ‏Pierre Mendès France, prime minister of France, June 1954 to February 1955.

4. Solomon Mamaloni, prime minister of the Solomon Islands three times between 1981 and 1997. 

5. Alexander Dubček. First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, 1968-69. Although he was actually a Slovak.

6. Ulysses S Grant, President of the United States, 1869-77.

7. Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India, 1980-84.

8. ‏Giorgi Margvelashvili, president of Georgia.

9. Salvador Sanchez Ceren, president of El Salvador.
10. King Mswati III, and his predescessors, King of eswatini (Swaziland).

Day Off Week 46 2019

A fairly typical day off this week. I read the new Private Eye and the newspaper over coffee. There was some transferring of files from one computer to another and some blog work. I also finished two books I might have mentioned, Michael Messenger on Elgar and Laurence Binet's novel come reportage - very interesting style (a bit of a pain in places) - on Reinhard Heydrich and his assassins. Also some TV later.

10 Republics of various sorts

1. Plato's Republic - Socratic dialogue by Plato (c 380 BC) about justice, the order and character of the just city-state and the just man.

2. Dominican Republic - Country in the Caribbean

3. Banana Republic - Fashion chain owned by Gap.

Also used to refer to describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent on the exportation of a limited-resource product, such as bananas or minerals. In 1901, American author O. Henry coined the term to describe Honduras and its neighbours under economic exploitation by US corporations, such as the United Fruit Company

4. Coffee Republic - Coffee chain

5. OneRepublic - American pop rock band formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2002

6. Constitutional Republic - a form of indirect democracy where the represenatives are elected and the rules set down in a written constitution. It is often simply called a "republic". The head of state and other representatives are elected. They do not have uncontrolled power.

7. People's Republic - a title used by some sovereign states with republican constitutions. The term was initially associated with populist movements in the 19th century (ege German Völkisch movement and Narodniks in Russia). A number of the short-lived states created during WWI and its aftermath called themselves people's republics. Many of these were in the territory of the former Russian Empire which collapsed following the Russian Revolution. 1917. Additional people's republics were created following the Allied victory in WWII. The term has become associated with countries adhering to Marxism–Leninism, although its use is not unique to such states.

8. Pizza Republic - Pizza chain

9. Weimar Republic - Germany's government 1919-1933, the period after WWI until the rise of Nazi Germany. It was named after the town where Germany's new government was formed by a national assembly after Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated.

10. Urban Republic - Clothing chain

Trdelnik

According to Wikipedia Trdelník is found in several Central European countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, etc).

The word trdelník is of either Czech or Slovak origin. Nowadays, it is very popular among tourists as a sweet pastry in the Czech Republic. A modern version, with fillings such as ice cream, has been spreading in popularity from its origin in Prague. We had one filled with fresh fruit and ice cream with a chocolate spread topping.

The version made in the Slovak town of Skalica - Skalický trdelník was registered in December 2007 as PGI (protected geographical indication) in the European Union. The registration application with the detailed description of the product was published in April 2007 in the Official Journal of the European Union. The original recipe was brought to Skalica at the end of the 18th century by the Transylvanian cook József Gvadányi, a retired Hungarian general. The original recipe was later improved by the inhabitants of Skalica to its final form now known as Skalický trdelník.

The civil association Skalický trdelník was founded at the end of 2004 with the goal of keeping the tradition of the original open fire Trdelník production. The name trdelník comes from trdlo (originally a wooden tool for pounding or stamping materials in a stoupa, a hollowed-out log), the wooden stake the cake is wrapped around for cooking which gives it its traditional hollow shape.

Trip to Prague

It's been a bit quiet here recently as my wife and I have been away together to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversarry. We decided to go to Prague for a couple of days, an unknown for us but we had an excellent time walking around sightseeing and taking a trip on the river. We had a nice enough hotel not too far from the centre and managed to see quite a bit on a fairly low budget. We also enjoyed a tram ride and the metro. We learned about trdelnik and enjoyed one each. More on that next time.

10 newest countries in the world

1. South Sudan: On July 9, 2011, after ending the war against the Arabic northern part of Sudan in Africa, the southern part declared its independence. The country is currently in turmoil as a civil war has instigated a large-scale famine and displaced around 10% of the total population.

2. Kosovo: Kosovo has long been a troubled territory at the southern end of Serbia. The United Nations has been administering the country since 1990 after the then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic called the army back from Kosovo. The country declared its independence on February 17, 2008.

3/4. Serbia and Montenegro: Till 2006, the two countries were part of a union and were called Serbia-Montenegro. But Montenegro decided to end its ties with Serbia and declared its independence on May 21, 2006. The country's economic and political states have been stable and prosperous so far .

5. East Timor: East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, was once a small part of Indonesia. The island, which is south of the Banda Sea, declared its independence on May 20, 2002. Due to its huge oil reserve, the country has seen large-scale development and has been acknowledged by the World Bank as a rapidly progressing country.

6. Palau: Language became a barrier for Palau stopping otfrom being a part of the larger Micronesia. The cultural difference among other Micronesian states and Palau was so great that it decided to become an independent country from October 1, 1994. Palau comprises 250 small islands and is known for its tourism.
7. Eritrea: Just over 6 million people live in this small country north of Ethiopia in Africa. Eritrea was declared as an autonomous region under the Ethiopian federation in 1952. However, the Ethiopian government continued to treat it as a dependent part. This triggered a 30-year-long civil war. On April 27, 1993, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front toppled the Ethiopian forces and declared the country's independence

8/9. Czech Republic and Slovakia: People of both the countries welcomed the year 1993 in a unique way. On January 1 that year, the parliament of Czechoslovakia divided the country into two parts. Both the countries have flourished economically after the "Velvet Divorce", a term for the split as it happened "smoothly" after the Velvet Revolution dissolved Yugoslavia: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovenia got introduced to the world as independent nations when Yugoslavia was dissolved in 1992.

10. Micronesia: Previously known as the Caroline Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia is a nation north of Australia, which comprises thousands of small islands. Until September 17, 1991, the archipelago or group of islands was administered by the United States. Fishing is the primary livelihood of the nation.

10 European Bible Translators

1. Martin Luther (German)
2. William Tyndale (English)
3. Robert Olivetan (French)
4. Jan Blahoslav (Czech)
5. Francysk Skaryna (Russian)
6. Giovanni Diodati (Italian)
7. Casiodoro de Reina (Spanish)
8. Jan Seklucjan (Polish)
9. Laurentius Andreae (Swedish)
10. William Morgan (Welsh)

CYSK 17 Jan Blahoslav

http://www.simonak.eu/index.php?stranka=pages/h_k/2_20.htm

Jan Blahoslav (1523 – 1571) was a Czech humanist writer, poet, translator, etymologist, hymnographer, grammarian, music theorist and composer. He was a Unity of the Brethren bishop. He translated the New Testament from Greek into Czech in 1568. This was incorporated into the Bible of Kralice (1588). Born in Přerov, Moravia, he studied theory under Listenius and Hermann Finck at Wittenberg from 1544. There he got to know Luther and Melanchthon. After a short period at Mladá Boleslav (1548, 49) he continued his education at Königsberg and Basle. He was a fine linguist who strove to preserve the purity of his native tongue. He was ordained at Mladá Boleslav, 1553 and became a bishop, 1557. In the following year he established himself at Ivančice, where before long he installed a printing press. Towards the end of his life he moved to Moravský Krumlov, where he died, aged 49. He wrote what is believed to be the first book on music theory in the Czech language in 1558. It is derivative, using the writings of Listenius, Finck, Ornithoparchus and Coclico but Blahoslav wrote two entirely new sections for the second edition giving critical and practical advice to singers and choirmasters, and guidance to hymn composers. He was the chief editor of the Pisně duchowni ewangelistské (1561), known as the Szamotuły Kancionál, which contains 735 hymn texts, 52 by Blahoslav, and more than 450 tunes, including a number drawn from secular sources and eight which he may have composed himself. He has been greatly esteemed for his translation of the New Testament. His work influenced Jan Amos Komenský.

John Blahoslav

While I was at Banner I bumped into a Czech brother I know (This is a description not his denomination). He passed on a copy of John Blahoslav - Sixteenth Century Moravian Reformer. It is by an American theologian based in the Czech Republic called Marshall T Brown. It is only short book and I have now read it and enjoyed it. Blahoslav is a sort of Luther or Tyndale figure. He is behind not only the traditional Protestant New Testament (as found in the Kralicke Bible) but also a Czech grammar, a book on preaching and a hymn book, to which he contributed not only on the words front but musically too. It is wonderful to hear about a Christian I had never heard of and how God used him in his own context in his own time to achieve great things, recognised by Czechs in general but especially by the believers. It would be nice to see other books on pioneer translators, certainly if they are written as well as this one, which seems to get a good balance between being scholarly and popular. The one thing that might have been nice to see (if it is possible) was some concrete examples of how Blahoslav shaped the Czech tongue. The book, though in English, might be hard to get hold of. It is advertised here in the USA and can be had from Amazon in Germany I notice. The book contains some nice illustrations at the end.