The Circus is Back in Town
You only thought the circus at Ploshad Pobedy across from the Ukraina Shopping Mall had closed down for the season. They just moved downtown in the Verhovna Rada (Parliament building). Both buildings have dome tops by the way.
Here's what has happened: Lena went to bed early last night after we got back from Egypt. I was typing or wasting time reading blogs and websites since I have been internetless for a week. Around 11:30, I saw on TV that they were broadcasting live from the parliament and people were giving flowers to Oleksandr Moroz, the head of the Socialist party. I thought: what in the world is going on? Why is he in front of parliament talking like he is in charge? And why are deputies from the Party of the Regions applauding?
Apparently, in an astonishing surprize move, Moroz decided to form a secret coalition with the Communists and the Party of the Regions right as the coalition that had just been formed with more democratic forces (the president's party and Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc) was about to vote for the Rada speaker. The so-called Orange Coalition had agreed that the candy man, Poroshenko, would be the speaker. But then came this surprize move with Moroz throwing his name in the hat. And everything just fell apart. They voted Moroz as speaker and now no one knows what to do. The Party of the Regions claims a coalition is being formed and will nominate Yanukovich as prime minister. Remember that Yanukovich was the guy who tried to steal the election which brought about the Orange Revolution of two years ago. Yulia pretty quickly, after recovering from this shock, declared that the president could dissolve the parliament and call for new elections since a government had not been formed within 30 days of the opening of parliament following the election. Yushchenko came out and said that he was considering that option. Lutsenko, the much-respected Interior minister who is probably one of the few people actually fighting corruption--and who is also a Socialist--said that he will not support a coalition with the Regions and will resign from the Socialist party if they do.
So we still don't have a government. Legislation that could very well affect the UEC and our life in Ukraine sits somewhere on a desk because we can't manage to get a government working. Elections were only in March. What's the rush????
While I was gone, Kyivenergo--the city electric company--sent us a notice that they were going to turn off the UEC's electricity because we hadn't paid our bill. Oddly, for 5 years, we have had an electric meter that requires us to pay for electricity in advance. Anyway, an inspector came today with some documents that showed we installed a new electric meter in the upstairs in November last year. Vitaly invited the inspector to find the meter. He did everything he could to find the meter. He still wasn't convinced we don't have it.
I taught tonight at our cell meeting on the conquest of Jericho and how archaeology shouldn't really help or hurt our faith. The excavations at Jericho are so interesting, and so inconclusive. What's amazing is that most books report as a fact that no one lived at Jericho when the walls came tumbling down. Which is more hubris: our belief that the Bible is right or the mind-numbing, mantra-like response of unbelief--no matter what the evidence indicates?
Kathleen Kenyon did the major work there in the 1950s. Her findings were declared many years before the final report was published several years after her death in the early 80s. She concluded no one lived in Jericho when Joshua showed up because there was no imported pottery in City IV (the Jericho of Joshua's day). Domestic pottery was everywhere but at that time, no one paid much attention to local pottery. Thirty years earlier, such imported pottery had been found in City IV but those archaeologists didn't make much of it since archaeology was still coming of age then.
But no matter what--the mantra goes--Kenyon was right, the Bible was wrong--please don't bother me with evidence, facts, arguments, details, or reasoning. I guess someday The DaVinci Code will be quoted like Kenyon's so-called findings. The truth is that there is still a lot of question about Jericho. There has been a city there for 10,000 years. I doubt archaeologists will ever be able to be very conclusive about it. Maybe we all should just be humble enough to admit that ancient history is, well, more mystery than history.
Here's what has happened: Lena went to bed early last night after we got back from Egypt. I was typing or wasting time reading blogs and websites since I have been internetless for a week. Around 11:30, I saw on TV that they were broadcasting live from the parliament and people were giving flowers to Oleksandr Moroz, the head of the Socialist party. I thought: what in the world is going on? Why is he in front of parliament talking like he is in charge? And why are deputies from the Party of the Regions applauding?
Apparently, in an astonishing surprize move, Moroz decided to form a secret coalition with the Communists and the Party of the Regions right as the coalition that had just been formed with more democratic forces (the president's party and Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc) was about to vote for the Rada speaker. The so-called Orange Coalition had agreed that the candy man, Poroshenko, would be the speaker. But then came this surprize move with Moroz throwing his name in the hat. And everything just fell apart. They voted Moroz as speaker and now no one knows what to do. The Party of the Regions claims a coalition is being formed and will nominate Yanukovich as prime minister. Remember that Yanukovich was the guy who tried to steal the election which brought about the Orange Revolution of two years ago. Yulia pretty quickly, after recovering from this shock, declared that the president could dissolve the parliament and call for new elections since a government had not been formed within 30 days of the opening of parliament following the election. Yushchenko came out and said that he was considering that option. Lutsenko, the much-respected Interior minister who is probably one of the few people actually fighting corruption--and who is also a Socialist--said that he will not support a coalition with the Regions and will resign from the Socialist party if they do.
So we still don't have a government. Legislation that could very well affect the UEC and our life in Ukraine sits somewhere on a desk because we can't manage to get a government working. Elections were only in March. What's the rush????
While I was gone, Kyivenergo--the city electric company--sent us a notice that they were going to turn off the UEC's electricity because we hadn't paid our bill. Oddly, for 5 years, we have had an electric meter that requires us to pay for electricity in advance. Anyway, an inspector came today with some documents that showed we installed a new electric meter in the upstairs in November last year. Vitaly invited the inspector to find the meter. He did everything he could to find the meter. He still wasn't convinced we don't have it.
I taught tonight at our cell meeting on the conquest of Jericho and how archaeology shouldn't really help or hurt our faith. The excavations at Jericho are so interesting, and so inconclusive. What's amazing is that most books report as a fact that no one lived at Jericho when the walls came tumbling down. Which is more hubris: our belief that the Bible is right or the mind-numbing, mantra-like response of unbelief--no matter what the evidence indicates?
Kathleen Kenyon did the major work there in the 1950s. Her findings were declared many years before the final report was published several years after her death in the early 80s. She concluded no one lived in Jericho when Joshua showed up because there was no imported pottery in City IV (the Jericho of Joshua's day). Domestic pottery was everywhere but at that time, no one paid much attention to local pottery. Thirty years earlier, such imported pottery had been found in City IV but those archaeologists didn't make much of it since archaeology was still coming of age then.
But no matter what--the mantra goes--Kenyon was right, the Bible was wrong--please don't bother me with evidence, facts, arguments, details, or reasoning. I guess someday The DaVinci Code will be quoted like Kenyon's so-called findings. The truth is that there is still a lot of question about Jericho. There has been a city there for 10,000 years. I doubt archaeologists will ever be able to be very conclusive about it. Maybe we all should just be humble enough to admit that ancient history is, well, more mystery than history.
posted by Kyivmission at 1:18 AM
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