Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 09:43:12 -0400
From: roger <pelecat-AT-bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: do we give a fuck...




Erik wrote:

> So all this talk about Serbs and Kosovars and Krauts and Rednecks is so
> tiring. We are anarchists : we can't let ourselves be defined by what the
> governments of the countries we live in stand for.
>
> Ofcourse it's easier to think that way.
> In cas some people wonder about "Kosov-AT-". It was used by peace activists to
> indicate that Kosovo and Kosova are the same region. Ofcourse since peace
> never got a chance, who cares....
>
> Erik

your point is well taken.  i think, Erik, that one difficulty is the
misinformation concerning the region in general and kosova in particular.
albanians and slavs, orthodox and catholic, christian and muslim, all have
lived together for centuries without bloodshed.  there has been amazingly
LITTLE inter-community strife in this region on the local level.  and that
state of affairs has only been de-stabilized over the past 100-150 years, due
obviously to the decline of the turkish empire.  i'm not saying that turkish
rule was a paradise, far from it.  but it also wasn't a totalitarian police
state as some would have us believe.  it's very tiresome to hear criticism of
the poor old ottomans.  it's true that i wouldn't have wanted to live in such a
repressive political state, but i note that a lot more christians and jews
resided safely in the turkish and arab world for centuries without a single
Holocaust.  the virus of nationalism is, largely, a recent and foreign invader
to the balkans.

i'm particularly depressed today, because the greatest tragedy of the whole
affair has just been brought to my attention:  some asshole bombed the Yugo
factory!  i'm shocked, SHOCKED I SAY, that such an atrocity could be allowed.
where i grew up, in the mountains of appalachia, we like to set our cars up on
cinder blocks in the front yard after they quit running.  as soon as they rust
out, you take off the hood (bonnet) and it makes a dandy planter.  Yugo's were
a godsend; they quit running and rusted out quicker than any car ever made.
the lada of the balkans.  why, god, why?  how could you let this happen?

ok. i'll deal.  i guess i'll just have to give some more financial support i
can to those nasty old drug-dealing kosovars.

roger