Sunday, August 26, 2007

The "(not-so) Loyal Opposition" finally takes notice!

You may recall that a while back, I did a post on a Pro-Serbian National(Social)ist blog I'd discovered from The Land Down Under called The Serb Liberation Blog, which featured a two-part screed called The Serb Liberation Manifesto, which I re-posted here for all the world to see.

Well, seems that somehow or another, our "(not-so) Loyal Opposition" has started to sit up and take notice of this blog, and believe it or not, I actually consider that to be a good thing. Why? Because I want the "Haters" to know I'm out there. I want them to know that I am helping work to expose them and what they really are and really have in mind to the whole world. A check of my counter stats shows that someone affiliated with Julia Gorin's website has visited, so evidently she's aware we're around. And by some means, our new "friend" Zlatan Vrabac, owner, propriator, and chief cook and bottle washer at The Serb Liberation Blog has discovered us, too. And, guess what, folks? He even dedicated a post on his blog to us! (Ain't that sweet of him!)

Well, of course, you know that such "kindness" can't go unrewarded, so in return, I've decided to fisk, er, respond to Zlatan's comments about us.

ZV: "Well its good to know that my words have reached someone; albeit the wrong kind of someone."

ARC: Well, if you're happy, I'm happy, mate. :D Of course, if you didn't want everyone, including your "opposition", to be able to read your blog (and by extention, make known it's contents), you should have made it a private one. Blogger will let you do that, you know. And of course I'm going to make known what you write in your blog, just as I will make known what any Serbian or Greek National(Social)ist writes in their blog, if I feel that the rest of the world (including the Albanian community) should be and/or needs to be made aware of it. That's a primary part of the raison d'etre for this blog.

ZV: "I shall not bother rebutting his accusations of me being a Nazi for I do not think that I showed any Nazi ideals in my 2 part manifesto or that my manifesto is anything like the Mein Kampf even though I have not read it; though it is obvious that our Albanian (he is apparently 101% Albanian in his heart and in his soul but is not genetically) friend has."

ARC: LOL....OMG....where do I begin? Well, first of all, I didn't directly accuse you of being a Nazi, Zlatan (if anything, I compared the way your ambitions came off as being more like the Symbionese Liberation Army). What I did do was compare your screed, er, manifesto's general tone and tenor to that of Herr Hitler's little "opus". But as far as whether you showed any "ideals" that resembled Nazism, well, how about a few examples....

We, the Serb people, cannot allow the injustices against us to go unpunished. We have suffered tremendously. We have faced things that few other nationalities have faced

The Serbs will unite one day; the question is if by then the Serb population will be 12 million or 12 thousand. Sooner or later those who continue to test our patience will answer to our revenge of reason.

We must also except that we may have allies through blood and faith but ultimately we cannot rely on them or anyone but ourselves.

We must identify those who wish us harm and prosecute them in our own way; independently from any national or international court.
And here's a really choice one, Zlatan, one that shows just how much you "Godly Christian Serbs" believe in democracy, freedom of speech, fighting fair....you know, all those things the Americans that you claim to be of all the Balkan peoples to be most like believe in.

We must identify the propaganda against us and destroy it. If the propaganda is in the form of a page in a book; we must rip out that page and destroy it! If the propaganda is in the form of a book; we must destroy that book! If the propaganda is in the form of a website; we must sap their bandwidth! We must fight anyway we can! We must struggle anyway we can!

And last but not least, how about this?

We must appear faceless to the enemy. They, the enemy, must fear all Serbs if they do not at least respect all Serbs. They must understand why we fight and struggle. We must educate those who are willing to listen. We must make Serbophobia a word as common as any other. For the enemy is sub-consciously Serbophobic if they are not openly.
I could post more of them, but I've already posted the whole text once, so why waste space doing it again? Now maybe those statements do not scope exactly with what Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf on a literal basis, but they sure as hell at the very least are similar in spirit and intent. I realise that your sense of "INAT" would never in a million years let you stand away from yourself and see what you've written as others might, but if by some miracle you could, maybe you would see what others who do not share your point of view (i.e. most of the rest of the planet) see, which is that your "manifesto" comes across exactly for what it is: A rambling, paranoid, hate-filled set of musings from someone who has bought into a "bully" mentality.

And as far as my reading Mein Kampf goes, why yes, I have read it (albeit a long time ago). (And BTW, it's just "Mein Kampf", not "the Mein Kampf". And no need to thank me for the English grammar lesson-the pleasure was all mine!) And Marx and Engles' "The Communist Manifesto", and Ayn Rand's "Philosophy: Who Needs It?", and a whole lot of other stuff that I don't necessarily agree with. It's called "being well rounded". You should really try it some time, Zlatan. Of course, people who are able to read opposing, and even down right evil viewpoints and philosophies also tend to be secure in their own viewpoints to begin with. It is usually only the immature and insecure who stick only to those things they agree with to begin with. As far as my relation with the Albanian people goes, the only people who I care what they think about it is them. You and everybody else I couldn't care less about.

ZV: "I think it should be noted that if a Serb shows themselves to be even remotely nationalist then they are automatically labelled as a Nazi by everyone who lacks half a brain."

ARC: Well, I guess to be fair, I should point out that to me, ALL "Nationalism" (as opposed to "Patriotism"), is a priori "National(Social)ism. Period. I consider Nationalism in any way, shape, form, and/or fashion it may exist to be dangerous-almost always to those who are outside the group in question expressing the nationalism, and ALWAYS to those within the group, eventually. It may not emulate exactly the German variety of National Socialism, nor need it be economically "Socialist" (witness Pinochet's or Franco's regimes) but it always has at least some qualities in common with it. Now I alluded above to the fact that I believe there's a difference between Patriotism and Nationalism. Here's a short "thumbnail" sketch, colloquially expressed, of what the differences are IMO. Admittedly it may suffer from over simplification (plus there are those who might disagree with the terms and nomenclature used, for example, what I call "Nationalism", my frequent contributor to this site, Francois, calls "false nationalism"), but I do believe it is in the main accurate.

Patriotism="I love my country!" or even "My country is the best!"
Nationalism="My country rules, and yours sucks!'
Then we graduate to the more extreme forms, which go even beyond the description of "Jingoism", and which can be expressed by "We rule, you suck; and in fact, you suck so bad as a people, and are so unworthy of a country of your own, that we are going to conquer it, annihilate or deport all of your kind, and take it over for ourselves, because we deserve to have it instead of you, and because we can!"

So I'm opposed to "Nationalism" to begin with. But above and beyond that, I find that even from a pure historical standpoint, even divorcing my own feelings from my relationship with the Albanian community, I believe that the legacy of Serbian National(Social)ism (the thing that gave us WW I among other things, remember?) is every bit as dangerous as German National Socialism, and far more pernicious and tenacious. And hence I am committed among other things to its exposure and eventual destruction.

Finally Zlatan, I want to thank you for giving us more exposure and publicity, even though that was not your intent I'm sure. And as I said above, I'm hoping that eventually EVERY Serbian and Serb supporter who shares your opinions will know about us eventually, too! And of course that those who are "on the fence", or misguided, or undecided as to how they feel about Kosova, will take it as an opportunity to come here and check us out and get "The Real Truth". Oh, and also I noticed you decided to copy my style of doing the links to other sites too. Well, I guess as the old saying goes, "If you're going to steal, steal from the best", right? As far as my being a "Serbophobe" goes, I guess I don't really see it. I mean, I'm not afraid of Weird Al Yankovic, or Karl Malden, or Natasha Kandic (though I'm sure you and those like you are afraid of her), or Fr. Sava Janjevic, or anyone like that. But if by it you mean that I am someone who detests Serbian National(Social)ism as epitomised by people like Vasa Cubrillovic, Vojislav Seslj, Nikola Velirimovic, Arkan, Vojislav Kostunica, etc., and believes it needs to be annihilated totally, completely, and utterly off the face of the planet for the good of all, not the least being the Serbs and their own future, then not only am I one, but am proudly so!

9 comments:

Vincent Jappi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vincent Jappi said...

"Zlatan Vrabac" supposedly means "a golden sparrow": those people just can't help lying.

Peshkatari said...

Thanks for the heads up on this joker, Francois. :) Knowing that he's using a pseudonym, I don't feel so bad about doing what I originally had in mind to do: Refer to him as "Satan Vrabac"! :D

Albiqete said...

Great response peshkatari
Way to go brother
You are a quiet storm
bravo

Zlatan Vrabac said...

My name is actually Zlatan Vrabac, it is a name from the Bosnian region; I would thank you not to poke fun at it. I am also not a propagandist for the Christians seeing as how I am not a Christian or Christian sympathizer. But enough about me.

I think its ironic that you should speak about how much you hate “national(social)ists” yet you have made no effort in addressing Albanian national(social)ism and the destruction it has caused in Kosovo; why is that I wonder? Also WW1 was caused because Austria-Hungry annexed Bosnia when they signed an international agreement promising that they wouldn’t. Those of Young Bosnia were anarchists and not “national(social)ists”. And lastly; it is Kosovo and not Kosova.

Zlatan Vrabac said...

As for liking Weird Al; perhaps you should see the lyrics to “Albuquerque” and then search the word “Albanian”.

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Albuquerque-lyrics-Weird-Al-Yankovic/2B0585BD44A84AC74825690E0013F044

Peshkatari said...

Zlatan,

First off, I never said I *liked* or was a fan of Weird Al-I only said I wasn't afraid of him/did not hate him (however you wish to define the word "phobe"). His stuff is OK-I'll grant, his spoofs of contemporary pop songs and culture are fairly clever and amusing, but that's about as far as my interest in him or his music goes, generally speaking.

As to his song "Albuquerque" and the Albanian reference? Big deal. That song was from an album he released in '99. Given that there's such a thing in the music business as what's called "lag time", plus the fact that songwriters often write songs years before they'll show up on an album, he could just as well have simply picked Albania as what would fit lyrically.

Also he might have picked it, admittedly, because at that time, in the minds of most Americans, Albania was one of those countries that was basically a real-life synonym for "Ruritania". About all people knew about it prior to '98-'99, was that it spent almost 50 years under a particularly hard-assed form of Stalinism, and that in '97, most of the people in the country, unaccustomed to the ins and outs of Capitalism, lost most of the their money in 3 pyramid schemes which all collapsed at the same time, plunging the country into temporary chaos. And that was about it. Prior to '98-'99, most people in this country couldn't tell an Albanian from an Armenian or an Azerbajani. To them, Albania was just another small country with a funny name nobody ever heard of. So if you're trying to infer that Weird Al used it specifically because he's half-Serb, and he identifies with Serbian National(Social)ism, and did it deliberately as a cut, you'll have to come up with more evidence than that. Weird Al is in the business of writing songs with funny lyrics, not promoting National(Social)ist politics.

Also, though I'm no expert on his personal life, and not really a fan of his per se, as I mentioned before, I *will* say that I've never seen any sort of references, either in interviews, or in his song lyrics, to him either particularly identifying with his Serbian heritage, or expressing National(Social)ist sympathies. I may be wrong on that, but I personally have never seen it. For one thing, he is, as I said before, only half-Serb; his mother was of Italian origin (I've never heard him make any particular reference to that, either). And the impression I get from what I have seen of him is that he likely considers himself "American" first and foremost, then a person of Serbian and/or Italian descent.

Zlatan Vrabac said...

You completely missed my point on Weird Al. Moving on though, can you explain to me how Vojislav Kostunica is a ‘Serbian National(Social)ist’? It seems to me that anyone who opposes Kosovo independence is somehow a ‘(Pro-)Serbian National(Social)ist’ in your books. Again I ask you; why do you not write about Albanian National(Social)ism and how it is destroying multiethnic Kosovo?

Peshkatari said...

Zlatan,

I think I got your point with the post about Weird Al just fine. Care to have me translate it? Though I wouldn't necessarily bet a month's wages on it, I'll bet your point, without too much reading between the lines, goes something like this: "Weird Al, being the son of a Serb immigrant, would have been taught by his father instinctively about Albanians, what they are, what they're like, etc., and so when the appropriate time came, he decided to work some of this knowledge into the lyrics of one of his songs". (So, how close was I? Pretty damn close, I'll bet.)

No, sir, it was *you* who missed my point altogeher. I guess perhaps you can be excused somewhat; I do tend to go into detail when I make a point, perhaps more than some people are willing to follow. Be that as it may, the point I was making, in short, was that *you* were assuming way too much (assuming I got your point right in the first place, which I think I did), and I provided some plausible alternate explanations. Whether you accept them or not is up to you.

As to the post you left on my old blog, that blog, as you might have been able to tell if you read it, has basically been abandoned. If you have something to say, kindly place it here, OK?

Now as to what you said in that post....OMG, you must really take people for idiots, don't you? I mean, do you hold your position that mindlessly? Or are you just very disingenous? (Or both?) Unless you're redefining ALL Albanians as members of UÇK automatically by virtue of being Albanian, then your comment is utterly ridiculous. Every one of the blogs and sites I've cited constantly and consistantly slams the Albanian people AS A PEOPLE (i.e. AS A WHOLE). Especially the "Oh-So-Godly Christian" Svetlana Novko. The only one who hasn't, I'll grant, is La Julia, but then again, on the VERY rare occasions when she has had anything "positive" to say about anyone who's Albanian (like her post on "MJAFT!"), she shows her true colors by making it clear that her "compliments" are ultimately of the "left-handed" sort. So please, go pull someone's leg somewhere else, Zlatan-it won't work here.

As to your harping about Albanian Nationalism, sir, and why I'm not spending time on this blog engaging in condemnations of it, I have an answer I am preparing for you, but in case it hadn't occurred to you, as important as this blog is to me, it is NOT my life. Believe it or not, I actually have nice, normal, boring everyday stuff like job, family, etc. that has to come first. I don't live my life around this blog. And I will post my responses when they are good and ready to be posted-on MY schedule, sir, NOT YOURS.

But since you are so anxious to receive some sort of response from me, here's a short, partial version (I will likely post the longer one over the weekend, or sooner if I have the time for it):

First, I am not convinced that all crimes committed against Serbs in Kosova (and no, I will NOT call it by YOUR name for it, sir-though if it bothers you so much, I will be more than happy to refer to the area in the future by it's ancient name: DARDANIA) are committed by Albanians. The evidence in many cases is somewhat lacking to make such an assumption (of course, I am using American standards of what constitutes "reasonable suspicion", though I believe they are the same in Australia as well), IMO.

Second, even in the cases where one CAN prove conclusively that the criminal act was perpretated by an
Albanian, I'm not sure that the evidence always suggests automatically that what here in America would usually be referred to as a "hate crime" has been committed, just as not all crime by African-Americans on Whites or Whites on African-Americans is automatically racially motivated.

Third, I am not necessarily convinced that even if the first two things can be proven true, that in every event they signify an an attempt, either ORGANISED and IDEOLOGICAL/POLITCAL in nature or not, by Albanians to rid Dardania of it's Serb or other ethnic minorities.

Fourth: In the event that there's enough evidence from OBJECTIVE, IMPARTIAL sources to suggest that the criminal act in question had as one of it's primary motivations an attempt to ethnically cleanse from and/or terrorise Serb or other non-Albanians in Dardania, then you can bet your Doc Martens I'll speak up against it, Zlatan. I in fact did speak up against the inflaming of passions in the Albanian community by minor but politically opportunistic groups in Dardania in March 2004, both on moral (such acts do not reflect traditional Albanian values as reflected in the Kanun and other cultural sources), and practical (they also needlessly cast Albanians as a whole in a bad light in the eyes of the rest of the world) grounds.

Well there it is-your answer, or rather all your going to get from me for now. As said, I'll try to give you and the rest of my readers the "more detailed" answer in the next few days. Though given that I've just looked over your blog, and seen some of the groups you've opted to link to, I'm starting to wonder why I should even bother. Rather a bit like the pot and kettle, don't you think? (As I've said, you lot tend to make my job here a lot easier by the very fact that most of you seem to truly have "more balls than brains"....)