The Rock n' Roll historian

One person frequently cited (and on at least one occasion borrowed rather heavily from) by La Julia and many others among the "Haters" is so-called "historian" Carl Kosta Savich. Savich, who hails from the Detroit area, is one of the regular contributors to Mickey Dolenz, er Mickey Bozinovich's serbianna.com website. This website, which is probably one of the most egregious of all the Serbian National(Social)ist disinformation/misinformation sites out there, regularly features the half-truths, distortions, and spin of such folks as it's founder Bozinovich, Srga Trifkovic, and of course, Mr. Savich, as well as others.

Doing a bit of nosing around on Google, I managed to find Mr. Savich's Wikipedia entry. It goes something like this:

Carl Kosta Savich

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Carl K. Savich is a Serbian-American historian ^{[citation needed]} and writer.

Carl teaches history at the secondary level. He received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has an M.A. in History and a J.D. in Law. He is a member of the Alpha Zeta Upsilon chapter of the international history honor society, Phi Alpha Theta. He has received an LCP BW American Jurisprudence Award and a Handy and Harmon Academic Scholarship. His work has been cited on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website in Washington, DC and the Holocaust and Genocide Studies website of the University of Minnesota. His articles have appeared on several pro- Serbian propaganda sites. He has been a contributor to Foreign Policy, Liberty (Sloboda) and The American Srbobran. His areas of interest and expertise are history, journalism, political science, and law.

Carl Savich was the first to show that Finland’s former president and UN special envoy for Kosovo status, Martti Ahtisaari had sought to honor Finnish Nazi Waffen SS troops in 1999, when Ahtisaari was president of Finland. Finnish troops had been part of the Waffen SS and the WWII 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division Wiking.^[1][2] This information was subsequently manipulated by some tabloid publications who erroneously claimed that Ahtisaari's father had been a member of the SS. As stated in a report in the Helsingin Sanomat daily newspaper, the claim is completely untrue.^[3] Moreover, Oiva Ahtisaari, who did serve the Finnish Defence Forces as a mechanic before and during the war, would have been with over 30 years of age clearly overaged to join the Waffen SS, who were accepting only volunteers of 17 to 23 years of age.

As far as his credentials go, I find it most interesting that Savich has a Bachelors on Poli Sci, a Masters in History (doing a little backwards research, it appears he most likely got it from Oakland University in suburban Detroit-but then this begs the question, why leave out his alma maters from where he got his Masters and Doctorate?), and a Juris Doctor. A degree in politics, a degree in history, and a law degree. Seems to me like prime training if you want to be an expert in twisting facts and perverting history for the sake of social and political ideology. A websearch to see where Savich is currently plying what is according to the WikiPedia article his "trade" came up with....(can you guess?) nothing. A website with


Now, doing a bit more searching, I decided to Google Mr. Savich's association to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and U of Minn. Holocaust and Genocide Studies websites. The search for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum turned up only that he supposedly sent the museum a picture of Himmler with a soldier of the Handzar (Bosnian) SS division, which evidently some people complained about later because of their labeling the soldier a "muslim" soldier instead of a "Bosnian" one. However, doing a through search of the site did not turn up the picture in question, so the picture may or may not be there for all I know, I just wasn't able to find it. In any case, sending in a picture is hardly what I would call "citing a work" by a historian, which is what the statement implies.

The Holocaust and Genocide Studies website was a bit more substantial, as there is an article on Bosnia and the Holocaust which does cite a rather generic quote by him about the region in general and it's geopolitical and georeligious significance from one of his Serbianna articles on the subject of Bosnia in WWII, plus a link to the article at the end of the piece. (Unfortunately, the only citations the article offers are to his piece, and a couple of pieces on the srpska-mreza.com website, which leads one to question the objectivity of the piece, to say the least.) So at least that is basically true on the surface, even if the inference in the Wikipedia article seems to make the "citation" out to be more than it actually is.

Another thing my searches turned up is Mr. Savich's page as a customer reviewer on amazon.com. Now here things get a little interesting. First of all, he posts a picture of himself to his profile that pretty obviously dates back, when you look at his hair and clothes, to sometime probably in the early 80's. But what is even more interesting is this: you'd think with the fact that Amazon is one of the world's largest booksellers, he'd find plenty of books on the Balkans to review. But in fact, there is only one book listed, an apologetic for Ratko Mladic. What are all the rest of the reviews? Rock n' Roll albums and movies! Yes, you read correctly. If his Amazon page is any indication, Savich is evidently far more interested in letting people know the merits of classic Rock albums and performers than he is his "expert" opinion on Balkan history.

As to the claim in the article that he revealed that "Martti Ahtisaari had sought to honor Finnish Nazi Waffen SS troops in 1999, when Ahtisaari was president of Finland", this statement seems to be somewhat in error. I will admit, he does not say any such thing that I can find in the blog entries linked to in the article, but he still does manage to make some statements that were pretty "off-base", to put it mildly. In his blog post of 13 September, 2006, he writes "At the time of the illegal NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 when Martti Ahtisaari was the President of Finland, his government sought to commemorate and to honor Finland’s Nazi SS volunteers from the Holocaust." (This is not quite accurate, as we will see in a bit.) He then goes on to say "This offers irrefutable evidence of Ahtisaari’s direct links for support of Nazism and Nazi revisionism." Later still in the blog entry, he states "In 1999, Martti Ahtisaari’s Finnish government supported official government plans to honor and to commemorate Finland’s Nazi Waffen SS violunteers during World War II. The Finnish government plan was to mark the graves of Finnish Nazi Waffen SS volunteers who had been killed in the Soviet Union." In a subsequent post, he cites a Reuter's article on the subject:

Plan to commemorate Finnish SS troops stirs Jews
02:16 p.m May 10, 1999 Eastern

By Adam Jasser

HELSINKI, May 10 (Reuters) - Finland's tiny Jewish community voiced concern on Monday over government support for plans to mark the graves of Finnish volunters who fought in the Waffen SS during World War Two.

The community will this week decide whether to make an official protest to the government, its leader said.

``We are annoyed,'' Gideon Bolotowsky told Reuters. ``I think it was a mistake of the government.''

About 1,400 Finns joined the Waffen SS just before Hitler launched an attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, and some 300 of them were killed fighting in the Ukraine and the Caucasus.

An organisation dedicated to the memory of all fallen Finnish soldiers is considering erecting a small monument or a plaque at a site in southern Ukraine where 150 of the SS men are buried.

But Finland's Jewish community was irked when it surfaced that the government was subsidising the organisation, saying it blurred the distinction between those who fought for their homeland during the war and those who supported Nazi Germany.

``They (the government) are giving money to a Nazi cause,'' Bolotowsky said. ``They did not fight for Finland.''

Thousands of Finns perished trying to repel a Soviet invasion in the Winter War of 1939-1940.

Finland was defeated and sought peace but more losses followed when in 1941 it joined the German onslaught on Russia hoping to recapture lost territory.

The Finnish SS battalion was recruited with the encouragement of the government between the two wars.

Officials defended the plan to commemorate the SS men, saying it would be a gesture of remembrance rather than approval.

``All governments erect monuments or plaques to their war dead,'' said Heikki Hakala, executive director of the Society for Remembrance of the War Dead. ``This (momument) would be to honour the fallen soldiers, not for any particular deed...''

The society will decide later this year whether to proceed, and work on the site in Ukraine could start next year at the earliest, he said.

An official at the ministry of education, which donated 500,000 markka ($91,000) to the society, said the government saw nothing wrong with the plan as there was no evidence the Finnish SS battalion was involved in any Nazi attrocities.

Heikki Rosti told Reuters the unit's activities were probed during the Nurenberg trials and in separate Finnish and Allied investigations.

``No crimes against humanity were found,'' Rosti said, adding the government gave the men full combatant rights in 1958

Now, it's interesting that Savich, like so many of the other "Haters", will cite an article, only to contradict it, or have it contradict what he claims it's actually saying. So, what did Savich "get wrong" (or rather present in a possibly misleading fashion)? Well, let's see....

First off, the plan wasn't to "mark the graves of Fallen Finnish SS volunteers", but to erect a "small monument or plaque at a site in southern Ukraine where 150 of the SS men are buried.". The plans were not "official government plans", but the plans of a private group, The Society for the Rememberance of the War Dead, which is described in the article as "An organisation dedicated to the memory of all fallen Finnish soldiers", who were intending the monument to supposedly be "....to honour the fallen soldiers, not for any particular deed...'' The link the Finnish government had to it was by virtue of the Ministry of Education donating the equivalent of $91,000 US to the group, the article not specifying if the donation was specifically for that monument or for the group in general.

Now that being said, I think it's incumbent on me to point out that such an action (which from what I can tell never came to fruition) as that group had in mind to do was at the very least a horribly naive, thoughtless, and stupid one. And the Ministry of Education was equally stupid for supporting their plans. SS volunteers, no matter what the country, are a priori a very different thing from regular soldiers. Even if the unit in question committed no atrocities, they were still "SS". And "SS" no matter how you slice it, stood for unmitigated evil. But the plan, no matter how stupid and ill-conceived it was, still does not translate out automatically to Finnish government support for Nazism, and even less so for the notion that Ahtisaari was or is sympathetic to Nazism. But by some slight twisting and misrepresenting of facts, that's what Savich would have the readers of his blog believe. And to be honest, this is probably one of the less egregious examples of his doing this sort of thing. There are many more, and they are far worse. And I will be dealing with them right here on this blog eventually. (Note: I just discovered in my websearches a Finnish political blog done by a chap named Ari, wherein he takes to task Savich's disinformation job about Ahtisaari, with facts and sources to back him up. And the title of the blogpost is a hoot!)

So how does Savich (among others) get away with this? How does he get his audience to read a source article or passage through "Savich-coloured glasses" that in fact contradicts the very point he's trying to back up with it? I believe it is by way of something I call Force of Charisma. Strictly speaking, that occurs when a person interjects, either openly or subrosa, their take on what a reference they are using to back up their point says or means. Another way of accomplishing the same effect is by using emotionalism (hey, it worked for Hitler, among others), or an appeal to one's own trustworthiness, or expertise, or both. Often times, two or more of these are combined. And voila! The person reading the reference or source document, unless they are careful, are very possibly reading and interpreting it the way the person making the reference to the document or source wants them to, rather than how the original author of said document or source intended it to be read or understood, and despite what a more objective reading of it would lead one to conclude that it really says.

A good example of Savich's use of source materials that actually contradict his point was provided to me recently by Lezeti, one of the posters on albanian.com's webboards. I'll end this blogpost by posting his debunking of a recent Savich article on the ever-popular and trustworthy source for objective coverage of Balkan affairs, serbianna.com (heavy hint of sarcasm in that last bit, for those who didn't pick it up) below, as it is quite good. One preface I'll make though is that Edith Durham is featured prominently in it. Now most people know Durham as the "Queen of the (Albanian) Highlanders", and as the author of the seminal work "High Albania", which documented her 1909 soujurn amongst the Albanian Highlanders in Albania and Kosova, as well as for her activism for over 30 years on behalf of the Albanian people. Therefore, her less-than-completely positive view of Albanians (mostly which she accepts at face value from her Serbian hosts) in the piece cited by Savich in his original article may come as a surprise. But there is a simple explaination. The work Savich cites dates to 1905, when Durham, like most Europeans at the time, was a Serbophile. A few years later, she took it upon herself to find out if what the Serbs had told her about Albanians was really true or not. The result was the aforementioned "High Albania" (which, BTW, you can read in it's entirety by clicking on the above link). Another event that cemented her sympathy for the Albanian people was the fact that she personally witnessed the aftermath of massacres gleefully and openly carried out on unarmed Albanian civilians by Serb military forces and Chetnik bands during the First Balkan War. And now, without further ado....

******************************************

This is another "masterpiece" by Carl Savich that I've happened to come across:
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/093.shtml

That sneaky Carl Savic can't get his lies past me!

He tries to use Edith Durham's book to prove that Nizams [Turks] protected Serbs from Albanians.
Here is a free copy of her book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=HkMLAAAAIAAJ
Let's double-check on Savich's excerpts, shall we?


1.)

“Now the Nizams were part of the much-vaunted Austro-Russian reform scheme, and were supposed to be there in the interests of the Christian population."

The story of Old Serbia is one of uninterrupted misery. The suffering of the Christian peoples in the Balkans is no new thing. It began with the advent of the Turk, and will continue while he remains. As long ago as 1690 the intolerable lot of the Serbs of Old Serbia induced no less than 37,000 zadrugas (family groups, including uncles and cousins) to migrate to Hungary. The Albanians then spread over the vacated lands, which they have been permitted to harry with impunity ever since. A small unarmed Christian population ‘regulated’ by Albanians is not merely unable to rise, it is unable to cry loudly enough to be heard, and there was no foreign consul to make reports. It was not until the Russians (who with extraordinary diplomatic skill lose no opportunity of winning the love of the Slavs of the Balkans) forced Stcherbina [George S. Shcherbin, Russian consul in Kosovska Mitrovica] into Mitrovitza in 1902 that any light was shed upon the condition of this hapless land. The Albanians promptly shot him. The Christians regard him as the man that died to save them, and cherish his portrait. Until Stcherbina came they lived in a state of terror, and all that the tax-gatherers spared the Albanians looted. Owing to his death, the Government had sent the Nizams to subdue the Albanians.

There were some 30,000 Nizams quartered in and around Pech, I was told, and from the "safe little hill" the vast camps around the town were very visible. It was only the presence of these troops that made it possible to go from one place to another; the pass I had ridden had been open a bare two months. The situation, as I found it, was that the people lived in present terror of the Nizams and in future terror of the Albanians, who would return as soon as they were withdrawn. The town had to feed the troops, and bread and hay were dear. All Friday afternoon Turkish officers came sight-seeing to the Patriarchia, dashed into the courtyard, shouted for someone to hold their horses, were supplied with coffee and tobacco, and were conducted round the churches by the Iguman. Gangs of Tommies, too, swarmed in, and the monastery people, who, I noticed, never let them enter the church unattended, were quite tired out. By request I sat well apart on the farther side, for 'the Turks will say bad things to you.’ Knowing no Turkish, I thought this would not matter; but as the others could not see things from this point of view, I spent the afternoon with the various Christian visitors who came in. Among these were a schoolmaster and a young theological student who came from Dechani.”

Notice Savich's hipocritical blunder in red?
The following excerpt immediately precedes Savich's quote:
[pages 309 & 310]
I proposed to employ the afternoon by a walk through Pech, and evoked a chorus of dismay and horror. Radovan said briefly, "It is better that thou goest not" ; the monastery people prayed me not to go. And the reason was "the Nizams." It was Friday, and the streets would be full of them. The fear of the Christians as to the fate of a woman among Nizams off duty amounted to terror ; they offered instead to take me up a little hill whence I could see the town in safety. They would not hear of my going to town with only one protector, and as, in the event of "a row," the blame would probably fall most heavily upon any local Christian mixed up in it, I gave up on my plan reluctantly.

How did he miss this?

2.)

“The monastery, which lies about 1500 feet above sea-level, appeared as a white church surrounded by outbuildings at the entrance of a magnificently wooded valley, through which flows a small river, the Dechanski Bistritza, the one slope rich with stately chestnuts and the other fir-clad. Robbed of its broad lands, which have been swooped on by the Albanians, who at the time of my visit made further progress up the valley impossible, it lies precariously on the bloody edge of things, and only the wonderful white marble church tells of its former glory. It was being used as a military outpost, and twenty-five Nizams and an officer were quartered on the monastery…”

Wait...
Let's see the rest of that quote:
[p. 317]
It was being used as a military outpost, and twenty-five Nizams and an officer were quartered on the monastery, which had also a guard of its own, a set of Mohammedan Albanians, who were said to be very loyal. They looked like a wild-beast show, spoke nothing but Albanian, had the most elegant manners, and I was never allowed outside the monastery gate without a couple of them.

I can't leave THIS part out:
[p. 318]
Here, a unique specimen in a land almostly entirely given over to barbarianism, it is looked upon as something almost miraculous, and is regarded with a veneration which has not improbably worked upon the superstitious souls of the Albanians and saved it from destruction.

Throughout Durham's book, she is compelled by many Serbs to inform the outside world of the terror under the Turkish regime and learns, first hand, of the destruction of Monasteries by Turks (not Albanians).

3.)

Carl Savich finds a random picture of a dead Serb, guess who is to blame?

Serbian Orthodox priest and family members at the funeral of a Kosovo Serb who was decapitated by Albanian Muslims in Pec circa 1900. They stand over his decapitated head.

I'll use an excerpt from Durham's book to explain this one:
[p. 323]
"The Nizams will come in the night. They have been talking about you. They are the devils. All from Asia. They have long knives." He drew his finger across his throat, dropped his head on one side, and gave a clicking gasp so horribly realistic that I suspected it was studied from nature. "They will do 'that,' just for what is in your saddlebag. They will say the Christians have done it, and the officer will believe them."

As my Conscience called it on this: Sick Bitch!

In her never-ending quest to see just how low she can stoop in thinly-veiled racism, the spinning of facts, the half-telling of truths, and all that good junk, our little "friend" La Julia once again tries to show the world-yes, the whole freaking planet!-just how much of a clear and present danger to it a people inhabiting a country the size of Vermont and an overall total geographic area in the Balkans about the size of New Jersey really are.

In her recent (14 October) POSt entitled "As my Source on this called it: Sick Bastard!", La Julia takes as her source (and needless to say both perverts it, by giving only the parts of it she evidently deems "pertinent", as well as adding her own snarky commentary) a State Department Daily Press Briefing from 12 October of this year. She makes a parenthetical comment before "reproducing" the text of the briefing, in which she says about the reporter asking the questions,

"Mr. Lambros is Lambros Papantoniou, a Greek journalist and naturally therefore the only reporter to recognize the critical effect that Kosovo will have on every region of the world — and therefore the only reporter to ask about it."

Now a quick Googling of Lambros Papantoniou shows that he's a journalist for the Greek daily Eleftheros Typos. Now Eleftheros Typos, at least according to Wikipedia, is a Left-of-Center newspaper which, among other things, "is characterized by a pro-European Union approach to foreign policy". Well, that may be the case, but if so, the viewpoint Mr. Papantoniou seems to represent in many of his press conference questions, both on this instance, and on many others, is far from "pro-European Union", at least as far as I understand the concept. One interesting comment on "Mr. Lambros" I found in that websearch came from a Greek web board, Hellenic Forums Omogenia, where in the poster states that he evidently knows him personally and that "He is constantly doing his best for the Macedonian and Northern Epirus Issues" Well, given the nature of the web board in question, and the site it's a part of, I guess we now know just how "objective" a reporter "Mr. Lambros" is! And of course, in that case, La Julia's comment about him makes perfect sense; for after all, according to her and those like her, only the Greeks (including, of course, "Mr. Lambros") and Serbs know what's REALLY going on with that race of barbaric, tribalistic, blood-feudin', Islamofascistic little tire-biters that live in between the two of them, right?

In any case, continuing on to the actual press briefing....

Daily Press Briefing
Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
October 12, 2007

MR. CASEY: Okay, Mr. Lambros, on Kosovo.

QUESTION: On Kosovo. The Albanian Government has decided to give Albanian citizenship to all Kosovars. What is the U.S. position since this move is a big step for the creation of “great Albania.”

MR. CASEY: Mr. Lambros, I’m not aware of what the Albanian Government may or may not have — have chosen to do. Certainly each country is entitled to determine who is or isn’t entitled to citizenship under their own appropriate laws and regulations. But the important issue for us, of course, with Kosovo is that we continue to work through the Contact Group and the troika on discussions between the Government of Serbia and the Kosovars on an equitable solution that’s agreeable to all sides to the situation there.

Certainly, as we’ve said, if by the end of the established negotiating period in December the parties have not been able to come to an agreement, what we expect would happen would be a decision to move forward with supervised independence for Kosovo that is in keeping with the outlines of the Ahtisaari plan. I am not aware of anyone in this country or anyplace else that believes that independence for Kosovo would somehow result in or would lead to some kind of greater Albanian state.

[Insert laugh track here.]

Now another Googling, this time of "The Albanian Government has decided to give Albanian citizenship to all Kosovars" (which is exactly what I typed in for my search) gave me only one real "hit": The blog of an independent "analyist" of Greek-Albanian relations named Stavros Markos. And his source? Why of course, that same press conference attended by our friend Mr Lambros! (Could he be the "source" our Julia mentions?) Now, something as momentous as one country extending citizenship to the citizens of another en masse I would think would be something of major import-something that would be reported in newspapers and television around the world, so huge would be it's unprecidentedness. But nooooo....just Mr. Lambros' assertion is all we have to say "it's so". (Unfortunately, Tom Casey, the State Department spokesperson, does manage to actually make Mr. Lambros look half-way credible by his rather stumbling answer on the subject, but I chalk that up to the fact that: A., Lambros, from all evidence, is just making the whole thing up; and B., that Casey is basically a minor press official, and probably can't be fairly expected to know the answer to every question every Tom, Dick, and Harry journalist may ask-especially if said question is a "red herring".) Also, note the snarky "script direction" added by La Julia, obviously for "comic effect". Anyway, continuing on....

QUESTION: (Inaudible) FYROM [Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia] Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and the Albanian leader of FYROM Ali Ahmeti declared the other day the unification, “great Albania” all the Albanians in FYROM. Any comment?

MR. CASEY: No.

[Insert laugh track.]

Well, of course we couldn't get away without some more "snark" from our favorite "D list" commedienne (and I ain't talkin' Kathy Griffin here), could we? But again, let's hit Google and see what we get for any such statement from Messers Georgievski and Ahmeti, shall we? Pasting the direct quote from Mr. Lambros (minus quotation marks around "great Albania") gave us this. Now sometimes, admittedly, Google gives better results if you simplify your search, so in light of this, I tried this instead. Did anybody find anything (other than again just Mr. Lambros' assertions of this "fact")? Anybody? (Buehler? Buehler? Has anybody seen Buehler?) Of course, in this case, it's not surprising that Mr. Casey hasn't heard of it, since Mr. Lambros is evidently the only person aware of this supposed "public" declaration.

QUESTION: Because that contradicts whatever you are doing in order to find a solution (inaudible) –

[Insert applause break.]

MR. CASEY: Mr. Lambros, you’re — I think you’ve exceeded your quota for today.

[Laugh break.]

In addition to seeing more evidence of why La Julia is one of the top comics in the country today, a veritable household name (not), we note that Mr. Casey had understandibly had just about enough of Mr. Lambros by that time. (NB: This group of "questions" was not the only one he asked during the press conference.)

But look, we support the territorial integrity of the states in the region, of Albania, of Macedonia, Greece, the other players. [But not Serbia! That doesn’t count as a state.] Kosovo, as you know, is a unique circumstance. [Because we say so!] It’s a unique circumstance because of the way the conflict occurred. [We were TOTALLY duped into taking the wrong side…what are we supposed to do — admit it?!] It’s a unique circumstance because of the current status of it, which falls under the outlines of UN Security Council Resolution 1244. No one views Kosovo and its probable independence as a precedent for any other conflicts. [Except rational thinkers and every country with minorities eager to rip a piece off for themselves, such as Russia, India, China, most of Africa, half of Latin America, the rest of the Balkans and a whole lot of Europe.] We certainly are not trying to reopen discussions that I think most of us believe were long settled over other borders.

At this point, La Julia goes from mere "snark" mode into full-blown commentary mode, but knowing her, that's not surprising. "But not Serbia! That doesn’t count as a state."? Wow, can you say "paranoid jumping on a press secretary's comment just because he doesn't mention your favorite cause celebre country"? He forgot Montenegro too-how come you didn't mention that as well? "We were TOTALLY duped into taking the wrong side…what are we supposed to do — admit it?!"? No Julia, unlike in Croatia and Bosnia, we actually did the right thing for a change. But then again, I keep forgetting....there was never any "ethnic cleansing" of Albanians in Kosova, right? After all, you say so. (Or is it that there was, but hey, it was only because they were fighting their enemies, and the only people they declare as enemies are our enemies and the whole rest of the free world's enemies. After all, you say so.) "Except rational thinkers and every country with minorities eager to rip a piece off for themselves, such as Russia, India, China, most of Africa, half of Latin America, the rest of the Balkans and a whole lot of Europe." No, sweetie....the only people who think that are irrational idealogues who wouldn't know what to do with themselves unless they had some good old fashioned fear and hate to "monger".

Lastly, if you want to see for yourself about "Mr. Lambros" and where he's coming from, the whole of the press conference is posted here, and the video of same can be found here.

But all this still leaves one question unanswered: Who is the "Sick Bastard" of La Julia's POSt title? Couldn't be Mr. Casey, he's just a government spokesperson. And of course, it just couldn't be Mr. Lambros, could it? Messers Georgievski or Ahmeti? Sali Berisha? Who, exactly? (Of course, it would be nice to know who this evidently "super secret source" La Julia got the tip on the "information"-or more accurately, disinformation-from is to begin with.) Well, I don't know who the "Sick Bastard" was, but I sure know who the "Sick Bitch" is!

So much for the idea that ALL Serbs are anti-fascist....

One thing the high-profile "Haters", like La Julia, love hammering people with is how inherently anti-fascist the Serbs as a people are, implying to the last man, woman, and child they are opposed to fascism, Nazism, etc. I wonder what they would make of these:

http://serbialives.blogspot.com/2007/10/infamous-march.html

http://hellenicnationalist.blogspot.com/

http://srbsko.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-post.html

Yep, real "anti-fascist"! (Well, maybe in some parallel universe or something....)

One small step....(for both Albanian AND Serbian Kosovars)

You know, much has been made by the "Haters" of how Albanians are unwilling to try at all and get along with Serbs. For example, in this "gem" (ain't they all?) of a POSt from La Julia from back in July.

Great going, USA: Young Albanians reject Serb friendship (from April)

Sixty-five percent of young Kosovo Albanians say they would never be friends with Serbs, a UN survey showed.

Reuters reports that the poll underscored the province’s divide despite Western promises to create a multi-ethnic society.

“The ethnic-based conflicts of the 1990s had a significant impact on young people’s ability and inclination to interact with people from other communities,” the UN Development Program (UNDP) said in the report released on Wednesday.

Twenty-five percent of young Serbs rejected the idea of being friends with Kosovo Albanians.

Just over 54 percent of Kosovo Albanian youths questioned said they would not want to be neighbors with Serbs.

I wonder if the following has anything to do with it: the American-initiated NATO peacekeeping force has been keeping the peace by checking off areas as “cleansed” once the last Serbs have been pushed out. I’m not making this up; it’s going to be mentioned in a book that’s due out very soon, written by a UN worker there. Peacekeeping “progress” literally happens when there are no Serbs left in an area of Kosovo.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: When Americans take on that “global” outlook the world wants them to have, they are conned into sponsoring tribalism and ethnic supremacy.

(Of course, you'll note she seems to ignore the significance in her own citation that at least 25% of all Serbian kids-and in one source I've seen it's 30%-feel the same way towards Albanians....) Now my gut level reaction to this, not surprisingly, is "Gee, I wonder why?" But then I remind myself of one important fact, one that everybody on both sides of the equation needs to remind themselves of as well: Albanians and Serbians have lived next and alongside with each other for over a millenium, and despite all the rhetoric, that's not likely to change anytime before, oh, say judgement day. Sometimes that co-habitation has been relatively peaceful; much of the time it has not. But whether it is peaceful in the future or not relies at least as much if not more so on everyday people as it does governments and political groups. Which is why I found this article so heartening:

************************************************************

Tania Savayan/The Journal News

Students create a sculpture to represent equality during a religion class that focuses on social justice at Our Lady of Victory Academy in Dobbs Ferry. Four students from Kosovo visited the high school to tell about their experiences and see how Americans of so many ethnic backgrounds live side by side.

Kosovo students learn about tolerance at Dobbs Ferry school

By GARY STERN
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: October 19, 2007)

DOBBS FERRY — Some students at Our Lady of Victory Academy yesterday couldn't help looking at four visiting teenagers from the faraway, tension-filled land of Kosovo as something like heroes.

The visitors, after all, lived through some terrible times as children, especially when Serbians killed thousands of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo during the late 1990s.

Since then, they've watched their province cautiously rebuild, knowing that ethnic tensions - or worse - can erupt at any time.

Today, the four students, three Albanian Muslims and one Serbian Christian, are committed to helping build a new Kosovo of peace and tolerance. They've come to the United States to tell their tale and see how Americans of so many ethnic backgrounds live side by side.

"In the U.S. these days, there's so much drama, controversy, over religion and race, everything," said Jasmine Perez, 16, of Yonkers. "So it's beautiful to meet people from another country where it must be really hard."

During a lunch of burgers and fries, Milos Adzanic, 17, the Serb visitor, explained what he would tell people when he returned home.

"When I return to Kosovo for peace-building, I will say I've seen that it's possible to live together regardless of race, ethnicity, gender," he said through a translator. "I will say that I have returned from a county where this concept works."

The students are visiting only two U.S. high schools, one in Washington and Our Lady of Victory, an all-girls Catholic high school run by the Sisters of Mercy. They earned the trip by winning an essay contest, and were brought over to promote "conflict resolution" by Catholic Relief Services, the National Catholic Educational Association, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Kosovo, a region in southern Serbia, has been under United Nations protection since a NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended fighting between Serb troops and Albanians seeking independence.

About 90 percent of Kosovo's residents are Albanian Muslims. But its Serbian community opposes sovereignty for Kosovo.

Kosovo Albanians have been threatening to declare independence of late. Just yesterday, Serbian President Boris Tadic said such a move would create a "frozen conflict."

But Kosovo is a young region, with more than 60 percent of its population under 25. And young people hope to teach Albanians and Serbians - Muslims and Orthodox Christians - to build a new, tolerant future.

"Tolerance was a taboo topic," said Alban Mehmeti, 19, who is involved in a Kosovo program called Our Tomorrow. "It's a conflict of generations, with older people who are more Kosovo-centered or Serbia-centered. The young are carrying the change that is happening."

Stephany Aguilar, 15, of Yonkers sounded truly impressed by the visitors' commitment and vision.

"They want to make peace, face problems, while other people don't want to do this," she said. "They want to do good for their country."

At at a time when many Muslims charge that the United States is fighting a war against Islam, the Muslim students from Kosovo thought otherwise. They see the U.S. and NATO as responsible for saving Muslim lives.

"Especially in Kosovo, America is seen as a place promoting humanity and having a positive involvement," Dardene Ceku, 19, said through an interpreter.

Mehmeti wanted to focus on U.S. involvement in Kosovo and not anywhere else.

"The role of the United States in Kosovo is very important, very meaningful," he said. "The U.S. is the most democratic state in the world, which is the reason why."

The students attended a class focused on social justice taught by Ellen Brickwedde, who visited Kosovo in July with Catholic educators. Yesterday, she recalled staying with a Kosovo family and wondering, "How could anybody want to kill these people?"

She also visited a Serbian school, where one teacher asked her to spread a message at home: "Tell them we're not all mean," she said.

Brickwedde, whose classroom sports bumper stickers like "And WHAT difference do YOU make?" and a map of genocides around the world, said the Kosovo students brought an important message about overcoming obstacles to pursue peace.

"We want our kids to become compassionate and caring people who can make a difference in the world," she said.

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Now, as the title of this blog post implies, something like this, however significant it may be, is but "one small step". And by itself, I fear it won't accomplish much. I earnestly do believe that there must be some sort of "reconcilliation" process that must take place as well. Whether it's along the lines of "Truth and Reconcilliation" committees that have been set up in South Africa and elsewhere, or another model is used, the bottom line is that some sort of recocilliation process is necessary IMO, or lasting peace will be impossible. But at the same time, what was going on with the kids in the above article is also a necessary part of the process towards peace and stability as well.

Sometimes, you gotta laugh!

Fighting the "Haters" is serious business. But sometimes, you just gotta take a break from the "heaviness" and laugh a little, y'know? So with that in mind, ARC proudly presents....

THE TOP TEN REASONS ALBANIANS CAN'T BE TERRORISTS!

1. 8:45 am is too early for us to be up.
2. We are always late; we would have missed all 4 flights.
3. Pretty people on the plane distract us.
4. We would talk loud and bring attention to ourselves.
5. With buk, djath, and raki on the plane, we would forget why we're there.
6. We talk with our hands; therefore we would have to put our weapons down.
7. We would all want to fly the plane.
8. We would argue and start a fight in the plane.
9. We can't keep a secret, we would have told everyone a week before doing it.
10. We would have put our country's flag on the windshield

(For those not familiar with the Albanian language and culture, "buk" is bread, "djath" is cheese, and "raki" is a very potent brandy that makes Tequila look like mother's milk by comparison....)

H/T to "Njeshizzle" for posting this on the the albanian.com webboards, from where I got it.

A Serb who "gets it"

In spite of all the noise made by the Novkos, Boka Babes, Blackbirds, Gorins, Feders, Davidovices, Sesljs, Nikolices, and others, there are actual voices of rationality on the Serbian side. Folks like Natasa Kandic, Vesna Pesic, and now award-winning Serb novelist Vladimir Arsenijevic. In his article "Our Negroes, Our Enemies", published last month in the German periodical Die Zeit, Arsenijevic explores with brutal honesty the calamitous relationship throughout history between the Serbs and the Albanians. As you'll quickly discover when you read the article, he is one Serb who most definitely does NOT go whining about how unfair life is, how mean and nasty all his neighbors are, how he can't understand how his people are always being "picked on", and in particular what an animalistic race the Albanians are. In other words, he is (unlike all the folks I listed at the very beginning of this post) someone with honor and integrity. Or as my Latino friends would say, "cojones". Read this article. Share it with everyone you know. It truly "speaks truth to power".

Major H/T to our good friend Dardan for giving a "heads up" on this.

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"Our negroes, our enemies"

Serbian writer Vladimir Arsenijevic outlines the calamitous relationship of his compatriots to the Albanians.

For all ex-Yugoslavs, but particularly for the Serbs, the Kosovo Albanians used to be simply "our negroes." Nowadays, however, they are cast as Serbia's arch-enemies – a myth ruthlessly exploited by nationalist politicians, even as negotiations take place over the future of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo, which has been under UN administration since 1999. If anyone in Western Europe asks how all this could have happened, I can tell them, for I have watched and listened to this story unfolding in my country.

The country that used to be mine, the former Yugoslavia, was ethnically and culturally extremely diverse. Marshall Josip Broz Tito used to call this diversity our Yugoslavian "melting pot." In reality, though, it was never that. After Tito's death the country's diversity was tragically instrumentalized; it became socially divided, split ethnically and culturally into sub-groups and economically into a hierarchy of better-off and worse-off regions. Post-Tito Yugoslavia thus became a proverbial European vertical.

At the top of this vertical, in the far north on the border with Austria, was the economically most advanced republic Slovenia. In a certain sense Slovenia stood for the permanent "high" in what was then the common homeland. You then moved on down through Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Serbia in the centre to Montenegro and Macedonia in the far south, the chronic "low" of our former country. "The further south, the more deplorable" ("Sto juznije to tuznije") was the popular saying used to describe the ladder along which a specifically Yugoslavian brand of racism was always directed at those who were on the next rung down geographically and economically. Hence the Slovenians showed the contempt they felt for the country bumpkins, idlers or failures of the other republics most clearly towards the Croatians; the Croatians for their part passed it on to the Serbs; and the latter, in turn, took pleasure in making fun of the Macedonians or Montenegrins. The Bosnians, on the other hand, as the people who inhabited the centre of the Republic of Yugoslavia, were the object of mockery from all sides.

But right at the very bottom came the Albanians who lived in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo. Their language wasn't a Slavic language. They were poorer than the rest of us. Their culture was pretty alien. In the motley collection of different kinds of Yugoslavs they, as the southernmost ethnic group, were condemned to play the role of the absolute outsiders.

Anything that the rest of us in former Yugoslavia claimed to know about the Albanians was put together from a hodgepodge of offensive cliches. They were generally referred to derisively as the Siptari or the shiptars. If we didn't hate them openly, it was only because we did not consider them worthy of our hatred. Even at the best of times there was never any dialogue between "them" and "us."

The Kosovo Albanians were for us just a bunch of primitive, at most sometimes comical golliwogs, our Uncle Toms. In other words, they were our negroes. Yet just as the existence of the despised Albanians scarcely penetrated the consciousness of the average Yugoslav of the Tito era, so the casual cultural racism of that time seems, from today's perspective, rather harmless compared with the violent, murderous hatred of the "shiptars" that seized the Serbs following the death of Tito and after the first wave of "unrest" in Kosovo at the end of the twentieth century. This resentment became particularly intense throughout the phase of burgeoning nationalism in all the republics, during the brutal tyranny perpetrated by Slobodan Milosevic, who set out to ruthlessly tear apart the common state. During the 1990s politicians and the media also began using the colloquial and derogatory term "shiptars," a label that increasingly stuck to make them the object of our paranoia. More and more often people began to speak of them as though the only reason they existed was to crush and annihilate "us Serbs".

One of the legends that did the rounds in Milosevic's version of the news was a historical myth that went roughly like this: "Once there were far fewer Albanians than Serbs in Kosovo. But over the years (by means of a miracle that has never been fully explained! V.A.) they came to Kosovo across the Albanian border and just settled here in our country, before our very eyes, without so much as a 'by your leave'." Equipped with what in our eyes were positively animal-like qualities, they developed the collective determination of termites and, what is more, bred like rabbits. Their uncontrollable virility and high birth rates made us shiver, indeed we shuddered with disgust. At the same time the Serbs were constantly being publicly entreated to profess their hatred of the "shiptars." No Serb was considered worth his salt unless he cherished this hatred. Thus official propaganda during the Milosevic era, supported unerringly by the media, declared the "shiptars" to be the Serbs' archetypal enemy; indeed, without this enemy the Serbs' own existence would have been practically unthinkable. For where would Batman be without his Joker? Now the "shiptars" were no longer pathetic Uncle Toms. On the contrary, they had transformed themselves into terrifying, dangerous demons, intractable and persistent in their mission to take over our historic territory, to snatch away from us the Kosovo Polje, the Kosovo Field, "the cradle or our culture," to steal our myths, to rob us of that which belonged to us by "historic right". (More here)

Determined to settle scores with these "shiptars" once and for all, our President Milosevic conceived a fantastic plan. In his murky empire of evil, poverty, ethnic hatred and hyperinflation, the army and the police aided by the mass media were to be allowed to discriminate against and humiliate the Kosovo Albanians without incurring sanctions. The Albanians would be able to be arbitrarily dismissed or arrested, their property plundered, their families and villages destroyed. Absolved of any responsibility and encouraged by popular support, the president for many years painstakingly put his plan into action, bringing violence and destruction first to Kosovo and then to the whole territory of Yugoslavia. Following the Dayton Agreement in December 1995 there was a brief ceasefire, but in 1999 the spiral of violence finally led Milosevic back to where it had all started, back to Kosovo.

Yet Kosovo was also the place that was to seal Milosevic's fate after thirteen years of his destructive rule. When NATO began bombing the main culprit, Serbia-Montenegro, at the end of March 1999, it destroyed some more of the infrastructure and claimed hundreds of civilian victims. Yet what followed was the end of Serbian state power in the province of Kosovo. At the same time the roles of perpetrator and victim were once more reversed in this hapless place. There was an exodus of thousands of Serbs and Roma and a rampage of revenge by the victors; and once again the victims were almost exclusively innocent civilians. The hope of any normality between ordinary Serbs and Albanians, of them being able to live side by side in the foreseeable future, was gone.

Milosevic had played his game so cunningly that only one kind of epilogue was possible: the UN war crimes tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia in The Hague. Nevertheless, even then, Milosevic managed to escape the place where justice might have been done, if only by suffering a heart attack. By eluding justice he left us with the question of blame. Not least for this reason the citizens of Serbia are burdened with guilt and shame, whether we accept it or not.

A few years ago the Serbian media reported for months on end on mass graves whose dead had been identified by forensic experts as Kosovo Albanians. One of the most horrific images was that of a refrigerated lorry out of which murdered Kosovo Albanian women, children and old people were disposed in Lake Perucac, near the mouth of the river Derventa. On our screens we saw half-decayed, clothed corpses being pulled out of the water, we heard the shocking confession of the driver, who had been told to transport the dead out of Kosovo in order to cover up the crime. At the time a Belgrade television station broadcast an interview with a man bathing untroubled in this beautiful lake from whose green waters the corpses had just been pulled. When the reporter asked whether this bothered him the simpleton stood there shaking his head as the water dripped off him. Blinking innocently and smiling laconically, he looked at the camera and said without turning a hair: "To be honest, I don't believe all that," and dived defiantly back into the water.

The guy is mad, you might think. But actually the opposite is the case. His reaction is absolutely understandable. Serbian citizens have a decade of brainwashing by politicians and the media behind them, a decade of lessons in how continuous lying can eventually make people believe their own lies. The bathing man was simply using that acquired skill.

Denial is one of the central new Serbian qualities. It is so new that we don't even have a proper word for it, and those who realize what is happening simply use the English word instead. Denial. This denial, coldness in the face of human suffering, an inability to show the most rudimentary empathy, shows that we as a society are in a no-man's land. Sometimes it seems as if we did not want to escape the maelstrom of the past. The question of the status of Kosovo, and at least as important, of our future relationship with the Kosovo Albanians, are among the most decisive questions of all, and they could be used as a measure of our political maturity. The reasons why we don't take a constructive approach to them are more profound. Today's Serbian society is tired of politics. It is tired of lost wars, exhausted by chronic poverty and the feeling that the Serbs must see themselves either as victims or as the guilty party. It fears change and shirks responsibility.

In other words, events have ensured that our view of the Kosovo Albanians will remain unchanged for a long time to come. To the traditional resentment there has simply been added the subliminal rage of the loser, which is vented in self-pity and may be coupled with the mystical idea of being inherently in the right. Indeed, the unavoidable loss of the former southern Serbian province of Kosovo is in certain circles of our society perceived as tantamount to an apocalypse. Not long ago the centre of Belgrade was plastered with posters designed to fool us: "There is no Serbia without Kosovo!" But whoever says that is lying, and many people fundamentally know this – for despite everything it is becoming increasingly evident that the status of Kosovo is becoming marginal in the everyday life and concerns of the Serbs. In fact many citizens – our young particularly – disappointed by all sides, seem to have decided that they don't believe in anything any more, like that simpleton bathing in the lake.

But what can one expect from a generation that has been raised amid war and destruction, fed with a policy of overt hatred, and that can't get a visa to become acquainted with other countries and cultures? Unfortunately, probably not very much. Our young people have begun to hate again, without inhibitions, with a frivolous delight. Surveys of school students are enough to make your hair stand on end – and they confirm the impression one gains from everyday life. More than 30 percent of the pupils at Serbian middle schools believe that one "should neither become friends with Albanians nor visit them." Almost a third of young people believe that the Chinese – the only relatively large group of foreigners in our country – should have their residence permits removed, even if they obey the law. Every third teenage boy and every second teenage girl is looking down on homosexuals and people infected with HIV.

The thought of the ghastly success with which contemporary Serbian society has deformed the thoughts and emotions of young people makes one shudder. Maybe the solution is simply to wait stoically and be patient. Maybe one only needs to hope that a new generation will grow up under more peaceful and healthier circumstances. Perhaps the only thing left for us is to believe that our grandchildren will be our real children.

*

Vladimir Arsenijevic was born in 1965 in Pula/Croatia. His prize-winning novels have been translated into many languages. He lives in Belgrade.

This article orignally appeared in German in Die Zeit on 20 September, 2007.

Translation: Melanie Newton

"La Julia" spells it all out for you!

Well, in case you had any doubt that she meant exactly what she said about Albanians being "Balkan Beasts", here's a little follow up from our little buddy Ms. Gorin:

"Crazy people don’t know they’re crazy. And beasts naturally don’t know they’re beasts"

Yep, you heard it right. La Julia just confirmed, in a pretty much stand-alone statement (in her original post, it is meant to refer to an e-mail she got over the weekend about her "Balkan Beast" comments, though it's pretty obvious from her post that it's meant to more or less stand on it's own as well), that she considers ALL, repeat ALL Albanians "beasts" (and crazy, as well). So yep....

Dr. FERID MURAD, you're a BEAST!
WILLIAM GREGORY, you're a BEAST!
JOHN BELUSHI, you were a BEAST! (An "animal" maybe, but a beast, too?)
ELIZA DUSHKU, you're a BEAST!
MASIELA LUSHA, you're a BEAST!
GJON MILI, you were a BEAST!
AGNES GONXHE BOJAXHIU, you were a BEAST! (Oh, of course I forgot, you were never Albanian to begin with, you were Macedonian!)
ISMAIL KADARE, you're a BEAST!
TONY DOVOLANI, you're a BEAST!
SKANDERBEG, you were a BEAST! (Oh that's right, another Albanian who wasn't really Albanian! Now, was your real last name "Kastriotivic" or "Kastriotis"? I never can remember....)

Wow....that's some pretty "beastly" company there! ;)

After publishing the e-mail of someone who goes by the handle of "Shqiperia", (that part of the post I won't replicate here, since I did so as a part of my most recent post before this one; I will say it was a good e-mail, though as I also pointed out in my previous post, it would have been a lot better if he or she'd left the "four-letter words" out....), she then goes on to say:

Actually, I’m an American Jew, but Serbs, Jews — what’s the difference? It’s all non-Albanian to him.

Of course, La Julia is using ideology to hide the truth. Strictly speaking, she's a Jewish person of Russian origin who, IIRC, migrated here when she was about 13 or so with her family, and became a naturalised American citizen. And of course, there's nothing in his or her e-mail about hating non-Albanians-but hey, when you've got ideology, who needs reason, common sense, or facts?

Believe it or not, “Shqiperia”, even though you’ve succeeded in getting the world to hate Serbs, at some point in your life you’re bound to encounter at least one individual who doesn’t adore and patronize Ablanians as a “neutral” position.

Wow-that's some power the Albanian community (by which I mean Albanians, friends, and supporters) must have! That we could have single-handedly gotten virturally the entire planet to hate another people in toto, just by our own efforts. (Now, if someone can just explain to me why a lot of people I meet still mix up Albanian with Armenian, Azerbajani, etc.?) Now, let's all join hands with Julia and all her Serbian National(Social)ist cry-baby buddies in a great big sing-along of "You and Me Against the World"! (Of course, like a great many bullies I dealt with in school when I was a kid, they've managed to convince themselves that it's they who are really the "persecuted ones"!) (And Julia? "Ablanians"?)

Though you probably won’t encounter too many more than that.

(Though check out this anti-Republican guy — whoever he is — in the comments section of HuffPost. He’s onto your tricks big time: “Albanians, just like republicans, can’t seem to be able to tell the truth. It’s all spin. Albania for Albanians.”)

Actually, what La Julia leaves out oh-so-convieniently (well, besides the fact that he's not only saying that you can't believe Albanians, but you can't believe Julia's bunch, the Repubs, either-so I guess that means he's on to your tricks "big time" too, Julie baby) is that said poster goes on HuffPo by the name of "Milwaukee Dan". Interestingly enough, here's another HuffPo comment made by "Milwaukee Dan"

MilwaukeeDan (See profile | I'm a fan of MilwaukeeDan)
Speaking of war crimes, in the Hague, there are Albanians, Bosnians(Croats,Muslims,Serbs), Croatians, Montenegrins and Serbians on trial or in jail for war crimes as are some African leaders. There is not a single American on trial there. From what I could recall, the USA set up the international war crimes tribunal, but its soldiers could not stand trial there?!! The former Yugoslav leaders where greedy,stupid nationalist gangsters. The United States has occupied 2 countries, killed thousands of innocent civilians,created a civil war,stood by while ethnic cleansing goes on,created over 2 million refugees and has made hell for the remaining inhabitants. Yet, there is no talk of war crimes, strange. Danilovic

Two things to note: Milwaukee, like Cleveland OH, and Chicago IL, is a city with a HUGE Serbian American and Serb diaspora population, most of whom are staunch Democrats. And second, the "Dan" in "Milwaukee Dan" evidently stands for "Danilovic". Can you say "probably already biased and prejudiced when it comes to things having to do with the Balkans"? I thought you could. :)

(BTW, Julie? In response to your post's rhetorical statement,
A Lot of Letters from the Weekend for Some Reason
well, the reason for that would've been me. :) See, I've been very busy letting people know, by way of this webblog and various webboards, what you're up to. So if you get a whole lot of fun letters from Albanian folks letting you know they don't think very much of you, I'm proud to say I likely had a hand in it. You're welcome. )

Four simple rules for writing to the "Haters", or writing in a public forum about them....

This has been something that's been on my mind for a while now. I've noticed as of late that more and more people have started to take the potential menace and potential for mischief of the Albanophobes out there a bit more seriously as of late. That's good! And as a part of this, they've been taking it upon themselves to write at least some of them and let them know that we know they're out there, and that we know what they're saying. That's also good! But then, I start seeing those e-mails people are writing, stuff like this:

name = victim
comments = to whom it may concern julia here is a story for u during the war my family left kosova as we where walking the serb army stop a bunch of albanains lined them up and shot them in cold blood/? you serbs are no better then albanians show me one prove that the kla killed woman and children during the war ?you cant because kla never belived in killing woman and children but you keep denying that the serb army did nothing may god have mercy on ur lying soul! remmber god is one he will judge the nation your nation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

or this:

I like the way you post about Albanians there, “Balkan beasts”, “continuing their parents work”. So what your saying is every Albanian is a terrorist back home and EVERY Albanian family teaches their kids hatred of Serbs and to act in violence towards them? We read the articles and watch the news too you stupid fuck. Our parents dont have to teach us anything.

All you Serbians do is put out bullshit articles about Albanians being this and that. Criminals, terrorists, animals, violent, brute. We’re fighting for something thats OURS back home. If that makes us all of those things then thats what we are but I think it makes us honorable, courageous and brave. Three words Serbians dont know about.

stuff that's often poorly researched, written in english that would put even Larry the Cable Guy to shame, has obscenities, racial/ethnic slurs, misconceptions and misinformation in it....in other words, perfect ammo for the "Haters" to be able to say "See? This proves our point!". And that's not so good, folks.

Now that the people who wrote those pieces I cited (taken from La Julia's "GLOB" itself) were sincere I have no doubt at all. That they were writing to show La Julia that we're not going to take her lies, distortions, and slanders lying down, and to let her know exactly what we think of her, is both evident and laudible. But when those things are expressed in such a fashion as the two examples above express them, then what begins as a well-meaning defense becomes a blundering case of shooting one's self (and by extension the Albanian community) in the foot. I am saying all this because for whatever else you can say about them, the "Haters" aren't stupid, folks. Oh, we may like to call them that because they disagree with us, because they oppose us, because they are "THE ENEMY", but let's not let our hubris get ahead of our understanding of reality. These folks are not dumb, they are not stupid. They are for the most part very intellegent, very clever people. And that's in part what makes them potentially so dangerous. They will look for any sign of weakness, and they WILL exploit it-count on it! They know what the stakes are, and they ain't playin' by the Marquis de Queensbury Rules. Now of course, if they can't find anything legitimate to take and twist and pervert the meaning of, they'll manufacture something, but it's far far worse for us if they can take something somebody actually wrote to one of them, and twist it around to make it look like it proves their point. And they're damn good at it too. If someone like La Julia can take and pervert the words of intelligent folks like Nicki Fellenzer and Brad Staggs, how much easier is it for her to do it someone who's writing skills make them look like a slow third grader and/or like they have Tourrette's? We need to keep letting La Julia and the rest of the "Haters" know we're out there, and we're not taking their garbage lying down, of that there is no doubt! But we need to do it in manner that is calm (while still being passionate), rational, intelligent, intelligible, and free of obscenities, slurs, slanders, and threats.

That being said, here are a very few common sense "rules" to keep in mind when writing one of the "Haters", or writing about them in a public or semi-public forum:

First: Check your spelling and/or grammar. I know the English language is a bitch for non-native speakers to master sometimes. Hell, it's a bitch for us native-born speakers sometimes as well! And my hat's sincerely off to anyone out there who takes the time to try to not only learn it, but learn it correctly. But the "Haters" don't care about that. All they care is that if you look like a slow third grader or "stupid immigrant" because your English skills aren't the same as a reasonably well-educated native speaker's are, that they're going to use that against you, and against the whole Albanian community. I know it may be a little embarrassing , but for Pete's sake, if you've written something you want to send to one of hte "Haters", and you know you're English isn't the best, then get a friend who's English is of sufficient quality (preferably a native speaker, if available) to go over what you've written with you, and suggest corrections to it so that it is in proper English. Coming off as intelligent and thoughtful will go a long way to showing the "Haters" for being just what they really are.

Second: Leave the obscenities for the locker room. Calling somebody a this, that, or the other thing may express how you really feel about them; it may even feel good to call them those things. But rest assured, if one of the "Haters" decides to post your obscenity-laden missive to their website or blog, you will look like an inarticulate and quite probably violent boob. Even as common as "cussing" is nowadays, in most intelligent and cultured (or even psuedo-intelligent and cultured) circles, it is still seen as a mark of someone who is not sufficiently in control of themselves and their emotions to articulate their thoughts and feelings intelligently.

Third: Lose the hate; lose the ethnic and racial slurs-if not altogether, then at least when you're writing. Before anything else, let me say that I utterly despise both racism and anti-semetism with a passion. The only time my dad ever hit me where I to this day I actually agree I "had it coming to me" was the one occasion as a kid that I ever used the "N-word" in front of him. And if you're view of the world contains either, then IMO it is YOU who should be doing a "reality check" on yourself first, before critisising anyone! But I also know that what I say isn't necessarily going to change anyone's heart or mind when it comes to that subject-and that's something they have to do for themselves to begin with, anyway. So whether you're using them just to hurt your opponent (ala what Michael Richards claimed his little "outburst" last year at a comedy club to be), or because that's how you "really" feel, keep in mind that most people in this day and age (myself included, obviously), regardless of political persuasion, consider such insults to be unacceptable, if not outright barbaric, and if you use them, that's exactly what you'll look like-at best-a barbarian. And even if the person you're writing to is rather "selective" (i.e. hypocritical) themselves about such things, again, why give them m0re ammo by saying things you know they're going to use against you if given the chance? Keep it clean, keep it racism-free.

Fourth: Know your facts, and don't spread lies or slander about the "Haters". Albanian tradition, as I have both come to know it and experience it, is among other things, about taking "the high road". About staying honorable. About not stooping to your enemy's level. And that goes for dealing with the "Haters" as well. And a part of that "high road" is having your facts straight, and sticking to them, instead of what your emotions would want you to believe, regardless of whether it comes to something about Albanians, about Serbs or Greeks, or about the "Haters" themselves. One example of what I'm talking about here is the oft-repeated comment that Julia Gorin is nothing but a paid shill for the Serbs; that the only reason she says what she says or appears to believe what she believes is because she's being paid. As I've said before, much as I'd personally like to believe myself that she's nothing but another political Elmer Gantry, all the evidence, including that she's been writing independent op-ed pieces on Kosova, the Albanian people, and so forth ever since the spring of '99, tells me otherwise. And in fact, there's absoulutely no evidence whatsover that she's anything less than 100% sincere in what she claims to believe (which makes her a lot more dangerous than if sher were "just" a shill, IMO....). In any case, such an accusation (like she and her ilk are currently making against Maarti Athisarri), unless you have proof, is both unworthy of us, and only damages us in our cause. It may feel good, it even may make sense, but if you can't prove it, or at least give reasonable evidence for it, then don't say it. Leave the unsubstantiated BS to the "Haters".

And that's it, folks: Four simple rules to follow when writing the haters: Watch your spelling and grammar, cut out the cussing, lose the racial/ethnic slurs, and know your facts (both about your own people, and about the "Haters"), and stick to them. Do those things, and you'll find that what you write will be both more respected, and more effective.

Is there any doubt that it's not just Albanians in the Balkans they're after now?

In yet another POSt designed to defame all Albanians as (take your pick, or choose all of 'em!) savage, uncivilised, barbaric, inherently criminal, violent, yada, yada, yada, as well as once again try and frame the Kosova conflict in terms of being merely a case of "Brave, noble Serb soldiers and police warding off Albanian terrorists/insurgents", our little friend La Julia makes this statement:

As I’ve noted before, every new year brings the press closer to informing the public about what happened nine years ago. Perhaps by 2009, the 10th anniversary of our bombing Europeans under false pretenses, it may finally be known that there was no ethnic cleansing of the general Albanian population, that the “counter-insurgency war” targeted…insurgents.

Well, while that's not going to happen (mainly because we weren't bombing "Europeans"-nice little racist touch there, Julia-as in Serbs are Europeans but Albanians aren't?, but Serb Military, Paramilitary, and Police forces that were targeting Albanian civilians.), La Julia does get closer and closer herself to actually revealing what she and other supporters of Serbian National(Social)ism's (not to mention the Serbian National(Social)ists themselves) REAL endgame, at least in part, is.

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The story in Ottawa Sun is no longer available online, but a source who lives in Ottawa wrote me the following letter:

I’d like to bring to your attention stabbing of a Serb-Canadian by an Albanian at the Greek festival in Ottawa that happened last month (08/2007). The Albanians came over to the festival with their flag to provoke a reaction from the Greek and Serbian crowd, and they made a mess. The victim survived a stab in the stomach. Here is the link, but the Canadian news censorship works very hard to conceal the identity of the Albanian criminal, so you wouldn’t know who stabbed who unless you were at the festival.

I know about it because I live in Ottawa. Ottawa Sun wrote an article about it, but never mentioned who stabbed whom. The author of the article just mentioned it was a conflict between two ethnic groups. I bet if it was the other way around it would be all over Canadian news. The name of the victim is Sinisa Lakic who was stabbed in the stomach, was in urgent care, but now feels better…This is the link in Serbian from Serbiancafe.

Unfortunately, I don't speak Serbian or Serbo-Croatian, so I have no way of translating the post La Julia's source cites, though I can gather from the context here that it would be considered "hearsay" in any court of law, US or Canadian.

Here is the only thing I was able to find online about this:

Stabbing stuns Ottawa Greek fest — “It all happened so quickly. It was over in 20 seconds. The guy that was stabbed walked over to a chair holding his stomach”

What was supposed to be a celebration of multicultural diversity turned into a nightmare of ethnic rivalry as one man was stabbed in the stomach at the Ottawa Greek Festival.

And I found the following notice here:

“If you have pictures of a stabbing at Greek Fest this week, Ottawa police want to see them.”

Of course, what she doesn't mention is that both articles are still online, just that you have to pay to get them from the newspaper's archives (admittedly $12.50 a pop is pretty steep, but then a nice, successful comedienne like La Julia should be able to afford that, right?).

The source added the following:

I know that during the Serb Festival 2007 in Ottawa this year the unexpected intrusion of Albanian teens was the biggest security concern.

Hmmmm....well, how nice. I guess La Julia has graduated from using "new media" and webboards for her sources to simple gossip and hearsay. But of course, it's brave, noble, GCSes (Godly Christian Serbs) who are doing the gossiping and hearsay, so it must be true! Congratz, Julie baby....you've just sunk to a new low in journalistic "standards".

Now let it be known, that if indeed the perpetrator of the stabbing WAS indeed Albanian, and he is eventually caught, then he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Contrary to what La Julia and those like her try to imply every time something like this happens, most Albanians are scrupulously law-abiding, regardless of the country they live in, and consider an act like this to be not only not reflective of true Albanian culture, but also a black mark on the community.

But now comes the part that relates to what I said before about the Albanophobe's real endgame here. Read this part carefully. Burn it into your brain. Better yet, burn it into your soul. Remember it if one day you find a rock crashing through the front window of your home or business with a note attached to it saying "ALBANIANS GET OUT!" or some other such thing. Remember it if one day your kids friends at school suddenly will no longer talk to them, simply because they're Albanian. Remember it if one day a bunch of "Public-Minded Citizens" start publicly boycotting your place of business, just because you're Albanian.

Let’s make a mental note of the fact that Albanian TEENAGERS in CANADA are continuing their parents’ work. This means two things: that Balkan beasts are bringing their ethnic hatreds with them to the New World. And they’re teaching the hatred to their young. In case North Americans still believe they’ll avoid the fate of the Balkans, let this be a warning bell for the long term.

For the record, if you are Albanian, you have just been called a beast. A Beast. Not as in less than human, not as in sub-human, but as in inhuman, as in non-human. And in case you need a translation, La Julia has just said " (they) are bringing their ethnic hatreds with them to the New World. And they’re teaching the hatred to their young. In case North Americans still believe they’ll avoid the fate of the Balkans, let this be a warning bell for the long term, " which will-make no mistake about it-be understood by both her faithful readers (no surprise there) and those who are "on the fence" who just happen upon her site to mean, "These people, a race of thuggish, blood-feuding, tribal, violent, mostly Islamofascist goons are coming to YOUR country, if in fact they're not there already. They'll be YOUR neighbors, YOUR kid's classmates, the owners of businesses in YOUR community. And these beasts in human form will bring their violence and blood feuds with them, and they'll teach it to their young as "tradition" to be carried on, generation after generation, on YOUR streets, in YOUR cites, in YOUR towns. Be warned-this is what you can expect from them-ALL OF THEM."

Remember that. Remember it well. Remember it when they come after you. Remember it when you think back to the time when you used to hear about garbage like that, and thought to yourself "Oh, pooh-pooh. Who cares what that striga Gorin, or any of the Serbs or their supporters, have to say?"

More fun with "Mr. Anonymous"!

Tungjatjeta, y'all! Well, it's the end of Crazy Week #2 for me, hence why you haven't seen any new posts here at ARC until now. Hopefully things will start settling down soon, and I'll finally have time to start doing the blog again like I had been (of course, having a few volunteers to help out wouldn't hurt, either-hint, hint!).

Anyway....it is considered a truism in many religions and in many cultures that that which is dark does not like being exposed to light. Therefore, our little buddy "Mr. Anonymous" decided to send me a follow-up threat for daring to openly post on the main page of this blog his little diatribe he posted to the comments section of one of my posts, and my response to him. (FYI, my absence has most definitely not in any way been because of him. It takes a lot more-a LOT more-to scare me than half-assed threats and attempts at intimidation such as he and people like him truck in.) Well, "Mr. Anonymous", get ready to get put out again.... :D

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your name
your state & town
your work

I want to look you in the eye and see how brave you really are.

like puting peoples pics up there? time to post your own mug up, bubballoo!

(Why is the first thing that enters my head when reading this guy's posts is the words of the great Bugs Bunny: "What a Maroon!"?)

My response (I correct the order here, as I edited my original response to him after I'd posted it, hence it appears out of order on the original page. Also I made two responses, which I've edited below into one.):

Uh-uh....you gotta put the work in for that yourself, asshat. (Besides, you forgot address and phone #!) But hey, if by some chance you do find those out and can actually find me, like I said, by all means bring it on. I've dealt with bigger fish than you before-bet on it! Also, what's the big deal about putting people's pics up? All the pics I use are public and out in the open (unlike you), so I'm not betraying any secrets. I think you need to either learn how blogs work, or find a better excuse to "call me out" with, pal.

And that will be the last response I'll make to "Mr. Anonymous". But hey, dude-feel free to keep hanging yourself by posting stupid threats to my blog. Rest assured, I'll keep right on posting them (and anyone else's) on the main page, even if I don't respond to 'em! :)