Pristina is almost without any overt Serb references - no Cyrillic, or serb wording - needless to say there is alot of English language with the heavy presence of the UN…and to a lesser extent (obviously at least) KFOR. The occasional mosque and minaret poking up through the skyline provides the clue as to the dominant religion. Ten years ago it would have been a very different place and it would have been interesting to appreciate the differences….but there is one last “monument”, or “recognition” of Serb Orthodoxy which is the shell of a once great Church standing in the vicinity of the library — surrounded by barbed wire…looking very lonely, isolated, ruined of its previous glory…like an aged, once great animal spending its last days in a zoo.
Now, if you'll go to Russ_ell's Prishtina page, you'll note there's a picture of the Church in question. 'Cept for it's not a "church", but a Cathedral-the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. And it's certainly not an "aged, once great animal" (unless you're counting dog or cat years), as it's construction was begun in 1993, and suspended when Serbia lost direct control of Kosova in 1999. And basically, all that was ever built in all that time was that outer shell. So no, it's not the burnt out husk of some great Serbian Orthdox cathedral, decimated by "Islamofascist" Albanian thugs (and in the opinion of La Julia, that's pretty much what all Albanians are to begin with....) but the shell of a NEVER FINISHED Cathedral.
Now I'm not getting down on Russ_ell for this-he's not a professional tourism writer, just a guy who likes to travel (though it would've been nice if he'd bothered to get the straight dope, instead of making assumptions....). So I can't really fault him. But I can and do fault "La Julia". I tend to suspect that despite telling herself "The Big Lie" for year upon year about her Serbian National(Social)ist buddies and the "horrors" they and they alone have supposedly suffered from all their neighbors, she really deep down inside knows the truth about the Cathedral (among other things). But hey, since when did a little thing like THE REAL TRUTH ever stop La Julia? In closing, let's all take a moment remember the immortal words of Dobrica Cosic.....
“We lie to deceive ourselves, to console others; we lie for mercy, we lie to fight fear, to encourage ourselves, to hide our and somebody else’s misery. We lie for love and honesty. We lie because of freedom. Lying ie is the trait of our patriotism and the proof of our innate smartness. We lie creatively, imaginatively, inventively.”
6 comments:
Poor research caused Julia to miss a great opportunity here. She should have checked, that the half-built cathedral of Pristina looks the way it does because construction was abandoned. She could've scored if she looked for other photos of it - a simple Google search brings up photos which prove that the inside of this unfinished church has been used as a toilet. Tolerance Shiptar style!
And she should have looked at the fate of the old 19th-century church built on older foundations that was a cultural monument due to its exquisite Debar-style iconostasis - before the place was burned down and almost totally destroyed, and would've stayed that way were it not for international pressure on the Shiptar "government" to fix some of these churches destroyed in the March 2004 Kristallnacht just so that some progress towards multi-cultural Kosovo could be mentioned in UNMIK's reports.
(NOTE TO MY READERS: There are some words that are fairly strong racial slurs in my response. Please note that I do *NOT* normally approve of using such language, or of those who do use it, but in this instance, I used them to prove a point that I felt required the full impact of those words in order for it to be understood the way I wanted it to.)
Anonymous,
I'm guessing from the tone of your comment that you are either a Serbian Nationalist or a supporter of said viewpoint. Given that, I have to wonder if your the sort of person who frequently uses words like "nigger" for black people and "sheenie" for Jewish people? Because that's precisely what you're use of the term "Shiptar" equals in this context. Put it this way-would you like being called a "Shkija"?
As to the rest of your comments....
I give you credit for at least being honest enough to admit that the Cathedral looks the way it does not because of "wanton destruction", but because it was never finished to begin with. As to it being used as a "toilet", I've never seen any such pictures, and I've googled for images of it prior to now. However, even if it has been used for such unseemely purposes, that proves nothing. Abandoned buildings frequently are used that way, regardless of what their original purpose was or was intended to be.
Of course, you go on to mention "the old 19th-century church", without mentioning it's name. Very nice. And as far as "Kristallnacht" goes, nice try at going for the emotions over reason (a typical Serbian National(Social)ist tactic I've noticed), but it won't wash. The real Kristallnacht was intended to appear like a spontanious action, when it was very clear that it had been very carefully planned by the Nazi party, and carefully planned to appear spontanious. As I've said before, I have never approved of the violence that surrounded the drowning of the 3 boys in the Ibar, and I do believe that some minor political factions had a hand in orchestrating some of the violent actions that were taken by some demonstrators, but I've never seen any reliable evidence that the Kosovar government at the time supported or planned such actions. But you know what? Just keep on believing your "Big Lies", and I'll just keep right on debunking them. :)
You can not debunk anything. You are biased and plain racist! It's quite obivious and you are the one who needs a reality check!
It was the Croats who before anyone else put forward the claim of being descended from the glorious Illyrian people, to the point of identifying themselves with them and giving themselves the name of Illyrians. For centuries, the Croatian language was simply called Illyrian
Thank you sir, for your thoughtful and reasoned comments! ;-)
Not sure what the Croats claiming themselves to have been the Illyrians of history has to do with anything, other than it's about as true as the slavic "Macedonians" of today having any kinship with Alexander the Great....
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