To be Gay in Serbia: Kind of like to be Albanian (or Roma, or Hungarian, or....) in Serbia

Hi folks! Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything-not since the end of April, to be exact, so I guess that makes 4 and a half months now. Unfortunately, I can't say this post will mark the beginning of regular postings again, either. I am right now probably busier than I've been any time in the last year and a half, and probably will continue to be "that busy" for at least the next 2 months, if not longer. However, while the blog may still be on "indefinite hiatus", rest assured that I have no intention of giving it up! My goal is that, once my current responsibilities I'm taking care of have finished, I will be able to bring the blog back, bigger and better than ever. But that's a ways off, and for right now, "good intentions" are about all I can promise. With a little luck and a little time, hopefully they will become realities.

Anyway....as most of you know, the Serbian National(Social)ists and their buddies out there just loooove to demonise Albanians (and usually Croats and Bosniaks, too), often painting Serbs-by inference and/or direct claim-to be everything their "enemies" aren't: Kindly, civilised, Godly, tolerant to a fault, unprejudiced, non-violent (except when absolutely necessary-wink wink!), etc., etc. A real "Royal Race of Saints", as it were. Of course, like all "Haters", they whitewash or ignore completely that their own lot are often at least as bad if not even worse than those they hate on (and that's not even taking into account the fact that often a lot of their calumnies against those they hate are often exaggerations/disproportionate representations of bad things people do not only in their culture, but in most other cultures to begin with).

A good case in point, as often happens, can be found in the "blog" of our ol' "buddy" Julia Whor...., er Gorin. Back in 2007, she made a couple of posts "exposing" what a rampant bunch of homophobes Kosovar Albanians supposedly are (the old "One Bad Apple IS The Whole Bunch" ploy, a favorite of "Haters" everywhere). Now, I won't deny that Albanian society, like A LOT of societies the world around, still has a long way to go with the "modern" issue of how it deals with the gay members of it's society. But as for the idea that Serbs-even the relatively "cosmopolitan" denizens of Belgrade-are conversely somehow or another wonderfully enlightened and non-homophobic (and even La Julia herself has been known to post an essay or two showing herself to not exactly be the most "gay-friendly" of folks out there)? Wellll....I'll let this article speak for itself:

Serbian gay parade is called off

Belgrade is full of posters telling participants: "We're expecting you"

A Gay Pride march in Serbia has been called off after police told organisers they could not guarantee its safety.

One of the organisers said Serbia's prime minister had urged them to switch Sunday's rally from central Belgrade, but the proposal was "unacceptable".

President Boris Tadic vowed on Friday to protect the participants.

Anti-gay groups had threatened violence if the march were allowed to go ahead. "We're expecting you" posters had been stuck around the Serbian capital.

"Pride parades are traditionally organised in the main streets of big cities," said one of the organisers, Dragana Vuckovic.

It is "unacceptable" to stage the parade in a "field", she told the media.

The Republic of Serbia has capitulated. We have not Gay Pride organising committee Gay march plan tests Serb feelings

The decision had been taken after a meeting on Saturday with Prime Minister Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic.

Nationalist and religious leaders have opposed a Serbian bill banning discrimination against homosexuals.

The ultra-nationalist Serb Popular Movement 1389 hailed the cancellation of Sunday's march as "a great victory for normal Serbia".

"In our city infidels and Satanists will not pass," it added.

Homosexuality in Serbia is still far from accepted, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Belgrade.

The gay scene is underground and members of the community are regularly the target of discrimination.

Belgrade's first gay parade in 2001 descended into chaos amid widespread violence by mobs of protesters - with television images of bleeding participants and police firing rubber bullets broadcast around the world.

The organising committee of the planned Sunday march will certainly keep up the pressure, says our correspondent.

"The state has failed the fundamental test," it says in a statement. "The next exam period is approaching fast. The Republic of Serbia has capitulated. We have not."

Still here!

Yes, friends, despite appearances to the contrary, I'm still here, and as time permits, still trying to keep at least something of an eye on the "haters". Unfortunately, an insanely crazy schedule ever since Dec. 2007 shows no signs of abating, or at least not for about another year or so. Which means that also unfortunately, a lot of the "great ideas and good intentions" I have will have to remain largely that: ideas and intentions, at least for the time being. Simply put, I'm just about stretched to the limit. And as I have no regular contributors, unlike a lot of blogs, to help me out, I really can't make any promises, at least on the short term, for anything I might do on or with the blog. Well, other than this-that I will absolutely NOT either quit the blog, or put it on hiatus. The work I set out to do when I started this blog (and that'll be two years coming up at the end of July-that's just 3 months away!) is still there, and will probably always be there. And as long as it's there, I'm going to keep doing it. I have to.

Just a few short notes....

One, I'm well aware that the article I posted in the March 4 entry didn't reproduce right. I will try to correct this as soon as I can find another source for the same article.

Two, despite a world in economic crisis, Kosova appears to be growing in economic stability with every passing month. Most major countries of the western world recognise her (many right from the get go), and the total list of countries that recognise her seems to be growing with each month.

Three (and lucky for me!), the "Haters" seem to be running out of steam, at least somewhat. A lot of their posts these days are rehashes of the same old libels against the Albanian people, not just Kosova Albanians, and using the same old tired tactics that smart people either have caught on to already, or are catching on to. But one thing seems clear-they seem to be slowly accepting (even if they won't admit it) that Kosova will not be some sort of "Balkan Biafra". It's not about to be reabsorbed into Serbia-now or ever. It is here to stay, regardless of whether one likes it or not.

So that's it for now. As I've said in the past, I fully plan on continuing with the blog, and with the video version of it I started doing last fall. Just a matter of things in my life losening up enough for me to do them the way I want to do them.

Paving the way: A Kosovo hero's path from rebel to road-builder

PRISTINA, KOSOVO - There aren't many places in Europe where a minister of transport is a national hero whose name is sung in folk songs. But Kosovo is not an ordinary place. The country, a year old last month, is where Fatmir Limaj is succeeding at a job everyone else here has failed at: building roads. Mr. Limaj is in many ways a Kosovo story. In 1998, he took up the gun as a rebel leader, won the first real Kosovo Liberation Army battle against Serbs, and became known as "Commander Steel." He was arrested and later acquitted at The Hague for war crimes. Today, he wears dark suits and patent leather shoes, and cuts ribbons – and deals – over fresh concrete and macadam. In 2007, when Limaj became transport minister, only five miles of four-lane highway existed in Kosovo. Last year, he built eight miles, instituted 24-hour work sites, and is now overseeing the construction of eight additional miles of four-lane roadway. Kosovars love it. Limaj views the transport ministry almost as a personal ministry, a calling to build a country. He's read Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope," and seems to offer a "Yes, we can" message to cynical Kosovars weary of unmet promises and muddy roads. With rebel credentials in the majority-Albanian society, Limaj has knocked heads, found consensus with contractors, and mobilized a workforce. He regularly drops in on sites at midnight or later. Last year, a TV crew filmed him directing work at 3 a.m., showing the country that change was indeed under way. "I'm restless by nature, just ask my wife," he says. "Building a country was a dream of my generation. Now, I'm living that dream, but there's a lot to do. "Our people are hard workers, but they need a good manager to channel their energy." Upgrading donkey paths to modern highways An executive from a Western nongovernmental organization, who has lived in Kosovo for several years, describes Limaj as "one of the good ones.... His methods aren't typical, but they are practical, and probably what Kosovo needs right now." Roads in this agricultural society have been so haphazard and poor that travelers from northern Europe routinely got lost, even in recent years. A 21st-century road infrastructure means development. Yet a decade after NATO intervened, and despite a highway budget, little was done. Village roads remained primitive, unpaved, and a nightmare in winter. The main "highway" from the airport to Pristina was two-laned, donkey-laden, and potholed. Yet last year, Limaj's ministry paved or repaved nearly 500 miles of highway – adopting a strategy of connecting villages with one another and with key arteries. "It was so much road that we all started to wonder why it hadn't happened before," says Artan Mustafa, political editor at the Express newspaper. "Obviously, one reason is because Limaj has power. No one can say to [Commander Steel] that the road won't go through here or there. He tells you, you don't tell him." Speaking in his office near the new parliament building, Limaj explains his passion for his homeland. "I feel that 24 hours a day. It was a dream of my youth, to have a free country," he says. "If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have said that freedom was impossible. But God gave us the opportunity." Fall of Wall a test of patience Limaj's own story began when he was a student leader in the early 1990s. The Berlin Wall had fallen, but Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic had revoked Kosovo's special status in Yugoslavia. The Albanian, 90 percent of the population, lived a second-class existence under brutal police-state repression – checkpoints, arbitrary killing, torture – as Serbs revived a deeply felt national myth of Kosovo as their spiritual heartland, something disallowed under Yugoslavia's longtime leader, Marshal Tito. "The rest of Europe was moving in ways unimaginable to us," he says. "The spirit of East Europe was everywhere. People in Europe were breathing easier. But for us, the opposite was happening. Europe was moving forward, and we were moving backward." Public debate wasn't allowed in the new Kosovo and students rebelled. "We wanted our voices heard in federal Yugoslavia," Limaj recalls. "We wanted to warn the center how dangerous the program of Milosevic was, to stop this crackdown." For a decade, Limaj and Kosovo waited as the political and spiritual leader of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, reacted to Serbian tactics with a Gandhian strategy of patience and nonviolence. A tipping point for Kosovars arrived with the US-led Dayton peace deal on Bosnia. "After Dayton, all our hopes and dreams fell," Limaj says. "That Milosevic could kill with impunity for years, then present himself as a man of peace ... this was totally depressing for us. There was no hope. We saw what he was doing here. It's true, if a normal person has choices, he would never choose war. But it was either leave Kosovo, or organize ourselves to resist." Limaj faced justice and earned respect The former commander plays down his KLA hero status. But Limaj was the first to switch KLA tactics – characterized by guerrilla skirmishes in villages and hiding in the hills – by confronting Serb forces in the open. His units eventually held two main highways and sheltered 85,000 people, a hospital, and a radio station. Last week, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal at The Hague offered its first verdict on the Kosovo war. Four Serb generals were found guilty of using systematic force against civilians. But the tribunal acquitted then Yugoslav President Milan Milutinovic, citing Milosevic as mainly responsible: "In practice, it was Milosevic, sometimes termed the 'Supreme Commander,' who exercised actual command authority … during the NATO campaign," stated chief judge Iain Bonomy. Milosevic died in his cell at The Hague in 2006, during his defense against genocide charges in Bosnia and Kosovo. Limaj's time at The Hague remains a sensitive one. He was arrested for crimes while serving as KLA commander of the Llapushnik region. He denied guilt, but agreed to face charges. "As much as I didn't agree with the accusation, I felt it was our responsibility to respond," Limaj says. "So I said I would go to The Hague, and was sure justice would prevail." It was a lonely, worrisome time for Limaj. When he was released in 2005, he bitterly criticized Kosovo authorities for a lack of logistical legal support that he felt would have shortened his trial. "I was not going to be a man afraid of justice. But in a situation like that, you have a million thoughts running through your mind." When Limaj returned, thousands of Kosovars made a pilgrimage to his home. Two attempts to run for mayor of Pristina failed. But Prime Minister Hashim Thachi gave him the transport ministry, which he relishes. What Limaj took from Obama's "Audacity of Hope" was the new president's community organizing in Chicago. "He went house to house to understand the people, their hopes and dreams, so by the time he ran for president could speak to everybody." That will be a task in Kosovo, still divided between Albanian and Serb. "Kosovo's intentions are humane… we don't want to harm or do damage to others… but allow everyone live together in a new state." Limaj's biggest test may be ahead. Having won hearts as a man who gets things done, and whose name has been added to a centuries-old Albanian heroic folk song – he must now finish the airport road, as well as a new road to Skopje, and navigate construction difficulties. "He's won the initial battle, but now is the real test," says a UN official. Mr. Mustafa, the editor, adds that "Everybody loves Limaj, but I also long for the day when an ordinary civil servant can give an order, and it is followed."

Original, by Robert Marquand, can be found at

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0304/p01s01-wogn.html

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

              GËZUAR PAMVARSISË!

(For those who don't speak/read Albanian, the words under the stylised illo of Commandante Adem Jashari mean more or less "Uncle, it's done!", and "Happy Independence")

And lest we be accused of not being gracious towards the "opposition", we also wish them a Happy Kosovar Independence Day too....  ;-)

Still alive and kickin'! Upcoming projects, and a little bit on "Blago"

Hi folks! Just a short post to let you know that yes, I'm still here, and yes, the blog is still going, albeit it's been in sort of a "hibernation" mode the past year or so. Unfortunately, my life's situation hasn't changed, so working on the blog has had to become sort of a "lesser" priority for me over the past 13 months or so, much as I'd like it to be different. That'll change eventually, but not for some time to come. But I have no intention of "letting it go" or "giving it up". Even though the "haters" have somewhat cut back their attention on Albania, Kosova, and the Albanian people in general (mainly because most of them seem to be of a right-of-center political persuasion, and hence seem to be a little more occupied with the political situation here at home right now....), they haven't given up, and they probably never will. So there still needs to be a voice calling them out on their crap.

One thing I will mention, though, is that I'm working right now, as time permits, on a definitive series where I profile the methods of the "haters" to sway the opinion of those who are not informed or are " on the fence" on the subjects of Albania, Kosova, and the Albanian people. Because they do have an identifiable, systematic methodology for trying to sway people over to their side and their way of thinking, and I think if one is aware of it, and of the false paradigms that its based on, one can do a lot better job of refining one's "BS" filters when one sees an example of it, and can better let others who might be swayed know it for what it really is.

Lastly, a few words on the Blagojevich scandal here in the US. It's interesting to me that if you look at Albanian-related web boards and blogs, you find little about this. To be honest, most Albanians I know just didn't-and don't-care about it. Now I can guarantee you that if the Illinois governor had been of Albanian descent, the Serbian National(social)ist blogs and web boards, not to mention folks like La Julia, Svetlana, Mary Monster, etc. would've been all over it like the proverbial "white on rice", saying how it proves that all Albanians are liars, crooks, etc. As for myself, I don't think ol' "Blago" did what he did because his parents came from Serbia. American history (and sadly Illinois history-and I say "sadly" because I'm an IL native) is replete with such malfeasance. Race or ethnicity I believe has nothing to do with such things. But I do think that maybe his whole attitude when he got caught (not to mention when he was doing the naughty things he got caught for) is a product of his being raised around a Serbian National(social)ist cultural milleu (his dad was a former Chetnik, among other things). Just take a look at all the whacko claims he made in his defense, claims that others were out to "get him" for this, that, and the other thing, the bizzare statements about calling the Clintons and WI governor Jim Doyle to testify on his behalf, proposing Oprah to be the next IL senator, etc., then compare them to similar "tin foil hat" statements made by Slobo, Seslj, Karadzic and others in the Hague, and it doesn't take a whole lot of straining the eyes to see the similarities. Frankly, not even during Watergate did I see people (including Tricky Dick) make quite such outlandish claims in an attempt to deflect guilt (OK, some of Nixon's statements did come pretty close, I'll grant). And that's all I have to say on the matter other than, for pete's sake Illinois, this time try and pick someone who's actually HONEST, hard as that may be to do!

GEZUAR KRISHTLINDJET-MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Just want to take a moment to wish all our readers and visitors of the Christian faith a very Merry Christmas! This year has certainly fit the description of "interesting times", both in a good sense (the independence of Kosova!), and a not-so-good one (a damn near planet-wide economic meltdown). Hopefully 2009 will be a year more filled with good things than with bad ones, for all of us. (And hopefully my life will settle down enough to allow me to post a bit more often in 2009 as well!) To close out this post, here's a video of the Gjilan Primary School Music Choir with a beautiful rendition of "Silent Night" in both English and Albanian. Enjoy!

GEZUAR 28 NENTORI-DITEN E FLAMURIT HAPPY 28TH OF NOVEMBER, ALBANIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Gezuar Diten e Flamurit-Happy Albanian Independence Day, everyone! The Diten e Pavarsise (Day of Independence) is always a special day for Albanians and friends of the Albanian people everywhere, but this year it is even more special because of the liberation this past year of the Albanian people of Kosova from the terror and uncertainty they suffered with for nearly a century. Along with my "vellezer" (brothers) and "motra" (sisters) in the community, I say "Rrofte Shqiperia e lire! Rrofte 28 Nentori!" (Long live free Albania! Long live the 28th of November!)

Introducing "The Albanian Reality Check VIDEO Blog"!

Presented here for your viewing pleasure (?) is my first attempt at a video version of the blog.  I plan on doing from time to time video entries to this blog in addition to the standard written ones.  This is actually something I've had in mind for some time, but just had never gotten around to doing until now.  So take a look (I admit it's a bit "raw", but I'm sure that my "camera presence" will improve with time. :) ), and let me know what you think, folks!

And while we're on the subject of never forgetting....

....let us never forget who our REAL friends were on that "day of infamy"....and who they weren't.





(For those who don't speak Serbian, the translation to the wonderful words of this little "song of love" can be found HERE.)

And last but not least, let us recall the wonderful words of our ol' "buddy", Julia Gorin....

"despite betrayal after betrayal by the U.S., most Serbs haven't turned to America-hating, but rather maintain an understanding that America is overall a force for good in the world. That's worth a lot more than good will that's bought"

Yep Julie baby, we can sure feel that luuuuuuv....

MOS KURRË FALNI, MOS KURRË HARRONI! (NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET!)

9/11/01-9/11/08 We will NEVER forget.

Michael J. Totten: Warrior for "The Real Truth"!

Recently during this incredibly busy summer I've been having, I came across the writings of a blogger who's been around for quite a while evidently, but who I'd never heard of before: Michael J. Totten. Totten mostly blogs on Middle-Eastern issues, and to a lesser extent Muslim ones, but he's also as of late devoted several blog postings to the matter of Kosova, defending Kosovar Albanians (and to a lesser degree Albanians in general) against the scurrolus charges leveled unceasingly against them by all the "Haters". In doing so, he's managed to stir up quite a furor, including a post by our ol' "buddy" La Julia on her blog slamming him (naturally), and a huge "comment war" over on Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs blog (Charles is one of the few hard-core conservatives who've come out on the side of Kosova and the Albanian people).

Totten is, if nothing else, an excellent writer; a man who is articulate, checks out his stories and sources pretty thouroughly from what I can see, and avoids the spin, rhetoric, and deception that so marks the "Haters" and all their propaganda. Here below I'm posting links to a couple of pieces of his that I consider "must reads". There are others, and I will post them in the near future (these are quite lengthy pieces, though they're also easy, engaging reads as well, so they should be enough for everyone to "chew" on until I get back to town in a couple of days....) But for now....

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/08/an-israeli-in-k.php
http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/157/full

The other side of the Ottawa Greek Festival story....

Some of you readers might remember back last October when I did a post about a smear piece (aren't they all?) our "buddy" Julia Gorin did about an incident that took place at the Ottawa, CA Greek Festival a year ago this month, where alegedly some Albanians attended the event, bringing their flag with them to evidently provoke all the Greeks and Serbs in attendance, then supposedly one of the Albanians stabbed one of the Serbians there. Julia's point, as she made clear at the end of the piece, was to show just what a bunch of "beasts" the Albanian people as a people, as a "race", are, and how this is the kind of behavior that we can expect from any and all of them as a matter of course. Now of course, she didn't seem to mind that most of the information came from a source that was either anonymous, or who she chose not to reveal the identity of (not even a psuedonym!), or that it's not even clear from the e-mail he sent her whether he actually witnessed the events or just heard about them second hand; no, all that mattered to La Julia was that he was evidently a Serb (and we all know that all Serbs are by nature incapable of lying, right?), and that was good enough for her.

Well, recently I received a comment on that deconstruction and "retranslation" I did of Gorin's post on that whole matter. And like La Julia's informant, this person posted it anonymously. And I'm going to repost it here. Why, you may ask, am I doing so, esp. when the person is also "anonymous"? Simply this: Because this person is the first person so far I've seen anywhere who's offered up to anyone "the other side of the story", anonymous or no. Now, I can't speak for the veracity of the person who sent it to me, since I have no idea who they are/were. And I can't speak to the accuracy of what they've told me, since I wasn't there. But they seem to have details that scope with what the mainstream news sources that reported the incident had to say about it, details that La Julia's informant either left out or felt the "MSM" had neglected to report. And their being anonymous makes them, in my eyes, not one iota less credible than her source, since that one is also anonymous. So here, without further ado, in the words of that famous Faux News slogan, "I report; you decide"

I was at that exact same festival in Ottawa Canada, when the incident occured. The Albanian flag was present on some guy;s shoulders but he did not wear to provoke Greeks because the guy had a Greek girlfirend and why would he possibly wear it to provoke Serbs at a GREEK festival?

The fact that Serbian people had a problem with an Albanian flag is in itself a problem. I have seen many different kinds f flags wheather on shirts, cars, stickers, etc.. at the Greek fest many times and no one attacked them. But as soon as someone wears an Albanian flag Serbians feel the need to come over and yell, yes yell "Ubi Shqiptari" which means "Kill Albanians" and expect them to remain silent while they are being brutually dehumanized just like they would be if they were in Serbia. So the stabbing might have not been necessary but what was less necessery is the fact that 100 Serbians would attack 5 Albanians at a community Greek Festival in Ottawa Canada.

More evidence that those damn Kosovar Albanians want a completely monoethnic state! Oops....

La Julia and her buddies like to claim that Albanians, unlike their "Godly, Christian, open-minded, and tolerant" Serb neighbors, want a super-state in the Balkans that consists only of Albanians. I guess that's why Kosova is letting Chinese, Bulgarians, and others migrate there and open honest, legitimate business, right? Riiiiigggghhhhhttttt.....

(Article from newkosovareport.com)

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

Chinese and other immigrants call Kosovo home

Monday, 21 July 2008

In one of the neighborhoods of Prishtina, Kosovo, among many other discount stores, there is the store of the Chinese immigrant Lili. The uniqueness of her discount store is found within the colorfully painted ornaments of mythic Chinese dragons, hanging high all over the store's ceiling, purposely to draw the attention of the customers. Lili, the saleswoman at the store, is only 20 years old. Born in China, she has been living in Prishtina with her family for the last five years. "I live in Kosova with my family. I like living among Kosovar people; they are peaceful, energetic and tolerant. My legal temporary immigration papers issued by the Kosova authorities give me permission to live and work here,” says Lili speaking in broken Albanian language with a heavy Chinese accent. To retain her legal temporary employment and residence in Kosovo, Lili explains how she has been continuously in contact with the authorities. She also has a temporary residential card with the work permit. Because she loves living in Kosovo, Lili plans to apply for Kosovo permanent residency. The capital of Kosovo is not her first residence since she moved out of China. After many clandestine traveling around Asia and Eastern Europe looking for a better life, her family had finally decided to settle down in Kosovo. After 1999, Prishtina's shopping centers expanded. Today, among many established business stores run by immigrants, Chinese and Indian shopkeepers are notably the largest. Incidentally, many citizens of Prishtina have already dubbed a section of the city as the future 'Chinatown'. It is not only Lili's family that has chosen Kosovo as their new home. In the recent years and months, Kosovo has become a new residence for immigrants from many countries. The recent statistics on immigration, published by the Department of Migration and Foreign Resident Services, shows that during 2007, the largest numbers of immigrants were Turks, Chinese, Bulgarians and Indians. Legal procedures to enter the Republic of Kosovo are very simple. There is no specific immigration law yet, so a visa is not required. The only requirements are a valid passport and a sponsor who is a citizen of the Republic of Kosovo and can guarantee the residential accommodation along with employment. Refki Morina, the director of the Department of Migration and Foreign Resident Services, says that "until now the department would issue only a 90-day temporary residence stamp on a required valid passport. Fifteen days before expiration of the temporary residence stamp, foreigners were required to apply for a temporary immigration residential card, explaining the reasons why they want to reside in Kosovo. If temporary immigrants do not respond within 90 days, fines, jail and deportation come into effect and losing the permission to enter Kosovo for a minimum of 3 years to permanently, depending on the case." The new immigration bill which with follow European Union guidelines, was introduced by the government and is expected to be voted soon by the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo. The Immigration Law will allow foreign residents who have lived for over 5 years in the Republic of Kosovo to apply for permanent resident status. Procedures included in such applications are fingerprints, an interview and the background check. For citizens of certain countries, to enter the Republic of Kosovo the law will require a visa, issued by the proper embassy. Fisnik Rexhepi, adviser to the Minister of Interior Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, says: "The issue of visas to enter Kosovo will be regulated under a law which will determine whether the citizens of that country will need a visa. Once the law comes into effect, we will inform the respective authorities of all countries."

Oh no he din't!

One of the great things about hubris is that it causes people to openly say stupid things that expose themselves and their real intent to the whole world without even realising it. In this case, the hubris of a Serbian National(social)ist YouTuber who goes by the handle of "Terminator00000" causes him to post a video that he titles "albanian speaking the truth". The video is a short clip of Albanian-American activist Florin Krasniqi from the documentary "The Brooklyn Connection". In it, he expresses in rhetorical terms the attitude of Serbian National(social)ists towards the Albanians as a people. Of course, ol' "Terminator" posts it as an "albanian speaking the truth", hence making it clear that he feels that Krasniqi is being truthful about Serbian National(social)ists, their acts, and their attitudes towards Albanians. Now, since most Serb National(social)ists and their allies (like La Julia and her ilk) seem to want to roundly deny that they've ever done or said anything "racist" towards Albanians, this wonderful bit of hubris brings the truth out in the open, and also this guy winds up shooting his own cause in the foot. To see the video in context of "Terminator's" own page, go to http://youtube.com/watch?v=VlzsAvd9Ajs&feature=related

Here itself is the video clip:

Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us!

I don't want to toot our horn too much, but I just thought I would mention briefly that it was 1 year ago today, July 22, that I decided after long complaining about how no one out there was trying in any real way to combat the lies of the Julia Gorins, the Mary Mosterts, the Jared Israels, the Carl Saviches, etc., against the Albanian people, that I would finally put my "money where my mouth is" and start a blog dedicated to combating those lies and "setting the record straight". (In quick point of fact, I did try to start a blog a couple of years before that, but gave up on it after a short while due to my inexperience in the blogosphere, and also due to the fact that there were very few blogs or bloggers out there in the Albanian community with whom to network with either.)

Sooooooo....1 year, 100 plus posts, and more than 10,000 unique hits later, I'm still here, still kickin' away at the lies and the liars (with a little help from a few friends who've been kind enough to send me some great articles from time to time.... :-) ), and plan on being so for as long as there continue to be Haters out there who feel that they've been called to pick on the Albanian people; a "little" people, but a people with a great heart, great soul, and great history. A people who, contrary to the assertions of those who hate them, aren't out for world conquest, or even conquest of the Balkans, but who simply for the most part want to be left alone, in peace, to live their lives out the way they wish to. A people who don't claim to be perfect, and for the most part are more than aware of the bad apples in their midst when they pop up. A people renown for their friendliness and hospitality to "the stranger", and for their code of honor that demands honesty, integrity, and even that should a "blood enemy" be at your door, and they call upon you to give them shelter from one trying to hunt them down and kill them, that you must provide it to them. A people who have become like my "second family", and who I'm PROUD to be associated with, and to stand with in both good times and times of trouble. And with whom I'll continue to stand until the day I die.

And while I'm in a celebratory mood here....

"Ladies and Gentlemen....WE GOT HIM!"

While I know that the Serbian government certainly didn't time this on purpose to coincide with the 1st anniversary of this blog (and unfortunately, unlike when we found Saddam in his hidey hole, no one uttered the words that make up the title of this blogpost-though it would've been cool if they did), nonetheless, I have to admit that I can think of few nicer "birthday presents" than this....

Serbia captures fugitive Karadzic

Radovan Karadzic is one of the world's most wanted men

Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, one of the world's most wanted men, has been arrested in Serbia after more than a decade on the run.

The Bosnian Serb wartime political leader disappeared in 1996.

He has been indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes and genocide over the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica.

The appointment of a new, pro-European government in Belgrade last month appears to have cleared the way for his arrest, says a BBC correspondent.

The European Union, which the new government hopes to join, has put Serbia under considerable pressure to hand over indicted war criminals to the UN tribunal in The Hague.

But Mr Karadzic's wartime military leader, Ratko Mladic, remains at large.

'Located and arrested'

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic was welcomed by war crimes prosecutors in The Hague as a "milestone".

He has been brought before Belgrade's war crimes court, a legal procedure that indicates he may soon be extradited.

But it is not clear how soon he might be transferred to stand trial at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, says the BBC's Bridget Kendall.

Serbian officials have suggested he will stay put for at least three days while his lawyer appeals against his extradition.

This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade Serge Brammertz ICTY chief prosecutor Analysis: New directions in Belgrade In pictures: Karadzic detained Send us your comments

Officials said no further information about his detention would be released until the action team of prosecutors, police and intelligence teams meet in Belgrade on Tuesday morning, the BBC's Eastern Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe says.

"Radovan Karadzic was located and arrested tonight [Monday evening]" by Serbian security officers, a statement by the office of President Boris Tadic said, without giving details.

"Karadzic was brought to the investigative judge of the War Crimes Court in Belgrade, in accordance with the law on co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [ICTY]."

Serbian government sources told Reuters news agency he had been under surveillance for several weeks, following a tip-off from a foreign intelligence service.

But his lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, said Mr Karadzic had been detained "on Friday in a bus" and held till he was brought before the judge of Serbia's war crimes court for questioning. Mr Karadzic was said to have remained silent during questioning.

Heavily armed special forces were deployed around the war crimes court in Belgrade - apparently fearing a backlash from nationalists who consider Mr Karadzic a hero.

"He did not surrender, that is not his style," his brother, Luka Karadzic, said outside the court.

'Milestone in co-operation'

Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the ICTY, welcomed the arrest.

THE CHARGES Eleven counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities Charged for the killing of some 12,000 civilians during the siege of Sarajevo Allegedly organised the massacre of at least 7,500 Muslim men and youths in Srebrenica Targeted Bosnian Muslim and Croat political leaders, intellectuals and professionals Unlawfully deported and transferred civilians because of national or religious identity Destroyed homes, businesses and sacred sites

"This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade," he said in a statement in The Hague.

In the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, crowds spilt onto the streets to celebrate news of the arrest as cars streamed through the streets sounding their horns.

"This is the best thing that could ever happen, you see people celebrating everywhere. I called and woke up my whole family," Sarajevo resident Fadil Bico told Reuters.

Richard Holbrooke, the US diplomat who brokered the Dayton Peace Accord for Bosnia in 1995, told the BBC that "a major, major thug has been removed from the public scene".

"One of the worst men in the world, the Osama Bin Laden of Europe, has finally been captured," Mr Holbrooke told BBC World News America.

Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic, wife of Radovan Karadzic, said her daughter had called her to break news of the arrest to her.

"As the phone rang, I knew something was wrong. I'm shocked, confused. At least now, we know he is alive," she told the Associated Press.

The arrest of Mr Karadzic and other indicted war criminals is one of the main conditions of Serbian progress towards European Union membership.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said a major obstacle to Serbian membership had been lifted.

Karadzic denial

Srebrenica was the scene of the worst massacre in the Bosnian war

Mr Karadzic denied the charges against him soon after the first indictment and refused to recognise the legitimacy of the UN tribunal.

The UN says Mr Karadzic's forces killed at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 as part of a campaign to "terrorise and demoralise the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat population".

He was also charged over the shelling of Sarajevo, and the use of 284 UN peacekeepers as human shields in May and June 1995.

After the Dayton accord that ended the Bosnian war in 1995, the former nationalist president went into hiding.

International pressure to catch Mr Karadzic mounted in spring 2005 when several of his former generals surrendered and a video of Bosnian Serb soldiers shooting captives from Srebrenica shocked television viewers in former Yugoslavia.

He had been a close ally of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was himself extradited to The Hague tribunal in 2001, but died in 2006, shortly before a verdict was due to be delivered in his case.

Here's a pic, btw, of what the old bastard looked like when they caught him:




"Izzat you, Santy Claus?"

Oh, and here's a lovely little pic of a typical Karadzic/Mladic fan (looks like a real credit to the "herrenvolk", no?):




(Just FYI, I normally avoid posting things that don't have to do with defending the Albanian people and their culture from the various lies and slanders of those who hate on them, or pointing out what a bunch of rank hypocrites the "Haters" usually are, but this is more than significant enough to make an exception in that rule for....)

Just another example of unprovoked Albanian thuggery, with the Greater Albanian terror state coming to the perp's aid. Oh, wait a minute....

From the New York Daily News.

Serbian student in Binghamton beating may have fled with government help

BY ELIZABETH HAYS, MATT LYSIAK and RICH SCHAPIRO
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Wednesday, June 25th 2008, 2:04 AM

There is an international manhunt for Serbian national Miladin Kovacevic, who may have fled the U.S. with help from his country's government.

La Barbera/Press & Sun

Kovacevic in uniform for the Binghamton hoops squad in January.

Bryan Steinhauer

An international manhunt is on for a hulking Serbian athlete who viciously beat a Brooklyn college student and fled the country - possibly with his government's help, authorities said.

Federal agents are trying to capture hoops star Miladin Kovacevic, 20, overseas after he fled the U.S.

A Serbian official is believed to have posted his $100,000 bail upstate and Kovacevic used an emergency passport to leave the country, prompting a separate probe by the State Department.

The 6-foot-9, 280-pound basketball player was charged with assaulting fellow Binghamton University student Bryan Steinhauer at a bar on May 4.

Steinhauer, 22, an honors student set to work this summer for a prestigious accounting firm, suffered massive head injuries in the attack and is still clinging to life in a medically induced coma.

"I'm devastated," his father, Richard, told the Daily News outside of his Fort Greene home on Tuesday. "He's my only son."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has urged federal authorities to make capturing and extraditing Kovacevic a top priority.

"The Steinhauer family has suffered enough," Schumer said. "The Justice Department and the FBI must make it a priority to bring Kovacevic back to U.S. soil so we can prosecute him immediately."

Steinhauer's nightmare began in the early morning hours of May 4, when he got into an argument with three men, including Kovacevic, at a packed bar near the state school, cops said.

"Kovacevic ... proceeded to beat the crap out of him," said Binghamton Police Capt. Alex Minor, noting Steinhauer suffered a fractured skull and broken jaw and eye sockets.

"They kicked him when he was down, the whole nine yards," Minor added.

The giant Serb and his two pals fled after the horrific assault, he said.

Kovacevic was arrested the following day and the two other accused attackers, Edin Dzubur, 24, and Santel Softic, 21, were hauled in soon after.

Kovacevic's bail was set at $100,000.

On June 6, Igor Milosevic, the Serbian vice consul, posted $20,000 in cash and $80,000 in a bank money order in Broome County Court to spring Kovacevic, a bail receipt obtained by the upstate Press & Sun-Bulletin newspaper shows.

Kovacevic, who faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, surrendered his passport and was freed from jail later that day.

Reached Tuesday, a Serbian Consulate representative said Milosevic was out of town and that no one else could comment on the case.

Broome County officials contacted Customs agents on the Canadian border on June 10, fearful that Kovacevic might try to flee the country.

Hours later, the prosecutors received shocking news from U.S. Customs Enforcement: Kovacevic, with the emergency passport, had left on a Lufthansa flight from Newark Airport bound for Frankfurt.

Milosevic's attorney, Vincent Accardi, declined to comment on the whereabouts of his client or the status of the case.

The tragedy has left Steinhauer's father numb.

"I'm surprised they gave [Kovacevic] bail," Richard Steinhauer said. "It's hard to believe this is happening."

rschapiro@nydailynews.com

With Veronika Belenkaya and Edgar Sandoval

Hey Julia! I thought only ALBANIANS did this kind of shit to each other? Julia?....Julia....?

From Balkan Insight, 21 June 2008

Serb Police Officer Shot Dead in Kosovo

21 June 2008 Mitrovica _ A Serb police officer has been found shot dead in northern Kosovo.

He was found dead around 0000 CEST (2200 GMT) in his car, a few kilometres north of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica.

“Soon after the police identified the victim, two Serb male suspects were detained,” Besim Hoti, the spokesman for the Kosovo Police Service in the Mitrovica region said.

He added found around 30 automatic weapon shells at the murder spot.

The victim is believed to have been shot while driving in the village of Rudare, five kilometres north of Mitrovica, in a predominantly ethnic Serb area of Kosovo.

Local Serb radio KIM reported the victim was Todor Deverdzic, who is thought to have on Belgrade payrolls but working as a police officer in Kosovo.

The body in the bullet-riddled Volkswagen Golf was identified by Deverdzic's neighbours, who confirmed for Balkan Insight that Deverdzic was on Belgrade’s payroll.

Since 1999 and the setting up of the United Nations mission in Kosovo, Belgrade has created parallel structures in predominantly Serb areas to maintain its grip on the territory. It is widely believed there are civilian policemen from Serbia in these areas. Kosovo Albanian daily Koha Ditore recently reported about 'secret' Serbian police stations in the enclaves and Kosovo’s north but Belgrade’s top officials have denied this.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary....

The other day, while making my periodic check of the different "Haters" websites, I decided to pay serbianna.com a visit, mainly to see what that "world-renown historian" Carl Kosta Savich had to say lately, or maybe the latest Albanophobic rantings of the head-honcho of the outfit, "Mickey" Bozinovich.

Well, nothing new from the arsenic-tipped pens of those two unworthies since the last time I visited, back in April, but there was something new there: They had just added so-called "policy analyist" Mary Mostert to their blogroll.

So just who is Mary Mostert? Well, if you notice, her lovely pic is prominently featured on our "Haters Wall of Shame". But other than letting you know what she looks like, that doesn't do much for telling you who or what she is. This is what her bio (I assume written by her) from her website, Banner of Liberty (it's slogan being "truth, honor, courage, freedom, morality, justice"-all good things to be in favor of to be sure, but also things that make me a bit leary when I see them worn on the sleeve in quite that fashion....) says:

"At age 13 Mary Mostert memorized the Declaration of Independence and was involved in politics before she was old enough to vote. In fact, she was writing articles for The Nation Magazine at the age of 19. As a teenager she organized one of the first interracial youth groups in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1940s, and was involved nationally and internationally in the civil rights and peace movements.

As executive director of the Independent Political forum, she was one of 52 American women who met hundreds of women from other nations in Geneva, Switzerland, to petition delegates at the 1962 Disarmament Conference to sign the first Nuclear Test-ban treaty. While opposed by the executive and legislative branches, the small ad hoc “Mothers’ Lobby” helped change opinion. Some six months later the Senate signed the treaty, and after the group picketed the White House, President John F. Kennedy signed it.

In the 1960s Mary was one of the first female political commentator published in a major metropolitan newspaper, and served on redevelopment boards in the inner city of Rochester NY. She also ran a construction company, won architectural awards for restoration of historic buildings, and by 1970 had concluded that the War on Poverty programs were doing irreparable harm to the Black families they were meant to assist.

Mary ran unsuccessfully for the New York State Senate in 1972, and has managed campaigns for candidates in New York and California. In the early 1990s Mary met with most of the women leaders of South Africa while secretary of “Positive Action NOW!” – a national women’s group seeking to reduce the threat of civil war among the nation’s various racial, religious and political groups. Mary met President F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, as well as most of the leaders of the nation’s 22 political parties who were writing the new South African Constitution, and provided each leader with a “constitution packet” which included a video about writing the U.S. Constitution, “A More Perfect Union”, a copy of our constitution and related material and at a meeting of 1700 ministers in South Africa Mary pointed out that the resolution on religion they were discussing for the new Constitution identified Government, not God, as the source of human rights. At the insistence of black ministers, the resolution was rewritten during the night and adopted the following morning.

Mary created the ‘Michael Reagan’s Information Interchange’ on the internet, and from 1994-2001, edited the Reagan Monitor, a monthly newsletter for former President Ronald Reagan's talk show host son, Michael. The newsletter dealt with key political and national issues. Her first book, Coming Home – Families Can Stop the Unraveling of America, was published in 1996 by Gold Leaf Press. During the 1998 Congressional campaigns, she launched a website to help voters access state and federal candidates websites, allowing voters to compare their stands on issues. Mary’s website, www.bannerofliberty.com, has expanded to provide links to numerous information sources, and her weekly news analyses are published on many websites."

Now at first, her credentials, at least as far as social-political activism go, seem pretty impressive. After all, it's hard to beat forming an interracial student group in the "Jim Crow" south, protesting for a nuclear-test ban at the White House, and meeting with both F. W. DeKlerk and Nelson Mandela. However, when I looked up the group she was supposedly secretary for, "Positive Action NOW!", the only evidence I could find for it's existence was on her website, or on websites that publish her opinon pieces and/or her bio from her website. Not saying that that means the group never existed, of course, but surely something to make one go "hmmmm".... (And not just about that, but by extension of reason, her other claims as well.) And you'll note not one thing in her bio that implies credentials as a reliable policy analyist (of course these days, I'm becoming more and more convinced that "policy analyist" in many cases means nothing more than "loudmouth with a website/blog").

However, assuming for the sake of argument that they're all true as written, one must wonder where on earth the turn came in her heart and/or mind that lead her to so easily become racist in her sentiments? Racist? Well, judge for yourself from this little gem posted by her back in April, 1999. She makes Julia Gorin look positively Albanophillic by comparison, and her open suggestions go beyond even the insane rantings of Svetlana Novko. Here's an example of the "choicer" stuff she had to say:

"However, my daughter Gail who has lived in Germany and traveled extensively in Europe and in Yugoslavia thinks the problem is simply that no one in Europe wants the Albanians in their country and NATO and the European Union plan to MAKE the Serbs take them. Why? Well, the Germans, Croats, Slovenes and other axis nations of World War II hate the fact that only the Serbs had the guts to stand up to Adolf Hitler. They all hate the Albanians and think they might assuage their guilt for being weak while getting back at the Serbs for their valor if they force the Serbs to take on the Albanians so none of them come into THEIR countries. I thought she was wrong about that, until I tracked down all the population figures and then heard what General Odom said on the Rivera show."

One can only shake one's head at the obvious tendency to disconnect from reality that must run through the woman's family, starting with the fact that she considers her daughter a reliable authority on and judge of European inter-ethnic relations, and running to the notion that the European nations who supported the NATO action in the former Yugoslavia did so out of some ridiculous mix of Archie Bunker-esque hatred of the Albanians as a people and a Freudian hatred of the Serbs for being oh-so-much-more valorous than they in WWII!

And topping it all, get a load of her version of Swift's "Modest Proposal":

"My suggestion is to declare the entire country of Albania a redevelopment area and promise everyone of them a house and plot of land of their own and an annual stipend of, say, $10,000 a year income for doing absolutely nothing if they will only stay in Albania. There appears to be about 4.5 million of them and my program would only cost $45 billion a year. Or, perhaps we could buy a piece of land in Australia or Brazil and bribe the Albanians to move there."

Now some might say that she is simply being satirical, in the same way Swift was (or Ann Coulter is, as some of her proponents claim-and which I ain't buying), but given the overall tenor of her piece, I sure don't get that impression (and even if it were so, I'll just say she has a long way to go before ever even holding a candle to the legendary Mr. Swift). She may be couching her sentiments in satire, but the general intent speaks loudly and clearly through that thin veneer. And all this is in addition to her faulty logic and byzantine figure twisting that she uses in the piece as well.

Moving on a few years, we see that neither her opinions nor her modus operandi have changed. In 2006 she engaged in a series of "dialogues" with an Albanian from the UK, Genci Sala. (N.B. I did a brief post on Genci here on the blog back last August.) Despite Genci being a Evangelical Christian and a political conservative, because he sarcastically introduced himself (and in a way anyone with half a brain or half an open mind could tell was sarcasm) as an "Albanian Islamic Terrorist", Mostert grabbed on to that and for several of their exchanges which she posted on both her own website (for some mysterious reason most of them are no longer accessable), and in her commentary on the Renew America website, referred to him with a straight face as such, until he quite pointedly stated his actual religious persuasion.

And even now, her obvious hatred for the Albanians as a people (despite her occasional toning down of rhetoric when exchanging e-mails with those who dare question her) continues in a most welcoming forum, Serbianna. Some examples of the latest wit and wisdom of Mary Mostert when it comes to Albanians? Here ya go:

History proves that Albanians simply don't recognize the rights and freedoms of others. In fact, when Albania declared itself an "atheist state" in 1967, all churches and other buildings owned by religious groups were closed down.

Of course, never mind the fact that those Churches and "other buildings" (um, I think they're called "Mosques") were pastored over by Albanians and worshiped in by Albanians, not by "religious groups". (Mostert implying in a roundabout way that the Albanians themselves had nothing to do with them for the most part, other than to ban them and shut them down.) And then there's this "gem":

The Kosovo Albanians waving an Albania flag is exactly comparable to illegal alien high school students in California ripping down the US flag and raising the flag of Mexico at their school. They justify their behavior by claiming that California is really a part of Mexico. In Kosovo, Albanians that have flooded across the open borders between Kosovo and Albania are now claiming that Kosovo is really part of Albania.

Naturally, Mostert, like most Albanophobes, either chooses not to recognise or fails to recognise because of the cultural paradigms they're accustomed to, the fact that the Albanian flag is a symbol of the Albanian people where ever they may live, not just the official symbol of the internationally recognised state of Albania. And of course she neglects (mainly because she does not believe it to begin with) that a goodly part of the reason Albanians in Kosova eventually came to demand that it be a separate state from Serbia was because they came to realise that it was the only way to end the periodic harrasment and nearly continual apartheid imposed on it by Belgrade. And her use of the tired old "California-Mexico/Kosova-Albania argument falls apart because most Mexican-Americans are quite content and in fact more often than not quite proud to be Americans (with the exception of the miniscule but loudmouthed minority involved in the so-called "Aztalan" movement) and aren't clamoring for a return to rule under Mexico precisely because America isn't harrassing them and doesn't treat them like 3rd class citizens anymore, and because (the occasional rare exception notwithstanding) they are treated the same as any other American not only by our country itself, but by the vast majority of it's citizens.

Does Mostert have the same influence as say, a Julia Gorin? Not really. But I have never held to the idea that relative influence/power should determine who we (the Albanian community, it's friends, and it's supporters) should be keeping an eye on. As I've said more than once on this blog, the Nazi party started out as a group of six disgruntled German WWI vets meeting in a bar.

Well, I guess our ol' "buddy" Julia was so busy seeking out more "evidence" for the formation of a so-called "Greater Albania" that she missed THIS...

From balkantravellers.com

Regarding official national holidays in Kosova:

"Two dates not included in the list are the Kosovo Liberation Day, which was celebrated by the ethnic Albanian majority on June 12 – the day NATO forces entered Kosovo after the conflict, and Albania’s Flag Day, November 28, which used to be marked in the UN protectorate.

“Kosovo is an independent, sovereign, democratic and multiethnic country,” Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci told media upon the holidays’ declaration."