Man, it must SUCK to be a Serb these days. Your country is still considered a pariah by most of the international community. Political events are still strongly influenced by Right-wing nationalist wingnuts. Worst of all, your economy is in the toilet, and if not for the criminal underground in Serbia, things might be far worse. When I was there, the underground flourished in spite of the UN embargo. Shops were full of consumer goods…and it wasn’t because they came in legitimately. The Serbian criminal underground is ruthless, resourceful, and well-established. They’re also largely responsible for the Serbian economy not having completely collapsed during the UN embargo.
Ah, but I digress….
To add insult to injury, Kosovo, the ancestral home of Serbian cultural and historical mythology, has declared it’s independence. Yeah, payback a b—-h, ain’t it? After decades of keeping the Albanian majority in Kosovo under their thumb- brutally when necessary- Serbia has once again shrunk in size. At this rate, before much longer “Greater Serbia” will be roughly the size of a picnic table. Samo sloga Srbina spasava, indeed….
Riots in Belgrade only serve to illustrate that many Serbs still don’t get it and they probably never will. Far too many Serbs still see themselves as victims. Too many Serbs will tell you with a straight face that America and the West are anti-Serb and are actively seeking to destroy Serbia and all she stands for. They’ll tell you that all Serbs are peace-loving people, and that all they want is to be left alone. Right; and denial is more than a river in Egypt.
I’ll agree that most Serbs I ran across are thoroughly decent people. They feel misunderstood, and to a degree I suppose they are. The reality is that when many in the West think of Serbs, they think of illiterate thugs with brass knuckles and a willingness to remorselessly kill for Mother Serbia. How many other nations would tolerate-indeed, even encourage- their own to spend their weekends “hunting Muslims” in Bosnia. That’s no exaggeration. When I was in Belgrade, several people told me about this inhuman “hobby”. I suppose when you consider a class of people to be subhuman, killing them off for sport is no particular cause for alarm.
If Serbs truly want to be considered a full member of the international community, all they have to do is lose the national paranoia and live by the same rules the rest of the civilized world lives by. It’s their choice. If they cannot, or will not, display the wherewithal to control the lawless, Neanderthal elements of Serb society, they will remain an internation pariah- and deservedly so. It’s their choice.
At least they're only tearing up their own capital this time. I can just imagine the calls to the recalled diplomats to go home to mother serbia last week. "Leave the US/France/GB right now and come home? Shit!"
I've been following the Kosovo progression for a while now, even watching the Scola channel nightly news show (and playing figure out what's going on with my oldest child - the furthest we go in foreign languages is French and very little Czech - at least the alphabet isn't cyrillic).
I enjoyed your post over at The Agonist on this (Happy Independence Day) but didn't respond there or to others elsewhere because there was so much bitching about the Serbs being the ones that were harmed by all this. (Which is crap - all sides were harmed, but if my memory serves the Serbs started it or ramped it all up by responding ridiculously to minority incidents.) I've grown frustrated with so much commentary on "unleashing a Muslim country in Europe" - as if Kosovo, with it's free beer available for independence celebrations is anything close to the fundamentalist factions elsewhere (including the right wing Christians mucking everything up here).
And, well, pot-kettle-black, Mr. Putin. No one should take anything seriously from that evil bastard when he's spouting about violating international laws, etc.
There was an interview with Thaci in Haaretz recently in which he stressed that he wanted to keep the country secular and welcoming to all (and he is at least doing the photo ops necessary to appear concerned about all ehtnic minorities in the country).
Anyway, thanks again for the info in the previous post and your continued insight on Kosovo.
Thanks. I am excited about what's happening in Kosovo now, because I know so many people there for whom independence is the realization of a long-held dream. I'm also extremely concerned, because the situation is not stable by any means. Mitrovica is a pogrom looking for a place to happen, and Kosovo's Serb refuse to face the reality that Kosovo is no longer Serbia. They can either learn to live under Albanian rule, or they can leave and return to Mother Serbia, which doesn't really want them, either. Serbs in Kosovo are some of the poorest, most ignorant, and most virulently nationalistic wingnuts you'll find among Serbs anywhere. Never mind the fact that Mother Serbia holds no economic opportunities for these poor fools.
Yeah, it must SUCK to be a Serb these days...but it's not as if they have anyone else to blame for their plight.
Free beer? Now that's a government program I might consider beneficial (after I've had a few...)
Bob, free beer is a good thing regardless of where it comes from.... ;o)
I hate it when Jack is right… ;o)
Bob, that is SO derivative.... ;o)