Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 11:49:47 -0500
From: Florin Popescu
Organization: Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
Subject: balkanize it, dont criticize it!
+ Give to Victims of American Wars
meinen damen und herren, ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs,
I aint talked with some of you in a while,
but I feel compelled to do
something about this madness. Please give me a chance - I don't mean to
sound professorial (until I get my damn PhD anyway) but from a native
Balkan you may learn something essential about this DISASTER
(news flash: 'Humanitarian Bombing Campaign May Have Been
Ill-Conceived'). The time you spend here will be more
valuable than anything in the paper, NPR, certainly 'Nato TV' (6hrs a
day between 2-10pm featuring 'prime time willie and the THUMB')...
Word is bond & Peace out y'all.
For an excellent short introductory review of the political crimes that
lead to this mess, read
http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=zapp11
kirsten pls check
This is a letter to my friend Mileta (sorry it's so public), whose
mother is in a cellar in Novi Sad (bombed 'to discourage a Serbian
invasion of Hungary' - i.e. to discourage suicidal action by means of
murderous violence? - despite Hungarian demands NOT to bomb that region,
which NATO responded to by threatening Hungary's expulsion if made too
public). Real reason: Vojvodina far from 'conflicted region,' easy
economic targets with few air defenses (serbs didn't count on area being
bombed, Pentagon wanted to show they're capable of sly surprise too).
Dear Milly,
some call it gladness - I call it madness. sitation viewed from here: a
country is guest on Jerry Springer (vile greedy US talk show host I spit
on him on Michigan Ave once), says 'I been mistreated...I know it aint
nice but i been seeing someone else' US army marches in 'what...BITCH'
...'fuck you asshole!'... 'ho!' a fight erupts while the live audience
shouts 'JERRY JERRY!'.
The western public has sunk so low in awareness that wars (the new
entertainment) are almost necessary. Almost unconscious. IV -> media.
In order to get Jerry's (a.k.a. the media's) attention I propose the
establishment of a humanitarian aid organization named 'Victims of
American Wars' (as in VFW - Veterans of Foreign Wars) - there must be 2-3
million civilians (mainly in asia) maimed by US bombs alive today...who
can count the dead? That'll get their attention. This is very serious...
Americans fail to see the raw ruthlessness of gunboat diplomacy...that's
the real collateral damage: humanitarian bombing. The only way to
get to them is via a media scandal...nudity, gore, whatever (a public
sex 'love not war' protest? world court for political crimes? a techno
dance marathon?).
Not trying to be funny - but in Makaveyev's movie WR they say - there
is no revolution without free love. maybe this should be revised 'there
is no revolution if it's not on Entertainment Tonight'. No right to an
opinion without an expensive wardrobe (or none at all).
only way - political opposition no longer exists - looking for the real
left (not sure I'd trust them even if they were still around) in the
West will give you a sprained neck. Michael Moore but without producers
- the media will supply the cameras and editing, expertly done at no
cost.
Friday Yeltsin warned of World War III.
He warned and warned on Russian TV with the meanest face he could make
(like a pitbull grrr) and probably went to his office and did a few
kamikaze shots and started the dance of Cossack defiance until he
suffered another mild stroke and took a nap.
In the meantime, CBS and ABC news did not bother to even mention this on
the nightly news – never mind that no one – no american president or
russian leader has ever warned world war before – not even Krushchev.
The biggest refugee exodus since 'Ben Hur'...'Stay the course' I believe
is a direct quote from the 1997 oscar sweeping weeper thriller
'Titanic', which will lead to appalling levels of violence not seen
since 'Carrie 2 - The Rage'. Apropo, Leonardo Di Caprio, what this war
is missing is a real hunk – anyone remember the 'Scud Stud'? Blair's not
a shabby looking guy...That wife of Arkan's is quite a honey...no wonder
they show her on the news so much. Some moron described her as the
'Celine Dion of Serbia'...'War diva'.
Oh and it's Easter and the Pope has given up the peace because the
sudden 'Orthodox' block is out of control anyway and Washington told him
not to intervene and Easter was last week anyway (I was treated to lamb
both Sundays myself)...and the Russians sold anti-tank missiles to Syria
this week which brought the Israeli defense minister to DC thursday, all
furious...the Ruskies are helping out the US 'enemies' (like Sudan, a
great threat to Cleveland and Phoenix and Disneyworld) in order to show
their displeasure to the bombing...more wars to follow...and the people on
fundamentalist TV are making some facile analogies between the Russian
film director who rode on horseback to the US embassy shooting arrows
and some famous Biblical equestrians...
And just like some Popes felt it within their power, as eyes of the
pyramid, to revise the Bible by re-interpretation, so Billy Clinton and
the geeky Ivy leaguers who write his speeches feel within their power to
re-write history, while at the same time shedding crocodile tears (a
term by Sanka Draskovic, bravo) about how the confiscation and burning
of passports reminds them of '1984' (a book written by a Communist),
surprised I am how they do not mention Farenheit 451. And 'genocide' is
theirs...
Now make no mistake – the bombs will not stop killing for DECADES. Among
the many 'genocides' aided or executed by the US, is a current one in
Laos (a communist 'enemy') where cluster bombs of the exact same make
used in Kosovo were dropped in the 60s (which the Americans never
thought necessary to even admit). The bomblets do not all explode – some
are contact sensitive – they essentially devastate and mine a whole
soccer field at once. Now since Laos is not a Most Favored Nation the US
refuses to help defuse the bomblets which cause 20,000 accidents per
year (millions live in the plains where they were dropped). They won't
even give tech specs that could help Lady Di's landmine organization –
military secret, god forbid the goat-eyed evil Chinese get their hands
on it...A gift to our beloved Kosovars, which no Western Nation wants
(they'll gladly move to Germany or France, but those replies are edited
out, and neither country wants more Islamic refugees...in France they
complain openly about the birthrate in the Arab population). Germany
unwittingly took in some Kurds from the US supported NATO ethnic
cleansing campaign in Turkey...they regret that now.
Disaster, fucking disaster...I was hoping to visit Novi Sad this summer
and hang out at the beach, cruise the country-side, sip beer and plunge
my jaws into ripe warm tomatoes, and for you to visit across the border,
check out our nightlife and our slivovitz, see the total eclipse (of
sun, not heart)...I'll have to swim across the Danube now...Just heard
bombs in residential Novi Sad (looks like riverfront) for Easter. They
broke more than just eggs.
All I gotta say - Nice work, Slobodane! Him and the IMF destroyed a nice
country. Worst of all, I feel powerless, appalled. The world at large is
a bumbling machine – no one's in charge, no one who thinks ahead has the
power, those who engage in finger pointing orgies whenever shit goes
down, and what we have to really connect us to it are the consequences
and the T. It shows us the planes taking off – later we feel the bombs.
We see media product – who knows how many cups of coffee and tired
decisions about getting the best 'human angle' by screening refugee
interviews for maximum impact? How many reports are nixed for fear
of making authorities upset (who are hardly able to agree with
themselves)...Back when people read papers, which were also flooded with
propaganda, one could still find many related articles, different
accounts, various perspectives, even editorials, which at least left the
populace more informed, gave us time to ponder before being misled. The
sensationalist TV news makes saber-rattling much easier, the likelihood
of senseless war much higher, opinion polls jumping with every 30
seconds of weaponry display...You have to fight being misled...'crazy not
to go insane' and it's 1000 times harder to stop the misconceptions from
spreading all around you. Here are some ideas, though...they have to be
disseminated to the press in order to end this thing (even 2 seconds
earlier)...by sensationalism itself (do not call into a talk show etc. if
your point is too long to make or doesn't have a 'hook')...the West
should be accused of the worst spin on their hypocrisy as possible.
I have much more to write, but little time. Please respond with any news
from home. Hang in there – we'll grow up someday and set things
straight. Tony Blair might be putting his Eaton rhetoric course to full
use, sounding mighty and Churchillesque (though he's probably never been
in an after school fight) but some people are taking NOTES. Every war of
this sort has ended in partition – why not do it now and save what lives
we can?
Florin Popescu
doctoral student in Neuroscience at
Northwestern University
