Dear Fellow Serbs, Serbian-Americans, and friends of
the Serbs,
As I am sure we are all aware, a new front has
opened in the West to wrest control of Kosovo and
Republika Srpska away from the Serbs. Though I am
currently overwhelmed with a wide array of
responsibilities and am going through some difficult
personal times, I had to say a few comments (even if
they may appear rambling - my apologies). I wrote the
following angry letter-to-the-editor which has I think
a few talking/writing points that may be useful to
some of you. Coming on the heel of the recent SUC
meeting in Las Vegas, I want to first of all say that
I am delighted that Serbian officials actually appear
to be building/networking with the Serbian diaspora.
This is how the Croats got support for their movement
in the early 90's was by networking with their
diaspora. Many people have told me that the future of
Serbia may lie with the diaspora and given the past
slate of self-centered, ill-prepared, and poor
leaders, I would be inclined to agree. Though Serbs
don't like criticism, I hope that all of you know that
for reasons even beyond me, I want to help my
ancestral people (my record stands by itself) and my
comments are in the constructive spirit. Though we are
one of the more disunified peoples around, I hope that
we can find common causes to rally behind. In that
spirit, I would like to suggest the following action
items:
1. PARTISAN/CHETNIK HISTORY: Work to resolve and
reconcile the Partisan/Chetnik animosities. I still
see wierdness associated with this every
once-in-a-while. I had family members in both
armies. So what? We all fought the Nazis and
Ustashe.
2. REFUGEES (1): Work to force the return of all
refugees in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Croatia. Any
normalization of relations or "final" agreements MUST
first allow refugees to return in peace and security
and allow restitution of their property.
3. KOSOVO: Kosovo is an irreplaceable part of Serbia
- it is our Jerusalam. Any issue of Serbia joining
the EC as a "carrot" to accept the loss of Kosovo must
be taken with a bit of skepticism. Remember when the
West "promised" to give 1 billion dollars to Serbia
for becoming democratic and cooperating with the West?
What actually materialized? I think it was some 50
million dollars - a pathetic 30 coins of gold for
betrayal. Many Serbs have given up on Kosovo. Then
are we going to give up on the Sandjzak? On southern
truncated Serbia? When will this nightmare end?
Kosovo will only be lost when we psychologically give
it up. As long as we remember our ancestors, we will
regain Kosovo and other Serbian territories. If the
West allows independence for Republika Srpska and at
least autonomy for the Krajina, perhaps some agreement
might be worked out in the southern portion of Kosovo.
I'm just suggesting negotiating points.
4. SERBIAN LEADERS AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES: I
also include below an article by war criminal Hasim
Thaci. Where are the articles written by Serbian
leaders? If they're being written, I want to know and
I want to know to whom they have been written.
Throughout my 14 years of fighting for this cause, I
saw very few efforts by Serbian leaders (or their
subordinates) to write op-eds, give interviews, etc.
Today's wars are now mostly reduced to wars of
propaganda. Let us recall that Slobodan Milosevic
reduced the staff of his "ministry of information" (or
whatever it was called) whereas Franjo Tudjman
increased the staff of his analogous "ministry of
information."
5. GERMANY: How acutely I remember seeing footage of
Zoran Djindjic marching in the streets of Belgrade
during the protests around 1995 wrapped in a German
flag. Was that really necessary? And where did it
get us? Germany has been driving the theft of Kosovo
from Serbia from the very beginning. Every Serb
should be aware that Germany mostly started this mess
with illegally recognizing Croatia and Slovenia.
Don't forget the German general (achhh, just like ze
old days of WWII) in Kosovo during last March's
massive anti-Serb riots in Kosovo who refused to
protect the Serbian Church in I think Prizren? DON'T
FORGET THIS. DON'T FORGET WHAT THE NAZIS DID TO THE
HIGH SCHOOL IN KRAGUJEVAC. TELL THIS STORY TO THE
WORLD IN LITERATURE AND FILM. WHY DIDN'T WILLY BRANDT
APOLOGIZE TO THE SERBIAN PEOPLE AND ONLY TO THE JEWS?
LET'S ALL DEVELOP A LEXICON IF YOU WILL/catalogue OF
THESE INCIDENTS THAT WE WILL REMEMBER IN THE COMING
CENTURIES JUST AS THE JEWS REMEMBER THE DESTRUCTION OF
JERUSALEM some 2000 years ago.
6. CULTURAL COHERENCE: Let's start behaving as a
coherent and Christian people that help one another
out and care about one another's well-being. I will
never forget an incident where I was exiting a
restaurant in Las Vegas and three women were speaking
Serbian. I asked in Serbian if they were speaking
Serbian and they responded in Serbian "da" and went on
their merry ways not in the least interested in
meeting another Serbian. I often hear Serbian or
Croatian or "Bosnian" spoken (when flying, walking,
networking, etc.) but am too afraid to ask the
language. This is a shame.
Another time, a Serbian roomate of mine brought
his mom to stay with us in Boston when we were
graduate students ("for a few weeks" ) but she ended
up staying with us for over 6 months and didn't pay us
a cent of rent or at least help out with the
utilities. My poor Greek roomate lived like a Monk in
a tiny guest room while my Serbian roomate's Mom had
the run of the house in a large room which should have
been his. (God bless the Greeks!) And, during the
winter, we had to pay costly gas bills because the
house was heated all day (because she stayed inside
most of the day) where normally we turned down the
heat when we went to the University.
In another particularly memorable incident in New
York, two Serbian women laughed hysterically at the
way I spoke Serbian to them but had no idea how
ridiculous they sounded when they spoke English! Or
the time when a Chetnik diehard in New Jersey
absolutely refused to believe that I could win a
$100,000 Ph.D. scholarship from AT&T Bell Labs when I
was at Harvard and then refused to let me ask his
daughter out for a date (she later married an Asian
fellow as I heard through the grapevine).
Let's develop CULTURAL COHERENCE - NOT VULTURAL
INTERFERENCE. Let's overcome the jealousy and
clicqueshness that we are susceptible to and help one
another out. Let's break from the past adage of the
Serbian who is smiling after losing his home in a
fire, and when queried why, explains that "my
neighbor's cow died."
7. NATO: After what Serbians went through with
NATO's vicious assault on Yugoslavian civilians, I
can't believe that there are actually talks on
Serbia's joining NATO! I understand that there is
something called "realpolitik" but if anything were
ever to happen in that direction, NATO must accept
responsibility for what it did to Yugoslavian
civilians and pay compensation to Serbia.
8. ACTIVISM: Where is the activism? How many
lectures have I attended (including most recently the
talk by Gen. Wesley Clark at UNLV last December) that
were advertised by Serbs who never showed up. Even if
they show up, we need a cheering section at the very
least, not just sheep. We need people distributing
information. Don't be afraid to speak out. This
country is still a democracy in theory. Questions
need to be strategized beforehand. Whether it was me
going to a Muslim talk at MIT by myself as a graduate
student or a talk at Columbia by Noel Malcolm attended
almost exclusively by Albanians and covered by CSPAN,
or a subsequent talk at the Benjamin Franklin
Democratic Club in the Bronx, I have consistently seen
that Serbs lack the activist (lactivist?) spirit and
as a result, where we might have made an impact in
numbers, I was just a lone Serbian "extremist" going
against the grain too many times. You have to fight
to get the truth out. The truth just won't magically
reveal itself. God helps those who help themselves.
When I was living in New York, the Voice of
America requested an telephone interview with me. I
couldn't find one Serbian near where I worked in
Manhattan who would just let me be interviewed in
peace and quiet in their study or hallway though
Serbians did live near where I worked. Yet these
Serbs were the ones who always made certain that media
queries (during the bombing of the Serbs in 1999) in
the New York area were directed toward me.
I had to be interviewed at work right near where
a viciously anti-Serbian colleague (who believed
everything the mainstream media told him) could hear
what I was saying and of course, the interview went
disastrously because I was so concerned about being
"discovered" and interrupted for my non-work
activities that I couldn't focus on the interview and
made some errors which the VOA caught and amplified
(naturally). I'll never do that again! Lactivism
will destroy us!
Though I was skeptical at first, I have to thank
the SUC for encouraging me to visit my local
Congressmen (Shelley Berkly and Jon Porter). They
asked me very pertinent questions and clearly were
interested in hearing the Serbian side of this story.
I spent over 1/2 hour with Congressman Porter on my
own and will work to enrich this relationship.
Congressman Porter told me personally that he wouldn't
vote for Kosovo's independence because he didn't
understand the issue. Let's work on educating him.
I call on all Serbian-Americans and friends of
the Serbs (especially those with more time than I
have) to meet and get to know their Congressmen. You
would be surprised how easy it is to meet with them
and possibly educate/influence their thinking.
9. REFUGEES (2): Refugees who come here should be
aware that they are in a new host country and
therefore must respect the laws of the host country.
They must also respect the knowledge and experience of
Serbian-Americans and not be the most vocal critics in
Church meetings when often they end up giving only a
dollar or two on Sundays and aren't even Church
members but want to rent the Hall free for their
events/music parties (for making money for themselves
and not for the Church of course) just because they
are Serbs!
Recent incidents such as the vicious attack of
Serbian-Americans at Gracanica in Illinois last July
4th where one person was severely wounded by a group
of Serbian refugee youth/thugs (just because the
victim asked them to stop driving "donuts" in the
parking lot so they wouldn't hurt children at the
picnic) are inexcusable. A relatively recent incident
of a Serbian Parish Priest (from the Old Country)
attempting to shoot the Serbian-American church
president in Lebanon Pa (one of the oldest
Serbian-American communities in America) are truly
shocking. Now, I have been told that this parish has
left the Serbian Church as a result. What a shame! I
also heard of some related problems in the Phoenix
area and must ask if the local District Attorney's
efforts to deport some Bosnian Serbian refugees may
have been initiated/brought attention to various
fights/incidents at one of the Church's there. Here
in Las Vegas, our Church leaders are scared of hosting
picnics because almost inevitably, the police get
called due to disorderly conduct and we get
embarassed. These incidents are symptomatic of a
disconnect between recent refugees and
Serbian-Americans and are again inexcusable. Even our
parish priest who is from Bosnia had to ask people to
stop wearing sneakers, jeans, "track pants," and other
disrespectful clothing to the service. Let's get
with it people! I'll never know exactly what kind of
violence refugees left behind in Yugoslavia, but
please don't bring it here.
10. THE HOLOCAUST OF SERBS. SERBS ARE THE NEW JEWS:
This issue must never die. It must shape our national
identity. Jesus said "you will be persecuted for your
faith." Let's remember that. We have been persecuted
for being Serbs despite the fact that Serbs were the
most "Yugoslav" of the all of the "Yugoslav" peoples.
I have been told that the Serbs are working on a list
of all of the people who perished (hopefully including
my 68 relatives who were murdered by the Ustashe).
Good! Let's get it together and deliver it to the
Croatian embassy in Belgrade. How two countries
(Serbian and Croatia) could "normalize" relations when
three major outstanding issues remain unresolved: 1.
the unacknowledged Holocaust of Serbs, 2. war crimes
committed against Serbian civilians in the recent
wars, and 3. the lack of return of Croatian-Serb
refugees to their ancestral homes remains a true
mystery to me. We must also continue efforts to bring
Ustasha-era war criminals and current era war
criminals to justice.
When I attended the first Jasenovac conference in
Queens some years ago, I was astonished to hear that
the archives from the original Jasenovac museum were
stored in Bosnia then somehow were trasnferred to the
US which then got transferred to Croatia! Astoshing!
What fox was watching that chicken coop????
11. YUGOSLAVIA: I remember in 1988 when I visited the
former Yugoslavia, Serbs in Belgrade would say (when
queried) "I am a Yugoslav and I speak Serbo-Croatian."
However, Croats would say in Zagreb, "I am a Croat
and I speak Croatian." Two brothers cannot live as
brothers when one of them denies his relation. Let's
move on beyond Yugoslavia and start defending our
national/cultural identity as Serbs and Orthodox
Christians. I am delighted to see that the Serbian
government is beginning to realize this. The West is
so fanatically against the concept of Yugoslavia that
they forced(?) the rump Yugoslavia to change it's
name? How bizarre! It reminds me of the time we
tried to form a Yugoslav Cultural Club at Harvard and
were forced to rename it the Harvard Serbian Cultural
Club. Speaking of one incident that is very memorable
to me when I was a graduate student there, a
"Yugoslav"/Serbian graduate student from Belgrade
publicly criticized a t-shirt that I wore during a
picnic held by one of my former graduate student
colleagues because it said: "Samo Sloga Srbina
Spaseva." She said that some people viewed this as a
symbol of persecution. Only a very confused person
would agree with that bogus anti-Serbian hysterical
argument especially given that the saying means:
"Solely Solidarity Saves the Serbs." I guess, then,
using that argument, we might as well ban the wearing
of a Cross. Absolutely crazy!
Let's be proud of our cultural heritage and not
suppress it because our enemies of jealous of our
history.
12. MONTENEGRO: Unbelievable. I remember meeting
Milo Djukanovic when I was in New York some years ago.
A classic Mafia thug. What are the people of
Montenegro (besides the Albanians - we know well their
motivation) thinking? Germany always wanted to
prevent Serbia with access to the sea which will
happen if Montenegro secedes. Serbia has always been
in the way. Bear this in mind. The entire strategy
is obvious - divide and conquer the Serbs. As I
understand it, many of Yugoslavia's/Serbia's leaders
were from Montenegro (Radovan Karadzic, Slobodan's
parents, etc.). Something just doesn't make sense.
13. WAR CRIMINALS: If I were Radovan Karadzic (with
most of my life behind me, my daughter married) or
Ratko Mladic, I would defend my country even if I knew
the court was a kangaroo court in the spirit of Nelson
Mandela. These two individuals are the convenient
excuse that the West uses to renege on their
"promises." Imagine the shock and horror to Western
leaders if they voluntarily surrendered. I'm certain
the West would find another excuse to bend their
"rules" but just imagine! Though Slobodan Milosevic
was a myopic, and poor leader for Serbia, I have to
give him credit for his monumental efforts to defend
himself and the Serbs before the Hague by exposing the
truth and that the Emporer has no clothes.
14. THE WHITE PLAGUE: I can't tell you how many
Serbs I know who never had children or had only one
child. It must have been in vogue in Belgrade but not
in Pristina. Some months ago, I accidentally happened
upon an Albanian dating website (as I was searching
for information on Kosovo) and found the comments from
an attractive Albanian woman (picture was included in
the website) particularly illuminating: (paraphrasing)
"I don't want to have many kids, maybe only five."
Boy, I thought having three kids was alot! We must
counteract the genocide of our people by the West. I
don't how to better and more euphemistically phrase
this statement.
15. SMOKING AND DRINKING AND THE "KAFANA MENTALITY" :
While I am on the moral soapbox, I might as well
discuss another issue that has bothered me for a long
time. Knowing that most Europeans smoke like
chimneys, we should all be aware that it is not in
vogue here in the US. Some years ago, a scandal
(which was subsequently highly censored in the Western
media) erupted in the Czech republic wherein an
official from Phillip Morris wrote to a Czech official
explaining that by encouraging more smoking in the
country, the nation would have lower longterm
healthcare/retirement costs because of premature death
of its citizens. This is exactly what I have seen in
Yugoslavia where e.g. a perusal of gravesites in a
Sarajevo cemetery in 1988 showed all too many graves
of men in their 40's and 50's at least a number of
whom I was told perished from lung cancer from
smoking. Smoking is an expensive habit. The money
squandered from this habit could be used to support
Serbian-American politicians (for example). Some
Serbian Churches in the US allow smoking in the Hall
after the service and during Board Meetings.
Indulgence in this destructive and life-threatening
habit is not appropriate at a Church. On top of that,
children are the most susceptible to developing
long-term chronic diseases such as asthma (which I
suffer from) from second-hand exposure. Also, bear in
mind that one of NATO's first targets was a major
cigarette factory in southern Serbia as I recall so
Phillip Morris could build their own factory in Serbia
(and reap the massive profits). [God's work?]
Please, let's reconsider lighting that fag for our
future generations!
When I visited Yugoslavia in 1988, I'll never
forget an experience of being driven from Tivat to
Trebinje by a friend of my relatives there. On the
60km journey (as I recall), we literally stopped at
about six different cafes on the way. I still never
fully understood the Kafana draw but would encourage
Serbs to rethink wasting time and brain cells on booze
and redirect their energies toward more productive
forms of endeavor for our survival. At many Serbian
functions, "turbo-folk" reigns supreme. Any event
that brings in a Serbian (or even ex-Yugoslav) music
star will bring in the patrons/kilo-dollars. But try
to get Serbs to listen to a Serbian intellectual such
as Serge Trifkovic and, well, you'll see alot of
lactivism.
16. MACEDONIA: Why Macedonia would have ever wanted
to secede from Yugosoavia was always a major question
for me. I would attribute it to selfish, myopic and
self-serving politicians (like all of the leaders of
the former Yugoslavia's republics). Why Macedonia
wouldn't want to reunify with Serbia to protect it's
Western third portion from Albanian separatism and
thwart the West's and NATO's plans is still beyond me.
I guess it's just a part of the Slavic tendency for
disunity.
17. RUSSIA, REALPOLITIK, AND NAIVETE: My final point
concerns our absentee friend, Russia. As I once
pointed out to a Russian-American friend of mine in
Santa Fe, "to our detriment, we will always seek
friendship with Russia." Recent events on Kosovo
demonstrate yet again that Russia is operating
primarily in Her National Interest as She always has.
We need to get over our 19th century romantic notions
of heroism, betrayal, and historical friendship of
nations to realize that Russia will not come with the
Cavalry. She is rebuilding Herself and shaking off a
horrible yoke from a group of wealthy Oligarchs who
were a setup from the West. We have to save
ourselves. Greece has proven Herself to be a far
better ally. Let's remember that.
Though I will probably be severely criticized for
some of my points made above (and I do apologize if I
have offended anyone), I think that we need to open an
honest dialogue on the future of our culture and hope
that these points for discussion will be taken in a
positive spirit of reconciliation, resolve, and
resurrection! If you feel that there is merit in my
arguments, feel free to distribute my comments.
Best regards,
Michael Gojko Pravica
[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
