The ripple effects of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya continue to spread

in addition to what's happening in northern africa, the near east and the u.s., we're starting to see tremors in the balkans (croatia and albania, specifically) and southern africa (zimbabwe)... having just been in zimbabwe last week and had a member of mugabe's secret police join the second day of our conference to make sure we weren't plotting against the government, i'm not surprised to see things being stirred up against yet another corrupt dictator...

croatia...

Croatian police clashed with about 15,000 anti-government protesters who rallied in Zagreb on Saturday, with 33 people injured and 58 protesters taken into custody, according to reports of the Croatian news agency HINA. The protesters, among whom were masked members of the Bad Blue Boys group of football supporters, demanded protection of war veterans from prosecution. They clashed with the police in an attempt to reach St. Mark's Square, where the government is located. The police were forced to use force as some protesters acted violently and tried to break police cordons, Zagreb police chief Tomislav Buterin was quoted as saying at a news conference, adding that 33 people were injured in the process, including journalists. A great number of policemen were guarding the downtown area and helicopters were seen flying over the city. The situation calmed down around 4 p.m. local time (1500 GMT). At another Zagreb square Bana Jelacica, thousands protested peacefully against the government and in support of a Croat war veteran awaiting extradition to Serbia in a Bosnian prison. A similar protest was also organized in the eastern Croatian city of Osijek. Croatian police clashed with about 15,000 anti-government protesters who rallied in Zagreb on Saturday, with 33 people injured and 58 protesters taken into custody, according to reports of the Croatian news agency HINA.

The protesters, among whom were masked members of the Bad Blue Boys group of football supporters, demanded protection of war veterans from prosecution. They clashed with the police in an attempt to reach St. Mark's Square, where the government is located.

The police were forced to use force as some protesters acted violently and tried to break police cordons, Zagreb police chief Tomislav Buterin was quoted as saying at a news conference, adding that 33 people were injured in the process, including journalists.

A great number of policemen were guarding the downtown area and helicopters were seen flying over the city. The situation calmed down around 4 p.m. local time (1500 GMT).

At another Zagreb square Bana Jelacica, thousands protested peacefully against the government and in support of a Croat war veteran awaiting extradition to Serbia in a Bosnian prison.

A similar protest was also organized in the eastern Croatian city of Osijek.

croatia isn't the only balkan country ripe for political upheaval... only a month ago, i was in kosovo and i can tell you, the corruption there is on a par with the worst of them... in fact, there has already been uprising and unrest in albania, kosovo's close neighbor, as recently as late january...

zimbabwe's mugabe is still managing to keep his heel on the throat of his people but, once the ball gets rolling, that might change quickly...

Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, remained tense Tuesday as military and police maintained a show of force though protests against President Robert Mugabe called for by a group on the Internet social media site Facebook failed to materialize.

A Facebook page called "Zimbabwe Million Citizen March" called for protests in Harare, Bulawayo and other major cities to “demand the end of the 31-year rule of the iron-fisted and corrupt dictator Robert Mugabe."

Zimbabwean authorities for weeks have warned against any attempt to emulate the mass protests seen across North Africa and the Middle East, and recently arrested 45 people on charges of treason alleging they were conspiring to topple the government.

Those arrests and a general crackdown has been condemned by the United Nations and other human rights groups. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay condemned the arrest and alleged torture of activists and said the arrests “appear to be part of a growing crackdown on civil society and members of the political opposition."

we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg... i predict when we hit june, we might not recognize a lot of the world we thought we knew - and that will be a very good thing...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Still more ennui

maybe it's being in pristina, kosovo, in the dead of winter, but i'm seeing a pattern here...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Hilarious...! Chinese reverse engineering...

hey... you gotta admire the chinese... they can sure figure things out... u.s. stealth technology was adapted from technology developed by the germans in the last years of wwii (another interesting story, i'm sure) and first put into regular use in the early 70s, although rumors are that it was in use even prior to that... but it only took the chinese slightly over 10 years to take what the u.s. had and make it part of their own defense arsenal... the biggest slap in the face was introducing it as secretary gates was making his big visit to china a couple of weeks ago and just prior to hu jintao's visit to d.c. this past week... no fools, those chinese...

Chinese officials recently unveiled a new, high-tech stealth fighter that could pose a significant threat to American air superiority — and some of its technology, it turns out, may well have come from the U.S. itself.

Balkan military officials and other experts have told The Associated Press that in all probability the Chinese gleaned some of their technological know-how from an American F-117 Nighthawk that was shot down over Serbia in 1999.

Nighthawks were the world's first stealth fighters, planes that were very hard for radar to detect. But on March 27, 1999, during NATO's aerial bombing of Serbia in the Kosovo war, a Serbian anti-aircraft missile shot one of the Nighthawks down. The pilot ejected and was rescued.

It was the first time one of the much-touted "invisible" fighters had ever been hit. The Pentagon believed a combination of clever tactics and sheer luck had allowed a Soviet-built SA-3 missile to bring down the jet.

The wreckage was strewn over a wide area of flat farmlands, and civilians collected the parts — some the size of small cars — as souvenirs.

"At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," says Adm. Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia's military chief of staff during the Kosovo war.

yep, the chinese are definitely slick operators...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Recognizing Palestine vs. recognizing Kosovo

noam chomsky...

International lawyer John Whitbeck estimates that 80-90 percent of the world’s population live in states that recognize Palestine, while 10-20 percent recognize the Republic of Kosovo. The U.S. recognizes Kosovo but not Palestine. Accordingly, as Whitbeck writes in Counterpunch, media “act as though Kosovo’s independence were an accomplished fact while Palestine’s independence is only an aspiration which can never be realized without Israeli-American consent,” reflecting the normal workings of power in the international arena.

i know both kosovars and palestinians and they are all very good people who absolutely deserve the twin rights of citizenship and self-determination...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Redefining the term "long day" [UPDATE]

it's almost 3 p.m. and i'm sitting here in the frankfurt airport waiting for a flight to d.c... i've been up since 3:30 this morning to catch an early flight from prishtina to vienna where the frankfurt flight was delayed... no biggie since i had almost 5 hours of layover in frankfurt anyway... i get to d.c. at 8 p.m. local time and two hours later board on a flight to buenos aires where i will arrive at about 11 a.m. local time on saturday... i already feel like something the cat dragged in but i guess i'll be able to stumble on through to tomorrow... if you never see any more posts here, you'll know i've succumbed to terminal jet lag...

[UPDATE]

an hour before departure time, frankfurt got about a half inch of snow meaning that the plane had to be de-iced before we could leave... it took them an hour and a half to do which wiped out whatever respect i had for german efficiency... we rolled in to the gate in d.c. at 9:20, not quite an hour and a half late which gave me a little more than half an hour to clear immigration and customs, re-check my bags and get to the gate... tight but within the bounds of possibility...

but...! guess what...? the immigration and customs area in the midfield concourse was C. L. O. S. E. D. so they had used the once-upon-a-time-in-the-distant-past very innovative but now hopelessly antiquated dulles people-mover thing to get everybody, terminating and connecting passengers both, over to immigration and customs in the main terminal, guaranteeing a big slowdown... to top it off, i was selected for screening at customs, so by the time they finished poking through my bags, i would have had to teleport across the field to the gate and even then, they probably would have already closed the door...

SO-O-O-O-OOOOO...

i'm at a hotel for the night and am re-booked for tomorrow night which means i will miss the baptism and family celebration for a friend's twin daughters in buenos aires on sunday...

bah... sometimes travel is SUCH a pain...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

if kosovars celebrated thanksgiving, i imagine it would look a little bit like this...



i'm working today although i'd rather be back in reno sharing thanksgiving dinner with the family... oh, well... i fly out tomorrow and will be glad to be out of this cold rain/snow mix and back in the warm springtime of argentina... unfortunately, that will only be a week and a half stint before i will indeed be back in the high desert winter...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Saturday photoblogging - Prishtina, Kosovo

yes, it's been a while since i've popped up with any moon or sunset pics...


Full moon in the east


Full moon close-up


Sunset in the west

all taken around 4:40 p.m. central european time...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 2 comments

Taking a Saturday break

last friday, i bused down to macedonia for the weekend to visit friends... saturday was a gorgeous day and we hiked in the mountains followed by a wonderful dinner of fresh trout in a mountain restaurant... it was a great way to clear out the cobwebs and refresh myself after a week of unaccustomed office work...

this weekend, i'm hanging out in the apartment here in prishtina and just can't get my head around all the unpleasant news that never stops pouring forth from my intertubes... yeah, i'm reading it but i can't seem to work up the motivation to post any of it, certainly not when it's the same ol', same ol'...

i'm also trying to wrap my head around the fact that this coming thursday is thanksgiving... last thanksgiving, i had come from here in kosovo to visit macedonian friends and cooked them a genuine american thanksgiving dinner... where does the time go, eh...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Autumn scene on Mt. Rhodopi, southern Bulgaria

i haven't been posting many photos lately... guess i've just not been in the mood... anyway, this one was sent from sofia by a good friend who spent a weekend in the south of her own country enjoying some mid-autumn scenery... i'll be heading in roughly that direction myself next week to continue some work i've been doing in kosovo... i'd say that i was leaving the warm springtime weather in argentina but it hasn't been all that warm here... in fact, the temps have been pretty much the equivalent of those in the northern latitudes, altho' the next couple of weeks in those climes will see regular dips below the freezing mark and probably the first snows of the season... for that matter, reno has just had two nights of hard freeze...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Brief update

my last post was on sunday from prishtina, kosovo, where i was waiting for the baggage that had been delayed due to a very short connection between my reno-san francisco flight and the san francisco-frankfurt flight... i finally got both bags on monday morning, after which i took the bus to skopje and then yesterday drove with friends here to siviri on the halkidiki peninsula south of thessaloniki, greece...

siviri is on the beach and is full of greeks and residents of the balkans enjoying the last weeks of summer... it's hot and crowded but most pleasant nonetheless... last evening, i watched the sunset from a little restaurant/bar while eating aubergine croquets, nibbling greek olives, sipping ouzo and puffing on a good stogie... life is good...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Headin' back on the road

tomorrow i head out once again... i'll be spending time with a friend in macedonia for a couple of days before heading off for greece and the beaches of the halkidiki peninsula with her and her family... i'm curious to see what's happening on the ground in greece, one of the most distressed of the euro zone p.i.i.g.s. (portugal, ireland, italy, greece and spain) countries...

Greek Recession Deepens

The Greek economy contracted sharply in the second quarter ... The national statics service Ellsta said Thursday that second-quarter gross domestic product fell 1.5% on a quarterly basis, weaker than forecasts of a 1% drop and the 0.8% fall in the first quarter.

Jobs data for May, meanwhile, revealed persistently high unemployment, which ticked higher to 12% from 11.9% in April.

hopefully, the greeks will hold off on any full-blown street riots until i depart on the 27th... 'course, i'll be heading to kosovo from there, not exactly a hotbed of prosperity...

p.s. note that greece is struggling with a 12% unemployment while we here in the u.s. are hovering between 9 and 10 (at least according to OFFICIAL stats)... not that far off, eh...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

License to steal

yes, i've been posting extensively on the rape and pillage of the economy and the rapidly-disappearing middle class being conducted by our super-rich elites... i'm not sure it's possible to give too much exposure to the outright coup that's been taking place for years but has escalated dramatically in the past few years...

robert scheer...

They do have a license to steal. There is no other way to read Tuesday’s report from the New York state comptroller that bonuses for Wall Street financiers rose 17 percent to $20.3 billion in 2009. Of course that is less than the $32.9 billion for bonus rewards back in 2007, when those hotshots could still pretend that they were running sound businesses.

The economy is anything but sound, but you would hardly know that from looking at the balance sheets of the big investment banks. The broker-dealer firms on Wall Street made a record profit, estimated at greater than $55 billion by the comptroller, and the only thing holding back even more grotesque bonuses was concern over criticism from a public that was hardly doing as well.

The enormous rewards last year come not from their having righted the ship of finance by lowering the rate of mortgage foreclosures for ordinary folks, one of four who are now “underwater” on their loans. Consumer confidence this month is the lowest in 27 years, and unemployment is expected to hover near 10 percent for the next two years. No, they get bonuses because the Federal Reserve, backed by the Treasury, bought the toxic mortgage securitization packages that Wall Street banks were left holding. They, and they alone, were made whole.

The way the scam worked is that the Treasury deposited taxpayer dollars with the Federal Reserve, which in turn purchased a whopping $1.25 trillion in toxic mortgages. That’s the figure after the Treasury on Tuesday committed to depositing $200 billion more with the Fed to increase spending on this program—one that was ostensibly designed to increase credit availability to small businesses and others but has hardly accomplished that goal. Credit is still very tight because the big financiers have used the low-cost cash they received from those charitable government programs to solidify their own positions through acquisitions and the like.

those of us privileged to live in the united states (and i say "privileged" because, despite the abominations taking place in my country, it's still a much better place to live overall than so many other places, places such as kosovo, for example, where i am currently sitting, writing this post) are understandably loath to face facts when they undermine the glorious image of our country that's been pounded into our heads from the time we learned to talk... but, it's a fact... we're being robbed, virtually at gunpoint, as mr. scheer rightly points out... however, we must also understand that it's not just us getting the shaft... these same people are perpetrating the same financial and economic devastation around the world... what's more, they serve as role models for such behavior... how, for instance, can i do effective work here in kosovo, a country awash in corruption and self-serving behavior from its leaders, when everyone can see what's happening in the very country that's preaching ethics and responsible behavior... it's maddening...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Kosovo Independence Day, 17 February 2010

there were lots and lots of people in the streets despite the slow, steady drizzle... lots of cars decorated with the flags of kosovo, albania, the united states and even the uk... lots of families and kids, lots of young people out enjoying the holiday...

here's a street scene from this afternoon in the main pedestrian mall...



this monument, "newborn," was unveiled when independence was announced on 17 february 2008... it's now covered with graffiti, most of it patriotic...



this is what is looked like new...



and, of course, the obligatory statue of mother teresa... albania, kosovo and macedonia would all like to claim her as their own, but she was actually born in skopje, macedonia...



note the kosovo flag painted on the little boy's cheek...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

God, I'm sick of context-free news reportage

having just spent some time working in kosovo while getting a "deep-dive" education on current goings-on in that relatively newly-hatched country and then reading this, i'm once again left amazed at just how much what can only be a deliberate omission of relevant context can skew a news story...

Despite its troubles, Kosovo offers model for nation-builders
In newest country, improvements come slowly but steadily

[...]

And yet, in spite of its problems and growing pains, Kosovo is cited by many diplomats as a credible model of nation-building, a sign -- relevant to the current debate over Afghanistan -- that a determined effort by foreigners can help to build a country from the ashes.

After years of ethnic conflict, security and stability are taking root.

[...]

[C]onstruction cranes rise like green shoots from the skyline of Pristina, Kosovo's capital, which is in the midst of a building boom thanks to foreign aid.

In another hopeful sign, Kosovo in mid-November held its first municipal elections since declaring independence on Feb. 17, 2008. Although there were a handful of violent incidents during the campaign, voters cast their ballots in peace and there were no major allegations of fraud.

it would have been helpful to provide a little more context although i despair of finding that most basic journalistic blandishment in the wapo of the 21st century...

the context that is sadly missing is the enormous corruption that fuels kosovo... with a massive set of laws on the books, all written by outsiders but virtually no functioning justice system to apply them, kosovo is nearly as much of a wild, anything-goes frontier as is afghanistan... (having spent considerable time recently in both places, i believe the comparison is apt...)

bootlegged and counterfeit products, human trafficking, a vibrant drug trade, politicians openly on the take, brand new roads and buildings already crumbling due to lack of any construction codes or standards, all conspire to make the wapo's rosy picture of a nation "a-building" more than a bit lame...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Kosovo - the country brand

needless to day, there's a lot of mixed opinion here in pristina about the "country" ad below... most kosovars i have spoken to recognize that their new country is a mess, rife with corruption, officials on the take, no road or building construction standards, people paying bribes to get drivers licenses without even taking - much less passing - a driving test, a national economy almost entirely dependent on imports, and a nonexistent work ethic... they also recognize that there's not a hell of a lot that can be done either short or long-term to fix any of it... meanwhile, there's elections for the municipalities coming up tomorrow that absolutely NOBODY has confidence will make the slightest bit of difference...

here one view, not terribly optimistic, but that nevertheless manages to leave out most of the blemishes i mentioned above...

These days, it’s not just companies that are trying to brand themselves — countries are getting in on the game as well. Half the commercials on international television news stations these days seem to be sappy, upbeat videos extolling the virtues of some nation, many of which aren’t exactly on the tourist map. There’s “Breathtaking Montenegro” and “South Africa: Alive with Possibilities” and one about Armenia whose slogan I can’t remember.

But how do you brand a place like Kosovo, whose very status is disputed and whose name is more likely to conjure images of war and ethnic conflict than the kind of pleasant feelings that make you want to go on vacation there?

Well, the international advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi has now created a slick new television commercial and slogan, “Kosovo: The Young Europeans,” to help burnish Kosovo’s international image and fuel its quest for recognition.

The campaign seizes on Kosovo’s comparative youth in the context of an aging Europe, trying to present it — and its people — as young and dynamic. The average age of people there, according to the campaign, is 25.9.

The promise of Kosovo’s youth is a refrain I’ve heard often from optimistic young people there in recent years. Kosovo lacks great natural beauty or an abundance of memorable architecture (the capital Pristina’s most notable landmark is the boxy and far from charming Grand Hotel) or even really any established modern industry. Instead, young entrepreneurs dream of building a new economic future as a high-tech center by tapping into the Kosovo’s young, well-educated population.

But that will be a difficult task given Kosovo’s still unresolved status — blocked by Serbia, which considers its seccession illegal, it still lacks, for example, its own telephone dialing code or recognition by most international organizations — and the ethnic tensions that continue to divide its population.

Last year, I attended Kosovo’s independence celebrations on a bitterly cold February day, when tens of thousands of jubilant Kosovo Albanians braved the weather to dance on the streets of the Pristina. Kosovo’s Serbs took to the streets too, but in protest, not celebration.

Even then, as Kosovo declared independence from Serbia with American backing, it lacked the basic symbols of a state. On that day, it was the red and black flag of Albania — along with a smattering of American flags — that people waved.

The international community — or at least the part of it that backed the declaration of independence — had made clear to Kosovo’s leaders that their new state had to be a multi-ethnic one, and that any new symbols needed to include Serbs and other minorities. That meant, for example, no black two-headed eagle, like the one on the Albanian flag.

The new branding campaign draws on the new symbols the were developed as part of the independence process, particularly Kosovo’s new flag which has a blue background, the shape of Kosovo in gold and six stars representing its six peoples. It also recalls the independence celebrations, during which giant yellow letters spelling the word “NEWBORN” were erected in the center of Pristina.

The well-produced Saatchi & Saatchi commercial full of beautiful young people is designed to brand Kosovo to the outside world. But it’s not clear yet whether even Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanian population identifies strongly with the new national symbols it presents. And its clear that at home, there’s still a lot of work to be done building a Kosovo identity that has room for all its people.

here's the ad followed by the rosy verbiage that must have no doubt been written by the ad agency...


The new slogan, which appears as part of the logo, is: Kosovo. The young Europeans.

The slogan is based on the facts that The Republic of Kosovo is one youngest countries in the world, and it's also home to the youngest population in Europe with an average age of 25.9.

This is probably the very first national slogan which turns the spotlight on the people and the human spirit rather than the country, its natural marvels or history.
This is a very strong and confident statement of Kosovos attitude as a country and of its future intentions. It will attract the interest of a range of audiences, from politicians to businessmen, from tourists to donors. All will sense the future potential of this young nation and the positive attitude of its people.

The visual appearance of the logo is very much in keeping with the new generation of national logos in that it has a modern flowing style and an impactful use of colour. Each of the colours featured in the logo was chosen for a specific reason. The green represents the green fields that can be found across Kosovos expansive countryside, the red-terracotta represents the colour of the bricks that are used for the building that is in progress across the land, and the blue symbolizes the sky and water and is taken from the background from Kosovos new flag. The unique design of the letters' font typography is inspired by "the fountain of youth" concept the energy that flow unboundedly throughout Kosovo.

yeah, well, whatever...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The real story of Kosovo

Kosovo in relation to Serbia

from ihc...

Following the NATO invasion of Kosovo in June of 1999, the US and its allies stood by as the Albanian mafia and gangs of criminals and paramilitaries spread out across the province and systematically cleansed Kosovo of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Romas and other ethnic minorities. They burned down houses, businesses and churches and implemented a shocking campaign to forcibly expel non-Albanians from the province. Meanwhile, the US worked closely with the Kosovo Liberation Army and backed the rise of war criminals to the highest levels of power in Kosovo. Today, Kosovo has become a hub for human trafficking, organized crime and narcosmuggling. In short, it is a mafia state. Is this the "democracy" Hillary Clinton speaks of "promoting" in "the heart" of Europe?

It didn't take long for the US to begin construction of a massive US military base, Camp Bondsteel, which conveniently is located in an area of tremendous geopolitical interest to Washington. (Among its most bizarre facilities, Bondsteel now offers classes at the Laura Bush education center, as well as massages from Thai women and all the multinational junk food you could (n)ever wish for). In November 2005, Alvaro Gil-Robles, the human rights envoy of the Council of Europe, described Bondsteel as a "smaller version of Guantanamo." Oh, and Bondsteel was constructed by former Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

i always wondered why serbs, macedonians, and the people of the former yugoslavia hated clinton with such a passion... an american visiting belgrade for the first time, as happened with me in 2005, before even being dropped at the hotel, is driven past the still shattered nato bombing sites which are quietly pointed out without comment... go read this article in full and weep for the seemingly never-ending horrors inflicted on the world by my country...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Looting in Belgrade

having walked up and down belgrade's main shopping street a fair number of times, this you tube clip cuts a bit close to home...

A video of two young women looting with gay abandon during rioting in the Serbian capital Belgrade was becoming a Balkan smash hit on the video-sharing Web site YouTube Friday.

[...]

A persistent amateur cameraman followed the women as they loaded up with chocolates at a corner shop, came out giggling, then went after designer bags, shoes and clothes at Belgrade's swankiest stores in its vandalized main shopping street.

"Get lost, stop filming," one of them shouted, so laden down with booty that clothes and bags dripped to the ground amid the broken glass below emptied storefronts.

"But you are the heroines of this protest for me," the cameraman replied sarcastically above the din of burglar alarms.

Looters seized their chance as rioters attacked Western embassies during a mass rally to protest at U.S. and European support for Kosovo's independence.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Serbia, Kosovo and the sacking of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade

Kosovo in relation to Serbia

what's puzzling to me, having seen numbers of u.s. embassies in other countries, is how such fortresses could possibly be breached... the embassies i've seen are armed camps with concertina wire, omnipresent security forces (both u.s. and private contractors), concrete barriers and bullet and impact-proof glass aplenty, and formidable layers of access points from street to interior offices... as with most news stories these days, something seems askew...

Angry Serbs broke into the U.S. Embassy and set fire to an office Thursday night as rioters rampaged through Belgrade's streets, putting an exclamation point of violence to a day of mass protest against Western support for an independent Kosovo.

At least 150,000 people rallied in Belgrade, waving Serbian flags and signs proclaiming "Stop USA terror," to denounce the bid by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority to create their own state out of what Serbs consider the ancient heartland of their culture.

The United States strongly criticized the violence and the Serb response. White House spokesman Dana Perino said the embassy "was attacked by thugs" and Serb police didn't do enough to stop it. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. warned Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic that it would hold them personally responsible for further damage.

Protesters burned American flags and the mob that attacked the embassy tore down the U.S. flag there. Crowds also ransacked a McDonald's, looted stores and fought with police in front of other diplomatic compounds in a display of the resentment seething in Serbia over the secession of what has been its southernmost province.

A charred body was found in the U.S. Embassy after the fire was put out, but all staff were accounted for, embassy spokeswoman Rian Harris said. Belgrade's Pink TV said the body appeared to be that of a rioter.

also, like virtually every other news story these days, this one is a textbook example of context-free journalism... nowhere is it mentioned that serbia, as the core of the former yugoslavia, has watched as its economic base, geography, culture, and pride have been whittled down to almost nothing, the most recent examples being kosovo and, in 2006, montenegro... can you imagine the uproar in the u.s. if the northern parts of new hampshire and maine were ceded to quebec or if new mexico and the part of colorado south of the arkansas river were ceded to mexico...? in fact, just such a scenario has already happened in the u.s. with the lakota nation, but, given the official u.s. policy to treat anything to do with native americans as either a joke or to ignore it altogether, few americans are even aware that it took place last december...



(see my previous posts on serbia and kosovo here...)

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Juan Cole: three world-changing events

i don't know about world-changing, but they're pretty significant...

Three things happened on Thursday that changed the world.

The victorious Pakistan People's Party, now the largest in the Pakistani lower house of parliament, has reached a deal for a coalition with two other parties. One is the Muslim League-N, loyal to former PM Nawaz Sharif, which has a quarter of seats in the federal legislature. The other is the Awami National Party, a Pushtun (Pathan) secular nationalist party.

Meanwhile the White House and the State Department appear to be confusing the Pakistani public by taking opposite stances on what needs to be done.

Second, angry Serbs attacked the US embassy in Belgrade.

Note that Neoconservative pundits kept telling us that there was something deeply wrong with Muslims for protesting when they were kicked or expelled, saying that look, the Serbs have been harmed by US policies but they don't go around attacking US embassies. I guess they'll have to find a new argument.

Third, Clinton " only managed only a draw in the debate with Obama She needed to fluster him into saying something that he should not. She failed. He looked strong, confident and presidential. It seems unlikely now that she can overcome his lead in pledged delegates.

i'll have more on serbia in the following post...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments