Here we go again...
I chose a particularly eventful day to stop procrastinating and spend all day working, uninterrupted by reading news online. After eight long hours in my salt mine, I turned to BBC to find out that Israeli forces are advancing to Gaza and that two Croatian military officials have been acquitted before the ICTY
All of you who have ever read this blog before know that I am far removed from Serbian nationalism and that the only side I ever took in Balkan conflicts is the pacifist one, but claim by ICTY that neither Gotovina or Markač are responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Croatia is preposterous. But, it’s not something I will lose any sleep over. There is no justice and that’s the end of it – whether the fault is with the ICTY, or a faulty persecution, I made peace with it.
What concerns me is thousands of people in Croatia who took the streets to celebrate. Millions of Serbs who see a conspiracy in this dating back to the Second World War. And so many people who are rejoicing in this verdict. Because it confirms what they always thought of the ICTY.
Do we have to be that simple? Do we have to dumb down the world around us and agree to be pawns all the time? Why does our nationality dictate how to feel about this verdict?
After all these years, instead of learning that lessons, we, through our reactions, still perfectly fit the mold of people who can’t think outside of the box of nationalism. And that’s what got us into this shit in the first place.
Leave a comment
Jan 21, 11:11 PM #
Thank you for this post and I’m very sorry you don’t post as much as you used to. I just discovered your blog and I’ve read back quite a bit. I appreciate your perspective and thank the all mighty non-existent God that there is another Serb on this planet who can see reality for what it is. It’s the hatred that our parents taught us that allowed foreign powers to kill Yugoslavia and taught us to listen to politicians who promote hate in order to advance their own agendas.
Dejan, in case you ever read this, thank your for being a voice of reason. I was born in ’88, to two Serbian “descendants of Chetniks” parents in Croatia, so you can imagine the amount of conspiracy theories my family believes in. Additionally, they’re very religious and traditional people. To be the older daughter of such people, yet reject xenophobia, traditional gender roles and religion, is something which makes me constantly wonder if I’m the crazy one.
It’s incredibly hard to stay clear headed when my own life and the lives of my crazy family members were so adversely affected by these actions, but I try, every day, to remember that it wasn’t Croatians themselves that did what they did to us. It was nationalistic mind poison which we can also be subject to. The only way I can hold my head up high as a human being, is to avoid carrying ethnic hatred in my heart.
If you ever have a chance to reply, I have a question for you. We, as a general Balkan population, including Serbs and all our neighbours are so prone to being brainwashed by nationalistic fervour. Why do you think this is? I live in Canada and I interact with people of so many religious and ethnic backgrounds, yet very few get into arguments as heated as our people. What is it about us that makes us prone to such manipulation? It’s something I’ve never really been able to find a good answer for and I wonder if you might have a perspective I could consider.