Kosovo is Serbia! Says who!? George Washington!
Ministry for Kosovo is a real ministry in the Serbian government. I didn’t make it up! Their job is to promote Kosovo being in Serbia, and as a part of the campaign, they printed some posters. One of them is:
It is time to show whether we are freemen or slaves!
George Washington, the first president of the USA
KOSOVO IS SERBIA
Aside from the hypocrisy common for both George Washington (who was a slave-owner) and the Serbian government, this poster, that is all over Belgrade, depicts a part of the speech that George Washington gave before the Battle of Long Island — when Americans started their struggle for self-determination and secession.
Good news is that I am not the only person who noticed how fucked those posters are. Good people from the Internet decided to have fun with the idea. This is what they came up with:
People can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
Hermann Göring, commander of the Luftwaffe
KOSOVO IS SERBIA
I need Kosovo for my bunghole!
Big Cornholio
KOSOVO IS SERBIA
What about we give them a duck instead?
Baldrick (unqualified worker)
KOSOVO IS SERBIA
Ahtisari – Shmatisari! Kosovo&Mammoothohia is Serburbian forever!
Homer Simpson (advisor to the Minister for Capital Investements)
KOSOVO IS SERBIA
Comment
Jan 10, 06:24 PM #
I’d love to see more of those mock-ups. How sad is it that I am not surprised by the original poster?
A.
Jan 11, 08:40 AM #
How weird this is! The Serbs were the ones to stand against the Nazis in WWII, against the Croat Ustasha regime. When the Ustasha regime gets resurrected, we side with them against Serbia. Somehow, I have trouble figuring out if we chose the right side or not in the Yugoslavia wars. I think the Croat propaganda machine tricked us…
Anyway, it’s time for truth & reconciliation, not for more hate. That is hard to do if we keep blaming the Serbs and dismembering their country. It’s good that at least Russia stands up for international law on this issue.
Jan 11, 08:56 AM #
Henrik, hardly! Current Serbian regime is mostly compromised of WW2 apologetics. Our government is “rehabilitating” facist collaborators and a good chunk of public considers their historical role as positive. People often mention Croatian puppet state, but they forget to mention that there was a Serbian puppet regime during the WW2, which killed or aided in killings of many Jews, Roma, communists, etc.
But, let alone history, Serbian government did not respect any law back in the 1990s when they aided genocide and deprived Kosovo Albanians of their rights, so respecting the international law doesn’t seem as important at this point. Law comes from the people, and when 95% of people in a province, after decades of hardship and abuse of their rights, want their right to self-determination, they should be granted that right.
Jan 11, 11:52 AM #
Oh God I love the mighty Cornholio!
Man I am in the mood to say ‘who gives a crap about national, or any issues for that matter’
Life is too short.
Jan 13, 10:23 PM #
Dejan are you serious?
what genocide are you talking about? If you like the word genocide what about the genocide committed against the Serbs by those poor innocent Albanians.Please that speech of hardship and abuse of human rights is tired.I cannot think of a people that deserve to be to be rewarded less than Albanians for driving out Serbs and destroying Serbian culture in Kosovo.I remember a time when all of Jugoslavia had to pay a portion of income to subsidize Kosovo rather than fixing the economic situation the Albanians used the money to systematically drive Serbs out through taking over property and terror.
What is the motive of bashing the Kosovo is Serbia campaign? That since Albanians were mistreated they should walk off with a chunk of land? They should be rewarded for killing,raping and terrorizing Serbs even under NATO occupation? Sure they are a concentrated majority in the province but a minority is Serbia which Kosovo is part of.I can never understand self hating Serbs.The idea that Serbs and Serbs alone are guilty for the 90s is laughable especially when there is documented evidence of US/German/Muslim/Croat involvement in the destruction of Jugoslavia.No matter how much hate is aimed at Serbia it will not change the fact that Kosovo-Metohija is Serbian land and will be nothing more than illegally occupied territory.
Jan 14, 01:22 AM #
Jovan, this is where I am coming from:
I am (almost) 25 years old and all I want to do is to be able to earn my money fairly and be able to live off of that money.
The same way I don’t want anyone claiming rights to my home — in the name of historical, religious, ethnic, racial etc. rights, I don’t want my government to claim right on the life of people in Kosovo. I don’t want my tax money being wasted on that either.
All I want for Kosovo is that I can travel there in peace. As it stands now, I can’t, because policy of my country in the last 20 or 30 years is reflecting on me.
Jan 15, 10:43 PM #
I can certainly respect your view I just cannot agree with it.I can in some sense understand what drove Albanians to take the road that they did but at the risk of sounding cliche it takes two to tango.You stated that you don’t want anyone claiming rights to your home yet that is what is happening in Kosovo.I am sure you would have different feelings if your home was down there since you would have felt it personally.I do not mean to sound critical or harsh for no reason since I enjoy reading your blog and agree with some of the things you write but this issue is bigger than Beograd or Pristina.To let Kosovo go would be to reward anti-Serb violence,to give in to jihad,to back down to America/Germany and one thing you know about Serbs is if you tell us to let go we will clench our fist and hold on even if it kills us.Samo za inat
Jan 16, 05:23 AM #
Jovan, I think it is of utmost importance that we separate individuals, communities and “representatives” of the people and governments.
When I say that Serbian government should not decide on future of Kosovars, I am talking about both Albanians and Serbs. There is a good number of Serbs who live in Kosovo and who, regardless of their view of Kosovo’s statehood, don’t think they are represented by Belgraders.
Damage has been done, on both sides (I agree that it takes two to tango), and the results are well known. The question is how to best to deal with the reality. Denying it doesn’t help…
Jan 17, 04:58 AM #
Dejan ??? are you sure that your real name is not Dejani or maybe even Cedomir.
Jan 17, 09:28 PM #
Denying it will not help no.I am not saying deny anything.In fact Srbia has been doing nothing but apologizing for the last decade.I do not accept the idea that we are guilty for all the wars and because of that we should let Kosovo go.The fact is in the 90s and today Serbs have seen the land they have lived on for hundreds and some places thousands of years get smaller and smaller.America and the west have made it a policy that Serbs must lose on every issue every time.Might does not make right and what is taken by conquest will never be anything more than occupied territory.Everyone has an opinion on Kosovo but no one really has a solution.I am not crazy about partition but that seems to be the way.
Here is an excerpt from a article on Serbianna.com by Viseslav Simic that explains this occupation well.
“ America’s prodigal leaders’ madness is understandable. Even if they have never officially or publicly stated it, the US pro-Albanian officials know that sovereignty cannot be acquired by the simple fact of conquest. The sovereign must cede it to the conqueror–otherwise it will forever be illegal. Certain of the fact that memory endures longer than defeat or fear, the US itself created a long list of reminders–hundreds of treaties with Indian nations testify to the need to ensure that the land conquered is the legal property of the new owner.
Here is the whole story titled Person of the year
7515.enjoy http://www.serbianna.com/columns/simic/003.shtml
It seems Kosovo will (as history has shown go back and fourth from Serbs to Albanians.Germany is cementing their hold down there permanently.I do not See Srbija surviving if we just let it go.With that said Albanians will not stop there if they get Kosovo.
Jan 20, 05:25 PM #
I never met such a self-hating Serb like you. You must be working for one of those Soros NGOs, aren’t you?
If you had studied the history of WW2, you would have known that Serbia acted quite honorable during that period. I won’t go into details, but let me just say that nowadays there are a lot of Jewish journalists, intellectuals, etc who support the Serbian side in todays politics: Jared Israel, Julia Gorin, Nolam Chomsky… just to name few. Their support comes mostly from the fact, that the Serbs bravely defied Hitler and actually saved many Jews.
In the name of my grandfather who fought against Nazis and in the name of all my relatives who suffered in German and Ustashi concentration camps: JEBI SE!
Jan 20, 05:53 PM #
oh yeah, about those posters…
I see you don’t like seeing them with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on them.
I guess, one with Benedict Arnold would have made you happier, eh?
Jan 21, 01:29 AM #
umakemesick, umakemelaugh!
Of course some people of Serbian ethnicity fought against the Nazis: they were called the Partisans and most of them rejected nationalism in the name of the common class struggle.
Also, I’d most like you to point me to when and where Noam Chomsky said that he supports the Serbs because Serbs saved many Jews.
Jan 29, 10:59 AM #
Great cartoons, but the best one is the original!
Jan 29, 03:52 PM #
What people in that neck of the woods (the entire Central-Eastern-Southern European region in fact) don’t get is that the world doesn’t give a flying f**k about any of these countries. If only there is one way to avoid even paying attention they will. The proposition that US politicians are pro-Albanian is laughable for this reason alone – they couldn’t give a toss about the Albanians any more than about the Serbs. Can hardly blame them, either – do you know what the Chittagong Hill tribes in Bangladesh have been getting up to, and would you spend money, time and effort to fix their lives? Thought not.
Jovan and his ilk: presumably you are all for Vojvodina becoming independent then, if the deciding rule is which nation’s culture was dominant in a region for longest in the past, oh, 1000 years.
Dejan, I think volim te.
Jan 31, 06:53 AM #
Dejan, your blog is excellent and I really admire the way you think and defend your perspective. I know that it is not at all easy to be a normal person in Belgrade. You are not alone, I know people who think just like you, and I know about all the social and even family pressures that can be exerted towards people like you. I have just ordered on amazon a book you recomend: Gotz and Meyer…
Feb 1, 06:14 AM #
Sarah, thanks! I’m sure you’ll enjoy the book.
Feb 16, 07:50 AM #
Dejan, thanks for this wonderful blog. I am really glad we think alike.
If only the majority of people (on all ex-yu sides) were open and rational like this, we would still live in former Yugoslavia.
Unfortunately or no, nobody drinks from a broken glass.
To all haters and natio-chauvinists, free your mind because you can’t stop the future.
Feb 17, 10:40 PM #
The problem with the bulkans is these [simple] people can’t live together. ‘My land’, ‘My money’, ‘My god’…. whaa whaa whaa!
Grow the fuck up you antequated lumpens! Just live & let live.
NO ONE owns land. The Earth doesn’t belong to ANY flag. Millions of years ago all continents were joined- who owned what then??
Understand this concept & all your petty historical, ethnic, religious & economic issues will be placated. Trust me.
Feb 20, 06:47 PM #
I’m 12 and I can not go home any more. My family lived on same place over 600 years. Now I have only grandmother. I feal loss for my familly and loss of my home. Dejan which book do you recomend to me?
Feb 20, 11:57 PM #
Milica: while it is usually easier to project one’s personal loss to a higher cause or injustice that is noble and morally right, it is much better in the long run to rationally look at circumstances. When I was growing up, coping with deaths of my family and loved ones in Bosnia and Herzegovina, understanding why young people were sent to the war and why old people were starving to death, was really hard and repressed. Once I decided to open my mind and try to understand what has happened in the Balkans in the 1990s, it was easier to understand who and why took so many lives away. It often makes me angry that people died for nothing and that so many people were sacrificed for a few mentally ill political leaders, but that’s what happened. Now that I know it, I do my best that we don’t make the same mistake again. I recommend you to read Zlata’s diary.
It might help you identify with what you went through while giving you an outside perspective.
Feb 21, 06:57 PM #
I have read Zlata’s diary. It does not help me. I was not born than in 1990’s. Dejan, people kill people not politics. Men (not politics) choose to kill my family and burn our home, and one choose to save me and my grandmother. All that you wrote I’m listening since I was a kid. Complicated explanations of “complex political environment”. I have identified my self already – but as homeles refuge with outside perspective to normal life.
Feb 23, 04:01 AM #
i see it like this once the countries in the balkans join EU there not gona be anymore bordes u are a eu citizen
at present if i were a serb i would not live in kosovo becouse hate is still in people memories
specially albanian people dont forgive that easy and u dont want to live in fear and not felt welkome thats a factor and the language is a factor too u would have to learn albanian for something that you need in the city or werever like dentist doctor ur buying a satellite dish and etc i mean the youth has probably startin to flee kosovo seeing no future there now that kosovo is indipendent. I would not want to live amidst people that dont like me
becouse of my race i have a lot of kosovo friends and they dont have a lot of good words for serbs. personally i would sell my land there if kosovo ofered me a lot of money and buy it where i would feel that i have a future
at the end it all boils down to money
but as long as there gona be evil there gona be wars
Mar 13, 12:09 PM #
Dejan you are (almost) 25 years old and all you want to do is to be able to earn your money fairly and be able to live off of that money.
My advice is try to live on serbian money not western money!!!!
Mar 22, 07:51 PM #
Hey Dejane
Great blog buddy, well done for never giving in or getting pissed off with the “psychosomatically blind” that are harshing you. As someone else said, you are not alone my friend! Maximum kudos and if you ever want to come to Kosovo, pm write and you would be most welcome to stay with me.
I was hoping to come to EXIT this year, but the way things are going it doesnt seem very likely. There is nothing as fun in Kosovo but if you fancy an adventure … I know Youth Initiative for Human Rights organises sponsored exchange trips and pay for hotel accommodation also and despite all the bull there are vans and busses traveling between Prishtina and Belgrade daily, so its not that hard … and certainly not that dangerous.
Just today say a purple blue honda civic with BG licence plates driving between Prishtina and Fushe Kosovo Polje. Out of curiosity – how many people belive this and how many think I am making it up (the BG car i Prishtina)?
For what it is worth, I am really sorry for the suffering of our peoples. What you wrote has given me hope that there is a generation of “normal” people coming of age in the Balkans, despite the best efforts of our leaders to the contrary. Its up to us to build the kind of world where people can live where they like and how they like subject to humane laws rather than the inheritance of a history filled with hate and violence. Rock and roll righteous dude and as they say – may the force be with you!
Mar 25, 12:13 AM #
Jetemir, one thing I keep trying to explain to people here is that further they push their “defending Kosovo” (defending from whom!? people who live in Kosovo?) agenda, harder it is for them to travel there and visit whatever they would need to visit.
Meanwhile, I heard from some people who travelled to Pristina for business that they had no problems, and that’s very positive.
I do hope to visit sometime soon, but I’ll definetely wait for the climate to tone down a bit. Just like in Belgrade, it only takes one idiot to ruin your vacation :)
Jun 19, 01:58 PM #
Dejan
You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself for firstly being a disgrace to your serbian heritage and denying the truth about Kosmet and its religious meaning to the Orthodox faith. Secondly you should really learn history and if you did you would know that it was the Chetniks and not the Partisans that fought against the Nazi’s. Partisan attacks on the German troops led to 100 serbs killed for every german, 10 killed for every german soldier wounded. Chetniks had an agreement with the Nazis that they could travel through Serbia as long as they didn’t harm any civilians. The Partisans knew this and began their attack, not because of their hate of the Nazi’s but to weaken Chetnik support and defences. Up until the Partisans began their betrayal of the Serbian People, Yugoslavia had not been involved in WW2 – they were neutral. 25 years old and yet so naive. Srami se mali. If you have such a distaste fro your fellow brothers and sisters then what the hell are you doing in our countries capital? My advce to you little boy is that you learn fact before opening that mouth of yours. Misinformation is what has led to the Serbs being isolated. How your forefathers must be turning in their graves!!!!!!!
Jun 19, 03:42 PM #
I don’t know if you know that, but Nazis killed, without any Partisan involvement, about 6 million Jews, up to half a million Roma, and millions of other people, based on their nationality, sexual orientation, physical health, religion… They didn’t need an excuse to do it…
Anyway, my “forefathers”, as well as my “foremothers”, were in the Partisans and had no agreements with Nazis. They sacrificed finest years of their lives so two of us can move freely…
Jun 9, 07:19 PM #
dejan you simply are a fucking dickhead… i just thank god that not all serbs think like you. if they did all that would be left of serbia would be belgrade. you are a fucking disgrace, and all your talk about partisans what a joke you communists are. you seem to have forgotten all about the cetniks, and how they faught for serbia, and how the partisans were against them. explain that to me if you are saying that partisans were not at all involved with the nazis. AND YOU ‘ALBANIAN’…OF COURSE YOU WOULD BE HAPPY WITH WHAT DEJAN HAS SAID, ALL YOU WANT IS FOR ALL OF US SERBS TO GIVE UP AND GIVE YOU EVERYTHING. WELL THATS NOT GONNA HAPPEN, BECAUSE WHATS HAPPENING NOW IS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT HAPPENED IN OUR HISTORY. WHEN THE TURKS INVADED WITH AN ARMY 4 TIMES BIGGER THAN THE SERBIAN ARMY WE DID NOT SURRENDER, WE STOOD OUR GROUND, WE DID NOT RUN, ALL THOSE SOLDIERS DIED FOR THERE COUNTRY, AND NOW ALL THERE NAMES ARE KNOWN BECAUSE THEY HAVE BECOME OUR HEROES. IT TOOK US 500 YEARS UNTIL WE GOT OUR LAND BACK (THANKS TO KARADJORDJE). ALL THIS IS HAPPENING BECAUSE OF RELIGION. BACK THAN THE TURKS WERE TRYING TO DEMOLISH CHRISTIANITY, AND NOW THE ALBANIANS ARE. AND AMERICA IS INVOLVED ONLY TO PROFIT, THEY ARE NOT A VERY RELIOGOUS COUNTRY. YOU REALLY DONT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE, I DONT BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE A SERB… AND WATCH SOMETHING CALLED ‘RUSSIAN FILM ABOUT KOSOVO’
THAT DOCUMENTARY MIGHT GIVE YOU A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHATS REALLY GOING ON… I REALLY HOPE ONE DAY YOU TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF AND CALL YOUR SELF A DICKHEAD FOR BELIEVING IN ALL THIS SHIT YOUR PERANTS BRAIN WASHED YOU INTO THINKING
Jun 12, 04:10 PM #
I didn’t delete Milos’s comment for one particular reason: what he is writing is what pupils learn in history classes here… (which incidentally probably reveals his age). Sad, I know.
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