[Nettime-bold] RE: Re: <nettime> NATOsevic

["Jim Andrews" <jim@vispo.com>]

Thomas,

I don't think my post, to which you are replying below, made it onto nettime
for some reason. Perhaps it slipped through the cracks? Would be nice if
that were posted.

I will respond to your message below now.

> But I also believe that a lot of what happened in the
> Balkan in the
> last decade was purely the NATO trying to get control over, not
> peace for a
> region in Europe. The war that I meant Yugoslavia still to be
> involved in is
> this aggression from outside and a partly stimulated rebellion
> from inside.

I have no idea what the strategic value of, or the business opportunities
are in Yugoslavia. I think it likely that NATO would have its own agenda,
rather than seeking simply to depose a despot and intervene in butchery.
Certainly the bombings did at least as much harm to all concerned, also in
the long run, given the amount of depleted uranium rained down not only on
Serbia but Kosovo (it is highly toxic when breathed or ingested, and was
turned into dust upon exploding).

> Again, my believe is that Milosevic has to be overcome, and I do not think
> that the rebelling people in Yugoslavia are just under control of
> the NATO,
> unable to see their government in the right light.

In such case, support of the student movement, particularly via the net,
which is my medium as a writer (and yours too, I believe, and probably most
of the people on this list), is appropriate then, is it not? The student
movement is grassroots, ie, of the Serbian people themselves, not instigated
from without, as you say.

> In my view, Milosevic and also the Serbian population, in western media
> until recently, were forced into the role of the bad guy systematically,
> even though this role probably suits Milosevic better than any
> other famous
> politician right now. The Rambuillet(?)-contracts that were offered to him
> before the war are a good example. Should be found somewhere in the net, I
> am sure. These contracts were a joke because no politician,
> dictator or not,
> would just give up the souverignity over his state as it was demanded in
> these contracts. Milosevic is not just a dictator but he also refused to
> cooperate with the good guys, the NATO. Which leads to what my fear is:
> Milosevic will be overcome in the next years and his regime will
> not leave a
> vacuum of power which could be filled by the people, discussing freely by
> which means they want to be governed and how the economy should be
> organized, but he will be followed by a democratic and NATOcratic or
> western-liberalistocratic regime. Without any discussion, free market and
> free trade-exchange will be installed for the sake and the fortune of the
> Northern-European states.

Russia is a strong example, at least for now, of how democracy may fail a
people. There is no history of it in Russia. It is tragic (again). Is there
history of it in Yugoslavia? Tito kept Yugoslavia together via communism and
military presence for many years. What political order existed before that?
Was it stable?

It is unlikely that NATO would permit communism to rise again in Yugoslavia,
or would do its best to avert such a situation.

What I have read at www.otpor.com situates the students as perceiving
themselves as part of the west.

> My wish is that not only the regime-in-work should be discussed or fought
> against but also the regime-to-come. The background on which Milosevic and
> his government are measured against is not a white sheet of paper (URL
> about:blank) or true freedom but Northern-European capitalistic democracy.
> And because the latter system tries for its economic and
> ideologic profit to
> crash the order of the Yugoslavian state, I want anybody who is against
> Milosevic and his gang and is critical about the keeper of the sacred
> North-Western ideology to speak out loud the BUT in his
> solidarity with the
> rebellion in Yugoslavia. I am against Milosevis BUT I don't want him to be
> overthrown just for the sake of free markets in the Northern-style. I just
> don't want anybody who shares my view or scepticism to forget the BUT,
> because it is not all freedom that brightens the Yugoslavian horizon, it
> might also be some electric light made by gigantic companies in their
> nuclear power stations seeking for new and uncritical customers.

The people in the country itself are really the ones who must decide for
themselves what sort of future they wish for themselves. That is what you
support in supporting a grass roots movement such as Otpor!

> I hope I made myself more clear, and please excuse the looong and for that
> reason hardly readable sentences, I am German and can't help it.

Your English is infinitely better than my German, Thomas.

> Thanks for your reply, Jim.

You also, Thomas. It would be great to have some people with much greater
knowledge than we do of the situation to join in this discussion.

Regards,
Jim


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