<nettime> mailradek no. 25 (O.Kireev on media and war)

[Oleg Kireev <kireev@glasnet.ru>]

The "mailradek" project is a non-regular posting of subjective 
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                                                    Text no. 77
			16.04.1999
I'd like to choose only one theme among all discussed themes which
concern the war right now: that is HOW the war is duscussed.
Informational flow takes us in a direction of resolutions, declarations,
protests and speeches of politicians who hurry up to express
their non-original opinions. The discussion's character dictates to us 
its main issue, politicians and media holders set the agenda. None of them 
has considered that the war has to be discussed in a different way, and 
it has to be discussed by others!

First: the terrible thing that abuses me personally is that
they show on one channel the news about hospitals forced to sign out 
the wounded in order to free places for new ones, about refugees which 
have nothing to eat, and simultaneously on another channel our popstars 
sing their disgusting songies! TV has no right to speak of war and death!

Second: media suggests to think of the already known political means,
while indeed these were the means that lead to the present situation. 
The effective forms of political action were all invented sometimes, 
for example, a demonstration has appeared by the end of the XIX century 
as a softened form of street disorders, after the trade unions took 
control over the rebelling masses. But for a long time one has not seen 
new effective means. Maybe the war started and continues due to the fact 
that ministers were negotiating traditionally instead of drinking vodka 
together. It will continue if pacifists keep making demosnstrations and 
resolutions instead of smashing military offices and military ministeriums!

Third and the most important: the capacity of making information
and setting an agenda is available to a very few, to those who can
speak in the name of their own refined person, who got the opportunity 
of speaking because of their education and career success in 
political/informational system, who can affirm the significance of their 
small "personality" due to their position in privileged conditions of 
culture and civilisation (including me, who will sign this text after a 
minute). Of the humanist civilisation which finally demonstrates the 
bankruptcy of humanist ideas. We won't ever know the names of the killed, 
of the wounded, of the refugees, of all those who can't speak to the
cameras. But Milosevic, Solana, Clinton, Blair and others, all criminals 
who's guilt before the silent ones is endless, keep smiling and wearing 
clean suits and ties. Glory of a small Balkan dictator is growing even 
in Muslim countries (the paradoxes of history!). And I have a question: 
if NATO declared Milosevic and not a Serbian nation to be its main enemy, 
and if the Western leaders knew that bombings would inevitably lead to 
deaths, why weren't they beating his own residence into shit with their 
bombs? Why have they sent the militaries against the peaceful population 
instead of going to fight Milosevic with the feasts personally? It would 
not be bad to go back to the Middle Ages' "barbarism" when leaders had 
to step out first to any fight! 
                                                        Oleg KIreev

INFO: Anti-war started its work at April, 17. It is a tactical NGO, which 
task is to organize a campaign against Russia's involvement into the war, 
since such possibility is not excluded. Comittee is going to organize both 
informational scandals and radical actions. Contact Comittee by: 
ecodefense@glasnet.ru, aln@glasnet.ru.

April, 4 and 9 the explosions took place before the Moscow offices 
of FSB. The press published a few materials referring to some letters of 
anarchists who told the actions were made to sign a protest against 
"The Krasnodar case"; but the other anarchists told it's a falsification.

But anyway, a really good and well-organized concert of Moscow new 
underground groups took place at April, 18 in the very center of Moscow. 
The participants expressed their solidarity with Larissa Romanova and Maria 
Randina, the "Krasnodar case" victims.

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