April 13, 2001
"Aequo animo" Have you ever had moments when out of total frustration you wanted to scream, to shout at someone, yet managed to keep the lid on, stay in control and go home? Then, out of nowhere, a few nights later, you are with your loved one, a close friend, with a drink in your hand, and it hits you and you start screaming at them but really the thunder is directed toward no one in particular, the entire country, the world possibly, or just maybe yourself? Has it ever happened to you? A few weeks ago, toward the end of a lunch organized for the birthday of a former colleague of the "spiritual," middle-class millenarian organization - they called themselves a "movement," a "family," where I used to be the electronic slave (the usual IT stuff: multi-platforms network, Web site, E-mail, tech support, etc.) it happened to me! Someone asked an innocuous question about Swans and I began talking about the challenges I faced and moved on to the subject of the undeclared and illegal war NATO launched against Serbia in March 1999. I related the content of the article, Kosovo - The "Banality of Evil," I had written and posted on February 19, 2001. In this piece I had reviewed the falsity of three of the most damning accusations made against the Serbian people that lead to the Rambouillet trap of Appendix B and to the illegal war; specifically, the so-called Racak massacre, the "body count" and the analogy with the Holocaust. I explained how much documentation was out there in the open, not in the American main media mind you, but in overseas publications and on the Web and I expressed how aggravating it was to always be placated with the burden of the proof when the real initiators of the war - that is, the Western Powers - had only to come up with assertions propagated by the pundits and ex-post justifications when events were not according to script. Now, I have a Latin temper. I am a man from the South, where you talk with your mind by training (if you are lucky enough to have received a decent education), your heart by nature, and with your hands and facial expressions to add imagery to any topics, to emphasize the line of reasoning (Saxons keep their hands in their pockets). In other words, I was animated. In making my case I was directly looking at the woman who was sitting on the other side of the table, next to the person who had asked me about Swans. Eileen is in her sixties. She originally came from Denmark. Her father was Danish, her mother Puerto Rican. She's married to an American scientist and a wood-carver artist. I've known Eileen for nine years; worked closely with her for three or four; have an immense affection for her. Eileen was supposed to help with Swans but the help never materialized. I say this so that you understand I was not dealing with a stranger. Here, on the other side of the table, was a human being in whose home, with her and her husband, I had lunch a week before; I had previously set up their home computer and given them software. I had worked closely with her; a woman with whom I constantly shared my aspirations and ideas about Swans as well as her aspirations and ideas. For the past two years I often talked with her about the Yugoslav tragedy, for it is a tragedy that could have been avoided had the Western Powers, under the lead of Germany and the United States of America, decided not to carve Yugoslavia into meaningless statelets. But then, as I was prodding Eileen to not just support me but express her understanding of the situation, she only said, "I am not sure." Her declaration took me aback. I followed up with "What do you mean?" and she said, "I am not sure, I don't know." It hit me hard. I wanted to shout, "What don't you know?" Instead, I changed the conversation to ethnic cleansing (another subject that would be worth a few words). But in my thoracic cage I was gasping for air and these questions where suffocating me: Don't you know about Vietnam? Don't you know about Cambodia? Don't you know about Laos? Don't you know about Greece? Don't you know about Chile? Don't you know about East Timor? Don't you know about Guatemala? Don't you know about Nicaragua? Don't you know about Granada? Don't you know about Panama? Don't you know about Iraq? Don't you know about Rwanda? Don't you know about Congo? Don't you know about Palestine? Don't you know about the Caspian? Don't you know about China? Don't you know about Colombia? To cite a few… What don't you know? The way Native Americans were decimated by the idealized Pilgrims? The enslavement of human beings from the African continent? The Philippines take-over? The Spanish War? The Mexican War? What don't you know, really? Which country has ever used a nuclear bomb against another country? Shall we have to nuke another one so that you finally know, Eileen? But I remained silent. I went home and mulled over the fact that even close friends were blind....and I went into a tailspin for a couple of weeks. Then, one evening, in presence of Frank (a close friend who was visiting) and Jan (my companion), both Americans, I lost it and threw all my arsenal of invectives at them, belittling their country, their co-citizens, themselves for their destructive culture of greed. No need to expand on this. It was obviously totally uncalled for and counterproductive. As Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces." I keep requesting from Swans' contributors and columnists that they use Thaw and stay away from Thor. But how much can one take when one cannot even reach out to close friends? Actually, imagine for a second how the Serbian people must feel after a decade of defamation and demonization, the lies, the falsification of the facts packaged by PR firms and old allies, the destruction of their country… Let's listen to Dr. Vladimir Ajdacic: "Dear Mr. d'Aymery, many thanks for your action, your belief in truth and humanity. Such a great Christian Holiday as Easter should unite people, not to clash them or lead to a disaster. Let us hope that such things will never repeat." (E-mail to the author, April 13, 2001, on Good Friday.) Professor Ajdacic, you see, is no rabid rapist or murderer. He is not a "commie" either. Nor is he a fascist or a later-day-Nazi as the Serbs have been depicted by the myriad pundits who a decade ago could not even have found Belgrade (Beograd, the White City) on a map. He was born in 1933. Educated at the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia and at the University of Toronto, Canada, he is a retired nuclear physicist and from his writing, I sense, a man of faith; something to which the 95 per cent of the American people who profess belief in a God and, for the most part, allegiance to Jesus, should relate. But Professor Ajdacic possesses an experience that is not shared by Americans. He has survived three bombing campaigns in his lifetime. As he wrote to me, "In my life I was only 'bombed' during two wars: during the Second World War [twice, first by the Nazis, then by the Allies] and in the undeclared NATO war in 1999. Both times I was in Belgrade." He wrote the three pieces that we are publishing two years ago during Easter when NATO planes were engaged in the systematic and methodical destruction of the economic infrastructure of Serbia, his third "bombing." These texts unmistakably demonstrate that from very early on NATO targeted the civilian infrastructure with the aim of terrorizing the population so that their government would relent. Do you recall what Mr. Thomas L. Friedman, the Foreign Affairs Editorialist of The New York Times, wrote on April 23, 1999? "...Let's at least have a real war...It should be lights out in Belgrade: every power grid, water pipe, bridge, road and war-related factory has to be targeted...the stakes have to be clear: Every week you [Serbs] ravage Kosovo is another decade we will set your country back by pulverizing you. You want 1950? We can do 1950. You want 1389? We can do 1389 too...Give war a chance...." (quoted in my commentary of April 24, 1999). Do you recall? Dr. Ajdacic writes: "Now future generations of the Serbian people will be able to remember the destruction and damage done by the 'friendly and civilized' NATO Christians in the name of democracy and humanitarian intervention; and they will forever reject this kind of 'democracy' and 'humanity' for what it truly is, a monumentally and shamefully anti-Christian deed." "How should the Serbs deal with this? Future generations of Serbs must comfort themselves in the knowledge that the Serbian people were not responsible for this conflict and were innocent victims of NATO's destruction. An old proverb says: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'" "Generations of Serbs have lived with this credo. The Serbian people will continue to do so. NATO has yet to learn this lesson." "As for what NATO 'Christians' did to the Serbs? As true Christians, we must remember what Jesus said:" "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will perish by the sword." How long will it take for people to realize the enormity of our deeds? Will Eileen ever "be sure?" Will she ever "know?" On May 30, 1999, I wrote, "This is a country that does not provide universal health care to its citizenry, a country which gets rid of Welfare, which does not provide shelters to its homeless population, which cannot afford to provide free education and claims it can finance it by selling lottery tickets to the lower-middle class and the poor, whose entire assets and wealth are owned by a tiny minority, which defends the right to go hunting with machine guns, which has more prisoners per capita than anywhere in the world, where kids shoot other kids and schools are monitored by surveillance cameras and metal detectors, which is pro death penalty... This is a country that spends its week days in the office, evenings in front of TV sets, and weekends in the mall; a country of instant gratification and an aging population, filled with casinos, make-beliefs and false religions." "This is who we are. And we have our mercenaries -- sorry, our military -- our Sega people, to make darn sure that we are right and that help is on the way." "And so we will prevail. Because, for us, only power matters." (May 30, 1999) Two years later, this Easter weekend, we can see the results. Oh humanity! Note: Dr. Ajdacic's three pieces could not have found their way to Swans without the relentless help of Pedja Zoric (Serbian Canadian Society of Vancouver) as well as the translation and efforts of Serbian Unity Congress Serbian Canadian Society of Vancouver Natasa Mrkic Jelena Vladikovic Otto K. Folprecht, Network Systems Engineer Piotr Bein Editing: Jan Baughman and Gilles d'Aymery Dr. Adjecic's Essays: Part I - Malevolent April Days Part II - The Bloody Catholic Easter 1999 Part III - The Resurrection of Christ - Go Away Satan! Please, DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work without the expressed written authorization of Swans, which will seek permission from the author. This material is copyrighted. All rights reserved. |
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Related Internal Links
Articles Published on Swans Regarding the War in Yugoslavia and its Aftermath
This Week's Internal Links
Forty Five Shares of Lockheed Martin - by Jan Baughman
Malevolent April Days - by Dr. Vladimir Ajdacic
The Bloody Catholic Easter 1999 - by Dr. Vladimir Ajdacic
The Resurrection of Christ - Go Away Satan! - by Dr. Vladimir Ajdacic
TIDES - A poem by Sandy Lulay
Resources on the War in Yugoslavia and its Aftermath