Kosava has finally stopped blowing. God is often represented in the Bible as a mighty wind. Maybe the wind symbolizes pure spirit in the scriptures, but these days in Serbia it is a symbol of a pure disaster that awaits us. For eight years we weren’t able to leave this burning house. We were frightened by the trail of blood that we left behind and the future which seemed to us to be an unworthy wage for the suffering WE endured. People say – it’s better than before, easy does it, why are you so nervous.
We never made the decision that we are heading towards Brussels, so we began thinking that Teheran, Havana and Moscow were Brussels. The so called pro-European Serbia is made up of those who appear to be realistic, balanced and who don’t think it makes much difference if we join the European Union a couple of years sooner or later, and of us – the unreal, radical and hysterical. The smart, rational and most of all balanced wise men who are in no hurry have forgotten that after October 5, Serbian is not only a slapped together raft full of shipwreck survivors, who will, sometimes rowing and sometimes napping one day get to a safe harbor. There is also an ocean which sometimes goes wild. And it did. We faced the great economic crisis which is rocking the whole planet divided and miserable. The westerners who live a life of constant caution are building up defenses, and we, just like real barbarians, believe in our own strength, fortified by Putin’s Russia.
I watched the Greek demonstrators taking over the state TV station, throwing Molotov cocktails on the parliament and taking over the Acropolis. De Rougemont watched Hitler pass through the Arc de Triomphe and wrote that Hitler looked to him like a maniac who goes into a house and starts shaking every piece of furniture – if the furniture withstands, he gives up; otherwise, he shatters it to bits. That is how Hitler, says de Rougemont, destroyed everything that was rotten in our world. This financial crisis is like Attila the Hun, the punishment for all who have shown weakness. The Greek state and society are weak and corrupt. The Greeks, just like us, have not shaped up in time, they did not care about good and evil. They remembered it all when a boy was killed, but it was too late. That is Athens has been burning for days. I afraid to think what will happen to us if we do not snap out of this white death. If Greece, with its olives, sea, millions of tourists, and a long period of relative economic prosperity, exploded that way, what would happen if our citizens went to the streets? We are several times better armed, more frustrated and poorer, and proneness to violence has become our middle name. Giorgos Papandreou has declared a state breakdown. What will be the name of the thing that is going to happen to us if our government and our society do not urgently activate the instinct for self-preservation. If such a thing still exists here at all.
For the Cathars people are only sabers waved by the spirits with invisible hands. Watching the parliament and Tadic’s drum major Vuk Jeremic yesterday, it seemed to me that our politicians are merely sabers in the hands of the EU and Putin’s Russia. The ghost of the Kremlin won. Yesterday, Jeremic recited Boris Tadic’s final conclusion, and I quote: We survived a direct attack on the constitutional order and an attempt of secession. Serbia acted peacefully, diplomatically and by legal means. This previous government and this one have responded to the secession quite well – clearly and steadfastly. The politics defined by the previous government is the politics that this government is implementing, Tadic’s Foreign Affairs Minister said. It wasn’t just another rant in Jeremic’s Kosovar delirium. After the gas-oil agreement, kicking G17 out of the game, hugging Dacic and kissing Toma Nikolic, it was Boris Tadic’s declaration of a complete termination of Serbia’s European integrations.
The human mind developed little by little. First it was necessary to master physical reality. This even includes Boris Tadic’s mind. And physical reality tells us that Kosovo is an independent state and that Tadic can visit only in an armored personnel carrier and with the permission of KFOR. He knows that story is finished, but he is carrying on telling it, as an alibi for his unreadiness to lead the state – which fell into his hands through unfortunate circumstances – where it needs to go if it is going to survive.
Look how everything in relation to the normal functioning of the state is being prolonged to infinity. They are not able to produce new passports. The Minister of Spatial Planning, Dulic, says that a construction bill is being prepared for next year and that it will help reduce corruption. They also promised us the metro, Dinkic is planning to modernize the railway in the next decade. Not to mention the parliament’s rules of fucking procedure, it will also be ready in the next decade. One hundred seventeen hours, a third of their working hours, the representatives spent talking about the rules of procedure.
To get to Europe we need the sort of politicians we can’t even imagine. For getting us closer to the Kremlin, the ones we have now will do. With Russian gas they will import Putin’s way of dealing with journalists and Putin’s way of providing himself with 16 presidential terms in advance. They will also adopt the latest proposition of the Russian Duma to radically enhance the definition of treason. A representative in the Duma, a certain Mr. Lugovoi, who the British accused of poisoning the dissident Litvinenko, said that everyone who harms the Russian state should be executed.
Because of Kosovo we prohibited movie screenings, we supported banning books, Cuba and Iran, why shouldn’t we support Putin’s idea of human rights. The Russians have strong gas-missile arguments, we have nothing. All we’ve got is this explosive mixture of an order which is about to explode in our faces.
Today is Saint Nicholas Day, half the Serbs will celebrate, and the other half will visit them. After Jeremic’s call to unity from yesterday, I can’t help envisioning that by the time sarma is served both the guests and hosts are turning into plotters, conspiring on their own ruin.
Translated by Ivica Pavlović
Pescanik, Radio B92, 19.12.2008.
