One of the most polarizing politicians in Serbia today is the leader of the "Liberal Democratic Party" (which is neither liberal nor democratic) Cedomir Jovanovic (Chedomyr Yovanovich). He's never done a day of honest work, leaping from the ranks of student protesters in 1996 to spearhead the October 2000 coup, and then to serve Serbian PM Zoran Djindjic as liaison with mob bosses and warlords. Djindjic eventually threw him under the metaphorical bus, but Jovanovic resurfaced after Djindjic was shot, claiming to be the truest heir to his legacy. Other members of the Democratic Party thought otherwise, and Jovanovic left in a huff to form his own party.
The LDP has the support of about 6% of the electorate, but enjoys disproportionate influence in Serbia's mass media. He pretends to be a liberal democrat of the Obama kind, and his party supports multiculturalism, gay rights, "hate speech" laws - pretty much every "progressive" shibboleth instantly recognizable to most Americans. His party is also the most faithful supporter of every U.S. government policy directed against Serbia, from joining NATO to carving off an independent state of Kosovo.
So far, no one in the U.S. has cared that Jovanovic's mentor is Latinka Perovic, a former Communist culture commissar whom the Tito regime sacked back in the 1970s for an excess of zealotry in censorship. Or that his new-found best friend is Jovo Kapicic, a former executioner for the Communist secret police. Then again, the Empire loves old Communists, as long as they transfer their slavish devotion from the Marxist dialectic to the Imperial one.
But what is one to make of Jovanovic's most recent address in the Serbian parliament? At the March 22 session, while complaining that Foreign Minister Jeremic ought to immediately support the bombing of Libya (!), Jovanovic berated him for "having full understanding for meetings with some cannibals down in Africa" instead.
Jeremic had been meeting with the officials from Congo, part of his African campaign to counter Imperial pressure to recognize the "state of Kosovo". So does this mean everyone who dares disagree with the Empire on that is, in Jovanovic's mind, a "cannibal" and a worthless human being? Including, presumably, Emperor Obama's own kin in Kenya...
The worst thing about Jovanovic's racism is that it was so casual. He didn't think twice about it, busy as he was making the argument that Serbia, as a "victim of bombing itself," had a moral obligation to endorse the current bombing of Libya.
Back in 1999, however, neither Jovanovic nor his associates and backers in various "human rights" foundations and committees actually called the NATO bombing "victimhood" or "suffering". Oh no, they were busily applauding the attack on their own country and people, hoping that American bombs would propel them to power - as they ultimately did.
The Empire sure knows how to pick its favorites, doesn't it? At least he's not trafficking human organs, like some others.
12 comments:
Great stuff, NM. I cannot believe that he could be so explicitly racist, being the so-called "enlightened" being existing in human form named Ceda Jovanovic! He and those loons Kandic and Biserko, among many other Serb traitors and enemies, are the founts of trash that pollutes Serbia today. Whenever I see those names I get a sense of disgust.
And he stole the name for his party from Vladimir Zhirinovsky of Russia, who is a right-wing politician.
This little notice for one reason or another sent one to the extensive biography of Zoran Djindjic—in English—at wikipedia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoran_%C4%90in%C4%91i%C4%87
As token of one's own misspent youth one was once acknowledged as adept in several of the most complex areas of Byzantine and even Hellenistic history, so the historical exercise was tolerable. One has no expertise at all in the area of this biography, however, so deconstructing line by line is not a possibility.
On the other hand one found the following passage both ironic—surely unknowingly—and from a very distant perspective transparent in its Tendenz as the newly prescribed American and European “history”:
His state procession and funeral, held on 15 March 2003, was attended by hundreds of thousands of citizens and by foreign delegations. Đinđić's death represented a political and moral tragedy to many Serbs who saw in him a statesman of hope who offered peaceful coexistence with neighboring nations, integration to Europe and the rest of the world, economic prosperity and a brighter future. He appealed to people in Serbia whose goal is for their country to join the West, to join the European Union, and to become "normal Europeans" with normal lives....”
One has no idea what this sounds like in Serbian. But in English the “statesman of hope” rings outright Clintonite, a ring also found, it almost goes without saying, in Obama, now engineer of the first “Nobel Peace Prize War”.
Even more delicious is “to join the West, to join the European Union, and to become 'normal Europeans' with normal lives”.
It is a pity the great Lem is gone. He might have had some acute observations on the constantly edited “encyclopaedia” that is “wiki”, sometimes on hot political topics changing almost daily with the news, like a bird on the wing. Or even more apt perhaps, like the legended Soviet Encyclopedias that were cut and pasted by hand as new editions with every major purge.
In any instance, given his earlier remarks about who and who does not propagandize intensely online and the Serbian poet quoted earlier on flaws as opposed to statesmen--too should he find the topic of interest of course--perhaps Gray Falcon may be of help with this biographical blurb, at least while it lasts in its present form?
Oh wow. Not that I had any illusions about Wikipedia's standards, but... just wow. While alive, Djindjic was slipperier than a greased weasel, and people knew it. He couldn't get elected dog catcher, and his party polled in single digits. He only became PM by riding Kostunica's coat-tails in the snap election called after the October coup (the ticket he ran on was "DOS-Vojislav Kostunica").
The people who took power after his assassination spun him into a martyr and a saint, then claimed they were his truest heirs - thus aiming to elevate their beliefs and policies beyond reproach. Because hey, who'd criticize a martyr? That's just rude, right?
Over at "Sivi Soko" I called this the "Dead Leader Personality Cult," a cynical ploy for power and respectability by people who deserve neither. But while I called Djindjic a quisling while he was alive, I think that may have been too harsh; he was a collaborator - he did the Empire's bidding expecting favors in return. The necrophiles who created his death cult are the true quislings; they serve because they actually worship the Empire. If that's "normal", I'll pick insane any day.
The whole eulogy is very curious, as if splitting the difference between Nietzsche's "we good Europeans" and, after Marcuse, some perverse idea of normative from Erich Fromm.
Add the old American saw about dead Injuns, and one comes up with something along the lines of: "The only good Serbian is a normal European."
Who knows who is writing Wikipedia's Serbian copy? This prescription sounds like something Madame Albright might have approved and there is plenty of mad in that.
"Who knows who is writing Wikipedia's Serbian copy?"
I think I do, and I addressed that question in one of my past comments.
Indeed.
"At least he's not trafficking human organs, like some others."
Dajte mu vremena...
Ever additional day is too much, Dejan.
I hear some African states have already sent protest notes to Belgrade. Good.
Just I thought but perhaps Djindjic was assassinated because he might have been used as an asset either directly or indirectly in the MI6 sniper assassination attempt Operation Bandit against Kostunica in 2002 and the Brits are covering up there tracks.
http://dalje.com/en-world/snipers-from-croatia-supposed-to-kill-kostunica/161847
http://kosovopolje.blogspot.com/2008_07_06_archive.html
Hi Nebojsa
Read the last comment at the following link about The Weight of Chains documentary.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1789083/usercomments
Ah yes, the typical "Milosevic was to blame for most of it" myth. I see that the comment got the one-star rating it deserved.
I haven't seen Malagurski's film yet (the DVD ought to be out any day now).
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