Back and ethnier than ever

Just a quick note to let you know that the last lecture was given today, your obedient blogger is caught up with grading papers until the onslaught of finals, and those of you have been so patient to wait out the end of semester madness can expect your regular blogging service to resume over the weekend.

And there is, of course, much to report.

Stavili su im lisicu

Fox??

Further reflection on the character of news

With all respect to the fine news in the previous post, I am reminded of the observation by Ogden Nash, in "Everybody Tells Me Everything":

I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens,
And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons.

Feel-good news item of the day

I cannot say whether it is the nature of events or just a morbid cast of mind, but regular readers of this site may be forgiven for having the impression that there is a heavy emphasis on scary, nasty and depressing items from the Balkans here. Not today: the news is that the coffee in Serbia is excellent. I am happy to confirm the findings.

African paprikaš

I think that Tim Judah is offering a reflection on the various dustups around Eurovision. With input from Aleksandar Tijanić?

Update: Ah, but never mind those down-island papers. Here is Zoran Radosavljević in The Scotsman.

Vitally important update: Alex Chilton at Dom Omladine on Thursday. Budite tamo gdje staje njegova štikla (baj di vej, in that link to the show announcement, which is from Yellow Cab, is anyone else taken aback by the writer's inconsistency in turning English-language spellings into the genitive case? I say "Tav Falco-a" is fine, as is "Tav Falka," but "Tav Falca" is just a mess. Or is it just me?).

Abuse and degradation

Is the problem with Donald Rumsfeld really that he wounded the pride of some ex-generals? Or is there more?

Zna se!

This week posters once more appeared in Belgrade with messages of support for genocide indictee Ratko Mladić, this time accompanied by claims that he is a "Serb." These ones were put up by the members of the cheeky neofascist group "Obraz." Danish artists Pia Bertelsen and Jan Egesborg (I may be misspelling their names, which I encountered in the rendering po Vuku) responded by adding a variety of slogans to the posters: "We know who you are talking to," "We know you have weak nerves," and "We know you are a coward."

Signs of the times?

So the French government has responded to irresistible pressure by withdrawing its proposed law permitting labor discrimination, and it looks like Romano Prodi will be forming the next Italian government. And we finished our taxes in record time and visited our friends in quaint Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where we had some of the best pizza this side of Buenos Aires. Don't let the good times get you down, ah?

Cosa ho nella testa

Since Mrs Ethnia and I have launched into our new translation hobby, nuances of meaning and ways in which they can be magnified are apparent to us more than they are usually. Which makes me wonder whether the reporter used the only way possible of rendering this. Somehow I expect the answer is yes, after all.

And now the sergeant will tell us his dream

Admit that you always thought that there were unexplored connections between Slobodan Milošević and Luis Buñuel. Edin Hajdarpašić explains why.

Communication with the public

B92 is reporting that Florence Hartmann, spokesperson for the ICTY prosecutor, has been removed from her position. No confirmation or word as to why, or on the question of who might replace her.

Update: Rumor is her role will be assumed by Anton Nikiforov, up to now a diplomatic advisor at OTP.

Nema te 100 godina bre

I am getting to the end of an insanely busy period, the beginning of which coincided with the Blogger meltdown in early March. Expect regular posting to resume in the next couple of days. Aside from travel, regular work-type work, and nonwork-type work, Mrs Ethnia and I have been working on a book translation which has to be done today. A part of that translation is the introductory poem, which was a pretty difficult piece of work. We are pretty well pleased with how it turned out (must work on emulating rhythm, however), though Mrs Ethnia is fonder of the poem itself than I am. For your pleasure, the original followed by our translation:

Momčilo Nastasijević
MISAO

1
Tišinom čudno
sve mi zasvetli, -
krilata pohodi me ona.
Nerođenih zora
zapoju mi petli;
sa dna iskon-mora
potonula, čujem, bruje zvona.

2
Raduj se,
svemu si spona,
pokoji u tebi svi žive.
I duša
tuzi što sklona,
i prazninom što
dani zasive,-
u pohode to sprema ti se ona.

3
I čudom,
u neprohod me spletu,
putanje isprave se krive;
i radosnica suza
orosi me kam.

4
I kroz golet me, u mahu,
dah zastruji aprila.
U samoći to
ne ostadoh sam:
tajno je kroz potaje moje, znam,
noga njena bila.

5
I nespokoji
u pokoj svi ožive.
Sa bezdan sa izvora
Poteku vode svete.
Blage od srca srcu
vesti polete.

6
Mreži to, i pauku,
zlosluto što je plete,
prisniva se svila.
Duši to,
svetli za let,
tajno izrastaju krila.

7
Tišinom čudno
sve mi zasvetli,-
krilata pohodi me ona.
Nerođenih zora
zapoju mi petli;
sa dna iskon-mora
potonula, čujem, bruje zvona.




Momčilo Nastasijević
THOUGHT

1
Silently, strangely
everything lights up for me,
winged she pursues me.
Of unborn dawns
roosters crow to me;
from the depths of ancient seas
sunken bells tolling I hear

2
Rejoice,
You bring together every thing
all the peace lives in you.
And the soul
inclined to sorrow,
with days graying
from emptiness,
awaits your attendance.

3
And miraculously,
though tangled where I cannot pass,
twisted paths straighten out;
and tears of joy
soften the stone

4.
And through the cliff, at once,
the breath of April streams.
In that loneliness
I did not remain alone:
Secretly through my hiding places, I know,
her foot has crossed.

5
And all my troubles
come alive in tranquility.
From abysses, from springs
holy waters course.
From heart to heart
the gentle message flies

6
To the web, and to the spider,
who weaves it with dread
dreams of silk appear.
To the soul,
lit up for flight,
wings sprout unknown.

7
Silently, strangely
everything lights up for me,
winged she pursues me.
Of unborn dawns
roosters crow to me;
from the depths of ancient seas
sunken bells tolling I hear

Hope for conspiracy theorists

If the antibiotic thing did not work out, try this: Slobodan Milošević is alive and well and living in Illinois. However, he wants to change his name to Brad Pitt.

In the event anyone should succeed in getting this page

Yes, I do know that the problems with Blogger seem to continuing. I cannot get East Ethnia to load myself, despite my powerful connections. Presumably they will be able to fix this at some point, but in the meantime I am headed off for a trip. If everything is up and running, your regular service ought to resume here on Wednesday.

While you were away

Blogger seems to have been having some difficulty, with any luck whatever problem there was has been resolved.

Today has turned out to be a bad day for conspiracy theorists. An autopsy of Slobodan Milošević did not find traces of the drug about which everybody has been speculating. On the other hand, this may turn out to be just fine for conspiracy theorists. It has also been a bad day for museum directors, who can apparently be overruled on the question of what exhibit from the general interest area of necrophilia can be placed in their institutions.

For everything else around questions of burials, memorials and museumgoing, Viktor is keeping the world posted (with illustrations!). Highlights: the death announcement from the symbolic Ćurčići in Politika, and photos.

Požarevac: The trouble with Harry

The Body of Evidence couldn't make it to Moscow. Belgrade doesn't want it, the government won't recognise it, and the military won't honor it. There is concern in the cemeteries that it may end up near the bodies of decent people. So the family has decided to bury it on their own property in Požarevac.

Reports of mourning aside, not all citizens are happy to rejoined by the dictator they removed. Have a look at the comments (219 of them and counting) on B92. There is talk of an "anti-burial" to coincide with the autoamnesty festival on Saturday (see the announcement reproduced on Viktor's Belgrade Blog). SPS is failing in its effort to organize a public viewing. The parties of the old regime are threatening to bring down the government if they do not get symbolic satisfaction, and SPO is being invited to bring down the government if they do. Expect some ugliness on Saturday as the "two Serbias" meet again.

Meanwhile, the American far right radio host Rush Limbaugh has made his own contribution to the flowering of conspiracy theories. Clinton killed him, por supuesto.

Illustration: Predrag Koraksić in Danas, 13 March.

What was Milošević taking?

The drug in question would seem to be rifampicin.

Questions about Milošević's death

A bit of a controversy is brewing over the causes of the death of Slobodan Milošević. While it is far from rare, given a combination of preexisting conditions, stress, and unhealthy habits, that a person's health should fail, much is being made of the fact that Mr Milošević should have passed just at the time that his trial was (or, possibly, was not) nearing the end of oral presentations of evidence. So his death has given rise to a number of conspiracy theories. None of these are based on anything like reliable evidence, and some of them may be products of how the various conspiracy theorists think the trial was going.

The people who believe that the prosecution was well on the way to a conviction (most prominent among them, the prosecutor) have raised the possibility that the accused may have committed suicide. There are two versions of the story in the rumours: one is that he refused the medication he was given for high blood pressure, as suggested by the Russian physician with whom he consulted, Dr Leo Bokeria. Another is that he may have been (surreptitiously) taking another medication to counteract the effects of the blood pressure medication which was prescribed to him, which is being suggested (we do not know yet on the basis of what source) by the journalist Heikelina Verrijn Stuart. The center of the controversy is around an unconfirmed report from an anonymous source, claiming that an unspecified drug used to treat leprosy had been found in Mr Milošević's blood.

If the report of an unspecified drug is true, Mr Milošević's supporters have their own version of the story of how it got there. His legal counselor Zdenko Tomanović told reporters that Mr Milošević had written to Russian diplomats the day before his death, mentioning a mysterious drug and raising suspicions that his doctors may have been poisoning him. So in this version (promoted by people who believe that the prosecution's case had been going badly), he was killed by poison, presumably either to silence him or to avoid an acquittal.

Conspiracy theories are productive! So choose your version, was he poisoned, and if so by whom? Did he gamble with his health and lose? Did he commit suicide and invent a poisoning cover story? Was somebody else poisoning him? There is enough material for a soap opera to continue into several installments here, and as yet none of the reports of strange drugs having been found are confirmed.

There are clear advantages to the Milošević camp in continuing to level charges against the medical and prison staff engaged by ICTY, and of course it is entirely possible that some charges are valid and some are not. If it is the case that Mr Milošević was refusing medication, the consequences of this are entirely his own doing. If it turns out that somebody not on the medical staff was bringing him drugs, this complicates the story, but still hardly reflects well on the management of the ICTY detention facility.

Then there is the whole appalling symbolic framework: Mr Milošević built his political movement on the ideological trade in dead bodies from the past, now he has become a commodity in that trade. This discussion develops three years to the day after the death of Zoran Đinđić, who was indisputably murdered, we know by whom and for whom.

Finally, the post-Milošević era

Just some initial thoughts on the passing of Slobodan Milošević. First, it probably does not change the political situation in Serbia much. His influence had been declining since well before he left power, and as the independent activity of the groups he created indicates (for example, the murder of Zoran Đinđić a day short of three years ago, the continuing march of SRS through the institutions), very little depended on him.

The news is probably good news for Serbia, which will be hostage to one person fewer. It is also good news for SPS, which might now have the possibility (under the condition that it restructures meaningfully) to follow the example of the other parties in the region that once held a monopoly of power, and become a functional political party.

It is bad news for ICTY, for several reasons. One is that the detention facility will find it hard to escape a reputation for ineptitude. The main reason, though, is that the Tribunal will complete its activity without having completed its most important trial. The decisions which led to a frequently interrupted trial lasting years will be questioned far into the future, and will probably be used as a negative example for future tribunals.

The fact that a verdict will not be reached in the Milošević trial is bad news for everybody.

Finally, while anybody's death is a cause for regret, what is to be regretted most about Milošević is that during his life, he was able to take so many other people down with him.

Waiting for details on Milošević death

Other agencies are beginning to report the news of the death of Milošević: BBC, AP . There are no reports yet of the causes, but B92 reports that they expect a report from ICTY in about a half hour.