Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 14:47:52 -0800 From: insomnia <insomnia at EUnet.yu> To: nettime-l at Desk.nl Subject: <nettime> serbian diary, 26 march Sender: owner-nettime-l at basis.Desk.nl Precedence: bulk Status: U
hi everybody, this is vladislava gordic from novi sad, yugoslavia, one among millions of angry, frustrated and morally and mentally devastated NATO bombs attack victims.although my town is situated in the province of vojvodina, in the northern part of yugoslavia, that is, on the completely other side from kosovo, it was first to be bombed. when NATo launched attacks on March 24th, 8 pm my time, their first targets were so called 'military targets' in novi sad - what was destroyed in my town were a long time ago deserted army barracks. in trying to hit one of the barracks, some missiles caused considerable damage in the nearby primary school 'svetozar markovic toza' - window glasses crashed, windows and doors demolished. luckily, kids left school just a few minutes before this missile fell. cunningly enough, the attacks started at the time of the day when families are gathered to have dinner, watch popular tv series on tv and relax. there were no sirens to prepare us - for example, i was sitting at my computer checking mail when my building started shaking with detonations. the sky was lit with yellow and orange flame from the explosion nearby. the attacks were unexpected and sudden, many atomic shelters in appartment buildings and cellars in private houses were locked, damp, delapidated and unprepared, since noone expected this to happen - logically enough,people here thought that only kosovo will be bombed, since 'military targets' should be there, not HERE, right? but what we see and hear, the targets are also private houses (one missile fell on a hous in a village pranjani near serbian town cacak) and factories manufacturing food and medicine. about ten or maybe more refugees from croatia and bosnia were killed by bombs that fell on kursumlija and prokuplje just because they were accomodated in former military objects -isn't that ironic, as alanis would sing? actually, these 'military targets" seem to be of a very wide range - if soldiers eat chocolate, should nato bomb all serbian chocolate factories in order to prevent serbian soldiers of indulging in it and thus accumulating energy to 'slaughter ethnic albanians'? this is absurd enough.another thing is - nato prevents humanitarian catastrophe in kosovo by creating a more grave humanitarian condition in serbia and montenegro. now it is our babies that are short of milk, now the whole population of serbia suffers from food and petrol shortages. this is no way to spread democracy. if it is, democracy is a virus that kills! i am the assistant professor of american and english literature at the university of novi sad. i have visited states and seen myself that it really is a land of oportunities. i am not one of those people who mocks american dream. still, now that i am so tense after spending two days in a damp shelter with a swollen tooth (not being able to visit my doctor in all this mess), now that i am quite tense and near the end of my tether, i do not want to be harsh, or to use harsh words on anybody. just, please, do not turn american dreams into yugoslav nightmare!
vladislava