Keri... Bart... I don't think I know who either of them are.
.
I was faced with quite a rambling (me throwing stones in a glasshouse
perhaps) text which seems very wrong-headed and seems to me to be
venomous... if that only applies to one person why did the other send it on?
.
I thought I was replying to "Bart". Keri sent on the message. I thought it
was a rather unpleasant message.
.
I merely turned round the word "you" as in -
"Why are you silent about that? Why have you allowed this mad man to
give the NATO powers the excuse to drop the bombs in the first place?"
.
It's a pretty daft question. I turned it on itself.
.
I didn't think I needed to express my disgust and anger at what the Serbian
forces, regular and irregular, are almost certainly doing in Kosovo. If I do
then ok, I am disgusted and angered. If NATO can stop it, good. But I am
unimpressed by the way they started and I believe there was more than an
element of exhilaration at finally getting to bomb Eastern Europe.
.
Like many I fail to see how bombing Krajina is going to stop hand to hand
murder in Kosovo. If our governments are not prepared to send troops to
Kosovo, then I think they should shut up.
.
What is happening in Kosovo now is as terrible as the same kind of thing
done there during the forties by Italian and German Fascist forces aiding
and arming Albanians against Serbs (and it's remembered - they remember the
Battle of Kosovo, for God's sake, which makes the Battle of the Boyne look
recent. The involvement of Germany and Italy now is to say the least
unfortunate; it can only add energy both to cynical manipulation of
xenophobia and to the, to me, mad "Kosovo is sacred" line.
But one doesn't stop such beliefs by shouting at the believers,
let alone bombing them. In many ways they are still fighting the second
world war in Jugoslavia. Hell-fire sermons won't stop it. Troops coming
between them could. Maybe "we" will decide that's not on; but raising
bombing raids from the vasty deep is no substitute
.
I just came in and heard the BBC announce that Albanians are being murdered
by "The Serbs"
.
That is racist. & before we forget, some Croatians have done some pretty
diabolical things recently... It isn't all "The Serbs". We won't get
anywhere if we keep demonising whole races.
.
I await the bombing of Turkey to protect the Kurds - particularly easy for
Turkey as it's in NATO, so they could just bomb themselves without any
risk - and China to protect the Tibetans. The inhabitants of both countries
will only have themselves to blame of course
.
L
-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Francis <[log in to unmask]>
To: Lawrence Upton. <[log in to unmask]>; british n irish poets
<[log in to unmask]>
Cc: keri malone <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 29 March 1999 22:15
Subject: Re: (Fwd) Unca Bart's reply To Poet
|I can't allow this reply to go without protest, it's so unfair. Keri Malone
|was quite clear in dissociating herself from any support for the NATO
|bombing, yet you call her reasonable questions 'venom' and ask her why
*she*
|is bombing Yugoslavia. I think you should be equally clear in dissociating
|yourself from supporting the genocide being committed by Serbian forces in
|Kosovo. Murder is murder, whoever commits it.
|
|Best wishes,
|
|
|Matthew Francis
[log in to unmask]
|01962 853396
|
|
|-----Original Message-----
|From: Lawrence Upton. <[log in to unmask]>
|To: british n irish poets <[log in to unmask]>
|Cc: keri malone <[log in to unmask]>
|Date: 28 March 1999 22:23
|Subject: Re: (Fwd) Unca Bart's reply To Poet
|
|
|>-----Original Message-----
|>From: keri malone <[log in to unmask]>
|>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
|>Date: 28 March 1999 18:07
|>Subject: (Fwd) Unca Bart's reply To Poet
|>.
|>|Perhaps someone might want to forward this to the author.
|>.
|>No. I wouldn't want to do that. Anyway, M Todorovic's email has already
|been
|>published by email on this list so anyone with schooling can send their
|>venom direct.
|>.
|>.
|>|I regret that, I think that sending bombs is a stupid policy, doomed
|>|to failure and sure to create enemies for the senders.
|>.
|>Then why have you Americans allowed your forces to be used that way?
|>See below.
|>.
|>|Why are you silent about that? Why have you allowed this mad man to
|>|give the NATO powers the excuse to drop the bombs in the first place?
|>.
|>And why, if you think it stupid, are YOU bombing Jugoslavia? See below.
|
|
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