A little personal anecdote in response to David Wood's and Dave Storey's
comments on Kosovo...
When the NATO invasion of Kosovo began I was in Honolulu at the AAG mtgs.
I remember turning on one of the American TV channels and there was a
'news' story about an arms show. Frightening for me was the very matter of
fact way that the reporter was talking about the arms show, as if the sale
of weapons of mass destruction was an everyday occurence for him (perhaps
it was). Even more frightening was an interview with an arms salesman who
was so pleased that his brand of missile was being used by American
warplanes in the bombing of Kosovo. I remember this so distinctly... the
salesman, in a perfectly straightforward manner, said to the interviewer:
"There's nothing like people being able to see your weapons successfully in
action [on TV] to boost sales." I know that growing up in Canada and
living in the South Pacific for years makes me naive about these things,
but I am still so dumbfounded at the absolute lack of concern for human
suffering and misery in such attitudes...
The Canadian government has strongly supported the invasion, sending CF-18
fighter jets, troops, and supplies to the region (Aviano Air Force base
most particularly). In doing so, it has committed Canadian (and Jugoslav
and Kossovar) bodies to war without any debate or discussion in Parliament.
Much of the discussion in the media here in Canada seems to set forth a
binary set of optioons: support the bombing or support Milosovic.
Perhaps our job as critical geographers (as David Storey so eloquently
points out), is to remind people that there are many other options
available to us. Being opposed to bombing is NOT the same as supporting
Milosovic.
Do other members of the critical geography forum have experiences or
comments that might help us all to contest the current hegemonic rhetoric
about Kosovo?
Lawrence
=============================================
Dr. Lawrence D. Berg
D E P A R T M E N T of G E O G R A P H Y
University of Victoria
PO Box 3050
Victoria, BC, Canada, V8W 3P5
Fax: +1 250 721-6216
Tel: +1 250 721-7327
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
http://www.massey.ac.nz/~wwgeog/ldb.html
=============================================
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|