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Subject: <nettime> Re: Serbian concern From: michael.benson@pristop.si Date: 5 Mar 1998 09:16:57 +0100 * * * * * Sender: owner-nettime-l@basis.Desk.nl Precedence: bulk Richard wrote: > Of course it's > possible to have a discussion about Servian rights in Kosovo, and about the > what is allowed in resistance by etnic Albanians, but I don't think nettime > is the propper place to conduct this discussion. Or am I wrong? An interesting question, especially given the more expansive parameters recently called for in nettime (more fiction, rants, raves, etc.). Way back in the background of certain paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, little tiny events can sometimes be seen taking place -- a little splash in the water, for example, where Icarus fell, or a small insignificant guy dragging a cross through the dirt, even a murder or two. In the foreground, usually, is a big turbulent blare of humanity, frequently seen collectively trying to out-shout each other. The striking thing, in sifting the infosphere the last couple days, is how downplayed Kosovo has been. The feeling seems to be, 'oh no, not more of THAT. We saw that movie. It wasn't very entertaining the first time around.' I'm certainly not suggesting this is Richard's view. I'm just responding to the idea that this type of discussion would be more suitable -- well, elsewhere. And given the nature of the 'OK Richard van den Brink... Be serious... my atrocity photos are more valid than yours' response from Andrej Tisma, I can certainly understand why he would think that maybe nettime wasn't really a bar big enough for the discussion. Still, I do think that there's a danger, sometimes, of getting lost in the digitized foreground while yet another front opens up in what has been the most disgusting revival of fascism in post-war European history. I guess we probably do all have better things to talk about, and in calmer tones. It's instructive that in their new 75th anniversary issue, Time magazine lists (under the heading "Misses") as one of their all-time worst selling covers, the May 17th "Anguish Over Bosnia" issue. Up above, we see that the best sellers (the "Hits") were two Death of Di covers -- way at the top -- and a War in the Gulf cover. Leaving aside the target-oriented metaphor of the headlines, the "miss" that I cited -- well, it's not a dud because it's about death, or about war either, really, is it? Rather it's a matter of packaging and production values.The death of a glamorous princess and surgical strikes from the sky by the full force of the almighty US Air Force have, let's admit it, more entertainment value than another tedious low-budget police action by Serbian paramilitaries to quell the secessionist/terrorist activities of all those inconvenient foreigners who have been encamped on their territory for the last couple thousand years. So probably we should all thank Andrej Tisma for his 'concern', and even for reminding us all that "In two days policemen could kill at least 2000 unarmed civilians". (While I get the feeling it might be unwise to quibble over such statistics, given the evident relish of the opinion, I assume that he means either: A. policemen not armed with of heavy artillery, in which case the numbers, as previous recent 'police actions' in a nearby region have shown, can be far higher, or B. policemen not supplied with a steady stream of terrified prisoners packed into trucks, in which case the numbers, as previous recent 'police actions' in a nearby region have shown, can be far higher.) Andrej Tisma says "Terrorism has to be destroyed. There should be no sentimentality." Well there it is, all inconveniently frothed up, written down and mailed out to the nettime list. The thing that keeps me up at night is that I completely agree with him. Michael Benson Ljubljana michael.benson@pristop.si website: http://lois.kud-fp.si/kinetikon/ --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@icf.de