Entries Tagged 'Personal Stories' ↓
October 13th, 2008 — Articles, Personal Stories, Politics
If any Serbs are reading this blog (and I hope some are), please read this great article by Rosemary Bailey Brown. She’s married to a Serb ex-pat. While Rosemary has a unique perspective on things, she missteps comparing the histories of the two countries. Serbia is an OLD country; the U.S. is a very young country, relatively speaking. We can’t claim roots that go back to the 10th Century. Plus, it’s a bit disengenuous to think that Serbs want to befriend America or even to understand it. Their kneejerk reaction to a country that unilaterally and without provocation bombed them, bombed their highways and byways, power plants, electrical sources, water sources, radio towers (Avala, anyone?) is abject hatred and who can blame them?
I may be one of those small handful — two percent — of Americans who even know anything about Serbia and because I do, I’ve managed to delve into quite a bit of its history, and particularly into what really went on in the 1990s. Our country, along with Western mainstream media, has swept just about all of this right under the rug. They have reason to. What our country did was wrong and there is no excuse for it. And because of that, I’m ashamed to be an American.
But YOU have a chance to make a difference in how the majority of Americans view Serbia. And in how Serbia views the U.S. Myself? I have been fortunate enough to get to know a great Serbian man. I’d LOVE to think that most Serbs are like him, honest, forthright, gentle, decent, loyal, kind. He accepts me even though I’m sure he’s not happy about what my country did to his. But we got past that. Maybe others can too. Pozdrav!
April 5th, 2008 — Personal Stories
My friend, [Petar], wrote a very eloquent email about what Serbia, Kosovo, and being a Serb means to him. Several have asked permission to republish it. He has graciously consented to that and I want to share with you his story, in his words. [Some personally identifying information has been omitted to protect privacy.]
Walter has asked a bit more about me so here it is.
Okay. My name is [Petar], last name not important. I am [36], I was born in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia, and since then I have changed 4 countries: SFR Yugoslavia (Tito and post Tito); FR Yugoslavia (Milosevic); Serbia & Montenegro (post-Milosevic); and now Serbia (full name Republic of Serbia). That’s 4 countries in 18 years. It was not just the name that had changed. The borders changed, and the country is now much smaller than the country I was originally born in. The street names changed. The passports changed. The ID cards changed. The license plates changed. The holidays changed. The national symbols changed. The currency changed. Everything changed. Basically, the system changed from a fully closed Communist state to a more open Socialist state, to a mixture of dying Socialism and emerging Nationalism, to what we have today - what most of the world refers to a young democracy, or a country in transition. I believe we have made a lot of progress since the fall of Milosevic. Of course, there is so much more to be done. I remain to be an optimist, that is the only thing keeping me going. I could have chosen to live in Canada or [Austria] because some of my close and distant family members live there. But, precisely because I love my country, I decided to stay and face the music, as Americans say. And I faced the music alright….
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