U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (on behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States) congratulated the people of Serbia as they celebrated Serbia’s National Day this February 15. Hillary Clinton went on to say that “The United States and Serbia have a partnership based on mutual respect and built upon more than a hundred years of relations between our people and our governments.” I see this as a political statement. What is far more interesting is the ‘true’ story/history.

On February 15th (Serbia’s National Day), the WalesHome put up an article written by Royston Jones, a Welsh political activist, about Serbia’s history. It looks at the events that have shaped modern Serbian attitudes, and takes a closer look at “more than a hundred years of relations between U.S. governments and Serbia”. The story is fascinating, and I highly recommend listening to it. Here are two excerpts from the WalesHome article entitled Serbia: the shame of the West but you should read the whole thing:

As late as 1998 the US State Department had the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) listed as a terrorist organisation. The very same bunch of drug-traffickers and gun-runners whose leader Hashim Thaçi was then being lionised by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, with his gang promoted as freedom fighters, posing in front of the cameras and promising to go fight the Serbs. (Posing was what the KLA was best at, it did very little fighting.) And as we all know now, the KLA also ran a lucrative organ harvesting business from Serb civilians they kidnapped and butchered.

Why so many lies? Put quite simply, the West (again, mainly the US) had an agenda based on geopolitical considerations. The Soviet Union was breaking apart. The Cold War was over and Eastern Europe was in turmoil, with every Ivan and Istvan wanting to be a capitalist and to drive a Merc. The one remaining obstacle to the eastward advance of Western ideas (and goods) was perceived to be Yugoslavia led by Serbia, which despite the strained relationship under Tito, was now rediscovering older ties with its Orthodox cousins in Russia. Ergo Yugoslavia had to be dismembered and Serbia itself weakened.

He went on to say that contrary to what you might think, Serbs ‘these barbarians’ have fought in defence of their land and their people:

Given that on more than one occasion they have come close to total annihilation as a people, we should not be surprised that when threatened Serbs fight back with everything they’ve got. But their struggles have invariably been defensive. Whether fighting medieval Turks or 20th Century Germans the Serbs have fought in defence of their land and their people. It was the same in the 1990s when Yugoslavia was broken apart.

Why the West – yes, again the USA – chose to misrepresent the situation has been explained. The dismemberment of Yugoslavia, the support for Croat neo-fascists, Albanian gangsters, and possibly even foreign mujahideen who came to kill Serbs, is one of the most dishonourable chapters in recent Western history.

Again, don’t just read these excerpts, read the whole thing.

Before the parade, Kristian Kahrs has been talking to the different gay communities, gay clubs in Belgrade, and he did not find one, not one single Serbian LGBT who supported the idea of the parade. The gays he met told him that the parade only would make their matter worse:

There was not a demand from the Serbian LGBT community to have this parade, but this was an attempt of the government to show that they are worthy of membership in the EU, and I believe this will make it much harder to be LBGT in Serbia. There was only a handful of Serbian LBGT people on the parade. The rest were straight sympathizers, foreign activists, politicians and diplomats.

For Obraz, yesterday was a big victory, and all the others lost, maybe with the exception of journalists. Unfortunately, as a freelance foreign journalist, you can only sell two things, violence or entertainment. Yesterday I sold violence, and I should give a big thanks to Obraz. Obraz won, Serbia lost.

Well, I agree with him. First, Serbian LBGT people don’t need a parade to celebrate. The majority of Serbian gays don’t like the unnecessary and unwanted attention attracted by the small minority that insists on holding a pride whatever the public outrage. Second, of course, the parade only would make their matter worse. The march itself was largely uneventful. And yes, sadly, negative reports were inevitable, but as one commenter noted on our Facebook page, you get idiots wherever you go:

You get idiots wherever you go and if you blame the whole of Serbia for the actions of a few, then that’s just as bad as condemning all gays for whatever reason people do.

There’s a fascinating article over at Kuriositas.com talking about a dinosaur known as Luna Park which can be seen in Southsea, a seaside resort located in England. The Dinosaur was originally made in Serbia:

Although Southsea is now home to Luna Park she was originally made in a village in Serbia and shipped over to the UK piece by piece. The artists drew on the assistance of the workers of the Zastava car factory in Kragujevac to realize their dream. Underneath the polyester shell is a rigid steel skeleton which supports the weight of the dinosaur.

It’s worth reading/watching the whole thing. Fantastic pictures.

Photo by Dragan Babic – Company: Superawesome – Location: Novi Sad, Serbia.