Wednesday 14 September 2011

Serbian support for Gaddafi? Why???

First of all, let me say: LIBYA AL-HURRA!!!

Like many people around the world, I am glad that the Libyan people are finally ridding themselves of over four decades of Gaddafi's dictatorial rule over them. Although the fight ain't over, and although I'm not keen on military interventions by alliances like NATO, at least the widely-feared mass slaughter of civilians by Gaddafi has been prevented.

However, being a Serb, I've noticed that many of my fellow Serbs are not supportive of the Libyan rebels, but of the dictator that they're fighting against. This seemingly strange Serbian support for Gaddafi is very noticeable online, and on Facebook, you will find a group called Support for Muammar al Gaddafi from the people of Serbia, which numbers, as I'm writing this, almost 75,000 fans! And believe you me, there are many other Facebook groups similar to that one!

The question, however, is why there is all this Serbian support for the now toppled Libyan dictator?

Well in that above-mentioned group, they have slogans like "Podrška prijatelju!", or "Support to [our] friend!" Of course, like any popular Facebook group, they have pictures conveying their views. There is one picture with "SerbiaLybia" underneath a caricature of an impressive Gaddafi at the UN, with "Say 'NO' to Western Imperialism" at the top of it! And then there's another picture saying, "SUPPORT COLONEL! SERBIAN PEOPLE". What is more revealing about their support for Gaddafi is their utter contempt for various democratic activist organisations throughout Eastern Europe and beyond. They mock the "Otpor/Pora" symbols, used by various anti-government opposition groups in countries like Serbia, the Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, for their remarkable similarity to one another; as such, they perceive them all as being funded by a common Western source, or simply put, "paid by the West".

But more pertinently, these Serbs see the bombing of Libya as being morally equal to the 78-day bombing of their country Serbia by NATO in 1999, in response to Milošević's own crackdown on Kosovo Albanian rebels. And it was during that time that Colonel Gaddafi himself, among very few around the world, voiced his personal opposition to that bombing campaign of Serbia by the Western alliance. Therefore, it's not surprising that such Serbs support Gaddafi, a dictator reviled by many in Libya and throughout the world, rather than the rebels, whom they believe are full of Islamists serving some sort of Western interest in the region.

Some Serbs admire Gaddafi for being a friend of Yugoslavia's Marshall Tito, especially since many people from the then Communist Yugoslavia travelled to countries like Libya to work at numerous construction sites. Other Serbs are not so keen on Gaddafi because of his friendship with Tito, since they are of a more anti-Communist persuasion. But what both sets of Serbs agree upon, whether pro-Tito or anti-Tito, is their opposition to the West's intervention in the country's civil war on behalf of the rebels over there; they resented the West's intervention in the Yugoslav conflicts during the '90s, and likewise they resent this one in Northern Africa for the reasons shared above.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gadaffi, Serbia and Millwall supporters - together against the world! Very interesting interview by Zarko Korac at Bosnian Institute News looking at the interface between psychology and reality in Serbia:
http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2816

Balkan Ⓐnarchist said...

Rockin' all over the world, huh?!

Good article by Žarko Korać. I've read other material by him. He's got a lot of guts to tell parts of the truth that not everyone wants to hear in Serbia.

Asteri said...

Gaddafi did give his Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights to the children of Bosnia during the war.

Balkan Ⓐnarchist said...

Yes, it says so here on the website of Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights - A People's International Non-governmental Organization, as it call itself. I've noticed that they haven't updated that site for quite a few years, actually.

But the real question is where did that money for the "victim children of Bosnia & Herzegovina", as part of that Al-Gaddafi award from 1993, go to exactly? Is that even a real organisation; is that its real name? And who were then and who are now its representatives, if it's still around?

Asteri said...

Well, apparently the prize money comes from Gaddafi and a Swiss based foundation. It may just have been a symbolic gesture and the money was given to the Izetbegovic government. The prize has also been given to the children of Palestine and the "indigenous peoples of the Americas", where the money actually went on those occasions is any one's guess.

Anonymous said...

A little short on transparency - all that non-specific benevolence towards children for some reason brings Jarvis Cocker to mind.

Balkan Ⓐnarchist said...

Jarvis Cocker? How so, Owen?

Anonymous said...

Do you remember events at a certain award ceremony for a demised celebrity performer?

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZEWomOQVno

If only Tony Blair had been as drunk as Jarvis Cocker when he went to Tripoli!

For the director's cut:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTpnnuYi9os

Balkan Ⓐnarchist said...

I'm old enough to remember the media hype over Jarvis Cocker's appearance on stage during the late Michael Jackson's performance of Earth Song all those years ago! I never thought he was actually doing anything wrong, though; he appeared rather calm as he was walking across the stage, not bothered by the music and dancing around him, and he didn't seem to be disturbing anybody either! So much so, what was all the fuss about?! Ah, those were the good old days of my childhood! :-D

Anonymous said...

Jarvis Cocker's response to Earth Song was a lovely reminder that reality principle is never dead, however much spin life makes us get used to (as well as a tribute to the healing powers of excess alcohol).

Anonymous said...

Another Michael Jackson moment:
see http://www.nobelprizeliterature.org/

"Agence France-Presse
6 October 2011 10:03 AM

Serbian TV apologises for naming wrong Nobel prize winner

BELGRADE, Oct 6 (AFP) -- Serbia's state-run RTS television on Thursday apologized for having erroneously announced that fiercely nationalist Serb writer and ex-politician Dobrica Cosic had won the 2011 Nobel prize for literature.

In fact, the prize was given to Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer.

Dobrica Cosic, born in 1921 at the central Serbian village of Velika Drenova, was also the first president of rump-Yugoslavia, declared after Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia proclaimed independence. He was in office for a year from June 1992.

Cosic is considered by supporters as "the father of the Serbian nation.". He writes lengthy tomes about the suffering of the Serbs through the ages."

---

It's lovely to be reminded of the existence of the real sparks of subterranean genius waiting to bring Serbia to life once the crowd of deadbeats, criminals and bimbos have their stranglehold prised loose.

Anonymous said...

Ti si izdajnik koji radi za zapad, nemoj da seresh o demokratiji i o peto-kolonasima kao sto je otpor, doveli ste zapadne kompanije i ubice iste one koji su nam unistili infrastrukturu, a sada "ulazu" u nasu zemlju, vi elitisti ste doveli ovaj napacen narod do prosjackog stapa, kako te nije sramota da ovako blatis istino i pravdo borce!

Anonymous said...

Поштовани Јакшићу,
Постоји много начина да се човјек додворава (или како то наш народ каже улизује) некоме, а да при томе не пљује или блати сопствени род(сопствени народ), јер о теби неће имати енглези боље мишљење буди сигуран, јер обични грађани енглеске вјероватно нису ни заитересовани за дешавања у Србији и Либији, а они који су у Великој Британији заинересовани за тим дешавањем они су у великој мјери и креатори тих дешавања.

Balkan Ⓐnarchist said...

Pozdrav i tebi, anonimni (6 October 2011 22:03). Hvala ti što si komentarisao ovaj članak, i slobodno komentariši i druge članke na ovom mom blogu!

Prvo, za tvoju informaciju, ne smatram sebe ničijim „izdajnikom“, nego prosto prenosim poznate činjenice i svoja mišljenja o raznim pitanjima vezanim za Balkan i narode na tim našim prostorima. A drugo, moraću te razočarati sa činjenicom da sve ovo pišem za nike pare, što znači da sam NIKAKAV „plaćenik“, jer da to stvarno jesam, kao što na to aludiraš, ne bih bio ovolko siromašan kolko zaista jesam! Nažalost, niko me ne plaća za ove članke koje tu izdajem, i to je tužna istina sa kojom moram živiti! :'-(

I samo da te još ispravim u vezi stanja u Srbiji: nismo ni ja ni takozvani „peto-kolonaši“, kako ih ti i slični tebi nazivate, „doveli ovaj napaćen narod do prosjačkog štapa“; već je dobrim dijelom došlo do tog, kolko mi je poznato, za vreme Slobinog režima, time što se oko milijarda dolara iz Srbije prebacilo na neki žiro račun vrag zna đe na Kipru! Sram ga bilo!

Inače, nadam se da ćemo i u buduće o drugim balkanskim temama razgovarati tu na mom blogu. Pozdrav iz Velike Britanije! :-)

Balkan Ⓐnarchist said...

Pozdrav i tebi, drugi anonimni komentatoru (6 October 2011 23:16). Hvala i tebi što si komentarisao ovaj članak, i slobodno komentariši i druge članke na ovom mom blogu!

Prvo, da te uvjerim da tu NIČIJI narod ne „blatim“ niti po IČIJEM narodu ne „pljujem“, a kamo li svoj srpski/lički/krajiški ili kako već, niti imam namjeru da se kome posebnome „dodvoravam“ ili „ulizujem“! A drugo, o tom, hoće li englez ili ne-englez imati dobro ili loše mišljenje o meni, nemoj se ti sikirati! No hvala na brizi! :-)

Inače, nadam se da ćemo i u buduće o drugim balkanskim temama razgovarati tu na mom blogu. Pozdrav iz Velike Britanije! :-)

Anonymous said...

Pa moram ti reci da si donekle upravu.

Ali da li si znao da u vreme invazije NATO agresora na Libiju,da su tad u toku bili zavrshni radovi na cevovodima koji bi izvlachili vodu koja se nalazi duboko ispod sedimenata Sahara i koja bi se koristila za snabdevanje stanovnishtva vodom(obogacenom mineralima) i za poljoprivredu, dok bi se za industrishe svrhe koristila preradjena morska voda jer je ova iz akvifera previshe kvalitetna za te svrhe?

Takva voda bi znatno obogatila svaku biljku koja bi njom bila navodnjavana i samim tim bi bilo potrebno mnogo manje djubriva i ostalih hemikalija za njen razvoj,samim tim proizvod takvog kvaliteta ne bi imao konkurenciju i totalno bi unishtio evropsku poljoprivredu...

A da ne pricam o tome shto je Francuzima istekao ugovor za eksploataciju nafte,niti o bankarskom sistemu Libije, koji je nudio beskamatne kredite,ni o Gadafijevom planu da napravi novu monetu zvanu Islamski dinar(dinar valjda kod njih oznacava zlato) i samim tim unishtio dolar i evro,celokupni bankarski sistem demokratskih zemalja...

A sto se bivshe Juge tiche...pogledaj film "Tezina lanaca" a potom proputuj po Balkanu,i probaj da prezivish 1 mesec u svakoj zemlji sa 300-500 evra.

Lako je tebi u VK da pijuckash caj i da razmishljash o temama koje su daleko od tebe,i razumem da si se verovatno namuchio da bi doshao do toga gde si sad...ali opet da si ostao u Lijepoj Nashoj, pa da si i 5 puta vishe radio i zalagao se za neshto opet bi bio na kraju prosjachkog shtapa.

Pozz iz Srbije,
S nadom o Boljoj buducnosti