Wednesday 23 January 2013

Compensation for Jovan Berić and his sisters for their murdered parents in Varivode ‘95

Some justice has been done in the form of compensation for Jovan Berić and his two sisters for the murder of their parents Radivoje & Marija Berić in their village of Varivode on 28th September 1995. They originally sought 900,000 KN in damages, but instead received 540,000 KN in accordance with European conventions, whereby only 60% of the sought after sum can be awarded for terrorist acts.

Translated from Večernji list:

Jovan Berić, visibly shaken, said after the verdict how after so many years in court this comes as some kind of satisfaction, but added that he has less and less faith that the murderers of his parents will ever take responsibility for that crime. He pointed out that he believes that, after this verdict, the children of the other murdered seven from Varivode will seek reparations from the republic of Croatia.

Al Jazeera Balkans: Odšteta za djecu ubijenih Srba u Varivodama.

Večernji list: Djeci ubijenih supružnika Berić iz Varivoda 540.000 kn odštete

tportal.hr: Djeci ubijenih supružnika Berić iz Varivoda 540.000 kn odštete

Monday 7 January 2013

Well considered and realistic

Every Theology and every Ideology, it seems to me, is an endeavor in hypnotism and self-hypnotism. If there is one thing that everybody knows in common sense — when they are in "their right minds" and not hypnotized — it is that "all generalizations are hazardous" and that individual cases are each unique. The function of Theological and Ideological hypnosis is to forget this common sense and follow a robot-program that evades the responsibility of thinking and feeling anew in each unique situation. It is not just the other gang's Theology or Ideology that is nefarious: all Theology and Ideology is nefarious. It is a form of sleep-walking in which we can do monstrous things because we are not alive, awake and aware of who we are, where we are and what is going on around us. — Robert Anton Wilson

Definitely something worth bearing in mind and pondering, whatever ideology or theology you may subscribe to.

Inspiring Anarchist quotes

Here are a couple of Anarchist quotes I found lately, which I think help to explain what Anarchism is essentially and fundamentally all about.

If your object is to secure liberty, you must learn to do without authority and compulsion. If you intend to live in peace and harmony with your fellow-men, you and they should cultivate brotherhood and respect for each other. If you want to work together with them for your mutual benefit, you must practice cooperation. The social revolution means much more than the reorganization of conditions only: it means the establishment of new human values and social relationships, a changed attitude of man to man, as of one free and independent to his equal; it means a different spirit in individual and collective life, and that spirit cannot be born overnight. It is a spirit to be cultivated, to be nurtured and reared, as the most delicate flower it is, for indeed it is the flower of a new and beautiful existence. — Alexander Berkman (What Is Anarchism?)

Anarchism is the attempt to eradicate domination. This includes not only such obvious forms as the nation-state, with its routine use of violence and the force of law, and the corporation, with its institutionalized irresponsibility, but also such internalized forms as patriarchy, racism, homophobia. Also it is the attempt to expose the ways our philosophy, religion, economics, and other ideological constructions perform their primary function, which is to rationalize or naturalize --make seem natural-- the domination that pervades our way of life: the destruction of the natural world or of indigenous peoples, for example, comes not from the result of decisions actively made and actions pursued, but instead, so we convince ourselves, as a manifestation of Darwinian selection, or God's will, or economic exigency. Beyond that, Anarchism is the attempt to look even into those parts of our everyday lives we accept as givens, as part of the universe, to see how they, too, dominate us or facilitate our domination over others... Most fundamentally, I would see Anarchism as a synonym for anti-authoritarianism. — John Zerzan

And here's one I found some time ago by a famous Anarchist revolutionary, which I think basically and honestly explains the primary goal of Anarchism:

The anarchists are not promising anything to anyone. The anarchists only want people to be conscious of their own situation and seize freedom for themselves. — Maria Nikiforova

I hope to post many more I find on the net, be it in Facebook groups or Anarchist websites.