Posted on 06/26/2006 11:04:21 AM PDT by Bokababe
Peter Handke has once again shocked the German public but this time in such a way that not even the most extreme do not dare criticize him for it. He has given up the alternative Heinrich Heine award that the actors and intellectuals of Berlin wished to bestow upon him in favor of the Serbs of Kosovo, who live "surrounded by barbed wire and tanks".
www.novosti.co.yu Vecernje Novosti daily, Belgrade
June 24, 2006 By D. Sekulic, June 23, 2006
Peter Handke has once again shocked the German public but this time in such a way that not even the most extreme do not dare criticize him for it. He has given up the alternative Heinrich Heine award that the actors and intellectuals of Berlin wished to bestow upon him in favor of the Serbs of Kosovo, who live "surrounded by barbed wire and tanks".
The Berlin Ensemble, headed by the also frequently controversial Klaus Peymann, the famous former head of the Vienna Burgtheater, recently organized donations with the help of numerous actors to award Handke an alternative Heinrich Heine award in the amount of 50,000 euros. The highly prestigious German language award was awarded to Peter Handke by an expert jury in Dusseldorf but the city council refused to accept its decision, stating quite literally that the award could not go to a writer who is of pro-Serb orientation!
The case provoked spirited discussion and many concluded that it represented an instance of brutal political censure of literature. Local politicians are judging one of the greatest living writers in the German language, warned eminent intellectuals, among them some, like Nobel laureate Gunther Grass who at one time advocated the bombing of Serbia.
At the same time Handke informed Peymann and his friends that he is renouncing the alternative award as well because, as he had previously stated, he did not wish his work to be the subject of meddling by local politicians. The money that they collect should be sent to the Serb enclaves in Kosovo and Metohija to people who are living under impossible conditions thanks to the supporters of "freedom" imposed upon them by NATO bombs.
Grass dismisses jury
In Dusseldorf it has now been openly admitted that the decision really was of a political nature and that the Heinrich Heine award allegedly has a clearly political character. In response to this, Grass, who is highly influential, has sent a request that in the future the city council be stripped of the right to approve or reject the decision of the expert jury.
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Related article:
Disputed Author Handke Awarded German Literary Prize
DEUTSCE WELLE 25.05.2006
Großansict des Bildes mit der Bildunterscrift: Austrian writer Peter Handke is controversial because of his stance on Serbia
Controversial Austrian playwright and novelist Peter Handke was awarded the city of Düseldorf's Heine Prize for literature.
The Heine Prize, endowed for 50,000 euros ($64,000), is one of the three highest-paying literature prizes in Germany. The jury said Handke -- like Heinric Heine, the German poet after whom the prize is named -- obstinately follows the way to an "open truth." He puts forth his own poetic world view, in contrast to broader public opinion, they said. The prize will be awared on Dec. 13.
Handke wrote the groundbreaking experimental play "Offending the Audience" and the novel "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick", but may be best know for writing the novel "Wings of Desire", whic was turned into a film by Wim Wenders.
Pro-Serbian stance
He is controversial because of his pro-Serbian stance during the Balkan wars, and his support for the Serbian regime.
Recently, Frenc national theatre Comédie-Française removed the play "Voyage to the Sonorous Land or the Art of Asking" from its 2007 season lineup, after Handke spoke at the burial of former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic in Marc.
Handke, who lives in France, said in an esay in the Frenc newspaper Libération: "Let's stop laying the masacre . on the backs of the Serbian military and paramilitary. And listen -- at last -- to the survivors of the Muslim masacres in numerous Serbian villages around Srebrenica."
'Glad' aceptance
Last year, Handke's publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag, said the author would categorically refuse any more literature prizes; in Paris, however, Handke said he would "gladly" acept the Heine Prize.
Up to now, winners of the Heine Prize have included Walter Jens, Günter Kunert, Max Frisc, Wolf Biermann, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Elfriede Jelinek und Robert Gernhardt.
Again, give me a break.
Serbia is a small country and like every other small country in the world it is affected by decisions made by major powers like Russia, China, the US and the EU.
Here's a clue - if someone has only a subtle influence on you, that means you are actually not a slave or a prisoner.
It depends how severe the ramifications can be and how vulnerable you are. At certain point you are not free anymore.
Here's a clue - if someone has only a subtle influence on you, that means you are actually not a slave or a prisoner.
Subtle in a sense that the gun pointed at you is hidden under a nice coat.
Be sure to pass by the PRO- islamic posts of CERTAIN NON-conservatives.... you know the names!!
Thanks for this. An interesting bunch of links.
http://www.abausa.org/fikret_abdic__bosnian_ataturk.htm
http://www.diacritica.com/sobaka/dossier/abdic.html
All info I have indicates that Abdic actually won the election by as much as 200,000 votes, and stepped aside. Some sources state that "Abdic was threatened", others that "he was forced to step aside". The real reasons for him not taking the presidencey have yet to be convincingly proved.
"I was under the impression that Handke attended state functions in Belgrade at which Milosevic was present. I can't substantiate that right now with the resources at my disposal."
If and when you find that info, let me know, because I can find absolutely no indication of it -- or even an allegation of it from anywhere else.
In Handke's book about his 1996 trip to Yugoslavia, he clearly states that he chose to travel "quietly unannounced" because he didn't wish his visit be used as a political tool of any political side in the wars. Handke also said in the book, that he had "previously only been in Belgrade only once" twenty years before, when Belgraders panned one of his silent plays.
Serbian communism? What socialist dope are you smoking?
Its about dismantling communism, but our State Department always shoots itself in the foot. Financing jihadists in Afghanistan and the Balkans has now come back to haunt us in a big way but the old Cold War relics haven't quite realized the damage that that type of strategy has done.
Who's public record? Site a source please.
The main Abdic's crime is that he did not toe the line.
Kostunica is a brilliant man and an honest one. He was so pro-American that, when Yugoslavia was still communist, Kostunica translated the American "Federalist Papers" into Serbian. But now , he is between a rock and a hard place -- and there are no good options for him to lead his country where it needs to go.
Tadic and his late predecessor, Zoran Djindjic, would both sell their mothers for a $1.25. They were and are Western auctioneers for "a fire sale on Serbian assets". (Djindjic got himself killed by the very mafia he was using for some of his more underhanded business deals.) I personally didn't shed a tear when someone took him out.
But, because of Djindjic and now Tadic, and Western (largely German for Djindjic, Tadic spreads his legs for anyone for a buck), Kostunica had to make a choice -- to be the "least desirable" of what the West considers "the good guys" (Djindjic & Tadic) or be the "most desirable" of what the West thinks are "the bad guys"(The Serb Nationalists). Kostunica chose the first option and was nearly destroyed by the very political and business interests that want to "buy Serbia in pieces" . So, on the advice of political strategists -- one of which was American political writer, Srdija Trifkovic (the Rockford Institute), he chose the second option, to be perceived as "the best of the bad guys". Problem is that if Kostunica makes a deal to hand over Kosovo, his fragile coalition will fall apart and he will be exiled to obscurity.
Kostunica is the best guy for Serbia and he is the best guy for America, but he is getting steamrolled by an international community intent of keeping Serbia on its knees forever and stealing what they want from corrupt politicians. The (largely Western business driven) "independence drives" of Montenegro and Kosovo are perfect examples of that. They both have politically corrupt leadership.
Bingo.
Sure, with pleasure. The question is whether Clinton intervention in the Balkans in Bosnia and Kosovo on Muslim behalf which ultimately resulted in de-facto creation of the Islamic states in Balkans did serve the US and the Western long-term interests and security.
In light of the information that continue coming out of the region, it definitely did not. This is not to excuse everything Milosevic and his Bosnian Serb Allies did in Bosnia and Kosovo, but it's to examine critically whether the US Intervention and/or post-Intervention policies in fact helped the US Jihadist enemies to obtain the bases and even countries in the former Yugoslavia.
I just don't agree with the proposition that the US acted illegally, or that US troops committed war crimes or all the other anti-American claptrap certain people are putting about.
Nor do I agree with Peter Handke that one should "stand with Milosevic" in order to obtain justice for the Serbs of the Balkans.
The post of head of the collective presidency was never Abdic's to start with - Bosnian voters elected 7 members to the collective presidency, 2 Muslims, 2 Croats, 2 Serbs, and one "other". The members of the collective presidency then caucused and chose their head amongst themselves.
You will perhaps recall a similar discrepancy between popular votes and final result which occurred here in America back in 2000.
Let me repeat myself:
In the interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung , 31 March 1999, he (Handke) said clearly, "I am with the Serbian people, not Milosevic. Anyone who is not a pronounced anti-Serb is despised as being 'pro-Serb'. Whoever mentions Milosevic's name without immediately adding 'slaughterer', 'Balkan Hitler', 'God protect us', is accused of taking sides with Milosovic.” He added, polemically, that "to be called pro-Serb today is an honour."
If you are talking about the funeral -- there was no "standing with Milosevic". Milosevic was dead, in a coffin and ultimately underground.
And until you can find that unheard of reference re "Handke & Milosevic (supposedly) meeting", it is pointless to even raise as a counter-argument.
This is what the Sobaka site I posted earlier said:
In Bosnia's federated system, the republic was ruled by a rotating presidency of five members, and the one who received the largest overall number of votes would become its chair. Abdic outscored Izetbegovic rather handily (Abdic received 1,010,618, with a good share of support among Serbs and Croats, to Izetbegovic's 847,386, mostly among Muslims). For reasons which have never been adequately explained, Abdic abstained from taking the head of the presidency, granting it by default to Izetbegovic.
Bump and bookmark
1) The 1990 elections were for a 7 member collective presidency. Results were as follows: Izetbegovic and Abdic from the SDA, Plavsic and Koljevic from the SDS, Kljuljic and Boras from the HDZ, and Ganic, also from the SDA, who ran and was elected as an "Other" candidate.
2) There was nothing in the Bosnian constitution awarding the head of the collective presidency to the winner of the most votes.
When all was said and done, the head of the collective presidency (SDA), the office of prime minister (HDZ), and the presidency of the national assembly (SDS) were divided amongst the three largest parties, making Izetbegovic's position a function of partisan politics, not an anti-Abdic conspiracy.
And your source is? Because I couldn't find a single source supporting your assertions. All of those I searched support Abdic as the clear winner and should have assumed the presidency, but didn't.
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