<nettime> (fwd) Life is a riot between the wars

[gzielins@acs.ryerson.ca (Ger Zielinski)]

forwarding this response to the revolt in Yugoslavia from Vladislav Mijic...

Date:         Fri, 6 Oct 2000 09:39:30 -0400
Reply-To: Film Studies Association of Canada <FSAC@YORKU.CA>
Sender: Film Studies Association of Canada <FSAC@YORKU.CA>
From: Vladislav Mijic <vmijic@SYMPATICO.CA>
Subject:      [FSAC] Yugoslavia
To: FSAC@YORKU.CA
Status:

Something I wrote last night, as the events were unfolding in Yugoslavia.
Nothing to do with cinema studies, but I felt like sharing it with you
anyway. Here it comes:

>>>Today has been some day! Fears, hopes and anxieties of many years have
finally merged into something worth celebrating. Horror pictures of tanks on
the streets, dead bodies, detention camps, dying children, bombed bridges,
ominous sirens and all forms of human misery have miraculously, if
temporarily, subsided at the sight of those brave people who reached the
bottom, the point of no return, and did something about it. It is those
brave people I am proud of.

I came home, my mind fully transversed back to a different place without
necessarily having to transgress to a different time. These glimpses of
happiness between hard times that were and hard times to come are precious,
snippets of catharsis worth living for. I turned on my CD player, took a
bottle of dark Caribbean beer from the fridge and started singing together
with Billy Bragg:

"...Theirs is a land of hope and glory
Mine is the green field and the factory floor
Theirs are the skies all dark with bombers
And mine is the peace we knew
Between the wars.

Call up the craftsmen
Bring me the draftsmen
Build me a path from cradle to grave
And I'll give my consent
To any government
That does not deny a man a living wage.

Go find the young men never to fight again
Bring up the banners from the days gone by
Sweet moderation
Heart of this nation
Desert us not, we are
Between the wars..."

And, while I am taking another sip, that line echoes again in my mind: "Go
find the young men never to fight again."

Sweet dreams, tomorrow is another day and a new beginning,

Vlada<<<

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