Millions for beating / Not a penny for students - Reason? This is Serbia.

The Serbian government decided to pay the amount of a million dollars ($ 1,000,000) for a "student" (basketball player more likely), in exchange for his freedom. Namely, Miladin Kovačević is charged severely for injuring US colleague, Bryan Steinhauer. The newpaper that reported this, Borba, was charged for revealing "Governmental secrets" - the news was investigated and proven correct.

Meanwhile, students in Serbia are outraged, because there was a change in the law for students of higher education
Here's the pdf announcement for the Medical Faculty of the University of Belgrade:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12733383/Uslovi-Za-Upis-2009-2010-medicinski-fakulter-u-beogradu-izmena-statuta
http://www.med.bg.ac.rs/?init=news&nid=2963&sid=5


Until now, students in Serbia were allowed to continue being on "budget" status, meaning they could study free of charge, even if they had repeated an academic year. Things changed and after this announcement, whether it is the first time you repeated the academic year or whether it's your second or third, it doesn't matter - the minute you repeat the year, you are automatically sent to , without the possibility to go back to on budget free studying.

Such acts as the one above and the event with Miladin Kovačević, really raise eyebrows, not only among students, but the whole working community of Serbia is opposed to this.
The next step the Government of Serbia is about to take, is to block ALL students and keep the ones that are regarded as the "best" - *ahem* no comment. Here's a news article about it:
http://www.24sata.rs/vesti.php?id=45826

Apparently, giving out millions for unknown (and classified as "top secret"!) purposes is more important than funding students (not basketball players), willing to learn and work.

And this is Serbia - a country where politicians promise and spend everything on unnecessary trips, on expensive cars and 101 suits; where politicians act like children in the Serbian Parliament, instead of teaming up together to resolve an issue; where politicians beat each other up; where politicians accuse fellow politicians for syphilis (or whatever it was), and the latter go and spend government budget on (many) unnecessary blood check-ups, just to prove them wrong; finally, this is a country that pays 1 million dollars and marks the situation as highly classified to free a guy that has beaten up one of his colleagues.

Independent Kosovo - the "thank you" of several world countries to Serbia

Regard this as a "my opinion" post before spraying ethnicism over it.
The day of independence of Kosovo and Metohija (17th February) is a day that every Serbian will remember, definitely more if they have lived the terrifying moments when the sirens go wild, when everyone tries to save - or better yet grab - whatever possible while the NATO began dreadful bombing over cities, military and general infrastructure buildings as well as civilians.

I will not argue the fact that both sides suffered, but in the end, no-one respected to see both sides, just what the CNN and all other western propaganda showed.

I would like to list several good links to show you my point of view:
1) What Serbia did for the world? I'll take you back several decades - Heroic actions of the Serbian people during World War II:
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2006/11/heroic-serbia-wwii.html

2) What happened after WWII, how it reached to demographic changes which favoured Albanian ethnics and imperialistic ideas of a "Great Albania"?
A Czech TV documentary answers most of these questions (mostly one-sided stories, but do see the video):
- http://www.apatin-city.com/4um/index.php?topic=4964.0
- http://serbblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/brave-czechs-brave-film-stolen-kosovo.html
Note: They're not my uploads. Look for "Stolen Kosovo video english" in Google if this isn't available.

Amongst others, you will see:
- French Foreign minister Bernard Kushner, Hashim Tachi, NATO officers and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
- Madeleine Albright exchanging how-do-you-do's.
- Havier Solana disturbingly nodding to a woman that was forced away from her home.
- Atrocities.

http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2007/03/nato-aggression-anniversary.html

3) The thank you for Serbia's heroism during WWII? NATO bombing and proclaiming Serbians as vicious murderers.

Kofi Annan endorsed NATO bombing in former Yugoslavia:
http://link.history.com/services/link/bcpid1681730307/bclid1729287264/bctid1601261895
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/un/timeline/timeline5b.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/03/99/kosovo_strikes/318104.stm

It is indeed tragic that diplomacy has failed, but there are times when the use of force may be legitimate in the pursuit of peace," Annan notes, but emphasizes the Security Council should have been consulted.

(For the "diplomacy has failed" argument, see "More links" below)

4) NATO's "oops" bombings, accidentally targetting not only foreign embassies, but civilians as well: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/340966.stm
See (2) if you think you can handle watching the holocausts (the bus over the bridge, the village).

An article quoting an eye-witness at the bazaar market in Niš NATO bombed:
http://www.haroldpinter.org/home/florence.html

5) The final outcome?
- Billions of dollars in damages.
- Cultural damages, including churches:
http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/world_report/2000/yugos_2000.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7249034.stm
- Blood-lust and monuments of historic importance destroyed:
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.nato-tribunal.de/varvarin/photo_documentation.htm

More links:
Albright's "Take it or leave it" plan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo1jJkIfWbc
Albright & Kosovo - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/03/99/kosovo_strikes/315053.stm

NATO bombings operation:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Allied_Force
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Bombardment_in_the_Kosovo_War
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimacy_of_NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/nato_targets/default.stm

"Humanitarian" military intervention:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_intervention
- http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol5/v5n01hmi.html
- http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/pwks45.pdf

Other:
- http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.cpa.org.au/garchive/960yug.htm
- http://www.unmikonline.org/DPI/PressRelease.nsf/0/BA2CB1DFE04FAFD5C12571790054E673/$FILE/pr1555.pdf
- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/yugoslavia/military_situation.html
- http://www.againstbombing.org/WPworldreaction.htm

As a final note, I'd like to quote this site:

Certainly the atrocious crimes of the Serbs against Kosovars should not be tolerated, but any child knows two wrongs do not make a right. The rule of law also needs to be made universal by democratic processes. Individuals must be held accountable for actions that violate the rights of others. But to use the blunt instruments of war to punish whole nations and peoples for the crimes of their leaders and supporters tends to escalate the violence and the crimes.

Last, but not least, I would like to personally condemn the single-sided independence of Kosovo, the illegal approval and the ignorance of several international laws. The other thing I would like, is simply that Ms Madeleine Albright and Havier Solana apprehend the Serbian language and try to live in the Kosovo they've so desired to create by force - without their bodyguards and escorts that is, to see just how things actually are, behind the cameras, and during the terrifying nights of raids and attacks towards the few remaining serbians in Kosovo & Metohija.

Happenings of Mid-March 2008

It's been a while, lots of stuff to talk about. First and foremost, I'm beginning to get up again and stand on my own two feet, although my father's death will always be a painful memory. I've decided to prioritise my to-do list for this year, and guess what - it's more study time for me! That doesn't mean I won't post here, but it means that I will do it after I get to know with my books a little bit better. :) I don't need anyone watching over my shoulder to do this, I am aware that the buck stops with me, but biochemistry (one of the subjects left for me to pass) is a quite large subject with enormous books, it requires time, and it's not something you can test on a computer, run it and say "Ah, it works this way".
Secondly, I believe some of you must've heard about the fall of Serbia's Government. Although I am apathetic to the political scenery in Cyprus and Serbia, I must say it was a bomb waiting to explode, this way the two democratic parties get to bash each other about the fact that no-one was able to .
Thirdly, I signed up this puppy in blogrush, they say it's good for publicity, plus they have this nifty addon for blogs, that give you some interesting articles of what's going on in (their) blogosphere.
Bubbling thus, I have just made a bash script that checks whether you have duplicates of a screen -S something instance. I will personally use it along with "screen -S irc irssi". It helps in situations like when you want a connection waiting for you in the background, while you log in. I believe it can be used with gnome sessions. You can alter it in your own personal style, get it from here. Usage: bash screen-irc-check
Last but not least, I opened up my own personal reseller website named HellNetworks (not done yet, I'm working on it), providing people internet services such as IRC shells, logo design, web hosting, webspace, some programming skills, something for those extra funds for my medical studies.

Serbian Presidential Elections - Round two, FIGHT!

The election countdown has begun while I am writing this post. After 31 days of presidential campaigns, unnecessary TV "air time" here we are. While they are bubbling in the television, with roughly the opinion of 64% of the population (around 4.3 million people), a person can think "Where did the rest of the population go or what where they doing all day?"
In my opinion, the result of the final round of Boris Tadić - Democrats - vs. Tomislav Nikolić - Nationalists? I'm not a politics freak - isn't much of a mystery for me, since the rest of the candidates that lost in the first round agreed to support Tadić. It's a disgrace how parties think they "give" their voters to someone, as if the voters don't have an opinion of their own. To make matters worse, I believe that people never really cared who was their "leader", as long as there is a shepherd that keeps the flock away from some wolves. The percentage speaks for itself.
On the other hand, the reason that ~36% of the people didn't reach a voting booth could be because they had to do more important things, like earn their income and I don't blame them, everyone has economic problems. But voting takes 5 minutes, come on!
One final excuse some stated was that the candidates didn't actually deserve their vote.
One thing I didn't like about the campaigns was that the candidates used the TV to broadcast their "message". OK, maybe there are immobile persons, but there are other persons that come back from their universities or work and want to sit in front of the television, watch a good comedy and relax.
I'd like to take the chance and thank online the RTS (Serbia's National Radio-Television network) for respecting our monthly payments and didn't approve any paid "air time".
We shall see who gets to roll the fancy limo!

P.S. Nothing like the good ol' democratic socialism and Tito as I've read and heard so much about those golden times :)

UPDATE: Boris Tadić won, who would've known! (if you read the post, you know the irony)