1/ J. Michael Waller wrote a letter to @WashTimes [ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/22/let-bill-clintons-failed-kosovo-strategy-wither-am/]. He called Kosovo a “freak show”; a “a never-ending mess”; its people “a mishmash of irreconcilable cultures, [that] historically can’t get along without some form of dictator or military occupation”.
2/ West’s civilizational discourse and savior complex towards the Balkans is a very old narrative. Here’s why J.Michael Waller’s letter does not surprise us, @WashTimes:
3/ In 1914 Baron d’Estournelle de Constant asked : “What then is the duty of the civilised world in the Balkans?” “It is to the interest of all the governments, as well as of the peoples, that the light of truth should at last illuminate and regenerate these unhappy countries”.
4/ In 1921 Paul Scot Mowrer described the Balkans as “a region of hopelessly mixed races... backward populations, economically and financially weak, covetous... a continual prey to the machinations of the great powers, and to the violent promptings of their own passions”.
5/ In 1967 Alexander Vodopivec’s wrote on the Balkans “as synonym for unreliability, lethargy, corruption, irresponsibility, mismanagement, blurring of the competencies and borders in the order of law and much else.”
6/ In 1977 Ayn Rand asks if the West has “ever wondered about the process of the collapse of a civilization?”. She described the Balkans as “tribes and sub-tribes, which most of the world has never heard of – since they have achieved no distinction to hear about”.
7/ Rand continues “As to the stagnation under tribal rule - take a look at the Balkans... the Balkans were regarded as the disgrace of Europe. Six or eight tribes, plus a number of sub-tribes with unpronounceable names, were crowded on the Balkan peninsula...”
8/ Wait, there's more: "... engaging in endless wars among themselves or being conquered by stronger neighbours or practicing violence for the sake of violence over some microscopic language differences" (Rand, 1977).
9/ In 1993 Robert Kaplan wrote on the Balkan 'ghost' 👻 [ghost]: "Here men have been isolated by poverty and ethnic rivalry, dooming them to hate… What does the earth look like in the place where people commit atrocities? Is there a bad smell, a genius loci..."
10/ This goes on and on, @WashTimes. I’d invite you to break loose from such an interventionist approach of the West towards the Balkans, aimed at retaining its hegemony of power, through its glorification of ‘self’ and dehumanization of the ‘other’. Not buying it anymore.
11/ This was my first thread of tweets, and I stand corrected by @tobyvogel [Thank you!] I had tagged The Washington Post instead 🙈 Therefore, older thread deleted. Can I still, just:
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