Images of Serbia: Orthodox Bosnia

Editor’s Foreword:

It is time for another photo-essay, this time focusing on our Serbian brethren in the Faith in Srpska Bosna. Do not forget them in your prayers, for they are on the ramparts against militant Islam daily.

You may note in the photos of the convent church that there is no iconostas. No, it is not a modernist establishment. It is just a new building where the iconostas has not been installed yet. If you look carefully at some of the snaps, you shall see the fittings where the iconostas is going to be installed. I make this note to forestall two people in particular on the Orthodox Forum who are always crowing about modernist this and renovationist that. This case is nothing of the sort.

*****

The Diocese of Zvornitsko-Tuzla is located in north-eastern Bosnia. The foundation of the diocese here can be traced to the time of King Dragutin at the end of the 13^th and the beginning of the 14^th centuries. In the 15^th century, the seat of the Orthodox metropolitan was in Srebnica. During the Turkish rule, the seat of the metropolitan was moved to Zvornike. In the 16^th century, the diocese was part of the Serbian Patriarchate of Pec, but, after it was abolished in 1766 the diocese became part of the EP, and the Phanar named Greeks as bishops (gee… sounds familiar… looks like the EP is up to its old tricks again, eh?: editor’s note). In the 19^th century, the seat of the bishop was moved to Nizhnoyu Tuzla. After the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Bosnia-Herzegovina passed under the rule of Austria-Hungary. In 1892, a Serb, Nikolai Mandic, was named the metropolitan of Zvornitsko-Tuzla, and his rule brought great progress to the life of the diocese in every respect.  

The beginning of World War I was marked by pogroms against the Orthodox population by the repressive Hapsburg (Catholic) state and oppression by a ruthless Austrian military government. After the war, the diocese became part of the restored united Patriarchate of Serbia. Heavy trials again fell on the diocese during World War II. It found itself within the boundaries of the Nazi-collaborator Croatian state, and its faith was tested severely by the terror of the fascist Ustashi, who tried to wipe out the Orthodox population. Many of the clergy accepted death as martyrs, and churches, archives, and libraries were wantonly destroyed. At the same time, the Church suffered from oppression by Tito’s communist Partisans, a trial that continued even after the war was over.

Despite all of this turmoil, Bishop Nektary, and his successor, Bishop Longin, brought about a restoration of church life. In 1978, Vasili Kachavenda, the present bishop of the Diocese of Zvornitsko-Tuzla, took over. Vladyki Vasili’s wise rule enabled the diocese to survive and led to its present revival. There was furious fighting on the territory of the diocese during the Civil War of 1991-95. Serbian holy places and sacred relics were destroyed by Islamic militants and the forces of the Croatian nationalist Ustashi. Because of the fierce bombardments, Vladyki Vasili was forced to move from Tuzla to Bielin. At the end of the war, Vladyki Vasili did everything he could to revive church life, restoring ruined churches and building new ones. At present, this diocese is one of the most efficient and well-run dioceses [in the Patriarchate of Serbia]. The ancient monasteries of Tavna, Ozren, Lovrica, Papracha, Knezhina, and Sase, amongst others, are located on its territory.  

Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh in Bielin in Bosnia-Herzegovina

The Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh in Bielin is one of the new monasteries in Bosnia-Herzegovina in Srpska Bosna. The residence of the ruling bishop of the Diocese of Zvornitsko-Tuzla is on the monastery’s grounds. The building of the monastery complex proceeded from 1996 until 2001. On 12 May 2001, the monastery was consecrated by 19 bishops of the Patriarchate of Serbia. In addition, many of the faithful flocked to the service. Included in the monastery complex are a church, the diocesan tribunal, a museum, a library, a refectory, and the monk’s living quarters, all surrounded by a protective wall. The belfry is some 30 metres (@100 feet) high. A school of iconography is part of the complex. The frescoes in the church were painted by Dragan Marunic from Belgrade. In the monastery, relics of St Basil of Ostrozh and St Sisoes the Great are enshrined, along with a copy of the icon of the Mother of God “of Troeruchitsa” presented as a gift from Khilandar Monastery on the Holy Mountain.

1. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh

2. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh

3. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, summer church

4. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh

5. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh

6. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, mosaic icon of St Basil of Ostrozh

7. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh

8. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of summer church

9. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of summer church

10. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of summer church

11. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of summer church

12. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of summer church

13. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of summer church

14. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of summer church

15. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, royal gates of iconostas

16. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church

17. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church

18. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church

19. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church

20. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church

21. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church, St Basil of Ostrozh healing the sick

22. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church, St John the Baptist

23. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church

24. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church, St Sisoes the Great

25. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church

26. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, interior fresco of church, Holy Martyr St Avvakum the Deacon

27. Bielin. Monastery of St Basil of Ostrozh, shrine of the icon of the Saviour “not made by hands”

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The Convent of Dragalevac

The Convent of St Gavriil the Archangel is located in the village of Verkhny Dragalevac. At different times, there were several wooden churches, the first of which appeared at the beginning of the 14^th century. The present church, built of stone, is the fourth in the series. A stone fragment from an altar was found in the courtyard of the cloister in 1992 with the date of 1310. The present church was dedicated to the Nativity of the Mother of God on 21 September 1909 by Metropolitan Yevgeny Leticey. The cloister chapel is dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. The ancient monastic residence, used as far back as the times of the Turkish rule, still stands beside the church. Now, a new monastic residence and cloister with a winter chapel is in the complex. The frescoes in the church were painted by master iconographers from the atelier of Petar Bilic in Belgrade in 2004. In 1985, the monastery was refounded as a convent.  

1. Convent of Dragalevac, foundation festival

2. Convent of Dragalevac, altar    

3. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy    

4. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy    

5. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy        

6. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy, Bishop Vasili of Zvornitsko and Tuzla ordaining a deacon to the priesthood        

7. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy, “Axios!”    

8. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy    

9. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy            

10. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy            

11. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy            

12. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy, before Holy Communion            

13. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy, Bishop Vasili of Zvornitsko and Tuzla, Holy Communion           

14. Convent of Dragalevac, Divine Liturgy, Bishop Vasili of Zvornitsko and Tuzla, Veneration of the Cross            

15. Convent of Dragalevac, religious procession    

16. Convent of Dragalevac, religious procession    

17. Convent of Dragalevac, religious procession, kolach for the slava        

18. Convent of Dragalevac, religious procession        

19. Convent of Dragalevac, religious procession    

20. Convent of Dragalevac, religious procession        

21. Convent of Dragalevac, litiya    

22. Convent of Dragalevac, kolach for the slava    

23. Convent of Dragalevac, prayers over the kolach at the slava    

24. Convent of Dragalevac, blessing the kolach at the slava    

25. Convent of Dragalevac, veneration of the kolach and cross at the slava    

26. Convent of Dragalevac, kolach and kutia    

27. Convent of Dragalevac, dinner at the festival    

28. Convent of Dragalevac, carousel at the festival    

Photographs by Hieromonk Ignaty Shestakov

Pravoslavie.ru

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/gallery/gallery68.htm (in Russian)

The Importance of Not Electing John McCain

If the political pundits think relations between Moscow and Washington are in freefall mode now, just wait until John McCain inherits the US presidency. Yes, you heard it here first. John McCain will be duly elected as the 44th president of the United States in November. Of course, I may be wrong, but, the conspiracy theorist in me keeps whispering that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are mere freak show acts to a tragedy that is already written. I just can’t imagine, not in this lifetime, the US neocons surrendering the joystick to Iraqi Surge.

But, rest easy, Russia, because the pain of Mr McCain in the White House will be far greater for middle-class Americans, already being swept away by a tidal wave of home foreclosures (analysts predict about 2 million homes will be up for sheriff’s sale by the end of 2008), ridiculous McWal-Mart wages, and an anti-capitalist culture of corporate welfare. Under Mr McCain, tax breaks for the rich, and continued slow simmering for the middle and lower classes, promise to continue.

American Economics for Idiots, Chapter One: Corporate America’s brave “free market economy” has no problem with consumers clinging to leaky lifeboats in a sea of debt and loan sharks, but, just watch the “invisible hand” of the market spring to the rescue when the intrepid investors start bleeding green. The latest meltdown on Wall Street proves there is no such thing as an unregulated market, the mythical “survival of the fittest economy” dear to Atlas Shrugged fans. Even the Financial Times was forced to swallow this jagged pill of common sense.

“Remember Friday March 14, 2008”, wrote columnist Martin Wolf. “It was the day the dream of global free-market capitalism died… By its decision to rescue Bear Stearns, the Federal Reserve, the institution responsible for monetary policy in the US, chief protagonist of free-market capitalism, declared this era over… Deregulation has reached its limits”. It’s so sad to see grown economists cry all over their data.

Incidentally, the Bush clan has acquired quite a reputation for brazen bailouts of the banking and investment community. Under George I, prodigal son Neil Bush did a bang-up job as honorary board member and big borrower of Silverado Savings and Loan; its crash and burn set back American taxpayers back 1 billion dollars (23.501 billion roubles. 637 million euros. 504 million UK pounds), while the systemic S&L crisis cost the clogged heartland an estimated $200 billion (4.7004 trillion roubles. 127.4 billion euros. 100.8 billion UK pounds). The thread of “moral hazard” has woven its way through the administrations of Bush I & II. As you can see, when discussing America politics it is easy to get wildly sidetracked. But it is important to appreciate the Time of Troubles that Mr McCain will inherit when he moves into the Oval Office in November.

Just the fact that Mr McCain has made it this far in the presidential race says a lot about the state of American politics, and nothing terribly optimistic. First, although I am not a doctor, it seems that Mr McCain, and all future leaders, in fact, should be required by some sort of clause in the Homeland Security Act to undergo a thorough psychological test before running for higher office. After all, the primary mission of the federal agency, according to its website, is to “prevent, protect against, and respond to acts of terrorism on United States soil”. Personally, I can see no greater magnet for terrorists to American shores than this guy, who recently told a wide-eyed audience that he had no problem with American troops staying in Iraq “for another 100 years”. During another comic session, Mr McCain tortured his audience by putting a new twist on a Beach Boys hit, “Bomb, bomb, bomb… Iran”.

Although it is hard not to be impressed with Mr McCain’s war credentials (after being shot down during a bombing mission over Vietnam, he was imprisoned and tortured for five-and-a-half years, three in solitary confinement; that gives a person a lot of time to reflect on a lot of things), his experience seems to have increased rather than softened his appetite for military confrontation. This in itself is scary, since most soldiers return home from war with a great distaste for combat. “War would end if the dead could return”, commented Stanley Baldwin.

For America, as with other countries snorting heavily on the power powder, the one thing more dangerous than defeat in battle is victory. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, US forces quickly cleaned the Taliban’s clock in Afghanistan, which prompted a whole slew of articles and books with the word “empire” emblazoned in the titles (12.8 million according to my Google counter). This head rush of hubris led naturally to the deserts of Iraq, despite the fact that UN inspectors could find no “smoking gun” to support a “liberating” invasion. Failure to stem the violence in Iraq after 5 years and 4,000 US fatalities has not turned to talk of leaving, but rather to finding new enemies and new reasons for America’s “setback”.

The Associated Press lamented that the “Iraq war has nearly vanished from US TV screens”. However, tune into CNN or Fox News, for example, and the reason for this disappearing act is clear: the heavy media train has already packed up its equipment and headed off to Iran. In the past, the media followed armies to the war; today, armies follow the media to the next battlefield. Now, all America needs is “conservative” John McCain in the White House to complete this script of sheer insanity.

10 April 2008

Robert Bridge

Moscow News

An American in Moscow

http://mnweekly.ru/columnists/20080410/55322648.html (in English)

Myriad Crises Loom on America’s Doorstep

US Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) (1947- ), with US Navy personnel in the state of Maine

US President George W. Bush held a press conference at the White House this week, speaking about the ailing US economy and soaring oil prices, but, also on international issues such as the alleged Syrian nuclear program, North Korea, Iran, and Zimbabwe. But, he focused primarily on the US economy, an issue that currently preoccupies the American public. In his opening statement, the US President said he expected the initial estimate for the first quarter gross domestic product, to be released Wednesday, to show a very slow economy. 

A news analysis provided by the New York Times this week gave a pretty pessimistic assessment of the economy. “Americans are pumping their paychecks into their gas tanks, and the economy is in a stall. Food scarcities threaten governments overseas and spur hoarding at home. Foreclosures are up, home sales are down”. But, the Times said the US government is not doing enough to address those problems facing the nation, pointing to “inertia in official Washington, despite myriad crises on the nation’s doorstep”. The paper quoted Senator Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, who said, “It is incomprehensible that we are not grappling with the major challenges confronting the American people”, she said. “People need to hear that their national leaders are working together, the president in concert with the Congress. It is political negligence on the part of both branches and both parties”.

According to the Washington Post, “the soaring gasoline prices spilled over into Washington and the presidential race yesterday, as Congress moved toward a showdown with President Bush over legislation aimed at forcing oil companies to help ease the burden on consumers”. Democratic leaders, the Post said, “shot back that Bush is out of touch with struggling Americans, as he pours money into the Iraq war at the expense of domestic priorities. In absolute dollar terms, the US military budget is by far the highest of any country in the world. By some estimates the Pentagon spending package exceeds that of the next 25 nations combined. According to the Center for Defense Information in a recent press release, “more than 100 countries have military budgets of less than 1 billion dollars (23.501 billion roubles. 637 million euros. 504 million UK pounds), roughly what the Pentagon spends in one day”. According to the CDI report, “if you converted the current Pentagon budget into silver dollars and stacked them one on top of another, it would make a stack reaching roughly three times the distance to the Moon, and enough to circle the Earth 27.5 times”.

President Bush said at his press conference this week he was no magician and could do little about the soaring oil prices. “If there was a magic wand to wave, I’d be waving it, of course”. Some in the United States might have wished away some of his poor foreign policy decisions as well. 

4 July 2008

Yuri Reshetnikov

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=26436&cid=87&p=30.04.2008 (in English)

Another Cold War?

People on both sides of the ocean are wondering whether they are destined to see a repetition of the notoriously-known Cold War period which marred the political developments of the post-World War II years. Judging by what some prominent political players of America and Europe say and what the Western media offer to their audiences, it is difficult not to feel that a second Cold War is about to be ushered in, or has already been ushered in. The rejection of what used to be known as “detente in international relations” is accompanied by a large-scale, multi-tiered, and occasionally sky-rocketing media campaign. 

Because he used the word combination “cold war” more than once in his Vilnius address of 4 May 2006, which, stylistically and as a matter of fact, returned his audience to the Cold War years, the number-two man of the United States of America, Vice-President Richard Cheney, brought back the seemingly long-dead spectre of the Cold War. Vice President Cheney was the first of too many high-ranking Americans in the early 21st century to allow himself to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia and use harsh and ill-suited language in reference to the foreign strategies of that country. Likely as not, Richard Cheney dreamed of delivering a speech on the order of Sir Winston Churchill’s Fulton address which ushered in the notoriously known Cold War sixty years ago. But, whatever dreams he might have dreamed, Dick Cheney fails to measure up to Sir Winston. The brain behind the adventuresome invasion of Iraq and the ardent advocate of an attack on Iran was the wrong man to accuse Russia of interference in the affairs of other nations. 

What he said on the coast of the Baltic Sea set a benchmark example to others. Other highly-placed Washingtonians were quick to recall the language and methods of the Cold War period. Because George W. Bush refrained from joining their anti-Russian chorus, but, raised no objection to what they said, the Secretary of State and other members of his Cabinet started doing what public servants of their standing were encouraged to do way before and what seemed to have long sunk into oblivion. The potential heirs of President Bush would, in all likelihood, be only too glad to follow their suit. Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton are trying to outdo each other in verbal attacks on Russia. 

Media editors obediently respond to signals from the American political Olympus. Their well-organised anti-Russian campaign differs little from those of the Cold War years. Daily information, reports, and comment on Russian developments are, all of them, without an exception, as anti-Russian as they were in those ill-famed years. It is hardly possible to spot an unbiased, let alone favourable, report on the life of Russia and the Russian people in the American newspapers, magazines, or on American radio and television broadcasts. No one but a small circle of businessmen knows that Russia is one of the fastest-growing economies of this planet and that the leading business and financial companies of the world are in a hurry to win a foothold for capital investment in that country. But, the business élite draw on other sources of information. Rank-and-file Americans discover they have been told lies about Russia if and when they happen to visit this country. Every meeting with American visitors to Russia highlights two things. What they see in this country differs from what they expected to see, and, second, they feel angry when they find out they were told lies. 

Nevertheless, it is too early yet to speak of a second Cold War. The Cold War of the post-war decades was a result of the standoff between two irreconcilable ideologies and incompatible political systems. Competition in the production of nuclear and missile technologies threatened to turn that Cold War into a global nuclear holocaust. The world has changed greatly. The international community has been able to remove the threat of a nuclear holocaust. Russia and the United States of America have stopped targeting missiles on each other. There is a new and growing need for collective anti-terrorist action and collective efforts to combat environmental pollution, hunger, and dangerous epidemics. Attempts to galvanise a Cold War are made by dirty and dishonest politicians, narrow-minded, but, unfortunately, powerful forces that put their own interests above common sense. That they are insolvent policy-makers will, sooner or later, become clear. It will also become clear that their policies are fatally dangerous… even from their point of view. The sooner it becomes clear, the better.

25 April 2008

Valentin Zorin

A View from Moscow

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=26224&cid=170&p=25.04.2008 (in English)

Confusion in Washington

Washington feels confused. Neither President Bush, nor his Generals, nor those who hope to replace him in office see how their country can get out of the blind alley of the military and political operation in Iraq. Although he sounded less confident than he had a short while ago, President Bush said the other day that the United States would win the war in Iraq. The commander of the occupation contingent, General David Petraeus, sounds far less optimistic and refrains from predicting an early victory. Should the US troops return home, General Petraeus told the US Senate, Iraq would fall apart. That’s quite an important admission of the failure of efforts to build an American-style democracy on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers from a senior official. 

The highly knowledgeable New York Times summed up the results of the Capitol Hill hearings by saying that it had, together with most Americans, been expecting President Bush to signal an intention to lead the Americans out of the big muddy into which he plunged them when he announced his ill-grounded decision to invade Iraq. But, the New York Times said, it has become frighteningly clear that George W. Bush will, as long as he remains President, be trying to avoid change and retain his chance to shift the burden of the war in Iraq onto the shoulders of his successor. 

Come to think of potential successors, not one frontrunner in the current presidential race has given much thought to the withdrawal of the American troops from Iraq. Even though the next President of the United States of America will have to undo what the Bush-Cheney team has done, the Republican hopeful John McCain sees no wrong in continued fighting and the Democratic contenders call for withdrawal from Iraq instead of planning real action. The person who will enter the Oval Office on 21 January 2009 has to foot the bills of the outgoing Administration and disentangle the tight knot of the war in Iraq. Time will show how exactly this person will handle the inherited problems. 

What is happening in Iraq spells more than the biggest military defeat in the record of the United States of America. It spells a dishonourable end to a political doctrine, one saying that the USA claims to be the one and only superpower on this planet and it can impose its will on all other nations. The brazen disregard of international law and the unauthorised invasion of a full-fledged member of the United Nations translated into the first large-scale attempt to play the role of superpower in the post-war world. 

The ill-planned operation in Iraq makes it clear that the claims of the exclusiveness and invulnerability of the ideology and policies of the American ruling élite are ungrounded and unrealistic. Whoever becomes the 44th President of the United States, they will hardly be able to ignore objective reality and refrain from wondering whether this sort of military and political strategy is justified and valid from the point of view of practical action. Future leaders of the United States will have to part with that dangerous misconception that Dr Brzezinski describes as a deep-rooted inability to get the message of the present time. According to Dr Brzezinski, colonial wars of the post-colonial period have no chance of success. 

It’s not only presidential hopeful John McCain, but, many other members of the ruling élite who exhibit a neo-colonial mentality in their discourses on the desirability and affordability of a war on Iran. Their words have been complemented with the dispatch of a naval task force to the shores of Iran. But, their eagerness to turn Europe into a place from which they can target missiles on Iran and North Korea deprives these new colonisers of the ability to heed those words of warning with that the highly experienced political guru Zbigniew Brzezinski addressed to them a short while ago. 

The anti-Iranian hullabaloo will continue into the next presidency, and that sad product of colonial mentality, the list of “rogue” nations, will also be inherited by the next President of the United States. The United States and the rest of the world will eventually discover that very much depends on whether Washington is capable of carrying the heavy and dangerous burden of that legacy of the past. 

18 April 2008

Valentin Zorin

A View from Moscow

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=25864&cid=170&p=18.04.2008 (in English)

Poll Indicates Race as Campaign Issue in American Presidential Election

US Senator Barack Hussein Obama II (1961- ) (D-IL) , presumptive Democratic nominee for US President

Democrat Barack Obama’s race will complicate his White House bid, Americans say in separate interviews, and a poll showing that nearly a third of them acknowledge feeling racial prejudice. In interviews with Reuters, some Americans reinforced the findings of the Washington Post-ABC News survey, published last Sunday, showing that race relations in the United States were improving, but, problems persist. The Senator from Illinois would become the first African-American to be elected US president. Mr Obama admitted recently he expected Republicans to highlight the fact that he is black to try to make voters shy away from voting for him. 

Nearly half of those surveyed said race relations were in bad shape. Three in 10 acknowledged feelings of racial prejudice. Meanwhile, Mr Obama has cast himself as a candidate who can bridge divides within the country, including those involving race. According to one respondent questioned in the poll, “America came a long way, but, it’s still not where it should be. Even though there are no more lynchings, it’s still at the back of people’s minds”. More than 50 percent of those surveyed said race relations were excellent or good, but, the gap between white and black views on race was the widest since polls dating to 1992, with blacks holding more negative views, according to the survey. 

Due to perceptions of political correctness, assessing public sentiment on race, particularly among white Americans, appears to be quite difficult. Pollsters say some respondents seem to moderate their views to avoid revealing bias in a country with divisions over slavery, racial segregation, and discrimination dating back to before the country’s founding more than 230 years ago. Despite America’s renowned reputation as a melting pot, many live in areas with little ethnic diversity. According to the Washington Post, “the question isn’t whether race will be an issue in the general election campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain. Race is already an issue, even if it is largely confined to the shadow world of implication and coded language”. Last month, Obama predicted that Republicans, unable to play up their stewardship of the economy or handling of foreign policy under Bush, would run a campaign of prejudice and fear. “They are going to try to make you afraid of me: ‘He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?’”, Mr Obama said. 

3 July 2008

Yuri Reshetnikov

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29196&cid=87&p=03.07.2008 (in English)

Editor’s Note:

More sanity from Russia regarding our presidential race. Do not forget that “political correctness” was originally a Soviet term. In fact, my Russian friends make that observation freely, noting that Americans are as muzzled in their speech by “political correctness” as they were by the KGB. Indeed, if someone dislikes what you say in certain venues, you need not hurt them, be malicious, or even be directing the comment at them. If you do not abase yourself and humiliate yourself before the complainer, you lose your job or your place as a student.

This has lead to a nation of people afraid of one another. Frank talk is replaced by mincing and prevaricating. It is worst in academe, but, large corporations are not far behind. Intriguingly, those who practise the vile religion of PC do so in the name of free speech and civic harmony. God help you if you utter “hate speech” in public. If I said “the Ukraine” in a sentence on a university campus, some Galician Uniate nutter would complain to the administration, and I would be banned.

Of course, PC shan’t last forever, thank the good Lord. When it falls, we shall have to be careful that the pendulum doesn’t swing the other way too far. There are innocents who need protection. Just remember… the louder they scream, the less justice there probably is in their cause. A point to ponder…