Investigation of illegal trafficking in human bodily organs in Kosovo has revealed more victims besides the Serbs who were kidnapped, killed, and butchered for their organs during the Kosovo War and its aftermath. Once the supply of Serb victims ran out, the criminals used fraud to obtain kidneys from desperately impoverished living donors, and transplanted those kidneys into unwitting recipients. The organ donors never received the promised financial recompense, but were simply dumped out after the surgery to fend for themselves.

Kosovo organ trade probe tracking victims abroad

AFP/Pristina

EU prosecutors in Kosovo trying seven people accused of organ trafficking in a landmark case said yesterday that they had asked Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Turkey to help them identify victims of the scam.

“We have several requests for legal assistance out to many countries including most importantly the Russian Federation, Israel, Ukraine and Turkey, requesting legal assistance to identify and locate victim donors as a matter of urgency,” EU special prosecutor Jonathan Ratel told AFP.

The seven suspects are accused of organ trafficking and of being part of an organised crime ring in the so-called Medicus case, named after the Pristina clinic where the crimes allegedly took place.

The main defendants in the case, which is being heard before EU judges in a Pristina court and prosecuted by EU lawyers, are former Kosovo health secretary Ilir Rrecaj and Lutfi Dervishi, a prominent Pristina urologist.

Other suspects in the case include Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez, who is accused of having carried out illegal operations to remove organs, and Moshe Harel, an Israeli accused of recruiting and bringing the victims to Kosovo. They are both indicted in Turkey.

According to the indictment, the victims were recruited from poor eastern European and Central Asian countries. They were promised about 15,000 euros ($19,440) for organs, while recipients were charged up to 100,000 euros.

The charge sheet alleges that around 20 victims identified so far were not paid the promised amount for their organs but were left to their own devices after their kidneys were taken from them.

“They were literally cast aside at the airport. They were discarded as used material after the operation,” Ratel said.

The Medicus clinic was raided by police in 2008 after Turkish national Yilman Altun, 28, nearly collapsed at Pristina airport waiting for a flight back to Istanbul after donating a kidney to an Israeli man.

After that incident in Kosovo, Altun disappeared.

“He is still missing. And he is probably the most important witness,” Ratel said. “I need to find him. I need this witness.”

The prosecutor is also working with the US, Canada, Germany and Britain to find more victims.

“We are working aggressively with all those countries and pursuing that with everything we have, (so we can) locate and identify and have those victims as witnesses,” he said.

On Monday an American witness, New York store manager Joseph Koralashvili, testified via video-link how he had joined his late father Raphael from Israel on a trip to Kosovo to receive a kidney transplant in October 2008. “His kidneys were no longer functioning. That’s why he was very ill,” the 41-year-old said.

Koralashvili, whose father died three months ago from leukaemia, told the court that no one at the Medicus clinic had identified himself or herself as a doctor to him and his father during their six-day stay in Pristina.

“Did you know where that kidney your father received came from?” Ratel asked him by video link.

“No,” replied Kotalashvili whose testimony was secured with the help of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

It is the first such case with an international dimension tackled by the European rule of law mission EULEX, which has about 3,000 members and which was launched after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

The Medicus clinic was mentioned in the report of Council of Europe special rapporteur Dick Marty, who alleged that Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and some his associates from the ethnic Albanian guerrillas were involved in organised crime and organ trafficking during the 1998-1999 war with Serbia.

However Ratel insisted that “there is no clear evidence of any link between the private clinic Medicus and any other allegation during the conflict at this time”.

Ratel is being deceptive here. Dick Marty’s report is well known, but the EULEX investigators are simply unwilling to investigate or publicize any cases where Serbs are the victims.

The local Albanian Muslims encountered some negative feedback about their having burned an Orthodox church in Macedonia (see Muslims in Macedonia (FYROM) Riot over Satirical Burqa Dudes at Vevčani Carnival). Muslims elsewhere know how to deal with potential criticism: by staging a “false flag” operation in which they fake an attack on themselves as a play for sympathy. Why not “vandalize” a mosque to make it look as though the Muslims are the victims, and the Christians are the perpetrators?

This time, their plans went comically awry. Maybe they couldn’t read the memo: “Before you try to impersonate a Macedonian Orthodox Christian writing graffiti on a mosque wall, you might want to learn how to write in Macedonian.”

The Macedonian language is a Slavic language very much like Serbian or Bulgarian; it can be written either in the Latin alphabet with the correct accent marks, or in the Cyrillic alphabet, which more accurately represents the phonics, but never a mixture of both. The Albanian language uses the Latin alphabet only, and not many Albanian Muslims are literate in Macedonian, Serbian, or Bulgarian.

Albanians vandalize own mosque to counter negative publicity

Thursday, 02 February 2012

Many described as “uneducated” the individual who wrote several graffitis on a Bitola Mosque. The idea was for media to report a story of supposedly a Christian vandalizing a mosque!!

However, this orchestrated vandalism is almost certainly an act of ethnic Albanian muslims. The reason for this as both local population and police state the culprit wrote the graffitis in terrible Macedonian, mixing both the latin and cyrilic alphabets!

“A Macedonian won’t butcher both the language and the alphabet as this individual did, not a chance!” says a local who saw the graffiti.

It is well known most Albanians aren’t able to write in Cyrilic, however the individual sure made a valiant effort to do so.

Macedonians in Bitola laughed off the “incident” claiming Albanians were trying to portray the Christians as bad after being slammed by the international community (including official Tirana) for burning a Macedonian Church few days ago.

The Irony of it all

While ethnic Albanian muslims damage Christian churches, a group of Albanians in the village of Mala Rechica has been asking local officials to donate buildinig materials and money to rebuild the St George Church after they themselves burned it in 2001.

News has spread from the village that after the 13th century Church was burned, each child born to an ethnic Albanian muslim in Mala Rechica had physical and or mental defects.

Over the years, a total of 14 children in a row were born with severe physical disabilities. The local Albanian muslim families spooked that they may have been cursed for burning the Church, have been in a frantic mode to rebuild the Church as soon as possible, even willing to pay for it!

Some Albanians have learned their lessons it’s wrong to burn sacred places, MINA had found the first in line to put out the fire at the Macedonian Church in Labunista few days ago were ethnic Albanians.

Authorities believe the problems comes from radical extremists among the Albanian population who have been to and accepted the wahabis teachings from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan etc. The last protest in Struga was attended by veiled women and long bearded man holding signs written in Arabic?!

The question is who are these people and when is police going to make arrests?

Contrary to the story above, eyewitness reports portray the crowd of Muslims as predominantly hostile, with very few of them helping to contain the blaze:

TITLE: Merko lies, mob of Muslims applauded the blaze (31-I-2012, 14.30)

Father Riste Naumoski

I inform everybody that now I came back from the extinguishing of the fire in the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Labunishta. As the elder of that church that with the help of God, the Church is not completely burned. Above the Church there was a crowd of Muslims who applauded the blaze, and none of them was involved in the localization of the fire, except the family of Demiš Demišoski and Dr. Aladdin, to whom I am grateful.

Do not be fooled by Mr. Mayor of Struga that the Macedonian Muslims participated in extinguishing the fire, while it burned they were chanting slogans against Orthodox [Christians].

Lord Jesus Christ and His great Grace may be with us now and through all eternity. Amen!

———-
Reference:
OhridON Portal:
-Article in original Serbo-Bulgarian: [LINK]
-Automated translation by “Google Translate” (Imprecise; Not recommended for final use): [LINK]

More here:

• Eurasia Review: Macedonia: Orthodox Church Saved from Blaze
• topix: 2012 Civil War in FYROM: News (Chronologically Organized)
• Australian Macedonian Advisory Council: Preliminary Breaking News: Low Level Inter-Ethnic Warfare Erupted in FYROM

The Albanian mafia devastates forests in southern Serbia

Albanians in Kosovo are devastated forests in the southern Serbian province and now find themselves in the municipality of Medvedja, Raska, Kursumlija, Leskovac and Vranje in southern Serbia, writes Belgrade’s “Evening News.” [See: Albanska mafija krade naše šume!] Most Albanians are cut down trees in a forest farm “Kuršumlija” where is the beginning of 2011. The illegally harvested 10,315 cubic meters, which is 62.9 percent of the total illegal logging in the central and southern Serbia, according to a report of illegal deforestation of the Public Company “Srbija”.

Ever since international forces arrived in Kosovo and Metohija, the 1999th year, she began a massive theft of state forests are carried out by the Albanians, but also in municipalities situated in the zone proper.

Executive Director of Forestry and Environmental Protection “Srbija” Predrag Aleksic said that the Serbian state officials are not allowed to enter the safety zone between central Serbia and Kosovo, while on the other hand allow EULEX to Kosovo Albanians.

Aleksic explained that the Albanian mafia organized forest in groups that usually have three tractors, chain saws and a dozen truck. Fall in najtesnije canyons, wherever there is a forest road. To intimidate the forest guards, Albania on the Serbian territory šumokradice shoot or throw grenades in their direction.

It is suspected that the Albanian mafia has forest associates among the Serbs, who live in the municipalities of Kuršumlija, Leskovac, Vranje and Raska Medvedja.

“Most of the stolen wood in Serbia, which is transferred to the province, sold for fuel at a price about 45 euros per cubic meter. In addition, in Kosovo there are wild sawmill, whose forest mafia boss ordered the theft of logs from Serbian forests. They fall, just cut a healthy tree corpse transported to Kosovo, and cut branches left in the forests in southern Serbia. while these cases have been reported, KFOR and EULEX refuse to protect the forest wealth of the Serbian and the Kosovo šumokradice catch,” said Aleksic.

UKPA: Church set on fire after carnival

An Orthodox Christian church famed for its valuable icons was set alight in southern Macedonia overnight amid religious tension between Christians and minority Muslims over a carnival in which Orthodox Christian men dressed as women in burkas and mocked the Koran.

Firefighters extinguished the fire on Monday night in the two century-old Sveti Nikola church, near the town of Struga. The church’s roof was destroyed but its icons were not damaged, the fire service said.

Hours before the fire, Muslim leaders had appealed for calm among community members.

The January 13 Vevčani festival prompted angry, sometimes violent demonstrations by Muslims, who are nearly all ethnic Albanian and make up 33% of the country’s 2.1 million population and accuse the majority of stoking hatred against them.

Ethnic tension has been simmering in this small Balkan country since the end of an armed rebellion in 2001, when ethnic Albanian rebels fought government forces for about eight months, seeking greater rights for their community. The conflict left 80 people dead, and ended with the intervention of Nato peacekeepers.

The Vevčani carnival, said to have been held for some 1,400 years, attracts thousands of visitors. Local residents traditionally wear elaborate, frequently sarcastic masks, with some of the most common costumes including devils and demons.

But this year’s perceived mockery of the Koran and the burka costumes caused outrage.

On Saturday, protesters attacked an inter-city bus heading from Struga to Vevčani, throwing rocks at the vehicle but injuring nobody. They also defaced a Macedonian flag outside Struga’s municipal building, replacing it with a green flag representing Islam. On the same day, perpetrators attacked a church in the nearby village of Labunista, destroying a cross standing outside.

Macedonian Muslim leaders called for restraint but also accused the government of promoting Islamophobia.

Deputy Prime Minister Musa Xhaferi said such incidents “create discord” and “violate mutual respect and trust.”

Read it here.

As always, Muslims blame someone else (in this case, the Macedonians) for their own lack of self-control.

Oh, and by the way, the term “Islamophobia” is an invention of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Seattle PI: Macedonia Muslims urge restraint over carnival

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Muslim leaders in Macedonia appealed for calm on Monday among community members outraged over a carnival in which Orthodox Christian men mocked Muslims by dressing as Burqa-clad women.

The incident at the Jan. 13 Vevčani festival has prompted angry, sometimes violent demonstrations by Muslims, who make up 33 percent of the country’s 2.1 million population and accuse the majority of stoking hatred against them.

On Saturday, some protesters attacked buses and defaced a Macedonian flag and replaced it with a green flag to represent Islam. On the same day, a church was attacked by unknown perpetrators in the nearby village of Labunista.

In a statement Monday, Macedonian Muslim leaders called for restraint but also accused the government of promoting Islamophobia.

“The behavior of Muslims should be restrained, but, unfortunately, we are concerned that Islamophobia in Macedonia is often combined with government propaganda,” they said. “Such is the case with this carnival that the government annually subsidizes with…the money of all citizens, including Muslims.”

The carnival, said to have been held for some 1,400 years, attracts thousands of visitors. Local resident traditionally wear elaborate, frequently sarcastic masks, with some of the most common costumes including devils and demons.

Muslims in Macedonia are almost all ethnic Albanians. Albanians, in Macedonia and elsewhere, have traditionally been secular, but conservative Islamic schools, especially Wahhabism, have taken a foothold in the years following a brief ethnic Albanian uprising in Macedonia in 2001. This spread has been mainly financed from Saudi Arabia.

Read it here.

Also see:

• MSNBC: Vevčani Carnival Photos
• Macedonian Cultural and Information Centre: Vevčani Carnival
• IDIVIDI: Vevčani carnival is a pearl of Macedonia’s tradition, says Kanceska-Milevska

Wondering why 1389 is the monicker for our blog?

Today, we are batting against a rather stealthy jihad. When hijacked airplanes fly into American buildings, we feel the affects of jihad, but we let Muslim clerics explain it away as the work of “extremists.” When a terrorist in the Holy Land explodes a bomb killing himself and a number of people around him, we feel the affects of jihad, but we let the leftists explain that it is Israel’s fault for existing and we let them spout some historical revisionism that a “Palestinian” people are entitled to this land and have some sadistic right to act in this manner. When Islamic dictatorships take (or allow others to take) hostages, we feel the affects of jihad, but we quietly wait for their release. In Muslim countries, Islam and the political system become one and the same. They stone to death those accused of an impure act, behead hostages, persecute and slaughter Christians and Jews, and impose a horrible form of tyranny upon their people. Meanwhile, Islamic movements are hard at work infiltrating Western and non-Muslim societies, all too often aided and abetted by Western governments.

Throughout history, battles between jihadis and non-Muslims were not always so stealthy. Even though communications were slow and not always reliable, the non-Muslims knew the threat and understood what a bleak future lay ahead for those whom fell to Islamic conquest. Battles were fought with swords, arrows and the like. When the Muslims won, the vanquished suffered. When the Muslims lost, the victories peoples thanked God and prepared for the next Islamic attack.

Some of the victims reasoned, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” So, those of weak faith capitulated and converted. This was never an option for staunch Orthodox Christians, for whom Islam was a serious heresy and the work of Satan. If you look a modern map of the world’s religions, you will see that Islam seems to end where Orthodoxy begins and vice versa. You just don’t find too many Lutheran-Muslim borders, Methodist-Muslim borders, or even Roman Catholic-Muslim borders. Indeed, Roman Catholics and Protestants have fought Islam in past centuries; there are a number of locations where Islam clashed with non-Muslim forces that are famous to this day. Our esteemed blog colleagues at Gates of Vienna commemorate a location where Christian forces twice stopped Islamic terrorism. But it has always been Orthodox Christians who have most often fallen under the hammer of Islamic expansionism and have fought against Islam for their very survival.

The Battle

We commemorate a battle fought in 1389 A.D. in Kosovo, the very cradle of Serbian civilization and culture. It was a classic clash between Islamic terrorism and Christianity, and it was a real bloodbath. Both Prince Lazar, the leader of the Christian forces, and Sultan Murad, the leader of the Islamic forces, were killed. All of the high-ranking officers among the Christian forces were killed, as were most of the Muslim leaders.

But who won the Battle of Kosovo? Ironically, the Christian people of the area, the Serbs, consider that they lost the battle! Historians are divided. Many consider it a draw. However, some who study the technicalities of military battles deem that the Christan forces won.

However, one thing is certain: with Sultan Murad dead, the Muslim plans to conquer Eastern Europe were set back for a while. It was 70 years before the Muslims conquered Serbia. By the time that Islamic forces reached Vienna, those Christian forces were ready to fend them off.

Had it not been for the Battle of Kosovo, in 1389 A.D., the Muslims might have captured Central and/or Eastern Europe in the 1400s. Who knows, with several Muslim bases of operation in Central and Eastern Europe, the Reformation may have seen “Protestants” rejecting the Trinity and inserting Allah instead; the Thirty Years’ War may have ended with the Muslims taking charge; and the French Revolution might have been an Islamic takeover.

Note that I referred to Prince Lazar’s forces as Christian. Historical sources tend to refer to his forces as “Serbian.” Many of the Christian forces were not Serbs, in that other kings had sent whole armies to help. However, don’t consider the Serbs “ethnocentric” for calling those troops Serbs. The Serbian people are very inclusive. More than one Serb has called me a fellow “Serb,” sometimes offering and explanation, sometimes not. In the Serbian mindset, a fellow Orthodox Christian, bearing arms against a common foe, would seem like such an equal that I cannot imagine them viewing him as anything less than a countryman.

No, the world might be a bit different today had Murad survived and won that battle back on June 15, 1389. [Note: the date is according to the Julian Calendar then in effect, and still used for liturgical purposes by the Serbian Orthodox Church.] Six centuries on, not much has really changed. The same types of Islamic extremists are fighting the same battle against us today, albeit with different tools, different weapons, different tactics.

In a sense, everyone is either a Jihadi (as much so as Murad’s Turkish terrorists) fighting to impose Sharia law on the world, a bystander who is are more ignorant that innocent, or a “Serb” fighting the forces of the evil of Islamic expansionism. Hence, we are the 1389 blog. And we invite all those who are concerned about Islamic extremism to become Serbs, at least, in spirit.

Links:

• Kosovo (online book by 1389 Blog team member William Dorich)
• What Happened in 1389? – 1389 Blog
• Lazar of Serbia – OrthodoxWiki
• Lazar of Serbia – Wikipedia
• The Battle of Kosovo (Projekat Rastko: Serbian Epic Poems)

Abortionist Turned Pro-Life Apostle

The Mission of Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy | 12.01.03 | Grzegorz Gorny
Posted on Thursday, November 13, 2008 4:18:29 PM by Coleus
Stojan Adasevic will never forget the day he was organizing the filing cabinet in the doctors’ room. He was a medical student at the time. A number of gynecologists entered the room. Paying no attention to the student crouched over a pile of papers in the corner, they began swapping stories about their medical practice.   Dr. Rado Ignatovic recalled a patient who had come to him for an abortion. The procedure failed because the doctor had been unable to align the cervix. As the gynecologists went on discussing the woman’s history, Stojan, who had been listening in, suddenly stiffened. He realized that the woman under discussion — a former dentist at the nearby clinic — was his mother.

“She’s dead now” — observed one of the doctors — but I wonder what happened to the unwanted child?” Stojan couldn’t resist. “I’m the child!” he said, getting up. Silence fell over the room. Seconds later the doctors were walking out.

Over the years Dr. Adasevic would have cause to recall that event many times. It was perfectly clear to him: he owed his life to the fact of a failed abortion. He would never make such a blunder himself. Many women were referred to him because of difficulty in aligning the cervix. This was never a problem for Stojan. He became the best abortionist in Belgrade. Before long he had surpassed his master in the profession — Dr. Ignatovic, to whose incompetence he owed his life.  “The secret lies in training the hand through frequent procedures” he would say, citing the German proverb: Übung macht Meister (practice makes perfect). Faithful to this maxim, he would perform from twenty to thirty abortions a day. His record was thirty-five abortions in one day. Today he has difficulty reckoning up the abortions he performed in his twenty-six years of practice. He estimates anywhere between 48,000 and 62,000.

For years he remained convinced that abortion, as taught in the medical faculties and textbooks, was a surgical procedure not unlike that of removing an appendix. The only difference was in the organ removed: a piece of intestine in the one case, and embryonic tissue in the other. Doubts began to arise during the 1980s when ultrasound technology came to Yugoslavian hospitals. It was then that Adasevic first saw on the USG monitor what had until then been invisible to him — the inside of a woman’s womb, a live child, sucking its thumb, moving its arms and legs. As often as not, fragments of that child would soon be lying on the table beside him. “I saw without seeing — he recalls today. — Everything changed after I started having the dreams”.

Dr. Adasevic’s dreams

Actually, it was the same recurring dream. It haunted him every night, day after day, week after week, month after month. He dreamed he was walking in a sunlit meadow. Beautiful flowers grew all around. The air was thick with colored butterflies. It was warm and pleasant, yet, despite this, some anxious feeling oppressed him. Suddenly the meadow was filled with laughing and running children. They were playing ball. In age, they ranged from three or four to about twenty years. All were strikingly beautiful. One boy in particular, and two of the girls, seemed strangely familiar, but he could not recall where he had seen them. When he tried to speak to them, they ran off in terror, screaming. The entire scene was presided over by a man in a black habit who watched intently in silence.

Every night Adasevic would wake in terror and stay awake till morning. Herbal remedies and pills were useless. One night, he became distraught in his dream and began chasing the fleeing children. He caught one of them, but the child cried out in terror: “Help! Murderer! Save me from the murderer!” At that moment the man dressed in black, turned into an eagle, swept down, and pulled the child away. The doctor woke up, his heart thumping like a hammer in his ribs. The room was cold, yet he was hot, drenched in sweat. In the morning he decided to see a psychiatrist. Since there were no immediate openings, he booked an appointment. That night he decided he would ask the man in his dreams to identify himself. This he did. The stranger said: “Even if I told you, my name would mean nothing to you”. When the doctor persisted, the man finally replied: “I am called Thomas Aquinas”. Indeed, the name meant nothing to Adasevic. It was the first time he had heard it. The man in black continued: “Why don’t you ask who the children are. Don’t you recognize them?” When the doctor said he didn’t, he replied: “Not true. You know them very well. These are the children you killed while performing abortions”. “How is that possible?” countered Adasevic. “These are grown children. I have never killed born children”. Thomas replied: “Do you not know that here, on this side of the eschaton, children continue to grow?” The Doctor refused to yield: “But I have never killed a twenty-year-old boy”. “You killed him twenty years ago” replied the monk, “when he was three months old”.

It was then that Adasevic recognized the faces of the twenty-year-old boy and the two girls. They resembled people he knew well, for whom he had performed abortions over the years. The boy looked like a close friend of Adasevic’s. Stojan had performed the abortion on his wife twenty years ago. In the two girls the doctor recognized their mothers, one of whom happened to be Stojan’s cousin. Upon awaking, he decided he would never perform another abortion in his life.

I held a beating heart in my hand

Waiting for him upon his arrival at the hospital that morning was a cousin along with his girlfriend. They had booked an abortion with him. Four months pregnant, the woman was about to do away with her ninth consecutive child. Adasevic refused, but his cousin was so importunate that he gave in: OK, but this was the very last time.  On the USG monitor he clearly saw the child with its thumb in its mouth. Stretching the uterus, he inserted the forceps, took hold of something, and pulled. In the jaws of the forceps was a little arm. He placed it on the table, but in such a way that one of the limbs’ nerve endings touched a drop of spilled iodine. Suddenly, the arm began to twitch. The nurse standing beside him almost screamed out. Just like frogs’ legs in a physiology lab!  Adasevic shuddered, but went on with the abortion. Again he inserted the forceps, gripped, and pulled. This time it was a leg. Just as he was thinking: “Better not let it touch that drop of alcohol”, a nurse standing behind him dropped a tray of surgical instruments. Startled by the crash, the doctor released the forceps, and the leg landed right beside the arm. It too began to move.

The staff had never seen anything like it: human limbs twitching on the table. Adasevic decided to mash up what was left in the womb, and pull it out in a formless mass. He began mashing, squashing, crushing. Upon withdrawing the forceps, now certain that he had reduced everything to a pulp, he produced a human heart! The organ was still beating. Weaker and weaker it beat, until it stopped altogether. It was then that he realized he had killed a human being.  The world turned dark around him. He cannot recall how long this lasted. Suddenly he felt a tug on his arm. A nurse’s terrified voice called out: Doctor Adasevic! Doctor Adasevic! The patient was bleeding. For the first time in years, the doctor began praying earnestly: “Lord! Save not me, but this woman”.   Normally it could take up to ten minutes to clean the womb of all remaining embryonic matter. This time two insertions of the instrument through the vagina were enough to complete the task. When Adasevic removed his gloves, he knew this was the last abortion he would ever perform.

The pail: instrument of abortion

When Stojan informed the head of the hospital of his decision, there was a considerable stir. Never before in a Belgrade hospital had a gynecologist refused to perform abortions. Pressure was brought to bear on him. They cut his salary in half. His daughter was fired from her job. His son “failed” his university entrance examinations. He was attacked in the press and on television. The Socialist State — they said — had provided him with an education so that he could perform abortions, and now he was carrying out sabotage against the State.   Two years of persecution brought him to the brink of nervous exhaustion. He was on the point of asking the hospital administrator to reassign him to abortion duty, when Thomas Aquinas appeared to him in a dream. Patting him on his shoulder, Thomas said: “You are my good friend. Continue your struggle”. Adasevic did not go to the administrator. He decided to fight on.

He got involved in the pro-life movement. He traveled throughout Serbia, lecturing and giving talks on abortion. Twice he succeeded in airing on Yugoslav state television Bernard Nathanson’s The Silent Scream, a USG recording of an actual abortion. In the early 1990s, thanks largely to Adasevic’s activism, the Yugoslav parliament passed a decree protecting the rights of the unborn. The decree went to President Slobodan Milosevic, who refused to sign it. Then the war broke out, and the decree fell into abeyance.   As for the war, Adasevic wonders: “To what else can we attribute the slaughter that took place here in the Balkans if not our alienation from God and lack of respect for human life”. And to make his point he describes what is common practice in Serbia: “Since our laws protect the life of the child only from the moment of its first breath, that is, from the instant it utters its first cry, abortions are legal in the seventh, eighth, and even ninth month of pregnancy. Actually the word “abortion” has no place here, since it applies more to miscarriages. Beside the birthing seat stands a bucket of water. Before the child has a chance to utter a cry, you stop up its mouth and plunge it under water. Officially this is an abortion, and it is all perfectly legal, since the child never draws a breath”.

Here Adasevic likes to cite Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “if a mother can kill her own child, what is there to prevent you and me from killing one another?”  Today, most abortions are performed in private clinics, which do not release figures on aborted pregnancies. Adasevic estimates that for every twenty-five children conceived barely one live birth results. Twenty-four beings are destroyed.  “What further complicates statistical analysis in this area — he observes — is the use of abortifacients such as the IUD  and the RU-486 pill, which are officially classified as contraceptives. The IUD is an abortifacient; for the coil acts as a sword, which severs the tiny human being from its source of food in the womb. It is a terrible death. A human being dies of starvation in a place that is filled with nourishment.

“This is a real war, waged by the born upon the unborn — he adds. — In this war I have crossed the front several times: first as an unborn child condemned to die, then as an abortionist myself, and now as a pro-life apostle.  “I have also become interested in the life of Thomas Aquinas, about whom I knew nothing before. I have often wondered why he appeared in my dream, and not other saints, especially since he is a Catholic saint, and I am Orthodox. To explain this, I started studying Thomas’ writings.  Guess what I found? According to Aquinas, human life begins 40 days after fertilization in the case of men, and 80 days in the case of women. So what is a child in those preceding days? Nothing? I think what Thomas said gives him no peace in the eschaton. Mind you, it should be stated that Thomas accepted this view from Aristotle. Aristotle was the great authority then. Thomas allowed himself to be influenced by his view, and committed an error.

“It was a long time before I grasped the fact that a child in the mother’s womb is a living person, that it is a living person not from the time it draws its first breath, as the communist professors taught us, but from the instant the human embryo is formed, that is, from the moment the spermatozoon joins with the egg cell”.

Grzegorz Gorny

Originally published in Love One Another Catholic Magazine, No. 1/2004 dedicated to the New Evangelization.  An abbreviated form of this article appeared in the Polish secular daily Rzeczpospolita (1 December 2003).  Used with Permission.

Abortion – The First Hour Trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by CatholicRadioTVNet on Aug 5, 2010

This trailer presents the first 10:20 minutes of the CRTN – documentary “Abortion – The First Hour”.

Production Date: 2009
Duration: 27′

Copyright : CRTN
Language: English
Executive Producer: Grzegorz Gorny & Lech Dokowicz
Director: Grzegorz Gorny

Over one billion abortions have been carried out in the last 30 years. Approximately 53 million abortions are carried out every year. In many countries over 70% of women have terminated a pregnancy.

Drawing on interviews with doctors who have performed abortions (Doctor Stojan Adasevic from Belgrade in Serbia has carried out nearly 55000 abortions and Doctor Bleslaw Piecha from Poland has carried out over 1000 abortions) as well as women who have undergone an abortion, the film seeks to show the deep wound abortion commits on humanity – as well as the hope offered by those who try to stop abortion.

Stojan Adasevic

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by catholicnewsagency on Nov 12, 2008

Otro “rey del aborto” convertido en líder pro-vida: Stojan Adasevic

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by Acitv on Nov 12, 2008

El diario La Razón de España ha dado a conocer el caso de un nuevo “rey del aborto” converso: Stojan Adasevic. Este ginecólogo que es ahora uno de los principales líderes pro-vida de Serbia, realizó 48 mil abortos durante 26 años y hasta 35 en un solo día en la Yugoslavia comunista.

Serbian abortion rate ‘at epidemic proportions’

by Thaddeus Baklinski – Fri Jan 20, 2012 17:32 EST

BELGRADE, January 20, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – According to the Belgrade Institute of Public Health, 23,000 abortions are committed in Serbia annually. However, a report by the Southeast European Times states that unofficial data suggest that as many as 150,000 abortions are committed every year in the country of just over 7 million inhabitants, giving Serbia the highest abortion rate in Europe.

The current Serbian birth rate is 1.44 children per woman, compared to a European average of 1.6, which is still well below the 2.1 children per woman needed to maintain a static population.

Since 1969, the year when complete liberalization of abortion came into effect, abortion has been available on-demand until the 10th week of pregnancy, and in cases of rape, incest, psychological trauma and socioeconomic reasons until the twentieth week.

However, according to the SETimes, enforcement of the law is lax, most abortions are conducted in unregulated private clinics, and abortion has become the cultural norm for birth control.

“For many women in Serbia who already gave birth, abortion is considered a regular means of contraception; they do not apply prevention, but undergo an abortion,” gynecologist Jovanka Carevic told SETimes.
[...]
“The large number of abortions could partly be explained by the early liberalization of abortion,” Rašević wrote. “Socio-medical indications were accepted as grounds for abortion from 1952 onwards. In 1969 the law was further liberalized. Abortion was then permitted, without any ‘waiting period’, at the woman’s request up to ten weeks’ gestation and, beyond ten weeks, with the approval of a medical commission.”

“Since 1995 abortion is available, on request, for women aged 16 or over, instead of 18 years and over as was previously the case. To obtain an abortion, women go directly to a gynaecologist who has a legal obligation to carry out this procedure,” the report states.
[...]
Serbian sociologist Dragutin Vasic observed that high unemployment, divorce, a low level of general health education, and lack of direction by health, educational and other institutions have all contributed to high abortion rates.
[...]
The research report by Mirjana Rašević titled “The abortion issue in Serbia” is available here.

Read the complete article here.

By Peter Brock
Reprinted with permission

Personally, I didn’t watch any of the Golden Globes presentations last night. I was much more interested in the Packers walking through plays in the final five minutes before the climax in their bizarre loss to the Giants.

However, I had my mind on the Globes and was curious about what Jolie & Co. would try to pull off while “From the Land of Blood and Honey” was staggering through its last five days at the box office. (I don’t intend to follow her or her morbid feature-length “animated” disaster all the way into oblivion.)

But, the result of her “directorial debut”—or so the “limited distribution” has been touted since it opened December 23^rd—was reinforced with the addition of eleven more theaters to the original seven in LA and New York by the middle of last week. Since last Wednesday, when the total box office take added up to $103,000, the smaller cadre of “dissenting” movie critics were calling it what it is: a “flop”! As of today, nothing has changed, in my viewing of online videos and other reports about the Globes extravaganza.

As Angelina Jolie was looking wooden and wan on the “red carpet” yesterday, her film was wheezing to get up to almost $146,000. Recalling that she and her investors originally shelled out $13 Million, it continues to free-fall.

But, the “money” side of it is not the story—except for what it’s costing her to ram it into public and political perception as a “success.” Even the “judging” for the Globes could not shove it to the top of the Best Foreign Language Film pile with such a miserable backing from the movie-going public.

Curiously, the reporter for Moviefone.com quoted from a description today that perhaps was unintentional: “Angie looks very Queen of Hearts in a white Atelier Versace gown with pops up red (sic)…”, wrote The Contra Costa (Calif.) Times. The “Queen of Hearts” reference had to be meant as complimentary, if subtly wry. But then, I recalled the booming voice of Verna Felton in Disney’s production—“OFF with their heads!”—and I remembered being just a little kid in the darkened theater and cringing in my seat.

Lots of writers/reporters seemed to be struggling with Jolie’s gaunt, anorexic frame while busied with her obligatory video duty. The “world’s most beautiful woman” looked terrible. And mega-tense, as she and Mr. Pitt awaited the choreographed questions from breathless interviewer Ryan Seacrest.

The poor thing, according to a comment from one online movie mag-wag, needed an emergency dose of two cheeseburgers. Another was disturbed that her hip-bone could be seen through her dress. Everyone else was swooning in cadence to the silver with red-trim gown that limply hung on her.

The canned answers rolled off the Pitt’s tongues as they have in months of promotional appearances, but Jolie’s expression flashed momentarily and her brittle voice cracked slightly when asked if she had been “nervous” about the release of her film. Clearly, she winced at recalling those mostly unreported controversies about stereotyping the actors as Serb monsters during the recent Balkan wars. Also, her memory is fresh with recent ambushes by women’s groups and other humanitarian organizations with accusations of glorifying “rapes.” Governments had threatened to pull their permits and assistance becoming temporarily deaf to pleas of innocence and artistic interpretation. The project was hurried to completion earlier than scheduled—partly explaining the odd release two days before Christmas. Not the best timing, you might think, when having to go up against holiday competition from the latest “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”

Not imaginably unrelated was a barb tossed at the Golden Globes itself by the poison-tongued emcee Ricky Gervais: “…For any of you who don’t know, the Golden Globes are just like the Oscars, but without all that esteem. The Golden Globes are to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton. A bit louder, a bit trashier, a bit drunker, and more easily bought. Allegedly. Nothing’s been proved.”

“More easily bought” than Balkan politicians? What WAS Gervais teasing everyone with?!

Jolie’s carpet performance seemed to overlap clumsily on topics of “victims” and the “acceptance by the people” of her film “in the country,” as the Pitt’s tag-teamed uncomfortably. It took some time to figure out they weren’t talking about movie fans in the U.S.

A nearly palpable tide of paranoia was rising. Surely, Seacrest had no such sinister intentions to talk about the bad reviews and tanked revenues.

Well, the show had to go on. She gratuitously handed Martin Scorsese his Globe for Best Director. But, the similarity between “director apprentice” and “director emeritus” only became more obvious. Even Pitt seemed somewhat off-balance as the whole extravaganza teetered at times with an underlying …tension. “Sinister” may be too hard a word. Pitt himself added to it, wielding a cane for a new knee cartilage injury.

The cameras panned the tables closest to the podium for the rest of the evening’s exercise of insincere applause. The First Couple knew what to do.

So, “From the Land of Blood and Honey” and Jolie continue their odyssey even though they likely will not get serious Oscar consideration during the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, credit Todd McCarthy in today’s The Hollywood Reporter for finally answering the question: Where did Jolie come up with that title about “blood and honey”?

“The title stems from the fact that, in reference to the Balkans, the Turkish word for honey is ‘bal’ while the word for blood is ‘kan’.”

Also see:

• Review of In the Land of Blood and Honey, a movie by Angelina Jolie
• Peter Brock: Angelina Jolie’s ‘Blood and Honey’ directorial debut a ‘flop’

It Began with a Lie (German with English Subtitles)

Click here to view the embedded video.

41:39 – 2 years ago
German documentary about the false pretext and German propaganda used to exert and sustain public support for illegal NATO aggression against Serbia.

With Serbian subtitles:

Es begann mit einer Lüge – Deutschland gegen Yugoslawien (Serbien).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by srbskaskolabuchrain on Jan 8, 2012

Ovakva cuda se ne desavaju cesto! Pogledajte link ispod:
http://dijaspora.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/десило-се-чудо-немачки-фотограф-снима/

So ein Wunder gescheht nicht oft ! Orginal link und klare text auf Deutsch :
http://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/s-h_magazin/zeitreise/kosovo197.html

Die Frage ist warum Deutschland wieder die Serben angriffen?

Welche Interessen hatte Amerika an diesem Krieg?

Und wie geht die Politik von Deutschland gegen die serben weiter?

Rudolf Scharping und Joschka fischer zwei Brüder die sich fest entschlossen hatten nach 40Jahren dieserben zu Begrüssen aber mit Bomben.

Fischer äusserte sich ein paar mal beim Besuch dass es nicht wieder passieren darf mit den Konzentrationslagern .Genau richtig was sollen die Konzentrationslager?

Es ist besser wenn man mit Flugangriffen reagieren kann und unschuldige Zivile Serben töten konnte.

Amerika hatte bei diesem Krieg nur unter einer Bedienung mitgemacht!mit der Bitte dass Sie sich noch weiter in den Balkan begeben konnten und somit ganz russland einkreisen konnten.

Klinton hatte keine Interessen was im Kosovo passierte. Seine Interresse war “Amerikanische Basis im Kosovo”die grösste Militärbasis der Welt.

Und wieder ist es Deutschland gelungen Serbischen Boden zu zerstampfen,und wieder zahlten die Serben Ihre freiheit mit Blut.

In Deutschland wo 70% Rasismus herrscht konnte Punkte bei Europa sammeln.Frankreich steht auf diesem Weg mit der Starken Macht und liebt nicht gerade die Lügen der Deutschen Politik.

Zasto je Njemacka napala opet Srbe?Koje interese ima Amerika od toga rata?Kakva je dalja politika Njemacke prema Srbima?Dali sa lazima dobijamo rat i koje su posledice njega?

Rudolf Sarping i Joska Fiser dva brata imaju odgovore na ta pitanja i zelja im je bila nakon toliko godina da se obrate Srbima za poklone doneli su nam Bombe.Joska Fiser izjavljuje u par navrata da se na Balkanu nesme desiti Ausvic jer tamo su stradali?a ja Srbi ali to nije ni bitno.Fiser kaze mi cemo Srbe Bonbardovati samo zato sto su Srbi.Uz taj plan imao je svoga Rudolfa i mocnu Ameriku koja je imala samo jednu zelju,napraviti vojnu bazu na kosovu sa ciljem da opkoli Rusiju sa svih strana.Ma kome je to jos stalo do ljudski prava i ko je to krsio na kome podrucju,apsurd,smesna politika Njemacke odlazi na zapad i uspevaju u Lazima protiv Srba gde Njemacka postaje sila u Evropi.To bi zelela i da ostane ali Amerika ne voli licemerne i lazove pa je za svoga partnera uzela Tursku.Njemacka ima jos jednog prijatelja koji joj neda da siri svoja krila nad Evropom a to je Francuska jedna od naj mocniji zemalja u Evropi pa i Svetu,e ona smeta mozda bi Dotsche Reich i uspeo ali imaju oni i izmedju sebe ljudi zdravoga razuma koji zele da zive ko svi Evropljani ne imajuci zelju da sve bude Velika Njemacka.Americka Baza na kosovu moze da primi preko 60 hiljda vojnika i naj veca je od vojnih Americki baza u Svetu.

Jamie Shea is prominently featured in the video “It Began With a Lie.”

For those who may not have seen: http://home.windstream.net/dwrighsr/a3820cf4d2861.html

(My An Open Letter to Lieutenant General Michael Short, Commandeer, 16th Air Force, United States Air Forces, Europe Commander, Allied Forces, Southern Europe.)

“- Was it your son whose bombs hit the convoy of ethnic Albanians reducing the victims to ashes, and then have your NATO pimp spokesperson, Jamie Shea, have the gall to deny that NATO pilots, possibly your son, were responsible for this atrocity by blaming it on the Serbs?”

Also, please read the comments.

You`re young, you`re drunk, you`re in bed,
you have knives; s**t happens…

When I get logical, and I don’t trust my instincts
– that’s when I get in trouble.
- Angelina Jolie[1]

Well, that’s showbiz, Mrs. Pitt!

January 12, 2012

‘Blood and Honey’ directorial debut a ‘flop’

by Peter Brock
Reprinted with permission

The critics and movie-goers “doth protest too much.”

Make that a silent protest because apparently they have better things to do than say much of anything about Angelina Jolie’s inaugural attempt at writing/directing “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”

The first month’s box office take will likely not even amount to a .01-percent trickle of the $13 million blown on this celluloid cliché that promoters had tried to hype as a Romeo and Juliet tragedy set against the recent Bosnian war. By late January, the three-week mini-run that soaked $90,000 in ticket sales from gullible movie-goers is sputtering.

Only a handful of Balkan war critics had been stirring themselves up at this latest revisionist bid by Hollywood to rile the conscience of the world—while making a few bucks for their trouble. They and diaspora Serbs had grudgingly read the pre-screening synopses which borrowed from two decades worth of lurid headlines about contrived tales of genocide, tens of thousands of fictitious rapes, hyped “concentration camps” and the like.

But after all the buildup, the long-awaited flick rolled in only seven New York and Los Angeles theaters, beginning two days before Christmas in “limited distribution” by FilmDistrict that, as a matter of fact, was quickly getting more limited by the minute. One theater in New York lost no time in yanking it off the marquee.

Worth mentioning is that it didn’t take a second sniff for “Serbian tycoon and media magnate Željko Mitrović” who was earlier asked if Jolie could use his sound stages and studio sets.

“‘I’ve held great affection and admiration for Angelina Jolie both as a person and as an artist, but unfortunately she’s full of prejudice against the Serbs. I do not wish to be part of something that for the umpteenth time presents the Serbs as eternal bad guys.’” It was about the nicest thing anyone would say of the whole project, start to finish.

Story goes that Jolie had originally received a near-epiphany over coffee with unnamed journalists in Budapest when she became inspired to direct the film. A decisive “séance” also occurred with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour whose own words, echoed later by Jolie, were tediously familiar as the former’s signature commentary in wartime “scoops” from Bosnian muslim presidents, prime ministers, United Nations’ goons, bloodthirsty NATO brass and U.S. State Department shills during the ‘90s:

“This was, you know, the worst genocide since World War II in Europe …What were we all doing? And did we do enough? And why do we not speak about this enough?” parrots Jolie.

Amanpour introduced Jolie and the film at its New York Premiere last December 5.

The glitzy premiere after-party was held on The Standard Hotel’s rooftop Hudson River overlook and was co-sponsored by the foreign policy think-tank Council on Foreign Relations of which Jolie, having studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, somehow earned membership. General Wesley Clark, who chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Bosnian War and oversaw 78 straight days of indiscriminate bombing of Serb cities in 1999, also attended the fete and called the film “incredible.”

At first, reviewers grit their teeth while trying to be nice to Jolie—half of the Brad Pitt/Jolie cinematic power couple—in her La-La-Land netherworld romance between a Muslim painter and her fated Serbian lover and guard at one of those sinister “camps”:

“…where rape and brutality against women is business as usual by most Serbian soldiers… Jolie’s phony plotting and graphic depictions of sexual assault and murder are transparent attempts to bluntly convey the war’s atrocities. …Images of men mowed down on the streets, groups of innocents executed in front of mass graves and women raped in the company of their fellow captives all prove Jolie’s admirable commitment to directly addressing the Serbians’ heinous actions. …Her dialogue-heavy sequences are aesthetically inert, further muting the momentum of a tale that, in narrative terms, winds up being a series of clichés piled on top of general preposterousness. …(T)his wannabe-serious film comes off as not just unenlightening, but borderline-interminable.” – boxofficemagazine.com

But, it was as plain as the worrisome wrinkle above one of her eyebrows that Jolie’s film had “flopped and appears to be on its way out of theaters”, said thewrap.com after only two holiday weekends.

“…(N)ot even art-house audiences were clamoring for a subtitled drama about the Bosnian war over the Christmas holiday. …Featuring a cast of no-name performers and the brutal setting of the Bosnian war, the film is an almost impossible sell for audiences of any stripe”, said LATimes.com/entertainment bloggers.

Wrote The New York Times Manohla Dargis on the eve of the showing, touting Jolie’s gratuitous title as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:

“…(T)here’s a somewhat awkward instructional, at times almost proselytizing aspect to the story that seems of a piece with her laudable humanitarian work. That’s especially true in the scenes in which Ms. Jolie switches into full-on expository mode, putting dry, plodding words into the characters’ mouths that would work better in the kind of on-screen textual explanations, with their snippets of history and politics, that open and close the movie.”

That’s Dargis’ long definition of “propaganda.”

Reviewers wasted no time getting into step:

“Is it a bad sign when you want a movie to end almost as much as the war it’s about?” asked Sam Adams in the LA Times. [2]

“A mix of the powerful and the ridiculous, and eventually the ridiculous wins,” said Mick LaSalle nearly simultaneously in the San Francisco Chronicle.[3]

Variety’s Justin Chang penned a pre-release review of the movie, branding it a “dramatically misguided attempt to renew public awareness of the 1992-95 Balkan conflict” that “springs less from artistic conviction than from an over-earnest humanitarian impulse … “(I)ts scenario tilting into tarted-up banality.”[4]

Likewise, The Village Voice’s Karina Longworth characterized it as a coin-toss “between predictable tragedy and ludicrous redemption …a United Nations extra-credit project about the Bosnian War” and sniped at Jolie for “producing a sanctimonious vanity commercial for her own good intentions.”[5]

Nathan Rabin of the A.V. Club panned it as “a film of shuddering earnestness and fevered good intentions gone awry, a dreary slog of a message movie with little but noble if unfulfilled aspirations to commend it.”[6] He noted that “Serbian groups have justifiably complained about Jolie’s glib stereotyping of Serbs as racist heavies” and that she “once again succeeded in attracting international attention to international atrocities and it’s possible, if not particularly likely, that someday she will get around to dramatizing atrocities compellingly as well.”

Maybe even by both/all sides?

Intuiting yowls of protest from the star of “Catwoman”, her litter of “industry” cronies rushed to salve her ruffled fur in early December when the Producers Guild of America announced that the film would receive its 2012 Stanley Kramer Award[7], followed by more institutional feel-good and a nomination in the Best Foreign Language category for the 69th Golden Globe Awards.[8]

Truth be told, Hollywood doesn’t do well with movies about “those” Balkan wars of the 1990’s. Some would like to think that fans got wise to all the political manipulations and simplistic propaganda by American media about Serbs wearing black hats and everyone else as chaste as Snow White in a burka. But Angie, who signed that pre-nup with Brad in 2007 worth $220 million, isn’t getting hurt.[9]

A roll-call of some Balkan war films shows only one money-maker:

• “Behind Enemy Lines” with Gene Hackman from 2001, budgeted at $40 million, earnings worldwide of $92 million. But not a bonanza. (Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 129 critics, dubbed it “Rotten”)
• “Welcome to Sarajevo” in 1997 with Woody Harrelson, budgeted at $9 million, no earnings appear visible. No surprise.
• “Savior” and Dennis Quaid in 1998, $10 million budget. Ditto.
• “No Man’s Land,” in 2002, only worth mentioning because it got the Oscar for best foreign film. It cost $14 million; earned $5 million.
• “The Hunting Party”, in 2007 with Richard Gere spent $40 million and made less than a million in the U.S., but $7 million overseas. Kindest words were from New York Times’ Dargis, who called it a “huge disappointment …A misfired, misguided would-be satire.”

Surprisingly, Roger Ebert blinked in lieu of candor—and he probably had a free ticket. What, a quiz?:

“Although the United States and the United Nations had troops involved, I have a feeling that a good many Americans never worked up much interest in the Bosnian war. There were too many complexities for a soundbite. Was it Serbs against Croatians? Christians against Muslims? A free for all? Wasn’t it all once Yugoslavia? Which side were we on? Or did we simply want all of them to stop fighting?

“I hope I don’t sound snarky. The indifference of many moviegoers to world events affects the box office for any movie about such conflicts. It took a long struggle to get audiences worked up over, and even then, the key words were ‘bomb disposal’ and not ‘Iraq.’ Although we’ve spent a fortune in blood and resources in the Middle East, Hollywood has found audience indifference to events there. Even more so in the former Yugoslavia. When I mention Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia, how many nations have I named? Are they in fact nations? Here’s a curveball: Where are the Balkans?…[10]

Too touchy for ol’ Rog and all his politically-correct pals who sit together in the balconies?

But, among the biggest head-scratchers for “In the Land of Blood and Honey”? Why the obscure title? From an obscure poet? Or, more likely because Jolie had to hurry because bad pre-premiere publicity was going around that the film celebrated rape, and production had to be shortened before the “Mothers of Srebrenica” came stomping over the castle moat—with torches and pitchforks!

She told insidemovies.ew.com last May that coming up with the title was “driving me crazy. I have lists and lists of titles all over. She cited the subject matter of the film, which is set against the backdrop of the Bonsian Civil War in the 1990s, as the primary reason she was having such a hard time.

“‘It’s a heavy film,’ she added. ‘You want to find that title that really helps the audience know what they’re walking into.’”

Or, not walking into, as it turns out.

“…In making the announcement, Jolie said: ‘The film is specific to the Bosnian War, but it’s also universal. I wanted to tell a story of how human relationships and behavior are deeply affected by living inside a war.’”

Huh? Which “universe” does she live in?

[1] brainyquote.com
[2] Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2012.
[3] San Francisco Chronicle, January 5, 2012.
[4] Variety, December 16, 2011.
[5] The Village Voice, December 21, 2011.
[6] The A.V. Club, December 22, 2011.
[7] MSNBC. December 13, 2011.
[8] The Telegraph. December 15, 2011.
[9] Celebrity-Gossip.net, July 13, 2007
[10] January 4, 2012. n

Also see:

• Review of In the Land of Blood and Honey, a movie by Angelina Jolie
• Gray Falcon: A Dreary Slog
• Gray Falcon: War Porn

From Fox News:

(h/t: Gates of Vienna and Vlad Tepes)

My Fox Tampa Bay: Man charged with Tampa car bomb plot

Kosovar immigrant planned Ybor, South Tampa blasts

Updated: Monday, 09 Jan 2012, 6:20 PM EST

Published : Monday, 09 Jan 2012, 11:33 AM EST

A MyFoxTampaBay.com staff report

TAMPA – A chilling terrorist plot ended with the weekend arrest of a 25-year-old immigrant from Kosovo, FBI agents say. Sami Osmakac allegedly told undercover investigators that he wanted to “die the Islamic way” after attacking locations in Ybor City and South Tampa.

According to the FBI, Osmakac is a naturalized U.S. citizen who now lives in Pinellas Park. Agents were tipped off to the possible plot in September.

The five-month investigation culminated with a sting operation on Saturday. Osmakac was arrested after he allegedly took possession of explosives and firearms that had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement.

Among Osmakac’s alleged bomb targets were nightclubs in the Ybor City area of Tampa, the operations center of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Ybor City, and a business in the South Tampa area.

As part of the second portion of his planned attack, Osmakac allegedly told the undercover FBI employee that, after the car bomb was detonated, he wanted to wear an explosive belt and “get in somewhere where there’s a lot of people” and take hostages.

“Once I have this…they can take me in five million pieces,” he allegedly added, in an apparent reference to a suicide blast.

Osmakac’s family, however, denied the allegations. His father, who owns the Balkan Food Store & Bakery in St. Petersburg, told FOX 13 his son had become more religious recently, but insisted he had no weapons.

He did confirm that federal agents had searched his home over the weekend.

According to the FBI, the plot unfolded through several meetings with undercover sources and agents:

• September: FBI agents receive information from a confidential human source indicating that Osmakac had asked for al-Qaeda flags.
• November: Osmakac and the FBI source discuss and identify potential targets in Tampa. Osmakac allegedly asks the source for help in obtaining firearms and explosives for the attacks.
• December 21: Osmakac tells an undercover FBI employee that he wants an AK-47-style machine gun, Uzi submachine guns, high capacity magazines, grenades, and an explosive belt. Allegedly, he later makes a $500 down payment.
• January 1: Osmakac allegedly outlines his attack. He wants to get a hotel room; park a vehicle with a bomb in it at his target, leave the area, detonate the car bomb, and then retrieve weapons and explosives from the hotel room.

It was during that New Year’s Day meeting when the undercover FBI employee noted that Osmakac could change his mind and back out of the plot. According to investigators, Osmakac immediately shook his head and said, “We all have to die, so why not die the Islamic way?”

Saturday, FBI agents arrested Osmakac after he took possession of the explosive devices and firearms, which had been neutralized without his knowledge.

Investigators also say Osmakac made a video of himself explaining his motives for carrying out the planned attack.  They did not divulge details about the message, but other videos posted online show a man who appears to be Osmakac railing against infidels and even assaulting members of the outspoken Westboro Baptist Church.

Osmakac faces one charge of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. He made his first appearance in federal court Monday afternoon.

Much more here:

• Gates of Vienna: Jihad Thwarted in Tampa
• Julia Gorin: Happy New Year from Another of America’s “Rescuees” Hailing from the “Liberated” Ancient Serbian Land of Kosovo
• Yahoo News: Muslim man from Kosovo charged in Fla. bomb plot

This comment by CzechRebel deserves to stand on its own:

I can remember Ron Paul’s stance against the Kosovo War very well. He seemed like the only voice of reason in the Congress at the time. However, do we see Ron Paul reaching out to the Serbian community today? During the debates or media interviews, does he ever bring up the fact that we were on the wrong side of the Kosovo War?

Perhaps future historians will look back at the United States and wonder what happened to a group of peoples, united under one government, who were the first to put a man on the moon, and wonder: How did such a great empire fall?

Perhaps some future historian will look back at the spring of 1999 and declare it to be the time when America lost its soul. Yes, lost its soul so much so, that even the one voice of reason during the Kosovo War refused some thirteen years later to acknowledge that it was not that the war was so wrong, but that we had actually fought on the wrong side.

Challenge to Ron Paul: Support the Serbs again and renounce radical Islam.

That is the whole point: we fought on the wrong side in the Balkans. Until we acknowledge the situation and make our best effort to undo the damage we did, the US and Europe will continue to suffer “blowback” from this tragic political and moral error.

We on 1389 Blog staunchly support both the Serbian people and Israel. Ron Paul and his supporters, in true doctrinaire fashion, blame our current global predicament not on our worldwide appeasement of our Muslim enemies, but on our alliance with Israel and on the supposed manipulation of the “Jewish lobby” in the US. They insist that all we have to do is to throw Israel and the Jews under the bus, and the rest of the world will leave us in peace.

While we ourselves are not Randians (indeed, blog admins 1389 and CzechRebel are both Orthodox Christians), we find it ironic that Ron Paul named his son Rand after Ayn Rand.

Ayn Rand on libertarianism and Israel:

Ayn Rand, who unintentionally provided the impetus for the movement, disdained libertarians, calling them “right-wing hippies.’ She was unequivocal in her support for Israel, which she explained this way in a 1974 appearance: “When you have civilized men fighting savages, you support the civilized men, no matter who they are.”

We do agree with Ron Paul on one issue: the Senate must explicitly declare war before the US engages in military action. Nothing justifies our current “War Powers Act”; nothing in the US Constitution empowers the Senate to delegate its authority to declare war. Even when Congress is not in session, present-day communications and transportation are so rapid that it would take little time to gather a quorum in the Senate to declare war, even in an emergency situation.

It is not the job of the President or of the State Department to decide when we go to war. It is the duty of the Senate to meet and declare war, without waiting for the President, whenever a foreign enemy declares war on us (via a fatwa or other proclamation) or perpetrates an act of war on us. Then it becomes the President’s duty, as Commander in Chief, to wage war in accordance with the Senate’s declaration. Ever since the Iranian hostage crisis, our Senate has allowed foreign Muslim enemies to walk all over us. That is a disgraceful abdication of responsibility.

Also see:

• Trevor Loudon: Blinded by the Left: How Marxists Wrote Ron Paul’s Defense Cuts Plan
• Don Feder: To Get Ron Paul’s Insanity, You Have To Understand Libertarianism
• Lemuel Calhoon: Ron Paul is an @$& Clown

With thanks to видовдан.орг

Patriarchal Nativity Encyclical 2011

5. January 2012 – 12:46

The Serbian Orthodox Church
to her spiritual children at Christmas, 2011

+IRINEJ

By the Grace of God
Orthodox Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch, with all the Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church to all the clergy, monastics, and all the sons and daughters of our Holy Church: grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, with the joyous Christmas greeting:

Peace from God! Christ is Born!

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son…”

Gal. 4:4

With the genealogy of Jesus Christ, “the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1), dear brothers and sisters, begins the Gospel of Christ, God’s blessed and joyous news to mankind.

On this day of the joyous Feast of the Nativity of Christ all Christian hearts throughout the world are filled with the song of the angels of God, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men”. (Luke 2:14) This Day is a great joy for the entire world “for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”. (Luke 2:11)

The birth of the Son of God is a great mystery of God’s love. One is never closer to another than today, on Christmas day. Adults and children are never closer to each other than on this day. A person never feels a greater need to reconcile and become closer to others than on this day. From this comes the need and custom of our people to forgive and exchange “God’s-peace” on this day, to forget personal quarrels with a wish that all those around us may come together in brotherly unity and in the spirit of love and God’s peace.

The angelic song in honor of Christ’s birth is a truth-filled song which fully tells the essence of His message, the content of His Gospel and the mission of the Holy Church which He, the Incarnate Son of God, has established. The glorification of God, peace and good will among men represent the most holy triptych of the Christmas message. In glorifying God, man lifts up and glorifies himself at the same time. By preaching God’s peace, Christ’s peace, peace without fear and violence, man contributes to the building up of God’s Kingdom here on earth. It is only with good will, in the unselfish giving of oneself to God and to those around us, that it is possible to attain true human solidarity and true unity in solving all problems and in achieving moral and material progress.

With His coming, Christ witnesses an essential Union, a new union of heaven and earth, of Creator and creation, and with His mouth He reveals a great Mystery which God incorporated into man as a pledge from the moment of his creation, and this mystery comes down to one truth: that man is the most important creation under the sun. Of course, man is the most important, precisely because God in Christ became Man. According to Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, man is called to be the reflection, the glory, the light of God on earth. We can understand this only if we take the God-Man, the Lord Christ, as the proper and true measure of all beings and all events on our planet.

Each day, we meet temptations, misfortunes and suffering, caused by others or by ourselves. Afflictions in our homes, suffering in schools, cities and villages, suffering in different countries and between nations, attest to a deep division in the world, a division which cannot be overcome with human efforts. These divisions have such a deep effect that even our God-reflecting personhood is split into soul and body, conscious and unconscious, and on and on.

Oftentimes it seems that chaos is the originator and basis of our society. However, chaos is actually present only where a consciousness about the true measure of everything and everybody is lost, and that measure is love. Actually, Christ attests with His coming to this world that love has conquered the world of evil and hate, and that love always conquers it. Love is from God. God is the source of all-encompassing love. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love”. (1 John 4:8)

Born in a manger in Bethlehem, Christ has stopped time in His Person and around Himself, or more exactly: in Himself He has gathered all those who long for love and eternity. Manifesting Himself in the world, He is the only One who brings true and eternal joy.

Christ’s birth has brought peace into the world and has connected time with eternity. Peace and eternity will never again leave the world, regardless of all temptations and tribulations that might come along. As a bearer of His peace and eternity Christ has established His Church. The Church is the Pillar and a Bulwark of truth, a ship by which we safely sail into the peaceful harbor of our salvation.

Through the Church God heals every sickness and every human infirmity. In the Church harmony is established between heaven and earth, between the created and the uncreated, between the eternal and the temporal, between the spirit and the body. The healing which the Lord grants in the Church is not understandable if it is not comprehended and experienced as God’s love which is manifested in Christ Born, Crucified, Resurrected and Glorified for us and for our salvation. The Lord loves everyone and desires that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He calls us to participate in the work of our salvation by coming to know Him in the Church, that is, by being gathered and united in the Church and as the Church, by living in her and by her. The measure of spiritual life on earth is the Church because she is the body of Christ. Through her the Lord heals us, for He wishes that all will become participants in eternal life and eternal love.

We call all our spiritual children throughout the world to never forget that the Lord entrusted salvation to the Church, and that in her is given the only true way and direction by which we should go. The measure of spiritual life is not given to individuals, but rather it is given by the Holy Spirit to the Church as a whole, so that all may grow into perfection in harmony and peace.

The Eternal God on that long-ago, first historic Christmas, was born as a poor Child so that we might be enriched by Him, by His divine perfection as by eternal wealth. With this He teaches us and all human generations not to separate ourselves from each other, but to bear each other’s burdens, to love each other, to help the weak and the poor, to share as brothers and sisters the blessings which God has bestowed upon us, and so fulfill the Law of Christ and in a Christian way fulfill our human calling.

Every separation, dissension, animosity and tearing down of unity is in opposition to the Holy Spirit and to the spirit of the Church, or we cannot at the same time “drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons,” and we cannot “partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons”. ( I Cor. 10:21)

Christmas is the Feast Day when we feel the fullness of goodness and the mercy of God, shown towards mankind by God sending His Only-Begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God’s love, manifested mysteriously in Bethlehem’s cave, touches all of us on this great Day.

The celebration of Christmas is not simply a custom, a tradition, a habit, or a day of receiving and giving gifts. Christmas is the gift above all gifts, the day in which is revealed the only new thing under the sun, the day in which eternal divine youth flows into the very being of heaven and earth and into our limited, transient human nature and brings eternal youth to all.

Unfortunately, brothers and sisters, we must admit that our spiritual peace has been disquieted, and as a result our joy is not complete. It is overshadowed with fear and worry about everyday events in the world, and especially because of the tragic events in our crucified Kosovo and Metohija. These events cloud the harmonious singing of angelic song and they threaten to change peace and patience into unrest and intolerance.

We counsel our dear faithful flock, the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, to be persistent and to stay in their homesteads, with their Church and their holy shrines, in the land of their ancestors. The Church, as a caring Mother, is always with them and always will be with them. Without suffering there is no resurrection. May our Lord be our measure even in our suffering!

We appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, to safeguard the sanctity of marriage, to care for and look after your children, especially to care for their religious and moral upbringing and their education. Religious classes in our public school system are a great help, but they are not the only way of educating our youth and by themselves they are not enough. This is why parents and a warm family home are a holy community and a place of growth into the stature of Christ, growth into the fullness of the Divine-Child’s love. Faith and love are taught in parents’ homes first, in the family environment. They are taught imperceptibly, just as the mother tongue is learned. God gave parents an exalted role that through the birth and raising of children they may ennoble the world and so make it better and more beautiful.

Unfortunately, many marriages are still entered into without the blessing of the Church, and there are also divorces, which are a true calamity for our Church and for our nation. Marriage is a vow before God, and it is a Holy Mystery of our Church. Man has no right to separate that which God has brought together, says Christ the Lord (Matthew 19:6).

Christ’s Birth has shown upon the world the light of knowledge and of divine knowledge. With His entry into the world a new beginning of time has dawned, the end of the pagan era and the beginning of the era of the knowledge of Christ through the Church which He founded with His precious blood.

This Day is celebrated by experiencing everything that is most beautiful and most exalted. This Day reminds man of his dual origin, heavenly and earthly. It teaches man his duties toward both his heavenly and earthly family. This Day reminds us that it is necessary to give back to our Heavenly Father and to our heavenly family in order to achieve blessings and happiness in our earthly family.

Open your hearts, you, our dear spiritual children, who are gone to far away countries, and celebrate with joy the Divine Infant, for the earth is the Lord’s everywhere, and God is everywhere and in every place. In the Church of Christ, in this holy Divine-Human community, we celebrate together with you all these joy-filled Christmas Holy Days, and we are not far away from each other.

Let us lift up our hearts, all without exception, dear brothers and sisters! This is the day which the Lord has given us that we too may be spiritually born and reborn through Christ the Lord. May the Light of the Holy Spirit, of the Spirit of the Divine Child Christ, the Spirit of God, shine in our souls and our homes!

To live a spiritual life means to work out our salvation, to be healed, to run away from sin and to seek after love. A love which is of this world does not lead anywhere but to death; only the love of the Divine-Child Christ brings life and leads to life eternal. That is why we need to love all those around us and to witness our Hope to all, as the Holy Apostle Peter says (I Peter 1:3; 3:15). Without love everything in this world of ours is condemned to sorrow, and without the Love of God Incarnate, Who is the New-Born Christ, everything is condemned to nothingness.

Worshiping the Young Child, the Eternal God, in this and all the days of our life, let us, dear brothers and sisters, forgive each other and with brotherly and sisterly love greet each other with the holy greeting:

PEACE FROM GOD – CHRIST IS BORN!
INDEED HE IS BORN!
A BLESSED AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!

Given at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade at Christmas, 2011.

Your intercessors before the cradle of the divine Christ-Child:
Archbishop of Pec,
Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci and
Serbian Patriarch IRINEJ
Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana JOVAN
Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Coastlands AMPHILOHIJE
Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosna NIKOLAJ

Bishop of Sabac LAVRENTIJE
Bishop of Zvornik-Tuzla VASILIJE
Bishop of Srem VASILIJE
Bishop of Banja Luka JEFREM
Bishop of Budim LUKIJAN
Bishop of Canada GEORGIJE
Bishop of Banat NIKANOR
Bishop of New Gracanica-Midwestern America LONGIN
Bishop of Eastern America MITROPHAN
Bishop of Zica CHRYSOSTOM
Bishop of Backa IRINEJ
Bishop of Great Britain and Scandinavia DOSITEJ
Bishop of Bihac and Petrovac CHRYSOSTOM
Bishop of Osijek and Baranja LUKIJAN
Bishop of Central Europe CONSTANTINE
Bishop of Western Europe LUKA
Bishop of Timok JUSTIN
Bishop of Vranje PAHOMIJE
Bishop of Sumadija JOVAN
Bishop of Slavonia SAVA
Bishop of Branicevo IGNATIJE
Bishop of Milesevo FILARET
Bishop of Dalmatia FOTIJE
Bishop of Budimlje and Niksic JOANIKIJE
Bishop of Zahumlje and Hercegovina GRIGORIJE
Bishop of Valjevo MILUTIN
Bishop of Ras and Prizren TEODOSIJE
Bishop of Western America MAXIM
Bishop of Gornji Karlovac GERASIM
Bishop of Australia and New Zealand IRINEJ
Bishop of Krusevac DAVID
Retired Bishop of Zahumlje and Hercegovina ATANASIJE
Vicar Bishop of Hvostno ATANASIJE
Vicar Bishop of Jegar PORFIRIJE
Vicar Bishop of Moravica ANTONIJE
Vicar Bishop of Lipljan JOVAN
Vicar Bishop of Remezijan ANDREJ
THE ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF OCHRID:
Archbishop of Ochrid and Metropolitan of Skoplje JOVAN
Bishop of Polos and Kumanovo JOAKIM
Bishop of Bregal and locum tenens of the Diocese of Bitolj MARKO
Bishop of Stobija DAVID

[Path of Orthodoxy translation]

Божићна посланица Српске Православне Цркве

5. Јануар 2012 – 12:43

СРПСКА ПРАВОСЛАВНА ЦРКВА СВОЈОЈ ДУХОВНОЈ ДЕЦИ
О БОЖИЋУ 2011. ГОДИНЕ

И Р И Н Е Ј
МИЛОШЋУ БОЖЈОМ ПРАВОСЛАВНИ АРХИЕПИСКОП ПЕЋКИ, МИТРОПОЛИТ БЕОГРАДСКО-КАРЛОВАЧКИ И ПАТРИЈАРХ СРПСКИ, СА СВИМА АРХИЈЕРЕЈИМА СРПСКЕ ПРАВОСЛАВНЕ ЦРКВЕ – СВЕШТЕНСТВУ МОНАШТВУ И СВИМА СИНОВИМА И КЋЕРИМА НАШЕ СВЕТЕ ЦРКВЕ: БЛАГОДАТ, МИЛОСТ И МИР ОД БОГА ОЦА, И ГОСПОДА НАШЕГ ИСУСА ХРИСТА, И ДУХА СВЕТОГА, УЗ РАДОСНИ БОЖИЋНИ ПОЗДРАВ:

МИР БОЖЈИ – ХРИСТОС СЕ РОДИ!

A када дође пуноћа времена, посла Бог Сина својега…
(Гал 4, 4).

Родословом Исуса Христа, „сина Давидова, Авраамова сина” (Мт 1, 1), почиње, драга браћо и сестре, Јеванђеље о Христу, Блага и радосна вест Божја роду људском.

Песмом анђела Божјих – „Слава на висини Богу, и на земљи мир, међу људима добра воља” (Лк 2, 14) – на данашњи дан радосног празника Рођења Христовог испуњена су широм света сва хришћанска срца. Овај Дан je за цео свет велика радост „јер вам се данас роди Спас, који je Христос Господ, у граду Давидову” (Лк 2, 11).

Рођење Сина Божјег јесте велика тајна љубави Божје. Никада човек није тако близак човеку као данас, на Божић. Никада одрасли и деца нису толико блиски једни другима као данас. Никада човек не осећа тако снажно потребу да се мири и зближава са другим људима као данас. Отуда је у нашем народу потреба и обичај да се на данашњи дан прашта и „мирбожи”, да се заборављају личне размирице, са жељом да се све око нас зближи и збратими у духу љубави и мира Божјег.

Анђелска песма у част Рођења Христовог јесте истинска песма која нам језгровито исказује суштину Христове поруке, садржај Његовог Јеванђеља и мисију свете Цркве, коју је Он, Оваплоћени Син Божји, основао. Слављење Бога, мир и добра воља међу људима представљају најсветији триптих божићне поруке. Славећи Бога, човек уједно уздиже и прославља себе. Проповедајући мир Божји, – мир Христов, мир без страха и насиља, – човек доприноси изградњи Царства Божјег на земљи. Једино добром вољом, у несебичном давању себе Богу и ближњима, може се постићи истинска људска солидарност и право заједништво у решавању свих проблема и остварити морални и материјални напредак.

Својим доласком Христос сведочи о суштинској Заједници, новој заједници неба и земље, Творца и творевине, и Својим устима открива велику Тајну коју је Бог као залог унео у човека од самога његова стварања, а она се своди на истину да најважније створење под сунцем јесте управо човек. Наравно, човек је најважнији зато што је Бог у Христу постао човек. По речима Светог Иринеја Лионског, човек је позван да буде одсјај, слава, светлост Божја на земљи. То можемо схватити једино уколико Богочовека Господа Христа узмемо за право и истинско мерило свих бића и свих збивања на нашој планети.

Свакодневно се сусрећемо са искушењима, недаћама и патњама, изазваним од стране других или од нас самих. Патње у нашим домовима, патње у школама, патње у градовима и селима, патње у државама и међу народима сведоче о дубокој подељености у свету, подељености која се не може превазићи људским напорима. При том поделе иду тако дубоко да се и сама наша боголика личност дели – на душу и тело, на свесно и несвесно, и тако у недоглед.

Често се учини да је неред покретач и носилац нашег друштва. Неред је, међутим, присутан само онде где је изгубљена свест о истинској мери свега и свих, а то је љубав. Управо Христос сведочи, Својим доласком у овај свет, да је љубав победила свет зла и мржње и да га увек побеђуј e. Љубав је од Бога. Бог је извор свеколике љубави. „Који не љуби, не познаде Бога; јер Бог је љубав” (1. Јн 4, 8).

Рођен у јаслама у Витлејему, Христос је зауставио време у Својој Личности и око Себе – још тачније: у Себи – сабрао све оне који су жељни љубави и вечности. Јавивши се у свету, Он нам једини доноси истинску и непролазну радост.

Рођење Христово је унело мир Божји у свет, а време повезало са вечношћу. Мир и вечност неће више никада напустити свет, без обзира на сва искушења и недаће које га могу задесити. Као носиоца Свога мира и вечности Христос је установио Цркву Своју. Она је Стуб и Тврђава истине, брод којим сигурно пловимо у тихо пристаниште нашега спасења.

Господ кроз Цркву исцељује сваку болест и сваку немоћ људску. У њој се васпоставља склад између неба и земље, између створеног и нествореног, између вечног и временог, између духа и тела. Исцељење које Господ у Цркви даје није разумљиво уколико се не схвати и не доживи као љубав Божја која се пројавила у Христу, Рођеном, Распетом, Васкрслом и Прослављеном нас ради и нашега спасења ради. Господ љуби свакога човека и жели да се сви људи спасу и дођу у познање истине. Он и нас позива да учествујемо у делу нашега спасења тако што ћемо Њега познати у Цркви, то јест бити сабрани и уједињени у Цркви и као Црква, живети у њој и њоме. Мерило духовног живота на земљи јесте Црква јер је она Тело Христово. Кроз њу нас Господ исцељује јер жели да сви буду причасници вечнога живота и вечне љубави.

Позивамо и сву нашу духовну децу широм света да никада не забораве да је Господ Цркви поверио спасење и да је у њој дат једини истинити пут и правац којим треба да идемо. Мерило духовног живота није дато појединцима већ се Духом Светим дај e Цркви у целини, тако да се све складно и у миру Божјем усавршава.

Превечни Бог се на онај давни, први историјски Божић родио као пуки сиромашак да би нас обогатио Собом, Својим божанским савршенством као вечним богатством. Тиме Он и нас и сва људска покољења учи да се не одвајамо једни од других него да једни другима бремена носимо, да љубимо једни друге, да помажемо слабе и сиромашне, да братски делимо добра којима нас je Бог обдарио и да тако испунимо Закон Христов и на хришћански начин остваримо cвoje људско призвaњe.

Cвaкa деоба, раздор, нeприjaтeљcтвo и разарање заједништва супротни су Духу Божјем и духу Црквe. Jep, не можемо иcтoврeмeнo „пити чашу Господњу и чашу демонску”, не можемо „учествовати у трпези Господњој и у трпези демонској” (1. Kop 10, 21).

Божић је Празник кад осећамо пуноћу доброте и милости Божјe, показане према роду људском тиме што је Бог послао у свет Сина Cвoга Јединороднога, Господа нашега Исуса Христа. Божанска љyбaв, која се чудесно показала у витлејемској пећини, прожима и све нас на oвaj вeлики Дан.

Прaзнoвaњe Божића није просто обичај, традиција, нaвикa, дан примања и дaвaњa дaрoвa. Божић je дар над дaрoвимa, дан у којем ce открило оно што je jeдинo ново под cyнцeм, дан у којем ce вeчнa божанска младост улила у биће нeбa и зeмљe и у oгрaничeнy, пролазну људску природу и cвe подмладила вeчном младошћу.

Нажалост, браћо и cecтpe, морамо признати да je наш духoвни мир прилично помућен, тe ни радост наша ниje потпуна. Она je oceнчeнa страхом и бригом због cвaкoднeвниx збивања у cвeтy, a пoceбнo због трагичних збивaњa на нaшeм распетом Kocoвy и Meтoxиjи. Ta збивања мyтe складни пој aнђeлcкe пеcмe и прeтe да мир и cтрпљeњe прeтвoрe у нecпoкojcтвo и нетрпeљивocт.

Нашим драгим верницимa, Србима на Kocoвy и Метохији, прeпoрyчyjeмo да буду истрајни и да остану на својим огњиштима, уз cвojy Цркву и уз cвoje cвeтињe, на зeмљи cвojиx дeдoвa и прaдeдoвa. Црквa, као брижна Мати, yвeк je са њима и yвeк ћe бити са њима. Бeз страдања нeмa ни вacкрceњa. Господ тека нам cвимa бyдe мерило и у страдањима!

Молимо вac, браћо и cecтpe, да светињу брака oчyвaтe, да ce бринeтe и cтapaтe о cвojoj дeци, a нарочито о њиxoвoм верском и моралном вacпитaњy и oбрaзoвaњy. Beрoнayкa у oбрaзoвнoм cиcтeмy у нашим школама јесте вeликa помоћ, али ниje jeдинa и ниje дoвoљнa; зато су рoдитeљи и топли породични дом cвeтa зajeдницa и мecтo узрастања у меру раста виcинe Хриcтoвe, у пуноћу љyбaви Бoгoмлaдeнцa. Jep, вepa и морал ce yчe нajпрe у рoдитeљcкoм дому, у породици. Учe ce нeoceтнo, исто онако како ce учи и мaтeрњи jeзик.

Бог je рoдитeљимa дао yзвишeнy улогу да кроз рађање и васпитавање дeцe oплeмeњyjy cвeт и да га чине бољим и лeпшим.

Нажалост, још je yвeк много брaкoвa cклoпљeниx бeз благocлoвa cвeтe Црквe, a и рaзвeдeниx брaкoвa, који су прaвa несрећа и за нашу Цркву и за наш народ. Брак је завет пред Богом и у исто време црквена Света Тајна. Човек нема право да раставља оно што је Бог саставио, каже Христос Господ (Мт 19, 6).

Христово Рођење је обасјало свет светлошћу знања и богопознања. Његовим уласком у свет настаје почетак новог доба, крај незнабожачке ере и почетак ере христопознања, кроз Цркву коју је Он основао Својом часном крвљу.
Овај Дан се прославља доживљавањем свега што је најлепше и најузвишеније. Он човека подсећа на његово двоструко порекло – небеско и земаљско. Он учи човека дужностима и према небеској и према земаљској породици. Овај Дан нас опомиње да је потребно претходно се одужити Оцу небеском и нашој небеској породици да бисмо могли стећи благослов и срећу у земаљској породици.

Отворите срца и ви, децо наша духовна, који сте отишли у даљину и туђину и прославите у радости Богомладенца, јер је свуда земља Господња, а Бог је свуда и на свакоме месту. У Цркви Христовој, у овој светој богочовечанској заједници, славимо, са свима вама заједно, радосне божићне празнике и нисмо далеко једни од других.

Подигнимо горе срца, сви без разлике, драга браћо и сестре! Ово је Дан који је дао Бог да се и ми духовно рађамо и препорађамо кроз Христа Господа. Нека светлост Духа Светога, Духа Христа Богомладенца, Духа Божјег, засија у душама нашим и у домовима нашим!

Живети духовним животом значи спасавати се, исцељивати се, бежати од греха и трагати за љубављу. Љубав која је од овога света не води нас никуда до у смрт; једино нас љубав Богомладенца Христа оживљава и води у живот вечни. Зато треба да љубимо све око себе и свима да сведочимо Наду нашу, како каже Свети Апостол Петар (1. Пет 1, 3 и 3, 15). Без љубави, у овом нашем свету све је осуђено на тугу, а без Оваплоћене Љубави Божје, Која је Христос Новорођени, све је осуђено на ништавило.

Клањајући се Детету младом, Превечном Богу, ових и свих других дана нашега живота, опростимо, браћо и сестре, једни другима и са братском, односно сестринском љубављу поздрављајмо једни друге светим поздравом:

Мир Божји, Христос ce роди!
Ваистину ce роди!
Благословена нова 2012. година!

Дано у Патријаршији српској у Београду, о Божићу 2011. године

Ваши молитвеници пред колевком Богомладенца Христа

АРХИЕПИСКОП ПЕЋКИ, МИТРОПОЛИТ БЕОГРАДСКО-КАРЛОВАЧКИ
И ПАТРИЈАРХ СРПСКИ ИРИНЕЈ

Митрополит загребачко-љубљански ЈОВАН
Митрополит црногорско-приморски АМФИЛОХИЈЕ
Митрополит дабробосански НИКОЛАЈ
Епископ шабачки ЛАВРЕНТИЈЕ
Епископ зворничко-тузлански ВАСИЛИЈЕ
Епископ сремски ВАСИЛИЈЕ
Епископ бањалучки ЈЕФРЕМ
Епископ будимски ЛУКИЈАН
Епископ канадски ГЕОРГИЈЕ
Епископ банатски НИКАНОР
Епископ новограчаничко-средњезападноамерички ЛОНГИН
Епископ источноамерички МИТРОФАН
Епископ жички ХРИЗОСТОМ
Епископ бачки ИРИНЕЈ
Епископ британско-скандинавски ДОСИТЕЈ
Епископ бихаћко-петровачки ХРИЗОСТОМ
Епископ осечкопољски и барањски ЛУКИЈАН
Епископ средњоевропски КОНСТАНТИН
Епископ западноевропски ЛУКА
Епископ тимочки ЈУСТИН
Епископ врањски ПАХОМИЈЕ
Епископ шумадијски ЈОВАН
Епископ славонски САВА
Епископ браничевски ИГЊАТИЈЕ
Епископ милешевски ФИЛАРЕТ
Епископ далматински ФОТИЈЕ
Епископ будимљанско-никшићки ЈОАНИКИЈЕ
Епископ захумско-херцеговачки ГРИГОРИЈЕ
Епископ ваљевски МИЛУТИН
Епископ рашко-призренски ТЕОДОСИЈЕ
Епископ нишки ЈОВАН
Епископ западноамерички МАКСИМ
Епископ горњокарловачки ГЕРАСИМ
Епископ аустралијско-новозеландски ИРИНЕЈ
Епископ крушевачки ДАВИД
Епископ умировљени захумско-херцеговачки АТАНАСИЈЕ
Викарни Епископ хвостански АТАНАСИЈЕ
Викарни Епископ јегарски ПОРФИРИЈЕ
Викарни Епископ моравички АНТОНИЈЕ
Викарни Епископ липљански ЈОВАН
Викарни Епископ ремезијански АНДРЕЈ

ОХРИДСКА АРХИЕПИСКОПИЈА:
Архиепископ охридски и Митрополит скопски ЈОВАН
Епископ полошко-кумановски ЈОАКИМ
Епископ брегалнички, местобљуститељ Епархије битољске МАРКО
Епископ стобијски ДАВИД

Also see:

• Enjoy a Beautiful Serbian Christmas (January 7, New Calendar)
• Orthodox Christmas Music for the Nativity of Our Lord
• Serbian Royal Family Visits Pennsylvania for Christmas (January 7, 2011)

Washington Times: Letter to the Editor

Jeffrey Kuhner is to be commended for accurately describing the “Nazi regime led by the odious Ante Pavelic and his sadistic Ustashes” which “systematically killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies (Roma) and anti-fascist Croatians” (“Myth of Croatian fascism,” Commentary, Nov. 25). However, Mr. Kuhner’s attempt to convince us that present-day Croatia’s connection to the fascist Ustashe of World War II is just a myth lacks credibility.

It is no myth that Croatians greeted German troops with their right arms raised in a Nazi salute as they chanted “Heil Hitler,” as reported in The Washington Times in 1997. According to a story of that year, “Mobs chased minorities from their homes, kicking them and pelting them with eggs as they fled into the woods. Europe in the 1940? No, Croatia in the 1990s.”

Around the same time, Newsweek reported that when German tanks passed through Croatia as part of the NATO deployment to the Balkans, “Croatians greeted the Germans with the straight-armed fascist salute,” an expression of solidarity dating back to the alliance between Croatian fascists and the Nazis.

Croatia is once again flying the same fascist checkerboard flag that it flew in 1941, when Hitler recognized Croatia as an independent nation for being his loyal ally. Ironically, the map of the Balkans drawn by Hitler in 1942 is almost identical to today’s map of the Balkans created by NATO.

As A.M. Rosenthal wrote in “Back From the Grave” in the New York Times on April 15, 1997: “In World War II, Hitler had no executioner more willing, no ally more passionate, than the Fascists of Croatia. They are returning, 50 years later, from what should have been their eternal grave, the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Western allies who dug that grave with the bodies of their servicemen have the power to stop them, but do not.”

No more brutal and graphic evidence that Croatia’s Nazi past is alive and well was the Croatian army’s Operation Storm in 1995, when more than 200,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from the Krajina region of Croatia. Thousands of Serbs who did not flee, mostly elderly men and women, were exterminated in true Nazi fashion.

Mr. Kuhner attempts to sweep under the rug modern-day Croatia’s fascist propensities but this degrades the Serbs, our World War II allies.

STELLA L. JATRAS

Camp Hill, Pa.

My original letter:

Regarding his article, “Myth of Croatian fascism,” Jeffery Kuhner is to be commended for accurately describing the “Nazi regime [in WWII Croatia] led by the odious Ante Pavelic and his sadistic Ustashes” which “systematically killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies (Roma) and anti-fascist Croatians.” However his attempt to convince us that present-day Croatia’s roots to the fascist Ustashe of World War II is just a myth lacks credibility.

It is no myth that Croatians greeted German troops with their right arms raised in a Nazi salute as they chanted “Heil Hitler,” as reported in The Washington Times in 1997. The Times continued, “Mobs chased minorities from their homes, kicking them and pelting them with eggs as they flee into the woods. Europe in the 1940? No, Croatia in the 1990s.” (edited)

Newsweek, 1996/1997, reported that when German tanks passed through Croatia as part of the NATO deployment to the Balkans, “Croatians greeted the Germans with the straight-armed fascist salute.”, an expression of solidarity dating back to the alliance between Croatian fascist and the Nazis. Croatia is once again flying the same fascist checkerboard flag that it flew in 1941, when Hitler recognized Croatia as an Independent nation for being his loyal ally. Ironically, the map of the Balkans drawn by Hitler in 1942 is almost identical to today’s map of the Balkans created by NATO. (edited)

The following is from A.M. Rosenthal’s “Back From the Grave,” (NYT, 15 April 1997) “In World War II, Hitler had no executioner more willing, no ally more passionate, than the Fascists of Croatia. They are returning, 50 years later, from what should have been their eternal grave, the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Western allies who dug that grave with the bodies of their servicemen have the power to stop them, but do not.”

No more brutal and graphic evidence that Croatia’s Nazi past is alive and well is the Croatian Army’s Operation Storm in 1995 when over 200,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from the Krajina region of Croatia. Thousands of Serbs who did not flee, mostly elderly men and women, were exterminated in true Nazi fashion.

Jeffrey Kuhner should stop using the Washington Times as his forum to ameliorate today’s Croatia’s fascist propensities and should stop humiliating and degrading the Serbian people, our ally who rescued over 500 downed American airmen who had been shot down over Yugoslavia during World War II while Croatians turned the ones they captured over to the Nazis for execution.

Stella

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/24/myth-of-croatian-fascism/
KUHNER: Myth of Croatian fascism

From: Мирјана Петровић
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2011 11:19 AM
Subject: [sn-vesti 90546] Fwd: Pomoc srpskoj deci na Kosovu i Metohiji / Appeal to help Serbian children in Kosovo and Metohija

Ponovo saljem apel za pomoc nasim ljudima na Kosovu.

———- Forwarded message ———-

Молимо за помоћ браћо Срби / Appeal for your help

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our first round of fundraising to help Serbs in Kosovo this October, we’ve raised $800, from about 20 donors. These funds are now utilized to help Serbian families in Northern Kosovo.

This is a plea to all of you to take a moment and help the second round of our fundraising effort. You may note which beneficiary you would specifically like to support or you may leave it for the funds to be equally divided to help the following:

• Village of Miloševo near Obilić (located 7miles from Priština). Miloševo is an enclave of 30 residents and few homes, inhabited largely by children and elders. The funds raised will be used to purchase food (flour, salt, oil, rice), school supplies, firewood, and medicine.
• Schools and children of Northern Kosovo whose families continue to fearlessly defend Serbian homes, as well as freedom and history of all Serbs. The raised funds will be used for food, school supplies, and firewood.
• Purchase modest Christmas gifts for Serbian children in Kosovo, consisting of essential school supplies.

All raised funds are sent via verified and trusted channels. The reports, receipts, and photo documentation of purchases made with these funds will be provided back to our church.

To those who have already given, thank you for your generosity!

Please be generous and please do not delay. You help is needed now.

While we wait others act. Note that all donations are tax-deductible.

Checks should be directed to our Church at: St. Archangel Michael Orthodox Church 18870 Allendale Avenue, Saratoga, CA 95070, with memo “Kosovo”.

Credit card and donations through your bank account can be made as follows:

• Go to our church website www.samichael.org,
• Click on the “Donate” button (in the top right corner of www.samichael.org),
• Enter the amount you wish to donate (it will say “ref: building fund” but you can later note that your donation is for “Kosovo”),
• Click on “Update amount”,
• Enter your Paypal login and password (setting up a Paypal account is quick and free),
• Type “Kosovo” or related note when you click on “Write in here if you have a special note”,
• Select payment method (credit card, etc), and
• Click on “Donate $ amount now”.

Thank you all and may God bless you!
Please contact me or pomocsrbima@gmail.com with any questions.

Mirjana

Sheik has the story at Winds of Jihad.