For once I’m moved to write about EU current affairs. If I were an MEP there is no way I could vote for a European Commission that included Rocco Buttiglione in any portfolio near justice and home affairs, let alone human rights. I hope they vote against the proposed new Commission on Wednesday, and have emailed the MEPs who I know and also those representing Flanders to say so.

[Edit: One of the Flemings emailed me back almost immediately to say:

I am sorry, but when a former communist and servant of a totalitarian regime has the right to be a commissioner, I don’t see any reason to refuse Mr Buttiglione, with whom I disagree on many points, to express his opinions.

Well, I wasn’t ever going to vote for him or his party anyway!]

[Edit 2: From one of my liberal friends:

As things stand a majority [of the liberal group] are opposed. Depends on whether enough of my colleagues are either bought off tomorrow or whether Barroso offers enough more by way of a compromise.

He’s fairly sound anyway.]

[Edit 3: two more of my liberal friends confirm they’ll be voting against.]

Just did an interview with Australian radio. Apparently it will be on-line shortly at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/brkfast/ – but isn’t yet. Probably by Monday morning European time.

[Monday morning edit – now seems to be on-line at
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/brkfast/stories/s1226938.htm ]

16) In The Shadow Of No Towers, by Art Spiegelman

This is the second book about 9-11 that I’ve read in a month, the first being the famous Commission Report. The two are ever so slightly different. The Commission Report is hundreds of pages of dense research, whereas this is ten huge pages of graphics explaining the reaction of one resident of Lower Manhattan.

Spiegelman and his wife rushed to their daughter’s school beside the World Trade Center as soon as they realised what was happening; while they were inside looking for her the first tower collapsed; on their way out, the second tower fell too.

We turn to see the bones of the tower glow and shimmy in the sky. Ever-so-slowly it cascades into itself.

The image of the glowing tower, about to fall, illuminates the entire work. But he also expresses a deep hostility to the entire American political system, President Bush in particular, for (as he sees it) using the excuse of the attacks to pursue business as usual.

Our hero is trapped reliving the traumas of Sept 11, 2001…
Unbeknownst to him, brigands suffering from war fever have since hijacked those tragic events…

Yet at the same time he maintains a certain ability to question his own reactions (which will be familiar to anyone else who’s read his Maus) and even pokes fun at his own propensity to read up on conspiracy theories. He doesn’t come to a firm conclusion, but that goes for most of us.

The 9-11 material is followed by an interesting if not especially related brief history of comics in New York, with a few classic scenes from the likes of Little Nemo In Slumberland which Spiegelman links into the overall theme. The inside front and back cover carry the September 11 1901 headlines from the New York World, also a time of (generally forgotten) national trauma, as President William McKinley, shot a few days before in upstate New York, was gradually deteriorating to his death on September 14. But almost the best bit is Spiegelman’s two-page introduction to the book as a whole, which says much more than I can here about why he did it, and why he did it the way he did.

Thanks to :

http://contrapositive.blogspot.com/2004/10/election-night-cheat-sheet-as-promised.html

Download the entire internet onto your own computer!

(thanks to Teresa Nielsen Hayden)

Danijela Dabić died earlier today of an inoperable brain tumour, which she had been living with for over three years. When I first went out to the Balkans to work for NDI, early in 1997, I hired her as my assistant, and she rapidly became my right hand in dealing with the bizarre and truculent world of Bosnian Serb opposition politics. Working with her in Banja Luka that summer, as it suddenly (if briefly) became the centrepiece of Western intervention in the Balkans, was possibly the high point of my career, and I couldn’t have done it without her.

Danijela was born in Zagreb, Croatia, in January 1976, and her family were among the tens of thousands of Serbs who got out of town when the old Yugoslavia disintegrated; her grandparents were among the hundreds of thousands who fled Croatian forces when the Krajina collapsed in 1995. She was delighted to get the extra mobility that a job with the internationals allowed a stateless young woman in 1997, and repaid us with energy, intelligence and humour. Her occasional freelancing as a translator for visiting journalists gave us links with the Western media, and indeed brought her a brief romance with the correspondent for the London Times.

Well, she was exceptionally bright, and moved onward and upward, taking up a new post within our Banja Luka office as a trainer for political activists, and then spending a year at the University of New Hampshire. It was while she was in the US that she discovered she was ill; she returned to Bosnia in summer 2001 expecting to die, but recovered sufficiently to take up her old job in Banja Luka and indeed to move to Sarajevo last year as head of NDI’s parliamentary program, a post that would previously have gone to an international appointee.

When I last saw her, in late 2002, she was the same as ever, tall, thin, sharp as a razor; her English was completely fluent and idiomatic although (until 2000) she had never spent much time abroad. As a result of her cancer she had given up smoking and adopted healthier eating habits (though she had always disdained the grease-ridden excesses of the local cuisine). She knew then that she was on borrowed time, and was still flying to Boston regularly for treatment. We had an excellent lunch reminiscing about former days, and then a dinner with two of my successors in the Banja Luka NDI office and a couple of other old friends who happened to be in town.

Well, it seems the end came relatively suddenly and without pain, in her home town, which is all any of us can really hope for. The funeral will be at the end of the week, and there’s no way I can be there, so this weblog entry will have to do as a memorial; plus the card we’ll be sending to her parents and brother Saša. As I get older, I know that I will face more such holes opening up in my past. But that intellectual knowledge doesn’t really make it any better. Danijela, rest well. You earned it.

Home

Stop the nassty Croats from taking over Piran Bay!

http://www.megspace.com/internet/piranzaliv/game.html

Good to see how well the traditions of brotherhood and unity survive.

DANIJELA DABIC 1976 – 2004
author: NDI Bosnia and …
dated: Thursday, October 21, 2004 – 11:25

1976 – 2004

To our dear friend

DANIJELA DABIĆ

Many things in life will catch your eye

but few will catch your heart…

you touched our hearts and will stay in forever!

your colleagues from NDI: Niamh, Kate, Paul, John, Peter, Mladen, Vanja, Tanja, Dijana, Amna, Nermina, Rada, Ljiljana, Darko, Amila, Vladimira, Admir, Tijana, Vesna, Dragan

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Danijeli
Author:Anonymous
Date:Thu, 10/28/2004 – 13:17
Tvoja hrabrost ce biti moja inspiracija.
Tvoja mudrost ce mi biti vodilja.
Ti ces zivjeti u mom srcu i mislima.
Ovo nije kraj, vec novi pocetak na ljepsem mjestu…

Do novog susreta!

Amna

[ reply to this comment ]

Matt Baker
Author:Anonymous
Date:Wed, 10/27/2004 – 03:44
Danijela was inspiring – intelligent and courageous, talented while modest, and in all respects impressive. It was an honor to have known her, to have worked with her, and to consider her a friend.
For all those at NDI-BiH, you have and continue to change the lives of thousands and have touched hearts and changed minds across the globe. Danijela was a driving force in those efforts from the beginning. She will be sorely missed, but also remembered.

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
-Anonymous

Deepest sympathies to all family and friends.

[ reply to this comment ]

Danijela
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 23:05
I will remember Danijela with much fondness and admiration – Robert

And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller between life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light.
–Wordsworth

[ reply to this comment ]

NDI Crna Gora
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 18:59
Tvoj prerani i bolno nepravicni odlazak nas je duboko potresao. Ostaces u nasem sjecanju hrabra i nasmijana.
Porodici, prijateljima i kolegama upucujemo izraze najdubljeg saucesca.
Kolege iz NDI/Crna Gora

[ reply to this comment ]

Elvis
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 18:58
Danijelu znam jos od 1997 godine kada smo zajedno pocinjali raditi za NDI. Iz tih vremena u sjecanju mi je ostalo nesto sto je Francesca rekla Nicholas Whiteu prilikom priprema za otvaranje NDI kancelarije u Banjaluci. “Ne brini, u Banjaluci nas ceka Danijela, ona ce se pobrinut za sve, u dobrim si rukama”. Rekla je Francesca mislivsi na Danijelu. Istina takva je Danijela bila, pouzdana i veoma predana u svome radu. U proteklih sedam godina cesto sam bio svjedokom kada bi se Danijela obracala, govorila i objasnjavala. U takvim situacijam pogledao bih oko sebe i primjetio bih kako je ljudi slusaju sa punom paznjom i gotovo bez daha upijaju svaku njenu rijec. Danijela je prosto pljenila svojim govorom. Za mene, slusati Danijelu kako prica je bilo jedinstveno iskustuvo, slicno kao kada se slusaju stihovi neke predivne pjesme.
Danijela je bila istinski uzor za mnoge od nas u NDI. Meni osobno ce neizmjerno nedostajati.

Elvis Zutic

[ reply to this comment ]

Michael Balagus
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 16:31
I will always remeber your questioning mind, your smile and your friendship. You taught me much.

My deepest sympathy to Danijela’s family and her friends and co-workers at NDI.

[ reply to this comment ]

To Danijela
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 16:29
Danijela, you were a great and inspirational human being.
Your smile and courage will never be forgotten.
We send our deepest condolences to your family, friends and colleagues.
Lisa, Natasa, Miro, Sasa, Ana, Jelena and Zuzana
NDI Montenegro

[ reply to this comment ]

Condolence for Danijela
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 16:27
Being new to NDI and the region I only met Danijela at a few occasions. What I will always remember is her smile. Now I know how ill she was I will also remember her courage. A tragic loss.

Chris Henshaw, NDI Macedonia

[ reply to this comment ]

Paul Labun
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 16:25
I will walk down the hall to find out what
Danijela thinks about this, I used to say to myself.

Her office door was sometimes closed
(after she moved upstairs this summer) but
regardless, Danijela always was ready for few
words, small talk or gossip.
Often we would get right into the issue.
First an exchange of views and then debate.
It didn’t matter the issue: geo-politics,
the history of yugoslavia or Canada,
parliamentary development or the timing of a seminar.
Danijela always wanted the truth and what was best.
And why not? She had a tough and fearless mind.
Borders or language did not contain it.

It was always great to talk to Danijela
because she devoured new knowledge, ideas
and vocabulary like she devoured chocolate.
She picked up things as fast as anyone I have
known and then she threw them back at you.
Her mind was like a greyhound.

Could one ask for a better colleague?

Danijela did not suffer fools.
Sometimes she was direct –a bit like a hawk
diving on its prey. Danijela might have been
intimidating (and sometimes she was) but she
also had a quick smile and a ready laugh, often
at herself or at our limits, and so it was always
refreshing to be with her.
She was a true friend.

Danijela was a leader. She demonstrated a fine
combination of principles, pragmatism and compassion.
She understood that ideas were important but empty
if you didn’t try to put them into practice.
She understood the responsibility of public service
and politics deeply, what it is and also what it should be.
That politics should make sense but should also
give people hope. She understood loyalty. She was an
intellect with a heart. Certain that she should run
for public office, I told her so. She agreed, and
you could tell she felt it as much a responsibility as an opportunity.

Yes, thinking of Danijela makes me smile.

I think I will continue to wonder what Danijela
will make of this or that,I remember thinking it
a few hours ago…
I can’t help wonder what she is making of her death,
the reactions, the funeral rites. Oh you know she
would have an opinion, and a strong one. That makes smile.
Thinking about Danijela always made me smile.
She was like a bright light.

Those that knew Danijela have suffered a great loss.
Our greatest sympathies are with her family now.
And although we can never know just how much, today
her country’s future also suffers a loss without her.

[ reply to this comment ]

On Fridays in the summer
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 16:23
On Fridays in the summer
When we’d sneak, sometimes,
Off early, for coffee, and so on time for talk:
Of Le Circque de Soeil in Austria; the Arabian steeds of Slovenia;
Travel: this year to Tunis and Istanbul, next year somewhere else new,
As yet undiscovered by Danijela’s absorbing eye.

Ice-cream in the Imperial. I of course have nut, Amna chocolate;
Nermina pistachio, also nut, but green; Amila has berry pink fruit, of the forest
where also we’d walk, but not too far, nor fast, for you
And you have vanilla. Three scoops.

In Palma, after a birthday, and everyone else gone home,
We’d sit without realizing it’d turned dark, and the low lights
Around the water’d come up, casting soft shadows along
Your beautiful face. And always we’d laugh. Loud and long sometimes,
Short girly giggles at others.

In our final talks together
You never faltered, as others, lesser,
Might feint and feign from thinking about
The future, your future, of things bright and beautiful;
Fuelled always by
The gold that glisters still in your soul.

[ reply to this comment ]

cpajic@ndi.org
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 16:22
Knowing how bravely Danijela handled her illness, this poem seemed very fitting for her death. Danijela, we will miss you, but we will do our best to remember you without sadness and rather with joy, for now you are at peace.

What is Death?
Henry Scott Holland
1847-1918
Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect,
without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you,
for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just around the corner.

All is well.

[ reply to this comment ]

Danijela
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 12:02
I am sorry I didn’t have the opportunity to say goodbye but I am honoured to have had the opportunity to know such a remarkable person.

Francesca

“So has a Daisy vanished
From the fields today —
So tiptoed many a slipper
To Paradise away”
— Emily Dickinson

[ reply to this comment ]

Our thoughts and prayers are
Author:Anonymous
Date:Mon, 10/25/2004 – 11:09
Our thoughts and prayers are with Danijela’s family, friends and colleagues…we hope you find peace in your memories of Danijela.

Sincerely,
Steve Gibbs, Zoran Gracanin, Davor Vuletic, Zlatan Burzic

[ reply to this comment ]

Geoff Dubrow
Author:Anonymous
Date:Fri, 10/22/2004 – 16:36
I only met Danijela once, but remember her well. She was beautiful, gentle, professional. I am so sorry to learn of her passing.

[ reply to this comment ]

DANIJELA
Author:Anonymous
Date:Fri, 10/22/2004 – 09:42
Although we only met briefly, Danijela impressed upon me her dedication and commitment to BiH, and her belief that through work with NDI, she could help change her country for the better. I am reminded of how much NDI national staff contribute to the development of post-conflict society throughout the CEE region, and would like to express sincere sympathy to her family, friends and colleagues in BiH. Tim Baker, NDI Kosovo

[ reply to this comment ]

Danijela
Author:addy
Date:Thu, 10/21/2004 – 14:07
Great friends will always be remebered. Danijela was one of them.

[ reply to this comment ]

DANIJELA DABIC 1976 – 2004
author: NDI Bosnia and …
dated: Thursday, Oktobar 21, 2004 – 10:41

1976 – 2004

Našoj dragoj prijateljici

DANIJELI DABIĆ

Puno stvari u životu privuče pažnju

Ali mali broj dotakne naša srca…

Ti si dotakla naša srca i uvijek ćeš u njima ostati!

Tvoje kolege iz NDI-ja: Niamh, Kate, Paul, John, Peter, Mladen, Vanja, Tanja, Dijana, Amna, Nermina, Rada, Ljiljana, Darko, Amila, Vladimira, Admir, Tijana, Vesna, Dragan

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Danijeli…
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Cet, 10/28/2004 – 13:09
Tvoja hrabrost ce biti moja inspiracija.
Tvoja mudrost ce mi biti vodilja.
Ti ces zivjeti u mom srcu i mislima.
Ovo nije kraj, vec novi pocetak na ljepsem mjestu…

Do novog susreta!

Amna

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

Matt Baker
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Sre, 10/27/2004 – 10:10
Danijela was inspiring – intelligent and courageous, talented while modest, and in all respects impressive. It was an honor to have known her, to have worked with her, and to consider her a friend.
For all those at NDI-BiH, you have and continue to change the lives of thousands and have touched hearts and changed minds across the globe. Danijela was a driving force in those efforts from the beginning. She will be sorely missed, but also remembered.

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
-Anonymous

Deepest sympathies to all family and friends.

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

Danijela
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Sre, 10/27/2004 – 10:08
I will remember Danijela with much fondness and admiration – Robert

And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller between life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light.
–Wordsworth

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

M Balagus
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Sre, 10/27/2004 – 10:06
I will always remeber your questioning mind, your smile and your friendship. You taught me much.

My deepest sympathy to Danijela’s family and her friends and co-workers at NDI.

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

To Danijela
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pon, 10/25/2004 – 19:14
I am sorry I didn’t have the opportunity to say goodbye but I am honoured to have had the opportunity to know such a remarkable person.

Francesca

“So has a Daisy vanished
From the fields today —
So tiptoed many a slipper
To Paradise away”
— Emily Dickinson

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

Tim Baker
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pon, 10/25/2004 – 19:13
Although we only met briefly, Danijela impressed upon me her dedication and commitment to BiH, and her belief that through work with NDI, she could help change her country for the better. I am reminded of how much NDI national staff contribute to the development of post-conflict society throughout the CEE region, and would like to express sincere sympathy to her family, friends and colleagues in BiH. Tim Baker, NDI Kosovo

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

Geoff Dubrow
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pon, 10/25/2004 – 19:12
I only met Danijela once, but remember her well. She was beautiful, gentle, professional. I am so sorry to learn of her passing.

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

Our thoughts
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pon, 10/25/2004 – 19:11
Our thoughts and prayers are with Danijela’s family, friends and colleagues…we hope you find peace in your memories of Danijela.

Sincerely,
Steve Gibbs, Zoran Gracanin, Davor Vuletic, Zlatan Burzic

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

Catherine Messina Pajic
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pon, 10/25/2004 – 19:10
Knowing how bravely Danijela handled her illness, this poem seemed very fitting for her death. Danijela, we will miss you, but we will do our best to remember you without sadness and rather with joy, for now you are at peace.

What is Death?
Henry Scott Holland
1847-1918
Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect,
without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you,
for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just around the corner.

All is well.

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

On Friday
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pon, 10/25/2004 – 19:08
On Fridays in the summer
When we’d sneak, sometimes,
Off early, for coffee, and so on time for talk:
Of Le Circque de Soeil in Austria; the Arabian steeds of Slovenia;
Travel: this year to Tunis and Istanbul, next year somewhere else new,
As yet undiscovered by Danijela’s absorbing eye.

Ice-cream in the Imperial. I of course have nut, Amna chocolate;
Nermina pistachio, also nut, but green; Amila has berry pink fruit, of the forest
where also we’d walk, but not too far, nor fast, for you
And you have vanilla. Three scoops.

In Palma, after a birthday, and everyone else gone home,
We’d sit without realizing it’d turned dark, and the low lights
Around the water’d come up, casting soft shadows along
Your beautiful face. And always we’d laugh. Loud and long sometimes,
Short girly giggles at others.

In our final talks together
You never faltered, as others, lesser,
Might feint and feign from thinking about
The future, your future, of things bright and beautiful;
Fuelled always by
The gold that glisters still in your soul.

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

Paul Labun
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pon, 10/25/2004 – 19:07
I will walk down the hall to find out what
Danijela thinks about this, I used to say to myself.

Her office door was sometimes closed
(after she moved upstairs this summer) but
regardless, Danijela always was ready for few
words, small talk or gossip.
Often we would get right into the issue.
First an exchange of views and then debate.
It didn’t matter the issue: geo-politics,
the history of yugoslavia or Canada,
parliamentary development or the timing of a seminar.
Danijela always wanted the truth and what was best.
And why not? She had a tough and fearless mind.
Borders or language did not contain it.

It was always great to talk to Danijela
because she devoured new knowledge, ideas
and vocabulary like she devoured chocolate.
She picked up things as fast as anyone I have
known and then she threw them back at you.
Her mind was like a greyhound.

Could one ask for a better colleague?

Danijela did not suffer fools.
Sometimes she was direct –a bit like a hawk
diving on its prey. Danijela might have been
intimidating (and sometimes she was) but she
also had a quick smile and a ready laugh, often
at herself or at our limits, and so it was always
refreshing to be with her.
She was a true friend.

Danijela was a leader. She demonstrated a fine
combination of principles, pragmatism and compassion.
She understood that ideas were important but empty
if you didn’t try to put them into practice.
She understood the responsibility of public service
and politics deeply, what it is and also what it should be.
That politics should make sense but should also
give people hope. She understood loyalty. She was an
intellect with a heart. Certain that she should run
for public office, I told her so. She agreed, and
you could tell she felt it as much a responsibility as an opportunity.

Yes, thinking of Danijela makes me smile.

I think I will continue to wonder what Danijela
will make of this or that,I remember thinking it
a few hours ago…
I can’t help wonder what she is making of her death,
the reactions, the funeral rites. Oh you know she
would have an opinion, and a strong one. That makes smile.
Thinking about Danijela always made me smile.
She was like a bright light.

Those that knew Danijela have suffered a great loss.
Our greatest sympathies are with her family now.
And although we can never know just how much, today
her country’s future also suffers a loss without her.

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

Chris Henshaw, NDI Macedonia
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pon, 10/25/2004 – 19:06
Being new to NDI and the region I only met Danijela at a few occasions. What I will always remember is her smile. Now I know how ill she was I will also remember her courage. A tragic loss.

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

NDI Montenegro
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pon, 10/25/2004 – 19:05
Danijela, you were a great and inspirational human being.
Your smile and courage will never be forgotten.
We send our deepest condolences to your family, friends and colleagues.
Lisa, Natasa, Miro, Sasa, Ana, Jelena and Zuzana
NDI Montenegro

[ odgovorite na ovaj komentar ]

Danijeli
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pet, 10/22/2004 – 15:53
Danijelu znam jos od 1997 godine kada smo zajedno pocinjali raditi za NDI. Iz tih vremena u sjecanju mi je ostalo nesto sto je Francesca rekla Nicholas Whiteu prilikom priprema za otvaranje NDI kancelarije u Banjaluci. “Ne brini, u Banjaluci nas ceka Danijela, ona ce se pobrinut za sve, u dobrim si rukama”. Rekla je Francesca mislivsi na Danijelu. Istina takva je Danijela bila, pouzdana i veoma predana u svome radu. U proteklih sedam godina cesto sam bio svjedokom kada bi se Danijela obracala, govorila i objasnjavala. U takvim situacijam pogledao bih oko sebe i primjetio bih kako je ljudi slusaju sa punom paznjom i gotovo bez daha upijaju svaku njenu rijec. Danijela je prosto pljenila svojim govorom. Za mene, slusati Danijelu kako prica je bilo jedinstveno iskustuvo, slicno kao kada se slusaju stihovi neke predivne pjesme.
Danijela je bila istinski uzor za mnoge od nas u NDI. Meni osobno ce neizmjerno nedostajati.

Elvis Zutic

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Danijela
Author:Anonymous
Datum:Pet, 10/22/2004 – 11:05
Tvoj prerani i bolno nepravicni odlazak nas je duboko potresao. Ostaces u nasem sjecanju hrabra i nasmijana.
Porodici, prijateljima i kolegama upucujemo izraze najdubljeg saucesca.
Kolege iz NDI/Crna Gora

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Danijela
Author:addy
Datum:Cet, 10/21/2004 – 13:54
S ljubavlju koju smrt ne prekida i beskrajnom tugom koju vrijeme ne liječi nosimo te u našim srcima, sjećanjima i mislima.

Tvoj kolega Adi

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Jetlagged and awake. But I should mention a pleasant lunch yesterday with Z., whose boyfriend is a twat.

On the flight home on Sunday night, there was only one film on offer that I really felt like watching – Before Sunset, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy: two kids, who met seven years ago while inter-railing (or equivalent), happen to meet again after nine years; he’s written a book about their brief romance and she comes to the Paris book launch, and they spend an hour and a half talking (this film is true to the Aristotelian principles as few others are). I’m a sloppy romantic at heart, plus I have happy memories of inter-railing with girlfriends, so I was all set to enjoy the film, and I’m delighted to report that I did. (Plus it starts in one of my favourite bookshops in the whole world, but I didn’t know that in advance.)

Best moments (these are not spoilers; you’ll have to see the film to get the context, and if you’ve seen it you’ll know what I mean):

1. When Celine nearly touches Jesse.
2. Her line, “I lived on 11th and Broadway.”
3. His line at the very end: “I know.”

Imagine my unexpected joy (and since all the rest of you actually watch films from time to time, you will all no doubt snigger at my ignorance) to discover that this is actually a sequel to Before Sunrise, the story of their romantic train journey nine years ago. Must buy that on DVD.

Started a long entry earlier describing my time in Utah but livejournal seems to have eaten it.

If you want to see what I look and sound like, the lecture is on the BYU site http://kennedyosx.byu.edu/afl_13Oct04.mov with many good shots of my bald patch.

14) A Treasury of Great American Scandals, by James Farquhar

Picked this up, as one does, in the Dulles Airport terminal branch of Borders. Lots of fun gossip and trivia, with a cut-off date of 1980, and a slightly contrived reaching back to cover the Salem Witch trials. But generally entertaining. The shortest chapter, “A Short, Ugly Story”, reads, in full:

In 1875 James Stephen Hogg, the first native-born Texan to become the state’s governor, names his daughter Ima.

Enough said.

She actually appears to have been quite famous.

Even Slate now has good news.

13) The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. Charles N. Brown and Jonathan Strahan

This is a totally superb collection. OK, $15.95 for 500 pages paperback may seem a bit pricy, but the quality of the stories really justifies it. Of the 18 stories, I had read eight previously – the six that have won both Hugo and Nebula (as well as the Locus Award, a precondition for inclusion), and also Sterling’s “Maneki Neko” and Le Guin’s “The Day Before The Revolution”. The other ten are all classics which I should have read years ago and somehow hadn’t:

“The Death of Doctor Island” by Gene Wolfe
“The Way of Cross and Dragon”, by George R.R. Martin
“Souls” by Joanna Russ
“The Only Neat Thing to Do”, by James Tiptree Jr – possibly the weakest story in the collection, I thought, but still very good
“Rachel In Love”, by Pat Murphy
“The Scale-Hunter’s Beautiful Daughter”, by Lucius Shepard
“Buffalo”, by John Kessel
“Gone”, by John Crowley
“Border Guards”, by Greg Egan
“October in the Chair”, by Neil Gaiman

Go out and buy it.

As subscribers to will know, we have published our first ever report on Armenia!

12) Strangers in Paradise: Pocket Book #1, by Terry Moore

An impulse purchase in Boston, this comic about love and sinister goings-on seems rather good – reminiscent a bit of “Love and Rockets” but much less confusing. I shall buy more of it.

Happy birthday !

From lots of people:

When you see this, post a poem in your journal.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that, the passing there
had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference.

Tolkien: Behind the Lord of the Rings. Not completely happy with it, but there we go.

11) The Thackery T Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, ed. Dr. Jeff VanderMeer & Dr. Mark Roberts

Based on the title, and the list of contributors, I expected this to be a real riot. I have to say I was somewhat disappointed; too much repetition of disorders where writers get consumed by their own work or vice versa, or suffer random medical explosions, or limb-rotting. The humour is grotesque rather than witty or satirical, and basically didn’t appeal to me much. The narrative sections towards the end were best.

New poll from

10) Strontium Dog: Bad Timing, by Rebecca Levene

I admit that I only bought this because I was at college with the author, and have read very little 2000 AD in the last twenty years. It’s a novel about Johnny Alpha, hero of the Strontium Dog series, being sent on a quest by sinister criminals who have fallen out with each other, with a bunch of other mutants. It reads in style very much like a Doctor Who novel (Rebecca used to edit the New Adventures series) but of course with much more freedom to experiment with the setting. Good characterisation, with means and motivation of each of the characters individually entirely consistent with the setting (rare in books of this genre). Good fun as well, and not too demanding; perhaps I’ll look out for more Strontium Dog next time I’m in the comics shop. I’ll certainly look out for more Rebecca Levene.

From and :

Name a CD you own that no one else on your friends list does.

Easy. Back in the summer a Macedonian political leader gave me a CD of him singing Macedonian folk songs (and a couple of Elvis numbers). I’d be surprised if anyone else reading this has Trifun Kostovski’s greatest hits.

Name a book you own that no one else on your friends list does.

Anatol Lieven’s book about America (because it hasn’t been published yet).
Ramush Haradinaj’s autobiography, A Narrative about War and Freedom. (review)
The Last Castle, by Jack Vance, winner of Hugo and Nebula awards but out of print for years.

Name a movie you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that no one else on your friends list does.

Much more difficult. I did go through a phase of buying discounted comedies on video about a year ago but haven’t yet watched them all. I have a suspicion that “You’ve Got M@il” is the most exotic of these, which gives you some idea.
Probably lots of you have Finding Nemo, but did anyone else bother to get the two-DVD version with the “Exploring the Reef” documentary featuring Nemo, Dory and Jean-Michel Cousteau (dum dum dum dum!!!!)?

Name a place that you have visited that no one else on your friends list has.

I’m currently in Provo, Utah (unable to get back to sleep).
I was in Chişinău, Moldova, earlier this month.
The most sinister places I have ever been were Velika Kladuša, in western Bosnia, and Bratunac, in eastern Bosnia near Srebrenica.

(edited for ‘s visits to Chişinău and Bratunac, and owning the second “Finding Nemo” DVD)

(further edited for and owning “You’ve Got M@il”. My video/DVD collection is not very eclectic at all…)

9) America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism, by Anatol Lieven

As I write I am sitting in the state where Bush’s lead over Kerry in the polls is greater than anywhere else; over the course of today I am to give two lectures on the European Union to local university students; my personal knowledge of the Church of Latter Day Saints comes mainly from A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle, not exactly the most reliable (let alone up-to-date) of sources. Reading Anatol Lieven’s book on America (he kindly gave me a pre-publication copy two days ago) has been a much more useful preparation. His analysis is basically that the driving force of American politics is nationalism; that this has a good side and a bad side; and that at the moment under Bush the bad side is prevailing. I finished the book with a much better understanding of what is going on here than I had before.

I found his second chapter, analysing the “splendour and tragedy of the American Creed”, particularly compelling. There are some wonderful things in American political culture and history. The words of Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, or of Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address, are moving for anyone who cares about big political ideas like freedom and equality – however flawed they may have been in implementation, the rest of the English-speaking world hasn’t really come up with anything as powerful.

Writing a book that attacks the dark side of American nationalism does carry the risk of drifting into polemic, but he manages to leaven this with shafts of sympathy, compassion and even admiration for America. I found most of it utterly convincing. His last chapter, which addresses the US/Israel relationship as a special case where American nationalism has overridden any sensible policy on the Middle East (“what use is a strategic ally when you actually have to ask them not to help you in a war in a nearby country?”) has made me reconsider my own thoughts on the Palestinian issue; on the whole his analysis is pretty sympathetic to Israel (though I doubt if everyone will see it that way) and he makes a good point that Israel’s actions in 1948 should be judged by comparison with what Europeans were doing in Europe in 1948, rather than by later standards.

Anyway, this book is excellent. I hope it sells well.

8) Primary Inversion, by Catherine Asaro

OK, all can now be revealed. I have mentioned a couple of times previously that a real live Nebula-winning science fiction author was so put out by my negative comments about her writing that she sent me three of her other books to read and see if I still felt the same way. That author was Catherine Asaro, and good for her for deciding to engage a hostile critic with charm. Turns out of course that she lives very near Washington and I could almost have gone to her house and picked them up on Monday…

As I shuffled through Washington National Airport yesterday on my way to Utah (where I am currently suffering early-morning jetlag) one of the women on security spotted Primary Inversion clutched in my hands, and commented, “That’s a very good book you’re reading.” Her agreement with my literary choices didn’t prevent her from selecting me for secondary security screening, but she was quite right about the book: it is indeed good. It shares a certain amount of plot with Asaro’s Hugo-nominated short story from this year, “Walk in Silence”, which I absolutely hated, but somehow in this – her first novel! – she seemed to pull things together much more convincingly and coherently.

I was also minded to compare her brand of space opera featuring leading women characters very favourably with C.J. Cherryh’s impenetrable Downbelow Station and Cyteen (which I haven’t finished yet), and the imperialism and implausibilities of David Weber’s first Honor Harrington novel, On Basilisk Station. Though I’m not at all a romance fan, I am a Bujold fan, and Primary Inversion seems to me to fit in that category. Looking forward to reading the rest now.

7) The Well of Lost Plots, by Jasper Fforde

This is the third of Fforde’s series tracking the adventures of detective Thursday Next, in whose world the boundaries betwen literature and reality have become somewhat blurred and the Crimean war is still going on in 1985. To be honest not quite as good as the first two, The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book, but fun nonetheless. Great line from the Emperor Zhark:

Just when I think I have the galaxy at my mercy, some hopelessly outnumbered young hothead destroys my insidious Death Machine using some hitherto undiscovered weakness. I’m suing the manufacturer after that last debacle.

I’m yoyo-ing between the National Security Council and State Dept today for meetings, before catching a late afternoon flight to Utah. Reasonably relaxing yesterday, got some work done in an empty office, lunch with friend who gave me a copy of his latest book, America: Right or Wrong, very pleasant Mongolian barbecue dinner with and baby Grace. In the drive from Rockville to Bethesda I saw more of the DC environs than I have done since we came here on a family trip the weekend of my seventh birthday.

Right, just time to grab a sandwich before next meeting…