Some people may think that I am overtly critical of "war tourists" and that people who go into war zones to "cover the war" are just so brave and phenomenal. The reality is that war tourists, whether certain types of "journos" or public figures like BHL are protected.
There are war correspondents, of course, who are there to do their jobs and simply report as objectively as possible. Kudos to them. But many are not there for the right reasons and are protected in a way that the regular civilians simply never will be in a war zone.
Additionally, it's always bothered me how the journalists, writers, activists of the country being bombed get silenced in favour of the Western reporters who come to tell their stories without facing the same level of risk.
This isn't my first time bringing this issue up, I've talked about it length when it came to Bosnia.

I also know what happens afterwards. Their careers take off. They write books about your pain, your suffering, your struggles while the writers of your country struggle.
This will happen in Ukraine and it's happening already. People crowdfunding projects in Ukraine that the people will definitely not benefit from. They will write poetry, books, and build academic careers off of Ukraine's pain just as they did with Bosnia's.
And in 10-15 years after the war comes to an end...Ukraine will be lucky to have a dozen or so "public" activists & academics allowed to speak on her behalf, they'll occasionally get invited to the events that will be 99% Westerners discussing their pain.
& whatever maybe I'm just a "hater" and maybe I'm just jealous...but nobody runs towards war willingly unless they're going to profit from it some way. The people of that country forced to fight or forced to leave do not have such a privilege.
& everyone will tell you to shut up and be thankful but you shouldn't be. This is going to be your story and I hope you will be the one to write it, my dear Ukrainian friends.
Someone once asked me if it mattered than there were people in Bosnia who were there to build their careers b/c at least they told our story and the thing is...yes, it did matter. It matters even now.

B/c they get asked still to this day to speak for us. 30 years later.
I think intent matters in everything, even if there's a benefit. I think it matters if you are writing a story because you care about it and you want the truth out there and writing a story because it's what will get you likes and retweets. After all, this is real pain. Real war.
It matters because the Western journos and academics will always be considered as more objective and as more valuable than the native journos and academics. Bosnia has both. Ukraine does too. Their voices can be just as objective and should be invaluable to us all.
And here is Ferida's perfect poem on this topic.

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More from @Rrrrnessa

Mar 16
Chomsky specifically said that a concentration camp in which thousands of Bosniaks were forcibly imprisoned in, raped, tortured, and killed and then put in mass graves was "a refugee camp in which people could come and go as they please".

He specifically denied the atrocities.
He fell for the Living Marxism propaganda at the time and never did his own research. Living Marxism accused Fikret Abdic, a survivor of the concentration camp whose photo was taken by British journos when they uncovered the camps as a "fake". They were sued by ITN for libel.
The people who spewed that propaganda are now some of the worst ultra-right wingers in the UK. The magazine has been reformed after the lawsuit they lost into Spiked Online which spews incessant far-right bs and propaganda constantly. That's what Chomsky was defending.
Read 23 tweets
Mar 15
Today's @Europarl_EN FAC was massively dissatisfying. They allowed Milorad Dodik to spew such hatred and racism so openly:

"In Europe, they must understand Muslim nationalism. Do they want to have a Muslim country, which will be/part of all terrorist attacks around the world."
He went on to only refer to Bosniaks as "Muslims", he went to on to paint the Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina as wanting to created an Islamic State, he said that every terrorist attack that's happened has been connected or done by Bosnia's Muslims. Disgusting.
His buddy: Dragan Covic also joined in on the Islamophobia today during the @Europarl_EN in claiming that Bosniaks are trying to establish "a unitary Islamic state".

Meanwhile, Komsic and Dzaferovic highlighted that Covic & Dodik are both highly connected to the Russian regime.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 15
The people who come to mind with awareness and a certain kind of approach are Susan Sontag in Sarajevo and Ed Vulliamy, Penny Marshall & Ian Williams who stood up to Karadzic's lies in Prijedor and uncovered the concentration camps.
Susan Sontag staged a play during the Siege of Sarajevo, involving local actors and collaborating with local writers. The word about the play spread through word of mouth as once before they had announced a different event, Serbs shelled the place. It was impactful.
Ed Vulliamy, Penny Marshall and Ian Williams went to Prijedor to uncover the concentration camps. They spoke to the people imprisoned. Their coverage resulted in the shut down of the camp...which saved thousands of lives, really. They listened to the locals.
Read 5 tweets
Mar 14
If you are an individual, an organisation, a private enterprise, or anything in between and you want to actively help Ukraine right now a good rule of thumb is to ask yourselves the following before doing something absurd:

"Does this materially benefit the Ukrainian people?"
If it does, then proceed. If it does not and it only serves to benefit your own ego and make you feel validated in the competition of who will be the best ally to all these people suffering under a war of aggression...do not proceed.
Words of support and solidarity are all good and dandy, extremely necessary in the fight against propaganda especially.

But what is more important are all the things they need right now: food, supplies, weapons, access, security.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 14
The same people that have been lecturing genocide survivors on how to respond to our perpetrators and policing our conversations to ensure that we always highlight #NotAllSerbs are the same people that are perfectly fine with punishing every single Russian for Putin's actions.
There has never been a genocide event in which I have not seen a genocide survivor from Bosnia or Cambodia or Rwanda or even the Holocaust have to highlight that they do not hate every single member of the genocidaires ethnic/national group b/c otherwise people are uncomfortable.
Every single event I have been to and I have both been to and organised thousands of these types of events at this point...has had genocide survivors highlight #NotAll members of that ethnic/national group participated in the genocide...and yet suddenly?
Read 7 tweets
Mar 13
"...providing assistance to Ukraine supports the international legal order by allowing Ukraine to defend itself against a war of aggression."

I agree, wholeheartedly. But man, does it sting reading this knowing that Bosnia was left defenceless due to the arms embargo.
I am glad Ukraine is not in that situation and that they are getting weapons and supplies to defend themselves and their people. I just wish we had the same ability. It's hard not think of how different it all could have been now that you've shown us how easy & possible it is.
That's really the whole thing with the situation in Ukraine. It's shed a light on so many possibilities. It's possible to humanise refugees. It's possible to support a nation defending its self from aggression. It's not all complex or difficult suddenly to understand a conflict.
Read 8 tweets

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