Get the headlines on your site for Europe
Find on Wednesday-Night W-N Crnobrnja Hits | Wikipedia | search | Slides | flickr | movies
Tuesday 19 February 2008 21:54 The write-up for Wed1354 is completed for Diana's website and on other site We hope you will enjoy some of the references we found!
Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 For a brief moment, we glimpsed a few items on the presidential vote in Serbia and what it will mean for the independence of Kosovo. This should be of particular interest to Wednesday Nighters as we are fast approaching the time for Misha Crnobrnja’s annual visit - it could even be this week. Sadly, there will not be an opportunity for a repeat of last year’s Tom & Misha Show and on this Site
Milosevic has a tendency ...
PHIL PONCE: Mr. Crnobrnja, you worked with Mr. Milosevic over the course of 18 years. What kind of a man is he? How would you describe him?
MIHAILO CRNOBRNJA: Well, as Madam Milentijevic said a little while ago, he, on a personal level, can be very charming; he can be very understanding. He can be a good listener. He very often listens to my advice, which pleased me, of course. And that was at a time when he was an economic liberal, spearheading economic liberal reforms in Yugoslavia until 1987 when nationalism, as we heard, became the preferred weapon and instrument of policy. And from that point on, he and I gradually and slowly parted our ways, not in an unfriendly manner, but certainly I did not have the stomach for the nationalism which was riding very high in Serbia. And he has become very convinced, I'm sure, that he is doing the right thing, even though he is not in full command of adequate facts.
PHIL PONCE: And what do you mean by that, not in full command of adequate facts?
MIHAILO CRNOBRNJA: Well, you see, Milosevic has a tendency to convince himself into a state of mind to psyche himself on relatively, how shall I say it, dubious facts. Like, for example, he used to say very often to visiting dignitaries that Serbs were the biggest, the largest population in the Balkans, which is entirely untrue. The Turks are also part of the Balkans and the Romanians are part of the Balkans. But he would look you in the eyes and unblinkingly they would say the Serbs are the biggest in the nation and yet, there were lots of injustices done to the Serbs. So it is true there were injustices done to the Serbs, but, you see, the first part of the statement kind of emphasizes this in a wrong way.
from Misha Crnobrnja ("Former Ambassador of the Former Yugoslavia to the Former European Community", and author of "The Yugoslav Drama"), is now the Vice Dean of Centre for Advanced European Studies and Research (CAESAR) of the University of Novi Sad in Belgrade where he teaches European Integrations and Economy of Transition. The two conducted, in the words of one effusive guest, " [a] riveting dialogue … as they discussed the Balkans, Russia, the 'Stans', Europe and their politics and economics on a macro scale to the extent time permitted [which] held the attention of everyone in the room. The questions asked and observations made by other guests, particularly some of the younger ones, were well placed and definitely in order." Realno je o?ekivati pozitivnu Studiju izvodljivosti
> From: INDU000/ > Sent: Monday, May 3, 1999 15:20 > To: joneill@thecitizen.southam.ca > Subject: Re:Research Julie, tried for your piece with Misha on the Internet, failed to find it. Next time you speak to Misha, you may wish to point out to him that info on Milosevic's underwear may have a lot in common with shares in Amazon.com: to-day it may trade at an inflated price, tomorrow it may be worthless. Good luck with your interview later to-day. About that subject I know nothing. Take care! Tony Dear Tony. Here is the web text of my "Misha" column, the idea for which I profusely thank you again. It netted some good feedback. It was illustrated with that nice picture of him outdoors. When I have time, I will send you my Havel stories as well. Today I am in a panic preparing to moderate Betty Mamoohdy appearance tonight at the NAC. Like you, just a few days ago, I said who's she ? The woman on whose story the film Not Without My Daughter was based--married an Iranian in the States and he kept her and daughter captive in Iran when they went back for an alleged vacation in the mid80s. A tale of culture shock gone wild. They eventually escaped and she is still on the "Unique Lives" circuit. Adieu for now and all the best, Julie> The Ottawa Citizen Sunday, May 02, 1999 - Column - Encounters Delving into Milosevic's mind Juliet O'Neill The Ottawa Citizen He has known Slobodan Milosevic well enough and long enough to tell you the colour of the Yugoslav president's underwear. It's just an expression of course, meaning Mihailo "Misha" Crnobrnja could provide some insight into the personality of the man who has provoked NATO's military wrath. However, Mr. Crnobrnja is strict about separating the truly personal from the political in his analysis of events in the remnants of his native Yugoslavia, which he abandoned for an academic's life in Canada six years ago, when the breakup of the country's six republics was well under way. The closest Mr. Crnobrnja, who spent 15 years in the same political elite as Mr. Milosevic, comes to a personal comment about the Yugoslav leader is to say that the message he is getting from Serbian democrats is that their movement, weakened by years of economic sanctions, has been all but extinguished by the NATO bombing campaign. "Everybody now is lined up behind the notion of patriotism," he said in a telephone interview from Williamsburg, Virginia, where he is currently teaching a university course on government before returning this month to McGill University, where he has taught economics, politics and history. "They're not lined up behind Milosevic personally and politically; they still hate him but they hate NATO bombs even more." Mr. Crnobrnja, whose father Bogdan served as Tito's deputy minister of foreign trade and foreign affairs and longtime Yugoslav ambassador to India, emigrated to Montreal after resigning as Yugoslavia's ambassador to the European Union in 1992. He served as chief economist at the largest bank in Yugoslavia, as a member of the Communist Party presidium in Belgrade, minister of economic planning and, finally, ambassador. He came to Canada the year the Europeans and Canada and others formally recognized the independence of the breakaway Yugoslav republics of Slovenia and Croatia, Bosnia was in turmoil and the province of Kosovo, stripped of autonomy in 1990, was a simmering cauldron of future conflict. "I knew Kosovo would have to be resolved one way or another and my feeling was that Milosevic would use that trump card at some point in time to instigate unrest again and try to consolidate his power," Mr. Crnobrnja said. "But I did not expect it to escalate in such a form to set Serbia against Montenegro and practically the whole of the West." He was in Belgrade little more than a week before the NATO bombing campaign began and says even then nobody within the country saw it coming. "Everybody felt that this was just brinkmanship and that at the very last moment one of the two sides would give in and possibly both sides would give in sufficiently to find a compromise," he said. "There's the belief that Milosevic always gambles to the brink and then pulls away. People did not realize that Bosnia and Croatia are not Kosovo. Bosnia and Croatia were never his and he did not make his political capital on the basis of Bosnia and Croatia but he did on the basis of Kosovo. So he just could not yield on Kosovo." Mr. Crnobrnja is among those who believe Mr. Milosevic is determined to hold onto the whole of Kosovo, to demonstrate that he can control the territory and to reduce the Albanian population, though not clear all Albanians out of the province. "I don't think it is feasible to 'cleanse' Kosovo of all two million Albanians," he said. Mr. Crnobrnja regards the widely used estimate of 1.8 million Albanians in Kosovo as too low. "The figure was used when I was minister of economic planning in 1989 and it must have increased because the Albanians have a birth rate of 3.2 per cent, the highest in Europe," he said, estimating there are still a million Albanians in the province, even after the huge exodus since the NATO campaign began. The NATO bombings heightened the pace of ethnic cleansing, he said. "When the bombs started falling it was much easier to excite, to induce the paramilitaries to do what they did on the ground, simply because the correlation was made between the Albanians and NATO, which was portrayed as É the air force of the Kosovo Liberation Army." There was also the reaction that "if you're going to bomb me for making a trickle of refugees, why not use the occasion and do the real stuff?" He says both the Albanians and the Serbs have historic claims to the province -- the Albanians on grounds they have been there the longest and the Serbs because they were the first to form a government in the Middle Ages. But neither case is stronger than the other and that's what makes the situation so complex, he added. The Russians are essential to finding a solution, he agrees, noting they are being courted by the Canadian and many other NATO governments seeking a channel for a peace settlement. But he warns that Mr. Milosevic has angered and embarrassed the Russians when they acted as intermediaries in previous conflicts and "my feeling is that on a personal basis, Milosevic is not a great favourite in Moscow at all." However, it is in Russia's political interest on the global stage to be part of the solution. "Clearly Russia's value has increased and I think they're going to capitalize on it." Is NATO correct to carry out the threat to intervene? Should the threat have been made?? Opinions around the table are deeply divided on many aspects of this issue. 1717 - 1999 As our good friend Misha would remind us, the history of Kosovo, ever since the 1389 battle in which a Serbian hero (Prince Lazar) was killed is so closely identified with Serb nationalism that it is unthinkable to Serbs to permit full autonomy, let alone annexation to Albania John agrees with Mihailo Dr. Judith Patterson offered some more thoughts on Kosovo: Of course we are going to have to rebuild the country, as the wise old gentleman with white hair said. Every time I hear of another bridge blown up, I think, we are bombing them back into the Stone Age. What good did it do to destroy the Yugo car factory (yes, I know it was used for military manufacture, but what are they going to do for cars now)? Strategic Value or Mineral Value of Kosovo: I think (but I may be incorrect) that the route for an oil pipeline from the new oil reserves in the former USSR republics goes across Yugoslavia to get to the Med. I may be wrong about this, but somewhere I think I heard/read this. Nato/Europe's interest: the last thing they would want is another world war. They (the EU) are emerging as an international monetary, political, and economic force. A war would destroy everthing they have built up over the last 50 years since the last war. See our first Surround Pan of "la cucina" at 388 Victoria SEE our Y2k site We have found a 800k computer program to test/fix your computer which you can get FREE at our Y2k page One of the computers at Wednesday-Night.com is ok the other needs help. Remember all you need to do if all else fails is set your date to the year 1972. It is the same as 2000! If necessity is the mother of invention, then one of her most promising offspring has just taken a giant step toward maturity. From: George Archer From: Leo Kolivakis Sent: April 16, 1999 10:19 AM To: Researchers Subject: Japan and Asia Here are two lengthy reports from Asian Business Watch which analyze the recent performance of the Japanese and Asian markets. These markets have been performing exceptionally well since the start of the year and many analysts argue that this is the beginning of a sustained recovery. Please e-mail us for a copie 893 our Medical Web ..Super Hospital
Julie, tried for your piece with Misha on the Internet, failed to find it. Next time you speak to Misha, you may wish to point out to him that info on Milosevic's underwear may have a lot in common with shares in Amazon.com: to-day it may trade at an inflated price, tomorrow it may be worthless. Good luck with your interview later to-day. About that subject I know nothing. Take care! Tony
Dear Tony. Here is the web text of my "Misha" column, the idea for which I profusely thank you again. It netted some good feedback. It was illustrated with that nice picture of him outdoors. When I have time, I will send you my Havel stories as well. Today I am in a panic preparing to moderate Betty Mamoohdy appearance tonight at the NAC. Like you, just a few days ago, I said who's she ? The woman on whose story the film Not Without My Daughter was based--married an Iranian in the States and he kept her and daughter captive in Iran when they went back for an alleged vacation in the mid80s. A tale of culture shock gone wild. They eventually escaped and she is still on the "Unique Lives" circuit. Adieu for now and all the best, Julie>
He has known Slobodan Milosevic well enough and long enough to tell you the colour of the Yugoslav president's underwear. It's just an expression of course, meaning Mihailo "Misha" Crnobrnja could provide some insight into the personality of the man who has provoked NATO's military wrath. However, Mr. Crnobrnja is strict about separating the truly personal from the political in his analysis of events in the remnants of his native Yugoslavia, which he abandoned for an academic's life in Canada six years ago, when the breakup of the country's six republics was well under way.
The closest Mr. Crnobrnja, who spent 15 years in the same political elite as Mr. Milosevic, comes to a personal comment about the Yugoslav leader is to say that the message he is getting from Serbian democrats is that their movement, weakened by years of economic sanctions, has been all but extinguished by the NATO bombing campaign. "Everybody now is lined up behind the notion of patriotism," he said in a telephone interview from Williamsburg, Virginia, where he is currently teaching a university course on government before returning this month to McGill University, where he has taught economics, politics and history. "They're not lined up behind Milosevic personally and politically; they still hate him but they hate NATO bombs even more." Mr. Crnobrnja, whose father Bogdan served as Tito's deputy minister of foreign trade and foreign affairs and longtime Yugoslav ambassador to India, emigrated to Montreal after resigning as Yugoslavia's ambassador to the European Union in 1992. He served as chief economist at the largest bank in Yugoslavia, as a member of the Communist Party presidium in Belgrade, minister of economic planning and, finally, ambassador.
He came to Canada the year the Europeans and Canada and others formally recognized the independence of the breakaway Yugoslav republics of Slovenia and Croatia, Bosnia was in turmoil and the province of Kosovo, stripped of autonomy in 1990, was a simmering cauldron of future conflict. "I knew Kosovo would have to be resolved one way or another and my feeling was that Milosevic would use that trump card at some point in time to instigate unrest again and try to consolidate his power," Mr. Crnobrnja said. "But I did not expect it to escalate in such a form to set Serbia against Montenegro and practically the whole of the West." He was in Belgrade little more than a week before the NATO bombing campaign began and says even then nobody within the country saw it coming. "Everybody felt that this was just brinkmanship and that at the very last moment one of the two sides would give in and possibly both sides would give in sufficiently to find a compromise," he said. "There's the belief that Milosevic always gambles to the brink and then pulls away. People did not realize that Bosnia and Croatia are not Kosovo. Bosnia and Croatia were never his and he did not make his political capital on the basis of Bosnia and Croatia but he did on the basis of Kosovo. So he just could not yield on Kosovo." Mr. Crnobrnja is among those who believe Mr. Milosevic is determined to hold onto the whole of Kosovo, to demonstrate that he can control the territory and to reduce the Albanian population, though not clear all Albanians out of the province. "I don't think it is feasible to 'cleanse' Kosovo of all two million Albanians," he said.
Mr. Crnobrnja regards the widely used estimate of 1.8 million Albanians in Kosovo as too low. "The figure was used when I was minister of economic planning in 1989 and it must have increased because the Albanians have a birth rate of 3.2 per cent, the highest in Europe," he said, estimating there are still a million Albanians in the province, even after the huge exodus since the NATO campaign began. The NATO bombings heightened the pace of ethnic cleansing, he said. "When the bombs started falling it was much easier to excite, to induce the paramilitaries to do what they did on the ground, simply because the correlation was made between the Albanians and NATO, which was portrayed as É the air force of the Kosovo Liberation Army." There was also the reaction that "if you're going to bomb me for making a trickle of refugees, why not use the occasion and do the real stuff?" He says both the Albanians and the Serbs have historic claims to the province -- the Albanians on grounds they have been there the longest and the Serbs because they were the first to form a government in the Middle Ages. But neither case is stronger than the other and that's what makes the situation so complex, he added. The Russians are essential to finding a solution, he agrees, noting they are being courted by the Canadian and many other NATO governments seeking a channel for a peace settlement. But he warns that Mr. Milosevic has angered and embarrassed the Russians when they acted as intermediaries in previous conflicts and "my feeling is that on a personal basis, Milosevic is not a great favourite in Moscow at all."
However, it is in Russia's political interest on the global stage to be part of the solution. "Clearly Russia's value has increased and I think they're going to capitalize on it."
Is NATO correct to carry out the threat to intervene? Should the threat have been made??
Opinions around the table are deeply divided on many aspects of this issue.
Of course we are going to have to rebuild the country, as the wise old gentleman with white hair said. Every time I hear of another bridge blown up, I think, we are bombing them back into the Stone Age. What good did it do to destroy the Yugo car factory (yes, I know it was used for military manufacture, but what are they going to do for cars now)?
Strategic Value or Mineral Value of Kosovo: I think (but I may be incorrect) that the route for an oil pipeline from the new oil reserves in the former USSR republics goes across Yugoslavia to get to the Med. I may be wrong about this, but somewhere I think I heard/read this.
Nato/Europe's interest: the last thing they would want is another world war. They (the EU) are emerging as an international monetary, political, and economic force. A war would destroy everthing they have built up over the last 50 years since the last war.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then one of her most promising offspring has just taken a giant step toward maturity.
From: George Archer From: Leo Kolivakis Sent: April 16, 1999 10:19 AM To: Researchers Subject: Japan and Asia Here are two lengthy reports from Asian Business Watch which analyze the recent performance of the Japanese and Asian markets. These markets have been performing exceptionally well since the start of the year and many analysts argue that this is the beginning of a sustained recovery. Please e-mail us for a copie 893 our Medical Web ..Super Hospital
From: Leo Kolivakis Sent: April 16, 1999 10:19 AM To: Researchers Subject: Japan and Asia
Here are two lengthy reports from Asian Business Watch which analyze the recent performance of the Japanese and Asian markets. These markets have been performing exceptionally well since the start of the year and many analysts argue that this is the beginning of a sustained recovery.
Please e-mail us for a copie
© 1997 by David T. Nicholson
Please phone (514) 934-0023 or e-mail us your thoughts.
Wednesday, August 23, 2000 282
