Fax From Sarajevo : messages from heartache and hope in a war zone

Halfway through the fourth chapter, I had to put this down for a while. My heart has gradually opened to the people of Croatia, which I prepared to make my adopted country last year. Can you imagine a country where no asks your ethnicity, one day, and then, a couple years later, you watch everything you own burn and hide in fear with your family because of an ethnic cleansing? I am still ferreting out the details of those times. I don't yet know the full history that drove the Serbs to follow Milosevic's plans, nor what complications led to the long-delayed U.N. response. Take this story of this one family...then imagine this happening to 200,000 people, with 150,000 more interred in camps! Even if there are more sides to this story than are here told, it's not surprising where Kubert's sympathies lie, nor is there any denying the privations detailed herein.

Some may criticize Kubert's scratchy style, but I think the worn look works well with the world-weary setting. My Croatian friends live in a nation where literally millions of people fled for their lives. A generation later, this part of the world is still rebuilding---already difficult due to post-Communism economic difficulties. The younger generation may be full of people who already want to simply forget; it must be an exhaustive subject there. Yet I am certain many people my age and older still wonder how this came to pass, and see life in peace together as something of a miracle. They must surely wonder what holds it together now, when all was madness, then.

Ervin Rustemagic, a European comic book agent, personally sent faxes whenever possible to his cohorts in Holland and America throughout the siege of Sarajevo. It is hard to realize this was one the site of the 1984 Olympics, a meeting place of the world, turned into a war zone. We are with him as he desperately wonders when the rest of the world will say "enough" to the genocide portrayed herein. His children can't go in the street for fear of snipers, who deliberately target the little ones and women; they hear of rape camps; they live on rice and bread with limited electrical power, with their only way to the Embassy constantly bombed and patrolled. Even after all his possessions of the past twenty years are burned by bombing, Ervin still donates his car to the local hospital. (Miraculously, comic books are used in small stacks to protect people inside the car from gunfire---an interesting bit of real life symbolism.) He realizes his contacts provide him a thread of hope not available to all of his fellow tenants. International bureaucracy proves nearly immovable, filled with broken promises; the family risks their lives in a frustrating attempt to break the rules. An illegal foray into Croatia leaves Ervin alone in Split. He later flees to Rijeka, Porec, and Zagreb to save Edina, Maja and Edvin. He shoves aside the loss of everything and fear for the future every day in order to survive.

Halfway around the world, these events may not have seemed very real to most Americans, even despite international reactions to any terrorist activity in the major countries. As much like hell as the world of this story depicts, I marvel at how Bosnia-Herzegonvina and my dear Croatia have recovered since. That is a story I must see for myself one day. Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian cultures share most of the same language, authors, history and art, so it is baffling how divided these people became, enough to destroy whole cities and battle to the death over territories in the wake of the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

 Religion is one of the only dividing factors, and given the casual attachment to religion, frankly, it's a frightening puzzle, how they were turned against one another. (These same religions more or less live side-by-side in peace in America.)

Kubert's story was very effecting, perhaps because of the reality, to me, of people around the world, as is now more common in the Internet age. Again, I am sure there is more to the story. I will have to see Joe Sacco's graphic novel one day, since he was actually there. My affection for that part of the world has encouraged me to go there one day, and see the sequel to these troubles myself, in the daily lives built in the wake of war that defies simple description in relaying its sadness and power. In Hrvastski: Na pola puta kroz četvrtom poglavlju, morao sam staviti ovo dolje za neko vrijeme. Moje srce je postupno otvoren za hrvatski narod, koji sam pripremio da bi moj usvojena zemlju prošle godine. 

http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2013/06/halfway-through-fourth-chapter-i-had-to.html Možete li zamisliti zemlju u kojoj ne traži svoju etničku pripadnost, jednog dana, a onda, prije par godina kasnije , što gledati sve što posjedujete spali i sakriti se u strahu sa svojom obitelji zbog etničkog čišćenja? Ja sam još uvijek ferreting će pojedinosti tih vremena. Ja još uvijek ne znam punu povijest koja je protjerala Srbe slijediti Miloševićeve planove, niti što je dovelo do komplikacije dugo odgađani UN odgovor. Iskoristite ovu priču o ovoj jednoj obitelji ... onda zamislite ovo događa na 200.000 ljudi, s više od 150.000 pokopani u logorima! Čak i ako postoji više strana u ovoj priči nego se ovdje govori, to je ne čudi gdje Kubert dobio simpatije laž, niti postoji bilo niječući privations detaljno ovdje. Neki mogu kritizirati Kubert je grebanje stil, ali mislim istrošeni izgled dobro radi s umoran od svijeta okruženju. Moj hrvatski prijatelji živjeti u društvu u kojem se doslovno milijuni ljudi su pobjegli za svoje živote. Generacije kasnije, ovaj dio svijeta je još uvijek obnavlja --- već teže zbog postkomunizma gospodarskih poteškoća. Mlađe generacije mogu biti pun ljudi koji su već žele da jednostavno zaborave, ona mora biti potpun predmet postoji. Ipak, siguran sam, mnogi ljudi moje dobi i starije uvijek pitam kako se to dogodilo da, i vidjeti život u miru zajedno kao nešto čudo. Oni sigurno treba čuditi što ga drži zajedno. Ervin Rustemagic, Europski strip agenta, osobno šalje faksove kad god je to moguće kako bi njegovi sljedbenici u Nizozemskoj i Americi tijekom opsade Sarajeva. Mi smo s njim dok je očajnički pita kad je ostatak svijeta će reći "dosta" na genocidu prikazana ovdje. Njegova djeca ne mogu ići u ulici zbog straha od snajpera, koji su namjerno ciljaju djecu i žene; čuju silovanja logorima, oni žive na rižu i kruh s ograničenom električne energije, s njihovom jedinom putu prema Veleposlanstvu konstantno bombardiran i pregledana. Čak i nakon što su svi njegovi posjedi u posljednjih dvadeset godina su gorjele od bombardiranja, Ervin još uvijek daruje svoj automobil na lokalnoj bolnici. (Nekim čudom, stripovi se koriste u malim hrpama za zaštitu ljudi unutar automobila iz vatrenog oružja --- zanimljiva malo stvarnog života simbolike.) Ostvaruje svoje kontakte pružiti mu nit se nadam nije dostupan za sve njegove sustanari.Međunarodni birokracije dokazuje gotovo nepokretna, ispunjen prekršenih obećanja; obitelj riskira svoje živote u pokušaju da frustrirajuće prekršiti pravila.Protuzakonito prepad u Hrvatskoj ostavlja Ervin sam u Splitu. On je kasnije bježi u Rijeci, Poreču i Zagrebu spasiti Edina, Maja i Edvin. On gura na stranu gubitak svega i straha za budućnost svaki dan da bi preživjeli. Na pola puta oko svijeta, ovi događaji ne mogu se činiti vrlo stvaran za većinu Amerikanaca, čak i unatoč međunarodnim reakcijama na bilo terorističkih aktivnosti u većim zemljama. Koliko kao pakao kao svijet ove priče prikazuje, ja čuditi kako će Bosna i Herzegonvina i moj dragi Hrvatska se oporavio od. To je priča sam za sebe mora vidjeti jedan dan. Hrvatski, bosanski, srpski i kultura dijeli većina istog jezika, autora, povijesti i umjetnosti, tako da je zbunjujuće kako je podijeljeno tih je ljudi bilo, dovoljno da uništi cijeli gradovi i borba na život i smrt nad područjima u svjetlu raspada Jugoslavije . Religija je jedan od samo dijeljenjem faktora, i dati povremeni vezanosti za religiju, iskreno, to je zastrašujuće puzzle, kako su se okrenuli jedan protiv drugoga. (Te iste religije više ili manje live side-by-side u miru u Americi.) Kubert priča vrlo je izazvalo, možda zbog stvarnosti, mi, ljudi širom svijeta, kao što je sada češće u doba interneta. Opet, ja sam da postoji više priča. Morat ću vidjeti Joe Sacco je crtani roman jednoga dana, budući da je zapravo tamo. Čak i ako moji snovi nisu temeljili na iskrenom ponudom, ljubav prema tom dijelu svijeta je ohrabrio da odem tamo jedan dan, i vidjeti nastavak ove nevolje sebi, u svakodnevnom životu izgrađenih u svjetlu rata koji prkosi jednostavan opis u prosljeđivanje njegova tuga i moć.