Syndicate: Re: Financing and control

[honor <honor@va.com.au>]

hi,

>> I am sorry for sounding so aggressive. Fascist is a word that is too
>> often abused, though I think that it shouldn't be too inapropriate.
>> Also, I am not sure wether suffer is the right word. Still, B2-92 is
>> controlled by Soros and similar, even more than B92 was.
>
>    The fact that radio B-92 (and now B2-92) was funded by Soros and
>    some other organizations from abroad was never a secret in Serbia.
>    I knew that all the time, as well as every single person I spoke
>    to on that topic.

i have to say this whole thread one of the most simultaneously bizarre and
yet predictcable lines of criticism i have seen pushed on the syndicate for
some time.  in the perhaps hopeless attempt to comprehend how this flurry
of misinformation exploded, one statement in the stream of tokenistic
rhetoric stuck out for me:

>but why are the informed ones silent?
>Having no better answer from anybody yet, I say this is because funding
>often means heavy control and it often forces people to self-censorship.
>What totally pisses me off is that some people accept this self-censorship
>as normal in private communication, sometimes even with friends.

sometimes the most obvious answer (to you) is not always the right answer.
assuming that people remain mute in the face of your criticisms because
they have no adequate answers is a spectacularly problematic conclusion.
maybe the silence of the people who are 'informed' can be read a different
way.  rather than the equation "funding often means heavy control and it
often forces people to self-censorship.", you could read it as "funding
often means a heavy workload, and thus no time to answer conspiracy
theories and paranoiac speculation on email lists"....

>So, maybe it is worthwhile to discuss why is Soros giving them the money?

well, err yes.  this has been discussed almost continuously in the past few
years amongst people who have been attempting to reconstruct civil society
infrastructure in former eastern euope.  but sure.  why not more
discussion?  discussion is good.

i was most glad for ted's cogent analysis of the role of soros in the
former eastern europe region.  i would suggest you read this and perhaps
also refer to the archives of the <http://www.nettime.org> for further
examples of discussion into this issue.

i am quite curious as to why you seem to have such an incredulity about the
basic principals of corporate philanthropy ... but lets on go into this too
deeply on the list ...

re. B92

>If balanced means that they only gave good critical arguments against
>Milosevic's side, UCK, >Kosov@ Albanian leadership, but hardly ever
>against NATO/EU governments and buisinesses, than >yes, their views were
>balanced.

that is patently ridiculous.  B92 were one of the most outspoken critics of
NATO policy during the war ... the references to this are so many it barely
serves to point them out.  as early as october *1998*, ANEM & B92 were
publishing critiques of NATO poilicy.  see
<http://www.nettime.org/nettime.w3archive/199810/msg00050.html> for more.
this is not even to mention one of the most widely disseminated essays of
the wartime period: 'Bombing the Baby With the Bathwater' by Veran Matic
(Editor in Chief, B92), archived at
<http://thing.at/orfkunstradio/WAR/matic.html>.
there is further detail in an interview archived at:
http://www.freeb92.net/media/interviews/veran.shtml



mihajlo, you have been most honourable in your courage to admit where you
were wrong.  but i urge you to respect the community you are addressing
through the syndicate.  there are, as you state, many informed people out
there, who could help you out greatly with your desire to investigate and
better understand the questions you are asking. perhaps there are better
ways to draw them into response, than making accusations or unfounded
critiques.

best of luck with your further research.

kind regards

honor

Honor Harger
Freelance
<honor@va.com.au>

Current Projects:

r a d i o q u a l i a
http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au/

ostranenie / Media Revolutions
http://www.ostranenie.org

Balkania @ TEMP Media Lab
http://www.katastro.fi/temp/eng/2.html


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