From: pshane@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Ana M. Shane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Subject: Raja i Papci
Date: 26 Sep 92 06:03:39 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In one of his heartbreaking reports from Sarajevo, Zlatko Dizdarevic
wrote that the people of Sarajevo stand united against the common
agressor from the mountains. He added that they (the Sarajevo people)
divide all people only into two categories: "raja" and "papci". (for
the explanation of these terms, please look at the end of this article)

This was the way, or something similar to it, I used to devide people
all my life: "good guys" versus "bad guys", black versus white, truth
versus lie, etc... And I still believe it!

What I don't believe and never have believed is that nationality
has anything to do with it! I'll tell you why: I know people of
all former Yugoslav nationalities and many more... And, what is
more important: I have in my own family people from almost all
former Yugoslav nationalities and some others too. And I don't believe
that (in any order you want):

- Croats are genocidal nation, because I would have to renounce
  my own son
- Serbs are fascist chetniks, because I would have to renounce
  my own father
- Bosnian Moslems are islamic fanatics, because I would have to
  renounce a very dear aunt of mine
- Montenegrians are (your favorite pejorative), because I would
  have to renounce my own dearest nephew
- Albanians are (your favorite insult), because I would have to
  renounce one of my good friends

- Slovenians, Macedonians, Hungarians, Gypsies, Jews, Bulgarians
  Americans, Canadians, Russians, Nigerians, Germans, etc. because
  I would have to renounce so many of my friends and family that
  I would stay completely alone...

That is why "papci" for me are those people who try to divide us,
to put haterid in our hearts and wouldn't stop even when they
have to kill and rape and loote. Papci are a disease, a serious
infective disease, a disease of the mind and soul... They have
succeeded to infect so many people in Yugoslavia (and other places
in the world!) There is almost no defense against them because
they work from inside: calling upon your most precious values of pride
in your own ancestors, your origins and your own inner self.
Papci tell you that your own being is in danger and that the
danger comes from Croats/Serbs/Moslems/Macedonians/Greeks/(whoever
they can find as a potential threat) and not from them. Papci tell
you that anything you do to defend yourself is OK, because ultimately
the more you "defend" yourself against other "raja" the more they
achieve to devide you and rule over you, steal from you and ultimately
kill you (without you even noticing). Once you fall for the ideology
of "papci" you become one of their agents in spreading hatered by
killing (you think in self defense) and hating (in self defense).

Look what papci have already done to you (in this net): they have
stripped you down to your bare nationality: some of the netters
don't even have any names - just numbers - and don't even bother to
sign their letters. You don't exist as a full human being with your
family, your taste for certain foods, your favorite colors and
music. You are just a Croat or a Serb or a Moslem or a Bosnian...
You are suspicious: you don't trust anyone who hasn't declared
themselves as a member of your own nationality. You are ready to
insult (the only weapon you have in the network) just because
somebody believes different than you. And all the while you think
that you are only defending yourself and your nation.

This criminal war, "ethnic cleansing", killing and torturing,
destroying everything, is the result of the work of "papci".
Nobody is sure anymore. Look deeply in yourself and try to
cut all the lies out - it is not your fellow "raja" who you
should blame (and don't forget that "raja" are all the peoples
of all our nationalities!!!) it is the "papci" - those who
want to devide you all... and who are now succeeding. Put down
your weapons (insults or real guns) and ask yourself who made
you belive that your brother, your cusine, your nephew, your father, 
your mother, your sister, your neighbor, your friend, your accidental
acquaintance who passed once through your town on her way to visit
some relatives and friends in your part of the world, is your enemy.

The only way to stop the war is to be brave enough to stop to hate
ordinary people. And be brave enough to resist those who tell you
that ordinary people are your enemy. Join the "deserters"! 

The only way to live after this war is over is to be brave enough
to admit that the same horrible thing has happened to all of us
"raja" no matter what nations we just happened to be born into. And to
find and punish all the "papci" on all the sides.


If you really care, and you must, for all the children that are now
orfans, or just afraid to go and play, if you really care for all
the old and sick and wounded, and all the refugees without homes, and 
all the torn and maimed families, and you really want to do something
for all of them, do not let "papci" fuel the haterid in your
heart and make you discriminate "raja" - ordinary people, just
like you - on the grounds of their birth. Learn to look for your
enemy among the ones who had and still have power, who bye and sell
weapons, train soldiers, send troups and tanks, blame all the Serbs/
Croat/Moslems/(your favorite enemy), and have profit from the misery
of ordinary "raja".

With a hole in my heart and great sadness...

Your

Ana

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ana M. Shane                    voice:                (215) 843-2909
334 Winona St.
Philadelphia, PA 19144          e-mail: pshane@andromeda.rutgers.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Glossary:

"Raja" - a turkish word designating non-turkish inhabitants of the
territories under the Ottoman Empire. Usually poor, disempowered,
peasants who didn't have any great if any rights. Consequently,
 "raja" is "us" the people. In this context, comming from the
citizens of the besieged Sarajevo, "raja" are the helpless
inhabitants who do not have any power to decide about their
own life and death. "Raja" are the victims, the "good guys".

"papci" - originally are pig's legs - in this context, as opposed
to "raja", its all the aggressors = "pigs" (i.e. double entandre:
not only they are "pigs" they are also the ones who "eat pork").