From: howard@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Subject: Re: Bosnia Ignored
Date: 22 Jan 93 15:30:09 -0600
Organization: University of Northern Iowa


The results of this survey on what Americans know about the Bosnian
war agree with what I have found in talking to people about it. For
example, when I asked a very knowledgeble wine clerk in a local store
to recommend me a wine, he offered me a wine marked "made in Yugoslavia". 
I said quickly, "I won't buy anything made in Yugoslavia". He didn't 
understand at all what I was angry about, and did not connect it to
the war until I explained. Upon closer examination, the wine was from
Istra, Croatia (1989). 

I teach World Geography. We spent an hour and a half Tuesday discussing the
former Yugoslavia. My students, who mostly range in age from 18 to 21, 
did not seem to have much knowledge of what was going on in Bosnia at
all, and especially not about the siege of Sarajevo. 

Most Americans do not read newspapers anymore, and get their news
(if they pay attention to the news at all) from television. I do not
think that the television news has covered the Bosnian war very well
at all. For example, NBC news has only one correspondent, Tom Aspell, 
who sometimes covers the story, but he also covers most of the Middle
East including Iraq, so he has only been to Bosnia a few times in the
last 6 months. Even those who are reading newspapers may not be getting
very much of this story, since local newspapers cover very little
international news at all. 

So only the 15% or so of Americans who read such newspapers as the 
New York Times or the Washington Post, or who listen to "serious"
radio like National Public Radio, are hearing the story. The New
York Times has had extensive coverage, with a story from John Burns
nearly every day, and commentators like Anthony Lewis and A.M. Rosenthal
devoting many columns to it on the editorial page. National Public
Radio has had a report from Tom Jelton nearly every day, and sometimes
reports from other reporters (Misha Glenny of the BBC was on yesterday). 

Unfortunately, the television stations only focus on stories when there
is U.S. presence in the country. Perhaps President Clinton will mention
it more often and they will feel obliged to cover his remarks. He did
start to do this about a week ago in an interview with Tom Friedman
of the New York Times. He talked about how strongly he was opposed 
to ethnic cleansing, and how important it was for the United States
to take a position against this, since it had reprecussions in East
Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the former Soviet Republics. The 
television stations only picked up on his remarks about possible better
relations with Iraq, given in the same interview, and never talked about
his remarks about ethnic cleansing. The interview, by the way, was
published in the New York Times in its entirety (I don't remember the
exact date, but it was around the 11th). President Clinton also 
reaffirmed his desire to enforce the no-fly zone in a press conference
shortly before Christmas. 

I would like to see the television stations at least inform the public
better about the war in Bosnia. Note that this does not mean that 
the U.S. would intervene militarily. Even among well-informed persons
there does not seem to be in support of sending ground troops, because the
terrain around Sarajevo is so difficult to fight a war in, but there
may be more support for air power, and possibly soldiers to prevent 
the war from spreading into Macedonia and Kosovo, where the terrain is
better. 

Democracy in the Balkans does seem to be in the United States' interest. 
With so much hate, will it ever be possible for a Bosnian Serb to live
next door to, or even in the same town as a Bosnian Muslim? What happens
to the child with a Muslim mother and a Serb father? Even if Bosnia
survives as a state, can that child grow up with the same chance to 
be President as any other child? These may be questions that all the
air power, arms, or ground troops in the world cannot solve. And yes, 
Americans are still working on these problems ourselves. 

-Mary Howard               "While waiting for a miracle,
                            it's good to do something."
                            -Isaac Bashevis Singer

Newsgroups: soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna