From: news@cc.swarthmore.edu (USENET News System)
Subject: SOROS, AND OTHER "SORRY" FOUNDATIONS
Originator: vuksan@ginger
Organization: Swarthmore College
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 01:47:21 GMT

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The following text has been written by:
Ivo Skoric, 103 St Marks pl, New York, NY 10009, USA
telephone:(212) 995-5601 e-mail: iskoric@igc.apc.org
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SOROS, AND OTHER "SORRY" FOUNDATIONS
 
You know the kind of letters which first sentence begins with
"Thank you" or "We do appreciate", and second sentence inevitably
starts with "Unfortunately"?
 
Having an ethnic radio-show in New York (broadcasts in Croatian
language) I made one show live on the air and had listeners call
in. Pleasantly surprised I discovered that show is listened by all
ethnic comunities of former Yugoslavia in New York. Even more I
enjoyed that all of our listeners received our dispassionate,
simple and non-partisan reporting with great approval. That is a
surprise for anybody who learnt that Croats and Serbs are in war,
and that their comunities in U.S. do not talk to each other. And
those communities are very numerous, relatively rich and extremely
emotinally atached to their old homelands. "In August 1991 alone,
Croatia collected $300 million from fundraising in the USA and
other countries for the procurement of arms", as reported in Peace
News in November 1992 by Dorie Wilsnack. That money was collected
among Croatian emmigrant comunities. It should be known, also, that
FBI keeps most of Croat immigrants, who were long active in the
anti-Yugoslav movement in the U.S., under constant surveillance to
prevent possible illicit arm shipments to Croatia (Serbs do not
have to send weapons, Serbia bought weapons "legally" from the U.S.
in the time of peace: General Dynamics was even ready to start a
joint-venture with Yugoslav aerospace industry "Soko" to produce
a supersonic airplane; the deal was suspended because of the war
in Bosnia where the "Soko" factory is).
 
So, I thought, if I am able to make a radio that brings comunities,
that are about ready to slaughter each other, together, that such
a program may be of interest to some of those numerous foundations
that claim to advance and support human rights and peace causes
around the world. I got a list of addresses, I sent a letter to
each address, and I got responses: letters which second sentence
inevitably begins with "Unfortunately."
 
Some of foundations answered that they support humanitarian work
in Latin America and South Africa (if we add Vietnam to that list
we'll get "The World According to an American Leftist"); but most
of them concentrated on the issue of THE GUIDELINES. Even those who
were unprofessional enough not to respond to my letter (like Soros
foundation) found an irresistible neccessity for THE GUIDELINES.
And "the guidelines" were always: thou shallst never ask us to
support any project if the target of your project is in different
country then the project itself. Frankly speaking: they will never
support an offshore radio program that will produce dispassionate
and nonpartisan news to ethnic comunities or nation states of
former Yugoslavia, EVEN if that is the only way those people may
get their independent news. Because, that does not fall in their
GUIDELINES.
 
So, the guidelines are more important than peace. How beautifully
consistent with the whole western left!
 
They don't really care about peace, they care just how to look like
they really care about peace. Image is more important than
achievements. Yuppie generation. I was taught by person from Soros
foundation that they have 24 offices in 18 East European countries
(with the Executive in each office). I wasn't told what did they
achieve. War in former Yugoslavia is still going on, for one thing.
Person told me that they help Mladina newsmagazine in Slovenia. How
embarassing was that I heard the same morning that Mladina had to
slash the circulation 5 times and abandon color covers. Where has
been the sorry Soros cavalry?
 
Probably, well hidden behind the guidelines. The guidelines are
near-religious obsession of all foundations. And the guidelines are
mostly formed on hear-say, established once upon a time and then
not changed for years. Also, guidelines represent an ex-cathedra
view of world (maybe better to say: ex-officio) that ends about a
feet away from the edges of a clerks desk. UNFORTUNATELY, I can
support that claims: Soros-person told me that they sponsor
independent media in the countries of former Yugoslavia where they
may influence electorate to support pro-democracy political
parties. Emmigrant comunities are of no interest - because, as I
was lectured, they are SMALL, NOT INTERESTED for the events in
their old homelands and NOT VOTING in those countries.
 
Well, wrong on all three accounts. Yugoslav emmigrant comunities
are LARGE. I will use Croatian community as example. There are 4,5
million Croats living in Croatia. According to the census of
Croatian Fraternal Union (1988) there are 2,4 million people of
Croat ancestry living in the U.S. This is a pretty high percentage
in relation to Croatia's population to be easily discarded. They
CARE about what is going on in their old homeland. That's basically
all their social life. For numerous reasons Croatian comunity was
never succesfully assimilated by American "melting pot" culture,
and Croats in the U.S. remained closely attached to their language
and to their old homeland. They, also, earned a lot of money. As
they lived isolated from mainstreem American consumer culture -
they saved a lot. And they invested all that money in the secession
of Croatia from Yugoslavia. And THEY ARE VOTING. Actually they
already did vote: this summer were elections in Croatia, and Croats
in America voted in Croatian comunity centers (in most cases
attached to Croatian Catholic parishes, and tightly controlled by
franciscan fathers). On the legal basis of the article 10 and
article 45 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia,
Citizenship Act and a special decree issued by president Tudjman,
EVERY member of "Croatian nation" around the globe got the
opprtunity to vote. Legally, Croatia treats citizenship similarly
to Germany (to include numerous emmigrants). I agree that those
elections were on a lot of accounts disputable (president Tudjman
even decreed that non-citizens might also vote - what I never
before thought possible in electoral praxis), the point is that The
Executive at Soros foundation didn't know that.
 
It is such an irony for the OPEN SOCIETY FUND.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia