[NYC-L] (no subject)

[h isai]

Visar,

What I sense out of your letter is that your anger is coming from  not
liking the fact that Isa is pro-muslim.  I didn't watch the game so I didn't
see the players lifting their fingers, but if I had I would have been
offended enough for that matter to preoccuppy my mind for a good amount of
time.  What Isa brings to our attention is not illogical.  What's illogical
is that a person of your acedemic status bring about such complex problems
that an average person can never solve.  We leave these problems for someone
of your intelligence to handle.  What Isa is doing is bringing us commoners
together and asking us in unison to address a problem that affects all of us
and that can simply be solved.
Isa is obviously a Muslim and so are the majority of Albanians.  I am
Albanian by blood, by language, by history and by culture but, I am Muslim
by choice.  All of my ethical and moral decisions are made through my
religion.  I would fight for my religion just as much as I would fight for
my nationality and sometimes my religion comes first.



------Original Message------
From: "Visar Belegu" <vbelegu at hotmail.com>
To: NYC-L at alb-net.com
Sent: January 24, 2001 2:01:04 AM GMT
Subject: [NYC-L] (no subject)


Hi everyone

I must say I am enjoying the little debate that you all have going!  I saw
the Kings game last Saturday on NBC when they beat the Blazers, and quite
frankly I was upset that Portland lost but I also noticed one of the Kings
players raise the infamous three fingers after he made a three point shot at
the latter part of the fourth quarter.  Some of you may not know this but
recently Alan Iverson, of the Philadelphia 76ers for the people that do not
follow the NBA, released a rap album in which he had to rewrite some of the
songs because the lyrics where offensive toward homosexual people as well as
women; this goes to show the type of control the NBA commisiner, David
Stern, has on the out-of-court behavior of the NBA players.  Toward this
Snopp Doggy Dogg and Master P, rappers and entreupeneurs, said that Iverson
changed his lyrics because he is a ball player first, and a rapper second. 
Therefore, there is no doubt that if the commissioner became aware of the
fact that the three fingers are a symbol of a regime that promotes hate
crimes, and violence toward any ethnicity or religion he would "convince"
any and all players not to use that gesture in public, at least not during
the time they are associated with a broadcast that is NBA and basketball
related.

This gesture, the three fingers raised during an NBA game however offensive
we might find it, is the least of our problems.  Perhaps we are losing
Kosova as Mr. Blumi says however it is not because we cannot get Divac and
Peja to stop raisng three fingers during a basketball game.  Mr. Blumi I
believe is a PhD candidate in a political science related field of study,
and as an educated Albanian he should know that any comment that he makes in
which he expresses concern about how the Muslim Albanians are being offended
and so on is offensive to all Albanians.  If he is not aware of this then I
would refer him to the poem of Vaso Pasha which I believe is titled
"Shqiperi e mjera Shqiperi."  I do not what to prolong a pointless argument
here but I just want to reiterate the mindless divisions that we are
introducing amongst our selves at a time when UNITY should be goal of all
Albanians.  In front of me I have a magazine from Prishtina titeled
Kosovarja, and in the fourth page a 17 year old girl writes "I have never
been so lucky to fall in love with a boy of my class instead I have always
gotten in relationships with boys of lower classes such as peasents
(fshatare), junkies, and members of catholic faith etc;" on the same page
there are letters from five other readers that praise this magazine from its
"great" articles.  Personally, I was not aware that in the population of
Kosova we had different social classes, and I am certain that we cannot
afford to invent them.  In conclussion of this thought, since our goal is
the same - independence, and subsequent prosperity for Kosova as well as
Albania,- and since Kosovars - muslims as well as catholics, peasents as
well as city dwellers - have equally suffered, when we complain about
anything that is detramental to our cause we should be more inclusive.

With all this said it is even more sad to say that this is not our biggest
problem.  So what is our biggest problem? Today, the citizens of Kosova are
reluctant to pay taxes because they see how waistful the UN administration
is with their tax money; Our future presidential candidates are, the most
promominent at least, two men, one of which blatently disregards the law, is
involved in racketeering, stealing of public property, and who knows what
else, while the second one has shown that he has more regard for his own
life than any of his constituents and has never made an attempt to apologize
for his courdly behaviour.  Our economy. . . well it is is shoumbless, and
no one is making an effort to come up with a scheme to recover it; and why
should we try to do that when we can just wait for the UN to do it for us!? 
Our legal system is the same miserable situtation, and minimal efforts are
being taken to repair it.  Perhaps most importantly our education system is
in the worst position with high school graduates being more interested in
becoming Miss this and that or working for 1000 DM/month versus continuing
their education; welcome to Kosova the land of bluming iliteracy.  Not to
mention the fact that corruption has creept into every aspect of life, all
the way up to university professors.

See, now I am angry.  All you people, myself included, can come up with
reasons to complain, something to bitch about.  However, I would advise you
to be cations about expressing your concerns, and if you must express them
in a public forum make sure your suggesting a solution, at least a half
logical one, otherwise your wasting our time.  You can understand the latter
from reading this letter.

Visar Belegu
PhD Candidate
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Department of Free Radical Biology and Aging<br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE
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