[NYC-L] Mission:

[Jeton Ademaj]

Isa:

>>>Public outreach takes place from 6-11:00 every night
on the boob tube,>>>>>>>>>>>

do you have a proposal for getting some 30 second spots circulating on 
network primetime?

>>>writing letters in some hidden
corner of the "liberal" print media is wasting time
(and yes J. lots of hot air). <<<<

I listed the NYTimes, WashPost and Wall Street Journal because collectively 
they are all considered large and credible outlets by policymakers, 
especially for international news.

>>>One full-page ad does absolutely nothing<<<
untrue. it depends on the content and timing

 >>and is quickly countered. It is by stealth, underground
and long-term cultivation. <<<

so you have a plan i take it? one that *will* be put into effect by you or 
somebody?

>>>Often, they consult those
young kids (who of course are to be coddled, petted
and groomed--no need to remind me J [or at least
insinuate] that I should conduct myself with humility
***at the right time***; I have been doing it for many
years). <<<<>>>>>In the end, it is because we hate to look
each other in the eye and work together; it is more
self-serving to be smug, flippant and disrespectful,
than bend a little. I plead guilty as charged by the
way.<<<<<

as for "the right time" (to 'coddle/groom/headpat'), you ARE aware that some 
of whom you speak actually read THIS particular list, right? so u propose 
'coddling' to their face and dissing them behind their backs, but within 
earshot? as for looking people in the eye you should probably speak for 
yourself only...

>>>>>>No, the community cannot hope for Hearst or Murdoch to
subsidize this agenda. <<<<

why does it have to be 'an agenda" (as opposed to speaking and reporting the 
truth) and why do we need Hearst or Murdoch if there's all this albo money 
lying around? I ferget if ILLYRIA even has a DC correspondent, but if they 
dont they should...if only to have a voice amongst the DC press corps and in 
the transcripts of these briefings.

>>>Moreover, the fight is not
public relations but reformation of influential
people. These are the people you never hear about,
they will never autograph their portraits but they are
the entourage surrounding every decision-maker in
Washington, the faceless suites who are suaded by the
silly things they hear in USSD press briefings and
over a beer at the local bar. This is how the
Bolsheviks and STB and UDBA and all those other
counter-intelligence operations worked. Perhaps I
should ask Putin to contribute his personal
experiences at head of the KGB in Berlin to emphasize
the point.<<<The "leaders" of this country do not have my
respect, nor do their operatives and those who are
content with living in such an ethical wasteland<<<<

This is the classic error of so many albo activists i've met, especially 
those raised overseas. OF COURSE we need to cultivate close longterm 
relationships with policymakers and their assorted staff (tho its perfectly 
unhelpful to use UDBA and the KGB as rolemodels). The problem is when this 
approach is taken at the expense of influencing the public opinion that 
these "important people" DO have to answer to in some form. many activists 
(like you i suspect) prism their own cynicisms into their general 
strategy...you end up wearing your contempt for the person you're lobbying 
right on your sleeve. so you may leave them feeling like they just met a 
(not so) slick brownshirt AND there's no "public noise" (or the perception 
thereof)  to augment your influence.

>>>I completely and utterly disagree with the notion that
the last ten years have been something akin to a media
victory for Albanians.<<<<

it would have been if we'd had our collective act together. as it is we have 
Belgrade out and the makings for recognized self-determination in the works, 
which we are quite lucky to have given the job we haven't done. and that 
ship hasn't sailed yet, actually. most Americans still have positive 
perceptions of Albanians, despite the efforts of the 
isolationist/anti-Islamic right and the isolationist/anti-American left...

>>>If Kosovars and Albanians still
believe they convinced Clinton to come and save them,
they are saddly misguided. <<<

why EXACTLY?

>>>It is indeed a tragedy that
the rationale for intervention, and what were the
conditions that ultimately led the US Airforce to step
up their "air campaign" is stunning.<<<

incoherent statement above. clarify, please.

>>In the end, the
trust we have in our special relationship with the US
has cost Kosovars (I leave out Southern Albanians from
this equation, they have their own problems with Nano
and Greece) the golden opportunity in 1999 to have set
the agenda.<<<

bullshit. blaming "trust in the USA" is a copout to ignore the fact that we 
dropped the ball that rolled our way after the war. we walked right into the 
Serbian trap of trying to establish "facts on the ground", expelling and 
harrasing non-Albos to Belgrade's sheer delight. it was ***DISTRUST*** in 
the USA and NATO and the UN and most of all ***the EU*** that led many albos 
to shift the international focus from what Serbs did to Albos to what Albos 
were doing to the Serbs (and everybody else!). ******WE, KOSOVAR 
ALBANIANS****** have done Belgrade's work for them because many of us took 
Slobo's lesson from Bosnia: "kick them out and we have the territory by 
default"...which set up Slobo's aim of K-partition quite nicely. It is to 
our huge and mostly *unearned* advantage that the US has finally awoken to 
the fact that the "standards before status" paradigm has produced an 
intrinsically entropic state of affairs....

it is the LACK of clear status that has inflamed some Kosovars DISTRUST of 
the international community and produced this creeping entropy favoring 
partition and/or limbo. While that state of affairs suits several EU and UN 
members just fine, it's end result (partition or return to serbia and more 
war) would prove embarrasing for the US. the US has finally recognized this 
and moved the focus to STANDARDS *WITH* STATUS, to triangulate Prishtine and 
Belgrade out of an entropic, inherently unstable zero-sum mentality and into 
eventual EU membership...and if Kosovars get and keep their act together, AS 
SEPERATE ENTITIES.

>>>Let us not forget that our best and brightest are either
dead (and largely unaccounted for) or in the Hague,
charged as war criminals. <<<<

well there's nothing you or I or we can do about that besides seeking the 
fate and remains of the former and emotionally/financially supporting the 
latter. so you may wish to cast a wider net for organizing Albanians.

>>>The discussions in DC are again back to decentralization<<<

not really

>>minority rights<<<

that should ALWAYS be on the table

>>and Hitler creating Kosova and the Albanian problem.<<<

no that last part is not in wide discussion but Belgrade would like it to 
be...the actual history of the region is on our side in that regard which is 
why it's worthwhile to establish a public awareness of it, and allow wacky 
theorists enough rope to hang themselves with.

>>>Be as SOPHISTICATED as you want, but by being cute,
time is wasted and pogrom after pogrom visits those
Albanians who are not as lucky as we are, far away
from artillary shells, Arkan's monsters and abject
poverty.<<<

If i sound supercilious or 'cute', you sound like a shrill brownshirt. 
Kosovars are generally not facing pogroms right now, they've been lured into 
performing them. and THEIR victims are willingly sacrificed by Belgrade for 
as much publicity as possible. Abject poverty is part of the trap Kosovars 
are in (a trap which some people are only to happy to spring again and 
again), which can only be unsprung by establishing a stable, tolerant regime 
and culture throughout Kosova. Whether or not any of our efforts had 
anything to do with it, the US is at last moving to correct this inherently 
unstable situation. The least we can do is lobby public support for it AND 
create a sober and responsible Kosovar body politic.

Jeton