Interview with the former President of the Serbia Republic Radovan
Karadzic.
The whole world knows you as a politician, the
former President of the Serbian Republic and a doctor of Psychiatry,
but it is only here in Russia that You have been awarded the
much-touted Mikhail Sholokhov literary prize, even though Your
writings have on many occasions been published in the former
Yugoslavia and in modern-day Serbia alike. A perfect case of a
"prophet not recognized in his own land?"
I would like to think that my involvement in
politics did not influence the jury to award the Mikhail Sholokhov
prize. In any event, I am extremely grateful to have received this
award. Very few poets are understood by the broad public. People
don't have time and incentive to read subtle things because everyday
life is very difficult. I don't think that I am more prophetic than
any other human being but I may be listening more often to my soul.
This is available to everyone. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that those
who had eyes and ears would see and hear. Mohammed has determined
that prayers are obligatory five times per day. I would advocate
every human being to afford themselves as many "Saint Moments" as
they need. Everyone would then be able to connect one's own depths
with heavenly heights. And then everyone can see.
There is in the "Vseosen" book of verses,
published in Russian in 2004, a poem called "Sarajevo". We believe
that just about any Sarajevo resident - whether Serb, Croat or
Muslim - can be easily identified with the poem's main character. In
the "Situation" play You also describe Bosnia as "Serbian, Croatian
and Muslim." Right now You are being accused of genocide. How would
Your famous colleague, Sigmund Freud, have characterized a situation
like this?
This poem was written 30 years ago. It didn't
envisage the war, but rather general determination of our existence.
We suffered not only earthquakes and industrial fog and smoke, but
in the more profound sense the deterioration of human existence. The
great Serbian writer Petar Kocic's character, David Strbac, said
that Bosnia is neither David's, nor the Emperor's, nor Spahija's.
The Communists used to say Bosnia is all Serbian, Croatian and
Muslim. It seems to me that David Strbac was more correct. Then, and
now, it is much easier to say what Bosnia is not, than to say what
Bosnia is. As for the accusations against me, I suspect Sigmund
Freud would respond to those who are accusing me to "take your
projections back to you."
Your comic play "Situation" recently came out
in Russian. One of its characters admits he feels no love for
"humanists". Who do You mean by "humanists"?
By humanists I mean those who profess to act in
the best interests of all of us. A great Russian poet said to the
effect that, "we are in talons of the humanists". The easiest way to
deceive the world is to do terrible things in the name of humanity.
Remember how NATO labeled their bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999 as
Operation Merciful Angel. Nowadays, there are dangerous humanists
all over the world making new nations, dictating cultures and
creating political correctness. But the humanist phenomenon merits a
new Sigmund Freud to analyze it, because it is completely false. The
character in "Situation" implied humanists do to human beings what
vegetarians do to vegetables.
Has Your perception of European values changed
ever since, especially in the wake of the recent acknowledgement by
Angela Merkel, David Cameron and Nicholas Sarkozy of the failure of
the so-called "multiculturalism" concept"?
My perception of European values have not changed,
because I think basic European values are eternal. As are all
authentic values. But there is always the other side of the coin. I
am not talking of the great villains from the past that used to burn
Europe down. I am talking about a prevalence of those who are
engineering nations and cultures. The great former French Prime
Minister Edouard Balladur has written a book reaffirming that nation
is a necessary framework for freedom, democracy, and above all for
specific culture, as would do Mallraux. Those who would like us to
be de-culturated - to destroy the richness and diversity of cultures
- and be a mass of individuals-spenders instead of nations, would be
destroying valuable resources in the same way that those who oppose
biodiversity can destroy spices. If our creator wanted us to be
homogeneous he would have easily made us that way. Europe's
multiculturalism is threatened only by those who came to Europe to
change it, rather than to benefit from it. But the main concern of
mine is that the Serbian people may join the European Union at the
moment it starts to lose its basic values and end in a sort of
irreversible decadence, since it has already lost a lot of its
spirituality, the European wealth party originates from the colonial
times that are gone forever, and the Christian spirituality is the
greatest opportunity. Without the supra-natural bread we will all
suffer an endless hunger. |
