In Spirit of Reconciliation
14 May 2006
Participants had the task to reflect on the topic: how to handle the recent history of South Eastern Europe and why it is important to teach about it.
The results are:
Balkan Lesson
Long ago when the Peninsula was a place
Where all the peoples go,
The countries formed their faces
Using the Byzantine bases.
There were conflicts, there was not only one war.
But it is so far from us that we don’t feel the horror any more.
But in the recent years
The eyes were once again in tears
And the fire shots in the air
Shook the world and straightened our hair:
The territories were invaded –
Fear
Horror
Pain disaster…
The Balkans were divided.
How can you deny it?!
Although the nightmares are still in our mind
The people try to go on, reconciliate and bind.
And yet – graveyards – full with stones and crying mothers …
So tell, how can we live again as brothers?!
Questions will explode in our hands:
WHY? HOW? Should we forget?
And here comes the education that will lead us to reconciliation:
Understanding
Comprehending
Explanation
Tolleration …
All will come through the school with the new generation!
Make the children smile again!
Try them to forget them pain!
Focus on the values and shorten the distance!
Break the stereotypes and the indifference!
Only by achieving this great goal
We’ll build a society that will never Fall
And the Balkans – our common home
Will turn again into
Garden of Eden
That we all know!!!
By Dimitrinka Arnaudova, Ivana Dobrivojevic and Petya Georgieva
Recent History
Recent history is just a part of a general human problem! If we separate recent history from another part of history we would have just partial resolving of the problems. That would be like talking man through one part of his body e.g. through his finger.
What are the borders of a recent history?
There are two problems: one is – who is authority (?) and the other one is methodological problem – access to archives and secret documents (?).
One of the solutions for teaching recent history is to show to the pupils that victims are not national or religious or ideological but human victims. To concrete this idea is to show simultaneously to the people memorial places of the opposite sides. We need pedagogical approach to every subject. We should not follow exactly the numbers because history could then be just a story (not emotional one) with war and statistics. We should develop and establish system of values and human approach on some history points: tragedies, wars, slavery etc., e.g. Bosnia and Herzegovina: “nobody won, everybody lost”
And so on…
Humble history teachers and historians: Mateja Ratej, Jelena Zivkovic, Goran Antonic, Haris Zaimovic, Mirza
Reflection on handling the recent history of the Balkans
Srebrenica, is it a restarting point or a forgetting one?!
Well, if I were to give the answer, that would decide the whole cause of events forever. Indeed, I am one of the single voices but if I were to give the final stamp in the history of the Balkans, the cause of events would have been far from the conflicts and wars that have unfortunately marked this region.
If it were me, I would have said “Stop” to the fears, ethnic prejudices and to the political and cultural boundaries. But this is only my dream and I don’t know wheather there are 1 hundred, 1 thousand or 1 million more who think the same.
The pressure from the past events has added many complexes to my people. But do I have to believe in change?
Srebrenica could be an answer not to the suffering of the past but for the brightness of the future.
And should I believe in a big, unique Balkan fatherland? Yes. I should tell to my children that every historical past has its glorious and dark moments, but what lies in their hands is the future that can and has to be molded as a better and safer one.
Liliana Guga, Lumnis Cela, Majlinda Ziu (Albania)
Against Silence and Indifference
Why we should teach about recent wars on the Balkans?
Because we have not to forget a result of massacre, plannedorganized and systematically implemented extermination of people concentration camps and cold blood killings of innocent people to achieve ethnical pure territory (ethnic cleansing). It’s not good solutions not to talk about such things because one and the other side should never forget what happened. Remember, do not forget, speak of us to the next generation.
The results of the holocaust are felt to this day and the after shocks are the terrorist acts, ethnic cleansing and mass murders of population committed in different corners of the world (Rwanda, Srebrenica, Vukovar, etc.)
So, it is us, the historians that have the most difficult task to raise new generations which will never allow the can of powder to explode again. We will believe and we wish that such thing never happened again anywhere on the earth.
By Asmir Demir, Xhafer Ahmeti, Vasja Rovsnik
Messages
War is one way road
Facts and interpretations
Books and guns – similarities and differences
To take a side or to be indifferent
Everything is better than the war
There is always something that words can’t say
By Igor Miskovic, Saso Kolaric, Mirjana Nikolovska, Besnik Emini
Relationship between state and religion during communism in Romania
After four decades repressionand hiding and 15 years of silence and suspicions in Romanian society, subject of relationship between state and religion during communism, it is time and important to be discussed and treated with honesty.
It is also important not to be revengeful, but in spirit of reconciliation.
In the following situation of religionbefore 1945 – 1989 in short. After the II WW communist party became state party in Romania (like the others communist countries). In this context communist power implemented a massive plan to subdue the religions for their own purpose.
According to the communist mentality, religion is “opium for the people” (Marx). The state control was implanted through the law of religions. Repressions against the religions was made by canceling the Greek – Catholic churches, by taking all belongings (buildings and monasteries), demolishing churches and monasteries, etc.
In this period you can observe collaboration and resistance. For example the distinction of the Greek-Catholic church was made by the communist state with the assistance of leadership of the Romanian Orthodox church. At the same time many priests and believers, manifested an opposition against institution state in the churches affairs.
It is very important to teach about this delicate subject because in Romania are many conflicts based on this with the purpose to relief the tensions between the religions. Tolerance is built on knowledge and mutual respect of each other and on ignorance and hiding.
By Anca Potra, Dorin Dobrincu, Norbi Kondrat (Romania)
Our Balkan Home
Graves and silence
Empty spaces –
Seas of blood and tears.
Boundaries – barbed wire
Curbing minds and souls
And life desire.
The sky is overcast,
No air to breathe –
Potential bomb:
That’s what we are leaving on.
A child wants to know
Why the flowers no longer grow.
Why there is to be no sun.
Be still my child!
You are too young.
Don’t worry. Don’t think.
Don’t speak.
Stop! I am no object.
I have a soul.
My child, careful where you walk.
For there is nor more room
Under this carpet for dirt.
Your mother’s feet already hurt.
We eat the same food
We share the same land
Why do we need the borders?
There is still a hope
For you to dream
To laugh and have a chance of future
Let flowers and sun –
The bright –
Turn info your guiding light
Of how to live
And how to love
By YordankaMollovska, DonikaXhemajli, Karmit Zuysman, NevenaPetkovska