ISP rambles, Plitvitchka, and London

So, I had to write a proposal draft for my Independent study. Here it is:

- Proposed Title: Our Children, Our Future: How Serb, Bosnian, and Croat Youth deal with the past they avoided and what it means for their collective future (focusing on women in war)

- Question and focus: How are the youth from Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia learning and understanding their Yugoslav and wartime past and, specifically, how women were viewed during this time?

- Significance of Study:

o “We are convinced that young people, as future decision-makers, voters and citizens, hold the keys to building an accountable society in the region. The Youth Program aims to connect people across the region, to educate and to strengthen the capacities of young people engaged in the process of dealing with the past. Also to decrease prejudices and stereotypes, and to actively involve young people in social and political life. Education and work with young people will be based on creative and new methods, thus encouraging learning through doing.” (Youth Initiative for Human Rights website, http://www.yi.org.yu/programs_youth.php). This quote serves to show the importance of this research. But I’d like to take it a step further by attempting to understand how, without such organizations like the Youth Initiative, young people throughout the region have grown up learning about Tito, Yugoslavia, Brotherhood and Unity, the Wars, territories and nationalism, ethnicity and minorities, socialism vs capitalism, etc. This research is very important, I believe, for institutions such as public schools, the media (most importantly television), Non-Governmental Organizations, not for profit organizations, politicians, parents, and academics. The children of today will soon morph into the leaders of this region, and how, when, why, from who, and what they learn about their neighbors will significantly effect how they coexist with them (or don’t coexist with them).

§ Some questions:

· What does a typical Serbian public school history text book look like?

· What does a typical Croatian public school history text book look like?

· What does a typical BiH public school history text book look like?

· How do Serb youth think of their role in the war? Is their guilt? Is their pride?

· What do Serb youth think of Milosovic’s role in the wars and in the breakdown of Yugoslavia?

· How are socialism and Titoism thought of?

o After reading Women Collecting Memories, I realized that I could focus what I am interested more on what was talked about within this paper. I am wondering how feminism is taught, how women’s movements are or are not included within the collective memory, how women played a significant role in the anti-war movement in Serbia, in Bosnia, and in Croatia, and how the youth are learning about this. It might seem a little unwieldy, but this quote really spoke to me: “When the war in Croatia and later in Bosnia and Herzegovina began, mass media promoted national homogenization and the drive towards alleged emancipation through exploitation. Images of young, beautiful women in Croatian army uniforms become symbols. Women who survived sexual violence during the war were turned into metaphors. The came to embody their nations: ‘A raped Croatian women is a raped Croatia’” (11). With this in mind, how do young men and women understand the happenings of the wars? How are men presented and how are women presented? “If women are excluded from memories of the recent past, it is very easy to exclude them from contemporary social and political processes” (12). If rape is only tried at the Hague, how is rape justified in history books? How are young boys being raised to think of women? How are women raised thinking of themselves? How do the youth visualize the “female activist”? Is feminism crossing borders or being left behind? How can forgetting this important aspect (women’s movements) of the anti-war movement creating or possibly create tensions in the future?

What do you think?

I think I might go to London this weekend to visit Nicole, Sasha, Mark, Sara, etc. Then I go to Serbia next week. But i have to figure out how to interview this woman from an organization in Zagreb called Cesi which works a lot with domestic violence, sexual education and reproductive health rights and I need to do this before Friday if I go.

Also, today I went to Plitvitchka, the national park in Croatia. It's right on the border of Bosnia, and is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places I've been. we had the day off because it was Croatian Independence day. Some pictures posted throughout.

AHHHHHH.