Today the CNN Headline News began with the warning that the following footage might not be appropriate for all viewers. News rated R. The marketplace in Sarajevo was bombed again. This became an annual summer spectacle. Like some other countries have fireworks. A part of life and, more prominently, a part of death in Sarajevo. The UN radar could not pinpoint the origin of shell that killed 30something and wounded 80something people. What are the options anyway: it could have been Serbs - trying to dispirit Sarajevans and their government in wake of the important peace talks scheduled to be held there. Or it might have been Muslims bombing themselves to attract attention. Or maybe Croats sneaked through Bosnian Army and Serbian Army trenches to get close enough to fire the ominous shell. Or why not blame the UN? They had good reasons to shell Sarajevo, too. Now again people would want them there as a protection force. The fact is that although the majority of observers feel that the Serbs did it, given that the radar could not pinpoint the origin, you'll be blamed for prejudice if you publicly say so. Because in this war *everybody* has a viable motive to shell Sarajevo. So, motive is not enough for proof.

Later in the day the hospital, in which the wounded were brought from the bombed marketplace, was bombed. This is sick, really sick.

This is exactly why the NATO and everybody else should work on lifting the siege of Sarajevo before winter. Once Sarajevo is not surrounded and constantly targeted by Serbian heavy guns and mortars, the peace process may begin without being tainted with fear and suspicion. That hideous Bosnian government would think twice of bombing its own citizens if there were no Serbian big guns around Sarajevo that they could blame, isn't that so?

My Newsweek reporting friend returned to Sarajevo for the fireworks. She actually had second thoughts about returning, after she spent some time in Zagreb (where electricity is common, telephones work, mail is delivered, running water - even running hot water is ubiquitous and marketplaces are generally safe except for purse-snatchers). However, Newsweek pays for a job, not for a vacation. Her friend wounded in previous attack on the TV center - that she wrote a letter about - is alive and recovering. Apparently he is not as bad off as doctors initially believed he was.

The other my friend (the one who works for Amnesty) is back from her refugee interviewing job at Bosnian-Croatian border. Exhausted. Seeing to many people who did not yet grasp of how miserable they were rendered by this war. Youth particularly. Every day is more frustrating than the other. But it seems that for her any other job would feel like wasting her time.

And yet another my friend came back from Belgrade, where she worked for the Red Cross - mostly processing refugees on Bosnian- Serbian border. A similar story. Only here refugees are Serbs. She brought me pictures. The pictures that reminded me of how close that war really is. It is not somewhere far away, on some other planet, with some other alien species involved. It is here, it is in same socio-cultural sphere we live in. It is a part of us. And we are a part of it.

On a high school gym in Sremska Mitrovica there are graffiti, the same kind of graffiti you can find on walls of most American public high schools. Of course there are some neighborhood- specific graffiti. So it says: "(light brown color) [peace sign] Marihuana [marijuana leaf sign] (blue color) the Chetnichs [skull and bones sign] Dekanac (black color) Srbija do Vudstoka (dark brown color) [Serbian nationalist 'four S' symbol]"

Four colors used suggest four different writers. Reconciliation of a peace sign with a Serbian nationalist symbol on a same wall is startling and in a way scary. Dekanac (written in a hip-hop letter style - in Cyrillic letters) is obviously a handle of the guy who wrote "the chetnichs" and draw skull and bones. Particularly funny is to see a marijuana leaf between "marihuana" and "the chetnichs". "Srbija do Vudstoka" means "Serbia all the way to Woodstock". Greater Serbia that stretches all the way to Woodstock.

The world changed in last nine hundred years. Once men were crusaders braving rough seas and hostile far foreign lands. Ladies were waiting in corridors of their castles entertained ny troubadours - waiting mostly to be rescued. Today (at least judging by my friends) women are those who are crusaders, and men slacked of into working out and video-games. Waiting for Godot.

The same day Sarjevo was bombed, Pete Wilson announced his presidential candidacy on an anti-immigrant platform, which means he can't count on my vote. It'd be like expecting from a Jew to vote for a Nazi. He also said that "obeying the law is the American way". But he did not obey the law himself by employing an illegal immigrant, did he? And almost all wealthiest families in the U.S. could trace their origins to hustlers, pirates, smugglers and gangsters. But this was a campaign speech. Nobody expected him to tell the truth, anyway.

I watched McNamara on Charlie Rose. Now I know of whom he reminds me: an Eastern-European politician, a recent communist kneeling before the altar waiting to receive his new communion. They were twenty years late telling us stuff there. They lied to us for so long. They created a lot of anger to be played out in this war. Then, they are twenty years late here telling stuff, too. McNamara could write that book years ago, couldn't he? Maybe there would be less Tim McVeighs stomping around.

Chase Manhattan merged with Chemical Bank the same morning when Sarajevo marketplace was shelled again. Chemical Bank earlier merged with Manufacturers Hannover (as Chase even earlier merged with Manhattan Bank). And recently we witnessed the biggest mergers in history of capitalism (ABC-Disney for one), which usually involve communications and entertainment giants. The trend is obviously towards greater monopolization of capital. The same as it was in twenties, the same as it was before any big crisis followed by a merciless war. 12,000 people will loose their jobs as a result of this merger. They are not going to be happy campers. Each merger concentrates wealth in fewer hands. I mean this is the purpose, isn't it? The side effect is that each merger adds numbers of people to underclass of angry and dispossessed.

Manufacturers Hannover was a principal lender to former Yugoslavia inheriting most of the country's $ 20 billions debt. This debt, which would probably never be collected, is now buried somewhere between other uncollectible debts from other failed dictatorships around the world that attract American banks' investments like a magic magnet (kickbacks?, bribes?): Chase wrote that infamous letter urging Mexican government to crush in blood Zapatistas rebellion in Chiapas - protecting its investments. Besides causing immense suffering to people in countries in which they invest, monstrous bank conglomerates, re- finance their failures by charging outrageous fees American low- income and middle-class people: the interest rate you earn is substandard (bellow 5% mostly), while the interest rate you've been charged for borrowing [credit cards] is screaming high (around 20%). If you are not rich enough to keep your account over the ever increasing limit you are charged a hefty monthly fee just for a privilege of having your money in the bank. On top of that you are charged when you write a check, when you withdraw the money from the ATM *and* you are also (at some banks) charged a non-activity fee for *not* withdrawing your money or writing a check. My understanding of militia-types who refuse to have anything with the "system" (except for occasional bomb threats) is growing every day.

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