Here I will just translate the concept of my radio show, and announce the next topic for next sunday, December 14th at 22h (local time)
Stigma: the frightful VS the acceptable
As values of personal freedoms are systematically being globalized, we are reaching out for a parallel process, more and more rigid, of setting boundaries between the acceptable and the frightful. The two parallel and opposed processes are not in human nature, but somebody or something is setting trends and putting up boundaries with a purpose. Calling certain topic a banality is mainly our self protection from getting upset by it. The way I look at the World stigmatizes me as a queer, misfit, toxic, hideous shameless character who allows her self a luxury to chose banal topics/maybe some will even be divine/, to publicly speak out her mind and chose music. Hopefully i will get to have guests and other opinions. At the end, boundaries will become vague, uncatchable.
next topic: Adultery
Why is adultery so deeply thought through in art and philosophy? Mentioned today, it meets disapproval, judgement. Being lived, it squats hidden or brings shame. Which one of the two closely related concepts have changed more throughout history, love or marriage? Since the adultery has always been defined by relating to those two concepts…
In my radio shows, which ever topic i chose, I aim to reveal how fragile moral is. I do live in Serbia, which obliges me to always look into my topics also taking place in an aggressor post war and patriarchal society.
to look at Stigma’s page, you can go to:
http://www.noviradiobeograd.com/kategorija/Stigma/
From there you can chose option Home/Pocetna/ and then option Slusajte uzivo, to listen to the radio live. Eventhough program is in our silly language, I invite you at least for the good music on sunday in Stigma:)
I welcome your comments on my topic for the radio show. I already gave an abstract, but if I think of more specific questions, i will post them.
Jelena, no language is silly, it’s amedium for communication. It’s the way people use a language that is where problems lie.
** Can’t remember if I “submitted” this or not – please delete if it’s a duplicate ***
There’s an interesting Wikipedia summary at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_stigma
I remember a long time ago reading Erving Goffman’s book Stigma. It’s a very readable account of how stigmatisation is linked to labelling, the way labels are used to stereotype, and the feedback of the labelling and stereotyping into the self-image and behaviour of the stigmatised.
yes, owen is right! Serbian language gave us Danilo Kis!
ok ok, i was joking on my own account… because, also just out of a joke, i called once another language “silly”, showing obviously that i only do it because i cannot speak it, and i wanted to take part in the ongoing conversation. so instead of saying “sorry, i do not speak …. language, i feel stupid. can we switch into English, French, Russian or Serbian, so that i can also follow”, i took up an obvious joke tone and said “oh please, stop with the silly language and speak in something i too can follow, because i am here on your invitation”. and all of the people present got very insulted because i called that language silly, even though they knew i was joking and feeling inferior, left out. then i appologized. sure, i asked my self the question immediately: would my national pride start working all of a sudden and out from nowhere, if somebody called, in a joke, my language silly? and i knew my national pride wouldn’t pump up, because i do not have it, and i also knew that not one piece of me would object to such a joke in such a situation. In a serious tone, my companions called my language silly and told me to better learn theirs. I was not insulted, i just accepted that i was not gonna be part of that conversation. So ever since, i have done it my self a couple of times, i joked about my language and how it might sound to those who don’t know it. and silly is just the word for that kind of joke, i thought in the past, and still do. What does insult me is what my that time companions will never experience, is being called a prostitute and kept at the border crossing to their country for hours, because of my name and passport. Laughed at, threatened to be deported right back, even though i had a valid visa and official invitation as a guest to the event in my honor as an artist, my insurance payed, money on me, and looked rather boyish and on and on. I never told them that, but in a joke, i refer to my language as silly, if i know it is not comprehensive to somebody. i guess i will have to stop that.
Sorry, Jelena, I shouldn’t have sounded as if I was taking what you said so seriously.
It’s just that for as long as I can remember Serbo-Croat and the successor languages have been seen as an “impossible” language for outsiders (ie English speakers) because of the consonant combinations, inflections, etc.
Then over the last couple of decades even within that group of languages nationalists seemed to be trying to use language as a force for division and a political weapon with their efforts to consolidate differences and emphasise separateness. I thought that was the issue you were referring to.
Border and immigration officers are often the least attractive face that a country presents to the world – I think that’s an almost universal truth, but it’s a very unpleasant experience to be on the receiving end of the combination of arbitrary power and ignorance.
As we commemorate 60th anniversaty of human rights, over 1,000 Serbian extremists have set up Srebrenica genocide denial hate group on Facebook calling for Bosnian Muslims to be roasted and placed into a sulfuric acid.
Reuters also covered the story, here is an update:
http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/2008/12/facebook-shuts-down-srebrenica-genocide.html
Daniel, thank you for informing me. I have been following up, i joined the petition on facebook to close down the nazi hate group, i know they finaly did. i follow your blog and posted a comment on the last article (i’ll have to coment more often, on blogs; i keep looking for ways to bring up issues here, on the soil tahat grows all that evel, in Serbia. for the time being, i only have my show Stigma on online radio, and whichever topic i use i find my way to refer to my civic responsabilities).
Serbian people are not better or worse than anybody else, however, Serbian public opinion has been hijacked by a group of extremists from Serbian Radical Party. Dobrica Cosic, who killed people with his “pen” and “academic” dishonesty, is still spreading hatred.
People like Jelena are people Serbia should be proud of. Jelena, keep blogging, do not stop. You’re making a positive difference. When I started my blog 3 years (and 7 days) ago, I never thought I would be contacted by journalists, students, academics, historians, and even relatives from Srebrenica genocide victims. It took me a while, but I realized that I am making a positive difference. The blog is in no way anti-Serb oriented. I reserve harsh words only for Serbian radical ultra-nationalist, not ordinary Serbs that are no worse or better than myself.
I want to thank you for making a positive contribution to your country, to your people, and to humanity. Thank you for condemning Srebrenica genocide denial and hatred.