‘Thank you for your rejection’

Like many writers out there, I’ve been sending my work to a large number of publishers. Almost all the time I get no response, which eventually comes to mean that I have been rejected. But then, one day, I got a rejection letter. Initially I felt huge sense of disappointment. However, as that emotion started to fade, it was replaced with a sense of relief. I didn’t need to wait any longer. I re-read the rejection letter and realised they addressed the character in my story and not the story. It was kind of sweet. I was compelled the send a thank you letter, but I didn’t want it to be another envelope, another letter, another batch of reading material. So, I sent the publisher a postcard to thank them. Now that I have done that, I worry they might think I’m insane or making fun of the rejection. If it’s insane to want peace of mind, knowing the truth which can be disappointing, than I am insane. I’ll plead guilty to that even though I do not agree. I think it is very sane to want to trade peace of mind and disappointment with wait, anxiety and false hope. Which also means that I am not making fun of the rejection. I sincerely thank them for the time and effort. It really did mean a lot to me. 

Royal Blush

Royal Blush – new book, coming out in a month or so

Well, Royal Blush is about Prince William meeting a refugee girl on Skype. He doesn’t use skype in his name, of course, so she has no idea who she’s talking to.

Sometime into the conversation, she realises something isn’t quite normal with the guy. He drops ‘hints’ as if he wants her to know, but doesn’t want to tell her. Like he enjoys being a mystery.

For her, first big clue was that they spoke about him being outside, using skype and how dogs sense ‘nice people’ even on line. The next day there was an article about PW using his phone while hunting. There was a picture of him standing outside, phone in one hand and his dog standing patiently by his side. This was beginning to 2007. Not many people had a phone that could have skype on it.

But, the girl thought that must be a coincidence. She carried on using skype, refusing to even wonder if she could be talking to PW. Conversations were highly flirtatious. But then, why not. It’s just a bit of fun, right?

Next clue was when she told him she went to Asda. Next day, PW was in Asda for the first and only time in his life. Still she refused to believe it.

The next big clue came when she told him she’d never consider dating a guy who has a girlfriend. Newspapers reported him and Kate braking up – later on we’ll learn it was just a fake break-up, didn’t last even a week.

The girl also had a visit from a William-look-alike, who claimed he was a fireman checking alarms in the area.

The girl refuses to acknowledge fully that it could be PW, until he says so. However, he refused to say so. Instead, he kept asking her to marry him. What a joke, right? Asking a girl whom you haven’t told your name to marry you. Surely, no one in the world would be stupid enough to see that as something serious. Eventually, in November 2007, just to see what will happen, she says yes to his marriage proposal. The next day his relationship with Kate became public again, she didn’t hear from him again.

Well, that was to be expected, right? It’s not like he meant any of the messages he sent. It was just a bit of fun.

It would have been just a bit of fun if it were not for the fact that behind her back PW sent an army of dimwits who interfered in her life preventing her to live just by hacking into her e-mails and doing as they pleased.

In 2008 the girl just wanted to get rid of them. Having learned that their version of fun is really messed up and evil, she just didn’t want anything to do with them.

2009 they were still there, still interfering in her life as if she was a nothing, less than an object. She tried to explain that she a refugee and that to her getting a job and getting on with her life is vital. They were not moved. They carried on.

She had nowhere to turn. Large part of her life had already been destroyed. She could just sit back and wait for them to get bored and leave her alone.

She stopped all communication on line. But it was no use.

2017 they are still at it. It’s no longer just part of her life that’s destroyed, it’s her whole being.

They remain unmoved, unharmed, carrying on as if she was a nothing. Why? How could someone in their right mind, let alone a Royal, stoop that low? Could it be that they really believe in some hocus-pocus? Some legends? Psychics? And if they did believe that this girl had something special, surely after destroying her they should realise they’ve destroyed that? And even if they hadn’t completely taken everything from her, should they believe that she would ever consider having them in her life in any shape or form?

Who are the real Windsors? Could they be a bunch of lunatics who believe in some supernatural so much, that there is nothing natural about them, that they know nothing about reality? 

LGBT and the Church

So, the Bible is against same sex sex. And, well, let’s just call a spade a spade, love doesn’t make people gay, sex makes people gay. Church is also against promiscuous behaviour. As far as theology is concerned, being gay is a step further than being promiscuous.

Now, would we ask the church to bless sex outside marriage? I don’t think we would. Clearly society in general approves of it, but would we ask the church to bless it since it blesses dogs and cats? No! Dogs and cats are creatures, not behaviour. Behaviour is one thing, creatures are another. Two very different things. Let’s not compare the two because the reports that rest on an argument like this are just hollow.

Church isn’t suggesting gay people should be punished or banished or anything like that. It simply states that it cannot bless such behaviour since it goes against its teachings. So why are we applying pressure on the church to change its beliefs and teachings? Isn’t that asking for too much? 

‘Lady’ and the Trump

So May hurried to see president Trump.

I’m a helpless optimist so I was like “Cool, maybe she’ll make him see sense.” Boy! Turns out there’s a fine line between ‘optimist’ and ‘down-right-stupid’. This realisation has made me fearful. At one point I thought “Thank goodness we didn’t turn a blind eye to Hitler. Just look how much we have learned from that monster’s mistakes. We are really looking out for Hitler-like behaviour and standing against it.” When I first thought this, I was sure that would be enough to avoid another holocaust. But is that conclusion a voice of an optimist or an idiot? What if I refuse to be an idiot? If I were to sit down and think of ways to make sure we avoid bloodshed, or any further bloodshed (too much blood is being spilled to hope for no bloodshed), I’d say we have to talk more. We have to be persistent and love humans. There will be individuals who’ll abuse this state and try to turn us away from believing that killing innocent people is wrong. I would warn against listening to those who claim that a whole group is ‘not innocent’ because someone who claimed to belong to that group has done something bad. We have to stop assuming we are smart and work at being smart, I don’t think our first thought is necessarily the right one. I mean, Germans were smart. They were just like anyone else. How did Hitler talk them into doing things that they are really not inclined to do? We have to learn from their mistakes also. And it’s not just them. Milosevic managed to turn perfectly decent Serbs into monsters. So on and so forth. The point is, each individual matters, and each person will notice something. At a time like this, I think we would do better to listen to one another.

Let’s look at Brexit for just a moment. It was the most rushed referendum I had ever seen. The rules were hardly decided. Conclusion is that: ‘People have spoken’ – who are the people? Most were silent. Most didn’t vote one way or another. Is it because they don’t care? Or perhaps they didn’t feel they have enough information to cast a valid, educated vote and they didn’t want to guess? Perhaps they were certain that UK would vote stay so why bother voting? – it is not uncommon that those wanting a change are far more passionate than those who want things to remain the same, and passion means you will make the effort. Anyhow, ‘people have spoken’ is an unrealistic statement. Did anyone ever say that if you are a citizen of the UK and you don’t go out to vote, you will be assumed as if you have taken yourself out of the UK and you will not be counted? While this may seem obvious to some, it is unknown to many. Many people did not realise that if they don’t vote it’ll be as if they don’t exist. And then… Many people are only now learning about what the EU means. Only now they are discovering the truth about Human Rights. Now! When it is too late! And why is that? Is it because the information is much clearer and ‘louder’ now that the voice of the opposition has been silent? Or perhaps it is because now people are more likely to believe it, open their mind, instead of thinking that you are only saying that to ‘make’ them vote a certain way? No one can make you do anything. But you should choose to think about everything you hear and ask for more information if you are not sure.

Speaking of ‘people have spoken’. Who does president Trump represent? It is not the people but the system of the USA. With all due respect, I do not care for the system in America. If American people said they wanted to change it now, I’d say ‘So long as it is better for you guys, go for it’. But people!? People matter. To me, the system should be there to serve the people. Anyone who is unwilling to work with a president elected by the people is free to resign. Not to mention that it seems a voice in one state is worth more than a voice in another state. And it seems to be about how populated that state is. What?! Take a moment to think about what that is? Of course there are nut-jobs in America. America is a large country. If every family had just one person who is a nut (and every family has at least one of those all around the world), that’s a lot of nuts. I was not surprised to listen to a woman support president Trump because her son was killed in a car accident and the other driver was Mexican, so she thinks roads in America would be safer is there were no Mexicans in America. But if we hand out justice like that, we’d all be in jail. I heard the woman. I am so sorry for her tragic loss. But, she needs a good therapist not a position of power.

Having said all that, ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. I watched lawyers in America rush to airports to help, free of charge. Perhaps a Trump was needed to wake up citizens of America so that they too take their country back. America has been falling for quite some time. Well, the fact is, it rose when the world was drowning, Europe was literally in ashes. It is not that much of a challenge to rise at a time like that. The times have changed. We have learned a lot. America has to make some changes and I think only people of America know what and how. Perhaps this ‘a Trump’ was needed to wake them up into action?

As for us… As a Bosnian I’ll have to write a whole new blog – we still have a ‘war’ going on since the ‘brilliant’ administration of Clinton decided that Dayton was a document worth considering let alone signing. But, as a Brit… well, there is much that can be said there too, however I’d like to mention this ‘state visit’. May kind of jumped the gun, went too far with that one, in my opinion. It does feel like she has overstepped the boundary. Imagine you live with people and one of your roommates decides to invite a person who is a personification of everything you dislike. Other roommates agree with you, they also don’t want a visit from that person. Imagine they tell that person that they are not welcome. If the person had any honour they would refuse to come and have a private chat with the one who rushed such an invitation. But let’s see what president Trump will do? Will president Trump show us more than anything what modern politics is really all about? It is something masses need to see. Or perhaps president Trump will prove himself, show us that we were wrong and that he’s only guilty of inability to articulate his true thoughts. And then we will change our minds and welcome him with ‘open arms’ – as I said: Optimist or lunatic? What am I?

Democratization and Citizen Activism

Balkan is known as a ‘problem region’. However, problems motivate people into action, or at least that’s what we have come to believe. Last week we had a Civil Society Forum in Skopje, followed by a similar forum in Prizren. These forums started only two years ago, yet they have already become a well coordinated group with great discussions and firm conclusions. The task now is to follow up in our local regions and move from ‘theory to practice’. Furthermore, many have noticed that the topics discussed are no longer limited to the problems in the region but the whole of the EU. This post is my personal take on what was discussed not only during the formal parts of the forums, but also over meals and breaks.

Functioning democracy needs active, well informed citizens. While there are no objections to ‘representative democracy’ and the ‘election system’, there seems to be a need for a more frequent communication between the government and the citizens. In fact, we could go as far as to say that there is a great divide between governments and citizens. In the Balkans, this is because the representatives have inherited a culture of ‘untouchable, distant’, and in the Western Europe because of great dependence on statistical analysis which have led to policy failure, or the analysis does not represent the reality. Suggested model is a system of ‘bridges’, or activists who would work with the people to discover the problems and then articulate them in debates, seminars and round tables with the government officials. The main reason being that people are often unable to articulate their problems concisely, which means having patience and time, while on the other hand they often do not insist on solution since they don’t know how to solve a problem. This is particularly important in the age of ‘lazy’ solutions offered by some political parties which fail to explain how action A will lead to solution of problem Z. However, they often use it to raise the masses, disregarding the fact that action A might lead to more problems. We should also note that there are numerous cases where civil society has made great policy recommendations, which should be considered. Furthermore, observing a problem does not solve it, it only helps us understand it better. A problem should not be brushed aside until it is solved – this applies for the Balkans and the EU.

Barriers to activism are evident in the EU and the Balkans. While the reasons are numerous, including lack of trust, it is believed that the main reasons to inactivism in the Balkans is poverty and culture (democracy is new to all the Balkan countries), while in the EU it is lack of time and education. It seems that the EU has become complex without informing its citizens of the complexities. Citizens of Balkan countries still face ‘simple’ problems, therefore informing the masses is a much simpler task. General opinion is that the EU should formalise education on the ‘country structure’ from an early age, so that citizens understand the basic ‘ins and outs’, and then they cannot be lead to believe that action A will solve problem Z. This also leads to the problem of ‘well informed citizens’. It is no secret that we live in the age of information overload. Some have made it their business to tell lies. Balkan countries are painfully aware of how much chaos this can cause, since we had wars and to this day we are proving which information was true and which was false. And this task is vital to bring peace among the citizens of the region.

Welfare is something people of EU should be proud of. Many citizens of Balkan countries have expressed surprise that the welfare systems are being blamed for various problems. People in general will always want more, and will strive to depend on themselves; it is a question of pride. However, it seems that the governments are seeing businesses as ‘boss of the boss’ – if people employ the governments, and businesses employ the people, businesses become boss of the boss to the government. This is creating a pyramid structure, which is inherently hierarchical and inequitable. If governments could position themselves as the boss to the businesses, there would be a circle, which is inherently equitable, causing a more just division of power. This alone should bring more power to the people, economic freedom and a more just division of resources. This justice will prevent abuse of the welfare state which many citizens of EU are now practicing. Citizens of Balkan countries have often expressed that poverty is not as much of a problem as injustice. In fact, people of Bosnia have often claimed that the war was better even though they had nothing to eat. But it was a situation when no one had anything to eat. However, even citizens of other Balkan countries have claimed that life in previous system was better, even though they had less back then than they do now. It is all relative. Justice is very important to citizens and they measure it by looking at those around them.

One issue that is evident in the EU and we wish to avoid in the Balkan is the housing market. The issues of housing has been a hot topic for decades in numerous EU countries, with housing prices rocketing to the point that large percentage of income is spent on rent or mortgage. As a result, citizens of these EU countries are left with very little to enjoy. It seems that ‘free market’ should have been sacrificed in the case of the housing market. It seems leaving the housing market to the market forces was stupid due to the nature and importance of the ‘product’. We would like to see this problem avoided in the Balkan by introducing regulatory measures before it spirals out of control like it has done in the EU.

This is a time for new ideas. It is not a time to go back and settle for things that, from this perspective, were ‘better’. They were not better. They just seem better since they offered something different. Closing boarders and blaming immigrants who contribute to our society isn’t going to bring desired results. We all have to start with the question: Do we want things to get better without getting much worse? It is time to call a spade a spade and deal with issues not hide behind false sense of honour in hiding that there is an issue. This applies to the Civil Society Organisations as well. Personally, i.e. outside the conference, I believe the CSO sector needs standards. I’m working on developing a model for a CSO rating agency, and testing it in Bosnia. If it works, it might be a foundation for giving power to the people. Not one individual, but organising it so that power is with the people – we already have great ‘wealth’ in the numerous organisations of the CS, we just need to know how to ‘pick’ the right organisations. Of course, countries would continue to have governments, but those governments would have a much better idea what they’re supposed to be doing so that they can live up to the ‘representative of the people’ title. 

In the end I’d like to say that this is a very quick overview of the forums. I welcome questions and comments.

For official information about the forums please visit the organisers. This here is just my personal overview. 

Excuse my ‘blind-eye’

Anyone miss the image of a little boy from Syria, covered in dust and blood, scared and confused, yet silent? Why didn’t the boy cry? Why wasn’t he screaming for help? He should have cried. The image was even more painful to see because he didn’t cry. Even the British do not believe in stiffer-upper-lip before a certain age. What is it that made that boy silent? And is his silence the reason why I cannot be? Why I am raging with fury?

Ladies and gentlemen in your comfy chairs, getting a great wage to make decisions that shape our world, you out there in your suits and ties, your red carpets and crystal glasses, you have failed! You miserable lot, what have you done? Please entertain us with another messed up fairytale about how there are no options. Give us another bully lie about how you’re doing your best. If this is your best, please resign. This is beyond pathetic. Did you not learn anything?

While I feel sick at the thought that someone is getting paid to do this to people, and generation after generation they are getting away with it, I have to wonder: What can I, we (the citizens) do? I cannot ignore it. I cannot say I’m too busy. I cannot turn a blind eye or follow some movie or a book. My dear fellow human beings, please be sure that a war happens to the best of us. No, no one expects it. It’s not like anyone has ‘go through a war’ on the list of things to do before you die. We should not be silent. The dead cannot speak, we must speak for them, or we’ll all face the same horrific fate. Now, that even children are silenced in the face of pain and suffering, what’s next?

There must be something we can do…

Religion and terror

Remember the time God said to one of His prophets: They are ‘sinners’, go kill them? No? No, neither do I. I have never read anything of the sort in any holy script. I’ve read about prophets being told to leave because a great calamity will hit the place where the ‘sinners’ dwell. One even made an arc and took off with animals as if animals were worth more than people of that era and location.

We are now in 21^st century. No prophet ever carried out mass murder (though many did fight, but those were always ‘fair’ fights; armies clashing, defending yourself and your rights, and their behaviour after victory speaks volumes of their morals – freedom of religion was their true way), yet in this day and age, we have all kinds of individuals claiming God wants us to kill innocent people. The bunch that claim to do it in the name of Islam are perhaps most widely spread, larger in numbers than those who claim to do it for Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity etc. We’ve heard from true followers of each of these religions that that is not the way. In fact, we have stories from all over the place about Prophets forgiving infidels, being patient with them, giving them time, praying for them etc.

The amazing thing is that atheists now have this fantastic argument that humanity is better off without religion, even though, in the past, each and every prophet that ever came left their society much better than they found it. So, my thinking is that religion is important, in fact, it seems to be so important to so many, that it is the greatest tool ever. It is currently being used to spread evil, but we could and should use it to spread good. Imagine if this force was applied to do good! That would be a world I’d be proud to leave to our future generations.

What is the real purpose of the ‘use religion to spread terror’? Power, money and more power. That’s the simple answer. Those who lead people to murder and death are not doing it for God (if God wanted us dead, He has His own ways), they do it for god, and their god is their own ego, arrogance and greed. The God, capital G, is far from it. In fact, He is the very opposite of it. It seems too simple to be true, but it seems we need more religion, more faith in God rather than god to set things right.