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Date: Thu, 05 Oct 1995 10:19:06 -0700 (PDT)
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From: Ivo Skoric 
Subject: BOSNIAN RELIEF
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From: Ivo Skoric 

Last Sunday there was a benefit for Bosnia held at Tramps. An 

uncanny combination of conservative money and totally hard-core 

punk talent to help Bosnian refugees. 

 

This July, following the fall of Srebrenica and Zepa, Camille 

Schenkel of "Schenkel Consulting", put together a SAFE HAVEN 

RELIEF, with an irony hidden in the name aimed to "slightly" 

criticize the activity of the U.N. in the region. In times when 

Republicans in foreign policy focus on the U.N. and its 

obsolescence, this agenda quickly grabbed attention of Freedom 

House, one of the oldest human rights organizations in the U.S.,

predominantly conservative and republican (despite that FH mostly 

handles freedom of expression issues, and this is a refugees 

issue). FH endorsed SHR and gave them its 501c3 non-profit tax- 

exempt status. Accordingly, AmeriCares will most probably be used

to transport supplies bought by raised funds to Sarajevo. 

 

Now, one wouldn't expect bands like Chris Whitley and Biohazard 

playing at such an event. Well, they were not expected by the 

public either, who stoically remained seated praying to God for the

electricity cut-off. Which did not happen. Bands, which volunteered

for the event, unfazed by the absence of slam dancing and stage 

diving marvelously completed their performances, and i did not know

did I enjoy more that those 15 dollars that everybody paid would

go to Bosnia, or that a bunch of yuppies actually paid 15 bucks to

be tortured by two hours of old-school hard-core punk music. 

 

Camille is a great person with an incredible talent to schmooze 

well with both Evin from Biohazard and the Freedom House likes. My

friend and me taped the thing for Sarajevo TV. 

 

Henry Rollins dissed Camille with a lame excuse that he does not

want to perform with other bands (just a hint to the Bosnian 

consulate). 

 

-/- 

 

The evening was darkened just by my other friend saying that his

rock 

band in Croatia was destroyed after their female lead vocalist was

*forbidden* to perform with them by her husband (a big Croatian 

rock star in whose band she was a background noise girl) following

their marriage, and she actually obeyed. Here, this must sound 

unbelievable. Can you imagine Kurt Cobain tell such thing to 

Courtney? He wouldn't live long enough to commit suicide. 



-/-



Today O.J. was aquitted and I was adjourned. Immigration judge

postponed my hearing again giving me more time to find a lawyer.

She says that it is to my advantage. I do not disagree. Delaying

of deportation is always to deportee's advantage. And lawyers are

above justice, anyway. But they cost money. And I ain't a football

star. I am completely sure that Johnny Cochran would be able to

prove that I am an American Indian from the long lost tribe of

Croatan, and then arguing about the genocide the white Americans

did to Native Americans, he'd embarass INS deep enough so that

they'd beg me to stay, but I have no budget for that.



ivo 

. 

 

From notes@igc.apc.org Thu Oct 5 19:51:08 1995
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Date: Thu, 05 Oct 1995 09:59:27 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat" 
From: Ivo Skoric 
Subject: LAND OF LAWYERS
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From: Ivo Skoric 

In Yugoslavia they'd put an innocent person in prison just for

political reasons. In the U.S. they'd let an obvious murderer

walk for the same - political reasons. That makes the U.S. a

better place to live for those with entrepreneurial spirit. 



I couldn't stand not to give my comment on the free-market styled

monster process that this country has been obsessed with for the

past fifteen months. Stalin tried to make his monster processes

short and inexpensive and they all ended with the inevitable

victory of "the people." The capitalist version of the monster

process is lengthy, hugely expensive soap opera where the villain

becomes the hero and than walks away putting his fans in trance,

so they go to bookstores and buy (consume) all books written

about the case in past 15 months. Total? $35 million. Plus $ 10

millions that "the people" spent to prosecute Simpson, plus money

they spent to keep him in prison and to keep jurors sequestered.

Lawyers, writers, publishers, journalists, various specialists,

professionals, limo-drivers and houseguests made profit. Tons of

people made money on $50+ million O.J. Industries, Inc. People

lost. 



Sheepish fans were standing outside of the courtroom preparing to

launch the riot while LAPD was taping them row by row. Somehow

they were lead to believe that their whole race would be better

off if their idol was acquitted. How much did they loose? First -

anyone of them who bought any item connected with this circus

lost the money he or she spent on buying that item. Second, since

they will never be able to spend $ 20,000 a day to hire Johnny

Cochran and to orchestrate the intercontinental attention, they

are not going to become more racially equal after this happened.

On the contrary, LAPD will revenge on ghetto-blacks for this

defeat it survived in the courtroom, probably stating ironically

to the next Rodney King: "well, what do you complain about; we

let o.j. walk." 



This country has 70% of all of the world's lawyers. It became

gridlocked in unending litigation process between them, costing

ordinary people billions of dollars every year and increasing

nations deficit (thus costing future generations even more). The

lawyers have the grip on power (almost entire Clinton's cabinet

consists of lawyers and both he and his wife are lawyers) here

now as the Party had it in the communist block, or like the

Catholic church had it in 13th century Europe. Almost nothing can

be done any more without a lawyer. They create jobs for

themselves and squeeze huge percentages out of any deal. Should

that not change SOON, this country will have the fate of the

communist block, too. 



It would be so much easier if he was convicted: a classic crime

of passion - jealous husband killed his wife and her lover. That

happens every day, that happened millions of times in history -

among all nations, races and colors. In 19th century France, or

even today in some Latin American countries Simpson would be

tried leniently, because his lost honor would be given serious

consideration. In ancient Rome there would be no trial: a

husband, pater familias, had a legal right to take his wife's

life if he found her having sex with other guy. And Simpson is a

passionate, jealous, choleric, high-on-hormones man - after all

he was a football star. He beat his women. There was also

overwhelming evidence presented to support that he actually did

it: blood all over right places. But the evidence was mostly

presented by a bad guy, a racist cop, and jury decided "not

guilty" (as if we don't know that LAPD is a bunch of racist, but

they had a riot about that already, didn't they?).



The "not guilty" verdict however is very difficult to stomach

because of its posterior implications: 

a)   if he is actually guilty, but was declared not guilty by the

     jury simply because he was accused by a racist cop, then

     jury made its decision out of political opinion, not out of

     legal arguments - which jeopardizes the entire American

     judicial system which places "trial by jury" as its

     cornerstone: the signal is JURIES ARE NOT TO BE BELIEVED.

     They are prejudiced as the rest of the society. Or to put it

     in other words: ordinary citizens are not fit to judge their

     peers. Maybe that would lead to "professional jurors" in the

     future (some of the country's vast army of lawyers who would

     have problems finding jobs in shrinking economy).

b)   if he really is not guilty, then somebody else has to be  

     guilty. But LAPD already refused to continue investigating   

     implying that they still think that OJ is guilty). So, is 

     that murder going to become another of "unsolved mysteries"  

     or some future "x-files"? If he is not guilty, then

     obviously detective Fuhrman did plant the glove, and then

     obviously there was a wide conspiracy behind, which sounds

     to me almost like Muslims bombing themselves in Sarajevo.

     And indeed the same "everybody is against us" perception of

     life that may be found in many Serbs, may be found in many

     American blacks, too. Such a wide conspiracy would signal

     that we already live in a worst type of corrupt police state

     imaginable. It implicates police as a possible murder

     accomplice. Also, such a scenario would include collecting

     of types of blood, tainting different objects with blood and

     planting those objects in different places. Also, anybody

     who would plan such a thing would never use Fuhrman as

     executor because of his obvious previous racist convictions.

     Yet, corrupt police states are invariably unintelligent. 

c)   Unfortunately, there is no c). 



Those options carved deep in our collective subconscious. This

trial will leave a long scar on American society. Most of blacks

really believe he is innocent, and everything is done by a racist

cop. Most of whites think that's bullshit. Which means majority

of population is upset. And the division is clearly racial. This

won't help racial peace and equality in the U.S.



Darden's & for Shapiro's behavior seems to be little above the

other lawyers. Anyway, I believe that trials should involve only

two counsels (one prosecutor and one defense) and that same caps

should be put on spending on both prosecution and defense similar

to caps in political campaigning. Ten million dollars case is

injustice itself: it is unjust to all those poor people who do

not get the limelight and who go to serve long prison sentences

for minor crimes in California, the land of prisons, home of

injustice.



Limitation on number of counsels and caps on their possible

income will probably curb their numbers, and kids would think

twice before going to law schools.



Since CNN dedicated itself to be the Simpson Case Headline News,

I had to learn about attempted assassination of Macedonian

president Kiro Gligorov from ITN. Terrorists in Balkans proved

again their proficiency of American culture, society and media.

They knew that on the day of Simpson's verdict, they may count on

American media almost not reporting what they did. And they

planted a 40 lbs car-bomb into Gligorov's car. Bomb killed the

chauffeur, and seriously wounded Gligorov fracturing his skull.

Gligorov is older than Bob Dole (78) and his survival chances are

slight. Gligorov faced raising opposition of the nationalist

element in his country, because of the recent compromises he made

to meet Greek demands in order to stop the boycott that Greece

and Serbia imposed on Macedonia. He was hated by Macedonian

nationalists and Albanian minority (who probably believed that he

is a nationalist), and also by Serb and Greek minority. Yet, most

of the citizens of Skopje realize that his smarts saved Macedonia

from becoming another Bosnia so far. Gligorov just recently

reached an agreement with Greece to change the flag, and they

before the attack, he was with Serbia's president Milosevic

putting together a trade agreement. With Gligorov gone, the

situation in Macedonia might be rather rowdy.



ivo