03.03.1983. Design junkie (FW, PS, AI, ID, PR, AE, FL, AC), fluent in XHTML and CSS, has basic/intermediate knowledge on PHP and mySQL. I speak Serbian/Croatian, English, Italian, some rusty Russian and ancient Latin, basic German. I write p..s, sometimes prose. I love trees, absurd and learning new things. I live in the centre of Beograd, Serbia with mom, dad and three amazing black locusts in front of our windows.Papirni ždralovi / Paper Cranes + a little story
06 Aug 2010
It’s the 06th of August…the first from two indescribably ugly dates. And I have a little story.
In the second half of 80s and early 90s before Yugoslavia broke up, ecology was one of the most popular topics in children’s literature and our televisions were almost exclusively buying ecology and nature-related cartoons for syndication…The Bluffers, Raccoons, Ewoks, The Bosco Adventure. I still can’t decide which is my favourite, but the later has got to have the most emotional and symbolic ending. I think this was very useful to my education, hopefully it was the same for other children or least some of them.
My neighbour’s father-in-law is one of Serbia’s most loved authors for children. He was born in a small village and has lead more or less of an alternative life (and he had a couple of wives because women were attracted to his unusal persona…plus, my neighbour’s husband and son are a handsome young man and a cute little toddler, which is another clue), and many of his p..ms are about the idylic life in the countryside, practices forgotten long ago, popping the corn in a cauldron on the campfire, the types of wind children like when the time for sledging comes. However, in 1991, he changed the subject and published a book titled “Ecology ABC” – more or less to educate children on most important dos and don’ts that don’t require major effort, to teach them not to harm plants and animals and in a p..m or two, to raise awareness of how life will never be the same after the mid-80s, without even mentioning why exactly, which is an art itself.
At the end of the book there were lists children could fill in – polluted cities around the world, clean villages in former Yugoslavia, dirty rivers, clean rivers et cetera. My response to the “dangerous things” was odd. I added “an atomic bomb” to the list that had “automobile and airplane” in it. Here it is.
The same year, on a radio show about children’s responsibilities toward the environment and own health and lifestyle, when asked what’s the thing that begins with A which is not good for life and which children cannot do…instead of alcohol, which was pretty obvious, I responded “activating an atomic bomb”.
Finally, on to the actual writing.
This was written on the 27th of January, but it was not intended to be put up, as I didn’t consider it good enough. So, if you want to read a better, yet more disturbing p..m with the same story behind it, give “His Mother, A Cloud a go.
I should probably accompany this with a long “bastards, I’m glad you’re dead but you should’ve died much before” list, but the words are enough. Screw you, maniacs. Screw you, those who still haven’t learnt anything. I was taught to express anger and grief on the 06th and 09th of August and I never figured out how much do you have to hate someone to do that to them. And not once. Twice! Insanity at its worst and then they say it happens only in films. If so, why did it happen before most of those films were even planned?
Papirni ždralovi
Koliko nisko je ovaj svet pao?
Dečačići i debeli ljudi igraju u bikinijima,
a onaj reče da mu nije žao,
da bi to ponovo učinio.
Koliko nisko je ovaj svet pao?
Naslednik se igra sa povezom na očima,
tatica mu je bio zao,
pa…on ga je samo nasledio.
Koliko nisko je ovaj svet pao?
Papirnim ždralovima seku se krila,
lepotica izdiše na pločniku,
neko tvrdi da “nije znao”.
Koliko nisko je ovaj svet pao?
Hranimo se foscofocentnim bajkama,
a sjaj poput snega (za posebnu priliku)
se, navodno, samo jednom pojavio.
__________________________________________
Paper Cranes
What has the world come to?
Little boys and fat men dancing in bikinis,
and that man said he was not sorry
and he would have done it again.
What has the world come to?
The heir is playing around, blindfolded,
his daddy was so evil
and he’s…only inherited that.
What has the world come to?
Paper cranes have been wingclipped,
a beauty is passing away on the sidewalk,
someone claims they “didn’t know”.
What has the world come to?
We’re consuming fluorescent fairytales,
and the snow-like glow (for special occasions)
has, they say, appeared only once.