Rastko Pocesta – a 12-year-old’s fight against nationalism
Rastko is 12, from Belgrade, and he’s a geek interested in democracy and human rights. Recently he came into focus of some media after he began receiving death threats on his blog and Facebook profile, because of his support for NATO, EU and Kosovo’s independence.
Here’s an interview he gave to BBC couple of days ago:
What I find most intriguing in this whole story is not that Rastko is so smart for his age (he’s probably not the only one) but the reaction he causes among the grown-ups, which is almost always the same, whether they agree with his political attitude or not: “Stop meddling with human rights and go play with the other children.”
Maybe I’m missing something here, but since when has interest in human rights and politics become a bad thing? It is true that a great number of people in Serbia should stop meddling with politics, but somehow I don’t think Rastko is one of them.
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joj pa on je divan. kamo srece da je vise ovakve dece. rastko <3
There is nothing ‘magical’, ‘remarkable’ or ‘joyous’ about rabid parental brainwashing
I don’t know who this poor child is, but he isn’t Rastko Pocesta, a 36 year old blogger from Belgrade.
http://socialliberal.ning.com/profiles/blogs/greetings-friends-around-the
“Society should never allow anyone to step down if someone threats because it’s a complete failure. It’s the worst thing that can happen.”
– isn’t this the same stance milosevic had?
There is something a bit odd here. This blog goes back to 2003 – http://portraitsofhumanityrastko.blogspot.com/ Seems a little too sophisticated for even a very precocious five-year-old.
Milice, na psihijatriju što pre…
what i find interesting is how the western media chooses to focus on some random 12 year old boy supporting kosovo’s independence and then write an article about how radical and nationalistic serbian society is, and then ignore how the albanians in kosovo have just unilaterally broken the rights of serbs to communication in kosovo by cutting off their cellphone service providers?? a little hypocritical isn’t it?? how bout they start writing articles about WHY serbs oppose kosovo independence, and not stupid shit about a 12 year old nuthead obssessed with the US. I fear this may become even worse than the whole Zlata’s diary affair, where they tried to equate the Serbs with the Nazi’s during the Bosnian war by comparing zlata’s diary with anne franks
koja mizerna propaganda. obukli detetu odelo i stavili mu kravatu da izgleda ozbiljnije. sta on zna sa 12 godina o ljudskim pravima, o Kosovu…. kakvo on zivotno iskustvo ima da bi se bavio ovom tematikom. on nije u stanju da resi svoj “status” u skoli medju skolskim drugovima, nego zove mamu u pomoc a ovamo bi da se bori za tudja!!!! da nije zalosno bilo bi smesno!!!!
Viktor says:”Maybe I’m missing something here, but since when has interest in human rights and politics become a bad thing?”
Dear Viktor, it is precisely ‘cause he’s TWELVE what makes the problem: kids at that age should enjoy worryless childhood and not fight for human rights. That sheds light to a lot of things: the state of the society, his parents, him personally…
He should be out writing “Pravda za Urosa”!
What I find interesting is that this 12-year old is supporting Kosovo’s independence (which is mired in illegality and Albanian NATIONALISM), but he opposes Serbian Nationalism. I certainly do not want to match whits with a 12-year old, but this child is obviously brainwashed. Supporting Kosovo’s Indepencence is the WORST kind of nationalism…somebody should explain that to him.
Milan Toronto, Ontario.
Milan,
It might be hard for you to imagine the actual mechanics of what would happen if Kosovo were to be re-integrated within Serbia when you’re sitting in Canada.
If 2 million Albanians suddenly voted for a regional party and they became the first or second largest party in the Serbian Parliament, then that would really cause problems for Serbian nationalists.
Serbian nationalists would be completely marginalized politically if this were to happen.
Hi Danilo,
Thanks for the post. Few things:
1. The entire point of my comment was the obvious contradiction of this child’s position on nationalism – he condones Albanian nationalism, but wants to supress Serbian nationalism…I just find that to be interesting and a definite disconnect. Please don’t get me wrong – I do not like any form of nationalism, but do you agree with my point here?
2. Do you really think that the Albanians in Kosovo would participate in legitimate elections in Serbia? Lets be realistic…anyway – have a good day! Milan
Danilo – one more point – just because I am ‘sitting in Canada’ does not make me an idiot and ignorant to the reality in Serbia.
Well, Kosovo is never going to be re-integrated with Serbia, so it’s all pretty hypothetical.
But, if they were, then sure, why wouldn’t Albanians, in this imaginary situation vote and become the strongest party (there are 2 million of them. The strongest party in Serbia currently gets about 1 million votes).
Look to you (our) own Canadian parliament and how disproportionate is the power of the Bloc Quebecois (regional, ethnic-french party for the non-Canadians reading this) when it comes to setting the Parliamentary agenda the last 7 years.
Apples and oranges, my friend. We can certianly take the logistics of the Canadian Parliamentary reality offline, we should not bore the people reading this string – I am very active in politics here. But lets say that the ~2M Albanians do vote along ethnic lines…wouldn’t that strengthen the ethnic Serbian parties to ‘smarten up’ and not split the vote into 17 parties?
Anyway – you still have not answered my original question: Does this 12 year old child not (de-facto) support Albanian Nationalism by supporting Kosovo’s (illegitimate) independence while the headline here reads that he is fighting nationalsim?
p.s. if you want my opinion on the BQ – would love to give you my thoughts…I am impressed with your knowledge, by the way…
“wouldn’t that strengthen the ethnic Serbian parties to ’smarten up’ and not split the vote into 17 parties? ”
Personally, I don’t think so. The “nationalist” parties are split and with too much bad blood between them to re-unite and the remaining parties, whether they united or not, would still have to deal with their more important new coalition partner – the Albanians.
“you still have not answered my original question: Does this 12 year old child not (de-facto) support Albanian Nationalism”
Not necessarily. This Kosovo issue drags down Serbia. Serbia should be rid of this issue. Kosovo is gone. It’s not a part of Serbia for all practical purposes. The best Serbia can hope for is some sort of “Taiwan-China” situation where Kosovo and Serbia agree to disagree on “is Kosovo a country” at international conferences and that’s it. The Kosovo question occupies far too much time/money/attention. Plus, Kosovo Albanians declaring independence is simply them exercising their political will. If they didn’t do it this way, they’d do it in other ways that, I argue, would be worse for Serbia.
If I were a Serbian citizen, I would support Kosovo independence by voting for parties who support it.
“I am impressed with your knowledge, by the way…”
Don’t be too impressed. I’m Canadian.
Thanks for addressing my question, Danilo – I respect your thoughts.
Talk to you later,
Milan
Imagine similar situation in any western country, I will consider USA for example. 12-year old kid named Joshua BinLaden writes about his love for Al Kaida and support for everything anti-american, while claiming that he is very patriotic. Within a day his parents will be questioned while he will have no future. His frantic support for violence against Serbs is only possible since Serbia has no rules and regulations on any level. This case is for local school of community to deal with, on level of PTO, not mainstream media. All together it is one of the best examples of shameless and notorious propaganda that even when minors are abused can’t and shouldn’t be scrutinized. Any support for this is bordering on insanity, while I fully understand the genesis of the support and international support for it.
Exactly, Marijana – there is not much difference between Al-Qaeda and the KLA if you think about it….I am not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I wonder how much this kid is being paid…
Milan, Toronto, Ontario
I am not going to advocate political topics here. Also I am not going to accuse young boy for anything since he is a victim of abuse. Beyond Al-Qaeda, genocide, pros and cons, this is an illustration of unruled society. In USA it would be enough that ten parents raise the question of a student activity that created hostile environment in school to see that student reprimanded and/or expelled. He might be right or wrong, does not matter. I would like to see international supporters for this “noble cause” to practice what they preach at home. Go for it and let us know the results !
The main reason that none of us commenting here were like Rastko when we were twelve is that we did not have the Internet then. Today, there are probably dozens of little Rastkos among us, (and all our base is belong to them) but the problem with this particular Rastko is that his views are strange and unacceptable for today’s Serbia.
The point of this news is that his life is being threatened, and as for the parenting is concerned, I would leave that to his parents.
Although Viktor owns this blog, I hope he can tolerate different opinion. Everything you said can’t be further away from the facts. There is no little Rastko anywhere in modern world, only in Serbia is possible to support violence against your own people and be praised for it! Parenting is a big deal here since this is a simple case of minor abuse. As i said try to do similar thing anywhere in the west and it would be easily demonstrated what the consequences would be. To be so naive that repeating well orchestrated propaganda is “freedom of speech” is beyond any imagination.
True – you would think that as parents, if a 12-year old’s life is being threatend, they would intervene and take a step back. They seem like fishy people to me. At a minimum, encouraging this type of extreme political pandering at such a young age, the parent(s) are guilty of abuse, yes.
Marijana, the fact that your comments are still here tell enough about tolerance on this blog, I hope.
As for the “simple case of minor abuse”, Rastko’s family has been visited by several local medias as well as by the BBC, so I’m sure some of them will report Rastko’s parents to the authorities if they think something is fishy.
If Rastko himself gets locked up for “supporting violence against his own people” I’m sure he will be treated as an adult. Unless his KLA-funded attorney manages to set him free.
Viktor – I disagree with you. I can safely say, Canada is one of the biggest per-capita users of the internet and I do not know of 1 child that comes even close to this type of political pandering. So I fail to understand your connection with the internet and this boy (whose childhood, sadly, seems to to have been taken away from him).
I would rather avoid to comment on self proclaimed scientist, with questionable identity.
The fact that media reported this story is supporting my poing of view. I do not want to repeat myself, but it is obvious that this story is for school newspaper or at best local news (mesna zajednica). The fact that mainstream international media is using this sad story to depict Serbian people once again as barbaric is not helping their cause much. The reason for threats against the boy is exactly the same I already descibed, absence of school rules, and society regulations. In USA similar case will be dealt with within day or two and will never become a problem in the first place. As usual when there are no arguments to support violence, you can pull out he “international community” card. Deja vu.
Imagine this, young boy in, let’s say, New Mexico, creates a blog and posts that in New Mexico there is like 80% of latinos, 15% of americans and 5% of rest, and that New Mexico along with some other federal states of United States should be independent or anexed by, for example Mexico. What do you think the United States government, secret service, social service would do? Do you know about Patriotic Act, voted during Bush’s so called “War on Terror” that gave so much liberty and power to police, FBI and other government organisations that they can litteraly arrest anyone they find threatening. And this boy, Rastko, idolises USA as an example of a great country where human rights are totaly respected, and on other side he says that Serbia is responsable for all the problems that happened on Balkans during last century, which is not true. Everyday in USA they arrest people just because they are suspicios, they have prisons that use most gruesome torture technics. CIA overthrown many governments so they can install their regime and use the country for their economic prosper. They trained and organised many terrorist organisations that they are fighting now because they got out of their influence or they stopped funding them. I’m bored of writing but you get my point. It’s impossible for this to happen in any country that is not legaly falling appart, corrupted and full of self-haters and people with no patriotic feeling. No serious country would let a part of it’s territory proclaime independence by itself. If he is right why doesn’t Spain give Baskians and Catalonians independent states, and why Great Britain doesn’t withdraw from Northern Ireland and also give away Scotland and Wales?
Leave the kid alone. He has the right to his own opinions. I mean there is freedom of speech in Serbia, right? I think he is being very brave by saying his opinions considaring the fact that he lives in a nationalistic country like Serbia. I hope serbs dont do anything stupid to shut his voice.
Long live democracy and freedom loving people.
Drago,
Every single one of your points is ABSOLUTELY correct, my friend. The big question is that of parental abuse/indoctrination of this young boy. I have a 10-year old boy who has a GENERAL understanding of democracy, social systems, the way a constitutional Monarchy (like Canada) works, but is ont on a crusade to demonize his own people like this Rastko kid. Very very bad parenting indeed.
It is a simple fact that we can waist megabytes or paper all that we want in this case. However, since minor is in question, that would not be the case in any organized society, which has especially strong laws regarding protection of minors. And when lawyers in organized socities get involved, pretty much all discussion ends. Now Serbia is far from that, is it good or bad does not really matter. When you want to influence someone in organized societies you use rules, regulations, lawyers, but in Serbia all that does not work the same way. “Freedon of speech” in this case is a joke, repeating well orchestrated propaganda is just not much of a “speech”. There is not a single original thought in this.
If you know story about five monkeys, ladder and banana on the top, pardon me for repeating it. In a nutshell, monkeys were all sprayed with cold water if any of them would climb to get a banana. Angry monkeys would beat up and attack the one that was climbing, since they dod not want to get showered with cold water. After a while scientist conducting the experiment started replacing monkeys one by one. New monkey will inherit this behavior from the group and attack any monkey that would climb the ladder. At the end all five monkeys would do the same, although none of them really knew the reason why it is so bad to climb the ladder to get the banana. We are in this process, but as long as one remembers the reason why and how all this started, we are still fine.
Viktoria,
Nobody is attacking this poor child – it is his PARENT[S] that is the real problem. What type of indoctrination did he have to endure to come up with notions of Social Liberalism, support for SRB joining NATO and the EU and , my God…supporting Kosovo illegitimate independence? Normal development of children includes, running around, playing with friends, being part of a team (sports etc) and NOT worrying about Human Rights and debating the characteristics of Oligarcic Collectivism. I replayed the BBC clip – he does not look like a happy child – he looks like he is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
You said “Long live democracy and freedom loving people” – yes, we all agree…but I say “Let CHILDREN be CHILDREN”.
Thanks, Milan, Toronto, Ontario.
This little geek is not a Serb.He is Albanian.Pocesta is Albanian surname,there is even a place in Albania called Pocesta.
Serbian kids are not that stupid and ugly.
Bertan Selim
Mirlind Pocesta
Armond Pocesta
Nori Aga Pocesta (Johnny Cash)
Rastko Pocésta
Djana Poçesta
Afrim Pocesta
Fitim Pocesta
Vali Pocesta
Agim Pocesta
Maliq Pocesta
Qerime Klobocista Pocesta
Ardit Pocesta
Fadil Pocesta
Suat Pocesta
Rigi Pocesta
Urim Pocesta
Maliq Pocesta
Vigan Pocesta
Florint Pocesta
Nderim Pocest
Xhavit Pocesta
Hmmm…now it is beginning to make sense…
would it also be child abuse if he was lifting 3 fingers, wearing a sajkaca and talking about how Kosovo is Serbia?
This boy is a fraud. He’s not Serbian. Pocesta is not a Serbian name, and it appears that his father is Albanian. This of course, explains the anti-Serb activism by this kid.
I am American, non-Serb descent. But even I figured out the name didn’t sound like Serb. How sad that real Serbs here couldn’t figure it out, and do a little research. You guys are dead if you are so naive that you don’t even check out a story like this which just doesn’t make sense.
You all believed western propaganda.
“You guys are dead if you are so naive that you don’t even check out a story like this which just doesn’t make sense.
You all believed western propaganda.”
Yes, Serbs are like deer caught in the headlights of western propaganda. They aren’t good detectives, don’t do good research – early and enough, they trust liars and westerners are always taking advantage of them. It is pathetic. Now Serbs ARE good, even brilliant, in things like engineering (Nikola Tesla was not and aberrations), sports, musicians, and so on; but when it comes to defending themselves properly it is almost like taking candy from a baby to concerted, sneaky, and persistent westerners.
is Šešelj a typically Serbian name?
Something about Rastko: http://abraxas365dokumentarci.blogspot.com/2010/04/rastko-pocesta-i-ja.html
Hello,
I checked the link above – watched this kid’s interview on SRB TV…My Serbian is not very good (my family moved to CDN when I was 4), but does this kid have some kind of an accent that suggests that Serbian is not his mother tongue? I would love for him to say the word: “MLEKO”...I bet $5 it would sound like “MLJEKO” (if you know what I mean). Secondly, one has to wonder how and why did this kid ever developed such strong, controversial and polarizing opinions. Was it his parent(s)? Is he being paid? One has to wonder….
One more point – I asked in one of my above posts – why is this kid so against Serbian nationalism, but on the other hand supports Kosovo independence (which dervived from the worst kind of ALBANIAN nationalism)...I think my question has been answered. I am sure Danilo will come up with some smart-ass comment.
mnovak @ here is more inf.
enjoy it
http://bajadojaja.blogspot.com/
Something about Rastko: http://abraxas365dokumentarci.blogspot.com/2010/04/rastko-pocesta-i-ja.html
Thank you, Vaca – I didn’t understand 80% of that link, unfortunately…but I appreciate the thought. My Serbian is at a grade 1 level (at best). Enjoy the rest of your day!
Milan, Toronto, Ontario.
@mnovak,
you have a google translation widget there. Use it.
“is Šešelj a typically Serbian name?”
I assume this is aimed at me. I don’t know or care, Danilo.
Don’t know who that person is. I will give it a little more thought when and if that person, if claiming to be a very young Serb, starts doing things that go totally against Serbian interests and normal Serbian public opinion.
My B.S. detector works real well, and the story of little master Pocesta sounded bogus from the beginning.
You don’t know who Šešelj is?
Well, thank you for announcing that you don’t have a clue about Serbian politics.
I’m still puzzled by RP’s blogging dates but one way or another the kid’s thoughtful, sensitive and intelligent beyond his years – and he seems to have rather more insight into the substance of respect and abuse than most of the adults commenting here. He’s a credit to his parents but given the response I can understand why his mother might be anxious for him.