VIRTUAL CHAPTER 1 MEETS VIA TELECONFERENCE AND/OR VIDEO CONFERENCE

   CHAPTER CO-CHAIR: Barbara Rubio 

   Contact:   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it    718-686-9819                   

   CHAPTER CO-CHAIR:  Sharon Kolby

NEXT MEETING  October 25, 9 AM PDT  The Second in the North Africa Series.  Everyone welcome--members and observers.

Call in  605 – 475 - 6150 Code:  988993 #

BALKANS DELEGATION REPORTS:  June 4, 2012   Delegation Blog 

UPDATE  April 1 2012

The focus of the Virtual Chapter 1 this year has been on researching the history and selected women's organizations in the Balkans.  This work has been instrumental in generating interest as well as in laying the groundwork for the AWIU Delegation to the Balkans, scheduled for June of this year.

Click here for an overview of our itinerary and some of our planned activities.

Thirteen AWIU members will be participating in the Balkan Delegation:  Gayle Morin, Delegation Leader;  Barbara Rubio, Delegation Coordinator;  Kathleen Hunt, AWIU President;  Kathleen Huston;  Diana Kruse;  Joan McEachern;  Magda Fehema-Sharkase;  Merry Lee Eilers;  Judith Jakaltis;  Judy Russell;  Susan Cuse;  Shirley Dockstader;  Sharon Kolby 

CLICK HERE FOR BIOGRAPHIES OF BALKAN DELEGATES

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RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON THE BALKANS (Ongoing contributions welcome!)

 *Blagojevic, Bojana: Story of One Heart:  How Poetry Became One Girl's Dance                                        For Life in the Midst of Raging War

Deliso, Christopher:  Culture and Customs of Serbia and Montenegro

 Galloway, S.  The Cellist of Sarajevo

Glenny, Misha: The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers

Glenny, Misha:  The Fall of Yugoslavia

Huntley, Paula: The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo

Judah, Tim:  Kosovo: War and Revenge

Kaplan, Robert:  Balkan Ghosts

MacShane, Denis:  Why Kosovo Still Matters

Malcolm, Noel: Bosnia: A Short History

Malcom, Noel:  Kosovo: A Short History

Manning, Olivia:  Balkan Trilogy: Fortunes of War

Mertus, Julie:  Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War 

Murphy, Devla: Through the Embers of Chaos: Balkan Journey

Sunibm Scott:  Pretty Bird

Wachtel, Andrew Baruch:  The Balkans in World History

West, Rebecca:  Black Lamb and Gray Falcon

 Woodward, Susan:  The Balkan Tragedy

* Bojana is a member of AWIU.  Click here for a description of her book along with biographical information.

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Recommended Movies ( Accessible through NetFlix)

When Father was Away on Business – 1985,  Bosnian director Emil Kusturica won the Cannes Golden Palm Drama Award for this. Tensions between Russia and Yugoslavia in early 50’s. The story is told from viewpoint of a six year old Malik who is unaware of the reason of his father’s absence.

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams –  2006, Jasmila Zbanic’s prize-winning film- The central figure discovers that her father was not a war martyr as she had believed.  In fact her mother had been one of the 20,000 Bosnian women to suffer in a civil-war rape camp.

Witnesses – 2004, Vinko Bresnan's political drama explores ethnic hatred and moral ambiguity against a backdrop of war. In a small Croatian town, a Serbian man has been murdered, and each character's perspective reveals new clues and interpretations of the crime.  As police investigate the murder, truth proves an elusive and subjective concept in an environment of deep-seated eminity. 

The Whistleblower  - 2010, Sent to Bosnia to train cops in the aftermath of that country's brutal civil war, American policewoman Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) uncovers evidence that U.N. peacekeepers are complicit in a flourishing sex-trafficking trade. But when she brings her allegations to light, she discovers that her foes are more powerful than the law. Based on a true story,

No Man’s Land –   2001,   During the Bosnian War,  two soldiers, a Bosnian and a Serb, find themselves pinned down in a trench, while a wound grunt lies prone on a land mine that could blow them all to smitereens.  The plot seems cadged straight out of Eugene Ionesco's Theatre of the Absurd.  

Do You Remember Dolly Bell?  1981, Acclaimed Bosnian director, Emir Kusturica's deeply affecting film, made early in his career, features a young cinema buff named Dino, who, seduced by mob capers he sees in the theater, enters a life of crime, unable to tell the difference beteen glossy cinematic adventures and real-life grit.  But that all changes hen Dino means Dolly Bell, a prostitue for whom he falls madly in love.

Pretty Village, Pretty Flame  1996  Childhood friends from the 1980's, a Muslim and a Serb, must fight on opposing sides of the war in Bosnia in 1992.  As the soldiers find themselves trapped and waiting to die, all they can do is meditate on their existence.  The film provides a provocative and haunting portrait of a war-torn region.

Welcome to Sarajevo  1997, Michael Winterbottom's hearbreaking film about war-torn Bosnia.  English reporter risks his life to help spirit an orphan child out of the country even as he competes ith an American journalist to get his story.

In the Land of Blood and Honey 2011  Angelina Jolie directs and acts in this film depicting the horrors of systematic rape during Bosnia's war of 1992-95.

Click here for review of "In the Land of Blood and Honey" by Peter Lippman 

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LINKS LIBRARY:

U.S. Department of State -   Serbia       Bosnia and Herzogovina     Croatia

                    Montenegro     Slovenia    Hungary

U.S. Department of State -  Press Releases

News from the U.S. Embassy in Serbia

News from the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia

News from the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo

News from the U.S. Embassy In Croatia

News from the U.S. Embassy in Slovenia

News from the U.S. Embassy in Hungary

Bosnia After Dayton: Challenges That Lie Ahead   National Democratic Institute for Internat'l Affairs

Balkan Women work to push through barriers  National Democratic Institute for International Affairs

Roma Political Participation Initiative   National Democratic Institute  for International Affairs

Youth Leaders Declaration from Belgrade Summit Seeks Regional Cooperation and Peace = National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

History of the Former Yugoslavia   Matt Rosenberg, NY Times journalist

Map of the Former Yugoslavia - Wikipedia, cartographer of the United Nations