Harvey Pekar is working harder than ever now that he is retired. In the last few years, he's had a series of comic books published by DC under the Vertigo imprint and written a number of graphic novels, including a history of the SDS. This book is written with Heather Roberson and based upon her experiences traveling and studying Macedonia in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars. She was studying a war that didn't happen, asking why Macedonia didn't explode the way that Bosnia and Kosovo did. It is an interesting question well worth the study.
It's also interesting to see such a successful example of cross-generational collaboration too as both Heather Roberson and the ilustrator, Ed Piskor, are in their 20s.
Macedonia by Harvery Pekar and Heather Roberson, illustrated by Ed Piskor
NY: Random House, 2007
ISBN 978-0-345-49899-1
(5) Heather: Maybe we've already prevented wars and we don't know. Remember a couple of years ago, after the Kosovo conflict when the papers said that Macedonia was next to go?
Mm-hmm.
Heather: Albanian rebels were arming, guns were coming over the border from Kosovo and Albania, the government was preparing for all out war! everyone said it was gonna be another Bosnia.
Of course.
Heather: But then NATO went in and disarmed the Albanian fighters and the rebels were given amnesty. And I think a lot of their claims were addressed.
Well... that war was prevented. It was an exception.
Heather: I wonder why the story disappeared?
(12) Heather: Well, the new Macedonian President, Kiro Gligorov, saw neighboring ethnic conflicts - war in Croatia and Bosnia, tensions in Kosovo - and negotiated with Milosevic for the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops.
Really?
Heather: But it meant that the Yugoslav army would no longer protect Macedonia, and the whole region was crumbling so, Gligorov got the UN to move in peacekeepers.
Even though there were no hostilities to speak of?
Heather: Right! They were there to prevent a war! And who knows what would have happened if they didn't. We know radical Serbs wanted to mobilize ethnic Macedonians against Albanians, and that Albanians were trying to organize in the border regions.
The UN stopped them. We know the US sent in 300 peacekeepers - the first American troops ever to serve under UN command - and promised reinforcements if troops were attacked.
I can't even imagine what would have happened if they hadn't been sent there. This could be the first time ever that the UN fulfilled its mandate.
(30) Heather: And then the mess in Kosovo, with Serbs trying to put down a rebellion of Albanians, the large majority of the population in this province of Serbia, so it seemed that everyone was right! The Balkans were doomed! But Macedonia was different. Why? It was the poorest, with the weakest security structures, and the most highly contested national identity, and yet it didn't follow Bosnia and Kosovo into war. So isn't it worth exploring what that might say about the people who live there? Isn't it worth exploring how preventing a war is accomplished? It seems natural that when a person comes home from war and looks in the mirror, they see someone different from the person who left. But what about the person who knows his country was almost engulfed in war and managed not to be? Isn't that person changed as well?
(107) You said earlier that you don't think conflict is the same as war.
Heather: Everything's feeling pretty rhetorical right now.
What do you mean?
Heather: Well, I think the conflict is actually a good thing. While war tends to be a bad thing. Conflict is how we learn, you know, the struggle of world views. It's how we uncover problems in our own way of thinking. I mean, it would be better if we all agreed on everything but what if we were all wrong?
(152) How do you know they [the Macedonians] are good?
Heather: How do I know that my friends in the States are good? What if I were a stranger, knew no one in town, had nothing tangible to offer, and just showed up one day? Would they go around the block for me? Woudl they introduce me to everyone they know? Woudl they show up worried if I was a few minutes late? Would they make me soup and watch cartoons with me? tell me about heir childhoods? Take me to the market and the bank just to keep me company in line?
If only you weren't so vulnerable. You could end up very hurt!
Heather: Maybe I'd rather end up bruised than untouched.
Interview with artist Ed Piskor at http://www.ninthart.com/...