I have entered the business end of the semester and will get a wee bit quiet on the theatre-writing front. Winter always makes me slow down.
Meanwhile, one of my dearest friends has flown herself to KFDA in Brussels, and I send her love. Some of my friends from soon-to-be-gone Theatre Studies (if not gone already, really), are preparing for the Performance Studies International Conference #15 subtitled MISPERFORMANCE: Misfiring, Misfitting, Misreading. Apart from the fact that everyone from Pavis to Lehmann will be there, it will combine theory with practical research in what looks like a super-exciting new format. It is held in Zagreb, in June, and I am heart-broken not to be able to go, for reasons that are purely financial, and mid-term unexpected.
And in another world, student protests in Croatia, in which all major universities have been occupied by students demanding abolishment of tertiary fees (introduced only a few years ago) for over two weeks now, are somewhat abating due to favourably-sounding ministerial promises. Slavoj Žižek, who was in Zagreb for the Subversive Film Festival, supported the protests, saying that what they’re doing is not only right, but necessary. Alida Bremer was quoted saying:
Accusations of high cost to the taxpayer are absurd – educated citizens, able both to think and to properly use democratic structures of the society are the only guarantee of fair distribution of taxpayers’ funds.
Many of my friends are among the student strikers, and I am incredibly proud. Although the commentariat has waxed and waned, no post-tertiary adult has failed to notice the high level of orderly democracy established by these kids, of my generation.
In that same world, Branimir Glavaš was yesterday sentenced to 10 years in prison for war crimes (ordering the torture and murder of Serb civilians in Osijek) during what is in English usually referred to as the ‘Homeland War’. Glavaš has since escaped Croatia and is believed to be in Bosnia. Good news; bad news. Another step for the legal system, and another step toward cleaning up the past and disagreggating the honourable from the less so; but also a failure of the legal state to detain a criminal.
On the Australian front, Mother’s Day is tomorrow, but in Croatia we celebrate 8th of May instead, the International Women’s Day, so the celebrations will pass me by.
