[spectre] Financing of NGO, Balkans and SEE

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english:
http://horrorkatze.modukit.com/tekstovi/NGO/NGO_en.html
srpskohrvatski:
http://horrorkatze.modukit.com/tekstovi/NGO/NGO_srpski.html
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Financing of Non-Governmental Organizations
by horrorkatze
Keep up your smile and positive vibrations while you are applying for 
a new grant!

Crediting and Financing may be seen as an instrument of impact of the 
powerful on the one that "needs help".
The so called "independent" sector, as an important and traditionally 
liberal motor in the changes to some "new"&"democratic" way, plays a 
specific role in the sponsorship process.
The questions about the relations between Non-governmental 
Organizations and their financiers are unavoidably at the forefront, 
because the powerful influence of world corporations and the ruthless 
market of neoliberal capitalism characterize the crisis in which we 
find ourselves.
For example, when we check the data on the NGO sector, we can see, 
astonishingly, that global foundations are the dominant employers in 
Third World Countries! (For example, during the 80ies in South 
America, the only profit was made by the so-called "independent" 
sector and the war industry. The fact is that the NGO-crew is one of 
the highest and most educated classes in Third World Countries.)
In the field of culture and cultural politics, in the region of ex YU 
and east Europe, global foundations and agencies for financing are 
also main factor in the process off pushing transition and building a 
new glocal social and political administration.
Today, when this process is almost coming to an end in East Europe 
and the Balkans, and when the agencies for cultural funding are 
focusing more on some other continents, we ask ourselves about the 
nature of the cultural politics which have been installed and 
suggested? What kinds of controversy are shaping these processes 
between cultural Non-governmental Organizations and those who give 
them support?

Go ahead for the open society!

Let's remember The Fund for an Open Society, better known as the 
Soros Centre, who made intensive propaganda during the 90ies about 
the need to empower a democratic& open society, which was, from their 
perspective, not so developed or present in this geopolitical context.
Many cultural commissars were called upon to return applications to 
the famous Open Society and it's politics. The generous and 
humanistic Georg Soros was offering a new "Marshall Plan" to the self 
recognised east European cultural workers and offered them the chance 
to promote the promised liberal standards or to lustrate themselves 
from the "black communist past".
Across the whole Balkans Soros Centers were springing up, mobilizing 
every individual who could speak English and was able to fill out the 
first Soros applications. One of the first Soros Centers was Cinema 
Rex from Belgrade, which had existed already for 12 years.
Soros is today the majority owner of the Serbian radio & television 
station B92, a mighty and transformed channel which is broadcasting 
programmes like ""Big Brother", the Milosevic trial from The Hague, 
sitcoms, the European Football league or suddenly discovered archives 
of war crimes in Yugoslavia.
Soros went further, making centers for new "indoor societies", (in 
the beginning of 2000 Moldavia was on top and later Azerbaijan or 
Kyrgyzstan...).

The Independent dependers

Cultural workers, activists or artists were somehow trying painless 
to fill out the given applications, without too much thinking and arguing.
The usual manner was the "ostrich with it's head in the sand", 
without too much analysis of the guidelines offered by the 
doubtlessly capitalistic and neoliberal political hierarchy. They 
just wanted to be creative from their heart and saw money as just a 
resource and tool. Under such circumstances, the ones who specialized 
in this quickly came out to be better adapted to the reality of applications.
It's true to say that the cultural sector has a large number of young 
volunteers. They are satisfied if they are chosen to participate in 
cultural projects and to socialize with the fancy "in" milieu. The 
Managers have been trained at various seminars provided for the 
elaboration of strategies, the volunteers are volunteering for them. 
Anyway, It's important to swallow the whole bite: the new tribe of 
managers has to build up a good network with the local hierarchies, 
not hiding their huge talent for chameleonic opportunism.
Up until now, in the name of "independent culture" and the 
"independent scene" several million dollars have passed through the 
banks of "independent" cultural organizations.

What are the direct aims of foundations in a certain context?
One of the aims is just to burn money inside the cultural sector, 
some kind of potlach to demonstrate the power of "open societies" and 
their ability of cynical selfcriticism. Their intention is to absorb 
any real critical effort into the so-called "independent" scene. But, 
in fact, this scene depends on highly mediated political and 
economical intentions. The resulting projects are overburdened with 
management, power and mediation, for example in the case of new media 
projects or in the meta-cultural production, which lacks any kind of 
concrete content.
Right here we are standing on a very slippery slope, faced with 
numerous contradictory examples, such as when donations by the IMF 
are given to anarchistic and anti-globalistic projects, organizations 
and meetings. With their vassal-like "umbrella politics", their 
speeches lose any critical weight, becoming simulation and decor.
For some of them the goal is a pure pop-fetish or trend placed for 
entertainment, domestication and putting asleep the body of the new 
consumerists.
The aim is to proof that it's not possible to realize any independent 
action without financing. And, so, if you don't have a detailed PR 
plan, an expert for marketing and fancy catalogue, for sure you don't 
get how the business goes today.
How contradictory the foundations are themselves becomes very evident 
when they are financing purely political organizations. Namely, the 
same foundation supports right-wingers in Texas, a dictatorship in 
Azerbaijan and in Albania, democratic processes.
Global agencies for reconstruction and optimization are prepared in 
advance to support projects that are dealing with the negative side 
effects of the process of the so-called transformation. Grants are 
given for the suppression of local neofascism, against clericalism, 
fundamentalism and different aspects of local nationalism. Right now, 
considering these phenomena, one question comes up: Who is generating 
whom? Id est. capitalism produces it's own ugly children against whom 
it already has a planned agenda for extermination.
Also, NGOs addicted to receiving financing to help solve many 
different problems, are trying to enlarge and induce local problems. 
It's an acceptable marketing strategy, why not? Well, nevertheless 
it's important to acquire new grants and continued existence for the 
next year. The agenda of all foundations is domestication and putting 
to sleep, so smile and feel positive vibrations while you are 
applying for a new grant!

Substantial geopolitical determinations

Let's remember all those geopolitical determinations with which new 
definitions of geospace and of the possibilities of moving inside 
them were shaped.
These guidelines are the tools with which a specific cultural policy 
is to be reinstalled. We can observe this in the example of the 
breakup of Yugoslavia, and we can follow a number of renamings and 
identifications through various geopolitical frames. Until now this 
space "X" has been characterized as east European countries, South 
East Europe, thereafter, Balkan countries and the newest, the Western Balkans.
There have been plenty of political reformulations like: 
postcommunistic countries, countries in transition, emerging 
societies, postsocialistic transformation, shaped according to 
political mediation and the necessary strategic solutions. The real 
top spin and compilations of famous quotes ornament formularies and 
applications in almost every cultural projects and was always the 
perfect instrument, in it's deficiency of creativity, to blur the 
nature of cultural policy and it's consequences.
It isn't so easy to escape from this kind of branding and it's used 
with appetite, even, of course, if it has nothing to do with the real 
situation.

Horror cabinet of foundational branding
The brand "postcommunism" was used remorseless, and led to the funny 
situation in which the famous DDR car "Trabant", was taken as a 
symbolic notion of the system in ex Yugoslavia in various cultural 
projects. You should realize, the famous "Trabi" was never driven in 
the ex YU, and the social system during the time period in question 
was state controlled capitalism with a self managing social policy.
Numerous international projects were established constituting 
cooperation according to some new specified geopolitical 
determinations. The guidelines were fulfilled and themes like 
"Trabant" mention above were mascots.
Production of various Balkans and Easteuropean exhibitions soon 
began, new media centers were installed, also "UFO" galleries of 
contemporary arts, (although not so often in places where the locals 
never heard what this, in fact ,is). Balkan Nordic Switch was 
organizing an exchange programme in which you could only take part if 
you were from a specific "Balkan or Nordic race".
Balkanism and the Balkans, retrospectives from this view or the view 
of the "Other", became a theme for endless projections and debates, 
led by many artist, cultural workers, curators, cultural 
theoreticians and sociologist from one or another part of east & west.
Let's put the question of how is it possible that Greece, as part of 
the Balkan Peninsula, never played a part in similar cooperations and 
discussions?
After all, funds from different EU countries like German 
Bundeskulturstiftung, Austrian Kultur Kontakt, or Swiss Pro Helvetia, 
were awarding grants for projects which satisfied standards inside 
the geopolitical frame of the Western Balkans.
Lifting of the Western Balkans Identity
Well, what, in fact, is the Western Balkans and how is it discussed 
right now? It is, as it seems, all ex YU countries, without Slovenia, 
but including Albania...
The expectations are that foundations have to speed up the 
integration process of the Western Balkans into the EU and that 
cultural workers have to push this process as much they can.
So, Let's mention the conference held on 1. December 2005. in The 
Hague "The Hart of Matter Balkans". It was a meeting of big 
importance for the work of the European Cultural Foundation, again in 
the frame of the geopolitical context of the Western Balkans, and 
their further positioning in the region.
European Cultural Foundation (ECF) and their hierarchical structure 
lead us to Brussels and other administrations of European Union. The 
participants of the conference were persons like Austrian ambassador 
to the UN -Wolfgang Petritsch, Netherlands minister of Foreign 
Affairs - Bernard R. Bot or ex Serbian and Montenegro minister Goran 
Svilanovic. Also present were almost every cultural worker from the 
ECF network, and the Macedonian playwright Goran Stefanovski told a 
vivid story about an imaginary poet, Zoran, and the EU stars inside 
his heart. The Impression altogether is that around these kind of 
meetings is flying the fame of a strange "enlightenment" while 
strategies like: cross-cultural conflict management, 
multi-culti&ethnic projects, work on "Enlargement of Penis, 
upsss...sorry, Minds", integration, etc... rain from managers.
 From the report we can read some more from many conclusions: For 
example to end the stigmatization of the Balkans. Hmm... until now 
were they only concerned with the production of stigmatization? or 
what?? That the Balkans should become equal member of EU, and that 
the democratic building of a new Balkan identity (whatever it is), 
has to be completed. The Balkan identity, hmm, there are also 
probably Apeninian or Pirineian Identities, but "The New Balkan 
identity" surely has something to do with NSK or MTV Adria!
This charming document you can download from the official ECF 
web-site, and the address is:
http://www.eurocult.org/PDFdb/news/BalkanReport.pdf

What to do?

But how is possible to be truly independent and how to stay out of 
this powerful machinery, which is sucking up any free action?
The recipe can be very simple and clear if you bear in mind that only 
unmediated action and direct contact can be preconditions for 
creating a real space for free action. Development of personal and 
self organized economical possibility, on the fundaments of 
solidarity and the real alternative.
Maybe it's not possible to develop expensive productions but better 
is to be really independent, whatever you achieve!
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This text was published in the Croatian megazine 04 no 15. link: 
http://04zine.org/