Cyberiad World

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Introduction Cyberiad is a shared account used by several persons. Please address your email to the appropriate recipient. cyberiad@pacific.net.sg	A series of whimsical commentaries on the state of the world, culture, music, technology, fiction, travels, games, film, art, and more.	These pages are designed specifically for Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01. Viewing with older and other web browsers may result in anomalies. The web pages are designed for a 800 x 600 resolution.
Fabulist Literature Stanislaw Lem Italo Calvino Jorge Luis Borges Salman Rushdie Enterprise Business Week Fortune Forbes Bloomberg Information Technology MIT Technology Review Red Herring Upside PC Magazine PC World Internet World Byte CNET ZDNet Wired Mondo 2000 2600 Science and Technology Discover Hardware Tom's Hardware Guide Bill's Workshop The Firing Squad Hardware Zone Military Jane's Naval Institute Air Power Online Music Elements A Different Drum Isolation Tank Al Crawford's Reviews Music Labels Hypnotic / Cleopatra Mute October 4AD Wargames Decision Games Avalon Hill 3W The Gamers Roleplaying Games Warhammer GURPS Call of Cthulhu Runequest RPG Companies Steve Jackson Games Chaosium White Wolf Hogshead Games Workshop Wizards of the Coast Search Engine Northern Light	world Bosnia A short commentary on the expectations of a solution in Bosnia and the aspirations of the Serbian nationalists. The roots of the Bosnian tragedy is the continuation of a play which started almost two millennia ago. The catastrophe of Hadrianopolis in 378 was the herald of a new era, bringing an end to Roman hegemony and the fall of a once great empire. The continent was on the move with armies on the march and waves and waves of migratory barbarian tribes moving into Europe, ravaging civilised Roman provinces and settling in them. Eastern Europe was the flood gates. The Serbs, a Slavic people, was a product of this mass-migratory movement, settling in the region after the fall of the Roman empire. The advent of Islam and the ascendancy of the Turks soon led to pressure on the southern flank of Christiandom, leadinsg to several centuries of bloody occupation, and brutal re-conquest post-siege of Vienna. The butchery and bloodshed that followed and the Muslim conversion of Bosnians, themselves a Slavic people, was but a omen of a recurring problem. When the yoke of Turkish rule finally crumbled, there was yet another reorganisation and centuries of domination by the Hapsburg dynasty, the precursor of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Such a history of bad blood, of people who collaborated with their conquerors, of people who were involved in the many purges, or of the atrocities committed by almost every warring faction could not fail to ignite yet another recurring bloodbath, a neverending vicious cycle. A Serbian kingdom did exist, albeit for short periods throughout history. Eventually, on eve of the Great War, the war of awakening for nationalists throughout, the Serbian cause was immortalised in that fateful assassination of the Arch-Duke. Serbian nationalism has never been more poignant. The dream of a greater Serbia had always been part of Serbian history and will continue to be. The expectation of an instantaneous solution to the Bosnian conflict is an unrealistic one and is an oversimplification. Applying military force to a wild region where the native people has been hardened by centuries of low intensity conflict would be useless. The left and the Muslim world continue to see racist conspiracies in that the West would refuse to punish an European entity while bombing the Iraqis. Meanwhile, the Russian dimension is a factor the West would have to contend with. Firstly, the Russian public would never stand to see the so-called fraternity of Slavic brothers in Serbia attacked by NATO bombers. Secondly, dissolution of the Soviet confederation, the Warsaw Pact, has led to undisguised feelings of regret and anger within Russia; and the West's enroachment in what was once a Soviet sphere of influence is not looked upon with any great flavour by the both the Russian leadership and public. Balkanisation, a term, used to describe the fragmentation of a region was derived from this very cauldron of rampant violence, a whirlwind of little wars, petty squabbles, where Serb, Macedonian, Albanian, Bosnian, Montenegrin fight. The term is an apt one and if one does not recognise the roots of the conflict, one will not resolve the conflict, but, rather, one will sow the seeds for another conflagration in the coming years.
Cyberiad. This term has nought to do with the current Cyberspace phenomena, instead, it is the title of a 1974 fabulist tract, 'The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age', a masterpiece written by the iconoclastic Stanislaw Lem. This magical work consisting of short fables, written during the stifling Communist era in Poland, when the Warsaw Pact was close to its nadir under the leadership of Brehne. 'Cyberiad' describes the two constructors who in trying to out-invent each other conjuring the most bizarre and hilarious of situations and creations, including dragons of improbability, electronic bards and so forth. 'The Cyberiad' is a delightful collection of fables. Heavily recommended.