The Inner Sleeve For The HELP! Album:

By former Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic, who is of Croatian descent

The numbers are available to gauge the suffering brought by the war in former Yugoslavia.Seek them out, if you desire. With that knowledge put into perspective the pain and shame of a woman rape survivor, the loss of a child orphaned or a man maimed for life? The numbers can help gauge this war against the many other ‘dirty little wars’ fought all over this world since the spring of 1945. The grainy news reels from that era give a feel of antiguity and a distant detachment from the present, much like thumbing through a history text book. Anniversaries are a way to not only gauge time but to gauge progress, both personal and collectively. 1995 marks fifty years since the end of the second world war. Technological progress distorts the perception of time. While surfing the internet or watching a live satellite broadcast, I find it easy to discount that I was born a mere twenty years after the fall of Nazi Germany.

Some evils of the war in the former Yogoslavia are partially rooted in the events of W.W.II. Some were borne out of the post war ‘workers state’ that was manipulated to benefit a few. But the evil unleashed from a broken heart, pain mainfested into a focused vengeance for the murder of a loved one, is a pure passion that is not only illogical and regressive, but unmistakably human. One might try to understand this yes humanity, but what of the cultural eradication, the rape and displacement all of the belligerent murderous atrocities committed against humdreds of thousands of people, in name of nationalism, personal gain and profit? This is part of our past, a part of our present, but it be part of our future? More importantly, where does this fit into our destiny as the Human Race?

Our passions can inhibit our progress toward our collective destiny, but redemption in the form of compassion, ingenuity and art ensure us a crack at the goal.

These later attributes are what is contained in this collection of music from various artists. Passion manifesting through art and expression is what will save us when the saga of mankind is assessed. Until our potential is fully realised, we must tell our leaders that war and misery will not be tolerated! We must assert our humanly good natures as simply and eloquently as a handshake to a neighbour, for starters. We must align ourselves with the victims of this tragedy as fellow human beings and demand that all the perpetuators of war crimes be brought to justice.

Let us not fool ourselves with all of the technological progress that is developing around. We are still, after all, living in the twentieth century and what a bloody century it has been.

Krist Novoselic – August 1995