Posted on 05/04/2011 6:53:48 AM PDT by Ravnagora
Today, May 4, 2011 is the 31st anniversary of the death of Josip Broz Tito, the lifetime President of Yugoslavia. Some adore him, some hate him, some are disgusted by the very mention of his name nowadays. Yugoslavia was the country of my birth and childhood. This is what I have to say about it, now, from a distance.
The good aspects of Communism were the following: free health care for all, free education for all, including University education, high respect for workers' rights (there was no way you could get fired - unless you did something really stupid, but if you TRIED HARD on your job, you could have a job until retirement). Another good aspect was that many people got roofs over their heads - the state would give them apartments... not everyone, but many. So, the actual social aspects were good. In that regard, much more humane in some aspects than some Western countries.
The political aspects, however, were terrible. The "little man" would do fine, provided that there were no questions asked about the system of Government. You could not criticize the Government openly or publicly. There was heavy censorship in the media (TV, newspapers, magazines, books), even in the theater... However, Western movies were shown in cinemas and on TV, western books (some) were available, so Yugoslavs were fairly familiar with the "imperialist" culture of the West. If you would get drunk in a "kafana" and start singing forbidden songs, you would get a 3 month jail sentence. Many people were killed after the "liberation" - without trials or on mock trials, or even under martial law (immediately after the Second World War)... how many people had lost their land, property, homes, cattle, factories, how many people were sent to Goli Otok prison camp and jails across Yugoslavia - just for having a different opinion. But, if you were the law-abiding citizen, the obedient "little man", you would go to school, to the University or to your job, whatever. We would spend the summers on the Adriatic and the winters on mountains, life was generally good and relatively care-free. There was no mass-consumerism like today - but we had everything we needed and we were happy. Crime rate was almost non-existant. I've read somewhere that the regime had paid the leaders of criminal groups to "operate" outside of Yugoslavia, in places like Germany. The result of this was that we didn't even have to lock our apartments. Imagine living in the US and not locking your apartment or house.
So, on the one hand, there were no political, media or such freedoms, no rights to protest. On the other hand, on a smaller level, there was quite a bit of safety, security, and life was generally rewarding for the "little man" and his family.
Yugoslavia - if we remove the political system - was a wonderful country that had it all - from the vast Adriatic sea, to the lakes, springs, rivers, streams, waterfalls, mountains, forests, wheat fields, ancient Roman sites, medieval fortresses, monasteries, it was a place where religion was not officially banned like in Albania, but you certainly were not encouraged to go to church...
It was also a place where, as in other dictatorships, the dictator was loved more than God, more than one's parents, brothers or sisters. After the war, Tito's gigantic posters and red stars were everywhere. By the time I was born and had grown up, Tito was not so much present in the streets, but his photo was in each office, each classroom, each factory hall. You would open up a school book and he would be there, on the first page, in full color. Newspapers were filled with his endless speeches, and he was treated not like a King, but like a Tsar or a God. When he would return from one of his many trips worldwide, people would be lined up, throwing roses at him, waving Yugoslav and Communist flags, there would be a general hysteria of love and joy... not to mention the Army Parade, the carrying of the "youth torch" on his birthday, the massive colorful performance on a stadium, and other similar public events, all in the service of glorifying his personality first, and Yugoslavia second.
He was - and I admit this - a mastermind of manipulating both the East and the West, to get money from them. By playing the so-called neutrality card (The Non-Aligned Movement), he milked both the East and the West for money. He balanced the game of power perfectly. I guess that must have been the reason why the West had decided to destroy Yugoslavia with such vengeance - when the Cold War was over and when Yugoslavia no longer needed to play the balance of power game. Unlike other Communist nations locked behind the Iron Curtain, Yugoslavs could travel basically everywhere and the "red passport" was very respected worldwide. However, many people did not have a habit of traveling abroad. Certainly not in the degree they have today.
Yugoslavia was a country where economic, social, political, national, ethnic and other problems/differences were ignored or pushed under the carpet, for a long time... until they all just blew up into our faces. Some say it was an ideal country, a utopia... Others say it was a "prison of nations". Whatever it was, it no longer exists. If it were that good, it would have survived. The fact that all three forms of Yugoslavia collapsed (the monarchist Yugoslavia, the socialist Yugoslavia and the "shrunken" Yugoslavia) means that we probably should give up on it.
Alex M. from Belgrade
May 4, 2011
*****
He made great fertilizer for the gardens (even communist fertilizer has some intrinsic value) and maybe Jimmy Carter can finally stop wearing Tito’s shoes now.
Tito, the only Yugoslav.
All the great things this guy loves involve getting something for nothing....great communist dream that always collapses in the end!!!
So we departed Switzerland for Salzburg, Austria where we spent a couple of days. Then we traveled to Bled in Slovenia which was a marvellous alpine resort area complete with lake and medieval castle.
After a few days there we took the long drive (13 hours) out to the Adriatic coast and all the way down to Dubrovnik where we stayed for 4 days. The fortified old city was fantastic and the Adriatic very pleasant.
Then we took (again) a long drive up the Adriatic coast to Venice, Italy where we stayed for 3 days.
We very much enjoyed our time in Yugoslavia. Of course at the time the food and local wine was plentiful and very inexpensive compared to Switzerland. And the people were courteous and welcoming.
And we felt quite safe with no signs of crime anywhere.
The heady promises of communism, leave a society smelling like a stale pile of cow manure.
We never lock our doors and we live in the USA. Imagine that.
Yugoslavia was probably the closest any socialist system ever came to working. The other question is, how well are any of the “states” which replaced it doing now? I mean we all know how well “Kosova(TM)” is doing.....
My Dad and I were in Yugoslavia twice before it broke into separate countries. Talk about an interesting, historical country. I loved it. I could write a book on it; therefore I will hit on two short aspects for those who have never been there.
1. There were a few nasty people there. I realized they were the Muslim side. That took me by surprise because I had never dealt with Muslims. Call it innocence on my part.
2. From Dubrovnik, we flew out to Greece. The Dubrovnik airport was interesting. We sat there where we could see planes land. They landed from left to right. It was horrific. In front, on the far side, was a mountain range, which appeared almost on top of the airport. Then there was the landing strip. Then came, in front of us, a very jagged natural wall of some kind of dark volcanic rock. It ran from one end of the landing strip to the other. I thought of the consequences if a plane skidded upon landing.
This is the same airport where the Clintons polished off a plane load of passengers to kill Ron Brown. The Plane was crashed into that very mountain ranged which was hugging the runway.
At the time of the “Monica bombing” an article in WSJ stated it was estimated the bombing in Serbia proper, alone, set the country back 15-20 years, economically. No idea if this is still the case or not. And the country had only recently emerged from communism...
I was there many years before that.
I was there in 1977. Traveled a bit in Croatia, but spent most of my time in Montenegro. I was coming from LA, so it wasn’t quite what I was used to. But then again being a California city girl, Kansas wouldn’t have been what I was used to, either.
Hated the political system — it was stupid, inefficient and everyone hated their job. Trying to buy something or get something done was just ridiculous. I remember waiting for hours at the post office to get a phone call through to Italy. There was a “no smoking” sign for the customers, but the person who waited on you behind a kind of teller’s cage, could blow smoke in your face. Bizarre.
But loved the place, the location and the people. The scenery was magnificent. The people were warm, hospitable and would give you the shirt off their backs. Third cousins would give up their beds to you when you visited, something my own brother wouldn’t do.
Had quite opposite experience of you kabumpo. Everything in Yugoslavia was clean — sheets were whiter than white — and whatever discomfort I had came from expecting there to be a corner 7/11 to indulge my every momentary whim, in a country that didn’t function that way. (But I was frustrated that I couldn’t get Niksicko beer in Niksic, because they exported it all to Europe and the US.)
Yet when I went to Kusadasi, Turkey, the place was filthy and my husband almost got into a tussle when a shopkeeper started pulling at my arm on the street saying, “You must buy from me. I need your money!” I’ve had friends who went to other parts of Turkey and loved it, but my own experience creeped me out.
Hotlanta Mike, yes I flew in and out of Cilipe Airport outside Dubrovnik, too — a memorable take off and landing, to say the least! (My dad’s family was from about 35 miles South of there in the Bay of Kotor.) I remember reading somewhere that long ago, Sydney Portier dumped Dihanne Carrol at Cilipe airport after a tumultuous weekend on Sveti Stefan.
Coastal regions like Dubrovnik, which were set up for foreign tourism were different from principal cities that were national ir otovincual capitals. I went all through, from north to south by train - which broke down constantly. The only food was weiner schnitzel and goulash. Salad came out of a jar. There were no fresh vegetables. I will never forget how the crowds of people reeked of.....I don’t know what it was. The men with tbe weird mustaches worn as ringlets that drooped on the sides of their mouths. And the constant pushing and shoving.
I have been to Turkey several times, by land and by sea. Kusadasi was very welcoming....did you go to the temple of Diana in Ephesus?
And of course, Turkey has the most wonderful fresh food...
What year were you there?
Yes, I went to Ephesus in 2000. We were touring the Greek Islands and one of the stops was Kusadasi. Like I said, bad experience. Plus poor skinny dogs everywhere, that I couldn’t help but feed.
And then in Kusadsi, I made the (in-hindsight) ridiculous decision to go up the mountain to see “The House of the Virgin Mary”. Sat in the back of a bus with no shock absorbers as we wound our way up a mountain so high that I swear to God, horned sheep were actually leaping over the front of the near vertical bus. And when we came around corners, the rear of the bus where we sat, swayed past the road edge so far that it felt like there was nothing under us as we looked over a cliff so high that if you went over, you could eat a sandwich before you hit bottom. That was the scariest hour of my entire life. When got off the bus, there was a guard in a military uniform with an ouzi at the front gate, as our guide was telling us how “Muslims honor the Virgin Mary, too”. I was thinking to myself, “Yeah, right, that’s why he’s got the ouzi” — and I vomited. First time in my entire life I was ever carsick. I was terrified of getting back on that bus, but thank God we got seats up front and the way back down was far better than the way up!
Never took the train in Yugoslavia — only car, bus, boat and planes. Weird about the food for you, because Serbia exports organic fruits and veggies to Western Europe now. All the food I had there was fresh and excellent.
Back in the 1970’s, deodorant wasn’t common so that took a while to get used to, although everyone around us bathed regularly. But the “ringlets” thing — I have no idea what you saw on that one — never saw anything remotely like it.
It sounds like you had the worst experience in Yugoslavia and I had the worst experience that Turkey had to offer.
Yes. The IMF basically gave Tito a virtually limitless credit card to keep him in power, and in turn, when they put the screws to him to pay up, the people did go through long periods of deprivation where they went hungry. Karl Malden told me that was the case in this little village when he went over there to film a movie. He said that many of the adults of that village went to Germany to work, leaving their kids with the grandparents. After Tito died, the big IMF bill came due which put tremendous pressure on the people -- and they turned on each other, dividing along ethnic lines. All of that happened before the wars started and certainly contributed to the ethnic strife, as one republic did better financially than another and got sick of taking care of the others. Yugoslavia was a country that should have never been created, but it was -- and I think for the best of motives -- though it never really worked, not as a Constitutional Monarchy, nor certainly as a Communist or Socialist country. But, I suppose even as the most dysfunctional families come away with some good memories of childhood, so too people from the most dysfunctional countries.
If the blood sucking British didn’t support Tito there would have been no war in the Balkans.
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