Wars Empire Strikes
‘My Buddy Drojti Was Stationed At The Stream Tunnel That Connects To Our Hydroelectric Power Station When The Serbs Came Through It,’ Declared Our Host, Ante.
While the US marks 10 years after the attacks in N. Y that led to two wars and elemental changes in how Northern Americans view their security, Croatia solemnly remembers the 1991 incursion of Serbian troops and shelling of one of their most loved towns, Dubrovnik. That started a 2 year war all alone soil.
“My buddy Drojti was stationed at the river tunnel that connects to our hydroelectric power station when the Serbs came through it,” said our host, Ante. “He ran down the hill, jumped into the sea and swam the twenty kilometers to the old town.
“The folks who couldn’t leave Dubrovnik went into the old city because they believed that the Serbs would never attack it,” Ante continued, with sourness in his voice. “But over two thousand shells struck the city, and 68 p.c of the buildings had damage, some totally gutted by fire.”
As Cheri and I walked through the traditional town, over stone streets that were laid centuries gone, it was hard to fantasize the elimination. Only when we saw the Serbian TV pictures did the actuality sink in. Now, lovingly and meticulously rebuilt, Dubrovnik is once again a superb representation of medieval life. And families still live there, doing almost all of similar things they did long ago. Only now, the Universal Teenager can be found even here. While Ante gave us a private history lesson, a grouping of younger people walked noisily by, dressed just about the same as in the United States, earbuds wired into their smartphones, giggling at us tourists.
“What’s the economy like now?” I asked Ante.
“Not so good,” he responded. “After the war, we had to rebuild our industry, but plenty of our folks had sold their property and left to the U.S, to New Zealand, Britain and other places. Many homes were deserted. After 10 years, things started to improve because Continentals started to build houses here, start enterprises, and tourists returned. Then in 2008, the worldwide economic recession just put everything into reverse. Tourism is just starting to get better. But we need other sources of industry.”
I was thinking about the population emigrating, guessing that many of them would be younger folk, those that had not started a family. Looking at the striking natural beauty of the Dalmatian coast, I could see it was a place of great nourishment for the adult soul and really boring for children.
Ante confirmed that this was indeed the case.
“Our youth are not staying in enough numbers to form our future growth,” he revealed. “Many of them are getting degrees in economics and business, but there are just a few growing industries here to use them.”
This same story was repeated by Samoj (he loved to be called “Sam”), a person we shared drinks and a table with in Korcula, another walled town on an island of the same name further north. Sam is a Slovenian, trained as a solicitor and historian, working for a research institute in his home country of 3,000,000 folk. We were lucky to have such a credible source of information, and we took advantage of it.
“So, Sam, what was the civil war about?” I asked. “It was portrayed by our media as an ethnic war, that supposed ethnic ‘cleansing ‘ was what the Serbians were after.”
Sam explained, “Well, actually , Serbs, Slovenians, Croats and Bosnians are ethnically identical. We share the same traditional roots returning to the time of the Illyrians who formed the first regional identity beyond small tribes about three thousand years ago. The conflict goes back to when the Roman Empire split up and was divided between an eastern area and a western one. When that happened, Catholicism under a Roman pope dominated the western empire, while the Eastern Orthodox Church was predominant in what came to be called the Byzantine Empire. The orthodox religion does not recognize the pope as the representation of Jesus ‘ church, the monks can marry, and the sacraments are different, among plenty of other things. Slovenia and Croatia are on the west side of the dividing line. The Serbian aggression was really about non secular ‘cleansing, ‘ and obviously, it was about money.”
“How did economics play into the war?” I asked.
“Under Tito, when we were all one country, there was mostly equality across the bigger nation,” Sam expounded. “But the area of Slovenia was the industrial powerhouse. We had a small fragment of the total population, but we were the source of 30 % of Yugoslavia’s GDP. Croatia had the beautiful coast and many beautiful islands where traditional hamlets still thrived. Croatia was the holiday maker mecca for Yugoslavians and many Western european states on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Ever since Yugoslavia was first made after World War I, the Serbians, who were the most in number, needed to exercise the best power over the course of the country. When Tito died, Serbian ambitions re-emerged, and their desire to control the 2 wealthiest areas of the old Yugoslavia drove them to invade when Slovenia and Croatia announced their independence.”
It occurred to me as I listened to Sam that Jesus would find it sad if he knew that in the name of claiming exclusive rights to his legacy, envious folks would try and take away what others had out of envy and greed. Maybe he does know as reported tagza.com.
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