‘My Buddy Drojti Was Stationed At The Stream Tunnel That Connects To Our Hydroelectric Power Station When The Serbs Came Through It,’ Asserted Our Host, Ante.
While the US marks ten years after the attacks in New York that led on to 2 wars and elemental changes in how Americans view their security, Croatia solemnly recollects the 1991 incursion of Serbian troops and shelling of one of their most beloved towns, Dubrovnik. That started a 2 year war all alone soil.
“My friend Drojti was stationed at the river tunnel that connects to our hydroelectric power station when the Serbs came thru it,” said our host, Ante. “He ran down the hill, leaped into the ocean and swam the 20 kilometers to the old town.
“The folk who couldn’t leave Dubrovnik went into the old city because they thought the Serbs would never attack it,” Ante continued, with sourness in his voice. “But over 2,000 shells struck the city, and 68 percent of the buildings had damage, some totally gutted by fire.”
As Cheri and I walked thru the ancient town, over stone streets that were laid centuries ago, it was hard to imagine the destruction. Just when we saw the Serbian TV pictures did the reality sink in. Now, lovingly and accurately rebuilt, Dubrovnik is once more a superb illustration of medieval life. And families still live there, doing almost all of similar things they did way back. Only now, the Universal Teen can be discovered even here. While Ante gave us a private history lesson, a bunch of youngsters strolled noisily by, dressed just about the same as in the United States, earbuds plugged into their smartphones, laughing 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 lots of our folk had sold their property and left to the U.S, to New Zealand, England and other places. Many homes were abandoned. After 10 years, things started to boost because Continentals began to build homes here, start companies, and tourists returned. Then in 2008, the worldwide business recession just put everything into reverse. Tourism is just starting to get better. But we need different sources of industry.”
I thought about the population emigrating, making a guess that a lot of them would be younger folks, those that hadn’t started a family. Looking at the shocking natural sweetness of the Dalmatian coast, I could see it had been a place of great nourishment for the adult soul and truly uninteresting for youngsters.
Ante confirmed that this was indeed the case.
“Our youth aren’t staying in enough numbers to make our future growth,” he claimed. “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 lawyer and historian, working for a research institute in his home country of approximately 3 million people. We were fortunate to have such a credible source of info, 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 matching. We share the same ancient roots returning to the time of the Illyrians who formed the first regional identity beyond small clans about 3,000 years ago. The conflict goes back to when the Roman Empire split up and was split 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 faith doesn’t recognise the pope as the illustration of Jesus ‘ church, the clergymen can marry, and the sacraments are dissimilar, among plenty of other things. Slovenia and Croatia are on the west side of the dividing line. The Serbian aggression was actually about spiritual ‘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 had been often equality across the bigger nation,” Sam expounded. “But the region of Slovenia was the commercial powerhouse. We had a tiny fragment of the total population, but we were the source of 30 % of Yugoslavia’s G. D. P. Croatia had the gorgeous coast and many beautiful islands where ancient hamlets still prospered. Croatia was the tourist mecca for Yugoslavians and many EU countries 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 influence over the course of the country. When Tito died, Serbian ambitions re-emerged, and their wish to control the 2 wealthiest regions of the old Yugoslavia drove them to occupy 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 sole rights to his legacy, jealous folk would try and take away what others had out of envy and greed. Perhaps he does know as reported tagza.com.
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