1991 Boston Whaler Gls
While The U. S. Marks 10 Years After The Attacks In N. Y That Led Straight To 2 Wars And Fundamental Changes In How USA Citizens View Their Security, Croatia Solemnly Recalls The 1991 Incursion Of Serbian Troops And Shelling Of One Of Their Most Adored Cities, Dubrovnik.
While the U. S. marks 10 years after the attacks in N. Y that led straight to 2 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 adored cities, Dubrovnik. That started a 2 year war on their own soil.
“My buddy Drojti was stationed at the brook tunnel that connects to our hydroelectric power station when the Serbs came thru it,” said our host, Ante. “He ran down the hill, leapt into the ocean and swam the 20 kilometers to the old town.
“The folks who could not leave Dubrovnik went into the old town because they suspected the Serbs would never attack it,” Ante continued, with bitterness in his voice. “But over two thousand shells struck the town, and 68 percent of the buildings had damage, some absolutely gutted by fire.”
As Cheri and I walked thru the ancient town, over stone streets that were laid centuries ago, it was tough to imagine the annihilation. Just when we saw the Serbian television footage did the reality sink in. Now, lovingly and exactly reconstructed, Dubrovnik is once again a wonderful illustration of medieval life. And families still live there, doing most of the same stuff they did way back. Only now, the Universal Teen can be found even here. While Ante gave us a personal history lesson, a group of youngsters walked noisily by, dressed just about the same as in the U. S. , earbuds plugged into their smartphones, giggling at us travellers.
“What’s the economy like now?” I asked Ante.
“Not so good,” he replied. “After the war, we had to rebuild our industry, but lots of our folks had sold their property and left to the U.S, to New Zealand, Britain and other places. Many houses were abandoned. After ten years, things started to improve because Europeans started to build houses here, start companies, and travellers returned. Then in 2008, the global economic recession just put everything into reverse. Tourism is just beginning to improve. But we need alternative sources of industry.”
I thought about the population emigrating, making a guess that many of them would be younger folk, people who had not 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 actually uninteresting for youngsters.
Ante confirmed that this was indeed the case.
“Our youth are not staying in enough numbers to make 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 employ them.”
This same story was repeated by Samoj (he liked to be called “Sam”), a man 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 an attorney and historian, working for a research institute in his home country of about 3 million 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, in actual fact Serbs, Slovenians, Croats and Bosnians are ethnically identical. We share the same ancient roots returning to the time of the Illyrians who formed the first regional identity beyond little tribes about 3,000 years back. The conflict goes back to when the Roman Empire split up and was split between an eastern area and a western one. When that occurred, Catholicism under a Roman pope dominated the western empire, while the Eastern Orthodox Church was primal in what came to be called the Byzantine Empire. The orthodox faith does not recognise the pope as the illustration of Jesus ‘ church, the monks 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 religious ‘cleansing, ‘ and, it was about money.”
“How did economics play into the war?” I asked.
“Under Tito, when we were all one country, there had been typically equality across the bigger nation,” Sam said. “But the area of Slovenia was the economic powerhouse. We had a tiny fragment of the total population, but we were the source of thirty percent of Yugoslavia’s G. D. P. Croatia had the gorgeous coast and many pretty islands where ancient hamlets still flourished. Croatia was the tourist mecca for Yugoslavians and many EU states on either side 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 greatest influence over the course of the country. When Tito died, Serbian ambitions re-emerged, and their need to control the 2 wealthiest areas of the old Yugoslavia drove them to invade when Slovenia and Croatia declared 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 inheritance, envious folks would attempt to take away what others had out of envy and gluttony. Perhaps he does know as reported tagza.com.
1991 BOSTON WHALER – 17′ SPORT GLS