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“The Prince,”
Serbian Style.
Or the decade that would never end.
A political diary-commentary
with a heart
By Kata Brasovan
September 2000
Published October 2000
In July 2000, Kata
Brasovan sent a short letter to the-vu,
which contained these powerful words.
"A guy
volunteering for the army, in a Serbian
village circa 1941, decided to join the
partisans over the Royal Serbian army-also
known as Chetniks, because the line was
shorter.”
Kata was immediately invited to write an
article for the-vu and it is published here
in her own original English, with an accent,
un-edited for maximum effect.
The issues of the people in the former
Yugoslavian countries are complicated and
deadly serious. By publishing Kata's article
we are presenting the passion and reason
of one individual person. We wish her a
safe return to the U.S.A. following her
electoral mission.
On July 11th 2000, a funky rumor spread
among the Serbs of all continents:
Milosevis is dead. The hearts of many
pounded fast, until a few phone calls
and headline news segments later, when we,
the Serbs, confirmed that he is still
alive and kicking!!! Just named himself
president for life; he is obviously staying,
while everyone else thinks he is just about
to leave. And the populace is getting restless!
In the great tradition of stubborn communist
rituals he congratulated the Republic of
Montenegro, few days ago, on their
stoic effort against fascists in 1941 and
during WWII. Montenegro, in the meanwhile,
is bursting with anti-Yugo sentiments and
is on the verge of rebellion, while 'Sloba'
is pretending we are all still fighting
against a common enemy, not realizing that
he is the only common enemy there is.
But in that great tradition of heroic communist
partisans, the Serbs will endure.
And as my grandma says: "Let
them bomb again; I survived the allied bombing
of Belgrade in '45, I'll survive this one
too. It is just unbelievable
what people will endure in order to prove
that they can!
Just like my grandma, the majority of Milosevices'
voting body thinks IT CAN ACTUALLY GET WORST
if somebody else takes over. How someone
can think that is beyond me, but that is
the ultimate catch 21 of politics and horrible
leaders-read dictators. They keep
referring to the horrible times of WWII
and how if we don't have a strong leader
we can be occupied just like in '41 by Hitler,
only this time it will be our former allies
that do the occupying. And this is
from the generation who's members used to
choose which army to join, any Serbian village
circa 1941, the communist partisans or the
royal Serbian army-also known as Chetniks,
depending on which line was shorter.
Do we have to wait until all of them are
gone to see changes in Yugoslavia?
The last tribe of south Slavs, or Yugoslavs
(translation: South Slavs), still pissing
against the wind. A few days later, the democratic
opposition did raise enough hell and cornered
the big M to promise elections on September
24th. My friends wrote me all
excited-I just dismissed the news as another
prediction of already known and fixed result
of the ill-fated election. I just
can't believe that after a decade of self-mutilation
there is actually hope.
And as I am a very political individual,
I proceeded to explain my point of view
to my dying grand mother in Belgrade in
a phone conversation a day ago. It
was early morning, I was sad to lose the
woman I always had a love/hate relationship
with because of, among other things, POLITICS-
she voted for the big fucked up M
4-FOUR times, I voted for the opposition
2-twice despite the fact that I lived in
the US for the past 12 years. I made
sure I was there for 2 of the elections
and I AM GOING TO MAKE SURE I WILL BE THERE
SEPTEMBER 24!!!
So I tried to convert her on her dying bed
as she did me- she called me an Albright's
protégé!? ( I actually hate that bitch)
I proceeded to yell out at her, as if the
volume of my voice will somehow influence
her further. I told her how Milosevis
has destroyed Serbia within 10 years, a
period 4 times shorter, and much more
devastatingly than Tito, that smart
Croat. During that period he became
one of the richest man in the world and
a dictator of a communist/socialist country
at the same time! And yes we
did all live in oblivious peace for 40 years,
but than reality struck ! In other
terms he really messed with the country
for 40+ years! *(in case you ever wanted
to ask yourself how the Serb/Albanian ratio
of 1941 in Kosovo, which was 80/20 % became
20/80 in the late 1080's)
"He is a thief and the biggest enemy
Serbian people have ever had," I was
screaming into my grandma's ear as she was
promising that is yet another incentive
for her to get off her death bed and go
and vote for HIM. Unfortunately, she
is one of voting majority consisting of
the scared elderly and refugees. Meanwhile,
the remainder of the populace is restless.
Especially in the cities.
Under the reign of some dark forces, dealing
with a decade of economic destitute and
a fact that even though we have a somewhat
united opposition, we don't really have
a leader who appeals to all the Serbs and
that can give hope and take over from the
dictator! All the opposition leaders,
except Kostunica who realistically is the
only person with a brain and a chance to
win, are just second choices to the person
that doesn't exist, and that is the reason
why, I fear, he might win again.
Some political analysts have noted that
Sloba never allowed elections unless he
was sure that he would win, so after all
the commotion he might stay in power after
all or civil war in Serbia might break out,
who knows.
I pray to the universe to destroy him, hoping
he will realize how much harm he has done
to his people; I see no hope except
the work of the Resistance (OTPOR!), a group
of young people-who else? and teenagers
that are organizing people and demonstrating
every night and getting beaten every night!
Their campaign to get 4 million people
out to vote against the big fucking M, that
won't go away, is called : " HE'S DONE!"
and "IT"S TIME"
I love them and I want to be one of them.
I am happy that the young people, as always,
do not sit and wait; at the same time, I
am appalled with my generation, even though
I can't say anything out loud because I
left in 1988, in the mean while not one
of them is saying a word. They love
the Resistance, and support them mentally,
but I DON"T see them marching.
They did it in 1993 with tanks on the streets
and over and over again in many years to
come, and they are tired. They want
jobs and money to move out of their parents’
apartments and stability, and they have
none.
But don't think the picture is as dim as
I portray it-I am just one of the world's
feelers, the group that takes it upon itself
to feel bad for all the people in the world
that never feel bad about all the shitty
things that they do, and that happen in
the world. Along the lines of:
"it's not our business"!
Well, whose business is it anyway!
And that's why even though the populace
is restless and hungry, everyone still parties
and dresses better than half of New York
and LA put together. But that is just
how people live out there, hard and full,
as if today is the last day. Serbs
always did and always will.
And that is what keeps us different and
fun even in the worst of times; comments
like: " Even when they were bombing
Belgrade it was more fun than America,"
and jokes ending with : 'but what if we
win the war with America?" The
great part is that they can even think it.
I think that we will just survive all of
this out of spite!
So now that the opposition is finally getting
out on a election campaign trail the big
M is scared. He made his thugs confiscate
all the promotional material and computers
from OTPOR!, which has in the mean while
acquired a heroic name: the people's movement.
They have also been declared a pro-NATO
and NATO funded group! So now it's
only a few weeks before the election and
people are getting arrested left and right,
ex-presidents are disappearing and all kinds
of creative police activity is going on.
I go off to Belgrade in 48 hrs to join the
battle of good vs. evil, hoping I won't
be arrested and proclaimed a Western spy.
Maybe my dying grandma will forgive me on
her dying bed for my political mistakes
as she sees them, and on the 24th we'll
go hand in hand to vote one against each
other's believes, as will many other Serbs. And
then the prediction of my astrologer will
come true and Milosevis will have a really
BAD year- and lose.
But we, as a people, shall overcome!!!
When people ask me how Serbs can sustain
such horrible living conditions and political
dogma, I always try to point out that no
one really knows how much Serbs can take-and
WE CAN TAKE A LOT. Just to make it a little
bit more real, I leave you with a scary
fact from the streets of Yugoslavia:
there is ONE police officer to every FIFTY
civilians!! So it would be nice if
the rest of the world would wish us luck
on the 24th because we need it!!! And than
maybe left-over communism will finally disappear
in Yugoslavia and the decade that would
never end for Serbs will finally come to
an end and we will be allowed to live again.
Kata Brasovan was
born and raised in Belgrade, Yugoslavia
and moved to the U.S.A. when she was seventeen.
She has a B.A. in history from Loyola in
Chicago, and withdrew from the rat race
after one year of law school in Los Angeles.
For many years she wrote in Serbian, but
after 12 years in the U.S.A. she now writes
in English. She researches, takes a stand
and writes!
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