‘My Friend Drojti Was Stationed at the Stream Tunnel That Connects to Our Hydroelectric Power Station When the Serbs Came Thru It,’ Said Our Host, Ante.

While the U. S. marks ten years after the attacks in New York that led to two wars and elemental changes in how Northern Americans view their security, Croatia solemnly recollects 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 stream tunnel that connects to our hydroelectric power station when the Serbs came thru it,” announced our host, Ante. “He ran down the hill, leapt into the ocean and swam the twenty kilometers to the old town.

“The folks who couldn’t leave Dubrovnik went into the old city because they suspected the Serbs would never attack it,” Ante continued, with bitterness in his voice. “But over 2,000 shells struck the city, and 68 p.c 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 picture the elimination. Just when we saw the Serbian TV photographs did the actuality sink in. Now, lovingly and meticulously rebuilt, Dubrovnik is once again a fabulous illustration of medieval life. And families still live there, doing most of similar things they did long ago. Only now, the Universal Teenager can be discovered even here. While Ante gave us a personal history lesson, a group of young people walked noisily by, dressed pretty much 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 replied. “After the war, we had to reconstruct our industry, but many 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 ten years, things started to enhance because Europeans 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 beginning to get better. But we need alternative sources of industry.”

I was thinking about the population emigrating, guessing that many of them would be younger people, those that had not started a family. Looking at the shocking natural sweetness of the Dalmatian coast, I could see it was a place of great nourishment for the adult soul and truly dull for youngsters.

Ante confirmed this was indeed the case.

“Our youth are not staying in enough numbers to make our future growth,” he claimed. “Many of them are getting degrees in economics and business, but there are few growing industries here to use them.”

This same story was repeated by Samoj (he liked 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 an attorney and historian, working for a research institute in his home country of approximately 3,000,000 folks. We were lucky 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 so-called 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 going back to the time of the Illyrians who formed the 1st 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 occurred, Catholicism under a Roman pope ruled the western empire, while the Eastern Orthodox Church was paramount in what came to be called the Byzantine Empire. The orthodox faith does not recognize the pope as the illustration of Jesus ‘ church, the monks can marry, and the sacraments are different, among many other things. Slovenia and Croatia are on the west side of the dividing line. The Serbian aggression was really 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 mostly equality across the larger nation,” Sam said. “But the region of Slovenia was the economic powerhouse. We had a little fragment of the total population, but we were the source of thirty percent of Yugoslavia’s GDP. Croatia had the beautiful coast and many picturesque islands where ancient villages still flourished. Croatia was the holiday maker mecca for Yugoslavians and many Western european states on each side of the Iron Curtain. Ever since Yugoslavia was first created 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 wish to control the 2 wealthiest regions 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, jealous folks would try to take away what others had out of envy and greed. Perhaps he does know as reported tagza.com.