Re: Syndicate: 5. - bambipark

["Mihajlo Acimovic" <prijatelj@angelfire.com>]

>  one could
>expect some kind of personality cult around the >milosevic-family; there's
>nothing to be seen of that, no portraits, no >transparents, no proud sign on
>the city's entrance. 

There is no great personality cult about Milosevic or his family members. In state schools, there are no portraits of Milosevic, unless a director is trying to suck up somewhere, so she/he puts in his/her office.
In fact, there are VERY FEW Milosevic's portraits, anywhere. The state propaganda says that "Yugoslavia is the most democratic country in the world" (minister of information of serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, also member of the neonazi Serbian Radical Party). Alternatively, "Serbia is a democratic country in which the human rights of all minorities and especially ethnic ones are respected in accordance with the highest democratic standards" (web site of the Yugoslav government). This especially means that the pictures are not hung up on the walls. People are supposed to carry them to spontaneous demonstrations for support to Milosevic, that are occasionally organised by Milosevic's government. 
REASON
If somebody brings your salary from 1000 DEM to 50 DEM in 3 years, if he sends your friends to be killed in several wars with no economic or military logic, if he sends police to beat their other friends that protest this, if he ruins your life... You will not vote for this person. The state media does not try and show him as the best person. They spend 24 hours a day, trying to persuade the population that everybody else is worse. They sometimes have entire program blocks, devoted to foreign mercenaries and enemies of the state.
WHAT IF...
you had Milosevic's portraits in classroom? They would be trashed in two days. I remember Saint Sava's portrait in my classroom, that was getting very white with chalk. I guess we threw a lot of it at him. Once 
somebody took it down and stamped it a couple of times, when there was no one there. I just came into the empty classroom and found the portrait of Saint Sava on the floor. Students and Highschool students may be very apathic about acting in politics. They have been betrayed too many times, especially by conformist teachers. But, when their lifespace is endangered and discipline is loose, you should see what they are capable of doing.
That is one Milosevic's gimmick. You don't have money, but you don't have to behave in a disciplined fashion. Besides, the worst troublemakers in my school had parents from the new burgeoisie. I would like to see the school that would dare kick them out.
PORTRAITS
When Tito's pictures were taken down from the classrooms, they were mostly replaced by the pictures of Saint Sava (12-13th century), the man who got the Serbian Orthodox Church it's autonomy from the one in Byzantium.
If there is anyone interested, I can forward you more about him and Serbian Orthodox Church.
Usually, there were pictures of Vuk Karadzic (grammar reformist, 18-19th century) and Dositej Obradovic (first minister of education of Serbia and writer 18-19th century). This information applies to Serbia only. 
In Montenegro, they must have Petar I Petrovic Njegos, a writer and religious and state ruler of Montengro (19th century). They might have Saint Sava and I'm quite sure that they have Vuk Karadzic. 
SIGNS
On October 21st, 1996., I was passing through Pozarevac. The new discoteque "Madona", owned by Marko Milosevic, was about to open that evening. There were large pieces of cloth with the info written on them, hung between streetlight poles. The center of Pozarevac was full of them. 


Mihajlo Acimovic


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