Basically, it was Woodrow Wilson’s fault

I am in constant awe of this place’s history. For so long I have studied development mostly focused on Latin America. For the past two years I have been learning about IMF/WB intrusion on economies, capitalism as the evil doer, cultural survival, anti privatization, corporate scum, the big bad globalization force, hegemony and homogeneity and hierarchy, partiarchical structures, social structures, economic structures, theory and theology and ideology and partisanship and corruption and values and exploitation…

Now I am hearing about the ex-Yugoslavia, specific to Croatia (for now), and how their economy, their government, and their society has been transforming since independence in 1990. The HDZ (The Croatian Democratic Union, the “right” Christian democratic party which won in 1990 under the leadership of Dr. Franjo Tudjman) is pro-family (but in their minds pro family is a mother-father lead family, giving no rights to the single mother or the lesbian couple or the gay couple, simply mother-father lead families), “the family comes first!”, where all the members are devout Catholics who attend Church and who are very involved in looking towards the future of Croatia. They are for a speedy transition into the European Union (they want it by 2009), they love the legacy of Tudjman and what he (and the HDZ) did for Croatia, they are for liberalization of the market, privatization, they want to reduce unemployment and get more of the youth into tertiary education. I only know all of this because we met with the leaders of the MHDZ (the Croatian Democratic Union Youth Organization, the biggest party affiliated Youth organization in Croatia). If you ask me, Croats and United Statesians are very different breeds. I caught myself gasping at some of their thoughts. But it was cool to listen to them, to hear their side of things.
But was has caught me the most (as we’ve begun digging deeper into the economic development of the area), is their move from socialism to capitalism and how it has been doing wonders for the economy. How they WANT privatization, Europeanization, Westernization, Globalization, Homogenization (seemingly). It’s just a mind screw for me. People really think this way here.

And I think it’s interesting to think of the demographics here in comparison with the demographics in the US. We have so many more ideologies, so many more religions, so many more languages and backgrounds and POPULATION (Croatia has half the population size of Manhattan), that macroeconomic policy, macropoltiical policy, is very hard to create while at the same time making people happy. Here, it’s just a lot more mono-everything. Sure there are still a few jews, a few Serbs (they are the biggest minority and I think they are 4% or something), Italians, Albanians, Greeks, Hungarians, Bulgarians, etc). By think of it regionally: most of those people are from Eastern/Southeastern Europe. Think of the States – people are coming from everywhere in the globe. How can we make things that fit everyone’s needs?

But there is definite dissent in this region as well. When people think back on the ‘90s in the Balkans, they think of how crazy Milosovic was and the Serbian nationalists. But what was covered up in all of that were the thousands of people set against the war, against nationalism, against conquering of land and people. These were the activists, the women, the teenagers, the men—who wanted to preserve their ties with their brothers and coexist peacefully.

And when people think back on the Croats, they think of how crazy those people were to elect Franjo Tudjman—the man who lead the slaughtering of so many Serbs during the 90s. But what they don’t hear are the stories of why the people chose to elect him and the HDZ—because if you wanted independence, you went with the HDZ, if you wanted to keep communism, you went with the Communist party. People didn’t elect Tudjman, they elected democracy and independence, they needed jobs and to lower the 1000% inflation in their country, they needed international recognition and respect. They needed to be seen.

And as I look back on what I just wrote I think I have learned a lot. Maybe this program is working out (and it’s only been a month). Maybe my ideas can get me somewhere here. Maybe I am learning the people and the language.

Oh—and today we met with a professor of Political Science at the University of Zagreb, and he said this: It’s a common misconception that Serbs and Croats have always hated eachother. Basically it happened in 1918 when US President Woodrow Wilson announced the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and put all of those people together for the first time. They had never had major tension before, so basically, it was all Wilson’s fault.

The end. For now.