The New York Times reports that the name “Yugoslavia” has been “consigned… to the history books.” The new name for what was left of the country is to be called “Serbia and Montenegro.”
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Did you notice the headline
Did you notice the headline of the Times article you linked to: “Yugoslavia Is Again REINVENTED, in Name and Structure”? When I read it I thought that you had somehow purchased the former Yugoslavia.
UPEI was given the task of
UPEI was given the task of representing Yugoslavia at the National Model United Nations back in 1985 (or thereabouts). The various committees were divided amongst the Poly Sci 421 Special Studies class and I was doing the General Assembly.
The details of Yugoslavia are becoming more vague with time but the one thing I do remember is the sense that Yugoslavia was to that part of the world what Canada is to this part. Tito was a uniting force for many many years and his nation was seen as a working federation of vastly different peoples. This was cast against the “melting pot” concept which existed (exists) in many of the surrounding countries.
When Yugoslavia began to disintegrate because of historical grievances, usually ethnic or linguistic, we — those who had become intimate with the special nature of that nation — began to wonder if this type of thing could happen here.
At that time we’d only been through one Quebec referendum, little did we know we’d come so close to seperation in the second, and we saw the same type of right-wing-reactionary bull coming from the pinheaded commentators who rose up on their ‘high horse’ to take that opportunity to piss on Quebec from what they could have only been interpreting as a new angle.
For serious students of Yugoslavia the parallels to Canada’s federation are striking with just a shorter history going for us.
If there’s a message to the world (particularly to Canada) in your missive its that we are not invincible and only through deliberate and consistent nation building will Canada survive as a single nation. I suppose the only question one needs ask is if that’s desirable. I for one think so.
Thanks for the reminder Pete.
On the plus side, if the
On the plus side, if the United States decided to bomb Ottawa over ethnic cleansing in Manitoba, there’d be a savings on jet fuel. (Just to inject a note of stupidity, not to deride Kevin’s point)
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