BlueinBosnia wrote:Cocacolajojo wrote:BlueinBosnia wrote:I suppose the overwhelming majority of players were very young kids during the wars. There are more important things to them all, like shared language, music (Serbo-Croatian has without a doubt the strongest musical heritage in Europe after the English language), sense of humour, etc. It's the same at conferences I attend - all the ex-Yugoslav delegates tend to bunch together, and even the Kosovans will speak in Serbo-Croatian, even though they would never dream of doing so in their home country.
That's just reminded me for Antti - I'm sure I read that Kolarov comes from a relatively middle-class background.
Good to know. So outside of politicians, there really aren't that many bad feelings between people nowadays?
Yes and no. Some people like to blame other ethno-religio-nationalities for problems nowadays, most don't. However (and this is talking strictly from a BiH perspective) rapid urbanisation in the lead up to the war (especially of Sarajevo, after the construction of its Winter Olympic infrastructure and Banja Luka, which was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1960s and rebuilt as a 'planned city', with massive suburbs), and especially after the war (with Eastern Bosnians, who were traditionally more conservative in both ethnicities that dominated the area, and Sandjaks, Serbian Muslims, who are a lot more ethno-nationalistic than Bosnian Muslims, both moving en masse to towns and cities) make it a lot harder to untangle than your traditional 'town-village' divide.
My girlfriend's a Serb, and her best friends are a Croat (female) and Muslim (male) couple. All of their families were on different sides of the lines during the war, but nobody gives a toss. However, they all know that they will occasionally get problems if they go into the wrong bar and people hear their names, especially as a 'mixed' group.
I posted this article on my Facebook wall a couple of days back (
http://pescanik.net/2012/03/mixed-marriages/). It describes perfectly the general problems for 'liberal' couples in Sarajevo (which tries to promote itself as a beacon of tolerance and liberal-ness to the outside world) today.
To add my view to this excellent reply and others above. Like most wars it was about politics, power and greed.
The few got rich at the expense of the many. Dont underestimate outside self interest internally and from the EU (especially UK and Germany), USA, Russia and others in the break up of the former Yugoslavia. (Paddy Ashdown was one of the few politicians to emerge with any credit) Foreign companies have taken control of many previously strong industries whilst others have been lost leaving the door open for exports into states "impoverished through war" - not that you would notice! Now we have the EU with its roadmap for membership of the former states of Yugoslavia with Croatia becoming a member on 1 July 2013.
EU membership, as with so much, appears to be decisions by politicians without mandate. Travelling from BiH to Croatia on 1 July, the border crossing was blocked by protesters, lorries and cars on the BiH side and we had to find an alternative route. Business and politics go hand in hand.
There were issues over power, control and interests but most people still identify with the former state of Yugoslavia whilst recognising people do hold grudges and resentment from the war. At the same time there are strong bonds between those who fought together and tell a different story from what we usually read. Where people were tolerent and got on well what ever their beliefs or where they lived, politics created artificial divides.
President Josep Broz Tito had succeeded in unifying the Balkans after WW2 to create the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He died in 1980 leaving a power vacuum in Yugoslavia but with the size and resources to become a major economic power in Europe. Tito has been described as a benign dictator with his brand of communist capitalism that saw the nation prosper and grow. No doubt his death sparked a power grab from outside that eventually led to war. Factions that happily lived side by side were divided to rule. One of the most cosmopolitan areas is the current BiH which became a major battleground.
Many people were displaced by war around Europe including places like Denmark, Netherlands and even the UK. Places that suffered like Mostar and Sarajevo in BiH have been rebuilt and people are starting to return with new ideas although pockets of prejudice remain. (Yugoslav languages have a common basis but different dialects are not always easily understood between states. The western alphabet is increasingly being used as well as cyrillic.)
So back to OP's question. The players will still relate to the former Yugoslavia state and the Tito legacy of what might have been as a major economic nation in Europe. They will have more in common than differences. Culture, values, outlook, food, music and language will be common. (think English, Irish, Scots, Welsh who fight each other but fought and died as comrades with each other) They are a proud, hard working peoples whose outlook is not so far removed from the best we offer in the UK. We could learn from them.
