- 04 Jun 2003 19:16
#13567
Reincarnating Tito:
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.t ... ticle=9688
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.t ... ticle=9688
The celebrations of Tito's 111th birthday in Croatia's Kumrovec are a sign of the times.
by Paola Albertini
(published at Transitions Online on June 4, 2003)
ZAGREB, Croatia--Some 7,000 people gathered on 25 May in the Croatian town of Kumrovec, the birthplace of former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, to celebrate the 111th birthday of a man many say represents an ideal past in the face of an uncertain future.
Hailing from countries across the former Yugoslavia and beyond, people gathered to remember Tito, the former president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ), president of the Yugoslav League of Communists (SKJ), and supreme commander of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).
The event, called “In Youth Is Joy, In Joy Is Youth,†was geared largely toward children, who, dressed in the traditional Yugoslav communist pioneer uniforms of blue pants, white blouses, red scarves, and blue hats displaying a red star, excitedly celebrated the birth and mourned the death of a leader they never knew.
When Tito was alive, 25 May was Yugoslavia's offical Youth Day. In Tito's honor, exceptional students, accomplished athletes, and noted workers would run relay races from town to town--a tradition reincarnated in Kumrovec on 25 May.
Whether today's children knew Tito or not is not what matters, Davor Rakic, who attended the celebrations, told local media. “We all need perspective and Tito gives that to us! Tito is always with us and we always think about what he would do in certain situations".
Muradif Muharemovic lamented the fact that his 5 year-old son wouldn't be able to officially become a pioneer next year, as he would have in Tito's time, the local media reported. But official or not, his son was still wearing the pioneer uniform and, according to his father, knows the traditional pioneer greeting: "Death to fascism--freedom to people!".
Organized by the Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters and Anti-Fascists of Croatia and the Josip Broz Tito Society, this year's celebrations in Kumrovec marked a true change of heart among the people of the former Yugoslavia.
The village of Kumrovec, north of the capital, Zagreb, has indeed had its up and downs. For 12 long years, the visitor guest book in Tito's birthplace has been relatively empty. But this year, with a boom in the late leader's popularity, Kumrovec is once again overflowing with tourists. No establishment in the former Yugoslavia served up more drinks on 25 May than the cafe The Old Man's, one of Tito's nicknames.
When Tito died in May 1980, he was mourned across Yugoslavia in a massive funeral that portrayed a country sunken in grief and a people who felt that hard times were in store without the man who had kept Yugoslavia together for 35 years. Only a few years later, though, democratic freedom and nationalism reared their heads and the once beloved Tito became a symbol of dictatorship.
This year's 23rd anniversary of Tito's death, on 4 May, showed that in Kumrovec and elsewhere across the former Yugoslavia, the former leader's posthumous popularity has risen to new heights. And history, in the face of the ecomonic and political problems of the day, is once again being remembered.
The local media quoted one unnamed Tito fan in Kumrovec as asking, "Comrade Tito, have you considered reincarnation?".
It's a sign of the times, said Bojan Kovacevic, from Pula, Istria, that so many people are coming back to Kumrovec. “It is getting worse each day, so this is like a relief. The more people who come here, the more we know things are getting worse,†the daily Glas Istre quoted him as saying.
At the celebration, crowds of people sang old revolution songs, such as “We'll Die Before We Give Our Land Away,†and carried old Yugoslav flags, some of them holding up enlarged photographs of Tito and wearing T-shirts bearing his likeness. A choir in the background sang songs of freedom throughout the celebrations.
Milan Gombac, a 70-year-old man from Slovenia, wore a T-shirt that bore the inscription: "It was difficult with you, it is even more difficult without you".
It was also a great day for merchants in Kumrovec as people lined up to purchase merchandise evoking the Tito era.
In a speech,Vinko Sunjara ,vice president of the Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters and Anti-Fascists of Croatia, said that the people gathered together for the celebrations are not people nostalgic for the past, but people who understand that Tito remains a good example of a better past--a good example for the future.
Tito's own voice could also be heard emanating from speakers, and his message to foreign leaders at a gathering in Yugoslavia was just as emotional for the people as it had been when he was still alive: “When you return to your countries, tell them that you saw a nation here, a nation that, more than anything, respects its freedom. … "
--by Paola Albertini
Last edited by Putinist on 04 Jun 2003 20:18, edited 2 times in total.
, that you told it only to protect your lack of knowledge that it obvious in some matters !!
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