Yugoslavia was created during World War II, and held together by might and main. Even the Soviet Union had trouble holding the six little nations together. It didn't last. Today there are seven where there had been six: Bosnia and Herzogovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia plus Vojvodina, and Slovenia. Tomorrow someone may get religion, or guns.
The European model for nationhood is small, culturally uniform nations. Poles here, French there, Greeks there. During World War II, the Germans argued that Germany was wherever German was spoken, which meant that part of Germany was in Poland, and Austria, or France.
Cultural diversity has had an easy time in Europe. It has had a nearly impossible time within any nation in Europe.
After World War II, Germany regained its juggernaut status, economically, but when it needed additional labor, it allowed in Turks, but called them, "Guest Workers". They were not expected to stay, nor mingle. Like guests often do, they overstayed their reluctant welcome.
England had had a worldwide Empire, and proudly proclaimed that the sun never sat on the Union Jack. It claimed British citizenship for its colonials. "Good!", the colonials said, "Let's move to England!" The French had huge colonies, too, especially in Northern Africa, and in Southeast Asia. Lots of Africans and Asians went to France, and stayed. In neither case were they welcome. That had not been the idea. The idea had been that England and France existed in their overseas lands, not that Indians or Africans should claim to be at home in Europe.
The Scandinavians, up there in the north, had a more idealistic motive. They liked the idea of becoming a refuge for persecuted peoples, and welcomed thousands of immigrants, particularly in Sweden. Those immigrants stayed, too, usually off in a corner of the city, somewhere, talking to themselves, but not invited to Christmas dinner, or to marry into the family.
Like a lot of other Scandinavians, and Germans, and French, and other Europeans, ethno-centric Europeans discovered that they resented their guest workers, their persecuted refugees, their brown- or black-skinned neighbors, who usually did not live in the neighborhood: they lived in their own neighborhoods.
Anders Behring Breivik hated having Muslims in Norway. He was willing to kill his own countrymen, or their children, to make his point; to destroy the village in order to save it. He, too, thought of a nation as a single culture, a single religion, a single race: "people like us".
This is not finger-pointing. We, here in America, have our own versions of cultural imperialism, of language-phobia, and of racism. It is a human problem, and it is odd and shameful, since all of us are related; all of us came from Africa a long time ago, even those who are blond and blue-eyed.
Me? I am a runty, hazel-eyed, and gray-haired. Probably from The Former Yugoslavia. Maybe not.
The European model for nationhood is small, culturally uniform nations. Poles here, French there, Greeks there. During World War II, the Germans argued that Germany was wherever German was spoken, which meant that part of Germany was in Poland, and Austria, or France.
Cultural diversity has had an easy time in Europe. It has had a nearly impossible time within any nation in Europe.
After World War II, Germany regained its juggernaut status, economically, but when it needed additional labor, it allowed in Turks, but called them, "Guest Workers". They were not expected to stay, nor mingle. Like guests often do, they overstayed their reluctant welcome.
England had had a worldwide Empire, and proudly proclaimed that the sun never sat on the Union Jack. It claimed British citizenship for its colonials. "Good!", the colonials said, "Let's move to England!" The French had huge colonies, too, especially in Northern Africa, and in Southeast Asia. Lots of Africans and Asians went to France, and stayed. In neither case were they welcome. That had not been the idea. The idea had been that England and France existed in their overseas lands, not that Indians or Africans should claim to be at home in Europe.
The Scandinavians, up there in the north, had a more idealistic motive. They liked the idea of becoming a refuge for persecuted peoples, and welcomed thousands of immigrants, particularly in Sweden. Those immigrants stayed, too, usually off in a corner of the city, somewhere, talking to themselves, but not invited to Christmas dinner, or to marry into the family.
Like a lot of other Scandinavians, and Germans, and French, and other Europeans, ethno-centric Europeans discovered that they resented their guest workers, their persecuted refugees, their brown- or black-skinned neighbors, who usually did not live in the neighborhood: they lived in their own neighborhoods.
Anders Behring Breivik hated having Muslims in Norway. He was willing to kill his own countrymen, or their children, to make his point; to destroy the village in order to save it. He, too, thought of a nation as a single culture, a single religion, a single race: "people like us".
This is not finger-pointing. We, here in America, have our own versions of cultural imperialism, of language-phobia, and of racism. It is a human problem, and it is odd and shameful, since all of us are related; all of us came from Africa a long time ago, even those who are blond and blue-eyed.
Me? I am a runty, hazel-eyed, and gray-haired. Probably from The Former Yugoslavia. Maybe not.
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