Balkan bombshell

Serb charm

Today’s colloquy (posher than conference) on the Balkans ‘decisive year of 2008’ suffered a tremor of unexpected excitement. The opening speakers were bland and soporific.

A bundle of charm named Ognjen Tadic put an end to that. Not to be confused with the President Boris Tadic, Ognjen is a Serbian MP who has not succumbed to the lures of Europeanization. ‘We Balkan states have been abandoned on the doorsteps of Europe for centuries’ he said. As a law abiding non-corrupt politician he claimed he is ‘a second-class citizen in his own country.’

His speech shattered the cosy consensus of the Balkan States. They are meant to marching hand in hand to the paradise of a world of smiling communitaire new Europeans. He said that Bosnia-Herzegovina would NEVER recognise Kosovo.

Mr Tadic united representatives of all other Balkan states against him when he said that 2008 is not the decisive year. 1990 was

The conference hall shuddered.

Sinister Clink

The clinking of wine classes is more than friendly bonhomie.

The erudite Liverpool MP Eddie O’Hara tells me the practise is based on Spanish distrust. As a former teacher of teachers, he knows a thing or two.

Poisoning was a frequent act of eliminating neighbour nuisance in old time Spain. The powerful tastes of Rioja would mask the poison. The answer was to share your neighbour’s glass of wine by pouring a glug of your wine into his glass. He would then do the same to his neighbour. Either none or all died. The process was noisy. So we continue clinking toasts to prove that we are not poisoning our guests.

Charming, really.

Golden
Does Slovenia offer a lesson to other small nations?

They gained their independence almost without bloodshed by courage and good luck. As part of Yugoslavia they shared much of the bleak grey existence of the rest of Eastern Europe. The beautiful ‘Little Prague’ city of Ljubljana is a delight. It survives unscathed by earthquakes and the defilement of the urban landscape by soviet tenement blocks.

The transformation from soviet days of grey austerity is probably more remarkable here than anywhere else. Ljubljana oozes prosperity and self –satisfaction. The average income is £26,000 a year a sum unimaginable 25 years ago. The beautiful heart of the city has never been better presented – especially with its brilliant night flood lighting. The triple bridge crosses the winding river overlooked by a fairy tale white castle on a hill that rises dramatically from the flat city plain.

Since my last visit here five years there are signs that prosperity has increased inequalities. There is a new nuisance of young street beggars. Many are young graduates who cannot find jobs. Some have turned to drugs.  Begging has a multi-lingual sophistication that I have not experienced elsewhere.

The equality of misery under the communist system bred a sullen acceptance. In Slovenia and Hungary, sudden wealth for a tiny minority of undeserving speculators at the expenses of frozen pensions created discontent. There was an increase in measures of national unhappiness following the collapse of he Iron curtain. One popular t-shirt front asked ‘What has 10 years of right-wing government done that 50 years of Communism could never do? ‘ The answer at the back was ‘Made the people love socialism.’

It was an unexpected consequence that is still present in the sentimental attachment to the symbols and certainties of Communist rule. Eastern Germany has a minor tourist industry that delights in the austerity of the Trabant days.

For Slovenia and the other Balkan states there is a more important dimension. The liberation of their nation states has revived and invigorated ancient identities.

For Slovenia now is a golden age.