February 09, 2004
Serbia: Brief Update #1
So last week Kostunica surprised everyone by turning to the Socialists -- Milosevic's party.
With their assistance, he and the other two parties in his coalition were able to elect a Speaker. So Serbia now has a functioning Parliament.
Still no Prime Minister or government, though. And the deal with the Socialists left a lot of people outraged. This is, after all, the party of the man who led Serbia through ten years of utter misery before being chased out of office by the outraged public in 2000. The Socialists got about 7.5% of the vote, but there's a much larger proportion of the population who, well, hate them.
And the Democratic Party is now acting all offended. It looks like they're betting that, once people have a little time to think about it, they'll realize that the Socialists are far more loathsome than they are. So meanwhile, they're not supporting any government. (Unless they're offered some ministries and such.)
So, it's still a mess.
Posted by douglas at February 9, 2004 06:12 PMMy sympathies. That can't be easy to watch. It's one thing when a minority blends itself into the majority culture. In that case it doesn't so much as end a culture, but instead it creats a new culture with elements of both. Sure, the majority culture's elements are the strongest, but the minority still leaves an important mark.
But to have a culture flee and leave a place it's been for a thousand years, to see a tiny fragment of a once much larger whole, to know that the last remainders probably won't leave any lasting influence . . . that's another thing entirely indeed.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
The Romans came up with that, and look where they are today. Roman culture is dead, and even it's influences are looking pretty dim at this point. But at least it left it's mark.
Do you think their will be any German marks/influences left in Romania 100 years from now?
Posted by: Mike Ralls at February 11, 2004 12:12 PMSorry, that comment was supposed to go upthread.
Anyway, do you think that the Democratic strategy is a sound one? That by staying out they will gain power?
Posted by: Mike Ralls at February 11, 2004 12:15 PM