This morning I got a tour of Zagreb, and learned quite a bit about Croatia. The most important thing to know is that, much like the UK, Croatia has several different sub-divisions, each with their own culture and traditions. It is also, of course, on the edge of the Balkans, which brings a whole new level of intensity to ethnic difference.
Here’s an example. The Croatian that you are most likely to have heard of is Nikola Tesla. Although he lived much of his life in America, he was born here. But ethnically he is Serbian, and Serbs are not terribly popular here right now. And for that matter, when he was born, all of this part of the world was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It’s complicated.
While Croatia’s recent history is bound up with the Balkan conflicts following the break-up of Yugoslavia, political issues are still affected by the Second World War. The Croatian government sided with the Axis powers. Many Croats fought against the Fascists as part of the Partisans. Then there was Communism. Steering a path of being anti-Fascist without being seen as pro-Communist, or vice-versa, is not easy.
Then there is the Church. Croatia is a Catholic country. Under Communism the church was stripped of much of its power, and land was confiscated. Now much of this has been given back. A major political issue appears to be the imposition of (pro-Catholic) religious education in schools.
While there is clearly a lot of spirited political debate, what I’ve seen here is a thriving capital city with some beautiful old buildings and lots of tourists. I wish I had time to get out to the coast as it looks gorgeous from the promo films. There are a couple of things I noticed that have a more sfnal tinge to them.
The first is the solar system model. In the center of the city there is a large globe representing the Sun. It is about 4 foot across. Scattered around the city, to scale in both size and distance from the Sun, are representations of other planets. I didn’t get to see all of them, but there will be photos.
Also, on our way back to the car park after wandering around the market, my guide, Goran, got his phone out. He’d realized that we were running out of time on the parking, so he called up the garage on his phone and bought a 15 minute extension. I don’t have a car, so I don’t know if such things are common these days. I guess they may be. But Goran told me that the system in Zagreb was ten years old, which is impressive.
More tomorrow. Now I have to get to the con for some initial panels and the Opening Ceremonies.
There’s one other technical Croatian most of the world has heard of: Mario Andretti was born in Istria.
This is true, though Istria was owned by Italy at the time he was born. Another can of worms.
Tito was a Croat too, I believe.
My brother spent a couple of years mostly in Zagreb in 1970-73, researching for his MA thesis on the post-war Yugoslav banking system (with special reference to its allocation of finance for investment). As a 15-yo in 1973 I joined him on a 2-week coach “field trip” he ran for American students earning summer credit at Graz University in Austria, which is the only time I’ve been to Yugoslavia. I remember seeing a lot of left-over WW2 damage – fallen bridges still in rivers – little thinking that 20 years later there would be even more destruction. It’d be interesting to go back.
As a spare-time folk singer-songwriter at the time, my brother used to perform Streets of London topotranslated for Zagreb (diacritic marks missing):
Onda zasto ti mislis da ti si usamlen
I mislis da sunce ne sija
Ja cu te voditi ulicama Zagreba
I otkrit ti nesto, i predomislit ces se mozda
On parking, you can do some kind of phone thing in London; I haven’t, but I have watched a friend do it.
Mention of Tito is probably not a good idea around there these days.
the-pay-the-parking-by-cellular was actuallu invented here 🙂
You can do almost anything on your smart phone here in Estonia, these days: pay for parking, buy bus or tram tickets or other kinds – even vote. I don’t know who invented what, but we have embraced the phone net with our whole beings. Hate to think of what would happen if some sf villain took over the phone system. But that may be a C. Stross topic.