Nachricht Nummer : 319 Übertragungszeit : 3 min 33 sec Nachricht von : WAM@ZAMIR-ZG.comlink.de (Wam) Betrifft : Zagreb Diary 1 December, 1993 Kopienempfänger : /APC/YUGO/ANTIWAR, /CL/EUROPA/BALKAN Erstellungsdatum : 06.12.1993 20:26:00 W+1 Realname: Wam Kat Zagreb Diary 1 December, 1993 Dobar dan, The Peace bus drives again, yesterday evening to be precise we were able to get her out of the street, later Vesna and I visit them and we had a nice talk with Teet and Asa. Vesna was a little surprised when she heard Teet talking about his homeland Estonia and especially about the Russian there. Teet is like most of my friends from the Baltic very proud on his country and hate more or less the Russian, which in their opinion occupied the country with the help from Nazi Germany. The felt all that time as second rank civilians, not able to speak their own languages in public and the USSR had a policy to bring more and more Russian into the country to overtake the majority and push to original culture out. Teet also tells about the time that he was young and went with his father to parties, wedding basically and than when the old people became drunk they started to sing the old songs and of course the songs they, the Estonia soldiers, were singing in the second world war when the fought together with the Nazi Germans against the red army. Vesna realised that Yugoslavia maybe use to be a communist country but that she hardly knows anything from what happened behind what we called the iron curtain. I have been travelling there a lot and probably know more about the different countries than she. The whole talk ends in a discussion why the former Eastern European countries are so popular to travel and work for western activists. At this moment nearly all my activists friends are somewhere in the East (or here) or involved in what is going on. Already a few years before the revolutions happened this started, especially in the environmental movement we broke the line and worked together. Yes, that is the question were are we luxes children from the west actually looking for. Something but we don't know what. I know I found it in a train from Praha to Krakow years ago, when a CSFR conductor wanted to through me out of the train since I was smoking in the corridor in a non- smoking area and had no crones to pay the penalty. The Polish workers, on their way home for Christmas started to collect money and paid the penalty for me, I never seen that happening in the west. Backhome I go to the kitchen and pick the two lighters from the kitchen to light to gas stove, one is made in the west and the other is a nice example from Eastern European technology, no electricity or gas, only a fire stone, the western one is from plastic and made to be thrown away, the eastern one from metal and wood and when it works it will work a life time. But after the revolution the last one is not produced any more. Most of the day I spend in the peace centre in Zagreb to test out their new Email link and to talk with all the people who pass by. One of them is Curtis, who moved from the Netherlands to London and is here to get the famous hospital, which was given by the South African government to the Muslims in Bosnia out of the HVO harbour in Ploce. It is laying there already for some months and should go to the East bank of the Neretva in Mostar, due to the fighting it was not possible so far. He asked me to come along with him to Mostar to talk to people of HVO to get the thing out of their barracks. For a moment I think about it, but I have enough to do here. Nevertheless it would be a nice picture to see all those giant containers with green stars and half moon's on it in the HVO storage place. I wonder how it came there in the first place. We go eating in the vegetarian restaurant, at last a good meal again, and then home, at the tram station I buy the newspaper who has published a story about Vesna this week, she hates the picture and in the tram I start to read it. A guy say something in Croatian to me and of course I still don't understand when somebody suddenly speak to me. He point at the newspaper and says in English that he thought that I was from Zagreb. He was looking for the place were Lacni Franz from Maribor would play tonight. Lacni Franz ? Vesna and I looked at each other, we know that they would come, there were some rumours in the town some days ago, but so fast we couldn't believe our ears. At that moment all our tiredness is gone and we decided to see if there is still place in the concert hall for us as well, cause an opera in the military building is one thing, Lacni Franz in Zagreb is another. It is more than 5 years ago that they played here for the last time, but still they are loved by most of the people I know. I also like them a lot and I have great memories when I hear their music, every song means something different for me, mostly something totally different as were they are singing about. For the first time in Zagreb since I came nearly 19 months ago I really am swinging on a live band, the war and all the things are far far away. I remember the good old days, back home I can't wait to write my thoughts down. Shit my computer is still broken so I use Vesna's Mac to write a story for ARKzin, not a diary entry this time, but a real story, a story about a band, which always was with me on cassettes and from which the music has brought me to the strangest places of Europe, but that is another story. Bok I Mir from Zagreb, Wam ------------------------------------------------------ Zagreb Diary can be found on a lot of different electronic networks, it is copyright free and can be ported to any network or other means of communication you like, but please drop my a line, you can reach by sending a message to wam@zamir-zg.comlink.de or wam@zamir-zg.comlink.apc.org. Zagreb Diary is dedicated to Tyche, Pjort and Rik, so that they found out what there father have been doing all that time in Zagreb. Financial support for Grassroot relief work in Croatia or BiH can be send to Kollektief Rampenplan (atn. Lylette, Postbox 780, 6130 AN Sittard, Netherlands, tel:. +31-46-524803 and fax: +31-46-516460 or to Zagrebacka Banka, Zagreb, accountnr.: 2440291594, to Kat, Pieter Jan Herman Fredrik, Brace Domany 6 6fl nr3, 41000 Zagreb. Please notify me if you send or have send any donations. ## CrossPoint v2.92 ##