2005-11-28

Rehabilitation notes from all over

The web site of the Serbian Ministry for the diaspora opens with a photo of Draža Mihajlović (followed by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Nikola Tesla, Mihailo Pupin, and Saint Sava) that links to a Bosnian Četnik site, B92 reports. Svetlana Velmar Janković is waiting for a law that will declare her father, a high ranking official in the "government" of Milan Nedić, to have been something other than what he was. And the Institiute for literature and art has submitted agitprop poetry in a faux-epic mode celebrating Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić to UNESCO's cultural heritage program.

So you got that? Draža belongs with the scientists and saints, Nedić's deputy ministers belong in the company of respectable human beings, and Karadžić and Mladić are epically heroic subjects of global cultural significance. And I am Marie of Romania.

Update: The ministry has removed the photo.

Update again (1 December): Draža is back. Master of disguise.

8 comments:

Eric Gordy said...

Thanks, that was just the laugh I needed on my first day back at work!

Thanks too for the literature recommendation. Dear Wendy certainly gets ordered. The Scotland idea is a good one (I'll also order Dorothy Noyes' ethnography of festivals and identity in Spain), Wales and Ireland should work too. Do you know of any good stuff more on the ethnographic side than the history side?

Katja R. said...

Do you know who was a big Mihailovic fan? The actor Karl Malden paid for the guy's funeral, Mihailovic died in California and is buried there.

On Ireland, that's actually a really good area of study for people in the Balkans. There's just enough parallel and just enough difference to make it well worth the effort.

Today's Klingon Word of the Day: exeljjus A popular Klingon energy drink

Eric Gordy said...

Wasn't he tried and executed in Yugo? But Karl Malden, he was great in On the Waterfront! Fantastic film, regardless of any of the business abouyt Malden's politics or Elia Kazan's (or Brando's for that matter).

Eric Gordy said...

Another bit of trivia about Karl Malden, from the Internet movie database (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001500/bio):

Born Mladen Sekulovich, he always regretted that in order to become an actor, he had to change his name. Since he was proud of his heritage, when he starred in a movie or on TV, he insisted that a character carry his family name: In "On The Waterfront", Fred Gwynne's character was named "Sekulovich".

Anonymous said...

Correction. John Malkovich is Croatian.

oskar said...

Correction, Johan Malkovich is American. If I remember correctly, his family were ethnic Serbs from Croatia (Krajina if I remember correctly).

It's the same with Irish-Americans, not all are Catholics.

Anonymous said...

Correction again. Malkovich is absolutely of Croatian (Catholic) origin. I know him personally, we attended the same Croatian Catholic school in Chicago in our early years.

Eric Gordy said...

The contributions by one of the participants in this exchange have been deleted, at that person's request.