2005-05-04

Tito po drugi put

Twenty five years ago, on 4 May 1980, Josip Broz Tito died. Writing for ANSA, Beatrice Ottaviano reports that he has become an icon for the young left of the Balkans, and speaks of his "renewed popularity."

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Tito with a cheetah, photo from Titoville.

The spokesperson for the "house of Flowers" memorial museum in Belgrade, Svetlana Ognjanović, tells ANSA that that the museum received 14.000 visitors in 2003, 35.000 in 2004, and expects 60.000 this year. Some people are making their visit part of a pilgrimage, walking the 450 kilometres from Tito's birthplace in Kumrovec to the memorial in Belgrade, and not all of the pilgrims are from the territory that Tito once governed. Ms Ognjanović also reports receiving a group of 300 Americans.

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Tito with Edward Kennedy, senator from Massachusetts, photo from Titoville.

Beatrice Ottaviano also calls attention to the mystery of the seven miracles of Tito: "Everybody worked, but nobody did anything; nobody did anything, but all of the plans were fulfilled; all of the plans were fulfilled, but the shops were empty; the shops were empty, but everybody had everything; everybody had everything, but everybody stole; everybody stole, but nobody lacked anything." Dayenu!

6 comments:

Katja R. said...

Cousin Teddy! Be careful the coffee is too thick and the rakija is too strong for you!

Anonymous said...

That photo with the cheetah hung in my office for three years... What an image!

Eric Gordy said...

For anybody following the Tito coverage today, Quod has a nice summary.

Mat Savelli said...

Bilo je casno, zivjeti s Titom.

zdenka pregelj said...

Thank you twice - for the nice post you wrote, and for mentioning my blog.
Yes, I am old enough to say, Bilo je časno živjeti s Titom...
Or to be very subjective - Bilo je dobro živjeti u Titovo doba!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh, well, Tito. Continuation of his cult does not speak much about goodness of his times but about badness of ours. I'm sick of those who maintain that it would never be like it was when he was alive (that time was usually also the time when they were young and full of potential). How do they know?