http://www.croatia.org/crown en-us http://www.croatia.org/crown N/A nenad@nenadbach.com Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:04:44 -0800 20 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9602/1/Croatian-Heroes-Dubrovnik-defenders-in-1991.html Dubrovnik is one of the most beautiful mediaveal cities in the world. Its flag is unique by its inscritpion LIBERTAS, that is, Freedom. We want to remind the reader on the dramatic days in 1991 when the City was mercelesly bombed and shelled during the Serbian agression on Croatia. We also present the Memorial Room of Dubrovnik Defendres. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9588/1/Nenad-N-Bach-in-Lipik.html  Dr. Marica Topiæ, director of the City Hospital of the town of Lipik, with Nenad N. Bach. We invite you to read about this Croatian town which was totally destroyed in 1991, visited by Nenad in June 2008. Lipik is famous for its Lipizzan horses, a part of which was returned home in 2007. nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9512/1/Croatians-in-America---photo-collection-by-Vladimir-Novak-part-2.html Mr. Vladimir Novak is well known for his rich collection of photos related to life and work of Croatians in America, collected over several decades in the USA. We continue with the second part of a series of articles. Much of this material is presented for the first time, exclusively for the readers of CROWN. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9417/1/Book-Review-Escape-from-Despair.html Katarina Tepesh has probed the depths in her compelling and powerful memoir, "Escape from Despair:  A Croatian Family's Survival".  Born into an impoverished family in the former Communist Yugoslavia, Katarina's mother is taught to believe that there are "rewards in heaven and punishment in hell." stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Puljiæ) Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9298/1/Croatias-Sailing-Grandmothers.html   One group of Croatian grandmothers may have found the secret to staying young: sailing. Meet the seafaring seniors as they navigate their skiff off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia mijat.marko@gmail.com (Marko Mijat) Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9270/1/New-book-Escape-From-Despair----A-Croatian-Familys-Survival.html  Katarina Tepesh (left) has published a memoir titled "Escape From Despair - A Croatian Family's Survival" learn more about the author, the book and where you can get it. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Puljiæ) Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9231/1/Celebration-at-the-Dubrovnik-Maritime-College.html Fifty years ago 22 young students graduated from the Dubrovnik Maritime College. On September 14, 2007 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, a special celebration is in the works to mark this event. argosy@sympatico.ca (Capt. Ivan I. Coric) Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9156/1/The-perfect-wine-legacy---It-all-started-when-Peter-Vegars-great-grandfather-left-Croatia.html   It all started when Peter Vegar's great grandfather left Croatia with a grape cutting to escape the poverty and to fulfil his dream of living the perfect life in a vineyard. nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9006/1/US-could-take-a-lesson-from-Irish-and-Croatians.html So many prospective good Americans from various countries, who want to follow the rules, have been discouraged by our bizarre immigration policy: reject the honest people, and allow the rule-breakers to sneak in.   larryvote@aol.com (Larry Cirignano) Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8988/1/Mijo-Juriae-Osamnaesto-Proljeaee.html   Na svim stranama osjeæalo se zajedni¹tvo i odluènost u borbi za samostalnost. Sloga i solidarnost postajale su dio nas. Pokrenuta je akcija prikupljanja novca za gradnju autoceste Zagreb - Split, koju smo veæ bili nazvali Autocesta kralja Tomislava. Ljudi su davali od srca, neki i preko granica svojih moguænosti. Govorilo se veæ i o èlanstvu Hrvatske u UN-u, o samostalnom nastupanju hrvatskih ¹porta¹a itd...1971. prodecor@aon.at (Mijo Juriæ) Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8957/1/Croatian-Instructor-Knows-How-it-Feels-to-be-a-Citizen.html  When John Basor isn't teaching citizenship classes, he's teaching English and Spanish at Watsonville High School. He knows what it's like to be an immigrant because he first arrived in Watsonville from Croatia in 1963 with his mother and his father and his three sisters when he was 14. luci@adriatictours.com (Luci Hazdovac) Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8900/1/Andrija-Mohorovieiae-and-his-MOHO-discontinuity-of-the-Earth.html Among scientists studying seismology the famous Moho layer (or Moho discontinuity) of the Earth is well known. It was named after the great Croatian geophysicist Andrija Mohorovièiæ (1857-1936), professor at the University of Zagreb. His discovery was essential for understanding the inner structure of the Earth and the behavior of seismic waves. This is one of the greatest achievements in the history of Croatian science.   darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8869/1/William-Feller--outstanding-Croatian---American-mathematician.html  William Feller (Zagreb, 1906 - New York, 1970), graduated in mathematics from the University of Zagreb (1925), earned his PhD in Göttingen (1926), since 1939 living in the USA. One of the founders of Probability Theory as a scientific discipline. Many mathematical notions bear his name. Author of a one of the best math textbooks of the 20th century. Recipient of the National Medal of Science, USA. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8856/1/Josip-Novakovich-Ruth8217s-Death--nonfiction-memoir.html It's hard for me to write about parents since I know more about children than about parents. That is because when I was a child, I was more interested in myself and my siblings than in my parents, and now that I am a parent, I find our children more interesting than us parents.   josipn@yahoo.com (Josip Novakovich) Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8841/1/Can-We-Go-Higher.html www.croatia.org is a web site initiated by Nenad Bach. It is an attempt to answer the question "Can We Go Higher?", raised in the title of his beautiful song. We invite you to visit his fantastic video-clips maintained at video.google.com, revealing the driving force and spirituality of the artist. This video is a Christmas gift for all of us, that everybody should see and listen to.   darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8828/1/Razgovor-dr-Radoslav-Mariae.html   Dr. Radoslav Mariæ, autor knjige "Moja polnoæka" (urednik knjige prof. dr. Ivan Biondiæ, naklada "Kamen" Publishing LLC.), roðen je g. 1938 u Hercegovini, ¹kolu je polazio u ©irokom Brijegu i Mostaru, medicinski fakultet zavr¹io u Zagrebu, a porodni¹tvo i ginekologiju specijalizirao je u Petrovoj bolnici. Zbog politièkih pritisaka ¹ezdesetih godina odlazi sa ¾enom i djecom u Kanadu. Jedan je od utemeljitelja i èlan Upravnog odbora Udruge amerièkih Hrvata "Croatian American Association" (CAA). stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Puljiæ) Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8525/1/H-Moja-Polnocka.html PRIKAZ KNJIGE "MOJA POLNOCKA" Subota, 10 Lipanj 2006 Dana 8. lipnja 2006. godine u sedam sati na vecer u velikoj kinodvorani Studentskog centra u Zagrebu vrlo uspjesno je predstavljena knjiga Dr. Radoslava Marica, Hrvata iz Amerike, koji je morao napustiti domovinu jos davne 1969. godine. Knjigu su predstavili prof. dr. Zvonimir Separovic, kao viktimolog; dr. cs. Josip Jurcevic, povjesnicar; admiral Davor Domazet-Loso, analiticar i auktor. Prof. Ozana Ramljak vrlo efektivno je vodila prezentaciju i citala odabrane pasuse iz knjige. Urednik knjige je prof. Ivan Biondic. Naslov knjige je malo zavodljiv, zar ne? U pravu ste! Na prvi pogled bi to bila religijska knjiga. Ali, cim se pregleda sadrzaj uocit cete da se tu radi o UDB-i. Glavna tema je opis stvaranja, u osnovi klijanje i rast jedne od rijetkih antijugoslavenskih i antikomunistickih organizacija koje su stasale u 1950-im godinama. Osim glavne teme ima tu cijeli skup razlicitih dogadjaja koji su kao ukrasi objeseni na bozicno drvo, (sto se misli na glavni dogadjaj). Moram istaknuti da je drzavni sustav Titove Jugoslavije potrosio silnu energiju i novce da se to sve dovede pod njihovu kontrolu, ali nisu uspjeli. sto se u stvari dogodilo? Bio sam onda treci razred gimnazije u sirokom Brigu. To je jesen krvave antikomunisticke revolucije u Madjarskoj, i doba rata triju drzava (Velike Britanije, Francuske i Izraela) protiv Egipta. Uzbudjenja su bila velika, a nade jos vece da ce se slomiti komunisticka vlast. Smatrao sam potrebnim opisati dogadjaje koji su na mene imali utjecaj u mom formiranju. Zato je tu opis moga sela i ljudi. Onda opisujem slucaj moga odlaska na polnocku na Bozic 1956. godine s jos cetvero djaka. Taj odlazak u crkvu sam poduzeo na svoju osobnu inicijativu. Nitko me na to nije nagovorio. Obzirom da sam bio dezurni u djackom domu, imao sam kljuceve od vanjskih vrata, pa je to bilo lako izvedivo. Odmah u jutro sam bio pozvan od uprave doma, ali se nista nije dogodilo za slijedecih deset dana. Od opcine Posusje sam imao stipendiju, ali im je uzelo deset dana da mi je ukinu. Petog sijecnja kasno na vecer su me izbacili na ulicu pod izgovorom da nemaju izjavu mojih roditelja da ce za mene placati dom. Nisu me izbacili po danu, dok sam mogao naci mjesto kod nekoga za prespavati. Izbacili su me kasno po noci da se smrznem od zime. Stvarno sam mogao smrznuti se tu noc. Onda me je sef UDB-e zloglasni Mirko Praljak optuzio da propagiram Pavelicevu i Macekovu politiku. Tvrdim da onda nisam ni znao sto su te politike zastupale. Za vrijeme zimskih praznika moj nepismeni otac mi je dao jedan letak na ruskom jeziku, koji je pozivao ruske zene da se pripreme za antikomunisticku revoluciju. Tek prije dvije godine, citajuci knjigu «Battleground Berlin» shvatio sam da je taj ruski letak izdala CIA u Zapadnom Berlinu. Znaci jugoslavenska UDB-a je putem svojih agenata podvalila jednom srednjoskolcu (meni) letak proizveden po americkoj CIA. Samo po sebi se namece pitanje kakvu kooperaciju su imale te dvije tajne sluzbe. Ocito je da su cuvari Jugoslavije imali nekakve planove sa mnom, obzirom da sam i ranije pokazivao znakove neposluha. Siguran sam da je UDB-a podvalila taj letak momu ocu, znajuci da cu ja zagristi. Admiral Loso, prof. Z. Separovic, dr. Maric, autor, prof Ozana Ramljak i dr. Josip Jurcevic sto ste Vi napravili s ruskim letkom? Prvo sam ga preveo na hrvatski, pa ga odnio kod jednog prijatelja u selo Goricu, koji je bio djak u gimnaziji u Imotskom. Nakon razmatranja svih mogucih komplikacija nas dvojica odlucili smo osnovati tajnu antikomunisticku i antijugoslavensku omladinsku organizaciju. Osnutak je bio 27. sijecnja 1957. godine. Organizaciju smo nazvali TIHO, malo izmjesana slova za Tajnu organizaciju hrvatskih intelektualaca. Mislili smo da ce tako biti bolja konspirativnost. Ja sam vec prije vise od godinu dana za sebe smislio tajno ime «Dr. Uto Pony». Uzeo sam si titulu dr, jer su me jos iz osnovne skole tako zvali zbog mog rukopisa, a onda nisam znao nista engleski, pa ni znacenje rijeci «pony». Ideja za to ime je dosla od skracenica za dane u tjednu: pon - za ponedjeljak, ut - za utorak. Dakle, toga dana ja i moj gimnazijski kolega Kruno Galic smo u kuci njegovih reditelja osnovali organizaciju TIHO. On je vec taj dan bio siguran da ce se nasoj organizaciji prikljuciti njegov prijatelj iz razreda po imenu Bruno Busic, i jos neki momci. Ja Brunu do tada nisam poznavao, ali me je prijatelj upozorio da je vec objavio neke pripovijetke u «Poletu», knjizevnom casopisu za omladinu. Mi smo jedan drugom tada obecali da cemo stvoriti veliku organizaciju medju srednjoskolcima i moguce studentima. Nas dvojica smo tada odlucili da cemo raditi samo usmeno bez ostavljanja ikakvog pismenog traga! Kako je islo sa stvaranjem organizacije? Organizacija se rascvala kao tresnje u proljece. UDB-a nije znala sto cu ja napraviti nakon citanja letka. Zato su odmah po povratku u skolu podmetnuli mi jednog slabijeg djaka u sobu kod moje gazdarice. Ja nisam mislio da ce ovaj biti podobna osoba za nasu novu organizaciju, i nisam mu ni kazao za letak, niti sam ga nagovarao da pristupi. Nekoliko dana kasnije dosla su jos trojica stanovati kod moje gazdarice. Jedan je bio meni dobro poznat iz cetvrtog razreda, a druga dvojica meni potpuno nepoznati. Svi su bili ucenici splitskog sjemenista kojeg su komunisticke vlasti zatvorile. Od te dvojice neznanaca jedan je bio iz Splita, sin Poljicke republike, a drugi iz Dubrovnika, sin Dubrovacke republike. Onda je meni bila velika cast i izazov druziti se s takvom kremom drustva. Oni su bili prevec pametni i informirani o situaciji u svijetu i u drzavi. Znali su i za emisiju Radio Madrida koju je vodio general Luburic. Za mene je to bio svijet snova. Vrlo brzo su me uvjerili da su oni vrlo aktivni borci protiv komunizma i Jugoslavije. I ja sam nasjeo. Povjerio sam im stvaranje organizacije TIHO. Obojica su bili odusevljeni idejom organizacije i programom koji sam ja zacrtao. Postali su clanovi moje organizacije. Onda su oni doveli i treceg covjeka iz Splita. Ime mu je bilo Frane Peskura. On me je pak uvjerio da ce Jugoslavia propasti za 6 mjeseci ili ranije, i ja sam naletio na minu. On me nagovorio da sve napisem u obliku programa, i jednog letka, koji bi bio citan preko radio postaje. Imali smo sastanak u Imotskom na 5. svibnja 1957. Trebao je to biti sastanak svih clanova iz Imotskog i nas trojice iz sirokog, i Frane iz Splita. Po njima on se bavio samo organiziranjem ovakvih organizacija. Osim nas cetvorice sastanku su prisustvovali samo Kruno i Bruno iz Imotskog. Ostali momci nisu se pojavili te nedjelje. Meni je to bio veliki neuspjeh, jer sam bio siguran da je Imotska organizacija bila bolja od moje u sirokom Brigu. Frane je imao puno novaca. Ni to mi nije otvorilo oci! Odrzali smo formalni sastanak u Borku, procitali smo moj Program organizacije TIHO, i mi smo ga prihvatili. Danas imam dokaze da je UDB-a podmetnula ovu trojicu. Prvo Mirka i Miljenka meni u sobu, a preko njih i Franu. Medjutim, onda u veljaci 1957, nisam ni znao da se UDB-a bavi podmetanjima. Dakle na tom sastanku u Imotskom 5. svibnja 1957. bilo je tri UDB-asa i tri stvarna antikomunista. Tako je UDB-a znala svaku rijec sto smo izgovorili, a mi nismo znali tko su oni. Svih nas sestorica smo u nedjelju jeli rucak u kuci Brune Busica. Naravno, Brunin otac nije znao da je pripremio rucak trojici UDB-asa, i trojici UDB-inih zrtava, ukljucivsi svoga sina. On ce nekoliko tjedana kasnije i sam postati UDB-inom zrtvom Kod Brune su spavali ova dvojica UDB-asa, a ja i Frane Peskura smo spavali kod Krune u Gorici. U ponedjeljak smo upoznali i druge clanove organizacije, za vrijeme skolskog odmora. Dvojica od njih su danas poznata imena hrvatskoj javnosti. Jedan je Ivan Gabelica, bivsi saborski zastupnik, a drugi je Mate Babic, ministar gospodarstva u jednoj od prvih vlada HDZ-a. Za mjesec dana svi smo uhapseni, saslusani i pusteni kucama. Samo sam ja zadrzan u zatvoru dvije noci i dva dana, jer dugo nisam htio priznati postojanje organizacije. Ja nisam znao da su Imocani bili saslusani dva dana ranije, a da su svi moji clanovi isto na saslusanjima. Od svih njih su trazili suradnju, i svi su formalno pristali. Kasnije se pokazalo da su neki stvarno pristali raditi za UDB-u, a drugi su odbili. Od poznatijih ljudi koji su tada odbili suradnju s UDB-om je sada pokojni Bruno Busic i Ivan Gabelica. Meni nisu ponudili suradnju, nego mi nisu dozvolili upis u cetvrti razred. Efektivno su mi zabranili skolovanje bez ikakve sudske odluke. Znaci li to da ste Vi stvarali organizaciju po nagovoru UDB-e? Ne, to nije bio nagovor. UDB-a nije nagovarala mene. Ja sam radio protivno iz uvjerenja. Postojale su dvije energije, koje su bile u direktnoj suprotnosti. Prva je bila mi srednjoskolci - hrvatska mladost zeljna pravde, a druga je bio krvavi rezim Jugoslavije na celu s Titom. Ideju o tajnoj antikomunistickoj organizaciji ja sam nosio u sebi barem nekoliko godina. Zato sam si izmislio ime «dr. Uto Pony». Isto tako i Kruno i Bruno su mastali o jednoj sveopcoj hrvatskoj organizaciji koja bi jednoga dana preuzela vlast od komunista. Iako smo bili srednjoskolci, shvatili smo da se ne moze glavom kroza zid! Svi smo znali kakve zlocine je pocinila Komunisticka partija Jugoslavije u nasim krajevima. Znali smo i to da je takvih zlocina bilo po cijeloj drzavi. Nadali smo se da ce se jednoga dana sve silnice usmjeriti u jednom pravcu i da ce doci do preokreta. Zato nam je ruski letak bio kao munja, energija koja je osvijetlila pravac u kome treba ici. Ako je jedan letak iz ruskog prostora dopro do naseg kamenjara, nama je to znacilo da se nesto veliko u svijetu sprema. Htjeli smo biti spremni za dolazece promjene. Dakle, sto se tice nas osnivaca organizacije, mi smo isli s cistim namjerama i jasnim pojmovima. Znali smo da je opasno, ali smo htjeli biti u prvim redovima jurisa na omrazeni komunisticki rezim. Komunisti su to isto znali i zato su nam postavili stupicu. Preko ucenika u splitskom sjemenistu, kojega su oni zatvorili, doznali su sve sto smo mi mladi momci htjeli izvesti. Naravno, vlast je vlast, ima snagu i novce, moc potkupljivanja. I tim najnizim oblikom ljudske egzistencije, snagom potkupljivanja i izdaje UDB-a je dosla vrlo lagano do pune kontrole svih aktivnosti ondasnje mladosti kroz nekoliko generacija. Nazalost, mnogi moji kolege to nisu htjeli shvatiti, pa su odlezali debele godine zatvora, Golog otoka ili vec sto. UDB-a je od mene htjela napraviti svojega suradnika, ali su me prvo htjeli dotjerati u stupanj beznadja, pune ovisnosti o njima. Ja sam im se odupro. Cijenu koju sam za to morao platiti je prisilni odlazak u inozemstvo, kad sam vec bio uspio u svom zvanju lijecnika, i kada sam vec nekako bio osigurao krov nad glavom. Dakle, UDB-a je kontrolirala nase aktivnosti zahvaljujuci izdaji medju nama clanovima, ali je sigurno da osnivaci nisu podlegli njihovim zvjerskim mucenjima. Neki od nas su se oduprli napasti ugodnog zivota pod UDB-inom kontrolom, a neki su toj napasti podlegli. Knjiga je puna imena ljudi koji su zdusno radili za UDB-u pa su ostali u vlasti nakon promjena, kada su komunisti shvatili da se moze bolje profitirati ako se prilagode demokratskim promjenama. Neki originalni clanovi organizacije TIHO postali su i ministri u vladama naslijednih republika Titove «nedjeljive», ambasadori, i kojesta sto donosi profit i slavu, a oni od nas koji su stvarno odbili suradnju s UDB-om, jos uvijek samo plesemo na marginama sustava i cekamo bolja vremena. Organizacija TIHO nije tako poznata medju narodom, jer su je UDB-asi skrivali, nisu htjeli sudski progoniti clanove, nego samo administrativno. Da su isli na sud, njihove prljave radnje bi se lako otkrile, a po priznanju same UDB-e to bi skodilo i medjunarodnom ugledu Jugoslavije. To doslovce pise u jednom dokumentu nacinjenom po UDB-i, sada vam ne mogu citirati stranicu. Zasto ovakva knjiga bas sada? Prije svega ja nisam imao vremena ni pojesti dnevni obrok, a kamoli pisati knjige, sve do mog umirovljenja. Nisam znao kako doci do nekih dokumenata koje sam smatrao vaznim za vjerodostojan prikaz. Onda sam prije tri godine saznao da postoji Hrvatski drzavni arhiv gdje se cuvaju UDB-ini dokumenti. Na moje veliko iznenadjenje i zadovoljstvo nasao sam 73 stranice u dosjeu koji je UDB-a odlucila sacuvati o mojim aktivnostima. Oni su imali na tisuce stranica sakupljenih u roku od 12 godina, koliko su me progonili, dok konacno nisam napustio domovinu. Sve su «ocistili», osim tih 73 stranice. U tom dosjeu su dva saslusanja Brune Busica o meni. Isto je u tom dosjeu Gabelicin iskaz i iskaz Krune Galica o meni. To su ljeto i jesen 1965. kada sam bio na odsluzenju vojnog roka. Bruno Busic i Ivan Gabelica su tada bili u zatvoru, dok Kruno nije. sto sam im ja trebao 1965. godine, vec svrseni lijecnik sa radnim mjestom u Klanjcu? (Titov rodni Kumrovec je selo u opcini Klanjec). Kad sam mojim bivsim suradnicima predlozio pisanje povijesti nase organizacije, svi s kojima sam uspio razgovarati su odbili. Neki su mi rekli da se okanem toga pravca i da usmjerim svoje snage za buducnost. Ja sam pak nakon svih ovih godina dosao do uvjerenja da oni koji izbjegavaju diskusije o proslosti imaju zato osobnih razloga, zavisi o prilikama i vanjskim faktorima. Svi se mi pitamo danas je li ovaj ili onaj ikada nesto lose ucinio protiv nas ili nasih najdrazih? Oni koji neznaju proslost osudjeni su na ponavljanje iste, a to bi mi Hrvati morali izbjeci svim raspolozivim energijama. Zato je nastala ova knjiga. Uspio sam takodjer doci do izvora dokumenata koji opisuju rad organizacije TIHO, pod uvjetom da ne spominjem izvor dokumenata i jos jednu osobu koja je umrla za vrijeme komunizma. Imajuci sve te dokumente spoznao sam da ja upravo zato moram napisati ovu knjigu. Jer moj odlazak na polnocku je uzrokovao cijelu lancanu reakciju citavog sustava za cuvanje Tita, njegove drzave i rezima. Nebrojene ilegalne aktivnosti su ucinjene da bi se mene, jednog srednjoskolca, a preko mene mnogi od mojih vrsnjaka doveli u ovisnost o UDB-i. Kome je to trebalo? Trebalo mi je nesto vise od tri godine rada od kada sam prvi put vidio svoj dosje dok nisam predstavio ovu knjigu javnosti. Zasto prikazivanje knjige u Studentskom centru? To sam objasnio na samoj predstavi u centru. Radi se o studentskim demonstracijama 1959. godine. Toga dana je riza za rucak bila oneciscena benzinom. Studenti su se pobunili i izbile su velike studentske demonstracije, prve javne demonstracije od kada je Tito preuzeo vlast. Zadnje demonstracije prije tih Zagreb je vidio za Bozic 1941. godine, dakle pod Vladom Ante Pavelica. U Zagrebu su izlazile cetvere dnevne novine, a nigdje ni jednog slova o tim demonstracijama. Ako se neki ozbiljan istrazivac onoga vremena upusti u trazenje po novinama, ne ce naci ni jednu rijec o tome. Jedino je dvotjednik Studentski list, pod urednistvom Stipe suvara donio jedan clanak o tome. Toga dana sam bio na Rebru pa se nisam nasao u studentskim demonstracijama. Imao sam srecu! U Posusju su mi komunisti rekli da su bili spremni imati festu na mojoj kozi. Pregledali su kilometre filmskih traka, i nigdje nije bilo moga lica. Zato su mi ponistili odgodu vojske, sto sam lijepo opisao u knjizi. Drzim da su te demonstracije vrijedne ulaska u javnost i povijest. Treba ih zabiljeziti i pamtiti. Gosp. Josip Manolic mi je rekao da su te demonstracije prouzrokovali Srbi u Hrvatskoj na nacin da su sabotirali rizu, nadajuci se da ce tako izazvati studente, sto su uspjeli. Onda je dosla cistka medju hvatskim komunistima, koje on naziva «nacionalistima». Dakle, Srbi u Hrvatskoj su radili provokacije odmah poslije rata, i za vrijeme cijele vladavine Josipa Broza. O tome se ne moze citati u nasim sredstvima javnog priopcavanja. Neka bar ostane zapisano u jednoj knjizi! Vi spominjete Manolica na kraju knjige. Procitavsi moj dosje nisam uopce bio svjestan sto se tamo nalazi. Nije bilo nista da bih se ja mogao osloniti i formulirati misljenje. Spominju se tri akcije UDB-e, sto ja nisam mogao razumjeti. Ponovo sam procitao nekoliko puta i shvatio da su postojale dvije smjernice u UDB-i. Jedna blaza a druga vrlo agresivna, koja me je htjela u zatvor. Tamo nalazimo OPERATIVNI IZVJEsTAJ od Stanice Milicije u crnomercu od 10. prosinca 1975. godine s nalogom za PRETRES i PRITVOR kada su shvatili da se nalazim u USA, s preciznom adresom. Ne bi to bilo cudno da ja nisam otisao u inozemstvo jos 1969., sest godina i dva i pol mjeseca ranije. Moram ovdje napomenuti da sam ja u New Yorku kod jugoslavenskog konzulata trazio i dobio dozvolu za pretvaranje moga privremenog boravka u inozemstvu u stalni. Naime, ja sam se bojao da ce mene pozvati u rezervu, pa kada se ne odazovem, postat cu vojni bjegunac. To je znacilo da se moram odreci Hrvatske, a to nikako nisam htio. Isto sam kod konzulata dao prevesti svoje medicinske dokumente, Index Medicinskog fakulteta i Diplomu. Bilo je vise od duplo jeftinije nego kod Berlitza. Ponovo u rujnu 1978. imadu izvjestaj o mojoj novoj adresi u USA. Dva ili tri tjedna kasnije u Parizu ubijaju Brunu Busica. Moram ovdje napomenuti da gosp. Manolic misli da su vjerojatno htjeli ubiti i mene. Ali je rekao da on nema saznanja o tome. Ne bih htio da vi citatelji shvatite da ja ovdje promoviram ikoga, a pogotovo ne gosp. Manolica koji mi je potvrdio moje misljenje da je doslo do raskola u UDB-i Hrvatske. Jedna struja su bili Srbi, koji su se okomili na sve sto je hrvatsko i mislilo drzavotvorno. On tvrdi da je medju Hrvatima UDB-asima postojala i drzavotvorna struja, on ih naziva "hrvatski nacionalisti", i da su Srbi u Hrvatskoj bili narocito kivni na te Hrvate UDB-ase. Tada mi je otkrio jednu veliku tajnu, za koju ja nisam ni slutio da bi mogla postojati. Do raskola u vrhu Partije jugoslavenskih komunista i njihove udarne, izvrsne vlasti UDB-e, doslo je jos za vrijeme ulaska Kavranove grupe. Poznato je da je OZN-a (preteca UDB-e) organizirala povratak hrvatskih boraca i onda ih sve pobila. Taj lanac ubijanja Hrvata da je sprijecio Staljin osobno, jer se bojao da mu to klanje ne dovede u pitanje njegove globalne planove. Svakako ova tema zasluzuje puno vecu paznju nego sam ja ovdje mogao opisati. U cemu je bio Vas glavni problem s UDB-om? Bolje pitanje bi bilo zasto su bili tako kivni na mene? Ako procitate proglas HRVATSKOJ OMLADINI i PROGRAM ORGANIZACIJE TIHO, koje sam ja osobno napisao i vjerno koliko je moguce reproducirao u knjizi, onda to postaje jasno. Od 1918. godine pa sve do 1990. godine postojala su samo dva programa nastala na hrvatskom narodnom prostoru, ne racunajuci one u inozemstvu, koja su zahtijevala striktno odcjepljenje Hrvatske Drzave iz okvira Jugoslavije. Prvi je bio, znamo onaj ustaski. Drugi je bio program moje organizacije TIHO, osnovane 27. sijecnja 1957. godine. U mom programu se kaze da pokusaj ujedinjenja Srba i Hrvata nije uspio, pa prema tome da je bolje za obadva naroda da se podijele. Nigdje u mom programu nije bilo ni naznake da je potrebno Srbe iseliti iz Hrvatske. Toga u Programu nema. Ali, ta ideja o iseljenju Srba iz Hrvatske nalazi se u dva iskaza. Prvi je u iskazu Marijana caglja, iz Medova Doca, sacinjen 8. srpnja 1957. po Mirku Praljku, (ocem generala Slobodana Praljka) sefu Ispostave SUP-a u sirokom Brigu. Drugi je u Iskazu Blage Pejica, ucenika sedmog razreda gimnazije u Imotskom, koji je sesti razred zavrsio u sirokom Brigu, (samo radi napomene: zajedno s Matom Bobanom). Datum je 25. travnja 1958. godine. (Blago je bio sudac u Imotskom za vrijeme propale drzave). Ova spoznaja da se jos dalekih 1950-ih godina govorilo o iseljenju Srba iz Hrvatske, barem meni je danas znakovita. Meni samo nije jasno tko je bio nositelj te ideje. Ocite su bile tri mogucnosti: UDB-a u Hrvatskoj, sastavljena od Hrvata ili ono krilo koje su cinili Srbi u UDB-i u Hrvatskoj. Treca mogucnost je da su iseljenje trazili Srbi iz Beograda, pripadnici Savezne UDB-e. Znamo cinjenicu da su iseljenje Srba iz Hrvatske organizirali sami Srbi, ali se zato u Haagu nalaze Hrvati, najznacajniji povratnici, borci za samostalnu Republiku Hrvatsku. Iz toga se lako dade zakljuciti da je bila zlocinacka organizacija na djelu puno prije pocetka Osvajackih ratova Srbije na prostorima bivse drzave. Ta zlocinacka organizacija zvala se Komunisticka partija pa kasnije Savez komunista Jugoslavije. Savez komunista Hrvatske bila je samo jedna od podruznica Saveza komunista Jugoslavije. Korjene svih zala koja su se dogodila za vrijeme Josipa Broza, a i ona poslije njegove smrti, su rezultat upravo programa i djela Saveza komunista Jugoslavije. Zato u Republici Hrvatskoj nije provedena lustracija, za kojom vapi i zemlja i nebo i ljudi. Medjutim, znamo da medjunarodna zajednica nije osnovala nikakav sud za gonjenje pojedinacnih niti onih skupnih zlocina koje je pocinila KPJ. Hrvatska drzava nije pokrenula ni jedan slucaj lustracije. Iz ocitih razloga. Na stub kod ulaznih vrata u klub Drustva hrvatskih knjizevnika na Jelacica trgu prosli tjedan smo nasli nalijepljen Vas poziv, ali je netko rukom upisao kukasti kriz. Hvala na informaciji. Zar vam to ne dokazuje u kakvom mentalnom sklopu zivi hrvatsko drustvo, sada vec 16 godina poslije otcjepljenja? Sve pojave i svi dogadjaji se jos uvijek ocjenjuju u duhu komunizma ili fasizma. U mojoj knjizi nema ni nakane u slavu bilo koje totalitarne ideologije, a fasizam i nacizam se osudjuju. Naravno, komunizam sam osudio stvaranjem antikomunisticke tajne organizacije a i mnogostruko u knjizi. Od Pavelica i njegova rezima se izricito ogradjujem. Nigdje u mom programu organizacije TIHO nema ni tracka tim ideologijama, i ja sam se trudio da to istaknem u mojoj knjizi. Ocito, osoba koja je napisala taj kukasti kriz zivi u mentalnom sklopu koji odobrava sve sto je u nas radio komunizam, a osudjuje sve sto su radili svi drugi pojedinacno ili u skupnom razmatranju. Takve osobe su i danas na vrhu drzave i drustva i od njih ne mozete nikada dobiti demokraciju i drzavu u kojoj vlada sustav zakona, gdje bi svi gradjani bili jednaki pred zakonom. Hrvatski narod se mora pogledati u ogledalo i prepoznati da je komunizam u 45 godina postojanja ucinio strahovitu stetu opcim narodnim interesima. Komunizam je dugorocno napravio vise stete nego svi prethodni rezimi i monarhije. Ocito takve osobe misle da njima pripada i drustvo i drzava i gospodarstvo, a ljudi koji ne misle kao oni, moraju nestati iz Hrvatske. U tom mentalnom sklopu jos uvijek ima dobar broj etnickih Hrvata, koji misle da hrvatska drzava pripada samo njima, a bilo tko da misli drukcije nego oni, zasluzuje osudu. Europa nam je rekla cistim jezikom da nas ne smatraju sebi ravnima, a kad se radi o dostignucima demokratskog drustva, bojim se da su u pravu. Zato je uzaludna bila ova utrka u Bruxelles. Bilo bi puno pametnije da Vlada Republike Hrvatske usmjeri svoje napore na poboljsanje demokratskog drustva. Ja sam tom pitanju posvetio jednu stranicu prije pocetka knjige, pozivajuci Vladu i Sabor da promijeni zakon o cuvanju i upotrebi arhivske gradje, prvenstveno one koju je stvorila zloglasna UDB-a. Svatko tko zeli mora imati dostup u moj dosje napravljen po UDB-i. Istovremeno to bi bilo garantirano svakom gradjaninu da provjeri bilo ciji dosje napravljen po UDB-i. Ja sam moj dosje objavio u cjelosti u ovoj knjizi. Zasto ja ne mogu vidjeti dosje recimo predsjednika Mesica, Vladimira seksa, predsjednika Vlade ili bilo kojeg clana moje organizacije TIHO? Ili mojega susjeda, ako bas hocu? Ja ovdje govorim samo o onim dosjeima koje je napravila UDB-a, dakle do vremena kada je Hrvatski Drzavni Sabor izglasao izlazak iz federativne drzave koju je Tito obnovio s ogromnom kolicinom krvi neduznog naroda. Treba vec jednom zavrsiti s komunizmom. Ja ne bih imao nista protiv toga da Sabor i Vlada donesu zakon po kojemu bi se osudili ucinci komunizma, a ljudi koji su to ucinili budu istovremeno pomilovani, a ne kaznjeni. Trazim osobe koje su voljne podrzati zahtjev za donosenje jednog takvog zakona. Potrebno je da se dokumenti otvore svima onima koji imaju interesa proucavati ih. Ovime pozivam Sabor i Vladu RH i sve politicke stranke da to omoguce. Je li Vam danas nakon pola stoljeca zao da ste otisli na tu polnocku? Vrlo tesko pitanje za odgovoriti. Ja sam mogao prihvatiti ponudu UDB-e u 1958. godini i vjerojatno dogurati do predsjednika savezne vlade. Ali, postojala je i druga opcija: mogao sam zavrsiti kao Andrija Hebrang na uzetu u nekom zatvoru, zato sto ne bih pristao da jedan komad hrvatske zemlje prisvoje drugi. To da nisam podlegao napasti zla mogu zahvaliti mojoj cijeloj obitelji, pogotovo bratu Ljubi, koji je pobjegao preko granice jos 1953. godine. Osobno nisam istrazivao tko od nas originalnih clanova organizacije TIHO je a tko nije radio za UDBu. Za to treba pregledati svaki dosje, svakog od nas clanova. To prepustam sudu javnosti. Kako ste vidjeli u slucaju naseg akademika, istina je vlasnistvo onoga tko uspjesnije laze. Admiral Loso me je iznenadio. Kada sam ga prvi put zamolio da procita moju knjigu, obecao je, onako preko volje. Onda je prihvatio da i on bude dio panela predstavljaca. Tek pod kraj svoga govora otkrio nam je da je moj cimer iz 1957. godine bio njegov razrednik u gimnaziji u Sinju. To je onaj agent provokator kojemu sam posvetio jedno cijelo poglavlje. Nadam se da cete u mojoj knjizi naci, osim mene i neke druge ljude koji nisu podlegli napasti zla, i da su uz osobne zrtve i muku odbili raditi protiv svog naroda. Kako sam ja dokazao kroz moju osobnu sudbinu u UDB-inim dokumentima, uz odredjene vanjske faktore osoba koja ima cvrst moral moze se odhrvati i najgorem zlu, kao sto je UDB-a. O tome bi mi morali duboko razmisliti! zivjeli, i hvala Vam. Radoslav Maric docmaric@aol.com http://amac.hrvati-amac.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=177&Itemid=93 nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 14 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4905/1/E-I-have-traveled-to-the-soil-you-washed-from-your-hands.html  I have traveled to the soil you washed from your hands First printed in the Zajednicar FraternalistCroatian Fraternal Union of AmericaPUBLISHED on 31 August, 1988; Vol.#83/No.33; Page 6Written by Constant (Connor) VlakancicA Search For Roots - Stivan, Cres, CroatiaSunnyvale, CA -- This is a true story. For the last two years, my life is this story. It is also a story of the end of life, Not my life, I hope, for I have only just discovered but perhaps yours, as you have known it, as I hope you have known it.-- I am a grown man with a well developed and materially successful life. There is always more to have but as in all life, a price is extracted when we indulge in our wants. As such and in the best of health, and raising my son, a son I am genuinely proud of, what more does the soul of man hunger for?-- That which I have never known or known about. That which my grandfather left behind on the island of Cres in 1918. He bravely left on the greatest adventure of his young life. With a single mindedness, he looked forward, never went back that I know of and he built a life with the timber of the new world but on the foundation of his heritage that he knew so well but took for granted. For reasons that were his, he took this foundation to the grave with him.-- My grandfather died when I was but a young teen. Yet I do have memories of him. A machinist at Barber-Green in Aurora, Illinois, respected and responsible, he had built his life to his measure. I did not know him real well as we (my father "his son", my mother, my sister and myself) did not live nearby. But this I know without hesitation, I never heard any words from him but articulate English. From my own father who had known him for all his life, I never heard any words except English. Whatever he knew, he also took to his grave many years ago.Now moving forward to but two years ago, I accidentally learn (an amazing story in itself) that I am Croatian. A word, a nation, a culture that I had never known of or even heard of. A heritage to feed the hunger in my guts, in my heart. In two years, I have learned of things that I could not even have dreamed of. But this has not been learning to satisfy the hunger, this has only been learning that the food exists.I sit writing this in a jet plane returning to the United States from three weeks in Croatia. I have lived the monumental frustration of my hunger that I do not know if I will ever surmount. I cannot communicate in my grandfather’s native tongue. Oh father of my father, why must I suffer this so. I am a bird with spirit in my heart, with wings to fly, to soar in this beckoning sky. Trapped in the small cage of my few words laboriously learned, I am deaf and dumb and nearly blind.Through my own efforts, I have forged myself into a strong man, stronger than many. I demand of myself the courage to speak the unpopular thought, to perform the unpopular deed when in my heart I believe in the integrity of my convictions. And I will be patient as the oyster growing a pearl when actions are for naught. But I would say to you grandfather I am not certain that I can now still learn this language. Why did I not grow with it as a child? I believe and live this; “To know and yet not to do, is not yet to know.” I have done! I have traveled to the soil you washed from your hands and walked the paths of the village that bears your footprints. But will the research that I have started ever yield to me a life I have only just discovered? This is a story of the end of life. Not my life, for I will share with my son whatever soil is on my hands. I will show him the paths with my footprints. I will show him the food that he may hunger for. But what of your life? You, the sons and daughters born on the soil you explored with your father but now emigrated to another land, have you washed your hands? Do you share your foundation with your children? Or teach them your language? Will you take to the grave your life as you have known it?If you do not return, with your children, then others most certainly will and your life, as you have known it, will be as dead as an old cold candle that nobody knows what it burned brightly for - or - may - never - care - again. • Constant Vlakancic/Lodge 1983Connor VlakancicConnor Vlakancic was born and raised in the rural environment of northern Illinois, close to the birthplace of California Governor and U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Vlakancic was raised in a conservative farming family environment where productive work was encouraged and respected.His paternal Grandfather was of Croatian heritage from the Dalmatian Coast in the north Adriatic Sea, as a citizen during the end of Austro-Hungarian rule. Immigrating to America in 1917, he became a journeyman machinist.His maternal Grandfather was of German heritage from the Alsace-Lorraine region. Immigrating to the United States in 1916, he built a substantial dairy farm in the center of the northern Illinois "Corn Belt".Connor Vlakancic started his career in Silicon Valley, California, as an electronic engineer with Fairchild Semiconductor, Timex, Inc., Intel Corporation, National Semiconductor and Siemens Opto-electronics, developing semiconductor technologies. He also spent many years at Honeywell Instruments and Raychem Industries developing digital control systems in paper and plastics manufacturing, traveling worldwide to install multi-million dollar control systems.During the mid-1980’s, he was an early entrepreneur in the personal computer systems revolution by founding a successful computer retail sales company in Silicon Valley. He followed this success with several years at Apple Computer as a competitive, computer-marketing annalist.In 1990 he was a technologist in computer network standards at Networld+Interop, which, by 1995, had become the world’s largest open computer standards, tradeshow and exposition. He then joined a division of Alcoa Company responsible for a new business unit to produce desktop computer network technology products aimed at the Fortune 1,000,000 companies that were losing market-share to their networked competitors.During the late 1990’s, he created a family reunion, live videoconference service to provide "Familia Visitas" from San Jose, California to Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico. He captured business videoconference service contracts with Western-Union, the State of California and Sprint International. Additionally, as the end of the millennium approached, he was a business consultant and due-diligence investigator for the international venture capital investors headquartered in Silicon Valley, and a business development executive at Netscape Corporation and Sun Microsystems.His education includes undergraduate and graduate studies in Chicago, IL and California universities earning degrees in electronics and an aircraft pilot’s license. He has continued his business professional and leadership education, attending numerous extension programs from multiple Universities.He has published technology articles in several computer magazines and has been a featured lecturer at Internet communications conferences. His most recent communications business development expertise was focused in wireless messaging application solutions. He was awarded three US and international technology patents. His past and current membership in professional organizations includes The Commonwealth Club of California, The Churchill Club of Silicon Valley and The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of several corporations. He is a current active Trustee in the Committee for Economic Development www.CED.org national policy think-tank in Washington, DC.He is a published political author with a visionary dissertation registered in the U.S. Library of Congress, www.loc.gov (TXU-677-205), “The 1996 Federal Paradigm” on 16 Feb 1995, which defines a 10-point "contract" to be championed and advanced by the President of the United States. He presented his visionary "contract" to Rep. Newt Gingrich, Aug. 1994, which become a critical segment of the GOP “The Contract with America” in 1995. www.uwsa.com/issues/contract/A-TofC.html The visionary concepts of The 1996 Federal Paradigm did forecast and predict national and international issues which have become of paramount consequence since September 2001.He was recommended by US Ambassador to Croatia, William D. Montgomery, and selected by the US Department of State to support international elections monitoring, with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), during the year 2000 federal elections, in the Republic of Croatia.He has been a candidate for US Congress, the 15th Congressional District of California in 1995, 1998 and 2000 and also in the 17th Congressional District of California in 2004.He is developing "Favorite Son" support to deliver an innovative November 2006 election campaign for US Senator (Independent) from California. He has filed a benchmark California Proposition http://caag.state.ca.us/initiatives/pdf/sa2005rf0103_amdt_2_s.pdf to provide highly popular consumer and parental relief from California ABC regulations. This proposition is planned to be included on the General Election Ballot of November 2006. He is also promoting an extraordinary California Proposition www.generation18-20.com that would reduce to elimination alcohol abuse among 18, 19 and 20 year old young adults.  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 12 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4906/1/E-Vedran-Vukusic-is-Traveling-man-with-a-big-plan.html  Traveling man with a big plan Vukusic survives war, injuries, SAT to become NU starBy Terry BannonTribune staff reporterJanuary 31, 2006In the fall of 2001, Vedran Vukusic left his home in Split, Croatia, and arrived in Evanston ready to play basketball and go to college. Alas, it wasn't that simple. "I had no idea what I was getting into," he said.And Bill Carmody wouldn't have predicted he was getting a player who will leave Northwestern as one of the school's career scoring leaders. "No," the Northwestern coach said. "The guy's improved a lot."Vukusic does not disagree, if only because he had a long way to go. "I couldn't shoot at home," he said.Carmody and his staff fixed Vukusic's awkward shooting mechanics, turning an all-around player into a scorer. Vukusic is on pace to finish as Northwestern's No. 3 career scorer and all-time leader in three-point field goals.While the Wildcats haven't gone to a postseason tournament with Vukusic, they've come within one victory of NIT eligibility (.500 record) the last two seasons and are once again on the postseason bubble with a 10-8 record going into Wednesday night's game at Indiana."He has been an extremely important part of taking Northwestern from the bottom of the pack to a competitive team," Carmody said.Back homeThe fates have been kind to Vukusic, whose childhood memories aren't all pleasant.Growing up in Croatia in the early 1990s meant more than going to school and learning how to play basketball in the same city that gave the Bulls Toni Kukoc.It meant surviving a war with Yugoslavia, and Serbian attacks on his coastal hometown from the Adriatic Sea.Vukusic remembers being awakened by his father and rushing to a bomb shelter, not that an 8-year-old totally understood."My mother later told me I thought it was fun—it was all a game to me," he said. "She said, 'You were laughing, it was all fun, bombs dropping and you're running down the street smiling.'"I remember my dad waking us up at 6 a.m. and walking down the street, everyone running. I remember everything that happened."His family survived the war, but his uncle, Jozo Bajamic, still has shrapnel in his shoulder.Peace came in 1995, allowing a return to school—and basketball. Vukusic's parents wouldn't have had it any other way. His father, Nediljko, is a retired factory supervisor, his mother, Radojka, a nurse.But before there were issues with Vukusic's jump shot, there were other considerations. He suffered from chronic ankle injuries, and his parents were concerned they could prevent his basketball odyssey from working out.http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/cs-060130nuvukusic,1,6016912.story?coll=cs-home-headlinesBy Terry BannonTribune staff reporterJanuary 31, 2006"My parents wanted to make sure I always had an education," he said.Moving to AmericaVukusic wanted to pursue both basketball and school. But in Croatia, as in most of Europe, it can't be done."At home you have to choose," Vukusic said."The USA was the only solution for him," said Vjeran Bosnjak, his coach in Croatia. "He would have been too young (18) and inexperienced to get the opportunity to play enough at the professional level. He couldn't continue his studies because [basketball] wouldn't leave him any free time."Before recruiting Vukusic, Carmody talked with Loyola assistant coach Pat Baldwin, who played in Crotia professionally after his Northwestern career ended."The (professional) money for those kids isn't that great to start out with, and that seven-year contract binds them," Baldwin said. "They're not able to test the market."Vukusic could have signed with a pro club in Europe, but a starting salary of $250 per month and the long contract turned him off. "It would have ruined my future," Vukusic said.His friend and teammate, Davor Duvancic, felt the same way. When Carmody came visiting in the spring of 2001, they were interested in what he had to say."It was a great opportunity for us," said Duvancic, who completed his Northwestern eligibility last year and now works for the insurance conglomerate Aon.But there were complications. Language wasn't one of them, because Croatian children study English in grade school. But there was the little matter of the SAT, which would not be offered again in Croatia in time for the players to enroll at Northwestern in the fall.There was one more chance to take the test—in Vienna.So one summer day, Duvancic and Vukusic piled into a Nissan Altima with their fathers in the front. It's a 300-mile trip from Split to Vienna as the crow flies, but a 10-hour drive as the Balkan roads bend.In the back seat, the prospective Wildcats crammed."There was pressure," Duvancic said. "We had to pass the test."It was a short night of sleep. "We woke up an hour before the exam started," Vukusic said.NorthwesternVukusic and Duvancic were among Carmody's first international recruits Another Croatian, Ivan Tolic, followed a year later. Tolic's NU career ended after last season because of injuries.Vukusic battled shoulder problems early in his college career, losing what would have been his sophomore season to a shoulder operation, his second. Vukusic's absence was a factor in the Wildcats' 12-17 record, the worst of Carmody's seven seasons in Evanston.This season, Carmody challenged Vukusic to be the Wildcats' leader in many ways. He has responded with a career-best 20.5 points per game, including 18.6 in the Big Ten."He's taken the team on his shoulders and he didn't do that before," Carmody said. "The other night he went 1-for-14 against Illinois and in the next game he gets 29 away from home (at Purdue). That's saying something."Carmody has noticed other little areas of improvement, like Vukusic's willingness to go for dunks instead of layups."It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is," Carmody said. "Now he's gotten the fact that 'I have to be the guy.' He's more forceful in his game, not letting it come to him. He's taken over some games for us."Vukusic has earned his bachelor's degree in communications and is pursuing a second major in international studies. As his college career winds down, he would like to be remembered for leading the Wildcats into the postseason."A couple of years before I came we didn't win a Big Ten game. Compared to that we've made some progress," he said. "But it's not what I want it to be, obviously."Vukusic's legacyNext year Vukusic will be playing professionally—in Europe if not in the NBA. But his impact on Northwestern will last.Next year's freshman class will include at least two 6-foot-8-inch players—Jeff Ryan from Glenbrook South and Kevin Coble from Scottsdale, Ariz.—who signed letters of intent in November."When we're recruiting other guys, they just love the way [Vukusic] plays," Carmody said. "It shows what you can do with big, rangy kids. Not only has he helped us while he's here, but he's helped us in recruiting, and however intangible it is, it's real."Vukusic's success also has kept Northwestern's name alive in Croatia, where the Wildcats are recruiting another 6-8 prospect, Nikola Baran.As Vjeran Bosnjak, Vukusic's youth coach, put it, "[Northwestern's style] fits the sensibility of players coming from this region."tabannon@tribune.com Copyright © 2006, The Chicago Tribune   nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 04 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4908/1/E-Pianist-plays-lounges-at-night-preschools-during-day-Bob-Voca-story.html Pianist plays lounges at night, preschools during dayBy Nicole JanokPalm Beach Post Staff WriterWednesday, October 26, 2005For Palm Beach Gardens resident Bob Voca, life is about one thing: music.For most of his life, the Croatian native has studied and performed the piano around the world.CYDNEY SCOTTphoto:Bob Voca makes sure Lake Worth tot Gage Milligan, 2, has a steady grip on a hanging bar while Milligan's playmates from West Palm Beach's Palm Beach Preschool play aboard Voca's Ladybug Tumble and Music Bus, which Voca uses to teach kids gymnastics and music. A classically trained musician, Voca, 61, spent much of his career on Mediterranean cruise ships and hotels throughout Europe. In fact, while playing in one of Croatia's ritziest hotels, Voca met his second wife of 17 years â€" a South Florida resident named Diane. For the past 18 years, Voca has called Palm Beach County home and held a rotating schedule of local piano performances. He plays at Nordstrom's at the Mall at Wellington Green and McCarthy's Restaurant & Pub and Cafe Heidelberg in Tequesta.In the past two months, music has ataken on a new role in Voca's life â€" he is the proud owner of Lady Bug Tumble and Music Bus, a traveling classroom that teaches preschoolers gymnastics and music.Several days a week, Voca drives the big red bus, which he decorated himself, to local preschools where he uses over-sized musical notes and a xylophone to teach basic percussion skills."It's pretty neat," he said.Complete with a trampoline and mini roller coaster, the 30-minute sessions are split between tumbling and music. Another instructor teaches tumbling."They love the bus," he said. "It's beautiful."Voca came up with the idea after seeing other businesses that had a similar idea."I said, 'That's very neat, and I can do it during the day.'" And with a little administrative help from his wife, Voca wants to keep the Lady Bug running for a while. "I wouldn't want to become a millionaire with this bus," he said. "I don't want to get bigger; it's not a big plan to get bigger." Because that would interfere with his true passion: Playing for his local fans.It's really all he's ever known. At 7 years old, Voca started music lessons after his uncle noticed his talent."My father didn't really care," he said. "So my uncle put me in private lessons... and I loved it so much."His sister, Elvira Voca, also is musically talented â€" she's a well-known singer in Croatia who regularly performs on television, he said. Voca continued studying music throughout his primary and secondary education. He then went on to study at the Music Conservatory for Piano and Solfeggio in Salzburg, Austria, home of one of his favorite composers, Mozart. While he worked as a musician in Croatia, Voca had three sons, Oliver, 21, Daniel, 23, and Kresimir, 24, who all live in Germany near their mother. Voca visits his sons and his sister two or three times a year.Although Voca prefers classical and jazz music, he said he doesn't let his preferences get in the way of a performance."You have to open your eyes and see what's around you and play what people want to hear," he said.While traveling and studying, Voca realized he had another gift: Learning languages. He currently speaks five â€" Russian, Croatian, German, English and Italian.http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pb_gardens/content/neighborhood/pb_gardens/epaper/2005/10/26/npp5_vocapro_1026.html   nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 03 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4907/1/H-Prvi-i-Zadnji-Bozic-u-emigraciji-1945-2005.html  Prvi i Zadnji Bozic u emigraciji 1945-2005 Bolonia, Italia 25 dicembar 1945 PRVI BOZIC U EMIGRACIJI, pisalisu moj otac i moja majka, Nikola Francetic i Anda BiondicLa Plata, Argentina 25 dicembar 2005, ZADNJI BOZIC U EMIGRACIJI, pisemo Judith, Katarina, María Victoria, Mara, Jure, Nikola, ako Bog da Goran, i ja Jure Francetic  contact: jaflika@hotmail.com   nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4909/1/E-Andronico-Luksic-Man-of-summits.html  Andronico Luksic Manof summits  Andronico Luksic, chairman of this year's APEC CEO Summit, talks to Ruth Bradleyabout conquering mountains - in business and in lifeMay 2005 For Chilean businessman Andronico Luksic, summits are very much on the agenda this year. In May, satisfying along-standing ambition as a mountaineer, he stood at the summit of Mount Everest. Thismonth, in what promises to be one of the crowning glories of a successful business career, he will chair the APECCEO Summit in Santiago. And, to top off the year, he plans to tackle yet another summit nextmonth - Mount Vinson in the Antarctic. Luksic is not a typical Chilean businessman. While many of his colleagues sport MBAsfrom prestigious US universities, Luksic unassumingly admits to being a 'collegedropout'. And, despite chairing Banco de Chile, Chile's largest locally-owned bank, he is a fundamentally shy man,who prefers a low profile and rarely gives interviews. But he commands an enormous respect that has itsroots partly in his perseverance - the quality that helps him to conquer summits.The history of the Luksic family conglomerate which, as well as financial services, includesimportant stakes in Chile's mining and manufacturing industries, dates back to the beginningof the last century when Luksic's paternal grandfather emigrated from his nativeCroatia. After working in Chile's flourishing nitrates industry, he built up aprofitable niche importing cattle from Argentina to feed the saltpeter miners - and latercopper miners - of northern Chile's arid Atacama desert.Despite its success in Chile, however, the family has not forgotten its roots andalso has important investments in Croatia. As well as being a major player in thecountry's hotel industry, it also controls a leading tour operator.In addition, the Luksic group has some important business ties with Asia. Three Japanesecompanies - Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and Nippon Mining - are partners in its Los Pelambrescopper mine in northern Chile. And, in the 1980s, the group's Madeco copper manufacturer was the first Chileancompany - and possibly the first in Latin America - to invest in China when,along with Codelco, Chile's state copper company, it formed a joint venture with the municipalityof Beijing to build a plant to produce copper piping for use in the construction industry.Asia Inc: What do you see as the main importance of the CEO Summit from Chile'spoint of view?Andronico Luksic: Chile's presidency of APEC 2004 and the CEO Summit are an opportunityfor business and political leaders to get to know a part of the world that's not easyto reach and that they don't normally visit. And that includes not only Chile, butalso the rest of South America.Business people from Asia will be able to become better acquainted with Chile, itseconomy, its institutions and its people, in a direct and palpable way. And that'simportant because Chile can serve as a two-way platform for goods to and from Asia,not just to Chile, with its 15 million inhabitants, but also to much larger economies, like Argentina and Brazil. And,of course, most importantly, it will encourage businesses from other APEC economiesto invest in Chile and form partnerships with local businesses. That is, after all, themost profound expression of economic integration within the Asia-Pacific region.What have been the main challengesof organising the Summit?Although it's certainly the most important business meeting that Chile has ever organised, it's been facilitated by our country's international experience and its organisational capacity. We have a committee in which I am joined by Juan Claro, chairmanof Chile's Confederation of Industry and Trade; Hernán Somerville, this year's chairmanof the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC); and Juan Villarzú, executive presidentof Codelco. In addition, there's an operational committee and an executive secretariat that help implementdecisions regarding the programme and logistical matters.The main challenges have beento obtain the human and financial resources required for this important Summit andto ensure the presence of the top-level business executives and political leaders we've invitedfrom around the Pacific Basin. However, I must say we've had a very good response. What issues is the Summitgoing to focus on?We plan to concentrate on four or five main issues, and to be really productive on them: the safetyof international trade; transparency and corporate governance; human resources as the keyto competitiveness; economic reform processes; and the digital gap and its impacton the competitiveness of companies and of our respective economies.The Summit starts on Friday, Nov 19, with a luncheon at the CasaPiedra conventioncentre, where the entire meeting will take place. During lunch, the opening speech will be given by Erik Weihenmayer, the athlete andmountaineer who, although blind, climbed to the summit of Mount Everest.Over the course of the event, we also hope to be able to listen to addresses from PresidentGeorge W Bush, President Ricardo Lagos, President Hu Jintao, Prime MinisterJunichiro Koizumi, President Vladimir Putin, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva andformer Secretary of the US Treasury Robert E Rubin, as well as allowing time forquestions and answers, and debate.Finally, it will be my responsibility to close the Summit and introduce the chairmanof the APEC CEO Summit 2005, which will take place in Seoul. What do business people travellingto Chile for the Summit stand to gain?The CEO Summit always produces some very interesting networking and, this year, given thatso many people will be travelling from so far, we're trying to maximise opportunitiesfor making contact not only with Chileans, but also with colleagues from other partsof the region. That's why we've invited people from, for example, Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela -countries that aren't necessarily members of APEC but which make us, as a continent, muchmore interesting to Asian businesses. And we've organised parallel programmesboth before and after the Summit for different leisure, cultural and tourist activities. Ialso have the impression that most of our guests are going to take the opportunityto visit two or three other countries. You're also one of Chile's representatives in ABAC, which set anambitious agenda for this year in terms of increasing its effectiveness. How has that playedout?ABAC has worked very well this year under the chairmanship of Hernán Somerville. It hasintroduced numerous procedural reforms that make it more efficient. It has energeticallypromoted the issue of liberalising trade through the Doha talks in the frameworkof the World Trade Organization. This is, without doubt, the most important issueof the year for APEC and the global economy.We've also given priority to analysing free trade agreements between APEC membereconomies, the issue of safe trade, the facilitation of trade, and the use of English as the languageof business.It's also important to point out that, in the execution of ABAC's agenda, we havedeveloped a valuable and fluid relationship with the public sector. This relationship isalso part of the success of ABAC 2004. We have ready communication with RicardoLagos, chairman of APEC Senior Officials' Meetings, with Ambassador Milenko Skoknic, executivedirector of APEC Chile 2004, and with Ambassador Adolfo Carafí, director of the Asia-PacificDivision of Chile's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We have transmitted to all of them, inour own language, the opinions that business people have about the agenda and other aspectsof the APEC process.Through your role in the CEO Summit and ABAC, you've travelled extensively, promoting Chile. What has thisshown you about Chile's international image?Chile has an excellent image in the eyes of the business people and authorities of the Asia-Pacificregion. It's seen as a serious and stable country that's good at fulfilling its undertakings. Theenormous effort that the Chilean business sector has put into globalisation isalso admired abroad. That means a great opportunity for Chile to develop as aplatform from which many opportunities geared to business in other Latin Americancountries may arise.As a Chilean businessman, what do you see as the main challenges facing the country asgrowth rebounds?Its main challenges are to reduce its international vulnerability and to maintain the high and stablegrowth that reduces social and educational deficiencies and, particularly, poverty.And specifically for the banking sector in which you're involved as president of Banco de Chile?The banking sector has made an enormous effort in terms of global competitiveness andproviding high-standard, low-cost services for its domestic and internationalcustomers. The banking industry is one of the ‘great assets' of the Chileaneconomy and its image is optimum, as is shown by the low spreads it pays for overseasresources.As a family group, what do you see as the most interesting opportunities for futureexpansion in Chile and internationally? Our investments in Croatia may have theirroot in family ties, but they're also very profitable and important. In Chile,our idea is to consolidate in the sectors in which we already operate - mining,copper manufacturing, beverages and banking - rather than diversifying. There aresome very significant opportunities in mining. You recently climbed Everest. What was that like as a challenge?The physical and psychological preparation was very tough. And there's a point in thepreparation that's really important - forming a team. That's about being ableto face difficult moments together, without ever losing sight of the objective. That's why, during a littleover a year, we climbed various peaks of more than 6,000m in the Andes to test notonly our physical shape, but also to consolidate the team that was to face the challengeof Everest.  You've probably been asked this question a thousand times, but what did it feel liketo conquer Everest? I must say that, when I reached the summit, I shed more than a few tears; it was a reallyemotional moment and I felt deep gratitude to God and to the team that had made itpossible. I remember that all my family was in the United States celebrating thegraduation of my eldest son and the birthdays of two of my other children; I wasn't there, but they were with me and that's what was reallyimportant. I also remember thinking that my presence there showed that dreams arenot just dreams, but the starting point of a project, and that with a great dealof work, enthusiasm and perseverance, they can become reality. I would like toknow that many others feel the same way. At 50, I firmly believe that there'sno age limit on new challenges and rising to them; there's no age limit on new dreams. Isuppose what remains from that adventure is the lesson that those who do not follow their dreamsonly sleep through life. So what's the bigger challenge: Everestor the CEO Summit?The CEO Summit. As chairman, it's not only my reputation that's at stake, but thereputation of my country and its business people; that's why it's so importantto achieve a really excellent event. If I hadn't made it to the summit of Everest, theworst that would have happened was that a few friends would have laughed at me. If theCEO Summit doesn't do well, it's the country that suffers; but if I do well there, it's a triumphfor all of us who organised it. It's a different type of responsibility and Ialso feel that it's not only on behalf of Chile, but also of South America. After the CEO Summit, what are the next summitson your personal agenda?In the short term, I'd like to conquer the highest summit of each continent or, inother words, to complete the seven-summit circuit. I've already climbed Aconcagua inSouth America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Everest in Asia. And later this year, I'mgoing to make a second attempt at the Vinson Massif in the Antarctic. I was there in 2003, but we were beaten by bad weather. That's the list but,more importantly, I'd like to stress that I have a very serious interest in mountaineering and that,more than a sport, it's simply a way of life. http://www.asia-inc.com/May05/APEC_man_may.htm   nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 18 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4910/1/E-Proud-Croatian-American-Nick-Saban-investigating-his-heritage.html Proud Croatian American Nick Saban investigating his heritagePublished Thursday, June 23, 2005Saban pleased with progress made _ so farBy TIM REYNOLDSAP Sports WriterDAVIE, Fla. Nick Saban went back in time last weekend, investigating his heritage during a quick vacation in Croatia. The proud Catholic attended Mass in an impoverished community, learned about the nation's history and relaxed along the pristine, clear-water splendor of the Dalmatian Coast.Yet he found no athletes who could help his Miami Dolphins."Don't think I wasn't looking," the Dolphins' first-year coach said, grinning.He's scheduled to leave Friday night for another family vacation, this one in Georgia, a few thousand miles closer than the republic that was once part of the former Yugoslavia. But once again, his mind probably won't be far from football and his first Dolphins training camp, now looming just one month away.Over the last few months, during their allotment of "organized team activities" days, the Dolphins tried players at various positions, installed new offensive and defensive schemes, and began meshing several dozen players and a couple dozen new coaches and staff into some sort of cohesive unit.Are the new-look Dolphins ready for the season? No.Have they satisfied Saban so far? Apparently, yes."We have some guys that have made better progress than others in terms of their understanding and ability to execute with consistency and confidence and understanding so they can turn it loose and go get it," Saban said Thursday. "But if we had that accomplished right now, we wouldn't need 35-ought practices or whatever we have in training camp to get ready for the first game."Saban is leery to identify who any probable starters are at this point, insisting that tipping his hand now would be counterproductive; he wants people battling for jobs and trying to overachieve in camp, not pouting over being demoted to the second team.And he would not reveal if he's had any new conversations with the apparently soon-to-be-unretired running back Ricky Williams, who is reportedly back in South Florida and still planning to be with the Dolphins for training camp late next month. But indications are that Saban and Williams have had some sort of dialogue; Saban said he was aware of Williams' travel schedule from California last week."I knew exactly what he was doing, and he did exactly what he said he was going to do," Saban said, without elaborating.The Williams situation and the pending battle between A.J. Feeley and Gus Frerotte for the starting quarterback job remain two of the most interesting issues hovering over the Dolphins these days.Feeley and Frerotte are both incumbents of sorts; Feeley started half the games during Miami's 4-12 season a year ago, Frerotte knows the offense better, having played two years in Minnesota in the same system currently being installed here by offensive coordinator Scott Linehan."I would bet - if anybody wants to bet, not that I'm a gambling man - that at some point in time, we're going to need both of those guys to play well during the season," Saban said. "So our focus is on them both developing to be the best possible players they can be ... even ongoing after we name a starter."Notes:@ The Dolphins have scheduled visits with free-agent safety Lance Schulters, who was recently released by Tennessee in a salary-cap move, and Southern California defensive tackle Manuel Wright, who'll be at the Dolphins facility on Friday. Wright played behind All-American Shaun Cody and Mike Patterson, the Philadelphia Eagles' first-round pick. Wright has entered the league's supplemental draft, and the Dolphins want "to find out if he has the right stuff to be a consistent performer," Saban said.http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050623/APS/506231158   nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 23 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4911/1/E-Vukojebina---Courtney-Angela-Brkic---Interview-by-Robert-Birnbaum.html   Courtney Angela BrkicAuthor of Stone Fields converses with Robert BirnbaumPosted: May 24, 2005© 2005 Robert BirnbaumImages by Red Diaz/Duende PublishingCourtney Angela Brkic is a first-generation American of Croatian descent. She studied archaeology as an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary and attended New York University, graduating from the MFA Program in writing. She has worked in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a forensic archeologist and for the United Nations International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague and Physicians for Human Rights. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to research women in Croatia's war-affected population, as well as a New York Times Fellowship. Her translations of Croatian Expressionist poet A.B. Simic have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation. Her story collection, Stillness, was awarded a Whiting Writer’s Award. Brkic’s memoir, The Stone Fields: An Epitaph for the Living, which describes her time with the victims of Srebrenica, Bosnia, along with the history of her Croatian family during World War II, was published in 2004. In 1996, at the age of 23, she went to eastern Bosnia as part of a Physicians for Human Rights forensic team. She spent a month helping to exhume and identify the bodies of thousands of men and boys who were massacred by Serb forces the year before. Courtney Brkic currently teaches at Kenyon College in Ohio and is at work on her first novel.Jonathan Yardley persuasively opines: “There are respects in which the story of Andelka and Josef [one of Brkic’s family’s stories in The Stone Fields] is more moving than that of all the unknown victims of ‘ethnic cleansing’ at Srebrenica; it is easier to become emotionally involved with a small cast of characters whom one comes to know than with a large one to which names cannot be attached. Either way, though, the story is the same. Courtney Angela Brkic tells it sensitively, sparely and with quiet passion.â€? As you will find in the conversation below, she has gotten the Bosnian stories out of her system but certainly not the concerns that horrors like the Balkan tragedy occasioned. Robert Birnbaum: Courtney Angela, uh—Courtney Angela Brkic: [Pronounces] “Brkic.â€?RB: I couldn't say it even after I looked in the pronunciation guide in The Stone Fields.CAB: It's hard. And actually the Cs, there are two types of "chu"—there's a "chu" and a "che" which most people can't hear the difference between them—so the variations even within those letters are difficult.RB: It is must be like Dutch—what's the language, Croatian?CAB: It depends on who you ask. It's Croatian or Serbo Croatian or Bosnian Croatian, Serbian, and right now the politically correct thing is to say "BCS" for "Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian." In Croatia people say Croatian. And in my family we say Croatian.RB: As in World War II in Holland, where the Dutch were good at ferreting out imposters because only Dutch people could say certain words that Croatian has the same character—is it true of your language?CAB: You can definitely tell when someone didn't grow up speaking it. People can tell with me because I have a very American accent. So they can hear immediately in the intonations or the just the way I say vowels. The Dutch thing—I used to work for the War Crimes Tribunal for a short time and the tribunal was in a place called Scheveningen —RB: [laughs] How do you know how to say that?CAB: — right by the Hague. I had the taxi driver who said, "If you learn nothing else while you are in Holland, learn how to say "Scheveningen." It was used in the Second World War as code because nobody could pronounce it. I don't think I pronounce it correctly. You can [with Croatian] immediately tell where someone is from. And you'll have people coming from coastal regions like Dalmatia and they'll come to the city and live there many, many years but you can still hear in their accents. They never fully lose that.RB: In the United States, we basically only discern Southern and perhaps various New York City dialects and the Boston accents. I wonder what sociological baggage it brings. I heard a caller to a sports radio show degrade a Red Sox [Trot Nixon] who was from North Carolina—he called him a redneck and all but said he was a inbred hillbilly.CAB: Hill people, yeah. It's pretty bad, but it does bring such baggage. And I grew up in Virginia, and [if] you cross the border into West Virginia, according to the Virginians, the West Virginians are trash and hill people and there are all sorts of jokes running around about them. It is amazing how certain provenience—RB: I got the sense from reading your books there is that kind of tribal regional animus in Croatia.CAB: I'd say more regional than tribal. But in fact to the extent that in Dalmatia every island has its own identity, its own accents, its own dialect. There is one island called Vis, and on one side of the island is the town of Vis and on the other side is a town called Comeja. And we are talking five miles. When you pass over the large hill that separates them, it's as if you have gone to the other end of the country because the accent is so different. Of course, they make fun of each other.RB: I guess the verb "balkanize" has done much to prevent people being taken seriously from that part of the world. Did that play a part in whether people took seriously the break up of Yugoslavia?But there was this weird thing that happened in the war, and it happened in Croatia and Bosnia—that suddenly it wasn't considered racist or small-minded…CAB: Absolutely. In a few of the stories I make a joke out of that. The words "internecine," "quagmire," "age-old ethnic conflict" — there was a point where many of us, if we read that one more time, we were going to hurt somebody.RB: [laughs]CAB: It was amazing how easy it became to just pull that out of people's bags and use those words. I tried to explain it to a lot of people I worked with in Zagreb. I worked with a lot of Americans; if you talk that way about a group of people in America, everybody thinks it's wrong: it's either racist or you are being a snob about a region. But there was this weird thing that happened in the war, and it happened in Croatia and Bosnia—that suddenly it wasn't considered racist or small-minded: it was this way of making everything digestible, and if people could explain to themselves, "Oh, well the reason this happened—these people are blood thirsty. They are absolutely warlike in their manner and their history. Look at their history. . . ," they would go and pull out the history books and they'd say, "Look at these years of battle and fighting. . . ." I always used to say to people, "Look at the rest of Europe. Look at Germany. Look at France. Look at Russia. Look all over the world. And there is no difference really between there and anywhere else. Once people thought they could explain it that way, it robbed the need to do anything about it. Or find a peaceful solution to it. That's just how they are. They are like that there."RB: There seems to be a myth of peace about the post war (WWII). Supposedly up until September 11, 2001, we were living in a world that was relatively peaceful. Perhaps because I wasn't born in this country—CAB: Where were you born?RB: I was born in Germany. For some reason, I was always attuned to the —CAB: — right, the larger picture.RB: When people claim that the world was peaceful, I ask, "When was that? Which years?"CAB: There is this feeling of—I don't know—vast optimism when people think of the '50s, and if you really look at it and pull it out and consider the South and consider a lot of things—not quite. I teach at Kenyan College [in Ohio] and one of the books I was teaching to my students is Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, and it's now the third time I've taught it—it's always amazing to me because they know about slavery. They know historically and understand the Civil War, but still there is this Gone with The Wind-esque picture a lot of people have in their minds and "slavery was, of course very, very bad," but to know to what extent things were as bad as they were—I actually had students who were very upset at me for teaching that book. But I had a lot of students for whom it had never occurred to them. We do that with the [twentieth] century and we look back and everything was roses.RB: I was talking to Elizabeth Gaffney about her novel Metropolis, which takes place in late nineteenth-century New York City, and we came to talking about how badly history is taught in this country. It would seem that most people aren't interested in it — mostly because it's so badly taught. As a consequence that ends up allowing much mythology to take root, which is even more troubling.CAB: It's true. We have such a rosy view of what our history is.RB: For example, lynching continued to take place up until the 1950s.CAB: Most people have no idea even on the small scales, in towns all over the country, maybe even not anything to the extent of lynchings, it's so unbelievable and that's what scares me the most right now. That we have this view of America that is so far from the reality of it. When I drove home for the winter holiday, I drove from Ohio back to DC and one of the radio stations that I caught just before I passed into Pennsylvania, in southeastern Ohio, was this call-in show where the woman was screaming about the Mexicans. In Ohio there are a lot of migrant farm workers and probably illegal aliens among them and certainly tensions between populations. For example, last year in Columbus [Ohio] there was a horrible house fire, an arson, in which something like ten people died, many of them children, and this woman on the radio was screaming about how . . . —always just one step away from outright hate speech, inciting viewers. She had one older lady caller and she said, "I have this lawn boy who comes and you have opened my eyes because I have never looked at this like that before. My gosh, you are probably right." This hate-mongering, unbelievable stuff. But even at a place like Columbus they are not looking at this fire in terms of what it means, what it indicates about the tensions that are at work. I find it very hard to believe.RB: Even if you started teaching history in a personal narrative way, it wouldn't overcome the faith-based mythologies that are regnant. Tell people what the facts are they seem inclined to bath in the warm comfort of their beliefs.CAB: When you have a straight lane to Jesus you don't need to hear any other opinions.RB: I guess we wandered far afield here [which is okay]. Getting back to your books, are wolves a big part of Croatian culture?CAB: Not so much. They are in the Balkans. All over Europe—sort of a motif and a theme.RB: More so than any other animal?CAB: Not more than any other animal.RB: But in your books—CAB: In me, they are very strong. The thing that has always struck me about them, particularly in Croatia and probably the reason I was most drawn to writing about them even tangentially was that they did a study in the time I was living in Croatia about trying to change people's points of view about wolves. Trying to let go of this almost medieval "Wolves are evil. Wolves are going to attack us and kill our children. Steal our chickens. Let's get them before they get us." Particularly in the region of Wecam where there were a lot of wolves that they are doing this, did this. What they found was slowly, slowly, slowly people are coming around. And they are realizing that wolves only attack when they are very hungry, frightened, or hurt in some way. They had to create an entire shift of paradigm in these regions and I found that very interesting.RB: You do use a striking image when some one mentions a place “where wolves fuck.â€?CAB: The word is "Vukojebina," and it means, out in the countryside, really the boondocks—Deliverance country, basically the Croatian version of Deliverance—and if you if you break it down it basically means "where Wolves fuck." RB: The only other fiction that I am aware from that part of the world is Sarajevo Marlboro [by Miljenko Jergovic].CAB: They are very good, those short stories.RB: There hasn't been a groundswell of interest.CAB: It's surprising because he is very well known in Bosnia Hertzogovinia. He is actually from Sarajevo. But lives today in Croatia and he is a very good writer and he is also a very good social critic. He used to write, and he may still, for one of the weekly magazines called Globus, and his articles were always . . . he had such a finger on the pulse of where politics were going, where current opinion was going, and he has many, many books. Actually, Sarajevo Marlboro is the only one published in the United States.RB: By a wonderful publisher, Archipelago Books. CAB: That book was available in the UK for years before it ever made it here. And it's a sad fact that interest among publishers here is just not there.RB: How did you come to get published? Through NYU?CAB: Not really. Completely — I like to think by hard work — but by dumb luck as well. And that was that while I was at NYU and in the period just after it. I tried to find an agent. Through every way possible. Friends, friends of friends.RB: Friends of friends of friends?CAB: [both laugh] Exactly. One of my professors sent me to his publishing house and it never worked out. The minute that someone feels that they are doing a favor for someone else it gets awkward. After a while I said, "I am not going to do this anymore. I'm sick of this. Forget it." Because too many times I was coming across people who wanted to give me advice. They didn't want to take me on but they wanted to advise me. And the advice they wanted to give me was "Don't write about this subject matter. Nobody will be interested in this subject matter."RB: Meaning—CAB: "Don't write about Bosnia. Don't write about Croatia. This war. Refugees. None of it." And short stories are a really tough sell, and these were two things—and what I was actually told in one place. You have a double kiss of death. Not only are you writing short stories, but also on a theme we just don't think we can sell. And that's what I heard over and over. Finally I decided, no more friends, no more friends of friends. And I went to the Writer's Market and I made a list of writers whose work I admired, found out who their agents were and just sent to them cold. And it just so happens that one of those agents read my work—a very early version of Stone Fields and said, "It's good and we'd be interested in the future but it's not ready yet." Which I knew. To which I said, "Funny you should say that because I also have these short stories." And I remember her saying, "Most probably we are not going to be interested." But I sent them along and she really liked them. And that's how it went.RB: Even the people who you know have published great stuff will still dish out the conventional wisdom when they are talking to you. Success has such a serendipitous feel.CAB: It could be on a Tuesday, they'd love something and on a Thursday they are in a bad mood, their coffee was cold and it's raining and things are just not going their way. I worked for an agent, Larry Schartzheim, for about ten months in Midtown, NY, and that is what I realized there. Some times you can have the best material in the world, but it will just miss. There was one manuscript for a West African woman—I don't remember her, name or the name of the manuscript. But I remember that the first line started off something like, "On the day I was born in my village one hundred miles away, my grandmother danced with a bowl of water balanced on her head." It was [with emphasis] the most arresting, amazing image. And I was so excited about this because, of course I wanted to undo the bad karma I was doing by writing rejection letters. I wanted to rescue someone from transom. I wanted to make the agents happy and it was very good writing. I remember I took it home and actually read it at home and I called my agent and I said, "Wow, have I got the manuscript for you. I am just blown away it's the best thing I have read since I have been here." And I put it in her office, put it right on top, marked with a stickie, and said this is the one to look at. And about five days later I say to her, "What did you think." And she says. "Ah, not so much."RB: [laughs]CAB: It was the point at which I realized that first of all, readers are very different.RB: It's variable and subjective within our own experience. You can read something the first time and love it and the second time, not. Currently Sam Lypsite's buzz is about his being rejected twenty-seven times. People forget that Tibor Fischer was rejected fifty-six times. That seems to say that—CAB: It is variable. Something else that is interesting, when I look at my own work depending on the day I look at it, I can love it and I can think it's the worst thing I have ever written. Hopefully somewhere between the two extremes is the truth.RB: Well, certainly everyone needs an editor. So, I am not clear on the route you have taken. You studied as an archaeologist—CAB: I studied anthropology and archaeology—RB: —because?CAB: It interested me. When went to school it was between studying English and studying anthropology. I went to the College of William and Mary in Virginia. My parents were very good about saying to me, "Study what you want to study. What you think you would enjoy and love."RB: Unusual for immigrant parents.CAB: It is very unusual. It took a lot of doing on their part. Particularly for my father who was battling this hope for stability for his children. But he said, "It would be lousy to study something that you are not interested in." So it came down to English and archaeology, and I decided, "I read anyway, voraciously. I read. I read. I read." But archeology, unless I study it I am not likely to go out and do it and learn about it. So that's how decided, and I minored in Spanish literature and language.RB: I gather you spend a fair amount of time in Spain?CAB: I spent a year.RB: And the distance between undergraduate studies and NYU?CAB: Quite a few years. Five to six years. And that was the period I was in Bosnia and living in Croatia and went to Holland to work at The Hague. Actually I knew that when I finished archaeology I was not so interested in immediately pursuing something but I thought in the future I might go back and do something with it. I worked for a while in America as a field archaeologist.RB: I hadn't known that certain tools [in archaeology] were so important. I understand that in many pursuits one's tools are very important—CAB: And you take a lot of pride in them. RB: A certain brand of trowel?CAB: Yeah. They are very important and you never want to be without a Marshalltown trowel, and it had better be sharpened perfectly and [chuckles] or else they will laugh you out of the field.RB: You had training as field archaeologist but you went to Croatia as a forensic archaeologist.CAB: I had a Fulbright to go to Croatia. And switched tracks completely at that point and had a sociology project to collect data on the war-affected population in Zagreb, specifically women. Women who had been displaced from Croatia or were refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina and had a year to do that. I had already been getting off track before that point hence why I applied for that scholarship. And that changed my focus completely. That year led to the summer, the July and August I spent in Bosnia. And it just sort of piggybacked—one thing led to another, led to another, and while it doesn't seem like the straightest road, in a way it was utterly logical for me, at the time. RB: Well, personal logic is—CAB: Sometimes it is not so clear to other people, exactly. And at the end of that year with the refugees, I thought, "Here is a chance to bring my training and do something very concrete," which is why I went to Bosnia. They hired me as an archaeologist but they hired me for language reasons. They were very happy to have someone who spoke the language.RB: And yet at the same time you had to hide your background from the locals.CAB: Yeah.RB: You worked with a couple of Latin Americans who had vast experience in forensic archaeology—which is a really morbid pursuit.CAB: It is morbid and awful. When I was going out there I thought, "Maybe I will end up so interested by this that I will go and study this." The first day I knew that I was just not cut out for it.RB: It could be that here is a real case of American exception—in the treatment of the dead. What I get from reading you is that the dead are ever present. They are there. Whereas Americans seem to have no problem burying them and that's that.CAB: Not only that but with older people in America we do the same thing. We bury them before they are even dead. So by the time people die—the line in America between living and dead is so starkly drawn. It's not like that in the vast majority of the world. In quite a few of the places it's not like that—Latin America for sure, as in the Balkans. In that war, clearly one of the reasons it became so hard to draw the line was because people didn't know who was dead and who wasn't. The whole issue of missing persons, people were probably dead. But not definitely.RB: Of course, in Latin America—actually Guatemala—was where “disappearingâ€? became a government-sponsored human rights abuse.In that war, clearly one of the reasons it became so hard to draw the line was because people didn't know who was dead and who wasn't. CAB: And the dirty war in Argentina.RB: You observed that refugee women always think their missing will return.CAB: The vast majority. Until they are shown evidence, it is a rare person in those circumstances who without evidence can say, "I really have to face the fact that most likely [they are dead]." Eventually they have to accept that fact. But it happens because so much time has gone by that it just would defy logic that the person would still be alive. Or some type of proof is given or the body is found or someone is tracked down who saw the person shot and buried or that sort of thing. But the women that I interviewed and the vast majority of them had missing people in either their immediate family or in the extended family.RB: Is there a word for “closureâ€? in Croatian?CAB: That does bear on this question, and I don't think so, to the best of my knowledge.RB: There is an odd way in which we characterize a culture by the words they don't have.CAB: Right. Actually women never explained it to me in that way. They always say it is better to know and interestingly that is a less absolute way of putting it than "closure." Because "closure" implies "that's it, I can move on," “shut the door,â€? draw that line starkly. I can move forward. For these women, it was more: "This situation is shitty. It would be slightly less shitty if I could know." But they did not fool themselves as to think that it would be good.RB: "Closure" is one of those psychobabble words that is a pseudo-word, except we do believe, or have been impressed, that in this country we can do things that stand in opposition to human nature and experience.CAB: Right.RB: Getting back to the way your stories were accepted for publication, your stories—if someone asked me, "Do you want to read a story collection on Bosnia, about the war?" I would probably hem and haw. But your stories do validate the notion that in the hands of a skillful writer that any subject can be made interesting readable and compelling.CAB: That was my hope. And the reason why I didn't listen. The thing I kept telling myself was that if I make it good enough, write this well enough, they will have no choice but to be interested in publishing this. I just refused to give up on that point. Any material, if it's treated in such a way that it's good, then it makes all the difference in the world.RB: I was fascinated by the story "Surveillance." A story about a sniper/ photographer. He is kind of a spook and works for the State.CAB: The state apparatus. Exactly.RB: You turned it into such a personal tale even as you show how terrible it would be to live a society like that. CAB: And he clearly feels he has a connection. I wrote that—one of the reasons was because and it's probably true of other immigrant communities, while there was still communism or socialism or however you want to call it—in the Croatian population in America, Italy and England, Germany there was this very deep-seated fear of Udbah [Unutras?nja Drz?avna Bezbednost], the state secret police. And Udbah infiltrated immigrant communities abroad. There were several high profile murders/assassinations that took place outside of Yugoslavia. And my dad and every person who immigrated during those years, whether it was logical or not, they had this fear of being observed. This fear that there were dossiers on them and their movements were being charted. During the war in Croatia and Bosnia there were re-awakened fears about this because many people will tell you that in many of these countries, not just in Yugoslavia, those state systems were never fully disassembled. The people who were these interrogators, the people who followed people and who roughed up the opposition, were underground anyway and it became very difficult to tease them out even after the fall of Communism.RB: They gravitated toward the seats of power.CAB: Exactly. It's hard to know whether that's a paranoid view of things or there is a grain of truth—probably both. What really fascinated me was what would that look like for that person, not some high level functionary but for some guy. This guy thinks he is an artist but he is not good enough, so he views his surveillance work in some sick way as his art. And I because I am very much against the black and white depiction of people and particularly when we talk about human evil and if it were only that simple then maybe we could do something about it. But it's not. To me it is very clear that you can have people who are going into Bosnia raping and murdering and putting in detention and they could go back to their homes and villages and farms and hug their wives.RB: That does fall under the rubric of “the banality of evil.â€? CAB: What is interesting is the American sense that war is something that happens elsewhere because we draw such black and white in personalities and view things in such stark terms. In the war in Bosnia and Croatia, I worked with many Americans and Western Europeans, and the general prevailing attitude was that this was a defect of a region. That evil could be so widespread and the same personality could be harbored — again, this idea of the banality of evil. And we are not very good at looking at ourselves in that light. In America, that's where we fall short.RB: You make the point that most outsiders want to say that both sides were equally bad. Massacring seven thousand people was a response to someone else's evil deeds.CAB: Right. Or this was an answer to an earlier crime. And that's wrong. It's not right to paint in black and white to look at these shining examples of humanity versus these evil people. That's clearly facile, and it would be facile in the Balkans, however—to my mind—and nobody has ever convinced me any different; and I base this very much on what I saw and experienced. There were vastly different degrees of war crimes that were going on by different sides. What I look at most is the degree to which the governments themselves were complicit in the crimes that were committed. So it becomes right to say—it is correct to say—that there were war crimes committed by all sides. Anybody who would say that there was not one soldier in our ranks who did something wrong, that's again clearly facile. But it greatly varies as far as the degree to which this was approved of or even ordered by higher levels And that's something when I was working at The Hague that was something that bothered me, because if we can agree that everyone is guilty and everyone bears more or less an equal guilt, then—RB: Than no one is culpable. No judgment is necessary.CAB: No one is really guilty and we can all move on and we can have closure. RB: The Hutus and the Tutsis, they are all—CAB: And it's that idea, they are Africans, they are in the jungle—these awful racist beliefs that people have.RB: And so the African genocides were [and are] way under the radar.CAB: Completely.RB: The stories in Stillness, are they a collection or did you write them over a period of time and select a few for the book? CAB: I have quite a few other stories. It happened in that period all of the stories that I wrote one way or another had to do with that region or the war. That was very much my focus. And therefore it made it easier later when I thought, "Hey, I should make a collection." I never wrote the stories with the idea of a published collection. It just happened that I couldn't write about other subjects. Those were the things I wanted to write about.RB: Maybe it's obvious but you could have put Stillness at the beginning, the title story at the beginning—is it the conclusion for you.CAB: For me it's the beginning and the ending. If I could have gotten away with putting it two places I would have. For me in many ways Vukovar was the beginning. It was not in chronological sense—there were situations that happened before that. It was the first time in that war, in 1991 that things became clear in terms of what the Yugoslav army and paramilitary groups were willing to do— that they were willing to massacre. They were willing to manipulate the media in the way that they did—and they did grotesquely. I talk about it as the test. That rump Yugoslavia — Serbia was able to effectively gauge the response they got about Vukowar [ was a thriving home to 50,000 Serbs and Croats before the war. Now, fewer than 3000 survivors remain] and Osijek was, "Oh, that's really awful but what can we do?" If there had been a different response, at the very beginning there would never have been war in Bosnia. RB: I must confess that I was capable of being as stupid and oblivious as anyone else. I was aggravated about any attention being paid to Yugoslavia because I was upset about Central America—I saw it as racist that there seemed to be more concern about white Europeans than—CAB: There was not much care about the Europeans, as it turns out. And generally I agree with you about Latin America; Bosnians and Croatians thought that their European qualities would save them. It's similar to what happened with the tsunami. Had the stories been only about the local populations, I am not sure that there would have been the response that there was. But so-and-so was on vacation and we can all imagine that and sympathize with that. In Croatia and Bosnia they thought, "People will see we are hard working people and we send our kids to school, we drive our cars the way they drive their cars in Italy just across the water." And they were in for a very nasty surprise. And in Bosnia, Islam—the fact of Islam—was used to a very large degree, which is amazing because Islam in Bosnia is unlike Islam anywhere else in the world, and there seemed top be very little understanding of that.RB: It was a variation on â€?the only good Indian is a dead Indianâ€? theme. What is going on with the [Slobodan] Milosevic trial? He seemes to be successful in dragging it out.CAB: He's making a fool out of everybody there. He wanted to call Bill Clinton and he refused to have his lawyer represent him. Then he was going to represent himself. The last I heard, because I haven't followed it much lately—I washed my hands of it. I think he has a heart condition and for a while they were checking him out and seeing if he was fit to be on trial.RB: Well, that's a problem because the U.S. refuses to become a signatory to the International Court, and when the spectacle of that trial is shown, it diminishes the ICC [International Criminal Court]. On the other hand—CAB: —it's disgusting that we aren't willing to participate. In Kosovo, after the war, there was the case of a guy, an American soldier named Ronghi, and he raped and murdered an eleven-year-old Albanian girl, threw her body in a field. And I never heard anything after that. He may have been court marshaled but whatever he got was a slap on the wrist. And that's really wrong.Editor's note: Reader Michael Moore corrects us, "In fact, Staff Sergeant Ronghi was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole."RB: So you are teaching now?It's similar to what happened with the tsunami. Had the stories been only about the local populations, I am not sure that there would have been the response that there was. But so-and-so was on vacation and we can all imagine that and sympathize with that. CAB: No more human rights/translating/archaeology, none of that. Right now I teach and I write and it's a good balance.RB: What city is Kenyon College in?CAB: It's in a very tiny town called Gambeer. It's smack in the middle [of Ohio], an hour and a half northeast of Columbus. Cincinnati is three and a half hours, Cleveland is two in the other direction.RB: Are you surprised that I know or care anything about Ohio?CAB: [laughs] Most people do not—RB: I grew up in Chicago, so the Midwest in not a foreign land to me.CAB: There's an article in [March 2005] Vanity Fair about Kenyon [because] of the election, because it boasted the longest lines in the country—eleven hours my students waited to vote.RB: Did you see the troops of writers that came through Ohio? Steven Elliott and Nick Flynn?CAB: I didn't see any of them, but a group did come to Kenyon College and had a rally. I saw John Kerry when he came and we all showed up and waved our signs. There were a lot of people who came to the state. The Vanity Fair article raises a lot of questions. There are many outstanding questions about Ohio and how things went.RB: I recently saw the documentary Unprecedented, which was about the Florida electoral debacle. And I was beyond amazed that the issue was dealt with in this way and that whole country did not demand a better process for resolution. I can't say what the truth was but the way the issue went away so quickly—it wasn't dealt with.CAB: Just like in Ohio, just like this. What the article talks about and at the time a lot was not made of this fact—in Cleveland, in districts that were working class or had greater numbers of non-whites registered to vote, the lines were impossibly long. People could not afford to take off work and many people ended up having to leave the lines. At Kenyan there were all sorts of games being played through the Secretary of State's office, telling the students they were not allowed to vote there, all sorts of things because they knew they would vote Democrat. What amazes me is how quietly everybody, afterwards, has gone back to business as usual. To a certain extent we need to—what 's the alternative? But I can't believe that they didn't figure out the voting machines between the last time and this time. Four years they had to figure things out. According to the article there are some very specific things that should be investigated.RB: So you have left you troubled youth behind—you're teaching?CAB: I did, I did. Happily, I'm not so sure. I miss New York.RB: Now the tortuous life of being a writer. What else do you see in your future?CAB: Writing some more. To tell you the truth and I am writing a series of articles about it now; the thing that interests me right now is this American moment that we are living in. It's as significant as anything else I have written about. And the fact that one of the stories I wrote a few weeks ago is about a translator in Iraq. I don't know if you saw the news story about the woman who was in the interrogation room and was translating for these American soldiers—and they can't figure it out, but it seems that soldiers were joking around and one pulled out his pistol and shot her in the head. Then tried to cover it up [this story has recently been accepted in the forthcoming second volume of Stephen Elliott’s Politically Inspired anthology.] RB: Yow. No, I hadn't heard that one.CAB: There was almost not a blip about this. You can find it if you go to Reuters. The Washington Post had something about it because she did some translating for them. But it went so far under the radar—to me that's unbelievable.RB: Writing a story?CAB: A fiction, but inspired by this. Having to do with something like this that could happen. So that's what I am working on right now, and being in Ohio is not a bad thing. I'm there on a limited contract. I'll go away in May and come back for one more year. It's not right to construe the state [Ohio] as everyone thinks this way. It's far more complicated than that—there are variations of people that are there. But I still think there are a lot of things happening there that are very disturbing, that are trends demonstrating, at least to me, the direction in which we are headed. I'd like to write about those things.RB: What about a novel?CAB: I am also working on a novel. I have the ideas for a novel and I would like to write a novel. I am done with the war. Between the Stone Fields and Stillness I did what I wanted to do with that and said what I wanted to say. I have also—not come to terms with things, but time has passed and it's always going to be important to me, and probably in some way I will always write about it, but I am also ready to talk about other things. I would also like to write a book about immigration, write a novel about immigration from a woman's point of view who comes to America in the post-9/11 world, and who comes as an illegal immigrant.RB: I look forward to it, and I hope we meet again.CAB: I hope so.Robert Birnbaum, a bookish journalist, was born in Germany, grew up in Chicago, lived for too many years in Boston. He is editor-at-large at Identitytheory.com and something or other at The Morning News. He lives in New Hampshire with blonde Labrador, Rosie. Thanks for asking. Note: Featured author in November 2000E-mail: reddiaz@aol.comhttp://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum159.php   nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 24 May 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4913/1/E-A-slice-of-Croatia-in-the-heart-of-Kuala-Lumpur.html A slice of Croatia in the heart of Kuala Lumpur By NG WEI LOON THE Uptown Place, or “Little Croatiaâ€? as it is affectionately known, is intended to display the Croatian culture, tradition and hospitality to locals as well as foreign visitors. The Croatian ambassador Zeljko Cimbur, who launched the club, said the Croatian embassy endorsed and supported the idea of having a Croatian club as a meeting place for all. “We have left our bitter war memories behind us to move forward. We want to build a good relationship with Malaysia as we see the potential of developing bilateral ties,â€? Cimbur added. Although the outlet's co-owner Erwin A. Jullius has assimilated well into Malaysian society, he wanted to introduce the traditional and cultural identity of his roots. Jullius (left) and Cimbur at the launch. The 33 year-old, who originated from Croatia has been residing here since 1994 working in the food and beverage industry. He has married a Malaysian Chinese from Malacca and even obtained Malaysian citizenship two years ago. He spent his first six months in the country staying in rural villages to adapt to the Malaysian way of life. “It helps a lot to understand the local culture. Given the opportunity, I am dedicated to learn. “I would also like to share my experiences with others,â€? said Jullius, who converses in Bahasa Malaysia and Hokkien. “Great ideas come naturally to me. But, my biggest obstacle is to find the funds to realise these dreams,â€? the father of a five year-old girl and two year-old boy added. The simple establishment at Changkat Bukit Bintang started its operation in October last year. It was a result of Jullius’ business partnership with an English lady Erika Maitland. The warmth and friendliness at the drinking joint makes it a melting pot for patrons from different backgrounds and cultures. It offers Croatian liqueurs like Travariea and Pelinkovac along with the soothing tunes of Croatian romantic and folk songs sung by the legendary Oliver Dragojevic 'u Areni. Niell Hogg, who is a regular, said the place has the ability to draw people together. “Just look around, it’s easy to start a conversation and share experience with others,â€? said Hogg, who works as an IT consultant. English tourists Michael Parkinson and Paddy Lawler, who arrived in the city as a stopover before Australia, were also seen having a good time there. Some of the 50 members of the Croatia’s folk dance ensemble Lado led by general manager Ivana Lusic who were in the city to perform as part of its Asia Pacific tour were also present at the launch. The group established in 1949 presents traditional Croatian regional dances. Mireal Coko, 29 from Singapore took the opportunity to mingle around with the members of the group. “I grew up abroad. But, I am a Croatian at heart. The Lado represents Croatian heritage because of its originality in dance choreography, musical instruments and costumes,â€? she said. http://metro.thestar.com.my/news/2005/5/10895295.html  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 20 May 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4912/1/E-Captivated-by-the-plant.html nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 20 May 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4915/1/E-Nancy-Lucey---My-parents-were-immigrants-from-Croatia.html  My parents were immigrants from Croatia Moms' closets hold life's lessonsBy CHRISTINE COXTribune Staff Writer  Nancy Lucey of South Bend was amazed to discover her mother's wedding veil and shoes, as well as wedding photographs of her parents, while cleaning out their house after their deaths. Her mother, Nancy, whose maiden name was Stipulin, married Lucey's father, Joseph Brozovich, in 1925. Tribune Photo/BARBARA ALLISON Darlene Johnson and Shannon Stuart with Levi, 3 months. Shannon hired a private investigator to find her mother's birth mother. Tribune Photo/SANTIAGO FLORESA frosting flower from a decades-old wedding cake. Strappy high heels stacked in their boxes. A life lesson in giving even when you have next to nothing.Mothers' closets held them all.In honor of Mother's Day, The Tribune invited readers to share stories of their mothers' closets, jewelry boxes and other places moms claim as their own. The 11 women who responded had childhoods wealthy enough for nannies and poor enough for only one family closet. One story revolves around a dance band; another is tied to an oval window.In every piece, the writers cherish the discoveries they made about their mothers, themselves and life through a closet door. Here is the first:Romance and love were two words not frequently mentioned in my childhood home. My parents were immigrants from Croatia who worked diligently to provide for my two older brothers and me. Tasks were completed because it was expected of us.It wasn't until my parents had died, Mom in 1978 and Dad in 1987, and I was cleaning out their home, that I thought about them as young people in love. In a box in an upstairs closet, I was startled to find my mother's wedding veil, her shoes, and a remarkably preserved wedding cake flowerette made of frosting.In another box, I found their wedding pictures. Here they were young, beautiful people celebrating their marriage with friends and relations. My mother was wearing the wedding gown she had sewn herself. My father was dapper in a black suit with white bib and tie, a small boutonniere tucked in his jacket.I sat back, when I found the box, to think about my parents as young people in the blush of love. My mother was 35 when I was born, my father 40. I had only known them when they were middle-aged and older, working constantly.-- Nancy Lucey of South Bend on her late mother, Nancy Brozovich http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2005/05/08/local.20050508-sbt-FULL-A1-Moms__closets_hold_l.sto  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 05 May 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4914/1/E-They-sing-it-in-Croatian-but-they-dont-understand-a-single-word.html  They sing it in Croatian, but they don't understand a single wordObserver-ReporterSaturday, April 30, 2005Visit reveals traditions of Cokeburg to Croatian reporter By Lada Kalmeta COKEBURG – "I'm crying, my dear mother ... I'm crying because he first kissed me, but then he left me ..." Tens of voices sing this song loudly and emotionally in this little Washington County town. The song is written in the Croatian language and they sing it in Croatian, but they don't understand a single word. People from Cokeburg sing hundreds of Croatian songs, and during every performance they seem to understand perfectly every word they sing, but it is not so. "They wrote down words of every song and they learned it by heart. But they never ask for the meaning of those words. They just sing. They love it," says Marlene Luketich-Kochis, who leads this Cokeburg group of singers. Members of the group don't only sing, they perform their ethnic dance and play instruments called "tamburitza." The word tamburitza is Croatian; there is no English translation for it, as tamburitza was invented in Croatia and brought to the United States almost two centuries ago. Immigrants left the coal towns in this area after all the coal was mined. By 1950, all coal mines in Cokeburg were already closed, but this town, inhabitated by Croatian immigrants and their descendants, still exists. People didn't leave Cokeburg. Now, 705 inhabitants live there, and the average age of residents is 42, which proves that many young people with children have made the decision to stay here. Why is it not the case in any other coal towns? If we say that people in Cokeburg carry on old Croatian traditions by playing tamburitza and singing old national songs, we still haven't reached the only real reason why they still populate Cokeburg. The fact is that they maintain customs which in Croatia are already forgotten. They are the only group of Croatians in the whole world who keep certain rituals, particularly with respect to St. George. Moreover, because only Cokeburg people keep these traditions, Croatian people from all over the United States – and even from other parts of the world – come to Cokeburg to participate in special ceremonies. Cokeburg resident Marlene Luketich-Kochis, in back, recently shows her collection of Croatian costumes and dresses to Lada Kalmeta, a Croatian reporter interning with the Observer-Reporter. (STAN DIAMOND/O-R) "This is the reason why Cokeburg is full of life," explains Bernard Luketich, the mayor of Cokeburg. "Croatian people came here before World War I only from one region in Croatia, around the town named Ogulin. There is a village near Ogulin, called Zagorje Ogulinsko, and particularly from that village came the most people in Cokeburg in those early years. Today in Zagorje Ogulinsko in Croatia, everything changed, and they didn't keep old traditional habits. We did, so Cokeburg became the host town for people from all over the U.S. who originally came from Ogulin and from Zagorje, and they are coming to Cokeburg to participate in our common celebration." The celebration of St. George takes place in Cokeburg every year on April 23 and 24, when Americans and Canadians who trace their ancestry to Ogulin, Zagorje Ogulinsko and other Croatian villages come to Cokeburg. The celebration, with old Croatian costumes and old rituals, the procession and the blessing of a special cake in the church cannot be seen anywhere else in the world, not even in Croatia anymore. "In our club in Cokeburg, where we dance, sing and play tamburitza, we have people from 5 to 85. Everybody must learn to play tamburitza and to sing Croatian songs, although they don't know the language. That keeps us together, and that marks us as the only Croatian descendants who take care about tradition, forgotten everywhere. There are ot