MILO WHO? Were you one of the many American citizens who, upon hearing just this week that someone called "Milosevic" had died in his prison cell this week. Did you, for the moment, hard put to recall exactly who, what, when, where and why that strange name should register in your memory?
Did he wear a black hat? An enemy? A foe? Or, was he on our side? The news item said "he died in his prison cell" so, we concluded he must have been a "bad guy". There is a button on the keyboard of our memories which enables us to, at will, erase or, at least conceal for a time, any unpleasant incident which may well have taken place but which might want to be able to recall if such a need became pressing.
Milosevic, who's first named flowed along just as evenly as "Slobodan" He was called "a Serbian leader" - title which was bandied about rather loosely during the time of our 1995 era "Balkan Wars" . There now, the memory of Kosovo and other tragic sites come flooding back in your memory, right?
I had a "reserved seat" during those puzzling times, because I talked at least once a week with a friend who was native born to one of the islands off the west coast of Croatia. I soon found that it was her opinion that Milosevic was a man who had been a Communist, who became a Yugoslavian Nationalist and used force to try keep that nation together. In sequence he lost: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. Then, posing as a Serbian Nationalist his actions revealed his true colors as an "Opportunist."
Then, he became the man he had always been. Being uneasy and and testy in the presence of fakes and pretenders - even editorially - a nickname,by shortening his real first name - which I told you was Slobodan. From that point on, he became "The Slob" to me. In truth, aside from his fixations, he was capable in many ways and unbelievably conniving and convincing as diplomats by the
dozen will agree. He was an uncompromising opportunist not unlike Mobutu in Zaire and Ferdinand Marcos in The Philippines.
A.L.M March 13, 2006 [c379wds]
