Petty Interests

Professor Kenneth Zapp of the Minnesota Metropolitan University, a financial expert, and his wife Magda Zapp, an economist and professor at Augsburg College in Saint Paul, have been in Yugoslavia many times and have organized several research expeditions for American students. They are both fluent in Serbo-Croatian and have many friends among Yugoslavs. We talked with them about the causes and the implications of the Yugoslav crisis.

"All that is happening today in Yugoslavia", said dr. Zapp, "is like a drawn-out nightmare to us. After all these terrible crimes have been committed and enormous emotional and material losses suffered on both sides, it is obvious that to most people Yugoslavia definitely is a thing of the past and that all the chances for Yugoslav peoples to keep together, at least in a loose kind of federation, were missed. Still, the fact that you had an advantage over other East European countries leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Unfortunately, your country was killed by the 'petty interest' madness, the nationalist programmes, old dusty maps of small states dreaming about huge territories, the arrogant and overbearing national leaders, intolerant people unwilling to negotiate and compromise.

As an economist, I tend to locate the reasons for the disappearance of Yugoslavia in the sphere of economics. Various political and historical reasons have also played an important role there. Many years of economic crisis have left their mark: they have dimmed the perspective of many people and have prepared the ground for the 'national saviours' with their unattainable ideals of independent national states. The roots of these phenomena can be traced back at the beginning of the seventies, when the liberal orientation and the initial free market attempts were thwarted and the federal government served as a prop.

It is hard for me to agree with the ones who claim that the present wave of nationalism in Yugoslavia and in many other East European countries is merely 'the last stage of communism'. The economic crisis and the lack of perspective give birth to such phenomena in nearly every system. The latest example is the dizzying political success of David Duke, a former Nazi, who has tried recently to become governor of Louisiana. He built his whole strategy on a difficult economic situation in his state, and offered racism as a way out. The black population of Louisiana and the USA was said to be the culprit, not Serbs or Croats like in Yugoslavia, but the mechanism is the same. In Louisiana today you can hear people say almost the same thing I heard two years ago in Korcula: 'Maybe he is not all that bad, but he is a Serb'. It seems clear to me that this phenomenon is not typical only for the former socialist countries.

We wanted to explain to the people here in Minnesota that it simply is not true that Slovenians and Croats are democratically oriented and that Serbs are communists. The truth is that all these regimes are so very much alike. Yugoslavia had a misfortune of having the first multi-party elections after many years of economic crisis, which served as an ideal ground for all kinds of chauvinist manipulations and extreme political options. The most fierce nationalists, the staunchest Serbs and Croats have won. They lulled people with false hopes, promising that their newly formed national states, with absolute army and militia control, will bring prosperity and happiness to the population.

Being frequent visitors to Yugoslavia in the past years, we have realized that the nationalist regimes have their respective propaganda machineries. Their role is to help build false nationalist pretenses and justify every single move of the leaders. They have systematically been creating hatred between nations. It is particularly interesting that there has never, during the communist rule in Yugoslavia, been so much censorship and control of the press, especially the electronic media. People have become victims of horrific manipulations. There is no room for a different opinion and in this war it is practically impossible to tell what is reality and what is fiction."

A special chapter of Yugoslav tragedy, according to Mr. and Mrs. Zapp, are the national leaders, who share not only the responsibility for this war, but also the quality to become "tolerant" only when driven to the wall or forced from the outside to accept compromise.

"I remember the war in Slovenia", said Mr. Zapp. "After the truce was established, one of the Slovenian politicians explained that the truce was accepted only because the European Community put forth an ultimatum. Before that they have foolishly and one-sidedly decided to take all the border crossings and leave Yugoslavia as soon as possible, excluding any possibility of negotiations, although they knew you cannot leave a country as you would leave a bar. At the time, there was no Slovenian politician willing to negotiate or settle for a compromise, except for patient Janez Drnovsek. After the pressure was put to bear by the international community, the Croatian leadership finally agreed upon the autonomy for Serbs, although it could have been done much earlier and all that followed would have been avoided. The Serbian leadership has somewhat been most unwilling to negotiate. On the one hand, it called for the preservation of Yugoslavia, and, on the other, it made a series of moves, like breaking into the federal financial system, which were tearing this country apart.

During the autumn of last year, Mr. and Mrs. Zapp have participated in several seminars and counseling sessions in Slovenia and Croatia, voicing their opinions on the economic perspectives and the possible foreign investments and joint ventures in Yugoslavia.

"It is interesting", says professor Magda Zapp, "that some politicians and their assistants did not like what we said, although they asked for an unbiased opinion. Namely, we have warned them that big American companies have no real interest to enter Yugoslavia's shredded market. The Slovenian market, for instance, with just over two

million inhabitants, is smaller than the markets of the two biggest towns in Minnesota - Minneapolis and Saint Paul. It is very hard to find the economic rationale for investing in such a market.

Their counter-argument was: "That's true, but Luxembourg is even smaller'. That, of course, is a fact, but one should not forget that Luxembourg is part of the common European market and that anyone willing to invest in this tiny state knows what is behind it. We learned that there were some who claimed that we were "Belgrade spies", because they disliked our point of view. There were also attempts to cancel some of our lectures. It is also very interesting that when talking with businessmen and managers from various firms in Yugoslavia, you get a completely different impression.

They are fully aware of how small and insignificant the markets of the new states will be in the world trade proportions, and are very much afraid of it."

"It is all politics - the worst possible kind", adds Mr. Zapp. "It seems to me that, before giving Yugoslavia up for good, the republic leaderships did not use calculators, since that obviously does not rhyme with the national fervor. It is absolutely necessary to undertake all the possible steps to stop this dirty and senseless war. Only then is it possible to mend the broken economic links. Presently, it seems that the 'blue helmets' are still very far away, and the peace as well. The alleged 'Christmas presents' of the unsecured recognition of Slovenia and Croatia (although their positions are quite different) could, in the lack of a global peaceful settlement of the Yugoslav problem, aggravate this war and make it even more bloody. We are also frightened by the existence of various irregular armed formations, which seem to be out of control and are waging their own private wars. The only way out for the people of Yugoslavia is to raise their voice in protest against the war, on all sides, in a similar way Belgrade students did in March this year, standing up to manipulations and lies.

However, we often wonder these days where have many of our Yugoslav friends disappeared. Most of them are reasonable and benevolent people who disapprove of this madness. Some of them, like the academic Mihailo Markovic, for instance, have unfortunately become advocates of the nationalist options. But what happened to so many reasonable people, why are they silent today, why don't they stand up to destruction and senselessness? As for us, regardless of the future of this country, we shall try to preserve Yugoslavia for our friends' sake..."

Nenad Lj. Stefanovic