A Taste Of Success

What actually happened in Athens? Did the Serbs bring Europe to its knees or was it simply that the Yugoslav team won the European basketball championship. For a moment it looked like a game of basketball, more or less deservedly won by our team of experienced professionals, and a cause for harmless rejoicing. Even if the referee did favor our team a little in the final match, it does not mean that the Lithuanians were any better. And when one is winning, it is easy to be large-hearted so our players did their best to persuade the angry and disappointed Lithuanians to return to the game. It also looked as if our players were not much bothered either by the fact that the Greeks cheered against them or that the Croatian team expressed their patriotism by refusing to listen to the national anthem of the aggressor.

However it then became clear, not so much in Athens as in Belgrade, that the whole thing can not remain simply a question of sport. For too long people here fasted, languished in solitude, suffered humiliation; for too long greatness and glory were only fantasized about, while victories were being invented to cover up for actual defeats. This first real victory disclosed how over-starved we are, how deep our desperation is, and how hungry we are for even the smallest fragment of success and self-confidence. That is what caused such an outburst of joy.

When the sanctions on sports were lifted, it became quite probable that at some point someone from this part of the world will win. When something like that actually happens, it is quite logical that the Serbs will not rejoice in a quiet and modest way becoming of the guilty and the punished, but will celebrate with song and gunfire. And when they start singing, patriotic songs come quite naturally, especially since such an activity is not considered sinful by the Commission for sanctions. Also, since their guns are at hand, there is no harm in shooting a little, mind you, in the air. And next time the Greeks should be more careful when deciding who to support, since this time the Serbs quite expectedly smashed up their embassy in Belgrade and threatened with a break in relations.

If you step back and look at the whole thing from a distance, a familiar picture suddenly emerges, reminding you of what happened five years ago. At one time, in front of the townhall, the excited assembly of people started singing the ominous hit song about Serbia not being small and a new war which it is willing to fight. The crowd looked as nationally homogenized as it used to be and someone may have considered telling the security council about this and requesting the sanctions to be reinstated.

However some differences are obvious. A name and a photograph are missing. In the excitement everybody looks united, but the variety of symbols indicates a colossal confusion. Judging by the slogans which were chanted, people are still confused about whether their country is Yugoslavia or Serbia. There were at least six versions of the flag: with a red star, with four Cyrillic "S", with eagles, without anything, with a patched up hole, even with a marihuana leaf... As far as the anthem is concerned, people consistently suggest "Djurdjevdan", a suggestion that no nationally conscious committee dealing with the issue will ever consider.

All in all, it is a real miracle that thousands of Serbs, which can no longer agree about the leader, the country, or the flag and national anthem, managed to gather together without having a go at each other. Evidently the secret lies in the successful encounter with the outer world. Someone will maybe hope that Serbs will now realize that the basketball recipe ought to be applied to all other areas.

However, first it must be explained that the secret does not lie in the genetic superiority of the Serbs, purity of the blood, spirit and faith, but a skill which has been maintained and perfected for decades. It is a triumph of education and hard work rather than birth, something which is obvious from the success of Yugoslavs managing basketball teams abroad.

However, since quite a different ideology governs here, and no one has a lot of patience and nerve, it could easily happen that basketball will be neglected, and that what happened in Athens will be our last great success. The current generation of players did not succeed because of anything that happened in the last five years, but survived in spite of everything. They did not demonstrate that the Serbs were right all along, nor that Milosevic is a great leader, that the sanctions were unjust, that the West is rotten, that we are immune to the new world order, but only that once a lot of effort was put in to basketball. Is anybody ready to learn this small lesson?

As far as the suddenly disrupted friendship with our Orthodox brothers the Greeks is concerned - easy come easy go. In the first place it only existed as part of the propaganda and to the Serbian disadvantage. Milosevic's Serbia needed a theory about the Orthodox brotherhood in order to explain the conflict with the West and open some kind of international perspective. Undoubtedly, the Greeks helped Milosevic to go against the whole world, but they never even considered, for example, leaving the European Community for some Orthodox or Balkan union. Because of the Turks, the Greeks always looked with sympathy at Milosevic's lack of tenderness for the Bosnian Muslims. Another tie between the two countries was the willingness to contemplate the future of Macedonia, simply in order not to miss the opportunity of sharing it if the opportunity ever arises. Finally, both countries agreed that the sanctions are far too strict and that they could be relaxed, internally and in a brotherly way.

It may be true that here in the Balkans, more than elsewhere, people like presenting business and interests as matters which involve the heart. Maybe the Orthodox in general are more likely to justify trade with love. In any case this bubble had burst both in Athens and Belgrade. Greek supporters have shown that they do not like being beaten even by their Orthodox brothers, and the Serbs were insulted because that is the case. Now statesmen are apologizing, trying to mend the whole affair and limit the damage inflicted by their own peoples' outbursts of sincerity.

It seems ridiculous and stupid that the whole thing reached such political proportions, though this may be good, in the same way that very often things which were presented as wise and serious turned out to be bad. It would also be beneficial to wean ourselves of the habit of hating or worshipping nations and learn to seek political interpretations for political events, and thus make things clearer, misunderstandings smaller and mutual relations more stable.

Of course none of this would have happened had there not been television, or had people in charge of it, both here and in Greece, learned to do things more carefully and in a calm and controlled manner taking into account the Balkan temperament. Television channels here, in addition to the moments of victory and celebration, and equally frequently, broadcasted a comment by the Croatian Television, about the "monstrously stage-managed victory" and the "so-called alleged winners". It is believed, quite rightly, that Serbs are enjoying this wrath at least as much as the victory itself. Had the other side won, the same story would have been told here, while over there Tudjman would be the one receiving all the congratulations. The real truth is that both sides still play the good basketball learnt in former Yugoslavia.

It is interesting, however, that both Serbian and Croatian television very willingly broadcast the other side's propaganda stupidities and lies, not only in cases like this, but also about the war, mutual relations and internal affairs. In the Croatian stupidity the Serbs do not recognize their own, just as lying, such as is being done by the Serbs, is as an activity perfectly foreign to the Croats. They both keep shoving a mirror before each other without any fear that either will see their own reflection in it.

I don't know why no one thought of unfolding an American flag and offering America Serbia's hand of reconciliation, or at least suggested that the American referee, the one who annoyed the Lithuanians so badly, was following detailed guidelines issued by the State Department. The Croatian Television commentator was very close to such an interpretation, while the Serbs are still waiting for stronger evidence of American affection.

Nonetheless, this nice episode should not go away without deeper analyses, new discoveries, and synthetic conclusions about the Serbian national being. I do not consider myself competent, but I believe that we have the right to expect the connoisseurs and authorities on the subject to announce for example that Serbs are people who win at basketball, but are advised to stay away from wars.