PENSAN SE - Gustafi

Rumors have been flying everywhere over the weekend. 

The first rumor concerns the reported break in Canoval's "zero nudity" and "minimum skin" policies in his videos.  There's no mistake. At thirty-five seconds into this video,  the woman's clothes are all on top of the post by the water trough in the middle of the pasture.  You know there's not a stitch of clothing on her body other than her hat. She is stretched out in the cool water relaxing her body on a hot summer's day.

Yes, my dear fans, in order to keep up with the fashion of the times on YouTube, I have finally relented and given you FULL nudity.  Well ok, full shoulder nudity - from behind, but it's still bare skin - that's what you wanted, wasn't it?

Guys, I know that as you watch this video, your heart begins to beat faster and faster and you begin to pant as you rise on tiptoe to peer over the edge of the water trough as it races toward your eyes.  Suddenly you realize the  horse is the only one who can see more than her naked shoulders and her naked blonde hair cascading from under her hat. 

The black cat all covered with suds is bathing with her and you see his eyes nearly pop out.  Next you see his feet as he passes out.  He couldn't handle it.  The vision of all that beauty was just too much for him. Poor cat.  All he has been able to do for days now is stutter:  "Mi mi mi mi mi mi auuuuuuu!, mi mi mi mi mi auuuuuuuuu!, mi mi mi mi mi auuuuuu!"   He shakes and trembles when he does this too.

People have been asking me is this CJ in the water trough?  What do you want me to tell you? CJ reads this too you know.  If I say it isn't her, then I'll probably get "What's the matter with you?  Aren't you proud of me? I'm not pretty enough for you or what?"  If I tell you it is her then she will probably say "I knew it!  There you go smearing my photos all over the internet!"  Oh Jeez meneez! I'm a dead man!  I care about CJ more than I know how to say and I may be about to share the fate of so many men who have posted a photo of their lady on the internet.  Until she kills me, enjoy her bare naked shoulders.  That's all you are ever going to see. Look quick!  That's all I'm going to say about this.  Subject closed.

On to Gustafi: 

I love their beat, I love their style, I love their music, but, sigh, they are a bit rowdy sometimes.  How do you handle a song whose word's are  "F*** me baby, F*** me baby, F*** me tonight?"  In my case, you simply do not, but they have several really nice romantic songs as well. A lot of their songs are simple fun. "Pensan Se" was a lot of fun.

This is Gustafi according to Gustafi's "Band Profile" on Facebook.

Hometown: Kanfanar, HR
Genres: Rock
Members: Edi Maruzin, Vlado Maruzin, Cedo Mosnja, Boris Mohoric, Edin Pecman, Barbara Munjas, Dino Kalcic, Romano Hantih, Nikola Bernobic, Alen Bernobic, Vlado Ikac

The group Gustafi was formed in December 1980. in a small town, in Istria (Croatia), Vodnjan. An amateur theater group named "Gustaph y njegovi dobri duhovi" (Gustaph and his good spirits) held their first performance on 27th Decembar 1980. That performance was ment to be their only performance, but that's the mysterious ways of the Lord - band is still here and it works flawlessly. Members Čedomir Mošnja, Vlado Maružin and Edi Maružin are playing together for over 30 years. They have ten albums, and soon the eleventh and over 2,000 performances.

The two remaining initial members Livio Morosin and Igor Arih leave the band, Igor remains a subcontractor, and since then big number of musicians walked t[h]rough the band. At the beginning experimental punk rock influences later replaced by the Istrian folk music, as well as other world ethno scene from which it has created a distinctive sound Gustafi at which they were now known. A mixture of everything that they listened and heard (from blues, country music, texmex, cajun, Celtic music, traditional Balkan music, russian and ukraine music to orthodox Istrian songs) have created an infectious sublimate to persuade people wherever they come... from Portugal, Spain, Switzerland to Israel and Brazil. Full of rhythm, and positive emotions they have created friends and fans everywhere.

They play everywhere, from weddings and inns, taverns, bars, clubs, to major concerts and sports halls and festivals all over the country, and increasingly in Europe. Much beloved by critics, the last studio album "Chupacabra" on which they make a major shift towards the roots, with lots of experimental sounds, found sound, computers, have released the 2009th year and by critics, it is one of the best if not the best album of Gustafi. Album "FF" which was recorded 2006th won the "Porin" for best rock album. Soon will be released next album.

Current members, make Edi Maružin, texts and music, singer and guitarist, Vlado Maružin - guitar, Cedomir Mošnja - drums, Barbara Munjas - vocals, Dino Kalčić - bass, Boris Mohorić - trumpet and vocals, Nikola Bernobić-trumpet, Alen Bernobić-trumpet, Edin Pecman - keyboards and accordion, and Romano hantih - tuba. We look forward to moving into new campaigns, music... Always full of energy and dance, we're looking forward to every gig popular[l]y called "Štala".

General Manager:ourselves

Artists We Also Like:  Los Lobos, Pere Ubu, Manu Chao, Dr. Feelgood, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Nortec Collective, Latin Playboys, Amy Winehouse, Calexico, Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker, Coco Rosies. ....

Influences: All kind of music we hear y tu mama tambien

Band Interests: Playing gigs including sex, drugs & rock'n'roll (this means that we must make money playing our music )

Press Contact gsm:00385 98 214094      

Booking Agent:  Edi Maruzin

Tekst for "Pensan Se"
Pensan se ovi dan ki je kurac oven svitu
Kamo greom i do kada će durati
Daj mi ovo, daj mi ono
Daj mi kunu, daj mi krunu
Znaju samo me pitati

Daj mi dim, daj cigaru
Daj me smiri, daj mi sviri
Daj mi savjet kako umriti
Armando, Armando, daj mi piti
Ne rabi ti valja platiti

Daj mi biru, daj mi griz
Daj mi liz i ljubav, daj mi cice
Ma sve ću ja van dati
Samo mi ga zvadite z guzice
Daj, daj, daj!!!

Na ti! Na ti! I nemoj me
više nikad niš pitati
Na ti! Na ti! I nemoj mi
više nanke blizu stati!

tekst on english:  This is Istrian, rock, and Gustafian so who the heck knows exactly what the words say on engleski - does in matter?  Bee bop a loo ah!

These day s the hell oven svitu
  Greom Where and when will Durata
  Give me this, give me what
  Give me a dollar, give me the crown
  They know just ask me

 Give me a smoke, give a cigar
  Let me calm down, give me to play
  Give me advice on how to die
  Armando, Armando, give me a drink
  Do not use you must pay

 Biru Give me, give me a bite
  Give me liz and love, give me breasts
  Oh I will I give out
  Just give it zvadite z asses
  Give, give, give!

 For you! For you! I do not say
  never ask nothing
  For you! For you! And do we
 nanke more close fit!

PENSAN SE - Gustafi

Embrace the finches!! happy misdeeds!

Canovals a.k.a Slavonac
24 Listopad 2011

Embrace the finches!

So, here we are writing on engleski.  For why we are doing this?  Is because we have so many friends and everyone is speaking on different jezik.  Engleski maybe is only language we all have together unless everyone is speaking on "old slavonik."   Do you speak on "old slavonik?"  Me also I do not speak "old slavonik."  So then, engleski is jezik we are using here.   Ok ok, maybe sometimes a little teksikanski slips in here also. 

Some of you are using Google Translate to keep up what I am saying here.  You do not know how much I appreciate the fact that you go to so much trouble just to read what I say.  Thank you.  Hvala ti.  Muchas gracias ... 

Please do be careful how you use Google translate!  Last Sunday morning as I am leaving the house to go in church I write someplace to CJ:

"Dobro jutro!! Sretna Nedjelja!  Zagrljaj za tebe!"


When I return, this is the message I see:
"Google translation
11:10 AM 
Good morning! how are you? happy misdeeds! Embrace the finches
11:11 AM 
And so I say, right back atcha! Happy misdeeds (on Sunday no less) and embrace the finches! hahahaha"

Embrace the finches!  Did you ever try to catch a finch so you could embrace it?   Did you ever wish your lady friend "happy misdeeds?" And on Sunday! Oh dear! Oh dear!  Be careful with Google, it might say something we do not intend to say.  Sometimes it can  be funny ...

Dear friends, embrace the finches
and until we meet again


happy misdeeds!


Canovals a.k.a Slavonac
20 Listopad 2011

THE LONGSHIPS - Enya

It's such fun when you dig back in history past the point when the languages still used the now lost yers and yats and so on which are no longer used in the south anyway except in ultra archaic forms like in my own surname.  There used to be a  place called Halych–Volhyn.  Volhyn.  Wet.

I mentioned earlier that I was born among the Mvskoke.  I am not Mvskoke and so I do not have any tribal rights associated with them, nor am I a citizen of their almost invisible state in the middle of North America, but I do understand their history a bit.  Hehehe, my father had an unwitting impact on their "traditional" music, bless his heart.  Wet.  Mvskoke = Wet. So many words in Mvskoke jezik talk about "wet": a fast running creek, a slow running creek, a boggy creek, a dry creek, a river, a pond, a lake, a big lake, cold water, hot water, etc., etc., etc., each has its own word to describe it so there is little need for adjectives to attach to one of the "water" words.  Volhyn = Wet, but not on Mvskoke, on Volhynijan.

Volhyn was situated in the Buh river basin, a sometimes wet place and a major obstacle to the migrations into Europe.  Over the years the region was under a number of administrations including that of Małopolska and Krakova.  Among others, Aelfred the Great of Wessex mentions us.

The Germans and some of the tribes traveling with them moved through the Volhyn area on their way west.  A vast horde of them the old songs say.  With their great wagons, they wanted no part of the marsh lands so we stepped quietly back into the forests and into the marsh lands out of their way and let them pass.  They would be gone soon enough, and they were.  When the most of them had emptied out to the west we came crawling out of the marshes like so many cockroaches of a Texas coastal summer's evening back into our own land.  Haraldr harðráði's chronicler says in the Heimskringla: "Tryggvi ok Tvívívill höfðu komit 12 skipum: Læsir hafði skeið ok alla skipaða með köppum" which is to say: "The Laesir, they have arrived on the large, and long-ship ..."  Hmmm Maybe I've heard a story like this put another way: "Sju tusen 777 sjösjuka sjömän,"  (seven thousand seven hundred and seventy seven sea sick seamen).   Ok, say that three times fast on Croatian and see how your mouth feels:  "sedam tisuća, sedam sto, sedamdeset sedam morsku bolest pomoraca"  This was the moment when Haraldr harðráði, the last fierce Viking, encountered the Hrvats.  

The Laesir, as the Swedes called the Bielo-Chorvats or "White" Croatians were on the move too.  Some modern historian types wonder what happened to them.  If they were to listen to the old songs they would know.  When the time came, they loaded their wagons and moved.  Some of them again boarded "the large and long-ship ..."


Some were left behind.  Their fate was not so good.  As usual, someone wished to harm them and they did.

Of those who had the prescience to leave, not every one had moved at the same time.  My ancestors went south about a thousand years ago.  Some Bielo-Chorvats whose families had remained in more northerly regions arrived in Ohio in the early 1900s.  Adolf Emil Kannwischer arrived in North America from the region in the 1940s as a refugee from the Nazi's and the Communists and the general disorder which prevailed at the time. Was he "German?"  Ummmm.  Was he Ruthenian?  Ummmm.  Was he Polish? Ummm.  Was he Russian?  Unh uhhh - he made that super clear, no!  To all the other questions, the answer is yes.  And no.  Kannwischer was Volhynijan and more specifically, he was Evangelical (Lutheran) and Hrvat.

His father was Emil, born during Advent in Wartrowka in 1879.  Not far away in Nowopol there were some of my relatives.  These were relatives whose ancestors were the same as mine, who had made the trek south and had lived in Western Slavonija near Palešnik for generations before the troubles came.   (Did you read my story about TS Takt from  Palešnik?)  This I know because they knew the same story songs as I know - up to the point of the wagons with wings which flew over the long water.  Their ancestors had been protestant and on their way with the Palatine immigration to North America when word came that they were welcome back in the Volhynija and so they had gone.  Now they had come away from the Buh river and had gone to Kansas to gather up with others who had come away from where is now Russia.  

In the Volhynija they were Evangelical (Lutheran), here they were Mennonite, Kannwischer was Southern Baptist, go figure. There were a couple more families in Houston in support of the young people from their selo who were doing "Alternative Service" in the hospitals during the Vietnam War.  That's another story for another time.  Eighty-six dollars and a few pence per month for four years at twelve to fourteen hours a day.  It was impossible to live in the metropolis on less than poverty wages so hundreds and hundreds of our youth bunched up and bundled up.  Mess with us and we know how to survive.  We are Hrvat.  You can not knock us down and keep us down.  Its stupid to try, but that's why my relatives sought me out - they were rural and I already knew my way around the big city by that time so I could help them stay on their feet.  We were putting together a new selo. Somehow I think Kannwischer helped them find me.

I looked Dr. Kannwisher up on Google.  There was precious little to find any more.  He was an author of a number of books.  Its amazing how a man who was so much in the public eye in his lifetime could fade from view so quickly.  A winter 2006 newsletter from Houston Baptist University said "Ruth Kannwischer, passed away Oct. 29. She was a longtime supporter of HBU and was a member of the HBU Auxiliary for many years, serving as president. She donated the HBU seal in the center of the Walk of Honor in Dr. Kannwischer’s memory. Dr. Kannwischer passed away in 1994."

I hed met Dr. Kannwischer in the spring of 1965.  The place was called "Houston Baptist College" in those years. Kannwischer taught all the "Sociology" there was to be had in the school at that time.  I was there on a scholarship, don't ask how.  I took every class Dr. Kannwischer had to offer in the 1965-1966 school year.  The man sent me on adventures I'll never forget.  Some of them I might even share with you someday.  Hmmmm which ones?  Maybe Bugaloo George on midnight to dawn radio in the Third Ward?  Maybe.  We'll see.  Another time perhaps.

Meantime let Enya tell the story commemorating  that glorious day along the Buh when the Vikings exclaimed:  "The Laesir, they have arrived on the large, and long-ship ..."

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
19 Listopad 2011

regarding my post 12 listopad 2011

Some one near and dear to me sent this as an idea for a gift for "That woman"  ~~spit~~ about whom you may have read in the last blog entry.  Appropriate I believe.  Yes.

The wonderful person who sent this told me that her advice to God was that "That Woman" should spend a lonely eternity in Hell.   One of her forbears was once one of God's advisors so I suspect God is in the habit of listening to her.    It's just possible there may be a few Godly women left in the world.  That's encouraging.  All I need is one, so lets find one for Joe now.

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
12 Listopad 2011

Razismo - Racism

Everyone is opposed to racism, except, of course, avowed racists.  So the Mexicans complain that the Texas policeman is being racist when he asks for a "Brown" person to show his papers.  This gets a little funny when the policeman's name is something like Sanchez and he himself is "Brown."

No one seems to notice that this is working the other way around and always has.  I can not tell you how many times in my life that Mexican law enforcement has demanded to see my papers. Joe's girlfriend is an illegal immigrant and she has never been asked to show her papers.  Why has she not been required to show her papers?  She lives in Mexico and she is "Brown."  The Mexican authorities assume that because she is "Brown" she is Mexican. Racism?  You bet it is.

Speaking of that wench, if you are a woman, maybe you better just stay out of my way today.  I'm ticked off.  For those of you using Google Translator that does not mean there is an insect biting me today.  Nor does it have anything to do with the "ticking" in a mattress, or the tick tock of a clock.  It means I am jako grumpy upset and if you don't like it go stick a rubber hose up your nose or be really extra soft and sweet around me for a few days.  Ladies, you probably ought to be ticked off about that wench too.  She did all of you ladies a mighty diservice.

The wedding was set for 1600 today.  Alejandra called at 1530 to tell Joe the wedding was off.   Now understand this, she called on an American cell phone which is inoperative past el puente in Mexico.  She was on this side granica u Teksasu when she called.  In fact she was only a few blocks away. I didn't mention it, but this is the third time she has walked away from him at the Altar. 

So perhaps that was a wedding which shouldn't have happened anyway.  Da, istina, for sure true.  What can I say?

I think she wanted a nice boyfriend to pay her some attention.  He was a feather in her cap, an honest respectable gentle man, and a gentleman too, besides being a caballero, but she is unwilling to actually invest emotionally in their relationship.  Funny how so many women want a man to be faithful to them while they don't invest themselves and their emotions with him. Those are dangerous games ladies.  It will work for awhile, but there are limits. Yes, its even worse if you lie to the fellow "oh I love you!  Yes, I'll marry you! blah blah blah blah blah blah."  Its almost funny how the woman almost always acts betrayed and disappointed when the man wanders on. 

I suppose there are plenty of men who do  the same thing.  Jebote kopilad! Kuja! Shame on all of you. You make it awfully hard on the men and women who just want to love and be loved. May your mothers walk backwards blindfolded in the dark, knee deep in slimy mud along the riverbank looking for you for eternity. 

Joe told her "since you can't commit and you cannot keep your commitment you have to understand that the first woman who shows interest in me will get a piece of my action and you have nothing to say about it." 

I'm probably in trouble enough for writing this much so I'll shut my yap now.  No I don't think any one is going to like what I've just written so don't feel obligated to "like" it.  In case you are wondering - yes I'm weeping my heart out for my friend today.  This should not have happened to such a decent man as my friend Joe. 

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
12 Listopad 2011

PEANUT POLKA - Sunny and the Sunglows

On the label it says "La Cacahuata."  Ok.  That's what it says.  Its an instrumental performed by the Sunglows whom about all of us south of what would eventually become US Interstate 10 knew as "Sunny and the Sunglows."   No Sunny, no Sunglows that's how we saw matters.  Later they called themselves "Sunny and the Sunliners."

You have to learn to say this right:  "Sunny and The SunLIIIIINers!"  Hmmm how do I record in writing just how that was said -  the "i" in "liners" was held in your voice a little - especially when Mary on radio stanice Ka Efe Ere De announced that she had just played "The Peanut Polka" as she began her portion of the morning show on KFRD each weekday. She was on immediately after the Polka show each morning and the poor dear knew that most of us were changing our dials over to KULP in El Campo at that very moment for their morning Polka show which is still on the air after all these years. 

We stayed with Mary until the end of the Peanut Polka because usually the News on KULP was finished by that time and the music started over there.   I remember one morning when Mary said "I know a lot of ya'll will be leaving me right now to go on over where it is you go at this hour.  Zbogom, dobre den, have a nice day, and be good until I see you tomorow."   CJ just asked me if I had just a twinge of guilt when she said that all those years ago.  I answered "no, not even a twinge."  That's what we did you see, we  station hopped to get our polka music and that's how we lived everyday.  Nope, no guilt at all.

KFRD is gone now I think.  Joe Gavranovic was the DJ over there for lots of years.  chkelly1 over on YouTube has one video with Joe Patek performing "The Cradle Polka" from long ago.  KFRD used to be Fort Bend Broadcasting Co, Inc. in Rosenberg, Texas.  

I found an obituary on the Internet from October 6, 2000 for Clyde Morgan Jeffreys who was the Director of News and Talk Shows for KFRD for over 30 years.  He was born 1 Oct 1913 in Columbus Muscogee County Georgia and is interred at David-Greenlawn in Rosenberg. Buried nearby is Gonzalo Rodriguez, who was the first Program Director of the famous Spanish Program "Progreso Latino" at KFRD 980 AM in Rosenberg, Texas, in the late 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. He started with a little 15 Minute Spanish Music Format Show. The Show was so popular, eventually it went all out in a few years to 24/7 Tejano-Spanish Programing in the Greater Houston Area...with listeners all the way down to near Corpus Christi and near San Antonio to Beaumont, Galveston and beyond. In the 1980's the programing was transfered TO KFRD FM 105(aka KMIA FM 105). He was born 28 September 1902 and died 19 April 1982.
 
Last I heard, Ben Oldag was still kicking.  Ben performed live with Texas Rhythm Boys at KFRD and got a job reporting the agricultural news and later added his polka program.

Today I found a notice about Daniel Segura's death.  He was the DJ for Puro Tejano on KRFD.  The notice says "Marcua Rodrigues remembers him fondly.  Segura died 29 July 2008. I don't know how this all figures out but the Univision website says that along the line KFRD became KMIA - 10/05/1990.  KMIA became KMPQ-FM - 10/04/1993.  KMPQ became KLTO - 3/06/1995.  KLTO became KOVA - 08/01/1998.  KOVA became KPTY - 11/20/2001.  KPTY became KAMA - 12/4/2007.  The station is now owned by Univision and the Polka show is long gone but the memories remain of how Mary always always played Sunny's Peanut Polka at the end of the Polka show and the Beginning of the Tejano show every day but Sunday when the churches were on the air in the mornings.

KFRD is gone but Sunny Ozuna remains.  He is still alive and kicking, still performing although he left the Sunliners.  Sunny and a trio of close friends (Freddie Martinez, Augustin Ramirez, and Carlos Guzman) better known as The Legends, earned themselves a Grammy in 2000. According to his website "currently there is strong talk about more work with The Legends as well as many various shows and appearances by Sunny Ozuna himself in the near future."

The Peanut Polka like we used to hear it:

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
11 Listopad 2011

INTERNATIONALE - on Croatian

I am NOT a communist.  I had to say that right away because these days almost everyone connects the "Internationale" to the communist movement.   But that's because very few people know that the song was in both the Baptist and Methodist hymnals in North America quite sometime before the modern communist movement sprang up.   The song is about brotherhood and holding hands across all social boundaries in a spirit of cooperation for the good of all.  All in all, unless you are an avowed autocrat, the "Internationale" is really a wonderful song no matter what your politics.  Its too  bad politics has marginalized the song in a lot of the West.

I'm putting the "Internationale" here for the sake of one very wonderful young person still full of ideals.  I was young once and full of ideals.  I'm not young any more but guess what?  I'm still  brimming with ideals.   My young friend, you know who you are.  This is for you.  I saw that you did not have the "Internationale" on Croatian language, so this is for your collection.  By the way, you can not watch this on my channel.  You have to have the URL to see it, or watch it here. 

Please watch the video first and then let's talk about the images in it.

The first image is Marshall Tito who led the Balkans in the quest to throw out the Nazis and the Fascists of all sorts.  Then there is the Bleiburg Memorial commemorating the deaths of perhaps a million Croats many of whom were also idealists and dreamers.  They had dreamed of an independent and free Croatian nation after nearly a thousand years of foreign domination.  History precluded them from trusting the Americans or the West.  They trusted someone who, as it turned out, was not to be trusted.  Their dream turned into a nightmare - and for this they were massacred.

And then there is another image of Tito followed by the flag of the new dream, a "people's" dream.  Look at the flag again please.  The traditional red and white checker board is missing.  We are asked to follow the dream of the "Internationale" without  being allowed to be us.  How can we stand with the nations of the world when we have disappeared from among them?  

Came the spring.  The Croatian Spring.   Savka Dabčević-Kučar  was the first female head of state in Europe outside the monarchical system.  Woot!!! We Croats were way ahead of the game!  Savka made a mistake.  She trusted the people.  For this she was asked to resign her position. 

Are you beginning to get the picture? The people's" government couldn't stand one of the "people" who trusted the people.   In a way they were right, you know.  The people can't be trusted.  Ooops, that sounds so un-marxist, but that's the one place Marx went wrong.  The people, not any of them, not any one person even, is to be fully trusted.  The Holy Scriptures say "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  The Scriptures are right in this of course.  All.  

So now there are two choices left.  One is to accumulate all the power into the hands of one, or a few.  Bam!   That's fascism.  That's what happened, and in the Balkans, Fascism wore a Red Star on its cap.

The next image is an image of the water tower at Vukovar and shots of the Vukovar monument commemorating the atrocities committed there in the name of the people against the people.

Next you see a photo of a young man half carrying an old man who is a victim of the aggression against the people.   Then you see some soldiers escorting some young men out along a road way and then you see the shadows of the soldiers as those same young men lay there dead, executed, massacred.   The old man in the graveyard, Srebenica, the woman weeping tell their own stories.  Don't see these as just some Muslim radicals like the ones who did the Twin Towers or someone from Grozny.  These people are Hrvatski just like us who happen to be Muslim largely  because of history.  They are ours, people like us, and they were killed because of that.

The power was collected into a central government controlled by people not like us who wanted our language, our history, and our churches and mosques and synagogues to disappear into thin air.  And they didn't mind a bit if we disappeared too.  I'm not blaming the Serbs.  That's not it.   Read a couple of posts back where I commemorate the life of a wonderful Serbian singer.  I am not anti-Serb.  Its not the Serbian people who are to blame.  I am blaming the system.  The system did not respect the people and did not trust the people to take care of themselves like they had always done for thousands of years. We Croats had our selo system long long before Marx thought it up.  We predate him in this by about three thousand years so don't nobody go telling us how to do this.   For us, Marx is kind of like Al Gore "inventing" the internet.  We know how to do communal when its in our interests to do communal and we know how to do it individually when that's best too.  The problem here is that the central system felt threatened by us and so it had to kill us.   Fascism wore a red star in its cap.

A better system would be to see the people as sovereign, to keep the government severely limited, to stay out of the people's business, to trust the people, and to let the people do their own thing in their own best interests the way they want to do it.  Until we have this, the dreams and the ideals of the "Internationale" are just idle dreams and nothing more but idle dreams that lead to a swath of dead bodies and tears.

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

7 Listopad 2011