QuoteReplyTopic: We are savages Posted: 27-Nov-2005 at 22:58
MOSTAR, Bosnia-Hercegovina - Hours after it was
unveiled, a new statue honouring late martial arts
legend Bruce Lee was vandalised in this southern
Bosnian city, police and witnesses said.
"We have received reports that the statue has been
damaged. We are currently investigating the
incident," Elvira Kovacevic, a police officer in Mostar
said.
The life-sized bronze statue of the kung fu cinema
icon was unveiled during an emotional ceremony
only Sunday. Police said the chain and one of the
nun-chucks' sticks were missing and empty wine
bottles were scattered around the statue, which is in
a city park.
Several dozen citizens gathered in the park to
express their disgust.
"It is a crime!" said one elderly woman.
"We are savages. Once again we've shown what
Balkan savageness is!" lamented another man in
disbelief.
The park's nightkeeper, Veljo Dojcinovic, said he
saw a group of teenage hooligans entering the park
in the middle of the night.
"I heard a loud bang but I was alone and I couldn't
stop them. Police should have been more agile.
They know that hooligans visit this park regularly," he
said.
Lee was chosen as a hero that all ethnic groups
could relate to in a city that remains bitterly divided
after fierce fighting between Croats and Muslims
during the country's 1992-95 war.
In an extremely rare show of unity, some 300
Bosnian Croats and Muslims attended the unveiling
ceremony together.
"Bruce Lee 1940-1973. Your Mostar" is the only text
written on the base of the statue.
************
I was reading Mostarska Raja, the forum, and they
were talking about this. One girl wrote:
"Well we all know who did it, it's on THEIR side."
Mila, I have learned so much about your beautiful country from your posts. You should work for the Bosnian tourist board.
But why do East European countries love Beauty contests and Martial Arts so much! Are most of the population teenagers? (no offence intended, just trying to understand)
Maju- from your very humanistic posts,I would say that you would make a better hero of humankind then bruce lee. Enter the dragon was on the telly ystr, he was not even that good an actor.
(Muhammed ali, gandhi, martin luther king etc. are heros, but bruce lee? why?)
Amir - basically anything considered lower-class,
any type of Western sub-culture, is considered very
cool among young people here. But it depends on
the age groups. We seem to go through
generational-type changes faster here than
elsewhere.
My 'generation' (20-25), for example, loves the
"Sarajevo School of Rock". Just about all of
Yugoslavia's popular rock bands were from, of
became famous, in Sarajevo. Clothes were kind of
provincial - black shoes, white tights, black skirt,
white shirt, red sweater, bow in your hair. Then it
changed to skin-tight jeans, big hair, leather jackets,
and all of that.
My niece, she's 11 years old, loves rap. Bosnian
artists like Edo Maajka and Erato are what she and
her friends consider cool, and love. Clothes are
SUPER Islamic. She'll wear an ankle-length skirt
with a strapless-shirt and lots of fake gold necklaces
and bracelets. She'll tie a bandana in her hair like a
veil, etc.
Rap, Kung-Fu, Stoner culture, all of that went through
phases here.
We even had Slavic Mexicans in the 1950s and 60s.
Mexican music, always praising "the revolution", was
brought here by King Tito and took hold like you
would not believe. Search the internet for YU-Mex.
As for beauty queens - it's just the culture. Bosnia,
like Italy, like Colombia, is obcessed with beauty.
Come here, you will never see a woman on the
street in sneakers, with jogging trousers, with no
makeup - NEVER. Wealthier women even begin
every day at the beauty salon, like eating breakfast.
Like Irna Smaka, Miss Bosnia 2003, said: "In
Bosnia, a woman who finds a cure for cancer will be
congratulated. A woman who finds a cure for cancer
in Italian heels and high fashion will be
immortalized."
It's just a weird form of sexism. Women here aren't
expected to cover their bodies from head to toe and
walk around in burkas, but it is expected that you
always look as dressed-up as possible. I mean...
when I walk barefoot, my heels don't touch the
ground. That's how young I was when my parents
started putting me in heels, my feet didn't even get a
chance to grow so they're flat on the ground. LOL
Every culture does their own weird things I guess.
never thought bruce lee would be made canidate for national icon....is he bosnian?
No. He was Chinese by birth and Nordamerican by adoption... but he's
cool, whatever his nationality: he was among the ones that spread out
the knowledge of martial arts. And he followed no doctrine, no school.
Amir - basically anything considered lower-class, any type of Western sub-culture, is considered very cool among young people here. But it depends on the age groups. We seem to go through generational-type changes faster here than elsewhere.
My 'generation' (20-25), for example, loves the "Sarajevo School of Rock". Just about all of Yugoslavia's popular rock bands were from, of became famous, in Sarajevo. Clothes were kind of provincial - black shoes, white tights, black skirt, white shirt, red sweater, bow in your hair. Then it changed to skin-tight jeans, big hair, leather jackets, and all of that.
My niece, she's 11 years old, loves rap. Bosnian artists like Edo Maajka and Erato are what she and her friends consider cool, and love. Clothes are SUPER Islamic. She'll wear an ankle-length skirt with a strapless-shirt and lots of fake gold necklaces and bracelets. She'll tie a bandana in her hair like a veil, etc.
Rap, Kung-Fu, Stoner culture, all of that went through phases here.
We even had Slavic Mexicans in the 1950s and 60s. Mexican music, always praising "the revolution", was brought here by King Tito and took hold like you would not believe. Search the internet for YU-Mex.
As for beauty queens - it's just the culture. Bosnia, like Italy, like Colombia, is obcessed with beauty. Come here, you will never see a woman on the street in sneakers, with jogging trousers, with no makeup - NEVER. Wealthier women even begin every day at the beauty salon, like eating breakfast. Like Irna Smaka, Miss Bosnia 2003, said: "In Bosnia, a woman who finds a cure for cancer will be congratulated. A woman who finds a cure for cancer in Italian heels and high fashion will be immortalized."
It's just a weird form of sexism. Women here aren't expected to cover their bodies from head to toe and walk around in burkas, but it is expected that you always look as dressed-up as possible. I mean... when I walk barefoot, my heels don't touch the ground. That's how young I was when my parents started putting me in heels, my feet didn't even get a chance to grow so they're flat on the ground. LOL
Every culture does their own weird things I guess.
Thanks for your answer.
Its nice that things are back to normal, and the Bosniaks are expressing themselves through their clothes etc. and enjoying life again.
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