Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Yugoslavia

Why couldn't my dad get married in 1940's Yugoslavia?

the luke parker fiasco — Mon, 11 May 2009 08:24:41 -0800

FamilyHistoryFilter: In Tito's Yugoslavia, in the latter half of the 1940's, what nationalities would two people have to have been to be denied permission to marry, and why? There's very little I know about my father's side of the family. A few of the things that I do know are: my father grew up in Slavonija (then Yugoslavia, now Croatia), between Osijek and the Hungarian border. His father was Austrian, his mother Yugoslav. His first child from his first marriage was born out of wedlock, because he and his first wife were not allowed to marry under Tito's regime.

My father died several years ago, and the only living memory left of that time is my great-aunt, who is now 91 years old and has the memory one would expect of someone that age. I'm trying to piece together what I can of my family history and ancestry, but it's difficult without having some basic facts. One thing I've heard a couple of times over the course of my life was that because of their nationalities, my father and his first wife couldn't get married in Yugoslavia, and had to wait until they left the country. If my father's parents were Austrian and Yugoslav, what ethnicity would his future wife have to have been in order for them to be denied the right to marry? Why was this done, and were there other ethnic groups who were in the same situation?

Both straight-up answers and directions to resources welcomed.

How do Kosovar Albanians differ from Albanians in Albania?

jason's_planet — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:26:01 -0800

How do Kosovar Albanians differ from Albanians in Albania? Kosovar Albanians and Albanians in Albania proper share a nationality but their historical experiences seem so different that I wonder if the division has produced cultural differences between the two. The historical analogy that comes to mind is that of Germany, where the Iron Curtain produced distinct “Ossi” and “Wessi” identities which persisted even after reunification

So, how are Kosovar Albanians different from Albanians in Albania? Do they speak a different dialect of Albanian? Do they speak with a distinct accent? How did their experiences under Yugoslav Communism affect them culturally? And how do the two groups view each other?

Many thanks in advance.

Painter Saves the World!

prostyle — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:52:28 -0800

Name this presumably 80's era animated movie: an evil toad king with a screaming mechanical army has taken over the kingdom, and the hero of the story is a painter with an old style oval thumb palette and a blue beret. May or may not have musical interludes, and I'm also not sure about the toad villain, but it seemed reptilian at the time apparently. May or may not have a princess involved. The "mechanical" army was this strange animation consisting of a silhouette of a bunch of faceless, glowing eyed armored soldiers with polearms, with an audio track that was akin to "rawrawrawrawr" as they stomped through the scene. I recalled this in a fleeting day dream, and I need to see it again!

Serbs in Cincinnati?

dyerfr — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 05:37:01 -0800

Is there a Serbian population of any size in Cincinnati? I may have a job offer in Cincinnati soon; my wife is from Belgrade, and one of the considerations we'd want to look at is whether there is a (hopefully) active Serbian/former Yugoslavian population there. Quick google searches didn't show much, so I turn to the Hive...

Hvala and thanks!

For a multi-leg transatlantic flight, what can I do to minimize the likelihood of connection problems, involuntary bumping, etc.?

allterrainbrain — Wed, 30 May 2007 06:07:19 -0800

For a multi-leg transatlantic flight, what can I do to minimize the likelihood of connection problems, involuntary bumping, etc.? First leg (on US Air) is LGA to PHL to LGW, and I'm hearing a lot of anecdotal reports that both USAir and PHL are worse-than-average for connection problems. On a Friday and Saturday in August (i.e., near the height of the U.S. summer travel season), here's what I'm doing:

FRIDAY:
• midday flight LGA to PHL, on USAir (then 6-hour layover in PHL)
• overnight flight PHL to LGW, on USAir (then 4.5 hrs between LGW arrival and LHR departure)

SATURDAY:
• afternoon flight LHR to Belgrade, on JAT / Yugoslav Airlines
• evening ground travel from Belgrade to Sombor, my destination city in Serbia.

I'm scheduled to start my responsibilities in Sombor (teaching) on Monday morning, about 36 hours after my arrival. So there's not much room for error here, especially since the LGW-to-LHR transfer time is fairly tight and there's only one London-to-Belgrade flight a day on JAT.

Beyond hearing that PHL is especially bad for delays and connection problems, today I saw the NY Times story titled "Overbooking, Bumped Fliers and No Plan B" (saying this summer is expected to have a high percentage of involuntarily bumped passengers with little recourse since all flights will be fuller than usual).

So, solutions:
• I'll be getting to LGA plenty early;
• I'll be bringing only carry-on luggage;
• I have no special travel or security issues and I'm an experienced flier & transatlantic traveler.

What else, if anything, should I be doing? Is there any way, other than being early, to make oneself less likely to get bumped from an overbooked flight?

This teaching is something I am co-organizing and basically volunteering for (i.e., there's no deep-pocketed org that could step in with any extraordinary measures if something went really wrong with the travel). My co-organizers can adapt if I'm delayed, but obviously I want to do everything I can to make this work as planned.

How to seek corporate material donations for free workshops in Serbia?

allterrainbrain — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:14:04 -0800

Ideas for seeking corporate donations of tech equipment and air travel? I'm one of the co-founders of a free arts/tech workshop happening for the first time this August in Serbia. We've already had some modest success getting funding for this through traditional channels, but I also want to approach hardware companies and airlines to see if they can help us. I'm experienced with grantwriting, but this is the first time I'll be seeking corporate donations. It seems like free arts and tech training in this region is something corporations would be interested in supporting. We can offer them exposure on our website and press materials, as we document this first workshop and continue it as an annual project.

The five organizers are NYC-based; one of us is a Serbia [Yugoslavia]-born U.S. resident and four of us are U.S.-born U.S. residents. We are not incorporated but we're about to start a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship (an agreement with a major non-profit org that accepts grant money on our behalf). This is a standard arrangement that lets us apply for many foundation grants, but big corporations may not be interested in helping us until we have our own 501(c)(3) incorporation, which won't happen this year. So I may need to focus on smaller companies.

I'm looking to approach corporations for these three main needs:
1) either donated or discounted airfares, NYC-Belgrade-NYC or just London-Belgrade-London (since NYC-London-NYC can be relatively cheap even in summer);
2) donated Mac hardware (laptops or desktops of any vintage that can run OSX);
3) donated basic recording equipment (condenser microphones, usb or firewire audio interfaces).

The computer & recording hardware would be used in the workshops and would stay in Serbia year-round for the students' use.

If you've sought corporate help, or if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear either here or privately (email in profile). Thanks!

Mysteries of and Organism

Napierzaza — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 14:18:47 -0800

I recently saw a obscure Yugoslavian film and am constantly thinking of the film's ending music number. Anyone able to help me find it? The film was called "WR Mysteries of an Organism" (1971, Dusan Makavejev). Basically a collage film that has a bunch of different films in it (even more obscure). Basically the film ends where a sexy revolutionary woman is slain by her star figure skater boyfriend who uses his ice skates to decapitate her. After doing that he has a pretty good musical number. I really want to see this film again or at least hear the end music. Any leads?