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Political Protests
Mar. 21st, 2006 05:28 amYou have to admire Marshall Tito.
I mean, how on earth did that man manage to keep as a single political entity the disparate mess that was Yugoslavia?
This was always baffling, but it became even more so at the weekend. You would think that, having offloaded Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the remaining pairing of Serbia and Montenegro might at least try to make a go of it.
But, no. I swear that people in the Balkans could start an international incident in a telephone box. At the very time that Serbia was burying old Slobodan, the two components of Rump Yugoslavia were voting, live on TV, for their entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. Unfortunately the four Serbian judges, who took the view that the idea was to vote for the best song, were out-manoeuvred by the four Montenegran judges, who had clearly been following the Scandinavian book of rule interpretation and general mutual co-operation, and who voted en bloc for a single Montenegran entry, which duly won by a street.
Unfortunately, and as can be the way for people who exploit the rules without actually breaking them, this was in front of a Serbian audience, so the line that "we acted within the rules" did not cut much ice. The winning group ("No Name") were booed off stage and could not complete their celebratory reprise. And Serbia-Montenegro has been banned from the main contest.
But the most interesting part of all this was that a BBC reporter came across what he thought was a protest against the international treatment of Serbia and the "murder" of Slobodan Milosevic. Scurrying up to the protestors to get their view on international politics, he was apparently somewhat bemused to find that it was a spontaneous street protest against the Montenegran judges on the Eurovision Song Contest panel.
Marvellous.
+++++
Poker Update: Party Poker performance year to date.
Current situation. Pissed off :-)
I mean, how on earth did that man manage to keep as a single political entity the disparate mess that was Yugoslavia?
This was always baffling, but it became even more so at the weekend. You would think that, having offloaded Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the remaining pairing of Serbia and Montenegro might at least try to make a go of it.
But, no. I swear that people in the Balkans could start an international incident in a telephone box. At the very time that Serbia was burying old Slobodan, the two components of Rump Yugoslavia were voting, live on TV, for their entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. Unfortunately the four Serbian judges, who took the view that the idea was to vote for the best song, were out-manoeuvred by the four Montenegran judges, who had clearly been following the Scandinavian book of rule interpretation and general mutual co-operation, and who voted en bloc for a single Montenegran entry, which duly won by a street.
Unfortunately, and as can be the way for people who exploit the rules without actually breaking them, this was in front of a Serbian audience, so the line that "we acted within the rules" did not cut much ice. The winning group ("No Name") were booed off stage and could not complete their celebratory reprise. And Serbia-Montenegro has been banned from the main contest.
But the most interesting part of all this was that a BBC reporter came across what he thought was a protest against the international treatment of Serbia and the "murder" of Slobodan Milosevic. Scurrying up to the protestors to get their view on international politics, he was apparently somewhat bemused to find that it was a spontaneous street protest against the Montenegran judges on the Eurovision Song Contest panel.
Marvellous.
+++++
Poker Update: Party Poker performance year to date.
Current situation. Pissed off :-)
