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| Museum Sign |
BELGRADE, SERBIA A large painted portrait of Vaclav Havel hung over my bed. In every room of the hotel 'Mr. President' was a picture of a president; George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, George Bush. I asked at the front desk, "Is Stalin included?" "Oh yes," the clerk said smiling. "What about Slobodan Milosevic?" She looked down, furrowed her brow, and shook her head. "What about Tito?" She raised her head, her face bursting into a smile, "Oh yes, he has the penthouse on the top floor!" "You like Tito," I asked. "Yes, he was very good. We weren't as poor then." Nick (my friend who will be traveling with me for awhile) finally arrived and joined in the conversation. We grilled the young clerk about Belgrade, the 1999 bombings, and the current political situation. I insisted that we visit the Military Museum where the sign read: "65 Years of Victory over Fascism." At the museum we told the attendant that we were espescially interested in the last 65 years referring to the sign outside. "Yes, it's all here," she assured us. We paid the $2.50 and wanted to start from the present and work backwards. "No, you must go in the other direction," she insisted. We complied. The museum's narrative was that of a single Yougoslavia (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Kosovo, Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro) unified in their heroic fight against oppression. As we approached the exit, the exibit concluded in the year 1945. Disappointed, I asked the attendant, "What happened to the '65 Years of Victory over Fascism?'" "Oh, that exhibit ended in June." "Who discontinued it?" Nick asked. "I don't know," she said, rolling her eyes. "Why the sign outside?" I asked puzzled and mifted that she had led us on. She just shrugged her shoulders as if to say I don't know.
