From: vojkan@math.toronto.edu (Vojkan Jaksic)
Subject: Miki, Paja, and all that
Organization: Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 17:57:15 GMT

The Globe and Mail, Thursday, January 28, 1993. 

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	      QUACKS APPEARING IN SERB RESISTANCE

          Roger Thurow, Wall Street Journal, Belgrade


   "Who killed Donald Duck?" cries the headline of Vreme magazine. 
A cover cartoon depicts a pirate ship scoring a direct cannon hit 
on Donald's pinfeathers.  

   The answer - one that many Serbs do not want to face - is that 
they did the deed themselves. Paja Patak (Donald Duck in Serbo-Croat) 
has been yanked from their country by Walt Disney Co., which also 
pulled its Mickey Mouse cartoons nad comic books from Belgrade 
publishers this month in compliance with U.S. and United Nations 
sanctions

  After 18 months of being blamed for much of the ferocious fighting 
raging across the former Yugoslavia, many Serbs have developed a 
defiant attitude toward the world's wrath.

  Accusations of attrocities nad war crimes commited by Serb soldiers 
draw mainly disbeleif or scorn. Sanction-induced shortages 
of gasoline and heating fuel, and a 6-per-cent inflation rate, 
inspire patriotisam. Threats of Western military intervention stir 
more bravado. 

  But Mickey and Donald have accomplished what the world's diplomats 
have so far been ubable to do: focus Serbia's attention on the 
consequences of its actions. The prospect of life without Paja Patak, 
Miki Maus and their good friend Silja - Goofy - has made Serns flinch 
nad feel alone in the world. 

  In the context of the war, Disney's action may seem to be well, 
Mickey Mouse. But in Serbia, the wound is deep nad real. "We will 
never be forgiven for chasing Mickey's out", screems a headline 
in NIN magazine. 

  "For the first time, life under sanctions look disgusting", laments 
Vreme, striking a sarcastic "we-told-you-so" tone. "Yugoslavia 
is being forces into a spiritual gheto". 

  Despite the indignation, of course, the absence of Donald and Mickey 
will not acvhieve the main goal of the sanctions - the capitulation 
or ouster of the current  hard line Serb government. Unless kids 
can vote. 

  "My mother told me Donald Duck died because of Mr. Milosevic", 
says 10-year old Natasa Tomic, referring to Serbian President 
Slobodan Milosevic, the man most of the world blame for 
propagating the war. "I am going to miss him", she says - 
the cartoon character, that is, not Mr. Milosevic, who was recently 
re-elected by Serbia's adults. 

  Child psychologist and other academics have entered the debate, warning 
about lasting emotional scars and the potential impact on Serbian 
society. 

  With Mickey and Donald gone as role models, they worry children 
will now have to get their clues on life from Kninja, 
a Serbian version of Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Turtles. Kninja is a 
comouflage-clad soldier from the Serbian-controlled town 
of Knin fighting to seize parts of Croatia. 
 
 "Our childeran, who at bedtime watch horrendous TV pictures 
from the war, will be deprived of the few remaining dreams", 
protest the newspaper Politika, which had carried Disney's comic 
strip since 1932. On the dat the news of the Disney ban broke, 
Politika even run an obituary of Mickey and Donald. 

  "All people loved Mickey's cartoons", the paper mourned. A Disney 
spokesman says the only other time Disneys character  were banned 
from a country was when East Germany outlawed Mickey as a symbol 
of capitalist imperialisam. 
  
  Here, the characters had over the years worked their way into 
Serbian vernacular. Until the sanctions, Mickey and Donald were 
a prominent staple of Belgrade's kiosks, holding their place 
against the post-communist proliferation of porn magazines. 

  Belgrade opponents sometimes refer to Mr. Milosevic as "Mickey M
ouse", picking up the phrase from Milan Panic, the Serb-born U.S. 
buisinessmen who unsucsesfully ran for president last month 
and who blasted the Milosevic government for its "Mickey Mouse 
politics". 

  Yet, the politicans themselves seems just as unhappy as everybody 
else about the character's departure.

  "By expeling Donald Duck", fumes Ratko Bozovic, Serbia's culture 
ministar, "the United States is starting war about our future". 

  Meanhwile, novelist Vlada Bulatovic, writing in Vreme, complaines: 
"America has forced Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse to be marines". 

   The deeparture of Mickey and Donald has even triggered an animated 
debate about who is better, the mouse or the duck. It rages on editorial 
pages and on the streets. 

   "Compared with all-American guy Mickey, the stupid duck was always 
more dear to our readers", Vreme reckons. 

   "Mickey's attitude was always the American way of life. Yuk! 
But Donald Duck is different; like all humans he has his vices. 
He was always more interesting then the boring old mouse."
 
  "It's a shame Donald and Mickey are gone, but the kids still 
have their daddy, and he is a good drawer", says Slavka Zekovic, 
doing her morning shopping with her two children, Vladimir, 10, and 
Biljana, 6, look dubious. 

  "The Disney's characters are better", Vladimir says. 

   

Xref: sparky soc.culture.yugoslavia:10590 soc.culture.europe:11311 soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna:1279 soc.culture.croatia:445