From: gtrujillo@igc.apc.org (Gary Trujillo)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Mickey mouse and Donald Duck
Date: 26 Jan 93 07:43:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:1jjlcbINN3me@colwick.csv.warwick:-117712724:cdp:1474300001:000:8283
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!gtrujillo    Jan 25 23:43:00 1993


** Topic: Vreme:  Who Killed Donald Duck? **

** Written  9:48 am  Jan 21, 1993 by newsdesk in cdp:headlines **

/* Written 10:30 am  Jan 20, 1993 by jsax in igc:pax.sanctions */
/* ---------- "Vreme:  Who Killed Donald Duck?" ---------- */

/* Written  3:27 pm  Jan 19, 1993 by pirot@buengc.bu.edu in igc:list.vreme */
/* ---------- ""Vreme" NDA No. 69 (in English, 2nd" ---------- */

From: pirot@buengc.bu.edu (Dimitrije Stamenovic)
Subject: "Vreme" NDA No. 69 (in English, 2nd attempt)
[Excerpt]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                    No. 69, January 18, 1993
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------



    Brutal sanctions
    ----------------


                            WHO KILLED DONALD DUCK?


    The  cultural  blockade  has  banished  Disney  characters from Yugoslav
    newspapers and magazines for children, and it is pushing Yugoslavia into
    a spiritual ghetto.

    On Saturday January 9th, the "Walt Disney Publication" company (Burbank,
    California),  informed,  by  telefax,  the  Belgrade  POLITIKIN ZABAVNIK
    magazine that,  "until further notice",  it can, in  no way, use  Disney
    characters. Saturday was immediately proclaimed  a very bad day and, for
    the first time,  life under sanctions showed its  full awfulness - let's
    leave aside the fact  that there is no oil and heating,  but there is no
    Donald Duck! "The telefax informed us that, because of the sanctions and
    the pressure by the American  administration, the "Walt Disney" company,
    regretfully, has to put out of  force the contract giving us the licence
    to  publish the  characters produced  by  it",  
    
    VREME has  been told  by Zeferino Grasi, ZABAVNIK's editor in  chief. 
    Explaining what this means, Grasi said that  there would be no more 
    Mickey,  Goofy, Donald and other Disney characters in the magazine and 
    that MIKIJEV ZABAVNIK, a magazine, consisting exclusively  of Disney 
    comic  strips, would stop  coming out. ZABAVNIK has  had a contract  
    with "Disney" ever  since 1939, and  Grasi says that all this time the  
    Californian company has been extremely fair and that now ZABAVNIK  will 
    be fair too. This has to  do with fair play, but also with  the fact 
    that the possible disregard  of what says in the terrible  telefax could  
    mean the  loss of  a "Disney"  licence forever.
    
    "This way, we can at least hope  that, when the sanctions are lifted, we 
    will once  again be able to  use Disney characters", said  Grasi, adding 
    that the  only thing left  for them  to  do is to  try something through 
    UNICEF and  to forward a  request for Donald  and Mickey to  be included 
    among  "children's  products",  which  are  not  subject  to  sanctions. 
    Unfortunately, one  should not pin  great hopes on  this (the people  in 
    ZABAVNIK don't  either), since the  mentioned children's package  exempt 
    from sanctions  includes only certain  humanitarian products. Children's 
    comic  strips and  cartoons are  usually,  both  in the  West and  here, 
    classified  as  "business"  which  is  entirely  under sanctions. Natasa 
    Zecar, POLITIKA's  deputy director has  told VREME that  even the oldest 
    newspaper in the country will have  to stop giving those two famous mini 
    comic strips with Disney characters  (Donald and Mickey), mostly for the 
    same reason for which ZABAVNIK is stopping to use Disney characters. "So 
    that we  would be able to  use them tomorrow", said  Mrs.Zecar. POLITIKA 
    has had a contract with "Disney" since 1932. 
    
    That the whole story is not just a practical joke was,  unfortunately, 
    confirmed by Peter Nelly, the lawyer of the "Walt Disney publication" 
    company. In a statement given to VREME's correspondent  in the United 
    States,  Mr.Nelly shortly confirmed that "comic strips, cartoons and all 
    publications of this company can no longer be printed,  distributed or 
    used in any form  on the territory of Serbia and Montenegro".  The 
    reason is clear, said  Mr.Nelly: the United Nations sanctions. And 
    finally: "The decision of the Walt Disney company comes into  force 
    immediately". 
    
    Therefore, this  means - goodbye Donald! 
    
    "The  end   of  civilization!",  said   an  admirer  of   Mickey  Mouse. 
    "Horrible!", said  Jadranka Tomic, a  school psychologist. According  to 
    her,  as regards  children's development,  this decision  is even cruel. 
    "There is no second chance for  childhood. This means that the effect of 
    this  kind of  move is  long-term and  terrible and  for this reason the 
    question being asked  is - can anyone take away  children's joy. This is 
    even contrary to the UNICEF Charter on children's rights". 
    
    VREME's other collocutors were also mostly interested in the point of 
    banishing Donald Duck from Yugoslavia. Milena Dragicevic-Sesic, a 
    sociologist of culture, considers that such a measure shows that the 
    world community is helpless when it comes to resolving the problem of 
    Yugoslavia by political means. "Even though the comparison may  sound 
    inappropriate, all this sounds to me like the story about the parent who 
    doesn't know how to deal with his child  so  he  starts  forbidding  the  
    child  to  go  out  or  to watch television. 
    
    This is, in fact,  a veritable cleansing of the conscience". According 
    to  Mrs. Dragicevic-Sesic, a special  problem is the  fact that such 
    moves produce effects that are quite opposite from the wanted ones. "The  
    blockade leads  to tighter  national cohesion,  to the  feeling of being 
    persecuted and it strengthens  the conservative spirit which calls for  
    patriotism in  culture and   cultural work.  The way  of evaluating 
    artistic work also changes so that new ideological values - for instance 
    the strengthening of the national spirit - become the main criteria". On 
    the  example of  Donald Duck  and other  Disney characters, according to 
    Mrs. Dragicevic-Sesic,  this literally means  that, in future,  our kids 
    will not be brought up on  universal values (most of Disney's best known 
    works are based  on Andersen's or the Grimm  brothers' fairy tales), but 
    on our "specific values", which are most often of poor quality. The fact 
    that,  with the  embargo in  culture,  the  world is  creating space  in 
    Yugoslavia precisely for those forces  which it is fighting against with 
    sanctions, for  the moment doesn't  seem to bother  anyone in that  same 
    world. 
    
    "All this  is simply disputable from the  ethical point of view", said 
    professor  Ratko Bozovic, a  sociologist of culture.  "If we adults are 
    to  blame for having elected  people who are not  acceptable for the 
    rest of  the world, how  does one prove  the guilt of  our children? The 
    idea about repression against children  is certainly contradictory and I 
    believe  that what  we have  here is  a loss  of measure  in rights  and 
    obligations, and  not just here,  but in the  international community as 
    well". 
    
    Mr.Bozovic  has even sharper  words for the  banishment of Donald Duck - 
    "a  spiritual ghetto" and "war against our  future" - and he also has an 
    explanation  for these words. He says that  an embargo on culture kills 
    freedom ("which cannot exist  without culture") and opens up space for  
    ignorance, which  always strengthens  autocratic rule.  "This means they 
    are strengthening precisely that autocratic rule here and that they are 
    creating new trouble for those who are absolutely innocent, and also 
    largely for  themselves, since they  are pushing us  straight towards an 
    abyss  and are  turning us  into  a  militant opposition  to the  entire 
    world".  No matter  what happens  it will,  certainly, be without Donald 
    Duck.  Kids  (and  fans)  can  do  nothing  but  turn to old comic books 
    collected a long time ago. 
                                         Ivan Radovanovic and Slobodanka Ast
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic