 ABOUT BOSNIA
Dr. Franjo Tudjman
Croatian George Washington
 omanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had a
custom of sending birthday cards to himself, on behalf of the British queen. His Croatian
colleague Franjo Tudman has started shooting American documentary movies about his
historical significance.
As the Queen Mother had never say "Happy birthday, dear Nicky!" thus the
Americans haven't had a chance to see the documentary with the humble title "Croatian
George Washington".
We, to whom this Croatian George Washington was presented on Croatian TV, could not
find anything surprising in this American version of Obrad Kosovac's school of propaganda.
It would be boring, disgusting and senseless to list all the lies about Tudman which he
repeated yet again, some of them straight to the camera and some through the words of the
narrator American actor Martin Sheen. Similarly, it would be foolish to simply - to ignore
this film and classify it together with numerous crude propaganda works which glorify our
Great Leader.
The basic Tudman's problem is that he cannot reconcile with himself, that he stubbornly
believes he can change his life by fixing up his biography. All of that, wouldn't be worth
attention if he could keep that problem to himself and thereby allow it to assume
realistic proportions - enough to fit on a couch. Tudman's lie is not a simple propaganda
trick. His lying is unfortunately pathological and thereby he, as every sick man, must
first convince himself that he is healthy. Pathological liar can only feel healthy if he
can impose his personal lie as historical truth. But, when he imposes the inability to
reconcile the inconsistencies in his biography on all of us and tries to turn his personal
problem into a platform for the reconciliation of the nation, the couch becomes too small
and the sickness becomes universal. Tudman may feel better by that therapy, but the rest
of Croatia definitely feels worse.
The advanced stage of the sickness becomes evident just before the end of the movie,
when Martin Sheen ridicules Walter Reed hospital and says:
"At the peak of his success, Tudman suddenly fell ill. He went to Washington for
special medical tests, but the diagnosis was never made".
If the patient feels better because of that lie, then let it be, although I have never
heard of anyone who undergoes a treatment without a diagnosis.
Split, August 03, 1997
(text changed without permission of author)
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