Some more thoughts about shopping.

I got really excited today (well, not that excited, but about as excited as I get when I shop) because they had frozen chicken breasts at the store. So, why is this a big deal? Well, I have this thing I cook over here. It is pretty easy, just chicken and rice. I put the rice in, then the water, and then the frozen chicken in on top. Put it in the oven at around 175 (C) and let it cook for a couple of hours. once the rice is done, the chicken is done, and then I mix in a vegitable sauce with the rice.

So, on to the issue of the frozen chicken breasts. If you notice in this picture, those arn't chicken breasts, they are legs, the whole leg. Two to a pack, which means I can get two servings of meat to a pack, so basically I can get two full meals out of one of these things. Now, today I found frozen chicken breasts at the corner store, three to a pack. That means that I can get three meals out of one of these chicken things.

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So, how does that relate to my work here. Well, as I noted yesterday, there was an issue in the 70s over how people were choosing to shop. People were going to the main market (which happens to be right behind the main square) rather than shopping at their local stores. The reason was simple, the local stores are small. They have what they have. You had (and still don't have) any guarantee that they will have what you want on any given day. The two corner stores that I shop at are just that, corner stores. They don't practice "just in time" inventory. They get their stock in for the week, and when it sells out, it is gone. Last time I was here, they had a thing called a "Pik Burger" but not any more. No idea why, but they just don't have them. These corner stores are way down on the distribution chain.

So, people go to Dolac to shop because odds are, you can find what you want there. Dolac is just like an American mall, only for food. I'd always been amazed that a mall can support half a dozen shops all selling the same thing, and usually right across from each other. Dolac is the same way. There are at least 10 different butchers shops there. So, Dolac is about choice and about getting what you want when you want it. The opposite of village life.

Some reflections on frustraition.

Not my frustration, but the frustrations of the Yugoslav elite with transforming Zagreb. I ran across this little bit from a book I picked up last trip. It's a book about the urban problem of Zagreb as a "great city" (that is to say a large city). Now, to set it up, I have to point out that the author is writing in the mid 70s after the big Croatian national flair-up in 71. He is addressing addressing the fact that by the 1970s over 50% of the population of Zagreb was "from the village" and they had developed their (primitive, his word) pattens of living and expectations from village life before moving into the city. So, that's what sets up this couple of sentences where he criticizes the need for people to shop "with peasants" and "still at Dolac." He goes on to complain that people will take the tram all the way into town to go shop at Dolac and return home to the "periphery" with bags of stuff rather than shop at a local store as one should in an urban pattern of life.

So, what's the big deal. Well, Dolac is a market, but it's a very modern market. It was built in the 1920s to get the daily market out of Ban Jelacic square. It is, in fact, two markets. On top, is the Dolac market that all the tourists are familiar with. It is mostly fruits and vegetables and spices and stuff. But, underneath is a complete second market which is really more like a mall. All the basics of life are there. Bread, meat, vegetables. When it was opened in 1930 it was the second largest indoor market in Europe (for some reason Yugoslavia always managed to have the second largest of everything in Europe, even before Tito). The picture is one I took this summer when I was here on my first 10 day trip (which is why it is so empty, summer is vacation time and not many people stay in town). It shows about 25% of the underground part of Dolac. So, you get an idea of how big it is, and how it is set up. When it was opened, the mayor of Zagreb said that now people would be able to find all kinds of new ways to squander their money on a daily basis.

So, the frustration part is that, I don't think this pattern of life is from the village at all. It think Dolac was very much a modernization project when it was done and it remains a very important part of Zagreb city life. What the urban planners wanted for for people to give up the specifically "Zagrebian" pattern of life and shop in a "Yugoslav" way. The problem for the Yugoslav urban planners is that people were adapting to the Zagreb pattern when they moved into the city.

What's up.

More research and writing. This is an example of the stuff I found last week. It's from the day after the formal celebration of the return of the statue to the square. The headline at the top translates roughly to "The Unmovable Soul of the Croatian Nation." That's a rough translation because DUH could also mean spirit, and NAROD could also mean people. That's the issue with doing work in a different language; a lot hangs on the specific meaning you give to certain words in certain contexts. But any way you translate it, it is a very strong statement, and it supports my thesis.

So, last week was a good week over all for research. This week is starting off rough. For example, the article I posted last week references a specific book. Now, I had seen this book in the Zagreb City Library computer catalog last time, but it was kind of low on my list because it was only about Lower Town and it was specifically called a sociological study. I had more than enough other books to get through. But anyway, now that I have this article, and I realized the book is really much more about the city structure, I figured I would move it to the top of the book list. Unfortunately, they have "upgraded" the library catalog software, and it doesn't produce the same search results that it used to, so now I can't find the book using subjects that you would think would pop it right up (Sociology, Lower Town, Urbanism) . I'm going to try again today using another search and hopefully that will work.

As to what's going on in town. It is Carnival time. Here they use the German word Fashing for it (funny, because back in the 30s it was called Carnival). It is kind of strange because not many people are into it. Carnival was banned for about 50 years, so people don't have a lot of attachment to the idea any more. The city did do a program on Saturday and I think Sunday (I didn't go out to check), but the only people in costume really in the crowd were little kids. So, maybe in a generation or so Carnival will be back to what it used to be here.

There are two public pettision drives going on at the moment (the HP people with the Ustase flag and the anti-EU/anti-NATO drive seem to have shut down shop for the moment). Both relate to urban space. One is an effort to stop a huge new project in down town, and the other is an effort to get Tudjman's statue moved to a more promenant location. I doubt either has much impact.

The building project is proably going to go through, since it has already been approved. The pettisioners are unhappy because:

1) the project will take out a couple of nice older buildings and really change the character of a nice little square in the middle of down town and

2) it is clearlly a pretty corrupt endeavor because there guy who wants to do the project is good friends with the mayor and a lot of top level people in the city government and he got the land cheap from the city and there was no public debate about approving the project. So, on this one, clearly the fix is in.

The other one is really just a publicity drive. Moving the statue has nothing to do with public sentiment, just local politics. At this point people could really just care less about Tudjman, even if he was the "First President of the Republic."

Long days in the library (and some issues with technology).

So, I've spent quite a bit of time in the library this week (well, that's not particularly unusual). But this time was somewhat different. Last week I found some great stuff at the City Library, but I am having some issues with them about making copies (they want me to write up a specific request for exactly what I want to copy with specific justification). So, to make things easier I just asked the City Museum library if they had copies of the same things, which they mostly did. That means that I only have to request to copy one item. Monday I spent roughly 4 hours in the City Library going though Vijesnik u Srijedu from 1972. There was actually a lot of interesting stuff there, but very little relating directly to my topic. So, for 4 hours of work, I got two things I might actually be able to use. That is about par for the course because I have to go through every page of every issue, so it is time consuming. Kind of like panning for gold. Most if what is there is just filler for what I am really looking for.

So, the last couple of days were different because I just went right at a time frame I knew would be full of stuff, and I was right. October 89 and October 90 were two pretty key months for my subject. I came away with probably 3 dozen articles. Now, I did go beyond my initial two month search to start covering September and November of those years too, so that helped. Now, you may ask, why am I taking the time to go through every page of every day of the paper. Well, because if I don't I miss little nuggets like the picture on this post. I'd a little article tucked away inside of Vijesnik, and it is exactly what I am looking for, the debate about the city, and how central the square is for every side in the debate.

Oh, and as to the weather, it looks like I picked the right winter to be gone from home. Yesterday was sunny and warm here, while I got an e-mail that said back home campus was going to be closed because of high winds and drifting snow making it unsafe for anyone to be there.

Technical difficulties? Well, despite the fact that I erased all the images off of my camera last week, I had to cut my work on Tuesday short because the camera said the memory card was full. For some reason this time it only deleted the index, not the images itself. Then the camera wouldn't talk to the computer for a while, meaning I couldn't delete the images that way either. Finally got it all sorted out but it took about 3 hours of time I could have been going through newspapers.

Anyway, today is kind of a catch up day. I still have a ton of organizing I have to do with various info I've collected so far. My documents file looks like my desk in the office. Lots of stuff just stacked up, and I need to have it more organized so I can actually find stuff while I'm writing.

Update: And blogger made me switch over to "New Blogger", which as far as I can tell is just an excuse to force me to create a Google account so they can claim me as a new customer for theri services. And, it messed up my link to Vecernji, since appartently the "New Blogger" doesn't like non-standard characters.

Anyway, off to one of the used book stores to see if I can find a book I saw here last time that I've decided I'd like to have.

I'm still here.

Been a while since I posted. Mostly that's because I have been really tired this week. I was up until around 3 am watching the Superbowl. I gave up around the end of the thrid quarter. I knew when the Bears went form 2 down and 2 to 4th and 20 that they weren't going to win. Can't say I was surpised. As my football watching friends know, I gave the Bears little chance of surviving the first round of the playoffs, so making it to the Superbowl was more than I expected for the season. And I'm actually kind of happy that Payton Manning finally won a Superbowl (wish it had been against a different team, but that's life).

I haven't been reporting on local news much because it is actually kind of depressing. The leader of the SDP (social democrats, ie, reformed communists) who is also former President of the Government (basically Prime Minister) was suddenly diagnost with cancer. He's now in Germany getting medial care and it is looking pretty grim. This has kind of thrown politics into a tail spin because (like most places I've been actually) politics is very personal here, and people are voting as much for the person as the party. The result is that everyone here is just kind of in shock at the moment and adjusting to the new reality.

So, more to come as I catch up more on my sleep.

Obligatory Super Bowl Post

Well, as most of you know, I am a Bears fan. So, there will be no question about who I am rooting for in the Super Bowl. I'm not going to make a prediction because, well, as I see it the game could go either way. Lots of factors; will the Bears defense play like they did before the injuries took the fire out of them at the end of the season (but like they did for 3 of the 4 quarters in the championship game), will Rex have a good or a bad game (he seems incapable of having an average game)?

Anyway, I will point out an odd correlation (which goes to show that correlation is not causation). Both of the years that the Bears have gone to the Super Bowl, I spent a large portion of the regular season here in Zagreb. That is a weird coincidence.

I think I get to watch the game on Z1 TV (that's what they are saying at least).

GO BEARS!

An idea of the kind of stuff I'm doing.

So, this is the kind of thing I am looking for in the newspaper. It's a little story from 26 October, 1918. Its about a guy who was working as a waiter at a cafe on the square, and got shot. Luckily, in those days, the city's main hospital was on the square too, so he didn't have to go far for medical attention.

Anyway, the reason it's important to me is because the story is set up as an example of the current social conditions. They could have used any particular story to do that. It seems that there was a certain degree of lawlessness setting in at the end of WWI. Apparently people were getting robbed in the street in broad daylight once in a while. But those stories don't carry the sentence about them being indicative of what is happening to society. They are just reports of crime in the city. This one is special because it happened on the square.