The attempts at preventing such "elusiveness" are manifested in
assimilation. If assimilation fails, those strangers are rejected -
or, brutally removed. These two models are paradoxical since all
cultures resemble one another very much. Only 20 percent of one
culture is autochthonous, while the rest is a product of a cultural
mix. In spite of all nations engage in conflict against each other
as in the case of the wars in the territory of ex-Yugoslavia. A
community that defines "its own" through its attitude towards other
communities will always originate conflicts.
Some questions and comments made by students:
1. We adopt laws and change ourselves only because
the West wants us to.
2. Is it true that Serbia is the West's colony?
3. Serbia's anthem refers only to Serbs and Serb
lands? What about other peoples living in Serbia?
4. Serbs are incapable of accepting anyone
different from them. When abroad we are prone to be bigger Serbs
than at home.
5. A student speaks about a teacher from abroad
who was immediately engaged by a school in Zrenjanin. No one
bothered to check his diploma or his CV, he was engaged on full-time
basis just because he spoke fluent English. "We, Serbs, would accept
everything that comes to us without posing any questions."
6. Traveling abroad is the first step towards
knowing others. But the luxury of a travel abroad is restricted to
those who can afford it. Not long ago our higher schools were closed
to any cooperation with their counterparts abroad. This problem is
not created by people but by authorities.
"Multiculturalism/Interculturalism in
Practice; the Case of Vojvodina" (Lecturer: Prof. Tamas Korhec)
As a social phenomenon a culture is a product of
human creativity. That means that a culture necessitates a human
community. Such a community is mostly monoethnic - one nation or one
tribe. A mother tongue of the people in a community makes
foundations for their culture, i.e. it preconditions their
consumption of culture. Unlike ethnic communities, cultured
communities are more open, they do not acknowledge borders and they
accept the influence of different cultures. Interculturalism implies
intercultural influence, including cultures that are similar.
Multiculturalism implies several different cultures, relatively
distanced one from another, but existing within a same society or a
state. A state cannot establish multiculturalism because borders
between cultures do not correspond to those of the state. A modern
state's attitude towards culture is proactive, it channels and
finances culture... In this area a state's attitude can be
1. Negative - when a state supports the culture of
one ethnic community only (like in Greece, Albania, Bulgaria or
France);
2. Partially tolerant - a nation-state recognizing
the right to cultural diversity and partially supportive of not only
the predominant culture (like Serbia and most countries);
3. Multicultural state - the one that affirms
multiculturalism and is supportive of many cultures (like
Switzerland, Canada or ex-Yugoslavia);
In the past ten years Vojvodina has made a visible
progress in the domain of multiculturalism. The province has
established a theater in minority languages, opened new high and
elementary schools, and set up new media outlets. However, a
considerable part of the population in Vojvodina strongly opposes
multiculturalism. Regular curricula and textbooks still do not
acknowledge the values of multiculturalism. The curriculum in
Serbian taught to Hungarian classes is still inadequate. At central
level, the political class is still not ready to affirm the policy
of multiculturalism in Serbia.
Some questions and comments made by students:
1. The media were running just one side of the
story about the incident in Temerin? What actually happened? We are
not ready yet for accepting multiculturalism.
2. Two ethnic communities can live in harmony. For
instance, Rumanians in Sutjeska learn Serbian.
3. A girl from Backa Topola says she couldn't
speak Hungarian as a child and, therefore, couldn't play with
Hungarian kids. No member of her family or their friends would help
her and teach her Hungarian.
4. Serbs are reserved about minorities, but
minorities are also reserved about Serbs.
5. The wars in the territory of ex-Yugoslavia and
refugees caused problems in Vojvodina: for, refugees cannot
understand Vojvodina' past. |
