----- Original Mess -----
From: Rob
> Poland, a huge country whose coastline stretches along the
> Baltic from Germany to Russia (sorta directly below, and only a few miles
> from, all those swarthy Swedes), is north of Slovakia - and Slovakia is
> north of Hungary (another big country), and it is south of Hungary we find
> the Balkans. Whilst I acknowledge your point that ya don't necessarily
> gotta look different to be racially abused, I do hold you wouldn't be able
> to identify a Pole in an identity parade of Germans, Dutchies and
> Frenchies. And insofar as there are dark-skinned Poles (not that I've
seen
> many), there are no fewer dark-skinned Germans, Dutchies and Frenchies.
>
Heh, Rob... Slovenians would not agree to be *in* the Balkans, especially after some edition of the Britannica placed them on the ambiguous fring... A Croatian girl said that Croatians are Catholic, and thus a world away from the Balkans, and another one (from Macedonnia) once remarked that Macedonians are unique on the Balkans for preferring diplomatic means for settling conflicts (wasn't good at history, obviously). I guess Greeks feel victimised, being forced to put up with bickering barbarians (grossly exaggerating an article I read ab Macedonian-Serbian relations written by a Greek who's based in the US). And I remember a friend in Belgrade passionately arguing that Yugoslavia is <in>, but not <of> the Balkans (that was years before Kosovo, though). Read somewhere, don't remember exactly where, the now become cliche that if the Balkans did not exist, they'd have to be invented. They do come in handy - especially if their own offspring (like film director Kusturica) say that war is a natural phenomenon on the Balkans. And a Polish friend, shutting up an argument with "People from the Balkans tend to get offended easily and are quick to pick up fight". The Balkans are a symptom and, as such, would be handing them over to Ken who's more qualified to prove that the Balkans do not exist ;-)
P.S. Got the joke, Kel, that's why I replied, well, that way - I am getting more and more convinced that you are a natural-born balkaniser (hey, that's a compliment! look what happened on dc...)