Pan Historia, and Other Nonsense

Episode 6, Part 1: The Decline of Yugoslavia and the Ten-Day War

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the Balkans were a powder keg waiting to go off. A spark from a gunman's bullet in Sarajevo ignited the inferno that was First World War. The embers of the conflict in turn fuelled the Second World War, history's deadliest conflict. By the latter's end, the world was changed, as were the Balkans. Under the facade of a slavic union, unseen embers were beginning to glow again. As the 20th Century came to a close, the Balkans would once again ignite into the last great conflict of those 100 years. The consequences of a dying Yugoslavia would ripple across the world, and the first shots would be fired in the country of Slovenia.

This is the beginning of a conflict which would see evils we hoped were long behind us……ones we failed to prevent, and stop.

Music: Hej, Slaveni (Yugoslavia's national anthem, 1945-1992)

Episode 5: Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark (Western Alienation, and the Western Canada Separatist Movement)

In the midst of Lougheed's and Trudeau's dispute over the National Energy Program, resentment of the Easten dominated Federal government seeped deep into residents of Western Canada, some of which would evolve into hate. Call-in radio programs were flooded with support for Lougheed, as well as anger towards the Trudeau government. As one man said, "…I would be happy to fight for our freedom and I literally mean fight with a rifle." He wasn't alone in his desire for freedom, and the Western provinces saw several independence parties spring up during the 1980s. They sought to form an independent republic of Western Canada, in order to break away from what they percieved to be the oppression politicians in the east against the west, and Ottawa sucking away financial gains. However, these parties failed to recognize the overwhelming indesire for Western Canada to actually separate, and these advocates lacked the charisma, leadership, and popularity federalist figures such as Lougheed held. Join us this week as we discuss one of the least successful independence movement Canada experienced, crushed under its overconfidence.