Tito's children.

I just noticed that our national media outlet, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC for short) is playing a radio documentary on Yugoslavia. It looks as though it'll mostly be focused on the more easterly section (surprise!), but I imagine that Slovenia will also be discussed (we'll just leave aside the question of whether SLO is in the Balkans or not, eh?). You can listen live from Slovenia at 6am on Saturday, and it will probably be archived as a free podcast on the CBC section of Itunes. The show is called Ideas, which is almost always excellent. Here's the description of the show:

Friday, June 8, 2007, 9:00 p.m. (if you're in Canada)
08/06/2007

"Tito’s Children. The Balkans, they say, sit on a great fault-line of history, between Europe and Asia, between Christian and Muslim worlds. From far back in time, battles have raged there, leaving a legacy of tribalism and distrust. Out of the ruins of the Second World War, however, through a combination of brute force, charisma and innovative social policy, Josip Broz, better known as Marshall Tito, forged a unique state that almost worked – Yugoslavia. But after his death in 1980, the country rapidly fell apart amid war and bloodshed. Today, the separate elements of Yugoslavia are rebuilding themselves. Philip Coulter looks at the ethnic and political fissures in the Balkans to see what forces are in play in the building of civil society."

The description is a bit over the top, and this whole "fault line of history" thing is becoming a tiresome cliche (which part of the world isn't a crossroads between East and West, Christian and Muslim, at this point in the discourse?). It's lazy and obvious, kinda like a travel writer talking about X location as "a land of contrasts". Nevertheless, I expect the show itself to be quite good, or at the very least interesting.

If you are in the mood to discover more of our media (and why wouldn't you), I'd suggest also downloading Dispatches from Itunes, a weekly world affairs radio documentary show. It's the one thing I listen to religiously, no matter where I am. It's the best of our public broadcast system.

As for us, we're just killing some time in Sighisoara (birthplace of a certain infamous Transylvanian gentleman) before our night train to Budapest. We'll be in Hungary for the morning (thermal baths and then cake and coffee at Gerbeau in Pest, sigh) and then will jump on a Slovenia-bound train around noon. Should be home, all things being equal, by 9:30 Saturday night. Can't wait!