real democracy in action

[waider]

One of the UK stations just showed a pretty decent docu on Slobodan Milosevic's fall from power. I'm not 100% sure how real the democracy in action was; I know there was a lot of external funding put into overthrowing his regime in the interests of, uh, shall we say "foreign powers" who subsequently got rather pissed at Mr. Kostunica for not immediately handing Milosevic over to The Hague. In fact, Milosovic only got there because the cabinet that came in with Kostunica basically bundled ol' Slobo out of the country without telling the new president. Still, though, a fascinating documentary. One brave soul, pissed at the communist government for the failure of his business[1], drove his digger to Belgrade, where he featured prominently in the assault on the Parliament building (raising people to the first-floor balconies with the scoop) and the State television station (using the scoop as a shield against bullets[2] to drive up to the building, then ramming the doors to allow the pro-Kostunica supporters to storm the building. It was somewhat humbling to watch someone so... small take such a major part in the rewiring of his own country. There was an amusing bit with another digger; on the day the elections were supposed to be rerun, Kostunica supporters ran five convoys from the outer parts of the country into Belgrade. Predictably, they met with roadblocks and the like. The camera showed the first standoff; the police telling the convoy that it couldn't proceed because the tunnel they were about to pass through had been blocked with sand. The camera then cut to the digger, on which several supporters stood, chanting, "we've got a dig-ger," in sing-song voices. The police stood down, and hours later the convoy made it to Belgrade. Powerful stuff.

[1] Yes, this is a wonderfully universal attitude - "my business failed, the government are to blame". Crosses all political boundaries, apparently.

[2] He later found 80 bullet holes in the cab of the digger.