Christmas Stars: We Do Not Celebrate Communism in Croatia

Рет қаралды 4,173

Ай бұрын

If you are looking for an example of the gorgeous absurdity of life in Croatia, let me take you back to December 2015 and a simple incident that took place almost without witnesses and ended up as the number one news story of the day, and was talked about for months.
It was also the day that my name was splashed across the main media outlets for the first time - in some parts hilarious, in some parts a sad reflection on one of the great fault lines in Croatian society. A country where even the innocuous act of putting up political decorations is politicised.

Пікірлер: 165

@ITobjectives Ай бұрын

Paul, you have chosen the worst thing to play dumb about.

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

People see what they want/need to see. The Star of Bethlehem, also referred to as the 'Christmas Star,' guided the wise men, or Magi, to the birthplace of Jesus in the Christian story of Jesus of Nazareth's birth. The Star of Bethlehem, a five-pointed star, is unique in that it is only referenced in the Gospel of Matthew's nativity story.

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

@@PaulBradburySo is not always 5 pointed star . Subtle point ! Only native Croats can understand. Croatian sense of humor is , remove all communist simbols . We piss ourselves of laughter while we do it ! In the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a silver star with 14 undulating rays marks the location traditionally claimed to be that of Jesus' birth. In European textiles a common eight-pointed star design is known as the Holy Star of Bethlehem.

@kinidiosodlosios6892 Ай бұрын

So tell me Paul ..If one of the Christmas decorations look like swastika would it also be weird to remove it ?

@j.p.9295 Ай бұрын

Exzactly! There is nothing weird about it , it's just you pretending to be naive . "O , it's just little swastika "

@milansavic2803 Ай бұрын

American soldiers had this type of stars as their marks on uniforms. Hiw dump people could get it. A star is a star. This shape of star is not invited by communists.

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

No, I don't think so. People see what they want/need to see. The Star of Bethlehem, also referred to as the 'Christmas Star,' guided the wise men, or Magi, to the birthplace of Jesus in the Christian story of Jesus of Nazareth's birth. The Star of Bethlehem, a five-pointed star, is unique in that it is only referenced in the Gospel of Matthew's nativity story.

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

@KnezBranimir879 Ай бұрын

Communism back in the late 1940s and the early 1950s was horrible here, no wonder the people have traumas with symbols that remotely remind them of it.

@lenin.vladimir Ай бұрын

no?

@KnezBranimir879 Ай бұрын

@@lenin.vladimir yes.

@lenin.vladimir Ай бұрын

@@KnezBranimir879 no.

@andrejknez6851 Ай бұрын

Index aka the worst news page in Croatia

@user-xj3ve7wt8k Ай бұрын

Yea :D

@jogados Ай бұрын

Ni 5 ni 6 nego "otišao sam prijatelju Matiji Babiću"....TRA-GEDIJA od lika.

@KnezBranimir879 Ай бұрын

Smatrati takvu individuu prijateljem je za zabrinuti se i ozbiljno preispitati vlastite životne izbore i stavove.

@DivljaVoda Ай бұрын

"News page" hahahqh. Tko normalan čita index. Ili komentare ispod članaka. Pa to je živi otrov. Otrov

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

And yet is it in the top 1000 most visited websites in the world, according to SimilarWeb.com analytics. Not bad for the worst news page in the Croatian language. Also, every major portal then took this story from Index and did it.

@ProPatriaParati Ай бұрын

Dear Paul, I understand that you as not native,don't know and can't understand what did Croats survived under comunism and "star",you probably are not aware that because British Crown, Croatian refugies where turned back to communist wearing star on their uniform, which since May 1945 till the end of 1951 killed 460.000 Croats. Matika Babić,your friend is known to be colaborator of Serbian Inteligence, known as someone who hate free Croatia and important part of Soroš sponsored media. I'm sorry you stuck in this situation,but Croats remember. Everything. No decent Croatian patriot will ever alow him self to be in 5 meters from Matija Babić and neocommunist like him.

@iadertina Ай бұрын

Thank you for explaning it politely to Paul. From a granddaughter of a man killed somewhere after the war, just because he didn't beleive in the red stars.

@Macar14 Ай бұрын

Those weren't refugees, those were baby killers Ustaše

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

@dt6822 26 күн бұрын

I know some Croats in Canada, and these poor poor persecuted people who erected a mural, a painted mural, to the Nazi Ante Pavelich at the Croatian Cultural Centre in Vancouver, deserved much worse than what the Communist government gave them. Your pathetic apologetic of criminals, murderers and Nazi puppets is laughable. No one in the Anglophone world will ever agree with you because you have no point. Your point is a nationalistic, chauvinistic, fascistic apologetic to a man who understands it all far better than you, and whose people were the only reason why the Nazis didn't win. The arrogance of trying to "explain" to an Eton graduate anything. The fact that there were 460,000 Ustasha who you claim were killed, is something everyone else would be ashamed of, instead of attempting to present them as victims.

@filijala7925 Ай бұрын

dragi Paul, baš si našao prjatelja i portal kojem ćeš slati takve vijesti. 🤦‍♂

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

Perhaps, but interesting how every other major portal also carried the story

@filijala7925 28 күн бұрын

@@PaulBradbury i know, thats what croatian copy/paste journalism do 😁 not a fan of babić and index though

@romangenzic4444 Ай бұрын

Like the star on Heineken or Lone Star Beer...the star on Xmas decoration has no connection with communism...end of story.

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

@goranelez9956 29 күн бұрын

It's not the humor that gets me, it's the delivery of it. Haven't laughed so much this week.

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

haha thanks

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

@beppogiglio Ай бұрын

the local government in small communities has learned long ago that it is necessary to implement the will of the big ones /since the time of Venice, Austria, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia../ The mayors and officials were great Italians, germanophiles, royalists, communists, and today they are great Croats and Catholicks. This leaves a lot of room for the ordinary people to have fun at their expense

@user-xj3ve7wt8k Ай бұрын

Yea, Croats really don't like Communism 😄

@edweb2006 Ай бұрын

😈

@lenin.vladimir Ай бұрын

we do

@KnezBranimir879 Ай бұрын

@@lenin.vladimir you are Soviet.

@rvat137 Ай бұрын

@@lenin.vladimir "we" tko smo to mi hahhaha

@lenin.vladimir Ай бұрын

@@KnezBranimir879 I'm Croatian

@j.p.9295 Ай бұрын

If you had as much shite as we had with this star in Yuga , you would understand . The fact that you just see a star and we feel pain in our hearts , should be enough for you to stay out of it ! Playing dumb in this situation is revolting. Whatever you may think of us , we know the difference between twinkle twinkle little star and this one .

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

@@PaulBradburyPaul I know what is Star of Betlehem and the story from Bible . No confusion there ! But also it is represented as 14 point star and 8 pointed star 🔯 ✴. We just don't like 5 pointed one .

@frcprc4022 28 күн бұрын

@j.p.9295 aj, ne s3ri.

@stevefrompolaca2403 Ай бұрын

in my workplace during my younger years I was referred to as the 'crazy croat' now I understand why! My place of work was in the centre of manchester, close to umist which I imagine you know Paul cheers

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

UMIST, haven't heard that name in years

@perttisuorsa4678 20 күн бұрын

You have a pleasant voice and your British accent sounds so good to my Finnish ears.

@PaulBradbury 16 күн бұрын

haha thanks

@adriaticdream9742 Ай бұрын

Kao i u seriji "Naše malo misto" Miiljenka Smoje, to je oduvijek tako. 😂

@HladniSjeverniVjetar Ай бұрын

E, a ca ces...

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

Yes, that is a great series, set in Stari Grad

@dt6822 Ай бұрын

As a classicist, I would like to explain what the significance of the star is, and why the communists adopted it and why the Catholics hate it. The star, the so-called pentagram, the five tip star, is the symbol of the planet Venus. Venus was also called Aphrodite, Ishtar, Asherah, Astarte, Astaroth, Isis, Zarathustra. The "morning star" and the "evening star." "I am the morning and the evening star, I am the rising and the setting star, I am upper and I am lower Egypt, I am Pharaoh." Venus is the brightest object in the sky except for the sun and the moon, in certain times of the year, much brighter than the Sirius star. The ancient people of course did not know the difference between the planets and the stars. The word planet comes from the Greek planetai which means " wondering star." So religion including Christianity is in reality and adaptation of what we call astral theology, the belief that the planets and the stars are in some way divine. This is what we call "esoteric" knowledge, or knowledge that is hidden, with the story the people are told is a personification or anthropomorphization. So Moses sees the burning bush, the burning bush being of course the milky way galaxy which appears on certain nights like a bush on fire. If you believe that the earth is still, and not moving, and that the planets and the stars including the sun and the moon actually orbit around the Earth, rather than the other way around, as we know today, because you are under the false impression that the earth is at the center of the universe as the ancients believed, and you note the location of Venus in relation to the earth around different nights, Venus, in relation to the earth, rotates in a pattern that forms a pentagram. It revolves around the Earth from our perspective in the precise geometric pattern of a five tip star. In fact, because of this rotation, many of the things on the earth have the five star pattern because we evolved with this particular influence of the planet which obviously has an influence on everything that lives. If you cut an apple horizontally and you look at the core you will notice a star. This is something called "sacred geometry", and you can google it simply by putting in sacred geometry of Venus and see for yourself. The communists knew this of course. Imagine you discover that all of the religious oppression, the brainwashing, the abuse of other ethnic groups for being a slightly different kind of Christian, or the barbarity of the invading armies of the caliphate for their version of yet another personified religion of star worship, if you were that communist, would you not be angry? Would you not believe that the chuch is a vile institution that has lied to the people? Because of this reality, the church began to associate the star with Lucifer or Satan, since of course Venus is that star, lux+ferro, "the light bringer" since it often appears in the morning before the sun. In other words, in order to disguise further anyone from looking into the importance of the symbolism lest they discover the truth, the church vilified that symbol as a symbol of the devil. Which made it a perfect symbol for the communists to appropriate with the hope that it serves as a symbol of their desire to liberate humanity from the oppression of magic and lies and psychological manipulation. While the communist project may be an abysmal failure, I stand in solidarity with the Croatian partisans, all the anti-fascists, and Death to Fascism, Freedom to the People!

@MarioPetrinovich Ай бұрын

Ah, I see, you like communist evilness.

@misocveticanin578 28 күн бұрын

Al si ga nasro

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

People see what they want/need to see. The history of Christmas and the 5-pointed star goes back to biblical times - The Star of Bethlehem, also referred to as the 'Christmas Star,' guided the wise men, or Magi, to the birthplace of Jesus in the Christian story of Jesus of Nazareth's birth. The Star of Bethlehem, a five-pointed star, is unique in that it is only referenced in the Gospel of Matthew's nativity story.

@dt6822 28 күн бұрын

@@PaulBradbury The 3 Magi are Constellation Orion, with the 3 Kings stars, same formation as the Pyramids.

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

@anamarijasolje9052 Ай бұрын

Uuuu.. ipak si mi sada malo manje drag!😢 Matija Babic je državni neprijatelj no1 koji je javno priznao Soroševu financijsku potporu pri osnivanju indexa!

@andrejasironic4561 27 күн бұрын

Hats off for being yourself!

@PaulBradbury 25 күн бұрын

There is no point trying to be anyone else

@riobabic8960 29 күн бұрын

My friends fat my friends father in law won’t drink Heineken because of the communist star !

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

I am sure he is not alone

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

@@PaulBradbury kako bi rekao Mao Ce Tung "Everybody sees what they want to see "

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

Well , is not always 5 pointed star . Subtle point ! Only native Croats can understand. Croatian sense of humor is , remove all communist simbols . We piss ourselves of laughter while we do it ! In the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a silver star with 14 undulating rays marks the location traditionally claimed to be that of Jesus' birth. In European textiles a common 8 -pointed star design is known as the Holy Star of Bethlehem.

@LukaBEET Ай бұрын

Croatia liberated itself in 1941 against royalist Serb Yugoslavia who throughout the 20 past years has forbidden our culture, our music, our checkered flags, our glorious history while inventing one that served their purposes, killed our president in 1928, neutralized our political freedom and voice, repressed us violently and killed many of our folks, etc... Than some German with a weird moustache offered us weapons and tanks to revolt, and as former warriors of central powers we gladly accepted.

@feliciahamm3976 Ай бұрын

Awesome story, narrated perfectly! Visiting in May and looking forward to the next video! Amazing bookshelf, btw.

@jogados Ай бұрын

It's not awesome, it's picking sides where you don't belong, so here's a pro tip since you'll be visiting, something that all foreigners already know, NEVER talk about the damn Yugoslavia, or war or communism to Croats, you will just piss them off and might find yourself in an unpleasant situation.

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

Thanks - lots more coming if you want to subscribe

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

@annagaspar3659 28 күн бұрын

Divided people on every issue important and foolish . Paying tributes and worshipping symbols instead of working on solving real problems is of no benefit..however it represents our present political ,religious and educational systems ... Divided we fall.

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

Kako bi rekao Mao Ce Tung 😅 " everybody sees what they want to see " In Communist Yougoslavia people were not allowed to believe in God , go to church or celebrate Christmas especially if they were teachers or similar leading possitions . Tito wanted to be God 😅 and for some people he was .

@ImreWeiss Ай бұрын

Very funny video.

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

Lots more coming if you want to subscribe

@krunoslavjares2432 Ай бұрын

Ako ti je prijatelj m.b. jano je kpji su tvoji stavovi. Zašto ne probaš u UK propagirati rusiju i komunističku ikonografiju?

@DivljaVoda 29 күн бұрын

Kad je tamo manjina. Premijer pakistanac, gradonačelnici indijci, pikanje nozevima. Grupna silovanja, serijatski zakonu po engleskoj. Manjina u London. On je tu jer je shvatio u kojem smjeru ide UK. I sad bez srama se smije nama, koji još uvijek imamo svoju kulturu i tradiciju.

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

Quite !

@robmik83 Ай бұрын

Kinda none of my business, but Paul, you might want to get your fasting insulin checked... 😊

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

@osmaks1518 Ай бұрын

You like opening pandora's box, don't you Paul! 😂 just keep in mind that you can't close it.. The Balkans are a weird place, beautiful and ugly at the same time, that's why some things are better to be left alone for sure.

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

Not really. People see what they want/need to see. The history of Christmas and the 5-pointed star goes back to biblical times - The Star of Bethlehem, also referred to as the 'Christmas Star,' guided the wise men, or Magi, to the birthplace of Jesus in the Christian story of Jesus of Nazareth's birth. The Star of Bethlehem, a five-pointed star, is unique in that it is only referenced in the Gospel of Matthew's nativity story.

@norisknofun9720 Ай бұрын

that's because Matija Babić is ex-yu lover

@nikolaculina3583 Ай бұрын

Dear Paul, if you are reading the comments here...don't go for these first white field coat of arms and suspicious "patria" nickname comments. Croatia prospered greatly in the Jugoslavia. It wasnt even communism, it was socialism. As with most things, it had some good and bad stuff which normal people realise.

@MarioPetrinovich Ай бұрын

Hm, "prospered greatly"? You, obviously, don't know how Yugoslavia looked like before communism, so on which basis you claim that Croatia (or Yugoslavia) prospered? Find somewhere videos of pre-communist Zagreb. The "great prosperity" is just a communist lie, nothing more.

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

@j.p.9295 28 күн бұрын

@snappycattimesten Ай бұрын

Looking at the comments reminds me of “what have the Romans ever done for us?” sketch (with the usual triggered fascists/neo z). Funny stuff.

@KnezBranimir879 Ай бұрын

At least we are not damn red bastards.

@jogados Ай бұрын

Nice move, Paul. Going against what we stand for and against Croatian nationalism won't win you any favors here, Croats can't pull it off, why should you? In my eyes you have become persona non grata.

@PaulBradbury Ай бұрын

Thanks for your comment. I am not against anything, just pointing out an absurd incident and the story behind it. As for being persona non grata in your eyes, I guess it is a cross I will have to bear. And if my main interest was for people to like everything I produced, having a niche in the Croatian media is the last place I would start. The good news is that following my content is not obligatory.

@jogados Ай бұрын

@@PaulBradbury You've been here long enough, people who have never been here know very well that's a topic you don't engage as a foreigner, you just showed that you didn't learn much in all that time, making fun of Croatian railways is one thing, but playing dumb, as others have said, on a topic that made decades of evil and spilled blood is not something we want people trivializing, the worst thing however is you considering a friend a person who is very much anti everything Croatian, and a convicted fraud felon, that is not a good person. If you just made this video as a random brain fart, it wouldn't go as bad, but mentioning that person deletes a lot of innocence in your claim. And what abouit the Heineken thing? While it's pretty obvious that there's a red star on it, it has nothing to do with communism, but you still ended up using it to make fun of what you see absurd, but ended up making it worse. You find it absurd because all of it didn't affect YOU and has nothing to do with YOU! You want to know how badly that star bothers us? When the war broke out, we sponge-washed the red star off the licence plates, removed stars from top of the chimneys, factories..

@PaulBradbury Ай бұрын

@@jogados you are entitled to your opinions, as i hope I am as well

@vanjaliscuk7518 Ай бұрын

Sir Paul, Thank you for everything ,you have done for my Homeland! One day wi will meet It's my wissh!

@PaulBradbury 28 күн бұрын

Lots more coming if you want to subscribe

@neandertalac Ай бұрын

Also, do not use the word partisan, it has other connotations in Croatia.

@endless031 27 күн бұрын

Crazy right wingers

@Macar14 Ай бұрын

Communism in Yugoslavia almost succeeded, and many people here in Croatia celebrate those years

@KnezBranimir879 Ай бұрын

By default, communism can never succeed. It is clear to anyone with understanding of vasic economics.

@LukaBEET Ай бұрын

Yes but it was never implemented by a willing Croat majority but forcefully implemented over us through WW2 even though there were some quantity of Croat communists even before WW2.

@iadertina Ай бұрын

Yea, almost. Those who disagreed were thrown in pithces and caves all around country in late forties. Survivers and killers beleived strongly in communism, untill it was destroyed everywhere, but in Cuba and small but resilient enclaves in ex Yugoslavia. 😅

@Macar14 Ай бұрын

only thing forcefully was Croatia between 1939. and 1945.@@LukaBEET

@LukaBEET Ай бұрын

@@Macar14 Indeed great times

@lenin.vladimir Ай бұрын

As a person who lives in Croatia, we love Tito and we look at him like a hero because he has liberated us from both nazis and fascists. Tito is the only one who could have held Communist/Socialist Yugoslavia together and stable. Of course, some people don't like communism, but mostly we like it. Majority of people don't even know the valutes of communism and think of it as just one of these brutal totalitarian regimes.

@frankdux2057 Ай бұрын

There is a reason why communism has failed all over the world yet you have brainwashed young people today who want communism. They don’t study and learn from history.

@apan990 Ай бұрын

'mostly' is a huuugeee overstatement. the only croats who genuinely like communism are old materialists who are more than anything just nostalgic, or edgy teens who watched one tiktok about communism and think its the greatest thing ever. furthermore most croats, especially during the time of the 90s war, were/are VERY patriotic, which wasnt allowed in a serb controlled yugoslavia, as with most of these regimes, they start 'nice', then develop into something terrible. also your defense of communism is no different to the defense of any style of government, newsflash mate, we dont live in a utopia world, thus communism is genuinely piss easy to abuse and take control of the masses in a harmful way, and has been proved so again, and again, and again. i can make the same argument for capitalism, anarchism, monarchism, or whatever other ism you want, the 'values' on paper mean nothing when the ppl in power abuse them constantly. what we have now is also bad, dont get me wrong, it sucks, but at the very least im able to type this comment without getting my door smashed down and arrested for having the wrong opinion, which is a giant plus in my book.

@damonmelendez856 Ай бұрын

Are you a Croat, or just a person lives in Croatia? Because I seriously doubt that most Croats love Tito… lmao

@damonmelendez856 Ай бұрын

The values of murder, persecution and corruption are not celebrated by normal people. How dare you claim that most Croats ‘love’ that criminal, the so-called ‘Tito’,

@j.p.9295 Ай бұрын

Nobody likes Tito except people who haven't got a clue who they are , where they are or why they are .