>> But The Party wouldn't let go - they rather split the country, each one of them trying to be the Caesars of their little parochy instead of being maybe second in the big one.

>That was really last chance for survival of Yugoslavia
>that was so stupidly missed :(

Missed? Au contraire, it was shot right in the middle :). It wasn't given a chance. Because The Party guys knew that, as soon as other parties were allowed (and the law was changed the very same year) they'd lose the next elections. So they rather helped each other make war.

>Everything really started looking up back then. I was really optimistic about that; (naively as it appeared) got a great first job (Serbian National Theatre) bought first car on my own
>(Red Yugo55 what else :) ) made few rewarding gigs on the side and was dreaming about building slowly my own software business.

I had a software business back then (MPA was founded in 1989), and we were doing really good - had five cars (four Yugos and a Yugo-based pickup), I was maintaining 200 user/app installations, plus there were other six programmers, we built an office at the end of the main street (!)... but it was society owned, we went into transformation and by mid-1993 we owned the thing. Except we didn't - Sloba suddenly decided to recalculate for inflation, and we ended up owning a total of 1.4% of what we actually earned. What we got as a foundation capital from the society was maybe just 3% of what we earned the first year, but what the hell, if they want to steal from us, they'll pass a law to do it legally.

Then I founded another one (Alas d.o.o.), which worked fine, again had a lot of customers - but it was past 1994 already, and the customers didn't have the money. And after the bombing they started losing business, so we were left with about two paying customers and the others paying with promises. I drove a bicycle or my dad's Trabant (at the age of 43!)(me, that is, Trabant was only 11 years old). Which is why I'm here.

>And then k-boom - everything goes down the drain ..., politicians driving people mad , war, destruction and so fourt ...

...and while we managed to survive somehow, the mayor concern was how to remain sane, when the whole country has gone insane. I still can't figure how we got through. Looks like a bad dream now.

>>I find more similarity with Sloba's fuq-topia - destruction of middle class, inventing wars, cronyism, media control, and yes you can get in debt all you want and have a full fridge etc, doesn't matter, in the end all your base are belong to us. Let's choose weapons - do you want a million percent inflation, or revocation of bankruptcy laws so you're in debt forever (unless you're a corporation, that is). And on TV you'll see a virtual reality where real issues never come up, any mass demonstrations against the regime are ignored or downplayed, patriotism spinning and search for internal enemies never stops.
>
>
>I find those similarities being very disturbing. I never tought something like this could happen in America. State fueled hystery/parranoya, BuildUp/Rise of national and military forces, cheap media manipulation that actually works etc. I really tought things like that are Balcan leaderships speciality, but apparently America is not any better.
>
>Problem is that Sloba&Franjo and the rest of *BadCompany* were small local Balcan leaders who as we know torched everything arround them into blood & flames.
>But America is huge, global force with unprecented military power in the
>history of the world. If things go Mad/Out of control (as it seems), what will be end result to that ?

I don't want to know. Unfortunately, I will.