STATEHOOD DAY - SOL OUT

Twenty years have elapsed from June 25th, 1991 when Croatian Parliament brought the decision on the dissociation of Croatia from other republics of Yugoslav federation. In order too commemorate this historic date, when Croatia after nine centuries returned to its own self, Croatian Post issues a commemorative stamp with label. The author of the stamp is designer Dean Roksandić and the motif is the one of identity and identification: coat of arms and flag. In fervour of newly gained liberty Croatian historic symbols have been redesigned to politic purposes. The tricolour flag and the checkerboard pattern, that by their elementarity straightway denote a noble heraldic antiquity, have become talkative – a tricolour got sealed with the coat of arms in order to become different from its European kin, a checkerboard pattern got crowned with regional symbols in order to affirm the theses of regionalisms. Regardless of the fact that no consensus has been reached on the artistic result of that redesign the coat of arms and the flag are symbols of existence and pride, they do honour and are meant to honour. The designer Dean Roksandić framed them from „inside“, making their own extent infinite. At the same time he turned the direction of surface into depth, incorporating wind, swaying, dynamics and the thought of freedom. State, homeland, original homeland, our fathers and grandfathers’ land, our country, our native land: all these words in their inner or wider sense refer to that same piece of land under our feet, to the geography that changed through times, but there where its contours merge with the soul, has always remained the same. „Ja domovinu imam, tek u srcu nosim sva brda joj i dol“ („I have a homeland, but only in my heart I carry its hills and meadows“); „plava, plava postojbina“ („blue, blue fatherland); „stare slave djedovina“ („Our fathers’ ancient glory“); „to je tvoja zemlja“ („this is your country“); et cetera, from poem to poem, from line to line. „Gdje raj da ovaj prostrem, uzalud svijet prosim“ („Where shall I spread this paradise, in vain I ask the world“); „sunce tuđeg neba“ („the sun of foreign skies“); „a tuđincu, siromaku još je veći mrak u mraku“ („ and to a stranger – wretch, even gloomier is the dark of night“): an entire literature kept warning of essential connection between a man and his roots. However, that which the poetry mentions least is the first notion stated above - the state. Most probably so because it is least tied to emotions, and most to the categories of reason. The country exists also when there is no state; it can be stored, the poem says, into one’s heart. Homeland remains preserved also under foreign rule. The state, however, grants homes the sovereignty upon their own selves – regardless of the value level on which they are capable of applying it. State is a kind of guarantee for homeland. Basic difference between state and homeland is in the fact that our experience of homeland is personal, subjective; it is impregnated with feelings; its boundaries are in inheritance, in memory, in fantasy, in the „vagueness which is the sun of clearness“ („nejasnoći što je sunce od jasnoće“). The state however, is the issue of clearness in everything. Especially in collective commitments and individual rights. The state is an issue of morality above all. On the day of the twentieth birthday of that state we shall celebrate its flags and fix the stamps. But, also this day and all days we shall question ourselves whether by means of our state we have dignifully protected our homeland and whether we have done honour to our symbols in the same way they have done honour to us. If the answer is affirmative we have deserved the State hood Day. Željka Čorak