Column by: Anita Barjaktarević, RED AFRICA TRAVEL
THE THIRD WORLD
The Plague and the Pandemic THE CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY OF BELIEVING THAT BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN, BUT THAT LIFE WILL GO ON, PERHAPS BETTER PREPARES THE BALKAN PEOPLE TO HANDLE HARDSHIP AND SUDDEN CATASTROPHE THAN ANY OTHER CULTURE ON EARTH.
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lthough the Third World is used now as a derogatory term, the phrase was actually coined to describe the nations of the world who refused to follow the narrative of the Cold War, refusing to be subservient client states to either the Soviet Union in the East or the United States in the West. These nations were characterized by a stoic resolve gained by years of perseverance and a willingness to face enormous odds, even if that meant facing those odds alone. Third World nations had enormous pride in their ability to overcome hardships while holding onto their independence and unique cultures,
cultures which had been retained even during periods of colonization and subjugation despite the best efforts of invaders and colonial administrators. In few examples is the indomitable Third World spirit as evident as the vastly different manner in which their citizens have approached pandemics compared to the rest of the world. Stoic and purposeful, pandemics in the Balkans have often led to cultural flowering and a communal spirit to weather hardship together. The cultural psychology of believing that bad things will happen, but life will go on perhaps better prepares the Balkan people to handle har-
dship and sudden catastrophe than any other culture on earth. In 165 AD Roman military forces were returning victorious from Seleucia, near what is now Baghdad in Iraq. They did not, however, return alone. Along with the soldiers was a new disease - one the marching troops would spread throughout the empire on their trek home. It was a disease that would crop up in outbreaks for the next forty years, killing two emperors and decimating the mighty Roman army. There are two legends about how this new plague was unleashed upon the world. In the first the Ro29
