IDENTIFICATION
IDENTIFICATION

Author(s): Dejan Pataki
Subject(s): Politics, Identity of Collectives, Wars in Jugoslavia
Published by: Helsinški odbor za ljudska prava u Srbiji
Keywords: Dejan Pataki; identification; problem with identification; collectivism; sport; war;
Summary/Abstract: How many times in my life have I heard “Why do you interfere?!”, or “Let it be, you can’t do anything about it!”. And, certainly, the most frequent phrase: “As if my voice would change anything”. I keep asking myself what is the matter here? Do people underestimate themselves and clearly say “I’m just a nobody”, or willingly sink into a collective molasses, saying: “That’s the way we are”. In my case, the problem with identification emerged for the first time in the first grade of elementary school, when records on nationality began to be kept. The ones asked before my turn answered: “Yugoslavian”, “Turkish”, “Serbian”, Hungarian”…I have a surname which corresponds to the nation quoted last, and to the fact that my grandfather speaks Hungarian fluently. Until then, I probably haven’ seen Hungary even in the pictures, and as I admitted knowing how to count up to ten in my grandfather’s language (I could also count in English, but that wasn’t a part of my dilemma), I declared myself as a citizen of Zrenjanin.

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