Yugoslavia

Tell us about some of your experiences there and what was going on when they were trying to sort out their monetary problems.

Okay, so, well, first, you've got Yugoslavia.

I was a chief economic advisor to the Markovic government in 1990 until 1991 when the Civil War broke out in Yugoslavia.

So that was the second highest hyperinflation in world history was in Yugoslavia, 313 million percent per month.

Per month.

Yeah.

And so that was one.

And that ended up, after the breakup

Tell us about some of your experiences there and what was going on when they were trying to sort out their monetary problems.

Okay, so, well, first, you've got Yugoslavia.

I was a chief economic advisor to the Markovic government in 1990 until 1991 when the Civil War broke out in Yugoslavia.

So that was the second highest hyperinflation in world history was in Yugoslavia, 313 million percent per month.

Per month.

Yeah.

And so that was one.

And that ended up, after the breakup

A scrape of code that mapped to my private childhood address, phonetically, in a cipher style I recognized.

A Yugoslav military code my uncle used to practice at the kitchen table.

Reese spoke up first, shaking his head.

That GPS target, place hasn't seen a living soul since before I was born, except for the searchers, and they didn't find a thing but oil and teeth.

What makes me still a little bit optimistic is if we look at history, including recent history of water cooperation, there are examples where countries have not only successfully cooperated, but have actually managed to build that cooperation out of very difficult situations and where water has really been a driving force in building cooperation between countries that otherwise had no interest in cooperating.

Think of the Sava river basin in south-eastern Europe on the Balkans, where water was the first topic that brought countries together after the war in former Yugoslavia, and where water was deliberately chosen as a topic where countries might not have the same interests, but where their interests might be so compatible that it can push forward trust-building and cooperation.

It has developed into a really successful model.

A similar case being South Africa, where water was also the first protocol negotiated under the SADC treaty after apartheid and really the first move for countries to cooperate, even before they moved towards cooperation on trade, economic exchange, and other things.

U.S. West joined with the Hungarian government to own and operate a national cellular telephone system.

GM Vice President Marina Whitman, CFR, T.C., joined the governments of Hungary and Yugoslavia to make cars.

GE CEO John Welch, CFR, and Vice Chairman of the Board Lawrence Bossidy, T.C., brought a majority of stake in Hungary's lightning industry.

Ralston Purina, Dow Chemical, Eastman Kodak, SC Johnson & Son, Xerox, American Express, Procter & Gamble, Woolworth, Philip Morris, Ford, Compaq Computer, hardly a single American brand name was missing.

We cannot dare to say we will leave NATO right away because it has always brought us negative consequences.

I would dare to say so because since 1999, when under NATO guidance, Germany participated in bombarding Yugoslavia, all the international military interventions and wars against international law began.

under NATO.

And they all brought waves of millions of migrants and refugees to Europe, above all to Germany.

The

example is Bertie O'Hearn cancelling the visas of the Yugoslav team, as it was then, who were coming to Ireland.

And then the other example was Hawhey calling in the IRFU and saying...

this shouldn't go ahead, this tour of South Africa.

I remember when Bush Sr. was in office, they would just mock him on the video screens, like incessantly.

And then when the Yugoslav war was coming in, they were completely, you know, with the Albanians and so forth, you know, just hammering the Serbs all the time on the screens.

And when it came to a head, I think it was 2018 or something – My wife and I went to go see U2 in Gillette Stadium.

And this is a few years after the Boston bombing.

Right.

The setting fight, the quarterfinals, I was fighting a Yugoslavian and who had came from Bantamweight down to Flyweight and I didn't know this until my brother told me he'd actually 51 fights and he'd 50 KOs before he fought me he thought me he'd 51 KOs and out 52 fights so he knocked me out in the second round but it was just when he catch you there there's nothing you can do about it you know what I mean so when you come back for the Olympics I defended the NBA title again in a turn pro, moved to London, down where you were, Frank.

I was there for five years, so I enjoyed my time down there.

I won the Lonsdale belt down in London and I won the European title over in Sardinia in 1990.