🎤 “The Water Belongs to Us All” – A Speech by Yugo Joe
(Yugo Joe steps up, looking out over a crowd, perhaps near the Adriatic coast. He speaks with passion, but an underlying weariness.)
My friends, my neighbors, my Croatian people! I want to talk to you tonight about the water. About the sea that washes up on our beautiful beaches. This land, this coastline, this heritage—it is ours.
And because it is ours, we have a right to decide who shares it. And right now, we are sharing it. Aren’t we?
We see Harjeet bringing his children to splash in the shallows. We see Muhammed setting up his umbrella to escape the fierce summer sun. And we welcome them. We open our arms, because they are here, they are working, they are living, and they are part of the new lifeblood of this country. That is right, and that is progress.
🌊 Why Not the Serbs?
But if the water is open enough for Harjeet, and open enough for Muhammed, then I have to ask: Why is it still closed to the Serbs?
I see the faces. I feel the tension. I hear the old whispers about what happened, about who lost what, and about grudges that go back further than my own grandfather can remember.
But look at us! We are the new generation! We are not defined by 1991. We are defined by 2025. We are defined by the jobs we need, the lives we want to build, and the simple, undeniable fact that the sea does not belong to any flag!
💔 The Lie of Conflict
They tell us to hate. They tell us to remember the bitterness. They tell us that our history demands we keep this wall up—this invisible, hateful wall between people who are geographically, linguistically, and culturally brothers and sisters.
But I learned something profound, something true, from a man who saw this same madness. He said:
“War is when the old and bitter convince the young and stupid to fight.”
They were the old and bitter. We, my friends, were the young and stupid.
They convinced us to fight. They convinced us to kill. They convinced us that a few square meters of sand was worth more than a lifetime of peace.
Well, I am done being stupid! I am done carrying a hatred that was handed to me like a heavy, broken relic!
🤝 Choose the Future
This is not about forgetting. It is about choosing to live.
It is about saying that if a family comes from a continent away and is welcome to swim on our beach, then a family that lives just an hour’s drive over a border that should be meaningless is also welcome!
Let them swim. Let them spend their money here. Let them taste the same salt air that we do. Because every single Serbian kid who swims here, every Serbian family who is shown a moment of kindness, is another nail in the coffin of that old, bitter war.
We are the new Yugoslavia. Not the old, failed state. But the new, invisible, peaceful union of people who just want to live.
Open the beaches. Open your hearts. Let’s start swimming together.
Thank you.