When is now?
A group of twenty or so military-age men is marching through the main street in Borovo Selo, chanting “Kill the Serb”, singing “Oh my Croatian mother, we will slaughter the Serbs” and similar songs…
Oscars and unrealistic expectations
Now that the Oscars are over, leaving many around here disappointed or thrilled that the film ‘Quo vadis, Aida?’ didn’t win, it is worth pointing out the continuous clash with reality in these parts.
Gomorrah
Marinika Tepic informed the public about sexual abuse of women and girls in Jagodina. Her visit to the forbidden city and the courage she needed to face Palma’s “Tigers” caused great turbulence.
Ferenc Fehér Square
We are very disturbed by the effort to get rid of the name of the poet and translator Ferenc Fehér, because his name means nothing to you – nothing, perhaps, that you are prepared to acknowledge.
The fall of the powerful businesswoman
Once again, it turned out that no is beyond the reach of the law, and the powerful businesswoman was arrested. She was hiding under the mask of a grocery store worker in Kraljevo.
Concert of the world
In the recent article in Foreign Affairs, Richard Haas and Charles Kupchan argue for the Global Concert, or Concert of the World, by analogy with the Concert of Europe in the 19th century.
Your money or your life
Which is better – to work in spite of the pandemic and save your health while risking losing your job? Which is scarier – to end up in a hospital with pneumonia or on the street, broke?
Lynch society
The first thing we think of when we talk about lynching, is that it is the opposite of the rule of law. Today, that practice is mostly eradicated, but we are witnessing another phenomenon: media lynching.
Land of the polygraph
The machine doesn’t lie – said Vucic about the polygraph. So, if the machine says that a person is lying, then it must be true. Vucic wasn’t hooked up to a polygraph machine when he said this…
Because of the institutions
I had not read Durkheim’s Latin Thesis on Montesquieu before. Which is published, in the English translation anyway, together with his essay on Rousseau.
How do we speak about… the Albanian?
Review of Aleksandar Pavlovic’s book about the imaginary Albanian: The Albanian is our “great Other”, our greatest other. The Albanian is, so to speak, a permanent epithet of discourse in Serbia.
Winners and losers
Biden just shut down the Keystone Pipeline because he wants to develop other sources of energy. So, to win a job in alternative energies, somebody needs to lose their job in carbon-based energy.
A death in the family
This is not an article about Djordje Balasevic or his death. Those who knew him better, who loved his songs more than me, will write about him. This is an article about Yugoslavia and its death.
On the Law on free access to information
Requests to the government of the Republic of Serbia with regard to the elimination of shortcomings in the drafting of the Law on free access to information of public importance.
Sava Square – In memoriam
If you have a desire to travel, to, god forbid, see other countries, other people, other customs, to learn about the Other and the different, you will have to face a 23-meter-tall monster swinging a sword.
Priorities and results
An indicator of the overall situation are the assessments of our country on the Global Corruption Perceptions Index, which is published every year by the Transparency International.
Three notes
I have not been thinking much about social choice theory for a while though once you learn it you cannot but use it when you are thinking about political issues and especially about power and elections.
Gas chamber
Stalin tortured his subordinates by scheduling meetings in the middle of the night. How else to explain the need of Aleksandar Vucic to open the Balkan Stream gas pipeline in pitch dark, at 6 AM?
Year of consequences
The Covid-19 pandemic marked 2020 and its consequences will be felt in the years to come, so it is likely that we will spend the entire next year in the long shadow of the virus.
Budget made for Vucic
Even if we assume that the official forecasts of GDP growth will be fully realized, the growth of salaries of civil servants will be almost two and a half times higher than the growth of total production.
From boycott to tabloid parliament
This is not the old skirmish between the government and the opposition. Now, a machine gun has been placed in the Parliament, and it opens fire on whoever is designated as a target.
Unilateralism or taking back control
Johnson has argued that the UK would be the only coastal nation which doesn’t have control over its waters. But that only means that the UK is not ready to enter into a trade deal which includes fishing.
Who are they? What do they look like? What are their names?
This year we have discovered the coldly statistical nature of the mass death event that is the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hypocritical proposal
Addressing the online threats against Vucic, the minister of the interior Vulin said that anonymity on the internet is “the source of all filth”, and that “it should be abolished”.
EC report on Serbia 2020 – judiciary and the rule of law
How could we, as a society, react to this report? Actively or by shrugging our shoulders? Perhaps we could approach it professionally.
The weight of evidence
We’ve had several candidates, said Vucic, but I have signed the decision. Sinisa Mali then explained how this “collective decision” came about: we unanimously accepted Vucic’s proposal.
The balance of power
So now both Banja Luka and Podgorica depend on Belgrade. Mr. Vucic is the true winner of the continuation of autocratic government in Banja Luka and of the transition of power in Podgorica.
How many people actually died?
The National bureau of statistic published the data on the births and deaths in August. The number of deaths could be one of the rare indicators of the real consequences of the pandemic.
Black Friday
After the session of the pandemic Crisis Committee Darija Kisic Tepavcevic announced that mandatory health surveillance of travelers returning to Serbia from abroad would be introduced in 5 days…
Improvisation with consequences
The content of the agreement is in line with Trump’s election campaign, and is in fact aimed at winning over American voters of Serbian, Albanian, and Jewish descent to vote for Trump.
The boycott opposition called to account
SZS turned the boycott into a quasi-ideology that determined who was the real opposition and who was a traitor of the boycott if they dared to actually vote against Vucic.
EUphrenia
The age of EUphoria is long gone. It is replaced by the age of EUphrenia, a behavioral and cognitive disorder, which can be tracked at all levels of the production of reality in Serbia.
