My soul, my one and only
An article from Danas (2016): It’s been twenty years since the death of Biljana Jovanovic. A photograph of her stayed around in one of the rooms at the CZKD. Everyone who enters asks: “Who is this?”
Departures
Instead of In memoriam, an article from 1991: Departures are in fashion. Seldom does anyone who is leaving speak much about it, because, if they spoke about it, perhaps they wouldn’t go.
Buy children, women, uteruses
Soon you’ll be able to buy a living female uterus which will bear your baby – for 8 to 15 thousand euros, four times cheaper than in Ukraine and ten times cheaper than in America.
Forest girl
It is prime minister’s self-promotion as the “iron lady” of Serbian nationalism and can’t possibly have any positive effect in the area where such effect is the most needed – Serbian-Albanian relations.
Party time
The European Commission Report on Serbia pointed out that the regime in Belgrade is authoritarian, more seriously than any prior report. To that, Ana Brnabic stated that the report is “partially non-objective”.
Life imprisonment and manufactured consent
If and when the latest amendments to the Criminal Code (CC) are adopted, as a judge, I will act in accordance with them just like all those before…
Borca and the genocide trap
Here’s how Sergej Trifunovic explained the genocide: “Whether you call Srebrenica a ‘genocide’ or a ‘massacre’ is only a matter of numbers. Srebrenica happened thanks to Alija Izatbegovic…”
Free will and pure power
Does it make sense to compare pure numbers, or do we have to take into account the meaning of those numbers. We have to keep in mind that the people at the counter-protest had to be there.
Vucic, Stefanovic and other prophets
If there were fewer speakers, there would have been a lot more protesters. But instead of political wing of the protest, for some incomprehensible reason the Ambassador of Norway in Serbia pondered over it.
The other side of Goebbels
In recent weeks, we’ve witnessed a new phase of propaganda activities launched by the authorities, involving all aspects of social reality. Public speech is reminiscent of a stream of consciousness…
Believing demagogue
Simon Wren-Lewis writes: “Brexiters… need to believe in the fantasy of Global Britain”. Do they believe? And do they even need to? Does a demagogue believe or need to believe in his or her demagogy? There are three possibilities.
A stick with two short ends
While the rise of right-wing movements in the EU can be explained by the misuse of liberal democracy, in Serbia, the rise of the extreme right is happening in the very name of democracy.
Milos Obilic goes global
On the pathological FB recording of the New Zealand slaughter, the song “Karadzic, lead your Serbs” blasts from the car speakers. His weapon is clearly engraved in Cyrillic: Milos Obilic, Prince Lazar…
Forgetting the First Principle, and in the Balkans of all places
If you want peaceful resolution of international conflicts, the first principle is not to touch the borders. In the Balkans as well as anywhere else…
Broken telephone game
Vladimir Dimitrijevic thinks that the Rolling Stones are “devil-inspired” and that John Lennon was “a fan of Lucifer”. He is the member of the far right Dveri movement – and the speaker at the #1od5million rally.
Beginning of the 21st century
Imagine me in a stuffy little room, like some kitchenette-hut. The kitchen is chock-full of old ugly furniture, with the smell of fried eggs, onions, and that invariably rancid cooking oil lingering in the air…
Kosovo and Serbia
On Nikola Pasic Square, DSS and SRS once again said „Kosovo is Serbia“. Both Dveri and Nasi shouted the same thing to the prime minister in Orasac. Even Vucic himself claimed that Kosovo is Serbia in Munich.
Regime over the abyss
We saw another public display of the regime’s brazenness in an interview with the prime minister. He spent 95% of the time talking trash about his opponents, blathering about the toilets at the Faculty of Philosophy…
Hunger
According to the Freedom barometer, which places emphasis on political freedoms, Serbia ranks 35th among 45 countries in Europe and Central Asia. So, we’re near the bottom once again.
Robby K: Vucic’s fall
“If a tyrant could choose a people to rule, instead of people choosing tyrants, he would most definitely choose Croats. Vucic would be so much luckier if he ruled in Croatia instead of Serbia. He would say: This is heaven on earth!”
Germany has rule of law. Why shouldn’t we?
After the session of the national security council, the president of the republic announced new measures against crime, and the introduction of life imprisonment for the “gravest crimes”.
#105 out of 5 million
Teachers of the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy support protests of citizens of Serbia: Through research of an individual and a society, we recognize numerous elements of dictatorship in the government’s behavior.
Waiting for Putin
They come to power with Western, USA and EU, support, and try to stay in power with Putin’s support. Milorad Dodik is one successful, so far, example. Vucic, the President of Serbia, is attempting the same.
Yellow vest or bloody shirt, you decide
The government caused Saturday’s protest by setting up cheap replicas of the Arc de Triomphe in the center of Belgrade. So, citizens thought they were in Paris and decided to do as the Parisians do: to protest.
Petty thieves
Brnabic complained to the media that she was surprised by some foreign agencies which interpreted her statement about the military as a threat of war. Then she ordered her team to review the video…
“The times they are a-changing”
After the mid-term elections in the US, it is unlikely that Trump will be re-elected in 2020. This is irrespective of the rising chances of impeachment (which, the chances, we will not know until Mueller publishes his report).
Dwarfs know nothing: Balkanization and nationalism
As the result of Balkan wars of the 1990s, a larger unified Yugoslav nation-state has been replaced by seven smaller states. Each now claims a distinct nationhood…
Yugoslav wars – A snapshot of European past or future?
Were the Yugoslav wars the final European wars of the twentieth century, or should they be understood and studied as the first wars of the twenty-first century?
Beginner’s guide to Serbia’s decline
Ana Brnabic explained that “there is a possibility to sign a long term contract on normalization with Pristina by 2025”, but that, most likely “by then, Serbia won’t be ready to join the EU.”
How to contribute to the public debate
The Appellate court has upheld the verdict of the High Court, in which Vesna Pesic and the editors of Pescanik were found guilty of a violation of honor and reputation of the minister of police.
Landscape of crime
Ognjen Glavonic’s long-awaited first feature film The Load (Belgrade premiere is tonight) is based on a story about a man who drove the truck loaded with dead bodies from Kosovo to Serbia in the spring of 1999.
Brexit: public square versus political market
This is really the oldest political theme: how to immunise democracy from demagogic revolution. Public choice theory identifies the vulnerabilities of both the direct and the representative democracies…
