The shining meridian

How did 100,000 people fall silent on Slavija square, one of the country’s noisiest places, without a leader’s repression, a sound system, or a party hierarchy to enforce order?

Serbia, the digital prison

Amnesty International states that Serbian authorities widely use advanced technologies to spy on citizens. In addition to abusing authority, they have also misused EU accession donations.

Western money

Populist story about organizations and individuals receiving money from abroad is going around for the umpteenth time. Uknown by whom or how, but “known” for which activities: to destroy Serbia.

Manipulation

Without any evidence, teachers and the opposition are accused of manipulating children, while students are denied of ability to have and express opinions about the tragedy and responsibility for it.

And now release the children

For the first time, we saw the regime arresting its own. Even if it was just for show, everyone saw it. Weakness, Vučić’s demonstration of impotence – that’s what we saw.

Succession

The key to victory in this election was forged by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg in the fires of Silicon Valley. It began with mass production of a new kind of voter on social media.

80th anniversary

DwP – Each year on the day of the liberation of Belgrade from fascism, especially when it’s a round anniversary, there is a sense of anxiety about how it will be officially commemorated.

Days of guilt

Fourteen dead in one day, including a child. Institutions are surprised, expressing condolences. They avoid responsibility, talk about the “tragedy”. Candles are lit. No one is offering resignations.

The first metro line

No one did it before us, they didn’t know how, but we do. That’s what Vučić said sometime in early 2014 and promised the first metro lines would be ready by the end of 2016.

I would never do that

Gisele Pelicot decided to go one step further and requested the court to make the videos of her abuse available to the public. She reasoned that the shame must be returned to the abusers.

You don’t dig digging?

The master of all trades didn’t like it when experts started expressing their opinions. He hurried among the ignorant to explain everything himself before the true information reached them.

No one’s victims

DwP – The trial against Croatian pilots initiated in Belgrade, which, according to the Humanitarian Law Center, initially reached the media, is now unavailable to the public and surrounded by ambiguities.

Lithium, c’est moi

The president explained that citizens are being lied to by everyone. He was surrounded by trees and grass. He was (supposedly) relaxed, unconcerned that anything could spoil the lithium plans.

Dominance of hostility

DwP – Both in Serbia and in Kosovo, we witness the strengthening of nationalism and right-wing populism and the constant production of crises, tensions, and fear of the Other.

It never happened

DwP – For seven years, from 1990 to 1997, the truth stood before the Serbian residents, but instead they were fixated on their “authoritarian regime” and its stories about “national suffering.”

Scorpion venom

The documentary made by the Scorpions themselves in July 1995 was part of their archive which they intended to show off after the war – when such criminals would be promoted to national heroes.

Stolen lives

DwP – By not prosecuting the war crime of the mass murder of Roma in Skočić, the thread of racism against Roma weaves into the statements and actions of Serbian officials today.

A vortex of violence

The other day, my younger daughter told me that her friends, celebrating the end of middle school, wanted to make T-shirts saying: “We don’t care about your Škodas, we have Lamborghinis.”

I believe in Niš

There is no reason to interpret opposition’s election results in Niš as a sign of broader positive change like in 1996/97. These are different times. Though the regimes are the same.

Wheeling and dealing

Citizens of Serbia, both individually or collectively, must make a decision. They are confronted with a regime mired in crime on one side, and a helpless and self-destructive opposition on the other.

A grotesque caricature

The Ministry of Interior (mis)informed the public that D.D. died of natural causes. If the expert’s report confirms that he died as a result of a beating, we are dealing with a deliberate deception.