Global Voices » Bosnian

Balkans: Online Platform Tracks Reports From Areas Hit by Record Snowfall

Danica Radisic — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:12:22 +0000

Since last week, the Balkans have been hit by massive snow storms, the likes of which have not been seen in over a decade, if not longer. After an unusually long period of nearly no real signs of a typical Balkan winter, last week brought what seems to be non-stop snowfall throughout the region, including the seaside areas around the Adriatic that seldom get any snow.

Men shoveling snow from a street in Sarajevo. Record snowfall has paralyzed transportation in the Bosnian capital, where a state of emergency has now been declared. Photo by Sulejman Omerbasic, copyright © Demotix (5/02/12).

Serbia's national television network, RTS, and other media reported on Friday 3 February, 2012, that a state of emergency has been declared by the government, while citizens have been reporting critical situations throughout the country and that municipal services have been doing a poor job of tackling the snowfall in many urban areas.

In an article titled “Serbia Blocked by Snow, State of Emergency in 27 Municipalities, Recommendation to Call Off School Attendance” [sr], the Head of the State of Emergency Sector of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Predrag Maric, is reported to have stated on Friday:

27 municipalities in Serbia have declared a state of emergency due to heavy snowfall. Maric has told Beta news agency that the most difficult situations are in Sjenica, Ivanjica, Prijepolje, Crna Trava and Surdulica, where the height of snow has reached approximately 2 meters. According to him, power supply is “relatively good,” outages are being fixed quickly and there have been no long power outages.

Maric also announced the possibility of declaring a full state of emergency nationwide, which the Government did on Sunday evening, cancelling school throughout Serbia at least until Friday, February 10, among other things.

Several actions have been organized by the online community in Serbia and the region to fend off the snow and to attempt to regain a functional state in urban areas at least, such as a #lopataup (”#shovelup”), organized by one online community leader, Zoran Torbica, and other local Twitter users.

In the meantime, Al Jazeera Balkans, the recently established regional office of Al Jazeera news network in the region, has joined forces with the team from Ushahidi to set up a platform for tracking verified information on everything from road blocks, power outages to other critical points and information in the entire region.

Ushahidi is an open-source platform for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping, which was also used in Serbia just after the earthquake in Kraljevo in November 2010 to map and track damage in the area.

Haris Alisic, who heads the New Media team for Al Jazeera Balkans, launched the platform on Sunday evening, and many members of the online community, including some of the region's GV authors, have joined the Al Jazeera-Ushahidi team in curating, tracking and verifying reports from the region.

The adapted Ushahidi platform can be located on Al Jazeera's official site, while reports can be sent in by anyone using the following channels:

- via SMS to +387644218661
- via Twitter by using the hashtags #kolaps #sneg #snijeg #lopataup #iskljucenje
- via email to oluja2012@aljazeera.net
- or by entering information directly into the form on the”pošaljite izvještaj” tab on the Al Jazeera page

If you would like to volunteer your time to help map critical areas and are familiar with using online tools, please contact the author of this article, or Haris Alisic via Twitter, or leave a comment here on Global Voices, and we will contact you for more information on what you can do to help. We also ask that you all begin reporting from your area on Twitter and using the above-mentioned hashtags on Twitter, which are automatically collected by the platform and then reviewed and verified by Al Jazeera and volunteers.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Citizens Policing Traffic Violations in Sarajevo

Jasmina Babic — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:42:45 +0000

Using the Facebook page [bs] “Moj grad, moja sigurnost, moja odgovornost” (”My city, my security, my responsibility”), Sarajevo residents are uploading pictures of illegally parked cars and reckless drivers, trying to convince the authorities to take action and protect pedestrians. According to the administrators of the page, there has been enormous response from the people who decided to take the problem of transport culture into their own hands.

Serbia: The Media War Against Angelina Jolie

Sasa Milosevic — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:15:37 +0000

Not so long ago Angelina Jolie was “more concerned” about the reception of her directorial debut movie, ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey‘, in Bosnia and Serbia than in the United States. She was eagerly awating the reactions of local audiences, whom she had portrayed in her war drama, and some of her fears turned out to be justified.

While the Bosnian public has warmly welcomed this war love story of a Serbian policeman and a Bosnian Muslim woman, the Serbian media have launched a war on the American actress, accussing her of spreading hatred toward Serbs.

Serbian daily Kurir initiated a series of articles [sr] that have seriously harmed Jolie's good reputation in Serbia:

Angelina claims in the movie that 300,000 Muslims were killed in the Bosnian war and 50,000 Muslim women were raped. The actress intends to seek the abolition of Republika Srpska as a genocidal creation. All of this was commissioned by the extreme Islamic policies, presenting Serbs as criminals, killers, murderers and rapists, and Muslims as the only victims.

Explaining the reason for Jolie's alleged pro-Muslim bias, the newspaper claimed [sr] that the movie was financially supported by Saudi direct investments of $10 million:

It is generally known that Jolie is very close to politicians in Washington. Maybe she would like the public to think it is an art film, but it is actually pure anti-Serbian propaganda. The director sends a message to the audience that Serbs are crazy wild beasts, while Muslims are innocent victims.

Momir Stojanovic, former director of the Serbian Military Intelligence Agency, also supported Kurir's claim that Muslim extremists had funded Angelina's project, saying “it is very close to the truth.”

The Serbian newspaper has triggered thousands of negative, pro-Serbian votes on imdb.com, one of the most reputable film rating sites, causing the film's score to drop drastically to 3.3 from an average of 5.4.

A screenshot of Jolie's film page on imdb.com.

Very quickly the page of Jolie's film at imdb.com turned into a virtual battlefield between Serbs and Muslims. (In the past few days, however, 11 pages of comments have somehow been reduced to five).

Sanja_Cancar says:

Angelina needs to stick to the topics she knows about, ei: ruining marriages, stealing husbands, adopting children from around the world, wearing blood. Instead, she chose the ironic path of a “peace-ambassador” that gets involved in politics she knows nothing about and creates movies that will only create more hatred… […]

Vitezbg observes:

Movie is full of political manipulations, lies, false informations etc.[…] Also 50.000 raped Muslim women is very disputed. It is famous case when ‘raped Sarajevo woman', gave birth of African child. Actually the father in this case was member of UN personal. […]

Johnny NT concludes:

Well done Angie, Goebbels and Hitler would be proud of you and your fascinating work on this movie. […]

rudeedee2 asks:

How could these people dare think to make a movie (”entertainment”) of such a horribly devastating situation ??? Seems only money is important. […] Would Angelina Jolie want to think her family has gone through hell and lost every semblance of normalcy, experienced fear, heartbreak, death and devastation only to find a so-called movie producer sees it as an artistic capital?

psysd3 reminds Angelina of the crimes of her own people:

[…] From the very beginning, by coming to America's soil on which it is estimated that, in 1500s, there were about 12 000 000 Native Americans whose number is reduced to nearly 237 000 by 1900s […]

Alex_Michael writes:

I guess I expected too much of Angelina. She might have black hair, but the movie sure look like put together by a blonde. Serbian Nazis who don't have problem killing anything from pets to babies on one side, and good Muslims on the other side… Example is Srebrenica where Serbs committed crimes by taking revenge after number of Serbian villages around Srebrenica were completely wiped out, and their inhabitants killed by Muslims from Srebrenica. This was well described in Norwegian documentary “Srebrenica a Town Betrayed”.

The Bosnian Muslim online community opposes the Serbian comments and supports Jolie's movie.

f_s is grateful to Angelina:

[…] Thank you Ms. Jolie for being the voice of the women depraved, humiliated and tortured. I recommend to everyone to see the movie especially women around the globe, to hear the unspoken, to witness the hidden. […]

Sibaak adds:

[…] We, the Bosnians do not hate. We are the most peaceful nation in the world, and thats why the facts of that war are so brutal! Because we didn't believe it could happen. We didn't believe that our friends would turn against us, rape us, kill our children, take over our houses. But they did. We that lived to tell, still, just like me, believe there are good Serbs. But what really hurts is to see how many people, just like on here, people that do not have even slightest idea of the truth, are so blind, and so hateful, because it tells me that they would do it all over again. In a way I feel its good that they are showing their real faces. Showing how ignorant they are. […]

Mela Fatkic expresses gratitude to Jolie on the movie's Facebook page. She writes:

Angelina thank you for this film, but we can not forget what it was. Thank you for the truth which not many people to reconcile, and nobody believes until they see…

Dino Gligic shares this opinion:

Angelina, thank you so much for telling the torld the truth about what Serbs did. It was worse than in that movie…

Nat Taschetti Garcia Angie admits ignorance and asks :

I just graduate on high school and i never learned about Bosnian war as i never learned about refugee camps. Do you feel like something has to be done in education, as a mom and as an activist?

Frustrated by the Serbian furious reaction, Jolie responded on Twitter:

Is it possible that the entire nation believes a concocted story from trash @KurirVesti magazine based on fake email from imaginary person?”

However, a few days later this tweet was deleted, and a new one appeared:

Don't express your love for own nation, race, religion, etc… by hating others.

On other side, Kurir pulled off the article of threatining tone: “Serbs declared war on the actress: you do not know what awaits for you Angelina” from the newspaper official site published as respond on Jolie's offensive tweet.

Jolie also tweeted this appeal:

Don't believe everything you read… “They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers.”

In an interview with Slobodna Evropa, Jolie expressed her affection for Bosnia, saying that “it is easy to be in love with Bosnia”:

I would not have created this film if Bosnikas hadn't agreed with the screenplay. I would have burned it…

Zeljko Mitrovic, the owner of Pink TV, is one of the most influental Serbs who had initially condemned Jolie because of her anti-Serbian prejudices and had even withdrawn from the movie project. Now, however, he has changed his mind:

It is wrong to attack Angelina now when the movie is finished. We could have changed something before they started making the film. Now it is pointless to generate hostility. That thing cannot be changed by additional antagonisms. She should be invited to Belgrade because people like her can help us in the future to improve the image of ourselves in the world. I invite Angelina to come to Serbia and to be a guest of TV Pink.

Macedonia: Veles Says “No” to Lead Poisoning, Government Remains Ambiguous

Filip Stojanovski — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:12:54 +0000

After the massive protest against restarting of the lead smelting factory in the city of Veles, the citizens feel cheated by the declarative support shown by the politicians from the ruling parties, and demand clear answers from PM Nikola Gruevski on whether the poisoning will continue.

The protests announced in the previous Global Voices article took place on November 9, 2011. Estimates of the number of the protest participants range from 10,000 to over 15,000 [hr], a huge turnout for this community of less than 44,000 inhabitants.

Samoglaska and Vancho Dzambaski published Creative Commons-licensed photo galleries from the event:

Protest march through Veles streets. Photo by Samoglaska (CC-BY).

People gathering on Veles square. Photo by Vancho Dzambaski (CC-BY-NC-SA).

Twitter tags #Veles or #Велес are still in use, and the seasoned local blogger Jovan Petrov provided comprehensive coverage of the protest:

…the families, school children and elders joined forces. Being there I saw people from all backgrounds - the non-governmental sector, doctors, blue collar workers, politicians including former and current mayors and members of the parliement and local council, mothers and daughters, from all ranges of age, social and ethnic background. They protested in unison, NO RESTART! for the smelting factory.

I was never good at guessing numbers, but the group of NGO's called “Green coalition” have managed to gather more participants than any party on a political rally even when they want to boast with numbers carrying people from other cities to enrich the scenery. Some guesses were in the range of 10.000 participants.

The organization was quite good, the people were loud but very polite, the whole process finished without any recorded incident. The protest was lead by an excavator, symbolic image of the vision of the citizens - to dig up the old shadow factory and plant the perimeter with trees in order to decontaminate the land from cancerogens and active chemicals that modify the DNA of the unborn children.

The message was clear and far-reaching - NO MORE POISONING! Now, the state should show its support for the locals not only by speeches and through columnists, but by clear actions. And the solution is simple - rejecting the application of the investor to restart the factory - which everyone is sure that must be done based on strict following of the environmental legislation. Even the investor has admitted that they will pollute in their environmental impact study submitted to the Ministry of environment of Republic of Macedonia (image of the table follows, and remember the fact - the author of this document is the investor itself):

Table on environmental impact from the study with added explanations in English.

After this night - it should be clear to all, whoever tries to do more harm to the citizens of Veles will be punished severely.

A short documentary about the protest [mk] is available on YouTube:

And while the area's politicians and religious leaders turned out in force for the photo-op, they expressed declarative and noncommittal support for the Veles' cause. However, not all protest supporters received media attention, and were not credited at the event.

Vladimir Milchin, the executive director of the Foundation Open Society Institute, wrote [mk] on his Facebook profile:

Yes, members of GEM (Citizens for European Macedonia) were at the protest. And the Soros' foundation supported the NGOs that organized it by supplying funds for 2,000 vests. Just like it supported them in the long bygone year of 2003 with a USD 6,100 grant for the first analysis that proved presence of the toxic materials in the hair of 80 local children.

Dimce Velev, one of the organizers, added a comment:

A reason for this is that road to the truth around the environmental exodus started with FOSM support at the point when the smelter was a taboo topic!

Milchin concluded:

And now some people want to use the protest to build their careers.

GEM activists in the crowd during the Veles protest. Photo by Vancho Dzambaski (CC-BY-NC-SA).

Several Twitter users shared a screen capture of a statement [mk] by former Mayor, Ace Kocevski, published on his Facebook profile [mk]:

Citizens of Veles expressed their position against restarting of the smelting factory with dignity. But statements of the representatives of the Ministry of the Environment indicate that the appeal has not been taken seriously.
Self-censorship of the speakers at the protest and pointing fingers at Metrudhem only did not produce the expected results.
The goal is clear: Veles without a smelter.
The battle for healthy living environment in Veles must continue in more organized, more realistic manner, without improvisations, through the institutions of the system and if needed outside of them.
The municipality must urgently change the General Urban Plan and enact an Detailed Urban Plan to change the zoning of the area into light nonpolluting industry only.
The court process of Veles and the Green Coalition against Republic of Macedonia must continue. EUR 50,000 must be found for judicial analysis of the impact of pollution over the health of the citizens, and the level of intoxication of the soil and waters.
Ask the [Macedonian Bar Association] for pro bono representation.
The pressure must be directed towards the Ministry of the Environment and the Government - they must stand on the side of the people of Veles, to correct the errors of decade-long pollution and selling of the smelter, and to prevent its restart. They must provide funds from the state budget and from international donors to solve the problem of the slag landfill, and to clean the poisoned soil.

In the days after the protest, organizers and participants started expressing concern via the official Facebook group. Nenad Kocic shared the above video and asked the following questions:

1. Is Veles in Macedonia?
2. Does this state have a Government?
3. Does the Government work for the people or not?

After the Minister of the Environment failed to come to the protest and stated [mk] that it was too early to say that the request for license by the factory owners would be denied, the Green Coalition of NGOs asked to hear the truth in person from the “big boss” - requesting a meeting with PM Gruevski, who keeps maintaining detached, eery silence on the matter.

The news [mk], that the PR agency Republika will commence an advertising campaign on behalf of investor, has been taken as a clear sign of support for the investor by the government. During the past few years, this company has been the dominant implementer of numerous advertising campaigns that funneled millions of Euros from the state budget to pro-government media and other beneficiaries (in a setup compared [mk] to the collusion of the Croatian ruling party and Fimi Media).

Veles protester holding a cartoon. Photo by Samoglaska (CC-BY).

In other news: another Macedonian city has been subjected to a similar environmental disaster [mk], apparently due to criminal negligence. On Friday, Nov. 11, Kriva Palanka received an influx of poisonous slag full of lead, arsenic, zinc, cadmium and other toxic materials from the upriver mine Toranica.

Montenegro: Hero's Welcome for YouTube Star

Filip Stojanovski — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:09:46 +0000

YouTube star Ekrem Jevrić Gospoda was given a hero's welcome upon his arrival in his native Montenegro on July 11. His fame also grew when, allegedly unrelated to his status of YouTube star, he also took part in a photo-shoot for a renowned fashion brand.

At the Podgorica airport, Jevrić was greeted by local camp singer Purašević and “hundreds of fans and relatives,” while tens of entertainment portals and TV stations from the Balkans — including from Macedonia — reused a video from the event, also available on YouTube.

In the clip, apparently at a request of a female journalist, the singer-songwriter whose song about the daily grind ‘cursed' working women because they can't take care of children, explains that “Women work. All our women work all over the Gray World,* women work,” and adds that he's not really bothered by that fact.

But, the man whose video currently has over 3.9 million views on YouTube, complained that he didn't make any money from that, because he's not paid per view, so “it's all for nothing, all for free, and maybe in the future, later we'll make something.”

In addition, a few weeks ago, numerous Balkan portals spread the news that Jevrić shows up in a menswear photo-shoot as a tailor. One of them, SerbiaNet, also published [SER] an audio clip with an excerpt from a telephone interview [SER]. According to Jevrić:

I worked for a big and famous billionaire, with famous brands, called Dolce & Gabanna. I was standing in front of a pub [in my suit] and he was passing by and asked me “Are you an Italian?” I said “Excuse me, but I am not, but I am quite close to Italy.”

Then they said “Would you allow us to take photos of you and take your telephone number, and we'll call you in ten days if you are accepted.” And then they accepted me and offered 500 USD per day to work for them. I worked two days, and got a thousand dollars. A car would come to my house and take me there, and then take me back home by car, and so. They also told me that they might invite me again to work for them, and what do I know…

The interviewer also tried to provoke conservative Jevrić about the openly gay status of Dolce & Gabanna, but to his credit the singer-turned-model ignored the issue.

* Possibly this is a reference to the common South Slavic idiom “the White World,” meaning abroad, far away, used in folk stories.

The Balkans: Violent Treatment of Animals

Sinisa Boljanovic — Mon, 31 May 2010 00:40:14 +0000

The civil war that was waged in the former communist Yugoslavia during the 1990’s resulted in several hundred thousand people killed and almost a million refugees. After the war, crime and various forms of violence became a regular occurrence in the countries of the region. Victims have mostly been different national and religious groups, the gay population and Gypsies. Recently, animals have also become a target of the bullies. Almost every day some dogs or cats are being exposed to torture by cruel people who record their cruelties and publish the video on the internet.

In mid-April, a lot of people in Serbia were shocked by a terrible video of violence against a female dog which was shown by TV channels. An anonymous monster cut off the dog’s paws and left her to lie in the puddle of blood in one of Belgrade’s street.

On that occasion Goran Paskaljevic, a well-known filmmaker and president of the association for animal protection called SOS Animals, said this to the daily newspaper Blic:

I am shocked that something like that could happen. I expect that the police will find the culprit, even though the victim is not a human, but an animal.

He added:

Those who could carry out such a monstrous act against an infirm dog that couldn’t commit anything bad are dangerous for people as well.

Blogger Dragan Jakovljevic wrote a very sad post, in which he asked the female dog called Mila to forgive the sin of the mankind:

[…] ”Each sin, even the smallest one, affects the fate of the world,” said the old man Siluan. And each virtue does, too: because a victim - in this case, a female dog Mila - is not alone anymore. Tens of thousands of people are offering their help and searching for the monster. Their voices are currently saving this planet. Thanks to them, I dare look into Mila’s eyes, at least on the only endlessly sad [photo] which has appeared on the internet these days, and say: “Forgive, if you can.”

Since one woman found Mila under her car and took her to a veterinary clinic, doctors gave the female dog the first aid. Now Mila is recovering from the wounds and waiting for an operation in Germany where she should get the prosthetics on her legs so that she could walk again.

Just a few weeks after the event, a new disturbing video of violence against a kitten appeared on Srdan Stankovic's page profile (the video has since been removed).

A couple days ago, lawyers of radio and TV station B92 brought a criminal charge against him. Also, a group “Sprecimo nasilje nad zivotinjama” (Stop Abusing Animals) has been created on the Facebook. This group already has more than 44,000 members. Their message is:

STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST ANIMALS!!!
If you love animals, please help save them from cruelty!
If you love animals, join the animal rescue team in your community!

Animals have feelings, just like you or me. Treat animals like you would want to be treated if you were them.

The question is: where are the roots of more and more brutal violence in Serbia?

Dragan Popadic, a social psychologist, said on the web site of Radio Free Europe that the civil war is not the only reason. He added:

That is part of the problem. But I think that we are supposed to look for the roots of violence in something that is present in the current situation. In my opinion, there are no reactions to violence […]. Tolerance towards violence, a tendency that some forms of violence are seen as good violence is tremendously polluting our everyday lives, leading to these excessive and brutal forms of violence.

On the same web page, a Serbian ballerina, writer and blogger Jelena Tinska said:

The Vietnam syndrome has taken over the rule of Serbia, somnambulists stroll over the streets, young boys kill girls. The man who cut the legs of this dog, tomorrow he will cut the breasts of his girlfriend if she cheats on him, because he is a psychopath. Therefore, insane [bullies] are walking over our cities, but they have not been punished yet.

Serbia's neighbor Bosnia and Herzegovina is also facing violence against animals. According to Sarajevo’s daily newspaper “Oslobodjenje”, this past March there was a series of protests in Sarajevo which were organized by an association called “Friends of animals.” Direct pretext for those protests was a terrible video shot by three young people and published on Facebook. The video shows how these boys are setting a notorious pit-bull terrier on an infirm stray dog, and how the bloodthirsty animal is tearing its victim apart.

A lot of bloggers from this country reacted to the video very harshly.

Blogger zuti__karton published a post titled “How monstrous can we be?” As a dog owner and a volunteer at an animal shelter in Tuzla city, she reacted to the video very emotionally. Because of that, her first reaction should be perceived as a public appeal to everyone to stop abusing animals, not as an invitation to take revenge on the culprits of the brutal crime. She wrote:

[…] The only fair law is “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” and everyone should be treated according to this law […] then I’d like to see who would repeat such a crime. […]

[…] These are just some of the cases of violence against animals… Only God knows how many others there are… Is anyone asking himself how monstrous a creature we can be, how primitive we can be. Can we be even worse? I think we can, because we are people, not animals. […]

[…] We often kill for the sake of fun, out of jealousy, for money or for similar senseless reasons. We wage wars because misters from TV tell us to do that, because someone has this or that kind of name, because someone is black and someone else is white, because of the damned colors. […]

Medo_Lee wrote:

[…] Protection of animal rights and taking care of animals is typical of western, democratic, civilized and prosperous societies and we are so far away from that level.

Human is the worst animal and a proof of that is what's happening to us. […]

Blogger Mafa has a totally different opinion. He published a short post titled “Violence against animals is justified”:

Look at what these little monsters [dogs] have done to a young man… One of them bit off his leg. This young man will never be able to walk, not to mention play football :( He doesn’t have enough money to buy a Sony PlayStation, so his life is, to say the least, destroyed. Why did the dog make him disabled? Why? How could this dog be so cruel :( if the man had had a pit-bull, like Kemal, it's certain that he wouldn’t have experienced this misfortune. :(

Croatia has almost the same problem as Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On March 4 this year, daily newspaper Jutarnji List published an article about brutal violence against dogs and cats in the cities of Vinkovci and Vukovar:

Newspapers are often full of articles about the abuse of animals. Every time people are shocked by the brutality of violence. So citizens of Vinkovci were upset on Wednesday when a dog with severe scalding injuries of its nose, head and back was found in the center of the city. There was a thick wire hoop tied around its neck. […]

[…] A few days before, association “dr Ivan Rostas” warned about one case of animal abuse, this time, against cats in Vukovar. They received the disturbing news from Vukovar about cats that were being exposed to brutal torture by a group of children and several adults from the nearby apartment buildings. They also published photos of a cat whose eye was torn out and another cat whose tail was cut off. Poor animals had also been exposed to stones and slingshots.

Animal fans and online activists from Croatia have created Facebook groups, too, in which they invite people to join them in protection of the animals.

A devastating fact is that in all of these countries there are laws for protection of animals but, unfortunately, they are not applied in practice.

Bosnia: Waltz Guinness Record Broken in Tuzla

Filip Stojanovski — Sun, 09 May 2010 19:56:02 +0000

Tuzlarije reports [BOS] that 1,510 couples of dancers broke the Guinness Record in simultaneous mass waltzing in Tuzla during the evening of May 7. Previous record holder was Vienna with 317 dancing pairs. Participants included people living elsewhere, including the Austrian ambassador in Bosnia and his spouse.

The Balkans: Online Hit Song Highlights the Diaspora State of Mind

Filip Stojanovski — Sat, 01 May 2010 00:28:06 +0000

In April, the biggest internet-related music sensation for the people from former Yugoslavia and especially the related diaspora has been the song “Kuća, poso” (Eng. “Home, work”) by the “star of Canada and America” Ekrem Jevrić Gospoda, originally from the Plav-Gusinje region of Montenegro.

Here I live in the City of New York
I live and work, but only work

Home, work
Home, work
Work, home
This is what I know
I know nothing
And where can I know

Oh New York, may darkness kill you
Because you let a woman rule
You contain a whole lotta dogs
A whole lotta concrete
And battalions of women march the streets

But New York become a city of light
Get rid of all the women that work
They lost the children, the greatest treasure
Hey New York, you great city

The official version of the video reached over 1.8 million views on YouTube within a month of its release, with a total of over 2.3 million views together with various duplicate versions and remixes.

In comparison, the official video for the global hit single about New York City, “Empire state of mind”, by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, has generated 39 million views within the 6 months since its release - 7 million per month on average.

Facebook and Twitter users from all ex-Yugoslav countries, including Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia spread the link, turning the song title into a meme. The phrase in the song title is an ordinary colloquialism designating the never-ending routine of daily grind during a life devoid of meaning. Sarajevo group Zabranjeno Pušenje (”No Smoking!” in English) used it in its 1999 song “Pos'o, kuća, birtija” (Eng. “Work, home, pub”) about a gray, wasted life after a lost love.

One could object that the song has misogynist overtones, but it also expresses the existentialist angst felt by nostalgic immigrants or guest workers unaware of Camus or Socrates. During his first concert, the author says that he wrote the song to explain to his people about stuff that the Americans cannot understand.

The unique interpretation style and appearance have incited various types of reactions, from praises to insults, such as comparisons with the howling of the White Fang in a comment to the official video, to labeling him as “The Balkans Borat” in a copy of a video report [CRO] from a live concert in Queens.

There Mr. Jevrić performed as supporting act to lascivious Bosnian turbo-folk star Selma Bajrami. YouTube user MegaMotika said in a comment to this video:

The man is truly a star: not everybody can get 1.5 million views in 15 days. He became popular, and the fact that everyone laughs is another issue. The man is a showman.

This newly acquired fame has provided tangible benefits: that video also documents the receipt of a honorarium in cash. It does not contain a direct statement by the singer - allegedly, he asked for $1000 for an interview. Gospoda’s nickname means “gentry.”

The Balkans: “Whose Is This Song?”

Elena Ignatova — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:47:56 +0000

Recently several Macedonian bloggers published the documentary “Whose Is This Song?” by a Bulgarian director Adela Peeva on their blogs and started discussing the story. The documentary was filmed as an idea that the director got during a dinner in Istanbul with several friends (a Macedonian, a Serb, a Greek and a Turk), when all of them said that the song playing in the background was from their country.

First to publish [mkd] a short review of the documentary was Arheo Blog:

[…] Although the documentary doesn’t have any political tendency, the search for an identity of a song shows the search for the identity and national impatience for the nations from the Balkans. Instead of connecting them, not knowing the situation, in some moments Peeva has to deal with emotional reaction of the interviewed people thinking that she is offending them. Trying to connect the cultural heritage for the Balkans, this time through music, Adela Peeva at the end will conclude that it’s almost unbelievable how only one song with unknown background can create hatred in people. This is shown in the end of the movie, in the scene where one Fiesta is transformed into a field that is on fire and its save by “people from different ethnicities”. This is happening at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey.

Although it’s a great documentary, I was intrigued by the two facts said in the movie – “That this is a war song and that the rhythms are from North Europe, because they are not typical for the Balkans”. It’s up to you to determine which song it is.

When the post of Arheo Blog was shared [mkd] on Kajmak.ot there were several reactions:

Arwena:

I don’t know why there is always a tendency to look for argument and reasons for national tendencies. That is always the case for the Balkans, because politics is unavoidably connected with history. I stand by: “that the documentary doesn’t have any political tendencies”, because it’s made with another purpose. Probably it didn’t have that motive at the beginning, but the results show something completely different. This is something that we have seen several times when there is mixture between cultural heritage and achievements of different ethnicities and civilizations. Everything artistic that includes more sides, by the nature of this region will lead to nationalism and it will be considered as motive with political tendencies.

Zlochko:

Yes, yes. It’s made by completely naive reasons to find the true origin of the song. That’s why she says to the Bosnians that the Serbs have the original (although she still hasn’t been in Serbia), she plays the Bosnian version to the Serbs, and to the Bulgarians she says that the Turks claim that the song is theirs.

There is nothing naive in the documentary… and if it’s full with something it’s politics. But it’s good that it’s made in that way – it shows the nations here in the best way :).

The blogger Razvigor also published the video and wrote [mkd]:

[…] The author of the film in the part for Albania said that she would return, and that really happened with her last movie “Divorce Albanian Style” [mkd]. Is that movie available on the internet also?

These are the things I was talking about when I was searching for the Macedonian Michael Moore [mkd].

There are two version of the song in Macedonia: from the town of Prilep “Oj ti Paco Drenovchanke” and from the town of Tetovo “Oj devojche, ti Tetovsko jabolche.”

Serbia: Radovan Karadzic was Disguised as a Doctor

Sinisa Boljanovic — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:55 +0000

(An audio version of this post read by Vera Serkovic is also available. Please scroll down to the bottom of the page to access the audio player)

On July 22, Rasim Ljaljic, president of the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, and Vladimir Vukcevic, a war crimes prosecutor, held a press conference about the arrest of Radovan Karadzic a day earlier.

They said that Radovan Karadzic lived in Belgrade under false name of Dragan David Dabic. He was disguised as an alternative medicine doctor and even worked in one private clinic in Belgrade. He also was a contributor to the Healthy Life magazine and took part in forums and lectures, gathering up to several hundred people. At the time of the arrest, Radovan Karadzic (aka Dragan Dabic) had long hair and a white beard.

Dragan Dabic had ~~an official web site~~. [Editor's Note: The site later turned out to be a fake. Please see comments below, or follow these links - here and here - to read more about the hoax.] Here is what is says there (SRP):

Dr. Dragan “David” Dabic was born some 60 years ago in a small Serbian village of Kovaci, near Kraljevo. As a young boy, he liked to explore nearby forests and mountains, spending a lot of time on Kopaonik mountain, where he used to pick the omnipresent natural and potent medicinal herbs that grew there.

As a young man he moved to Belgrade, and then on to Moscow, where he graduated with a Psychiatry degree from the Moscow State University (Lomonosov). After Russia, Dr. Dabic travelled around India and Japan, after which he settled in China, where he specialized in alternative medicine, with a special emphasis on Chinese herbs. In the mid-1990s, Dr. Dabic returned to Mother Serbia for good.

Since then, Dr. Dabic has emerged as one of the most prominent experts in the field of alternative medicine, bio-energy and macrobiotic diet in the whole of the Balkans, and is a frequent guest on many forums, seminars and symposiums (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Sombor, Smederevo…) dedicated to these topics.

For panel invitations or private consultations, Dr. Dragan Dabic can be reached at the following contact:

healingwounds@dragandabic.com

According to B92, the editor of Dabic/Karadzic at Healthy Life, Goran Kojic, was stunned to discover that he had published articles written by a man accused of grave war crimes:

He would come and communicate with me personally, and it's really interesting that I never saw in that man… that it was the last thing on my mind, that this was Radovan Karadžić. We never discussed politics or anything of the sort either.

Bloggers have different opinions on one of the most wanted fugitives in the world - Radovan Karadzic aka Dr Dragan David Dabic.

Niko, in the his post titled “Dr. Dragan Dabic,” writes quite ironically (SRP):

The man who was sitting next to my mother at the Hotel Intercontinental.

The man who introduced himself to participants […] as a doctor speaker next month - August - in the same place.

The man common folks trusted and applauded, healthy and sick ones were giving credit to him.

The man who is a such hero and patriot that he changed his own name, who isolated his own country and who made his own people suffer, who did not want to go to the Tribunal in the Hague and tried to defend himself and in this way tried to save his own pride and the pride of his country.

The man many young people (who don't know recent history of their country) pledged allegiance to and wore t-shirts with his name written on them. His name? Dr. Dabic? All of them were idiots. They wore t-shirts with the wrong name of the wrong man. Idiots.

Their hero is a man who, unlike them, might not to introduce himself by his own name. The incarnation of patriotism for them is the man who has changed his identity in order to be unknown.

Idiots, your hero has always been Dr. Dabic. Change your t-shirts.

Burek, a blogger from Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina, believes (BOS) that the victims of the Srebrenica massacre will get some satisfaction, following the arrest of Radovan Karadzic:

[…] We've heard that Dr. Dragan Dabic alias Radovan Karadzic, an alternative medicine doctor, has lived quietly in Belgrade for the past few years. It was very difficult to identify him because he had long gray hair and a beard, said the police from Serbia. Although it is difficult to believe in that, let's ask a question why, after so many years, the killer from Durmitor was arrested only in July? It is difficult to answer exactly, but it is not necessary to waste time on that. At the moment, the most important thing is that he has been arrested. It is also important that he looks healthy and will be able to participate in the trial. […]

Finally, the victims of the most terrible massacre in Europe since World War II could get some satisfaction. […]

Danilovic is apparently disappointed because of the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. He writes (SRP):

Belgrade is not my capital more. This government is not my government. This polished man (president Tadic) is not my president. Traitors to my country are not my brothers. Traitors are not my compatriots. I am proud because I am a Serb and an Orthodox Christian. I am proud because Radovan Karadzic's horoscope sign is a Gemini, just like mine. I am proud because he has made a fool of the traitors for the past few years. I am proud because he has saved a million Serbs from being murdered. I am proud because he did not allow 1941 to happen once again. I am proud because he is Serbian […]

The process of establishing a democratic system in Serbia is a very long one and it implies a lot of international obligations. One of them was the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. In that context, Dejan Jovic concludes (SRP) in his post on B92's blog platform:

[…] The arrest of Karadzic is great news. The friends of democracy in Serbia were waiting for it very long. Now Serbia will have an opportunity to establish authority of the democratic and pro-European forces. For the first time since 1989, Serbia has got a chance to become a respectable European country. At the same time, this arrest presents a very hard challenge for nationalist forces. Democratic Serbia should not miss this chance.

Serbia: Socialist Party Forms Coalition Government With Democratic Party

Ljubisa Bojic — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:54:03 +0000

Photo by watchsmart

The main committee of Socialist Party of Serbia decided to form a government with a coalition gathered around the Democratic Party. This means Serbia will continue on its way towards European Union integration. On this issue, all other political options had similar goals. The only difference was policy on southern Serbian province Kosovo, which recently declared independence illegally.

Many bloggers reacted to this B92 news as Slobodan Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia is about to come to power again after a silent revolution that occurred in 2000.

Waters comments (SRP):

Who could dream 8 years ago, that in this short time political stage would tremendously change in Serbia? [Vojislav] Koštunica Democratic Party of Serbia has close ties with Serbian Radical Party. On the other hand, Democratic Party is collaborating with Socialistic Party of Serbia. […]

Mica is one of many disappointed citizens:

Politicians and policies in Serbia never change. They are the same! With this kind of government, fight against criminal and corruption is not possible. Cooperation with The Hague Tribunal is impossible, too. […]

Katakomba is skeptic about EU changing its policy towards new government in Serbia:

New ruling majority will face first great challenge sometime in September, because question of “repressed minorities” in Serbia will be the subject of European Commission. Permitting entry of observer’s mission is next requirement that we would have to fulfill on our road to EU. After that, “justified requests for territorial autonomy” will follow [the other province in Serbia, Vojvodina would request autonomiy]. Scenario in which our country would be torn apart will repeat. Sorry for my pessimism, but I do not think they will leave us alone despite this government is according to delicate taste of “international community”.

Novosađanin expressed his concern that Serbian capital city may get all the glory and attention of new government:

I did not think Boris Tadić from Belgrade, president of Belgrade Democratic Party, which is dominated by people from Belgrade, would be brave enough to appoint Prime Minister who is not from Belgrade. Should everything be in Belgrade or from Belgrade? I would wish [Serbian] Radical [Party] in power (in Belgrade city). That would be chance for development of other parts of Serbia.

This way, in 4 years, Belgrade will be populated by 5 million of people and all the Serbs will not be in same country but they will go across same Gazela [bridge]. So, Belgrade people, it may be useful to hear voice coming from a side line spectator.

Тodorović Radivoj joins the conversation with legitimate economic concerns:

(…) [Next] prime minister should be aware that we would have to sell something big [in a process of privatization] until September, to keep state budget in balance. If we do not sell anything, credit lines can be used because we have to catch up with Hungary, which is 80 billion USD in depth. Our depth is just 27 billion USD.

The other B92 report made even larger spree of comments. In the text Ivica Daćić, president of SPS, stated that Democratic Party would have Prime Minister Position in a new government.

Ilija sums up [SRP]:

During their negotiations fuel prices have risen twice!!!

DaliborBG made a joke but he turns serious an the end of his comment:

As we are going to be under [Ivica] Dačić baton [he might be new Minister of Interior Affairs], marked by [Žarko] Obradović pen [possible Minister of Education, also from SPS], I expect to see [Dragan Marković] Palma become Minister of Culture so we can all dance “kolo” [Serbian folk dance] while listening to the sounds of Beethoven!

[This statement refers to Marković’s answer to a question made by a Serbian FOX TV journalist. When she asked what kind of music he listened, Marković replied that the only musicians who did not play for him were Bethoveen and Chopin. “That was because I had been small then,” Marković added. This video became one of the most popular Serbian clip posted on YouTube.]

Democratic Party works against us all and this will be expensive for them. This should be topic of new movie, but in Hollywood!

Sava II is not so happy with current situation:

Decision makers in Socialist party [Of Serbia] betrayed their voters again. This political party keeps continuity with the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, which was founded in 1919. Under the name of Socialist Labor Party […]. Socialist Labor Party had similar moves before and this was not anything new. […]

Aleksandar says:

I am sure they will form the government by the end of July, so [politicians] could go to deserved vacation in August.

Everybody surely cannot be satisfied with the fact Serbia is about to get a new government. We shall see if these predictions of quoted bloggers turn out to be true.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: New Blogs by Public Figures

Elia Varela Serra — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:11:01 +0000

For my first roundup of the Bosnian blogosphere, I am introducing a couple of interesting new blogs that have emerged in the past few weeks, showing the growing interest in blogging and in the Web 2.0 in the Balkans.

Zeljko Komsic, a Bosnian Croat, is one of the three members of the Presidency of Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH), which is composed of a representative of each of the country's three constituent peoples: Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats, as laid out in the Dayton peace agreement of 1995. The three members take it in turn to hold the Presidency's rotating chairmanship for eight months at a time. Komsic, who is currently the Chairman of the Presidency, was elected in October 2006 along with Haris Silajdzic, a Bosniak, and Nikola Radmanovic, a Bosnian Serb.

A few days ago, in the face of the growing popularity of blogs, Zeljko Komsic decided that it was time to have his own blog to talk about his daily life as a President. As it was to be expected, the launch of Predsjednikov Blog (The President's Blog) has caused quite a stir in BiH amongst bloggers and internet users in general.

In his first post, Komsic introduced himself to his fellow bloggers:

Blogeri, kako ste?

Prvo da se zahvalim prijateljima iz portala Sarajevo-x.com na pomoći i ideji da otvorim blog. Nadam se da ću koliko-toliko biti redovan bloger, ali stvarno je sve do mojih obaveza. Nastojat ću u ovoj komunikaciji da budem što manje oficijelan i što više jednostavan i precizan. Unaprijed se izvinjavam svim blogerima ako na neke komentare ili pitanja ne odgovorim odmah, ali stvarno nije do mene već do obaveza od kojih ja većinu i ne zakazujem sam, već ih zakazuje moj Ured.

What’s up Bloggers!

I wanted to thank my friends from the Sarajevo-x.com portal for their help and their idea about creating this blog. I hope that I will be somewhat of a regular blogger but it really depends on my other commitments. I will try to keep my communication less of an official one but more simple and precise. In advance, I want to apologize to all bloggers if I am not able to immediately respond to their comments or questions. Please understand that that is not my fault but it is due to my many commitments, most of which are driven by my Office.

In this first post, Komsic also described his day as a President, offering his reflections on the situation in education in BiH in a very frank and open manner:

Za početak, šta da napišem??!!

Da, jučer je bila sjednica Predsjedništva BiH na kojoj smo odbili prijedlog budžeta BiH, te isti vratili na doradu i popravke Vijeću Ministara. Ja sam lično bio protiv prijedloga budžeta jer, i pored mog prethodnog zahtjeva, u budžetu nisu ni uvrštena ni planirana nikakva sredstva i izdaci za nauku, istraživanja, razvoj i poljoprivredu. Mislim da bez takve vrste investiranja BiH ne može naprijed. Nevjerovatno zvuči podatak koji sam saznao prilikom posjete Univerzitetu u Krakowu, a to je, da taj Univerzitet otvara nove istraživacke centre između ostalog i za Nano-tehnologije, a koliko se sjećam investicije su oko 150 miliona eura. Ne zaboravite da se ovdje radi samo o jednom univerzitetu. Mi smo u poređenju s njima izgleda jos u srednjem vijeku, a to izgleda neki u ovoj državi neće da shvate.

So, how should I start??!!

Yesterday we had a meeting of BiH Presidency members in which we rejected the budget proposal for BiH, and we sent it back for corrections and additional work to the Ministers' Council [of BiH]. I was personally opposed to the budget proposal because, in spite of my initial request, the budget did not contain or plan for any expenditures for science, research, development and agriculture. I believe that without those investments, BiH cannot move forward. It sounds incredible that, as I learned during my visit to the University of Krakow, that the university is opening new scientific centers, including those dedicated to nano-technology research. If I remember correctly, those investments are around 150 million euros. Keep in mind that we are talking about only ONE university here. Compared to [Poland], we are stuck in the middle ages, which some in this country do not want to understand.

The extremely casual and conversational tone of The President's Blog has been quite a shock for Bosnians, who have shown his excitement leaving over 400 comments in the first post with mostly positive feedback (such as “Congratulations Mr. President. This is an excellent move” or “Thank you very much for trying to build a single face for Bosnia and Herzegovina. We need that so much, as much as we need to go down the road of reconciliation, equality and a better life”). Quite remarkably, so far Komsic has been keeping his promise of updating his blog regularly.

The President's Blog comes about a month after The Ambassador's Diary (Ambassadorov Dnevnik), the blog in Bosnian language by the British Ambassador to BiH, Matthew Rycroft. As the blog Bosnia News pointed out at the time, his blog was unusual from the start:

Unlike other blogs in Bosnia, the arrival of this one was announced from the British embassy's press office with a statement from the Ambassador Rycroft saying that he had started his blog as a way not just of presenting his impressions about diplomatic experience in the country but also as a way of interacting with the Bosnian citizens. “This blog will be the place for me to express some of my impressions, thoughts and observations about Bosnia, Europe and the global future in general… the world was never as connected as it is now,” concludes the Ambassador in the first post on his blog.

Rycroft's blog may be unusual, but it's not the only one by a representative of the British Foreign Office, which started its own blog platform a few months ago and hosts, among others, the blog of David Miliband, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commeonwealth Affairs. Paraphrasing Miliband's post on things that need to happen in the world in 2008, Rycroft posted his own list of things that need to happen in BiH in 2008:

1. Signing the SAA [Stabilisation and Association Agreement] with the EU through meeting the four conditions - police, [ICTY], broadcasting and public administration - and going on to prepare for the next step in the journey towards EU membership, candidate status.

2. Fulfilling the conditions to allow OHR [Office of the High Representative] to close.

3. [Radovan Karadzic] and [Ratko Mladic] facing justice at the war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

4. Starting a reform of the Dayton constitution to make the state more functional, as it needs to be to get closer to joining Europe.

5. Improvements in education standards and proper implementation of the higher education laws to allow full recognition of students' diplomas across Europe.

On Jan. 17, Rycroft posted a video of an interview that he gave last summer, in which he voiced his opinion on the Yugoslavian wars and on the current situation of the transitional Bosnian politics:

Nationalism and ethnic tensions still exist today but it's not manifested in military or security terms, but in political terms. It's there on all three of the main sides. […] When it comes to election time, most people tend to vote for the party that they think will best defend the interest of their particular people. […] The vast majority of people are not really interested in politics, they are not really interested in ‘carrying the war by other means,' which is what a lot of the nationalists are trying to do, they just want to get on with their normal lives, with jobs, with prosperity, with the family around them… And there is a huge disconnect, bigger than there is in other countries, between the political leaders and the population as a whole.

You can see the whole 10-minute video below:

Hopefully, Zeljko Komsic's blog will contribute to bringing politics closer to the people in BiH and will inspire other major politicians to follow, bridging the disconnect that Rycroft is talking about.

On a different note, there's another new promising Bosnian blog, launched recently by Tim Clancy, the trailblazing author of the first Bosnia and Herzegovina guidebook published after the war. Clancy, who has lived in BiH since 1992, decided to start the blog Pure Intent only now, because of a rather heated discussion on Balkan politics that he had been involved in on the blog of British journalist Neil Clark.

In his first post on Jan. 21, Tim Clancy wrote this about his need to start blogging:

The thing that has happened to me here, during my long stint in the Balkans, is a powerful conflict aversion-attraction syndrome. The conflicts here, as horrible and morbid as they have been, have offered me the most precious lessons and experiences of my life. I have never felt the full-tilt of emotions as I have here, whether it be anger, pain, joy, sadness, or triumph. The problem is though, the war has carved the heart out of so many. There is an intense tendency here to ‘Bush' things to death - meaning if you're not with us, you're against us. Everything is warlike, including dialogue. That intimidates me, I think. And has created a strong aversion to engaging in dialogue (aka conflict) - because so often the result is simply that we are at further ends of the table than when we started.
(…)This mad place called Bosnia, a place i have grown to love and hate in equal proportion, has taught me at least one thing. To keep asking myself who I am. For that i am eternally grateful. So i have set up a new blog for myself. Mask off. I throw my proverbial cards on the proverbial table. Welcome to the monkey house friends!

Thanks to Dinko Lakic for the translations from Bosnian to English.