I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – Belgrade is at least 16 cities in one. Whether you’re a rave-loving, party ’til you drop, club-hopping college student, a middle aged, intellectual history buff or a stay-at-home mom of three – Belgrade has a corner (several in fact) that you can call your own. Unlike most other cities that have all the urban amenities one could desire, Belgrade won’t make you conform to it. It leaves room for you to work out a signature quilt of your own from its many patches.

We’ve recently had the pleasure of having Adam Daniel Mezei in Belgrade, a fascinating character I added a while ago to my on-line third tribe list (a.k.a. members of my personal Non-Aligned Movement), and he is now back for a second visit. Before getting here on Sunday, he conducted a little poll among a few locals he had met before – he asked for a list of 3 favorite things about Belgrade. I haven’t gotten into the results of that poll with him, but he did share answers from a few people. The answers I saw were vague and bland, if anything. It’s high time I made a list of my own here. I’ll begin with my favorite things and then go on to list 3 things I strongly dislike about Belgrade, just to be fair.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Absolute favorite things about Belgrade:

1. The diversity -

I think it has to do with the fact that Belgrade is not only set on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, but also has numerous underground streams flowing below the city. All that water seems to give the city a whole “go with the flow” attitude and the diversity of activities and venues is just amazing. I don’t think Belgraders appreciate the fact that they could take a short hike, jog or ride on their mountain bikes in the morning in Košutnjak, drop by Ada Ciganlija for an afternoon drink and swim after work, and still make it to that business dinner downtown on time. Sure, we don’t have fancy aqua-parks or huge NYC-like spas set smack dab in the downtown area – oh, but the things we do got are amazingly diverse.  On weekends you might feel like another walk in the park with the fam, or bowling, paintball, a game of golf, horseback riding, pamper yourself one of the spa centers in the vicinity of the city (the links are all just examples) or hanging out at Ada all day before hitting the clubs at night.  Anything goes and each of the municipalities of the city is a world unto itself.

2.)   The history / The future -

Obviously, I’m a huge history buff. I believe lessons from the past are what lead us to a successful future. And Belgrade personifies that belief. I’m not saying there aren’t other cities with that same quality, I’m just saying Belgrade does that contemporary-meets -the-old-continent thing  less pretentiously than say Berlin or Paris. If Berlin were the Yul Brynner of cities and Paris the Alain Delon, then Belgrade would most definitely be the Steve McQueen. The history of the world, with pieces of both the Occident and the Orient, are embodied in one way or another in this one city. It’s not a Serbian thing either. The city itself didn’t actually come under full Serbian rule until just a couple of centuries ago. I tend to say this is a place where you can stroll the streets with the ghosts of heroes and fools and look into the future. If you take a good look into its past, Belgrade will give you a glimpse of what isn’t there. Yet.

3. The freedom -

Again, this may have something to do with all that water running throughout the city. This is one of the few landlocked cities I’ve ever seen where you can actually stop to enjoy the wind blowing through your hair and body, walk barefoot in the grass in a downtown park, run wild with your kid or friends down a busy pedestrian street and seldom get a judgemental look. Matter of fact, your bound to get a smile from someone. And the city literally never sleeps. Like never ever. Ever ever. And I don’t mean you can stay out and party all night at the clubs. That’s a given. But you can also go out at 3 or 4 am to buy milk and smokes at a local all-night store. Or say you just feel like having a quiet cup of coffee with a buddy in the middle of the night – there are several cafes around the city open all night. The simple freedom of doing whatever you feel like doing, whenever you feel like doing it is priceless, a source of sheer joy. Yet, again, most Belgraders don’t realize how much freedom they have. I do my best to demonstrate every once in a while though and they seem to be quick studies.

Now that I’ve pumped you up, allow me to hit you with a dose of reality – what I strongly dislike about Belgrade. Of course, the city is far from perfect, but these three things would be nearly unbearable were it not for the above mentioned attributes of the city.

1. The Sea of Garbage

I’ve written about this before, so  won’t get into another rant on the subject. But, honestly, the trash in Belgrade is just ridiculous. I don’t even blame city officials and services. Not that they’re doing an awesome job, but they ain’t doin’ too bad either. It’s the citizens of Belgrade and their attitude that’s the problem. Many locals will even complain about the trash in their neighborhood, but have no problem throwing out a tissue, a plastic bottle or putting out their cigarette on the sidewalk in other neighborhoods or downtown Belgrade. Fucking appalling. There are trash bins and waste containers on every street and corner, but most people just don’t have the decency to walk over to one and dispose of the trash. When I first came to Belgrade and commented on this problem, I was given the “hard times” and “economic situation” excuses by many locals. Bullshit. If you can afford to buy it, you can afford to dispose of its packaging properly. Plain bad manners. Since the city has (yet another) budget deficit, I suggest enforcing fines for such behavior. The ol’ two birds with one stone deal and everyone’s happy.

2. Strays

This subtitle should read “Strays and Behavior Toward Animals In General”.  Serbia has passed a few laws on this and needs to pass a few new ones, or at least enforce the existing laws. Belgrade is chock full of strays, the vast majority of them friendly and many of them pure breeds. Meaning, somebody saw an adorable puppy, bought it and then realized this thing was going to continue growing and eating. Serbs aren’t too good with long-term projects or self-discipline and owning an animal requires both. And, folks, if you’re not part of the solution – you’re part of the problem. If you run into a lost dog (they usually have a tag, seem healthy and were probably thrown out by an irresponsible owner) give ORCA’s Belgrade office a shout for help or advice.  If you notice a female stray or an injured animal in your neighborhood, call the City Veterinary Station and tell them specifically about the stray. If it’s a female, they will probably come out to pick it up, neuter it, vaccinate it and release it into the streets again in a few days. (Not the Emergency Room of the Veterinary School of Belgrade University – this is where you take your own pet in emergencies) . If you’re an animal lover, you hould know this will not only prevent a stray dog from having more stray puppies, but will keep her healthy and safe.  The last thing this dogs need is to have puppies unsupervised in Belgrade’s winter weather and watch their puppies die off one by one from cold and malnutrition. Do the humane thing. I keep ORCA’s and the Veterinary Center’s numbers in my cell phone, have called them several times from several locations in Belgrade and have always gotten a good response from them.

3. Traffic

Note that this list is in no particular order. All three problems are on the same, virtually intolerable level. The traffic in Belgrade just plain sucks. I wouldn’t know where to begin – the lack of bridges over to the New Belgrade side, the lack of garages and parking space in downtown Belgrade, the narrow streets where traffic is allowed both ways, the clogged city squares… ugh. It takes me about two hours to get to parents’ place some 125 km from Belgrade. A full hour of that is just covering the 25 km to get out of the city. Ridiculous. City officials have been saying for decades that, while there are solutions, it would take a couple of huge undertakings and a couple of years of construction to begin solving this problem. How about keeping it simple? Trucks and large vehicles have already been banned from entering downtown Belgrade during regular work hours on week days, yet you’ll see a ton of them at any given time. Another set of laws not being enforced. And how about banning entrance to all private vehicles on weekdays? If anyone wants in they can pay a yearly, monthly or daily fee for their vehicle. It’s green, it’s fair, it’s viable – just do it.

That about covers it on my part. I’d like to hear your thoughts if you’re a local or have been to Belgrade. What are your favorite venues or characteristics of the city? What bothers you about the city? And, more importantly, any suggestions?

Seldom am I at a loss for words. Anyone who’s ever spent over 15 minutes with me will confirm this. Anyone who really knows me will tell you there only one thing that can wow me enough to get me to the speechless state I find myself in now – unpretentious originality. Coca Cola’s Expedition 206 team did that for me in the past 24 hours. I now find myself in a lovely state of utter combobulation.

When I was invited to be one of the “Happiness Hosts” for the Expedition’s visit to Serbia, my initial reaction was along the lines of “Meh, why not? Could be fun”. And I felt slightly duty bound, as I always do, to represnt the city I love. I don’t know exactly how The Coca Cola Company did it. They not only found three infinitely interesting young people, but three people who contribute to each other’s personalities and genuine nature.

Around 7 pm on July 1st, exactly 6 months from the day the Expedition 206 team began their journey to 206 countries in 365 days, Eniac, Belgraded,  NeshaSr, two of the Happiness Ambassadors and I sat down to have dinner at Supermarket restaurant in downtown Belgrade. The dinner was everything but business and solemn. Five minutes into the dinner, or rather before we even ordered anything, we were already exchanging raw thoughts, vivid opinions and giggles.

Kelly is all natural, all the way. She is extremely well articulated and carries that exquisite streak of childish curiosity in an entirely adult mind and body. Remember the type of kid that would come up to you on the first day of school and say, “Hi, I’m Kelly. Wanna play?” That’s her in a nutshell. Tony has a touch of that attitude too. If he wasn’t already a kindergarten teacher, you’d tell him he should be a kindergarten teacher. He’s a natural communicator. He soaks in the people around him, notices the little things and opens himself up for others to soak him in. He’s open, blatantly honest, yet there’s so much more to read between his lines. Antonio, who joined us the next day, is a similar yet different story. There’s a tad of the Latin American mystery there (well, for those who don’t know too many Latin Americans at least) and an almost tangible, yet quiet wonder at everything and everyone around him. When he looks – he really looks. When he has a question – he asks. When he’s interested – he really listens. Among them, they speak English, Spanish, French, German, Flemish and a couple of more languages. They can all express themselves very eloquently, whether in slang, literary language, in spoken on written form. After spending a total of some seven or eight hours with them in under a day, all I can say is – I’m glad I was there.

On July 2nd, the unique Coca Cola bottle particularly designed to represent Serbia was presented to the Happiness Ambassadors at a press conference in Belgrade. Tony and Antonio shared their thoughts and experiences on traveling the world in search of happiness in the same genuine manner they did with us. “We’re very happy to be able, through social networks, to share this Expedition with so many people… they’ve become our virtual travel agents in a way, that help us decide which landmarks to visit and what we shouldn’t miss on our search for happiness. It’s a really ambitious project, but I couldn’t  imagine a better way to spend a year than researching what makes people happy.” (Tony Martin for Expedition 206)

Expedition 206 at Kalemgdan Fortress in Belgrade

But this blog post is about their visit to Belgrade and what defines happiness in Serbia. I don’t really need to do much explaining here. Tony put it best in his tweet on Expedition 206′s Twitter account as they were leaving for the airport – “Happiness here is togetherness”. Well put. Enough said. In a city that is over 2000 years old, that has seen thousands of battles, hundreds of wars, a city where we roam the streets with the ghosts of heroes and fools alike – seven people connected to create an unforgettable memory. For just a few hours, possibly over an entire lifetime, the seven of us experienced a form of distilled togetherness in Belgrade. The stuff that builds nations. The stuff that creates memories we tell our kids about. And this is why I am speechless. I’ve given you the facts above an my quick observations of the Expedition 206 team, but the experience will need some time to settle before I write about the several subjects that we covered over just a few hours.

We’ve got a ton of video material and are preparing to post it on Eniac’s Ground, Belgraded and this here blog. Among the questions we asked was “What cause for happiness have you found common to all the countries you’ve visited thus far?” Kelly and Tony answered right off the bat, “Friends and family. Being with those you love. Every country we’ve been to, that’s what people say.” Friends and family. Connections. Bonds. Togetherness. I think Belgrade’s got this happiness thing down.

The Coca Cola Company chose a team of three young people in late 2009 to travel the globe in pursuit of happiness and dubbed it Expedition 206. Their journey began in Madrid, where I happen to have been born, on January 1st of this year and will last until December 31st. During just this one year, Kelly Ferris, Tony Martin and Antonio Santiago will travel to the 206 countries where Coca Cola is present and, through serendipitous experiences of their own, try to discover what happiness is in each of these very distinct countries.

Ironically, I’ve found that expats and foreigners find more happiness in Belgrade that locals often do.  Alexander Dumas once said that “there is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state to another”. Those who have traveled the globe and seen both have all the tools necessary for such comparison. We know that happiness can grow in the midst of misery, or even out of nothing at all. We’ve learned to count our blessings by default, every step of the way.

I, along with a few other members of the local on-line community – Belgrade’s first active Twitter user and absolutely darling human being Nebojša Radović, a.k.a. @Eniac, the unofficial but excellent on-line representative of the City of Belgrade Viktor Marković, a.k.a. @Belgrade and our community’s on-call A/V handler Nenad Pavlović, a.k.a. @neshasr - have been offered the great pleasure of meeting the Expedition 206 team in person this evening over dinner, drinks and giggles in downtown Belgrade. The seven of us will try to get to the bottom of what happiness is in Serbia. I’m sure we’ll come up with several definitions, a few good stories I’ll blog about later and a few riveting stories I won’t be allowed to mention in public at all.

Starting at around 7 pm, we’ll be tweeting our collective thoughts and asking the Expedition 206 team some questions, conducting a twitterview if you will. Follow the#exp206 hashtag on Twitter for the conversation, join us, feel free to add any questions you might want us to ask them in the comments below and do tell - what’s your definition of happiness? What makes you smile early in the morning? Who makes you laugh until your belly hurts and tears are streaming down your face? What rocks your boat?

Several of us, this guy’s on-line friends, were faced with this dilemma on the morning of June 7th, the day before the friend’s birthday. Zoran Knezevic, now living stateside, and I were chatting that morning and throwing around several ideas, most of them original and spiced up with a tad of humor. But nothing was wowing us. Then Zoran came up with a simple, old-school, killer suggestion – “How much would it cost to print up and hang a billboard in Belgrade?” We figured out it was chump change and a great idea – but probably way to late to get it up in time, like in the next 24 hours. Impossible. Well… I’m not comfortable with that word – “impossible”. Never did much like the sound of it. So I did me some multitasking – phone in one hand, keyboard with Google at my fingertips in the other, while Zoran did a mock up of the billboard.

Operation BB Mock Up

Now the great thing about the on-line world and why we’re all taken by it is that we can do things immediately. Got an idea for a new site – search, enter credit card info and you just got yourself a domain name. Remembered something you need to tell someone or need to catch up on work? Just flip the switch and type away.  But it’s not really palpable, is it? Sometimes it just doesn’t do it for us. Almost like it’s not there. And this is the reason that we will always have real world stores. This is why some print media, if they learn that their future is in the long process of investigative journalism, originality and meaningful editorials, will survive.

So, we went through at least 4 levels of Dante’s Inferno over the next 24 hours. I was on the phone half the day and sent out an SOS on Twitter saying I needed a graphic designer to do a quick print prep job of the mock up. The birthday boy is active on Twitter, of course, so we called it Operation BB and went about our business. After several calls, I finally found a print shop that agreed to do the overnight print job for us, but they needed the file in the next couple of hours. @chenka2000 was the first to respond on Twitter and did a great job with transforming the low resolution mock up,c onsisting of photos Zoran had swiped from the birthday boy’s Facebook profile, into something that would look more than decent in a 4 x 3 meter format.

I had no luck finding an available billboard location or a company that could get this thing up in time. Thankfully, Nebojša Radović, another close friend of the birthday boy’s, was soon in on it and it was now a full on conspiracy. Nebojša used his contacts to find the appropriate billboard. The contact there was awesome and they went out of their way to get this done in time. Masel, busy as they are, finished the print job by 11 am the next day. The print was picked up picked up and posted on the billboard at the end of Kneza Miloša street, near Colonial Sun, by midnight. The actual birthday was over, but close enough. We’d surprise him tomorrow.

In the meantime, a few more firends and the birthday boy’s wife got on board. Ivan Dimitrijević, Mile Kostić and several others kept tabs on his schedule and his every move. He was crazy busy those two days – turns out it was going to be harder to drag this guy out to the billboard so he can see it than it was to arrange for the damn thing! As Zoran put it, “This is why old-school advertising space sucks for targetted audiences.” Agreed. A PPC campaign would have been so much easier…

The birthday boy, Miloje Sekulić, is in fact Serbia’s pioneering Internet PR and marketing wizard. He’s been in the business some 10 years now and he’s had what may be his most successful professional year yet. Suffice it to say his only competition for the Most Successful Internet Campaign Award at this year’s PRijem PR Association of Serbia awards was – himself. Yeah, the guy had two of his projects nominated for the award. The only two. Along the way, throughout what we hope is just the begining of his career, he’s met a ton of people on-line. Yet, Miloje is old-school in as many ways as he is new media. If he connects with you on-line, he’s bound to set aside sometime and ask to meet you for coffee and a chat. He likes meeting people, he’s good at recognizing new talent and nurturing it and when he’s working with or heading any team – he’s just another member of the team. He pulls up his sleeves and he really does the work. Others can’t help but follow.

To answer the question from the beginning of this post – What do you get the guy who pioneered on-line PR in Serbia? You get him an old-school, honest-to-goodness billboard with his face on it and a message saying “Happy Birthday From the Folks On the Internet”. Why? Because it takes more effort than buying a domain name and putting up a one page website. Because it’s palpable. Because he’ll know what you had to go through to do it and he’ll appreciate the meaning of it. Because it is so worth the look on his face.

Thanks to @chenka2000 for being willing, fast and able! A huge thanks to Milena at Masel and Katarina at MediaMax, we literally could not have done it without you! Thanks to individuals at Miloje’s office who shall remain nameless and Mile Kostić for keeping tabs on the elusive Mr. Sekulić! Thanks to @Fotomanijak and Mišo Krtić for pitching in!

To my co-conspirators – Zoran Knežević and Nebojša Radović:

I would work with you again, any time, any where, any how. But right now I’d rather take you both out for a beer! :*

As a child, I first used the sense of smell and the color of the sky to distinguish one place from another. When you’re too young to read or tell one large edifice from another, you learn to rely on your instinctive senses to tell you where you are. Above every city in the world there are very particular and individual hues to the sky. Every country in the world contains a mixture of scents that form a unique signature. I can still pretty much pin-point the region of the world you just came from by smelling your luggage when you get in from the airport. (And yes, I have been offered the job of a trail hound – the money wasn’t right though!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The funny thing is that, throughout my travels, only two cities seem to have matching skies and smells. Not entirely, of course, but some mornings when I open my eyes its hard to tell right off the bat whether I’m in Belgrade or NYC. Realistically, the two cities, aside from the fact that neither sleeps, are nothing alike. Then again… I don’t know. Take a look at the photos below and you be the judge.

Belgrade – Terazije Square

Belgrade - Terazije Square

NYC – Times Square

NYC - Times Square

Belgrade – Vračar

Belgrade - Vračar

NYC – The Village

NYC - The Village

Belgrade – Ada Ciganlija

Belgrade - Ada Ciganlija

NYC – Hudson River

NYC - Hudson River

Belgrade – Sava River

Belgrade - Sava River

NYC – Hudson River

NYC - Huston River

And on a hot summer day – the asphalt and the rivers carry the exact same scent. Just sayin’.

(By the by, it took me about 10 minutes to find these somewhat matching images via Google Image search. G’head, try it.)

16-year-old Fran Kuseta, a seemingly proactive young man from Veli Losinj in Croatia, announced on his personal Twitter account after the closing of the first round of the fifth presidential election polls in Croatia on the evening of December 27th that he headed the social media campaign for one of the presidential candidates over recent months.*

The teenager, who describes himself as an “ambitious 16-year-old chap from Croatia” on his Twitter profile, sent out a tweet sometime after midnight local time saying, “I was the director of Social Media in the campaign of @NadanVidosevic. Expect a blog post soon.”

Fran Kuseta's Twitter profile picture

Nadan Vidosevic, formerly of the Croatian Democratic Union, ran in this 2009/2010 presidential election as an independent candidate and, although he did not receive enough votes to go on into the second round, carried a fairly high favorability in the polls during the campaign.

As promised, the young social media enthusiast, Fran Kuseta, published a post on his Posterous account the next morning, titled What, How and Why?, confirming the initial tweet and explaining some of the details of his three month long involvementin the social media portion of Vidosevic’s campaign, including the agreement made with campaign leaders not to reveal his age or identity for the duration of the campaign.

The Croatian youngster went on to state that he was not a political supporter of Vidosivic’s political views, but enjoyed working for the candidate’s campaign and would do so again if invited. Fellow Tweeters have noticed what Kuseta has confirmed through his Twitter account – that the young Croat was the only member of Vidosevic’s campaign headquarters that was not eligible to vote in this campaign.

*Note: This information has not yet been confirmed or denied by official sources from Vidosevic’s campaign headquarters.

**Update: Confirmation has been received from Krunoslav Vidic, former journalist and reputation manager from Croatia, while Fran Kuseta offered direct contact with the candidate’s spokesperson for confirmation.

"A Calm Winter in Belgrade" from www.panoramio.com

First and foremost, we have the literally inevitable slavas. A slava is the celebration of the family saint, a tradition that isn’t necesarilly religious but rather of a more ethnic character among Serbs and a few other ethnic denominations in the world. You can read up on the particulars in the Wikipedia link I provided up there but that ain’t gonna tell you half the story about what actually goes on at a typical Serbian slava. It’s all about eat, drink and be merry -  to the power of ten. Honestly, you have never seen more true friends, heard more genuine laughter, or witnessed people of all ages consuming more food or drink in one place at one time. Ever. Roman emperors got nothin’ on us Serbs when the slava season rolls around. And if you haven’t been to one, you don’t know the true definition of a party. If you are ever invited to a slava, showing up is a must and the invitation is an honor. It means you’ve been invited into someone’s inner circle. When you arrive at a slava, as soon as you’re in the door and after you have wished the host a happy slava, you will be offered a spoon of the ‘slavsko žito’, boiled and minced whole wheat grain with sugar and nutmeg, and a sip of red wine to wash it down with. The wheat represents the body of Christ but also our gratitude for a good year and a good ‘crop’, the sugar and nutmeg represent the promise of a sweet and pleasant afterlife for all Christian souls. The wine, of course, represents the blood of Christ. Again, if you’re not religious, keep in mind that it’s more an ethnic ritual than a religious one and roll with it.  Eating and drinking plenty once you’re in the door is also a must. You’ll see a large, simple candle (traditionally, it should be of pure bee’s wax but they’re tough to find these days) in the middle of the table, burning in celebration of the family saint, and a ‘slavski kolač’ or ‘slava cake’. It’s nothing like a cake. In fact, it’s very bland whole wheat bread but there’s a lovely little ceremonial breaking of the bread before you sit down to eat and everyone gets a piece of it. If you get invited to someone’s slava once, your presence is expected every year. You’re in for the long haul now.  Good luck with that!

A 'slavski kolač' (click image to see more exapmles)

The other great thing going on this time of year is the concert season, which I already mentioned before. It starts sometime in October and lasts until late Spring. Lots of great less known international and local bands playing regular and featured gigs all over the city and more big international names each year. My personal favorite venues to keep an eye on are the Students’ Cultural Centre’s Livingroom (SKC has multiple venues, by the way), jazz & blues club Plek (regular gigs every night of the week) Bitef Art Cafe (regular gigs and the occasional gem, e.g Victor Bailey), and the Sava Centre and the Belgrade Arena (bigger ‘names’ and concerts). I’m a simple Blues girl myself, so I highly recommend checking out Texas Flood at Livingroom on the 12th of this month. Texas flood are, the name says it, a raunchy blues/rock band from Belgrade who opened for ZZ Top when they played Belgrade recently. Their music is obviously influenced by the likes of SRV, ZZ Top, and traditional Delta Blues with a touch of Led Zeppelin finesse here and there. So I hear. I suggest you be there on December 12th and judge for yourself. Billy Gibbons was also a guest, along with Raphael Wressnig and Little G, on their higly acclaimed album released in early 2009. Tickets are still available, at the ridiculous price of 300 RSD (a little over 3€) and I hear it’s going to be a packed house. Loverly.

Click here to view the embedded video.

All in all, be prepared to put on a few extra pounds and be sleep deprived but happy this Winter season in Belgrade. I hope the links on this page help for now. There will be a post up soon for those of you who prefer to call it an early night, with recommendations for theatres and more classical concerts in the city. If you hear of anything worth paying attention to around the city, do let us all know. Keep the music blasting, the beer on ice, the party going, and have a great Belgrade week!

Belgrade is not, as the photographs indicate, a miserable city inhabited by miserable people. The citizens of Belgrade are not barbarians as we have been presented in the Western media for more than a decade. On the contrary, the city is vibrant, open-minded, and hospitable with a positive attitude and its people are eager to speak English. Not long ago, it was the capital of the most advanced country in the Southeast Europe. A meeting place of the two rivers, the Danube and Sava, have shaped Belgrade into a proud and beautiful city, where the locals have a refreshingly relaxed approach to life. It’s also a place that takes pleasure seriously, offering one of the best clubbing scenes in Europe and a diverse cultural life, which, I am positive, Mr. Anderson has witnessed himself.

Notice I didn’t even bother to ask exactly who was protesting or why. Prostests are so common in Belgrade that most of us tend to just try to ignore them unless they have something to do with the issues affecting our individual lives. Nevertheless, the information junkie that I am, I got home and ended up finding out that the students of the University of Belgrade were protesting new terms for fullfillment of requierments for certain financial aid for tuitions and so on. I wish them all the best in their efforts but I was a student a decade ago and my son is still in elementary school so I’m not really all that interested. Sorry. It did however remind me of a blog post I wrote and tucked away on my hard disk for future use. I thought I’d release it on the exact day that will mark 70 years since the first massive student protest in Belgrade but, with the current students planning on continuing their protest come Monday, this weekend seems like more appropriate timing. We’re taking that step back again now. The one I call retrograde. In fact, take a few steps back ’cause this picture isn’t just big. It’s huge. And you’re going to want to see it.

The year 1939 had been a tough one on all of Europe. In Serbia it was better known as the Bloody Year of 1939. It remained known as such even after World War II, which was just around the corner. What some don’t know and many fail to recall is that, before World War II came about, a vast portion of the Serbian high society, polititians and bourgeoise in Serbia and much of the region, actually liked the ideologies of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Yes, you read that right. Don’t forget that Hitler was Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1938. This vehement little creature with the funny moustache had an ideology that very much appealed to the higher classes and a killer rhetoric. Bluecollar workers and students saw it differently, of course. The Bloody Year of 1939 saw more than 800 protests throughout the Kingdom of  Yugoslavia.

Allow me to introduce you to a few of the characters in this particular story – the story of the first massive organized student and proleterian protests in Serbia. Miloš Matijević, better known as ‘Slim’ (Mrša) was a tall and lanky bluecollar type that had been born and raised on a small, impoverished farm. A hard worker, after years of unsuccessful farming, physical odd jobs and such, he ended up landing a decent gig in the textile industry in Belgrade. In the late 1920′s he became a member of the Communist Party and set his sights on creating better conditions for the working class. True, most of us still cringe at the word ‘communist’ now that we all know what happened post WW II. But all that ‘Slim’ Matijević and those similar to him knew was that it was time for a change and this ‘communism’ thing, equal shares and opportunity for all, seemd like a great idea.

Our next character became a member of the Communist Party in the mid 1930′s and was a Montenegrin born Serb, Radoje Dakić. He was an electro-mechanic working in one of the larger factories of the time in Belgrade and was often arrested for his revolutionary activities and served a sentence or two in prison. A third working class character in the story, but far from the average woman of her time, was Vukica Mitrović. Born in Budva Montenegro, she had attended elementary and secondary schools there before her family’s finacial troubles and move to Belgrade. She was unable to continue her education but soon found an administrative job in  the Belgrade textile industry and joined the Communist Party in 1933. Vukica was arrested in a huge police raid of the offices of the Communist Party in April of 1935 and tortured by the authorities in prison so she would give up certain information and colleagues. Vukica kept quiet and, although a trial was held, she was finally released due to lack of evidence. Her friends called her ‘Sneak’ (Šunja) for her ability to carry out underground revolutionary tasks quietly and efficiently.

Rifat Burdžević

Rifat Burdžević was a baby faced and strong voiced young man. He was born in a small town in Serbia where, after having been orphaned at the age of two, he was raised by family members and enrolled at the Law School of the University of Belgrade in 1933. Last, but certainly not least, there was Aleksandar ‘Leka’ Ranković. ‘Leka’ Ranković was born in Obrenovac and raised mostly by his mother as he had lost his father at a young age. Ranković is a story all on his own so suffice it to say he would later become one of the most significant characters in the Communist Party of the former SFR of Yugoslavia.

These are the five main characters that, though they would have been nothing without the thousands they had following them at the time, organized and carried out an unlikely but successful mass protest. It was early December of 1939 and the workers, the students, the people – were fed up with low wage hard work, lack of bread, milk, other essentials and the lack of interest from the government in all these matters. A protest was organized, mostly by the five young people you have just been introduced to in the above paragraphs. The protest was scheduled for December 5th, 1939 and a permit for such a gathering was requested from the authorities. The permit was denied and warnings issued to the organizers, students and several trade unions. The next day, the organizers rescheduled the protest for December 10th and applied for a permit again. The second permit was also denied and warnings once again issued. The organizers, students and workers had no other choice but to use guerilla tactics. The protest went undergound for the next couple of days. The organizers made sure that the word got out to the authorities that the protest was planned for December 15th, each time giving them a different location. The students and workers had leaders among them that knew that the protest would in fact take place on the evening of December 14th and their task was to gather as many protesters as possible in the sidestreets around the one designated area – Slavija Square.

I imagine it was a cold and gray afternoon. It must have already been dark as the protest leaders and group leaders went from house to house gathering their fellow protesters. Police and guard had heard a rumor that the protest would happen a day early, but units were now hopelessly scattered around several locations in the city and any other information was scarce. The day had been pretty much like any other but as 7 pm approached, it was an empty and eerie sight. Those who were present say that the usually busy Slavija Square was deadly quiet and without a soul in sight except for a few policemen.  Slavija was. The streets around Slavija weren’t. They were absolutely packed with protesters.

Slavija Square, Belgrade, early 20th century.

At 7 pm, Leka, Vukica, Rifat, Radoje and Miloš came out to the center of Slavija Square. Rifat, the young and fiery law student was usually their spokesman and a great one at that. As he yelled out “Down with bloody war! Down with high prices! Down with terror!…” the protesters began to flood the Square. By God, it must have been an awesome sight. Police began regrouping, beating and arresting protesters. Many were injured and many killed. But it was too late. This began days of the most massive protests this region had ever seen. Protests began in other cities of the region and they changed the future and marked history. Mission accomplished.  When will the world learn that the fate of a nation lies on the shoulders of its children, its workers and its intellectuals?

The above is another amazing part of history that has simply been forgotten by most. So much so that as soon as the new democratic government came to power, a few years ago, the street where it all began was renamed from 14th December street to Cara Nikolaja II street. Not that anyone really noticed because most didn’t know why it carried the previous name in the first place. I wonder if the current government remembers how they themselves came to power in October of 2000. I wonder if they realize that, communist or democratic, they had a common goal. I wonder if they realize that they did the exact same thing 60 years later. December 14th marks the 70 year anniversary of the first massive democratic protests in Belgrade. I’ll be having myself a glass of wine around 7 pm and toasting anyone and everyone who took part in it. I hope you’ll join me.

Since we have some out of town Twitterers in Belgrade this week, we decided to get schedule another quick Belgrade TweetUp for this coming Saturday, November 28th at our now regular venue. This evening, somewhere on the #exYU (hashtag I and others now commonly use for content on Twitter pertaining to or of interest to the former Yugoslav region) timeline, I noticed Miloš Petrović‘s tweet announcing that he would be attending a TweetUp in Osijek, Croatia scheduled for the same day and time. I thought it would be fun to check out the influence and agility of Twitter in real life and asked my fellow #exYu Twitterers if they thought more of these TweetUps could be scheduled for the same date and time in other cities in the region. As Twitter usually goes, the response was pretty quick. So far there’s a TweetUp scheduled for Novi Sad, #TweetUpNS and Veliko Gradište, #TweetUpVG, and I’m hoping more are in the works.

Although this is all short notice and just for fun, the power and velocity of Twitter as a communication tools doesn’t cease to amaze me. This is still all small time, but if we can get together some 100 people in several cities of a region that was at war just a little over a decade ago, I wonder how this would work in other practical situations, like evacuations, natural disasters and… well, protests. We seems to have had quite a few of those in the region over the years. There’s a little food for thought to keep the powers to be busy for a while (IF they actually knew what Twitter is). In the meantime, you know where to find me on Saturday, November 28th, from 5 pm to 8 pm. If you’re in Belgrade, you’re most welcome to join us. Don’t worry if you’re not on Twitter yet. We’ll get you hooked in no time.

Oh, and here’s a funfact that Andrej Ivaničević from Croatia noticed – November 29th, the day after these simulatneous TweetUps that we’re trying to get together, is the day when, in 1943, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia, established and signed the foundations for “the second”, post WWII Yugoslavia. The former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia was officially proclaimed on the same date in 1945. The Republic Day was celebrated as the biggest national holiday from 1945 untill 1990. How’s that for a coincidence? You gotta love history!