A Critical Review of Serbia
Finally an article about Belgrade not examining it’s “vibrant nightlife”, “posh cafes” and “beautiful women”.
Irish Tribune brings a review of Belgrade that tries to examine the political and social situation – which is admittedly filled with negative trends and nationalistic tensions.
Unfortunately it seems as if the journalist was a bit too young, naive or just underpaid, because there are a lot of factual errors in the article and a prevailing tendency for sensationalism that overshadow some valid and important points.
Factual errors, as already pointed out by many readers in the comments both at the original site and at B92 blog: Wiemar Republic was after the first World War, Sava runs into Dunav, not the other way around, Slobodan Milosevic did not built New Belgrade for his cronies, nor did he build New Belgrade at all.
Sensationalism: a random young woman walking by on the street is not much of a credible source of Ratko Mladic whereabouts. Fifty of Karadzic supporters protesting could hardly represent a prevailing Serbian sentiment towards Karadzic (although I agree that they are a pain in the ass). Taxi drivers are not that dangerous, the worst thing that can happen is getting ripped off, even without mentioning Srebrenica.
On the other hand, it is true that a lot of things are good only at the surface and that many Serbian institutions – governmental, educational, sports, public – are rotten from inside. Some true facts from the article about Serbia (that actually don’t need all that much research):
A recent survey found that 70% of Serbians believe homosexuality is a disease. The country’s isolation exacerbates its social problems; most other countries require visas for Serbians to visit. Nearly 75% of younger people do not possess a passport. The average Serbian wage after tax is about €400-a-month and about 200,000 people are regarded as impoverished. Roma children die from malnutrition.
Human rights are indeed not doing well in Serbia. When it comes to corruption, organized crime, freedom of the press, freedom to express different points of views, and discrimination towards minority groups such as Roma and gay population, those are definitely things very much troubling Serbia today. But the problem is when you write about it in such a tabloid way and try to construct a reality by pointing out facts that don’t really add up, it does not help any of us.
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Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you sure you didn’t slip up and start talking about Croatia? I’m just saying… It almost makes me think of a new joke, “What’s the difference between Croatia and Serbia? Beaches.”
As for the fact that Serbian women are going to be a constant topic on this site, even my cousins across the border in Slovenia will dump national pride and admit that the Serbian women are the hottest. As for us Balkan guys, I’ve realized that there are women who love us, it’s just that we’re as much manly as the Balkan women are womanly. It’s a good match while in the Balkans, but once outside of the region, only the women are appreciated. Most of these guys drooling over Serbian girls don’t realize that if they’re not man enough, those girls will crush them, especially the sponzoruše
A “reality construct” you are talking of is really dangerous thing. Seems while the professional associations are letting market regulate itself, we will soon have to deal with such a myopic audience that media will either vanish or transform into one gloomy Big Brother Show (IPTV streaming).
Myths and misinformation eventually lead to non-competitiveness on highest level….and I wonder, since our diplomats are not using iPhone, not blogging and I guess not even read newspapers, do really the rest of the nation have to be retarded?
Ive heard that in one “school of journalism” there is module devoted to – opening Gmail account for attendees
))
How did we got here? Dunno!!
@Hudin:
I’m aware that there are similar problems in Croatia, but I want to focus on local ones. As for the girls, that’s true, but let’s not overgeneralize, there are probably a couple of those here who like emo guys as well. Probably…
@Miss Cybernaut:
I bet Christian Amanpour would love it, I read today one article where she complains about how ‘everyone is a journalist today thanks to twitter and blogging’ and that ‘real journalism’ is dead… thank god! 
Imagine if one day someone takes me for a serious journalist and this site as a relevant source of information!
Tabloid journalism is tabloid journalism. We’ve had it since Rupert Murdoch bought The Sun ?thirty years ago.
As the Irish Tribune failed to post my response to their recent “Critical Review of Belgrade,” I am going to respond here:
What a sensationalist article! Certain events the author points out are true (some are incorrect), they are completely taken out of the context; actually the author has not defined the context at all. As a matter of fact, the author has clearly not stated the point, or the intention of the article. So my question is – Justine, what is your agenda?
So let’s define a fair context. Serbia is a developing nation in South East Europe, battered by 10+ years of civil war and conflict, transitioning from socialist & communist to democratic institutions with eventual hopes of joining the European Union. As a part of former Yugoslavia, it shares a similar civil, social, economic, and historical backdrop as other countries of ex-Yu, such as Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia. As a formal socialist country, it also shares a lot with countries that have already been through that transition, such as Slovakia or Poland. Finally, it is in the backyard of Europe, so it shares cultural, civil, and forward looking values with other European countries. Is that a fair context?
Now, let’s revisit the author’s assertions.
“It’s like the Weimar Republic after the second World War’”
Factually incorrect. Weimer Republic seized to exist after 1932 elections in Germany.
“You must not let yourself be heard speaking English near the protests. You might be mistaken for an American.”
I had 2 American friends in a café right next to the protests in Republic Square in August, 2008. We spoke in English and no one came to attack us. One person just offered my friend a flier and left. Secondly, this September, I had a friend from Zagreb Croatia take a picture in front of the protest. She was neither harassed verbally nor physically despite having a thick Zagreb accent.
“You must not look like a Roma, a Kosovar, a gay or lesbian, or a well-known human-rights defender, all punishable by verbal or physical assault.”
Ironically, Belgrade is full of Roma, and despite living there for 12 years, I have never seen one being assaulted. Speaking of Roma, let’s not forget Slovakia’s human rights record with Roma. As I recall, Slovakia’s entry to the European Union was to be delayed because of human rights record with Roma. Source: http://www.slovakia.org/society-roma.htm
“It could be Northern Ireland during the Troubles when your surname or your accent or your car registration or the brand of cigarettes you smoked or the newspaper you read marked you out as the enemy.”
Yes, but you can also be driving a car in Massachusetts with New York plates, and be assaulted because you are not a Red Sox fan. Source: wbztv.com/local/yankees.falmouth.assault.2.764436.html
“There hang the remains of the military headquarters bombed by Nato nine years ago, its shredded floors defying gravity and the citizens’ instinct to forget.”
This is because there is an unexploded cruise missile lodged in the building that, as expect, the US government will not remove without a fee.
“President Boris Tadic got death threats when, within a fortnight of his ascension to power earlier this year, Karadzic was arrested on a bus in Novi Belgrade, the soulless west-bank suburb built by Slobodan Milosevic for his cronies. But Tadic has lived on.”
What president does not receive death treats? How about Obama? See here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/233119/obama_gets_secret_service_due_to_death.html
“The vigil protests by 40 or 50 ultra-nationalists emerge into the dusk of Republic Square at five o’clock each evening. Afterwards, they disperse to sell their copies of Karadzic’s biography in the city’s elegant little bars. And the rest of the world thinks all is well.”
Fifty people out of 2 million Belgrade residents or 7 million citizens of Serbia is hardly an uprising. Where was the author in 1991, 1994, 1997, or 2000 where there were hundreds of thousands of protestors against Milosevic, the war, and the nationalist government? Besides, isn’t that part of democracy, the ability to congregate and speak free ideas?
“The most dreaded is Obraz, a religio-fascist organisation that grew out of the history department in the University of Belgrade with a vision of a super-Serb state for Serbian people. It holds meetings in church-owned property.”
Similar organizations exist in most other European countries. What about the BNP in the UK? Or the Croatian Liberation Movement (CLM)? Or the Front National in France?
“His crime was to attend an anti-fascist meeting in the faculty in 2005 which was gate-crashed by 25 black-clothed males shouting “zieg hiel” as they punched and kicked those in attendance.”
Neo-nazi groups exist in pretty much every country in Europe. If you think 25 black-clothes males is bad, attend a concern of Croatia’s most popular singer, Marko Perkovic, Thompson. It draws 60,000 strong crowd. Try that for a Hitler youth rally.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/world/europe/02croatia.html?n=Top/News/World/Countries%20and%20Territories/Serbia
“His colleague, Dejan Anastasijevic, having reported on the Scorpions paramilitary trial for Vreme magazine, was lucky to escape in April last year when a bomb exploded outside his Belgrade flat. He lives in Brussels now.”
Croatia is about 2 years away from entering the EU. In October, 2008 a car bomb killed a prominent journalist (source: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7687532.stm) In addition, the 26 year old daughter of a lawyer representing an alleged Croatia war criminal was murdered. (source: news.scotsman.com/world/Top-Croat-lawyer39s-daughter-murdered.4563963.jp)
“A recent survey found that 70% of Serbians believe homosexuality is a disease.”
Last time I checked, the Vatican does not have a much better view either. (Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=24&art_id=vn20081203052953850C756042)
“Nearly 75% of younger people do not possess a passport.”
This is because EU still blacklists Serbia and does not allow its citizens to travel without visas. 75% of Americans also do not have a passport, despite the country having a GDP and PPP many times over that of Serbia. (source: http://www.birminghamrecords.co.uk/maninsf/maninsf11.html)
The point I am trying to make is not that all the author says is incorrect, nor do I condone these instances, but try to bring them into a context the author fails to define. Why? Well, if taken out of context, as they are in this article, these instances make Serbs look like brutes and savages. That’s the only sensationalistic idea I see from this article.
Can you say that if one US cop uses excessive force on an African American that all police officers in the US are racist, or that US police is repressive towards African Americans? No, but the author uses similar sensationalist techniques to paint an incorrect picture about the development of civil society in Serbia.
So Justine, if you do not have a point, what is your agenda?
Sorry, I shouldn’t have made that stupid off the cuff remark about tabloid journalism on the basis of the summary and comments before reading through the article in full. Of course the reference to Weimar is in inverted commas, ie a quote, not a free-standing header, and reading the article it’s clear that it’s the source who’s characterising Serbia in that way rather than the journalist – a source who seems to have had good reason to make that remark.
“Journalist Dinko Gruhonjic, his economist wife and their two small children live under the threat of death because he stood up to Obraz. Bureau chief for Serbia’s independent news agency Beta in the partly self-governing Serbian province of Vojvodina, Dinko lectures in media studies at the faculty of philosophy in the local university in the provincial capital, Novi Sad.
When our guide sees him for the first time in many months, she is shocked at his weight loss and the worry in his face. His crime was to attend an anti-fascist meeting in the faculty in 2005 which was gate-crashed by 25 black-clothed males shouting “zieg hiel” as they punched and kicked those in attendance. Dinko, the only journalist present, reported that “neo-Nazis” had carried out the attack. A campaign ensued on independent radio to have the culprits arrested. They were, eventually. Stormfront’s regional leader, Goran Davidovic, was jailed for one year on Dinko’s testimony. The sentence appeal is pending. The police gave Dinko protection for two weeks but the threat has not been lifted. “I have thought about getting away,” he confesses.”
George, it’s not nice living under threat, just try it some time. In the circumstances it’s understandable that the individual concerned might make a verbal slip, and Viktor I think you might have shown a bit more sensitivity regarding Gruhonjic’s situation, unless of course the reporter has completely misunderstood what he was saying and the comments of her companion about Gruhonjic’s weight loss.
It’s only a factual error. Even if Gruhonjic said it in those exact words, which I seriously doubt, the editor or the journalist has to fix it. I know that it’s not that relevant to the article if the Weimar republic existed before or after WWII but it is completely amateurish mistake turning the attention away from the real story.
Speaking of which, what is the real story here, anyway? If the author really wanted to focus only on the journalists and activists whose lives are in danger, that would’ve been a great and important article. Unfortunately the point was lost along the way while the author was trying to make Serbia look even worse than it already is.
When I said in the post above that it wont do anything good for any of us, i was wrong – the moderates in Serbia become more nationalistic upon reading such articles. So i guess the Serbian right wing parties will have some benefit- more voters.
Yeah, a guy, Dinko Gruhonjic, alleging he is living under threat and alleging he lost weight. Any pictures of him proving this? The guy seems to be unscratched at this point and perhaps he needed/needs to lose weight anyway.
Meanwhile, 2 elderly Kosovo Serbs, who’d been living with direct threats and intimidations for a long time (including people banging on their windows every night) have JUST BEEN MURDERED!!!
People point out that in the human rights report (which Owen linked to in another post) didn’t involve ANY physical violence whatsoever. No scratches, much less serious injuries or murders. (A recent report on murder rates showed that Serbia had the lowest, by far, in the Balkans and that the Balkans in general was less than the U.S. Serbia’s 2006 rate, for instance, was like half of Croatia’s.)
What’ more the elderly Kosovo Serbs are continually robbed. There’s no human rights report/mainstream media emphasis criticizing Albanians for this. They get away with murder and theft ALL THE TIME!
Additionally, I should add that they’ve recently IDENTIFIED 21 Croatian Serbs from a mass grave their and the Serbs claim there are around 800 more mass graves of Serbs.
The census and population totals show it is the Serbs who were the biggest victims of the war, while the media has definitely and provingly so, exaggerated and lied about Muslim and Croat deaths. They also counted their military as civilians. The Muslims were the biggest liars and were found to have counted the same particular people multiple times to double, triple, etc. them.
Here is the report on the Croatian Serb bodies recently identified:
Strbac: 21 Serb victims of war in Croatia identified
04 December 2008
The mortal remains of another 21 Serb persons have been identified today in Zagreb, killed during the war conflicts in Croatia, fro m1991 to 1995, stated President of the Documentation Center “Veritas” Savo Strbac. He added that the families of the victims have been invited to come to the Croatian capital in one week, in order to identify the remains. Strbac said that the “Veritas” has information of at least 800 more registered mass graves, with large number of unidentified mortal remains of murdered Serbs, and only due to the obstruction from the Zagreb authorities, the families are still waiting for the exhumation, 13 years after the war.
http://glassrbije.org/E/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5419&Itemid=26
Extracts from a blog and report about the murder of the two elderly Serbs who had been having their windows banged on every night. Yeah the Kosovo Albanians are a multiethnic civilized lot. Not.
http://de-construct.net/e-zine/?p=4104
The Last Two Serbs in Kriljevo Murdered
...“I have learned this from the eyewitness whom I prefer not to name for his own safety, but he saw them being murdered,” Jevtic said.
… Late Bogdanovic’s niece was not allowed to see the bodies of her aunt and uncle, nor did the Albanian police allow her to enter their house.
“Uncle Stanko complained several weeks ago about the threats they are getting and that someone is banging at their windows and doors every night, but he couldn’t see who,” she told Glas Javnosti, preferring not to give her name, since she lives in Kosovo province and fears for the rest of her family.
… Strezovci villagers said, stressing that they have “no doubts that old Bogdanovics were murdered, since there are a lot of robberies around here, especially of the elderly Serbs who live alone.”
This “moderateness” doesn’t seem terribly deep-rooted if a newspaper article can send these sensitive creatures off to vote for the radicals and neo-fascists. How substantial is this progressive modern democracy when the rest of the world keeps being told it has to walk on egg-shells?
Democracy over here is not very substential, but that’s besides the point. If this is the only article like this, it would be fine, but there are others. I’m not asking for anybody to walk on eggs, but to get the facts straight and to tell the story without making us all over here look like the bad guys and making Serbia look like a hellhole. I don’t think that’s much to ask.
Imagine if the Irish journalist found someone here who is critical of the nationalism in Serbia and who’s life is not in jeopardy to create a general image of Serbia’s freedom of opinion – the article would than be probably talking about how it’s all nice and dandy. Which it obviously isn’t.
Dinko and other threatened journalists are most likely harrassed by these bullies to serve as an example for others who might think of bashing nationalism in Serbia. But still there are dozens of other sharp journalists who are not being harrassed and continue to be critical towards nationalists.
Ida, your comments about Gruhonjic cross my line of putting up with that kind of talk. If you contitnue with that kind of remarks you will be banned and all your comments deleted. Cheers.
Essentially I agree with you, Viktor, that reporting has to be fair and it’s important to try to be balanced where balance is fair. The problem is that the message that tends to get through to this end of the line is that everything in Serbia’s OK, just let us get on with being part of modern Europe.
You hear a much more nuanced message at your end, but by the time it reaches this end those nuances have been lost, it’s the demand simply to be allowed to move on that makes itself heard. And there are plenty of people at this end who would be very happy to play along with that.
You don’t seem to notice too much all the favourable publicity about Belgrade as a sophisticated cosmopiltan city or good-value jump-off point for festivals, except when we threaten to dump our stag and hen nights on you.
I don’t agree with distortion, but equally I don’t agree with lip-smacking nit-picking. A lot of people seem to have got a lot of mileage out of the Weimar Republic issue.
Viktor, you make a perfectly valid point that someone at the Tribune should have checked back with Gruhonjic or checked the journo’s notes. I agree the tone set by the introduction was exaggeratedly sensationalist. But the relish with which the errors have been used to discredit the article reminds me only too sharply of past encounters with the ineffably superior media critics of Belgrade.
I am from Serbia, and I hate gay people. What wrong with this?
Levente, it depends. Do you hate them enough to chase them and beat them up or you just don’t like, say, the way the gay people dress or talk or behave?
Either way you have some disturbing personal issues and you should really see someone about that, but if it’s the first case you are also a dangerous person that needs to be locked up. Which is it?
People who “hate” gay people are usually in the closet cases themselves ! I have had some of the greatest conversations and friendships with gays.
I rather sit and discuss anything with a gay person, than a so called
“Belgrade” bimbo with a cigarette sticking out of her mouth…how primitive can you be. true Girls in BG are pretty to a CERTAIN age….then their teeth, skin, hand and face turn yello from all the cigarette somke they inhaled throughout their lives…...Bg has some of the most pretty ugly girls on the planet, who think they are “trendy’ smoking cheap cigarettes and drinking Turkish coffee thats not worth a rats ass….............
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