Anarchy in the BU
As the dust slowly begins to settle on the coruption scandal at the University of Kragujevac, another University and, in my opinion, also a social issue comes into focus. Again.
After almost a decade long, relatively quiet period at Belgrade University, we are now witnessing the glorious & victorious resurrection of the Rebelious Spirit that fueled the 90’s epic scale student protests at BU; but with a significant and unfortunate difference that it, ironicaly, resembles those infamous season ’96/’97 mass protests as much as a ghost or a zombie resembles a healthy living person: a similar shape, empty and brain-dead, wanders around pointlessly and makes a lot of mumbling and screeching speech-like noise. And while the backbone of „The Great Walk“ was a clear shakespearian ’To be or not to be’, the Zombie seems to have been summoned just because someone was in desperate need of an ugly friend in whose company he’ll feel better about himself.
Starring in this little performance are the students of the Faculty of Philosophy, with supporting actors/episodic characters coming from the Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Arts and among all other people of good will with time to kill. It all started somewhere around October last year when the Philosophers decided they would no longer bow their heads and stand silent before the tirany of their faculty, which was so bold and arrogant to think it could organize lectures & courses and set the tuition fees without consulting them or even asking for their permission to do so. „NO PASARAN!“ they said, jotted down a list of demands and began blocking the faculty building until they are met (to this day there have been a few unblockings/blockings, but I won’t bother you, or myself, with the chronology as the whole performance repeats itself in a quasi-periodic manner). Then, about a month ago, the Architects „got up, stood up, stood up for their rights“ and went a step further by briefly blocking the Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra (one of the major streets in the center of Belgrade) after which some of their wishes were granted; and finally, today, the Artists joined the club and, with a little help from their friends, went out on the streets (it was Srpskih Vladara street this time) with – oh, what a suprise – the exact same demands.
„So what are those frikin’ demands, man? You’re boring us to death here“, yells a frustrated reader. Well, I’m sorry but the List is totaly cosmic and constantly in a state of expansion which makes it somewhat hard to digest. Nevertheless, its cornerstone would, without a doubt, be the demand for cutting down all the faculty fees by 50%. Just like that, yes – the gentlemen obviously forgot to ask for some fries with that as well.
Now, although I completely understand the motives behind their effort to lower the fees as much as possible – average income in Serbia is rather low and everybody’s trying to cut some corners here and there – it really puzzles me how such a large number of students have such childish – or none at all – concepts of market economy and the whole Higher Education thing.
A perfect example, and also my personal favorite, was the 10 meters long banner hanging above the entrance to the Faculty of Architecture saying: “Znanje nije roba” (a free translation would be “Knowledge is not for sale/not merchandise”); Flawless. Then I suppose that, after obtaining your fancy diploma, you’ll spend the rest of your life volunteering, right?
Just a grain of honesty, people, and a joint effort of a couple of functional gray cells, that’s all I’m asking for. I’m not much of a model student either and I’ve also wasted too much money on all sorts of penalty fees; money that could’ve been put to better use in a pub, for example; but I don’t bitch about it and blame The Evil-Slave-driving-Rotten-Capitalist Faculty because I know that 10 out of 10 times they empty my pockets – 10 out of 10 times the fault is all mine and I eat my humble pie with my mouth shut. And don’t get me wrong here, I’m not trying to say that there’s nothing to complain about – our education system really is in a pathetic condition as a whole, and there are thousands of issues to discuss and solve; some of which are even on that List – but when of all the means to an end you immediately pick out the one that should serve only as a last resort, all I can see is a bunch of confused and disoriented underachievers led by desperate wannabe revolutionaries longing for some action (I forgot to mention that a major role in organizing the protests belongs to an organization called the Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative and a group of bright young people calling themselves the Freedom Fighters – go figure). And what really sends my blood pressure through the roof is that, in the end, it’s all about the money and the game of rebellion. “DOLE ŠKOLARINE!” while other much more reasonable and useful demands seem to stand as nothing but a smoke screen.
A perfect experiment would be to cut down all the fees and make higher education free for all again. All of a sudden, the List would contract, disappear… what “List”? They would all join hands with their now perfect & ‘bestest in the Universe’ faculties, create a big, big circle around the Earth, dance, sing and live happily ever after like one big hippy family.
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Interesting, yes, I get the point. Actually I watched them go past my office – I was particularly impressed with how vocal they were. As you say the passion hasnt been there since 1996.
The issue is different – very much so. But and this is a big but, the introduction of tuition fees on higher education has caused protests all around the world. This isnt just a bunch of Serbs with nothing better to do (and lets face it, if they do have nothing better to do this feeling may be a result of the policies of the 1990’s).
This is a serious issue about social justice. The neo-liberal or pure capitalist view discards the idea of justice in favour of profit. The fact is that those from poor families should have the same opportunities as those from rich families. I have attended protests on these issues before. They were led by radicals but most of us who followed were not idealogues. In fact many of us opposed the philosophy of those leading us but that wasnt the point. Tuition fees was the issue.
Students (IMO) should try to question the sytem they are in and hold it to account, not blindly follow some philosophy they dont even understand. That means not only criticise Serbian nationalist philosophy but the values that govern the planet. Of course though in the minds of some there is only a choice between those two paths. Pro Serb – anti world, anti Serb – pro world.But that isnt the reality.
I’m also slightly supportive of these people because students these days in Serbia are so unpassionate about anything. Many of them (for lack of any alternative) look to CEDA which is ok for a critique of nationalism but completely misses the point about a fair society. Where is a social democratic party that addresses these types of concerns in Serbia? Probably the closest we have in terms of policy is the discredited SPS (their social policies not national – even if their social policies are demagogical) or perhaps DS.
So which political party will take up the issue? None of course ,SPS would not because the Syndicalists (and students) dont like them, DS wont do it because they are trying to save money according to liberal economic policies. Ironically the students probably stand the best chance with Kostunica being the populist most likely to fold under domestic pressure. Ironic because in many countries its right wing parties that believe in cutting taxes or making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Its their ‘natural selection’.
On the personal points regarding the use of populism or slogans from some of the students – well I dont like it but it is a tool of politics used by all. I have had argued with syndicalists before and fair enough there is naievety and dogma which is completely unappealing (and sometimes plain wrong) to me. But at least they are standing up for themselves.
Oh and there is something else often forgotten by students of history. (Oh yeah for history to be sexy one looks at either the recent past or goes back to world war 2, or better still the Solun front.) But avoid Serbian1960-1985 history at all costs because it doesnt fit neatly into some generalised view. Ask yourself why so few books have been written about that period.
Serbia has a tradition of revolutionary types which is frequently forgotten. Djindjic and to a lesser extent Tadic were both influenced by anarchistic / democratic / socialist thought and evolved into something resembling modern social democrats. Kostunica resembled the establishment even before he was a member of it. Has Serbian society become so diseased that the only radicalism on offer is represented by the political parties of Vojislav Seselj or Cedomir Jovanovic? What will happen to social justice or to values similar to what students were protesting about in 1968?
Do people in Serbia even know or care about 1968 and those values anymore?
The real long term danger lies in Serbia unquestioningly adopting neo-liberal capitalist agenda and the only ones left opposing are the nationalists. That would be a tragedy.
As i understand, the current situation is that the best students are allowed to study for free (or almost for free, as they still have to pay for the books, copying and stuff like that). So in that way the system is pretty fair – it doesn’t matter how wealthy or poor your family is, it depends on you and your grades. It’s a different story at private unis, where everybody has to pay.
This protest is just running away from the real problem i think.
Lowering studying costs may be worth fighting for to some extent, but i would say that it would be more useful if they were to concentrate more at getting transparent university, ie. to see where the money is going in the first place and insist on getting better studying environment, better classrooms, equipment, books, and stuff like that for the money that they are paying now.
Getting study costs to the same, low level for all would probably lead to lack of motivation, zero competition, people studying for decades and poorly qualified students (even more than today). It differs from faculty to faculty, i would say – and in some cases from floor to floor – you can in some places see that there has been some improvements regarding working and learning conditions, and these are the faculties that don’t go into protests. So the problem appears to be hidden in the faculty managements, not Bologna.
I don’t know if it’s possible to see how the students’ money is spent, but i would definitely say it’s much more worth fighting and protesting for. And if the tuition money is not enough to fund the better studying conditions, than demanding that the state invests more in the universities until the conditions become visibly better – that would be also a good protest material.
As for the political parties are concerned, i think this is way out of their field of interest at this moment.
Yes I realise that the best students are allowed to study for free although I dont know what percentage exactly we are talking about. I dont know anybody who qualified for this. But the vast majority of students dont qualify so this means if you have money you are much more likely to be able to study.
As you say quality of education varies from department to department or even floor to floor which is a bad sign. And there are some really bad teachers around and the system of marking isnt great either. Another factor to be taken into account is the system of bribes that has been in the news recently. Again this favours people who have money over those who do not. Private universities is another matter. If you have money there is always the option of falling back on buying yourself an education.
I dont think a free education necessarily causes lack of motivation. Perhaps choosing boring subjects they are not interested in causes lack of motivation, or bad teaching for example. If we are going to use lack of motivation as an argument then why dont we make people pay for school education as well?
I firmly believe that equality of opportunity in education should be available to all. If someone says to me well you know that isnt realistic in this society I disagree. We cant change this system which creates great inequality at this stage, but we can at least make sure that everybody has an equal start in the ‘race’ of life.
Does it even really matter any more? SERIOUSLY! What matters!? Who cares! Until someone has the balls to stand up and fight back for justice there is no hope. I’m so sick and tired to tears of bull shit corruption and greed.
What does it matter!? The Mafia will always previal! The rich will always get richer and the poor will always get poorer! One day soon though! One day beyond my life time, there will be a leader…
Yea, go ahead and laugh and poke fun all you want…JEBIGA! It doesn’t matter anyway…...........