So what is the current unemployment figures and how does it compare to 2000? You never presented those statistics.

Also can you name any new industries in Belgrade since 2000?

I know Serbia’s foreign debt has worsened:

http://www.tanjug.co.yu/news.aspx?rbx=4&rbxn=Economy

IZIT: SERBIA’S FOREIGN DEBT AMOUNTS TO USD 19.8 BILLION

4.6.2007 14:52 BELGRADE, (Tanjug) – Serbia’s foreign debt amounted to USD 19.8 billion last March and had marked an increase of 83.3 % compared to 2000, when it totaled USD 10.8 billion, Director of the Institute for Market Research (IZIT) Miloje Kanjevac said on Monday.

And one wonders what the Serbian government will do for money after it’s sold off and privatized everything.

Also what about tuition rates and costs at the universities – I hear those have gone up tremendously after the university students overthrew Milosevic, and the current crop is really complaining over that. I guess they should thank the spoiled ones who got everything practically free and who looked well off in the demonstration pictures.

What about rebuilding? It doesn’t appear the government since October 2000 has kept the pace the Milosevic government did from June 1999 until then. Plus, Milosevic hired Serbian construction companies while this current government uses other countries companies.

I agree of course that 5th of October is a great day and that it must be remembered as a day when a great burden was lifted off Serbia.

But, if we keep saying to ourselves, year after year, that this is the biggest success we have ever had, than we will not move forward – and this is where the danger lies.

About Burma, yes, we never got to their level, but we weren’t very far either – if you take all those things you listed and take them away from one country, Burma is what you could get.

Rodrigo, great comment, thanks – I have to say only that it was Cvijus who wrote the post, not me. The analogy with the glass is great in this case – the only problem we face here is that we sometimes think that the glass is full when it is only half full

And he fell, but happiness never came at all. The hangover was terrible and long. It took years and a couple of generations to recover, but nowadays the country is absolutely different. In perspective, Chile is another country.

There are still debts in terms of justice, equity and governance. Pinochet died last year without being condemned by justice (another coincidence). Economically Chile is successful, but there is a huge social gap. Chile is a democracy, but imperfect, incomplete. Just an example: the communist party has around 8% of the votes at the national level and they don’t have a single seat in the parliament.

There are still hundreds of judgments for human rights violations. There are still important corruptions cases open. Just an example: two days ago the whole Pinochet family and closest collaborators were arrested because a financial fraud in the 80´s. (as simple as public founds to private accounts). The widow and the 5 children (one of them called Marko) were arrested. Not bad, but take in consideration that it was 19 years after “happiness is coming”.

Let me tell you my experience in Serbia as a regular visitor. My first time in Belgrade was like a black and white film. It was 2003, just a few weeks after the assassination of Zoran Dindic. Everything was sad. The city, the people, the faces. I felt like in a post nuclear Soviet Union. Everything black and white. “No hope, no future” could be the synthesis of my impressions. For some reason I felt home in that sad landscape. Probably because it took me to my own experience

Then I came back every year and I could see how things have changed in Belgrade. I can understand the skepticism and frustration that most of you feel, but consider that 7 years of democracy is nothing after 50 years of communism, 11 of milosevicsm and so on.

Chilean transition has 19 years and we still feel uncomfortable with our democracy. But, and this is the important point, there are new generations that grew up in democracy and this is the key, as Viktor pointed.

I was in Belgrade last spring and I could say, 7 years after October the 5th, that Belgrade is completely different. Suddenly the city looks more sexy, people seems to have normal problems, faces looks happier. I know you could list an interminable list of urgent and serious problems that shadow my optimistic observation. OK, but please accept that your lives have changed significantly in these 7 years, for better. In Chile we used a metaphor for this discussion. A glass of water (or beer, or rakja if you prefer). The glass is half of rakja, then you can see the glass half empty or half full. It is up to you, but the amount of rakja is the same.

Serbia is a bobble that need to exploits. Serbians urgently need to travel abroad and receive foreigners. After Kosovo, I think the “Visa problem” is the most important challenge for serbian democracy.

Beyond the date coincidence, both transitions have a lot of parallels, in spite of geographic and cultural distance. After all, the glass is fuller than empty and things are a bit better. Never enough, of course. It is just the beginning.

Happy October 5th.

Gotov su

Pozdrav!

Rodrigo