Grrrrr
There are times when I wonder where precisely in the individual's subordination to group think that survival instinct is subsumed and lemming urges take over.
Five years and two months since the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in broad daylight by paramilitary special forces-turned-mafiosi, Belgrade is again experiencing those oh-so familiar rumblings toward violent regression. Protests in Kosovo have claimed more lives, and President Boris Tadić is enduring increasing numbers of death threats from Serbian radical nationalists for his support for the only real chance Serbia has to regain her lost economic glory: European Union membership.
Ignoring for a moment the fucking miracle that the SAA was even permitted by the EU without certain notorious war criminals behind bars, how is it that restrictive and condescending bones thrown by Russia could possibly be more enticing than inclusion in policies for trade, agricultural and fisheries, and regional development with the body of nations generating 30% share of the world's nominal gross domestic product? Yet there you see the polling and survey results in advance of the parliamentary elections: the radicals are still leading the reformers by a narrow margin.
I know too many people who have long since thrown up their arms and trudged away, muttering that Serbia gets what Serbia deserves. They don't know the Serbia that I know. Certain Serbs haven't yet been rewarded as they should, and certain others haven't been punished like they deserve, but none of the bitterness and half-healed wounds can justify a failure to reach for all their might at the only chance at stability they might see for a long, long time.
Five years and two months since the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in broad daylight by paramilitary special forces-turned-mafiosi, Belgrade is again experiencing those oh-so familiar rumblings toward violent regression. Protests in Kosovo have claimed more lives, and President Boris Tadić is enduring increasing numbers of death threats from Serbian radical nationalists for his support for the only real chance Serbia has to regain her lost economic glory: European Union membership.
Ignoring for a moment the fucking miracle that the SAA was even permitted by the EU without certain notorious war criminals behind bars, how is it that restrictive and condescending bones thrown by Russia could possibly be more enticing than inclusion in policies for trade, agricultural and fisheries, and regional development with the body of nations generating 30% share of the world's nominal gross domestic product? Yet there you see the polling and survey results in advance of the parliamentary elections: the radicals are still leading the reformers by a narrow margin.
I know too many people who have long since thrown up their arms and trudged away, muttering that Serbia gets what Serbia deserves. They don't know the Serbia that I know. Certain Serbs haven't yet been rewarded as they should, and certain others haven't been punished like they deserve, but none of the bitterness and half-healed wounds can justify a failure to reach for all their might at the only chance at stability they might see for a long, long time.