Serbian Grandma and Sarma

One of my dearest friends here in Serbia is a Norwegian from the northern region of Norway. We met up last winter at Horus Nargile Bar and have been great friends ever since. He was born and raised in Norway, but his father’s side of the family are Serbs from Croatia who were forced out of Zagreb during the 90’s. He’s in his 2nd year of English medical school here in Novi Sad.

Church in Sirig

Last Sunday, he asked me to go with him and his beautiful girlfriend to his grandmother’s house in  Sirig, Serbia for lunch. Sirig is a pretty little village about 20km from Novi Sad. I knew all about his grandmother’s cooking because I was there for a birthday party last summer and she sent over some sarma for me a few times so I was thrilled to go. He tells me that his grandma is going to teach me to make sarma 🙂
We arrived at his granny’s house around 1pm. She lives in a big, beautiful home right in the heart of Sirig. There are tons of fruit and nut trees in her back yard,  a large garage  and two floors of living space. She had the table all laid out and prepared for our arrival.  The older women in Serbia really know how to take care of a dinner guest. We had some of her homemade rakija and beer, and then she brings out this lovely homemade soup.

Next round of food comes after she clears the soup and bowls from the table. The ladies seem to refuse your offer of assistance 🙂 This round was some appetizers of cold meats, homemade cheese, cvarci (fried pork fat), cabbage salad and pickled red peppers.

She also had these lovely homemade breaded things that reminded me of doughnuts. They were super!

The next round of food was some delicious pork and beef goulash that was poured over pasta noodles, fried pork strips and some delicious fried cauliflower.  That’s the first time in my life I tried fried cauliflower, but it was really good.

Nikola, grandma and Valerija

By now we have eaten ourselves into oblivion. We have to take a break for my sarma lesson. Sarma is one of my favorite foods here in Serbia. It’s a leaf of soured cabbage with meat and rice rolled up inside it.

1/2 kg of pork with chopped onion in a bowl

She starts off by putting 1/2 kg of pork into a bowl with a cut up onion.

1 carrot, one potato, and another onion

She likes to put a carrot and a potato in her sarama. You don’t have to, but it’s her way of making it. She throws one of each into the food processor and grinds them up.

add it to the meat and break open an egg

Once it’s all ground up, she throws it in the bowl with the meat and adds one egg to it. You need to put in some salt, pepper and a little Vegeta (Serbian salty spice).

Rice

Next, you want to add a cup of rice that has been sitting in water for a few minutes to the mixture of meat, etc and mash it around with your hands until it’s all mixed together.

Soured cabbage leaves

Then you get your soured cabbage leaves ready.  You will then roll up your pork filling  into  balls and place a large ball in the middle of the cabbage leaf and then wrap the leaf around the meat filling

placing filling into leaf

Wrapping the sarma

Once you finish wrapping the sarama, you place a large poton the stove. She adds some bacon in the bottom to flavor it up.

Strips of bacon in the pot

Stack the wrapped sarma around the entire pot, one row on top of the next, until you have it full.

Filling pot with sarma

Unused leaves on top

Once you have the pan full, place some unused leaves on top of the sarma and add some sausage , if you like , then place the lid on top. You can turn it on high heat until it gets hot, then turn it down to low heat and cook for 1.5 hours.

Done

Remove the lid and let cool! It’s now ready to eat! Prepare yourself for a taste of heaven. 🙂

Delicious sarma

Svargla

By time the sarma is ready, i’m hungry again. I eat 5 of them and then Nikola’s girlfriend asks me if I’ve ever tried something called svargla. I’m a guy who usually likes everything so I accept a slice. The second it hits my mouth it almost triggers my gag reflex. The taste is HORRIBLE. It’s soft and meaty and reminds me of a juicy meatloaf. Blah! My friends tell me not to eat anymore of it and that it’s mainly a food for old folks. 🙂

Barrel of sarma

After dinner, the grandmother takes me down to her basement to show me how she makes the soured cabbage. She has a large plastic barrel that she fills with full heads of cabbage, cuts a cross in the base and adds salt to it. After a few days, they are ready for sarma. She also has a lot of nuts from her walnut trees that she separates in the basement.

Cabbage heads in barrel

Walnuts

Nikola takes me upstairs to check out the living quarters up there. It’s massively big and beautiful just like a second house. They have a bar with many different kinds of alcohol in beautiful bottles.

Decor

Norwegian alcohol

Nikola and I throw down a shot of this Norwegian alcohol that he brought from home. It wasn’t too bad at all.

It’s time to head back to Novi Sad. The neighbor girls are driving back in their car so grandma calls to ask if we can ride with them. They have room so we all squeeze into her little car. Grandma sent me off with bottle of rakija, jar of peppers and a container full of sarma! 🙂 What a great way to spend a lazy Sunday!  I learned a little something, filled my belly and had a slight buzz . 🙂

 

16 Year Old Serb Talking About Uprooting to Indonesia Because of NATO Attacks

 

It’s very interesting yet horrible to hear of the struggle so many Serbians went through during the NATO attacks on their country in 1999. I was fortunate enough to discuss the story of one young Serb student whose family was forced to flee the bombing attacks of 1999. Igor Mijovic was kind enough to share some of his experiences in Indonesia.

“I was born in Belgrade in 1999 just 14 days before the start of the NATO bombing. I lived relatively a peaceful and fun childhood, I was never bothered with my family’s money issues, we didn’t have much but I was happy with the way things were, of course I was unaware of the real state of things with my dad’s job and how it was all falling to pieces. When my parents announced we were moving to Indonesia it hit me like a dagger to the heart. I was leaving all of my friends and family behind, going not only to another country, but to another continent I knew nothing or very little about. For me the worst part was that I would be unable to communicate with other people since I thought my English was way below the level of those kids that went to an international school. At first my months at my new school were awful, everything was so different from what I was used to, and everyone whispered about that tall Serbian guy who came from an unknown land, they could not bully me because I was too big for them, I was just ignored and I kept telling myself that this whole nightmare will be over soon, that I don’t need these new people in my life and that I will be back in my beloved country once again. It all changed though when I met a Canadian guy who spent an evening with me and that’s when it all started for the better. I met people from loads of different countries, shared stories and began to change mentally and emotionally. I realized not everything was as I thought, at this time I found Charles Cather’s first video on youtube and it really helped me fight my nostalgia, I’ve watched every one since. After 4 years I made tons of friends from all kinds of backgrounds, but it was not to last, since I was to move to my country once again. It was my choice, since I was old enough to be semi-responsible, but getting something means leaving something else behind. I had to leave all those dear friends I made and return to those I haven’t seen for years. Honestly living in an international community helped to change me for the better and I decided I won’t hate on anyone before I have a good talk with them and get to know their story. I’m planning on studying history and maybe becoming and international teacher to travel around. ”

Charles:  What were your first impressions of Indonesia?

Igor:  I expected it to be like those Chinese cities you see in movies, lots of tall buildings with flashing signs in unknown letters. I was surprised at what I saw though, the air was humid and hard to breathe, there is a huge difference between lower and high class, with no middle class. There was very little bread and red meat and the way people acted was very strange, I’ve never experienced that much respect and awe of white people in my life.

Charles:  What did you miss the most about Serbia?

Igor: Well for the first year or so it was my friends and my relatives I missed the most until I actually started making international friends. Food was also a pain to get used to. It’s not the usual asian food we eat in the west, lots of rice, many spices we haven’t even heard of, fruits that taste very strange compared to kajsija and shljiva :D. But most of all it was the freedom, I couldn’t walk around and go exploring, I couldn’t hug or kiss my friends in public. It was mostly the staying at home all the time that tortured me the most.

 

Charles: Where the locals respectful of your faith since it’s a Muslim country?

Igor: Indonesians are a very religious people, no matter what religion they are, they dismiss facts and other pleasures of life in order to be that much closer to their god. I myself am an atheist, I did enjoy celebrating my country’s many traditions and festivities, but that stuff was hard to come by. I did get looks of curiosity but sometimes even disgust and hate for not being a religious person, mostly from radical muslims and christians. My first year at school had mandatory religion and they had Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim, and I couldn’t find a place there, so I went with the protestants (one of my worst decisions since all we learnt about is how only they are right and true and everyone else is false).

Charles: Any similarities between the cultures?

Igor: The cultures are very different. The only things I found similar is the fact that they were under colonial rule for most of the time we were under Ottoman occupation.

 

Charles: What were the biggest differences in culture that you had a hard time adjusting to?

Igor: Indonesians have everything the opposite of Serbia, they are very radical religious, have more than 300 ethnic groups within the country, some even warring with each other. They don’t like to show emotions, believe in ghosts and spirits too much and due to the lack of education (with every school having to be paid for, and millions in poverty having no money for it) lack basic knowledge and intelligence. It also takes much longer to reach to them and get close to them as friends, than it would with a western person. In the end they proved to be just as good and fun as my Serbian friends.

Charles: Had most people heard of Serbia? If so, what were their impressions?

Igor: Most Indonesians didn’t know what I was talking about when I said Serbia, but when I said Yugoslavia they usually nodded their heads and said things like “Long live Tito, Indonesia’s friend!”, I didn’t really feel like explaining to them that he’s dead and that everything changed. People in my school never showed much interest in my country, most thought its a warzone still, laughed at my opanci and asked me to say random things in Serbian. I tried my best to show Serbia in a good light, and how civilised it is compared to Indonesia, for me that was a must when it came to discussing my country.

This is one story of thousands of Serbs who were displaced throughout the 90’s. 

 

Only in Serbia…. “F-117 Bife (Bar)” in Indjia, Serbia

On March 27th, 1999….. The Serbian air defenses were able to blast an F-117 Stealth Nighthawk out of the sky. The only one ever to be shot down.

The F-117 82-0806 (whose remains are exhibited at Belgrade Air Museum) was shot down by the 3rd Battalion of the 250th Air Defence Missile Brigade of the Army of Yugoslavia, with one of several missiles fired by an S-125 “Neva” missile system (NATO reporting name, SA-3 “Goa”) at a distance of about 8 miles.

According to Sergeant Dragan Matić, the soldier later identified as the operator who fired the missiles, the stealth plane was detected at a range of about 50 to 60 kilometres and the surface-to-air missile radar was switched on for no more than 17 seconds to prevent the site to be detected by the NATO’s SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) aircraft.

Some pieces of the 82-0806 shot down near Novi Sad were reportedly sent to Russia, to be used in developing anti-stealth technology.

Fast forward to 2014……I was on a bus from Belgrade to Novi Sad. The bus had one stop in between, in the little city of Indjia, Serbia.  The window seat is usually my first choice. I’ve never liked to sit in the aisle and have folks bumping into me the whole time. I was gazing out the window while the bus was pulling around the back of the bus station in Indjia,

when I noticed the words “F-117″ on the side of a little bar. I didn’t get a good look at the place, but noticed a few pictures in the window too. I had to get back over to see this place.

This afternoon,David Dautovic, contacted me for assistance. He is a young man from Pancevo who has been a Facebook friend for a long while. His sister is trying to gather a lot of pictures of people from around the world holding a sign that shows her love for her boyfriend. He asked me if I could help him out with one. I noticed that the bottom of his message said ” Indjia, Serbia”  I quickly asked him if he was anywhere close to the bus station. He was close by so I asked him to seek out this little bar and shoot me some pictures. He was kind enough to snap the following pictures:

I’ll head over there in the next few weeks to do some videos from this location. I might wear my Canadian flag shirt ! It might be a little safer! 🙂
Everyone likes Canadians.

 

Mexican Girl Falls for Serbia…..

I had a wonderful young lady contact me over Facebook. She was from the middle of Mexico , the exact state (Michoacan)  that I lived in for 1.5 years . She was nice enough to answer a few of my questions about her experience. I copied and pasted the responses so forgive any spelling or grammatical errors. If you would like to send her a nice little message, here is her Facebook profile.

Q) Tell me a little bit about yourself and your hometown

About me, well, theres not much to say Im a student, soon I will get Mayor in Psychology, next May actually, im 22 years old already, and I still live with my mom and my older sister, I have another younger brother, and he lives with my father and his wife. I loooove food, dance and sleep very well right now, im training crossfit, I really love it, its very complex and beautiful sport . My hometown… Morelia is a very historic place, it could take a looooooong while for me to tell smth about it, but, what can I say… Morelia is the city with most populated city in Michoacán (its state), and is the most extense, with an area of 78 km² and 597,511 habitants. It used to be a very strategic place for wars (when it was founded) and right now, the most important activities are culture and economy, you know, it’s a touristic place, for example, we have one touristic event called “Mariposa monarca”, and is a reserve of nature, where you watch all butterflies migrate to Canada (I think), and of course its an opportunity to sell food and services, tratidional food, like enchiladas, corundas, uchepos, tamales, elotes, atole de grano, atole of different flavors, churipo, carnitas, buñuelos, tequila, charanda, mezcal and other funny drinks , by the way, mescal burns almost like rakija, and taste is very similar, and of course don’t forget the effect jajajaj

Q) How did you first hear about Serbia?

Serbia was a country I never heard before in my life before, I even thought it was some sort of Asian country xD (sorry people, but we only learned about Yugoslavia) I first heard about it on the internet, I won’t say more , but when i heard about it I started to investigate it. I looked up its location on the map, the music, culture, food, and started to like it.

Q) What gave you the idea to visit Serbia? 

With time, I wanted to travel, thanks to a special b-day present from my mom so I started to look for different scholarship or volunteer programs that would allow me to travel and have some experiences. I found a program called “Vive Mexico” it is an organization here in Mexico that allows kids to travel, experience new cultures and volunteer. I applied for many countries including Serbia. I was accepted into the Serbian program called ” Drustvo Istrazivaca- Vladamir Mandic- Manda.”

Q) What did you like the most about Serbia?

this is a hard question for me, cuz, basically, I can say im in love with this country. I cant say I like everything, but…when I got there I really felt like I was at home. Serbia is very similar to Mexico starting with the people. They were very generous and kind. The food, OMG, the food was so interesting because it’s not the same food we have in Mexico but had some things that were similar like style, flavors and ways of cooking. They had spicy foods, cheeses, homemade dishes, yogurt, milk, meats and bread and so on. My favorite of them all was  sarma and burek. I could eat them both forever and never get tired of them. and even if it’s not a dish or anything special, yogurt (moja kravica) and cookies was great. Landscaping is amazing in Serbia too. Mexico has some green places, but I never knew green until I came to Serbia, PERIOD. Another thing was the water. In my country you cant take water from the tap or public places and drink it. But in Serbia you can drink it which is so practical. I loved the music, dance and drinks too! Rakija is similar to our drink, tequila. but when i tried it the first time it made me think of “Metzcal” because it burns and tastes so delicious. I almost forgot, the old buildings, they are beautiful!!  The Serbian guys are also very good looking so girls GO TO SERBIA. 😉

Q) What were your favorite cities that you visited and why?

I cant tell you like my favorite, i mean i enjoyed staying at all those cities, but, instead i rather say like an order, and the number one would be Jagodina, its a small one, and because of that I think the most calm one, and i loved that, whole city is amazingand beautiful, very nice and great people, and one of my favorite parts besides downtown, is Potok park, that place is so simple and so misterious at same time, I couldnt be at the top of it, but where i was, I could see a place where you can just close your eyes and feel how the whole city embrace you, I cant explain the exact feeling, but is a great place to be chill . Number two, is Kragujevac, and again, city is great!, bigger, but still not crowded, I also loved the park, Veliki park, and I actually got lost there, it was very funny , anyway, that place is beautiful!!, green is all over the place, and there is a place where you can sit and watch people passing by, and still is quiet and relaxing, that place brings me lots of special memories, there, I felt some strong energy of love, peace, and fullfillness, its a magic place , third Valjevo, its a great city, great ice creams at plaza, but what I really loved from that place is Gradac, I actually stayed there, and we went to rock climbing, we were inside a cave, and the craziest and most amazing experience there was at this mountains, is near a border of town, but I cant remember the name of those mountains, we went there with Russian cars, and it was very fun!! Again, greeeen all over the place, there were like 3 mountains in a roe, all together, the smallest, middle and biggest, I wish i can remember the names, but, that was amazing. And last but not least, Belgrade, that city reminded me of Mexico city, crowded and big, people all around, transports, plazas, huge malls, even I rather more peaceful places, I still find Belgrade interesting, is because its huge, and full of history, buildings, that makes it so interesting, it still isnt that crowded as Mexico city, and gosh thats great, but, that city wellcome me and said goodbye to me of an amazing experience

Q) What was the strangest thing you encountered?

I cant say strange, but I wasn’t familiar with the carpets, you know, you get in a place, and take off your shoes. We don’t do that in Mexico. The toilets were also very strange. They are a different style and I didn’t know how to work it. One time in a restaurant I had to go out and ask a waiter to show me how to flush it. 🙂 The door handles are also a different style and the electrical outlets are so different from the rectangle ones we use in Mexico.

Q) What was the biggest problem that you ran into? 

Not problem actually, the only thing I can complain is that I couldn’t stay longer xD 😛

Q) Did you learn any Serbian ? 

I did learn Serbian, actually, im still learning, with my friends I made there, they help me a lot, plus, I search for pages where I can check grammar and all basic stuffs, but now is harder cuz im not constantly hearing it, when I was there, I realized I could actually learn it 100%, but of course I had to stay there way longer, I love Serbian, and the hardest part for me, probably to remember how to change last part of words, depending on tense and depending on gender, so, its funny for me sometimes to write it xD jajajaja

Q) What advice would you give to someone that is interested in visiting Serbia?

To not be afraid of what news, media or anybody that say things, especially negative things about Serbia, just don’t listen to that and go to Serbia, live your own experience. I can say that it is very safe, of course it isn’t perfectly safe, just like any country there is some crime, but it doesn’t mean there is a terrorist on every street corner, that is ridiculous. I can assure you that it is a place where you can find peace, so i am sure you are going to love the place. Go everywhere you can while you are there, try everything you can, meet all the people that you can meet , there are many things to enjoy. You will find a very close “family” there! 🙂

 

 

Serbian Company Built Countries National Landmark

 

One of my first pen pals was a guy from Kuwait. He sent me a few pictures of his country and I was always in awe of the “Kuwait Towers”! I swore I would see them one day.

The Kuwait Tower, as its known, is actually three towers. They are one of the most well-known structures in the world. The main tower has two separate spheres and stands 187 meters high. The smaller, top sphere is used as a cafe, lounge and restaurant. It can hold up to 90 people and rotates every 30 minutes. The lower, larger sphere is a water tank of 4,500 cubic meters. The second tower is a water tower and stands 147 meters high.The third tower houses equipment to control the flow of electricity and illuminates the two larger towers. The towers hold 9,000 cubic metres of water altogether.

The Kuwait Towers were designed by Danish architect, Malene Bjorn as part of a water distribution project that was being done by Swedish engineering company, VBB. VBB hired Belgrade company, Energoprojekt and Ivan Milutinovic ,to do the actual construction of the towers . Other Yugoslavian companies were hired to build many of the government buildings, air bases, and ports around Kuwait City.http://www.slideshare.net/dottuta/kuwait-towers-presentation2edited

The Serbian company  started construction in the early 1970’s and finished around 1976. The large tower was first opened to the public in 1979.

The towers are built with three levels of concrete, making sure that they will be able to withstand natural disasters and catastrophes like floods. This is also to ensure that the towers can endure wear and tear through the years. They were slightly damaged during the war with Iraq, but have been repaired. The spheres were constructed of 41,000 enamelled steel discs that come in eight shades of blue, green and gray. They could be described as  Arabic architecture, carefully mixed with a touch of contemporary elegance. This modern style was relatively unheard of at the time these towers  were being erected.

Serbia’s relationship with Kuwait is still going strong today! They are one of many Arab nations that do not recognize an independent Kosovo. Kuwait’s Foreign Minister was in Belgrade in April. He said his country is willing to invest in Serbia’s energy, agriculture, and infrastructure. http://www.tanjug.rs/news/83980/kuwait-willing-to-invest-in-serbia.htm

Serbian lands have had a long history of raising great scientific and creative minds. This is one great example of Serbian influence on the world. Please join our new Serbia website to find more interesting bits of info on this great nation and its people. http://www.sayserbia.com/

 

Another One Cashing in on Kosovo

What gives??? A few days ago I was reading up on Madeline Albright and her huge investments in the telecom company in Kosovo. That really bummed me out. How could I have been so blind? A few moments after posting my blog article on it, a friend messaged me this little tidbit of info.

General Wesley Kanne was born in Chicago , Il in 1944. His father died four years later and the family moved to Arkansas because  his mother didn’t share the Jewish faith of the Kanne family. She remarried a gentleman by the  name of Viktor Clark. She had her son’s name officially changed on the birth certificate to Wesley Clark. She failed to tell Wesley of his Jewish roots to protect him from the Ku Klux Klan that had a strong following in Arkansas.

 

Wesley Clark excelled in high school and eventually attended West Point. He served in Vietnam and was awarded many medals for his bravery. He ended up as a 4 star general and was chosen to head “Operation Allied Forces”. He had previous been military advisor in the Bosnian conflict and had a few close calls like this:

“While the team was driving along a mountain road during the first week, the road gave way, and one of the vehicles fell over a cliff carrying passengers including Holbrooke’s deputy, Robert Frasure, a deputy assistant Secretary of Defense, Joseph Kruzel, and Air Force Colonel Nelson Drew. Clark and Holbrooke attempted to crawl down the mountain, but were driven back by sniper fire. Once the fire ceased, Clark scaled down the mountain to collect the bodies of two dead Americans left by Bosnian forces that had taken the remaining wounded to a nearby hospital.”

General Clark on the left with General Mladic’s hat on…. General Mladic on the right with General Clark’s hat.

He was also thrashed in the western media outlets for his meeting with Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic. General Clark and General Mladic were shown exchanging hats which led to outrage from both the Liberal and Conservative pundits. Some Clinton administration members privately said the incident was “like cavorting with Hermann Goring.”

General Clark led “Operation Allied Force” , the military intervention into Serbian lands. President Clinton came on tv explaining to the American people how Democracy was threatened and we must help those that are seeking freedom from oppression. -_- That is what we were told anyway!! Was it true???

June 6th, 2012…… The company that former General Wesley Clark heads, Envidity, has received the green light from the Kosovo Government to begin work on oil generation from lignite in Kosovo!  They are offering hundreds of millions of Euros in investments!!! Shouldn’t this be considered a conflict of interest??? We can start a war on some small country that has lots of resources and then privately invest in them to make millions of dollars! INSANE!!!!! You can never trust your government!! http://www.eciks.org/english/lajme.php?action=total_news&main_id=1250

IT IS TIME THAT WE ALL REVOLT!!! OUR LEADERS CARE NOTHING ABOUT US! THEY LOVE TO BLOW SMOKE UP OUR ASSES AND ACT LIKE WE MATTER, BUT WE DON’T!!! REVOLUTION!!!! They would sell us for a $5 bill!

I have friends in the majority of countries around the world. They are all dealing with the same corruption that is dripping from the top down. Check out my video from my  friends all over the planet that are sick and tired of the status quo! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOBBBo71ClA

 

Serbia… Land of Billionaires

Yugoslavian money

It isn’t everyday you can move to a country and be surrounded by former billionaires. Serbia is one country that can boast that fact. Almost everyone that lived in Serbia during the 1990’s can brag about not just being a billionaire, but a MUTLI-BILLIONAIRE!

The U.S.A and other world powers love to put sanctions on “unfriendly” countries. It is usually the first step in punishing a nation for not abiding by their rules. This is a disgusting act that leads to mass starvation, shortage of life saving equipment, supplies, fuel, and it seems to punish ONLY the regular civilians. It also leads regular hard-working people into committing criminal acts just to feed their families!

During the 1990’s, Serbia was the heart of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was made up of Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia. Slovenia was the first one to declare its independence. The world was reacting to the fall of the “Iron Curtain” and the break up of the U.S.S.R.  There were some very brutal wars fought in this part of the planet to preserve the Yugoslavian lands.

N.A.T.O decided it would be best to slap on sanctions. For those of you not familiar with the term “sanctions” , as a noun, it means a threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule. It keeps other nations from trading with them and keeps them from providing any financial assistance to them and keeping the “sanctioned” country from gaining access to its international funds. The majority of countries are drastically harmed by this act, Serbia included. Many of the families I have had the pleasure of talking with survived by smuggling gas, cigarettes, clothing, food, etc from their neighboring countries. This also lead to something called hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is extremely rapid or out of control inflation. There is no precise numerical definition to hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is a situation where the price increases are so out of control that the concept of inflation is meaningless.

worthless money

Many of the Serbian families worked very hard during this time in their history. Once they received their monthly pay they would rush to the store to use their paycheck before prices would skyrocket. I was told that many families would work all month and only be able to buy a few loaves of bread! 😮 Can you imagine???  If you ask many of them how in the world they were able to raise their kids, they will just shrug their shoulders. Many of them would share and trade what little they had and help their neighbor. Maybe you were good at fixing cars and your neighbor had a lot of tomatoes. You would fix their car for a bag of tomatoes. I think this is what has made Serbians the tough, unflappable people they are today.

Hungarian bill.. Largest ever recorded

The highest record of inflation was in Hungary held the record for the most extreme monthly inflation rate ever — 41,900,000,000,000,000% (4.19 × 10¹⁶% or 41.9 quadrillion percent) for July 1946 amounting to prices doubling every 15.3 hours.Yugoslavia ranks 2nd on the all time list with prices doubling every 1.4 days  See the chart below.

Highest hyperinflation

This  lead to bills in the billion dinar range! 😮 It looks and sounds good to have a billion dollar note, but when it won’t buy a loaf of bread it looses all of its glory!

500 Billion Dinars

It sounds like I am surrounded by a country full of Warren Buffets, but life was hard. I can sit here and imagine the stress that was put on all of these Serbian families during this time. They survived and continue to survive to this day!

Gotta love the Serbs…

Long live Serbia….

Please join our new Serbia page… SAY SERBIA! http://www.sayserbia.com/ and if you are capable of donating a few dollars, dinars, euro, pesos or whatever  to my documentary “Yankee Doodle Went to Serbia” please do!!!! Every little bit helps! Here is my donations page https://www.wepay.com/donations/serbia-through-american-eyes

The first episode of Yankee Doodle went to Serbia “RUMA”is going to be out in a week or two! Here is an update from Srem Tv……http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vksV7jyP9VY I need your help!!! I have lived on my savings for 3 years now. This first episode wasn’t cheap!!!! We had a very professional crew with us. One professional cameraman, sound guy, two lighting guys, one producer and one assistant producer. We had top of the line equipment and stayed 5 days in Ruma! We wanted to go all out on our first episode. If we can’t find more funding to make it this way, I will just strap a camera on my head and head out on my own. 🙂 😀 😦 I never ask Serbians in Serbia for a dinar, but anyone else that has a Visa, Mastercard, American Express credit or debit can donate. I have only had 15 people donate to this. 😥 If you can’t donate, please share to your friends that can! HELP ME SHOW THE WORLD WHY I FELL IN LOVE WITH SERBIA!   Hvala puno!!!!

 

 

American Marine Bumps Into Arkan!!!

The one thing that never ceases to amaze me is the amount of messages I get from all over the planet. I get to hear so many stories from people with totally different backgrounds! Just today …I received a nice message from a guy in Japan that told me how much he misses Serbia, and will move there after he graduates! Keep the stories coming… 🙂

A few days ago….. I received a message from a Marine that was helping guard the U.S Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia in the 1990’s. He has so many great things to say about his time in Serbia. He grew to love many things about your country, culture, etc. He still has many Serbian friends to this day. He told me this very interesting story about an accidental encounter with Zeljko Raznatovic … better known as “ARKAN”

WHO WAS ARKAN?

Mr Raznatovic was a paramilitary leader  of the Serbian Volunteer Guard or Arkan’s Tigers….who organized and lead the forces in the Yugoslav Wars. He was accused of many crimes during the 1970’s-1980’s and was on Interpols most wanted list for many years.  He is considered a hero by many and a brutal monster by many more. He was assassinated in 2000 before he could be tried by the court.

The Story…..

“I will give the short version of the Arkan Story,  while in Belgrade we were
in charge of security, there was 5 Marines and one Marine Detachment
Commander.  The five of us lived together in a house, kind of like the Real
World, but not on TV, we ran 8 hour shifts, and when you were not at work,
you could do what the Romans do, in this case, do what the Serbs do…..  we had a bar in our house, in fact all Marine houses around the world has a
bar.  We would have parties twice a month to raise money for the Marine
Corps Ball,  we sell wine, liquor and beer, mostly to Americans and other
Expats, but in this Case the Beautiful Serbian People, mostly the girls
because they loved coming to our house, because it was safe, no fire arms
and gun fire going on during the techo mix, LOL.

anyway, one night at Three
Carrots (a Irish Pub), on Knesa Milosa, a very hard looking individual
approached me, and said you are a Marinats, ….. well of course being that
I want to maintain a low security profile, I did not answer his question, he
asked again but this time got in my face but starting talking to me in
Serbian, I politely replied, Izvinite, Moy Serbski nije bash najboje, Da li
Goverite Engleski, he smiled and said, I like an American that tries to
learn our language, and invited me to sit with him.  He bought me and
another Marine a Beer and said he wanted to talk to us about business, of
course I was in condition red, and was surprised by the convo.  This guy
explained that he knew we had parties at our house and sold beer.  He wanted to sell us some beer at a good price, the Beer was Grolsh, not sure if you ever seen it, but it has a pop top, we sat and talked, he told us about
being a Soldier for Serbia, He wanted to sell us some beer, we asked what
kind of beer, and he said what you are drinking now, Grolsh…….. it was
the big bottle too, so I was interested, I said how much, he gave us a price
and without trying to do the conversion in my head, because in those times
the Dinar was all over the place, I said in dollars, he replied even better,
and gave us a ridiculously low number.  I said, per case (24) he said yes,
It was like 5 dollars a case, even if we sold the beer for 2 or 3 bucks in
our bar we make a killing, so I say lets start with 50 cases, he replies why
so small of an order, I was like, well this beer is new or least I have
never heard of it, and I wanted to test it at our bar first, he agreed, so
we set a time the next day to come pick up the beer.

The next day (early
evening) me and another Marine drove our duty van over to the bar and we
expected to load some beer at that location, instead this guy says to jump
in the van and he would take us to were the beer was, now the alarms start
to go off in my head and I hesitate, he assures us that it is all good and
that it would be fine.

We drive for about 30 minutes in an area of Belgrade
that I have never seen before, it seems like we went north East, but we took
so many turns I got all mixed up and got turned around, it was during winter
so it got dark as we were driving.  We finally arrive at a place, these
buildings look residential, but you know BG, there is bars and cafes
everywhere, we get out and walk down some stairs, and there is this big iron door, the Serbian guy knocks on it, it was straight out of a movie, the
slide opens, they speak to each other and the door opens.  We get led down this dark hallway in which it gets darker and darker, I hear music and
people talking, we reach a big velvet type drapery and walk through and bam, we are in a Gentleman’s club, older well dressed men sitting around with young well dressed women at every table with food wine and drinks, and now I crap my pants because I have a scary suspicion on where we are!  I look at “JASON”  and say be cool follow me lead, if I hall ass you better move with me. The guy walks off and talks to some people, we are standing in the room with lots of eyes on us.  Next thing I know a waiter walks up with two shots, he offers them to us, I say no thanks, he says no you have to drink this, I say no that we have to work and that we cannot drink alcohol.  He says no, you really have to drink this because that gentlemen behind me bought you these and it would be a sign of disrespect, and his face was like “seriously just do it”  I look over his shoulder and as plain as day, I see Arkan with a shot glass in the air, I know immediately who he is but act like I dont, the other Marine has no clue as this point, but later acknowledge that he seemed like somebody important.  I decide to pick up the shot glass and tell “JASON”, to do the same.  We knock em back, Rajkia of course……. and as I feel the burn on my throat I nod to him and thank him as does he.  I hear the double doors open on the side wall and out comes two dolly’s loaded with beer.  I nod my head again and I turn and follow the guys with the beer, we load it up, as they bring the other cases, I give the guy the cash, and we shut the doors.  I ask the guy if he wants a ride back to Three Carrots, he says no, that he will stay there.  I drive off with my heart doing 180 beats a minute
and realize the magnitude of it all.  It took me a while to find my way out
of Dark Streets Covered in Coal and soot……… lets just say, that
situation could have turned out very badly, but so glad it didn’t.  It
actually showed me that Serbs are proud and people of their word.

I know I said short version at the beginning, but I could of had a bunch of
other detail, but I think you get the idea!!!

It was weird, when I found out he was killed, I remembered that human side
of him more then the bad things he was accused of.

Alright time to take a breath on that one.  What took you to Serbia????  and
how did you come to love it so much????

Later”

Very interesting…. Thanks for sharing your story with us, sir!

 

Serbs Saved US Secretary of State

You probably know my political leaning after reading many of my blog posts. I am a Democrat that leans heavily to the left. President William J. Clinton was 1st elected president in Nov of 1992. He defeated George H.W Bush in a handy victory. I remember being a freshman in high school and watching the debates and the inauguration  at my grandmother’s home. It was a happy moment for me. It felt good that a member of my political party had been elected to the highest office in the land. I liked the fact that he was a small state governor and enjoyed mocking the “southern twang” in his voice.

 

The 90’s were a great time for me. I had just entered high school, was close to getting my driver’s license, and really enjoying my younger years. We did experience a terrible situation during this decade. My birth home burned to the ground in June of 1992. I was staying up a little later than normal watching the end of Robin Hood. I smelled smoke very strongly and went to my father’s room to wake him. He jumped up and got all of us out of the house. I had to run in a few times to get my baseball cards. 🙂 They drove down to my grandma’s house to call the fire department. They arrived in a timely manner, but the house was already a total loss. We lost all of our clothes, most of our pictures, furniture, and everything that you collect over a lifetime. 😦 My father has always been very talented at building homes. He built our new, larger home on the same spot as the old one. That was the only negative that I can remember about the 1990’s.

It was a totally different situation in Eastern Europe. Yugoslavia had started to break apart. There was war, destruction, OUTRAGEOUS inflation, sanctions, the end of the socialist era, etc… Things were really hard on all the families that I spoke to during my travels around Serbia. I couldn’t imagine living with the everyday problems they had to deal with! They told of working all month and receiving their salary and it would only buy one loaf of bread!!!!! UNREAL!  A few families told me that their income was higher than it had ever been. The sanctions had made it tough to find gasoline. One of my buddies told me about his father sneaking into Bulgaria and Hungary for large amounts of gasoline. They brought it back and sold it for large sums of money. Sad, sad times. 😦

On March, 24 1999, President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright decided to use military force to stop Serbias attempt to keep the southern portion of their country, Kosovo. The strikes lasted from March 24,
to June 10. It was known as “Operation Merciful Angel” or inside the US State Department ….. as “Albright’s War”! By all accounts, it was Madeleine Albright who convinced Clinton, against the better judgement of the Pentagon, that the Serb leader would back down after a little light bombing.She claimed that he was no more than a schoolyard bully who would retreat after one good punch on the nose”.

 Did the Serbs do something personal to Albright and her family?? YES, THEY DID! They saved them from  certain death in the Nazi concentration camps. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUDm9quq8XA

Madeline Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová on May 15, 1937) was the first woman to become United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996 and was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate 99-0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997.

Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelová in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) and raised as a Roman Catholic by her parents, Josef Korbel and Anna Spiegelova, who had converted from Judaism in order to escape persecution. She has a brother, John, who later became an economist, and a sister, Katherine. “Madeleine” was the French version of “Madlenka”, a nickname given by her grandmother. Albright adopted the new name when she attended a Swiss boarding school.

The Korbelovas fled Czechoslovakia in 1936 due to the advancing Nazi forces. They found a home with some friendly Serbs in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. From 1936 to 1939 the Korbel Family lived in Belgrade, and were given refuge and protection by Serbs. Many of her Jewish relatives in Czechoslovakia were killed in the Holocaust, including three of her grandparents. They returned to Czechoslovakia in 1939 only to flee the communists in 1948. They moved to Denver, Colorado where her father took a job at the University of Denver.

She was asked what her biggest regret was. She was  criticized for defending the sanctions of Iraq under Saddam Hussein in a 1996 interview with Lesley Stahl on CBS’s 60 Minutes. When asked by Stahl with regards to effect of sanctions against Iraq: “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” Albright replied: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.” She expressed regret for this remark in her 2003 autobiography, where she wrote,”I never should have made it, it was stupid,” and that she still supported the concept of tailored sanctions.

It is amazing how one can quickly turn on their friends. I am not going to start an “Albright bashing” campaign here.I am just pointing out some facts that many are unaware of. My country needs to adopt Ron Paul’s approach to foreign policy. Pozdrav……..

 

Why did Yugoslavia break apart? Two sides to every story!

Yugoslavia was once a large, beautiful and prosperous land. Why did it break into 6 little pieces??

One day in late November.. i received an email from Boris Malagurski. He said he was the director of a few Serbian documentaries. He told me the names and I was blown away! I had watched two of them and loved them very much! He had seen me on tv and on Youtube and wanted to set up a meeting! I was invited to his residence in Belgrade last December. We had a fantastic chat and I learned many things about this talented young director!! He has some AWESOME future plans and hopefully I will be part of it!! Keep watching his website at http://www.malagurski.com/   His next release is called BELGRADE and he has some great older ones available… my favorite was KOSOVO:CAN YOU IMAGINE.

Boris Malagurski is a Canadian citizen that has roots in Subotica, Serbia. He created this exciting and eye opening documentary on a shoe string budget! It is very thought provoking and scary to know what “higher powers” are really at work! There can be sinister plans at work in every global situation. Try to open your mind and see each situation from both sides and THEN decide if it was justified!

The Serbs have committed horrible acts in the past. Every great nation has its “dirty past!” The sad thing is you never hear of the suffering the Serbs went through!! It is covered up and never leaked to the global media! Serbs have been brutalized many times in their long history! The have been shot, raped, ethnically cleansed, killed in mass genocides and thousands upon thousands forced from their homes by “friendly” regimes! This film does an amazing job at capturing the Serbian side….

Check out the clip….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qi50Mun4RA

You can purchase it and a few other fantastic videos about Serbia on his website … http://www.malagurskicinema.com