CorD Magazine No.52 by CorD Magazine

THE MAN OF THE LAW Radomir Lazarević President of the High Commercial Court of Serbia

SIXTY YEARS OF PROGRESS H.E. Arthur Koll Ambassador of Israel

EMERGING MARKET Jelena Drakulić – Petrović General Manager Ringier

interviews opinions news comments events www.cordmagazine.com

September 2008 / Issue No. 52 / Price 170 RSD

Back to Business

CorD, September 2008

POLITICS & DIPOLOMACY

BUSINESS & CURENT AFFAIRS

IN THE SHADOW OF BORIS TADIĆ

Serbia, three months after the elections

THE MAN OF THE LAW

Interview: President of the High Commercial Court of Serbia, Judge Radomir Lazarević

SIXTY YEARS OF PROGRESS

Interview: HE Ambassador of Israel Arthur Koll

XXVI MODERN OLYMPIC GAMES

26 38

Interview: Victoriya Boklag, Deputy CEO, Serbia Broadband

THE MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC

Interview: Đorđe Milutinović, The Director of the Belgrade Arena,

CULTURE

FROM BELEF TO BITEF

OPPOSITION STARTS ANOTHER CAMPAIGN FOR POWER

EXIT AND GUČA

MANAGING DIRECTOR Ana Isaković, a.isakovic@cma.co.yu EDITOR IN CHIEF Vladan Alimpijević, v.alimpijevic@cma.co.yu ASSOCIATE EDITOR Richard Wordsworth, r.wordsworth@cma.co.yu CORPORATE EDITOR Tatjana Ostojić, t.ostojic@cma.co.yu ART DIRECTOR Zlatko Jovanović, z.jovanovic@cma.co.yu DESIGN ASSISTANT Tatjana Radojičić EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Dragan Bujošević, Ljubodrag Stojadinović, Sonja Ćirić, Mirjana Vujović, Ilija Despotović, Rade Ranković, Dejan Jeremić PHOTO Stanislav Milojković, Časlav Vukojičić, Dragan Milošević, CorD Archive, Fonet TRANSLATORS Jelena Gledić, Snežana Rakić, Dejan Zubac, Milica Kubura, Momčilo Drakulić EDITORIAL MANAGER Tanja Banković, t.bankovic@cma.co.yu SUBSCRIPTION & WEB Ivan Lakatoš, i.lakatos@cma.co,yu EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Sanja Zimonjić, s.zimonjic@cma.co.yu GENERAL MANAGER Ivan Novčić, i.novcic@cma.co.yu

6 CorD / September 2008

Interview: Aleksanda Kovac, musician

SOCIETY

PARADE OF THE E-ATHLETES

Video game addiction and violence

THE PICK-UP ARTIST

Interview: Wayne Elise

ENGLISHMEN “FLEECED”

Interview: Jelena Drakulić – Petrović, General Manager Ringier

Montenegro is entering this autumn with a re-opened question - is it possible to overthrow the existing government

THE MUSIC I BREATHE

The Top of the Iceberg of Chinese Power

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

EMERGING MARKET

THE HEIRS

Descendants of an ex-barber from Irig near Novi Sad are still

Culture News & Calendar

Unexpected harmonization of two musical festivals

FINANCIAL DIRECTOR Ana Besedić, a.besedic@cma.co.yu PRINTING Politika AD CorD is published by: alliancemedia Knjeginje Zorke 11b, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Phone: +(381 11) 308 99 77, 308 99 88 Fascimile: +(381 11) 244 81 27 E-mail: cordeditorial@cma.co.yu www.cordmagazine.com ISSN no: 1451-7833 All rights reserved alliancemedia 2008

waiting for a fabulous inheritance of 22 million pounds.

LEISURE & LIFE STYLE

TURKEY IN GORGONZOLA SAUCE

Restaurant Review – Hunter

PERFUME OR NO PERFUME - THAT IS THE QUESTION

The future of fragrance – a question of luxury.

82 94

Wine Routes of Serbia

Fashion

COMMENT

Vladan Alimpijević, CorD’s magazine Editor-in-Chief

Back to Business After a summer break, the new CorD is in front of you. It is understandable that this issue contains fewer political stories - the summer was all about the Olympics. Come September, everybody is going back to work.The Serbian Ambassadors are going back to their EU countries, from which were previously withdrawn after Kosovo’s independence was recognized.

t the end of last year, when nobody knew when the presidential election was going to take place, Democratic Party official Božidar Đelić told me that the Serbian Ambassadors would be withdrawn only temporarily, i.e. for August. At that time, Kosovo still hadn’t declared independence, and the idea that Serbia had a plan to recall ambassadors was only speculation. However, it was a speculation which sadly proved to be accurate. In a country where most political decisions are made on a day to day basis, the existence of such long-term plan, even if it isn’t very good for the country, is still really impressive. If I understood Đelić correctly, most government members from the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) agreed with this plan. It is a pity that such farsightedness was not to be found in the creators of our foreign policy, who should have anticipated the consenquences of withdrawing our ambassadors from the countries that had recognized Kosovo. However, there is still another decision that could lead to bad results for Serbia. The Serbian Ambassadors are only being sent back to EU countries, and only so as not to further scupper the country’s shot at EU membership. As the US presidential elections grow nearer, it seems that Serbia is more keen on having its representative in Washington than vice versa. We are still not going to send our ambassador back to Canada, a country that has had a balanced policy towards the ex-Yugoslav republics for years, including Serbia. Also, we don’t have an ambassador in one of our most important neighbours – Croatia. Policies such as these have been condemned by politicians and political analysts alike who take the view that Serbia intends to join the EU by sulking. It is indicative of how prevalent this view is becoming that the ambassadors from the DSS have ignored Koštunica’s plea for them to remain in Belgrade. Withdrawing ambassadors is a legitimate foreign policy measure for any country, but to “partially” return the ambassadors is, for lack of a better word, flawed, and something that will only damage our relations with the so-called “black listed” countries who support Kosovo’s independence. How many politicians truly believe in Serbia’s chances for regaining its sovereignty over Kosovo? The longer the belief holds that there is still room for negotiation, the longer we will have to keep many of our ambassadors back in Belgrade, which will do nothing for the country. The reports from Kosovo show that you can’t expect all problems to be solved by independence. The Albanian politicians are now in the same situation as Milošević once was, with the loyalty of the few remaining Serbs costing them millions of Euros. This attitude is creating less and less room to maneuver over the issue of the north’s integration with the rest of the country. So there is 8 CorD / September 2008

something to negotiate about after all. This is a job for diplomats. And some of them are still sitting in Belgrade. The authorities in Priština should find the fact that most Islamic countries are not ready to recognize Kosovo quite alarming. When intervening in the self-proclaimed Georgian province of South Ossetia, Russia used the exact same arguments as the US when it intervened in Kosovo. The EU has shown a lot more flexibility in this matter but provided nothing more than verbal support for the government in Tbilisi. So, perhaps Serbia won’t have to recognize Kosovo’s independence, but it is quite obvious that burdened by this issue, the country is not going to join the European family anytime soon. Refusing to return the ambassadors is a dangerous policy. Are we going to continue insisting that after the unsuccessful sales of NIS, JAT and RTB Bor that there are no permanent friends and enemies, but only business and political interests? If the EU decided against freezing relations with Russia because of Georgia, Russia is certainly not going to jeopardize its relations with the West any further over Serbia. The Democratic Party and its leader, Boris Tadić, got the number of votes they did because their voters believed Vojislav Koštunica when he said that the pro-European forces were defending Kosovo in order to get at something else. If we consider all those pre-election promises, most of them fell through. They were either unrealistic or damaging. The only promise that is constantly reiterated is that of eventual membership in the EU. Government members keep on saying that, next year, Serbia could formally become an EU candidate. However, the huge figurative carrot dangling from a stick encouraging us forward on our path towards the EU is the abolishment of visas. New passports and IDs, and before that harmonizing regulations and properly equipping the customs and police, were on everybody’s minds this summer. And nothing came of it. Even if every political hurdle were removed and even if all EU members were to give their unwavering support, the fact is that Serbia just cannot handle itself. A whole generation has gone through half of its working life without ever travelling abroad. Various measures for visa facilitation, reductions in their price and hundreds of thousands of visas issued for Greece only haven’t helped us much in overcoming our feeling of isolation. Voters will behave themselves as long the promise of visas is on the horizon. Unless they are free to go to Europe, they will never see that no country is free of problems. This generation will lack a critical understanding of European values, and without this, Europe is not going to fare better with Serbia. There is a real chance that abolishing visas will come too late, and this recalling and resending of ambassadors will have been one of the contributing factors.

POLITICS

Serbia, three months after the elections

In the Shadow of Boris Tadić It feels like a bad dream of the Olympics - air-conditioning buzzes in the background as people stand in the intense heat, having difﬁculty breathing and benumbed by the consequences of global warming. Eyes are cast downwards to avoid staring at this unbearable environment, ﬁghting to stay awake as sleepiness sets in. BY RADE RANKOVIĆ PHOTO FONET

ust like on the Kalemegdan courts, Sloba and Đinđić play basketball with sweatbands around their foreheads

10 CorD / September 2008

and wrists. The cameramen zoom in on the players and the audience congregates in the shade while Mira and Ružica are chatting along the sidelines with canapés in their hands. There are Đinđić and Sloba again, sitting next to each other in the audience

and saluting the Serbian Olympic team with three fingers raised in the air. Although this is only a bad dream, is the reality much different? What seemed impossible 10 to 15 years ago is the reality today - President Boris Tadić is playing basketball with the Minister of Police, Ivica Dačić. They’re not exactly on the Kalemegdan courts, but Kopaonik is exotic enough. Tadić and the Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremić, are waving with their three fingers in Beijing as well, saluting our Olympic team. Petar Škundrić is in charge

Whatever the Government does will have a direct influence on Tadić’s political rating. If it performs well, his power will grow, but if it fails, it will be more detrimental to Tadić than to the Democratic Party and its coalition partners, Bakić estimates. For the first time ever, Tadić is faced with a clear situation where everything depends solely on him. There will be no excuses if corruption is not tackled, if bridges and roads are not built, if foreign investors are not brought to the country or if new jobs are not created. However, Serbia first needs to be included on the so-called White Schengen List, which will prove two things – first, that Serbia has taken steps in the right direction, and second, that it will be awarded for these actions. The figurative EU carrot on a stick is needed for the people and for Boris Tadić alike. The people would like to feel a bit better about their livers, and the

Prime Minister Cvetković and the Minister of Police Dačić the election, where the Nikolić-Koštunica duet waited for his breakdown, and then a slow, almost routine takeover of power, riding on a wave of Kosovo’s independence.

During last year, Serbia became a completely changed country, nothing like the one we remember, whether we like it or not. Old alliances have been broken, new ones created, and as the result of that it seems like Serbia is becoming an increasingly stable country, and to the surprise of many,Tadić has become a dominant political ﬁgure with no serious competition, a constant that can hardly be derailed President will prove he hasn’t made empty promises by having Europe’s support.

Where is the opposition? of Serbia’s mineral riches, Žarko Obradović is taking care of our younger generations and schools, and Dačić is in everyday contact with Veran Matić, the Director of B92.

The reality of new relations Over the past year, Serbia has become a completely changed country, nothing like the one we remember. Old alliances have been broken and new ones created. Consequently and to the surprise of many, it seems that Serbia is becoming an increasingly stable country. Tadić has become a dominant political figure with no serious competition. Events unfolded in such a way that, for the first time in 20 years, nobody is expecting the so-called “hot political autumn.” Everybody is waiting in silence to see the first results of the promises made by Tadić and his coalition – a slightly better life, more jobs and visa-free travel to Europe and the rest of the world. Perhaps it is a good thing that there is only one strong political personality, who, on the one hand, is dedicated to the society’s pro-European orientation, and on the other, respects all democratic principles of a multi-party existence, at least for the time being, says political analyst Jovo Bakić.

The way in which events have unfolded during the last few months shows just one thing – Boris Tadić has made some excellent political evaluations and moves, or at least he has good advisors. Everything that has happened so far in 2008 has worked to his advantage, starting with scheduling

If the Serbian people have ever shown some seriousness, it was during the last election. The Kosovo myth offer by the opposition wasn’t strong enough bait for the voters this time around, with most people saying that they would prefer living in the present. The so-called ‘national’ coalition, which dedicated the entire pre-election campaign to Kosovo and searching for traitors, felt this voter shift the most, so much so that they didn’t managed to impose themselves as a relevant and sufficient political partner

CorD / September 2008 11

POLITICS

Two Deputy Prime Ministers: Krkobabić and Dinkić at a governmental session to the Radicals. They didn’t achieve this in Serbia, in Belgrade, nor in many municipalities where the Socialists and Democrats are now slowly forming local coalitions. Tens of thousands of lost votes led to DSS and Nova Srbija having only a fraction of power in an odd municipality or two. The former Prime Minister was pushed back deep into the opposition, while Velimir Ilić could loose power in Čačak if DS, SPS and the citizens groups reach an agreement about the

The Liberals in the background, the Socialists rule Just as the Radicals and Nationals had the rug pulled from beneath their feet, so did Tadić manage to force Čedomir Jovanović to back down. The Liberals lost their focus once Tadić broke ties off with Koštunica, extradited Karadžić and took the country on a speedy path to the European Union. Harsh criticism coming

On the first months of Mirko Cvetković’s Government, socialist have shown that they are not that bothered by the whole situation. In their everyday posing for the TV cameras, the Heads of SPS and DS show that they have found a common language pretty quickly, overcame the past and are fighting together in “fulfilling international obligations and laws of Serbia” local parliamentary majority. The Radicals, whose leader Šešelj simply imposed Koštunica as the Prime Minister, did not manage to profit from the events like Radovan Karadžić’s presence in the middle of Belgrade. Almost as if they were following someone’s orders, the Parliament went into recess just a few days earlier. The demonstrations failed and were reduced to the keepers of Radovan’s flame with Luka Karadžić at their helm, while in Belgrade they failed short and had to withdraw in front of Đilas and Krkobabić. It will be interesting to see what moves the Government will make in order to reduce the opposition’s anger. Today, the opposition is even weaker than before the election, analyst Jovo Bakić says. If the Government does its job properly, the opposition will weaken even further and fare even worse at the next election. The situation is such that it will come as a great surprise if this government fails to survive the full term, Bakić adds. 12 CorD / September 2008

from the Liberals directed at Tadić died down over night, and many joke that the question now is what a cult movement assembled around Peščanik (‘The SandGlass’) is going to do. Tadić made the Liberals like Ivica Dačić. Not only that, but he also made them admit that Dačić and Mrkonjić are better than

fare well at the next election, CorD’s interlocutor, Jovo Bakić says. Despite Ivica Dačić and the coalition of parties assembled around SPS being declared the biggest election winners, subsequent events have shown that, in this case, the Democrats and Tadić have made sensible political moves. By making the Socialists and pensioners form the Belgrade Government with them, the Democrats took the trump card right out of Dačić’s hands, who maybe counted on having a Plan B which involved the Radicals and the Nationals. By closing the door on that side, the Socialists were left only with the Democrats, although during the first months of Mirko Cvetković’s Government they have shown they are not bothered by the whole situation. On the contrary, they feel fine about it. In their everyday poses for TV cameras, the Heads of SPS and DS show that they have found a common language fairly quickly, that they have overcome the past and are fighting together in “fulfilling Serbia’s international obligations and laws,” regardless of how awkward these things could become.

Boring country Even if there are no visible perils on the political scene, the only possible source of problems for the new Government could be found in the country’s economy. Without further economic development, the political situation will not be calm forever, and everything now is practically in the hands of Cvetković, Dinkić, Đelić and other key government figures. By the end of this year, Serbia should be free of economic problems. If the treasury dries up, some say that a swift sale of Komercijalna banka is being prepared in order to fill in the holes in the budget. Turning to infrastructural works, like building motorways and bridges, shows that there is some kind of plan for the country’s development. According to the Economy Minister, Mlađan Dinkić, the arrival of FIAT could send good signals to other first-class world

Just like the Radicals and Nationals had the rug pulled from beneath their feet, so did Tadić manage to force Čedomir Jovanović to back down.The Liberals lost their topic once Tadić broke off ties with Koštunica, extradited Karadžić and took the country on a speedy way to the European Union Koštunica and Velja Ilić. This is the message that the Democrats are sending to LDP these days. Just like DSS, but on a different token, the Liberals will have to seriously review their policy and think about their strategy and tactics. Otherwise, they are not going to

companies that they can invest in a country like Serbia. If everything goes according to plan, there could be some truth in claims that Boris Tadić is going to fulfill a promise given by Vojislav Koštunica about turning Serbia into a boring country.

INTERVIEW

Radomir Lazarević, the President of the High Commercial Court of Serbia

Man of the Law T

he commercial court system in Serbia is celebrating two centuries of existence. The President of the High Commercial Court of Serbia, Radomir Lazarević is considered a great reformist of pro-Western inclination. He says that he is a man of the law and that he doesn’t like being labelled, just as he doesn’t like people telling him how to do his job.

For years, after every election in Serbia, the reformation of our justice system and the re-election of judges have been on everybody’s mind. Do you expect the new Government and Parliament to undertake serious changes in the justice system? And if so, how would these changes affect the principle of continuity for judges as outlined in the Serbian Constitution? According to the Serbian Constitution, the position of a judge is a permanent one. The conditions for the termination of this position are regulated by law. Of course, after every election, there is a discussion about which judge is going to be re-elected and whether somebody is going to be replaced. I have been a judge for over thirty years and have been re-elected on several occasions, since the position of judge was not a permanent one. Back then, at the end of his or her eight-year term, each judge was assessed very critically on his or her performance and efﬁciency before being re-elected. Today, judges can only be removed from their positions if they are proven to have broken the law. The division of power between judges and the legislative and executive branches of government ensure that each sector keeps the other in check. Lustration (the political cleansing of former officials) had to happen immedi14 CorD / September 2008

In order for the Serbian economy to operate in an efficient manner, it is exceptionally important that all fictitious and illiquid companies are eliminated and that the “market game” is played in accordance with the relevant rules. During the last seven years, commercial courts have made a transition from the weakest link in the system to the most efficient and fastest one. When it comes to the economy, time is money

ately after October 5th. The term itself still exists, but I think that it’s the wrong one. When the society undergoes core changes, like our society did when it went from socialism to capitalism, the behaviour of all aspects has to be harmonized with the new system of values, and this also applies to courts in these transitional times. Of course, some personnel changes will happen among the judiciary and I really believe that such changes are necessary. Serbia is not rich enough to pay the judges who are not doing their job properly, efficiently or to a high enough standard. The reform of our court and judicial system has been lasting for years. The implementation of the laws on setting up new courts and changing jurisdiction has been constantly delayed since 2003. We still don’t have any cassation, appeals or administrative courts. These are not legal problems, but the issue here is lack of political will rather than technical problems. In order to set up all these courts, we need buildings, judges and additional court staff, which are all very important for the proper functioning of any court. This section of reforms is set to be ﬁnished by the beginning of 2009.

in. So everything depends on the economy which brings funds to the budget. The Government announced that many procedures are going to be simpliﬁed, or as Minister Dinkić put it, at least one third of all current regu-

Today, judges can only be removed from their positions if they are proven to have broken the law.The division of power between judges and the legislative and executive branches of government ensure that each sector keeps the other in check. Lustration (the political cleansing of former ofﬁcials) had to happen immediately after October 5th.The term itself still exists, but I think that it’s the wrong one So the Government is still undecided whether we need court buildings or new bridges across the Sava and Morava Rivers? The budget is deﬁned by the law, and we, as the society, cannot spend more than we have. Of course we need bridges and court buildings, and the priorities are set according to how much money is coming

lation, primarily that which concerns economic law, is going to be abolished. It goes without saying that all regulation which has been approved by the Parliament or passed by the Government and hasn’t been put into practice so far needs to be changed. I especially endorse changing those speciﬁc laws that are stalling our economic development. The law on bank-

ruptcy is an exceptionally important law, and much better than the previous one. Application of this law leads to heightened responsibility for a economic actors and procedural bodies. The deadlines have been cut drastically short. What is important is that, according to the new law, not everybody can be involved in bankruptcy procedures, since licences are now issued for bankruptcy administrators. This is one of many positive changes for our society. There isn’t a single law that can regulate every kind of relation. Whatever proves to be defective about this law, whatever could be done better or more efﬁciently, will be changed. There is a proposal for changes and supplements to be made to the law on bankruptcy. On your opinion, what is the weak spot of the Serbian judicial system? I think that our judicial system needs to be heard when laws are passed. The Commission in the Justice Ministry is preparing a new Law on Administrative Procedures, since the current one is lacking

CorD / September 2008 15

INTERVIEW

in certain things. If it happens that, after a legally binding ruling has been made, a debtor cannot pay his liabilities to the creditor, then something is not working in this instance - the ruling is ineffective. So, what we need to do is to remove all obstacles which are preventing the ruling being applied, and the whole procedure needs to be sped up. The public often criticizes courts for being too slow. I am not saying this because I am the President of the High Commercial Court, but commercial courts have been the most efficient part of the country’s court system thus far. The statistics and analysis of 17 commercial courts in Serbia, and the High Court, show this. We are doing our job in a fast and efficient manner. We would have worked even better and faster if certain conditions had been met. First of all, we don’t have enough judges, or court staff, or the money for that matter. Not a single judge in a commercial court in Serbia has been elected in the last two and a half years, and even worse, not a single judge who is due to retire, has been relieved of his duty. This means that they are still performing their duties, although, according to the law, they cannot do so. Now that we have the new Parliament, I expect that this obligation of electing new and relieving old judges of their duty will be carried out this autumn. Judges are increasingly frequently complaining of low salaries but only court administration staff have been on strike this year. Courts and judges cannot perform their tasks without good quality court administration. The salaries of the administrative staff are not sufficient enough to cover basic living costs. After the strike, their salaries have been somewhat increased, but I am advocating further increase in line with the current situation with the budget. There are quite a few cases in commercial courts involving foreign companies. How protected or privileged is the state or the state-owned companies in such cases? Have there been situations of a judge being called up when somebody is suing the state? All legal parties have the same treatment in front of courts in Serbia. I claim that there is no pressure or influence exerted by executive authorities on court proceedings. Nobody is privileged because he or she represents the state, or a local community, or a public enterprise. Even during the socialist times, it was unthinkable for somebody from the Committee or a Minis16 CorD / September 2008

“We are doing our job in a fast and efficient manner. We would have worked even better and faster if certain conditions had been met. First of all, we don’t have enough judges, or court staff, or the money for that matter. Not a single judge in a commercial court in Serbia has been elected in the last two and a half years, and even worse, not a single judge who is due to retire, has been relieved of his duty” try to call up the judge and order him to do something. The vast majority of judges act in accordance with the law, and their conscience. I have never had the experience of somebody calling me up ordering me to give a specific ruling. After all, 80% of the rulings by the High Commercial Court are verified by the Supreme Court, which is an exceptionally high percentage. Commercial courts are the first courts in the country whose rulings could be viewed on the Internet. Since 2004, thanks to a generous help from the USAID through their CCASA project, commercial courts have started to become computerized. All courts are now connected via a network and we have a special statistical programme which processes data. Thanks to this project, I, as the President of the High Court, am given the opportunity to have 24-hour insight into the workings of different courts. I can see whether a judge has had 15 summons or none at all, which would show that he hadn’t been prepared for that day. Or I can see if rulings haven’t been made within a legal deadline. That gives me a chance to ask any colleague for an explanation why the deadlines were not met.

Our clients reacted to this system really well, while certain judges were somewhat fearful. We are advocating transparency and providing objective information about the work that our courts do and this is the best possible way to go about it. The fact that we have been given an award by the Republic Commisisoner for Information of Public Importance proves that we’ve been successful. Last year, the High Court was given this recognition by Mr. Rodoljub Šabić, which was the first time ever that a court has been awarded for its transparency, providing of information and public relations. Some were suggesting that commercial courts needed to be abolished. This year, the Serbian commercial court system celebrates its 200th anniversary. One of the first judges back in 1808 was our great reformist, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić. During this long tradition, they have justified their existence and I think that we should think along the lines of how to improve their work, and not how to abolish them. It is a great recognition of our work when foreign investors cite the jurisdiction of our first-degree commercial courts in contracts they conclude.

POLITICS

Interview with HE Ambassador of Israel Arthur Koll

Sixty Years of Progress

Over the past sixty years, Israel has developed from a newborn state into one of the most developed countries in the world. However, the territory of Israel is still the target of some terrorist organisations.The strategic choice that Israel has made referring to the Palestinian issue, Israeli Ambassador Arthur Koll emphasises, is a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living peacefully side-by-side BY VLADAN ALIMPIJEVIĆ PHOTO DRAGAN MILOŠEVIĆ Israel is considered a part of Europe in many ﬁelds, such as in sports and culture. However, geographically Israel is a part of Asia. What does this dual identity mean, is Israel a part of Europe or not? Israel is not part of the European Union, 18 CorD / September 2008

but it does enjoy extensive collaboration with the EU. For a non-member, Israel benefits from the most elaborate and advanced set of agreements with the Union. Today, we are actually in the midst of negotiating on improving these agreements. Europe is our biggest trading partner and we are also members of very significant European programmes in a variety of fields, such as culture, science, R & D, space, etc.

Does this mean that in the long-run, Israel has plans to be a part of this community one day? If Turkey becomes a member, the border with European communities will be very close to Israel. This is a very complicated issue. The Israeli public has never been questioned regarding its aspirations for EU membership. We are mainly concentrated on improving the current agreements at this stage, rather than discussing full membership. The rise of Chinese, Indian and other new economies has grown considerably even in just the last few years. How does Israel view this growth, considering its connection to Russia, Europe and the United States?

The economic, political, and strategic significance of Asia is definitely growing. We are developing very good relations with China, India, Korea, Japan and other important countries in the region. The level of trade is growing, as are investments and political ties. However, these progressing relations do not at all come on the account of the special relations that Israel has with the USA. Furthermore, despite the growing economic ties with Asian nations, Europe remains our biggest trading partner. Upon France acquiring presidency of the Council of the European Union, one of the first visits by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to Israel. Is there any meaning behind this visit? It was a very meaningful visit, simply because in the past, the relations between France and Israel had their ups and downs. President Sarkozy made it very clear that good relations with Israel are important. As France is a key member of the EU, this position sends a clear message regarding France’s policy and the EU policy towards Israel. Not long ago, France was one of the European countries which had very good connections with Iran, for example, with co-operation on technology. Has this worried Israel to any extent? The issue of Iran is a matter of concern for the international community and calls for international co-operation regarding the country’s attempt to acquire nuclear capabilities and build-up massive military forces. This is a regime which has also continuously made very worrisome statements by its leader, Ahmadinejad, calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. This is a world leader who even today will not admit that the Holocaust occurred. He is a Holocaust denier. How do you conclude that EU countries, France and Germany, in particular have quite good connections with this regime? Today, both France and Germany are part of the international attempt with the USA and other partners, to try and bring about an end to nuclear developments in Iran. France and

HE Ambasador Arthur Koll talking to our Editor Germany were part of the UN resolutions imposing sanctions against Iran. However, more measures are needed. We deﬁnitely believe that a concerted, determined international effort can, through diplomatic and economic measures, bring an end to the Iranian drive in building nuclear military capacities. The last report of the International Commission for the Control of Atomic Energy in Vienna relayed the message that there is no evidence of the Iranian programme going beyond civil use of nuclear energy. Do you agree with this report? The report stated very clearly that Iran does not co-operate with the agency. In this sense, whatever evidence exists or does not exist, is a result of a complete lack of co-operation by Iran. This deﬁance of the international will and revelations made by the Iranians themselves, leave no room for doubt about Iran’s nuclear aspirations. Is Israel convinced that Iran is making nuclear weapons to attack and destroy Israel? A regime which openly states that Israel should be destroyed, and that openly ignores international efforts to bring an end to its nuclear policies is a cause for concern. Not only is this regime a matter of concern for Israel, but for the stability of world peace and the international community as a whole.

ISRAEL AND EU

IRAN

“Israel is not part of the EU, but it does enjoy extensive collaboration with the EU. For a non-member, Israel beneﬁts from the most elaborate and advanced set of agreements with the Union.Today, we are actually in the midst of negotiating on improving these agreements”

“This is a regime which has also continuously made very worrisome statements by its leader, Ahmadinejad, calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.This is a world leader who even today will not admit that the Holocaust occurred. He is a Holocaust denier”

Two or more decades ago, Iraq was also preparing a nuclear programme when Israeli air forces destroyed one of its nuclear plants. Does this mean that Israel is ready for unilateral action if the Iranian programme continues on? It is not too late for the international community to take diplomatic and economic measures to bring about the necessary change in the Iranian policy. Israel will never be able to ignore the threat emanating from the combination of a very hostile policy and very hostile capabilities. It will always, as it has done in the past, evaluate the development and the degree of threat. Most of the countries and territories surrounding Israel are now controlled by extreme political organisations, most considered terrorist, like Hezbollah and Hamas. We witness that there has recently been some negotiations between Syria and Lebanon. Do you believe that it is possible to go further with the negotiation process by talking with such organisations? First of all, most of the Arab world is not controlled by terrorist regimes. However, Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organisations, and Hezbollah is a major threat to the stability of the region. Since the end of the second Lebanese War, two years ago, the Hezbollah acted in total deﬁance of the United Nations Resolution 1701. With the help of Syria and Iran, it managed to rebuild its forces, and today the number of missiles in its possession is actually higher than it was two years ago. They have done this despite the UN resolution and the increased international forces present in Lebanon who are trying to prevent exactly this kind of development. Due to the strength of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the weakness of the pro-Western elements, the new government has basically given CorD / September 2008 19

POLITICS

almost equal footing to Hezbollah. They have also given the official green light to an unimaginable situation – the creation of two armed forces, one being the official army of Lebanon, and the other being the paramilitary Hezbollah militia. If one wants to negotiate with somebody who is controlling the situation, its obvious then that Hamas and Hezbollah are in control, is this correct? First of all, Lebanon is a country with territory, a government, international relations and representation in the international arena, and Hezbollah is a militia inside Lebanon. Our desire is to negotiate with the government of Lebanon, which represents the country and the nation, to reach a peace treaty. Hamas is a different, though significant problem. It is a terrorist organisation that vows day in and day out for the destruction of the State of Israel and today has full control of the Gaza Strip. Therefore, the question itself of whether one has to negotiate with Hamas or not is problematic. When you say ‘negotiate,’ you have to ask what the desired aim is. If it is to reach peace, then you have to negotiate with somebody who wants to make peace with you. Hamas, however, openly says that it will not be satisfied with anything less than the destruction of the State of Israel. Therefore, negotiations with Hamas are out of the question. In any case, Hamas is not the representative of the Palestinian people. In the West Bank and in the international community, the recognised body is the Palestinian authority, led by moderate Palestinians. Very significant negotiations with the Palestinian authority are currently underway. Not only are they being conducted in good spirits, but the stated objectives on both sides reflect a strategic choice that the outcome of the negotiations should be a two-state solution - living in peace side-by-side, with Israel being the homeland of the Jewish people, and an independent Palestine being the homeland of the Palestinian people. However, negotiations regarding the details of such an agreement are difficult and will not end in one day. You mentioned the second war in Lebanon. Do you consider that this war was necessary, and what was the outcome? The war two years ago was a result of the fact that Hezbollah attacked Israel without any reason, killed Israelis, and kidnapped Israeli soldiers. We were attacked and we responded. No country would have acted differently had it been attacked from the other side of its border; it is the duty of any government to protect its citizens. The war in Lebanon ended by the United Na20 CorD / September 2008

“No country would have acted differently had it been attacked from the other side of its border; it is the duty of any government to protect its citizens.The war in Lebanon ended by the United Nations Resolution 1701, which, had it been fully implemented, would have created a new reality in Lebanon, signiﬁcantly reducing the threat of Hezbollah and terror” tions Resolution 1701, which, had it been fully implemented, would have created a new reality in Lebanon, signiﬁcantly reducing the threat of Hezbollah and terror. We still hope that the spirit and content of Resolution 1701 will be adhered to. The Israeli border with Egypt is probably the most peaceful of Israeli borders. Do you expect that the peace process between Israel and its neighbours will be

successfully ﬁnished in a few years? This year we celebrated Israel’s 60th anniversary. Sixty years ago there was hostility towards Israel by all neighbouring Arab countries. The reality has gradually changed. Today, we have peace with Egypt, we have peace with Jordan, we are negotiating with the Palestinians, and we are engaged in indirect negotiations with Syria. War has not brought anything to the Middle East except destruction and pain.

If the sides decide to stay on the path towards peace, there is a very good chance that we will overcome the difﬁculties and reach agreement.

Israel is not amongst the countries that have already recognised Kosovo. We are following the development on the ground and in the international arena regarding the issue. However, representing a country that has not yet solved its own problems in its region, I am not in the position to give advice as to how you should deal with the issue We haven’t yet mentioned the role of Russia, which has been involved in all of Israel’s 60 years of existence. Do you consider that Russia is also involved in the ﬁght against terrorism? After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Israel and Russia have gradually developed good relations. Today, Russia is an important country with which we have many positive economic, cultural and political interactions. In fact, over a million immigrants from Russia and the former Soviet Republics have immigrated to Israel, particularly in the 90’s, which deﬁnitely contributed to building bridges between the two nations. Russia plays an important role in international affairs. Look at the issue of Iran, for example, where measures such as tightening sanctions were agreed upon in the United Nations. Russia can be an important part of the international effort in combating international terrorism and blocking the development of Iran’s nuclear technology.

Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people. It is the place where, for 2,000 years, Jews aspired to return to, a dream which became a reality sixty years ago. Unfortunately, the size of the Jewish community in the world is small, particularly after 1/3 (about 6 million) were murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War. It is significant that Jews in the Diaspora very much support the well-being and the development of the State of Israel, during good times and bad times. Due to that, we see that they are capable of transferring general affinity into practical acts of support. The vast majority of Jews who lived in Yugoslavia unfortunately did not survive the Holocaust. Of those who did, a significant number immigrated to Israel and elsewhere. Thus, today there is a small Jewish community in Serbia which, while maintaining its traditions, is fully incorporated in the Serb society. What would be the ultimate objective - to support Jewish communities all over the world, or to attract many more Jews, especially young generations to Israel? One has to understand the idea of Zionism. In the 19th century, when all over Europe nations developed aspirations for independence and self-determination, the Jews did as well. The idea is very simple - Jews have a homeland, which is the State of Israel. When the State of Israel was created in 1948, the number of Jews numbered just over 600,000. Today, in the State of Israel, there are over 6,000,000 Jews, and Israel can look back with satisfaction and see that we have also stabilised and progressed. These days we are actually trying to assist the Diaspora Jews, particularly in some smaller communities, to keep traditions alive.

Referring to the global war on terrorism, do you think the world has become safer after 9/11 and after the measures taken by the USA and other countries, including Israel? Do you believe that Russia is an ally in this fight against terrorism or not? I would phrase the question a little differently by asking if the world would have been safer without these measures taken by the USA, NATO and others in the fight against international terrorism. My answer to this is no. Without such measures, the world would have been less safe. The second question is, is the world safe today? No, clearly one cannot say that. Therefore, a concerted effort to continue this very difficult fight against international terrorism has to continue. There is a lot of co-operation, which also includes Russia. The threat of international terrorism is not only a threat against the west; it is a threat to world stability. What is Israel’s position vis-à-vis Kosovo? It can probably understand the situation on both sides - you are a very close ally to the USA and, at the same time, you show understanding for the Serbian side. What would be your advice? As you have noticed, Israel is not amongst the countries that have already recognised Kosovo. We are following the development on the ground and in the international arena regarding the issue. However, representing a country that has not yet solved its own problems in its region, I am not in the position to give advice as to how you should deal with the issue. In any case, it is our belief that problems should be solved through peaceful means. Less than fifty years ago in Serbia there was a sizeable Jewish community. What role does the Jewish Diaspora currently play? CorD / September 2008 21

INTERVIEW

Jelena Drakulić – Petrović, General Manager Ringier

Emerging Market

“The ownership structure of all media in Serbia should be deﬁned in detail and be transparent, which currently is not the case.This is one of the burning issues. We should all know who exactly is behind the media.”

BY TATJANA OSTOJIĆ

he Swiss publisher, Ringier, took over Serbian Blic Press almost five years ago at the time when the Blic daily was one of the newspapers with the highest circulation figures. In the meantime, the company launched four more fairly successful publications. Recently, Ringier celebrated its 175th anniversary, and Jelena Drakulić-Petrović was appointed the Director General of Ringier Serbia. At the moment, she is the only woman Director General of a media company in Serbia. Our interlocutor says that this position means additional responsibility for her, but she is pretty adept at this job since she has held various managerial positions in the company for the past five years. Is it true you started in Ringier as a brand manager? That’s right, I began working in 2004. At that time, this publishing company was not functionally divided, meaning there were no specific departments. In line with the company’s strategy, a marketing division was formed. In the following four to four-and-a-half years, four new successful products have been created with a longterm strategy in mind, and this is something that few companies in Serbia have done. Blic Žena was launched on November 22, 2004. After that, in March 2006, came Blic Puls, a celebrity magazine, and then last but not least, 24sata, a new daily. Alo was launched on October 15th, 2007. In the meantime, the two dailies began publishing in Novi Sad. In this way, we have managed to cover the two largest urban centres in Serbia. In the case of 24sata, we have two separate editorial offices. One is in Novi Sad, which has five parttime associates who cover the local events in Novi Sad. The newspapers that are sold for free usually have from 22 to 24 pages, with eight to ten pages containing cover22 CorD / September 2008

age of Novi Sad, while the remaining ones are the same as the Belgrade issue. Is 24sata the ﬁrst only free-of-charge newspaper in Serbia?

At the beginning, everybody was sceptical about launching free-of-charge newspapers in Serbia. We had a similar experiance in Croatia, a free newspaper which came out in 2006. We have to admit that,

in a publishing sense, with regard to the number of newspapers, Croatia is ahead of Serbia. Besides that, Croatia has much bigger advertising potential. On the other hand, since a newspaper that is free-ofcharge depends solely on advertising revenues, the key issue in deciding whether to launch such a newspaper is advertising - evaluating the given moment and the development direction which advertising is taking. Back in 2006, there were quite a lot of discussions in our company whether it was the right moment to launch such a newspaper, whether Serbia has ready for something like that. We were debating if the advertising potential was adequate bearing in mind a relatively low price per page. In the end, we decided to go ahead with it. We estimated that there is a certain element of risk associated with it, but we were also ready to take that risk and, as the ﬁrst mover on the market, take the number one position. It turned out later that we were right. From September 2006 to the New Year we were developing the product and organising some distribution channels that we had made. So, in 2006, the newspaper took its rightful place on the market and, just during that year, we managed to take 4 percent of the advertising market. In addition to that, in May

Ringier Headquater in Zoﬁngen, Switzerland portfolio, we always take into account the so-called ‘cannibalism factor.’ You are trying to avoid it as much as you can since you are aware of the fact that you will always have to deal with a certain level of ‘cannibalism’ because you are working in the same sector. (The development strategy of new newspapers is made in a way to reduce this factor to a minimum), and today you can see that these three newspa-

Blic Puls is one of the most successful weeklies, i.e. celebrity magazine, circulation-wise. We are talking about a segment that is not so massive, like the daily newspapers or a female segment. This is a magazine which is cheaper than the other celebrity magazines. Despite the price, we tried to avoid to be branded a scandal magazine, so to speak.The magazine’s content is a combination of a tabloid and information. 2007, we managed to leverage our expenses with the profit. I think that this is the first time ever in Serbia that only eight months in a free newspaper has managed to break even, which is impresive even if we compare it to countries like Denmark and Norway where you have five or six free newspapers. In your opinion, how did you manage to do that? Several factors were instrumental. The first thing was that we were the first mover. Sometimes in business your decisions need to be both instinctive and rational. Furthermore, there was an advertising boom in 2007. The third factor was a thoroughly thought out distribution channel and great discipline when delivering newspapers. How much are Blic, 24sata and Alo in competition with each other? When developing the company and its

pers cover completely different segments. Blic is somewhat tabloid, but it is also quite strong and politically even. This daily is considered to be relevant, although not referential and cannot be viewed like Politika or Danas in that respect. But it is quite far from a tabloid. 24sata is a free, informative newspaper which has a service character, and quite urban I might add. Its target is the younger population, ages between 18 and 35. The contents of 24sata and Blic are not the same. There is a different information system and a different approach to covered subjects. Our third product, Alo is a tabloid issue which cov-

ers issues completely different from Blic, if we take into consideration its tabloid factor. In this respect, as well as when it comes to the distribution manner, it is also different from 24sata. All of these three products have conquered certain segments and are not in competition to one other. By launching these two newspapers, did Blic circulation figures drop? This is a very peculiar thing. When 24sata was launched in September 2006, we didn’t record any drop in the circulation figures for Blic. According to the information we arranged and market evaluation, there was a certain fluctuation in circulation with other publishers, but everything went back to normal quite quickly. It turned out that the concept of a free newspaper was not in any way in direct competition to other newspapers. True, in the beginning it caused a certain amount of concern with other publishers that they were going to be in competition. However, when it comes to this newspaper, our readers are the ones that use TV as a source of information, or communication with them is done via billboards and radio stations. So, a free newspaper is just a new way of communicating with such an audience. On the other hand, when we launched Alo, Blic circulation was not affected in any way since Alo is quite different from Blic in terms of format, appearance and price, and the readers are different accordingly.

Blic Žena

his is a textbook example of a brand extension project. When you have a good and strong daily, you can make a product that is for women only – Blic Žena. This project has been very successful since the beginning, and it continues to be successful. We have been ‘attacked’ several times by our competition, but they were unsuccessful, exceptionally unsuccessful. This is a lesson that you should not copy from somebody else. CorD / September 2008 23

INTERVIEW

You said that Blic is done in a tabloid manner, but with a serious content. Many think that Serbia needs a serious political daily. I think that a new era is coming for publishers. Today, publishers find it very important whether something is profitable or not, and that is their priority. The ownership structure in the media needs to be very clear. Our market, just like in any other country, is moving towards tabloidization. Of course, a referential newspaper will always find its way to the readers, but its profitability will increasingly pose a challenge to its publisher. I think that every market has to have a referential newspaper, but two conditions need to be fulfilled in this case. The first one is that such newspapers need to be financially independent, i.e. the state should not be one of the owners, which is something that is present in Serbia. On the other hand, the referential newspapers need to be profitable. This financial independence will lead to the editorial officer and editor in chief also being independent. Blic also launched two political weeklies. Are you thinking about heading in that direction? There was Blic News. According to surveys, you can see that the brand called Blic News is still recognised. In its time, that was quite a successful venture; it was relevant, had good circulation and revenue. However, it did not fit with the company’s strategy, so this publication was closed down. Now, the main issue is whether to re-launch Blic News or not. My reply to your question would be that I don’t think we should enter that segment again. The issue is whether the segment is profitable at all. For a good political news magazine, you need a good editorial office. I am not sure whether we have appropriate people to carry that out. The second issue is how much hiring such personnel will cost. Then there is the issue of profitability, whether the circulation figures will be satisfying, since in this segment, we are not talking huge numbers. In that case, you need to rely on advertising revenue which is still not at that level to cover the operating costs of such a weekly. What are your plans? We are planning something, but that will be in the dailies category. We need one more referential publication in addition to the three existing publication in this segment. This is still an open issue and is the direction we are thinking in. Could you make a comparison between Ringier in Serbia and other countries in which the company operates? 24 CorD / September 2008

market share. What is common to all these countries is that Ringier is primarily engaged in publishing, and this is a company that is developing, and once it comes to a certain market, it plans to stay there. At this time, we are looking for other media development channels, and, in line with current trends, Ringier is thinking about the Internet and telecommunications.

Law on Media Consolidation

t is very important for the Law on Media Consolidation to be thorough and well made, but the current draft is far from it. Speaking from our perspective, we want the publishing sector and all media to be included, so that our professionals are given a chance to have their say and submit proposals to the ones writing the law. In passing this law, we should look up to the EU and this is why I think that the draft is restrictive to the publishers. This is the reason why we, members of the Media Association, launched an idea to form a body which will negotiate with the relevant ministry. They will provide comments and supplements since very important issues are at stake, such as the media ownership structure and market concentration in a media sense, i.e. marketing share.

Ringier came to Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia much earlier than in Serbia. These are the countries where the development direction is a lot different than ours. During the last four years, since Ringier has been in Serbia, our success has been excellent. In other countries where Ringier is present, the portfolio is much bigger and so is the

What is your evaluation of the press media in Serbia? This market still needs to develop. It is far from a saturated market, like those in Europe, with a huge number of publicationin every single segment. The ownership structure of all media in Serbia should be defined in detail and transparent, which currently is not the case. This is one of the burning issues. We should all know who exactly is behind the different media outlets. Ringier wants to contribute to the Serbian market by holding a press conference at least once a year, where the company’s financial results will be presented. This is a practice that should become standard in Serbia. After all, that is proof of just how the media and the business itself are independent. What is your opinion about ABS and circulation auditing in Serbia? The ABS idea is something that our company supports. Auditing circulation figures is a project that any serious publisher should salute. This should be a priority. Every publishing house should carry out an audit of its circulation figures. They should be made public and known to both advertisers and readers. On the other hand, the authenticity of this data and the way it is gathered should be flawless and at an exceptional level, since we are in a transitional period after all. For example, it is very indicative that you have a publisher who makes it to the ABS, only to leave it a few months later because he doesn’t like the numbers he had to report. This just speaks in favour of how flippant publishers are in addition to providing real information about its circulation figures. In order for the ABS to become fully operational, all publishers need to join it and its methodology needs to be perfected.

Regionalization of Blic

he regionalization of Blic was carried out in October 2004. This is when we split the regions into Belgrade, Serbia and Vojvodina, and somewhat later we added the Novi Sad issue and added pages to the Niš issue, closely following urban areas in Serbia. This proved to be a really big investment, personnel, paper and print wise. For example, we had to increase the number of our technical and journalistic personnel by 30 percent. The investment was extensive, but speaking long-term, it did yield results. The quality of the newspaper has gone up, in addition to circulation figures and popularity with the readers.

SOCIETY

XXVI Modern Olympic Games

In the past few days, an import company from Serbia has been advertising on the TV a line of Chinese construction machines with the promise that these machines are the very same as the ones used to create the architectural wonders of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The Iceberg of Chinese power BY VLADAN ALIMPIJEVIĆ PHOTO: FONET

uch adverts mark a massive upheaval in the world’s perception of China. Ever since their economic reforms began, goods of Chinese origin have been synonymous with cheapness and low quality. The words “made in China” evoke images of counterfeit goods, regardless of whether or not the production company in question actually holds an impressive portfolio of recognised international brands. The 26th Olympic Games are helping to change this perception. Nothing that the organizers of these Games have shown the world so far could be considered cheap or low quality. Ever since the decision in

26 CorD / September 2008

Sydney that Beijing would host the next Olympics, it was clear that it would be the most controlled project in Chinese history, a project to be given absolute priority. The separation of sports from politics was viewed as the main task for the ruling communist party. In organizing the games, China recognised a chance to show the world just how powerful and organised it can be. Beijing was the place for the country to declare that it was a serious candidate for becoming a super power in a political, economic and even sporting sense of the word. It could be said that the Financial Times commentator who said that similar ambitions with regards to organizing Olympic Games were seen in Germany in 1936, Japan in 1964 and even Korea in 1988, was pretty

tasteless. But after Hitler’s Olympic Games it was quite clear which direction Germany was taking. After the games in Tokyo, the world stopped joking about Japanese electronics. Sony, JVC and Panasonic were no longer considered inferior to Siemens or Philips. However, there’s a big difference between these examples and the current Games in China: in the West, the nationalist-socialist Germany, South Korea and Japan were all viewed as friends, or at least allies. China may be a desirable partner for the West, but it’s certainly not a friend. China’s enormous economic success, based on the introduction of the free market and globalisation, led to the West becoming even more fearful. In terms of the average Chinese citizen, the envy felt towards the high living standard in

Milorad Čavić: Less than one hundredth of a second to gold medal

the West is now increasingly being replaced by a state policy of contempt towards the Americanised world. As much as the Chinese system of a free economy and its results resemble that of the US, they are two distinct systems. This competition is being played out almost symbolically at the 2008 Games, with both sides anxious to win as many medals as possible. China wants everything to run smoothly and without incident so that the world will see that the Chinese have a dream as well as the Americans. To illustrate this, let us just mention a Chinese backstroke swimmer who, due to unintentional consumption of an additive in his pork, was banned for life from competing at the games by the National Anti-Doping Commission. This is a much harsher penalty than the one laid out by the internation-

al rules. Winning in sports, just like in the economy, needs to be ’clean’. Chinese media are speculating that the poor results by the US athletes and some of them giving up on competing are just the result of a rigorous anti-doping control. In addition to money and know-how, China has invested a lot of emotion into the Olympic Games. This was obvious at the spectacular opening ceremony. In front of over 80 heads of state and governments and athletes, the “Bird’s Nest” - the Olympic stadium built to the highest aesthetic and technological standards - shone in all its glory. Even a critic of the government’s human rights record Ai Weiwei, the designer of the Bird’s Nest stadium, wrote an article in The Guardian on his hopes for a new era of openness in the country: “For the past 30 years we have dismantled barriers, opened doors and windows, been dazzled by sunshine and felt the wind of profound change. In the Olympics, we expect to witness new heights of effort and hope, speed and strength, that will inspire China to lift the pace of reform, to be more determined, more courageous and more at peace with ourselves.” After a buildup like that, reality is bound to kick in, hard. It would have been difficult not to feel proud of being Chinese during the 16 days of

the Olympics. The Games were just the tip of the iceberg of Chinese power. China has shown that the country’s political system, completely unfounded in theory, and to use the Communist language, “utterly revisionist”, is really functioning. This image is exactly what Chinese political leaders want us to see. It is difficult to imagine how the enormity of power in a country still full of poor people, and how it will affect the rest of the world. Maybe African countries could serve as guidelines with tens of billions worth of Chinese investments. We should remind ourselves that IBM computers haven’t suffered in terms of quality or profit now that they are called Lenova, and are produced under the Chinese flag. This new Chinese expansion, on a scale not seen since the 15th century when Chinese ships made it to Arabian and African shores, has found its symbol – the Olympic Games. Since March this year, it seemed that the staging of the Games was in clear jeopardy. Travelling around the world, the Olympic flame was met with storm of protests coming from people supporting the Tibetan quest for an independent state. Human rights activists pointed to the number of people in China being persecuted, and that the figure was much higher than simply the number

ČAVIĆ vs PHELPS

GENERATION GAP

A COUNTRY DIVIDED

Serbian swimmer Milorad Čavić was closest to beating the best athlete of the Beijing Olmypic Games. In the 100m butterﬂy, Čavić was leading the whole time, but Phelps won by less than one hundredth of a second. Serbia lodged a complaint to the judges’ decision, but dropped it in the end.The US swimmer was a clear winner in every of other seven races.

The youngest competitors seemed to be the subject of many discussions at the Games. Due to age limitations, there were suspicions that certain athletes, primarily the Chinese female gymnasts, had forged their birth certiﬁcates. Athletes who were well into their 50s won the biggest number of medals at the Olympics so far.

A total of 10,500 athletes took part in competing in 302 events in 28 sports, one event more than scheduled for the 2004 games. 2 The 2008 Beijing Olympics will also mark the third time that Olympic events will have been held in the territories of two different National Olympic Commitees (NOCs), as the equestrian events are being held in Hong Kong.

CorD / September 2008 27

SOCIETY

of Tibetans or Muslims in the north east of the country. Various environmental organizations said that the Olympic Games would just increase the pollution of an already polluted environment. Politically speaking, such protests have been met with approval from many states. Russia, Canada and the USA know what it’s like to boycott the Games so the number of demands to boycott the ones in Beijing steadily grew. Of course such events also mean big business for companies around the world, and the so-called “boomerang effect” would effect those others proposing the boycott too, if to a somewhat smaller extent. Beijing remained firm, and to get the Games made specific commitments with regard to human rights and freedom of speech to the International Olympic Committee. Like the quality of the air the athletes are going compete in, Beijing has come up short on the standards it set for itself. The IOC wasn’t that successful in enforcing the contract that was signed by Beijing, with the grey, humid smog that hung over the city providing a useful metaphor for the whole debate. The authorities said that the air quality was fairly good but, like the human rights issue, it is all a question of where you start from. The air is better than it has been, but nowhere near as clean as Beijing promised. In the sporting sense, even if the Chinese were not the most successful nation when it came to the total number of medals, the most important thing would be whether or not they had won more golds than their biggest competitors, the Americans. There were only two true stars at the Games: the phenomenal 28 CorD / September 2008

US swimmer, Michael Phelps, the winner of 8 gold medals, and Jamaican Usain Bolt who set a new world record of 19.30 seconds in the Men’s 200m final to take the gold medal in this event. Bolt is the first man to win the 100m and 200m in the same Olympics since Carl Lewis in 1984. If the world is set to change after these Olympics, there can be no doubt that China will too, in a political sense. At no other time in history have so many foreigners and so many Chinese citizens been thrown together for such a long time. China may not have kept all of its promises concerning the Games, but did make a good show of goodwill and responsibility. This is something that the state will have to carry forward from here, and not just with regard to human rights and the environment. China will now have to find a balance between the state and its citizens, between the private and the public. In the world of the WTO, IMF and

the UN, the rift between rich and poor has grown to affect whole countries and not just groups of individuals. China needs to prove that its system of government and economics are effective enough to do something to close this gap. They need to show that their system can provide for and satisfy their own people, or the rest of the world will soon not be able to help noticing. So much reform, construction and endeavour as has been seen would not have been possible in any Western democracies. Relocating hundreds of thousands of people and bringing in so many construction workers to attempt such a complete transformation and training athletes to world standard in hitherto unheard of sports is a testament to China’s system of government. The $50 billion investment in the Olympics appears to have paid off, and in a way, the Games themselves almost took a back seat to the real spectacle.

China proud

he Western press has been awash in coverage of all the negative aspects of China’s Games. There’s horrendous pollution in Beijing, which has forced entire teams to train off-shore in South Korea or Japan and wear masks for much of their stay. China’s continuing ethnic unrest exploded again last week before Olympics in the western province of Xinjiang in an attack by a group of Uighurs, an ethnic minority, on a Chinese police post. And the heavy hand of the regime, which is still blocking many Internet sites during the Games, has cracked down on dissidents. But nearly all of the media have been unanimous on one positive point: Average Chinese citizens are immensely proud of these Olympics. Thousands of Chinese, “many without event tickets, flock to Beijing to bask in national pride,” read the subhead to a recent Washington Post story. “Even the cynical succumb to a moment of real national pride,” read a New York Times headline. Indeed, many Chinese are proud of being able to stage such an important event.

REGION

Montenegro between Summer and Autumn

Opposition’s Campaign for Power Politically speaking, Montenegro is entering this autumn with a re-opened question - is it possible to overthrow the existing government, which has consisted of a coalition of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS) and the Socialdemocratic party of Montenegro (SDP) for years? BY ILIJA DESPOTOVIĆ

ttempts to “put an end to”, as some oppositionists say, “the only remaining communist regime in Europe” are nothing new, but until now such attempts have always ended in disaster for the opposition, even though they made various alliances for the purpose. However, the most dramatic losses were at parliamentary elections, while DPS and SDP won absolute majorities. Dire defeats at the referendum and presidential elections are also undoubtedly included in the negative balance of the opposition. The candidate for the ruling coalition, Filip Vujanović won around 52 percent of the votes at this year’s elections in April, more than three of his opposing candidates, Nebojša Medojević from the Movement for Changes, Andrija Mandić from the Serb People’s Party, and Srđan Milić from the Socialist People’s Party, combined. Still, the opposition is not easily discouraged. Just this summer the idea of making a union in order to change the government has reappeared. The most determined party is the Movement for Changes, whose leader Nebojša Medojević announced serious talks for creating an opposition “coalition” this September. All the parties in the opposition would like to see DPS and SDP leave the government, but the differences on the opposing side are so vast that attempts at “unity” would require almost magical intervention. It is not just about diverging programs and concepts, even in essential issues, such as state, nation, the Orthodox Church, language, joining NATO; the thing is, one could say, that opposition leaders show difficulties in sitting at the same political table in their civil lives as well. That is, they could, but if their “unity” would lead to a radical politi30 CorD / September 2008

cal change in Montenegro, to changing the current and establishing their own government, it is hard to imagine what that government would look like, and, more importantly, how it would function. Some parties in the opposition are strictly sovereignistic, completely dedicated to an independent Montenegro, like the Liberal Party; others, like for example the Movement for Changes, try to create an impression of being “pro-Montenegrin” and “pro-Serbian” and “pro-Albanian” and “pro-Bosnian”. The Serb People’s Party, led by Andrija Mandić, is an extremely pro-Serbian oriented party, that still has not recognized the fact that Montenegro is an independent state. Their delegates boycott Montenegrin national symbols, and Mandić himself once said that in a water polo match between Montenegro and Serbia he supported the neighboring country’s team. Mandić gave a fervent speech at a rally supporting Radovan Karadžić in Belgrade, after which he was reprimanded even by the opposing People’s Party. This party currently has the most doubts about the possibility of

the opposition reaching an agreement. The Socialist People’s Party, led by former presidential candidate Srđan Milić, is more-orless constructive when it comes to the postindependence situation in Montenegro. This summer, Milić was elected president of the National Council for European Integrations by DPS delegates. The opposition does not have a unified political stance even when it comes to issues that arise daily, for example, regulating dual nationality, or Montenegro joining NATO, or recognizing the independence of Kosovo. They were even divided on the question of electing a president

OPPOSITION

CORRUPTION

RADICAL SHIFT

The SPP is an extremely pro-Serbian oriented party, that still has not recognized the fact that Montenegro is an independent state.The opposition does not have a uniﬁed political stand even when it comes to issues that arise daily, for example, Montenegro joining NATO, or recognizing the independence of Kosovo.

The country is faced with a serious trade deﬁcit, the lack of electric energy, the prices of which will probably rise again, even though they were raised at the end of this spring.There have been successes in the ﬁght against corruption and organized crime, although much less than one would hope.

The coming autumn in Montenegro will certainly not bring political calm. On the contrary, radical shifts in the political scene are possible. It is not likely that anyone will resort to any kind of removal from power in the streets, just like in Montenegro in the period from 1988 to 1989, although nothing is ruled out.

for the National Council for European Integrations, even though they agreed with the government that it would surely be someone from the opposition. The fight for control will undoubtedly be a heavy burden for the opposition in the attempt to create an anti-governmental front as well. At least two parties, the Movement for Changes and the Serb People’s Party, that is their leaders Medojević and Mandić, are striving to lead; however, neither has the support of all opposition parties. In any case, it seems that the opposition intends to make another effort to change the government. They are also encouraged by disagreements in the ruling coalition, and especially by the fact that the president of DPS and prime minister, Milo Đukanović, announced that the early elections might be held even before the end of 2009, even though that date is also premature, because the regular date for parliamentary elections is not until autumn 2010. This summer, DPS and SDP parliament delegates voted differently on the government’s Bill on Concessions for Foreign Investors, and before that they disagreed on the Law on Property-Legal Relations. The reason for this is that DPS is much more liberal in its views on conditions for foreign investors and privatization, while SDP leans more to the left-wing on this issue. Commenting on these differences, Đukanović said that it would not be a problem if the early elections were held even in the next few months, even if the two rul-

order to ensure the support of a significant part of the Montenegrin population, supposedly, foremost retired persons, the unemployed, the socially-challenged, and others. According to certain university professors, this party knows how to control fears, and has done ever since they came into power in 1990. They manage to convince most citizens that they keep “rescuing” them, from war, the international community’s sanctions, NATO bombing, etc, says University of Montenegro professor Risto Kilibarda. It is often stated, especially by the opposition, that DPS is nothing but a communist party in disguise, which is a very superficial view, even though it did develop out of the former Communist Union of Montenegro. Supporters of this view state that Montenegro has had the same government for almost two decades. However, the fact is that the same Democratic Party

The question of how long DPS’s rule will last (SDP was the opposition for many years) started to occupy not only ordinary political analysts, but also politicologists, sociologists, and other experts.Their explanations can usually be summed up in the opinion that DPS is a clientelistic party, a party that employs various channels, inﬂuences, and models, and uses interest in order to ensure the support of a signiﬁcant part of the Montenegrin population, foremost among them retired persons, the unemployed, the socially-challenged, and others. ing parties were to run independently. SDP leader and Assembly President, Ranko Krivokapić also does not shy away from elections; however, he states that there is no conflict between the parties of the ruling coalition, but only a “healthy dispute” on the question of Montenegro’s development. The question of how long DPS’s rule will last (SDP was in the opposition for many years) started to occupy not only ordinary political analysts, but also politicologists, sociologists, and other experts. Their explanations can usually be summed up in the opinion that DPS is a clientelistic party, a party that employs various channels, influences, and models, and uses interest in

of Socialists went through many changes, in their program and their political profile. The party’s history started with a strong populist entrance, in the period after the so-called anti-bureaucratic revolution in Montenegro, which was 20 years ago this autumn. Also, DPS was an extremely proYugoslav party, supporting Milošević’s model, and in the end it managed to present itself as a sovereignistic party, led by Milo Đukanović who went down the same road and who is personally the most deserving for the realization of Montenegro’s national independence. Following this logic, it is not true that Montenegro has been governed by the same party. Without inves-

tigating the means they used, we can say that DPS managed to arise as a dynamic political organization, ready to adjust to current needs. In any case, the coming autumn in Montenegro will certainly not bring political calm. On the contrary, radical shifts in the political scene are possible, at least from next year. It is not likely that anyone will resort to any kind of removal from power in the streets, just like in Montenegro in the period from August 1988 to January 1989, although nothing is ruled out. Especially since there have been open threats of protests, for example in relation to the expected recognition of the independence of Kosovo. This makes comparisons the “Kosovo August” two decades ago inevitable. At that time, the Kosovo politics of the Montenegrin government were the cause that set off the populist machinery that overthrew it. In the autumn of 1988, socio-economic reasons were added to this, and, with the instructions and help of Slobodan Milošević’s government, all this was packed into the idea of “Defending Yugoslavia”; and so, Montenegro was the first to fall in the attempt to “Kosovize” the then united state. Evidently, the situation is significantly different today; however there is no doubt that neither the ideas nor the political forces that disagree with an independent Montenegro have disappeared. Of course, the situation in the independent state is not rosy either. After several years without inflation, this economic ogre is now reappearing. The country is faced with a serious trade deficit, the lack of electric energy, the prices of which will probably rise again, even though they were raised at the end of this spring. There have been successes in the fight against corruption and organized crime, although many fewer than one would hope, not only when it comes to the opinions of the always unsatisfied Europe, but also in the awareness of the citizens of Montenegro themselves. All this can be yeast for the “cake” that the opposition is trying to bake. Although the government also has the ingredients to ensure another win at the parliamentary elections. CorD / September 2008 31

B2B

NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE E.B. OF PIRAEUS BANK

iraeus Bank Group has appointed Mr. Dimitris Frangetis as the new Chairman of the Executive Board of Piraeus Bank A.D. Beograd. Mr. Frangetis assumes this position following long experience in top banking positions. In 2004, he joined Piraeus Bank Group at the position of the General Manager of Tirana Bank, the second largest bank in Albania, with a network of 40 branches and 430 employees at the end of 2007. During Mr. Frangetis’ tenure, Tirana Bank increased its total credit portfolio 5 times and its profits 3 times. Mr. Frangetis has also been a member of the Executive Committee of the Greek Banks Association. The former Chairman of the Executive Board, Mr. Branimir Marković, has been nominated to the position of the Member of the Board of Directors of Piraeus Bank A.D. Beograd.

IMT STILL WAITING FOR BUYER

t’s been nine months since submission of tender bids for purchase of IMT (Machine and Tractor Industry), and who will end up buying the company is still unclear. “The Agency has sent a letter to the relevant Ministry expressing our opinion and has left the Ministry to decide on the matter. However, they still haven’t given their opinion” says IMT’s Director, Slobodan Petrović. The Privatization Agency’s recommendation is to commence negotiations with the third ranked bidder – a consortium called Agri Investments, which is comprised of Serbian company MPC and Italian Adrianno Corsi and which offered €76 milllion for the company, but no investment programme. Three bidders submitted their offers at the tender for IMT, and businessman Filip Zepter won with the offer of €121.1 million for the company’s capital and €10.2 million for investments. The Agency signed a contract with Mr. Zepter on April 11th, but he withdrew afterwards. In

THREE BIDDERS FOR JAT TEHNIKA

wo companies from Israel and one from Hungary have purchased the tender documentation for JAT Tehnika. The Privatization Agency invited a tender for the sale of 70% of JAT Tehnika’s capital in mid-July, with the 26th Septemtember

being the deadline for submission of bids. JAT Tehnika is an airplane maintenance company which has been separated from JAT Airways and is now 100% stateowned. The company is capable of servicing 100 airplanes per year.Source: Tanjug

MERCATOR IN KRUŠEVAC

WORLD AIRLINE AWARDS

lovenian supermarket chain Mercator is going to open a hypermarket in Kruševac in mid-2009, worth €10 million. The investor is M Centar Grupa, Mercator’s strategic partner in Serbia. Around 250 people will find employment in the hypermarket. Source:Beta 32 CorD / September 2008

very year, one of the most renowned companies which specializes in evaluating global airlines, the British company Skytrax, awards the best airlines with the World Airline Award. Over 15 million passengers from 95 countries had their say about services these companies offer to their customers. This time around, Austrian Airlines won several awards including the first place for catering services in business class on long-distance flights, the first place for cabin crew at European flights and third place for catering services in economy class on long-distance flights.

mid-July, the second-ranked bidder, a consortium put together by a Polish company, PolMot Varfarm and Neverfield Limited, represented by former Serbian Energy Minister, Goran Novaković, also withdrew from the whole deal. They offered €109.3 million for IMT’s capital and investments amounting to €13 million. Source:Tanjug

€160 MILLION INVESTED IN NETWORK

ome September, i.e. three months before the deadline, VIP Mobile will have covered 50% of the Serbian territory and regional roads with its network of base stations. “So far, VIP Mobile has invested close to €160 million in building up the mobile telephone network in Serbia” said a member of the company’s managing board, Darko Parun for the Beta press agency. Parun adds that what remains to be done, in accordance to the mobile telephony licence, is to cover 80% of the Serbian territory with VIP’s network by the year 2010. “We are gradually going to stop using national roaming services with Telekom Serbia depending on how fast we cover the market with our network”, Parun said and added that similar activities could start in the region in 2009. Source:Beta

CONTRACT FOR BOSKA IN SEPTEMBER

IKEA AND CORA IN KRAGUJEVAC?

he contract for the privatization of the Boska Department Store is tentatively set to be signed in September with a consortium formed by the companies Delta and Zekstra. Director of Boska, Ljubomir Dakić says that there are no problems in implementation of the privatization procedure which was approved by the Republic of Srpska’s Parliament in June. He adds that all necessary procedures needed for the privatization to begin are currently being carried out. Dakić refutes claims that Delta gave up on buying Boska and broke off the consortium with Zekstra for, allegedly, being unhappy with certain key issues not being resolved, meaning the legal status of the facilities situated in the department store’s ground floor. The consortium offered €3 million of 58.52% of the state-owned capital in Boska and additional €3 million for investments. The consortium also promised not to fire any of the 254 employees and to pay any outstanding debts to them. Source: Nezavisne novine

total of €140 million will be spent on constructing supermarket chains in Kragujevac. Metro Cash & Carry invested €15 million in construction of a distribution centre, stretching across 6,000 square metres. The centre now employs 220 workers. Mercator’s shopping mall was opened in Kragujevac on August 30th, an investment worth €20 million. This facili-

ty, called the Roda Centre, covers 30,000 square metres and employs 300 people. Last week, Israeli company Plaza Centres signed a contract on construction of a contemporary, multi-functional shopping and business centre called Plaza Kragujevac. The complex is said to be worth €60 million, and will be built in a part of Kragujevac called Old Workers Colony. This centre will stretch across 80,000 square metres, the construction is planned to begin on September 1st and finish in 18 month’s time. Once finished, the centre will employ around 1,000 people. Austrian company Supernova will also start building a 60,000-square-metre-shopping mall worth €45 million in Kragujevac this autumn. According to the unofficial information, Swedish IKEA, French Cora and Croatian Agrokor are all on the look-out for locations in Kragujevac suitable for constructing shopping malls. Source: FoNet

Vladimir Zečar, the President of the Bank of Moscow Belgrade’s Executive Board

NEW LOCATION FOR GENERAL MOTORS?

erbia is going to offer to General Motors a new location for production of the Opel Astra, says Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, Mlađan Dinkić. He pointed out that the whole deal depended only on General Motors and not Serbia, and added that he would talk to the representatives of the US car maker if they show interest. Dinkić also said that he would allow them to re-locate their production. In mid-July 2007, Zastava from Kragujevac signed a contract with General Motors covering the production of Astra Classic II cars, and the production was supposed to start by the end of this year. In April 2008, Serbian Government signed a contract on strategic partnership with FIAT which stipulates that FIAT is going to produce two new models of Zastava. According to Dinkić, FIAT is not keen on having an Opel Astra production line in the same factory, because it needs the complete production space. Source: B92, Beta

BANK OF MOSCOW IN SERBIA

ank of Moscow Belgrade, a part of one of the three biggest banks in Russia, is going to become operational in Serbia soon. The bank announces that it is going to focus on economy by providing better products and services, as well as retail loans at a later date. The Bank of Moscow invested €15 million in Serbia and hired 40 people, and the plan is to hire a total of 70 employees by the end of 2008. According to Vladimir Zečar, the President of the Bank of Moscow Belgrade’s Executive Board, the bank plans to open three branch offices in Serbia, in Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad by the end of 2008. Zečar also announced that the bank is going to use its extensive operative experiences and the positive business practices of its mother bank, and that it will endeavour to transfer those practices to Serbian companies. Bank of Moscow Belgrade will also create a synergy of the experience of the mother bank, European business standards and the experience of domestic banking experts in getting acquainted with the Serbian market. Businessmen will be offered favourable loans, deposit and payment options and other quality services in a swift and efficient manner. As the reason for coming to Serbian market, the first in South East Europe, the bank says that good relations between Serbia and Russia were the cause, but also the opportunities for doing business on a market that is constantly developing. Zečar pointed out that the aim of Bank of Moscow Belgrade is to please the client, and that their mission was to constantly surpass clients’ expectations. CorD / September 2008 33

B2B

POSITIVE RATING OF GREECE-BASED PIRAEUS BANK

he Bank improved its profitability, solvency and market position One of the world leading rating agencies – FitchRating has upgraded Greecebased Piraeus Bank’s Long-term Issuer Default (IDR) rating to ‘A-‘ from ‘BBB+’, while Piraeus’ other ratings have been affirmed. Affirmed ratings include Short-term IDR, Individual, Support and Support Rating Floor. Following the significant upgrade, the Outlook for the Long-term IDR has been changed to Stable from Positive. The upgrade acknowledges the increased capital base, good risk management frame-

K work and better asset quality indicators, as well as continued good performance, improving franchise in Greece and South-Eastern European countries (including Serbia), and London and New York. Greek-based Piraeus Bank achieved this positive rating thanks to good market position, successful development strategy and sound solvency.

SALE OF COMPANIES FROM FORMER YUGOSLAVIA STOPPED

uction sales of the companies whose headquarters were in the former Yugoslav republics have been suspended, said Serbian Economy Minister, Mlađan Dinkić. He explained that such decision was made because the legal act which stipulated the property of those companies becoming state-owned was adopted during the time of the so-called technical government and not much attention was given to its content. Minister Dinkić pointed out that he asked for additional

NEW BRANCH OFFICES OF KBC BANKA

consultations to be held with the succession experts about the property owned by the former Yugoslav republics in order to make a final decision whether to continue implementing the current act, change it or abolish it. According to Dinkić, the analysis of that act should be finished in September, and there would be no auctions held until then. He said that the government would ascertain whether the act was opposed to the succession agreement and added that Serbia was keen

BEOHEMIJA-INHEM TO CONQUER SLOVENIAN MARKET

BC banka ad Beograd, a member of the banking & insurance KBC Group, has opened a new office in Užice recently, which operates under the Čačak branch office. KBC banka now has 56 branch offices and plans to open twelve more around Serbia by the end of this year, with a special focus on Belgrade.

on having good neighbourly relations with Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. At its session held on June 19th, the Government of Serbia, with Vojislav Koštunica at its helm, adopted the changes to the Act on Protection of Property of Companies from the Former Yugoslavia by which the courts were ordered to register the property of such companies as state-owned. After that, the auction sales of those companies were scheduled. Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina sent demarches to Serbia following the decision. Source: Beta

BETTER COOPERATION BETWEEN CHINA AND SERBIA

he company Beohemija-Inhem d.o.o has purchased Sloveniabased company Šampionka and became the sole owner of this renowned household chemicals producer. The value of the acquisition is €6 million, and by 2011 Beohemija-Inhem will have invested around €10 million in a production plant, infrastructure, new jobs and improvement of operations of the Renča-based company. “Acquisition in Slovenia is a logical step in our expansion to regional markets, but also to the markets of the European Union. We are 34 CorD / September 2008

proud that we can pass on the experience from Serbia to Slovenia and that we have shown that success of a domestic company like this is possible. Significant investments await us and we strongly believe that BeohemijaInhem will become an influential presence on the Slovenian market,” said Milanko Ruljević, the Deputy Director General of Beohemija-Inhem. Renčabased Šampionka is one of the biggest producers and distributors of household cleaning materials and toiletries on the Slovenian market.

conomic cooperation between Serbia and China could be improved primarily by bringing Chinese investments and know-how to Serbia. Serbia imports a variety of goods from China and, last year, China was the fourth biggest exporter to Serbia, with the export value of $1.2 billion. At the same time, Serbia’s export to China was negligible - said Serbian Ambassador to China, Momir Udovički. Unbalanced economic collaboration, i.e. the trade exchange between Serbia and China, could not only be improved by Serbia exporting more to this country, but also by bringing Chinese investments here, Udovički said and pointed out that China should not only be considered as a country suitable for investing, but also a country which has invested close to $70 billion abroad so far. Chinese investors could bring technology and their electronics and domestic appliances know-how to Serbia, and they could also open factories and specialized production zones. According to him, China is the second country in the world when it comes to the total length of constructed roads, which is something that could be beneficial to Serbia. Source: Beta

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

MONDIALOGO SCHOOL CONTEST IN BEIJING

he finalists for the Mondialogo School Contest 2007/2008 have been decided. Daimler and UNESCO have announced the 50 best schools at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Participants from a total of 36 countries will be represented at the final, among them one school from Serbia. The Ugostiteljsko turisticka skola has made it to the final with its partner from Lebanon. The team with Serbian involvement has been working on a project dealing with the topic of inclusive education. In each team students from two schools in different countries have been working together. This year 2,740 school teams with a total of 36,000 school students between the ages of 14 and 18 from 144 countries

ENERGY TREATY WITH RUSSIA IN MID-SEPTEMBER

ncreasing the number of gas pipelines will take precedent in negotiations about implementation of the treaty with Russia - says Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Economy Minister, Mlađan Dinkić. He says that there is enough room to improve the energy treaty in all its aspects, including the price offered for the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS). “Even the Russians say that the price of €400 million for NIS was set on the basis of an evaluation dating back to 2006. In the meantime, the global crude oil price doubled while NIS’ profit tripled. Bearing that in mind, it makes sense to conclude a contract in line with the prices that are valid at that moment” the Minister said. “I find it odd that during the last month or so, everybody has been talking only about NIS, forgetting the gas pipeline, like the energy treaty was written solely about NIS, and not the pipeline as well” Dinkić said. He went on to say that he was quite certain that the energy treaty between Russia and Serbia was going to be ratified in mid-September, with negotiations starting right after that. The negotiation process is planned to have been finished by the end of this year. According to Dinkić, Serbia’s primary concern is to secure safe gas supply for the country and that NIS is managed in a way that will bring profit and an adequate price of the company’s shares allocated to Serbian citizens and NIS’ employees. The energy treaty, which awaits to ratification in the Serbian Parliament, stipulates the sale of 51% of NIS to Russian Gazprom or its daughter company, as well as construction of the South Stream gas pipeline through Serbia. Source:B92

took part. Key criteria for the nomination were the intensity of the intercultural dialogue between the partner teams and the creative implementation of the projects. The 50 nominated teams are invited to Beijing/China from 25 to 28 September 2008. Here the partner teams will meet in

person for the first time and present their projects to an international jury. The jury will select the best three and announce the winners at a festive Award Ceremony. The contest, initiated by Daimler and UNESCO in 2003, is the largest global contest on intercultural dialogue. The aim of this global contest is to encourage dialogue between school students of different cultural origins, who work together across continents on a joint project. Through the intercultural project work, school students are intended to develop understanding, tolerance and respect for people with different cultures, religions, languages and origins. For more information: www.mondialogo.org

VOIP COMES TO SERBIA

he rule book on how to use the Voice over Internet Protocol (VOiP) should be written by October at the latest according to Serbian Minister of Telecommunications and Information Society, Jasna Matić. The Ministry is working on the rule book together with the Republic Telecommunications Agency (RATEL) which regulates this sector. It has been estimated that 70% of the total telephone traffic will be based on the VoiP by the year 2010. During her visit to VIP Mobile, the Minister said that it was still too early days to talk about issuing VOiP licences, and added that, in Serbia, licences would probably not be assigned via tender, but to individual companies. Last week, Jasna Matić said that providing VOiP services in Serbia was not allowed as yet since that sector hasn’t been properly regulated. There are several companies in Serbia that are providing such services, with the prices of international calls being up to seven times lower than the ones of the only ground telephony operator in Serbia – Telekom. Source: Beta

CONTRACT IN SEPTEMBER

he Contract on Joint Investment concluded by Serbia and FIAT in Zastava is ready and will be signed in September – says Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Economy Minister, Mlađan Dinkić. With regard to the social programme for Zastava’s employees, Dinkić said that the programme would enable the workers who had up to five years left to retirement to voluntarily leave the company with a severance pay of €2,700, in addition to a monthly sum which they would continue receiving until they became eligible for pension. This sum would amount to 60% of an average salary in Serbia, and the workers would be paid every month after they sign an agreement on consensual leave. Source: B92

ROBNE KUĆE BEOGRADBECOME OPERATIONAL

y the end of this year, the Verano company will open reconstructed department stores in Belgrade, Niš, Subotica and Kraljevo. The first department store to be opened will be the one in a part of Belgrade called Dušanovac, at the beginning of October, while in mid-October, the company will open two facilities, one in Terazije and one in Zemun. The biggest department store in this chain called Beograđanka will be opened just before the New Year’s, while stores in Niš, Subotica and Kragujevac will be opened in mid-December. Source: Blic CorD / September 2008 35

B2B

THE FIRST VISA PLATINUM CARD IN THE REGION

AUDI SPONSOR OF THE SERBIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP IN SHOW JUMPING

n the 6th August Komercijalna banka AD Belgrade and Visa Company presented the Visa Platinum credit card, the first of its kind in Serbia and the whole region. In cooperation with Visa Company, Komercijalna banka AD Belgrade became one of only 90 banks in the world and the only one in Serbia that issues this exclusive card. Visa Platinum credit cards are assigned to premium users, and provide the highest level of service with the aim of supporting their active and demanding lifestyle.

“This is a status card, that ensures prestige, individuality, absolute security, comfort and privileged treatment, but at the same time exceptional functionality”, said Dr. Predrag Mihajlović, deputy head of Komercijalna banka AD Beograd Executive Board. Apart from high limits that grant users greater purchasing power and personal indulgence, Visa Platinum cards automatically ensure safety and protection in case of robbery or loss, ancillary services in the field of health, travel insurance and other privileges. Visa Platinum cards use state-of-theart chip technology and the highest protection standards. A dedicated service for reporting lost and stolen cards ensures users’ security, and promises to supply the user with a new replacement card, regardless of where the user is located. In case of unpredictable circumstances when user is not in a position to get essential cash, Visa will strive to get emergency funds to them in the fastest and simplest way. “Visa is very proud of the fact that Komercijana banka Visa Platinim credit card is the first prestigious card of this kind in the whole region and South-Eastern Europe where Visa operates. Therefore Visa wants to support and improve active lifestyle of its users who know to appreciate real values and brands. Consumers with high financial potential expect a high quality of services and know to appreciate excellent offers. Visa Platinum cards offer full privileges and directly fulfil the needs of even the most demanding clients. This Visa card continuously gives possibilities for new life experiences“. - Jean-Marc Tonti - Vice President South East Europe for Visa. 36 CorD / September 2008

he finale of the Serbian Open Championship in Show Jumping was sponsored by a prestigious automobile brand, Audi. This company is the sponsor of the Equestrian Association which was the Championship’s organizer. The two-day competition was held at the Belgrade Hippodrome in mid-August.

FRIKOM BUYS MIVELA

rikom Company, which is owned by Croatian Agrokor, is the first-ranked company in the tender for purchase of 70% of the Nova Sloga Company from Trstenik. Frikom offered €4 million for this agricultural estate and an investment programme worth €11 million, the Serbian Privatization Agency announced. A bid submitted by Belgrade’s Delta Agrar, which is a part of Delta Holding, took the second place at the tender with the offered price of €3.3 million and €5 million worth of investments. A consortium of companies - Univerzal TPM from Belgrade and Plima M from Kruševac - took the third place with their offer of €1.01 million and investments worth €6.13 million. Source: Beta

EBRD PROVIDES LOANS FOR IDEA

BRD is considering granting a €70 million loan to Idea for the development of its retail network in Serbia. The money will be also used for financial reconstruction of the company. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says that the project will support the regional investor in Serbia and development of its retail network, especially outside Belgrade, where the modern retail businesses are not that developed. Also, implementation of this project will contribute to advancing relations with the local suppliers. The project is valued at €120 million, and if the EBRD grants the loan, €35 million will be paid from the EBRD’s account and the rest from other banks involved in the loan. Croatia-based Agrokor owns Idea. Agrokor is the leading food producer and distributor in Croatia and one of the leading retailers in South-East Europe. Izvor: Beta

RUSSIANS BUILDING IN SIJARINSKA SPA

Russian couple plans to build a four-star-hotel in the Sijarinska Spa. The Russians have already purchased half a hectare of land in the centre of the Spa for the hotel and they intend to buy three more hectares, says the President of Medveđa Municipality, Slobodan Drašković. He could not say how much the investment was worth since the project documentation was still not completed, but did point out that the hotel would have four storeys and 300 beds, and that it would be finished in two years time. “These are the first Russians to invest in the Jablanički County” Drašković said. According to him, other Russian investors plan to come to the Sijarinska Spa. The spa has a unique natural hot water spring as well as 18 mineral water springs with healing properties. The Government of Serbia and the Coordination Body for the South Serbia financed the construction of a small pool complex, while a kilometre further down there is a water polo pool and sports grounds. Also, the spa has a complete road and utility infrastructure. Source: Beta

EAR PROVIDES FUNDS FOR WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

VOLVO IN OCEAN COLOURS

his year, the Volvo automobile corporation marked its third participation in a row in the unique nautical competition, the Volvo Ocean Race - starting on October 4 in the Spanish port of Alicante and ending on June 27, 2009 in the Russian harbour Sankt-Peterburg – with the release of a special eponymous series of three cars, two of which are already available to buyers in Serbia. The sole agent of Volvo cars in Serbia, Grand Motors, showed journalists the Volvo XC70 and Volvo XC90 with Ocean Race designations. Special accessories are built into the well-equipped cars, including brushed aluminium foot-

IMF ON REGIONAL ECONOMIES

ontenegro and Albania have recorded the biggest economic growth in the Balkans this year – the IMF says. In the period when GDP is dropping in Western Europe, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a positive forecast for Montenegrin and Albanian economies. The electronic media in Podgorica report that Montenegro’s GDP will grow by 7.2% this year, and Albania’s by 6%. According to the IMF, Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina will achieve economic growth of 5.5% by the end of this year, while the Romanian economy will grow by 5.4%, Macedonia’s by 5% and the Croatian economy will record a 4.2% growth. With regard to Serbia, the country has the lowest growth rate in the region at 4%. Getting closer to the European Union and opening Balkan markets will lead to higher competitiveness and this will provide Balkan economies with a new chance for development, the report says. Source: FoNet

step inlays, special Ocean Race leather coverings for the seats and the interior, new covers for the rear storage compartment, bi-xenon headlights and special metallic ocean race colours or electric silver paintjobs. On the XC70 Ocean Race model there are 17-inch aluminium rims with seven fingers, and on XC90 Ocean Race boasts 18-inch rims with six fingers. XC70 Ocean Race is also equipped with rear parking sensors, and a custom front mask, fog lamp and air router (spoiler). In the interior of Volvo XC90 Ocean Race there is a rear view mirror with automatic dimming and a compass.

SERBIA, THE SECOND LARGEST INVESTOR IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

erbia is the second largest foreign investor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after Austria which invested €1.294 billion so far. Other foreign companies invested a total of €300 million in Bosnia during the first six months of 2008. According to the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA), Austrian companies invested the most (€98 million), Slovenia invested €69 million, while Croatian investments amount to €40 million and Serbia’s amounted to €38 million. With regard to individual companies, Austrian company ALAS International AG Ohisdorf made the biggest investment in the last six months by purchasing the Lukavac Cement Plant. Serbian MPC Holding bought the Sarajevo Hotel Holiday Inn for €32 million. During the same period, six Slovenian companies invested in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Source: Poslovni.hr

he European Agency for Reconstruction and Development (EAR) will finance construction of the regional water supply system in six municipalities of the Rasinski County. The value of this project is €13 million, with local self-governments securing €4 million from their own budgets and partly from the National Investment Plan (NIP). The remaining money (€9 million) should come from the European funds. The head of the support programme for to the Development of Local Self-Government Infrastructure, Kok Van Shoeten said that EAR representatives were going to provide support to the Kruševac project in front of the Steering Committee of the Republic Government which is going to vote on which projects will be granted an IPA assistance on September 9th. “Last year, EAR spent €80,000 on writing the project feasibility study which encompasses reconstruction and extension of the capacities of a water plant in Majdevo and the regional distribution network” Shoeten said. He added that Kruševac was one of the candidates for the so-called IPA financing, so EAR is going to appeal to the government that this project to be approved. Source: Beta

VINARSKA AT AUCTION

he Privatization Agency announced that it will offer 70% of the capital of Vinarska Podrumi Company from Vlasotince at an auction. The initial price is set at RSD150.7 million. The company grows vines, and deals in trading and catering. Future owners will have to undertake a modernization the company’s operations and invest at least RSD26 million. The most valuable properties of Vinarska are wine caves stretching across 3,000 square metres, warehouses and a restaurant. The total value of the company’s capital that is due to be privatized is estimated at RSD628 million, or €8.2 million. Vinarska Podrumi has 100 employees, and in 2007, the company’s revenue amounted to €322,000, while the expenditure was €764,000. The Privatization Agency asks prospective bidders to pay a deposit amounting to RSD75.3 million, and interested parties can register themselves for bidding by September 18th. Izvor:Beta

CorD / September 2008 37

CORPORATE WOMAN

Victoriya Boklag, Deputy CEO, Serbia Broadband

Love at First Sight „I think that Serbia will experience such economic growth which will be the envy of many other countries in the region. Of course, a lot needs to be done, a lot needs to be improved and developed.“ BY TATJANA OSTOJIĆ PHOTO: STANISLAV MILOJKOVIĆ

udging by her words, Victoriya Boklag, Deputy CEO of Serbia Broadband, fell in love with Serbia at first sight. She says that this is an ideal place for raising family and having children, as well as the right moment to conduct business.

What did your ﬁrst encounter with Serbia look like? I came from Ukraine to Serbia for the 38 CorD / September 2008

ﬁrst time in 2000, for a visit with my then boyfriend, now husband, who comes from Serbia but has been living abroad for some time. Even back then, Serbia left a good impression on me, and I really liked the people. This positive ﬁrst encounter contributed quite a bit to my decision to move to Serbia with my husband in 2002 During your visit to Serbia, how much of the country did you manage to see?

We came to Belgrade, and practically traveled all around Serbia. It was summer, and we went to Kopaonik and Montenegro by car when it was still one country. We also went to Tara. So, I can say that we literally visited the whole Serbia. We met quite a few people and it was really beautiful. Everything left a really positive impression on me. I also think that we chose the right moment to move to Serbia, i.e. in 2002, at the time of positive changes.

Language

learned Serbian at work. When I came to this country in 2002, I didn’t know a word of the language. I spoke English or Russian with my husband. When I worked in the fund, I used English mainly, but when I started working in SBB I had no foreigners working with me whatsoever. Everybody is Serb and out of 700 people, which is how much SBB currently employs, maybe only ten percent speak English, so I had to learn Serbian. The cases have always been the problem for me. My mother tongue is Russian, but I went to a Ukrainian school, so I learned Ukrainian. By the way, Ukrainian language is quite similar to Serbian and that has helped me a lot in learning your language.

Later, due to the political situation and instability, that positive pace has slowed down a bit, but I think that the positive momentum is back now. I think that economic growth in Serbia is inevitable, and what has been constantly missing was a political stability, which is present now. In your opinion, how much Ukraine and Serbia differ or resemble each other? We are not that far from each other. The language is similar and I think that Serbian language resembles more Ukrainian than Russian. In my opinion, people in Serbia are much more relaxed and possess more spirit. I strongly felt this when I gave birth to my daughter Jelisaveta – Liza, in Belgrade, three and a half years ago. This relationship with children, this warmth and heartiness is something that I haven’t felt anywhere, only in Serbia. Did you work in Ukraine? Yes, I worked for foreign investment funds in Ukraine. My last employment was in the biggest investment fund at that time there, Western NIS Enterprice Fund. Back then, the biggest funds in Ukraine were governmentally funded, American and European, and in practice had higher tolerance for risks associated with their investments. Western NIS Enterprise Fund had a capitalization of $150 million. Now, Ukraine has quite a few privatelybacked funds with significantly higher capitalization When I came to Serbia in 2002, I immediately started working for Southeast Europe Equity Fund, and it was that fund that invested in the former KDS, now SBB – Serbia Broadband. In the beginning, SBB was a rather small company, practically a greenfield investment. However, the timing was good for starting the cable business. I was sent by the fund to SBB to help move things along, to assist development. This is when I saw a chance of moving from an investment fund to the project like this one. I noticed from the very beginning that there was a potential to make SBB a large company. I made a final decision not to work in investment funds any longer, but in operations, at a corporate level. In July 2002, I was appointed Deputy CEO of SBB. Today, I hold the same position with the only difference being that we’ve grew a lot in the meantime. When you worked for investment funds, how familiar were you with telecommunications? Not that much, but now, I cannot even imagine working in any other sector. I really do like my job and I am very proud of what we have done. It was the right mo-

Entertainment and shopping

really like the rivers in Belgrade and we often go for a walk. Since our family tradition is that we don’t eat at home at weekends, we often go to a restaurant for lunch or dinner. There are ten or so restaurants and rafts that we frequent visit. If we are talking about shopping, I prefer to shop when I travel abroad, not because there are less things to buy here, but I have more spare time then. In Belgrade I am always in this “balance” state between family and work, so there is not much time left for other things. Since our office is in the very center of Belgrade, sometimes I dash to the Knez Mihailova Street to buy something. If I travel somewhere, even on a business trip, I always try to find an hour or so to use for shopping. I like to go to concerts and Belgrade is really good in that sense. Whenever an interesting band is playing, I make sure to see it. ment to launch something like this. We really did work a lot and still do. With the development of new technologies and convergences of different platforms, telecommunications have become one of the most interesting and dynamic sectors. What is interesting to see now is that cable operators are no longer battling each other. Now, we are fighting the competition which provides the same services on different platforms. I see SBB today as something that we have created together. So, at this moment, I cannot even imagine what could possibly appeal to me to start working for another company, especially when I think of SBB’s development potential on the Serbian market and in the region in providing new services based on existing infrastructure and know-how. SBB is also interested in fixed telephony? Yes, we are. We are interested, since we can see unification of services on all platforms. It has been announced that Telekom is going to start offering IPTV, which practically rounds up their triple play port-

folio of video, data and voice services. For now, our platform provides only video and data services. If you take a look at developed markets, the whole fight for customers takes place on the basis of the triple play offer. More and more customers in the developed markets take all three services from one operator. I think that people in Serbia will start doing that too. What is your estimate on how long will the monopoly in fixed telephony going to last? I really couldn’t tell you. That is very difficult to estimate since there are various factors that affect the decision to completely liberalize the market. We have publicly stated that we are interested in providing that kind of service, but the first tender for alternative operators of fixed telephony was opened to Wimax technology. I think that introducing new technologies and giving them an opportunity to provide fixed telephony services, while, at the same time bypassing existing platforms like cable which can already offer such services, is illogical to say the least. At this moment, we are developing the double play business quite successfully, while the triple one would be a really excellent addition. I think that liberalization is imminent, but when is that going to happen, whether in a year or two, or maybe in six months, I really could not tell you. How much would privatization of Telekom affect your business? We are two different technological platforms. Privatization is something that cannot be avoided. Telekom Serbia is a serious player, and I think that its privatization will not produce a large boom either on their or our side. We will surely remain competitors. Whether we are going to be friendly competitors in a sense that we partially depend on their infrastructure or the whole business will be completely separate, that is the question now. But the fight’ for subscribers will always be present as it is the case in all other markets where cable operators are taking a slice of voice and data markets from incumbent CorD / September 2008 39

CORPORATE WOMAN

Telcoms while Telecoms are increasingly dabbling into the video segment. Our core business is video, theirs is voice. This is what I said earlier – we are talking about different technological platforms, but same services. How much has Serbia changed business wise in the last six years? I think that the market today is far more advanced, especially when we look at the sectors like banking or food processing, as well as other industries that have undergone a really great development. The competition in some sectors is really becoming fierce, which is the essence of developed markets. Competition brings higher value to consumers, which is visible in the banking sector in Serbia, for example. With the country becoming politically more stable as a result of the new democratic government, the moment is right for Serbia to develop even further, especially when we bear in mind that the growth of countries in the wider region is slowing down. I think that Serbia will experience such economic growth which will be the envy of many other countries in the region. Of course, a lot needs to be done, a lot needs to be improved and developed. You need a legal framework that protects the investors’ rights, which is especially important to the foreign investors, and, in my opinion, Serbia has good basis for attracting foreign investments. For the past six years, the salaries have grown significantly and those people who left the country during sanctions and wars are now looking to come back, which is also a positive trend. In addition to that, Serbia has a well trained workforce, and the work environment here is excellent. In your opinion, do working mothers in Serbia have it harder or easier than their counterparts in Ukraine? I see no differences between working mothers in Serbia and Ukraine. Generally speaking, I think that women can be equally as successful as men, which is evident all around the world. But what is the most difficult thing for a woman and what I think is the reason behind men being more successful then women in general is a balance women need to find between career and family. I don’t see that Serbia is different to any other country in that respect. When you work and reach a certain level at the job, then you have children and family. And the balance between these things is the most important thing for a woman who wants to have a successful career. If we look at the business world, men are generally more successful and I think that is normal, since women have it differently. When they have a fam40 CorD / September 2008

Serbia – privately and professionally

have traveled all around Serbia, privately and professionally. We started SBB from Kragujevac with the headquarters in Belgrade. Today, we have our offices in 27 towns in Serbia, and I visited almost each one of them when we started developing business there. Privately, I like to travel outside Belgrade for a day or two with my family over weekend. The weekend is family time and I rarely work then. In addition to that, both my husband and me are fans of skiing so we really like to go skiing on Kopaonik.

ily, many of them decide in favor of that family, giving less weight to their career. How difficult is to balance private and professional life? It is difficult, but not impossible. I think that Serbia, in that respect, offers certain possibilities since the country has good pre-school facilities and schools, both public and private, and many terrific women who can help with the children. Generally speaking, Serbian children are loved. When my parents come to Serbia, they are amazed when they see how children are treated here. For example, when

I go out for a walk with my little girl, I feel very positive input from the people I meet. Everybody is willing to help, to talk to babies, to pay attention to kids and, in my opinion, that is really positive. I ﬁnd it really fascinating to see how much attention is given to children here. I had a really nice childhood in Ukraine. We don’t have that children reverence, for the lack of better word, in Ukraine. I cannot fully explain it, but there is a difference. I love Ukraine very much, I love going there, and, after all, my parents live there, but things are different here. Everything is somehow more open and warmer.

FACES & PLACES

Jean-Francois Terral and Mirko Svetkovic at French National Day at the French Ambassador’s Residence

The Japanese Ambassador greets Amﬁlohija, the Mitropolit of Montenegro

President of the Republic of Serbia Boris Tadic with the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia and Mrs. Sri Rahayu Dalimunthe on the Anniversary of Indonesian Independence at Belgrade City Hall 42 CorD / September 2008

Serbian President Boris Tadić receives the delegation of the Serbian Paraolympic Committee

American Ambassador Cameron Munter greets Miroslav Miskovic at the Independence Day celebrations at the American Residence

Cameron Munter and Canadian Ambassador Robert McDougall at Canada Day at the Canadian Ambassador’s Residence

Japanese Ambassador Tadashi Nagai at the Japanese Defence Forces day at the Japanese Residence.

Director Aleksandar Tijanić speaks at the anniversary of television company RTS in August

The Republic of Congo’s Ambassador to Serbia hosting the party for the Republic of Congo’s independence on June 13, 2008 CorD / September 2008 43

FACES & PLACES

Mayor Miloš Simonović greets Russian Ambassador Alexander Konuzin at the opening ceremony of the Niš ﬁlm festival.

A book of mourning has been opened in the Russian embassy to comemorate those who have died in the conﬂict.

Winner of the silver medal at the summer Olympics in Beijing, swimmer Milorad Ćavić visits one of his sponsors, EPS, after arriving in Belgrade.

Staff at the Tuborg tent at Belgrade’s annual Beer Fest pour a cold one for the customers.

Player Vladimir Radmanović has visited the refugee family Vujinović in the village of Elemir, near Zrenjanin.

Manager of Beach Centre Sagiv Meger and the Manager of the Company for Town Construction, Slobodan Krunić, at a contract signing in Kragujevac for the construction of the Multi-Functional Market-Business and Fun Centre, valued at 60 million euros. 44 CorD / September 2008

Protesters on Republic Square after the arrest and extradition to the Hague Tribunal of the ex-leader of Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadžić.

Deputy American Ambassador to Serbia, Jennifer Brush, has arranged a reception for the Serbian Diaspora and male choir “Kosovo” from Ohio.

Official Academy on the Official Gazette Day, and on the occasion of 195 years from publishing the first number of Novine serbske (Serbian Newspapers): Branislav Belić, Boris Tadić, Slobodan Gavrilović, Dobrica Ćosić.

Minister of Infrastructure Milutin Mrkonjić visiting construction sites in Čačak.

Scene from the shooting of the TV drama “Pogled s prozora” (Look from the window), directed by Marko Novaković in Deliblatska Sands: Mirjana Karanović, Marija Vicković.

Meeting of the Serbian Prime Minister Jovan Krkobabić and Slovakian Ambassador Igor Furdik.

CorD / September 2008 45

SOCIETY

Isolation, addiction and murder

Grand Theft Auto 4’s Niko Bellic lives a life of crime on the streets of a virtual New York City

Parade of the

e-Athletes I can’t remember the exact moment, but at some point in my life I must have reconciled myself to the fact that I would never be an Olympic athlete. Never shall I hear the words blasted over the tannoy: “and it’s a gold for Britain, there goes Richard Wordsworth, the fastest man alive!” Never shall my face be warmed by the ﬂame of the Olympic torch, and never shall I give a press conference dressed in Nike sweats. BY RICHARD WORDSWORTH

ut there’s a silver lining to every cloud, and while I may never in my life be held up by my peers as a chiselled exemplar of human sporting achievement, taught musculature rippling visibly beneath my revealingly tight spandex leotard, I can at the very least be satisfied that I will never 46 CorD / September 2008

stray to the opposite end of the sporting spectrum. Far from the glistening medals and the bright lights, in a dark basement lit only by the fluorescent glow of a computer monitor reflecting off empty crisp packets and cans of energy drink, I will never become an “e-athlete”. The internet may be great for a huge number of things – shopping, research, communication, etc. - but the one thing it

does better than all other forms of media is shameless self-aggrandisement. Remember those adverts for the internet back when it was still new? You wouldn’t be “browsing the internet”, you would be “surfing on the information super highway!” which is a pretty jazzy way of describing squinting in front of a glowing screen at 3 in the morning in your underwear waiting 15 minutes to download one e-mail. Can you think of two more diametrically opposed stereotypes than those of the tanned, lean, blond haired Miami Beach surfboard enthusiast and your idea of what a Microsoft employee looks like? Only the infinite power of the web could ever take such Orwellian examples of doublethink and infiltrate them into everyday parlance. But by far the greatest in my mind of such unintentionally hilarious misnomers

is the phenomenon of the “e-athlete”. I’m proud of being a bit nerdy. I’m one of those people who think computer games are an art form rather than brain rotting wastes of time and money. I watch Japanese cartoons on DVD and make jokes about the cake being a lie (which is like a litmus test for nerdiness.) I found it incredibly attractive that my ex girlfriend knew her way around a Playstation controller. I get all flushed and excited when I read technology magazines. “E-athletes” are much, much worse than that. The term describes a person obsessed with online computer games to the point where it is socially damaging. People who play computer games online against other people from around the world with a level of competitiveness usually reserved only for proper sportsmen. Playing online video games for hours each day, the unappealing image of the pasty, pudgy e-athlete uncomfortably straddles the line between interest and obsession, even in some cases tumbles ungracefully from the creaking fence into the realm of full blown addiction. It’s the bottom rung of the nerd hierarchy – a person with no social skills whatsoever and no real desire to learn any. In Western societies based around the idea of instant gratification, addiction has become one of the principal causes of unhappiness and social instability. With life gradually getting easier for more and more people, there’s more free time to devote to

A downed zombie from iD software’s Doom 3, the latest in the series which was blamed for the killings at Columbine claim. “We have seen gaming addicts go through the same type of withdrawal symptoms as drug and alcohol addicts. You have to stop – everything. Sounds frightening? It’s not easy, but it is part of learning to live in the “real world”” While the average nerd will always be a popular choice for the butt of a joke, usually relating to the characteristically large

“[GTAIV] outsold everything in the history of entertainment, ever, making it the most popular entertainment product of all time.” one’s own pursuits, and without maintaining a healthy balance this freedom coupled with a desire for immersive pleasure can manifest itself in psychological addictions to anything from drugs and alcohol to sex. And now, apparently, video games. In 2006 the Netherlands became the first country in the world to offer a rehabilitation clinic for treating video game addiction. A subsection of a bigger centre for addiction, the website for Smith and Jones’ Internet and Video Game facility warns that while computer games can be fun and innocent, “for some people they become an unhealthy obsession.” The company compare video game addiction to gambling addiction, saying that gamers fall into similar cycles of always believing that they will win the next round they play. They also warn that a common side effect of obsessive gaming is an addiction to stimulants players use to keep themselves awake while playing; stimulants like coffee, Red Bull and even amphetamines or cocaine. “Gaming is a serious addiction,” they

amount of time spent in fantasy worlds of computer games, comic books etc., there is undoubtedly a place in the world for the work of people like Smith and Jones. In some rare but massively publicised cases video game addiction can really go too far and twist someone’s perception of reality so much that it becomes dangerous. In 2005, 28 year old South Korean boiler repairman and video game enthusiast Lee Seung Seop actually died after playing the online game Starcraft for 50 hours

straight in an internet café. He was rushed to hospital immediately prior to his death and treated for exhaustion and dehydration, which eventually caused a heart attack. One’s gaming compulsion must be pretty severe if it can cause death by dehydration in a café. But I wish that was all there was to the idea of e-athletes, because then as someone who falls into both the “likes computer games” and “has not starved to death” sections of the video games pie chart I could shrug off such isolated examples and get on with enjoying computer games in peace. Stories of addiction are always harrowing, but just like alcohol and drug addiction most people are personally unaffected by them, and achieve the requisite balance to avoid having to deal with instances of addiction in their own lives. But judging from a slew of recent stories in the media there is a far more insidious threat lurking in the world of computer games – they can turn your children into murderers. Without a doubt, the problematic poster child and number one offender in the eyes of the anti-gaming lobby (surely among the

E-ATHLETES

ADDICTION

HEART ATTACK

The term describes a person obsessed with online computer games to the point where it is socially damaging. People who play computer games with a level of competitiveness usually reserved only for proper sportsmen

“Gaming is a serious addiction.We have seen gaming addicts go through the same type of withdrawal symptoms as drug and alcohol addicts.You have to stop – everything. It’s part of learning to live in the ‘real world’”

Game enthusiast Lee Seung Seop actually died after playing the online game Starcraft for 50 hours straight. He was rushed to hospital prior to his death and treated for dehydration, which eventually caused a heart attack CorD / September 2008 47

SOCIETY

Jack Thompson, activist, attorney and, er, Batman impersonator, thinks “murder simulators” should be banned dullest sounding people in the world?) is New York based Rockstar Games, developers of the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto series of video games. The issue is that the games that Rockstar make and distribute tend to glamorise violence and crime, albeit in a tongue in cheek kind of way. Their most recent product, Grand Theft Auto IV, was released to a cacophony of horrified bleating from feminists, religious groups, moralists and children’s protection organisations who condemn its Scarface-esque storyline, in which former-Yugoslavian immigrant Niko Bellic comes to a fictionalised New York City to live a criminal version of the American dream. Basic mechanics of play include stealing vehicles from motorists, running people down in stolen cars and intense shoot-outs with the police and various disparate factions of the criminal underworld, while lesser gameplay elements include obscene language, prostitution and scenes of drug use. On paper it sounds deplorable, the kind of idea that should be laughed out of the board room at inception in expectation of intense public backlash. But the sales figures show otherwise. After its release, Grand Theft Auto IV (GTAIV, to use its popular abbreviation) broke two Guinness World records: “highest grossing video game in 24 hours” and “highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours”. To put that in perspective, that means that GTAIV outsold the last Harry Potter book on its opening weekend. It outsold Spiderman and the latest James Bond film. It outsold everything in the history of entertainment, ever, making it the most popular entertainment product of all time. So what’s the appeal? Well, from the fans’ perspective, the winning formula appears to be the seamless blend of violence, car chases and dark humour. Driving full tilt through the bustling streets of a stylised New York, sirens blaring as the squad cars 48 CorD / September 2008

Car chases and shoot outs: anti-gaming lobbyists fear scenes like these may contribute to actual, real world crime in young adults race to catch up to you, swerving in and out of oncoming traffic while tossing hand grenades blindly out of the car window is the kind of scene that normally one only lives vicariously during the climax of big budget Hollywood movies. There’s an appeal to acting that out, to being involved and in control of the action, and an appeal to playing the bad guy for a while – the gaming equivalent of standing in front of a mirror when you’re alone in the house and asking “you talkin’ to me?” Then it’s all brought to a delightfully, cringingly ignominious

end when you plough head on into a tree and are catapulted gracelessly from the car. It’s funny, in a laughing-at-yourself kind of way. Jack Thompson doesn’t think it’s funny. A rabidly Christian American attorney and activist, Thompson is the living embodiment of the “think-of-the-children!” mentality gone crazy. He gained notoriety when he pressed authorities in his home

state of Florida to ban the distribution and sale of various rap records in the early 90’s, including anthems like NWA’s “Straight outta Compton”. A favoured tactic of his was to send critical letters to his opponents with photocopies of his driver’s license attached, with his face altered to make him look like Batman, to “remind them I’m playing the role of Batman. Just like Bruce Wayne helped the police in the movie, I have had to assist the sheriff of Broward County.” Right. Today, Thompson is much better known for his stance on video games like GTA, or as he refers to them, “murder simulators”. Showing the typical reason and restraint of the kind of person who believes that the problems of violent behaviour in today’s youth can be attributed completely to rap music/violent films/ungodliness (and indeed, the typical reason and restraint of the kind of person who alters his driving license to look like Batman), Thompson went from being internet pariah to internet celebrity after writing not a pithy newspaper article, not a groundbreaking thesis, but a letter to GTA IV’s lead designer’s mother. In this unwittingly amusing document Thompson requests that Mrs. Zelnick (mother of GTA designer Strauss Zelnick) “play this game or have some adroit gamer play it for you” with a view to exposing her to the “incredible interactive violence aimed at police officers [and] innocent bystanders.” He then warns her that this may prove difficult however, as some of the fans “are on death row” and she should “try to find one who hasn’t killed someone yet.” The letter continues with comparisons between Mrs. Zelnick’s son and serial killer Ted Bundy and members of the Hitler Youth, and includes examples of real world violence and murder that are supposedly direct results of the game’s evil influence. He also throws in some passages from the

Bible for good measure. While every outburst such as this from people who seem to have worryingly simplified ideas about the underlying causes of trouble in modern youth culture discredit the popular argument that video games cause violence, it isn’t at all clear that their role in tragedies like the one quoted in Thompson’s letter (in which three Alabama police officers were shot and killed by 18 year old Devin Moore, who is quoted as having said upon being arrested “life is a video game, you’ve got to die sometime”) can be entirely discounted. After killing the three police officers in the station where they worked, Devin stole a police car and attempted to escape, but was apprehended soon after. Two of the next of kin have filed a 600 million dollar lawsuit against the makers of two of the games in the Grand Theft Auto series, claiming that Devin had been “trained and motivated” by the games. Their attorney, it should be added, is none other than Jack Thompson. This is truly frightening logic, especially for the millions upon millions of people who bought Grand Theft Auto IV and haven’t turned to lives of crime and violence. From their point of view (and I count myself among them) psychopaths like Devin, while undeniably responsible for great human tragedy, are the proverbial idiot child that held onto a firework for too long and blew his hands off, ruining bonfire nights to come for all of us sen-

The online game “Starcraft” became so addictive for Lee Seung Seop that he literally played himself to death brainwashed into doing what they did, and vast numbers of gaming enthusiasts who point to the millions of video game fans who have no difficulty separating their real lives from the virtual ones. GTA’s simulated violence is nothing new - we’ve been here before. To my mind, the kind of person who can be “trained” in the way that people like

“Computer games can be fun and innocent, but for some people they become an unhealthy obsession.” sible people who enjoyed fireworks with no ill-effects. The willingness of parents and relatives to abdicate responsibility for their crazy child’s actions is in equal measure understandable and deplorable. After all, if games like Grand Theft Auto really are brainwashing tools for training and motivating murderers, they don’t seem to be particularly effective ones. I’ve been playing GTA all evening, and can honestly report that I feel no compulsion to go out and murder a policeman. The debate really came to light after the Columbine high school massacre, in which students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris roamed the halls of the school shooting at teachers and other students. 15 people were killed, including Harris and Klebold themselves, who committed suicide. In a video made before the shooting, Harris predicts that the killing will be just like the video game “Doom”, a 3D shoot-em-up in which the player progresses by killing aliens with a variety of futuristic weapons. The comments provoked outcry, both from moralists who claimed that the students had been

Jack Thompson purport is possible probably aren’t the kind of people you would willingly share a high school class with anyway, even if they’d never laid they’re hands on a video game. For whatever reason, any of the people concerned in these extremely rare and most extreme examples clearly had some deep-seated psychological issues before they were introduced to video games. It seems insensitive in the wake of a tragedy to point figures, but surely questions must be asked about what in their lives made these individuals so susceptible to the alleged brain washing

properties of these games in the first place. Where were their parents when they were playing these murder simulators day and night? Even if we accept that these games were the trigger – and that is an extremely big and unsubstantiated if – this is not something that happens to ordinary people. These kids were not straight-A, emotionally stable people who were twisted into maniacal psychopaths by too much time spent in front of the Playstation. When considered in this light, video games like Doom and GTA seem to be scapegoats in a woefully irresponsible attempt to white wash over the real reasons why kids start killing each other. There’s a famous skit by the comedian Chris Rock where he talks about the Columbine shootings. He says that whenever there’s a tragedy of this nature, everybody wants to know what music the kids were listening to, and what movies they were watching. “Who cares what they were listening to?” he asks. “What was Hitler listening to? Why can’t the kids just be crazy anymore?” It’s a question that, for everyone’s sake, Jack Thompson should think very carefully about.

SIMULATOR

FORMULA

SCAPEGOATS

The term describes a person obsessed with online computer games to the point where it is socially damaging.People who play computer games with a level of competitiveness usually reserved only for proper sportsmen

From the fans’ perspective, the winning formula appears to be the seamless blend of violence, car chases and dark humour. It’s entertaining, in a laughing-at-yourself kind of way

Even if we accept that these games were the trigger, these kids were not straight-A, emotionally stable people who were twisted into maniacal psychopaths by too much time spent in front of the Playstation CorD / September 2008 49

INTERVIEW

The Man Behind The Director of the Belgrade Arena, Đorđe Milutinović has not been appointed to this post by chance. After ﬁnishing his secondary and high school education in Belgrade and 10 years of playing water polo and singing in the Ivo Lola Ribar choir, he was appointed the Director of Lola in 1979. In 1989, he became the Director of the Concert Agency at the Sava Centre and remained in the post for the past 17 years

to land in Belgrade, so you had to ﬁrst come to Budapest and then travel the whole day by bus to Belgrade, play the second day, and leave on the third. On a tour, where every day costs money, that was impossible to do. Aside from that, every artist that came to Serbia at that time was putting himself at risk of being black-listed. Some artists wanted to come, but it wasn’t fair to them since they would lose at some other markets, and this is something they live off. We maintained great relations with the managers we worked with prior to the sanctions. CorD: Were there some artists who decidedly said: ‘No, I am not coming to Serbia because of the wars’? ĐM: Not to my knowledge. I read somewhere that U2 did not want to come to Belgrade, but were willing to play in Priština. I have never heard it directly and nobody has ever told me: ‘You are bad guys, and we want nothing to do with you.’

BY DEJAN ST. JEREMIĆ

year and half ago, Đorđe Milutinović came to the Belgrade Arena and thanks to him, the Arena has become for the place to be when it comes to concerts and spectacles of the biggest global artists. He: Interestingly enough, in 1973 I was waiting in a line for tickets to a jazz concert in Dom Omladine (the Youth Centre), when a friend of mine came by and asked me whether I wanted to be included in organizing a jazz festival since they spoke bad English, and I was good at it. That was the Newport Jazz Festival, with the likes of Miles Davies, Sara Vaughn, Oscar Peterson and B.B. King taking part. They said to me: “You know, you will not be paid much”, and I responded that I would pay just to be included. After that, I started working as an interpreter. Earth, Wind & Fire, Santana, Jethro Tull, Boney M, Ike and Tina Turner all played at the festival. I also did a tour with the musical ‘Hair’ all over former Yugoslavia. This is where I truly learned the ropes, and continued doing what I love to this day. It all actually began in October of 1973, with that jazz festival. It seems like it was yesterday. Than, as the poker players would say, the stakes went up. 50 CorD / September 2008

With the folklore group Lola I travelled the world over. The globe became my border – China, on one side and America, on the other. In 1988, we travelled to the US with Lola, where we held 57 concerts in 32 states in only three months, covered 27,000 kilometres with the bus which gave me a chance to see America from the bus more than I’d seen Belgrade. At that time, the Yugoslav passport was the most sought after on the black market, it was worth $4,000. When I came to the Sava Centre in 1989, we started putting together large concerts. We organized a jazz festival, brought Gipsy Kings and Vaya Con Dios, and then sanctions were imposed… CorD: The sanctions stopped you in that. How long was Belgrade left without such events? Đorđe Milutinović: The ﬁrst foreign artist who came here after the sanctions were lifted was Dave Liveman. He came here only 20 days after the sanctions. I think that two and a half years went by without any foreign artists coming to this country. Nobody implicitly said: “No, I am not coming to Belgrade to play because I support somebody else and not Serbs”. It was only a matter of practicality. Planes were not allowed

CorD: There were some controversial statements made about U2. Did you manage to get in touch with them to arrange for them to come and play in Serbia? ĐM: At that time, we hadn’t enough money to pay them. There was no chance of their 30 or so trucks passing the border without a problem, so it was totally crazy to ask them to do that. No renowned band refused to come to Serbia because of the sanctions. It just wasn’t practical to do so. CorD: Sanctions are now thing of the past. Will U2 ever come to Belgrade? ĐM: They are starting a world tour next year. They will deﬁnitely come to Belgrade and the person that brings them here is the one who is going to offer them the biggest amount of money. Currently, these are the type of productions that are worth millions of Euros, hence it’s not worth even trying to bring them here unless you are a big name in the music world. This is a market - it’s just like buying tangerines on the green market. The market was economically weak back then and could not withstand certain projects. Soon after that, the air raids happened. In the middle of all of this, on May 14, 1999, I listened to a message recorded on my voice machine by Nigel Kennedy who said that he wanted to come and play for his friends. We have already been on really good terms with him and his manager told me: “If you don’t want to see what a day in hell looks like, don’t sign everything that

the Music X

The biggest event ever held in the Arena - the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest has been said in the contract!’ He is just a phenomenal artist and did a lot for Belgrade and Serbia. I explained to him that the Sava Centre was an air-raid target, and 12 days after the bombing ﬁnished, he came to Belgrade to play for his friends free of charge. We paid for his air fare 7-8 months after the concert, when we had some money. He spent several days in Belgrade and made it clear that he did not want to meet any politicians. Some foreign press agencies offered him big money to take a picture of himself in front of the destroyed Chinese Embassy. But he hired a photographer who took pictures of him at Ušće, with the statue of Beogradski pobednik (the Belgrade Victor) behind him and at the roof of the Hotel Intercontinental, with the Saint Sava Temple behind. He wanted to take pictures of the city he lived in, not the one that had been destroyed. After their concert in the Sava Centre, two years ago, Simple Minds wrote: “Maybe it does sound stupid, but we played 3,000 concerts, and this is the best so far!”. When something like this comes from a band that was as great as U2, then the audience and we have to respect that. Roxy Music were also thrilled with Belgrade. Brian Ferry gave his seat to a girl in a café bar, like a real gentleman, than sat on the hood of some car and drank

cappuccino until 2 o’clock in the morning. Many people say that I should write a book about it. CorD: Why don’t you? ĐM: I will try to remember all of that and put some of it on the paper. This is a reﬂection of a certain time period. I said once that when the sanctions were lifted and bombing stopped, I would not be able to work, since I was so used to extreme conditions. Luckily, that is in the past and now, and we are very successful in organizing large music events. CorD: If the money is the biggest problem, what is an average amount needed for a production of a large concert by a music legend? ĐM: In 1976, the Stones played in Zagreb for $42,000. Today, they ‘cost’ €2 million.

The average cost of a concert today is around €200,000, which means that when you add other expenses and taxes we need to pay, it comes to between €350,000 and €400,000. So, 10,000 people need to pay at least €40 so that we can break even. This is a terrible price for Serbian conditions where the average salary is between €350 and €380. If two people want to see a big concert, they have to pay over €100. You have to set aside money that you would spend over the period of 10 days to go to a concert. Hence, we need to be really careful in choosing which artists we would like to see, when we form a price, how we look for sponsors and so on. Many people think that they can make big money from putting a concert together in a short period of time and vanish afterwards. However, that is not the case. That destabilizes the market, because what often happens is

BELGRADE CHARM

COST OF CONCERT

Roxy Music were also thrilled with Belgrade. Brian Ferry gave his seat to a girl in a café bar, like a real gentleman, than sat on the hood of some car and drank cappuccino until 2 o’clock in the morning

CorD / September 2008 51

INTERVIEW

that they organize a concert so badly, or they cancel it and still take the money. It is very difﬁcult and complicated to make the artist, who comes to play as well as the audience, who come to see him, happy. CorD: If I understand it correctly, €200,000 is the amount needed for an artist and his entire staff? ĐM: Yes, the entire staff and trucks full of equipment. For example, in the case of one artist who demanded a million US dollars for the concert, we were told that his production expenses alone amounted to $500,000. Every year something new springs up, something that an artist wants to show and dazzle the public with. The expenses get higher, so the ticket prices for certain concerts next year will be between €100 and €150. Tickets for Barbra Streisand’s concert in Vienna last year were between €250 and €1,300, while her concert in Rome was cancelled because the average ticket price rose to €1,000. Not even developed western countries could handle such prices, let alone countries that have undergone transition like ours. CorD: In addition to money, what are the contract clauses which artists insist on and do they have any special requests? ĐM: I have 600 to 700 concerts behind me and contracts are usually two pages long. Then, somebody like Ryder comes with the contract that is 7, 10 or 20 pages long with a detailed list of requests. You look at it, review it and only if you can meet these conditions do you sign the contract. Most of them have something peculiar they want, something that will help them to revive themselves after travelling, passing customs check and transfer to the hotel, so that they can make themselves ready for the performance. My first concert in the Sava Centre was the concert of a group called Kaoma, which

you cannot rise to this, you’d better not organize any concerts. In the end, everybody is happy. I don’t usually like to talk about it, but everybody would love to know what special requests stars have. CorD: Do they have any foreknowledge about Belgrade? What is on their ’must see’ list? ĐM: Before, the tours were more laid back and they could stay for a day or two after the concert to do some sightseeing. Today, it is different: they arrive between 12 and 15 hours before the concert, and leave the next morning between 9 and 12. Realistically, there isn’t enough time to see much. We manage sometimes to take them out to dinner, and that depends whether the artist is in the mood. Some go to see the Saint Sava Temple. Nigel Kennedy always spends 5 to 6 days in Belgrade and knows the city like the back of his hand. I took Deborah Harry to dinner in Skadarlija once and she saw the Temple where she bought a CD of spiritual music. Unfortunately, the possibilities for artists to see Belgrade in such a short time

James Brown said that his concert in Belgrade was the best he had in the last two to three years. Chick Corea wrote a personal note to thank us for the concert in which he said how fascinated he was with the piano in the Sava Centre had a global hit called Lambada. They asked for chicken wings and lot of fruit. Apparently, chicken wings fill them up pretty quickly and they are easy to digest, and the fruit keeps them refreshed. We realized then that what artists want is not a whim, or just to spite the promoters, but rather it is something that will help them in giving a good quality performance. They know exactly what they don’t like, which side of their faces photograph better, so we try to as much information about stuff like this as possible. Since they trust us so much, we really try to do everything that is stated in the contract. If 52 CorD / September 2008

are few and far between. We had to break certain prejudices that people abroad have of us, and many of them left with a completely different view of us. CorD: Bearing in mind these prejudices, did some of them have special requests regarding the security during their stay? ĐM: Some come with buses carrying the equipment and they ask us to wait for them at the border. Of course they had no problem with the security, and they often apologize for their request afterwards. If somebody has

special requirements with regard to security, we are here to fulﬁll them and to reassure the artist concerned. CorD: Do you have any feedback on the stories people tell about us when they come, hold concerts and then leave the country? ĐM: That is extremely important. James Brown said that his concert in Belgrade was the best he had in the last two to three years. Chick Corea wrote a personal note to thank for the concert in which he said how fascinated he was with the piano in the Sava Centre. After that, when they come to Belgrade, many artists say: “Oh, yes... That’s the piano that Chick Corea was talking about!” Without exception, any artist who has come to this country has left with a realistic impression of us and many of them sent personal thank you notes saying they hoped to come back. On his website, David Byrne said that he was fascinated with Belgrade and that the women here were the most beautiful in the world. This is an advertisement that no money can pay for. This is what opens the door for us and changes the way people think. CorD: Are you contacted by the embassies of the countries the artists come from beforehand? What is your cooperation with them like? ĐM: Most concerts that we do are commercial, and embassies are more inclined to fund non-commercial projects. They are held in smaller venues, and sometimes they buy tickets for the whole diplomatic corps. Embassies are more likely to be involved in guest theatre plays, ethno and jazz music and smaller scale concerts. CorD: What is the competition like when it comes to organizing culture and artistic events? ĐM: New promoters have sprung up. There is EXIT, which is a powerful global brand. There are other promoters who

have had more or less success. Arena and EXIT remain the most influential ones. If we could put an ice rink in the Arena, bring 150 trucks full of soil for ’flying motorcycles’, than we will be able to install a swimming pool if the waterpolo club Partizan makes it to the final four and play in front of 15,000 people. The biggest event organized in the Arena so far was the 2008 Eurosong. Thanks to success achieved by Serbian tennis players, we were entrusted with organizing a WTA tournament, so that Ana and Jelena can play in front of Serbian audience in the Arena, next year. We have

do production for 75% of events that take place here. This does mean being involved more and taking bigger risks, as well as having nasty surprises waiting for you. CorD: In that case, let’s talk about pleasant surprises. ĐM: I don’t want to talk about them much, since I don’t want to jinx anything. Also, I never say in advance who are we negotiating with. I do that only when we sign a contract. In 15 or so days, we are going to announce who is coming in the next concert season. We have never deceived anyone and nobody left

After their concert in the Sava Centre two years ago, Simple Minds wrote: “Maybe it does sound stupid, but we played 3,000 concerts, and this is the best so far!’ done a lot in the Arena in the short amount of time, but we still have a lot to do. CorD: How many concerts do you plan to organize each year? ĐM: It depends a lot on who is touring and when, as well as how big the production is, what is the artists’ price and whether they are playing in neighbouring countries ﬁrst and than coming to Serbia. We are the only arena in Europe that does its own production. Owing to my experience from the Sava Centre, we have managed to

Serbia unhappy. For years I have been in contact with various managers, and we meet on conferences too. Serbia is currently the biggest market, hence we need to keep it away from promoters who just take the money and run. There was a man involved in organizing a Jose Carreras concert, who just took the money and vanished. Bearing in mind that we, as the Arena, were the concert organizers, we had to let the people who bought tickets from this man in, to save face. In this way, we preserved the image of Belgrade, as well as our reputation as the organizers.

CorD: Have you ever been subjected to political pressures, especially during the last decade of the 20th century? ĐM: No, I haven’t, because we’ve always had good relations with the establishment. Everything that we did, we did it in a highly professional manner and there have been no political pressures. The only pressure that we’ve felt came from the economy, i.e. to predict whether something is proﬁtable and whether the audience can pay for what we organize. We have formed an excellent bond with the audience and they trust us. CorD: Is there somebody you would like to bring to Belgrade but haven’t succeeded in doing so? ĐM: Tom Jones is my favourite. After that, I can even retire . . He has been my idol since I was young man. I’ve seen him in Budapest ﬁve years ago, but he doesn’t do big tours any longer. There are hundreds of artists that I would love to bring for the Belgrade audience to see and hear. Santana was in Belgrade in 1975. I was his personal interpreter then, and today I’m in touch with his management. We were very close to reaching an agreement, and I hope that Santana will come here next year, if not sooner. We are going to try to bring those artists who are performing in the neighbourhood to Belgrade, if they accept.

CorD / September 2008 53

CULTURE CALENDAR

ANNUAL EVENTS BITEF / Belgrade International Theatre Festival

15. September- 28. September Founded in 1967 Bitef has continually followed and supported the latest theatre trends, becoming one of the biggest and the most important European festivals. Transcending all political and cultural borders, in more than four decades Bitef has managed to keep pace with a tumultuous evolution of performing arts. In the course of all these years, Bitef has preserved its place in the family of major international festivals. For its continuity and quality Bitef was awarded the Special Prize for 1999 by “Premio Europa per il teatro”. Bitef began with a decision of the City Assembly of Belgrade in 1967 to establish and support an international festival of the performing arts that would be an event of special importance to the city. It is held annually in September. The chief purpose of the festival is to present authors, productions and trends that are the most important phenomena in modern performing arts. In doing so, Bitef initiates and promotes a different approach to theatre, expands the boundaries of cultural identities and creates a map of professional contacts. It also enriches and encourages the new Serbian theatre scene, contributing towards its greater recognition in the European and broader international context. Bitef currently receives financial support from

the City Assembly of Belgrade (approximately 50 percent), the Serbian Ministry of Culture (approximately 20 percent), embassies and foreign cultural centres, as well as donors and sponsors. Bitef’s general sponsor is JAT Airways, in one of the most successful strategic partnerships between cultural and business sectors in Serbia. Another example of successful strategic partnership is the cooperation between Bitef and “New Moment-New Ideas”, the marketing agency that realizes Bitef’s visual identity, which is based on a design that Slobodana Mašić originally created for Bitef #5. Bitef’s productions are formally undertaken and underwritten by Bitef Theatre, which employs 22 people full-time and engages between 40 and 100 others each season. During the past few years, the Bitef Theatre producer has mounted very successful international coproductions, such as ENPARTS (Culture 20072013), “Lack of Space”, directed by Christoph Marthaler, “The Servant of Two Masters”, directed by Andrea Paccioto, and “The Big Closing Time”, directed by Christian Papke. Board of Directors includes a president and four members who, like the festival’s Artistic Director, are appointed by the City Assembly of Belgrade and have four-year tenures. The festival is held at many venues, in traditional and “untraditional” performance spaces. Recently Bitef began a program of regional cooperation, and performances are held not just in Belgrade, but in Novi Sad and Niš. Regional press conferences are also held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

production The Special Award – for outstanding contribution to theatre An Audience Award is presented, based on the results of audience surveys collected at the end of each performance. A special jury of the daily newspaper Politika, Serbia’s paper of record, presents the Politika Award. Main Program

Sava Center, National Theatre, Belgrade Fair, Atelje 212, Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Belgrade Drama Theatre 15.09. 20:00

Jury and Awards

Bitef is a competitive festival. Its five-member jury is chosen on the recommendation of festival management from among internationally-respected figures in culture and the performing arts. Two juried awards are given to productions selected for the Main Program: The Grand Prix “Mira Trailović” – for the best

16.09. 20:00 Company 111 (Toulouse, France) MORE OR LESS INFINITY/PLUS OU MOINS L’INFINI

Conception: Aurélien Bory, Director: Phil Soltanoff Sava Center 16.09. 20:00 National Theatre in Belgrade (Belgrade, Serbia) Sophocles: OEDIPUS REX

Direction and adaptation: Vida Ognjenović National Theatre in Belgrade 17.09. 20:00 18.09. 20:00 Rote Fabrik (Zürich) & dieproduktion GmbH (Basel) Christoph Marthaler: LACK OF SPACE / PLATZ MANGEL

Director: Christoph Marthaler 18.09. 20:00 19.09. 20:00 Meg Stuart (USA) & Philipp Gehmacher (Austria) MAYBE FOREVER

Production: Damaged goods (Belgium) & Mumbling fish (Austria) Atelje 212 54 CorD / September 2008

20.09. 20:00 21.09. 20:00 Јugokoncert & Belgrade Fair (Belgrade, Serbia) Music: Mozart; Text: Lorenzo da Ponte DON GIOVANNI

Concept and Direction: Bojana Cvejić, Conductor: Premil Petrović Belgrade Fair, Hall 3 22.09. 11:00, 14:00 23.09. 11:00, 14:00 Unga Klara (Stockholm, Sweden) Ann-Sofie Bárány: BABY DRAMA

Director: Suzanne Osten Yugoslav Drama Theatre 22.09. 20:00 23.09. 20:00 New Riga Theatre (Riga, Letonia) After the story of Tatyana Tolstaya: SONJA

Director: Alvis Hermanis Centar for Cultural Decontamination 24.09. 20:00 Kosztolányi Dezső Színház/Theatre „Kosztolányi Dezső“ / András Urbán’s Ensemble (Subotica, Serbia) According to Bertolt Brecht’s „Buckower Elegies“ BRECHT – THE HARDCORE MACHINE

Director: Andraš Urban Belgrade Drama Theatre 25.09. 20:00 26.09. 17:00, 20:00 27.09. 17:00, 20:00

Théâtre Vidy - Lausanne (Lausanne) Heiner Goebbels: STIFTER’S THINGS / STIFTERS DINGE

Conception, music and direction: Heiner Goebbels Sava Centre 27.09. 20:00 28.09. 20:00 Deutsches Theatre (Berlin, Germany) Aeschylus: THE PERSIANS / DIE PERSER:

Dimiter Gotscheff Yugoslav Drama Theatre Side programme SHOWCASE

ENPARTS on Bitef Bitef Poliphony Bitef On Film Walking Critique Special programme

42nd Bitef in Novi Sad 5th INTERNATIONAL BELGRADE TANGO FESTIVAL 4. September – 7. September 2008 Over four days, world-class artists including the most eminent orchestras, musicians, singers and attractive dancing couples will present different forms of tango culture. Come to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and one of the oldest cities in Europe, where the east meets west, and the Sava and the mighty Danube rivers mingle in gentle confluence. Belgrade is famous for its hospitality and vibrant night life. Its clubs, restaurants, and atmosphere are tempting, addictive, and electrifying, and have put Belgrade on the map as one of THE places in the world to wine, dine and hang out, at affordable prices. Infiltrating the night scene of late are milongas danced at selected Belgrade

clubs and gran milongas held in elegant dance halls to the live music of tango orchestras. The highlight of the tango calendar is the Belgrade Tango Festival, packed with workshops at day and milongas is being organised at night for four days. Organised by the Belgrade Tango Association for the fifth year in a row, the Tango Festival promotes tango culture and events ending traditionally in an outdoor milonga on the main square in the downtown area, as an attempt to recreate in the heart of Belgrade the tango of the streets and port of Buenos Aires. Belgrade Tango Association

Thursday 04.09.2008. TANGO SPECTACLE

KOLARAC Foundation Hall / 8.00pm Orquesta Beltango Quinteto Bailarines de tango: Pablo Villaraza & Dana Frigoli - Argentina Sergio Cortazzo & Soledad Rivero Argentina Gustavo Rosas & Gisela Natoli - Argentina Special guests: Carlos Buono - bandoneon - Argentina Juanjo Passo - guitar - Argentina Tango intro party

Club Havana / 11pm 1 Nikole Spasica street Friday 05.09.2008. Tango workshops Music School “Dr Vojislav Vuckovic” / 4.00pm 6 Kondina street Music School “Mokranjac” / 4.00pm 6 Decanska street Gran Milonga

Glass Garden - Hotel Admiral / 10.00pm 04.00am 31 Venizelosova Street DJ Michael Rühl - Germany Special guests: Beltango quinteto Sergio Cortazzo & Soledad Rivero Saturday 06.09.2008. CorD / September 2008 55

CULTURE CALENDAR

Tango workshops

December 15, 2006. The show is also broadcast in Peru, Brazil, Spain, and more than 65 other countries. According to Redibras, Rebelde and RBD’s licensing company, in Brazil alone 400.000 RBD dolls have been sold, 350 million bubble gum packs, 40 million stickers of their sticker album and 10 million magazines. Organizer: Arena Beograd

Music School “Dr Vojislav Vuckovic” / 11.00am 6 Kondina street Music School “Mokranjac” / 11.00am 6 Decanska street Tango Ball

Central Military Club / 10.00pm - 04.00am 19 Brace Jugovica street DJ Michael Rühl - Germany Special guests: Carlos Buono & Juanjo Passo Pablo Villaraza & Dana Frigoli Gustavo Rosas & Gisela Natoli Sunday 07.09.2008.

JELEN PIVO LIVE FESTIVAL

Friday and Saturday 05-06. of September 2008. at 21:00 Tašmajdan Stadium

IGGY POP AND THE STOOGES DINOSAUR JR PATRIBREJKERS DISIPLINA KITCHME

Tango workshops

Music School “Dr Vojislav Vuckovic” / 11.00am 6 Kondina street Music School “Mokranjac” / 11.00am 6 Decanska street ASFALTO MILONGA

Trg Republike / 7.00pm - 9.30pm Orquesta tipica Tango Juventud Tango outro party

Guarnerius Art Center / 10.00pm 12 Džordža Vašingtona Street Classical Music Special concert of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra International bienialle of art in Pancevo Concert at the HIP Pancevo petrochemical plant 13. September 2008

Conductor: Stephen Gunzenhauser Soloist: Marcelo Nisinman, bandoneon PROGRAM: Walter Barr: Viva La Vida Salsa Astor Piazzolla: Concierto de Nacar (orchestration by M. Nisinman) for solo bandoneon and string orchestra Marcelo Nisinman: New arrangment upon Oblivion (A. Piazzolla) for solo bandoneon and symphonic orchestra Marcelo Nisinman:New arrangment upon Otono Porteno (A.Piazzolla) for solo bandoneon and string orchestra DANCE Frédéric Gies

Dance (Practicable) – In September Magacin, Kraljevića Marka 4, Beograd Cooperation with Goethe Institute POP and ROCK CONCERTS Concert - RBD

Belgrade Arena 7. September , 20 30 h Rebelde (“rebel” or “rebellious”) is a Mexican telenovela (soap opera) produced by Televisa. It is a remake of an Argentine telenovela Rebelde Way, adapted for the Mexican audience therefore necessitating differences in 56 CorD / September 2008

the characters’ backgrounds. The series ran for three seasons, the final episode airing in Mexico on 2006-06-02. Rebelde was replaced in June of 2006 with Televisa’s new series Código Postal. Rebelde was one of the biggest teen soaps in Mexico and had a huge impact among LatinAmerican youth. The series is set at the elite Way School, a prestigious private boarding high school near Mexico City (in the original Rebelde Way it was a middle school). The school’s faculty and the parents often have their own subplots as well. One feature of the show is the random use of English words and phrases, commonly used by fresas. One of the series’ major plot lines revolves around a group of students forming a pop band. The actors, who play the members of this band, are also in a real band, abbreviated as RBD to distinguish it from the show. RBD performs most of the music used on the show, and has been extremely successful in its own right, becoming one of the highest-grossing acts in Mexico and touring internationally. In the United States on Univision the show started on March 21, 2005 and ended on

MADONNA

Thursday, 25. September 2008. at 18:00 Jaz , Budva , Montenegro Spectaculary concert on the Jaz beach Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), better known as Madonna, is an American pop singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Raised near Detroit, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City for a career in ballet. After performing as member of the pop musical groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her self-titled debut album in 1983. She rose to success after producing three consecutive number-one studio albums on the Billboard 200 in the 1980s. Besides her music career, Madonna has acted in 22 films. Although several of them failed critically and commercially, she earned a Golden Globe Award for her role in the 1996 film Evita. Divorced from actor Sean Penn, Madonna is married to film director Guy Ritchie. She has two biological children and successfully adopted a Malawian boy, David

Banda, in 2008 despite media allegations of violating adoption laws. Madonna has been critically regarded as “one of the greatest pop acts of all time” and dubbed “The Queen of Pop” by the media. She is ranked by the Recording Industry Association of America as the bestselling female rock artist of the twentieth century and the second top-selling female artist in the United States with 63 million certified albums. Guinness World Records list her as the world’s most successful female recording artist of all time and the top-earning female singer in the world with an estimated net worth of over US$400 million, having sold over 200 million records worldwide. On March 10, 2008, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ART EXHIBITIONS MUSEUM OF THE APPLIED ARTS European Award for the European Public Space

3. September- 26. September The exhibition presents the best works from the competition which has been organised since 2000 under the patronage of the Centre for Contemporary Culture from Barcelona, Spain. The exhibition is organised in the cooperation with Belgrade Town-Planning Institution and Spanish Embassy in Belgrade. Design Exhibition

Ljubomir Pavićević- Fis

Arts will present 100 graphical design works signed by FIS. Exhibition of the Art Embroidery

Saveta Mihić 18. September- 28. September This exhibition will present various embroidery works from 2004-2008. FILM PREMIERES THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR

In Cinemas from 21. August Directed by Rob Cohen Starring- Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, Jet Li In the Far East, trouble-seeking father-andson duo Rick and Alex O’Connell unearth the mummy of the first Emperor of Qin -- a shape-shifting entity who was cursed by a wizard centuries ago. Action, Adventure, Fantasy Wall-e

4. September- 14. September The oldest and the most famous Serbian designer, Ljubomir Pavicevic, born in 1927, celebrates 55 years of professional designing. He started career in 1953 and was graphical and industrial designer, scenographer, interior designer and professor and was successful in many other artistic fields. This exhibition in the Museum of Applied

death so he can re-emerge in New York City as a hair stylist. Comedy

In Cinemas from 28. August Directed by Andrew Stanton Voice Fred Willard. In the distant future, a small waste collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind. Animated, Family, SF Get Smart

In Cinemas from 1. September Directed by Peter Segal Starring- Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Terence Stamp, Alan Arkin, Ken Davitian Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 for CONTROL, battles the forces of KAOS with the morecompetent Agent 99 at his side. Comedy You Don’t Mess With The Zohan

In Cinemas from 11. September Directed by Dennis Dugan Starring- Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rob Schneider An Israeli Special Forces Soldier fakes his

LJUBAV I DRUGI ZLOČINI (LOVE AND OTHER CRIMES)

In Cinemas from 18. September by Stefan Arsenijević Starring Anica Dobra, Vuk Kostić, Feđa Stojanović, Milena Dravić, Zoran Cvijanović, Anita Mančić Before you start a new life, you have to end the old one. Drama, Romance Miloš Branković

In Cinemas from 25. September Directed by Nebojša Radosavljević Starring- Miloš Vlalukin, Jovana Stipić, Nebojša Milovanović, Nada Šargin, Petar Božović A story of a struggling filmmaker delving deep into the Belgrade underworld in order to make a documentary about a young architect struggling in the corrupt and decaying world of contemporary Serbia. Thriller, Drama MAMMA MIA!

In Cinemas from 4. September Directed by Phyllida Lloyd StarringMeryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth The story of a bride-to-be trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular ‘70s group ABBA Comedy, Musical, Romance Tropic Thunder

In Cinemas from 25. September Directed by Ben Stiller StarringBen Stiller, Robert Downey J r. , Matthew McConaughey,Tom Cruise, Nick Nolte, Jack Black Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying. Comedy CorD / September 2008 57

CULTURE

BELEF 2008

he Belgrade Summer Festival (BELEF) brought real refreshment to the city’s cultural life during its three week tenure. The festival finished on August 3rd with the installation of several “art benches” in Kalemegdan, the Sava promenade and the Students’ Park. These unusual benches were created by artists Mladen Hrvanović, Žana Poljakov, Aleksandar Denić, Stefan Ikonić and Igor Štanglicki. Each bench they designed had ten copies produced. Telenor was the sponsor of this project while the project coordinator was Kiosk, a contemporary art platform. This year’s BELEF started with a music programme – a concert held by Rajko Nilović at the Lajkovac Ship near the Beton Hall, which is close to the Belgrade Harbour. The Hall was decorated with the neon displays containing favourite quotes of a group of domestic artists, and it was the setting for the audio-visual project European Sound Delta. The project showed works by the artists who were sailing down the Rhine and Danube rivers. BELEF’s music programme officially concluded on August 2nd with a performance by a Japanese group called Osaka Monaurail, who play pure and tough retro funk. The Belgrade audience was also given a chance to hear a concert held at the Bitef Art Theatre’s summer stage by one of BELEF’s main stars – Keziah Jones. Jazz dancers Jazzcotech and Pharoah Sanders staged interesting concerts, as

did the British band Cinematic Orchestra which adapted the jazz basics to a new club audience. In contrast with large concerts, there was a performance by a London orchestra, as well as performances by the Belgrade

JAPAN’S DONATION TO THE NATIONAL THEATRE The Japanese Cultural Attaché in Belgrade, Ms. Jukina Gonda officially donated modern audio & visual equipment, a gift from Japan to the Manager, of the National Theatre on July 25th. This event, which took place in the National Theatre, was attended by the Serbian Minister of Culture, Nebojša Bradić and representatives of Mitsubishi and Sony. Thanks to this donation, worth around €350,000, the outdated equipment, which is 20 years old, was replaced with new kit. The Belgrade National Theatre participated in a competition entitled “Great Assistance to Culture” to which Japan is invited each year. Apart from taking part in the competition, the Theatre has now completed and modernized its technical equipment with two separate digital mixers for audio recordings and a digital TV studio for recording plays. The new equipment has already arrived at the theatre. It has been installed and tested, and the training on how to use it should start soon. In the new season, the National Theatre plans to hold a concert or stage a play honouring the government of Japan for it’s donation. 58 CorD / September 2008

DJs who have been supporting this year’s festival like DJ Chile, Spacewalker, Transglobal Discotheque and Dvojac bez kormilara. The visual programme, which had been put together by BELEF’s Art Director, Dorijan Kolundžija, was aimed at attracting new audiences by putting up exhibitions in public places and expanding the festival’s image. In turning the whole city into one big art shop, BELEF drew a lot attention from the very beginning with an exhibition called Terratorija staged on Knez Mihailova and the Republic Square. The exhibition was put together by 125 artists who are all students of art academies and who created the material during five one-day workshops. Some of these sculptures were destroyed during the riots which erupted following Radovan Karadžić’s arrest. During BELEF, Belgrade’s Central Railway Station was turned into an informal gallery with the works of artists from Serbia and Italy, who both took part in the project

called “Sistem Binario”. The project is comprised of specially designed installations, with the aim of provoking and drawing reaction from an “accidental” audience. The project was first staged at the Naples Railway Station, and by coming to Belgrade it should contribute to breaking down the stereotypes about the nature of contemporary art production and lead to a good first impression of Belgrade, as well as bringing ordinary people closer to contemporary art. As a part of its visual programme, BELEF presented the local and international graffiti street art scene, with Alby Guillaum painting a large mural called Remeda on the building fronts in the Karađorđeva Street. The visitors were given an opportunity to create light installations themselves, and to paint graffiti on the building which houses the Boško Buha Theatre, as a part of presentation by a group called the Graffiti Research Lab. As a part of the project entitled “Shiny Words”, artists Igor Oršolić, Dorijan Kolundžija, Jana Oršolić, Isidora Nikolić and Vladimir Perić, have put up installations made of neon, bulbs, diodes, mirrors and metal.

FESTIVAL IN VRNJAČKA BANJA The first place award at the Screenplay Festival, which was held in Vrnjačka Banja in August, went to Stefan Arsenijević, Bojan Vuletić and Srđan Koljević for their screenplay for the movie called “Love and Other Crimes”. The jury, Vladimir Blaževski, Dušan Spasojević and Vule Žurić, explained their decision by saying that the screenplay for “Love and Other Crimes” was different because it was bold in reexamining the existing narrative patterns which opened up whole new venues for film expression. The second place award went to the screenplay for Vladislava Vojnović’s “Paper Prince”, for the movie’s “simplicity, purity and consistency of expression, as well as a long-awaited return of a genre that has been neglected in Serbian cinematography”. The jury gave the third place award to Dejan Zečević and Boban Jevtić for “The Fourth Man”, which was described as “a slick symbiosis of a national cinematographic tradition and elements of a genre approach to films“. The special award went to the movie called “Miloš Branković”, directed by Nebojša Radosavljević, for a brave and unconventional attempt at accentuating visual narration. The Fipresci Serbia jury of the 32nd Festival of Film Screenplay in Vrnjačka Banja, (the jury’s President, Goran Gocić and members Vuk Pavlović and Srđan Savić) made a unanimous decision to award Dejan Zečević’s “The Fourth Man” as the best movie shown at the festival.

BELEF’s visual programme was represented by an exhibition of the famous US graffiti artists under the collective name of AIGA 365. The exhibition was put up in the O3one Gallery and it was made up of

EXHIBITION BY ĐOKA JOVANOVIĆ An exhibition of sculptures by academic Đoka Jovanović (1861-1953), a sculptor who was educated in Paris, Munich and Vienna, was formally opened in the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) on August 7th. The Gallery’s Director, Dinko Davidov and professor Miodrag Jovanović addressed the guests assembled in the Academy’s Great Hall, in front of Jovanović’s sculpture called ’Science and Art’. Jovanović was one of the founders of the painters’ association “Lada”, was a member of the Medulin Art Association and one of the founders of the Association of Serbian Artists (ULUS). Jovanović’s first exhibition was at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889, at which he won the bronze medal. In 1900, he was awarded the gold medal at the

same event. Jovanović’s work is realistic and he finds the beauty of human contours important. Some of his work has a romantic touch. He was a committed artist, and has made a Monument to Kosovo Heros in Kruševac, as well as monuments in honour of Miloš Obrenović, Josif Pančić, Vuk Karadžić, Branko Radičević, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Knez Miloš and others. His sculpture “For the Motherland” is especially poignant and was dedicated to his son Mirko, who was killed as a volunteer in the French Legion in 1915. Đoka Jovanović is one of the most important Serbian artists from the early 20th century. The exhibition in the SANU Gallery is just a reminder of how important this artist is and how contemporary and fresh his work is, even to this day.

over 150 pieces of art which won at the AIGA national competition (posters, calendars, books, various projects released in the press, internet content, videos and other media). BELEF also offered a diverse theatre programme adressing contemporary social and political issues. There was a play called KNKNPNKN which is based on the popular YU mythology. The play “Fortress Europe” about multi-culturalism and European integrations by Igor Marojević had its premiere, as did a new version of the old Mikhail Bulgakov favourite “The Master and Margarita”. Also, three dance projects were staged within the festival’s theatre programme – “Stones and Dreams” by the French choreographer Odile Dubock, “Not Me” by Dunja Jocić, the winner of the Belgrade Choreographic Miniatures Festival, and a new project by Dalija Acin called “Duets / Meet the Expectations”. Also, there was a guest performance by the Vojdan Cernodrinski Theatre from Prilep with the play called “Drums in the Night” by Bertolt Brecht, and a music event called ’Carnin poj’ with the participation of the Roma Amateur Chorus, produced by the citizens’ association Kulturmobil. This attempt at documentary theatre dealt with the problems of the Roma ethnic minority in Europe. The whole three weeks of BELEF made Belgrade’s culture scene exceptionally interesting. All programmes drew a lot of attention and were attended by many people who re-discovered the lure of the open spaces in Belgrade. The Belgrade City Assembly is BELEF’s sponsor and founder, while the festival is put together by the BELEF Centre. CorD / September 2008 59

CULTURE

Duško Gojković - The International Be Bop quintet

band Culture Mix. He also held a workshop during the festival, while the first day grand finale saw a joint performance by Gilles Peterson and Jose James. Gilles Peterson is a DJ, producer and promoter and this year’s winner of the Jazz Promotion Festival, while Jose James, the US singer and composer, is one of the contemporary jazz musicians with the brightest futures. The festival guests held good and well attended concerts, just like a famous gypsy-swing band from the Netherlands, the Rosenberg Trio, the US guitar player, Rodney Jones and the US saxophonist Donald Harrison. The performances by an Egyptian ethno-jazz group, Eftekasat, the Niš band Sounds of South and a joint performance by the band called Tarhana (led by a percussionist of Turkish–Dutch background, Syahin During), kaval player Teodosi Spasov, guitar player Dragomir

NIŠ JAZZ FESTIVAL

išville, the biggest summer jazz festival in the region, was held for the 25th time in Niš from August 14th - 17th. The Festival was opened by a concert of Dixie Pogon from Niš and by a performance from a Japanese singer and pianist, Keiko Borjesen. Close to 200 performers from 18 countries took part in the festival this year, with promotional concerts held in Belgrade, Subotica, Novi Sad and Dimitrovgrad. At the grand opening of Nišville, our renowned trumpeter Duško Gojković was presented with an award. Gojković then held a concert with his international Be Bop quintet. This year’s programme was diverse, with several globally renowned musicians taking part. Jazz rock drummer, Billy Cobham staged a concert with his

Billy Cobham American Jazz drummer and composer

ROMAN NIGHT AND ROMAN HOUSE IN VIMINACIUM At the event “The Roman Night”, the French opera diva Emma Shapplin performed in the Mausoleum in Viminacium, an ancient Roman archaeological site near Kostolac, on August 30th. She was accompanied by an orchestra made up of national and foreign musicians, directed by Ognjan Radivojević. Pianist and composer, Aleksandar Simić was the special guest. The concert’s programme, called “The Roman Night”, encompassed the music from her first album entitled “Karmine Meo”, as well as the second entitled “Eterna”, and the soundtrack from the movie called “The Red Planet”. This free concert was held in the Viminacium Mausoleum with 300 seats for VIP guests, while the remaining audience were seated at the plateau surrounding the Mausoleum. The idea behind this concert was to attract the attention of the domestic and foreign public to a much bigger and more important project called “Taking the Road of Roman Emperors’ Culture”, as well as to raise awareness about the significance of European cultural heritage. Works on constructing “The Roman House” are currently being carried out in Viminacium. The house is envisaged as a scientific, research and tourist centre. The centre will stretch across 4,000 square metres, with 1,000 square metres to be used as a museum space. In addition to researchers, this facility will house the fans of archaeology from abroad who will be given a chance to take part in the research. 60 CorD / September 2008

Milenković (the leader of a band called Hazari) and an accordion player Srđan Savić were also interesting. The height of the second evening was a concert by the British acid-jazz-funk band Brand New Heavies, which was formed in London in 1985, and has achieved global popularity. The last night at Nišville was opened by a guitar trio formed by Ian Vatzlav Vanek who is known for his original combination of jazz, Afro-Cuban style, Hindu music, and Czech and Spanish folklore. Also, the audiences had a chance to see the only female choir from the Balkan region – and the recipient of the Grammy Award for ethno music – the Mysterious Voices of Bulgaria. The final night saw the performances by the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble, Leb i Sol from Macedonia and the Niš blues band, City Band, who performed with the British singer and a guitar player, Ian Segal.

THE BEST-SELLING BOOKS

Srpska in July, a survey conducted by the web portal knjizara.com showed. Khaled Hosseini’s book ’A thousand of The second place on the best-seller list splendid suns’, was the best selling book was taken by a recently released novel by a in Serbia, Montenegro and the Republic of Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami, called “When the night falls”, followed by SERBIA AT THE VENICE BIENNALE “Inscription of a The Serbian Soul” by Ljiljana Pavilion will be opened on September 13th, a day before the Biennale officially opens, with a project called “Comfort” that is going to represent Serbia at the Architectural Biennale in Venice. At a press conference, Serbian Minister of Culture Nebojša Bradić expressed his expectations that the synthesis of diverse arts – architecture, sound, light and theatre – will make the installation “Comfort” a first grade event and the Serbian Pavilion a place to be. The Pavilion, which stretches over 200 square metres and is located in the Venice Giardini, will be turned into one room in order to make the visitors as comfortable as possible. The whole space will have a soft floor, resembling a mattress, with the ideal temperature and a light animation projected from the ceiling. Thanks to digital technology, the visitors will be able to see thirty artworks on the subject of comfort displayed on miniature screens. The project, which is going to represent Serbia, was selected at a competition. The Assistant Minister in charge of the International Cooperation, Branislav Dimitrijević added that, this time around, the competition was clear and transparent and pointed out that the team of authors was working hard on completing the project in time. “The project is not going to represent only the exhibition, but also theoretical assumptions and the idea on how to treat the subject of comfort”. He added and said that the project included a substantial number of young architects and architecture students who were going to represent new trends in Serbia.

Habjanović– Đurović and “The Secret” by Rhonda Burn. Hosseini’s novel “The Dragon Hunter” also made the best-seller list in July, taking the fifth place. “The City in Mirror” by Mirko Kovač, NIN’s Novel of the Year “Russian Wi n d o w ” by Dragan Velikić, Nikola Malović’s “ Wo n d e r i n g Bokelj”, “Mango” by Ljubica Arsić and “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon all made the best-seller list as well. The survey was conducted in Belgrade’s bookstores Beopolis, Papirus (Rad), Globosino Aleksandrija, Geca Kon (Prosveta), Stubovi kulture and the B92 Shop, as well as in the biggest bookstores in Banja Luka, Kotor, Herceg Novi, Podgorica, Zrenjanin, Subotica, Šabac and Novi Pazar.˝

CorD / September 2008 61

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

What motivated professor Dr. Stephen Quarrie to swap Cambridge for Belgrade?

The Serbian Son-in-Law The home of two professors, Steve Quarrie and Soﬁja Pekić, in the centre of Belgrade, is widely open to company. When they’re not busy, a visit is ‘announced’ by ringing the door bell, in contrast to England where, as Quarrie explained, visits are arranged several days in advance. However, you need to catch them in their free time, and there’s not a great deal of that 62 CorD / September 2008

BY VOJISLAVA VIGNJEVIĆ

teve Quarrie is a professor at Newcastle University where he often goes to give lectures. He is also a visiting professor at several universities in Italy. Here, at home, he said, he is the director of the Serbian Ministry of Science’s European Integration Office and is particularly engaged as an expert

Personal and professional - Steve and Soﬁja are happy with their life in Belgrade

on drought issues. He has gained much international recognition including a medal for the development of scientific knowledge about the effects of droughts on agriculture. He also works as an agriculture consultant. Steve Quarrie is also the coordinator of several European projects in the field of plant physiology and genetics and is the manager of the WATERWEB project, which deals with the development of water resource strategies and drought alleviation in Western Balkan agriculture. He studied at Cambridge where he completed his PhD and lived, and h wife Sofija is a professor at the Agriculture Faculty in Zemun. Steve, who has been rechristened “Steva” by his Serbian friends and is also called “the Serbian son-in-law”, came to Serbia for the first time in 1985 to work with Sofija on a project financed by the British Council. Apart from falling in love with his current wife, she is also responsible for his falling in love with Serbia, which he says is a beautiful country with

wonderful people - open, kind, temperamental and hospitable. The lifestyle is completely different to that in England Belgrade is full of life, and the streets are full of people late at night. Quarrie said that in that respect our capital city reminds him of Italian cities. Quarrie has travelled around Serbia and he likes many things here, especially the village life and mentality which is very interesting, and completely different to life in England – where he says that kind of life no longer exists. He is particularly impressed by the traditions and customs in our rural areas. Apart from Belgrade he also likes Novi Sad, Nis and Subotica which is a beautiful old city and he has visited Zajecar, Cacak, Kraljevo, Uzice, Prijepolje and Priboj several times. He is particularly attached to the beauty of Goc, Kopaonik and Zlatibor. Everywhere he went he made good friends and, when he was granted permanent leave to remain in our country he made a list of those people and there were ninety of them. Because of this he does not feel like a foreigner in Belgrade - accompanied by acquaintances and friends he feels like a genuine Serb. The language is a small problem, which he describes as difficult, particularly Serbian grammar. Steve Quarrie was also in Serbia during the most difficult times – during the bombing. He spent two weeks under the bombs, sharing the fear, suffering and destiny of millions of other citizens. He brought medicines, helping in many ways, the best he could and that was a pleasure for him. In response to our question – how does he see that period of sanctions, wars, hyper inflation and bombing, and whether

there is justice in the world for Serbs - he replied that our people went through horrible times and that there is justice sometimes and sometimes there is not, the same for all other nations around the world. However, he emphasised that there is still pressure on Serbia. Serbia cannot do anything about that and does not have any influence on the improvement of its position, but the governments of European countries can do much more than promising - they have to change their policies. He cites the problem of visas as an example of a subject where there is a great deal of debate and very little being done. However, Quarrie separates two things: the reactions from ordinary people around Europe, and the positions of the governments of European countries which adopt some policies which are not always fair towards Serbia. Therefore, even though many people have been through difficult times and deserve a better life, they are frustrated because they are still being punished, and their lives are still not better. There are, of course, those who did well because they used the crisis for their own interests, but the majority did badly. Moving on to lighter subjects we asked Quarrie is a sports fan and who he would support if Serbia played against England. The Professor gives the diplomatic answer that he does not follow sport apart from when he is in England watching cricket. However, his true love is music, more precisely opera. He goes to the National Theatre two or three times a year. Back in Cambridge he used to sing in amateur opera choirs (baritone) and here he used to be in the Belkanto Choir, but because of many obligations he was unable to at-

Project 1: WATERWEB project

teve Quarrie’s WATERWEB project will last for three years. In the first year data will be gathered to establish the quantity and quality of water required for tomatoes, grapevines, potatoes and corn in order to develop optimal methods for using water for those cultures. In the second and third years those models will be tested in field and greenhouse conditions and in the third year new models will be implemented in local farms in order to research the socio-economic and ecological consequences. CorD / September 2008 63

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

tend rehearsals every day so he had to quit. He also played the violin, as an amateur, and since he came to Serbia he has become a fan of the old city songs. Some friends gave him a tape of those songs and he has learned many of them but his favourite is Imam jednu želju (I’ve got a wish). He even sang that song on RTS TV. He likes Serbian films and goes to the theatre, especially to the Belgrade Drama Theatre where Sofija’s oldest son, Pavle Pekic, acts. We asked the professor how a Serbian– English marriage works and he replied with a smile: “excellent, we rarely argue but I regularly keep quiet because I like a peaceful life. We have three children each from our first marriages (Sofia has two sons and a daughter and I have two daughters and a son), therefore there are six of them. They get on very well, we see Sofija’s children here and mine come here from England once a year for a holiday.” Quarrie and Sofija got married three years ago and as he said, that was a real Serbian wedding with around a hundred people (but without trumpets). All of his family from England enjoyed the wedding too. However, he is professionally connected with his wife through many projects: they work together and since Sofija participates in several European projects she also travels a lot around Europe. Quarrie emphasises that he is satisfied with his life – he does not make a great deal of money but, as he said, money is not everything. It is important to him that he can travel a lot, especially to England and Italy, and as long as he can do that his life is wonderful. For him, as a genuine and sincere enthusiast, it is important that he can contribute to the development of Serbian science and society as much as he can and if he sees only a small step forward he is happy. And many things have changed since 1985. When he came here for the first time, particularly since the difficult 1990’s, the changes made here can be seen with the naked eye – from better roads to better public traffic in towns, particularly in Belgrade. In the end we asked Quarrie about his plans for the future. He replied optimistically that he does not think about that yet, but in ten, twenty years, when his wife retires, they will have to decide where they are going to live – here or in England. Interfering for the first time in our conversation, Sofija passed judgment – “we will live half and half – half the year in Cambridge where Quarrie has a house and the other half in Belgrade, in our flat.” Quarrie listened to that carefully and agreed, wittily adding that “it is cleverer to give in”. 64 CorD / September 2008

Project 2: Food and drought

he price of wheat on the international market has increased several times. That is the consequence of the temperature increase, climate changes, an increase in petrol prices and market speculation but also the fact that some grains have already started to be used as bio-fuel, particularly in America. Serbia is a big food producer, particularly of grain and it should use that fact in its policy, not only in agriculture. However, on the other hand, speculation regarding food prices is visible here, monopolists exert strong pressure and therefore it is difficult to stabilise food prices. Serbia is also threatened by climate changes because the arid areas are moving from the South and Southeast and estimations are that in 100 years time Vojvodina will have a climate like Zajecar, i.e. like South-eastern Serbia has now. “We carried out some research in the Zajecar region,” said Quarrie, “and established that in the last 40 years the average temperature has increased by 3 degrees Celsius and that the rainfall has decreased by over 100 millimetres per square meter.” The best way to fight against drought is to implement optimal agronomic measures. Unfortunately, agronomy in Serbia is at a low level, therefore it is impossible to express the cultivation’s genetic potential. I think that the cheapest solution would be reionisation, growing better plants for our specific climate. We asked Quarrie how to provide new plants resistant to drought and he emphasised that we can do that by classical selec-

tion and the use of new molecular technologies. “Our research is very close to finding genes resistant to shortages of humidity. In the end there is a dilemma: what are the consequences of choosing between genetic modification and classical breeding? Now there are some ‘clean’ technologies for gene transfers. This research is the most important. In Belgium there are institutes where research is carried out on special platforms. They keep thousands of plants to which only one gene was changed, and they are under constant control for all elements, monitoring the plants with video feeds and keeping track of every environmental change. Everything is automatic. Everything is done in greenhouses and gene modification is precisely registered and the reactions of plants analysed in absolutely the same, controlled conditions. We were at a presentation where it was shown how the modification of only one gene created a return higher than 40%. Now there is more and more talk not about organic, but about functional food”. We asked Quarrie for his advice in the struggle against drought and he underlined that there are several available options: by cross breeding species (seeking resistance parameters and implementation on certain hybrids and cultivations), the implementation of general agronomic measures, irrigation, and most importantly, reionisation. Therefore, in areas where there is water it is good to irrigate, where there is no water we should use varieties which blossom earlier in order to avoid periods with very high temperatures.

INTERVIEW

July 2008 125

CULTURE

Unexpected harmonization of two musical festivals

EXIT AND (OR) GUČA When Serbian journalists want to ﬁnd out about their interolocutors’ personal taste through quick ‘yes or no’ questions, the favourite new millennium question is: “Guča or Exit?” After the year 2000, this dilemma represented a sort of opinion about everything that surrounds us in Serbia, just like certain issues which are now apparently behind us. BY MILOVAN MILIČKOVIĆ

erbia had to “choose” between the Karađorđević and Obrenović family, chetniks and partizans, Moscow and Washington, all the way to the perennial choice of FC Red Star or FC Partizan. By choosing one or the other, every Serbian citizen would openly declare what he stood for, what he was advocating or what direction in politics he was taking. Even a harmless question like “what football club do you support?” was hiding a subliminal message. The story goes that the FC Red Star supporters were also representatives of a civil and national option in Serbia, while the FC Partizan supporters were from rural areas, with the roots in the former Yugoslav National Army (JNA). The same is true of Guča and Exit now. Politicians are the favourite to be asked this question. They have learned their lesson that when you publicly chose a football club to support you lose a number of voters. When asked who they supported – Red Star or Partizan – they usually an-

swered “Serbia”. However, they were not that ambiguous in responding to the same question about the two largest Serbian music festivals. At the very beginning of this rivalry, the democratic and pro-European option always voted in favour of Exit, while the pro-Commnunist-Slobodan Milošević’s Serbia has always been in favour of Guča. For some, Guča represented the trumpet, pork, tents, Serbian way of having fun, while Exit was something that was coming from the decaying West which promoted their culture in our Great Serbia. For others, Guča was merely sputum of what was left of Milošević’s regime, while Exit was something fresh, something that would finally bring us closer to and into the family of the European nations. But, just like in love, opposites attract, so during the last few months, as a result of different political options in Serbia getting closer to each other, the answer to the above mentioned question has become more complex. Now, the most frequent answer is “both Exit and Guča” or “Exit and Guča”, depending on your political stance. A high official from the Socialist Party of

RIVALS

POLITICANS

EUROPE

At the very beginning of rivalry between Guča and Exit, the democratic and pro-European option always voted in favour of Exit, while the pro-CommnunistSlobodan Milošević’s Serbia has always been in favour of Guča

If your everyday foreigner knew who Milutin Mrkonjić or Velja Ilić were, they would get the whole meaning of Guča.These two politicans opened the festival, one by addressing the crowd and the other by raising the ﬂag.

The citizens of Serbia, who visit Exit, are given an opportunity to meddle with the young people from Europe and from all over the world and to become a part of the crowd during the four festival days.

66 CorD / September 2008

The SEX PISTOLS: John Lydon, Serbia, Dušan Bajatović, gave one of the most original replies to this question last month by simply saying “Rock and Roll!” However, the right answer to this unexpected harmonization on these two events is found in promoting Serbia and, of course, the big money that they both bring. Last month, the www.b92.net/biz portal reported that the money that the organizers, caterers and the city itself earned from the Exit Festival was around 20 million Euros. Last year, the Ekonomist magazine wrote that Guča earned just about the same amount in 2007. This year the profit will probably be even higher. The organizers decided that the entrance fee is going to be 500 dinars, and they estimated that the profit will be higher by several million dinars. Another common trait is a large number of foreign tourists who are becoming regular at these events, and they are growing in numbers each year. Close to 20,000 of them visit Exit, while the organ-

Glen Matlock and Steve Jones at the main stage of EXIT izers of Guča estimate that their number at this festival is even higher. Out of 450,000 of this year’s visitors, 1/5 of them came from abroad. Both Exit and Guča managed something that no politician in this country will ever manage, and that is for Novi Sad, one of the most nationally and culturally diverse towns in Serbia, to assemble around the same idea and to internationally make Guča the first thing that comes to mind when a word trumpet is mentioned. All in all, both Exit and Guča (or Guča and Exit) are definitely the two biggest and the most recognizable products of Serbian tourism. Exit, which originated from insurgence against the dictatorship, is now a large commercial endeavour while Guča accidently grew from the need to eat and drink well and play drums of those citizens who were sorry to see old Yugoslavia go, as well as from the global popularity of Goran Bregović and Boban Marković who put this kind of music on the world music

Exit 08 was marred by an accident which happened in the Exit camp on the last festival day, when a girl was killed, and another one seriously injured by a branch that fell off the tree onto their tent, which is the second case of somebody dying during the festival (the ﬁrst case happened in 2004 when a young man died from an overdose). However, we should mention that there were no other incidents at the festival, although almost 40,000 people passed through the Petrovaradin fortress each single day. scene and made it a worldwide attraction. To use the language of football, the result of the match between the two festivals is a draw according to the world standards. Last year, for the first time ever, the British organization Festival Awards gave Exit an award as the best continental festival, which led to the renowned The Times including it this year into the list of the best summer festivals. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Guča was named one of the 15 best festivals in Europe. Generally

speaking, if these two events were to fuse into one, they would give an excellent picture of the state that the Serbian nation is currently in – desolately Turkish with the touch of a pro-European orientation.

Welcome to the “country of true warriors” It seems that the citizens of Novi Sad have adjusted well to the whole philosophy of the festival. Only those who have CorD / September 2008 67

CULTURE

EXIT, safe adventure: Fans of SEX PISTOLS from UK

The Sex Pistols - Stars of Exit

enerally speaking, The Sex Pistols were the stars of the festival, the biggest attendance was recorded at the Manu Chao concert and those who visited the festival said that the Main Stage was weaker than some of the previous years. The performers were happy with the way they were received, with their concerts, the audience’s reaction, so statements like the one coming from Pharell Williams that he was pleased to have come to “the land of true warriors” were forgiven. In comparison to what we are used to, the prices of food and drink at the Fortress were high, which was expected, the sale of tokens (the official festival money) was more organized and simplified this time around, the security did their job well, and the special kudos goes to the medical staff at the Fortress, who were quite busy at the camp, just like every year. to stay in the city do so, while others are leaving town, renting their apartments for a decent amount of money to the festival guests. It is a one big team working on the same assignment – making the guests feel good and making them come next year, too. The festival is viewed as an opportunity to earn extra money and the way for Novi Sad, which is rather small, to become a city in the real sense of the word during the four festival days. Hence, youngsters from Novi Sad say that even their grandmothers talk only about Exit for four days. We could say that the habits we acquired during the 1990s are certainly not dead. Events like Exit and Guča take the best of the Serbian entrepreneurial spirit, and there is no better chance than these two festivals for this ingenuity at making money from virtually nothing to sur68 CorD / September 2008

face. If you set aside the music which is tailor made to an average festival visitor, even the street leading to the Petrovaradin Fortress looks like a typical market day in Serbia. A multitude of stands, enveloped in the thick smoke of the favourite Serbian aromas – a mixutre of sausages and hamburgers, an older lady shouting in many languages that she sells the best burgers, attentive vendors who are virtually forcing you to take a boiled corncob or water or beer, a “good businessman” with only few things left to sell, a classic infringement of copyright through the sale of T-shirts with the Exit logo and, of course, unavoidable “traders” who, bouncing around along to the music of The Chemical Brothers, are asking “Need a ticket, need a ticket...?” It seems that local “entrepreneurs” take to the festival like fish to water. During the four days of the festivals in Guča or Novi

Sad, they earn enough money to go on a holiday or an equivalent of a monthly salary or even four pensions, as one old lady, who was selling corncobs at Petrovaradin, bragged. This year, Exit’s musical offerings were somewhat weaker than the last year’s. The critics and journalists say that festival doesn’t have a clearly defined concept, that there is no order to which musicians they invite and that selection is based on the “whatever we can get” principle, especially if we are talking about the Main Stage and the headliners. However, Exit 08 was different, since other stages

Paul Weller - ex The Jam leader

had a somewhat stronger performer list. The Dance Arena had top DJs, while the Fusion Stage was surprisingly full, and, when certain musicians performed (like the German reggae star Gentleman) you couldn’t move. Some new stages proved to be an absolute hit, like the Vojvodina Stage with tambouritza orchestras playing. This stage was a place where a very special event happened on the first festival day when the lead singer of the famous Croatian punk band, KUD Idijoti, Tusta showed up on the stage. Several hundred people, who were watching this, were really surprised, especially when the tambouritza orchestra starting playing the band’s anthem “O, Bella Ciao”, and the singer took up the microphone to sing it in his own, recognizable style. This is what the true concept of the festival is – to have no concept at all. The flyers containing the festival programme were distributed along the whole Fortress, so every person visiting Exit could create his or her own fun, and make their own, personal concept. Generally speaking, The Sex Pistols were the stars of the festival, the biggest attendance was recorded at the Manu Chao concert and those who visited the festival

Guča trumpet festival: From folk to world music reaction, so statements like the one coming from Pharell Williams that he was pleased to have come to “the land of true warriors” were forgiven. In comparison to what we are used to, the prices of food and drink

Year 2010 will have a special meaning both for Exit and Guča. This year, Exit will run into its 10th year, while the ofﬁcials from Guča are announcing the competition for the best trumpeter in the world, as a special event to mark the jubilee 50th festival. said that the Main Stage was weaker than some of the previous years. The performers were happy with the way they were received, with their concerts, the audience’s

Opening ceremony at centre of Guča

at the Fortress were high, which was expected, the sale of tokens (the official festival money) was more organized and simplified this time around, the security did

their job well, and the special kudos goes to the medical staff at the Fortress, who were quite busy at the camp, just like every year. As during the previous years, many NGOs had their stands at the fortress. They distributed promotion materials, conducted survey, and promoted ongoing campaigns or the ones that are about to start. One of the more interesting stands was that of Group 424. The issue that troubles the youngsters in Serbia the most is the visa regime, which was also one of the leading messages coming from political parties in the pre-election campaign prior to the republic and local elections. This organization used a humorous message – ’Chill out with the visas’ – which was written on the fans that they distributed for free. The visitors were really fond of these kinds of small presents. One of the most frequented stands was that of the Centre for Reproductive Health and their promotion of the 21dan.com website. Although the activists from this organization wanted to relay a message on how important reproductive health was, what drew people to this stand were free whistles, bracelets and frisbees. Exit 08 was marred by an accident which happened in the Exit camp on the last festival day, when a girl was killed, and another one seriously injured by a branch that fell off the tree onto their tent, which is the second case of somebody dying during the festival (the first case happened in 2004 when a young man died from an overdose). However, we should mention that there were no other incidents at the festival, although almost 40,000 people passed through the Petrovaradin CorD / September 2008 69

CULTURE

Five day party: Beer, pork, cabbage, beer fortress each single day. Reporting from Ireland once, a Croatian television journalist, Goran Milić asked a Croatian man working in Ireland what was a secret behind the Irish economic boom in the last five years. When Milić said that what he saw around him was the result of what happened during those past five years, the man said that all of that had started 30 years ago, with an idea that the Irish had, but the results of that idea were only visible and tangible now. We are not comparing Exit to Ireland, but the concept is the same. The idea was the starting point and the people assembled around Exit used their chance and, in only a few years, made something that many national and foreign media outlets considered to be the best summer event in continental Europe. Exit has become a machine, financially benefiting the organizers, the 70 CorD / September 2008

citizens of Novi Sad and the city government. The state of Serbia and the City of Novi Sad have started to provide financial help to the festival, seeing it as a tool to fix the image that Serbia has in the world. The citizens of Serbia, who visit Exit, are given an opportunity to meddle with the young people from Europe and from all over the world and to become a part of the crowd during the four festival days. At least until the world ’chills out with the visas’.

Beer, pork, cabbage, beer If your everyday foreigner knew who Milutin Mrkonjić or Velja Ilić were, they would get the whole meaning of Guča. These two politicans opened the festival, one by addressing the crowd and the other by raising the flag. In a carefully thought out dress code, both in LaCosta T-shirts,

they hugged, cheered with brandy, had a bit of fun with innuendos about baked pork and strolled down to the town. The town itself was full of tents, stands, orchestras at every step, Serbian flags, T-shirts bearing the images of Serbian “heroes”, the famous wedding cabbage and a lot of cheerful youths. The place where everything happened wasn’t a large stage, where the orchestras competed and the festival stars played, but a large area around the tents and stands, especially near the Trumpeter Monument which was the focus point for fun during all five days of the festival. It seems like the monument suffered the most, since there were days when you couldn’t even see it for the people who were sitting on or hanging off it. Certain media reported, and this proved to be true later, that the competition part of the festival was total-

all over the T-shirts sold in Guča. Bearing all of this in mind, we cannot still conclude why people are going to Guča, except for “letting go”. Experts have been saying for weeks prior to the festival that Guča was losing its original appeal and becoming an event where the trumpet matters the least, which proved to be true in the end. The trance that guests were falling into could be seen only when the brass bands played the favourites like “The Kalashnikov” or “Moonlight” (“Mesečina”), while you could hear the latest Bregović and Severina’s song (“Gas, gas”) coming from most tents, a song which all visitors probably had learned by heart by the end of the festival. There was no interest shown for something new or different, which was also the opinion of the orchestras coming to Guča for the first time. The only time when the crowd got excited was when they played something Serbian. The orchestras walked from tent to tent and were forced to make remakes of music hits in order to make some money. The information that the final evening of the Guča festival, when the festival’s winner was declared, drew only 20,000 people bearing in mind that close to 100,000 people visited the festival each day, speaks volumes about the interest shown by the visitors. Nobody knows how many people exactly visited Guča. The numbers range from 450,000 to 650,000, while the exact number of foreign guests is not known. Before the festival, the organizers announced that there would be around half a million visitors, with every fifth visitor coming from abroad, while the official figures suggested that there were 650,000 visitors with every second coming from abroad (!). Some media broadcasted totally different information, i.e. that there were fewer visitors this ly neglected by many of the visitors. It was interesting to see that most Serbian media reported on how well pork and the wedding cabbage were selling, whether the caterers were happy with how much money they had earned, the foreigners and their thoughts and feelings about Guča who were mostly praising the festival and, of course, the drinking. How much beverage was transported to the festival? What was the most popular drink? How much of it was drunk? What did the festival visitors get up to while intoxicated, while the warnings coming from the police and organizers to watch their health and not to drink and drive were usually written in small print? Various anecdotes were told about how much alcohol was drunk, the drunken youth were reported as being fun loving people, the national humour was glorified, as well as written

year, and that the caterers lost tens of thousands of Euros because of it. Such dilemmas led to important things in Guča being put aside, i.e. Dejan Lazarević being declared the best trumpeter in Guča by the jury and audience alike, while the best orchestra award went to the Bojan Ristić Orchestra from Vladičin Han. The star of this year’s festival was Boban Marković who held a two-hour concert on the second festival day, with the fireworks afterward which seemed to be attended mostly by foreigners! Year 2010 will have a special meaning both for Exit and Guča. This year, Exit will run into its 10th year, while the officials from Guča are announcing the competition for the best trumpeter in the world, as a special event to mark the jubilee 50th festival. If we take into consideration the current tendencies with both festivals, we can assume that there will be between 200,000 and 250,000 people at Exit, just like every year, with 180,000 coming from abroad (150,000 of them British), the programme will be great, the guests will not be able do decide which stage to go to see, all Exit employees will speak perfect English with the second language being Spanish, taxi fare will go up to 120 dinars and all “caterers” from Petrovaradin will finally get their work permits. Close to a million people will visit the festival in Guča, the accommodation will cost 100 Euros per day, the price of beer will be five times higher than the usual, the roads which the government ministers promised to build will expand the centre of Guča so that those coming to the festival who aren’t too interested in the competition itself will have more room to party, while, several days before the festival opens, a problem with slow delivery of huge quantity of food (pork and cabbage) will arise. We can hardly wait, can we?

Wikipedia: Guča trumpet festival

he Guča trumpet festival, also known as the DragačevoAssembly (Serbian:Dragačevski sabor), is an annual trumpet festival held in the town of Guča, near the city of Čačak, in the Dragačevo region of western Serbia. Guča is a five-hour bus journey from Belgrade. 600,000 visitors make their way to the town of 2,000 people every year, both from Serbia and abroad. Elimination heats earlier in the year mean only a few dozen bands get to compete. Guča’s official festival is split into three parts. Friday’s opening concert, Saturday night celebrations and Sunday’s competition. Friday’s concerts are held at the entrance to the official Guča Festival building. This event features previous winners, each orkestar getting to play three tunes while folk dancers, all kitted out in bright knitting patterns, dance kolos and oros in front of a hyped-up audience. An English party site, ThisIsTheLife.com, has named Guča the best festival in the world. “Forget Glastonbury, Reading, Burning Man and Cochella: the wildest music festival on earth is a cacophonic and crazy brass band festival that takes place every summer in the tiny Serbian town of Guča in the western region of Dragačevo.” Said Miles Davis, a Guča Festival visitor: “I didn’t know you could play trumpet that way” CorD / September 2008 71

CULTURE

Interview Aleksanda Kovac, musician

The Music I Breathe This summer we found Aleksandra Kovac on a wonderful beach in Greece. Maybe it would have been easier talking to her in Belgrade these days, but what you have in front of you are replies given from a seaside frame of mind BY MARINA PAUNOVIĆ My music is the most important thing in my life, as essential as the air I breathe. I couldn’t picture a single second of my life without it. I’ve been writing songs since I was 13, and have been singing ever since I became aware of my existence. It is really strange but beautiful at the same time when as a little child you are aware of the thing that gives your life a complete meaning – even back then I was incredibly thankful for that. I grew up listening to quality foreign pop music, so, by the age of 13, I already knew the construction of a pop song, i.e. the way it is made. I also learned about melody, harmony and lyrics and their relationship to each other, essential when you compose. I listened to Whitney Houston, George Michael, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, the Police, while Rickie Lee Jones was one of my favourite singers at that time. I can sing her album, Chuck E.’s in Love, by heart even if you wake me up in the middle of the night. 72 CorD / September 2008

Only later did I get to know soul and R&B of the 1960s and 1970s, and I started to absorb every single phrase of the legendary Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Etta James, Al Green and many other top performers. All of this shaped my own composing and singing style, but the most important things are my personal story and emotions. Of course, what I had experienced while living in London was also significant for my development like singing and playing with Errol Brown, the singer of Hot Chocolate, and working with the world famous producers like Rod Argent, Peter Van Hooke, Derek Bramble and John David. As your first solo project, how is this album different to the previous albums you made with your sister? The album Milk and Honey is my anthem to love and life. What I did was to remind people of those gentle and subtle feelings which we all forget about because we are living in difficult and turbulent times. I wrote and re-

corded it just several months before a family tragedy struck me. The album was like a cure to me, a way for expressing the love, sorrow, joy and everything that I felt through each of the songs. I worked on this album together with my inseparable music partner Roman Gorsek, with whom I founded a production company, RAProduction ten or so years ago. We worked together on other performers’ albums, mostly in Croatia and Bosnia, as well as on the music for TV series, theatre and TV ads. In 2001, just after the political upheaval in Serbia, we wanted to show the world that Belgrade can be a formidable player when it comes to the global music, and we produced and released by ourselves a maxi single with four songs, as well as a video for the song entitled For Better or Worse. In certain respects this was an introduction to my solo album, which I released ﬁve years later. We produced it ourselves, just like all my video spots and the tour. We had control of everything concerning my album and myself. This is the only way to ensure that everything will be just as you want it to be. How would you describe your sound? Is it fair to say that it is a mixture of RnB, soul and pop? I have never put music into categories. I

say that there is good and bad music and I don’t bother with styles. Three tracks from your last album were in English, which borrowed heavily in terms of inﬂuence from black music. Why did you choose this style? Songs like “C’Mon Boy”, “Love Operator” and A.K.’s “Black Balls” were written in English and I wanted them to stay that way. Roman and I have been exploring soul and funk for years, and this is the music that is closest to my sensibility. By the way, that is highly complex music when it comes to singing or composing. It demands top knowledge and feelings. Is your music more accessible to an international audience than to your fans in Serbia? r That’s the same audience, I don’t view it as domestic or international. What is emerging here at the moment is a young and advanced generation, hungry for changes, normal life and the opportunity to travel, meet new cultures and expand their horizons. My music and everything that I do gives me hope that with a lot of work, effort and invested energy, all of that is possible. Is it possible for music to be popular and commercial, as well as be of high quality? Most popular music is exactly like that. It is commercial and of good quality at the same time. Only in Serbia do we have this speciﬁc atmosphere where commercial music is immediately thought of as not being good, which is just the result of the disrupted morals and values that’ve had during the last twenty years. Some explanations of this subject could be found in Roman Gorsek’s book entitled ‘Serbia: My Case’ (released by the British Council). Is the music scene in Serbia similar to the international music scene? In what ways does it differ? I think that it mostly differs in terms of copyright protection and the way in which

the music industry is organi zed, which is something that is lacking in this country. Also, the system and the way in which this business is organized here is directly detrimental to the musicians. These are all the subjects that Roman and I wrote about in the aforementioned book. Our essay is made of two parts and it talks about the music industry in Serbia. I write about my career in England, Spain, the former Yugoslavia and Serbia. I talk about copy and performance rights; I compare music systems here and abroad while Roman Gorsek talks about the management, production and problems that our music scene had to deal with in the previous period. Of course, in the end, we

ANTHEM TO LOVE

LONDON

MTV AWARD

The album Milk and Honey is my anthem to love and life.What I did was to remind people of those gentle and subtle feelings which we all forget about because we are living in difﬁcult and turbulent times. I wrote and recorded it just several months before a family tragedy struck me.

What I had experienced while living in London was signiﬁcant for my development like singing and playing with Errol Brown, the singer of Hot Chocolate, and working with the world famous producers like Rod Argent, Peter Van Hooke, Derek Bramble and John David.

Serbia is speciﬁc in a sense that getting an international award only makes things harder for you. I have not been given any form of support from any state institution, so I manage by just like before. People are the ones that give me support and they are my biggest hope.

offer certain system solutions, but the question is whether all of that reaches the people in the state establishment, since they are the ones that can change things. This subject is too complex to discuss it in detail. There are similarities and there are differences. Do you expect similar popularity with the next or younger generation of music lovers? My audience is made of different generations of people, so I am really surprised when I see 12-year-olds at my concert, along with young couples, families with children and older ladies who know the lyrics of all my songs! What is your favourite track written by your father? “April in Belgrade”, “Lunch for Two”, “You are in My Blood”…. How has your life changed after your MTV award, and becoming a Serbian icon? Serbia is speciﬁc in a sense that getting an international award only makes things harder for you. I have not been given any form of support from any state institution, so I manage by just like before. People are the ones that give me support and they are my biggest hope for me that things are going to change. CorD / September 2008 73

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

Restaurant Review – Hunter

Turkey in Gorgonzola Sauce

Somewhere between cookery TV series of bubbly and upbeat Jamie Oliver and reﬁned kitchen goddess Nigela, numerous new funky eateries happened to the Belgraders, their families and friends. BY JELENA MICKIĆ

his certainly did not happen over the night. As we were slowly but certainly departing from our traditional staple food - meat, meat and more meat, preferably red, and bread, lot’s of it – we, the Belgraders, took a plunge into the unknown and started to enjoy new flavours, discovering fusion food and much more. In general, our standard of eating out has

74 CorD / September 2008

improved beyond measure. That is why national restaurants, better known as a kafana, and some scarce international cuisine restaurants that existed in the past, have been and are being replaced with modern places, that even prepare traditional food in untraditional ways. On Dorcol’s Strahinjica bana street, which is adorned with many smart and fashionable cafes and eateries, yet one more restaurant has found itself a home. Called “Hunter”, it represents one of the relatively recent additions to Dorcol’s and Belgrade’s gastro map. The very name of the restaurant should give guests a hint as to its speciality. If you have (a penchant for) venison prepared with a modern twist and flare, then Hunter is a place not to be missed. This 100 capacity eaterie is conceived as an exclusive wine bar, cafe and a res-

taurant all in one. It is spacious, split into two wings by an entrance hall of the building the restaurant is located in. At the very end of Hunter, there is a massive wooden bar. Chairs and tables are wooden too. The walls are decorated with paintings that depict hunting scenes, which gives this trendy place a traditional and exclusive gentleman’s club feel with a note of decadence. Among the myriad of cafes, cake shops and eating establishments on Strahinica bana, Hunter stands out by far for its choice of food and unique visual identity. We will start with the drinks list, which is a long one. One can chose between various coffees, cocktails and good selection of wines. Speaking of food, there is a good choice of dishes based around pheasant, deer, hare and wild boar, be they pâté, goulash, stew, carpaccio or steak. If you opt for something more familiar you can also en-

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

joy fish, veal, turkey and pasta dishes. We came for dinner and started off with pheasant pâté served with pistachio butter and toast. This starter is big enough for four people as it has 8 slices of toast and enough pâté for all. This can be a nice brunch option accompanied with a pint of chilled beer on a hot day. For the main course we chose turkey in gorgonzola sauce and deer meat rolled in bacon in a cranberry sauce, and for drinks we went for beer. We enjoyed our main course so much and savoured it for so long that at the end of the night there was simply no room for one of the marvellous desserts Hunter offers. From what I’ve heard from some friends, they recommend chocolate mouse, confirming the conventional wisdom that human passion for the rich and sweet taste of chocolate beats everything else. The service we experienced was immaculate and very helpful. For example, we were served by a very communicative and young waiter who worked with us on our choice of food. I have to point out that we did not announce our coming to the restaurant and they did not know they were being observed and judged. We enjoyed a quiet night, but the atmosphere in this restaurant can be very lively on busy nights. Hunter definitely caters for a more serious crowd - business lunchers, young and hipster professionals and corporate diners. Yes, you can have a just a drink in the evening, but Hunter is better put to use as a restaurant where you can enjoy a very good meal together with a drink or two. It is probably closest to the truth if I say that people who flock to Hunter go there not only for food, but drinks and social gather-

ings too. If you’re like me and simply enjoy people watching on hot days or nights like these, sitting in Hunter’s pavement garden watching people socialize or passing by can be a very amusing and relaxing pastime. Hunter is definitely a place to see and been seen, especially in the evening hours. Don’t be surprised if you spot some celebrity names, politicians or businesspeople among its clientele. One such guest arrived with his wife for late dinner and was given exactly the same service and treatment we had. This is what makes a good business an excellent business. Like in every big city, the Belgrade restaurant world is a

volatile one. Now we are presented with a big choice of restaurants to choose from. It is not an easy task. What makes one place a popular one? Is it good food, an excellent service, atmosphere, location, clientele, attention it gets in the press or something else? Hunter has fulfilled many of these criteria. It represents a new generation of modern eateries and the pleasure of eating good food in a smart, sometimes busy but still relaxed setting.

TIP: Make sure you book early and plan your parking strategy wisely as Hunter is on a very busy street. ATMOSPHERE: Enjoyable and relaxed, although it can get very busy and loud in the evening. HOURS: 09AM -02AM Addresse: Strahinjića Bana 47 Phone: +381 11 2030 934 CorD / September 2008 75

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

The future of fragrance – a question of luxury

Perfume or no Perfume Why does everything have to be so complicated in our lives? The history of perfume in ancient times, no matter how complex it seemed at the time, could never have been as complicated as it is today. Even in ancient Egypt, where perfume was ﬁrst used for religious rituals, no one ever thought of introducing a term like “fragrance fatigue”, an expression denoting the body’s ability to get used to and ﬁlter out a smell with which it has become familiar BY SANJA ĆOSIĆ

efore our generation, no one ever thought of taking a critical attitude towards fragrance, with three exceptions: when someone had an unpleasant smell due to bad hygiene; when someone used too much perfume; or when the perfume in question was too strong and/or of bad quality. So what has provoked this new and critical outlook on perfume? Are we all becoming connoisseurs? Or are we just fatigued by fragrance?

money; producers are introducing artificial sensors and noses, educating new generations of perfumers, while all the time bravely changing their PR approach, trying to seduce ever more customers with their image of glamour and exclusivity. Just seven years ago they placed 756 kinds of women’s perfume on store shelves. This year they offered 1.160. Next year there will be even more, and so on and so forth. Perfume is becoming less expensive, the selection is becoming larger, the packaging is more and more beautiful. But, malheureusement, all this means

Millions of women every year give up on purchasing and using perfume. If she were alive, Gabrielle Coco Chanel would be bewildered. She once said that a woman who thinks she smells good enough without perfume represents the highest level of arrogance. This large market that supposedly employs around 20 million people worldwide is more and more facing a recession. Statisticians are calculating; popular psychologists are analyzing; marketing is consuming more and more 76 CorD / September 2008

nothing to us. We are simply bored with fragrance. Millions of women every year give up on purchasing and using perfume. If she were alive, Gabrielle Coco Chanel would be bewildered. She once said that a woman

who thinks she smells good enough without perfume represents the highest level of arrogance. This century needs a Coty, but he is nowhere in sight. On the contrary, we today are faced with new ideas in completely the opposite direction, fragrance free zones, for example; a space in which everyone who occupies it is officially prohibited from using and wearing perfume. These can already be found in some companies, schools, art groups, and associations that promote the idea of releasing yourself from everything you don’t need. For now, the United States are leaders in the development of these prohibitions, just as they were with the no smoking policy. And so, step by step, day by day, the socalled “no-scent awareness policy”, strongly supported by the movement for the protection endangered species, is taking an increasingly strong hold on our lives. What prospects lie before us? Should scent be forbidden? Although everything has become endlessly complicated since the 15th century and the opening of the first perfume factory in the modern sense in Hungary, let us believe that

this decision will be left to us. What do we really think about perfume? “I like to smell nice. I also like that in other people, of course, if the fragrance is not too strong. It’s important for me to smell nice and I feel better when I wear perfume.” Très bon. These simple words come from a middle-aged woman from Belgrade, who works hard, takes care of her family, likes pilates, clothes, and of course, enjoys choosing, buying, and wearing perfumes. The way she uses them is just as simple as her attitude towards fragrance: “I put perfume on my neck, above my neck, on my arms, and that’s it.” C’ est ça. So, in her life there is no spraying the perfume across the room so that you create a cloud through which you should pass in order to preserve the perfume in your hair like an aura you carry though town. And the way she chooses perfumes is simple, because she pays no attention to trends, buying the perfumes she likes, rather than just what’s new. C’est simple. She used to use “Jeune” for a long time, a simple and delicate perfume with a lemon note in a fine green bottle. A few years later she got attached to the powdery fragrances by Naomi Campbell. She agrees with the opinion of analysts who say that many years ago the Yves Saint Laurent perfume Opium created a revolution: “It was a revolution, but not a very positive one. Every single person smelled of Opium. To this day I feel nauseous when I smell that scent.” When asked whether men in Belgrade have a proper attitude towards perfume today, she couldn’t say anything specific, but one olfactory impression is deeply embedded in her memory. She remembers very well how good her boyfriend smelled in her first long-term relationship. The perfume industry earns around 16 billion dollars per year, and it employees around 200 million people worldwide. The first newspaper in media history that hired a critic for perfumes only was the New York Times. In one of its articles, the NYT gives the most striking examples of the noscent awareness policy in the art world. The Madison Symphony Orchestra (Wisconsin) and the Orlando Opera Company (Florida) agreed to prohibit the use of perfume at work. According to information of the internet edition of China Daily, 750 kilograms of Jasmine flower are needed to produce one kilogram of essential oil. In order to be used in perfume production, Jasmine is picked flower by flower, and only while it’s in bloom. Four thousand dollars are needed to grow and pick one kilogram of rose petals. For industry use, the petals must be picked exclusively at sunset. Their synthetic equivalent costs ten times less – 400 dollars. Jennifer Lopez earned 25 million dollars from the sales of her perfume Glow, and marked a turning point in the relationship between the perfume industry and show business.

“YU” - perfect liberation of natural ﬂoral fragrance

he world-renowned French house Perfect Sense (a division of Mane), famous for crafting and bottling exclusive and luxurious scents, has created unique, precious and exclusive perfume. With almost 150 years experience in creating scents, Mane has access to some of the rarest plants growing in the most inaccessible and secluded corners of the planet. Using state of the art extraction technology, the new perfume, simple called “YU”, is a perfect liberation of natural floral fragrance transferred flawlessly to the skin. Furthermore, their ecologically friendly techniques allow this fragrance extraction to be performed without any damage to the plant whatsoever. Perfume creator Cecile Krakower has travelled from the rain forests of South America to the fertile islands of Indian Ocean. The core of the perfume is a fresh bouquet of flowery ingredients: Aromatic orange flowers from Indonesia, Soft and sweet jasmine from India, Sicilian bergamot, Tangerine from Florida, Orange flowers and leaves from Asia, African freesia, Ylang Ylang, a flower with aphrodisiac properties from Madagascar. Depth and mystery are imbued into the perfume, from the base of rose wood and vetyver leaves from Brazil and Mysore sandalwood, with a creamy bourbon vanilla finish.

The name of the perfume comes from the Chinese word for rain - precious drops preserving the secret of life in our natural world. The bottle and box were created by the world famous designer house Pearlfisher. Everything has been made from natural and organic materials: crystal, wood and leather, in creation of a whole as unique as the scent itself. The perfume bottle is crafted from 100% crystal and is individually numbered to enhance its exclusivity. Its shape is sensuous and feminine, impressive at first sight and continuing to live as work of art for much longer. The bottle has been placed in a handmade sandalwood box, lined inside with natural leather. Each individual element of this unique product has been created by the masters of their trade, who redefine the meaning of luxury in creating a perfume that is irresistibly, breath-takingly provocative. YU has been produced in only 500 bottles containing 50 ml of precious scent. It is available in only a handful of prestigious shops around the world, including Bergdorf Goodman in USA, Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, and in luxury boutiques in Great Britain and in the Middle East. In Belgrade, the perfume can be found in luxury perfumery Negrita in Makedonska Street, and in Niš in perfumery She’s. The price for a single bottle of the perfume is 259,000 din. or 5,000 US$.

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The Pick-Up Artist There’s an unwritten rule that all guys learn at some point in their lives, and that is that is that if there’s something you’re bad at, some aspect of yourself you’d like to improve on, it’s ok and even commendable to study at it and get some expert advice. Unless the thing you’re bad at happens to be women. Then you’re pretty much stuffed. BY RICHARD WORDSWORTH

here’s a brief period of grace when you’re really little, when girls are still the enemy and suited only for teasing and poking with sticks. Asking questions at this stage can be done relatively free of embarrassment, but when you’re five none of your contemporaries know anything about girls either, so the only real option left is to ask your parents, who will suggest you go outside and play. Eventually you get “the talk” about babies which depending on the openness of your parents may or may not involve a stalk, and that’s that. That’s all the free information you’re going to get, the rest will have to be all your own research. And it’s a difficult learning curve. As you get older asking your Dad questions about girls gets weirder, and asking your friends gets more emasculating. How, exactly, are you supposed to admit to your best friend that, left to your own devices, you’d be happier looking at pictures of ladies on the internet than trying to start a conversation with them in public? Where’s the dignity in admitting that you actually haven’t the foggiest

Out on the town: Wayne leads a Charisma Arts weekend workshop in a bar now, because that’s the way it is. Or at least it was, until recently. A contributing editor to the New York Times best selling men’s dating book “The Game – Undercover in the Secret Society of Pick Up Artists”, Wayne Elise has made a career out of being a professional ladies man, studying the psychological underpinnings of human interaction and painstakingly turning his findings into a practical and teachable system to rival even the most comprehensive dating books for women. His company, Charisma Arts, offers live one-on-one or group coaching in cities all around the world for men who want to improve their luck with women, whether they’re looking for a bit of casual romance, a girlfriend, a wife or just fulfilment of their childhood dream of being James Bond. Here, CorD talks to Wayne about the recent revolution in the fledgling male dating industry, his best opening chat up line and the perils of approaching girls who buy dictionaries.

“In school I was never good with women but I had a hunger to understand people and ‘rules’ for great interpersonal communication.” idea what women find attractive in a man, and that secretly you’d much prefer just going back to poking them with sticks? It’s generally accepted that being good with women is not something you learn, it’s something you’re born with; the old truism that some guys have it and some guys don’t, and if you don’t, you might as well trade in your reproductive organs for a fast internet connection 78 CorD / September 2008

CorD: When you tell people for the ﬁrst time what you do for a living, how do you describe yourself? Are you a pick up artist, a dating coach, a ladies man, a student of life…? Wayne Elise: That is always a tough question to answer. The problem is that some people can ﬁnd what I do so interesting that the conversation can easily become

just me talking about my job and that is a bit tiring after awhile. So sometimes I lie and tell people I’m an accountant. They go away scratching their heads and marvelling that accountants aren’t really how they pictured. I’m trying to single-handedly give accountants a reputation as fun guys. Other times I tell people I am a social coach. But of course that brings a million questions. In reality I am a guy who has spent a lot of time understanding how people, especially men and women together, communicate. I have found out some interesting things that I can leverage to improve the love lives of men. CD: Tell us a little about your life before you started teaching. How did your method take shape, and what gave you the inspiration to start pinning down the techniques and working them into a teachable system? WE: In school I was never good with women but I had a hunger to understand people and ‘rules’ for great interpersonal communication. Later I became a busker. Being on the street, having to create an audience out of thin air taught me a lot about attracting and holding people’s attention. It’s a small jump to using those skills with women. I started to go out to bars and cafes to see if I could ‘pick up’ women. It worked fairly well so I began teaching other guys. Now about ten years into teaching men how to meet and connect with women I feel I have a fairly good grasp of how to make guys successful with the opposite sex. Along the way my understanding and methods have been reﬁned. For example,

when I began I used to think that it was important to impress women. Now I know it is more important to get her to impress me CD: What kind of guys sign up for your live coaching and seminars? Is there a particular type of person, or does it vary? What, if anything, do these people have in common? WE: We have all types of guys from every walk of life. We have everyone from nineteen year old students to ﬁfty year old company directors. The common thread is that they all want to be James Bond. Just kidding. They want to feel as if they have power over their love lives which up to this point may have been dictated by the randomness of circumstance. The event isn’t just for the geeks and the worst with women. Many guys are unsatisﬁed with their level of success with women. We even get some real ladies men who just want to take it to the next level. CD: What can guys who sign up for one of your weekends of training expect from the experience? What changes will someone see in themselves at the end compared to when they signed up? WE: They can expect to have one of our instructors demonstrate how to approach a woman and charm her, get her phone number and possibly more. For many of our clients it makes a big impact just to see that this can be done, you don’t have to rely on internet dating or your present social circle. They can then expect to be coached through the process of doing the same thing. We try to give them a fundamental understanding of how to charm a woman from meeting to getting a solid date. Our clients will make from ten to thirty cold approaches during the weekend under the watchful eye of our instructors who will give them feedback and suggestions. In the end we are not looking for short term success at picking up a woman on the weekend but rather to impart the skills necessary to do this in the future when the client is out there on his own. We see many clients, a month or two on, who have more women in their lives and are much happier.

In action: Wayne demonstrates a cold approach in the street CD: What is the biggest stumbling block for men in improving their luck with women? How do you help them to overcome it? WE: Too many men try to come across as nice. Women don’t trust nice. If a guy says to a woman he just met that she is smart and attractive, she will be suspicious of his motivation. ‘What does he want?’ We teach our clients to instead to show their interest. “I ﬁnd you sexy because I like women who are funny. I haven’t met a woman who could make me laugh in a long time.” Notice the difference? This is counter-intuitive, but demonstrating your intentions is always more trusted. She doesn’t have to worry about your motivation. You are telling her. CD: How does the Charisma Arts ideology differ from those being taught by the other big names in the dating industry? WE: I have been at this a long time. I did a TV programme for Channel 4 in the UK called Seduction School. If you ask our former clients of which there are hundreds, Charisma Arts has a great reputation. We do little advertising since we get so much referral business. I am a character in, and con-

OUR CLIENTS

NICE-GUYS

THE APPROACH

We have all type of guys from every walk of life. We have nineteen year old students to fifty year old company directors. They want to feel as if they have power over their love lives which up to this point may have been dictated by the randomness of circumstance.

Too many men try to come across as nice. Women don’t trust nice. If a guy says to a woman he just met that she is smart and attractive, she will be suspicious of his motivation.‘What does he want?’ We teach our clients to instead to show their interest.

Women often don’t know how hard it is for a guy to approach them.They think the guy is cocky when he is really just nervous.And vice versa. I know many women who act bitchy as their way of ﬂirting. It’s just a big misunderstanding.

tributing author to The Game. I write a blog for Psychology Today which is a respected magazine and website over here in the US. We have thirteen instructors who go through months of apprenticeship before they are allowed to teach on their own. We are a real company and have shown real results for our clients. Hopefully people can see the difference in the quality of instruction between us and some of our ‘competitors’. There is also a difference in ideology as well. While others teach guys to make up stories (lies), we teach our clients to better articulate their truth. When a guy knows how to articulate himself he has an endless amount of things to talk about. We also believe that performing for women is not the way to go because women (people) value a guy not on how great he is but rather on how much effort she has put into the interaction with him. So we are using all our tools to get her to express her real self. After that we show direct interest based on what we learn. Another difference between many of the other companies out there in our industry is that we are one of the few full-service shops. There are some selling products such as DVDs or eBooks and others selling in person coaching, but few doing both, including in-field training weekends. That means our instructors have to prove our methods work every weekend. This goes to show we have a pretty effective philosophy that I originally outlined in my eBook, ‘How to meet and connect with women.’ CD: As a contributing author to “The Game” [the 2004 Neil Strauss book exposing the lives of male seduction gurus like Wayne], what effect has that book had on the dating world for men? Is its effect positive or negative, and why? WE: There have been many changes. Some of them I like and some of them I don’t. I certainly hope that men have learned CorD / September 2008 79

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

to be more demanding about their expectations from their relationships. Too many men put women on a pedestal and shoot for a short goal such as sex. I have said many times, that if a woman has sex with a guy that’s good but if he can get her to run an errand for him, such as stop on the way over and pick up a quart of milk, well, that means she really likes him. CD: What are the most dramatic stories from you or Charisma Arts instructors? Are there any war stories that stand out as unexpected and spectacular successes, or as terrible and anecdoteworthy cautionary tales? WE: I was in Vancouver a few years ago teaching a guy to approach women in bookstores. I demonstrated a couple of times and then asked him to approach a pretty Asian girl who was browsing through a book. He was nervous and couldn’t think of what to say to her. I told him to walk over and tell her he had read that book she was holding. So he marches up to this girl and says, “Hi, I read that book. It was so good I actually read it twice.” She looks up at him and says, “That’s interesting, because it’s a dictionary.” That was the last time I asked someone to make up an opening line that wasn’t true.

Charisma Arts trainers undergo months of training before they lead workshops Everyone should just take it easier on each other out there. CD: So many guys get tangled up thinking about what to say to make conversation with a woman they don’t know. When you approach a woman you don’t know, what’s your opening line? WE: I use a Preamble. That is a technique I developed. It is a non-important line that serves the purpose of focusing her and building anticipation for what I am going

“I tell people I am a social coach. But in reality I am a guy who has spent a lot of time understanding how people, especially men and women together, communicate.” CD: Is there any type of person that you just can’t teach? Is anyone beyond hope? WE: I think we can teach almost everyone something that is valuable either through the free content on our website or my eBook or an event. Having said that, not everyone is ready for one of our weekends. We have instructors who push our clients but not everyone is able to muster the courage to approach women they don’t know but ﬁnd attractive. Also there are some few guys who really need to just learn how to socialize with people before they come to one of our live events. CD: What are the biggest mistakes that women make when interacting with men? What would you tell the women of the world if you had the opportunity to talk to them all at once, for sixty seconds? WE: This goes for both men and women. Women often don’t know how hard it is for a guy to approach them. They think the guy is cocky when he is really just nervous. And vice versa. I know many women who act bitchy as their way of ﬂirting. It’s just a big misunderstanding. 80 CorD / September 2008

to say next. “Hey there, I had to come over here and ask you a question. This may sound crazy but...” That is a Preamble. Notice that it is all statement and it is really just there to focus her, build anticipation for what you are going to ask and show her a warm comfortable vibe. You don’t want to say any important content or ask a question in that first thirty seconds. She’s not going to really be listening anyway. She is too busy checking out how you look and ‘feel’ to her to really listen to the content of your words. She is in a state of shock that you are talking to her. So don’t ask or say anything important. That would be a waste and get you a non-response. After you’ve got her focused you can be witty and charming. CD: It seems like there’s this universal mindset that the place where guys meet girls is at the bar or in the club. Where in your view are the best places and times to meet women, especially for the beginner? WE: Bookshops and Museums. My favourite is the Tate in London. Just ask an attractive stranger what she thinks of the painting she is looking at. It’s very easy.

CD: You offer teaching weekends and training all over the world. How does the Charisma Arts approach differ from country to country/culture to culture? Do you ﬁnd that women in different cities in different countries have different reactions to the techniques? WE: There are some cultural differences. People in Europe and Asia aren’t as open and loud as Americans or the Irish. Our instructors are mostly locally based in the cities they teach so they can calibrate this easily. But these differences mostly pertain to the very beginning of talking to a strange woman. Once the interaction picks up speed people are nearly all the same where ever we teach. Interestingly our clients all have the same problems everywhere. It’s very rare when we see something we haven’t seen before. And yet, everyone thinks their local situation is different. “That may work on girls in Boston but it would never work here in Sydney,” someone says. But then the next guy is saying, “That may work in Sydney but it would never work here in Paris.” It all works where ever you go. People are built the same. CD: If you could give one piece of advice on interacting with women to every man on the planet, for free, without having to meet them face to face, what would it be? WE: Don’t ask so many questions, but lead by learning how to better articulate the things that are important to you. That will make you not a stranger and allow her to feel comfortable sharing herself with you. Then you can base your attraction equally off her personality as well as how hot she looks in a skirt. For more information on Wayne Elise and Charisma Arts, including upcoming weekend courses, his ebook, DVD courses and free podcasts, visit www.charismaarts. com.

CorD \ .OVEMBER

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LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

CorD and the TOS Recommend

Wine Routes of Serbia BY RADOMIR VLASTELICA PHOTO: B. JOVANOVIĆ, D. ZAMUROVIĆ, D. BOSNIĆ, N. BABIĆ

Wines from Sands

he winemaking tradition of the Subotica-Horgoš sands is over 2,000 years long. The Bačka region’s viticulture started developing after phylloxera started haranguing Europe.

The area is dominated by sandy soils and quicksand, various clay soils, chernozem on sandy soil, and brown steppe soils. Thus, the wines produced in this area are dubbed “wines from sands”. The varieties predominantly grown in new vineyards include the Italian Riesling, Rhine Riesling and Chardonnay. The area’s recommended white varieties are Italian Riesling, Župljanka, white Burgundy, Ezerjó, Čoka’s Muscat Otonel

and Sémillon, and Muscat Krokan from Biserno Ostrvo, while renowned red varieties include Merlot, Frankovka, red Burgundy and Cabernet. The Čoka Winery and Palić Cellar are champions of the wineproducing area. The Čoka Winery produces top-quality wines with the “strength of a foal’s blood”, of which we recommend Merlot, Muscat Otonel and Ždrepčeva Krv (Foal’s Blood). There are also Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and Pinot Blancs to try. Apart from a range of still wines, the Palić Cellar also produces Francuski Poljubac (French Kiss), a sparkling wine obtained from the region’s autochthonous Kevedinka variety.

Glimmering in the Danube

he Srem region is one of the oldest viticultural areas in Europe. The grapevine has sprouted on Mt. Fruška Gora’s fertile hills for over 1,700 years, ever since it was first planted by Roman Emperor Probus of the ancient Sirmium. The grapevine remained the pillar of life of many Karlovci generations, while Sremski Karlovci wine sparkled throughout Europe, always noble and refined, side by side with the best.

82 CorD / September 2008

Neoplanta (Smederevka and red Traminac), Sila (Kevedinka and Chardonnay), Liza (grey Burgundy and Kunleany) and Petra (red Burgundy and Kunbarat). The area’s recommended varieties include Italian and Rhine Riesling, Traminac, Sauvignon, Neoplanta, Sirmium and Župljanka, which yield wines named after them.

The Sea of Vineyards

Karlovci was considered to be the seat of Serbian wines for several centuries. Bermet, the region’s signature wine, was first exported to the United States 150 years ago. According to some documents, it was even included on The Titanic’s wine card. Bermet is an exceptional liqueur wine, much like the Italian Vermouth, but produced in a different way - through maceration of 20 different herbs and spices. Vranac is the autochthonous variety grown on Mt. Fruška Gora, Portugieser is an old variety, used in the past for the production of the Ausbruch and Bermet wines, and of local crossbred varieties, there are Župljanka (Prokupac and red Burgundy),

ccording to some historical sources, viticulture in the Vršac region dates back to the times of Daci tribe and Roman rule. By the late 19th century, Vršac had 10,000 hectares of vineyards. Those were the largest vineyards in what was then Hungary and, according to some statisticians, even in Europe. Vršac vineyards spread on a hilly terrain around Vršac, on the far west slopes of the Carpathians. Vršački Vinogradi (Vršac vineyards) holds over 1,700 hectares of plantations, while the entire region has a total of 2,100 hectares under grapevine. The local and old varieties include Župljanka, Smederevka, White Šasla, Rkaciteli, and Kreaca. Kreaca is an ancient white grapevine - an autochthonous Vršac variety. It used to be grown all over the Banat plain. White varieties dominate Vršac vineyards - red varieties are rarely found. Of many top quality wines produced in the region, Muscat Otonel, Chardonnay,

Pinot Bianco, Rhine and Italian Riesling stand out. The Banatski Rizling white table wine is very popular. It is a blend of Italian Riesling, Smederevka, Župljanka and Kreaca. Vršački Vinogradi’s cellar has always been and still is an architectural attraction. It can store 34,000 tons of wine. The cellar was built between 1964 and 1967. Vršački Vinogradi was one of the chief symbols of the former Yugoslavia. The cellar is in the shape of letter ‘Y’ (for Yugoslavia). It is one of the three largest wine cellars under one roof in Europe. The other two are in Listel, France and Logrono, Spain. The cellar has five galleries - one underground and four above the ground level - which store 580 stone tanks, tiled with glass plates.

The Golden Hill

he history of Smederevo goes back to the rule of Roman Emperor Probus. In the 15th century, despots Stefan Lazarević and Đurađ Branković had the slopes around Smederevo covered with vineyards. Miloš Obrenović, the leader of the Second Serbian Uprising, also contributed to the development of viticulture in the area by planting 36 hectares of vineyards on Zlatni Breg (Golden Hill), his family’s summer resort. High-quality wines are produced in that area to date. This area is bordered by the Danube

PALIĆ

SREMSKI KARLOVCI

SMEDEREVO

Palić is the name for a lake, a spa and the neighboring town, which are among the best-known tourist destinations in Serbia. It is a beautiful and stylish summer resort with rich offerings, including a baroque park. It is a champion of comfort. Only one kilometer in diameter, the Palić core is ﬁlled with hotels, restaurants, beaches, tennis courts, a casino and a zoo.

Sremski Karlovci is a rare pearl of Serbian culture and spirituality.The town-museum stands side by side with the famous European cities.The Fruška Gora national park with a number of 14th century monasteries, the Čenej salaš, the Koviljskopetrovaradinski rit (wetland area) and unique bird-watching opportunities make the offer complete.

Smederevo was the seat of Serbian monarchs in the Middle Ages.A tour of the town should start with a visit to the Sveti Georgije church, built in the 19th century.The Smederevo Fortress was built in the 15th century on 10.5 hectares of land.Triangular in shape, it has 15 towers. Karađorđe’s Dud (Mulberry Tree), a famous site from the First Serbian Uprising, is also of interest CorD / September 2008 83

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

River on one side and the Velika Morava River on the other side. Smederevka is the leading variety in these vineyards, grown here since time immemorial. It got its name from the town in whose vineyards it is largely grown. The variety yields grapes of high quality, which in their turn yield good table wine. The wines obtained from Smederevka are pleasant and energizing, and are even better when blended with high-quality Riesling, Sémillon, and white Burgundy. Apart from Smederevka, the area produces other noteworthy wines, such as those obtained from Italian Riesling, Sauvignon, Sémillon and Traminac. The quality red varieties include Gamay and Ružica types that are obtained from the Prokupac variety. Smederevo was the seat of Serbian monarchs in the Middle Ages. A tour of the town should start with a visit to the Sveti Georgije church, built in the 19th century. The Smederevo Fortress was built in the 15th century on 10.5 hectares of land. Triangular in shape, it has 15 towers. Karađorđe’s Dud (Mulberry Tree), a famous site from the First Serbian Uprising, is also of interest

This month’s Wine events in Serbia Palić Grape-picking Days, September 20-21 Public Company Palić-Ludaš 024/753 121 Sremski Karlovci Grape-picking, September 27-28 Sremski Karlovci Municipal Assembly 021/882 127

The Sea of Grapevines

Župa Grape-picking, Aleksandrovac, End-September Tourist Organization of Aleksandrovac 037/554 404

Autumn in Smederevo, End-September Tourist Organization of Smederevo 026/222 952

istorical and archaeological sources indicate that Župa’s wine trail winds over 3,000 years back into the past. Župa holds an important place in Serbia’s centuries-long viticulture and winemaking tradition. Throughout the Middle Ages, Serbia’s three largest monasteries, Hilandar, Studenica and Žiča, had their vineyards and wine cellars in Župa. The illustrious Serbian Duke Lazar owned wine stores in the region’s Kruševica meadow. Župa, dubbed Serbia’s Champagne by French consul Decaux in 1904, is situated in a ravine surrounded by Mt. Kopaonik, Mt. Željina, Mt. Goča and Mt. Jastrebac. Some say that Župa and France’s Bordeaux

84 CorD / September 2008

Vršac Grape-picking, End-September Tourist Organization of Vršac 013/832 999 More information about events on www.serbia.travel National Tourism Organisation of Serbia have matching climates. Ever since the 1960s, Vino Župa from Aleksandrovac, founded in 1956 by nine agricultural cooperatives and Kruševac-based Rubin, established in 1955, has been a cornerstone of the local winemaking and viticulture.

Župa today is famous for its vineyards and hard-working viticulturists, as its geographic and climatic conditions make it one of the most favorable areas for cultivation of grapevine in Serbia. Aleksandrovac is a ruler of hills. Tamjanika and Prokupac, the oldest native Serbian grape varieties, are grown in Aleksandrovac and its vicinity. Prokupac, also known as Rskavac, is a thousand-years-old cultivar, while Tamjanika, a muscatel originating from France, has been grown in Serbia for over 500 years. Other varieties include Župski Bojadiser, Smederevka, Sauvignon, Sémillon, Župljanka, Neoplanta, Chardonnay, and Italian Riesling. The legendary Župa Harvest, Serbia’a “winiest” and oldest wine festivity, features the best wines produced in the area and awards medals to Župa’s viticulturists. Custom-built for the festivital, the Wine Street has a fountain which flows with wine, served free-of-charge for three days. The people of Župa say jokingly that they have a Wine Street once a year and wine drunkards all year round.

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

Descendants of an ex-barber from Irig near Novi Sad are still waiting for a fabulous inheritance of 22 million pounds.

ENGLISHMEN “FLEECED” THE HEIRS Nikola Bizumić from Neradin invented hair-cutting machine, accumulated huge wealth and bequeathed it to his heirs six generations ago. Lawyers and relatives have spent decades unsuccessfully chasing after the inheritance rights, which according to English law shall never expire BY ZORICA TODOROVIĆ MARKOVIĆ

ecades are passing, but the hope of Nikola Bizumić’s descendants that they shall inherit a huge 22 million pounds sterling doesn’t let up. The Bizumići, (they themselves even do not know how many of them there are) both from the male and from female sides in Dobrinci, Neradin, Irig, Inđija, Ruma, Sremska Mitrovica and Novi Sad, fantasize about the ways in which to spend the riches of their affluent ancestor, and with some legal assistance have taken matters into their own hands and went all the way to London to claim their fortune. No-one knows for certain if the Bizumići shall ever receive that huge sum of money, but they like to talk about it all the same. It all started in 1929, when the British Government sent an official document enquiring about the heirs of John Smith, born under name Nikola Bizumić, who died in London in 1906. The letter said that Smith, inventor of an innovative new hair-cutting machine, had bequeathed his fortune earned at that time from the then revolutionary patent to his relatives until the sixth generation. Unofficially, there are at least twenty-something of them.

PATENT IN LONDON Nikola Bizumić (alias John Smith) was born in 1823 in the village of Neradin. He was more capable with scissors than with hoe, and pig rearing wasn’t much to 86 CorD / September 2008

his liking, so he worked as a barber. He was an apprentice of master barber Petar Jovanović in Ruma, and five years later he was already journeyman. He cut hair and shaved Ruma citizens, and was also adept at “surgical operations” – drawing blood and pulling out the teeth of the local pop-

ulation. Novi Sad citizen Lazar Bizumić, also from Neradin, told us an interesting biography of his popular cousin: “There is a certificate from the Ruma barbers’ guild, where an Irig barber has been described as “a skilled surgeon, who

THE WEALTH GROWS

ithout computers, lawyers of that time calculated that John Smith’s total wealth could not be exchanged into dinars, because at the time there were not enough dinars in the whole Kingdom of Yugoslavia with which to make the transfer! Having sat untouched for so long, experts predict that the fortune will have been growing steadily with interest, and may now be in the billions of pounds. On top of this, every company that creates a similar hair-cutting product must pay considerable royalties.

the state was proud that the inventor had come from the Balkans.

PERSISTENT ENGLISHMEN

Letter to Lazar Bizumić is honest, diligent, literate, knows German but not Latin”. This was a recommendation for Bizumić for the position of military surgeon and barber.” Nikola stayed in Ruma for another three years, but his restless spirit brought him in 1846 to the Ninth Border Regiment in Sremska Mitrovica. He became a military surgeon and a barber. Nikola’s regiment was constantly travelling between the Czech Republic, Italy and Galicia, and amid the violence of 1848 he participated in the war - first in Italy, then also in Hungary - until the end of the revolution. For unknown reasons in 1851 he left the army and returned to native Neradin. Today even the youngest Bizumić family members know that Nikola Bizumić, as a young lad, confided in his fellow countrymen that had had created a revolutionary invention. Until that time everybody had their hair cut with scissors, and the suspicious peasants just shook their heads in disbelief. When it was time for him to patent his invention, not one of the rich Fruska Gora citizens wanted to lend 100 forints to young Nikola, and the disappointed barber would never forgive them for it. No-one took him seriously, not even his parents. There was nothing else left for him, but he took the little money he had in his pockets and went out into the world. He was lucky to reach London where in a year’s time he made an industrial boom. Hair-cutting devices inundated the world, and were very soon in use for hair-cutting on heads of Neradin peasants, who didn’t even think of that the inventor was none other than their fellow citizen – Nikola. The barber himself sent his fellow countrymen one machine, which was at

Nikola Bizumić the famous inventor the same time his goodbye to them. Noone saw him, or heard anything about him, until many years later when a testament arrived. This document has triggered confusion not only amongst Bizumići, but also in the whole village. Everyone right up to

The memories of Nikola’s countrymen were revived in 1907, when in an Irig postal office a letter arrived with a London postmark. Because the Bizumići, to which the parcel had been addressed, didn’t live in Irig but four kilometres further in Neradin, the Austrian-Hungarian authorities of the time answered that there were no families of that name in that village, and therefore no such people to whom the parcel could be delivered. People talked all over Irig about how Englishmen had several times before made enquiries about Bizumići, but that almost all records about those correspondences were lost during the First World War. “The memory of my cousin was “resurrected” again in 1929,” says Laza Bizumić (83), who is amused by the story about the big inheritance, but he doesn’t expect a share of the pie for himself having not been a very close relative. According to the English legislative provisions the inheritance can never expire. In that year, 1929, it was calculated that the value of the property alone that John Smith left behind would surpass the amount in the treasury of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Although the Bizumići have made plans and engaged whole teams of lawyers to bring this case to an end, nothing has changed in the last 79 years. There was always just the wish to share the inheritance, but no-one ever persisted in undertaking the right steps to reach that fortune, despite the sum in question being enough to finance the entire state, and not just Nikola’s heirs. Once, all the Bizumići met in Fruška Gora to decide what to do to finally get at their inheritance. There is no doubt that the Englishmen wouldn’t so readily give away this huge wealth to our country, regardless how much it legally belongs here. Who knows, maybe some persistent Bizumić, like his ancestor John Smith shall achieve the goal for themselves in the months and years to come. Noone renounces such wealth easily.

SAVA’S QUEST

ava Bizumić, a farmer from Neradin and a descendent of famous inventor has long since passed away, but long after his passing remains the funny story about his quest for his share of the inheritance. As fellow countrymen recollect, Sava travelled to London. It is no joke, such money, so it was worth the journey. Unfortunately, he returned empty handed, and had to hide away from the peasants mocked him for his efforts. They even composed a song for him, with lyrics like: “Sava sold his oxen and sheep, in order to find money somewhere in London”. But they would be singing another song if Sava had by any chance returned from London with the money. He consoled himself that even though he returned without anything done, that still didn’t mean he didn’t have any rights to the inheritance, and he still had hope. CorD / September 2008 87

FROM THE WORLD PRESS

SERBIA: PUBLISHER PULLS NOVEL ABOUT PROPHET

novel about the Prophet Muhammad was pulled from bookstores in Serbia to avoid conflict with the country’s Muslim minority, its Serbian publisher, Beobook, said Tuesday. The book, “The Jewel of Medina,” by Sherry Jones, an American journalist, describes the relationship between Muhammad and his wife Aisha. Serbia has 550,000 Muslim residents. Hatred toward Muslims was a central cause of the Bosnian war from 1992 to 1995, and relations between Muslims and Orthodox Christian Serbs in the region are often strained.

that site: speculation about the fact that, as we mentioned earlier and Jere Longman writes today, the man who beat Cavic (at least according to Omega’s computerized touchpad), Michael Phelps, is indeed an Omega spokesman; and another statement by Cavic, reported by The Associated Press, that he accepts the result, but not necessarily the implication that he is second-best to Phelps: “I don’t want to fight this. People will be bringing this up for years and saying you won that race. If we got to do this again, I would win it.”

Meanwhile, the parents of Bryan Steinhauer, who authorities say was assaulted by Kovacevic in Binghamton, said on Thursday that their son is slowly emerging from a coma. “He doesn’t have full consciousness,” said the 22-year-old’s father, Richard Steinhauer.

US, SERBIA IN DIPLOMATIC ROW

N ‘CAVIC IS SERBIA’ BY ROBERT MACKEY ugust 20, 2008 A raucous crowd of thousands of Serbs flooded the center of Belgrade on Tuesday night to greet their Olympic “champion,” Milorad Cavic. Video of the homecoming rally on YouTube, and photographs on the Web site of the Belgrade radio station B92, show that some in the crowd waved a sign modeled on the political slogan “Kosovo is Serbia” that stated “Cavic is Serbia” in Serbian script. (Cavic himself got into trouble in March for wearing a T-shirt with that “Kosovo is Serbia” slogan on the podium after winning a race in Europe.) In what can only be regarded as a nonshocking development, Serb conspiracy theorists have not been assuaged by Cavic’s statement on his Web site that he accepts the result. My colleague David Goodman points us to the Web site 100thofasecond. com, a one-stop shop for those looking for links to scraps of evidence, or innuendo, that seem to support the idea that this is all part of another elaborate anti-Serb plot. Among the more interesting tidbits on

88 CorD / September 2008

EW YORK: It started as a bar fight in a college town in upstate New York. Police say a hulking basketball player from Serbia beat a fellow college student to a bloody pulp and fled to his home country, setting off a diplomatic crisis. US senators have intervened on the victim’s behalf, reaching out to secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and threatening to pull back aid to Serbia over the episode. Serbia has refused to cooperate, damaging relations between the two countries just as the nation’s new pro-Western government was hoping for a new era in diplomacy with the United States. American officials in Belgrade delivered a diplomatic note to the Serbian government on Wednesday demanding that the suspect, Miladin Kovacevic, be returned to the US by August 1. Senator Charles Schumer, said he has spoken to Rice about the case, and “neither the executive branch nor the Senate will rest until Kovacevic is returned to the United States to face justice.” “There is a great deal of leverage we have on the Serbian government and if we have to look at foreign aid, we will,” Schumer said. In a statement, the Serbian consulate in New York did not address the deadline, but said, “The Serbian government remains committed to cooperation with American authorities at all levels.”

NEW JUDGE TO PRESIDE OVER KARADZIC TRIAL he trial of former Serbian leader and alleged war criminal Radovan Karadzic is to be presided over by a new judge, the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague has announced. A tribunal official said the assignment of new judges for the case was not in response to Karadzic’srequest for a new judge. On Tuesday, Karadzic filed a motion to thecourt claiming that Judge Alphons Orie was not suitable to preside over his case. The president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Judge Fausto Pocar, said the prosecution had originally intended to combine Karadzic’s case withthe proceedings against Momcilo Perisic, one of the most senior generals under late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. But after prosecutors recently informed the court they had changed their plans, the ICTY decided to assign the Karadzic trial to a different judge. Karadzic labels judge inappropriateThe former wartime Bosnian Serbleaderhad argued that Orie would not be neutral, as he had already sentenced one of his close assistants in the Balkan War, Momcilo Krajisnik. The Bosnian-Serb war crimes suspect was captured in the Serbian capital Belgrade in July after nearly 13 years on the run.He has been indicted for crimes against humanity and genocide over the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 and the siege of

Sarajevo in which thousands of people were also killed.Karadzic is due to appear before the ICTY again August 29 to enter a plea to the charges brought against him.

FORMER US ENVOY SAYS KARADZIC WOULD HAVE BEEN “GOOD NAZI”

adovan Karadzic would have made “a good Nazi,” Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy who brokered the 1995 deal that ended the Bosnian war, has said, following the arrest of the Bosnian Serb leader in Belgrade. Speaking to the German news magazine Der Spiegel in remarks published on Saturday, Holbrooke said he had been “beside myself with joy” at the news of Karadzic’s arrest in Belgrade on Monday. The 67-year-old, who is seen in the US as a possible secretary of state if Barack Obama wins the presidential election, said he saw Karadzic as more evil than either Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic or Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic.”He would have made a good Nazi,” Holbrooke said. Crimes against humanityBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Karadzic supporters in Belgrade have been protesting against his arrest. Karadzic faces crimes against humanity and genocide charges in The Hague.The arrest showed that radical and extremist forces in Serbia had been weakened, Holbrooke said, congraulating the European Union for the pressure it had applied, using eventual membership for Serbia as inducement.Milosevic died in his prison cell in March 2006 while being tried in The Hague for war crimes committed in the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Mladic remains at large. Holbrooke brokered the 1995 Dayton Accords to end the 1992-1995 ethnic war. He subsequently became US ambassador to the United Nations.

A DARK FAIRY TALE OF SERBIA’S PAST

ELGRADE, SERBIA - SERBIA is a troubled country of rich history that lives by its myths and symbols. And so a new movie, billed as the most expensive locally made film ever, is a daring, bizarre and wholly provocative attempt to turn those images on their heads.

The movie (a word about the title in a minute) is the first full-length feature by director Uros Stojanovic, an ambitious 30-something who seems fond of entering a room with a flourish. It is set in a ravaged Serbia just after the First World War and tells the story of a village where there are no men left -- they’ve all died in battle.Consequently, the cast is almost all female, full of strong and colorful Serbian actresses who represent the village in all its aspects: two sisters, the main characters, who are sent off in search of men; the sorceress; the bartender; the abandoned bride, the farmer. The women desperately long for men, for the companionship and fulfillment that only love can bring them. Yet they are also resourceful, making do, building lives (albeit surreal ones) amid loss. In one particularly evocative scene, the women sing noisily and achingly at the local tavern and then drink an enchanted grappa-like liquor containing a spider (a black widow?). With that, they fall into reverie of imagining their disappeared husbands and sons, who return as skeletons and ghosts, decaying bodies that are still somehow objects of great desire. Most American audiences’ knowledge of Serbian filmmaking is limited to Emir Kusturica, whose works are critically acclaimed, edgy and the staples of art houses. Stojanovic says he is aiming for a broader audience and has made much use (too much, in the opinion of some reviewers) of special effects and pyrotechnics to create a wild, raucous fairy tale of dark fantasies, witchcraft and the quest for love. The movie has an otherworldly look that echoes Tim Burton or “Pan’s Labyrinth”; it cost more than $4 million (a princely sum in this poor country) and took 200 days to shoot and three years to finish in postproduction.”Everyone thought we were mad,” said Stojanovic, dressed in a red top hat and black velvet coat. Ultimately, it took a major assist from French director Luc Besson, who injected money and donated his post-production labs to complete the project. The original title of the movie is “Carleston za Ognjenku” (Charleston for

Ognjenka), and it was initially given the English title of “Charleston & Vendetta.” (Ognjenka is the star of the film, the older of the two sisters who search for men; Charleston refers to the dance that was being introduced into Serbia at the time.) And so Serbia’s World War I veterans are considered historical heroes; their tombstones, engraved with soldiers’ images, are distinctive. It is, then, perhaps most provocative that Stojanovic has all sorts of risqué activity going on alongside graves or in a hearse; tombstones fall, crush people or are mere backdrops to sexual gratification.STOJANOVIC’S setting of a man-less village could have been very modern. After Serbian forces attacked Bosnian villages like Srebrenica a decade ago, killing thousands of Muslim men, numerous communities were left without menfolk -- devastating in the Balkan patriarchal society. The movie has been released at a particularly fraught time in Serbia. Presidential elections recently gave a narrow victory to the liberal, pro-Western incumbent over a radical nationalist, but the radicals remain strong and may rise to power. Meanwhile, Serbia is losing 15% of its territory with the secession of the Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo -- a soul-wrenching blow to the Serbian psyche. Against such a backdrop, Stojanovic is bracing for the reaction from nationalists. And reviewers have been only lukewarm, many commenting that the movie has a rushed, unfinished feel to it and that plot is often sacrificed to the burlesque.

CorD / September 2008 89

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

YP-P2 Imagine the power of touch Price: 149.99 eur Only 9.9mm in depth, the YP-P2 showcases an expansive 3” widescreen for great viewing pleasure. Its high resolution screen, bright and sharp, displays 30 frames per second in DVD movie format 16:9 screen ratio, for seamless video playback. The YP-P2’s touch screen is SAMSUNG’s most intuitive, innovative and user-friendly to date. Icons dance across the screen as you glide your finger up, down and across the screen. For your convenience and ease of use, dedicated hot keys playing the music and controlling the volume are on the side of the device, preserving the sleek design of the screen. Available with 2, 4, and 8GB NAND flash memory, the multi-functional YP-P2 is compatible with a variety of file types for music, photo, video and text media. The YPP2 is also equipped with a built-in FM radio. Touchscreen interface makes the P2 very easy to use, and a choice of three styles of interface puts the user in control of how they use their P2. Bluetooth 2.0 is implemented and allows two sets of headphones to be paired with the P2, with A2DP (advanced audio streaming) and AVRCP – remote control via Bluetooth. DNSE 2.0 provides superior sound quality, so it can be reproduced the way it was intended through sound personalization, user equalizer setting, and bass extension. key specifications Touch screen, Capacity: 1 GB, 2 GB, Bluetooth, USB memory, Microphone (integrated),Voice and FM recorder

YP-S3 Imagine life full of fun Price: 72.99-106.99 eur Samsung’s new MP3 player, YP-S3, promises remarkable sound in 25 hours of reproduction. With FM tuner, 1,8’’ OLED color display and slim design , YP-S3 becomes your new favorite music device from which you will not ever separate. YP-S3 is ideal for any circumstance – for sports, for entertainment, for dreaming, and is also remarkable for parties with your friends. The perfect sound in ultra thin design will become the most wanted at you priority list. MP3 S3 is the player that, simply, you have to own. key speciﬁcations 1 GB/2 GB/ 4 GB, 25 sati reproduction, Slim design, 1,8’’ OLED color display, FM tuner

YP-T10 Imagine a slim and versatile digital companion Price: 129.99 eur Pretty beefed-up player, Samsung YP-T10 is a companion you would always like to have comes. Slim design with an FM radio, the latest word in Bluetooth stereo, a voice recorder, a host of screensavers and display options, and a pretty generous range of format support, including WMV, JPEG, MP3, WMA, OGG and text ﬁles are the features that all describe T10’s capabilities. This Samsung MP3 player is compatible with your computer to which you can connect it by USB port. Also, the unit can be charged with any Samsung phone charger which Samsung consumers consider the main convenience. Four white arrows glow below the 2in screen along with a white dot in the middle. To the left of the ‘up’ arrow glows the ‘back’ icon, to the right the ‘current function menu’ icon. Tapping any icon gives you an immediate response, so even without any tactile feedback using the controls quickly becomes a real joy. key speciﬁcations Capacity: 2 GB, 4 GB, Bluetooth, USB memory, Microphone (integrated),Voice and FM recorder www.stav.co.rs

90 CorD / September 2008

High deﬁnition camcorder SAMSUNG SC-HMX20C Price: 579.99 eur You won’t miss any of life’s special moments with this compact, lightweight camcorder. The SAMSUNG SCHMX20C has an amazing built-in 8 GB of ﬂash memory for 90 minutes of

recording time. Plus, with the 2.7-inch touch screen LCD and a convenient swivel handgrip, you’ll easily capture odd-angle shots like baby’s ﬁrst steps. Full HD recording with 1080p delivers breathtaking images and brilliant resolution. Now, you will play videos quickly and easily using internal and external memory. The external memory slot accepts both high

capacity SD and MMC. The SC-HMX20C has 8 GB of built-in ﬂash memory and 90 minutes of recording time so you never miss anything. With its high quality 10x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom lens you can get close to the action from a safe distance. And for those ultra long distance shots, the 100x digital zoom

will let you see it all in perfect detail. You can simply transfer hi-deﬁnition video and audio from your camcorder to your TV, home theater, or other digital AV components - connect your camcorder to your home theater system with a single cable for high-quality picture and sound. The USB port lets you easily upload your movie clips and JPEG still images to your PC. Watch your images come to life! A 4 megapixel still camera which will create a crisp, crystal-clear picture that is more lifelike than ever before. You’ll never miss a shot with the 2.7” touch screen LCD display. Catch more of the action and guarantee that the entire image is recorded.

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LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

DVD-FP580 Imagine design inspired by nature Price: 54.99 eur The ultimate in class of DVD players, FP580 transforms your apprehension of perfect image. From the trend-setting black to its pebble design, Samsung has once again set the standard that only others can hope to imitate. Besides, a magnificent sound of DVD-FP580 emission takes high definition to a whole new level. Your home can look as good as it sounds thanks more than impressive design and wealth of features device. Then all is up to you - just enjoy great picture and sound. key specifications Supports MP3, WMA,VCD, SVCD, JPEG, MPEG4, DivX, HDMI, Progressive Scan www.stav.co.rs

High-Deﬁnition of LCD A454 Price: 719.99 - 919.99 eur

Sharp details and brilliant color dance across the screen due to a 5,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. And SRS TruSurround XT™ delivers a virtual surround sound experience that will make you feel as if you are actually in the movie! Make each viewing experience a breathtaking one with a SAMSUNG high-deﬁnition LCD TV. Response time refers to how long it takes pixels to turn from

completely white to black and back again. The lower the milliseconds (ms), the faster the response time is. A fast 8 ms response time virtually eliminates any blurring and gives you smooth-motion action scenes. Control all of your High Deﬁnition Multimedia Interface™ connected devices with one-touch control in a single universal remote. Contrast and brightness levels achieve new heights in this LCD TV. Get a more realistic, sharper picture quality that’s sure to catch your eye. Less is more. Just because you can’t see the stylishly concealed speakers doesn’t mean you won’t hear the unbelievably clear sound radiating from them. SAMSUNG’s exclusive Digital Natural Image engine makes the sharpest and clearest images possible, regardless of the signal you’re receiving. Five image processors and a six-time density enhancer ensure the best picture from any source with the truest colors and highest contrast. key speciﬁcations Resolution: 1366x768, HD Ready, Dynamic contrast: 10.000:1,Teletext: Mega TXT level 1.5, Digital tuner iDTV type, Auto Sound Calibration www.stav.co.rs

SAMSUNG HT-A100 Price: 289.99 eur This SAMSUNG home theater system is available in classic black or in a stylish, unique new look - white. Unlike anything you’ve ever seen, it’s sure to make an impressive statement. It also comes with a DVD player, which will up-convert your standard DVDs to amazing 1080p high deﬁnition. Plus, the HT-A100 connects to all of your Bluetooth-enabled devices. Get the total home theater experience with the SAMSUNG HT-A100. Experience the ultimate in sound: 300 watts of RMS power plus high ﬁdelity audio. SAMSUNG’s 2.1 channel home theater system is also enhanced with Dolby Digital®, Dolby Pro Logic® and DTS system, so you hear every detail clearly. You don’t need to burn CDs or DVDs to enjoy music, video clips or photos on your home theater system - just plug a portable digital device into the USB port for instant entertainment. 92 CorD / September 2008

And even more: DivX technology provides excellent compression and visual quality. You can now insert DVDs and CDs that have DivX movies downloaded from your computer and watch them on your TV with this SAMSUNG home theater system.

key speciﬁcations 300 W, Auto sound calibration (ASC),Video upscaling 1080p, Progressive scan, Anynet + (HDMICEC), HDMI, component, composite, optical, USB connection www.stav.co.rs

DVD-HR773 Imagine life full of fun Price: 169.99 - 289.99 eur This model you can reach in next versions: HR773 (HDD 160 GB), HR775 (HDD 250 GB), HR777 (HDD 320 GB) If you live your life for the moment, and don’t approve anything pass without you, than you have to meet with the newest class of Samsung DVD recorders that will change your imagine of the perfect picture for ever. Over Full HD 1080p up-scaling advanced technology you are able to watch ﬁlms with the top quality as well as to experience reality with completely new manner. With hard disc of 160 GB, 264 recording hours, USB connection, and other user friendly

functions, you have just to enjoy in your new favorite DVD device. Samsung has once again thinking of you and created DVD-HR773 of classic design which perfectly fits in every space. This way, Samsung has fulfilled the expectations of its customers, continuing with setting new standards and replaying onto new challenges. key specifications 160 GB hard disc, Full HD 1080p up-scaling, Dual-Layer recorder, 264 recording hours, HDMI, component, Scart, DV connection, USB 2.0 www.stav.co.rs

Crystal Design of LCD-A656 Exclusive design, amazing sound Price: 1069.99 - 2599 eur This model you can reach in next dimensions: 19’’, 22’’, 32’’, 37’’, 40’’, 46’’, and 52’’. With the intention of setting a new standard in design, Samsung injected a unique, environmentally friendly dual technology and created the stunning Crystal design of LCD TVs Series 6. Because it is not paint based, this innovative system has led to more natural, emotionally inspiring designs that connect true craftsmanship and modern design. The originality and feel of the Crystal design motif makes a truly unique TV that owes its inspiration to the beauty of blown glass art. key speciﬁcations Resolution: 1920x1080, Full HD Ultra Clean panel (40’’, 46’’ 52’’), LCD 100 Hz, Dynamic contrast: 50.000:1 (40’’, 46’’, 52’’),Teletext: Mega TXT level 2.5, Digital tuner iDTV type www.stav.co.rs HT-X715 Price: 499.99 eur You’ve never seen a home theater system that looks as beautiful as the SAMSUNG HT-X715. Sleek, modern and simply beautiful, it will coordinate perfectly with SAMSUNG’s Crystal desing LCD - unique Touch of Color™ - a hint of color is naturally blended into the frame creating a stunning look. Plus, the DVD player will convert your regular DVDs to near high deﬁnition 1080p. The wall-mountable SAMSUNG HT-X715 is the perfect home theater system for your wall-mounted Touch of Color™ HDTV Series 6. Samsung home theatres, in which are implemented the newest achievements in AV

technology, from this moment provide you completely new reality. Beside the perfect picture, you device have to be able to produce perfect sound. In this order, Samsung has created a new feature – auto sound calibration. In just 15 seconds your room becomes the ideal place for you to experience the power of optimal sound. Press your remote just once and you will completely equalize tone level and no longer you will have to set the sound for each channel. HT-X715 does that for you. Besides, HT-X715 supports Wireless Ready by which sound gets to 5 satellites over radio signal. For that you will be able easy and quick to transfer AV contents between devices, HTX715 contains Bluetooth, the top performance that moved limits in the ﬁeld of multimedia. key speciﬁcations 800 W, Auto sound calibration (ASC), Wireless Ready, Bluetooth,Video up-scaling 1080p, HDMI, component, composite, optical, USB connection www.stav.co.rs

CorD / September 2008 93

KNEZ MIHAILOVA 19

BEOGRAD

011.30.35.956.

WWW.ESCADA.COM

HOW TO...

…Get food delivered day and night? Fancy some take-away food, but not sure where and what you can get? Check out the website www.donesi.com. This innovative site, available in both English and Serbian, lists restaurants by type of cuisine and provides details of the menu on offer, including prices, location, delivery zone and working hours.

CROSSWORD

Solve this crossword puzzle and test your Serbian – the clues may be in English, but the answers should be entered in Serbian

…Go skating?

Ever wondered how the royals live? Now you can see for yourself. His Royal Highness Crown Prince Aleksander Karadjordjevic and family welcome visitors to Belgrade’s Royal Palace for tours and to view the artistic treasures of the residence. Those wishing to visit need merely contact the Palace Information and Press Department on 011 3064 000. Find out more information at www.royalfamily.org.

…Hire a limousine? Luxury transportation is available from Limousine Service. With their luxurious, stylish and glamorous vehicles, Limousine Service will ensure an unforgettable ride for those choosing to hire one of their cars. Make reservations by email, fax or phone. First-time riders should visit the centre in person with valid ID. Subsequent trips can be booked 48-hours in advance over the phone or via email. Contact Limousine Service on 063 1235555 or visit them online at www.limoservis.co.yu.

…Get emergency car repairs or roadside assistance? If your car breaks down while you are driving in the city, or even in the countryside, you are best advised to contact the ’International Touring and Information Centre of the Automobile Association of Serbia & Montenegro’. If you happen to be a member of this organisation, or similar afﬁliated foreign organisations, you can receive special terms. All relevant information can be obtained 24-hours-a-day by calling 9800 or 24 19 555, or via the website at www.amsj.co.yu.

…Find an English-speaking dentist? Sick of being unable to explain just how much your tooth hurts to your Serbian dentist? Why not try out the services of dentist Katarina Gačić, a ﬂuent English speaker. Contact Katarina on 064 3390527 or via email on katarina_gacic@hotmail.com.

…Make yourself understood? Find yourself frustrated by your inability to say simple things in Serbian? Here at CorD we are endeavouring to make your stay in the region a tad less alien by providing a few simple phrases that will help you make yourself understood: Is this your responsibility? Da li je ovo vaša odgovornost? Where was this manufactured? Gde je ovo proizvedeno? Is there a hotel in this town? Da li postoji hotel u ovom gradu? I would like to buy some milk and cheese? Želeo bih da kupim mleko i sir? When does the train to Zagreb depart? Kada polazi voz za Zagreb? Serbia has great nightlife, if you know where to look Srbija ima dobar noćni provod, ako znate gde da ga potražite 98 CorD / September 2008

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 HORIZONTAL: 1.Part of Belgrade, around Technical Universety,2. Name of acter Delon-slime that drips from a nose,3. Then, therefore-catle breeding,4.Yell of impatience-Handball Club (short)-Toward, in a direction of, 5.Car plate for LoznicaHopeless situation-Symbol of phosphorus,6.Symbol of sulphur-A big elevator (plural),7. City in Romania, 8. Town in Southern Serbia-Symbol for neutron,9. Registration plate for Romania-River which disembogue in Danube in Belgrade-Registartion plate for Valjevo,10.Fashion magazine for women from Paris-Same letteresStatue,11.Affiliation of several companies (foreign)-Town in Banat, birth place of Mihajlo Pupin,12. Kitchen dish-French harbor at Lamansh,13.”Village” which Emir Kusturica built at Mokra Gora. VERTICAL: 1. Gas combined with butane used in the home; the inside part of a coat, 2. part of an animal’s body that wags (plural); American journalists’ association (abb.); name of a British actor … Guinness, 3. name of American actress …. Williams; Serb holy land on Halkidiki, personal pronoun, 4. British chess player Michael … ; a thousandth of something; vehicle symbol for Tunisia, 5. movement of water along a river, Serbian positive word; hypothetical citizen of the moon, 6. plough a field; symbol for nitrous; dragon, 7. on top; decoration on the head of a rooster; area meant for building a house, 8. the name of our first actress, … Rhine; an ideal geometrical picture; to damn someone, 9. value in money; symbol for argon; mountain pass, 10. Biggest peninsula in the world; city in Pakistan

Solution - horizontal Kamenović, Alen, bale, zatim, tov, ama, RK, ka, LO, očaj, P, S, kranovi, Krajovas, Preševo, n, R, Sava, VA, el, cc, kip, pul, Idvor, avan, Kale, Drvengrad

…Visit the Royal residence?

Solutions - vertical: propan, postava, repovi, ap, alek, ester, atos, ono, stin, promil, tn, tok, da, selenit, oranica, na, ala, na, kresta, plac, ita, krug, kleti, cena, ar, prevoj, arabija, lahore

If you ﬁnd your desire for skating frustrated by the salt and grit laying on Belgrade streets this winter, why not visit one of Belgrade’s skating rinks and enjoy warming refreshments while you skate the day away? Belgrade’s Olympic-sized skating rink at ‘Hala Pionir’ is open to the public year-round, and also stages ice hockey events and ﬁgure skating competitions. During the winter months, the fresh air skating experience is provided at the romantic setting of Kalimegdan fortress. Situated beside the basketball and tennis courts, Kalimegdan’s skating rink is open throughout the winter months and offers skating to music, as well as a snack bar.

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