a few more thoughts...

After an Interesting conversation with my flat mate A, I thought I would submit a few more thoughts as we move from July into August.

Speaking with my boss I work, I got the sense that they viewed Serbia, in the context of political and social development, as old news (I think the exact phrase was "yesterday's news"). What he meant was that Serbia has changed so much over the last few years, that a reversal to isolation and political instability (at the level of the 1990's and early 2000's) is virtually impossible. Rather, Serbia's future lay firmly with the EU.

I was a bit surprised by the confidence of his statement, perhaps because the political science student in me thought nothing is that sure, particularly in the Balkans. But when I asked A. for his opinion on the matter, he fully agreed with my boss. In a sense I should be please, because it all confirms the things I wrote in the last post. Never the less, its surprising to see people be so blaze about this, particularly because of the resent response to the Karadzic arrest.

Reflecting on violence...

I'll pause a moment and reflect on the recent violence in Beograd, though I am not sure I really want to do this... I don't want to give the impression that I feel unsafe here, or that BG is somehow an unsafe place for me. Its really not, which leads me to my main point:

I think there are two ways to view the protests and the violence. You can look at it and think 'this is aweful, what a violent place,' etc. Or you can put it into the context of Serbia, and I think you walk away with a really different conclusion. First, as you will see from the below picture, Belgrade Serbs have constant reminders of the recent history.

This building is two blocks from my house, about two blocks from the US Embassy (sans fenetre, but with a nice new paint job...) and one of about 5 buildings badly damaged during the 1999 NATO campaign. On top of this, the 1990's was a very difficult period for all of the Balkans as ideological and identity shifts created fault lines, and eventually a nasty war.

Serbia has been without real strong leadership since the fall of Milosovic (he was rejected by his own people in an election, and then sent to the Hague), and they have been told, since then, that this type of leadership was bad for them. The next President, Djindjic, who oversaw Milosovic's arrest and extradition to the ICTY, was assassinated in 2003. Since then the country has been ruled by a party that has wanted to be radically right wing, but knew that wasn't a smart political move.

In the last 12 months things have begun changing again. First came the election of President Tadic from the centrist, pro-EU, DS Party. Next there way the 2008 election which saw the DSS (often referred to as NS) removed from power, replaced by a DS led coalition. Today the most symbolic event, representing this change, is the arrest and extradition of Radovan Karadzic. It is also worth mentioning that when Kosovo declared independence last March, it was only condemned verbally by Belgrade (and even that line is being tempered these days with talk of a "workable solution"); certainly a far cry from Milosovic's ethnic cleansing in the late 1990's.

So, even though the US Embassy was partially destroyed, and the hooligans took to the streets last night, the city is not on the edge of chaos. People knew there was going to be some violence and fighting, but they weren't really that worried. Right before the demonstration (which led to the clash) started, people and their children were still playing in the park, only a few blocks away. Today everyone is going about there business as usual; Republic Sq has been cleaned up, and even the SRS (the Radical party that held the rally) condemned the violence.

The last thing to keep in mind is that only 15,ooo people turned up for the rally. That may be nothing to sneeze at, but considering that the Radicals provided free bussing from all around the country, into Belgrade, its really a poor showing.

I'm not suggesting that this trend could not be reversed. It could. Just today a study was published, suggesting the SRS was Serbia's fastest growing party, and there is a significant population that fears being swallowed up by the EU and, once again, being forced to redefine there identity.

So, my personal conclusion is that Serbia is not about to roll back the clock and become a pariah state again. But it is not like the integration into Europe is going to be easy either. There are still alot of unconvinced people here, and in many ways, that is totally understandable. In history there are few examples of people willingly submitting them selves to a higher authority. Even if that is one of the main forces to drive history over the centuries.

And off I went to Srbija

This was written at some point right before I left Maine...

Before leaving Maine, I had to stop off at Sebego Lake for one last swim. With whom? James of course... He just drove up from NYC to see me before I go, and reconnect with the soil here. We drove out to St. Joe's and went to a spot that the two of us, among many others, used to frequent back a few years. Generally, we would head out from the Old Port around two am on the really hot summer nights. It was a quiet spot at that time, and the water was always refreshing.

While there this time, I found a rock to sit on and reflect on the day's gone by and all the things that have happened to me since the last time I was out there, and also since I had come to Maine. I felt good about my time here, and even though it took a while for me to find a path that I liked, the discoveries along the way have had a formative impact on my life. I don't mean to say I feel old, because I don't (how could I?) or that I am behind in some way. Really, sitting on that rock, with the sun receding and the water lapping at my feet, I felt content.

After a while, I realized I was just listening to the water moving past, the birds, and the rushing wind. It was so calm, I was so calm. It made me think of Old Joe from the Bronx. He once told me that people need to take note of these moments of true contentment, so that later, when they no longer feel good, they at least have the memory of that moment. Good idea Joe. It also made me wonder if going to BG was really a wise choice. It seemed so antithetical to the moment of contentment on that rock. Working for the OSCE and getting into the world of politics, power and nationalism is so far from this small lake in southern Maine.

But I knew I was going, even if there was some doubt. There was no way to turn down this chance. If things don't work out, I can always return. I have no problem with that.

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Impressions of Serbia re: current political developments...

"I'm safely installed in Belgrad and at work. So far everything is going very well. It a really exciting time to be here in general, because of the arrest on Monday of Radovan Karadzic. All of Serbia is talking about it. Despite a few protests, which were relatively small, and police interventions, the city is calm. I think the majority of Serbs think this is a positive development. We'll see what the weekend brings...

One of the most striking things about the city is the destroyed buildings that you find in a few locations. These are building blown up during the NATO campaign in 1999 that were never repaired. Now they sit there as stark reminders of the recent past. I think past governments left them as reminders of what the west had done, in hopes of maintaining an anti-west attitude in Serbia. Something which would provide the Right Wing parties with power."

Notes on Civil Society

With a systemic view of how government functions, I realize its important to promote the function of each aspect of the state equally. Thinking back on this model we talk about in comparative politics, if we focus too much on the promotion of civil society, (i.e. the inputting of demands, without empowering the state institutions with methods of turning the input into real policy, and then also providing it with a way to deliver the policy back) then the state will simply be overwhelmed and unable to function.

Similarly, if the state is strengthened and endowed with and efficient bureaocracy, but civil society remains isolated and fragmented, then citizens will feel disenfranchised from the state apparatus. This leads to a low voter turnout and a mentality, within the state, that it can proceed with little interaction with its constituents.

The point here seem to be that both the input and output, and the mechanism to turn the input into output, need to be developed concurrently. This means organizing Civil Society and empowering it to express itself in a way that can be dealt with. At the same time, there needs to be a culture, within government, of listening to and accepting demands from Civil Society; these demands then need to be turned into clear, realistic policies, tangible to the public.

What this hopefully yields is a high level of cooperation, as a reslt of Civil Societies ability to articulate itself and governments ability to turn demand onto result, as well as the cooperation resulting from both parties working together and the distribution of the output. This cooperation is possible because both sides grew together, rather than in isolation.

So much for the Transition period

This would seem to be the time to be blogging like a crazy person, yet I have not written here for over a month. With so much going on, I am generally a bit to frazzeled to put finger to keyboard. Well, enough of the excuses...

So much for the transition period indeed... I remember Dr. B said that the summer might be tough for me. I would be transitioning out of academics, into unknown, with periods of inactivity. Blessed be this inactivity...

After a two month vacation, including time in France with E and all of my old High School friends, I am off to Serbia for the next 6 months. An amazing opportunity presented itself rather suddenly, and gave me a total of 4 weeks to pack my bags, sell everything, and get on a plane. Buy the ticket, take the ride, a la Thompson. So with my soccer boots over my shoulder, a few suitcases, and a tender heart, I'm leaving Maine on July 15th.

With that, and the fact that I completed my Thesis (with high marks!!), this blog will transition into a travelogue of my future adventures. I'll still be seeking out soccer games, and the office where I work is only one block from the Partizan Stadium, so soccer will still feature.

This is an amazing feeling. But its positive and its painful. I leave much behind, many people and memories with deep emotional connections. And I leave behind a beautiful state. but so it is.