The title is a Serbian nationalist slogan, one that I was taught from an early age, growing up in a small town in Central Serbia. It means to be capricious and reckless, if the opportunity presents itself, sometimes even at your own detriment. A risky proposition, and a dangerous thing to teach your kids. My hometown is situated less than 12 kilometers from the backyard in which Slobodan Milosevic, the founder of the modern Serbian failed state, and his wife Mira Markovic are buried.
The Serbian police seem to have an issue with such a philosophy, considering their no-nonsense approach in dealing with the riots after the Vidovdan nationalist rally held on Saturday, the 28th of June, which some people still try to push as a cry for democracy, and a fight against corruption.
Exhibit number 1:
Scenes from the night following the rally in Belgrade. The protesters can be heard chanting “Aco, Šiptare”. It’s directed at the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić. “Šiptar” (Shiptar) is a derogatory word for an Albanian; it is meant as an ethnic and racial slur. Apolitical, pro-democracy movements in Serbia commonly use it by both the government and the opposition supporters. Calling a Serbian person a “Šiptar/Shiptar” is supposed to trigger the target into a fight or designate him/her as an enemy. Not exactly pro-European to chant such things, especially considering the history between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians.
Exhibit number 2: Yes, there were blockades being put up around the country. Here’s footage from one of them in the New Belgrade district:
The dance you can see is Serbian kolo, a South Slavic circle dance. It’s a very Serbian thing to dance and a good example of Serbing it out.
Having fun in the face of adversity, so you can look like an even bigger, more innocent victim later.
Exhibit number 3: Excellent, yet unintelligible footage from the protests in Belgrade last night. You can see some of the Serbian far-right paraphernalia, like the skull and bones t-shirt, associated with the Chetnik movement.
Exhibit number 4:
More ethnic slurs. Serbian protesters are chanting “ustaše” (ustashe) at the Serbian police during their intervention in Novi Sad when they prevented a local businessman, Milomir Jaćimović, from supposedly immolating himself. Calling someone an “ustaša” is an ethnic and racial slur; it is a derogatory name for a Croat. “Pro-democratic protests”, my ass.
That’s the thanks you get here for stopping an alleged suicide attempt.
Serbing it out. Observe the scene in the video. Do you notice something is missing? What is it? I’ll tell you – no water cannons, no mounted policemen. Not an actual threat for the rabble that is heckling them, so they viciously insult them, because civilians in that scene KNOW cops are not a threat to them. Political leaders who enable that kind of society are popular. That is the Serbian definition of “freedom”. My people say when comparing the lifestyle of Western societies with Serbia, “But there is no freedom there like here”. Freedom to be capricious, if the opportunity presents itself.
That guy is now having a fundraising campaign, because why not? Tries to kill himself, so give him money. You can not make this stuff up. Don’t believe me? Here’s a GoFundMe page for him:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-a-brave-serbian-man-in-his-struggle-for-justice
And here’s some independent confirmation of what I said. You should also read the text linked below to give you some idea of why Serbia is like a Russian military operation – special.
Faced with…this, the vox populi that doesn’t live on TV and social networks, but in reality, is, in fact, praising the police these days.
Serbia is a strangely conservative society, and one of the things they REALLY admire here is martial prowess. The scenes of disciplined, fit, and competent policemen dispersing the riots with tactics that are sometimes…shall we say, risky, yet effective, deeply impress Mr. and Mrs. Average.
THIS ISN’T AN ENDORSEMENT OF VUČIĆ. But Serbia shouldn’t turn into Syria just because the opposition flavor of the Putinist alt-right yahoos is now throwing a fit at the entire society. IMO, viva la policia.
And please, don’t start with “police brutality”. This is Europe – we have football (soccer) matches WITH FATALITIES here. Most conservative mindsets are “Law, Order & Work”. The Serbian one is “Order(ish) & Work”. This is just a perfectly normal workweek in this part of the world.
The Serbian police officers are toughened up after the fall of Milosevic by dealing with organized crime, war criminals, far-right protesters protesting in support of war criminals, ultras, small-time crooks, under-reported domestic violence fueled by alcohol and drugs, and stuff like a young man being arrested for firing an RPG at an abandoned building. All of those things were handed to them by the ideology and people that started their ruination of former Yugoslavia on the 28th of June 1989 during the first Vidovdan nationalist shindig at Gazimestan, Kosovo. They also know well what kind of people they are dealing with and what kind of situation they have on their hands.
The protesters chose that day to hold a rally, criticized by local commentators of Al-Jazeera as a continuation of the Greater Serbia ideology and “a dark side of the Serbian student movement” by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Both texts are in Serbian, but the machine translation works quite well.
Serbianism 