Should
everyone be allowed to make their own mistakes? Or how do we learn best? By
looking at someone else’s experiences first and evaluating these or should
everyone just bump his own head?
This
question haunts me, since I started working in Central European countries.
Serbia is a
country with beautiful flora and fauna. But why is it that – after the fall of
communism and the introduction of western products – the people do not seem
aware of it? If I judge it by the enormous numbers of PET-bottles, dumped trash
bags, beer cans and smashed bottles etc. this is a case of carelessness. Is
this the opposite side of becoming free and getting access to goods Serbs felt
long deprived of? Or is it the young careless or ignorant generation, growing
up in relative abundance? Is it the educational system that can’t cope with all
these new responsibilities? Questions I can’t answer. I can only compare it
with my previous work in Poland, where the same situation existed after1989 and
only 15 years later, there started to be a more responsible reaction to all the
new goodies.
I am not
writing this because Dutch residents are doing so much better, because we do
not. But the general awareness is bigger. If people in The Netherlands behave
ecologically careless, I’d call it indifference rather than ignorance.
In fact
there is another striking comparison, with the piles of waste, when it comes to
private cars. In Belgrade they are just everywhere, most prominently on the
sidewalk, on the scarce bicycle lanes and in the grass at the boundary of a
park. It changes the city and its social atmosphere from a collective and
shared space to an individual and egocentrically claimed space. Before the
public transport system in many former Central European cities was widely
spread and used by many. Now it’s old and run down and certainly still heavily
used, but not particularly loved by its users.
Riding my
bicycle in Belgrade worked rather well. It’s fast in the central part,
especially during rush hour, but you do inhale lots of green house gasses and
not much oxygen. Inhaling the diesel fumes from the trucks and busses is
incomparable from smoking a joint! And it’s not even humid and hot like in the
middle of the summer.
But not all
is grim and negative, on the contrary. I still believe that the lesser people
possess the easier and more grateful they share. Is this a deep human instinct,
because sharing gives us a deep satisfaction? I come to think the answer is a
definite ‘yes’. For what other reason I ‘d encounter so much friendliness and
extreme hospitality by many.
Discussing
this with companion travelers, I also think that we in Western Europe – and The
Netherlands and Germany are quite extreme – have lost something that New
Zealand and the New EU Member States, even Serbia still have. This can best be
expressed by naming the extremes like taking a risk versus clinging to
security, hope versus fear, grabbing the opportunity versus the un-ability to
let go.
I remember
reading a book at least twenty years ago, with the title ’24 stories making a
radical professional change in life’. According to people from here and the New
Worlds this isn’t an issue at all. Nobody would even ask why you did. No,
taking a new approach is applauded versus in the West it’s questioned. That’s
what we have lost!
I have
finally figured out how I can both see Mostar and Sarajevo, without having to
put my bicycle in the underneath bag compartment of a bus. Best route is via
Bar on the coast, then cycling 130 kilometer North to Dubrovnik for two days,
where I will park my bike. Then take the train or bus to Mostar and Sarajevo.
The train
ride to Bar will cost me 28 euro and some euro’s for the bicycle. This deal
should be closed with the conductor of the train. We’ll see. Henk be good!
24 September Visit of Belgrade and Muzen
In Belgrade
I visit the fort, but it’s not open on Mondays. So I just inspect it from the
outside. It’s an enormous complex at the mouth of the Sava and Danube, where
many battles took place. The Turkish as well as the Habsburg empire tried to
conquer it.
After looking at the two largest churches, I take off for the historical fishing village of Muzen. Life is
easy going and on the market square I eat my fresh fruits and vegetable lunch,
bought at the market stalls.
In the main
street where all public transport passes, you can see the contrast between the
times of former prosperity and beauty and the grim period expressed by ugly
Soviet architecture.
The statues bark out their realism and the buildings their
savage power. The photographed building – a former air-force center - was
bombed by NATO in 1999, during the Kosovo conflict. It stands out as a relic of
that period.
On the left another expression of 'Soviet architecture', the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Here you can visit the former working chamber of Tito, but not today. The uniformed guard makes this very clear after I have parked my tiny bicycle against the enormous entrance wall. Even before I ask this .. barks out, 'No Mister'! His monkey on the rock behavior is clear to me. Henk be good, this is not The Netherlands! I make my retreat with a smile.
Back in the
hostel I meet a retired French policeman, who has biked through The
Netherlands, Germany, Sweden to the North Cape and back through Finland and the
Baltic states, Slovakia, Rumania and who is now heading back towards Paris.
He
has an impressive beard that fits the area. I struggle with my French and this
gives me a taste of what lies ahead of me in November, a 4 weeks intensive
language course in Lyon.
We dine together and I pack because I have to leave for the train station at half past seven in the morning.
