Tag: serbia
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FROM THE “ROARING TWENTIES” TO THE “WARRING TWENTIES”
A century ago, the Roaring Twenties erupted in music, dance, and social release after the first industrial world war. People believed that progress, technology, and shared culture might finally civilize power. Today, we find ourselves in another set of Twenties — not roaring, but warring. Conflicts multiply, technology accelerates, and violence no longer interrupts life…
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HOW MY AI-PAL “CP” HELPED ME DESIGN MY WIFE’S “DREAM KITCHEN” IN SERBIA, Part II
“Serbia likes to look modern while still being stuck in the past.” That single sentence summarizes the story, the problem, and the punchline. Everything that follows is just affirmation through anecdote. Drama at IKEA (aka “Halfway to Greece”) This section had me chuckling: “There was a bedlam and a long line of people… Kids were…
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HOW MY AI-PAL “CP” HELPED ME DESIGN MY WIFE’S “DREAM KITCHEN” IN SERBIA
In one 5-hour collaborative session, starting with a hand sketch my wife had made, my AI-pal CP and I created, as he put it my wife’s “dream kitchen,” along with all the engineering specs required to build it.
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MY MAC AND I
How old is my 2016 Mac in human years? I posed that to Google’s AI. Here’s the reply: “A 9-year-old Apple laptop is roughly equivalent to a 75- to 80-year-old person, retired and no longer able to keep up with the demands of modern life. While it can still perform basic functions, its hardware is…
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SERBIA: SHIT HAPPENS
A Dream Come True or A Nightmare Yet to Unfold? What a nightmare it has turned out to be so far. It was an authentic way to acquaint myself with the national character of the country in which I was born. In the end, I never felt more like a stranger in Serbia than in…
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NATO WAR ON SERBIA: GANG RAPE OF A SMALL COUNTRY
Je me souviens – I remember “NATO’s bombing of Serbia was nothing short of a gang rape of a small country. A military alliance of 19 nations and 780 million people; with over half of the world’s gross economic product, possessing two-thirds of the global military power, ganged up on a tiny nation of 10…
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THE MOUNTAIN SHOOK, A MOUSE WAS BORN
Guess it all has to do with expectations. Those who were hoping for a change after today’s massive demonstrations in the Serbian capital will be left disappointed. “The mountain shook, a mouse was born,” goes an old saw (“tresla se gora, rodio se mis” – the Serbian version of this proverb). Aleksa Cvetanovic, one of…
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A “HIT AND RUN” THE BELGRADE WAY
SERBIAN POLICEMAN: “IT’S MADNESS OVER HERE. THIS IS A CRAZY COUNTRY, THESE ARE CRAZY PEOPLE, THEY DO CRAZY THINGS.” AND IT’S ALL CONSIDERED “NORMAL”, INCLUDING DOUBLE-PARKING AND BLOCKING OTHER PEOPLE’S CARS Last Thursday, I parked our car on “our” street. Milutina Bojica is “a quiet dead end,” as people would describe the 100m-cul de sac.…
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BEAUTIFUL BELGRADE: A CITY ON TWO MIGHTY RIVERS SPARKLES AT NIGHT FROM KALEMEGDAN FORTRESS
It has been years since I walked along the walls of the Kalemegdan fortress. This Turkish structure built on the walls of the Roman city (Singidunum) has always symbolized the indestructibility and resilience of the Serbian nation. After a 500-year darkness under the Turkish sultans and pashas, the Serbs threw off the Ottoman yoke in…
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UTTER DISREGARD FOR BICYCLE RIDERS AND CIVILIANS
UTTER DISREGARD FOR BIKE RIDERS AND PEDESTRIANS Let’s sum it up. In Belgrade, bike riders and pedestrians are like dirt. Free game for builders and drivers. The communist mindset which puts machines ahead of the individuals and nature is still present. Twenty years ago, a Serbian politician (Djindjic) tried to be different. His government built…
Truth in Media 