B 92 Visit

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    DSCN1302, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

    Yesterday I accompanied the school’s high school journalism class on a tour of the B 92 media company. The “B” stands for Belgrade and “92” comes from their original radio broadcast frequency, 92.5 FM. Besides radio, they have two television channels, an internet site, book publishing company, music production company, and a cultural center. Sasa Mirkovic, one of the founders of the B 92, showed us around the B 92 complex yesterday in New Belgrade.

    B 92 is famous for its role in the 90’s fall of Milosevic. They were one of the few independent media outlets and their radio station supported peace and protest rallies against the government and their policies. They were shut down and taken over by the government three different times. They were also shut down during the 1999 NATO bombing because they were a target. One of the founders, Dragan Dilas, is now mayor of Belgrade.

    Today B 92 is the third most popular television outlet in Serbia. Their 11:00 news program is very popular in the city. I appreciate their English language web site which I link to on this blog. Their cable news channel is carried throughout the region and into Austria. They are still regarded as a serious source of independent news in the country. They balance this will “infotainment” and Sasa explained the business side of media. I was particularly interested in hearing about the delicate political side to this. The two largest advertising agencies in the country are owned by prominent politicians, hence B 92 is somewhat limited in freedom of the news. It sounds not much different than the US today, with Fox being very Republican and CNN more Democratic. Both of the advertising agencies are linked to the current pro-Europe integration liberal movement.

    I was surprised at the size of the operation. The building was once the Yugoslav national bank building. They have over 500 employees. The news room was similar to the CNN Center I toured several years ago. I would like to thank Sasa, Ray (the journalism teacher above with me) and B92 for arranging this informative visit.

    You can see more photos and videos on my flickr.com web site.

New Serbian Smoking Ban

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Zabranjeno Pušenje – No Smoking, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

The Serbian Parliament last spring passed a public smoking law that went into effect last week. I was surprised at how well restaurants and cafes are enforcing the new law

Serbs love to smoke. According to the Ministry of Health, 1/3 of all adults smoke. but I would say it may even be a bit higher. In the US, according to the CDC (Center of Disease Control) about 17% of adults smoke. I believe this high percentage of smokers in Serbia is the same throughout Eastern Europe. I am not sure how many countries in the Balkans or Eastern Europe have anti-smoking laws. It would be interesting to get some statistics of smoking here and around the world.

The law gives police the power to fine individuals for smoking in prohibited areas (65 dollars) or businesses (13,000 dollars). It also bans smoking in theaters, cinemas, and most importantly, shopping malls. For restaurants, bars, and cafes, it depends on the size of the establishment. If it is too small, a business has to declare smoking or no smoking. Larger buildings must designate a smoking and a non-smoking area.

I say Hurray!!!! That has been one of the annoyances of living in Belgrade, especially in winter. There were so many places that we avoided because of the smoke. After coming home from a social gathering, our clothes were always stinking of cigarette smoke. We ate two great meals at Zodiac and Daco restaurants this weekend. They both had large non-smoking sections with the signs above posted. We also had smoke free experiences in the Usce and Mercator malls. What a difference!

I am sure some businesses do not like the new law. The smoking sections of restaurants that we see has more people than the non-smoking sections.

The nice weather continued this weekend in Belgrade. It was a bit cooler, but still unseasonably warm. I cut the grass, hopefully for the final time on Sunday. We also played with the kids in the yard as you can see below.

Blog Post for my Dad

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St. Norbert College, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

I thought my Dad would like the fact that his alma mater, St. Norbert College, came to the International School of Belgrade this week recruiting ISB and Belgrade students. There were 20 private universities on a tour of Eastern Europe and they made their first trip to Belgrade. It was great to have all of the admissions people at our school.

St. Norbert is a Catholic university in De Pere, Wisconsin. They only have about 2,000 students. I was telling Sam Dunlop above, the representative from the school, about my Dad’s experiences at St. Norberts. He went there from 1950-1954. It was a all-male college then and heavily influenced by the church. It is now coed and surprisingly international. It will be one of the universities I will think about sending my children to.

Indian Summer (Miholjsko Leto)

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I still have lettuce and peppers growing in my garden. This is very unusual for November in Belgrade. The weather this month has been fabulous, with high temperatures in the low 70’s / high 60’s and lows in the evening in the mid 40’s / 50’s. We’ve taken advantage of the glorious autumn days and spent much more time outside. Belgrade is 44 degrees north latitude and has a climate similar to Washington DC, but this November, it has been warmer than normal. The normal average high is 50 and the low is 9.

I was also proud that I planted this lettuce in August and I am harvesting it in November. We’ve only had one slight frost and it survived. This is the first time sowing seed and eating the product for me. I hope to do some more gardening this spring.

Owen is also shown above adding to our compost pile. The school is doing compost piles on all three campuses this year and he brought in a bag to add to the school compost. We decided to do one here also. The Kralovecs are getting more green. I heard they now have a recycling program in Senjak. We’ll check that out.

Time of the Gypsies

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The Cast Receives Applause (Kusturica in the center)

Last night I got the chance to see Bosnian Serb film director, Emir Kusturica’s “punk opera” Time of the Gypsies.” The opera is based on his 1988 movie by the same name. It is a story about the Roma community and follows the lives of two gypsy orphans living with their grandmother in the ex-Yugoslavia and a criminal gypsy living in Italy. It was a very good movie and I really enjoyed the show last night. I am glad I watched most of the movie before attending the show so I could follow along with what was happening. The libretto was in a Roma dialect with Serbian subtitles. My Serbian is at the point where I can recognize 2-3 words per sentence and can kind of put ideas together.

I liked the music. It was a combination of classical music, gypsy folk music, and rock – all live music with the musicians down in the pit. The scenery and props were visually stimulating – a great night out. I would like to thank LJ for the tickets!!!!

The Final Scene - With the Milan Cathedral in the Background

You can read the New York Times review of the opera. I got a bit burned out on magic realism while living in Latin America, but it is a good story nonetheless. The Roma are fascinating to me and the movie gives a bit of insight into their world. Kusturica is a very interesting fellow and I highly recommend seeing the opera or any of his movies if you get the chance. It was a full house at the “communist science fiction” styled Sava Centar, and this was the fifth night of the performance.

Latest Reading – Sarajevo

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While I was in Sarajevo last month I picked up a couple of books about the wars of Yugoslav Secession of the 1990’s. I wanted to try to understand the conflict a bit more, especially the long siege on the city. The first book I read was “Sarajevo: Exodus of a City” by Bosnian author and professor, Dzevad Karahasn. He wrote the book during the seige in 1992-93, shortly before finally fleeing Bosnia. It is a short book, but it gives the reader an idea on what it is like to live in a city in the middle of a war.

The most disturbing thing about the wars of the 90’s in this region, was the fact that so many civilians were right in the center of the violence. I can’t believe that people survived that experience, when there was danger just in going out of your apartment. Karahasan’s essays bring out different aspects of life under the siege as well as a lot about the history and culture of Sarajevo. He sadly described how the city was torn about and a once multicultural city, is now changed. I noticed in driving around the city that there were clearly Bosniak (Islamic) sections and other new areas that were clearly Serbian. He also wrote about how all of the Jewish people also left during the war and today, there is not a viable Jewish community in the city. I do think that he exagerrates the diversity of pre-war Sarajevo a bit. Most US cities have more diversity than Sarajevo ever did. I don’t see the country of Bosnia staying together because of the split between Serbs and Bosniaks.

The other book was “The Battle for Sarajevo: Sentenced to Victory” by former Bosnian Military Commander, Kerim Lucarevic. The book describes the lead up and the battles of 1992. A couple of salient take-aways I got from the book were as follows:

  • I didn’t realize that the Bosnian Serb army gave weapons to Serb civilians living in the city. Not only was the city attacked from the surrounding hills, but from within.
  • He exaggerates the accomplishments of his soldiers and makes it sound like the “chetniks” were an incompetent army with an overwhelming amount of firepower that was offset by his daring and strategic attacks. I’m sure it was different than what he depicted. I thought he should have been more realistic.
  • It was odd circumstances in the lead up to the siege. The army of the country, Yugoslavia, was digging in around the city. I understand that it was a crazy time and many people thought there wouldn’t be a war, especially with your own (Yugoslavian) army setting up to “protect” the city. I don’t know what I would have done if I was a civilian living in Sarajevo at the time. If I had a family, I would have hoped to get out of there somehow before the fighting began. I can’t believe how many families with children were trapped in the city.

The two books helped me understand the fascinating city of Sarajevo a little better. It is  a sad city but a wonderful place to visit and we hope to go back there again. I do want to read more about the years of the siege and about Bosnia today and the effects from the war.

 

Ocean Facepainting

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Last night we attended a birthday party for one of Owen’s friends. They had a face painter at the party and Ocean wanted to know what she looked like. She loved the “mariposa’ and had a great time at the party.

Autumn Glory

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It was a gorgeous day with sunny skies and a high temperature of 71 F (22 C). Perfect weather conditions and with the low autumn sun, it was just a great day to be outside. We did stay outside the whole day down at my favorite place in Belgrade, Ada Ciganlija. I call it “sport island” because of the plethora of sporting activities. We watched the CEESA Boys’ Soccer Tourney, (ISB came in fourth) and in between non-ISB games, rode bikes and ran about the “lake”. The kids had leave fights and played in the parks.

We met Claudiu, Vesna, Krina, and Dane, our Romanian friends. We ended the day with nice meal at an outdoor restaurant.

One of my big impressions of the day is sporting nature of the Serbs. They are so much more active than Americans! There were thousands of people playing baseball, rugby, soccer, running, roller blading, bicycling, walking, water skiing, etc. They are also generally in much better physical condition.

The warm weather continues today and all this week, although there will be patches of rain. I am enjoying these days in the 70s in November.

School Pictures: 2010-2011

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Oliver - Kindergarten Photo

Yesterday we received the boys’ school photos. This ia a tradition that I really like. We see the kids everyday and often do not notice how much they have grown up. Oliver above, looks adorable! He is a such a cute, mischievious little guy, it is impossible to stay angry with him. Oliver has a heart of gold underneath is rambunctious exterior.

Owen's Grade 2 Picture

I carried Owen last night from our bed to his because he fell asleep next to mom. I really noticed how big he is getting and looking at the photo above compared to last year’s photo, he is now a young man.

Both guys are growing up way too fast. We just have to enjoy the limited amount of time we will have with them. I mean limited in the sense that they go on to university and start lives of their own. I guess I am more in tune with that stage of life with my job as a high school principal.

I made mosiacs of the boys’ school photos from previous years. My mother used to put the school photos of me and my two brothers each year on the wall going up the stairs to the second floor of our house. I guess below is the electronic version of this practice.

 

 

We do not have any photos of Ocean yet, as she is not going to school. She just turned three in September.

Kralovec Family Sleeps Through Earthquake

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Photo Courtesy of United State Geological Survey

 

An earthquake struck last night in Serbia at 2:00 AM. We slept through the earthquake, but most of my friends were woken up by a shaking bed here in Belgrade. It was a moderate (5.3 on the Richter Scale) quake, with the epicenter being about 75 miles southwest of the city. There was a lot of damage in the city of Kraljevo, where 2 people were killed and 50 people injured. They also lost water, electricity and there was much debris in the streets.

I love the two web sites with earthquake information. The world’s finest is the USGS website and the local, The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center, is also good.