Tag: Ideas

Sting Performs in Belgrade

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We thoroughly enjoyed attending the Sting concert last night at the Belgrade Arena. Sting is the former lead singer of the Police and is a pop music legend. He is on the second European portion of his long tour promoting his new release, Symphonicities. The real name of Sting is Gordon Sumner and the former British school teacher has been a pop star for 30 years. He looks great at age 58 and his voice and energy is of a man 20 years younger. The idea of the album and concert is to rearrange his songs for a symphony orchestra. I really felt that for most of the songs, it gave them a new life and I found that it brought out his voice more and the story behind each song. It made for a varied evening, with featured players including the trumpet, clarinet, violin, cello, etc. Sting is a true musician and played the guitar, lute, harmonica, among other instruments during the course of the 2-hour, 23 song concert.

I grew up with the Police in the 1980’s and as he has aged and developed more complex musical tastes, I’ve been along for the ride. He is one of the my all-time favorite musicians and it was a great concert. Nadia and I took Owen and he managed to stay up the entire evening. It was the first time we all “partied” together. I hope the exposure to music will inspire him to appreciate music. He is taking guitar lessons. I hope to learn the piano and develop that side of my life.

I would like to thank my friend Claudiu for buying the tickets for us way back in February. The seats were magnificent, near the stage and up above the seats on the floor. With Serbians so tall, it is tough to view a concert if you are a row behind someone. The view was perfect. Nadia kept asking me to dress more like Sting! I’ll post photos tonight when I charge my Blackberry.

Book Review of “The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car In History”

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early Zastava Yugo 45, originally uploaded by Yugo Driver.

I just finished reading the book by Jason Vuic, who is a history professor in Virginia. With his last name, he probably has Serbia or Croatia in his ethnic background. The book was okay but not fantastic. It might be that I am not a car fanatic and most of the book dealt with the US side of Yugo. The writing was also a bit dry with lots of stats, but not many interviews with the characters brought up in the book. Vuic could have brought them to life a bit more and I wish he would have had more access to them. It was important however, that the story of Yugo America be published. In the 1980’s, I was in the market for a cheap, entry-level car when the Yugo came out, and I remember the time well. My parents ended up buying me a Ford EXP and then a Ford Escort instead of a Yugo.

I did enjoy parts of the book, especially the sections that dealt with the Zastava plant in Serbia. The plant is located in Kragujevac, which is the “Detroit” of Serbia. When the Americans came over and wanted to import the car, they were shocked at the conditions at the factory. It really gave me insight into the Communist Era of Yugoslavia. The car was basically a cheaply made Fiat car produced by a socialist industrial complex. Of course it was going to fail in the US. It was also interesting to read about the Croatian immigrants in the USA and their protests against the car. They viewed it as a symbol of Serbian and Communist dominance of Croatia. I didn’t know that they actually hijacked a plane in the US to protest the lack of Croatian independence before the break up of communism. It was also interesting to read about Lawrence Eagleburger, the former US Ambassador to Yugoslavia. I was also interested in reading a bit more about the Mackinac Bridge accident. A woman drove off the bridge that separates the two peninsulas of Michigan in 1987 while driving a Yugo.

It would be cool for the school to buy a Yugo. I would paint it blue and gold and attach a dragon’s head and tail to it. We could use it for sporting events, picnic days, etc.

Belgrade’s Cultural Opportunities

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Belgrade Philharmonic Performs “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Mussorgsky, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

It is one of the things I most appreciate about life in Belgrade are the boundless opportunities to enjoy the fine arts and cultural and intellectual stimulation. Belgrade is a city with high percentage of “cultural elite.” There are loads of book stores, lectures, art exhibitions, music concerts, theater, etc. that one can experience.

Last weekend we attended a performance of the Belgrade Philharmonic. Nadia and I are season ticket holders and I’ve blogged on them before. The video above is a snippet of the Russian composer, Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” It was originally a piano piece, but Ravel expanded it to an orchestral work. While listening, I couldn’t remember where I heard it before. Nadia reminded me of the “Baby Einstein” video series. Yes! Mussorgsky wrote it shortly after the death of a good artistic friend. He went to an exhibition of his works and was inspired to write this piece1874.

Last night I convinced Nadia to go see a film in the International Documentary Film Festival, “Bel Docs 2011.” The documentary film festival features international and Serbian films showing in various locations in the city for the next week. I would love to see many of them as I love documentary films, more so than regular movies. However, with three young children and a busy job, I have to pick and choose my spots. We got a babysitter last night and headed down to the Dom Omladine, one of the venues of the festival. The Dom Omladine, which means “youth center” in Serbian, is a government-owned building in downtown Belgrade that is a “center hat promotes programs for youth in the sphere of contemporary art and culture.” The building has been refurbished and we were impressed with the theater and lobby. I’ve made a link to the website on the blog because they hold many events.

We watched “An African Election” a film by Jarreth Merz. It is about the 2008 presidential elections in Ghana. We have family living there so it was interested to see the life there in Accra. I loved the character of Jerry Rawlings, who was the long-time dictator and president of Ghana. He ruled 12 years as a military dictator (’81-’92) and  another 8 years (’93-’01) as the elected president. His party lost power peacefully in ’01 and it was nice to hear of a change in power in Africa without violence. I won’t spoil the film’s ending, but his party ran again in 2008 and he played a big part in the campaign again.

I’ve always been interested in the lives of dictators. In the countries I’ve lived in or visited, there always seems to be a historical figure who ruled the country for a long time. It would make a great book – comparing the lives of various strongmen in different countries. I would have a section for how many people they killed, jailed, exiled, along with subjective biographies looking at things that are not usually covered in standard histories.

Ric Elias: 3 Things I Learned While My Plane Crashed

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I was truly inspired after watching this short video by Ric Elias. He was in the front row of the plane that crash landed in the Hudson River, New York a few years ago.

The three points he makes in this talk were as follows:

  • Have a sense of urgency on what you want to do in life. “It can all change in an instant.”
  • Eliminate negativity from your life. Your main mission should be to be happy and spread that to others.
  • Be the best father you can be!

Yesterday I also listened to a podcast interview on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) with Paul Cox, an Australian filmmaker. He survived cancer with a literally last-minute liver transplant. Both Paul and Ric’s near death experiences brought out much of the same feelings. The possible ending of their lives, brought to the forefront, the beauty of life and instead of religious feelings, feelings of sadness at the loss of being able to experience life. It is the daily small things that we have to appreciate. I agree with Paul – believe in the clouds,  family, friends, trees, etc. How wonderful life is!

Slow Art Day 2011

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Sanja, Nadia, Sara, and Lisa, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Nadia and I attended the “Slow Art Day” event organized by our friend Lisa on Wednesday. Some of the girls are shown above on Kneza Mihailova, the famous walking street in Belgrade. It was a gorgeous sping evening and Nadia enjoyed contemplating the art and we both enjoyed the camardarie and atmosphere of the event.

Slow Art was started by Phil Terry, an internet entrepanuer who wanted to change the “8-second rule” of art museums and galleries. This is the “widely reported statistic that most people spend on average 8 seconds in front a piece of art when visiting a museum.” The idea is to look at a piece for up to 10 minutes and then discuss your interpretations with friends.

Lisa organized several pieces to look at in 5 galleries downtown. Two of the exhibitions were by the same Yugoslavian artist (find name). My favorite was by a Serb-Spaniard, Vecev Vecel. He left Serbia during the war and settled in Mallorca. His exhibition was named 3,727, which refers to the number of days he was outside of Serbia. This was the first time he was back in the country since his family fled. The words in his works are in both Serbian and Spanish.

I didn’t realize how many galleries there are in Belgrade. The city is so full of cultural opportunities. Thanks to Lisa for putting it together!

Center for Cultural Decontamination

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Friday night my school hosted an art exhibition in the Center for Cultural Decontamination (Centar Za Kulturna Dekontaminaciju). The CZKD is a private institution that was formed during the Wars of the Yugoslav Seccession in 1994. The purpose of the organization was to combat the xenophobia, hatred, and general chaos of the war years with the promoting of the fine arts and intellectual freedom. It was a very appropriate venue for the International School of Belgrade to host our IBO Visual Arts Exhibit. Our mission is to promote Open-Mindedness with our students. Many of our Serbian students are the future economic and social leaders of the nation. It also shows how far Serbia has come since those dark years. I thought the works of art were the best in my three years in attending the exhibition.

The CZKD has a great building and location. It is housed in renovated old warehouse that has a large gallery room, meeting rooms, and a quaint outdoor courtyard. It is next to the Italian Embassy a couple of blocks up the hill from Knez Milosa Street. In visiting their web site, I see that they have a full program of events. I put a permanent link in my cultural links column on the right side of the blog. I hope they have some English-language events.

Bill’s Take on Slovenija

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The Village of Kranjska Gora, Slovenija

After this summer’s World Cup Soccer epic game between the USA and Slovenija (I use the Slovenijan spelling) and Slovenijan Tina Maze’s duels with American Lindsey Vonn, I feel that my home country of the USA and Slovenija have a special sporting bond. It’s not fair that we have 305,000,000 more people than Slovenija. The tiny 2.1 million Slovenijans, however, are like most of the ex-Yugoslavian countries and have more than their fair share of great athletes.

I really like Slovenija. It is a strange mix of the Alps and Balkans. The scenery looks much like Austria, but the Slovenijans are more outgoing and Slavic like Serbia. The country was never an independent nation. It always was under the operation of a larger power. Most recently, it was a part of Yugoslavia, which makes sense in that they are Slavic with a Slavonic language. It was always one of the richest parts of Yugoslavia and they resented supporting financially some of the poorer areas of the federation. Before that, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and under the control of the Hapsburgs. This made sense because it bordered on Austria and has the same topography and Alpine lifestyle.

The Slovenijans I spoke with were very happy to be independent and would not change it. One of the women at the desk was extremely bright and interesting to talk to. She talked of the lack of economic opportunities in the rural areas and young people move to the capital Ljubljana. The ski resort we visited is located in the Triglav National Park. Triglav means “three heads” which refers to the three peaks. These mountain peaks are featured on the Slovene flag. There are lots of forests and parks in the country and it is one of my favorite spots in the former Yugoslavia. It was also interesting to hear that World Champion skiier, Tina Maze is arrogant. 

Below is a picture of a stog which you see all over the Alps. I was wondering what they were and found out they are for drying hay in the spring. They are only used on small farms and it is a traditional way of doing it. The hay is supposed to be better and the milk and cows taste better from the small farms due to this hay. Some are double latticed, and young people are making cabins on top and converting them into a weekend home. 

We will definitely be back this spring to do some mountain biking and tennis. The Alps are gorgeous and I do not get tired of them. It is also nice that Slovenija is only a few hours drive from Belgrade. We last visited in December of 2008 and you can read my blog post from then.

Latest Reading: “Essay on Blindness” by Jose Saramago

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I finished reading over the holiday break this book by 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, Jose Saramago. Saramago is from Portugal, and this 1995 novel is about a mysterious plague that turns everyone blind instantly. The book focuses on the group of people who first contracted the disease which causes people to lose their sight and see only a bright, white, light. The ensuing chaos is horrific and you can imagine how this affects society. Without electricity and water, things go bad in a hurry in a big city. The heroine of the book is the only person who does not go blind and leads her husband and a small group out of quarantine and out into the city.

I liked the book in two ways. First, I love post apocalypse, wasteland stories (Stephen King’s The Stand, 28 Days Later, etc). It is a great adventure story of survival. the other meaning of the book is a bit deeper. It made me think about how fragile our society is and what a small thing can happen and chaos and the worst of human nature comes out. I told the story to my family in the car and we had a good discussion about it. I thought it would make a good movie, and it was already done in 2008. I also want to read his book, “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ,” which is a fictional, alternative account of the life of Jesus. He was an atheist and in a strongly Catholic Portugal, he left because of official government criticism of his works. He recently died at the age of 87. In reading his biography, he came a long way, from landless peasant to Nobel laureate. He didn’t become famous until age 60.

“Prosperous Days Are Yet to Come” – Bahrain

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I had to comment on recent events Bahrain. They are catching the spirit of revolt from Egypt and are having large protests. When I was in Bahrain for three weeks over the Christmas holidays I did notice somethings. So far the protests have been limited to the city, especially the area around the Pearl Circle. This is a traffic intersection with a huge statue in the middle consisting of 5 curved beams holding up a pearl. Bahrain used to be a pearl producing island before the discovery of oil in the 1930s.
My sister-in-law works at an international school in Bahrain. Her school is about a 30 minute drive outside of the main city of Manama and is quiet in that area. They are in a “lockdown” situation and are not leaving the area except for essentials. They are holding classes with low attendance.

I photographed this billboard during our holiday in Bahrain. It is one of literally hundreds showing the king on all of the streets and highways in the island. Any government that has that many pictures of its leaders on billboards is trying to say something and trying to stay in control of a situation they are not. The royal family named Khalifa, came from Saudi Arabia in the 18th century and are Sunni Moslem. Most of the Bahrain people are Shiite, probably because Bahrain was a Persian (Iran) island for many years before the Khalifas took over. Iran is prominently Shiite. Driving around Bahrain, one sees in the poorer neighborhoods all kinds of Shiite flags and signs. Driving home from the city during our stay, we always saw the police stationed outside of these areas on a permanent patrol.

The Kahlifa family has a tight grip on power on the island. The main three are pictured below. They are the king in the middle (Hamad), his uncle the Prime Minister (Khalifa ibn Salman), and the King’s eldest son, Salman bin Hamad, as the Defense Minister. Nadia jokingly referred to the three as “Los Tres Ridiculos.”


During the month we were there, all of the Shiite areas had black flags and banners posted everywhere. If one of my Arabic readers could translate for me, I would appreciate it.

I don’t think it is just about power sharing and a Shiite versus Sunni conflict that is going on in Bahrain and the other countries in the Middle East. I think it is bad economies with a poor education system that is not creating enough jobs and allowing companies to compete in the global market place. Plus, a big portion of the brain power, women, doesn’t have the same access to helping these nations. They will have to figure out a way to keep their young people engaged and making a contribution to society and the economy. I hope “Prosperous Days are Yet to Come” but it will take a complete make over and time to do so.

I’ll be closely monitoring the situation in Bahrain. Today’s Wall Street Journal has an excellent analysis of the situation.

Disappearance of Heroes

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Serbian documentary film director, Ivan Mandić worked with our Design and Technology students last week at the high school. Mandic and our Design Teacher, Dr. Gordetsky, taught the students animation with clay to produce short digital films. I’ll be posting some of their work on the school’s web site later. Ivan is shown above with the grade 9 students.

Mandic’s most famous documentary film is called “Disappearance of Heroes” and it is about the renaming of the streets here in Belgrade. After World War II, Tito and the Partisans changed the names of many of the streets in the city. In the past few years, the city formed a commission to look into revising the names of streets. They wanted to get rid of much of these Communist inspired name changes as well as correct redundancies and put a general order into the naming system. Mandic takes the human side of this work, interviewing members of the commission and the relatives of the Communist heroes who lost the honor of having a street named after them. Mandic also gives the historical background of the war which I really appreciated. It was the first time I saw Tito’s speeches and the baton celebrations of socialism in Yugoslavia.

As I live in Serbia longer, I am realizing the impact of the conflict between the Partisans (Communisists) and the Chetniks (Serbian Royalists) and its effects even today. I’m reminded of the maxim that history is written by the victors. I wonder what Serbia would have been like today if the Chetniks and Draža Mihailojvic would have taken power instead of the Partisans. This is an idea I will be further pursuing as I learn more about Serbia.

I would like to thank Ivan for coming to our school and donating the DVD of his film to our school’s library. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. He has subtitles in English, French, Spanish, and German. It will be available for check out after the Ski Week holiday.