As topic for this week in #WeekendEngagement fit in with my activities and happenings in my country this weekend, the right place for my post is the #WeekendExperiences community.
I don't like to excessively discuss political topics, although I have always been a revolutionary and an oppositionist at heart.
I have never in my life had the stomach to flatter some political authorities and make any agreements and pacts with them.
For this reason, in a country like mine, for the last 10 years, I have managed to achieve little.
Without getting into politics, as an ordinary person, I am where I am, with my 10 fingers I create what I have in my life. I have not joined any political party and I do not have any undeserved benefits. Only what I make or create myself.
But my hands and face are clean. I'm not smeared with shit from getting into different asses..
And the politicians in power in my country are shit. Corrupt, unprofessional, liars and thieves who extract the maximum from the country for their personal lustful desires.
The opposition is no better either.
Most of it follows the government and collects the crumbs that are thrown in order to "Attack them, and they defend themselves".
And that is why they are not trusted.
Opponents of the government, in order to gain the trust of the people, must have a pure heart, an untainted face, and should not accept compromises and false promises from the government.
And that is happening now in Serbia.
The youth that had been dormant for years woke up, students who were not interested in political life, but who were awakened in a moment by the tragedy that happened in Novi Sad exactly three months ago.
The fall of the canopy that killed 15 people (women and small children), due to unprofessional execution, rushing deadlines, circumventing the profession and overpaid contracts, caused the anger of students who set a condition: That the institutions do their job!
And they went to blockades. first at certain faculties, where paid hitmen intercepted and beat them. Then all the faculties united, they were supported by faculty professors, as well as professors and students of secondary and elementary schools.
That was not enough for the rulers, so in addition to several car attacks on students who were at blockades, a few days ago it happened that party activists attacked a group of bare-handed students and broke one girl's jaw with a baseball bat and knocked out several teeth.
And in all attacks, injured women!
Because of those attacks, in addition to the students who began to restore hope in the future and to other citizens, to warm us with their enthusiasm, empathy began to grow among people, we began to be in solidarity.
Organized gatherings to which students invited citizens somehow grew with professors' and teachers' protests, farmers' protests, doctors' and lawyers' protests... And all with the same demands: That the institutions do their job.
To investigate, prosecute, arrest and punish those who have violated the law and exceeded their powers.
And so there was first a rally at Slavia, a rally at Autokomanda, then a general strike and a boycott of retail chains due to insane price increases.
It was a prelude to this weekend's gathering, which, as I write these lines, is still going on.
On Thursday, a large group of students set off on foot from Belgrade to Novi Sad.
On that way, the people gave them great support, they gave them food and drinks, fruits, vitamins and sweets.
Halfway through, on a cold January night, the students slept on the football field, under a clear sky, because one slob of a man, the president of the municipality where the students were planning a vacation break, refused to give them the sports hall... "There is no ties, we will endure", the students said.
They continued towards Novi Sad in the morning, and a column of cyclists headed towards them from Belgrade.
They all arrived together on Friday evening in Novi Sad, where the students of the University of Novi Sad gave them a magnificent welcome, which was enhanced by the presence of a large number of citizens.
A 15-minute silence was observed for those killed in the collapse of the canopy and these young people went on a well-deserved rest, announcing a large gathering and blockade of all three Novi Sad bridges.
*Well, that's where I had to get involved and support their protest. *
Me, as well as my fellow citizens with their cars, bikers who came on their motorbikes in endless columns, and farmers with their tractors.
All in order to support the student protests and to protect them.
When I finished with my previously planned activities. I went with my companions (revolutionaries) to Novi Ssd.
In the evening hours, when the temperature started to drop, it was important to warm up the atmosphere, which this youth did with the citizens.
The props of my student protests in summer 1996/97 are active again.
The pictures from these protests speak more than 1000 words, although the government and the regime-friendly media try to hide the truth, conveying false information or avoiding conveying anything.
Yesterday, Novi Sad was the place where I wanted to be, to feel the spirit of liberation that was unleashed in the people...
I don't know when this dictator, who acts as if the state is his personal property and signs decrees, agreements and contracts as he pleases, will step down, but I know he has to.
He cannot be the only one, constantly present in the media.
He cannot be trusted, and he must also be held accountable for all the malfeasance he is involved in
participated in the last decade, while he brought the standard of the people as well as the resources of the state to a minimum.
I believe, someone can say: "Why are you protesting, it can be worse, see how it is in some other countries of the world, on some other continents?"
The truth, can be worse, but why don't we try to make it better?
The question was:: What are you entitled to and why?
so let me write and come back to the topic (as I saw it), unrelated to the fact that the experience I had yesterday was perhaps the most wonderful in my life and that it is already more than enough for the experience over the weekend 🙂
I think I have the right to be ask about something and to be asked where the country is going.
I am only an individual, but this state is made by us, individuals, 6 million of us (if there are that many of us).
I have the right to know what our money is being used for, taxpayers' money.
I think I have the right to breathe clean air, but perhaps this has been irreversibly prevented by giving Chinese foreign companies permission to start air-polluting industries in my country.
I also have the right to have water at my disposal (since I was already born in areas where there are water sources),
But the traitor sold those wells to foreigners. And he tried to screw them too, when he contracted with Rio Tinto to mine lithium ore, which would ruin that well too.
I should also have an organized infrastructure, for which we allocate large sums in taxes, and break car wheels wherever we go.
Thanks to the Internet, we have social networks where we can get information, but I want to have true and real reports on the situations that are happening around us on channels with national frequencies. I don't want to live in the media darkness.
I think I have rights...