Belgrade, Serbia

Kalemegdan Fortress

We visited the city of Belgrade situated at the junction of the Sava and Danube rivers. Our first stop was the Kalemegdan Fortress built originally by the Romans. This fortress not only protects the city but it sits on the last hill before the Central European plains that continue on to Budapest. The fortress has been rebuilt 38 times in its history. Belgrade became the capital of the Serbian kingdom in the 12th century. The Ottoman Turks conquered the area in the 1521 until 1862, only being challenged by the Austrians during this period. Outside the fortress is the Victory monument celebrating their freedom from the Turks. This monument was controversial since the statue is a naked man. Originally planned for Victory square, it was erected at the fortress, facing away from the city, but ironically, it now faces the most populous region of the city.

After World War I, the kingdom of Serbia was joined by Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Montenegro to form Yugoslavia. The country broke up just before World War II, various parts were under the control of Germany, Italy, and the Allies. Tito united Yugoslavia as leader of the partisans and then as President for life after World War II. On our tour, we listened to Mr. Vasilie who lived during this time. Since Tito would not give in to Hitler, the U.S. sent a lot of aid to Yugoslavia. (For example, the powdered eggs sent by the U.S. were known by the children as Truman eggs.) By the late 50's life had improved significantly. Tito created labor camps to build roads and other infrastructure. Typically 500 people would sign up for 200 jobs because it included food and clothing for hard work. By the 1970's and 80's Yugoslavia was living better than other communist countries. Their GDP was higher than Spain and Portugal. But after Tito died everything went downhill. Mr. Vasilie said, " for me it was almost like my father dying. We had health care, apartments, good paying jobs and would have pensions that were 80% of our salary. Now we have to pay for everything, most people rent their homes and pensions are only 54% of salary. I have to live on $400/month. We do have freedom of religion and speech, but I'm not happy because our standard of living is much lower and we have 24% of unemployment." Our guide pointed out that Mr. Vasilie's opinion is not the opinion of everyone in Serbia. Average salaries are $450-650 per month.

Tito Statue

We visited the Tito Memorial: his statue, tomb, many of the gifts given to him, and a display about Youth day, May 25th. The display had running batons carried through the years by youth runners. The run ended in the stadium in Belgrade on Youth Day. The gifts included those given from people of the country as well as leaders from other countries. Our final stop was St. Sava Orthodox church in the center of the city. Construction was begun in 1911, but was suspended during the two World Wars and Tito's rule. At this point, the exterior is mostly done. In 1989 they lifted the dome to the top of the church using 16 cranes. The plan is to complete the interior including mosaics over the next fifteen years. When completed it will be the largest Orthodox church in the world, holding 10,000 worshipers.

St. Sava

In the afternoon, Mary, Ruth, and I just wandered the pedestrian mall from Republic Square back to our ship. Belgrade impressed us as a clean, livable city. Here one loses sight of the Balkan wars of the 1990s with Croatia and Kosovo.



Topic: Gypsy or Roma Life

In the evening, we had a Roma, a Gypsy woman, tell us her story. The Roma originally came from Northern India, but now live throughout the world. She was an unusual story, since she did not live in a Roma community. Her Grandma was married at 14, but left a widow at age 19 with two kids. She encouraged her children and grandchildren to get educated. Our speaker has a master's degree. But today, in the Serbian University there are only 200 Roma, of which only 20 are girls. Roma are discriminated twice - first as Roma and second as a woman. Seventy five percent of Roma women experience domestic violence from verbal abuse to marital rape. Few are educated - first they are discriminated against, often sent to special needs schools or shunned by other students. The girls usually quit early because their parents want to keep them away from boys so that they keep their virginity. When they are married the mother-in-law will test the girl for her virginity and if there is no blood on the sheets she will be returned to her parents and shunned for life. Without education, it is difficult to find jobs. But she has also experienced discrimination: asked why her skin was so dark in a job interview, she said she was Roma, and that company wouldn't hire a Roma. For another company, upon discovering she was Roma, the Roma manager wanted sex from her to get a job. Many of her relatives don't accept her, both because she is educated and because she has chosen to live with her boyfriend.

Of course, we also heard the story from others about what they think about Roma. Gypsies are  known for being the robbers and crooks. For example, they will squat on the land and build illegal houses avoiding the payment of any taxes. They are known for stealing crops from the farmers and then reselling it in the market or cutting trees in the state forests and selling it as firewood. In every European city, we've been warned about pickpockets, especially the Gypsies with their babies. Many of them have large families, do not educate their children, and instead rely on thievery for their livelihood. Some countries have tried to remove the populations that immigrate to their countries, returning them to their country of origin. But this can be viewed by the Romaas a free trip home and then they will return again to practice their trade.