July 13th-14th

July 13^th

Today we visited an NGO called the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, a group that reports on security matters and advocates for transparency and cooperation with the security systems of the government.  One of their tools is a grading system, 1-5, that rates how transparent and efficient a branch of the security service is.  The organization has seen a lot of progress since its founding in 1997, but still advocate for improvement in this area of government.

At night, a group of us went to a soccer match between one of the Belgrade teams, FC Partizan, and an Albanian team from Macedonia.  Needless to say, tensions were high going into this ethnically charged match (Albanians and Serbs do not get along well).  The fans were nuts, and we made sure to wear the right colors (black and white, not red) in order to avoid confrontation.  We were greeted at the stadium by enthusiastic fans and stoic riot police.  The first half was scoreless, with the Partizan keeper saving a PK.  We obviously didn’t understand the cheers, but the gestures we recognized, from the middle finger to a Nazi-like salute (confusing, as these are Serbs who hated the Nazis).  Aly was able to translate the cheers later: “Kill, kill the Albanians,” “Mladic!” and most importantly, “Kosovo is Serbia!”  Stuff was thrown at the Albanians as they were cursed walking on and off the field.  It was one of the most charged sporting events that I’ve been to.  In the second half, the floodgates opened for Partizan, scoring four goals.  It was pretty bad soccer, but definitely an interesting cultural experience, we’ll say.

July 14^th

This morning we took a bus again to Zemun.  We were able to meet with a Serb Orthodox priest and professor of theology.  We visited a very beautiful chapel, and then adjourned to another building where the priest served us rakija, a traditional local brandy, usually made from plums.  It is a very potent drink, but also very tasty.  We discussed with the priest the role of the church in politics and how the institution interacts with others of different religions.  One point the priest made was that it is dangerous to equate religious faith with national identity (something that is very easy to do in this region), and that faith should remain independent.  After the meeting, we went to a mall for lunch, and some members of the group broke off to see the new Harry Potter movie, almost twelve hours before the fans in the US.

We had the afternoon off back in Belgrade, which was used for cooling off, catching up on reading and blogging, and relaxing.  At about eight, we returned to Zemun for a short cruise down the Sava River at twilight.  Arriving at the confluence of the Danube and Sava allowed for a beautiful view of the city lit up at night.  After the cruise, we walked along the Sava until we met up with some local friends at Freestyler, one of the best club/barges in the city, and had an awesome dancing night.