Award

For a second time in a row - almost a tradition - the magazine "Valjevac" has chosen the Valjevo citizen of the year. The prize-winner is student of the fourth year of high-school Viktor Rozgic, who has won a number of physics and maths competitions in Serbia and Yugoslavia and taken part in the Math Olympics in Toronto. By awarding the prize to Rozgic, the jury, which included also a representative of "Vreme," decided to establish real values and not those of the visionaries of the 21st century. This can be seen from the fact that Valjevo Mayor Milorad Ilic got only one out of 15 votes, during the "warming up" while the list of serious candidates was being formed.

Gaffe

The Federation of Historians' Associations of Serbia, in accordance with the prevailing opinion in this part of the world, hastily and without a time distance assessed the tragic events in the territory of the former Yugoslavia as religious conflicts. Last week, the Federation organized a one-day seminar entitled "Confessions and the roots of the religious conflict in Yugoslavia 1991" intended for about 400 primary and secondary school history teachers. Two official adjectives - "ethnic and civil" war - were left out from the title, probably to serve for some more general discussions.

The aim of the seminar was to offer the teachers more information about the complex and sometimes tempestuous history of the three major religions in the region - the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic, since they are now included in the school curriculum. It turned out, though, that the teachers listened mostly about Catholicism and the Vatican (two lectures), half as much about the Eastern Orthodox Church (one lecture), while not a single word was uttered about Islam.

Instead of finding an expert and serious lecturer for the lecture entitled "Islam and fundamentalism in the service of politics,"

the organizer chose a new-style islamologist Miroljub Jeftic, Faculty of Political Studies in Belgrade. Known for his passionately anti-Islamic stands and, until recently, frequent appearances on the Belgrade and Pale TV and in the so-called patriotic press, Jeftic made an unprecedented gaffe in the seminar: he simply did not give the lecture! The crowded hall waited for him for almost an hour, but he never showed up.

"Jeftic was seen in the hall during the preceding lecture by Dragoljub Zivojinovic and then he simply disappeared without informing us about his intention, said chairman of the seminar Milan Lazic. Perhaps he was offended because no one met him on behalf of the organizer, but it is a pity that the participants of the seminar will miss an important segment of our seminar." More generally speaking, it may not be such a pity that Jeftic was absent. If he had given the lecture, he would have probably tried very hard to prove through his one-sided and simplified interpretations of Islam the hypothesis on the religious roots of the Yugoslav conflicts and, of course, on the innocence of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Step

"Novi Sad 2000, a Step into the New Century" is the title of a political brochure ("editor-in-chief" Jovan Babovic) which is to be distributed soon on the occasion of the forthcoming 3rd conference of the city organization of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in Novi Sad and the 3rd SPS Congress in Belgrade. The 82 pages of the luxurious book, printed on excellent paper with colour illustrations, contain the project for the development of Novi Sad, which SPS will strive for, led by the "visionary and principled policy of our President Slobodan Milosevic ahead of the new century" (these are the opening words in the brochure).

One could tell that, ahead of the new century, SPS will not be wasting time on classical political issues, as they are hardly mentioned in the brochure. In fact, the city organization of SPS simply made the catalogue of decisions and assignments which are to be accomplished in Novi Sad. This is SPS political programme for entering the 21st century, regarding the "facilities and systems of long-distance heating and gas-pipes" (page 41):

- extension and reconstruction of heating plant "North"

- reconstruction of heating plant "South"

- extension and reconstruction of heating plant "East"

- extension and reconstruction of heating plant "West"

And now, what can the opposition dispute or add? Perhaps construction of a heating plant "North-north-west" or "South-south-east"?!

Changing of Clothes

... Re-grouping ... re-painting - are becoming increasingly frequent activities in the western Serbian regions. These activities are registered in Banjaluka, and the participants are all those who think that the time has come to change party jerseys, worn-out nationalist gowns and to re-paint the faded-out colours of the flag. Why is this being done in the largest town of the Bosnian Serb Republic (RS), which is not the capital as Pale remains the capital village of RS. Simply because Banjaluka had and still has the largest concentration of training grounds for expressing fidelity to the current political leadership. Seats of all RS political parties are located in Banjaluka, so it is easy to jump from one party to another. The local SP RS (Socialist Party) -extension of "the SP on the other side of the Drina" has profited a great deal over the past six or seven months, but many people who are applying for membership in the SP RS still do it secretly. The list of "refugees" includes also some journalists. They are all from the state-controlled media (until recently there were no other media in RS, except for "Novi Prelom" in 1993) and were noticed as the defenders of the "holy Serbian interests."

Well-informed sources say that this is not yet the peak season of the changing of clothes, re-grouping and re-painting - both in Banjaluka and throughout the youngest (and the only) Serbian state west of the Drina! After a third radical party is established in Banjaluka (Jovan Glamocanin has "installed" himself here) conventions of the Democratic Party (Djindjic) and the Democratic Centre (Micunovic) may be expected. There will be more parties than members ... So be it!