Shorts

Family Business

The couple Matic (Slobodanka and Miodrag) from the village Krivi Vir has involved their under-age son into their, so far unrecorded business of robbing graves.

In their Dickens-like action the parents let their favorite son and partner descend through the broken window into a crypt in the graveyard of the village Skoric; the youngster pulled out into this world twenty Deutche Marks, seventy dinars, some soap, undergarment, chocolate, deodorant, wall clock... Knowing about the folk practice to furnish the crypts with the items that the deceased might need, the family Matic robbed also a grave in another village, Smilovac, and their loot again included the wall clock, an item that families seem to put frequently in graves so that the deceased would symbolically and practically stay connected with the world he parted from.

The family Matic can not be accused of necrophilia: they have also forced the home (the earthly one) of Radan Radic, again not leaving their son home alone. They took a pair of men’s shoes; the youngster whom his parents awarded with such trust, has not paid attention to the wall clock this time - he chose meat from the freezer and a teflon frying pan.

(The court in Aleksinac has started the investigation about the actions of the enterprising family.)

Administration of Justice

The general fight against corruption and the abuse of position has fallen upon an unidentified judge from Belgrade who sold tomatoes of his own production at the market. The law forbids that the judges have additional job, but since judges of municipal courts earn around 1.700 dinars a month (in reality even less because the salaries are not paid off on regular basis), it is not unusual that the judge-gardener has tried to cash his gardening skill in the market. However, haven’t he given up his tomato business, he would have been dissolved of his office (the appropriate procedure was underway). It is not clear whether the sale of tomatoes is considered to be "the abuse of the position" (for example, an accused could come and give the salesman two thousand German Marks for two kilos of tomato), whether the lease of the market counter could be considered as a private money laundry bureau or the tomato sale was considered as "the destruction of the reputation of the profession" which is also not allowed for the judges. If the last one is true, the tomato salesmen may rightfully feel insulted: their profession bears nothing that could harm any reputation.

Advertisement of Negligence

The Chamber of Economy of Yugoslavia has received numerous comments, scolding, even teasing remarks because they have put the Dafiment Bank on the list of the banks that the Chamber recommends over the Internet.

Nobody takes pity on Mrs. Milanovic who can find her only chance in the rest of the world after having frittered away the enormous, somewhat unhealthy confidence of the local citizens. If there is still someone with hopes that the local clients of her bank and lottery players (who, alas, had no luck with the Dafiment Bank!) will get their money back (which was on many occasions promised by the Bank’s owner), then the conscientious lady must be helped to fulfill her promise.

Instead of insisting in front of the strangers (who reasonably enough do not uncover all their weaknesses to us) on our solidarity, we make fun of the Chamber and Dafiment Bank; later we’ll blame who knows whom when Mrs. Milanovic does not settle her impressive debts.

Postmortem Citizenship

The Macedonian private radio-station "Ekspres" reminds the Bulgarians that according to their Constitution the citizenship depends on the birthplace. This was motivated by the recent death of the very well known prophet Vangolija Gusterova, or grandma Vanga. She was born in Strumica and the radio station "Ekspres" would like to promote her into a Macedonian saint.

The representative of the Vanga Foundation Petar Brckov from Petric admits that her birthplace was Strumica, but insists that her working place was Bulgaria and that she had never again returned to Strumica. Vangolia Gusterova was buried upon her own request in Rupite (Bulgaria), by the church which she had built.

Searching for Causes

The earthquake that has been shaking Ston and Dubrovik in the last twenty or more days shows no sign of fatigue. Godfearing citizens of Dubrovnik connect the earthquake with the explosion of a hand grenade in front of the orthodox church and are inclined to accept it as God’s punishment.

As the sources of "Vreme" claim, the citizens of Dubrovnik are seriously worried about further development of events. The proof is the scene in front of the mentioned orthodox church that could not be accessed these days: the citizens have been burning candles at the doorstep of the church for days now, praying that the quaking ceases.