Day 1: A Walk through Belgrade and the Military Museum

Today was my first full day on the Dialogue.  Everyone has been here for a few days already, but I arrived in Serbia a bit later.  So, first we had a lecture by Mladen, our Teaching Assistant, on Balkan history from around the 10th century to the 19th century.  We focused on the issue of nationalism and how different ethnic groups have developed and settled to different parts of the Balkans.  In the end, my immediate conclusion is that this issue is extremely complicated and that many of these ethnic groups have deep rooted historical issues pertaining to language, land, religion, etc.  Mainly though, while religion does play an important aspect of life and identity for people of the region, identity is mainly seen through the prism of nationalism.  People are Serbs, Croats, or Bosnians.  Although each ethnic group does correlate with a religion (Catholicism, Orthodox, Islam), it is acceptable to be a Serb and Muslim, for example.  In the end, as in any region, people use whatever is convenient (historical events, religious fervor, language) to communicate to the masses, mobilize people, and obtain power.  And historically, as I have seen, the Balkans has been attacked and controlled by foreign powers.  For centuries, situated between the Austrian-Hungarian empire and the Ottoman empire, the countries and peoples of the region were subject to occupations, migrations, conversions, etc.  Anyway, my impressions are very basic and perhaps not accurate due to my brief exposure in the region.  However, this is what I obtained from the lecture today.

After the lecture we took a walk through Belgrade on our way to the Military Museum.  It is absolutely fascinating to see the contrast of architecture throughout the city.  One can definitely notice the communist past, as many buildings are gray, structured blocks, that ultimately look very depressing.  However, one can also see the modernization that is currently taking place in Serbia, as many commercial buildings are glass structures of more creative architectural design.  For example, today we walked through a large, pedestrian boulevard that could be mistaken for a street in the shopping district in Madrid. 

And of course, there are beautiful churches and monuments throughout the city. 

The military museum was extremely interesting as well.  Uniforms, weapons, and war memorabilia from centuries ago flood the rooms of the museum.  The maps of the battles and the troop movements were one of the highlights.  However, I thought that the best part of the museum was the modern section (WWI and WWII).  There were many pictures of Josip Broz Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia for over four decades, during WWII.  I have posted a picture of his statue here.  Apparently, his legacy is controversial in the region.  Many see him as a hero and as an exemplary leader, but others see him as a tyrant.  Certainly, setting aside ideology, he was a brilliant politician as he succeeded in stabilizing six Yugoslav republics for decades through his policy of "Brotherhood and Unity".  This policy consisted of setting aside ethnic divisions and standing united as Yugoslavia.  He carried this out by crushing any ethnic tensions or dissent.

After the museum visit, we went to lunch at a very nice restaurant called "?".  The name of this restaurant is an interesting story.  Apparently, the owner wanted to call the restaurant the name of the church that is across the street, but the church was against a restaurant having the same name.  Thus, the owner in protest temporarily put the "?" as the name until a better name emerged.  And, over time the name stuck. 

I also saw the former Yugoslav Defense Ministry that was destroyed by NATO bombing in 1999.  It has remained in rubble until this day.  My theory is that it is meant to be a symbol of NATO/Western aggression.  However I have not had this confirmed.

Besides the activities today, hanging out with the group has been great.  The people are really friendly and I know that traveling extensively throughout the region will be fun.

So far, the trip has been awesome and I look forward to further exploration of Belgrade later this week.  And of course, I look forward to telling you the interesting tidbits of my visits and lectures.

Cheers!