Belgrade Day One:

Well today was my first full day in the city of Belgrade and it did not disappoint. The first thing that i got to do is visit the National Democratic Institute sector here in Belgrade. There we learned about what is being done to continue to help democratize different countries here in the Balkans. I learned that by raising public awareness this could lead to electoral reform. This is a big deal because I learned that many people don't know who their elected officials are here in the country. This is an ongoing concern because if no one knows what is going on then how are they going to be able to have their voices heard. I got to hear Tom Kelly who is the director for the National Democratic Institute here in Belgrade, and he said that if they are doing a good job, then they are actually working themselves out of a job. Also that due to the people that are in power, they only look one way and that is to the presidency not towards the people, because of this here there is no way for those citizens that are politically active to have their voice heard. This is why there is a need to find ways for the public to get their opinions expressed. Following this discussion we went to see the Serbian Parliament. This was really cool because it was the first parliament that we actually got to sit where the members sit and get a small feel as to what it is like to sit in where different policies are developed. Due to the fact that there are so many parties, there is a need for coalitions to be formed. the thing is that those coalitions that are formed end up being very weak due to the fact that there so many different interests and because of this it makes the coalitions weak. What was interesting to me is that when the Minority leader was talking to us he said that Belgrade was a "open communist" country. what he meant by this is that there were some capitalist things that were going on at the small scale. This is interesting to hear because it sounds a lot like the was Budapest was with the Goulash Communism. essentially they were the same. It was also interesting as to what his opinion about Tito was. Despite the lack of freedom it was actually not bad. And also he lead the anti-facisist movement. The biggest challenge here in Serbia is that of unemployment. The main thing that is now being pushed is how to improve the wellbeing of the citizens and be able to cut the unemployment. Following this we went to a meeting to discuss what has to be done in order for Serbia to become part of the European Union. This lecture was kind of confusing for me because i thought that they were very optimistic point of view as to what being a member of the EU will do, but the question was brought up about if Bosnia could ever do it successfully, and I have a hard time agreeing with their answer that they can at this time. They think that if Bosnia joins then all of their problems would be solved, but i don't think that will be the case. I think that there may possibly be a spring that will occur when the people have finally had enough and then and only then they will be able to start from scratch. Following all of those lectures we went and toured the city. We ended up at this old fortress that was really cool. I like old ancient structures so this was awesome for me. while we were walking around, we came to this ledge that had an amazing view of most of the city. We walked around for a while until we decided to go this coffee shop that was built into the fortress. I ordered an espresso and had the greatest view of the sunset ever. The sun went down to the point that all of the buildings in front of the sun put off these silhouettes that looked absolutely beautiful. After that we walked back to the hotel and now I am just in the process f deciding what to do for dinner. Tomorrow is basically our last day because on Saturday we are having our farewell day and Sunday we are headed home. So this means that my blogs are starting to wind down but I still have a few days left and tomorrow we go to the U.S. Embassy here in Belgrade. So I will have PLENTY to write about if it is anything like the last one I went to.