A prominent Belgrade historian comments acidly on the political ambiguities of 'rehabilitation' in contemporary Serbian intellectual life.

You pass a low on personal ID’s which reduces their validity from 10 to 5 years. This way you doubled the hours of the civil servants. Getting an ID was turned into an important social event. And when you bend down in front of a clerk desk, you are a broken man, and the clerk gives you a look and starts grinding his teeth.

Democratic Party has proven to be nothing more than a state-owned business enterprise and the primary source of corruption and of tycoons and of the faint-hearted politics which we cannot count on. But at the same time, we have no other choice.

As part of austerity measures to cope with the current economic crisis, a new Law on Citizens’ Income Taxation (passed on Apr. 29, 2009by the People’s Assembly of the Republic of Serbia) is in force as of May 8, 2009. Humanitarian and charitable efforts, scientific and other research, free-lance journalism, cultural and art work will also be affected by this measure. 

Public reactions to the Šljivančanin sentence represent a direct consequence of Serbian politicians' habit to nurture a feeling of injustice inflicted on the Serbs, a feeling which has been induced by means of the 1990s war propaganda. This feeling dominates the public discourse in Serbia of today again.

Following an initiative moved by the municipal Commission on Renaming Streets and Squares to name Južni bulevar (Southern boulevard) - a blind alley on the outskirts of the southern Serbian city of Niš - after Šaban Bajramović, a world famous Roma singer who recently passed away in bitter misery, a group of dwellers signed a petition against the initiative.

The fact that Slavenka Drakulic has agitated the local public, proves only that the conspiracy of silence is widely accepted, writes translator and essayist Mirjana Miocinovic, defending Drakulic against her critics.  

US financial experts are talking of cataclysm and anarchy, but what really worries them is nationalization, writes George Blecher. Meanwhile, at street-level, the crisis is having some unusual effects.

This is a text by Vojislav Koštunica, published in Obraz in 1996.

Our parties were formed in the bars at the Terazije square. They were formed between friends and family. So they are sitting in a pub and agree about everything because they love each other.

This public opinion survey was conducted for the purposes of the Project “Support to the Implementation of Anti-discrimination Legislation and Mediation in Serbia”, which is implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and United Nations Development Programme, and with the support of the European Commission.

An hour or so before we entered the Servian boundaries from Budapest, an officer in a dizzy uniform of scarlet and gold braid collected our passports, and asked a series of questions concerning our residences, birthplaces, religion, professions and "stations in life," which we answered with accuracy and patience.

The issue of crisis in the East is really about the ability of the EU to take on obligations in the areas covered by the common market principles irrespective of whether these arise in one or the other region within the EU and even in countries outside of the EU.

Milošević had recognised the weakness of the Serbian population that was created by the vacuum of national identity they found themselves in after the death of Tito, and he played a morbid practical joke on them. Imposing the kind of strong leadership they had grown used to, he led them to the worst kind of criminal and aggressive behaviour imaginable: genocide.