The final count down! One year of Balkan Unscripted!
Happy New Year — for later today.
Balkan Unscripted has just completed its first full year! Thank you for reading and staying with us. We greatly appreciate it and in a few hours wish you an amazing new year ahead.
This year we started off our year reporting from Serbia, where the largest protest movement in recent memory reshaped daily life and local politics. Student-led demonstrations, triggered by the deadly collapse of a train-station canopy in Novi Sad last November, have grown into a nationwide campaign demanding early elections, accountability and an end to corruption.
We met so many amazing students across Serbia, including Matija Sano Vojnić (20), a student of organisational sciences at the University of Belgrade. Below you see him showing his “student index” – his official student ID card -- to riot police during a blockade in Belgrade. In the second, you see him being arrested. Thanks again for speaking with us, Matija!
Then, over the summer – on the 30th anniversary of Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina edged ever closer to dysfunction. Dodik continued testing the Dayton framework, pushing legislation to weaken state institutions from Republika Srpska. Dodik even had a warrant issued for his arrest. Warnings from Brussels followed; consequences – as so often is the case – did not. Marjolein worked on a podcast and project detailing the accounts of Srebrenica survivors in the Netherlands and Ingrid covered the topic for ARTE.
In the fall, for Ingrid, it was back to reporting on riots in Belgrade again. Marjolein hiked up to Trebević and travelled to Kosovo to report on tech entrepreneurs. More and more international companies — including Dutch ones — are turning to Kosovo in search of tech talent. Some work with freelancers who contribute remotely, others with full teams, and in the case of Buckaroo, the company opened an entire office in Pristina, employing more than sixty people. Collectively, we have probably also joined several protests from the Serb diaspora in Holland.
And, we also reviewed an insane amount of meme’s between us. Which we don’t want to keep from you. And so, we closing out the year with a small Balkan quiz. We have selected some of our favourite memes from the past twelve months and turned them into a test: how well do you recognise the political moments and regional references? Answers will be in the next newsletter.
Lots of love,
Marjolein and Ingrid (both on holidays, therefore the helmets. Safety first!)
Why is Batman offering eggs to people in Serbia?
Why does Vučić love this guy?
Why is Vučić a drama queen?
What are these lovely lads making?
What is going on here?
Who is this lovely lady?
7. What happened to Rama’s AI Minister?
8. What is happening here?
We want to wish you a lovely new year with more news from the Balkans. We will be back next month. If in the meantime you want to read or watch something about the region, the editors of Donaustroom.eu wrote down their recommendations for books and movies!
Cheers,
Ingrid & Marjolein