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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
September 12, 2006
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| August 24, 2006 |
Vladimir Milovanovic – Living Resistance in Serbia; Otpor! |
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| Vladimir Milovanovic (right) and CC Kentaro Yamaki (left) speaking to Peace Boat participants |
Some of you may remember seeing a young Serbian man in black, raising his fist as he accepted an award from MTV for his organization Otpor! (“resistance” in Serbian) in 2001. You may not have realized to what extent this organization was responsible for the overthrow of the Milosevic regime in Serbia that terrorized the Balkan region for a decade. |
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| Vladimir Milovanovic in the Red Sea |
Coming from Belgrade in Serbia, Vladimir Milovanovic calls himself a “professional revolutionary”. He is onboard from Cochin until Barcelona as a member of the International Student (IS) program, to speak about his personal experience with war, the resistance movement and youth culture in Serbia. His close friend, Blanco Ilich was the young man who accepted the award from MTV. Together with many others they were responsible for popularizing the Serbian resistance movement to build awareness and eventually change the political system of their nation. He spoke to participants about this.
Otpor! began as a small group of concerned students at Belgrade University’s Law Faculty in 1998. Vladimir was a high school student at the time and opened a resistance branch of Otpor! in his hometown the same year. “During ten years of war, our system of values was completely destroyed,” he said. “When you are isolated from the world, you become stuck in your own small reality.”
“Young people took the situation into their own hands because nobody else would do it,” he continued. “People wanted change but nobody would spark the change. We were speaking about what people knew was true but didn’t have the courage to say. We used non-violence, simple messages, and humor to get the word across.
Resistance is effective because resistance does not have any leader. The philosophy of the resistance movement is that everybody, every citizen is a part of the resistance and unified by their awareness.”
“The symbol of the fist helped people overcome their fear. It became a symbol of protection for those who did not have the courage to speak out alone” he continued. The movement grew rapidly, changing from a students’ movement to a peoples’ movement as more and more spoke out about the government's neglect and violent foreign policy. Hundreds of activists were arrested every day. Vladimir himself was arrested five times during this period. “The repression helped the movement,” he told the audience. “It showed people what was going on, the truth was that police were beating their own children.”
On 5 October, 2000 (election day) 100,000 people came to demonstrate their disapproval of the Milosevic regime at the parliament building in Belgrade. Otpor! led the demonstration. Milosevic announced that evening that he had lost the election and the city broke out into celebration after years of suppression.
Vladimir has been a provocative presence onboard with his intelligent perspective especially concerning international law, his avant garde aesthetic, and his experience in facilitating discussion amongst youth.
He is currently a law student at Belgrade University and the founder of a grassroots organization called Biro – a collaborative of artists, lawyers, sociologists and musicians who work to build political awareness amongst the youth of Serbia through art, music and street theater. One of their current projects is to publish an “Ex-Yu” (former Yugoslavia) Guidebook for Serbian youth that explains how to travel on a small budget, where to stay, what to see, etc.
He feels there is still much to be done in Serbia. “The government now is a right-wing government who doesn’t change anything,” he explained. “At the same time, life feels normal and society thinks everything is alright. It’s like a Chinese proverb I heard. If you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. But if you put the frog in cold water and slowly heat the water, you can cook the frog. If we want to change society, it’s not enough to change one person in the government. There is a long process of changing the value system of the people. Changing people’s approach towards life, and work in general. The educational system that will provide the tools to think critically needs to be developed. That battle is our only battle.”
When a young American participant asked him, “If you don’t see any result from your struggles, will it have been worth it?” He responded, “I am only doing what I know to do. I’m not sure if it will make me a better or worse person. I simply have no choice.”
You can contact Vladimir a vlada.milovanovic@biro.org.yu and visit the Biro website at www.biro.org.yu |
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