Who are the
Advocates of Anti-modernization
and Anti-reformism
Novi Sad, January 25-27, 2008
The third in the series of four 3-day
confidence-building workshops/seminars planned under the project
"Fostering Vojvodina's Multiethnic Identity" was organized in Novi Sad
on January 25-27, 2008. Twenty-one young people from Odzaci, Ruma, Bela
Crkva, Pancevo, Beocin, Kovin and Novi Sad discussed for three days the
issues such as modernization, nationalism, minority rights, resistance
to Serbia's Europeanization, the media, the ITCY and Serbia's relations
with the international community. Young participants were notably
interested in the problematic determining Serbia future. Who are the
advocates of anti-modernization and anti-reformism? What happens if
Tomislav Nikolic is elected the President of Serbia? How to remove the
stumbling blocs in the way of the country's movement towards Europe?
What are the prospects of liberal democracy in Serbia? What are the
roots of animosity for the Western civilization? What is the meaning of
democratic alternative? What is the bottom line of the "oil" agreement
with Russia? What is the difference between Serbia's and Croatia's
images? When will the Seselj trial close? When and how will the tribunal
in The Hague conclude its mission? Was there a secret arrangement not to
arrest Karadzic? Why is it that Serbia's public opinion is not powerful?
Does anyone know who the real owners of the media in Serbia are? All
those were the questions the young people posed and mutually found
answers to.
As most inspiring the participants underlined the
keynote addresses historian Latinka Perovic, the official of the
Stability Pact for South East Europe, Goran Svilanovic, journalist
Svetlana Ceca Lukic, and the chairwoman of the Helsinki Committee, Sonja
Biserko. Speaking of Ms. Perovic's contribution to the seminar over the
evaluation meeting, a participant said, "In two hours only /she/ managed
not only to provide us with deeper insights into social and political
developments in Serbia in the past 150 years, but also to
argumentatively and interestingly explain historical benchmarks that
have perplexed us."
According to the participants, the seminar met its
objective - they obtained new knowledge, met new friends and discussed
the topics that are hardly ever openly questioned. All of them without
exception said they would gladly partake in the next workshop. They even
suggested the topics they would like to learn more about - relations in
multiethnic communities, non-violent resolution of conflicts and human
and gender rights. As for criticism, some participants took that
seminars as such should "recruit more people with different stands,
which would be a challenge in terms of intellectual confrontation."
"Seminars would thus be more dynamic and provocative," they said.
The confidence-building seminars are realized with the
assistance of the European Union under the EuropeAid program.
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