swedish hospitality

we need a bit of real Western-style democracy if it formally exists to lighten up this very unstable Serbian environment.  – voice of the anonymous

Bad Karma has ended Roman empire and often times the short-lasting reign of almost every Roman emperor. what you do to others vouches for equal and balanced reactions. I spoke today with my friend Dr Stanislav Zivkovic telling him that I did not want to stay around his apartment for long since I forgot my mask and I started feeling a bit of previral fatigue. he replied, ‘don’t you worry sonny, I would be pleased if you stay longer so we can talk, I am 96 years old, nothing can get on me, nothing can get off me, I am like an aged wood now.’ I have been feeling something like that myself cos karmic reaction led me to lead the life I am not fully satisfied with and that has been so for 20 years. feeling like a hardened stone I often quest to no avail - what’s going to happen to those who did me wrong; cos it must be when people do you wrong consider it a blessing and the more of these unsavory blessings come and go the more karmic credits are there lined up for sure. of course, you do not want to be in the shoes of those who do wrong by changing personal destinies.

it would have been awesome and exhilarating if I had more friends in Serbia to do some vlogging but it is very hard to get reliable serbian friends cos many of them are into a no-nonsense power playing which involves taunting and everything here must connote - not necessarily death and destruction but - a criminal side – everything in life must be criminally weighed and approved - think of a ripped off lame ass version of sicilian lifestyle when the mob was in charge. talking about the society obsessed with mob and its mob-like image as, in addition, the serbian ''macho-crime past'' has been popularized by the leading journalists and talk show hosts. Hollywood pictures industry is the only one to blame; it's strongest followers' stronghold is right here. hence, I’m rather a blog generation veteran whereby i do stuff on my own and this Swedish hospitality I will try to explain here should be the last thing on mind as it does not actually deal with my safety.

anyhow, I decided to post cos maybe it may be important to know these things as well.

today, I went for a Swedish snack into IKEA (Belgrade, Serbia; snack area is by the entrance) deciding then to look around some more. what the heck, it is swedish but an't nothing sexual about it, we are talking. found some nice looking items there, snapped photos for some projects and in one of these departments I found an empty throwaway box - according to the department clerk - whose stock was just emptied out and realized it would have been a perfect cardboard box for one of my conceptual art projects even though I am not conceptual artist but it is the closest thing to what designates my work. store clerk said: take it, we don’t need it.

at the register there was a security guy and I asked him for clearance. he used his Motorola reporting to his superior as if it was a very big deal. I could hear the voice loud and clear telling: ‘cannot let him take it out, we must first throw it into the trash and then he must pick it up from trash.’ what’s important to highlight is that we are talking about the non-salable item without any value whatsoever. imagine if you invited a guest to your house and he asked you for hanky to wipe off his running nose which you then threw into a trashcan before handing only to tell him to go pick it up from there. that's the procedure. have not you known, a clean hanky when thrown into trash acquires some funky attributes?!

I still made a purchase in their snack area after I had suffered from this IKEA hospitality streak and did a business with these swedish ........ . well sometimes you got to give the profane ones some karmic breaks. trust me, it is enlightening.