the provocator

serbia is a country where a different opinion may mean a close call or a death sentence on the streets. the power still lies with the remnants of the old system even though serbia is a democracy on paper. it is also a country where if the word is spread around you can be targeted like ‘the warriors’ in the movie - the warriors. the warriors synopsis is fiction for the united states but unfortunately in serbia it is reality. unfortunately, I live in the neighborhood that was populated by all kinds of associates of a one-time one-party regime (they do not like those times to be called communist claiming that their one-party was democracy in itself even then) that are well trained in all kinds of provocations. although their time is going out, they still like to act tough. that is the reason I ve been going to shop groceries at another maxi delhaize store where the prominent members of society and non-ideological high rollers shop which is at nearby autokomanda and I never had any problems with other shoppers there. too bad serbia does not have more shopping chains like Auchan as maxi delhaize is the leader here. so not too many options to chose from. and recently as the maxi clerks started bothering and harassing me at autokomanda I stopped going there for a while and had to drive for 15 miles for some time to another center (not maxi) where I also had problems with the stuff as I have been wildly and broadly targeted in this ‘land.’

today I tried to test my luck again in the maxi Delhaize store in my neighborhood – 115, vojvode stepe street -  and as a matter of course there was a 60+ year old associate of the old communist system in the line behind me who lost no time but started acting terrible at once. he moved my cart away only to irritate, whistled, breathed down my neck, impatiently tsk-tsked at me, jerked himself around, and as I retrieved my cart and bowed down to put my groceries onto the counter he spat or made a spitting noise over the back of my head so I could hear it as he was half a meter away. of course, nobody paid any attention to him and if I tried to raise my voice or react everybody would think that I was crazy as he provoked me in a way that it was hardly perceived by others. I have just taken it in stoically and let it go and this post goes out to this serb and his 'deed' for the rest of the world to know what is going around here – serbia is the name of this place and Im not sure what is the name of their game.