Sunday, August 5, 2012

Differences and similarities between Sokci and Bunjevci




This question is very frequently asked. Many people would say that there is no difference and that these two ethnical groups are actually same. But! Journalists of Red Crosser have decided to check opinion of people in Backi Monostor.

Bunjevci

Bunjevci are ethnical group who lives in Backa, around Subotica, also in Baranja, Banat and Hungary. In census from 2002, on territory of Serbia it was 20 000 people (0,27 % of whole population). There are some data that Bunjevci were named by the name of river Buna, from where they came to Backa. They came as Catholics and they were also called Catholic Serbs. Probably, Bunjevci with Sokci belong to the group of South Slavs.

Sokci

First data about Sokci are from 1716 and they are stored in the church in Backi Monostor which was called firs Bodrog. Sokci are from Dalmacija and they came with Franciscans to area around Danube. The last wave of settlers was 200 years ago. In Serbia there are 9 places where are Sokci mostly lives: Backi Monostor, Sonta, Plovna, Backi Breg, Bodjani, etc. They also have specific dialect and they are mostly Catholics. Sokci have very rich national clothes and women still ware it on special occasions. (S.G.)


           

Tuesday, July 24, 2012


COMING TOGETHER WITH YOUNG ROMA PEOPLE

Having a great time with friendly people last night was nice, but did you ask yourself how much you know about your hosts? Here are some facts about our hosts:
The Roma society in Bački Monoštor was founded in 1998 being a special group of Roma in need of a place for cultural and social connecting. During their nomad times they trespassed Romania, and there they picked up some of Romanian language and tradition. At the same time they kept the biggest part of their Roma tradition.

Some of the donators for this community centre are:
SPOLU - Holandska NVO
Misija OEBS-a u Srbiji
Incest Trauma Centar – Beograd
Crveni Krst Sombor
Ministarstvo ekonomije I regionalnog razvoja
Grad Sombor
MZ Backi Monoštor

For some time Roma people from Bačka region (some of them call themselves “Vlah”) lived in separate settlements, but nowadays they use to live within the village. There are 750 Roma in Bački Monoštor: that is 15% of the total population of the village. There are around 70 active young people to participate in public work, seminars, folklore activities, workshops, games and sports. Beside that the young Rom generation usually gathers on Saturdays for having a party, karaoke or other funny actions. They also get involved in village feasts and have a good relationship with other organizations like the Red Cross of Sombor or KUD Bodrog.
Together they built up projects like:
“Produžena nastava” – work with young people who want to learn more.
“Umeće roditeljstva” – workshops with parents whose children go to Roma kindergarten.
“Farma gusaka – Ružno pače” – economical empowerment for Roma people.
“Zanati” – for Roma youth additional vocational education


There is also an education centre, a kindergarten, a Club of older Roma and much more.
Sport in Bački Monoštor

Bringing you the exclusive information about sport activities in Bački Monoštor.
In my latest research , I interviewed people in Bački Monoštor and found out their sport habits and basic sport related problems.

In the start we met a young man on a pause from his job. Aco (31) is mostly interested in football. He plays it on the village around with his friends in his free time. Before we left he also hinted something about karate and gymnastic club.
The very next person I interviewed, Stjepan (63) confirmed the information about karate and gymnastic club.
As I continued with interviews a lot of information accumulated.
The chess for women has the biggest success in recent village history. They won the regional championship five times and one of the players is a candidate for a chess master.
All of them practice in village library.
In the end I spoke to the local football coach and manager. He trains the three different generations of young football players. It all sounds well, but there is a big problem related to the insufficient founds the club receives. Also, the football tournament is not as big as it used to be. This year only 9 teams participated, when just a few years ago, 36 teams played the tournament. 
It seems the things aren't going well for this village, but you can also say that there is a huge space for improvement. The only thing needed are young people willing to work on their sport skills.


Future of Brodoremont ?

Brodoremont is a company founded in 1796, officialy in 1802. First the slaves and the prisoners from England were digging the channel which was finaced by Maria Teresa from Austro-Hungaria and was planed and constructed by Hungarian Kis brothers. Digging the channel was the biggest investment in Europe. The first dry dock in Europe on this part of Danube lasted for 30 years. Then Danube changed its course, so a new dry dock was built 6 km away from this one. The plans were made by the same man that built the Eiffel tower. First the company was specialzed for maintaining motors on the ships, but now it serves for ship-building and ship repairing. The company nowdays doesn’t work, it’s on sale. Currently it has 25 workers which are payed by another firm. The company had 125 workers, maximum 150. They worked for Serbian, German, Austrian and Dutch companies. All ships for Serbian buyers are fully built here, interior and exterior were built here and some parts were imported from Croatia and Slovenia. When building the big ships,the method is to build them in two separated parts and then ship them to Apatin to weld them because Apatin has a bigger shipyard. In 2009 the workers had a 10.2% higher average income than the rest of the workers in Vojvodina, but then the crises came and the director declared bankruptcy. The ships are built from steel and need 6 mounths to be ready. Plans for the future are to sell the company on a public auction in September: the price now is 1.800.000 euros. There is one German and one Dutch company interested in buying the shipyard. The workers believe that when the company is sold, it will continue its old tradition of reparing and building ships for river and sea transport.


Events in Backi Monostor

Like every place in Serbia, Backi Monostor has its own dates which are important for the villagers.

29th of June - St. Peter and Pavle, celebration (slava) of the village.

Second Saturday in august – Bodrog fest, biggest ethno festival in area.

13th October – This is celebration of the village (slava) because in Second World War, after escape of Germans from the allied army, villagers were afraid that allied will burn the village to find the Germans. All villagers went to the church and close themselves and prayed all night for that the soldiers will go away. In the morning they went out and saw that the village was empty and untouched. After that they celebrate this date every year in memory for great miracle.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

CAMP DICTIONARY OF USEFUL TERMS



Summerhouse Nr. 1 (left side of Danube): Place of intense hanging out of lazy unemployed people. No local authority around. It also serves as a place for young and hungry souls to be satisfied. There is a developed gambling community full of fancy Christmas light in the middle of summer. The topics of discussion have a death life importance for the whole world because some of the global crises problems are solved right there. The wooden construction and the plastic light, similar to the famous “Moulin Rouge” in Paris, are ideal for mosquitos and fools; also they may serve as a shelter against rain and sun. Before breakfast, lunch and dinner this place has got the status of a hospital waiting room in good old socialist times.
Summerhouse Nr. 2 (right side of Sava): It serves for the things not to be done in summerhouse Nr. 1.
Food: Eatable thing, the male population wants to take away (to steal) from its’ female equivalent.
Endi: Longhaired Dj and music analyst transforming in a second into a super useful working machine and sound engineer. In his free time he lives his pyromanic tendencies, and often serves as a waterboy.
Camp fire: Hot and moisty place where getting drunk and shouting is approved and even recommended.
Sleeping: Simple night activity unfamiliar to the most of the campers, often avoided in order to have a legitim excuse for being late, lazy, uninterested and bored during the workshop.
WC: The only place in the camp where the number of people gathered is close to the number of people in summerhouse nr.1 - but only in the evening when suddenly everybody wants to use it.
Showers (female section): Where the females wait and take showers one after the other.
Showers (male section): Where the males wait and take showers one after the other; and where females jump in to be first and take showers where they should not take them.

Surprise trip!


The fifth day of the camp was completely different than the rest of the days. The participants were told that they would be going on a trip “somewhere” and only got instructions on what to bring, which gave them a small hint.
The trip started around 7:30 and everyone was excited. Nobody expected such a long trip and after an almost 4 hours ride, we were sitting comfortably on a boat cruising on the Danube and the Sava river, sightseeing Belgrade.
We heard a lot of facts about the state capital, mostly about it’s historical background and it’s bridges.
We went under all six bridges, but the newest one left the biggest impression. Participant could hear that is the biggest single pillar bridge in Europe and third biggest in the world.
Author of this text asked participant did they like the trip. In general, hey were surprised with destination and the cruise. They liked the capital or at least the part they saw.
Adisa commented: It was surprising for me because I didn’t expect to go to Belgrade. Everything was very nice, but I was sorry we didn’t visit the center of the city. Food also was very nice.

NO MORE!

With some impressions about music in camp, journalists decide to do little research among participants of camp. We asked which songs they don't want to listen anymore and here are the Top 10 results:

1. Eye of the tiger (11 points)
2. RCHP - Otherside (10 p)
3. Vrati mene 200 eura (9 p)
4. Waking up jingle  (7 p)
5. Dubioza kolektiv - Kokuz (5 p)
6. Eminem - I'm not afraid (3 p)
7. Sinan Sakic (3 p)
8. Mitar Miric (3 p)
9. Kafana je moja sudbina (3 p)
10. Flasa od litar (3 p)
The new group of journalist have joined!

The new round of workshops has started and new ten participans will interduse them self on the first day of workshop.

Stefan Jovanovic or Steven Segal, a person without any taste, coolness nor awesomeness in him, Interview with him was a disgrace.Only good thing that he said was that i seem ok. He said that there are cooler people than me, imagine him judging cool without any coolness. Then he said that he doesn't know whether I'm handsome, come on handsome is my middle name. He doesn't felt comfort , despite the fact that I'm Mr. awesome

Vanja Stankic was born 02.12.1994 in Bosnia, Tuzla , in the town of salt. He likes winter and playing ice hockey with friends. His father is working with mobile phones , and mother works as secretary .
Vanja has relatives in Serbia , Macedonia ,  Bosnia but also in Germany Austria and Switzerland. So after finishing high school he would like to study on abroad on one of mention countries.
At the moment he is in high school specialized on medicine. His aim is to work as a dentist.
That may give him possibility to work independently in his own dentist ordination and to earn good money.
Vanja loves music. His favorite is : ex Yu Rock . R'n'B Rock and roll .
He plays guitar that he learned to play himself.
Vanja has got free spirit and doesn't follow the style of the others. He has got his own style. In his town is only Vanja in town .
He doesn't complain about his injured leg. A smile of a people around him is enough for him to be happy.
Sonja Gradinac was born 18.12.1994 . She came to this camp with wish of getting knowing new people and so far her wish is coming true. She goes to grammar high school .
She came here witg Red Cross Sombor and reason was that she heard about how great the camp is.
Learning new stuff is all part of experiences being in this camp but best part is that she learned yoga.
Sonja also was in other camps like camp in Neum and camp in Switzerland.
Topic in camp in Neum was Step away from war.
The camp is sponsored is by Germany and its aim is to come down hostility between people in Balkan.
Biggest impression for her was that they learn how to use differences between people to connect them, and show everybody that all man are equal so there is no need to separate people on any level, expect are they good or bad people.
Tolerance is topic that was used in Switzerland where the true find workshops learned about each other  and being tolerant. Biggest impression for Sonja were friends and great time they had.
For future her plan is to stay in Red Cross, do volunteer and continue visiting similar camps.

Boris Dzmura , is 20 years old Rusyn who was born and raised in Subotica. Boris is a Bulgarian name and it mean wolf or snow lion. His father Dejan is Rusyn and mother Dragica is Serbian.
Boris has brother Nenad (13). He went to Grammar high school and he is studying electronics and communications in Subotica. Beside running and basketball he is trying to find something to do during free time . He thinks that journalism could be his new hobby. Back in high school he had a chance to be journalist but they couldn't experiment. He has a few pets : dog , cat , and parrot.
This is third year that Boris is volunteering for Red Cross.

Branislava Stojcevski , nicknamed Brankica was born in Vrsac, but she lives in Hajducica, small village near Vrsac. Her father name is Brane and he is Macedonian and her mother is Monika and she is Slovakian.
Brankica went to high school for a tourist technician in Economy high school in Zrenjanin .
There she also attended for a solo singing classes and she also performed on RT Vojvodna.
Since recently she is studying Russian language in Novi Sad.
Branislava draws portraits. She found her talent by chance in High school during art class. Her art piece was so good that it was placed in the Center for the culture in Zrenjanin.
Beside drawing, Branislava plays piano but only for her own pleasure by playing popular songs.
She speaks Serbia, English, Russian, Slovakian as well. 
In the future she desires to finish her studies and my some other language more.


Nikola Stankovic is born in Gornji Milanovac on January 15th in 1992. He went to Elementary school Sveti Sava and Secondary trade school for commercialization. He decided to apply to this school because it is easiest and he wasn't interested in anything else. Now, he is studying about traffic. He lives with his friend from elementary school. If he could choose again, he would choose the same profession because it is easy to finish.


Andrej Melank is 21 years old and he is from Kikinda. He currently lives and study in Novi Sad. He is in relationship and he likes football. His favorite team is Arsenal. He dislike bad people and for self he would say that he is childish. He also said that he is happiest person alive. He likes very much the photography. 


Kazimir Biscan is from Rijeka and in small conversation with him, he said that he is happy with life in his home town and that he would like to stay and work there. He also understands the situation in his country and he is aware who has the biggest salary. He also thinks that government should invest more in education, but also in opening new jobs. Also, one of the hot topics in Croatia are football hooligans and rivalry  between Torcida and BBB. For closing he likes to go to theater and to read books.


Cvetanka Vasileva, Cece is 20 years old and she lives in Skopje. She really likes her home town and she thinks that it has a lot to offer to tourists. Recently it is built 20m high statue of Alexandar the Great, fountain, museum of wax statues, art and history museum, etc. Cece lives near the center and everything she needs is near. Only problem that she sees there is bad communication between different ethnic groups. 
Author of this interview was curious what would Cece say to 10 year old self and she said that she would give her advice to keep going in the same direction, to stay smart and eat less chocolate.




A lot of new challenges waits this group of young people and we wish them luck!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

What do villagers know about our camp?



Villagers of Backi Monostor are not familiar with working of the camp.
Author of this text wanted to ask them  their opinion about camp.
Older villager commented that he is comming near camp only when he goes to chanel. Everything he knows is that camp looks nice and that he heard only good things.
Jovan (teenager) has said that he's sorry because he can not come to camp, because is forbiden, and to hang with participants. He really likes to spend time with peers.
Ana (teenager) said that she doesn't know anything about camp. She lives in Subotica and she comes to Backi Monostor only during summer brake. She only knows that are coming foreigners and they are here for 10 days.
Milos (17) lives near camp and he can hear music in evening from camp. He would like to join, but he knows it is forbiden. He also thinks that's not fair and that villagers should be alowed to visit camp, and show them hospitallity.
All together, villagers don't know so much about the camp, and excuse for that is because coordinator of the camp doesn't allow entrence.

Life in Backi Monostor


Life at the village is not simple at all, we are seen that when we visited Backi Monostor and talk to the people there. People who worked at the Shipzard, before closing, lost their jobs, and the older ones lost the right for their pensions. Now, their only hope are their children. Same of exemployere left abroad to take care of random old people and get paid for that. Whole family can live of that income a few months. Only thing that they can do, besides cashering is making crates in *GAJBICE*.
Park and the plazground, besides the school is one are missing in this village, and kids does not have place to play. There are two schools working and young people can do out to the tree coffee shops and two discoteques. My collegue was writing werw about it. There were also discoteque called VIVA but it is closed now and it can only be reserved for the private partys.
We asked a girl about this and she said: 
“I am young, so I live a youthfull life. Now,  because it is a school break, I am at the one of the coffee shops every night. At  weekends, I go to Subotica and Novi Sad, where good time is guaranteed. “
The people from village can go to two hairdressers and one cosmetics saloon.

EU in Bački Monostor

     Recently, Serbia became candidate country for EU membership. A large number of debates and public opinion research was to begun. But those researches are mainly concentrated in urban areas forgetting about smaller rural communities. 
     What are actual thoughts of common people from village about this burning topic? To answer that question, we visited Bački Monoštor.

     "This is a big step for Serbia, but it is happening too fast and without thinking process because politicians see EU membership too exclusively as their top goal. They better should concentrate on real problems within our country" said Stamenka Radodoajic, 23 years old. "I'm afraid that there is a too big gap between our and European standard, but i think EU will improve village's economy and young people find better job opportunities outside Serbia"

     Optimism about entering EU is not shared by everyone. Most of the people are indifferent or not sure if entering EU would be good for them or not. Zlatan Lancic,25 years old, even told that there are many reasons not to enter EU. Nevertheless the majority of the asked people thinks that their village will profit from EU and that they are happy that young people will be able to leave the country for a job in other EU countries. 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Forum theatre

Day on the workshop of Forum theater was pretty interesting and exiting, because participants of workshop talk several languages. 
Workshop leaders are Leo, who came all the way from Spain and Ludmila from Germany. 
On first look I saw that they are free spirited and full of life. On interesting way they include participants in activities of theater. From all ideas they had, one idea has won. I promised to crew that I will keep their idea for myself, but I have to say that concept is pretty interesting and kept me occupied all the time, and exited. Near the end of the workshop they started to play games for to get in deeper contact with each other and getting each others trust. That's why I called these games "Games of trust". 
I talked with participants in group, who said that this workshop is very interesting. Language problems aren't obstacles neither in creation of workshop nor in the understanding each other. During one of their presentation you will see which idea has won, and I hope that it will entertain you as much as it entertained me. (V.J)

Sculpture theater

    Today I Had the chance to take a short peek at the Sculpture theater workshop to find out what are they doing. What I have seen, left positive impression on me. It was very creative and interactive. Participants of this workshop did a lot of different things like sculpturing, acting debating (analising), and playing some very interesting games in short breaks, what is real example of diversity.
    I talked to some of participants and found out that they are having a lot of fun. They seem to like different things, but this workshop pleases most of their needs and interests.
    Workshop leaders, Julie and Shyren said that participants are really active, creative, and very successful in get-to-know-each-other games.
    Some participants who were on this camp for the last few years told that they had better time back then but the ones who are here for the first time said that this camp have overcame their expectations, but there's still time for the first ones to change their mind; it's only been two days.

Audio drama

Author of this text decided to spend morning on audio drama workshop with Goran, Isa and seven participants.
They wanted to perform the audio drama in nine steps: Reading, audio poem, talk show, interview, song, joke, short audio drama, edited live reading of the workshop and edited live reading of languages around you. Throughout different forms of audio drama participants wanted different sounds. Which is a essential instrumental recognize people, things, natural phenomena, special situation. So the persons can be described as straight, soft, hard, silent situations. They are also mentioning radio drama and first ideas with brainstorming.
Next step is recording and for the results you will have to wait until Friday night. (S.S.)

Review of photography workshop

Well, today I was lucky enough to join the team of photography workshop, and I have to say that it was amazing. 
In authors opinion, Nikola and Vlada are really good teachers. In relaxed and very friendly atmosphere, with relaxing music in the background Vlada showed participants how to take photos, how to use lights and exposition, and showed them a few of his campaign works. After a short break participants went out of the camp and taking photos, using all kinds of props like: Silver background, bicycle, eyeliners, etc...
Interview with Vladimir: 

*Is this the first time you are a workshop leader?
-Yes, it is, and I really like it
*Tell me how did you came up with the idea for this workshop?
-Well, Nikola was supposed to work a workshop for diversity, but organizers havent agreed with him, so he accidently met with me and on mine suggestion, he connected me with Mirjam, and I told her about mine idea about education of using reflexed digital camera, and I wanted the participants to learn how to take photographs to make campaign and educational posters.
*What do you think about participants in your workshop? 
-I like the fact that they are from different countries, they understand each other good, very friendly, so they can learn from each other, and I think they will make great photos.
*What can we expect from your final presentation? 
-Interesting photos playing with stereotypes, getting to know Backi Monostor in a different way, and some funny scenes. (I.J)

Dance Theater

    Looking for peace, nice atmosphere, a good way to relax your body? If your answer is yes, then you are looking for dance theater, one of seven workshops in Backi Monostor summer camp.
    Dance theatre is creative artistic workshop led by Uta Muntefering and Nicole Felden who came all way from Berlin, Germany, to pass down their knowledge to participants of camp. 
    There are 7 participants attending this workshop at present time, and they are all adding part of their own personality to the final product of workshop.
    The workshop is held in woods next to the camp, because forest is shown to be best place for that kind of workshop, providing shelter from interfering voices. Woods also provide participants inspiration for combining different types of music for creating unique dance moves.
    It is clear that participants are enjoying dance so we will leave them to relax their bodies, to close their eyes and leave their problems in the woods.

Famous faces of Red cross camp in Backi Monostor

Endi Vas was born in Sombor on March fifth 1989. He joined Red Cross Sombor in fall of 2003, and since then he is volunteer. Endi is first aid team member and make-up artist for injuries. 
His first international camp was in 2005, and since then he participated on 4 camps and this is his third time that he is tech support, camp fire starter, disc jokey and from this year he is also inspector for clean hands. Endi for all these years had more then few funny stories, but one of his favourite stories is couple years , when he and his friend painted some of participants and they threatend to cut his hair, so he was afraid   so he couldnt sleep for 4 days, and when he couldnt take it anymore, he fell asleep, and everyone who was painted had their revenge, "Good times" he remembers.
He says that he is happy to be here to see how people are making friends for lifetime like he did. (I.M.)
50 young people from ex-Yugoslavia have gathered in Backi Monostor, Serbia, for participating in the Red Cross summer camp from july 16th to 26th. They will take part in various series of creative workshops (Photography, Sculpture theater, Dance, Audio drama, Forum Theater, Journalism, Dance theater), with the aim to gain basic knowledge and skills about the chosen topic. The main goal of the camp is to connect young people from different countries through art and creativity. 


      Backi Monostor is small village in western Vojvodna near Croatian border with beautiful nature. In that kind of environment, Red Cross Sombor had vision to create summer camp in which young people from various countries will be able to gather and in fun and creative way learn about other countries and defeat thier prejudices about others. It was finally realized in 2000. Encouraged with positive feedback, the organizers continued preparing new summer camps. 
     This year Red Cross Sombor 12th annual will be held. This year camp is hosting 50 participants from ex-Yugoslavian countries Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina showing that young people with good will can rise above a tragic past full of  violent conflicts
     Program is made of various creative workshops and build to give it's participants basic skills and knowledge in photography, sculpture theater, dance, audio drama, forum theater, journalism, and dance theater and motivate them to use learned skills in daily life. Participants will also be animated to participate in sport activities and teach taught to importance of phisical activities. 
     Camps personnel are optimistic and hoping that tradition of successful camps will be continued