When you live in a nice country like Serbia you get to see plenty of protests, from those for and against the release of generals, to protests against the declaration of independence of autonomous regions, school workers' protest, down to the protests of farmers.
I'm pretty much indifferent to such ways of showing public opinion, but the latest protest made me voice my opinion on the matter.
The angry farmers, dissatisfied with the changes in government subsidies for the agricultural sector blocked the major regional roads in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina (where I happen to live). All roads connecting villages and town were (and are still) blocked, making the passage impossible. The barricades are removed every one to two hours for the period of 15mins to let the vehicles pass. The farmers won't let anybody pass, not even the buses, nor the delivery trucks.
http://www.novosti.rs/vesti/naslovna/aktuelno.239.html:332741-Poljoprivrednici-Vratite-nam-stare-mere
The reason for my angst yesterday was the fact that I had lessons in the school in a village some 10km from the place I live, and I was very much concerned with the time of my arrival and departure. I had to catch the bus one hour earlier in order to get there on time. I wasn't sure if that would help me because I didn't know how much we would have to wait at the barricades. Fortunately, there were no barricades when we approached the village. Nonetheless, my co-workers were concerned about the return because the news of new blockades kept coming in. During my first lesson, I was informed that a car sent by the principal should arrive any minute to take us back to the town. I had one more lesson, so I thought about whether to stay or go, but then I was told that that might be my only chance to get back to the town. I didn't even get to finish the lesson properly when I was rushed out of the building. The ride to the town was a real adventure. We got to the piece of road which was half-way finished (some sort of a future bypass) from which we got to the dirt road through fields of corn and wheat. It seemed like an eternity to reach the town. A stream of cars was passing down the wavy dirt road, the sight of which reminded me of the scenes from western movies.
When I finally got home, I felt relieved that I got back on time for the rehearsal for the public lesson organized by the 1st graders for future 1st graders. The purpose of the lesson was to show a little bit of every subject taught in this grade, from obligatory subjects down to the voluntary ones, and to get more parents enroll their children in our school. I was extremely nervous because of some children not having learned their lines properly and because of the possibility that my CD would let me down in the last minute, but everything went just fine. I didn't get to see the reactions of parents and children because I was too nervous thinking about the entire act. Once the lesson was over, we felt relieved. Two weeks of intense preparations were finally over and we could carry on with our usual lessons.
For more info on the protest go to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=06&dd=02&nav_id=74702 and http://www.emg.rs/en/news/serbia/156700.html.
I'm pretty much indifferent to such ways of showing public opinion, but the latest protest made me voice my opinion on the matter.
The angry farmers, dissatisfied with the changes in government subsidies for the agricultural sector blocked the major regional roads in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina (where I happen to live). All roads connecting villages and town were (and are still) blocked, making the passage impossible. The barricades are removed every one to two hours for the period of 15mins to let the vehicles pass. The farmers won't let anybody pass, not even the buses, nor the delivery trucks.
The reason for my angst yesterday was the fact that I had lessons in the school in a village some 10km from the place I live, and I was very much concerned with the time of my arrival and departure. I had to catch the bus one hour earlier in order to get there on time. I wasn't sure if that would help me because I didn't know how much we would have to wait at the barricades. Fortunately, there were no barricades when we approached the village. Nonetheless, my co-workers were concerned about the return because the news of new blockades kept coming in. During my first lesson, I was informed that a car sent by the principal should arrive any minute to take us back to the town. I had one more lesson, so I thought about whether to stay or go, but then I was told that that might be my only chance to get back to the town. I didn't even get to finish the lesson properly when I was rushed out of the building. The ride to the town was a real adventure. We got to the piece of road which was half-way finished (some sort of a future bypass) from which we got to the dirt road through fields of corn and wheat. It seemed like an eternity to reach the town. A stream of cars was passing down the wavy dirt road, the sight of which reminded me of the scenes from western movies.
When I finally got home, I felt relieved that I got back on time for the rehearsal for the public lesson organized by the 1st graders for future 1st graders. The purpose of the lesson was to show a little bit of every subject taught in this grade, from obligatory subjects down to the voluntary ones, and to get more parents enroll their children in our school. I was extremely nervous because of some children not having learned their lines properly and because of the possibility that my CD would let me down in the last minute, but everything went just fine. I didn't get to see the reactions of parents and children because I was too nervous thinking about the entire act. Once the lesson was over, we felt relieved. Two weeks of intense preparations were finally over and we could carry on with our usual lessons.
For more info on the protest go to http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=06&dd=02&nav_id=74702 and http://www.emg.rs/en/news/serbia/156700.html.
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