"Cypressaris" continue their humane mission. On Sunday, March 17, they cleaned the garbage in Virpazar. They collected more than a hundred bags of plastic, glass, nylon, cans... But they just rummaged through the huge garbage.
Lake Skadar has long since become the largest natural landfill in Montenegro, into which everyone throws what they can, directly or via the Morača and other tributaries.
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No one hates you more than someone who owes you something: money, favors, charity. Whenever he sees you, remind him that everything is not as he has convinced himself it is.
Now, some would like to erase the "cypresses" with an eraser. They are reminded that they were not on the winning side, and that is more difficult for them than anything...
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Ivo Andrić used to say: "Whoever manages to warm and revive loneliness has conquered the world."
But not all solitude is the same.
Almost every morning I am alone in our apartment, with the fact that this loneliness has nothing to do with the one that one knows will last. That kind of solitude causes discomfort in those who are not used to it.
I believe that constant and hopeless loneliness must take its toll on those who have been alone for years. I think that such people, as they approach old age, gradually lose some of the beautiful qualities by which they were recognized and respected.
Maybe because they've been the whole world to themselves for too long...
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The Montenegrin government, thanks to the "Envelope" affair, was not on the lower branches. But, it seems, neither does the opposition. The conditio sine qua non of all protests is that its representatives are not anywhere in the front lines, nor are they exposed in any way. Only then do the protests have a chance to succeed...
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"In the past, you could finish everything with a few carp, preferably dried: at school, in the hospital, in the municipality, to enroll a child, to get him a job... Now all the carp fit in one envelope." (Badanj)
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In the sparklingly witty book "Stories from Badanja", which, according to Nenad Petranović Badanja, a restaurateur from Virpazar, was written by Sonja Živaljević, the essence of life is explained:
"Your life is like a beautiful green tree. But, autumn comes, the leaves turn yellow, they start to fall, and about five or six feathers remain. And then winter comes, the wind blows, and they are washed away. Well, those are the ones who don't drink and don't smoke."
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According to Badanj, the Montenegrin government should become a tourism brand. It is enough for tourist brochures to say: "Come to Montenegro, a country that has not changed its government for 30 years!"
It really must be a country of prosperity and tourists would like to meet the people in power who made it so.
Admittedly, Badanj adds, the tourist slogan can also read: "Come to Montenegro to meet the people who have not been able to change the government for 30 years!"
And that, undoubtedly, is a rarity.
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By the way, Nenad Petranović, known as Badanj, was nicknamed for his huge head. The people of Crmni say that when he has a headache, "he needs a pill like nursing cheese".
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I no longer go to the place where the emperor goes on foot with "Politics" under my arm.
Now the "iPhone" follows me there as well.
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"Political entertainer" turned 80 years old.
For almost a quarter of a century, I was a correspondent for "Politika" from Bar and Ulcinj, but for my daughters, I only became a real journalist when "Politikin zabavnik" published my story in the "Life writes drama" section. Because, for years, the most important day in our house was Friday, the day when the "Entertainer" came. I had the privilege of buying it on the street and browsing first. Walking to the apartment, I managed to read the adventures of my favorite heroes from the third and last pages of Mickey Mouse and Pajama Duck (later Hogar the Terrible and Garfield) and Phantom, Mandrake, Rip Kirby, Iznogud... "The Entertainer" was out of hand by the end of the weekend in hand and in the end all five of us would read it from cover to cover.
I started reading "The Entertainer" in elementary school. We trusted him more than our teacher and teachers. I think that the secret of the newspaper's longevity and success among all generations lies precisely in the fact that its journalists always wrote truthfully, conveying accurate and reliable information that all its readers could refer to with certainty. Among us elementary students, it was known exactly who read "Zabavnik", simply, we knew more than our friends. And we were, dare I say it, more literate. I continued to buy it through high school and college, and returned to it again when I became a parent.
Then we found ourselves in trouble: we didn't know where to leave the old numbers. Instead, we gave up some books. And it's good that we kept the "Entertainers", because we keep coming back to them and always learn something new, as if we were holding them in our hands for the first time.
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"What is the secret of eternal happiness?"
"In that one should not argue with fools."
"That is not true!"
"Yes, you are right."
Bonus video: