Montenegro became a candidate country for EU membership in December 2010, and membership negotiations officially began on June 29, 2012. At that time, the deadline until 2020, until full membership, seemed to me obscenely long. Then 2025 was mentioned, so here it is, the year 2030.
How irrelevant it is to me now...
* * *
Even those of us who went to bed relatively early had a hard time in the first class - we were sleepless, uninterested, defocused, and what about today's generation that "bleeps" on social networks until the wee hours?
The first lesson should start, say, at nine o'clock. This is just filling in the form, without any productivity.
* * *
In the cinema in Bar, with a dozen other film buffs, we watched Jonathan Gieser's "Zone of Interest", a British-Polish co-production. All the monstrosity of the Holocaust is masterfully portrayed without a single crime or drop of blood shed. The film focuses on the family of Rudolf Hess, the commandant of Auschwitz from June 1940 to November 1943 and from May to November 1944.
After leaving the cinema, one thought followed me: the German Nazis, after the war, did not suffer a fraction of what they should have...
* * *
"Ukraine should raise the white flag and agree to negotiations with Russia." It's a shame, but how many dead will this end up with? We need to negotiate in time and look for a country that will act as a mediator."
It will be a long time before the world gets a sane religious leader like Pope Francis again.
* * *
Doctor Žika, as Bonja calls him, occasionally sends me a quote, written down a long time ago, along with a suitable sentence about the writer. He could not remember the author of this: "Life is a fleeting shadow." And death is a passing shadow. Only the pain doesn't go away. It continues unceasingly, always and forever."
Nor this one: "Men are dead backwaters, dead ends, stagnant water." Women are flowing water."
* * *
If I could get rid of the bookmaker, I reckon, I'll be able to give up the "smart" phone as well. I think he's too smart for me, he started suffocating me. It serves me thousands of texts, characters and events every day. Most of them are nonsense. I need a longer "brain detox", as my oldest daughter Lara would say.
* * *
And until I completely give up my cell phone, my outlet is "Bar Stories":
Eyes
On the eve of the campaign on Skadar, the mobilization of the Montenegrin army in Bar was announced by a cannon from Londza on October 1, 1912. Soldiers and volunteers gathered in Klezna. One Muslim from Tuđemil was tied up for a whole day. What his sin was, no one knew.
"People, will someone give me a sip of water?" cried the bound Tuđemilac.
Nobody nothing.
Then he addressed the officer who ordered his binding:
"Aman, man, if you have a soul, give me water!"
"No! And you - turn to the army - don't play with your head" - he said threateningly.
When the officer moved away a little, volunteer Pero Čobov Pavlović from Dobra Voda came up and gave the bound man his flask.
"Who did this?" growled the officer.
"Me!" - said Pero.
The officer looked the Dobrovodian straight in the eyes. One can only guess what he saw in them. He just stopped and went to the other side as if nothing had happened.
Precaution
In Omer Mustafić's shop, two customers bought something and paid. Omer didn't have change, so he had to look for it in a neighboring shop. But how could he leave the customers alone when he knew that they had a bad reputation and that they were capable of stealing, as they said, "out of sight"?
Nevertheless, he decides to jump to the neighbor's house, no matter what. They started, but stopped at the door, looking back:
"I will, in no time, go to the neighbor to break the money, and you stay in the shop, but, for God's sake, take care of each other!"
Happiness
At the popular inter-republic competition "Games of Cities", in Tuzla, in the eighties, Montenegro was represented by Bar. In addition to other sports, the Rams also competed in table tennis. In the first round, they focused on the first favorite, Zagreb, whose ranks were defended by table tennis players "Vjesnik", the state champion. Jaja D. played table tennis well and thought that even the best Chinese could not beat him 21:0. However, in the first set, that was exactly the result for the native of Zagreb.
During a short rest between two sets, the coach of the bar team, professor Ljubo S, tells Džaja consolingly:
"You were very lucky not to play with the first table tennis player of 'Vjesnik'. This one is only fifth in strength."
"I'm sorry, Ljubo, but how many lives would that first get me?" - asked Jaja and, without waiting for an answer, he went to the second set, in which, however, he did somewhat better.
Bonus video:
