Part Two
Marijana Toma: I would like to go back a little, you mentioned that your mother died on the second day of the bombings and didn’t finish telling about how you buried her?
Sreten Đurović: We hardly managed to bury her, we struggled to find people to dig the grave. The bombings were ongoing, the airport was near, two kilometers from us. And there were bombs being launched every minute and poor her, the first day when the bombs were being thrown from the Skopje direction, it seemed like they were being launched in our direction and this created fear and animosity. She died because of fear. She told me, “I went through one war,” and that forced me to buy this house. I bought this house in five minutes.
Marijana Toma: You bought it before the war?
Sreten Đurović: No, I bought this house in February, ’99 and she forced me to do it one month before.
Marijana Toma: How did she force you, what did she say?
Sreten Đurović: She said… I didn’t even think about moving, at all. Even if I was crazy, I wouldn’t think about moving, not even my children or my wife would think about it. And she told me, “My son…” Nobody from us bought anything, my sisters and my brothers didn’t buy anything. My sister still lives in Gračanica. She told me, “Buy something so that we won’t have to suffer like in the last war. I lived for a long time in train wagons and we didn’t have a shelter. Buy a house somewhere where we can shelter if something happens.” I told her, “Don’t worry, mother. Don’t think about the worst.” “My son, please, I know. I have been through all that, I have seen everything.
And what was I supposed to do, I listened to her and bought this house in two minutes. I gave the owner as much as he asked for. I didn’t have time, the shootings would begin as soon as it would get dark and nobody was on the streets. They killed Donka, a driver of Tourist Kosovo, as soon as they noticed…because he knew who was on the mountains after 20.00, they knew that nobody drives at that time, except somebody who is a Serb, because Albanians wouldn’t go out. And then I bought the house here and we came here. They came in March 24, on the bombings day and I came in June 18 and my mother…
Marijana Toma: And you stayed there alone?
Sreten Đurović: Alone, alone.
Marijana Toma: Were you in touch with anyone? The company didn’t work, right?
Sreten Đurović: Yes, it worked until 15-20 days before June, the company worked, we worked. The products were shipped, you know, however…
Marijana Toma: How was life in Pristina back then, this is…?
Sreten Đurović: Very bad.
Marijana Toma: Pristina was bombed that much…?
Sreten Đurović: It was very bad, let me tell you. When Albanians started fleeing, I felt very bad. A neighbor came and asked me, “Drive me to Zamoka.” I said, “I cannot drive you anywhere.” “Why?” “Because they will kill both of us. How do I know who is on the streets. Stay here. If you need food, this or that, everything is here, I can bring you food to the entrance of the house, I can even do this by car.”
I felt very bad because I couldn’t help him or drive him there, mainly because we both were exposed to problems. If somebody stopped us on the street, “See, you are driving for money,” or something like that. I asked them to stay here, as far as food goes, I could provide that for them. It was difficult, it was very difficult.
Marijana Toma: What about the streets, everyday life?
Sreten Đurović: On the streets there were, people would go, it was obvious, you know, they were cold, the relations were cold. It was difficult, it was difficult.
Marijana Toma: So, when you bought this house, you bought it with the aim of moving here or just to have it?
Sreten Đurović: I bought it just to have it. Just to fulfill my mother’s wish, but she was right. Had I not bought it back then, I would remain on the streets now. I mean, or in a collective building. It was very difficult at that time, whatever you would do “down” there. I had problems later, my office was in the center of Pristina, two hundred meters square right in the city center, in front of Grand Hotel, and I gave it to a man, I exchanged it with Avala, but the man cannot use it, some people came, I mean, from the international community.
Marijana Toma: How come he cannot use it?
Sreten Đurović: He cannot enter the office space, they don’t allow him.
Marijana Toma: Did you give it to him? Does he have the papers?
Sreten Đurović: I have the papers and he is the authorized person. He has the papers, he is signed in the cadaster in Pristina but he cannot use it. I led a battle with the international community for eleven years, with the director of the agency who returns the property, Scott Boven, Scott Boven. I told him, “Man, I am in an unjust position, unjust. I have all the papers that prove that this property is mine, this property is mine. Now you have allowed a person who occupied it to live there. Now I have to prove it, but he shouldn’t stay there.”
When I went there for the first time, the number of the lawsuit is 101, 101 is the number of the lawsuit. I went there to identify the office space, I said, “This is the door.” He photographed it, then I returned after one year and they said, “Are you crazy?” I asked, “Why?” “You told us the wrong door.” “Do you think I am crazy?” And I saw that they were playing with me and I said, “Let’s go then. This is the same door as the last time.” He acted surprised, these are unlimited games. This is not right.
To me this is an ugly photograph, when somebody tries to fool you, to me it is an ugly photograph. You are the legitimate owner of a space, you prove it and the one who is not its owner uses it. I mean, it seems stupid for me to go there, the Albanian who bought it from me was together with me, I went to the municipality and paid ten thousand euros last year, ten thousand euros for something that I don’t use. I went to the fourth floor to the Director of Finances and I complained because why did I have to pay and I told him everything in Albanian and he told me, “Why are you insisting so much for that Serb?” I said, “Do you know what they did to us during the war? They did it to all of us.” I started telling him how what they did, they did to all of us, not only to them. “Let’s not talk about it anymore.” I told him, “My neighbor, I am that person.”
These are things that…I went to Drenas, I drove to Drenas with Belgrade car tables while I was working for Feronikel, it happened that somebody in Prizren threatened me pointing towards me, {shows with hands}, as I was driving there with Belgrade car tables. I stopped and said, “Why are you threatening me?” I spoke Albanian and he was like, “I am sorry, I thought you were a Serb.” “Yes, I am a Serb, so what?” And then he left. These are things that…
Marijana Toma: Tell me when you came here, did you open…What did you do?
Sreten Đurović: No, for one month, I…
Marijana Toma: What did you do?
Sreten Đurović: I dealt with freight forwarding and the company still exists. But for one month I was in a kind of depression, I was mentally blocked, I felt nausea, I don’t know. People would call me from up there, here and there, I don’t know. The worst thing is getting lost in your own garden, you look all around and don’t see a road, you only walk around the same circle like a crazy puppy.
And then I started working here in this basement, this and that, I calmed down and things started…You know when you are imposed something you don’t like. Just as if I pushed you to become a surgeon when you don’t like it.
I was so lost that I took a mill and I changed it and then everything happened. I wouldn’t wish it to anyone, I mean, to be imposed something they don’t like, I have no willingness, but you are imposed and you have to take it. These are things that happen after those crazy years, do you understand? Now they say that they will return my property, but what? Who returned, who will return? Nobody will return?
They come and tell me, “Come run for minister.” People, I will only have personal benefit from that, only personal benefit, somebody will offend me for that and then my children and my deceased parents will tell me, “Wait, you only came here for the money?” I never wanted this, there is no money which I would do that for.
Marijana Toma: They offered you to be politically active?
Sreten Đurović: Yes, yes.
Marijana Toma: When?
Sreten Đurović: Yes, right after the plural system began “down” there and I say, “No, this is not a job for me.” I cannot look someone in the eye and lie to them, these are things that require a stomach to digest.
Marijana Toma: Can you talk, can you tell me something about your life here. How did you start here, how did you create your life in Avala?
Sreten Đurović: Let me tell you, my life here is suffering. As far as it concerns me, personally. It is good for my children. If we look at it this way, I had a good time in eighty percent of the cases, I bought the house in Avala there, there are good people whom I worked with, whom I was close to, to swear at, to go to them in the middle of the night and say, “Wake up!” Here there are no such relations, because the people are…
You know how, they are right because most of us are not from here, and eighty percent of the people have lost and want to return what they have lost all at once and look for various ways to come to that, but you can’t. Then those who are starobeograđani,[1] they are right, what now, somebody who has just come here tries to rob you, it is not right. That is why people keep the distance, but my children are well.
Marijana Toma: How old were they when they came here?
Sreten Đurović: Luka was born in ’83 so he was 16 in ’99, while Lazar, the younger one was eleven years old. They adapted immediately, however…It was more difficult for the older one, but the younger one was a child, on the fourth grade.
Marijana Toma: They enrolled in school right away?
Sreten Đurović: Yes, yes, right away here.
Marijana Toma: What do they do now?
Sreten Đurović: They both work with me. We worked with freight forwarding for some other people and two years ago we were fifty thousand euros minus, because of the custom, I paid for it and when I went to ask people for money, they were like, “Wait, did this cost you five thousand euros?” “Yes, it cost me five thousand euros, but that is my money.” Five here, five there, and so we went bankrupt. Now we keep the coffee bar, the restaurant in Avala, Stari Majdan.
Marijana Toma: And who works in the restaurant, you?
Sreten Đurović: My younger son and I work there, and the older one comes to help time after time. There are waiters and cooks there as well.
Marijana Toma: What is the total number of people working for you?
Sreten Đurović: There are many people working for me, who are employed but don’t work much. There are tens of people, twelve, thirteen people, here there are two, three, four, six. There are around fifteen-twenty people working.
Marijana Toma: And tell me, I wanted to ask you… in fact when we talked today you mentioned it, before this interview, you told me that you speak a fluent Albanian. You mentioned this. Where did you learn Albanian?
Sreten Đurović: It seems to me that I don’t only speak Albanian, I dream in Albanian. I learned it there together with my neighbors and my friends, when you learn something so well, it means that you love it. Nothing can be done by force, nothing.
I mean, I have always been here, there in the village, mixed with other children. They built the minaret in our village and there was a hodža there, Mulla Rashid, he told me, “They will take the material from you in order to build it there in the end of the neighborhood.” “You just take it, we write it down and then you give me the money.” And when everything was finished, he came to me and said, “Let’s make the accounting.” “Let’s do it,” I said. He said, “How much does this cost?” I said, “Nothing, this is free of charge, pray for me as well when you go there.”
Marijana Toma: In fact you, with your own material?
Sreten Đurović: Yes, I helped them as much as I could, as much as I had the chance to. But, I am telling you that I learned Albanian when we were looking after the cows, with my people, when we played soccer, we got along, we swore at each other, we fought, we did everything, we did everything when we were children.
Marijana Toma: When did you go to Kosovo for the first time after ’99?
Sreten Đurović: I went immediately, around five-six months later, one year.
Marijana Toma: You weren’t afraid?
Sreten Đurović: No, I wasn’t afraid, why was I not afraid? Because I had done no harm to anyone. Many people told me, “Don’t go!” This or that. I said, “I am going, let them kill me.” There were a lot of problems, you know what? Some friends with false excuses would get away from me. Don’t get away from me, I didn’t get away from you when they were here, I didn’t get away from you.
I went and so many people said unpleasant things about me. I went to one’s office, I don’t want to mention his name, “How are you, what’s going on?” And he lowered his head, “I am the one who killed Albanian children, I am the one. Where are you to kill me? Don’t say something like that!” There are many people who are pure. And then he started speaking and I said, “Give me the reason, the reason. I will say their names individually, Marko, Janko, this and that, have done this to me. I will say them individually, but you? Don’t say such things!”
When you are not present, there are unfair things coming from both sides. Our Serbs caused problems there, only a few people thought that life has to continue in that place even tomorrow. The moment came, euphoria, you collect everything that you can, you mock the others. There are such things coming from them too, I am saying from them because of the cemetery, there is nothing else we need to say. Nothing else. Shame on them! Now the same people when I go “down” there, “Can you do this for me?” “I can do everything, I can do everything.”
They come here to the hospital. I have them here in hospitals every day, I drive them, I drive them back, they come. There is not a single day that somebody doesn’t come here, I mean, not even a single day. They ask me, “How much do I owe you?” I say, “Direct that to God, God will help me, and you look how things are going to turn out between you and God. Would you do the same thing for me “down” there?” You wouldn’t. I mean, there are some things. They want me to help them but then the next day they are called by other people who tell them, “Why are you working for him? Are you connected with Serbs again? bashkëpunëtor i shkive.[2] Do you understand? These are terrible things.
Marijana Toma: What happened to your property “down” there? Did you have to sell anything or have you taken it back already?
Sreten Đurović: No, I couldn’t sell it. I couldn’t sell it. The brother of the national hero, their national hero is still in my property.
Marijana Toma: Did he get there by force?
Sreten Đurović: He got it by force even though I had a two meters square property right in front of Grand Hotel. He got it by force and is settled there, his family lives there, he even threatened me by saying he is going to kill me, “Here, I am in Pristina, kill me.” He says that I have killed his father. That is not true. Everybody knows who killed his brother.
Marijana Toma: He said that you killed his brother?
Sreten Đurović: Yes. Ilir Konushevci is a national hero, Saimir Konushevci is his brother. And he illegally uses the spaces of my offices, he built upon the office spaces without my consent, that property is mine. He built upon it and the state is defending him, the state is supporting him. Shame on them, shame!
It’s been 19 years that I tell the truth, but the truth is known. Let’s ask him, “Do you have papers for this?” “No.” “Come, get out!” I have to prove that I am the owner, but he doesn’t. This is absurd. But somebody is helping them in this, even the international community. If we were equal in giving our testimonies, it would be solved already. It is absurd that he is inside and I am outside. The person whom I have sold it to cannot use it, he is an Albanian too and they don’t let him move there. They don’t let him use his property. I use his property here, while he isn’t allowed to use it there, they simply don’t let him get in there.
Marijana Toma: You exchanged it with this one?
Sreten Đurović: Yes, I made an exchange with Agim Ukiqi, he went “down” there and poor him, he has to prove all the time and I went there one thousand times, I tell the, last time I paid ten thousand euros, the taxes on property which I don’t use, such a shame! And nothing, this is a problem, a problem. It is not only me, there are a lot of people dealing with similar problems.
If one wanted to be just and real, they would simply sit on the table. You give your papers, give the papers to the other person and this would be solved in one day, it would be solved in one day. Who is supposed to know this better than the legal person? Do you have your ID or are you an inhabitant here? How? If you don’t have the extract or are not registered in the register book or you are not registered in the cadaster, how else are you going to prove it? How do you prove it? How? You have to prove it through papers and this is the truth. The way we are doing it is not right, I am proving while he is enjoying the stay inside my property. He doesn’t pay for the electricity, water, nothing. Such a shame!
Marijana Toma: What about the apartment you had in Pristina, did you sell that?
Sreten Đurović: I sold my apartment in Pristina with installment. He will finish paying tomorrow, imagine he turned it to his property without me knowing about it. If I was crazy I would have to go and prove that it is not my sign. How did you turn it into your property? I can be crazy and say, “Wait, I haven’t sold this.”
Because now there is only his wife, he died, and what if I become like, “I haven’t sold this to you. Let’s go to the graphologist and see whose the signature is?” This is something I cannot explain. Sometimes I don’t know how to explain how things happen “down” there. I mean these people, if you want to buy something or have something, you have to make sure that when you leave something tomorrow, now the man has died, I can become cruel just like he was and go and say, “Eh, I haven’t sold this to him.” Which is true, I have no papers, I have no proof. He made an agreement that is not valid. This is a problem, but one moves on.
Marijana Toma: Are you still in touch with your friends?
Sreten Đurović: Every day, every day.
Marijana Toma: Not only those whom you do favors to, but the others as well?
Sreten Đurović: No, no, with ordinary people, friends whom I grew up with, I am in touch with them every day. I use Albanian language in Belgrade more than when I was “down” there, because I call them to talk to them. I have contacts with many people there and in Albania, I also go there pretty often. That nation is interesting for me, you know what, that nation is very interesting to me because we are very similar. I ask them, “Who hates each other mostly? Two brothers when they fight with each other.” I believe we have the same roots and that is why we have each other. It is easy to throw a bone between brothers and for them to use it, these world architects have used our anger and then they threw a bone in the wrong direction, this is catastrophic.
Marijana Toma: I wanted to ask you something for the end, would you return to Kosovo?
Sreten Đurović: I would go there by foot, right now. I would walk there. But how am I to return? I want to know that when I go to the municipality, Clinique, hospital, faculty, they won’t say, ky shka është[3], he is a Serbian. Imagine the children who were born in ’99 and are twenty now, none of them speak Serbian, they all speak English. Even the older ones who back then were three, four, five years old, now are 25 and hold official positions, how do you deal with them?
During the whole time that the international community was trying to build an interethnic society, they built obstacles. They live in an enclave, everything happens in the enclave, isolating people like that is not a solution, that is not a help. In the south of Ibar, in the north of Ibar, what now, what is this all supposed to mean? These are stupidities which…they put some borders intentionally and now we say, I came here because they offered me to represent my people. How am I supposed to represent them? What if tomorrow I have to go to Drenas, nobody speaks Serbian there. What if you have to work in the cadaster that was…in Drenica there are many Serbs, how are you going to do it? You will need an interpreter, this and that.
This is not, I am saying this because I am the one who has no problem at all. I speak Albanian, I know many people who used to live there in those settings, in the enclaves who didn’t know Albanian and still don’t know, how will they make it through? What is that camp? They have to call their neighbors, their friends whom they worked with, “Please come and send me to Pristina to do something.” This is not the solution, this is a problem, this is a problem.
When they hear you speaking Serbian, there is usually somebody who wants to help you but there are some others who look at you and say, “Çka ki?” [Albanian: What’s up?] You are still helping them? You know, this is a problem. People want, there are people who want to help you, but then somebody shows up saying what is going on? I mean, this is not healthy. For even the slightest thing, I have to call somebody from Pristina to go and help my sister in Gračanica.
Even for the slightest thing, for a simple examination, they have to go to Mitrovica which is eighty kilometers from there, or go to Nis, or come here to Belgrade. These are unacceptable things, it is unacceptable the division that was created by the international community. You are here, but don’t save me, get me closer to them. It’s been twenty years since we are getting more distant from each other every day, this is a problem, this is a problem.
A project? What kind of project? We don’t need projects, we need jobs, pay us, built factories, this is the project. They haven’t built any factories. The international community hasn’t built any factories in Kosovo. Make it a project and employ Serbs, šiptare, cigani,[4] and Turks, let them work and find a common language. The Romani, it doesn’t matter, romani, cigani, I love cigani. I speak ciganski.
These are those things. The international community should build factories “down” there, let them employ people and this is the end of the story. I will work there, I will deal with that, I will deal with that. I don’t want to deal with politics, only with work. Let’s create a factory in Kosovo Polje and one in Slatina, another one in Drenas, one somewhere else and let’s employ people, Serbs, šiptare, cigani and everyone, and you will see how things will get better. They will never even mention that there was a war, never!
What, but he has to mention it, he bites his own nails during the whole day thinking about what happened to him, he thinks about how to escape. Ninety percent of them have passports, they took Serbian passports so that they can travel abroad. What did the international community give to them? They isolated them, they isolated their passports. They cannot make use of their passports, such a shame, such a shame!
We have one occasion with one of our friends there. His daughter got married to a guy from Kosovo who lives in Germany and she cannot live with her husband now, she needs to learn German in order to go there because this is democracy. She will learn it. She cannot learn the language here but she is forced to. She will learn German only when she gets to go to the shop, no they ask her to at least learn the basic level of German. I don’t live with a German, I live with an Albanian and when I go there, the child is one year and some days old, and the girl cannot go to live in Germany, but I don’t want to interfere here because they have their own rules, but this is not okay, this is not okay.
Marijana Toma: Would you like to add something for the end?
Sreten Đurović: What am I supposed to say, there is never an end. What do I say when there is never an end, there will be an end when it becomes beautiful and when those who are bringing democracy leave us space to create democracy on our own, so that we can communicate with each other, without a supervisor. It is always difficult when there is a mediator. Let us do it on our own, let us talk to each other. I would make a big change to these affairs, but without a mediator, I would talk directly to them, I don’t need an interpreter, my wife is an interpreter. I would interpret from Serbian to Serbian. Here we have the same problem, she translates to me what my sons say, the international community is doing the same thing, translating us what we have to do. We are stupid. These are the problems, here is where the problem stands.
Twenty days ago, I have a Turkish friend who lives up there in Prizren. It’s been three hundred years that they keep sheep and we talk to each other on the phone and he says, “Becko, look whether there is a Romane sheep breed.” I find it on the internet and buy two for him, I take them in my Peugeot car and bring them to Gnjilane. And he says, “You could never do anything better for me.” “Why?” “There is no chance you can make me happier than you did by bringing me these two rams.” You always have to go through the custom, one asks you why you are bringing it on this side, the other one asks you why are you taking it on that side. These are all things that aren’t supposed to be happening.
It is good that Vučić wants to remove the borders, this is a good thing, unity is a good thing. So the people, the economy will get closer. Stimulation is good, one is happy when one has money, this is the best stimulation, the best remedy. As long as we don’t have money, those are just empty tales, then they all get sick, aggressive and everything else. This is the problem. Give people jobs, economy and let them work. We will work, I will create jobs. I am telling you, if somebody wants to use me and my friends in order to do something there, you will see how quickly I will work there. But things move forward only through work, not through empty tales. You employ twenty people.
Let’s say, there is wine in Orahovac. People are making high quality wine, let me show you the big case of high quality wine and they sell this, if it was well packed, they would sell it for ten euros, but now they sell it for two euros, poor them. Back then, up to five million liters of this Kosovo wine were sold in Belgrade. Now, they cannot even sell five liters, so, this is something that could be improved.
These are things that make us forget everything we had. And everything good will come when there is money to educate your children, to renovate your vineyards, to make progress on these things that guarantee you your future, that guarantee you a better life. None of us need anything else. The Balkans are a place where everybody writes projects on our disfavor, this is a problem. This is a big problem. There are many more problems.
Let’s say, I am sorry that I cannot show it to you, exactly my Turkish friend Nehar Skender, he gave me the recipe how to make Sharri cheese, but I will make it for you next time you come and you will see what a product it is. It melts in your mouth once you taste it. There are many similar things, there are many things “down” there that are interesting for life, work, business. There are many people who worked here around Serbia, there are a lot of bakers who are still here. There are a lot of construction workers in Neimar and Ratko Mitrović, in Trudbenik, in all these companies. All these people would come here to work while “down” there, there is no work, they bite their own nails, children are unsatisfied, the family breaks apart, this and that.
My friend Ramadan from Vushtrri who has eleven brothers and seven sisters told me, fifteen years ago he had beaten his wife, he has slapped her. This is not alright, I don’t support this. And then the German policeman, the American policeman who lives one floor under him had called the police, the police had come and taken him to the police station. He told me, “I didn’t have a problem with the state, but with non-governmental organizations, Women in Black, Women in White.[5]” Women are like three hundred evils. They had asked him, “Why did you hit her, what is your disagreement?” He said, “If we agreed, I wouldn’t hit her. You know? While my biggest problem is that you don’t invest in economy, so that we won’t have disagreements.” This was his response. “Poverty makes us have disagreements.” And then the non-governmental organizations that deal with rumours…
Let us deal with work. This is the solution to our problems. Only work and business make everything better. The whole Balkans starting from Slovenia, alright Slovenia…From Croatia down to Greece, just give us jobs, don’t lock the money and give them to us with a spoon just as they give the pills to the ill who are near death. Let us work, give us jobs. Don’t force us to deal with politics, because we are not interested in politics. We really just want to work.
Even this that you are shooting, I am not sure it will have any effect. Who will watch this and where is it going to be published? I am telling you that there are people who will listen to it and if somebody wants the success of this show, let them contact us, let them give us jobs. Just give that to us and you will see the results. You will see what kind of people we are when our pockets are full of money. We also know to wear Boss jackets and wear nice ties. Now we walk barefoot and naked and our children deal with unnatural things, our daughters and our sons. I am not against anything that is contemporary.
However, I look at all these gay parades, this is stupid. They tell me what they do, why do I have to care about what they do? I do my own stuff to but I don’t tell people about it. They live and work for 364 days and on the 365th day they say that they love this or that. Love whoever you want, nobody is stopping you from that. Which one of them had problems because they were attacked? Let them come downstairs to my coffee bar, I see them while they kiss each other, I don’t care, that’s their life. But those who want to forcibly show us what they are, yes, I am myself too. We, the other 99 percent who live a normal life, we don’t tell that we make love to our wives.
You are saying that you are blessed, are you kidding me? You have to give birth. What if [addresses the interviewer] you would do it with a woman, would you have been able to give birth? Never! They try to impose on on us some unnecessary things, unnecessary. Not valuable, not valuable. There were such people even before, homosexuals, nobody did anything to them, they weren’t even noticed. It was obvious, I know that they say about Đakovčani,[6] they say that they are homosexuals. We lived for five hundred years {explain with hands}, I am sorry but we never had AIDS. They brought AIDS and we are afraid of it, they produced an illness.
These things are stupid. Terrible things are happening. I don’t know if this will be good for anyone. I tell my son, who is 34 and isn’t getting married, “Can it be that you have a boyfriend, bring him.” What now? I think that it is really unnatural to impose on us some things. They impose stuff. I am telling you that my wife translates for me, it is unnatural. I don’t know what to do with my children, they don’t work. We only need work, work!
In ‘73, I drove a Morris Mini, in ‘73! Even when it was produced in England, people barely drove it. I had a new one. I earned, my salary was 2000 Deutsch Marks. My paternal uncle’s son worked in Germany and his salary was 1500 Deutsch Marks. He worked for Mercedes, two hands and two bolts, he screwed bolts in an automatic way during the whole day. I was paid 3000 Deutsch Marks, I had a Morris Mini, money and I traveled.
I was in Greece for the first time in ‘74, I went there to take the Morris Mini to the car service. Do you know what we were to Greeks? We were Americans. They didn’t have bananas or anything else. I would take one thousand and something dollars with me and this is a lot. But I hope that God will help us and things will change, or somebody will listen to our conversation and say, “Wait, let’s see and start working, let’s not deal with politics but work and see whether those ‘down’ thee will get calm.” I guarantee that it will happen. I guarantee that it will happen.
Marijana Toma: Super. Thank you very much!
Sreten Đurović: Thank you for coming and I hope this will be an invitation to a better life, and I hope God wants somebody listen to us and helps us make this come true.
Marijana Toma: I hope so.
Sreten Đurović: If it wasn’t for the hope. The most beautiful day of the life is…do you know which one is?
Marijana Toma: No.
Sreten Đurović: Tomorrow. The most beautiful day of the life is tomorrow. Every day, tomorrow, tomorrow.
Marijana Toma: Thank you very much!
Sreten Đurović: Thank you!
[1] Serb: Starobeograđani, old Belgraders.
[2] Alb: bashkëpunëtor i shkive, literally, a collaborator of Serbs, shkive (pl.) being a derogatory term in Albanian used for Serbs.
[3] Alb: ky shka është, he is a shka, the latter being a derogatory term in Albanian used for Serbs.
[4] Serb: cigani, gypsy, derogatory term for Romani.
[5] Serb: Žene u crnom, Women in Black are a well known feminist and anti-war non-governmental group. Women in White don’t exist.
[6] Serb: Đakovčani, refers to people coming from Gjakova.