Cursing for the Homeland?

Written by: Đorđe Šćepović

A wise person is aware of themselves and the world around them. They recognize their own mistakes. They don’t count on the goodwill of those they’ve humiliated, especially when their coalition partners are actively working to erase those people.

A wise person doesn’t attend a church service led by priests who glorify war criminals and call heroes murderers. And under no circumstances does that same person then walk a few hundred meters to publicly honor those very heroes, in front of cameras.

And a wise person certainly wouldn’t do any of this on July 13th, Statehood Day, the day Montenegrin communists rose against fascism.

A wise person doesn’t expect applause at the site where the remains lie of those whose memory has been twisted beyond recognition by spiritual leaders who’ve called them monsters.

A whistle is the only response a wise person can expect – however unpleasant that sound may be, especially to ears once tuned to praise Ratko Mladić and the crackle of a pig roasting outside Parliament.

Today, those same people are lecturing us on proper behavior. They’re writing the rules of etiquette. And, sticking to the party line, they defend, as “wild mobs”, a man who, in his powerlessness and despair, insults the mothers of Montenegrins.

These are the people who recite Ršum (poet Ljubivoje Ršumović, who wrote a poem "Homeland is Defended by Beauty") and talk about defending the homeland with beauty and good manners. Nik, Ivanović, Pižurica, Bečić, and the rest? Really? This regime, preaching civility, while hurling crude insults at whistleblowers?

And someone whose favorite writer is Nikolaj Velimirović, an anti-Semite and Nazi sympathizer, can hardly be called wise, no matter how proudly they brandish a doctorate. Nestorović has a doctorate, too. In medicine. And let’s not forget: Radovan Karadžić is a doctor as well.

There’s not a shred of wisdom here, no matter how much this “wise person” assumes we have the memory span of a few hours, denying ties to the former regime even in court. No matter how “pragmatic” they claim to be, jumping ship from one party to another now that the winds of power have shifted.

Is the mayor of Podgorica wise? Terms end. But the mark we leave behind isn’t erased by party-issued erasers, no matter how far the illusion of power takes us from the reality we live in.