Monday, May 20, 2013

Transmission

Serbian Elections: Making An Ass Of The Voter?

Serbian political cartoonist Corax's take on the upcoming Serbian elections

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May 03, 2012

Serbians go to the polls on May 6 for local, parliamentary, and presidential elections on the same day.

Reason enough for voters to be confused.

But as Serbian political cartoonist Corax suggests in the picture above, Serbian voters have a bigger problem than that -- they have two frontrunners offering similar choices.

His point is that President Boris Tadic (left) is pro-European but is acting nationalist to steal votes from rival Tomislav Nikolic.

And nationalist Nikolic (right) is doing the same in reverse by acting pro-European.

That, the cartoonist says, puts voters in the position of "Buridan's Ass," the famous metaphor 14th-century French philosopher Jean Buridan used to illustrate a paradox of free will.

The paradox: when a hungry person cannot rationally choose between two equally distant sources of food, he may starve from indecision.

With Tadic and Nikolic running neck-and-neck in polls and unemployment in Serbia at 24 percent, many Serbs find the metaphor only too apt.

Corax's cartoon was commissioned by RFE/RL's Balkan Service.

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Comment Sorting

Comments

by: Anonymous

May 03, 2012 15:51

Is vn from Belgrade on the ballot?

If not, what a pity as she knows everything about politics in the Balkans and is ALWAYS correct!

Serbs have been making asses of themselves politically for decades. How else can you explain them following pogroms from the likes of Milosevic and his cronies like lemmings to the sea?

In Response

by: vn from: Belgrade

May 04, 2012 11:37

To the clear ad hominem offensives:

The bank robber has been long gone, however for some people, basically those NGOs fueled by hatred his name needs to be repeated a 101 times a day, like a Buddhist tantra. If it hadn't been for his politics those very first NGOs would never have walked on the face of this Earth, and yet, 12 years on they are still sprouting and riveting about politics. At least, during his time Serbia had Kosovo. Now, thanks to these EU and US busybodies, the Serbs in Kosovo have encountered the problem of bare existence, Albania is spreading in the big way, while the issue of Croatian Serbs has become a farse (aren't they also entitled to their land and human rights or to rightful commercial compensation for the real estate and land), and the Muslims in Bosnia are also dreaming of further expansion.

Would it be possible for the NGO crime infested nutheads to either enter the world of politics or else do the work as stated in their non-governmental Statutes?

The people of Serbia are sick and tired of this schlock democracy but the NGOs are still not getting it.

In Response

by: Eugenio from: Vienna

May 04, 2012 16:02

Hey, VN, given that RFE/RL is not really over-inrofming us on the upcoming Serbian elections this time, one can assume that they do not have any "good" (for the US/NATO) news to share with their readers. Against this background, it would be good to hear a few words on the possible/probable outcome of the elections from someone who - like yourself - is based in the country and has first-hand access to relevant information.

In Response

by: vn from: Belgrade

May 05, 2012 11:04

Given the fact that I am not a political analyst or a journalist, I wouldn't take the unflattering role of speculating on political projections - especially in the form of telling the winning names in this foul game - it's a job for betting and gambling outlets. However, what our common sense is telling us is that there isn't going to be a clean winner in any category. Serbian politics has turned into a rigmarole of a number of foreign factors and political interventions, so we'll have to see who's got the biggest stakes.

Anyway, my point of view is that the role of foreign unprofitable NGOs is intolerably outweighing on the scale of Serbian governmental political interests in the sense of going against the Serbian people and the wellbeing of the overall country of Serbia. Every major NGO has its own omnipotent dictator (reads as foreign power with interests) who wouldn't resign for the world. As long as this is going on noone can be satisfied and this calls for a U-turn situation. Thank God, given their IQ they won't get this.

About This Blog

Written by RFE/RL editors and correspondents, Transmission serves up news, comment, and the odd silly dictator story. While our primary concern is with foreign policy, Transmission is also a place for the ideas -- some serious, some irreverent -- that bubble up from our bureaus. The name recognizes RFE/RL's role as a surrogate broadcaster to places without free media. You can write us at transmission+rferl.org