SICK POLICIES CREATE SICK SOCIETIES Criminals and war criminals are role models for new generations!

By Amra Vrabac 

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Tragic events in Belgrade and its surroundings in Mladenovac, where 16 people, including nine children, lost their lives, will forever mark Serbia. Two such crimes in two days are unprecedented. In one case, the perpetrator is a minor, one of the best students, and in the other, a 21-year-old whose role models were convicted criminals.

For days, the question has been echoing: why did this happen? Could it have been prevented, who failed, whose responsibility is it? In one case, the perpetrator is a child, and in the other, a young man who had shown signs of violence for years, abused animals, and harassed the neighborhood without any sanctions. 

In the days when Serbia is gripped by grief, psychologists, psychiatrists, and professionals have finally had their say. However, despite this, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has taken it upon himself to be a doctor, psychiatrist, prosecutor, and judge. He would even bring back the death penalty if he could. But these are all consequences.

For years, Aleksandar Vučić has been a participant in TV shows on channels that promote violence, explicit content, where convicted war criminals are guests, crimes and victims are denied, hatred is sown, and courts and justice are ridiculed. Serbia has been living in a completely distorted value system for years, and the Serbian president is an eternal victim.

That is why he was taken aback when a journalist asked him about his responsibility in all of this, given that he publicly waved pictures of the mutilated victims of Veljko Belivuk and the criminal underworld.

The explosion of reality shows with the most heinous scenes of violence, erotic content, and inappropriate music that imposes wrong and distorted values, which are most quickly perceived by younger generations, has produced a chaotic society. 

Social networks and communication channels have completely distorted any norms of decent behavior. Criminals openly confront each other, threaten with weapons, and murders in live broadcasts late into the night, followed by hundreds of thousands of followers. Our youth are becoming new Kristijans, Belivuks, clan members, and that attracts them...

Politics in Serbia has never moved away from the events of the 90s, has not acknowledged and condemned crimes, has not acknowledged victims, and court verdicts for war crimes have never been accepted. Instead of repentance, T-shirts saying "Knife, wire, Srebrenica" are freely sold in Serbia. Every July 11th, the "honor" of Serbia is guarded by the Women in Black and a few individuals who are still free-thinkers, as long as Vučić doesn't ban that too. 

Such an attitude towards the past is passed down from generation to generation, ready for new crimes. Because if they are not ready to condemn them, they are more ready to repeat them. The hysteria, to which Vučić himself contributes with constant television monologues about attacks, territorial seizures, bombings, and the victim's role, that Serbs must defend themselves when they've had enough, cannot lead to anything good.

Without any sanctions, criminals and war criminals are ridiculed on TV screens, crimes are justified, and victims are denied. A cult of weapons is being created, social networks are flooded with pictures of children in Chetnik uniforms, with cockades, sabers, daggers, and weapons. Videos from schools are published showing children fighting, singing Chetnik and nationalist songs. And no one reacts to this.

A society is as sick as the politics that leads it. Many fear that a similar situation might occur in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And if we only look at what politicians tell us and what values they impose on us through social networks, we can only hope that evil does not befall us.

For some politicians, it is normal to walk armed in Sarajevo, for convicted criminals to be their 'moral verticals', and for others, it is normal to have ten members of private security behind them. Armed or not, it doesn't matter.

The president of the BiH entity RS and head of SNSD, Milorad Dodik, threatens the state police agency SIPA and forbids them to operate in the RS. When he was a member of the Presidency of BiH, he was escorted by members of the MUP RS. Dodik sent a message to his voters that they can act the same way because there were no sanctions for him either. There are no sanctions for constantly denying the genocide in Srebrenica, for denying victims. There are no sanctions for those who threaten new territorial reorganizations, deny the joint criminal enterprise, and wish to forget the victims who serve as a warning that evil must never happen again. It seems that there are no sanctions for politicians, no matter what they say or do...

Where the educational system failed

The school educational system may be modern now, using new technologies, everything is faster and more accessible, but there is less and less knowledge and true values that children should acquire. Those who make decisions should urgently address the curricula. Children and teachers are overloaded. Discrimination that exists in schools is no longer even discussed because it has become normal. Due to social networks, everything has become accessible: what the students' parents do, whether they are famous or not, what kind of car they arrive at school in, where they vacation. Educators very often cross the line and enter into private relationships with some parents. It is no secret that elite classes of students whose parents are wealthy have been formed in Sarajevo schools. Such a practice can bring no good to anyone. Numerous cases of peer violence are hidden, and teachers themselves participate in many of them. What kind of background checks do teachers who teach students undergo? School was once an institution where you received upbringing, attention, and discipline, where you saw a teacher as a second parent. Today, there is almost none of that. 

Parents have no control over their children. Many of them will admit it. Materialism and capitalism have completely eroded the basic values of the family. When was the last time you heard of someone working eight hours, sleeping eight hours, and having eight hours a day for their family? Rarely, if ever. The modern way of life has led to the breakdown of many families. Throughout the entire region. The situation is alarming in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well, where the number of divorces is far greater than the number of marriages. If we go back 50 years, our parents also had jobs, paid bills, but lived normal lives. There was no Instagram, no TikTok where everyone is beautiful, rich, and happy. That is a completely false image that has long-term consequences for every society, and most of all for young people. And when a tragedy occurs, it is too late. Let's change what we can now...