SLAVKA ADŽOVIĆ, WOMAN, HERDSMAN, ROMA: A battle with wolves and human prejudices and mischief - Monitor

2022-09-23 18:57:23 By : Mr. Adam Lin

She greeted us with silence and an angry look.Or was it the fear in her eyes.Slavka Adzović.Woman, livestock farmer, Roma.She is well known to the public for the fact that she has been fighting prejudices, human vices, but also nature for years.Wolves slaughtered her sheep, people killed a cow and set fire to the house where she lived, beat her father and deaf-mute brother... Only when we introduced ourselves did she welcome us, hurried to bring coffee and pour juice.With the comment: "You have to use yourself".She lives in fear, Slavka does not hide it.In fear that someone will kill her."But I have something to fight for and move forward."At the bottom of the windmill on Krnovo, about forty kilometers from Nikšić, Slavka Adžović raises her poultry from spring until the first snow.She is the only Roma woman in Montenegro who is engaged in animal husbandry.It's on state land.A couple of stables are not enough to accommodate cattle, and the building, built of concrete blocks, is too small for her sister to spend the night.A wood-burning stove, blankets thrown over, an improvised bed on wooden beams, and a couple of old coffee tables.Containers and canisters filled with water are everywhere. The first source of water is more than three kilometers away.Her brother, she says, brings her water by car when he visits her.Until the first minuses, Slavka lives here with her younger sister and brother from her uncle.To a young man with special needs.Today, the sister is in the fields with the sheep, and Slavka will make sure that she cooks something to eat, does everything that needs to be done in the garden and around the house.Bake bread, potatoes or pie.But also weed and dig around potatoes, cabbage, onions...Days start at four in the morning.With 170 sheep and 15 cattle, there is little time for rest.And when fatigue overcomes, Slavka spends the night in the back seat of the car, to be closer to the pen with the sheep.For years, there was a cattle market at this place, he explains to us."People used to raise livestock here and resell it here to buyers".With the help of her father, Slavka put the brick room that existed here for the needs of that store and where the cattle were weighed, under the roof, and made the entrance door."I had somewhere in the world to hide."To hide his head from the rain and thunder, which are thunderous here.It also had a stable, twenty cattle could fit, and there was space for both calves and heifers.At the beginning of May, Slavka's summer home was set on fire.It was never found out who was to blame."If they want to find the culprit, so be it."For justice to come to light", repeats Slavka Adžović.They welcomed her here in Krnovo with a protest, she says."Žižići, Lalatovići, Stanišići, Čanovići from Bršno... Year after year they harm me.And I endure everything.My best cow was killed.An autopsy found a hole in the forehead.And she should have calved.A sin.The police came to meet me, but again they did not find the culprit".She also turned to Roma organizations for help."Both our people and your people," as she calls them."Your people helped me much more than my Roma people," he says bitterly."Slavka can't do it alone.Why doesn't someone help Slavka."It was hard for me that none of my Roma people asked how I was and what was happening to me.To ask me how I am, and who would help me.Then again, I can't walk around town with my arms outstretched.If only a dozen Roma would get together and say what is happening to this Roma woman, I think it would be easier for me.Well, I can be hunchbacked and whatever, but I don't touch anyone.To say - 'let's rebel for her, tomorrow she will rebel for us'.Help me when I cry, and when I laugh I can do it myself".Thanks to the action of Vijesti journalist Svjetlana Mandić and Darko Saveljić, owner of the donkey farm, a giro account was opened and humane people responded to help Slavko with monetary contributions.With that money, along with the loan she got from the bank, she managed to build stables in Nikšić.They will house the cows there during the winter, but there is still no room for the sheep.As well as money for 300 loads of hay, how much for the winter months should be procured for the cattle.He will fight and will not give up, he insistently repeats.He will fight and somehow manage for money.Persistent and resourceful as ever.She also begged the Municipality of Nikšić for help.They rejected her."They tell me, the neighbors complain about you.Apparently my cattle are trampling on their fields.So let them look, not a single crop has been trampled.Well, then they also claim that I refused to have water introduced to me.How could I refuse that when I have to walk for kilometers to get water... And this electricity that I use, which my father wired from the transmission line, I pay them regularly".Slavka Adžović did not go to school."I barely know how to write my first and last name," he says."I will regret that for the rest of my life."Life might have been easier for her if she had been educated, but even as a child she loved to work and earn.To live better than her parents lived".I knew that only work could enable me to have a better life," she says.The father worked at the Ironworks, making cauldrons, and Slavka, as a three-year-old girl, went around the village with her mother and sold.She also helped in the garden.But she loved cattle the most.The older sister led in front of the Municipality to welcome the wedding guests and collect the coins thrown away.The sister was repeating how much she got from which wedding party, and Slavka just bowed her head."I didn't want to beg, and it hurt me to be called names.The nurse knew how to say this one gave me this much money, the other one that much.I was just silent and ashamed".Even then she made up her mind.She won't be hungry or barefoot, but she won't live like most of her compatriots either.Did she know the price she would have to pay?As a child she did not play.There was too little time for that.She had to go with her mother to the villages.And there, she saw people tending cattle."I wanted to look at that cattle all day."She was seven years old when she asked her parents to leave the three sheep they had bought with the intention of slaughtering to her.They will wake up, she convinced her parents, and they convinced her that the sheep were barren.However, they slaughtered one, and left the other two for Slavka.From one lamb, which was then lambed, what she calls this "bubble of sheep" was born.It took 30 years.For three decades, Slavka and the people around her got used to seeing her with the cattle."Because the Roma in Montenegro have never kept cattle," he says.She studied hard and a lot.And how to shear sheep, and how to lamb and how to clean the udder, how to milk... Slavka also bought electric milking machines and organized the sale of milk.She also found regular buyers for lambs and calves, but she still "can't make ends meet"."Even though people think Slavka got rich, I'm just fighting for my crust of bread.I work to survive and not be hungry.If I were rich, I would have a house and a car, and not like this, when I have to walk 30 kilometers to the city."She didn't get married.She was not interested in boys."There wasn't a guy that I liked, that I wanted to talk to or that he was courting me.He was not born".They were "addressing" her, but she wasn't "dating".She is aware, she says, that the times have come when children could change her, help her, but it is too late for her to think about it now."I loved animals more than boys," she says with a smile.She has never been to the sea either.How to leave the cattle.She chose the path less traveled.A journey without rest, celebrations, luxury... "Life goes on, so what can God give me?"I fight like other people.I don't owe anyone, I don't touch anyone, and may God reward everyone as they deserve".MILOVAN SEKULIĆ, SECRETARY OF ANTI-FASCIST ASSOCIATION OF UBNOR TIVAT: Civil society and anti-fascism have no alternativeMILETA BOŽOVIĆ, ENGINEER, FIRST MARATHON RUNNER IN MONTENEGRO: A small effort for a big heartTHE STATE'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: The last concern on the mindDEJAN PETROVIĆ, DIRECTOR: Beings from the margins share a similar fateTRANSLATION POLICIES, RADA IVEKOVIĆ (IX): Hindustan, my native landThe Association of NOR Fighters and Anti-Fascists of Tivat Municipality is a voluntary, patriotic, non-partisan organization, registered as a non-governmental organization.The membership, firmly convinced that they will not forget, but also that they must not be forgotten: Those, close to one million and seven hundred thousand Yugoslav victims who fell from 1941 to 1945.Neither famous offensives, nor brave individuals.Like those who reported to the Supreme Staff and Tito in 1943: "As long as you hear the shots of our rifles at Ljuba's grave, the Germans will not pass...".The bravery and heroism of Milan Spasić and Sergej Masera, the only royal officers who were posthumously awarded the Order of People's Heroes of the SFRY by Josip Broz Tito.The lieutenants of the battleship, who, sacrificing their lives, mined and sank the destroyer Zagreb and prevented it from falling into the hands of the enemy.That they won't forget the 97 killed Tivat partisans and 32 civilian victims of fascist terror.Among them, twelve-year-old Saveta Jokić and her seventeen-year-old brother Uroš, children killed by a land mine.To all the many heroes that this organization thinks about: "There is nothing more sublime than dying for others, and nothing sadder than when others forget about those who died for them, with a salute that is slowly forgotten, death to fascism, freedom to the people" ( Dragiša Ćosović, former president of UBNOR Tivat.).But also to mark important historical events of Montenegro: the 13th of July Uprising, Statehood Day, but also the day when Montenegro gained independence at the Berlin Congress...The association of NOR fighters and anti-fascists of the Municipality of Tivat has over 200 members, as well as branches in almost all cities of Montenegro, we learned in an interview with Monitor from Milovan Sekulić, the secretary of UBNOR Tivat.In Kotor, Budva, Cetinje, Nikšić, Berane, Bijelo Polje, Danilovgrad, Podgorica.All of them together are part of SUBNOR of Montenegro.Today, the youngest member of UBNOR is only fifteen, and the oldest is 92 years old.But Sekulić proudly reminds us that Admiral Branko Mamula, who passed away a year ago, former Chief of General Staff of the JNA, Federal Secretary for National Defense and Admiral of the Fleet, was also a member of Tivat's UBNOR.Until he was 101 years old."There are few living members of the NOB throughout Montenegro, and it is possible that over time we will change our name, so instead of the Association of Fighters..., we will be called the Association of Anti-Fascists, but the Municipal Board of the association will make a decision on that.Of course, we will continue to inherit the achievements and values ​​of the NOB and the socialist revolution.We know that fascism has been defeated, but not destroyed.Even today, it occurs in various forms here, too," claims Sekulić.The condition for admission to UBNORA is exclusively anti-fascist commitment."It's nice to recognize that our members are from partisan families, and most of them are, but that's not a prerequisite for membership," says the secretary of this association, adding that his parents' partisan past also recommended him.The father was taken from the Sarajevo barracks as a prisoner of war to Gernsheim, the "German death camp" and remained there for four years.Uncle died in the partisans at the age of seventeen.And, at the post-war labor action, on the railway between Podgorica and Nikšić, his parents' acquaintance began.During his working life, Milovan Sekulić performed the functions of president and secretary of the Club of Yugoslavs in Germany, and was one of the editors of the Bratstvo jedinstvo newsletter, which was printed in the Serbian-Croatian language.At the time of the breakup of Yugoslavia, he was elected president of the Union of Communists - Movement for Yugoslavia for the Municipality of Tivat.Lidija KOJAŠEVIĆ SOLDO Read more in the printed edition of the Monitor from Friday, September 23 or at www.novinarnica.netThere are few people from Nikšić who do not know the engineer Mileta Božović.A legend of Nikšić and Montenegrin athletics.There are even fewer who don't like him.A man who ran on roads and off-roads and pushed the threshold of human endurance.In a T-shirt and shorts, in the snow and at temperatures below 30 degrees Celsius, he fought with himself and defeated himself.He didn't ask for praise or recognition.But it was pleasant when he was greeted en masse and enthusiastically at the finish lines of his numerous kilometer marathons.Mileta celebrated every celebration and every jubilee with a run. He ran and thus celebrated the great dates of the Montenegrin past.Someone noticed that, even if he had a systematic biographer, he would not have managed to record all the paths that Božović ran.In the seventies of the last century in America, Germany, England they talked about Mileta Božović as the greatest runner of all time at 100 km.Journalists calculated: "Mileta ran around the world five times".Today, in her ninth decade of life, Mileta's step is slower and her voice quieter.He, who was a favorite topic of journalists, no longer wants to speak for newspapers.Nor does he watch the numerous television shows made about him.He looks at photos, taken once upon a time, with friends and colleagues.So it seems to him, he says, as if he is talking to them.It's Saturday morning.Even today, Mileta and his long-time friends Dr. Radovan Raco Mijanović, alpinist sports doctor, and Maksim Vujacic, publicist, are at the coffee shop.Mijanović remembers Mileta running through Nikšić, while the children try to follow him."I was conquering mountain tops, proving something to myself.This is exactly what I recognized in Mileta.We proved ourselves, setting and defining goals".Mijanović realized that in Mileta he found something that many did not have.He was competing with himself.The phenomenon of Mileta's heart of 1,850 cubic centimeters was also interesting to the doctor's curiosity.Two and a half times larger than normal."The amount of blood that Mileta's heart expels in one cyst, contraction, is impressive," explains Dr. Mijanović.It was also unusual that Mileta, with a weight of 95 kilograms and a foot number 48, successfully ran a marathon.Marathoners mostly look almost ascetic."Mileta's minimum heart rate was 35 beats per minute, and after running 100 kilometers, it rose to 80, which is usually the heart rate of a person during some light work," explains Dr. Mijanović.Mijanović accompanied the marathon runner when he was busy with other duties.By bike, by car.He also followed him back in 1974 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Njegoš's birthday and the unveiling of the mausoleum on Lovćen.Božović then ran from Nikšić, through Njeguš, Ivan's Koritas to Cetinje, a 130-kilometer long course.The one that, due to the large differences in height, is qualified as one of the most demanding in Europe.The trail starts at 640 meters above sea level in Nikšić, climbs 1,200 meters in Bijeli Poljane, descends again to Čevo at 600 m, and then makes a big climb to Lovćen – 1,657 meters, to end in Cetinje at 670 meters above sea level.Božović will run this track ten more times, in the desire to cover Njegoš's life's path with the race.Dr. Mijanović was accompanied by sports journalist and Mileta's friend Ljubo Tomić.That time, in Čevo, the escort "knocked" in the car.Miletus, who ran past them, thought he woke them up by knocking on the window.They were only woken up by a man who shouted: "Yours has already arrived in Cetinje." "You were calling for Mileta..." Mijanović remembers, while Mileta smiles listening to her friend's story."The marathon was a small effort for my pot-sized heart.That's why I was able to run the supermarathon and 100- to 200-kilometer courses," says Mileta Božović.Dr. Mijanović accompanied Božović to races abroad.They are still convinced today that Mileta's eighth place in the 100-kilometer race near the Swiss city of Bila was the result of a wrongly turned star that was pointing the way.About thirty kilometers before the finish line, he was second, but running on the wrong track, he lost five kilometers. He returned to the track, overtook many, but tore a muscle in his leg.He finished the race with a limp.He ran the path from Vidrovan to Virpazar, which is 100 kilometers long, in seven hours and 29 minutes.It was the second time in the world, four minutes slower than the world record."Who knows how many records Mileta achieved.Even a helicopter, not a judge, could follow him on the empty roads where he was running" - remarks Vujacic, who followed Mileta as a sports journalist.Friends also remember when, in the night of 1969, unaccompanied and with only a flashlight in his hands, Mileta started running from Tjentište towards Virpazar, about 200 kilometers.About ten kilometers from the start, he came face to face with a bear."The bear got up on its hind legs," says Mileta, "ready to jump."He was, he says, getting ready to "get strong" with the animal.Whether it was the fact that he tapped his thigh with his hand, or the light of the flashlight that he turned towards the bear, only Mileta managed to turn around and slowly return to the place from where he started the race.The next morning he returned to the place where he met the bear and continued running towards Virpazar.Mileta Božović started playing athletics as a fifteen-year-old, back in 1952. First at AK Metalac in Kraljevo.Returning to Nikšić with a group of enthusiasts, he founded the Čelik Athletics Club and remained a member until the end of his sports career.The first marathon was run in Kumrovac, followed by numerous marathons and super marathons.From the house of Sava Kovačević from Nud, through Grahov, Nikšić, Plužine, Mratinje, Vučevo, Dragoš saddle to Tjentište.A total of 200 kilometers.In honor of the Uprising Day, he ran the Tjentište, Gacko, Nikšić, Pogorica, Virpazar course, also 200 kilometers long.On the occasion of the opening of the monument at Tjentište, he ran from Tito's cave in Žabljak, through Mratinje, Vučevo, Dragoš sedla... Again, 200 kilometers.He ran several marathons abroad.He was preparing to run from Belgrade to Nikšić, but he did not find a sponsor for this operation.It is impossible to count all of Mileta's races.Just like the numerous recognitions, medals and cups he was awarded with.The silver plaque of the Athletic Association of Yugoslavia, the gold plaque of the Athletic Association of Montenegro, the gold plaque of the Čelik workers' sports association, are just a few of them.During his lifetime, the Most Enduring Montenegrin Athlete Božović trophy was established.Mileta is the only athlete from Montenegro who carried the Olympic torch, on the eve of the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics.There are many memories.The strength and endurance he had, as well as his willingness to help whenever needed, is the subject of numerous anecdotes that are still recounted today.The Mountain Rescue Service often called him for help, and he was happy to respond.He carried a radio station weighing 40 kilos to Šavnik in a blizzard.He once carried a midwife who walked in high heels through the snow to Krnovo to help give birth.Mileta's humanitarian work was recognized and awarded with the Golden Sign of the Red Cross.Participation in labor actions, strike badges, and work in the Boris Kidrič Ironworks in Nikšić, the Order of Labor with a Golden Wreath.Mechanical engineer Mileta Božović also ran for the post of manager of the construction workshop.From the house in Miločani to Željezara - about thirty kilometers a day.Despite all his successes in athletics, he describes working at the Željezara as the most important part of his life."That's how I was brought up," he says.That upbringing was also the reason for him to reject the offers that came to him from European athletics clubs.There were a lot of single and old people in the family who needed his help.And Mileta helped selflessly.He said goodbye to racing tracks in the late seventies.At the Mali Stadium in Nikšić, where he ran from Brezna, 2,000 people gathered to greet the legend of Montenegrin athletics.A marathon runner with whom this sport will start in Montenegro.What remained were the memories, the broken sneakers during the race, and numerous anecdotes.It is easy to notice that he is not only a great expert, but also an ordinary, spontaneous and witty man.To the statement that he was born in Tivat in 1956, Dr. Ivica Hausmeister jokingly replies: "That's what they told me."He completed his medical studies in Niš.After two years of working as a general practitioner, he continued his specialization in neuropsychiatry in Belgrade.He returns to Boka and works at the Psychiatric Hospital in Dobrota for a couple of years.When things in the country "went downhill", in the early nineties, Doctor Hausmeister moved to England with his family.Diplomas from non-EU countries are not recognized by England.Neuropsychiatrist Hausmeister found himself back in the classroom.Everything he learned during his five years of medical studies, he passed in England.He nostrified the diploma for American conditions, and then for working conditions in England.He successfully passed the professional part of medicine, but passing the English language test, which he did not speak before coming to the Island, proved to be a bigger obstacle.He works as a porter and dishwasher... Today, he remembers that era with a smile."I knew that I would not do these jobs for the rest of my life and I did them with pleasure.I went home relieved."At the clinic in London, Hausmeister returns to his career.He starts specializing in English conditions, attending lectures at Cambridge.As early as '99, he moved to a new workplace, in Norwich in the southeast of England.There he continues his psychiatric practice within the National Health Service of England, but also in private hospitals.The mental health of 150,000 Englishmen is Dr. Hausmeister's responsibility.Here he will work as a psychiatrist for one of the Trusts, an organization that unites about twenty hospitals from several cities and employs about 1,000 psychiatrists.Until retirement, in August of this year.At the same time, he is in contact with the medical faculty from East Anglia, where he occasionally teaches medical students.Doctor Hausmeister is happy to talk about the organization of the health system in England."When I first started working, there were health facilities where psychiatric patients were admitted for inpatient treatment.Lighter cases were treated on an outpatient basis.This practice has been replaced by the Home treatment team, that is, the practice of home treatment.Experience shows that patients treated at home progress much faster in treatment.Of course, it is only applied to patients who are not a danger to themselves or the environment" - explains the experienced psychiatrist Hausmeister".In order to facilitate the implementation of this method of treatment, special emergency home care was formed in English society.A team of experts examines the patient and determines whether home treatment is advisable, or whether the patient must be hospitalized."There has been a lot of progress in psychiatry, but there are still many things that are not known.It's hard to understand what's going on in another person's head.A rough idea of ​​a psychotic state of a person is when he experiences hallucinations, visuals or hears voices when they don't exist, which are outside his head.But a person can also hear voices in his head.We call them pseudo-hallucinations and they do not mean that a person has experienced a psychotic process.It is only when a person disintegrates and hears voices that he thinks are coming from the outside world that we speak of a psychotic process.In the psychotic process, the clarity between what I am and what I am not is lost.I perceive my own thought as something coming from the outside world.Or, while I'm moving my hand, I think it's being moved by some other force. It's very important to distinguish that in psychiatry" - explains our interlocutor.The high responsibility imposed on all segments of Western society, in the opinion of our interlocutor, also affects the mental state of citizens.Mistakes are not forgiven, which inevitably creates a kind of tension and anxiety."I have never worked under such pressure and tension while I was in our country," says Hausmeister.English society takes care of those who need this help, such as patients suffering from schizophrenia, to facilitate their daily functioning.We learn from Doctor Hausmeister that there are so-calledcare coordinators, nurses or social workers, who become guardian angels, as long as the patient is under a legal obligation to be cared for in such a way.They visit the patient and make sure to organize all the services that the patient needs.Like meeting with a psychiatrist, or participating in occupational therapy...Writing about Dr. Ivica Hausmeister means, in addition to a brilliant career as a psychiatrist, to present a man who perceives himself "as someone with a great degree of flexibility in understanding reality at all levels and in all spheres."Man lives short, yet long enough that he does not have to limit himself to one sphere of interest, Hausmeister is convinced.So are the questions answered by astrophysics, the subject of his interest.If he were born again, he would study astrophysics, rather than medicine, the doctor admits.Great interest in this area was satisfied by professional literature.Once, he remembers, he told his daughter that he would like to know everything about the creation of the universe.He wished there was a book that would bring all this knowledge together in one place... She simply told him: "Why wouldn't you, dad, write such a book."Thus, a passionate reader of professional literature, in the field of astrophysics, became a writer.Hausmeister wrote a book about the history of the universe, but in such a way as to bring certain concepts of astronomy and physics closer to those who know little about cosmological laws.The book Journey through Time was published in the Montenegrin language, in cooperation with the Institute for International Press from Nikšić, but also in English.It quickly found its way to readers."It is not a book that could be a textbook in an astrophysics college," says its author, "but the approach to these questions is authentic."And then from outer space, back to psychiatry.Meeting with Jung – another important manuscript of the psychiatrist Hausmeister.The book, which deals with the phenomenon of the human psyche, was inspired by a lecture prepared for colleagues within the Health Organization where Hausmeister worked.The lecture was canceled due to the lock down during the corona virus epidemic, but the interest in the work and thinking of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung remained."Jung is a brilliant mind that represents a bridge between Western and Eastern philosophy.It seems to me that I will not be wrong if I describe it as a bridge between the objective and the subjective, the physical and the mental, the materialistic and the idealistic, the scientific and the spiritual, between the left and the right hemisphere of the brain," Hausmeister claims.During his specialist training, Hausmeister was more inclined to the ideas of Sigmund Freud.Psychoanalysis offered an understanding of the human psyche, and Freud's ideas were revolutionary.Today, Hausmeister thinks that the preference for Freud's, in relation to Jung's ideas, was caused by a lack of time or intellectual capacity."The essence of Jung's thought is that the basic driving force that pushes us through life is maturing and reaching maximum psychological maturity."The story of Dr. Huismeister, the great expert, the curious erudite of the bright-eyed boy, would not be complete without his short confession: "I have lived in Engelska for thirty years."I thought I experienced a lot of things that we don't have here.I saw the best performances and attended plays in London theatres.And then I came to Montenegro and listened to a group from Podgorica that played jazz.I can only describe the degree of their virtuosity and the ambiance they created like this - I wanted to cry because of the beauty".Stefani between identity and roleWITH FLATTERING GRADES FOR FINE SAND: The best beach in Europe in the clutches of investorsSHERBO RASTODER, ACADEMIC, HISTORIAN: Every election is a chanceDERBY IN OUR SMALL ALLEY: Tandem for own goalsNEW/OLD AFFAIRS: PLANTAŽE, FIRST MILLION, BEMAX, SPC, SKY... : Now the prosecution is wonderingECONOMICS THE MAID OF POLITICS: THE CASE OF THE IRON FACTORY: Beyond the law, on the edge of reasonIMAGINARY BILLION FROM TOURISM: Unattainable dream of all ministersOMER ŠARKIĆ, CIVIL ACTIVIST: The solution is a broad concentration governmentCLAN WAR AFTER THE MURDER OF JOVAN VUKOTIĆ: Death faster than the law