In a country of peasants, on the hilly Balkans, a land desperately yearning for freedom, one man\u2014an actor who considers himself a peasant\u2014found himself in the crosshairs of a mass of fighters for that very freedom. This happened simply because he freely expressed his view, or perhaps the lack thereof, his doubt, his internal struggle… whatever it may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am, of course, talking about Nenad Jezdi\u0107<\/strong> and the infamous scene from the theatre play “\u0160opalovi\u0107 Travelling Theatre,” in which 17 of his colleagues raise their hands in support of the students at the end of the show, while Jezdi\u0107 alone, for reasons known only to him, bows to the audience empty-handed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since I see the turmoil is not calming down, here are a few words from me…<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first impression…<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am sickened by the multitude of various online influencers<\/strong>, operating under pseudonyms and nicknames, who quickly interpreted this non-gesture of a man with a name and surname as a gesture and a reliable sign that Jezda supports the Vu\u010di\u0107 regime<\/strong>, even though he never publicly did so, nor was he on that famous list of 2,000 public figures, full of surprises, who once stood with the SNS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there were those, again without names and surnames, who “reliably” knew that Jezdi\u0107 received massive loans from the regime for his orchards and distilleries, and following the same logic, it is no wonder that his best man is \u017deljko Joksimovi\u0107<\/strong>, to whom the same clique practically gave Tanjug and a building in the centre of Belgrade. They also pointed out how he failed to react to the beating of students in his hometown of Valjevo, how he took photos with Mi\u0161a Vaci\u0107, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As if none of us has ever taken a picture with some idiot, and God knows, become a best man with similar ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I recently read something about the Cuban revolution, not Castro\u2019s communist one, but the one before it, and while following this witch hunt, the words of the legendary Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed<\/strong>, the man most responsible for Cuba\u2019s liberation from Spanish colonizers, came to my mind. That gentleman, otherwise a lanky, thin man with a moustache, stood before a furious crowd bent on lynching the remaining Spaniards who hadn’t managed to flee the island, and in a historic speech, he said, among other things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe first duty of a man in a democratic society is to think with his own head, and the first obligation of a democratic society is to ensure that he does not suffer for it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n And all those who would like to turn Serbia into a democratic country\u2014which we, unfortunately, fail to achieve even 25 years after the “democratic changes”\u2014must know that this democracy, after Vu\u010di\u0107, will soon turn into a new dictatorship if they are unable to accept those who think differently, or simply dignifiedly keep their opinion to themselves, as in Jezdi\u0107’s case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I understand that people are furious, embittered, and desperate in the face of injustice that lasts too long, that they have reached their breaking point, and that someone’s silence in this situation sounds like treason, and non-alignment like a crime. But it\u2019s not all so black and white, my dears, even though it’s easier for us to think it is, because then we can more carelessly spit and bash others…<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n