Prologue

HOW TO SEE THE OBVIOUS
Parasols in the Rain

It has been half a century since the great French writer Henry de Montherlant (1895–1972) openly accused a country that it was ”the only one in the history of the world to manage to reduce intelligence, morality and quality of man on almost entire surface of the planet”, which constitutes a ”horrible crime against humanity”. Guess which country it was.
It has been a century since the great German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) wrote for another country that ”it was the only one in the world that borders with God”. Check for which one.
Nothing has really changed until today. It is only sharper, more painful. But people and peoples have inviolable right to not see the obvious, if they don’t want to. ”Freedom of will gives us terrifying power to choose hell.”
This fall, Serbia again paid several historical debts toward itself and toward others, ancestors and offspring, friends and enemies: we bring reports on this, so they remain recorded, for ongoing chronicles. Of course, just like in the past eight years, we did not allow to be swallowed by the demon of politics. In Zvižd, we whistled through legends and collected images from the golden river. In Podgorina, we made rakia and jam. At the regatta from Banjaluka to Belgrade we stopped by Sremska Mitrovica. In Vrnjačka Banja we walked down the little known roads of Dobrica Ćosić. We studied how the ”Trag” from Banjaluka hounds and whose computer is occupied by stories. At the ”Kult Fest” we witnessed another victory of creative youth over the instrumentalized culture. We enjoyed in the encounter of today’s children with the legacy of Mihailo Pupin. We went to the Celts in time and Azerbaijan in space. We discovered the Silicon Valley at Zvezdara Hill.
And a lot more.
You will quickly realize why you thought we have been gone for two months.