#southwestern serbia

[gorskivijenac]

Streets of Novi Pazar, Serbia, 1934. Karl Konig, ONB

[sarasakysunmoon]

Deliblato Sands is a large sand area covering around 300 km² of ground in Vojvodina province, Serbia. It is located in southern Banat, situated between the river Danube and the southwestern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains. 

The Deliblato Sands is the largest sandy terrain in Europe, once part of a vast prehistoric desert, having originated from the withdrawal of the Pannonian Sea. They are home to many endemic species of plants and animals which are rare or endangered in Europe and globally. Due to its forest and surroundings, it was declared a special nature reserve. On a national level, it represents a natural asset of special importance falling under protection category I.

And my favourite place to walk. 💚

[profesors]

◾Church of St. John the Baptist on Mokra Gora, Southwestern Serbia 🇷🇸

[dwellordream]

“At the end of the 19th century, when slightly more than half of all working people were still engaged in agriculture and the nation’s population was still concentrated mostly in the Eastern states, the statistically and geographically average American woman would have been a 38-to-40-year-old white farmer’s wife with four or five children, living in southwestern Ohio. Like 98 percent of married white women in 1890, this “average” American woman did not work for pay outside her home. In addition to housekeeping, cooking, and child care, though, she probably performed a great deal of farm labor and may have sold eggs and butter to make a little cash.

She may also have been involved in local church work, or a temperance (anti-alcohol) group, or a ladies’ auxiliary of the county Grange, an organization that encouraged farmer cooperatives and agitated for farmers’ political rights. Our typical mid-continent woman was probably not an immigrant, but she might well have been the offspring of German or Scandinavian immigrants, the groups that had dominated the settlement of the Midwest after the Civil War. Her own daughter, coming of age in the 1890s and educated in a local township school, might have more opportunities than her mother. Unless she married a farmer, or her parents needed her labor at home, she could move to Chicago or some other large city and take up work in a factory, shop, or office.

This picture of the statistically average American woman and her daughter does not tell the whole story. In fact, the typical, if not the average, white American woman in 1890 was just as likely to be a young working-class woman--a Russian-Jewish or Italian garment worker in New York City, a Polish meat packer in Chicago, or an Irish domestic servant in Boston--as she was to be a farmer’s wife in Ohio or Nebraska, because immigration was changing the population so rapidly in 1890. The waves of British, Irish, and German immigration had ended in the 1880s. Now the immigrants, who arrived each year in the hundreds of thousands, came mostly from eastern and southern Europe--Russia, Poland, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, and Italy.

…The picture of women’s lives in the South at the turn of the century differed in several significant ways from that of their Northern counterparts. Southern society had been all but destroyed in the Civil War, along with Southern cities and much of the Southern landscape. Recovery had been slow and incomplete, and the South did not share the industrial prosperity of the North. Society was sharply divided along racial lines, and white racism had become steadily worse after Reconstruction ended in the late 1870s. Confined largely to jobs in agriculture, African Americans worked as laborers on vast cotton or tobacco plantations, or as sharecroppers, paying for the fields that they leased from white landowners with a share of their crops. Few black families owned farms of their own.

Although many black women dreamed of a life in which they could devote full time to family cares and household responsibilities, most had to work full days for white landowners or toil in the fields alongside their husbands in order to maintain even a minimum family income. The few jobs available to black women outside agriculture were in domestic service--working for white families--or in laundries, or in segregated mills and cigarette factories. Black families made enormous sacrifices to keep their daughters in school, with the expectation that they might become teachers or small-business owners. African-American parents could hope that the next generation of black women might escape sharecropping or working in white men’s houses, where they were subject to insult and frequently in danger of sexual assault.

…Western coastal states were especially attractive to Asian immigrants, though the influx of Chinese laborers had slowed to a trickle after the Chinese Exclusion Act became law in 1882. Filipino immigration increased significantly after the Spanish-American War in 1898, and by the end of the 19th century, Japanese immigrants had established substantial communities in California. Although the Chinese and Filipino immigration was at first mostly male, Japanese immigration was more evenly balanced between men and women.

The Asian groups tended to remain isolated from the larger, white society, which regarded their different physical characteristics, as well as their languages and customs, with deep suspicion and contempt. Like women in other immigrant cultures, Asian women remained more isolated and less assimilated than men, remaining homebound or working in restaurants, laundries, or small industries run exclusively by members of their community. Many new brides went straight from the boat to the farms of central California, where they picked fruits and vegetables alongside their husbands by day and cooked meals and cared for their children and living quarters the rest of the time.”

- Karen Manners Smith, “Woman’s World in 1890.” in New Paths to Power: American Women, 1890-1920

[iseo58]

Serbian girl dressed in serbian traditional clothes from Ibarski Kolašin, Southwestern Serbia

[moraenana]

Old Photos of Novi Pazar, southwestern Serbia

[mariacallous]

Kosovo’s Special Prosecution announced on Friday that it has filed an indictment against 53 suspects for ordering and participating in the Meja village massacre of April 1999, which left 377 civilian Albanians dead.

In the announcement, the Prosecution did not disclose the identity of the suspects of the file which is the biggest since the end of Kosovo war in June 1999.

“53 are accused for this crime, including 16 who were holding important military and police positions in Serbia,” the press release said.

“Besides killings, the operation included also deportation of thousands of civilians from that region, the burning of their houses and forcibly sending them to Albania. These deportations were done through mistreatments and the confiscation of the personal documents of those who were deported,” it added.

Serbian forces attacked Meja and the nearby village of Korenica in the southwestern Kosovo municipality of Gjakove/Dakovica a month after the start of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, which was aimed at ending President Slobodan Milosevic’s military campaign in Kosovo.

As NATO’s air strikes intensified, so did Serbian army and police operations, and the killings and expulsions of Kosovo Albanians.

According to verdicts handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in cases against Serbian military and police officials, the attacks on the two villages were part of a military operation called “Reka”, in which the Yugoslav Army, Serbian police and paramilitary units killed at least 377 civilians, of whom 36 were under 18 years old. Thousands were expelled to neighbouring Albania, and 13 people are still listed as missing.

The remains of many massacre victims were found 15 years later in mass graves at a police training centre in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica.

Earlier on Friday, Prosecutor Drita Hajdari told media that the indictment is divided in three parts.

“The first part of the indictment contains the names of five persons suspected to have planned the massacre. The second part contains names of 11 persons who implemented the plan in cooperation with the first group. The third group contains 37 persons suspected as executors and, in a way, contributors to the massacre,” Hajdari said.

She added that all persons included in the indictment are at large and that “an international arrest warrant” against them has been filed by a Pristina court.

In 2021, in the absence of legal cooperation with Serbia, Kosovo changed its legislation to make it easier to try war crime suspects in their absence.

[michaelcerasofficial]

Dreamscape from Mount Jadovnik in southwestern Serbia

[aro-langblr]

Insight into Ukrainian (/juːˈkreɪnɪən/)

[Image description: A photo of a traditional Ukrainian petrykivka painting resembling red-orange flowers. /End ID]

What is the language called in English and the language itself? – The language is called Ukrainian in English and Українська мова [ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔʋɐ] in the language itself. – There are many common dialects of Ukrainian that are subdivided into 4 dialect categories: Polissian/Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern, and Rusyn**. Middle Dnieprian of the Southeastern group is the basis for standard Ukrainian. ** Rusyn is governmentally considered a Ukrainian dialect, but linguistically, it is still under debate. 

Where is the language spoken? – It is an official language of Ukraine and Transnistria, and it is an official minority language of Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia.

How many people speak the language? – There are between 40 and 45 million Ukrainian speakers.

Which language family does it belong to? What are some of its relative languages? – Ukrainian is classified as Indo-European > Balto-Slavic > Slavic > East Slavic > Ukrainian. If Rusyn is considered its own language rather than a dialect**, it is Ukrainian’s closest relative language. Otherwise, Belarussian is Ukrainian’s closest relative. ** Ukraine recognizes the Rusyn language as a dialect of Ukrainian, but most Rusyns state that they are an independent people with their own language. Also, some linguistic scholars claim the Rusyn language is a dialect of Russian. It's validity as a language is highly debated.

What writing system does the language use? – Ukrainian uses the Cyrillic script. – Sample text courtesy of Omniglot: Всі люди народжуються вільними і рівними у своїй гідності та правах. Вони наділені розумом і совістю і повинні діяти у відношенні один до одного в дусі братерства.

What kind of grammatical features does the language have? – Ukrainian has a relatively free word order, but it tends towards SVO structure. It is a fusional language with 2 numbers, 3 persons, and 3 genders. It has 7 cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative), 4 tenses (present, past, pluperfect, and future), 3 moods (indicative, imperative, and conditional), and 2 voices (active and passive). It has 4 noun declension types and 2 verb classes. It also has the formal “you” form, and it is a pro-drop language, meaning certain sentences can lack subjects. 

What does the language sound like?

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What do you personally find interesting about the language? – Seeing another language with endless declension charts made me feel sympathy for Ukrainian learners (from your fellow Lithuanian learner). But I also enjoyed researching today because of a Ukrainian person I recently befriended. I've learned a lot from her, and researching her native language warmed my heart! On a less personal note, I also learned about periphrasis from this endeavor ^_^ 

[beardedmrbean]

Helsingin Sanomat follows up on a story about the Immigration Service Migri's mishandling of a Mongolian nurse's residence permit application.

HS now reports that Finland will pay damages amounting to 5,300 euros to Anudari Boldbaatar, whom the paper says nearly suffered a miscarriage of justice.

Migri had rejected her residence permit application on incorrect grounds, and ruled that she should be deported.

This month the State Treasury handed down a decision that severely criticised Migri's handling of the case.

It noted that ambiguities regarding Boldbaatar's bank statement entries — that led Migri to suspect forgery — could have been cleared up simply by discussing the matter with Boldbaatar, the State Treasury said.

In its decision, the State Treasury moreover emphasised the importance of public authorities acting impeccably when it comes to the rights of people impacted by their actions.

Unmotivated Finns

Finns are some of the least motivated workers in western Europe, reports Kauppalehti, citing a poll by HR firm SD Worx.

The survey found that 59.1 percent of Finns feel motivated in their jobs. This is lower than the European average of 65.2 percent.

Work motivation was the lowest in Serbia. On the other hand, the most motivated employees are in the Netherlands, Romania and Austria.

The 18-country survey polled more than 18,000 employees.

20cm snow, then 20C

Many parts of Finland woke to a snowy surprise on Tuesday morning, and the return of the white stuff caused slippery roads in most of the country and transport disruption in the bigger cities.

Iltalehti, however, runs two very different weather stories. One of its articles explains how Tuesday's flurries will dump 5-15 centimetres of snow in southern and southwestern parts of the country. Meanwhile, the area stretching from southern Ostrobothnia to central areas could be blanketed in up to 20 centimeters of fluff.

At the same time, the paper reports that European mid-range forecasts indicate a total weather turnaround with temperatures reaching up to 20 degrees Celsius early next week. This would be just in time for May Day celebrations, when Finland marks the traditional start of the sunnier season.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.10 (before 1930)

654 – Pope Eugene I elected to succeed Martinus I. 955 – Battle of Lechfeld: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor defeats the Magyars, ending 50 years of Magyar invasion of the West. 991 – Battle of Maldon: The English, led by Byrhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex, are defeated by a band of inland-raiding Vikings near Maldon, Essex. 1030 – The Battle of Azaz ends with a humiliating retreat of the Byzantine emperor, Romanos III Argyros, against the Mirdasid rulers of Aleppo. The retreat degenerates into a rout, in which Romanos himself barely escapes capture. 1270 – Yekuno Amlak takes the imperial throne of Ethiopia, restoring the Solomonic dynasty to power after a 100-year Zagwe interregnum. 1316 – The Second Battle of Athenry takes place near Athenry during the Bruce campaign in Ireland. 1346 – Jaume Ferrer sets out from Majorca for the "River of Gold", the Senegal River. 1512 – The naval Battle of Saint-Mathieu, during the War of the League of Cambrai, sees the simultaneous destruction of the Breton ship La Cordelière and the English ship The Regent. 1519 – Ferdinand Magellan's five ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque second-in-command Juan Sebastián Elcano will complete the expedition after Magellan's death in the Philippines. 1557 – Battle of St. Quentin: Spanish victory over the French in the Italian War of 1551–59. 1585 – The Treaty of Nonsuch signed by Elizabeth I of England and the Dutch Rebels. 1628 – The Swedish warship Vasa sinks on her maiden voyage off Stockholm. 1641 – The Treaty of London between England and Scotland, ending the Bishops' Wars, is signed. 1680 – The Pueblo Revolt begins in New Mexico. 1741 – King Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeats the Dutch East India Company at the Battle of Colachel, effectively bringing about the end of the Dutch colonial rule in India. 1755 – Under the direction of Charles Lawrence, the British begin to forcibly deport the Acadians from Nova Scotia to the Thirteen Colonies and France. 1792 – French Revolution: Storming of the Tuileries Palace: Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody as his Swiss Guards are massacred by the Parisian mob. 1808 – Finnish War: Swedish forces led by General von Döbeln defeat Russian forces led by General Šepelev in the Battle of Kauhajoki. 1856 – The Last Island hurricane strikes Louisiana, resulting in over 200 deaths. 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Wilson's Creek: A mixed force of Confederate, Missouri State Guard, and Arkansas State troops defeat outnumbered attacking Union forces in the southwestern part of the state. 1864 – After Uruguay's governing Blanco Party refuses Brazil's demands, José Antônio Saraiva announces that the Brazilian military will begin reprisals, beginning the Uruguayan War. 1901 – The U.S. Steel recognition strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers begins. 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of the Yellow Sea between the Russian and Japanese battleship fleets takes place. 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: Peace negotiations begin in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 1913 – Second Balkan War: Delegates from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece sign the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the war. 1920 – World War I: Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres that divides up the Ottoman Empire between the Allies.

[catgoner0gue]

Dreamscape from Mount Jadovnik in southwestern Serbia

[newswireml]

Apartment fire in Serbia kills 4 children, injures parents#Apartment #fire #Serbia #kills #children #injures #parents

A fire in a southwestern Serbian town has killed four children and injured their parents, police said on Sunday. The fire broke out around 7 a.m. in one of the apartments in a residential building in Novi Pazar, about 120 miles southwest of Belgrade. Police said firefighters came to the scene within minutes of being alerted but that the apartment was already engulfed in fire. 13 HOSPITALIZED…

[profesors]

◾Serbian girl dressed in serbian traditional clothes from Peshter Plateau, Southwestern Serbia 🇷🇸

[razorblogz]

Four children die in fire in southwestern Serbia

Firefighters found all the children in one room. They apparently died of carbon monoxide poisoning, a statement said.

BELGRADE: A fire in a southwestern Serbian town has killed four children and injured their parents, police said on Sunday.

The fire broke out around 7 a.m. in one of the apartments in a residential building in Novi Pazar, about 200 kilometres (120 miles) southwest of Belgrade.

Police said firefighters came to the scene within minutes of being alerted but the apartment was already engulfed in fire.

Firefighters found all the children in one room. They apparently died of carbon monoxide poisoning, a statement said.

The parents were in another room and have been hospitalized, police said. The Novosti newspaper reported they suffered severe burns.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.

“Although the firefighters reacted swiftly and arrived at the scene, it seems that the fire had erupted much earlier because it was in an advanced stage,” police said.

[parolim-prlm]

4 children die in fire in southwestern Serbia

BELGRADE, Serbia — A fire in a southwestern Serbian town has killed four children and injured their parents, police said on Sunday. The fire broke out around 7 a.m. in one of the apartments in a residential building in Novi Pazar, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) southwest of Belgrade. Police said firefighters came to the scene within minutes of being alerted but that the apartment was already…