Serbia, BRICS, and the EU

Serbia is in the news again. Now where have I heard that name before?

As a kid I used to criss-cross Europe quite a lot. I had a lot of fun crossing into what were then the Warsaw Pact countries. I particularly liked Hungary and had a wonderful time selling Western fancy lingerie in Czechoslovakia and Hungary with the help of a rather nice Hungarian girl with whom I stayed for about six weeks.

In fact I really liked Hungary. We used to spend saturday nights at one of the big hotels where they had a tumultuous evening meal with a band, and literally everybody sang all the old folk songs, usually several different songs being sung at the same time. It was my favourite evening of the week.

I do tell the whole story in my book The Underwear Girl which is available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BVRSLP7J

I also used to wander around most of the Warsaw Pact countries. I was at a party just outside Hastings in Southern England when some of the people present remembered there was a wedding they had been invited to in Prague, and a whole bunch of us promptly drove there to join in the celebrations.

Life seemed to be like that way back then. I think it was easier getting around Europe fifty years ago than it is now it’s pretending to be one country.

Back then I seemed to be passing through Belgrade rather a lot and got used to the place. I used to stay in a hotel which was a boat moored on what I thought was the river Danube. When I first went through there I had no idea that Belgrade was some way from that great river, and that I was in fact sleeping on the river Sava.

I remember getting paid for attending a concert given by the Beach Boys in one of the local schools. The guys in the band wandered round among those of us still there at the end of the concert giving out the money they had been paid, which was local currency dinars which they were not allowed to export.

Now I hear that Serbia is interested in applying to join the BRICS+.

It’s interesting how this part of Europe seems to have been pivotal on so many occasions. Maybe it is about to be so again.

I would imagine the existing BRICS nations would be interested in a member from Europe, especially as there could well be extended interest from neighbouring countries like Hungary and Slovakia.

Now what would that do to the EU?

It seems that the EU is being eroded on so many fronts.

What started out as a great idea has been turned into a nightmare fascist state. The currency is in dire straits. The various countries are failing economically and politically, and the area is being destroyed by the USA, first by the bombing of essential infrastructure in the form of the gas pipelines, and also due to the various sanctions which are working to Europe’s disadvantage. As far as I can see the sooner the whole disaster implodes the better.

Maybe there is a possibility that the old countries of Yugoslavia can get back together again. On the other hand, maybe that is not exactly feasible, which is a pity. It would be so nice if Croatia could join forces with Serbia and also back out of the EU. That would give those of us who want to change sides the possibility of colonising the Eastern Adriatic coast.

I used to own land next door to Sveti Stefan, and nearly bought property in that medieval walled city of Kotor. All that area fascinated me. That coast all the way from the border with Italy in the north right down to the border with Albania is fascinating and utterly charming.

I used to stay in a crummy hotel with a view right across the bay of Kotor to where the sea turned sharp left into the Mediterranean. Unfortunately I missed a rather good deal there. A couple of years after I left the region that hotel was sold and some bright spark turned the whole area into a rather swanky marina.

It does pay to get the timing right when it comes to real estate.

That brings me to an interesting possibility.

This is probably some time in the future, maybe even a decade away, but bear with me.

If Serbia does join BRICS+, and the EU continues to stumble further into ruin, there may well be a rush for the neighbouring countries to follow suit. I am not up to speed on the current state of grass roots politics in the area, but do remember that the USA did spend three months bombing the place back in the nineties. Julie and I were there at the time, and there was some serious damage done, with not much care in avoiding the civilian population. After all, the whole area was civilian, and by the time the Americans left after destroying what used to be Yugoslavia, places like Mostar, where we were staying, looked somewhat grim.

In other words, if the EU remains wedded to the USA there will be good reason to slide out of the EU into what may turn out to be a better bloc.

That would immediately make that Adriatic coast very popular.

Those of you with a longer time horizon may like to pay attention if things do change politically in that part of the world. It could well be the next hot spot in Europe. But, unfortunately for me, I suspect we have some time to pass before we get change in that part of the world, which is a shame. But do put that idea on the back burner.