Balkan File

Bulevar kralja Aleksandra (King Aleksandar Boulevard) again makes an appearance in the Belgrade Weekly Phone Photo Series here at BalkanFile. This is much further up the boulevard than in previous photos. If you look at the very right hand side of the photo (click to enlarge), you can see a sign for a shop selling extra (XXXXXXXL) large clothes for those Belgraders who can’t shake those extra pounds!

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CeSID (Centre for Free Elections and Democracy) has published here (Blic) and here (24sata) some of the results from a market research project for the Belgrade City Youth Office which canvased Belgrade’s young adults (15 to 30 years old) on what they do (or don’t do) during their free time and their thoughts on life. Here’s a rundown of the results:

• 82% of Belgrade’s 15 to 30-year-olds are satisfied with life
• This satisfaction went down at 25-30 years old with worries about finishing university and finding a job
• 37% don’t think they will have the chance to start working and 36% don’t even think about beginning to work
• 44% mostly spend their free time socialising and going out with friends
• Only 1% use free time to pursue a creative hobby or go to the cinema, theatre or museum.
• Only 2% are involved with organisations or institutions
• Only 3% use free time for learning and self-improvement
• 72% say that they are always on the move, unable able to stay still for long
• More that 50% don’t have any income or, if they do,  it’s irregular or only at certain times
• 55% say that they’ve had visas and travelled abroad (police data disputes this; many possibly feel ashamed to say that they haven’t been outside of Serbia)
• 46% don’t pay attention to their health
• 1 in 10 have no problem with soft drugs (most likely cannabis) and 5% would even be willing to sell drugs
• 1 in 9 see wearing a seat belt as a formality and 1 in 4 don’t think it would help in an accident
• 85% use the Internet as a means of communication
• 43% are satisfied with how Belgrade is developing, while 15% believe Belgrade is going in a bad direction
• Positively, 87% are partly or very interested in environmental issues
• 1 in 4 feel secure and safe in Belgrade, however, there is little tolerance for those who are different

So, as a 25-year-old adopted Belgrader what are my opinions? Well, I have to say I am fairly satisfied with my life, some things could do with improvement, but overall it’s not bad at all. Luckily, I have a job and as such I have no worries regarding income and putting food on my plate. This is definitely not the case for all young people in Belgrade though.

I use my free time to work on various Internet projects I have, going out for beer or coffee with friends at the weekend and, when there’s an interesting party, I enjoy clubbing into the wee hours of Saturday or Sunday morning to the sound of repetitive, electronic beats . I’m also quite a ‘housey’ person and can happily spend time alone at home pottering about and being lazy.

I must admit, I don’t use much of my free time for direct learning and self-improvement, but I am naturally curious and will read a lot about different topics that interest me – not sure how much of it I retain however!

What do you think of these results? Is it an accurate picture of what you or your friends do and think? What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? Let us know (even if you’re older than 30!)  by leaving a comment.

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This is the Vozdovac Municipal Hall / Town Hall building. Vozdovac is one of Belgrade’s 17 municipalities. It is a very large neighbourhood located a few kilometres south of Belgrade city centre with a population of around 150,000 and sprawling out over an area of 150 square kilometres. The municipality has agricultural areas, highly-dense residential areas and industrial areas. It’s also twinned with Florence, Italy.

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BalkanFile may be unavailable over the next day or two as I’m in the process of transferring to a new host and domain registrar.

Hopefully, it will go relatively smoothly and there won’t be too much disruption!

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A street lamp in a residential street in Belgrade with a mass of wires, electrical I presume, wrapped around it and heading off in all directions.

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