Tesla and Tear Gas.

Well, the morning was lovely. I got up early, as has been the case recently, had 2 (count em, 2) coffees and headed out for what would surely be the highlight of Belgrade for me. The Nikola Tesla museum is a small 4 room museum choc full of his inventions, his plans and the story of his business naivety. There is also a video documenting his life and work, and it is impossible to deny how much of a genius this man was. Yes, I would go so far as to saying the greatest man that ever lived. It's a sad picture of the world we live in when an invention he was working on that would provide the world with free energy was denied funding as nobody would make any money off of it. Also, a ray beam he was working that would make war obsolete was also stopped. So a man could have provided the world with peace and free energy, but the world deemed it not necessary. Go figure. Nikola Tesla was absolutely vital, and unfortunately it is now too late. The museum is great, well worth a visit when in Belgrade. I headed for the exit, pleased with my morning and planning a day trip to Zemun, a short bus ride from the centre.

My plans were swiftly quashed however, just a short walk later. Columns of riot police blockaded streets, and my attention was quickly drawn to a large garbage container. That was knocked over. And on fire. Hmmm. I scanned the scene, and could see many other displaced bins, and large chunks of concrete all over the place. Bus shelters were also a bit worse for wear. For some reason, the idea placed in my head was to head down to the centre, to follow the noise and bustle, and to see whats going on. I had a vague idea (by that I mean I knew what was going on, and was curious).

The police presence was huge, and there was basically a stand off. Protesters were throwing concrete and bricks at the police, who were responding in kind. Everyone seemed angry, threats and nationalist slogans were being screamed, and the whole situation was pretty tense. Despite my best wisdom, I continued walking towards this, fully enjoying my make believe role as a conflict journalist. What do I get? A full scale riot, thats what. I decided to head back to the hostel, and watched the violence from there. Insane. The nationalists threw debris at the police, the police responded with tear gas. Tear gas really bloody hurts, I can honestly say that now. It really, really hurts.

Belgrade is a mess. The streets are lined with overturned smoking bins, the ethnographic museum has been trashed, the Democratic Party HQ has been half destroyed and a few shop fronts are ruined. There was a gay pride parade in Belgrade today, and I was told to expect a bit of violence, but full scale rioting I did not expect. A cleaning team has begun work, but its going to take a bit of time I would suspect. The amazing thing is that whilst all this was going on, some people were still walking around with their dogs, as if nothing was happening. Mental.

What all of this shows, without a shadow of doubt, is that Serbia has big problems. 20 years of complete international isolation has left a chunk of the people completely ruined, and full of hate towards the outside world. They have been brought up believing that the world is against them, and they are doing all they can, which is fight back. The worrying thing about these riots, aside from the general riots, was the age of many of the protesters. These weren't middle aged bitter war veterans, these were people of my age and younger. Angry young boys. This country needs something good to happen to turn it around, but I have no idea what. And it is a shame, because I know a lot of fantastic Serbs, and the country itself is a beautiful place. However, it continues to be in the headlines for the wrong reasons.

I will reiterate however, that Nikola Tesla completely rules.