62 minute read
A WOMAN IN LOVE IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN A NATO TANK
RADMILA PETROVIĆ,
POET
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She was a child who desired success, and her teacher kept telling her ‘we’ll see how long you’ll stick it out’. Everything that she does is motivated by a desire not to betray that little girl who believed that, somewhere far away, a better and safer world exists where she will live as a happy, successful and independent woman. Radmila Petrović (24) is today a qualified economist and poet who finds herself in the public spotlight
It’s difficult to recall a poet who so ferociously barged onto the literary scene of a country like Radmila did in Serbia in 2020 with her collection of poems “My Mum Knows What’s Happening in Cities”. She previously published her collections “The Scent of Earth” and “Cellulose Rock ‘n’ Roll” as competition winning works. When you hear the verse “I’m a charmer-girl, I have a penknife in my pocket and a wire in my bra” you naturally think of a modern Calamity Jane, one who informs you so convincingly:
It’s difficult to recall a poet who so ferociously barged onto the literary scene of a country like Radmila did in Serbia in 2020 with her collection of poems “My Mum Knows What’s Happening in Cities”. She previously published her collections “The Scent of Earth” and “Cellulose Rock ‘n’ Roll” as competition winning works. When you hear the verse “I’m a charmer-girl, I have a penknife in my pocket and a wire in my bra” you naturally think of a modern Calamity Jane, one who informs you so convincingly:
“There where I grew up tenderness is not shown towards people, it is kept for kittens born in a barn. there you learn some tricks, then you go far and seek a man who doesn’t fall for them.”
A broader circle of readers will find Radmila’s poem “I’m a Serb, but Kosovo isn’t in my heart, rather you are” particularly attractive . That’s primarily because of the unique opposition of the life force of Eros, with which the culture of death will be rendered meaningless. And thus the poetess will say
“One woman in love is more dangerous than a NATO tank… with regard to the Kosovo issue general peonies bloom in my knickers”.
Critics say that her poetry undoubtedly shifts boundaries “in the recent poetic production of the Shtokavian language, they show that poetry is still capable of shifting worlds, at least those small, internal ones. Strength and courage, but also the skill of articulating the poetic language
with Radmila Petrović testify to a sanctified liberation, which is seeking its own place under the sun. It seems that in this case, when it comes to literature, that place has been found.”
Who is Radmila Petrović, other than a
graduate economist?
She was born in 1996 in the city of Užice, because that’s the location of the nearest maternity hospital to the village of Stupčevići near Arilje, where she grew up. She completed Jezdimir Tripković Primary School in Latvica (village near Arilje) and St. Sava Gymnasium High School in Požega, then graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics, where she is currently completing her master’s studies. She graduated from the Faculty of Economics with an average grade of 9.8.
She grew up in a rural area and on a daily basis repeatedly told herself that she had to study and move away, if she’s clever, in order to avoid suffering like her parents. She was taught implicitly that life is difficult and that there aren’t many choices. She also acquired what would be referred to as a good domestic upbringing, which implies a cordial attitude towards guests and people generally.
Everyone in her surroundings worked in farming, and the first time she saw people who weren’t farmers was in a Spanish soap opera. They were some businesspeople, and she began dreaming about becoming an economist and running a business. That led her to enrol in economics, and today she works at a small company that deals with consulting and the introduction and implementation of a type of ERP software.
You’ve said you were born in the village
as a woman again! That’s humorous for the reader, but how was it for you?
In the countryside, having a male child is a matter of pride. I discovered when I was little that my parents desperately craved a son, and that my mother cried in the maternity ward when they told her I was female. My granddad and my dad were both disappointed. I really studied and tried hard for myself, but I had the constant impression that, regardless of how much I was always the best in my class, all they wanted was a son who wouldn’t even have to try in anything – he
would receive it all on a platter. My relatives also constantly made comments about how clever and capable I am, and how unfortunate it is that I’m not a boy. And that might now be funny for some, but the feeling isn’t very nice at all when you’re a little girl who just wants to be loved the way you were born, without comments about how great it would be if you were something that you definitely aren’t and cannot become.
How difficult is it to be a woman in rural
Serbia today?
It’s still difficult to be a woman, especially in rural areas. You can’t be a lady there. The work is physically demanding, the skin burns and peels off several times during the year, fingernails crack and clothes smell like livestock. Fruit must be picked, animals fed, lunch prepared, no one will ask you if you’ve perhaps just got your period. Women are mostly housewives, working in the house and in the fields using simple tools, because those more complex tools are reserved for men. And if, God forbid, something happens to their spouse, they are left to the mercy of neighbours and relatives, without a trade with which to educate their children. Many women stay in abusive marriages with wife beaters precisely because of their material dependence. Many take on casual work in their later years in order to provide for the most basic living conditions. And those aren’t just women – no farmer receives a pension for all those years of hard work. In my village women
In my village women aren’t members of any committee and no meetings are attended by women
aren’t members of any committee and no meetings are attended by women.
Did you enrol in economics and complete your studies because you needed to have a secure occupation in your hands? I dreamt of being a businesswoman. I saw that in a Spanish soap opera. As a child I did not know anyone who was engaged in anything other than farming. I didn’t know anything about the arts; I didn’t know that you could be a playwright, a director or a photographer, that some people make a living from that. When you grow up in small communities you don’t know the possible range of professions you can pursue. As a result, it can happen that you only realise what you were actually meant to study at the age of 25 or 35.
In recent months everyone has been confronting me with questions like: are you a sincere poet and an insincere economist? I won’t lie: there is something in that question that scares me. I don’t think I’m anything insincerely, or at least I wouldn’t want to be. I’m currently engaged in what I studied, I want to see how much economics can give me and how much I can give it. Apart from that, I read and write every day in order to work on my “talent” for writing. That’s all I can do right now. On the other hand, I don’t have any secret skills I could use to raise money for rent and other things. Nobody pays if you write a poem. I’m slowly reviewing all the possible options, I want to try my hand at many more things. When it comes to what I will do for a living, you need to be brave and open enough and to say: who knows?!
Is there anything you hated in the village? Mostly the way men treat women, or the majority of them. The law of the wilderness reigns in the village, the law of the stronger. And everyone minds their own business only when they need to report that a neighbour is beating his wife. I also don’t like the kind of thinking that’s bothered about what the village will say; that life that you determine according to the expectations of your surroundings. Competing over whose sow will weigh the most. The feeling that you’re fighting an invisible enemy (the neighbourhood) and that you always have to be better than him so that won’t rejoice over your sadness and shame.
What did you learn in the village that you
need for your life today and tomorrow?
In the home they spoke about why some families “disappear”, I think that discovery that “everything comes back to you” always kept me far from the thought of causing anyone harm. I learnt that life is merciless and that if you don’t help yourself then no one else will. I learnt to fight. I promised myself that I wouldn’t allow anyone else to manage my life.
I was a child who desired success, and the teacher kept saying that we’ll see how long I’ll stick it out. Everything I do, I do in order not to betray that little girl who believed that, somewhere far away, a better and safer world exists where she will live as a happy, successful and independent woman.
What did your initial encounters with literature and poetry look like? Which writers and poets did you like first and why? That was back when I was 16 or 17. I read a poem by Miodrag Pavlović from my sister’s textbook and was delighted. There was no rhyming in it and that surprised me. There weren’t any big
words or events either. I didn’t even understand precisely what that poem was about. I just liked something about it. It was as though poetry had found its own way to me. It was as though poetry had come to cheer me up, and it succeeded in that. Nothing has brought me as much happiness as poetry. I’m not just talking about how I feel while reading, but also about the situations I’ve found myself in thanks to it and the people I’ve met, and who finally understood my language, and I theirs.
I first read those most famous poets, like Miljković, Neruda, Yesenin. I think I fell in love with poetry because it was there that I found emotions that no one in my environment had expressed in that, or expressed at all.
Which writers and poets are you discov-
ering today?
I’m discovering many, both those that are not yet known and those that it’s “shameful” not to know.
What’s the greatest compliment or ac-
colade you’ve ever received for your poetry?
The greatest accolade is the people who approach me and say that they’ve read my collection several times and that it has in some way comforted, encouraged or made them laugh. You know, that one thing in my life wasn’t in vain and that’s a wonderful feeling.
How do your parents comment on your
poems?
My parents generally don’t make any comments related to my poems in front of me.
I heard that my Dad said to my uncle: Radmila wrote both about what she should have and what she shouldn’t have.
What would I say to that, except that I didn’t write poems for my parents or relatives? I talk to them in prose and we’ve already told each other what we needed to.
My parents and relatives have certainly supported the policy of maintaining silence all their lives.
I think differently; I think that nothing will ever change if we all remain silent.
When someone says ‘a good life’, what
does that mean to you?
To me that means living in peace (of the soul), with family and friends, pure of heart and cheek, with the minimum materials to exist secured. It is hypocritical to say that economic resources aren’t
important. Around the world 25,000 people die of hunger every day. I know children who’ve never overcome the humiliation they received at school, and that humiliating was based purely on material things, or what they lacked. You have to have some level of resources in order for that to become irrelevant to you.
A good life, to me, also implies a life in which you accept challenges and do things that you previously wanted to do but weren’t able to do for some reason. And a life in which you are constantly learning something new.
COVID-19 has been the most common
topic in our lives in recent months. How much has the story of this virus been present in your life, how afraid are you, how much has your life changed and narrowed as a result of the pandemic?
I’m afraid because I had asthma, and probably still do, though I don’t use an inhaler pump and don’t have any problems. I feel sorry for the people who passed away and their families.
In such a situation as this I try to organise my day as best I can. I say to myself: okay, don’t think about the future, what can you do today? That gap between wishes and possibilities has further widened for all of us. I generally deal with it well because it’s not as though I’m really used to everything in my life being made to measure.
Take care of yourself and others, learn something new, watch good films, read beautiful books, exercise in your homes. Discipline awakens hope.
Do you have any desires that you can
talk about?
I want us all to be healthy and not so hypocritical. For us not to lie about how perfect we are at work and not lie about how we live perfectly and have lived perfectly. I want that because of young people, because it’s difficult to be young, particularly if one’s environment creates the impression that everyone is doing great and you’re the only one with some minor or major problems, discoveries and considerations. I want everyone to find what causes their sadness and where their happiness is. My happiness can also be in helping other people, at least by saying what someone needed to tell me at some point.
H.E. MARIA VIRGÍNIA MENDES DA SILVA PINA AMBASSADOR OF PORTUGAL TO SERBIA
When the Portuguese look at the Western Balkans they know that, naturally, the time will come when those countries will finally belong to the EU, as this a quite normal and suitable path – Maria Virgínia Mendes Da Silva Pina
Striving For Europe’s Recovery
TERRORISM
EU INTEGRATION
COOPERATION
The Portuguese ambassador comes from a country which from a historical perspective - as she says - has been focused more on cooperation with neighbours that it is connected to via the Atlantic Ocean than on the Balkan Peninsula. However, H.E. Maria Virgínia Mendes Da Silva Pina says that she feels as though she’s already been adopted in her new environment in Belgrade! “The two countries have excellent political relations, which can be seen in the way we mutually support our international candidacies,” she says in this interview for CorD Magazine, adding that there is plenty of room for improvement, especially of economic relations, in areas such as digital transformation, the environment, energy or E-government. Also contributing to the strengthening of that cooperation is Serbia’s European integration progress, which Portugal will observe more carefully as of 1st January 2021, when the country takes over the presidency of the European Union.
Your Excellency, Portugal is holding
the Presidency of the European Union for the next six months, as of 1st January 2021. What have been defined as Lisbon’s priorities?
Portugal has five priorities for its Presidency: Europe’s resilience, based on economic recovery, the reinforcement of social cohesion and respect for both European values and the Rule of Law, especially dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic; Social Europe, in which we will press for a political thrust regarding the Action Plan to implement the European Pillar on Social Rights; Green Europe, which reflects the importance of addressing climate change; Digital Europe, an area where Portugal has showed its strengths and goes beyond just the economy, reaching areas such as digital education and digital democracy; and finally Global Europe, as Portugal is quite keen on global dialogue and wishes to assert that the EU can have a dialogue with all the main geopolitical actors, including the nations of Africa and Latin America. All of aforementioned priorities have the common idea of striving for Europe’s recovery, especially after the pandemic, through the European Social Model and the balancing of social and economic dimensions.
Portugal was among a large number of EU member states that ended 2020 under lockdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To what extent have these new circumstances impacted on Portugal’s plans for its EU presidency?
Portugal had already planned to hold the Social Summit in Porto in May 2021, as the flagship event of our Presidency, so the pandemic will only give further relevance to this event and the matters it will address. We hope that the sanitary situation will allow it to proceed as planned, but we are prepared for format changes that do not prevent us from achieving our goal. In fact, this Summit has an ambitious agenda, as I explained in the previous question, and will consist of two separate but intertwined events: a conference with European institutions, social partners and academic institutions; and an informal European Council that will address social matters. Concerning the rest of the programme, despite the obstacles caused by the pandemic, which will still surely affect some physical events planned for the first half of the semester, we will be also prepared to shift to virtual venues whenever needed. We will nevertheless try to turn all the challenges into opportunities.
Countries worldwide are already
confirming major economic consequences of the pandemic. How hard has the Portuguese economy been hit, given that a significant share of your country’s income is ordinarily generated through tourism?
The Portuguese economy is undergoing a difficult time, because - as you mentioned - tourism is particularly important. Over the past decade we’ve managed to gain a welldeserved reputation as an exquisite tourist destination and we cannot wait to return to normal. As for the economic downturn, we are putting in place the necessary measures to prevent more dire consequences for the economy, bearing in mind that we must balance them with the need to protect the health of our citizens. This is another feature of the importance of European solidarity, as the financial relief mechanisms that were thought out can really help mitigate the consequences of the pandemic on the economy.
Are you concerned about new terror-
ist attacks in European cities?
Europe faces several challenges and some of them pose an existential threat to our way of life, with fundamentalism, which usually reveals itself with abominable terrorist attacks, being at the top of our worries. We therefore need a strong and resolute response to this scourge, but one that does not undermine either our civil liberties or our record of tolerance and respect.
Crisis situations like the one that
we’re currently witnessing often result in the strengthening of extremism. Media reported last summer on the statement of Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declaring “zero tolerance” for racism. How did this situation arise and why did the president feel a need to react?
Portugal has been a safe haven when it comes to racist incidents and extremist messages, but this does not mean that we, as a society, are not
susceptible to deplorable incidents that need to be firmly decried. This was what happened last summer, when three female Members of Parliament who have African ancestors and are anti-racist activists had their lives threatened by anonymous messages in a display of farright extremism. As you can understand, this unprecedented situation caused an uproar and President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa thought it would be precautionary to state, in a very assertive way, that similar situations would not be tolerated. We need to raise public conscience and awareness that this type of behaviour must face “zero tolerance”.
During a recent conversation with
Serbian officials you announced the additional engagement of Portugal, during its EU presidency, in the area of Serbia’s European integration. Considering that this process slowed down significantly in 2019 and 2020, do you think it can be accelerated during this time of great challenges for the EU itself?
Serbia’s European Integration process is itself challenging, but I am confident that, if Serbia shows signs of willingness to move forward and do the necessary reforms, always taking into account the recommendations contained in the Progress Reports, including in the area of the Rule of Law, which highlight Serbia strengths and weaknesses, the process can evolve and the expectations of both parties can be met. Serbia witnesses the advantages that close cooperation with the EU brings every day and I am sure it has understood that fulfilling the criteria for accession will only improve its citizens’ quality of life and perspectives. Therefore I believe that, despite all the obstacles, Serbia acknowledges the benefit it brings to Europe and that it is a country that the EU will welcome into its midst. I therefore think that, despite the challenges the EU is experiencing, Serbia is part of Europe and is essential for the stabilisation of the Western Balkans. If there is a will, there is a way.
What is the stance of Portuguese
citizens regarding the enlargement of the EU to encompass the countries of the Western Balkans? What kind of image does the region have in the eyes of the Portuguese?
Due to our geographical situation, it is true that for a very long time we preferred to look across the Atlantic Ocean rather than looking to Europe. In one generation’s time, we made a complete shift that finally, and fully, encompassed Europe, in which our accession to the then EEC made an enormous difference. This ensures that we now look at this geopolitical
region as a fully-fledged stakeholder that takes an interest in all of its parts, albeit some closer than others. This being said, the enlargements of the EU have always been somewhat natural for us, as we are also part of that enlargement process. Therefore, When the Portuguese look at the Western Balkans they know that, naturally, the time will come when those countries will finally belong to the EU, as this a quite normal and suitable path.
You arrived in Serbia during the summer of 2019. What is your impression so far when it comes to bilateral relations between our two countries, and in which areas do you see room for progress?
I have to say that I feel at home in Serbia. You welcomed me in such a way that I feel as though you adopted me. Our two countries have excellent political relations, which can be seen, for instance, in the way that we mutually support our international candidacies. However, there is great room to improve, especially our economic relations. I am keen on improving cooperation in areas such as digital transformation, the environment, energy or E-government. Those are areas in which Portugal has great expertise and skills, with Portuguese companies willing to invest and come to Serbia.
The strengthening of cooperation
through parliamentary friendship groups was proposed during your recent meeting with Serbian National Assembly Speaker Ivica Dačić. How do you see that idea?
Portugal prides itself on its representative democracy, which has gone through several challenges but proved itself to be quite resilient. Our Parliament (“Assembleia da República”) represents the 10 million Portuguese citizens who live inside our borders and the five million members of the Portuguese diaspora. In order to develop other institutional bonds that can contribute to the fostering of better relations between Portugal and Serbia, I think it would be a very interesting base for work if the most direct representatives of the people of both countries could have a forum to interact.
Will there be a continuation of the co-
operation between Portugal and Serbia that has already successfully connected universities and scientific institutions?
Definitely! Our two countries can only benefit from strengthening our relations. The flow of people between Portugal and Serbia will, in a very natural way, continue to increase and results in other connections surfacing outside the academic world, where it has delivered quite interesting results and can deliver even more. In our Consular Section we see new applications almost every week from Serbian students wanting to study for longer periods in Portugal in the most diverse areas. With a continuous influx and exchanges of experience, it is only natural that those connections, and the mutual discoveries that they allow, will find different ways to develop in other areas, such as the arts or the economy. They will then continue to spillover into everyday life, so, yes, there is a vast field of cooperation that can be explored and deserves that. During my tenure here I will do my best to foster all the opportunities that exist.
GLOBAL DIARY
FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID
The French presidency has announced that President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for coronavirus. He will self-isolate for seven days and cancel all upcoming trips, including a planned visit to Lebanon. The diagnosis was made following a PCR test performed after he showed initial symptoms, though his symptoms were not listed. His office is also currently in the process of identifying those people with whom he may have been in contact. Macron attended a European Council heads of state meeting on 10 and 11 December, where EU leaders met in person for the first time since October. At the summit, Macron also met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who tested negative for COVID-19 after the meeting.
SWEDEN’S LIGHT-TOUCH CORONAVIRUS STRATEGY HAS ‘FAILED,’ SAYS KING GUSTAF
Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf criticized Sweden’s policy to combat the coronavirus pandemic in his Christmas address, as the Nordic country added a record 8,881 new cases in a single day in mid-December. “I think we have failed. We have a large number who have died, and that is terrible. It is some“China is willing to keep on contributing to the world and enhancing human well-being with Chinese space solutions,” – WU YANHUA,
DEPUTY CHIEF COMMANDER OF THE CHINESE LUNAR EXPLORATION PROGRAMME
NO DEAL BREXIT
Boris Johnson warned a No Deal Brexit was ‘very likely’ unless Brussels caves on its ‘unreasonable’ demand over fishing rights. In a phone call with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Prime Minister warned negotiations were in a ‘serious situation’. And he said that it now looked ‘very likely’ that an agreement would not be reached ‘unless the EU position changed substantially’. Fishing was the key area where the EU’s position ‘needed to shift significantly’, Johnson said. He added that if a deal could not be struck, the UK would leave the EU ‘as friends’, but trading on Australian-style terms. Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen said ‘substantial progress’ had been made on a Brexit deal. But the EU chief also warned ‘big differences’ which will be ‘very challenging to bridge’ still remain, with both sides now set to take negotiations down to the wire.
thing we all suffer with,” Gustaf said in an excerpt of a pre-recorded Christmas address which will air in full on 21 December. Sweden’s coronavirus strategy has been the subject of international debate, as authorities decided not to mandate lockdowns, rather advising citizens to make responsible decisions to contain the virus’s spread. The loose policy, which depended on a sense of “civic duty,” meant Swedes enjoyed relative normalcy during the first wave of the pandemic, as the rest of Europe closed shops, restaurant and schools.
“The evidence that has been studied in great detail on the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine highly outweighs any of the issues we’ve seen,” – DR
HAYLEY GANS, STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
EU TO START COVID VACCINATIONS ON 27 DECEMBER
Vaccinations against COVID-19 will begin across the EU starting on 27 December, shortly after the jab is expected to be approved. By the end of December, the first people across the European Union will be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced. “It’s Europe’s moment. On 27, 28 and 29 December vaccination will start across the EU,” von der Leyen tweeted. The vaccine rollout is conditional on the European Medicine’s Agency (EMA) approving the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine.
ELECTORAL COLLEGE MAKES IT OFFICIAL: BIDEN WON
The Electoral College decisively confirmed Joe Biden as the next US president, ratifying his November victory in an authoritative state-by-state repudiation of President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede. The presidential electors gave Biden a solid majority of 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, the same margin that Trump claimed was a landslide when he won the White House four years ago. Heightened security was in place in some states as electors met to cast paper ballots, with masks, social distancing and other pandemic precautions the order of the day. The results will be sent to Washington and tallied in a 6 January joint session of Congress over which Vice President Mike Pence will preside.
BITCOIN HITS ALL-TIME HIGH RISING ABOVE $20,000
The volatile virtual currency has gained more than 170% this year amid stock market turmoil. On 16 December Bitcoin jumped 4.5% to as much as $20,440 buoyed by demand from large investors keen on its potential for quick profits. There are also expectations that it may gain more widespread traction as a payment method from the likes of Starbucks and Microsoft. But it has been a bumpy ride for investors, with the cryptocurrency passing $19,000 in November before dropping sharply.
AMIR ABDULLA
We have to learn to expect more and more cases of famine, because we’re at the beginning of what has been called the “grand reversal” in development gains, spurred by the pandemic but also reflecting the impacts of climate change, migration, ongoing conflicts and a sudden increase in global poverty rates that is tipping millions more into a hand-to-mouth existence.
Like probably every person in the world, our interlocutor, Amir Abdulla, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), wishes for the pandemic to end in 2021. According to Abdulla, “we can then begin assessing and picking up the broken pieces of the Sustainable Development Goals”. Last October saw the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the World Food Programme “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict”. As this interview unfolds, we learn that a huge amount of work lies ahead of us, as the pandemic is perhaps an acute reason, but represents only one of many factors that are driving people into hunger and poverty, not just in the developing world, but also within wealthy donor countries.
People Need Hope
Being so mesmerised by the pandemic,
did we forget about hunger? Where is this issue on the agendas of wealthy countries?
Donor countries are acutely aware of the dangerous situation facing the most vulnerable communities in the most at-risk countries. However, the pandemic has exposed two things in particular. Firstly, it has revealed underlying fragilities in wealthy nations, which they have clearly struggled to address. They’ve had to tackle hunger, illness, mass unemployment and sudden spikes in poverty rates within their own borders. This has been a shock for donor governments, a shock for their electorates and a distraction from other matters, as they strive to restore normalcy to their economies. The second thing is that the socio-economic impact of the pandemic is going to run far deeper and for far longer than the pandemic itself, with spillovers that will ripple across the planet for many years to come. Cumulatively, in terms of economic loss, poverty, lost education, hunger, increased exposure to disease due to malnutrition and so on, the pandemic is likely to have an overall impact that will only become clear in later years, as long-term data reveals the bigger picture.
How many more people were pushed
into hunger by the pandemic and how much more funds were allocated to them? What do the numbers say when it comes to empathy?
We estimate that the numbers of people suffering from acute food insecurity in the 79 countries where we work might have risen by as much as 80 per cent, from 149 million people before the pandemic to 270 million people in 2020. It’s bad in West, Central and Southern Africa, but worst in Central America, where severe food insecurity has nearly quadrupled.
Right now the WFP faces a funding gap of around $5 billion, which reflects the hunger spike that came as a direct result of the pandemic, as well as the fact that the World Bank estimates that 150 million people will have been pushed into extreme poverty by the end of 2020. We reached almost 100 million people with food assistance in 2019, and we are planning for 138 million in 2020. The virus is also changing the face of hunger by dragging new urban populations into destitution, as well as compounding the effects of climate change, conflict and socio-economic shocks in regions of the world that had previously escaped severe levels of food insecurity. One thing the pandemic has taught us is that we are really only as strong as our weakest link. The virus doesn’t recognise borders, ethnicity or nationality. Aside from the moral imperative of helping our fellow human beings, and the empathetic impulse, we have a clear self-
PHOTO/WFP/DEBORAH NGUYEN/MOZAMBIQUE, ZAMBEZIA, NHAMPOCA, MARCH 2019
interest in tackling the pandemic effectively, and in trying to stabilise countries hit by conflict, climate change, endemic poverty and now the pandemic.
Given that the pandemic disturbed
regions, people, transportation, export and production, how have you managed to adapt to tackle these numerous challenges?
The almost overnight breakdown in global systems of travel and transport threw up an unprecedented challenge. Cumulatively, the pandemic has provoked the largest humanitarian operation in our history. The WFP had to swiftly adapt its own existing massive and complex logistics and transport operations, transporting humanitarian workers and supplies to places previously served by commercial airlines, and carrying out things like medical evacuations. We put in place a hub-and-spokes system of global and regional hubs that has provided the backbone for global response efforts to COVID-19 through a network of passenger and cargo air links. Since late January 2020, we’ve dispatched more than
PHOTO/WFP/GABRIELA VIVACQUA/SOUTH SUDAN, PIERI, UROR COUNTY, FEBRUARY 2019
84,000 cubic metres of cargo (equivalent to more than 33 Olympic-sized swimming pools) to 170 countries - or 85 per cent of the world – in order to support governments and health partners in their response to COVID-19. These shipments include personal protective equipment, ventilators and emergency health kits, and WHO and UNICEF have been the main users of WFP services amongst the 64 organisations we’ve served. So, while it was lock-down for many, many countries, at humanitarian agencies we kept going, adapting our safety and access protocols as the situation developed.
The WFP was nominated for a Nobel prize
as the “driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict”. Based on your own merits, how did you fare in comparison to warlords?
Using starvation as a tactic of war is outlawed under international law, but the fact remains
that war breeds hunger, and the majority of the people we feed are in conflict-affected countries, some of them – like Yemen, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo or Afghanistan – beset by war for many years. The Nobel prize recognises the fact that, no matter how hard the conditions and numerous the dangers and complex dynamics of conflict, the WFP has doggedly persisted for six decades in its efforts to prevent civilians dying from hunger, despite the ravages of war. So, I would say that despite the interests and aims of warlords, we’ve done our best to continue saving and changing lives, and this fact has been recognised implicitly by the Nobel Committee.
According to some estimates, one in
11 people go to bed on an empty stomach. How many of them reside in their own countries and how many of them are on the move? What has changed in these dynamics over the years?
Your question highlights a complex dynamic that has been accelerated by the pandemic, and that’s the relationship between hunger and displacement. On one hand, the lock-downs have frozen people in place within their own countries, preventing them from working, and in places like Afghanistan – where 4 out of 5 people work in the informal economy – that quickly translates to liquidated household
savings, poverty and hunger. Countries that employed huge numbers of guest workers lost those workforces as businesses and building sites closed, and workers were compelled to return home, having a severe impact on the one in nine people globally who earn remittances that form a fundamental part of many economies. Some 700,000 Afghans reportedly returned from Iran. In Lebanon, more than half of displaced Syrians reported having lost their jobs by April. On the other hand, people are being, or will be, forced to migrate for work more than ever, and that will probably balloon once the virus has been handled. The last few years have shown that, in places like Central America, climate change is having a massive effect on subsistence farmers, who can no longer afford to keep farming after just one or two crop failures. There’s a subtle vicious cycle here that we need to understand much better through research. As the impact
PHOTO/WFP/OLUWASEUN OLUWAMUYIWA/NIGERIA, MAIDUGURI SEPTEMBER 2020
We haven’t decided precisely how to use the monetary part of the Nobel prize, but it will most likely be used to fund our ongoing research into the nexus between hunger and conflict
of climate change and its associated feedback loops compound radically and become more plainly measurable in the coming years, we’ll really begin to understand the scale of change, how quickly it has happened and more about what we need to do to alleviate suffering. Unfortunately, much of this will be in hindsight.
How far or close will we be to the
goal of zero hunger once the pandemic ends? Would you say that it is already too late to fulfil SDG2, no hunger?
The current figures don’t bode well. At the moment we think that if the trend continues we will be far from Zero Hunger by the end of this decade, with perhaps 840 million people in a state of constant food insecurity unless we take immediate and decisive action. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound compounding effect on the drivers of food insecurity – mainly through declining economic activity and reduced household purchasing power. But the public health and economic crises we are witnessing today are also clashing with the global climate, which in turn is heating up risks of conflict around the world. Conflict continues to drive displacement and rob people of their livelihoods, while currency devaluation and escalating prices
PHOTO/WFP/KHUDR ALISSA/SYRIA, SALHEEN (ALEPPO), MARCH 2020
are curtailing food access. At the same time, we see flooding, dry spells and desert locusts threatening food availability.
According to the WFP, what are the
worst countries for food insecurity?
The countries most immediately at risk of famine are, typically, all embroiled in conflict to varying degrees. Yemen, north eastern Nigeria, Burkina Faso and South Sudan are all teetering on the brink of famine, with WFP food the main buffer between daily hunger and actual starvation conditions. Another 16 countries are in a state of serious, acute hunger, with a majority of those also afflicted by conflict that effectively leaves them hovering in a state of food emergency. One indication of the magnitude of the famine issue that
More people needing more food at a time when food became more expensive made our task of feeding hundreds of millions of people much tougher
our world faces is that fully a third of the $15 billion of funds that WFP needs in 2021 is devoted just to famine prevention, with the remaining two-thirds allocated to the 690 million for whom hunger is a daily fact, as well as to our work in building the resilience of communities and using funds to get ahead of the disaster curve by, for example, distributing cash buffers to vulnerable families likely to be affected by adverse weather events like typhoons.
Has food become more expensive?
And, if so, how has this impacted on your ability to feed those in the need?
Global food prices for staples rose sharply this year, which obviously has an immediate impact on WFP operations, because we need donors to dig deeper and give us the funds to make up the shortfall in our estimates. At the most extreme end, the price of vegetable oil rose by almost 15 per cent. This rise in cereals, sugar, dairy and meat happened for a variety of reasons, not least of which was the conditions created by the pandemic and the resulting increased rates of poverty that strike the most vulnerable hardest. But it also includes crop failures, higher consumer demand in certain countries and a combination of factors making agricultural output even less productive in many countries where we work - extreme weather events in Central America, floods in Yemen and afflictions like plagues of locusts in East Africa. So, this meant more people needing more food at a time when food became more expensive, all of which made the task of feeding hundreds of millions of people much tougher. That’s the major reason we currently have a funding gap of $5.1 billion.
You warned in April 2020 that “we
could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a few short months.” How close did we come to this prediction?
The short reply is that we were close then, that we’re still on the brink of those catastrophic conditions and that we’re likely to remain there at least for the duration of 2021. We have to recall situations like Somalia in 2011, when a famine killed 260,000 people. That famine was officially declared in July, when it was already way too late to effectively mobilise resources and most people had already died two months earlier. So, these public declarations we make today indicate an imminent and very real threat that can tip over into widespread famine within weeks. We have to learn to expect more and more
of these declarations, because we’re at the beginning of what has been called the “grand reversal” in development gains, spurred by the pandemic but also reflecting the impact of climate change impacts, migration, ongoing conflict and a sudden increase in global poverty rates that is tipping millions more into a hand-to-mouth existence.
This is the 12th time the Nobel Peace
Prize has gone to the UN, one of its agencies or personalities – more than any other laureate. What does this prize mean for the UN in practical terms
The prize primarily recognises the WFP’s role in fighting hunger and fostering peace in conflict-affected areas. It’s also further recognition of something that the UN Security Council recognised in 2018 when they passed Resolution 2417, which acknowledged the close connection between conflict and hunger. It’s a tribute not only to the WFP’s daily and highly visible work on the front
The pandemic has revealed underlying fragilities in wealthy nations, such as hunger, illness, mass unemployment and sudden spikes in poverty rates within their own borders
lines of hunger in peace and war, but to the entire UN family, as well as the work that international agencies and NGOs, supported by governments and the international community as a whole, do to stop famine in its tracks, prevent hunger, build resilience and take on the huge new challenges emerging as a result of climate change and climate shocks. It signals a renewed commitment to multilateralism and global solidarity when it is more needed than ever.
How would you utilise the monetary
part of the prize?
We haven’t decided precisely how these funds will be allocated, but they will most likely be used to fund our ongoing research into the nexus between hunger and conflict, i.e. hunger as a result of conflict, and hunger and resource scarcity as a factor in why people might go to war with each other. As climate change really begins to impact our world, resource scarcity, hunger, displacement and conflict are going to be constant factors that destabilise the world and threaten peace.
What is your New Year’s wish? That a real end to the pandemic is in sight, so that we can begin assessing and picking up the broken pieces of the Sustainable Development Goals. We have a huge amount of work ahead, and people need hope even when they are hungry, tired and frightened.
FRANCESCA BONELLI UNHCR REPRESENTATIVE IN SERBIA
Pandemic Response More than 25,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Serbia from January to November 2020. According to the statistics of the Serbian
Must Be Government, almost 7,000 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants are currently accommodated in 19 governmental asylum/reception/transit centres in Serbia. Most of them are men (86%), followed by children (10%) and women (4%). A significant percentage (38%) of all the children accommodated in the centres represent unaccompanied minors. Around 2,000 refugees and migrants Inclusive are estimated to remain outside the centres, bringing the overall presence of refugees and migrants in the country to a total of approximately 9,000, representing slightly more than 0.1% of the Serbian population as a whole. The gap of 14,000 - between the 25,000 arrivals and the actual presence of 9,000 – represents the number of refugees and migrants that arrived and already left UNHCR will continue to assist Serbia in keeping the response the country within 2020 (Jan-Nov). This is an indicato the COVID pandemic sensitive and inclusive, also for refugees and people in need of international protection. tion that Serbia is still perceived as a transit country by refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. The worldwide explosion of COVID-19 has not
The support UNHCR is extending to Serbian institutions stopped movements, as we continue to record a constant in terms of fundamental rights, migration and asylum is complementary with Serbia’s EU accession process, especially influx of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers across the entire Western Balkan region, but refugees’ human rights and their status have definitely been impacted with regard of chapters 23 and 24, respectively. negatively by the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 emergency has forced an overall worldwide restriction on human movements, not only among countries but also within the territory of each country. That has impacted on refugees’ human rights twofold. Firstly, the capacity of refugees to escape persecution at home and move toward safety has been further hindered by the overall restrictions on movement imposed by the pandemic. Secondly, limitations on working and movement restrictions brought by the emergency response to the virus have provided a tough challenge to the capacity of Governments, UN Agencies and civil society actors in responding to needs for the protection of refugees,” says UNHCR Representative in Serbia Francesca Bonelli.
As a consequence of this, COVID-19 has restricted overall access to asylum and protection in many parts of the world.
“Nevertheless, Serbia has shown exemplary solidarity towards refugees, notwithstanding the challenges of the pandemic. Refugees and asylum-seekers were received at the centres with a COVID-19 prevention mechanism in place, in order to ensure the minimal risk of infection. UNHCR responded promptly to the authorities’ requests for the provision of preventative equipment and hygiene supplies for the staff and residents of centres. UNHCR has intensified awareness-raising activities and provided psycho-social assistance. In view of the requirements of online schooling, UNHCR also supported children from the refugee, asylum-seeker and local population by providing school equipment. UNHCR will continue to assist Serbia in ensuring that the response to the COVID pandemic is sensitive and inclusive for refugees and people in need of international protection,” underlines our interlocutor.
You’ve said that anti-immigrant rhetoric
in Serbia is gathering momentum and that anti-refugee movements are a cause for concern, yet they don’t show the true face of the Serbian people. How do you explain the rise of this rhetoric?
Part of the answer can be found in all the challenges brought about by this very moment that has seen the entire planet paralysed by the pandemic. The measures introduced to prevent the spread of the virus have already taken their toll – economically and psychologically. When faced with looming insecurities, people tend to seek answers and explanations, and it is easier for them to identify someone to blame for the unpleasant situation. In such an oversimplified picture of reality, the most vulnerable groups – in this case refugees and migrants – can become an easy target. This is not an exclusive characteristic of this particular moment, or of Serbia in general, but those using hate speech and anti-immigrant rhetoric do not base their messages on facts. Even a cursory glance at the relevant data provided by the authorities and international organisations shows that there is no room for any assessment that ‘migrants are stealing our jobs and land’. Similarly, there is no room for talk of “invasion” and large numbers that cannot be handled. State statistics also show that the number of criminal offences registered among the migrant population is negligible relative to the total number of registered criminal offences in the country.
I am confident that the Serbian authorities will further address the issue of hate speech and xenophobia directed towards people who are in need of international protection.
With that in mind, how do you assess the overall position of refugees in Serbia? Serbia has extensive experience of hosting refugees. The response to the 2015 European Refugee Crisis, when both government institutions and civil
Together with the very experienced and committed UNHCR Serbia team, I plan to maximise the capacity of operations to achieve objectives in close synergies with the Government, donor community, civil society and refugees themselves
society organised humane and dignified assistance to refugees, was consistent with that experience. Citizens themselves helped and showed formidable compassion towards newly arrived refugees. Since the 2015 crisis, UNHCR has supported Serbian Institutions in responding to the refugee crisis, expanding asylum/receptions centres, providing protection assistance and strengthening the asylum process, from identification to referrals of who is in need of international protection. The refugee child protection system was also strengthened, including with regard to providing assistance to unaccompanied children with legal counselling and education, as well as the support of their integration process.
As many refugees and migrants still perceive Serbia as a transit country, just a few have decided to stay in Serbia and follow the path to full integration. Although still low, the number of recognised and integrated refugees in Serbia has been increasing steadily since 2015. That is clear evidence that Serbian society has recognised their potential and is seeking to benefit from their contribution. UNHCR fully supports the authorities and partners in strengthening this integration. To this end, UNHCR works in close cooperation with the private sector, with private companies like IKEA and others, to promote the inclusion of refugees in the job market.
You have been in the region for quite
some time and know Serbia well. How have your mandate and the issues in your focus changed?
Yes, it was back in 2000 that I had my first professional experience in Serbia, with the assistance of refugees in the collective centres organised across the country at the time. Since then I’ve served in various emergency missions in Asia, Africa and America, but I came back to Serbia in 2015, when I was part of the UNHCR response at the peak of the European refugee crisis. Five years later I’m back again in the capacity of the High Commissioner’s Representative.
Many things have changed since my first experience with refugees in Serbia 20 years ago.
Serbian Asylum legislation has evolved, procedures for determining refuges status have developed further to factor in the new refugee reality of a mixed movement of asylum seekers and migrants. New receptions centres have been opened to receive refugees and migrants with proper standard conditions. The protection of unaccompanied child refugees and the guardianship system has been strengthened in both legislative and operational terms. Efforts are also being exerted to ensure the inclusion and integration of refugees.
What issues are in your focus today and how do you assist the refugee population?
While a full picture for 2020 is yet to be established, UNHCR estimates that the number of forcibly displaced persons globally is nearing 80 million. This unprecedented figure in the records of the UN Refugee Agency constitutes 1% of humanity.
UNHCR in Serbia supports refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and those at risk of statelessness. Every one of these groups has specific needs that vary from the provision of legal assistance, via support in building new homes and acquiring personal documents, to the most basic needs like food, shelter and medical treatment. That represents a vast task requiring an extensive amount of professional and financial resources. At UNHCR we are very grateful to our main donors in Serbia, both institutional donors – such as the EU, U.S., Czech Republic and Russian Federation – and private sector companies like IKEA, UNICREDIT and UNILEVER.
How satisfied are you with the cooperation you enjoy with the Serbian Government? UNHCR has spent almost 45 years supporting the Serbian Government, and prior to that the Yugoslav Government, in helping displaced persons. Throughout all these years, UNHCR’s cooperation with the Serbian authorities has been positive and productive. The focus of UNHCR’s operations in Serbia has shifted over the course of time. In the early years, UNHCR provided integration and resettlement assistance to refugees from Eastern
Europe and Africa. During the conflicts of the ‘90s, the focus shifted to emergency and humanitarian assistance to refugees and displaced persons from the region. Serbia has to date provided more than 5,100 housing solutions for the most vulnerable refugees from the former Yugoslavia through the Regional Housing Programme financed by the EU, U.S. and many other donors.
Since the 2015 European Refugee Crisis, UNHCR has been supporting Serbia in ensuring the protection of a sensitive approach to mixed movement. In synergy and cooperation with the Serbian Government, donor states and civil society, UNHCR actively identifies persons in need of international protection, providing them with relevant data and assisting their integration.
The support that UNHCR extends to the Serbian institutions, in terms of fundamental rights, migration and asylum, is also complementary with Serbia’s EU accession process, especially in regard to chapter 23 and 24, respectively. UNHCR is looking forward to continuing its close cooperation with the Serbian Government, with the invaluable support of donor countries in fulfilling these important tasks.
What are your plans for 2021? UNHCR is fully committed to continue supporting the Serbia authorities and civil society in 2021 when it comes to ensuring protection during the pandemic and beyond for refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and those at risk of statelessness. For 2021, UNHCR has a protection-sensitive approach to mixed movements in Serbia and throughout the entire Western Balkan region that promotes synergies, the complementarity of mandates and responsibility sharing among all actors, and which will strengthen and enable national asylum systems to better respond to the rights and needs of refugees and asylum seekers. In this regard, The UN Refugee Agency is also planning to establish closer cooperation with local municipalities in order to support the inclusion and integration of refugees and asylum seekers.
In parallel, UNHCR will continues to support Serbia in addressing the still remaining needs of displaced people from the conflicts of the ‘90s. Our support to implementation of the Regional Housing Programme will continue, as will our engagement in finding solutions for internally displaced persons from Kosovo*, with the help of international partners.
The commitment to support Serbia in ending statelessness will remain an important area of our engagement in 2021. UNHCR’s work on the prevention of statelessness, together with the Ombudsperson and relevant government ministries, as well as civil society, will be also relevant during the coming months.
The EU Pact on Migration will also have an impact on the countries of the Western Balkans. UNHCR will identify synergy between the EU Pact and the Global Compact on Refugees, and will support the Government of Serbia in fulfilling its international obligations.
UNHCR colleagues past and present take great pride in the differences they have made, in the lives they have protected, changed and saved. They take pride in rising to new challenges, such as the impact of climate change or, most recently, the coronavirus pandemic – factors which magnify the already significant problems posed by displacement.
NENAD LALOVIĆ,
IOC EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER
Olympics Back On Track
This member of the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a man who holds around a dozen important positions in world sports, discusses the challenges he faced in 2020, including retesting at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to reveal those who cheated 12 years ago, while he reveals that a vaccine will not be mandatory for the Tokyo Olympics
Serbia isn’t a country that has great influence around the world, but one Serb is among the most influential people in world sport. He is Nenad Lalović (62), a member of the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who also holds around a dozen other important positions in sports. To begin with, let’s just mention that he’s also the president of the United World Wrestling (UWW) governing body and a member of the management boards of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF).
“I have three functions at the World AntiDoping Agency alone. It’s not easy to harmonise everything, but I consider it as recognition. I have the most obligations in wrestling, as the top man of the world governing body,” says Lalović, a native Belgrader who has been based in Switzerland in recent years, although he more often finds himself aboard planes, except during this time of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
We would presume that it isn’t difficult
to single out the event that marked 2020 for you – given the postponement of the Olympic Games in Tokyo?
If we set aside the pandemic, which changed the face of the entire planet, the postponement of the Olympics was something that I would single out. The decision to postpone the games was difficult, but also optimistic. Some accuse us of hesitating with the postponement, which isn’t true. We didn’t hesitate, but rather made an overview of all the consequences of every possible solution. It is much easier to cancel the Games than to shift them by a year. Cancellation would be pure surrender. IOC President Thomas Bach sought a solution and negotiated directly with the Prime Minister of Japan and the Mayor of Tokyo, together with the Organising Committee. And together they reached a solution. It was normal that, as a member of the IOC Executive Board, I was present at the source of all events; I knew what was happening at all times and believed that we would find the right solution. We are satisfied that the Games will be held, although we are aware that this causes plenty of complications for international federations, and for the organiser the most. It wasn’t easy for
NENAD LALOVIĆ IN THE COMPANY OF IOC PRESIDENT THOMAS BACH (CENTRE), DURING THE 2015 ELECTIONS FOR IOC MEMBERS
us at the IOC either. It was necessary to carry out an overview of all the ramifications: some federations have a problem with financing if the Games aren’t held, then there are relations with the owners of TV rights, disruptions to the qualification system etc. Just over 50 per cent of competitors have so far qualified for Tokyo. We are all convinced that the remaining qualifications will be held in a fair and sporting way. Any kind of administrative qualification is out of the question, because that is not in the spirit of sport and the Olympics.
It’s no secret that many sports live from
the distribution of money earned from selling TV broadcast rights for the Olympic Games, so this ensures that the pandemic created a difficult situation for many?
On the basis of analysis, the IOC redirected part of funds to international sports federations, to those who needed it the most. That is actually an advanced payment of the income that these federations will earn on the basis of TV rights. We also helped the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games to a certain extent. We see in the media today that the cost of the Games has risen by 2.8 billion dollars as a result of all that. Of course, the greatest challenge confronted Japan, which reorganised itself phenomenally
NENAD LALOVIĆ AND LIVERPOOL FC’S EGYPTIAN FOOTBALLER MOHAMED SALAH IN DUBAI, WHEN THEY RECEIVED RECOGNITION IN DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF THE CREATIVE SPORTS AWARD
despite all the difficulties.
Have the new circumstances led to
any changes in the way the Olympic Games are insured?
The insurance is valid only for Games that ultimately aren’t held. Insurance cannot intervene in this case, because the Games will take place. The situation is the same with international federations. The IOC’s goal wasn’t at all for insurance to be paid because there are no Games, rather we directed all of our efforts towards creating conditions that would enable athletes to fulfil their dreams and compete in the planet’s biggest sporting competition.
You head the governing body of world
wrestling, and it is known that martial arts have been hit hardest by the pandemic, due to the nature of the sport requiring direct physical contact between competitors?
This is a particularly harsh blow for all indoor sports. We didn’t have any major competitions in wrestling after 15th March. We finished the last competition in Ottawa, where we had qualifications and the championship of North and South America. Competition had already started when the pandemic was announced, and then – with the special permission of the authorities of the City of Ottawa – we continued and completed the competition. We didn’t have any infected participants, but we did have a lot of problems. Many teams were unable to return home because planes were grounded. Some spent a month travelling home. Some athletes were accommodated in their embassies, while we helped some of them by renting apartments and transporting them home in various ways. This was a great odyssey for some… It seems to me today that everyone is aware of the infection and the pandemic, to cope with it. Life goes on. Solutions must be found for ways to continue normally, alongside all sanitary measures that prevent the spreading of the virus. That’s more difficult in the halls, but we are witnessing that basketball, handball, and other team sports that have more contact at some points than wrestling, are being played. We are already used to some players not playing because they have tested positive, that matches are postponed but still played. We postponed competitions for two months at a time, because we didn’t want to quash the hopes of athletes that they would compete in the foreseeable future. And that lasted until October, when we started with tournaments in Moscow, Warsaw and Zagreb.
News arrived from the IOC in early December confirming that Thomas Bach would not face an opponent in running for
a new four-year term (the first term was eight years). How would you interpret that?
There is no great ambition for the position of president of the IOC, at least not that I’ve recognised. Here is why: in the Olympic movement there is a well-established practise of choosing the best among us. For now we know that we’ve chosen the best, and that position is very delicate, demanding and difficult. I don’t know if any president before Bach had so many challenges in an eight-year term. I will mention, alongside all the political crises, North and South Korea – the solution of a joint team in Pyongyang, then the Russian problem of doping, then the Zika vurus in Rio de Janeiro, where no one was infected in the end… Then there were problems related to athletics, FIFA, as well as regular pressure from some media to again seek scandals within the IOC. I won’t even mention the COVID-19 virus. Since Bach’s arrival there has been much greater transparency in functioning, a greatly increased influence of athletes over decision making, much greater participation of women
THE MAN WHO BROUGHT KUWAIT BACK INTO THE OLYMPIC FAMILY
Three years ago, California-based professor of journalism Alan Abrahamson, one of the best experts on the opportunities of the Olympic movement, ranked Nenad Lalović among the most serious candidates to replace Thomas Bach as head of the IOC when he leaves that position. Lalović has imposed himself on various fields in sport. He became the first person from Serbia (Yugoslavia) to be elected to join the IOC Executive Board, and prior to that he became a member of the IOC (similar to the assembly that included fellow Serb and former FIBA Secretary General Bora Stankovic from 1988 to 2005). Alongside all the functions noted at the start of this interview, Lalović is also a member of the Olympic Solidarity Commission, which is one of the IOC’s key commissions, tasked with helping to finance athletes and national Olympic committees. He is also a member of the IOC Olympic Summit (which is held annually), head of the Oversight Commission of the AIBA (World Boxing Association) and member of the Crisis Group for Changing the Qualification System in Sports for the Tokyo Games, while he was also head of the Crisis Group to return Kuwait to the Olympic family (Kuwait is again an IOC member state), a member of the Management Committee of the Mediterranean Games etc. Prior to Lalović and Stanković, IOC members from the territory of the former Yugoslavia were Serbian Olympic Club founder Svetomir Đukić, then Franjo Bučar, Stanko Bloudek, Boris Bakrač and Slobodan Filipović.
in management. In boxing, all qualifications and the Olympic tournament are organised by the IOC and not the International Boxing Association (IABA), because it is suspended. We’re also solving the problems of doping in weightlifting, which aren’t related to any particular country but rather the entire culture of that sport. These are all challenges for which Bach offers solutions. We are today considering whether someone will go to Japan in July,
THE SERBIAN FLAG ALSO FLIES AT THE IOC HEADQUARTERS IN LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND
while Bach is already going to Japan regularly. And he doesn’t travel by private plane as some people think.
As a member of the Management Board
of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), how much has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way drug testing is conducted?
The fact there are fewer competitions means that we have much less testing at arenas. Targeted testing out-of-competition is still being conducted. It is neither easy nor safe to test athletes under these conditions. It has happened that the representative of a national anti-doping agency infected an entire team when he came to take samples from competitors. WADA has found a way to boost protection against the virus when taking samples. The essence of WADA is to provide the same conditions for clean athletes and to protect them from those who try to steal. With very harsh sanctions we send a clear message that cheating does not pay off. As you can see, with these retests from Beijing 2008, athletes exposed by new technologies for analysing their samples are today falling, 12 years later. They are retroactively deprived of their medals. The IOC has also invested significant funds in storage facilities for storing samples from the Olympic Games, so it is always possible to retest athletes within a ten-year period.
The appearance of vaccines against
COVID-19 have raised a number of questions regarding next summer’s rescheduled Olympic Games. Bach has said that the vaccine will not be mandatory for Tokyo, but what if the airlines flying to Japan don’t want to accept unvaccinated passengers?
I’ve seen that the International Air Transport Association is considering introducing a mandatory vaccine for flights, but I don’t consider that this will not be an obstacle for Tokyo. The IOC has decided that the vaccine is not mandatory and Bach has announced that, and the Japanese aren’t seeking that either. However, this is about respect for human rights. A small percentage of people think that the vaccine is not good – not to get into a discussion about what anyone
IN THE COMPANY OF PRINCES AND PRINCESSES
Nenad Lalović is one of 15 members of the IOC Executive Board and one of 102 members of the IOC. We asked him what the IOC looks like from the inside:
“Within the Executive Board are President Thomas Bach, four vice presidents and ten members. The board also includes five ladies: Anita DeFrantz, who is also a vice president of the board, then Nicole Hoevertsz, Kirsty Coventry, Nawal El Moutawakel and Mikaela Jaworski. Everything presented at an IOC session is first discussed and proposed by the executive board. IOC members then vote during the session. IOC members include many public figures from around the world. Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is chairman of the IOC Ethics Commission. We have various rulers, even up to the level of kings, as kings cannot be elected. These include Prince Albert of Monaco, Luxembourg Grand Duke Henri, Princess Nora of Liechtenstein, the UK’s Princess Anne, Kuwaiti Sheikh Ahmed Al-Sabah, Qatari Prince Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Danish Crown Prince Frederik, Jordanian Prince Faisal bin Hussein and Belgian Baron Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant. There are also renowned philanthropists, film directors and other public figures…
thinks about vaccination now... I think that the IOC has approached this well, and if airlines decide that the vaccine is mandatory for them we can’t do anything to oppose that. The games will be held nonetheless and will not suffer because of a vaccine. I don’t believe that some athletes who’ve been preparing for years will miss out on the Games because of a vaccine. Science has advanced more in this area in the past nine months than it has in the past nine years, so I believe that all possible obstacles will be overcome by next summer.
