"Adio" to Dubrovnik A tale of two refugees Full Monty Parlor Games Share My Fire Car - the relationship-saving device Going Straight West A year to expirience, a lifetime to understand Meeting Vuk Cultural insensitivity Sex in Serbia Buvljak experience What's news in Yugoslavia? part II What's news in Yugoslavia? Trust issues: Yugoslav Banks Hosting, Serbian style Flat-hunting Staying legally in Yugoslavia Welcome to Belgrade Border crossings The Paper Chase: Single - entry visas

1. Say they are hungry and buy a pack of cigarettes
2. Take a cigarette break.
3. Borrow money if they don't have it...just to buy a pack of cigarettes.

They seem, well...a little weird, don't they?

With the copious consumption of cigarettes consumed in Yugoslavia, I'm sure the department of heath has added them to the list of four main food groups...that is, after Nescafe, chewing gum and rostilj (grilled meats).

Now that I'm in Budapest, I miss the ritual of shared self-destruction especially when among non-Yugoslavs. In Budapest, you can find many Westerners self-absorbed in their act of meticulous cigarette rolling, as if nobody else matters.

If this habit is considered a statement of individuality in the West, in Yugoslavia, it is a statement of solidarity.

No sooner have I just shaken hands with a Serb acquaintance when bam...he or she flicks an open box of cigs, points them at me without one word spoken.

The beauty of this gesture is that it proves that smoking in Yugoslavia is the most natural thing in the world. Not even the slightest thought is given to the remote possibility that I might not smoke.

But I don't, or at least I didn't in Yugoslavia. It just wasn't taboo enough. Among Westerners, cigarette smoking is something you do to feel bad, or good...I mean, to feel bad feeling good. In Yugoslavia, smoking is just something you do.....

The law of economics takes on a special hue in the cigarette trade. As one Balkan expert told me, the one who gives away the most cigarettes gets back the largest bounty in the end.

And it keeps the advertising firms in business. Since advertising legislation hasn't entirely ruled out clearly advertising cigarettes and alcohol in public, you can find billboards in Belgrade that allude to smoking, without actually showing people in the act of you know...doing it.

"The taste of freedom," reads one billboard advertising Winston. On the poster is an eagle flying over a gorge. Real American, I think, but oh so vague. More to the point is the advertisement for the oh-so-French brand Gallouise. That swarthy guy enjoying his laziness, or painting a nude of his girlfriend in the park. Now that's a call to smoke!

But not like Yugoslavs need any special incentives. Lucky Strike sponsors Belgrade's Summertime Jazz Festival and the advertisers think associating the brand with something cool and what's more important "American" is going
to get people hooked. As a non-smoker, I've never really understood this brand-affiliation business. I mean, can a cigarette really better than another? It's not like perfume, which is easy to reject or embrace based on how it works with one's individual chemistry.

Are men who smoke Montenegrin-made Marlboros really different out of men who keep a tacky-yet-folkloric packet of Dunavs tucked away in their jacket coat pockets or is this just another myth arising from peer pressure.

Some people think that to be considered a real Serb, one has to nostalgically about Kosovo being sacred to the Serbian nation, recite the epic poetry and fight for the Bosnian cause. Forget patriotism, just smoke to show where you come from!

by Jennifer C. Brown    

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Your previous talk back on the subject above:
life and property in Belgrade - Antony Butts
cute--- - northern star
your email - adam ellick
Going to Belgrade in 3 weeks - Tom Montague
problem? - Govno Smrdic
Share My Fire - Lucija Maras
SERBS - pavle vojnovic
smoking - Aleksandra SAnja
belgrade in general.... - Sasha Sukunda