Where the streets have no name

But I don't ask myself why they don't get first to more urgent problems. I ask myself WTF!?, i.e. Why are they doing it at all?

And the next question that comes to my mind is: What's so wrong with me to think that the street names actually serve to help us orientate better through the city?

And is something very wrong with me when I can't grasp the fact they "city authorities" don't find anything wrong in these constant changes?

How could we expect anything else from our "representatives" when they can't master the simple task of the function of the street names!!??

...if they named a street after you? Then, when someone asks who you are, we could say that we don't know, because like a real coward, you still continue to hide your identity from us. Are you some kind of Clark Kent/Superman type who has to hide his identity?

Well i guess people like to talk about the 'minor' things such as street names because they seem easier to solve, and everybody really can be an expert on a lighter subject, than on some subject requiring some expertise like traffic accidents reduction.

I'll go with the flow, and join the lighter debate, not because i don't like the tougher ones but because i don't feel i can contribute in a constructive way. I really don't see the issue about placing the street name signs in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, maybe even English on certain translatable places ('square' for example).
How much more could that cost?

It seems to me that most are against the changing of cyrylic letters being replaced by the latin ones. Ok, if this is the case, why don't the citizens of each community organize something that will, instead of replace or delete the latin letters, simply print below or above, the Cyrllic letters so that both are shown?

If this were done enough by the citizens in every city the government would sooner or later have to recongize the fact that no matter what they do, cryillic will never go away. But then organizing citizens of any nation is easier said than done! :(

Citizens are strong in numbers even if it may take a few years for this number to be recognized. It's a proven fact that if citizens of any country stand together for anything long enough, this cause will eventually win over the government's way of thinking.

Sincerely,
John
http://johnanderson75.blogspot.com

Wherever national minorities are concentrated in larger numbers, there are street signs in one of the 5-6 languages (Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Rusyn...). Obviously, this is the case in Vojvodina - in those municipalities where a certain minority comprises at least 10-15 percent of the local population. This, of course, is in addition to all the other cultural rights they enjoy (state-subsidized ethnic newspapers, TV, radio, schools...).

One of the most taken-for-granted rights is the right to have an ethnic political party. Most, if not all, Western "democracies" prohibit this.

In many respects, Serbia is far more liberal and democratic than she's being given credit for.

Street signs are, therefore, a distraction and a right that doesn't really matter. It's a useless right, if you will. It does not make the minorities' daily lives any better. There's no better way of "welcoming" minorities than giving them the same rights I, as a Serb, enjoy.

As for the tourists, those places most frequently visited by them ought to be bilingual (Serbian Cyrillic & English). That's the case in many instances, although more has to be done. One important thing to keep in mind: transliteration is key. Not many foreigners are aware that "j" in Serbian is pronounced "y"; that "c" in "Decanska" is not a "k" but a "ch", etc...

The confusion is solely the consequence of Serbia's adopting the Latin script. If you read any Serbia-related, pre-1920 books or newspapers in English, you will notice that the transliteration rule is followed to a t. It had to be done, because there was no Latin script in Serbia at the time. A good contemporary example is Russia, where the names and words are always phonetically transliterated into English, because the Russians don't use the Latin script. If Boris Yeltsin was a Serb, his name would appear as "Jeljcin" in English-language print -- hardly the correct way of writing it. Imagine trying to pronounce it while following the rules of the English language. The same rule applies to Japanese, Chinese, Arabic...for obvious reasons.

This is one of the practical reasons why I am in favour of the Cyrillic script.