Fourteen people died in Novi Sad. A canopy over the train station collapsed, burying them.

The government has said this is a tragedy, and that the canopy was an old communist construction. However, the canopy was in fact made recently. Various articles of ministers talking about the new construction in Novi Sad’s train station quickly disappeared, along with images of the politicians responsible shaking hands with people, standing at the train station.

Techies and architects quickly scraped the images before the articles disappeared, and Belgrade’s been buzzing furiously for the last few days. Despite the ā€˜tragedy’, police officers destroyed candle-lit vigils around Belgrade.

There is a slogan going around.

It’s not a tragedy, it’s a murder.

Belgrade’s out for blood, or at least resignation of the chief of transport, the prime minister, and a few other officials. Protestors have also demanded more transparency for domestic planning, including contracts and architectural plans being announced ahead of time.

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So today, at the protest my wife decides to go along the front line of police officers. At each one, she stopped, looked him up and down, and said something bespoke, often reading their name-tag.

Oh my classmate had the same surname. There are lots of you - big family!

The police officer smiled at this.

Do you think any of you will die when the next bit of infrastructure collapses? Maybe your kids will die in a collapsing school. Hey, don’t look away, look at me. Your poor mother carried a child for nine months, and wondered what he’d be when he grew up. All those years, just to get a cop. She must be so disappointed.

Down she went, one by one, until every officer on the front had a personal message.