Train Wreck in Montenegro
Since my last posting I have been in touch with other friends from the Balkans. Robert Sullivan, a Fulbright scholar who taught in Niksic the year before I went there, wrote to me just today to tell me that two students from the Philosophical Faculty were killed in the train wreck. I'm including other responses to the disaster, so read on.
Jelena Ognjenovic, who has commented on other Blue Monkey postings, wrote about the frustration and pain she felt, even at a distance:
I found on one site a complete list of all injured and of those who died in the train wreck, and it is a really long list and each line is one more scar in my heart.
We are to much busy nation, but we lead our energy and concerns in a wrong direction. It is pointless now to say anything, for those dead bodies it doesn't matter anymore who is guilty, we always do thing a little bit too late, and I am wondering when we are going to be on time.
Alexander Bogdanovic has also continued to write. His frustration has reached a near crisis:
this morning we had another problem - a train from Podgorica was about to bring another disaster [because] it slipped from its way near Bar, but there [were no victims], nor was anyone injured. it just COULD be an accident. that can tell us how our country functions in any way. everything else is not any better than trains in here. and those freaks blame the man who was navigator of the tragic machine.
Former student Ana Ponos was in Podgorica when the disaster took place. She felt more optimistic about the response to the crash.:
everything is in mess around here, 44 people died, 198 of them hurt...awful. just awful. babies, kids, students, old people. a terrible accident.
but the country responded very well...the rescue teams, firemen, policemen, doctors, everyone was there, helping. 2 000 people went to the hospital to give their blood for the cause. and the government collected over 1,5 million euros for those people. 3 days of grief in the country.
….
but it was terrible. the names of those who died on the tv screen whole day, pictures from the hospital, from the place of accident. and it wasn't on the north of the country, it happened here, on a hill . . . maybe 20-30 km from [Podgorica].