Serbian Parliament; Democratic Party

No, not that Democratic Party, but pretty close!

On Tuesday, we had the honor of entering the Serbian Parliament; this beautiful building was the destination of so many peaceful demonstrators in 2000 when hundreds of thousands of Serbs fought (non-violently) to overthrow the "elected Dictator" Slobodan Milosovic. The two MPs (Members of Parliament) we met were among the youth fighting for democratic change. And now they are MPs! How the world turns ...

The Democratic Party (not the "Democratic Party of Serbia", which is something else entirely) is the leading party in the governing coalition in Serbia's Parliament. It also is the party of Serbia's President, Boris Tadic.

Right after our tour of Parliament (which included us going into the main Chamber) and our 70-minutes discussion with these two great young leaders, we had a meeting with two other great young leaders, two women who work for CANVAS, the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action & Strategy. This is an NGO that grew out of OTPOR, the youth movement that led the charge against Milosevic. CANVAS also is the NGO that trained Egypt's April 6 Movement, which led the 25 January Revolution against that other former dictator, Mubarak. (See how my worlds come together?!)

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