Finger Food

In protest of a company not paying employees their wages, a Serbian union official chopped off his pinky finger and ate it. He did mention that “it hurt like hell.” It hurt like hell? That’s Serbian folks at their best. Plain, simple, honest. And to his defense, he was making the point that the employees have nothing to eat and have to seek alternative sources of food. And you might wonder where he got this idea? From a woman who was going to do it herself, so he spared her the trouble.

When I first read this article I wanted to write something funny and make light of it. Obviously, the comic potential is there. And coming from Serbian stock myself, I felt I could get away with it. But instead I want to take the opportunity to point out these are a group of people like no other. I always tell people, “don’t piss of the Serbians. They’re crazy.” I grew up in a Serbian church and watched my fair share of political “discussions” between the angry men. But at the heart of it all, is a love and loyalty to all things Serbian, namely each other. This man ate his own finger in support of his brethren who were not being paid their wages. He sacrificed for them. And now people are taking notice. Crazy? Yes. Effective? Yep. Tasty? Probably not.

For years, in the ‘90s, when the world bombed the shit out of Yugoslavia nobody really cared about the Serbian people. When the US bombed Iraq, people cared. Like Iraq, the Serbs had a miserable leader who treated his enemies like dogs. Unlike Iraq, the media, and by extension the rest of the world, could not care less. There’s no doubt that Milosevic - the Serbian leader at the time - was brutal, tyrannical, disgusting. And though the Serbian people deserved better treatment during the bombing, the world turned its back on them. The people would pay for the leader's sins. So what are they left to do? Take care of each other as best they can, even if it means biting the hand that needs.