For April’s Top Tips, we checked-in with Dobrivoje Lale Eric. He is the Head of Department of International Cooperation at the Center for the Promotion of Science and member of the ACPC.

Listening to –

Serbian Students! (I will explain it a bit later)
Last month, I was lucky to attend concerts of some of amazing musicians in Belgrade – magnificent Tindersticks, with their highly melodical, yet equally disturbing and cacophonic sound, marked with a unique voice of Stuart Staples, and the extraordinary Jay-Jay Johanson, Sweden’s hidden musical gem. However, as they’re globally renowned artists, and as the arts, especially music, can fly over borders and boundaries, let’s give some local flavour here. Among my all-time favourites are Đorđe Balašević and Arsen Dedić, genuine poets, outstanding musicians and authentic persons who were helping us to confront and survive rather chaotic realities for decades. Therefore, give a try with Đorđe’s Živeti slobodno (Live freely) and Arsen’s Odlazak (Leaving).

Reading –

Several books are usually by my pillow – ideally quite diverse – which I tend to read in parallel, sometimes even for months to be honest. One usually covers fine literature, and my focus lately is on Italian writer Sandro Veronesi. Just finished his Quite Chaos, yet my primary recommendation would be The Hummingbird, which introduced me to the sleepy, dark and dream-like Italian scenery, wherein hits of hummer brake characters inside-out. In other spectrum, as I’m mostly dealing with climate subjects, lies Jason Hickel’s meticulous study Less is More, devoted to our obsessive chase of the overwhelming progress and economic growth, with its historical roots and causes. Not only that Hickel offers a sound, fact-based and sharp criticism, but also suggests numerous ways for creating new global paradigm and inevitable transformation of the globalised world.

Following –

I’m either ignorant or self-protective in terms of social media (except LinkedIn), but still constantly digging digital realm for amusing, creative and original content elsewhere, covering the fields I’m into (Klima101, for instance).

I don’t know how much ECSITE alikes are aware that Serbia cherishes a unique basketball culture in Europe (with Lithuania probably being the only peer here), but I can brief (or deep-dive) anyone interested at the following gathering in Warsaw! There are numerous forums, tv shows, audio and video podcasts covering basketball heritage, strategies and ongoing affairs, but I would propose the Kida Show, a relatively novel format involving Partizan’s – allegedly the best basketball club in the world – legendary coach Dule Vujošević and current coach of Serbias’s national team, Svetislav Kari Pešić, with other guests with diverse backgrounds in each episode. Only in Serbian, though, but with all these ai translators and tools…

Things keeping me up at night –

In my late forties, I’m still not sure how world functions and if and how we can make it wonderful for everyone. Fortunately for us in Serbia, the students stood out as a voice of generation after the tragedy which killed sixteen people who were just standing below the canopy that collapsed at the railway station in Novi Sad. The snowball that was initiated didn’t roll down but rise all over us as a symbol, as a hope. No matter how the whole movement finishes, it stays with us as a warning that we should be better, that we know better and that these young souls are already higher than we may ever reach. They’re making me proud for being their contemporary and countryman, while also reminding me of myself when I was a student, back in our tragic nineties, fighting for something I can feel but not touch.

Somewhere I’ve been recently –

For the purpose of the ClimaGen partnership, I’ve just reached and returned from the northernmost point I had been to – Trondheim! It’s not that North for many people, I’m aware, but for a true Southerner as how I consider myself, this is certainly a completely different world! It brings such a profound, refreshing contemplative potentials, even melancholy and transcendence, with that windy air coming all the way from far North, allowing astonishing views and perspectives, and a notion of calm, mindfulness and presence, which I tend to miss sometimes in our always over-exaggerating South. And speaking about whom/what to follow, do check our ClimaGen gang, which aims to substantially transform and adapt selected areas of nine cities across Europe, from Norway to Greece, and from Spain to Estonia, including Belgrade as well.

Somewhere I’m planning to go –

I’m sort of a regional-patriot in terms of my Southeast corner of the continent, which I somehow reaaly feel and consider a personal playground. From strolling down and enjoying natural beauties, cities and secluded pockets in Serbia and neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia, through practicing dolce vita in Italian North and skying and enjoying snow (while still there) on Slovenian, Italian and Austrian Alps, to diving into the bluest waters of Greek and Croatian coasts. My two absolute island favourites are Skopelos and Korčula, and I hope to return to them this summer as well!