Standing in a darkened train compartment waving goodbye to Katarina, co-founder of WWOOF Serbia, at the Belgrade Station, I had the electric nervousness I often get when visiting a foreign place I know little about.
As the old, reliable Soviet-era train rattled into the dark countryside, Beth and I sat silent, desperately grasping to the pronunciation of our stop: Cortanovci. I must have repeated the name fifty times in my head, but when the young man next to us asked where we were going all I could come up with was ChorTonaSki (emphasizing the capital letters in my best Russian accent). He looked at me blankly and I tried again, this time butchering the village’s name into something I didn’t even recognize. Finally, Beth pulled out her journal and in the dim light of a fading station he said, “Oh, Cortanovci!”
I consider myself a lucky man. I was born in the right place at the right time to enjoy what may well be the peak period of civilization. Never has human society offered so much to those in a position to take advantage of it - physical luxury not even kings and queens could enjoy in past eras, intellectual freedom unparalleled since the ancient Greeks, an exceptionally wide spectrum of political choice, knowledge beyond anything available previously, social justice achieved by few previous societies - a cornucopia of gifts.
Now, unfortunately, civilization - global civilization - is faced with imminent collapse, taking much of this good stuff with it. If this sounds like an old man reminiscing nostalgically about the good old days, consider the evidence.
In the last WWIndy News no.51, there is a reportage on WWOOFing opportunities in Serbia. We are pleased that some of our hosts got the chance to be promoted world wide since the WWIndy News is the official newsletter of WWOOF Independents which is delivered to a huge number of potentional WWOOFers. Here is what they say about WWOOFing in Serbia:
WWOOFers from all over the world have already visited in the few months since their launch - and as the host list grows, there are more and more reasons to discover this beautiful country. If you would like to live in a raw-food family, in an eco-village, with bees or with a lot of children at a biodynamic farm, then you have to WWOOF in Serbia!
New Food Bill in New Zealand raises a wall of state-bureaucratic procedures between New Zealand farmers and food and seeds that they have been commonly growing and sharing with each other till now. The Food Bill opened upsetting controversy in NZ: “It turns a human right (to grow food and share it) into a government-authorised privilege that can be summarily revoked. It makes it illegal to distribute “food” without authorisation, and it defines “food” in such a way that it includes nutrients, seeds, natural medicines, essential minerals and drinks (including water). Under the Food Bill, Police acting as Food Safety Officers can raid premises without a warrant, using all equipment they deem necessary – including guns (Clause 265 – 1).”
Today is International Volunteer Day - IVD! WWOOF Serbia just wanted to thank to all our present and future WWOOFers! We are proud and happy to have you as volunteers on organic farms in Serbia. Organic movement and people going back to Nature in general really appreciate your help and quite support, especially if it is known that WWOOF is grassroots initiative meaning that it is set up by and for the people. So far, not any of government organizations or institutions has taken a part in WWOOF. Lucky for us, we would say! International Volunteer Day is set up by the United Nations in 1985 and frankly speaking, we don’t care about it: No need to remind that WWOOF as a volunteering on organic farms started in 1971! But, from the other hand, it is a nice opportunity to tell you something about our WWOOFers:
In today's technological society everything is under control, everything must be managed, and even the "environment" (which is a technocratic term for nature in the Orwellian Newspeak). "Wilderness" is subjected to special "protection techniques" of national and international agencies. Whom do they protect it from and what is the purpose of their protection? Is it protection against the greedy corporations, industry and developers with their bulldozers and excavators, or maybe against us, ordinary people? Who, in the end, use and benefit of that "wilderness"? What socialites hunt, drive jeeps and build ski resorts there, and later sell those "pleasures" to others? More important than the social divisions and inequalities in access to nature as a property and "resource" is the question: How does the average person in mass society feel about nature, where is its place in our collective consciousness? How is it possible that treating nature as a "factor of production" and "an enormous reservoir of stored energy", content of exclusive goods and services and background of media spectacle, has become widely accepted and commonplace?
My son Corbin is three now and intimate with his surroundings. He visits the special place where water sifts out from under the moss-covered bedrock, he knows where the nettles grow (and enjoys the soup), he prefers birch for making fires because it smells nice and he once stumbled after moose fleeing across a meadow. Corbin is the first child raised from birth at our farm since 1911. In the century that has passed since, the land hasn’t seen a human native, and no child here has grown into maturity to develop a deep understanding and emotional connection to the place.
Our question as parents then is how do we recapture the skills of a native? How do we learn again to live with the seasons, the shifting temperaments of the local winds and rains, the unique plants and animals that share our home? How do we learn to tend the land so we know how to enhance its diversity for everyone’s benefit? How do we reclaim our space as a native species, after so many of our inherited skills have been lost?
Here we are: Katarina & Miroslav writing from Serbia as recently established national WWOOF organization. Two of us are passionate about WWOOF, organic movement, natural food, etc. In a word, about going back to our native roots. We admit we are city kids who don’t know much about growing food except having WWOOF experience gained in Spain, France and Czech Republic. But, as our origins are from the more natural environments we do feel giant need to support and contribute to people who do that all the time. Considering we travel a lot, meet a lot of people and speaking with them, we have realized that we have some useful skills they need. From the other hand, we think it is very important to remind city people like we are from time to time about beauty and meaning of tending our surroundings as a native by trying to learn from nature what we have been forgotten.
In the last 
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My son Corbin is three now and intimate with his surroundings. He visits the special place where water sifts out from under the moss-covered bedrock, he knows where the nettles grow (and enjoys the soup), he prefers birch for making fires because it smells nice and he once stumbled after moose fleeing across a meadow. Corbin is the first child raised from birth at our farm since 1911. In the century that has passed since, the land hasn’t seen a human native, and no child here has grown into maturity to develop a deep understanding and emotional connection to the place. 
