Belgrade is a stopover. Chaos and disorder. The parks around the bus station have been taken over by refugees. Across the bus station and a housing block away is where they are. Waiting. The tickets to the northern cities of Vojvodina are sold for days in advance. Signs in arabic language advertising transport opportunities. The chic, Hotel Mr. President is fully occupied. The well off refugees rented the rooms. Yesterday, when I have arrived thousands of Serbs received the  world champion water polo team. A few streets away from the bus station a big celebration took place. In the office of the Serbian President the team was received by the countryˋs political leaders. For Sasha Vucic, the prime minister of Serbia, his own speech brought tears into his eyes. Then the celebration was over and Serbs heading home, carrying their national flag, mix up with the refugees. No incident was reported. Here the mood is bit more tense than in Macedonia, but so far nobody jumped to exploit the political gold mine of hate business. Though the situation changes day by day.

From the inside this refugee crisis is just like a living organism. Doors, opportunities are closing, others are opening. The greek police officer sigh big when he talks about the fence erected by the Bulgarians on their border with Turkey. Thatˋs made their fence on the Turkish border useless. The flow shifted to the islands. The Greek coast guard patrols the shores for the show, they have given up. The Greek are shy to raise the issue with Turkey. Perhaps they afraid that the question of the continental shelf and fishing rights open up again. So nothing to do. The Greek ships the refugees from the islands to Athens, then push them towards the North. Their only goal, do it as fast as possible. For a while Macedonia fought and tried. Police chased people in the border area. They gave up as well. Now, the once fearsome police officers nicely and politely assisting the refugees. The policy changed. The goal is the same as in Greece, let them cross the country, but fast.Their only concern is that the system jams somewhere and they have no clue what to do then. But it is not a problem yet. The Serbs are more nervous. The fence, which construction has already started by the Hungarians is a serious dilemma. Because now they do as the others along the route: do not upset the flow and avoid setting up bureaucratic roadblocks. But what if the fence jams it?

The countries along the route gave up the fight against the tide. The positive outcome of this that it pull the carpet under the organised or ad hoc criminal gangs. The human smuggling almost fully disappeared in this area. Now the refugees do not need to pay thousands of Euros to cross the Balkan borders. It all happens under police control. Only one small niche remained which provide opportunities for ripping the refugees off, that is the transport. Official and casual taxi drivers charging shamelessly for their services.

The biggest problem is that for the entire problem there seems to be no answer. The solution is not even in the making. On monday morning the Belgrade papers ran the cover page story of Momir Stojanovic, chairman of the Defence Committee of the Serbian Parliament. Stojanovic throw in a speculation bomb. He said that the European Union could (note the conditional tense) urge to establish a refugee centre in Southern Serbia. Surely this is a speculation, but if I try to put this together, this could be that the Serbs heard something and they got concerned that their living nightmare becomes reality: the Balkan route jams. The papers write on the reception of four hundred thousand people. On the other hand this is another example for the lack of ideas and political initiative of the EU.

The refugee flow is one the of worldˋs most adoptive organism. It reacts immediately to the changing situation. Those who are busy writing drafts in their comfortable offices with the help of grammar correction softwares, in between two sentences when they look up and have a nice view over the Boulevard Charlemagne tend to forget, or they never new, this organism made up by humans. Humans who had left nothing to lose. How this system will turn around an afghan whose entire family was slaughtered by the Talibans? What this system can say to a Syrian who carries one of his sons on his back, while helping the other who obviously just started to walk? This should be understood somehow in those elegant offices and decision makers must start pushing the whole system towards the solution. There are no fast and immediate solution. But every day delay extends the problem. And now every single meter of newly erected fence is a thrown out money. Every brainstorming and speculation on stopping the flow in the periphery is just prestidigitation, a bloody hunky-punky. The refugee who has nothing to lose is far more creative than a sluggish  bureaucratic system.  The people waiting for the refugee train at the Gevgelija station had more information on the situation at the Hungarian border 8OO kilometers away to the North then me. They have Facebook groups where they share information with each other. Updates are coming in from those who made it. GPS coordinates circulating. As long as the whole crisis is being treated by national governments as a "national issue", as long as the EU can not come up with a viable plan (not any plan, we have passed that point long time ago) the political charlatans' bonanza continues, and I have no doubt, they will throw the hate bomb into their societies as soon as their political interest needs them.  As it has happened in Belgrade. For Stojanovicˋs statement the pundits and "experts" reacted immediately. They said that such a plan could bring a catastrophe to Serbia. Because " what if that in one hundred there is only one terrorist?"

But all of this is not the concern of the refugees camping in the parks of Belgrade. Not yet. They do not want to deal with the home affairs of these countries having their strange sounding names. Their biggest concern is the possibility of the fence (?) at the Hungarian border. They do not have enough information on this, that is why the anguish. So close to the EU they are concerned choosing another route. That would cost an awful lot. Talking to them it became clear that right now the biggest challenge is the crossing of the Hungarian border.

So I try to find a ticket then I travel to Vojvodina.

Belgrade AUgust 1O 2O15.