The Regional Theater Union (RUTA), whose member is also the City Theater, was formed in Belgrade. In addition to the City Theater, the Union consists of five other theater companies from the territory of the former Yugoslavia: Belgrade Drama Theater, Drama Theater Skopje, Chamber Theater 55 from Sarajevo, Ljubljana City Theater and Ulysses Theater from Zagreb.

The formation of the Regional Theater Union was officially formalized in the Belgrade City Assembly, and this act was accompanied by a protocol on business cooperation between the mentioned theaters, signed by Artistic Director of the City Theater Dusan Kovacevic, Sofija Kunovska from Skopje Drama Theater, Vedran Fajkovic from Sarajevo Chamber Theater 55 , Barbara Hing Samobor from Ljubljana City Theater, Dusko Ljuština from the Ulysses Theater (Zagreb / Brioni) and Jug Radivojevic from the Drama Theater Belgrade.

The goals of the newly formed Theater Union are to institutionalize collaboration between these theaters, to allow the audience to see representative performances from the region, and to produce major co-productions. In this context, one of the initial steps will be the organization of the first RUTA festival, which will take place from December 1-6 at the Drama Theater in Belgrade.

"The collaboration will allow for fair competition, and at the same time make the ex-YU theater scene more quality, and thus the audience more satisfied," said the Artistic Director of City Theater Dusan Kovacevic.

Belgrade Theater Director and Union’s mastermind Jug Radivojevic said that since its inception, Belgrade Drama Theater has tended to be innovative and keep pace with the times. He added that RUTA is a good abbreviation because the theaters in the region have a common path, direction and journey.

"I would like to thank my colleagues, who quickly recognized the great idea. Creating a union is an event of great importance for the culture of the entire region," emphasized Radivojevic.

The representative of the Ulysses Theater Dusko Ljustina pointed out that he participated in the formation of the KPGT and the concept of cooperation of the three philharmonics "Pika, točka, tačka", with the assessment that the RUTA festival will surely be a theatrical holiday.

"But without journalists, we would not have reached anyone. If journalists were watching the theater as they were following politics, then those policies would be better," said Ljustina.

Chamber Theater Representative 55 Vedran Fajkovic noted that during the art festivals, Sarajevo awakens and becomes "the old Sarajevo that many remember, which welcomes guests with open arms." That is why, as he emphasized, this idea of collaboration is noble, because artists do not know the boundaries inside their minds.

Text by CdM on October 20th, 2019, read more at CdM

October 22, 2019 - Each September, millions of volunteers from all over the world come together to clean up the beaches and coastlines of their respected countries - and with this event, highlight the dangers of waste in our environment.

This year, Montenegro took part in the event for the third year in a row. Organised by the NGO Zero Waste Montenegro (ZWMNE), the International Clean Up Day brought together thirteen NGOs, citizen groups, national and international institutions and organisations in eleven different locations, from Ulcinj and Tivat to Zabljak and Pljevlja. 

Just like the previous years, the volunteers and organisations conducted a Waste Audit to identify the types of waste frequently found in nature. What was special this year was the additional Brand Audit that was conducted for the first time in Montenegro to identify the biggest brands found in nature. This means that the collected waste was not only sorted by type of waste but also by type of brand. The results were written down in the Waste Audit Report. A total of 563 volunteers collected 926 garbage bags with a total weight of 5,941 kg of rubbish.

Due to the frequent usage of plastic material in Montenegro, it is not a surprise that more than half of the rubbish collected was plastic waste while the rest was metal, glass, organic, paper and other waste. Plastic takes up to hundreds of years to decompose and is never fully gone because it stays in the environment in the form of microplastics which makes it so harmful. 

The Brand Audit gave everyone a clear picture of which brands were the biggest polluters in all locations. When it comes to national brands the ones most often found were Suza, Niksic Brewery, Aqua Bianca, Diva Voda and Srna, while the international brands were dominated by Coca Cola, Knjaz Milos and Vlasinska Rosa. 

All plastic bottles from Niksic were taken to the recycling yard in Podgorica. Unfortunately, most cities in Montenegro lack access to good recycling infrastructure which results in a low recycling rate. For this to change, the government needs to make access to recycling infrastructure available to everyone and inform the citizens on how to separate their waste. However, it is important to keep in mind that recycling is only a small part in the big picture: we need to get people to refuse, reduce and reuse before they even get to a point where they need to recycle anything. Policies need to change, and information needs to be transmitted in a more effective way. Thanks to NGOs such as Zero Waste Montenegro and their promising and highly motivated members this switch might become reality soon.

For more information on Zero Waste Montenegro visit their website here. 

21 October 2019 - The most beautiful girls from more than 50 countries, including Montenegro, are competing tonight for the Miss Globe title in the southernmost city of Montenegro, Ulcinj.

The Miss Globe is an Annual International Beauty Pageant run and produced by Deliart Association & owned by the Canadian based The Miss Globe Beauty Pageant. It is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants, as well as the women’s personality traits, intelligence, talent, and a contestant's ability to answer judges' questions on various subjects as judged criteria. The pageant is organised every year, and the International Final is open to the public and broadcasted by the national TV channels.

During their stay in Montenegro, representatives of the participating countries visited Podgorica, Tivat, Bar, Kotor and Cetinje, all with the aim of promoting Montenegro as a tourist destination.

In an interview for RTCG Portal, a representative of Montenegro, 21-year-old Martina Božinović told that the girls were most delighted with Tivat and Porto Montenegro, but also with Cetinje.

"I feel a kind of responsibility for the role of the host. For this reason, it was easier for me last year at the Miss Tourism World competition in China," Martina said with a smile, stating that she is not currently as focused on winning, as much as she aims to represent Montenegro in the best way possible.

Watch the Miss Globe pageant live at the Official Miss Globe Website.

The Fall Festival returns for a second year to celebrate the wonderful colors and flavors of autumn. The all-day festival will feature events celebrating the season, a local food market and pumpkin carving competition. 

Last year, this event had amazing success and looking at the weather, it seems it will be yet another amazing day this year. Between food stations, painting colony, folklore, and kids’ animation, there will be plenty on offer for everyone.

More on https://www.lusticabay.com

The Montenegrin team of young robot scientists will represent Montenegro for the third time this year at the competition in Dubai.

The theme of the world competition, which represents a real Olympics in high school robotics, is a global problem every year, and now ocean pollution is the focus.

The members of the Montenegrin team are Todor Capunovic from the Gymnasium “Petar I Petrovic Njegos” Danilovgrad, Aleksandar Boljevic from the Gymnasium of Podgorica and a student of the Mixed Secondary School “Mladost” from Tivat Komnen Kankaras.

The mentors are Nikola Bulatovic - teaching assistant at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Montenegro, Dragan Todorovic who has been a competitor in previous years and this year transfers his experience as a mentor to the younger members of the team and Nina Drakulic, project coordinator and student of specialist studies in the field of telecommunications at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering UCG.

Drakulic told “Vijesti” that the Montenegrin robotics team had successfully represented our country in the high school world competitions FIRST Global Challenge for the past two years.

"We won 13^th place in Washington two years ago, among 161 countries which took part in the competition. Last year, in Mexico City, due to minor technical difficulties, we were ranked 72nd in the competition of 169 teams (countries). The competition is being held in Dubai this year with the theme 'Ocean Opportunities,' and we are already working hard to secure our participation and achieve a positive result for our country, as in the previous years," she said.

She explained that the theme of this year's competition is ocean pollution, to awaken awareness among young people and to come up with an idea of how to make a product one day through "playing games" that will help eliminate the damage caused by ocean, sea and land pollution.

"The goal of this competition is also to strengthen STEM technology, which has been very popular in recent years, and of what robotics itself is consisted of. STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) technology combines four entities into one. These are science, technology, engineering and math. It is also about overcoming barriers between different cultures, sharing knowledge to reach a common goal," Drakulic said.

The goal of this competition is also to strengthen STEM technology (Photo: Nina Drakulic)

She said that almost every country in the world is participating in this important competition.

"In addition to a large number of participants, the importance and image of the competition are also indicated by the fact that Ivanka Tramp (daughter of US President Donald Trump) and the President of Mexico led the opening ceremony for the past two years. The opening ceremony, as well as the competition, were attended by numerous diplomats, ambassadors and prominent representatives of the countries. To represent our country in the best possible way, we contacted our ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Dusanka Jeknic, who will be our guest at the competition, "Drakulic said.

Text by Ana Komatina on October 20th, 2019, read more at Vijesti

The cleanup in Kolasin saw the participation of the Utility company, the Protection Service, the Utility Police, members of the SFC “Tara and Moraca”, activists of non-governmental organizations, as well as a large number of elders and employees of the local government.

The Ministry of Agriculture launched an initiative to clean up and regulate the watercourses in cooperation with local governments and beneficiaries of the Small Grants Program, which is supported by the regional project "Management of River Drina Basin in the Western Balkans".

“The action originated from the need of Montenegrin citizens to preserve and clean the watercourses, in those locations where we noticed critical areas with deposited waste, which is the fault of malpractice individuals. The action is also a way of raising awareness. These activities will create the formation of coordination teams, which will be made by municipalities and state institutions, and will continue to deal with the conservation of the watercourse. We will also work to strengthen the criminal policy, through the legislative framework, to prevent further pollution and devastation of the rivers," said Momcilo Blagojevic, Director of the Directorate for Water Management at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

He announced that in addition to the realization of the project related to the River Drina Basin, the ministry would extend the action to all rivers of Montenegro.

According to Mayor Milosav Bulatovic, who was one of the participants in the action, the local government's effort is to do everything within its ability to preserve the rivers in Kolasin. He said that future activities would go in two directions, raising the overall responsibility of citizens through education and implementation of criminal policy towards those who have a malpractice relationship.

“We will give priority to prevention and education. We must participate in similar actions, but also to raise the awareness of our fellow citizens when it comes to nature conservation. We will continue to work with government institutions to achieve the best results towards this end. We plan to organize a cleanup of Tara’s tributary," he announced.

So far, the Ministry has organized similar actions, in cooperation with local governments, in Mojkovac, where landfills have been removed and the area adjacent to the River Rudnica arranged, the tributary of Tara and Bijelo Polje, where the river bed of Lim has been cleaned.

Text by Dragana Scepanovic on October 19th, 2019, read more at Vijesti

The Ministry of Science has approved 17 scholarships for doctoral studies, for which it has allocated around 750,000 euros, announced this Government department.

They explained that the scholarships include a monthly fee of €700 for researchers, free tuition fees for doctoral studies at universities in Montenegro and research money, an important segment of which is international or intersectoral mobility, up to ten thousand euros a year.

On April 24, the Ministry announced the second competition for the award of doctoral research scholarships.

They stated that by the expiry of the application deadline, 33 applications have been received, followed by an evaluation process.

The Ministry has prepared a list of approved scholarships for doctoral research, comprising 17 scholarship recipients, 13 in the fields of science-mathematical, technical-technological, medical and agricultural sciences, and four in social sciences and humanities.

"Last year, the Ministry first announced an open competition for attractive doctoral scholarships and research conditions when 19 candidates were selected and about 750,000 euros were allocated for them," the statement said.

This year, they pointed out, that number is rising to 36, which means that in two years they have allocated 1.5 million euros for strengthening human resources and research capacity.

"The intention of the Ministry is to announce the same competition next year, in order to reach a critical mass of about 50 young researchers and the ultimate goal of retaining talents in Montenegro," the statement concludes.

Text by MINA News, on October 18th, 2019, read more at Vijesti

18 October 2019 - The art exhibition New Realities - Réalités Nouvelles, which will open on Saturday, October 19 in Paris, will feature artworks from four artists from Montenegro, reports CdM. This collaboration was mediated through an artist living and working in Paris, Milija Belić, who suggested that Montenegro presents itself at such a prestigious cultural event.

Réalités Nouvelles exhibition has an international character and brings together the most eminent artists from all over the world. Founded in 1946, it represented the ideas of artists such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevich and Lissitzky, extending the views of the groups that preceded and were active in the first half of the 20th century; most notably “Cercle et Carré” and “Création-Abstraction”, in time grew into an association that today bears the name Réalités Nouvelles. The group gathers over four hundred artists, oriented to abstraction in the field of painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation, engraving, and digital media. Today, the Salon is open to all artists who deal with abstraction in any form of fine art. It represents a "stepping stone" for artists for further success and progress in the field of abstraction, as well as an inexhaustible source of ideas and possibilities.

As TMN reported earlier, the exhibition New Realities - Réalités Nouvelles from Paris was recently presented at the Modern Gallery Jovo Ivanović in Budva, Montenegro, from July 20 to August 20. The exhibition, organized by Public institution Museums and Galleries of Budva in cooperation with The Salon des Réalités Nouvelles from Paris, was one of the most important in this year's exhibition season of the Institution and represented important cultural cooperation between France and Montenegro. At the exhibition, whose curator was Senka Subotić, 50 artists who have dedicated their work exclusively to abstraction presented their artwork.  

This year, the President of the New Realities Salon paid tribute to the director of the PI Museums and Galleries of Budva, Ms. Lucija Đurašković, and invited her to select four artists to present at this year's prestigious exhibition of the Réalités Nouvelles Salon. Four abstract artists who were selected by Ms. Đurašković and who will present their artwork in Paris are Montenegrin artists Dragan Karadžić, Nataša Đurović, Biljana Keković and Vaso Nikčević.

The artists’ participation in the exhibition in Paris is realized under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, the Municipality of Budva and the support of the Embassy of Montenegro in France.

On Saturday, the fighters who saved Bistrica will celebrate their victory, instead of the protest where they planned to raise their voice to save the river.

Denis Mekic from Bijelo Polje announced the news.

On behalf of the Citizens' Initiative “Save Bistrica”, he said after the Government's decision to open negotiations on the termination of the concession agreement on the waters of this river, that this great victory of citizens is an indicator that "by communion and involvement of all in such and similar processes we can change our society to the better".

"We will celebrate our victory with dignity after the protests on Saturday, October 19," he said.

He pointed out that for all who came to protest, a visit to the river they fought for would be organized.

"That day, we, the citizens, will take the initiative to establish a Day of Trout and Healthy Food, instead of devastation and set a good example of how to promote this promising area of Bijelo Polje. We will mark that day as one of the most significant for Bistrica," he said. He pointed out that the fight for Ecological Montenegro is only beginning.

"We invite all citizens to come in order to tell the Government together to adopt a permanent moratorium for the protection of Bistrica, and with our common strength and attitude on Saturday we want to express our opposition to the devastation of other rivers in our city. First of all, Ljestanica, which is facing the same fate that our Bistrica saw coming, as well as Lim, which is constantly devastated by various pollution. On Saturday, the protest will be a sign of support for our remaining rivers," Mekic said.

Text by Jelena Jovanovic, on October 17th, 2019, read more at Vijesti