Saturday, November 29, 2008

Hurry, hurry! Get married now!

If you're single and live in Jagodina (YAH-go-dee-na), you might want to take advantage of the City's offer. If you get married by the end of 2008, you'll be offered a job, 200 euros for your first child (not necessarily before the end of 2008...), and up to 200 euros monthly for every fourth child until he/she is 18. Any takers?

P.S. The text written on the column supporting the billboard reads, "Please do not put posters on this billboard." Considering the billboard is at least 3 meters (9 or so feet) tall, that won't be easy.)

22 comments:

soulbrush said...

what? don't do it!

Ming the Merciless said...

Is Jagodina in need of more residents? What an interesting proposal.

Chuck Pefley said...

Hmm ... interesting proposition. I believe I'll pass. I don't work for less than minimum wage ... and that's well below :)

Virginia said...

OH well I am LOL. Nobody has made that offer to me in a LONG LONG time! Oh I wish!!!!
HAAA
V

dianasfaria.com said...

interesting advertisement! I've never seen anything like this.

MuseSwings said...

That's a very encouraging offer - for someone 40 years younger than I.

raf said...

Veerrry interesting proposal!
Bibi, I just noticed the J in the cyrillic alphabet. Took Russian all those many years ago, but don't remember the J . Maybe a Serbian version of the cyrillic? :)

Suz Broughton said...

I don't know how much 200 euro is in dollars, but pretty sure it won't "cover" it.
This is great. Thanks for sharing.
Suz

humanobserver said...

hilarious as well as interesting.....

Thérèse said...

Scary!

The "unintentional art" is really something.

Have a nice Thanksgiving Pat!

Ana said...

the initiation about having more children has been implemented in Macedonia as well, with the Government promising to provide financial help to those families...i think that just having children for the sake of it is wrong...you really need to make sure you can bring up those children properly before having them...so, taking in account the overall conditions, having 4 children is far from easy, esp. when more and more people tend to work long hours in the hunt to survive...so where is the quality time to spend with your child? not to mention if its 4 of them...

anyway, its nice to have found this blog and read about Belgrade thru the eyes from a non-native resident...Belgrade has been one of my all-time favourite places...so for sure, ill be bookmarking this :)

regards

Becky said...

Wow. I have never seen anything like this. Is this in attempt to get more people there? Why do they feel the need so badly? And I agree with others - you should DEFINITELY not have kids unless you know you can provide for them - not just physical needs, but emotionally, too. I'm not sure I approve of the government encouraging people to have kids without really thinking about it.

Marie Reed said...

Germans receive Kindergeld. It's a monthly sum of 250 euros per child! They need to slap up an ad like this too!

I don't really think that this is scary at all! Many countries offer some sort of compensation that allow mothers or fathers to stay home or simply take a bit of the financial burden off the shoulders of people that really want to start a family:)

Very provactive shot Bibi!

marley said...

What a bizarre advert! If you want to get married then surely you do it whatever, and if you don't want to get married would a job and 200 euros really persuade you?! Strange government thinking.

Dan said...

I am not surprised by this at all. Birthrates in western countries, particularly among non-muslims are dropping and creating quite a stir right now. In the Balkans, Serbian, Bulgarian and Macedonian birthrates are a key part of the political landscape. So, while it may appear amusing and even sort of funny, it is becoming part of public policy in lots of countries.

Of course here in the US, the most dangerous place for a child is in its mother's womb as abortion is far and away the highest cause of death among children.

Maki said...

It's sad to see that their population has dropped to a point that they have to pay people to marry or have children. I agree with the majority... you need to have the emotional attachment to make either commitment. Unfortunately or fortunately for some of us North Americans we haven't felt the desperation of doing anything for money.

Branka

ps. Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I know the first of everything this first year will be hard for your family.

Anonymous said...

Dan is right here, it is the way of preserving cultural identity of the country and not interfering in anybodys personal life ...
I just want something to make clear here ... nobody push you to get married and have kids if you don`t want to and "emotional attachmetnt" is not in question ... if so, government would probably find you a spose too, but that`s not something democratic countries do :-) ...

it is some sort of help for those who are already in love and want children, but hesitate to have kids sooner because of eventual economic problems in family or so ... government has kind of "award" of 250 euros help for each child on the whole territory of Serbia and this ad is additional help by the Jagodina major - a job and help in money, like every municipality or town is free to help in the way they can, besides government ... we are stil waiting government to make baby-accessories tax-free ...

in province of Vojvodina, where the birth rate is in minus they even had help of 500 euros for the first, 1250 for the second and 2500euros for the third child on a one-time basis...

Jane Hards Photography said...

This is exceptionally strange even for your part of the world.

Thérèse said...

Still following the comments...a matter for reflecion for sure.

J.C. said...

The same case for my country too. More and more people are opting to marry at a later stage. Birthrate are getting lower too. More and more successful women are putting off marriage because they are financially independent and willing to wait for the right men rather than hop into a marriage. Our Chinese political party even offers angpow packet to couple who give birth to children.

Ana said...

Nice shot that tells everything about us. We are very poor society with average salary of 200-300 euro per month. Costs of living in Belgrade or anywhere in Serbia are higher then in America or Western Europe. And Child Care or any other kind of support... Ask those who "have" it.

Tash said...

I missed this one - must of been going loopy in anticipation of theme day.
Where is Jagodina? I know even 40 years ago a lot of people in the cities were having only one child (my parents included) - I'm all for encouraging marriage & more babies. I bet it'll still be very hard to get takers for the 4th child.

SPRING FASHION

 This is a post that would be better in color, but maybe not. These colors were soooo pale.