These photos haven't been cropped or reduced with Photoshop, so the files are quite large and slow to load. But, I wanted to give you a look at some of the Pro Independence celebrants from last night/this morning. I left my apartment about 11:30 PM and didn't get back until about 2:30 AM. And, the streets--though with thinning crowds--certainly weren't empty as I headed home. Police were out but the crowds I saw were in a good mood. I also saw journalists from a number of countries covering the event. Journalists from Reuters, Finland, Germany, Slovenia, Albania and Serbia were present. Earlier I saw a BBC crew but I could not confirm their presence last night.

By a whisker, the referendum has been approved. The Electoral Commission has reported approval by 55.4% of the voters--this is above the EU's 55% threshhold but hardly a decisive victory. If it's appropriate to think of the glass as "half full" instead of "half empty" then we can also think of Serbia as now being free of Montenegro. Perhaps the Serbian government will think harder about their desire to join the EU and they will finally turn over over Mladic. Serbia, with a substantially larger population and considerably more entrepreneurship thanMontenegro, has a lot to offer the EU.

Celebrations have continued today. At the university, there is a noticeable gulf among the faculty. Probably 75% of the faculty supported continuing the union. At least 50% of the staff also appears to support the union. Students have been given an option to delay their final exams, scheduled for today, until Thursday.

Some of the exams that I know about are simple oral exams. "Let's spend 5-10 minutes with you answering some questions about an entire semester of work so that we may determine your competience in the coursework." This is hardly a rigorous, appropriate and ethical approach to educational assessment. I am sure there are countries where the European model of education works very well but I will forever have doubts about the quality of any graduate degree work I encounter from a Balkan region university. There is little rigor or review of the educational process.

"Estavisti" emailed me to take exception to my characterization of Montenegro as now being free. First, thank you for your email. Though you've disagree with my comments, I appreciate the fact that you read them and emailed.

I think you and I are in greater agreement than perhaps you believe. My characterization of freedom is based on Montenegro not being "amalgamated" into a relationship with other countries by threat or sheer size and power domination. In that regard, Montenegro is now independent of external relationships and in that way it is, as I said, "On the brink of becoming an independent republic." I would agree that Montenegro has not made the sort of political/economic/social progress needed under the Dukanovic government and that is why I went further to acknowledge the difficult times that I believe are ahead for Montenegro. I also think the Pro campaign ran as an extension of government policy and not as an independent election issue. I don't know if you were here in Montenegro following the elections or getting reports from the web. I can tell you that at one point in the evening--my translated report--indicated that at least one opposition leader was not willing to concede defeat and the report indicated a call to go to the streets...not necesarily for confrontation but to simply not accept defeat, yet.

If you don't like my report....check this short story:

http://euronews.net/create_html.php?page=detail_info&article=360107&lng=1