In order to be as young as he feels, a Serbian entrepreneur wants to have his date of birth changed
The Serbian entrepreneur Bogoljub Karic can hardly complain about a boring life. The building tycoon, who was born in Kosovo and came from a humble background, caused a sensation back in the 1990s with his own bank, TV station and self-founded university.
After the turn of the millennium, the filthy rich tycoon reliably made headlines – not only as his own party’s presidential candidate (2004), but also as a wanted fugitive from justice on suspicion of financial irregularities. Karic, who only returned to Serbia in 2016, lived in exile in Moscow for almost eleven years – and was able to increase his prosperity significantly during this time.
But the now 68-year-old mogul now wants to cut back on his rich résumé. As he confirmed in a press release this week, on his 65th birthday he officially applied for the change to his birth certificate from the Kosovo city of Pec (Peja), which was archived at the Kragujevac city administration: He wants to have his year of birth 1954 changed to 1974.
The Italian trendsetter Silvio Berlusconi showed how it’s done. Dazzling white teeth, pitch-black hair and wrinkle-free, tightened skin: Men in the Balkans don’t shy away from either expense or cosmetic surgery to achieve the ideal of eternal youth. Busy Karic takes a completely different approach: with the help of a new date of birth, the energetic age refuser wants to make himself 20 years younger.
As a “unique personality in modern Serbian history”, Karic justified his request in the press release by submitting his application for rejuvenation “on behalf of all those who do not want to retire” and “not wanting to be a burden” on Serbia’s pension funds. “Physically and psychologically” he is “at least 20 years younger” than the year of birth noted on his birth certificate would suggest thanks to his state of health, which was described as “extraordinary”: Therefore, “this data” would have to be changed. Old age is the time when “vital functions” such as “intellectual and sexual powers” diminish, Karic said in his statement.
According to Serbian pension law, when he reaches the age of 65, he is an “old person”, but this would in no way correspond to his “actual personal condition”: “Bogoljub Karic doesn’t want to be on the pension fund’s pocket, but wants to have it for at least 20 more years power to fill the budget of the Republic of Serbia.”
Karic was “totally crazy”, headlines the tabloid “Kurir”. Karic’s brother Dragomir, meanwhile, made it clear: Bogoljub wanted his application to “encourage” pensioners who are discriminated against in Serbia with the message that age doesn’t matter and that “you are as young as you feel,” explained Dragomir Karic.
While local legal experts give the rejuvenation application little chance of success, cabaret artist Zoran Kesic considers it a wise move: “It is much more elegant and cheaper to change the year of birth than to undergo expensive and often painful cosmetic surgery.”
