I have a white ballpoint pen in my hand. It was given to me by a local non-profit organization staff when I went to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, to conduct research in December 2000, almost a quarter of a century ago, when I was still a young, fledgling researcher. On the pen, there is a message in Serbian, calling for participation in an election rally of the then opposition coalition Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), ahead of the December 23, 2000 Serbian parliamentary elections. In that year, Serbia experienced massive demonstrations over the September presidential election against the pro-Russian Slobodan Milošević government, which did not recognize the election results, and President Milošević was forced to step down. In the December parliamentary election, the DOS won 64% of the overall vote, controlling 70% of the seats, bringing about a peaceful change to a government that took a cooperative line with the West.