1 Artan Grubi’s Cabinet released a statement to inform the media that “the first Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Political System and Inter-Community Relations will participate in the act of placing the new trilingual road signs in Macedonian, Albanian and English at the Corridor 8 conducted by the Public Enterprise “Macedonia Roads” and the Public Enterprise for State Roads.”
Just a small reminder for the ones who are not from here. The year is 2021. We’re deep into the 21st century. A pandemic has taken hold of the world. And the deputy prime minister of a European country that’s a member state of NATO will participate in traffic signs placement. And the media report for his participation. I simply don’t get it, how does a deputy prime minister “participate” in placing a road sign. Does he dig a hole near the road, does he put the posts, does he write on the board, does he wipe the dust off it…? Still, he’s not just an ordinary deputy prime minister. He’s the first of his kind.
And we find ourselves wondering why the COVID-19 vaccines haven’t arrived. They had been lost on the way here because there weren’t any road signs in Albanian.
2The past week the country made significant progress in the vaccination process. In addition to the freezers and the bared upper arms, we already have a list of citizens who have expressed their willingness to be vaccinated. Three out of four elements required for immunization have been fulfilled. In this stage of the process that’s totally ok.
The souvenir magnets for the freezers are missing, but we’ll procure them from China in the next stage when we start developing vaccinal tourism. Because we have the best-developed hospitality sector. Hoteliers are asking to be in the first group to get vaccinated along with the nurses and the doctors, restaurant and pub owners are asking for unlimited working hours… If weddings aren’t allowed, they’ll block the country with protests.
You see, the way things are going, here are the vaccines, there are the vaccines, they’ll arrive tomorrow, they’ll arrive one of these days, before you know it, it will be July or August, just the right time to get vaccinated in the thick of the tourist season. Waiting is in accordance with our tradition. We wait for a date for negotiations. And the moment we get the date, something goes wrong. And the moment the new date comes along, bam – technical details are the issue and there you go, waiting for a new date. The Chinese New Year is all we needed. We’ll have to wait for that too. We’ve waited for all sorts of things so that too shall pass.
The story with the vaccines is so intense and the plot is so unpredictable that if someone started writing a novel “The Vaksajns Saga” it would become a bestseller even as a manuscript. Even if you are a hard core anti-vaxxer, you’ll turn into a vaxxer. Out of spite. You feel bad about this whole thing. The whole world got microchipped, and we didn’t. We suck even at getting microchipped.
3 Yet another great achievement is updating the membership in SDSM. People are updating their personal data in the party list and went into a frenzy of taking photos and showing off on Facebook.
For those of us who don’t have a list to update, it’s a little strange why such an ordinary party activity is news of public interest. Why are they making a drama out of it? Why wouldn’t the list of party members be updated? Did SDSM actually expect their members not to renew their membership, now, when their party is in power? As if they’re surprised of their loyalty.
They’re even trying to sell us phrases like – The citizens recognize the successful politics of SDSM. Yeah, right. You’re in power. It’s not about being a citizen. They’re party members who recognize the privileges that the party in power can grant them. Why didn’t they update the list while they were in opposition, when VMRO-DPMNE were checking how strong they were by running the numbers of buses, sandwiches and rallies?
I don’t mind their party activity. Nor do I care. But, they really do stick out like a sore thumb with their pompous attitude to the party membership, because we all know this isn’t a normal country. Because we all know that over here you don’t join a political party because you have an ideology. It’s because you can’t do your private job, a state job even less so, if you aren’t a party member. That sort of enumeration in public, whether they like it or not, sets them apart as having more equal rights than the others who are not party members.
And because the non-updated always pay so the updated ones can get their salary.
4 The doctor from Serbia who didn’t have a license to work in Macedonia performed a surgery in the Bitola Hospital, where her husband worked. Because of this incident two other doctors have been suspended, and seven more have been punished. As far as we know so far, the caesarean section was successful.
The director of the Struga Hospital, who fortunately does have a Macedonian medical license, is still a director, although the inspectorate found out that he had an unregistered practice at home where he examined patients. And one patient claims that he took out three more organs during the cesarean section. And he’s still operating. And nobody was punished.
So, if the doctor from Bitola is looking for a job in the public health sector, let her apply for a director in Struga. It’s a minor setback that she’s from Serbia, which isn’t really a good reference for membership in DUI. Otherwise, a single update in DUI would have saved all of them from punishment.
In case you’ve decided to join a party, and you’re not joining them because of your ideology anyway, the most rewarding option is to join DUI. Update yourself there, where the party guarantees that neither the Constitution, nor the law will be able to reach you.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
