1 We already have record 50 covid-19 deaths in 24 hours, and the MPs have spent the whole week in the Assembly discussing back-and-forth about a done deal. For five days they’ve been postponing the census which has already been postponed. Let them keep doing it. They’ll have more people from the diaspora to enumerate. And fewer at home.

I’m at a loss for words to express my surprise that the MPs of the Alliance for Albanians and Alternativa feel like batting around the census and the citizenship, when in the country we have over 20.000 active cases of covid-19, and over 1.700 people are fighting for their life in hospitals. Every day thirty of our fellow citizens pass away. And the MPs are wasting our time and throwing our money down the drain, all for the ethnic enumeration. And they’ll stop at nothing to make the ethnic enumeration a priority. Because a census and a citizenship is just what we need at the moment.

The crisis is a golden opportunity for them – so they’ve started their blackmailing. If there’s no crisis – we’ll start one. And we’ll blackmail again. They’re so selfish and irresponsible that they’re only interested in their personal and the party interest. The leaders of the opposition even get phone calls from Washington to be encouraged to be constructive. Imagine if they didn’t care only about themselves when they blocked the Assembly, but the citizens as well.

Ok, even if they don’t care about the good of all citizens. Even if they don’t care about the good of the country. Ok, let’s say they only care about their community. I don’t know how politicians are doing them a service when they don’t seem to see beyond their own pocket.

2 So – what do they think will happen? That if they manage to enumerate a larger number in the diaspora, they’ll bring them back here? That they’ll catch the first plane home and come here so Artan Grubi could hire them, and so Zijadin Sela could fight for their rights? They can hardly wait to hand over their destiny to the one from Alternativa, the one who says that the citizens can put up without salaries until the citizenship law is passed. As if the ones abroad didn’t move there to get a salary.

I can’t understand that obsession with the enumeration of the diaspora. For the development of this country it’s important to know how many people have stayed in Kochani and Gostivar, and not how many people from Kochani live in Italy and how many people from Gostivar live in Switzerland, right? It’s nonsense to say that the enumeration of the diaspora is a patriotic duty. That’s a done deal. They’ve left. Their children go to kindergarten there, they get educated there, they have healthcare there, and they will grow old there. Those people have a duty towards the country they live in. Those countries will enumerate them over there and based on those figures they’ll make their development projection.

In all seriousness, I can’t find any logic why enumerating the diaspora is so important to the political leaders of Albanians in Macedonia. What do they want to prove? Do they want to brag about how many Albanians have moved abroad because of them?

[dropcap3[/dropcap] No matter how pathetic is may sound, the photo in which Pandev and Elmas are hugging and laughing after the win over Germany, in Germany, is the picture of the real Macedonia. It’s a pity that we tend to forget about that picture, so we only recall it in moments of success.

The description of the picture is pathetic. But the picture itself is real. Two Macedonian footballers of different nationality play for their country and rejoice in their success in Duisburg, while at the same time in Skopje the foreign ambassadors encourage politicians to stop being at each other’s throats in the Assembly. The thing is that the national team is comprised of people of all nationalities and religions, footballers are selected with regard to how good they are. While in the Assembly, MPs are elected with regard to how bad they are. In the national team they have to know how to score goals and defend. In the Assembly, MPs don’t have to know anything. They just need to listen to the head of the party and take photos with him.

We’re not used to success. And on the rare occasion when something like that happens to us, we realize how poisoned we are. We’re surprised that we even know how to rejoice and be proud. Has a politician given you a reason to rejoice? Have you felt proud of your country because of a politician? Are you to be proud of the one convincing you to put up with them without a salary, while he is regularly paid his salary and travel expenses?

Pandev and Elmas hugging – that’s the real life. And parties and politicians are here to create problems so they could solve our problems afterwards. The worst part is that we don’t have any other successes like the one with our win over Germany, not just in football, but in all other fields. If we had a reason to rejoice, we wouldn’t give a damn about politics.

4 The European Union, the one we used to swear in, failed at the first major crisis after the Second World War. They can’t vaccinate their own citizens because they’re drowning in their own bureaucracy. Apparently, the agency will convene this Wednesday, maybe even next Friday, and then – quotas for the rich, quotas for the poor, and then – this vaccine isn’t good for the seniors, it’s only good for the seniors, giants such as Germany and France are on their knees, the rich Austria is begging for vaccines, Hungary is doing its own thing, countries which are the prime example of excellent healthcare such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark can’t cope with the vaccines situation, Italy is hiding vaccines…

I don’t think that Europe will stay the same after the Covid crisis. There’s an impending reshuffle there. And in the meantime, they’ll convene few more summits to reconcile the conclusions on the Western Balkans and the danger of China’s and Russia’s increased influence.

Until Ursula von der Leyen convenes a committee to form a committee which will distribute the quotas of 651.000 vaccines for the Western Balkans and until Boyko Borisov proposes that 5.000 of their vaccines go to Macedonia, we’ll all get vaccinated by Aleksandar Vucic. And President Stevo Pendarovski says that it’s a shame for the state. And he is the head of state.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski