1 Twenty-odd years have passed since the military conflict with the paramilitary NLA in our country. If the government truly wanted to build monuments to the fallen soldiers, policemen and reservists of Karpalak, Vejce and Ljubotenski Bacila, it would have done so. Both SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE. Especially the government led by VMRO-DPMNE that, ten years ago, without procedures, without following any laws, found a way to erect dozens and dozens of monuments, almost overnight, throughout the centre of Skopje. And the current one, led by SDSM, stoops so low as to argue with the mayor of Zhelino, who’s mocking them – it turns out it’s beyond his jurisdiction to approve a project for a monument at Karpalak.

Do you think the government’s favourite construction investors wouldn’t be given a permit if they wanted to build a small building with a hundred flats and a shopping centre in Karpalak? As a socially responsible company, all they would need to do would be to promise to donate a memorial to the fallen reservists from 2001. That would align with what Zaev used to say: “It can’t be a No! It has to be a Yes!”. They would immediately convert the lot, they would complete the plot by selling state land at a low price, they would change the conditions for construction… No mayor would dare act incompetent, councillors wouldn’t have anything against it, and in all honesty, the Government wouldn’t need to put on an act as they’re doing now – we want to erect a monument, but DUI doesn’t let us.

2 In fact, why doesn’t the Government ask for a permit for the construction of a monument at Karpalak from the same institution that granted the permit for the NLA monument in Slupchane? Why don’t they hire a consultant from Slupchane, someone who could secure the permit for a monument in the Municipality of Zhelino, the same way they secured the permit for the 20-metre high monument to the NLA? The way the Slupchan riot against EVN was resolved assured us of their expertise and skill in negotiating.

In the early 1990s, Norway mediated the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Army, and then an agreement was signed in Oslo to start a peace process between Israel and Palestine. However, Norway needs to step up its game to achieve the level of success of the Slupchane negotiations. Israel and Palestine still don’t live in peace, whereas Slupchane and EVN achieved peace that’s crowned with a unique agreement, one never achieved before: Everyone must pay for the electricity they consume.

3 Slupchane is one of the positive examples of the so-called European front of the government coalition that labels critics as backward and anti-European.

Then again, why are we even talking about EVN teams not being able to enter Slupchane to replace their electricity meters, considering the fact this government doesn’t have effective control even in the centre of the capital? Two bars have been harassing thousands of citizens by blasting music, and neither the local nor the central government can do anything about it. One village and two bars are the face of the corrupt government in European Macedonia.

Go somewhere in the EU and tell voters that a residential neighbourhood should have bars that harass people by blasting music until the early hours of the morning. Imagine if a noise inspector in Berlin tells tenants – keep your windows closed, in the middle of the summer, so I can measure the decibels, because that’s what the law says, and the bar owner won’t accept my measurement if your windows are open. Imagine if the owner of a bar in Paris that harasses tenants with loud music offered neighbours drinks at a discount. You can’t sleep? Then come here for some cheap drinks.

What? There are parties in Berlin, aren’t there?

The problem isn’t that there are bars in the middle of a residential area in the centre of a capital city or a densely populated residential area. There are such bars everywhere in the EU. The problem is that when those bars blast loud music every day until dawn and must be inspected or, God forbid, fined, both local and state politicians quiver in fear. And if they dare write a fine, the fine is reduced by half if they pay within eight days. And we never know if they paid it.

With the local government boasting so much that an inspection was carried out, how come a single mayor hasn’t initiated legal changes regarding fines – if you are fined for the same offense three times, you have your work licence revoked. With the central government preaching at us about EU standards, how come not a single European minister or MP found the courage to propose a law according which not all commercial spaces are suitable for any type of business. You can’t have a bar in just any building. Nor a fish shop. A hair salon today, a kebab shop tomorrow. A beauty salon today, and tomorrow – a butcher shop with freezers whose noise makes all flat shake. In the same dumpster you can find the rubbish of the tenants and the unfinished meals of the customers in bars and the cardboard packaging of the supermarkets.

What does the European front of the Government think about that? Can you do that in the EU?

Let’s not get into a debate about why the government is powerless to deal with two bars, let alone an entire village.  The government itself knows where the bar owners draw their power from. I’m interested in the human aspect of this mistreatment tenants are subjected to. Can those who harass entire neighbours with loud music until dawn think for a moment that perhaps a neighbour who is a surgeon, kept awake all night, will have to operate on their loved ones the next day? Or that a bus driver who couldn’t sleep with the windows closed in 40 degrees in August will be taking their kids on a field trip the following day?

4 Why bother referring to institutions, EU standards and the protection of citizens’ rights when the state can’t protect us even from thefts executed through financial companies for swift loans using stolen data from ID cards and passports.

Every day, new victims fall prey to fraudsters who steal personal data. Fraudsters make a phone call using another person’s name, email scanned or photographed ID cards or passports, take a swift loan under someone else’s name, with just a single phone call, without going there in person to identify themselves, they request for the money to be deposited at a store, they pick up the goods, or a courier delivers them at a fake address and then the people who got scammed have to pay the principal cost, the interest , the fees for the notary and the debt collectors for a loan they never even took.

Put simply, you don’t have to lose your ID card. It’s enough for someone to take a photo of it. Or to download it from an app where it’s scanned and archived. And then – you end up paying other people’s loans for the rest of your life. It’s scary as hell.

A swift loan turns into a swift robbery.

The Ministry of Finance is in charge of overseeing financial companies. The ombudsman, who has already received a dozen complaints from scammed citizens, is urging the Ministry to conduct inspections on the companies. However, the Ministry says that it’s a problem of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

This is yet another example of the unique wonders in Macedonia. The Ministry of Finance refuses to do its job. So, we’re not talking about noise inspectors, corrupt local governments, arrogant party soldiers, local thugs… We’re talking about the Ministry of Finance.

I repeat: The Ministry of Finance, which refuses to investigate into the financial frauds committed by companies under its jurisdiction.

And we naively hope for understanding and consideration from bar owners who blast music, while the state, which has successfully passed the screening processes of all clusters in Brussels, allows citizens to be brutally robbed.

Well, that’s what we get for being backward whiners who are under the influence of Russian bots and who don’t want to have fun.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski