1 Holidays are often accompanied by holiday speeches. Usually, they paint a picture of an imaginary future. It will be fulfilled, we’ll do this, we’ll find a way, and we’ll make it happen… For 33 years, we’ve been hearing these same phrases in speeches of our state leaders, one way or another.
To be honest, our reality isn’t quite as nice as the politicians make it seem in their holiday greetings. The motto of the annual celebration of Ilinden is “The fight goes on.” When you look at our country, year after year, for 33 years since our declaration of independence, it appears that we’ve been doing something wrong in this fight. We’ve been fighting ourselves. And, so far, we’ve been losing badly.
A couple of days ago, I attended a party in Ohrid. Nice cheerful people, all of them having a good time and relaxing, people from three generations gathered together, grandparents, parents, and children. At one point, I realised that only ten of us still live here in Macedonia. None of the children live here, and some of them, either teenagers or university students, talked to each other in English.
In her first Ilinden speech, President Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova stated that “the fight for young people is the fight for the fourth Macedonian republic.”
The fight goes on, in holiday speeches. However, in reality, our young people are continuing the fight in countries that offer them a chance for a better life. Back home, where only party lackeys and mediocrities get a chance, it seems pointless to waste their energy.
2 We can debate with Siljanovska – Davkova about the feasibility of her comments on “a battle for knowledge over ignorance, excellence over mediocrity, creativity over destruction.” We can also debate whether, and to what extent, the party that supported her election as president will enable her to achieve those goals. However, unlike her presidential speech, which at least addressed the goals of the fourth republic, it remains unclear whether Hristijan Mickoski was delivering a pre-election speech at a party rally in Krushevo on the biggest national holiday, or whether, as prime minister, he was giving a report on the first 30 days of the Government while attacking the opposition for the poor state of the country they inherited. He has a huge majority in Parliament, he can do that any day of the week. Couldn’t he hold back for the holiday? Couldn’t he keep his anger to himself? As if he hasn’t already won the elections. It’s over. You’re in power now, so deal with more pressing state affairs.
How can we expect our young people to return after Mickoski’s first Ilinden speech as prime minister, which resembles the worst practices of Nikola Gruevski, who for all 11 years he was in power, used his holiday speeches to quarrel with everyone and threaten them? And at the end of his speeches, much like Mickoski at Mechkin Kamen, Gruevski also called for unity and dialogue, but always on his own terms.
The fight will result in victory only when the government and the opposition honour the biggest national holiday together. That is true patriotism.
3 And while we hear the holiday messages promising to Europeanise the country, the director of the Centre for Crisis Management, Stojanche Angelov, is urging citizens: Don’t go barbecuing on Ilinden. In our Europeanised country, we had 765 wildfires in July alone.
In a podcast for SAKAMDAKAZAM.MK a few months ago, Stojanche Angelov mentioned that burning stubble is in our culture, a custom among our people, and it will be difficult to eradicate it.
How are we supposed to explain this culture to the dozen countries that have stepped up to send fire-fighters, planes and helicopters to help us put out the fires? You know, in our country, firing up the grill at the height of the fire season on an unprecedented scale is part of our people’s tradition. And burning reeds and forests is part of the tradition of claiming construction land.
The culture and tradition of stubble burning could change with strict laws that apply to everyone. However, there’s an even stronger tradition at play – impunity for arsonists.
4 The “VLEN” coalition, which is part of the Government, has announced that it has begun the process of establishing an Albanian Academy of Sciences and Arts in North Macedonia. The leader of “VLEN,” Arben Taravari, announced on Facebook that he’s particularly proud that “we are one of the oldest peoples in the Balkans, and our DNA carries the intelligence and civilization of an ancient culture.”
I find it troubling that in my country, in the 21st century, a politician, a minister of health, and doctor, would bring up the term DNA. Unlike Taravari, Vice Prime Minister Izet Mexhiti was specific and said: “There are three or four academicians, but there isn’t a single employee at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, not even a coffee maker. No one can convince me that there are no Albanians who can work at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.”
Meanwhile, none of the leaders of “VLEN” seem to know that one of the two current vice presidents of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts is Albanian – Academician Alajdin Abazi.
In that case, let’s create the Albanian Academy of Sciences just to secure a position for the coffee maker from “VLEN.” These “three or four academicians” aren’t as important to “VLEN” as the coffee maker. If they were, Mexhiti would know their names. And who knows what DNA they really have. Are they really worth as much as the Albanian word VLEN implies.
Tetovo can’t provide water to its citizens, but it will somehow manage to provide them with an academy of sciences. It’s the only city without a single park, but apparently, it doesn’t need one. People will hang out in laboratories and libraries, dedicating their time to science, there’s no time to relax.
Listening to this ridiculous ideas from “VLEN,” which is determined to outdo DUI in terms of nationalism, the first thing that came to mind was that I had the honour and privilege of personally knowing academician and writer Luan Starova. What a gentleman he was. Did anyone ever perceive him as Albanian or non-Albanian? Did anyone ever value his over 200 works through the DNA of one of the oldest people in the Balkans? A professor, ambassador, and honorary member of the Albanian Academy of Sciences, but the one in Tirana, not the one in Tetovo envisioned by Taravari and Mexhiti. Oh, if only Professor Starova were alive, we could ask him if he would have preferred to have his coffee made by an employee who managed to get hired by “VLEN,” VMRO-DPMNE, DUI or SDSM. Since, becoming a coffee maker isn’t easy. You need to be a party member for that as well.
For now, that’s all on the topic of the fourth republic and the vision President Siljanovska – Davkova shared for the republic that will be “caring for its best, inclusive of the different, in solidarity with the vulnerable, and fair to all.”
5 While I’m on holiday in Ohrid, my son and I decided to unfurl the national flag on the eve of Ilinden. As we were hanging it on a makeshift pole by the fence of our yard, a tourist from the Netherlands passed by and stopped to help us without being asked. She stood smiling next to us, holding the flag to keep it from blowing in the wind while we secured it. From across the street, a fellow citizen remarked: “That’s not our flag!”
I wanted to say something back to him, but I was speechless. Is it worth arguing about that?
The fight goes on.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
