1 Five thousand fewer first-graders. And five thousand more people poisoned by drinking water. Well, that’s the reality we live in today in Macedonia.
We’re the best in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, we’re the best in the region, we’re the best among all the EU candidate countries in the Western Balkans, we’re the fastest-growing economy in Europe, we have the highest growth in tourism, the lowest salaries, but the best allocated… We’re the best at everything. And – we’re the best at having fewer first-graders and the most people poisoned by shit-water. So, despite the Government’s historic achievements, in September we’ll have 4,900 fewer first-graders than last year. And the latest recorded number of people infected by contaminated drinking water in Gostivar stands at 4,700.
In her Ilinden address, in front of the monument to Chento in Skopje, President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova stated that “unfortunately, the most promising young people are leaving the country en masse in search of a decent place to live”, and that “some, due to the blocked European integration, are turning to passports from other member states”.
Surely not. I’m flabbergasted by what the President’s telling us.
It’s the citizens’ fault for not reading Eurostat and deciding to seek their fortunes outside their motherland. For finding themselves a spare motherland because they don’t have spare lives in which, year after year, holiday after holiday, they’ll listen to speeches like the one by the President, in which she came up with the solution: “Only when knowledge and success become more important than a party membership card and connections will young people stay here to live, work and start families here, at home”.
That’s all it takes? Well, what the President says sounds great. If only she could point out at least one example of someone appointed to a management position in the state sector purely because they’re competent and don’t have a party membership card. Just one, even a single director of a public enterprise, of a hospital, of a clinic, of a school, of a kindergarten, of a theatre, of a museum, of an opera, of a ballet company, of a sports hall, of a swimming pool, of a folk ensemble… You can’t even get to sing at concerts or organise celebrations without party involvement. If only there were one, just one example of someone who was competent, good at their job, but had nothing to do with the party in power.
2 Another thing that sounds great is when the President of the country says that “the state grows stronger through national reconciliation”.
Everything Siljanovska-Davkova said in her holiday address is all well and good. But are VMRO-DPMNE listening to what their candidate is saying? Do they know that she’s speaking against party membership cards? Do they know that she says that “we must overcome divisions and learn to speak with one voice on matters of national interest”?
The President can have a nice long talk about “national reconciliation and unity” with Prime Minister Mickoski, who at the same time, just some 30 kilometres further north, in Pelince, was talking about the “dregs of society”. Has he grown so fond of that phrase that he doesn’t even feel awkward repeating it in a holiday address? A leader is expected, if not through his actions, at least through his words, to show some symbolism towards national unity.
But unfortunately, Mickoski can’t refrain from belittling people even on a holiday that’s meant to be celebrated.
It’s not just that fewer children are being born. People are leaving. They don’t read statistical figures. They’re seeking their fortunes outside the country, among other things because of statesmanlike speeches such as these. They don’t feel like listening to what politicians have to say. Because they see what politicians do and how good they are at what they do. Leave the interpretation of statistics to the party foot soldiers at their party gatherings.
Is there a party that will say: no more hiring along party lines? A party that will say, we hired this person because they’re good at their job, and not because they’re a party member? Is there? If there were, we wouldn’t have sunk this low.
The dregs need to be chlorinated. Hyperchlorinated while we’re at it. And flushed out at full blast.
Just as the Government’s experts advise for the water in Gostivar.
3 Listening to the speeches about our glorious past, it occurred to me that the Makedonium in Krushevo, one of the most significant monuments of modern architecture in the world, is falling apart. And even if it weren’t so significant to the world, it’s significant to us because the tomb of Nikola Karev, the president of the Krushevo Republic, is there, rotting in mould while all our politicians talk about the heroism of the Ilinden revolutionaries.
The frescoes in the “Church of St. George” from 1191 in Kurbinovo are also significant to the world, as a harbinger of the Renaissance. And, by God, they’re significant to us because the fresco of the Angel Gabriel is depicted on the fifty-denar banknote.
The Macedonian state has been unable to restore that tiny church for 13 years. And now that the restoration is finally nearing completion and a canopy needs to be built to protect the exterior frescoes, who has the state entrusted with the job? A company without a licence.
Party-linked companies matter more than the Angel of Kurbinovo.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
