1 It makes me sick to see that yet another tragedy, this time the death of the 22-year-old girl who was run over on one of the busiest boulevards in Skopje, is being used for political gain. We’ve witnessed many tragedies since our independence. Frosina is just the latest victim in a long line of people run over at pedestrian crossings, while crossing at a green light. We’ve seen patients burn in hospitals, passengers die on buses, planes crash, soldiers and police officers die in helicopter crashes, one of our presidents die in a plane crash, and another survive an assassination attempt… And after each such tragedy, we’ve seen it’s become a reflex for the parties to grab the accident and use it for political points.
Curse those cheap political points.
Every government so far has faced tragedies, and, unfortunately, the response has been the same. That’s the reason why these tragedies keep happening.
A responsible government, not just the current one, but any government that came before it, would have used this tragedy, or any other that came before it, to do everything possible to prevent accidents and improve our quality of life. At the very least, they could have learned something from every previous accident.
The cruelty of this brutal exploitation of the personal tragedy faced by the family of the girl run over is laid bare by the fact that the ruling VMRO-DPMNE and the opposition SDSM were busy going back and forth at press conferences and in public statements, trying to prove that the judge who hadn’t sentenced Frosina’s murderer to prison for drug trafficking was a member of the other party. They openly accused each other, claiming that the judge had been selected straight from the notebook of the political opponent. They didn’t even try to pretend to be politically correct. They shamelessly admit that they do have these notebooks. And that this is how they appoint personnel. That it’s not a well-known secret. On the contrary – it’s completely normal, there’s nothing to hide.
It doesn’t matter whether someone is a good or bad judge, just as it doesn’t matter whether someone is a good or bad doctor, teacher, actor, dancer… We’re no longer talking about whether someone is good or bad, an amateur or a professional, honest or a fraud, but rather – whose notebook they came from. And that’s how they ruin the personal integrity of even the best candidates they may have in their notebooks.
2 I don’t understand why people are so happy that Trump is freezing American foreign aid. Especially in a country where billions of euros, dollars, kronor, francs, pounds, yen, and lira have been used to build waterworks, sewers, to renovate kindergartens, schools, hospitals, to buy ambulances and fire engines, to clean rivers, lakes and mountains, and on top of all that to protect our cultural heritage from antiquity through to the anti-fascist war. At every level, from local to state. It feels like our citizens are overdoing it with the gloating about the suspension of American aid, even though foreign ambassadors are the ones cleaning up the rubbish outside their front doors.
Alright, fine. As Prime Minister Mickoski puts it: “Any support aimed at improving the democratic capacities of a country is welcome. But this should also serve as a wake-up call, making us realise that in the future, we will have to take care of ourselves, we will have to build a society that will be our own society, regardless of our political, ethnic, or religious differences…”
The last time they took care of us, they also took care of themselves with about 5-6 billion stashed away in Belize and other exotic tax havens.
3 But more importantly, what are we doing with the EU and what is the EU doing with the Western Balkans in this new world order that Trump is creating?
It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve made a political decision to quickly admit several countries into the EU. All for the sake of a truly united Europe. Perhaps they’re still not in a pickle. However, by the time 27 states are done bickering over whether to write “in” or “at” in point 5, line 7 of cluster 9, which will be considered after the elections, here or there, at this or that summit, in Brussels or Strasbourg, only a few of us will have remained in this hole, this vacant space, open for all sorts of influences. You name it – Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Saudi… and, truth be told, even various European influences that promote values we never quite realised were European when we first began our European journey.
4 Many of us have already moved to the EU. That means our population is gradually aging. As Trump would put it, it will soon be empty over there anyway, since people have been displaced, some to Germany, some to Sweden, some to Italy, and Switzerland. We’ll send Elon Musk to switch off the computers of all those people appointed by the parties in public administration, who are busy playing solitaire. They have nice mountains, lakes. They have some ore we could mine, and we’ll charge them for it. We’ll build them cable cars, ski resorts, and hotels. It will be beautiful. A beautiful country for a great beautiful business. The Colorado of the Western Balkans. Fantastic.
For instance, the citizens of Ohrid should start sending letters to the White House right now. To beg Trump to stop funding UNESCO. To make sure they’ll stop sending the inspections meant to protect their world natural and cultural heritage. After all, the people of Ohrid are convinced that tourists go there because they love sleeping in tiny rooms in residential building and enjoy eating in restaurants with makeshift sitting areas covered in plastic. As if tourists, no matter where they come from, haven’t seen such buildings, restaurants, or beaches before. To be honest, even in Leskovac, there isn’t Leskovac barbecue quite like the one in Ohrid. And there isn’t such kindness and hospitality anywhere else.
Only Trump can save Ohrid from UNESCO.
5 The government is planning to revise the composition of the consumer basket. Some of the proposals coming in suggest that it shouldn’t include expenses for cultural events, holidays, and restaurants. In other words, the consumer basket should be reduced to only the bare essentials for survival. For eating, sleeping, and procreation.
Wait, they actually have a point. For instance, why would anyone need theatre in their life? Let people just turn on their TV and watch the parliamentary channel. Theatre doesn’t get much better than that.
For socialising, they don’t need restaurants or weekend trips. They can simply hang out at party headquarters. Instead of weekend getaways, they’ll be provided with buses for party rallies. They could even be given some juice or a sandwich while they’re at it. There’ll be music, too. And if there’s a few denars left for a bit of betting, life in Golden Macedonia will be a breeze.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
