1 The highlight of my week was a photo from the Macedonian embassy in Brussels. Technical Prime Minister Talat Xhaferi visited the EU headquarters. To strengthen the country’s European path. And, since we’re talking about a technical Government, Deputy Prime Minister Bojan Marichic and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani accompanied him to ensure he doesn’t stray from the path. While there, seeking to make the most of their daily wage, they visited the embassy to observe how our people in the diaspora get their photos taken for new passports. A citizen sits in front of the camera, a diplomat takes the photo, and towering over them is Bujar Osmani, watching with great interest as the official enters data into the computer, while Marichic and Xhaferi are conducting an in-depth screening of the complex operation from the side.

A Prime Minister, a Deputy Prime Minister and a Minister of Foreign Affairs inspecting the process of getting a photo taken. Oh, if I could find out what was going through their minds at that specific moment, immortalised in a historical photograph. This must be an unprecedented phenomenon. Imagine, the guy managed to get an appointment for a Macedonian passport photo. And mind you, not in Skopje, but in Brussels.

Essentially, this photo captures reality. It shows how the Macedonian administration functions on a state salary. One person does the work, while the other three observe. And the one who’s actually working, doesn’t really feel like doing it. What a bummer that the boss happened to visit precisely during his shift.

2 it’s bad enough that with the last-minute chaotic change of personal documents they are harassing all of us who’ve chosen to stay here, but why are they making life difficult for those who’ve escaped from Macedonia? They’re forcing them to travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometres to come here and to get their travel documents, to spend money they didn’t plan to spend, to lose working days, to plan out the time-wasting in Macedonia… Imagine if their bosses there approved a collective holiday for all Macedonians. That would be too complex to manage even for a German administration.

Then again, to avoid making the same mistake the Macedonian ambassador in Rome made, who, on his own initiative, hurried to inform the Italian government not to recognise the valid passports with the old constitutional name of 100,000 Macedonian citizens living in Italy, perhaps it’s not a bad idea for Minister Osmani to send a letter to every single country, urging them not to harass our citizens, unlike us.

It would read something like this:

Dear friendly and hostile countries, strategic partners and other non-strategic countries, recognised and unrecognised territories, we kindly ask you to recognise the old passports of our citizens, your fellow citizens. Don’t worry about us politicians. We have passports of all sorts, ordinary, diplomatic and official ones. We don’t have to wait in a queue to have our photo taken. However, we ask for your understanding for our people residing in your country. Let them come home to renew their passports. They are really nice people, law-abiding, they want to obtain a legal document, the same way you’ve granted them legal residency. During their visit, they’ll see their parents, they’ll spend some time with friends who’ve stayed here, they’ll have the roof of the old house repaired… Don’t worry, they’ll return to you. They’ll keep building your country. They’ll keep paying taxes to you. They don’t want to live with us. They left the country precisely because of us, the politicians.

Sincerely,
Bujar Osmani

The only fault we can find with our people living abroad is that they haven’t obtained passports in the countries they’ve moved to. However, that too can be a serious problem. If they enter this country with a foreign passport, they’ll have to register at a police station as foreigners. Additionally, we’ll charge them a tourist tax for coming home. Our efficient state administration has to live on something.

Probably, most of them found leaving home very difficult, but they certainly didn’t think that returning would be even more difficult. So, it’s true, there’s no escaping Macedonia. Macedonia will catch you off guard wherever you are.

3 What about all of us who’ve stayed here? The replacement of the old SFRY passports with the first Macedonian passports in 1992, when two thirds of the world turned a blind eye to our existence, was more efficient than the current process in a country that’s a member of NATO and has successfully completed the screening process for the start of negotiations with the EU.

For over three decades, our authorities have been blowing their own trumpet about digitalisation, networking, information society, e-government, foreigners have spent a ton of money on training, equipment and study trips to create an efficient administration for us. However, we’re still on the phone trying to set up an appointment but the “subscriber is not available,” and on the rare occasion someone picks up and you’re lucky enough to get an appointment for an ID card, it’s impossible to use the same appointment for a passport or a driving licence. Each photo – a separate call.

Forget about passports, forget about ID cards, forget about driving licences. Here, there aren’t even stickers for registration plates. You go through the trouble of scheduling an appointment for a passport and an ID card, but someone had the bright idea that you need to have a photo taken for a sticker with the label “NMK.” That’s exactly what we need now, Bujar Osmani and Bojan Marichic to start posing for photos at the vehicle inspection stations. As if we’ve already set out on the European road.

As a matter of fact, we’ve all been living in a state of emergency for 32 years. You never know how the state and municipal institutions may surprise you tomorrow. It turns out that the domestic institutions are the biggest enemies of the citizens. We’ve been on standby all this time. At the ready. To defend ourselves from the internal enemy – the institutions we pay for.

4 My generation grew up during a time when Tito’s slogan was popular: Let’s work as if there will be peace for 100 years, but let’s also prepare as if there will be war tomorrow.

Translated into current terms, it would mean: Let’s assume we’ll become a member of the EU in 2030, but let’s also be prepared for the possibility we may never join the EU.

Or, in the present context: Let’s assume the passports we took out today will remain valid until 2034, but let’s also be prepared for the possibility that they may no longer be valid tomorrow.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski