1 It’s over. The problem with corruption in the judiciary, or rather in the public administration in general, is located. There would be no corruption if there were no media to make up stories that there is corruption. That was explained very clearly by the President of the Criminal Court, Ivan Dzolev. He said that a lot of people, citizens, approached him and said “Hey, listen, about this case, can you do this, can you do that …” And he answered them, “Oh, come on, please.”
“That’s what our citizens think like. That when they have to get something done they should give something, to put it mildly – a tip,” said Judge Dzolev, blaming the media for that. “They feed our citizens, they encourage them with headlines that there is corruption, they encourage them that they can get things done only if they offer someone money.”
We’ve created an Anti-Corruption Commission, the whole world finances it to hunt down corruption among civil servants, the Government has invented the position of Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the fight against corruption, the State Department and the European Commission write reports on the corruption situation in Macedonia every year, and it turns out it’s all been in vain. Because corruption – is non-existent. It’s just some media making up headlines that there are corrupt judges, people read that, go to court and give tips.
You give tips to a waiter, if you’re satisfied with the service. Do you know a waiter who’s refused a tip? Imagine if he went so far as to report you to the Anti-Corruption Commission. And they’ll even file a lawsuit against you.
And what do people who are satisfied with the judge’s service give? Do they give bribes? Come on, let’s be real. God forbid. They too give tips, to put it mildly, as Judge Dzolev put it politically correctly. And how much do they tip? I really don’t know, people usually tip about ten percent in restaurants. How much is it in court? Five on the total? Isn’t that a lot? Come on, let’s be real.
Judges are presented with a fait accompli and pressured by the media. If someone kept offering you a tip, you’d offend them if you didn’t take it. You’d refuse once or twice, but the third time you’d find it uncomfortable to say no.
2 If this is the logo for the thirtieth anniversary of the country’s independence, what will the celebration on September 8 look like?
That aggressive dilettantism in the process of making the logo, and then in its defense by the government’s public relations service, reminded me of an incident when my daughter was little. A woman meets me in a supermarket, sees the girl in the stroller and says: “They should cut your hair like this. “Who cut her hair?” Muttering, I answer “some lady there”. The woman glances once again at the girl’s hair to assess it and replies: “You don’t say, it feels like a whole bunch of people did her hair. “It sure looks like that.”
It’s the same case with the logo for the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the independence referendum. Who drew it? A whole team of graphic designers working for the government. Well, it sure looks like that.
Our country is beautiful. Our nature is beautiful. But our society is ugly. And the logo is just as ugly as our society is. Anything the human hand has managed to touch and spoil in the beautiful nature is ugly.
The garbage on our roads and sidewalks is ugly. Our illegal landfills are ugly. Ugly is the urban chaos in our urban neighborhoods with overcrowded buildings, congested roads and the chaos with parked cars everywhere. Ugly is the waste thrown out in the villages and our clogged streams and canals. Ugly is our Vardar “adorning Macedonia” with all those plastic bottles which float on it and pile up around the fake galleys. Ugly are the toilets in our schools. Ugly are the corridors in our hospitals. Ugly are our usurped coastline in Ohrid and Struga and the garbage dumps in Prespa and Dojran. Ugly are our roads, the uncut grass along the roadside, and the bad traffic signalization. Ugly are our railroad cars…
Ugly is our corruption, which the media makes up. Ugly is the inadequacy of the institutions to be in the service of the public interest. Ugly are the competent authorities which are not competent for anything. Ugly are the unskilled party bootlickers who are given high positions and make decisions for our lives.
You know things got ugly when ugliness doesn’t bother anyone.
3 A few days ago we published a headline: “Defendant had the runs during the closing arguments yesterday, today a juror retired and Kanceska’s trial for the VMRO Museum started all over again.” It’s a trial in a case of the Special Prosecutor’s Office which started four years ago and is now sent back for a retrial.
A lot of people were upset that we had put the word “the runs” in a headline. Apparently, it was too ugly. They were disgusted by the word. However, they weren’t disgusted by the whole manipulation to send back the case for a retrial. They don’t mind that the case dragged on for four years. They don’t mind that a lay judge was elected at an age when there was a high chance that he’d retire by the end of the process. And they don’t mind that just one day before his retirement, one of the defendants had the runs and the hearing was postponed. But the word “the runs” bothered them. Acting “all genteel”. A word bothers them, but not crime and corruption.
4 Six trials of SPO cases on high crime and corruption have been returned to the beginning after dragging on for four years. What will the President of the Court Ivan Dzolev say about that? That the judges refused to take a tip?
This is happening during the rule of a political structure that won the elections, led by the enthusiasm of the citizens eager for changes that they expressed in the slogan “There’s no justice, there’s no peace.” Well, there’s no justice. And peace is bought with party employments. They don’t report the tip, because no tax is paid on it.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
