{"id":136547,"date":"2021-10-01T21:17:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T19:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goranmihajlovski.com\/?p=136547"},"modified":"2021-10-04T10:20:38","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T08:20:38","slug":"the-savages-of-the-western-balkans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goranmihajlovski.com\/en\/i-want-to-say\/the-savages-of-the-western-balkans\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SAVAGES OF THE WESTERN BALKANS"},"content":{"rendered":"

1<\/span>The government drafted a proposal for a new law, according to which administrative staff will work 36 hours a week instead of 40. They\u2019ll work only 4 hours on Friday.<\/p>\n

Why bother working on Friday at all? They shouldn\u2019t strain themselves to go to work for just 4 hours.
\nWhat about all of us who are not part of the state administration? What if we want to finish some bureaucratic work on Friday?<\/p>\n

The government will say: \u201cWhy did you wait until Friday to get things done?\u201d <\/p>\n

2<\/span> Ok, we know that we here in the Western Balkans can be a pain in the neck. However, we aren\u2019t savages who are so dangerous that they need to be kept away from the EU for twenty years. Since the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, when the EU took the responsibility to work on the enlargement with the Western Balkans countries, in 2021 we\u2019ve fallen so low that the member states are debating on the use of the word \u201cenlargement\u201d in the declaration for the next summit for the Western Balkans. In case we take what they\u2019re saying for granted. There\u2019s absolutely no logic in reversing the integration process, after almost twenty years of meeting all sorts of benchmarks, filling out questionnaires, waiting for the reports of our progress to the EU, conferences and summits, and even raise the issue of abolishing the visa-free regime. Not only has the EU imposed a sense of inferiority on us, but it\u2019s supporting the prejudice of its citizens about the people who live in the Western Balkans. In that way it\u2019s strengthening its xenophobic and regressive forces, which have nothing in common with the European values the EU expects us to comply with.<\/p>\n

They shouldn\u2019t send Ursula von der Leyen, as they used to send Juncker and Barroso from time to time to tell us that the EU loved us. We\u2019ve been living and hoping for that EU for 30 years, believing in the European values of equality, justice, prosperity. We\u2019ve spent our whole life having faith in a united Europe. However, we\u2019ve long since stopped believing that the European ideals are really respected and practiced by the EU member states. We feel that on our skin. <\/p>\n

Well, half of the people have already moved out. Some by getting a Bulgarian passport, some by getting married, some illegally, some legally, the people of the Western Balkans are already in the EU. And in the meantime, the economic gap between us Europeans here and them Europeans there is just widening year in, year out. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t understand why it\u2019s not in their interest for this territory in the heart of Europe to be stable and prosperous. No one in their right mind would keep this whole region isolated. That isolation means instability. Even if they do it for their own selfish reasons, do they really want instability in the middle of Europe, within their borders, in the 21st century? If that\u2019s the planned development of the EU, to keep us instable, then we\u2019ll have to find a solution to the problem on our own.
\nWe, \u201cthe savages\u201d of the Western Balkans, want to live in peace, democracy and prosperity. <\/p>\n

3<\/span> Just what are the ruling and the opposition parties thinking when they promise the earth in the election campaign? We didn\u2019t live somewhere else until yesterday, did we? Perhaps in some other municipalities, in another country, on another planet? As if we suddenly came into being just before the local elections, we woke up one morning and just by looking at the billboards with Photoshopped faces and the videos on TV we would be convinced that our municipality would be the greatest in the world. With exactly those Photoshopped junctions and roads. <\/p>\n

Both the ruling and the opposition parties don\u2019t follow the Covid safety protocols at the rallies, but we\u2019re expected to trust them that they\u2019ll keep all the promises they make so generously and casually. By the way, no one promised they\u2019d collect the garbage and clean the streets every day. Twice a day if need be. They got carried away in fantasizing, and didn\u2019t say they\u2019d clean on Sunday or on a holiday. <\/p>\n

Everything they promised has nothing to do with what their job has been so far. I don\u2019t understand, how can they think someone would vote for them just because they\u2019re now paving the street that was full of potholes for 4 years. Just imagine \u2013 they\u2019re patching potholes. They\u2019re changing the asphalt. They\u2019re repairing pavements. They\u2019re buying dumpsters. That\u2019s how low they\u2019ve set their criteria. They present doing the daily work they\u2019re paid for as an accomplishment. <\/p>\n

4<\/span> Branko Crvenkovski was the Prime Minister and President of the state for a total of 13 years. In the beginning of the post-communist transition. In a period when all the corrupt disasters were made, the ones we still can\u2019t recover from. Branko can\u2019t bash the present, especially not the prospects for the future of the country, as if he doesn\u2019t have any responsibility for why we are as we are. When he speaks, as he spoke at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, he should think about his own role and responsibility. <\/p>\n

And Gjorge Ivanov, who wanted to declare a state of war to prevent a change of government after legal elections, who pardoned criminals according to a list made by the party which set back democracy, shouldn\u2019t even get a chance to speak. <\/p>\n

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government drafted a proposal for a new law, according to which administrative staff will work 36 hours a week instead of 40. They\u2019ll work only 4 hours on Friday. Why bother working on Friday at all? They shouldn\u2019t strain themselves to go to work for just 4 hours. What about all of us who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1528],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-i-want-to-say"],"yoast_head":"\nTHE SAVAGES OF THE WESTERN BALKANS - Goran Mihajlovski<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE SAVAGES OF THE WESTERN BALKANS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government drafted a proposal for a new law, according to which administrative staff will work 36 hours a week instead of 40. They\u2019ll work only 4 hours on Friday. 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