Bulldozer instead of broom

Ana Pavlovska-Daneva

As much as we are interested as a nation in dealing with other people’s lives, we are also as much interested in dealing with the staffing issues of the political parties, with which most of the “active intellectuals” has nothing to do. Probably such a fact should not be a surprise, and it represents quite appropriate behavior for a certain category of citizens, especially for those who have recently migrated from village to city, and for them the events in the city party headquarters are a real event, for whose information they were yearning and were rarely available to them in the places where they came from.
The main disappointment, however, comes from the behavior of the “great” experts, scientists, columnists, analysts and journalists who deal exclusively with “analyzes” and “surveys” of internal party policies, events and gossiping. I never understood the urge of political opponents to propose party leadership to the party, which they strongly criticize and to which they are the biggest political opponents, to which they have never belonged, nor they ever will. It’s more than impudent, it is stupidity, and it irritates. I’m mostly irritated by stupidity.

At the same time, what I find irritating with the same intensity is the uncritical attitude, the ridiculous, unarmed with arguments “defenders” of the most hardline party apparatus, frightened of their flimsy positions in the party or (even worse) outside of it, in state institutions, they write praises for the bosses on their social media profiles and scream against every critical word uttered against them, in order to prove their loyalty, which is nothing but servitude, greed, and lack of dignity.

Both of them (and together, unfortunately, they make the majority) with their behavior are turning the society into a more primitive one. Both of them (those who are “non-partisan”, but with a great desire to influence the party processes) and (the party obedient, blind, who put their professionalism and dignity in the interest of their own clientelism), contribute to one thousand citizens annually leaving the country. These are citizens who are not interested in who will be the next general secretary in the ruling party, citizens who are not interested in telephone numbers, ministers, or members of the opposition party’s executive committee, because they do not intend to ever call them. Because they don’t want their work to have any connection with these people and they do not need to call them on the phone, nor do they want to be called by any of them. Citizens who have graduated from college, who have their Masters degrees and PHD are also leaving the country and are ashamed of their colleagues who they see every day in the domestic social media, dealing with politics, he-said-she-said gossip, instead of dealing with topics of their specialization, and call themselves analysts and experts in the meantime.

These are citizens who have education and knowledge that is not valued because mediocrities have affected their positions and roles of educators and public opinion creators. Citizens who want a dignified life, provided healthcare for themselves and their children, but receive insufficient, bureaucratic and incomprehensible answers from the Health Fund, in which we have all donated funds for decades. These are citizens who live in a country in which officials can cross out the expert opinion of a medical consilium, diagnosis and recommendation of subspecialists. Citizens who understand that they breathe the same air with people who are bothered by a dog on a bus trained to lead a blind citizen who realized that they live in a society in which people do not allow children with special needs to live in their villages, that they live among people who have neither left the country, nor their own mental cage.

A few lawyers and friends ask me for recommendations for good students, for hiring them as interns. State administration bodies also require such staff. And the courts are in need of new expert officials. I have no answer. I have no recommendation. Half the generation in late May is leaving for the United States on work and travel program. Not just now, every summer. Excellent students, with a high average and perfect English, Those who graduated have long been hired in law firms, non-governmental foreign organizations, etc. I’m talking about lawyers, can you even imagine the situation with engineers, doctors, artists, athletes, etc.?

All of these people who are increasingly leaving, money is not the only thing they need. Part of them would earn quite a lot for our standard here as well. What they need are changes. Not the laws. The mentality of the administration. The populist matrix of the Macedonian politician (in government or opposition, whatever). They do not need a “broom sweep” of three ministers and deputies, and six directors. They need a new concept of work, a new system of values. They need an ideology and presenting the principles of the people they see on television, there are sick of improvisation and clientelism.
We should not have any expectations from the so-called “broom”, even if it happens, because it will not change the streets, their narrowness, the holes and crevices in the asphalt, the absence of traffic signs and the like, it will only make them more visible and highlight these shortcomings. Therefore, if bulldozers and a whole construction machinery are not used with new quality material (without stealing in its procurement), in politics, government, administration, judiciary, healthcare, but also in education (starting from primary education), the number of citizens who leave the country will only increase.