Dangerous poems, Russians and Ivanov

Gjorgji Spasov

In the past few days, the Macedonian media were overwhelmed with the stories about the three “great” dangers that have overtaken our distressed land.

The first danger we face are two stupid poems written by a mathematician who has poorly calculated things. He gave his scribbles to a dentistry student who did not write poems. That student appeared in the role of author of these two poems, in the edition “Young poets” (15 to 29 years old), published by the Government Agency for Youth and Sports.
Because in our country people neither read poetry, nor will see a published poem in any medium, and that stupidity will probably remain unnoticed, if the media that published these two particular poems did not reveal that it was precisely them that hides “dangerous hostile activity”, with which “the government as their publisher” allegedly reveals its chauvinistic face towards the Albanians, insults the feminine gender, and endangers gender equality.
The Commission for Protection against Discrimination, of which nobody had heard before, was immediately appointed. The commission strongly condemned the move by the Agency for Youth and Sport, and assessed that the poems contained “disturbing and discriminatory content”, ie they had “discrimination of ethnic, religious and gender affiliation”. Numerous media in the country that publish the poems and popularize them, write that they contain hate speech and discrimination and that “there is no room for such kind of unreasonable communication in Macedonia”.

Professor Avzi Mustafa told Alsat Television that “this scandal (with the publication of these two poems) will cause moral damage, which will reach many libraries in the country, as happened with the Encyclopedia and the books with abusive content towards the Albanian people”.

After strong accusations and insisting on responsibility for the committed “crime”, one person is already suspended from work, the head of the Agency for Youth and Sports has been asked, they decided to destroy (probably burn at a stake) all 5,000 copies of the collection in which poems of other 96 poets aged 15 to 29 are published, and the harm from the burning of dangerous books is paid by those who have made this unprecedented omission. It is possible in this atmosphere of persecution to demand the expulsion of the authors of those two poems from the country. And what is it actually about?

Two jokers, according to me, who never wrote poetry in their lives, decided to express their anger at the party employments and the “privileged Albanians” – according to them in Macedonia, by writing two satirical poems and trying to insert them into some collection of young poets which will be issued by the Agency for Youth and Sport. Since no one reads poetry in our country, those poems made their way to the collection and, after a while, a “designated patriot” noticed them, after their publication.

This patriot frowned upon how the government could allow such a profound vulgar anger towards a “party employee” to appear in a publication funded by it. How could one regard this as poetry, after the following verse: “They say that she put her breasts on the mayor’s forehead. Instead of building buildings, he grabs her breasts. “And, he was especially repulsed of how a Macedonian can dare say that he “feels like a king surrounded by so many Shqiptars” , after previously saying that he is neighbors with professions starting with the letter S (in Macedonian), like a hat maker, a forester, a dog catcher, a charmer, a make-up artist, a singer, a strike-breaker and a flirter.

This hypersensitivity to an unreasonable speech that contains elements of hatred, although it is a kind of satire, it would be fine if there were no Internet, social networks, if it were no fan groups, we were not witnessing political protests with much more vulgar content that no one ever reacted. If there is a bit more sense for humor and a higher level of tolerance, then the published poems would be considered only a little sharper and more complicated satire. And nothing more. The books that contain the poems of the remaining 96 young poets from 15 to 29 years old would not be burned, only because of the harmfulness of these two poems, which we all read and got mass publicity anyway.

The second great danger that they use to frighten us is “the Russian vengeance towards Macedonia”, due to the expulsion of their diplomat.

And to me that seems to be largely overstated, primarily because of the political folklore by a small group of citizens who “talk nonsense” in front of the Russian embassy in Skopje to the general satisfaction of the Russian ambassador, which he regards as “expressing love for Russia”. In Russia, thanks to our wise leadership headed by Gjorge Ivanov, we have only one diplomat. Russia in Macedonia has about 50 years. With the expulsion of a diplomat from Macedonia, we have reduced their diplomatic mission by 2%. If they react appropriately to our act, they have the right to expel only the cat from our embassy in Moscow. If they decide to expel the ambassador, it would be a complete suspension of diplomatic relations and a reduction of our diplomatic mission in Moscow by 100 percent. And this is not in accordance with the Vienna Convention. Hence, we need to remain calm. Before the NATO aggression against Russia begins, we should not expect the atomic bomb on our heads, as announced by Ambassador Shcherbak.

And the last problem that bothers us, except the one with the differences over the name, is the non-signing of the Law on Languages ​​by Ivanov. If there is a political will of the Government, for me it is not a problem.
The key right that Albanians in Macedonia receive under that Law is to address all state institutions in their own language. Everything else in that law is folklore and provisions how to protect exactly that right. If there is a political will, and without the entry into force of that Law, the Government can announce that from tomorrow, Albanians can begin to use this right, and that the public administration will receive funds and personnel for its realization. This does not require a signed law.

When this right begins, as Zaev says, it will become clear that neither Macedonia becomes bilingual, nor federalized or jeopardized with what was the use of the Macedonian language. By practicing this “last law” of the Framework Agreement, it becomes clear that Ivanov’s opposition becomes meaningless, and that nothing is dangerous and contrary to the Constitution in Macedonia. We only need will and a little non-standard thinking for everyone to have a nice time during the Easter holidays.