Nice Jeeps make great fires

Erol Rizaov

There is one particularly vulgar saying, I would say that is even inappropriate, maybe even insulting to the Chinese people, if it’s not properly understood. The saying is: “China is burning, you don’t give a f**k”. The anonymous author, a common wise man, probably wanted to say that when the fire is somewhere far away, as far away as China, it should not concern you. The other meaning of it could be the ironic message that you should not care if something that is not yours is burning. Especially if it belongs to someone you cannot stand. When in our neighborhood, there was a war and thousands of people suffered, and their houses and properties were burning like torches, many were not disturbed, just as in the saying. Srgjan Dragojevic’s legendary film “Pretty village, pretty flame”, which entered the modern classics of the Serbian cinematography, came to me as an association, although maybe not very appropriate, when I heard an eyewitness talking about how nicely the Jeep belonging to Ljupco Todorovski-Radnikot was burning. He is the former head of the Bureau of Public Security, who retired five years ago with the addition to his nickname – the top man in VMRO-DPMNE. His ‘Nissan Navara’ was in flames like a bonfire, all that was missing was some hot rakija among the gathered concerned citizens and mockers.

Why did this Jeep end up in my article? There are several reasons. It is not the first car to burn, but I’m more challenged by the arsonists that have been setting Jeeps on fire for years, and yet I’ve never heard that any of them were ever caught or sentenced. The jeeps of businessmen, politicians, journalists, policemen, doctors, gangsters, comrades, mafia bosses, gamblers are in flames… Investigations end with no clues or suspects, and they are not very zealous when it comes to jeeps of public figures. The bazaar and cafes often end the investigation by specifying which was a racket, a threat, a retribution, a penalty, an unpaid debt, infidelity, envy … Jeeps are the most attractive to justify the misdeeds because they feed poverty and the misery with primitivism: they did him justice, where did he get the money for a jeep etc.

Jeeps are a prestigious thing, and when they are burning they are on the central news, like a celebration with fireworks. But, jeeps are not the only thing that is burned in Macedonia, houses, shops, factories and forests are being burned, and foreign property is destroyed, but those are never on the news, and sometimes even the perpetrators of those crimes are caught. It is not interesting for the crime chronicles if the case is not social, and if there are no cries of fire victims who have lost everything they owned. The next day, there are news that human beings who sympathize with the tragedy are helping to alleviate the accident, which is a solidarity that rejoices and tells us that something remained of humanity, and the compassion to help the victims. But what do we do with those who set fires by order of political, business or any other reasons that destroy and rob other people’s property almost freely and unpunished?

In the past few years, the major cities in Macedonia have been targeted by gangs of thieves and robbers, who would burn the bedding of the Minister of Interior for several hundred euros, let alone a jeep parked on the street. This unsafety of the citizens, without dramatization, is one million times more dangerous than the threats of destabilization of the state and its territorial integrity due to the change of the constitutional name, due to the Law on the Use of Languages, ​​due to the new tax system that affects 74,000 citizens or two percent of the population. If you do not believe this, check in the most authentic way, wrap two thousand of your salary and burn them. If you do not care more about your money than the Law on Languages, beware, you could be a potential pyromaniac.

Don’t compare your house with the constitutional name of the state, it is not appropriate, nor patriotic. There is a huge difference in saying “I no longer have a house or property, I was robbed by thieves in the Republic of Macedonia”, and saying “I no longer have a house or property, I was robbed by thieves in the Republic of Upper Macedonia”. The former one is much better. Or that you were robbed in Macedonia, either way.