| Whitebaby |
Once upon a time, in a small and vulnerable land, there lived a man named Ali. Finding himself generally unsatisfied with things, he set off to the hills one day with his band of 40 (or so) thieves and brigands. After making some noise, threats and complaints, Ali succeeded in bringing the genie out of the bottle. And then it happened that, in a lovely place down by the lake, young Ali was granted his three wishes. And for what did he wish? "We wish for state jobs, our language in the government, and state-funded education!" declared Ali.
Lo and behold, his wishes were granted, and life in that small and vulnerable land would change forever – by not changing at all.
The Albanian Movement: Anti-State, or Anti-Capitalist?
At first glance, the Albanian separatist movements of Kosovo and Macedonia would seem to be classic examples of anti-state revolts: marginalized minorities unwillingly locked in a righteous, David-versus-Goliath struggle against an oppressive, alien state structure. Or so it would seem.
However, this is simply not true. The fractious, paradoxical Balkans seems to revel in self-contradiction. And so it is that, in reaching for a 19th-century nation state through the ideological guise of ultra-liberal, 1990's-era American political rhetoric, the Albanians have wound up striving for nothing other than an idiosyncratic version of Socialist Yugoslavia. Nothing surprising – after all, this is the Balkans we're talking about.
Rationalizing Confusion
Midway through the year 2003, the Albanians of Macedonia still don't know exactly what it is that they want. This speaks rather poorly for their decision to start a war anyway. One must fight for something, but when there's nothing to fight for, rationalizations come cheap and easy. Lacking any degree of creativity or originality in 2001, they merely recycled the same old Kosovo complaints (not surprising, since the very same people were behind both movements). And so the world came to believe that they had no job opportunities, state support or any power whatsoever in Macedonia. Never mind that Albanian language television was airing in Macedonia before television was even available in Albania itself, or that Albanians had long been ruling local government in areas where they constituted a majority, such as Tetovo and Gostivar. Despite all that, we were led to believe that the Albanians had no human rights because of the state's "Slav domination."
Fighting Themselves into a Corner
The anti-state saga of human rights violations and oppression played exceedingly well in the Western media. It prolonged the war, aided public relations, and brought sympathy for the Albanian cause that would have otherwise been lacking.
Unfortunately for them, this meant that when the time came to "compromise" with the Framework Agreement negotiations, the Albanians were restricted to making demands of the government exclusively. And so, rather than throw off the opprobrious, stifling mantle of the state, they were obliged to resurrect it. Indeed, the Framework Agreement demands seem to confirm the victory of the outdated Socialist mode of thinking. The Albanians ended up demanding more state, not less, merely an Albanianized version of the old Yugoslavia.
Willfully Behind the Times
This was not surprising, considering that they had been guided only by their subjective, collective memory of exclusion from the old federation. When given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to submit their wishes in 2001, the Albanians chose to pluck the fruits of the 1970's. It was as if they were trying to make up for something, to fantasize about being useless bureaucrats and publicly-funded pedagogues, though those days are fast disappearing. Albeit slow, change is coming to Macedonia. Once-desirable state jobs and state education are now more a liability than a boon. The public schools and universities are dying, as the best professors and students flock to newly opening private establishments.
Make Haste to Employ Them, Comrade!
Something peculiar has been going on lately with the interventionists in Macedonia. Or, to be more precise, since nothing special has been happening, certain parties are determined to find meaning in this – as if blandness was somehow not the norm, but an aberration here. As I wrote last week, the Empire seems now to be taking depth soundings underneath the Macedonian political surface, in order to plan future mischief-making.
In this regard, you've just got to hand it to the IWPR – they never fail to come through when it's time for a good laugh. Take their recent article entitled "Macedonia: Albanians still underemployed." It is a textbook example of the subtle deception of the interventionist press, disguised in the form of a simple report on unemployment angst.
The article's main purpose seems to be undermining the present government's Albanian representatives – Ali Ahmeti and his party, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). It does so by quoting unemployed Albanian men from the extremist-friendly northern villages of Matejce and Lipkovo – as well as from Velesta, the prostitution center of Macedonia. It is fascinating to watch how the venerable reporting institution promotes the nonsense of people whose minds are just as stuck in the Socialist past as those of the frequently criticized "Slavs." Take Tahir Hani, mayor of Velesta:
"'…I feel that the DUI is not an equal partner in this government. They should pressure the authorities to open public enterprises and reduce our unemployment,' he told IWPR."
'We Sit All Day Long Waiting for Someone to Give Us Work:' More Inanity from the IWPR
Of course, Velesta is one of the more prosperous villages in the country, owing to the misery of its anonymous, Eastern European "workers." Police raids designed to capture wanted prostitution bosses foundered when local officials tipped off the pimps. And for their part, the "unemployed" farmers of Matejce and Lipkovo profit handsomely from mafia activity with Kosovar Albanians. Yet the reinforced sense of entitlement is all-pervasive:
"…Avni Zendeli from the northeastern village of Matejce now blames the DUI for his poor living conditions. 'Before the elections [the DUI] promised jobs and the renovation of our houses. But out of 4,000 inhabitants, only about ten people in Matejce are employed,' he complained.
"Ljuljzim Arifi from Lipkovo shares his view, saying, 'It seems as if the Ohrid agreement [of August 2001] is not being implemented. Jobs should have been created, but nothing has happened. We sit all day long waiting for somebody to give us work.'"
This last sentence is, for this writer at least, like a gift from the gods. Primarily, because it is absolutely true. At least the first part, that is. After all, Albanian-populated street corners give new meaning to the word "loitering." Heavily suffused with the statist, Socialist mindset of the former Yugoslavia, the Albanians quoted belie the nature of their struggle for "liberation." However, as stated above, the rhetoric about waiting for state employment is simply well-worn, reflexive rhetoric covering up for a fundamental inability to articulate what it is that they actually do want. Plumbing the murky depths of that little issue is more of a socio-psychological exercise than a political one. And, since nobody would believe it if they heard the truth, I will steer clear of the issue.
No Context? No Worries
According to the celebrated English moralist Samuel Johnson, idleness is the primary cause of all evil. Pray tell, what is it that these men do while waiting for the state to employ them? Apparently, there is plenty of time for planting landmines, burning down Macedonian homes, defacing churches, and so on. Of course, the IWPR doesn't say this openly, but alludes to it:
"…Security, as well as the economy, remains a major concern for Albanians in the post-conflict period. Abedin Ziberi, who is adviser to Lipkovo municipality, and also a member of the Democratic Party of Albanians and a former rebel commander in the area, recently warned that 'if anything could worsen security in Macedonia, it is failure to implement the peace accord.'
"Ziberi insists that Albanians are in a worse situation than they were before the war. 'Many have no jobs. People are hungry and poor – and the government is doing nothing to help them,' he said."
The much-lauded IWPR preys upon well-meaning foreigners unaware of the real situation in Macedonia. The truth is, Lipkovo is ground zero for secessionism, and always has been. Landmines, such as the one that killed a Macedonian soldier this week, are planted in the area frequently. In fact, Lipkovo even declared itself a "free republic" a few months ago. It also hosts a reservoir which provides water to the city of Kumanovo below (100,000-plus inhabitants). During the 2001 war, the Albanians of Lipkovo cut off the water supply to the city for almost a month. Now Kumanovo is actively seeking new, safer sources of water. In actuality, Lipkovo has long been written off as a part of the republic.
Devious British subtlety at its best is revealed in the first line: "security… remains a major concern for Albanians in the post-conflict period." Now, citing a former "rebel commander" and member of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) here should send up red flags immediately. The insinuation that security could be "worsened" if further government handouts do not appear is not some kind of disinterested, objective analysis. Rather, it is a threat, one of the many that the DPA has been making against the DUI over the past few months. The level of indoctrination has reached such levels that even my Albanian taxi driver the other day declared that it's high time for a renewed rebellion – because he did not have a state-funded job, as he thought the Ohrid Agreement had promised him.
The IWPR merely reifies these unproductive, anti-free market delusions.
No Expectations
As usual, it is only the Macedonians who expect nothing from their government. Although they may also complain about their economic situation, at least they don't expect the state to save them.
Scavenging, politically-motivated interventionist outlets like the IWPR thrive on connecting unemployment and entitlement. They rarely report that Macedonia is a land of opportunity for motivated, hardworking people. After all, there is less competition. There are many Macedonian success stories – but none of them ever came from people who sat waiting for the state to employ them.
Unfortunately, Albanians locked in the backwards, Socialisti-era mindset – like the enterprising young fellow who thought he should be hired as a policeman just because he owned a whistle – are missing out. The single most destructive and retarding influence that their politicians and the West have saddled them with is that of absolute, irrefutable entitlement. And so they sit, waiting for an already bloated state to digest them.
Go Private, Young Man
They will be waiting a long time. True, their short-term prospects are bright. Albanians are now being hired and Macedonians fired to implement the Ohrid Accord's affirmative action quotas. Yet their long-term prospects are less promising; the IMF and World Bank would like the government to lay off thousands of workers from chronically overstaffed state institutions. The only hope for any individual's economic success will soon lie in the private sector.
Indeed, for what other reason are USAID and other Western agencies doing "competitivity projects," if the suffering minority wants only to retreat into the same system which it tried to destroy? For rather than defeat a system of government (as the French and American revolutions set out to do) the Albanian revolt sought to merely revive it – with the only exception being that they would be on top, instead of the Serbs or Macedonians.
A Victory Befitting Pyrrhus Himself
If the Albanians really do feel left out of life's great feast, it is not because of any willful obstruction from the Macedonians. After all, the latter did not force them to make the statist (and now failing) demands of 2001. Local bureaucracy, affirmative action, language rights, and constitutional change were all things for which Ahmeti and Co. pushed hard. By starting a war with no purpose, the Albanians only condemned themselves to further backwardness – and their political masters were only too happy with that result.
Always a step behind, the Albanians were tricked into believing that happiness, both in Kosovo and in Macedonia, would come through playing at governance in a system from which they had felt estranged. In the Balkans, land of simulation and symbolic victories, the big prize was in getting to become entrenched, mid-level bureaucrats: to work in the dismal confines of a post office processing the very bills they had never been forced to pay before; to collect back pay from their public employer, after returning from fighting that same employer in the war; to study in ethnically pure, ramshackle public schools.
Yet Macedonia is privatizing, Westernizing and seeking more profitable and modern types of work and study. And so, if the Albanians want to return to what was prestigious 30 years ago, why not let them have it? If they want a passport in their own language, so that the Greek border guards will know they are Albanian, and therefore should be denied entry, why not let them have it? And if the fiery Albanian youth of Kumanovo want to block traffic for days, marching down the main street, why not let them have the decrepit public school that they so badly think they need? "Let them go on with their miserable lives, if that's what they want," opined one fed-up Macedonian. "The rest of us have better things to do."
Parasites Lost
It is often said that war is the health of the state. But is not the state also the health of war? The NLA (and KLA before it) would have had no success without a clear, organized state for an enemy, one to which could be affixed all of the blame and responsibility that they themselves evaded as shadowy guerrilla organizations.
But the truth is, these very guerrilla organizations are and always have been just a ward of the state. The Albanian "liberation" movement is defined by its parasitism. Being inherently weak, it can only get results through the sponsorship of a powerful outside power, such as Ottoman Turkey, Nazi Germany or imperial America. It is also well known that the Albanian diaspora has continually funded the Balkan insurrectionists – often one and the same people.
Indeed, back in the days when he was plotting the 2001 war, Ali Ahmeti himself used to collect social security in Switzerland. It is a common practice for Albanian men of Macedonia and Kosovo to go to Western Europe to work illegally, where they also collect social security, while all the while the family back home is also collecting social security and, until very recently, getting free utilities and phone service. Ironically, the former fighters of the DUI, who benefited from such trickery, are now beginning to appreciate some of the problems it can raise for the cash-strapped government they are now participating in.
For the Albanians, the only thing worse than living in the Macedonian state would be living outside of it. Failing to recognize this has doomed them to a life of delusions and collective torpor. Which would suit just fine the manipulative politicians and interventionist hacks who thrive on perpetuating the misery and backwardness of the Balkan peoples.
by Christopher Deliso
June 20, 2003 |