|
It's
official: Spring has arrived in the Balkans. It is now the season of renewal and prosperity,
when the jovial sun chases away the harsh winter snow, and the fecund
earth blossoms with new life. And
not only is it Spring in Macedonia, it is also time for celebration,
now that the long-awaited donor conference has finally happened.
And verily, all across the country the elated Macedonians are
rejoicing in their newfound wealth, grateful for the overflowing cornucopia
of their international patrons, whose generosity is matched only by
their sincerity.
Yeah,
right.
SPRING
HAS SPRUNG – LIKE A RAT TRAP
The
real mood in the country as usual, one of fatalistic cynicism was
captured by a recent retort in the daily Makedonija Denes newspaper.
The author, Petre Bakevski, pulled no punches in explaining why
a $515 million infusion of foreign
capital signifies nothing more than "defeat" for his country:
"Yes,
this is a defeat. A genuine and helpless defeat. The Ohrid peace pact
was reached under great pressure, without asking the people's actual
opinion. It was signed by the four Macedonian and ethnic Albanian leaders
under threats from the world elite political guard. And, of course,
the Macedonian side had to sign it. There was no choice, no alternative.
Behind the signatures, there were the raging fires in the Macedonian
homes and the 100,000 Macedonians who lived to see the most horrible
and humiliating exodus from their own country.
With
this, the Macedonian defeat became official. With this, Macedonia was
forced to walk a path it did not choose. Squeezed in that agreement,
the Macedonian political leadership was placed in a cage made by the
strong and powerful, and it had to implement every provision obediently
and without defiance. The year-long dramatic chronicle was notable for
the constitutional and national changes of the Macedonian country, the
minimization of historical continuity, and the endangering of the Macedonian
identity. Every change was achieved through violence."
Bakevski
goes on to point out that the NLA's demands, chief among them the local
self-government clause and the amnesty act, were passed.
The first triumphant celebrations for the latter piece of legislation
happened last week in Shemsovo,
where Albanians fired weapons
at random to welcome home some local commanders, freed from Macedonian
jails by the amnesty act. After
that experience, I'm sure the NLA men of Shemsovo are planning
to settle down to a pleasant pastoral existence
THE
DONOR CONFERENCE: MORE LIKE HALLOWEEN THAN CHRISTMAS
Mystery
handouts, people in costumes, darkness and confusion yes, the situation
for the Macedonians held little in the way of Yuletide cheer.
Indeed, with the money comes an ultimatum: the West
will enforce the donation by installing an "anticorruption advisor"
to monitor the spending. Surely,
a jocund Santa would make a different kind of house call. Besides, the Macedonian suppliants had to trudge all the way to Brussels,
where they knocked on the gilded doors of the European Union, just to
be told that they were children needing supervision. Trick or treat, anyone?
LIKE
LOVE, CHARITY SEEMS TO BE BLIND
The
most farcical aspect of the donor's conference is that the bulk of the
money is earmarked for the "crisis region" in other words, those heavily
Albanian sections of western Macedonia which are already receiving generous
foreign assistance. Driving past
the Albanian mansions lining the Tetovo-Gostivar road, one wonders how
this scandal of false poverty has been maintained for so long. Of course, it makes sense that the Albanians
would get the cash they have, after all, a much warmer relationship
with the West than do the Macedonians.
In utilizing NGO's and the media, as well as political lobby
groups, the Albanians have proven themselves adept at advancing their
agenda at the expense of Macedonia.
As the donor conference has reaffirmed, loyalty has its benefits.
Lavish Albanian mansions like this one in the Tetovo
area are plentiful, and contrast sharply with the mass media's depiction
of downtrodden villagers living in squalor.
That
said, it is no mystery why the funds were doled out as they were.
Deciding where money should be allocated is a lengthy and cumbersome
task. It is made much easier,
however, by persuasive and well-organized grant letters, sent through
all the right administrative channels. Who writes such letters? Non-governmental organizations, and crisis-management
groups. And what are such bodies
designed to do? To care for poor,
downtrodden ethnic minorities wherever they are being oppressed (except
for, say, in the United States). And
so we have it. By mainlining
money from the caring nurturers of the Balkans, the "oppressed" Albanian
minority has locked on to something real special.
MACEDONIA'S
HALLOWEEN LOOT: A MARS BAR WITH A RAZOR INSIDE
The
donor conference seems to have had three motivations.
First, to pour money into the Albanian coffers as a means of
appeasement; second, to allow the West to keep bathing in the narcissistic
light of its own altruism, shining forth as the beacon of hope for human
rights everywhere. That this is blatantly false matters little; the average person has
not the time to read between the lines of the daily newspaper (or indeed,
to read columns like this one). Numbing
repetition of the Western position in the media guarantees that over
time it will gradually seep into the collective subconscious, in the
same way that we've all learned how fundamentally evil the Serbs are.
The
third objective of the donor conference is, if we can imagine it, more
sinister still: to deprive Macedonia of any future bargaining room when
it comes to inter-ethnic negotiations. The donor conference was heralded as a reward to Macedonia for its
capitulation to the NLA's demands. And
indeed, the NLA kept the peace, the West will proudly proclaim (four
months of snow cover had nothing to do with it, of course). The Albanians have held up their end of the
bargain, the West will say, and now you Macedonians should too: after
all, haven't we just given you $515 million, for the common good of the
Macedonian people?
In
time, exactly how the money was divided up will be completely forgotten.
Not to worry none of the major media have picked up on this
yet, anyway. It is unlikely that they will.
The
advent of Spring in Macedonia means a time for renewal the renewal
of war season, that is. If the
NLA, emboldened by its unimpeded gains, decides to fight again, Macedonia
will be forced to respond. Not
far behind, of course, will be the Western Mother Goose, clucking for
caution and a "proportionate response."
Inevitably, when the Albanians come up with new and improved
demands, the Macedonians will have little to counter with.
After all, the West will say, did we not just drop $515 million
into your laps? Since no one will remember where the money went,
it will be a simple matter for the West to denounce Macedonia, finally
and triumphantly, as a nation of ingrates. In the end, the Macedonians will end up on their knees, begging the
West to at least allow them the privilege of choosing which state they
would like to live in – Bulgaria, Greece, or the Greater Albania.
Time
passes; seasons come and go. The ebb and flow of time engenders a constant stream of forgetting.
In this stream the events of today rush past us, like luminous
stones that briefly shimmer, before disappearing into the oblivion of
the open sea. They sink to depths where no light can penetrate, until by chance,
hundreds of years later, some intrepid adventurer discovers them, buried
deep in the mud and wonders how their owners could have parted with
objects of such inestimable value.
|
Previous
articles by Christopher Deliso on Antiwar.com
Mujahedin
In Macedonia, or, an Enormous Embarrassment For the West
3/12/02
How
Not To Capture Osama bin Laden
3/7/02
Whispers
of Folly and Ruin
3/4/02
Blurring
the Boundaries in Macedonia
2/26/02
When
The Terror Goes Down To Georgia: Some Thoughts On The Caucasus Imbroglio
2/19/02
In
Macedonia, Terrorism Remains the Law
2/14/02
But
Would It Be an Evil Axis?
2/12/02
Economics
and Politics in Macedonia: an Interview with Dr. Sam Vaknin
1/29/02
Macedonians
and the Media
1/28/02
Secrets
of the Blue Café
1/26/02
On
the Front Lines in Tetovo
1/25/2002
Interview
with Ljube Boshkovski
1/24/02
A
Connection Between NATO and the NLA?
1/23/02
The
Legacy of War: Kidnapped Persons in Macedonia
1/22/02
The
Day's Disturbances and Developments in Macedonia
1/21/02
Macedonia:
A Prelude
1/19/02
Crisis in Macedonian Government –
Vice President Resigns
1/18/02
Albanian Hackers Deface Macedonian Website
1/18/02
On
Names and Power
1/4/02
Partition: Macedonia's Best Lost Hope?
12/26/01
Important
Notice to Readers of the Macedonia Page
12/515/01
Selective Democracy Comes
to Macedonia
12/1/01
Macedonia Capitulates
11/20/01
With a Friend Like
Pakistan
10/27/01
Afghan-Americans Oppose
Interventionism, Seek Unity
10/19/01
The Afghan
Quagmire Beckons
10/17/01
Suddenly,
Terrorists Are Everywhere
10/10/01
Turkey's
Eclipse:
Earthquakes, Armenians, and the Loss of Cyprus
10/5/01
Chechnya Comes Home
To America
9/29/01
A Quiet Battle in the
Caucasus: Georgia Between Russia & NATO
9/26/01
Central Asia: The Cauldron
Boils Over
9/22/01
Bin Laden, Iran, and the
KLA
9/19/01
The Meaning of
Belarus
9/8/01
The Macedonian
Phrase-Book: Writing NATO's Dictionary of
Control
9/5/01
Barbarism and the Erasure
of Culture
8/24/01
Macedonian Endgame: The
Sinister Transformation of the Status Quo by Christopher Deliso
8/14/01
Christopher Deliso
is a journalist and travel writer with special interest in current events
in the areas of the former Byzantine Empire – the Balkans, Greece, Turkey,
and the Caucasus. Mr. Deliso holds a master's degree with honors in
Byzantine Studies (from Oxford University), and has traveled widely
in the region. His current long-term research projects include the Macedonia
issue, the Cyprus problem, and the ethnography of Byzantine Georgia.
|
