Macedonia, Skopje, local 24/3/2013

This text should give an insight into the current situation in Macedonia. It sounds serious, analytical, critical... It is, and it will keep that direction to the very last line. I should give equal importance to each of the stakeholders and preserve neutrality, but this text could be all but neutral. This is my, feel free to call it subjective, personal... view of what is happening to us.

Anushka Cvetkovska

In times of degraded, almost lost values, it is difficult to be a one member-party. It sounds incredible, impossible doesn’t it? I am referring to every one of us, to the individual as a home, a safe haven for ideas, views, needs, ideologies. I am referring to the individual as an entire city, founded on tolerance, understanding, humanity. I am also referring to the fights for freedom, to the resistance against the imposed and uncompromising governance that are appearing in the city. And they should be welcomed. To fight, to fight, so the city could become stronger and bigger.

But, this must not be the time for party-members either. Bleak empty home, seemingly a safe haven, but in fact a comfort to the disoriented, scared people. That is how I perceive the political parties in our city, parties and shelters for many of us, in this empty, quiet city.

The elections are on the horizon, perhaps they’ll be held, or maybe they won’t. Perhaps all political parties will participate, perhaps only some of them. Regardless of that, the budgets of the political parties for self-promotion are the same.

I don’t like the attempt to underestimate the opposition; I consider criticism as constant stimulus. I dislike the insistence on imposing unanimity and the new look of the city. I am afraid of this level of self-confidence of the ruling party in an absolute victory even in the first round of elections. On the contrary, I like the resistance. I belong to the Revolution, the name of which reflects the displeasure and goes one step further. The resistance is not afraid to out on the streets, to make them loud, powerful. Space without walls, space for all. But, I want a different resistance. Not an empty march, without the messages that deserve banners. Every one of us, every home, every city carries the messages. Knock on the doors, and ask about the troubles; about the view from the old apartment in Ristikjeva Palace, about the view from the hacienda in Lisiche, about the view from the home on the main street in Kapishtec. Ask the people in Tetovo, Gostivar, Palanka.

Local elections, local crisis, local debates on democracy. I don’t see a place for the actual local problems of the citizens anywhere. I know one major local problem. For example, locally, in Tetovo. People have a problem with the filth. They live in a landfill. Will the landfill problem be solved soon and who will do it? To declare a person an honorary citizen in a landfill? That is not right. He did not deserve that.