At the beginning of last year, when we planned the program of the action media initiative, ‘The Second Program’, the one that is writing this, was, as the saying goes, full of scepticism. It was mainly about the twenty-five-year depression that, with short breaks, rules over this country. There are many reasons for this, some of which can be attributed to the war of the 1990s, and some are metastatic consequences, which, in fact, cement the results of the war. Things are, more or less, clear: after the end of the war, no democratic mechanism was created to prevent further divisions and, as a final result, the disintegration of the country. They insist on negotiations with the representatives of the constituent peoples, and thus suspend the basic postulates of international and human rights. Try, for example, to imagine that in any world democracy, one political option is guaranteed that its candidate must be elected to a position. The change in the election law in which the HDZ BiH demands it for itself is nothing else, but apartheid. Discrimination, which may be accepted so that things would not change, in essence.
And they can only change if the prosecution and the courts do their job. And they won’t.
In the meantime, we received a list of companies. Companies controlled by Milorad Dodik, so to speak. According to the internal structure, it is nothing else, but a cartel. According to the economic definition, it is a form of consensual association of similar subjects, which become a monopoly by association. Only that our companies are parties, and the ‘employer’ is the state, i.e. those who, with more or less malfeasance, were elected. Altogether, it makes a monstrous octopus: composed of a criminal head and arms whose ends touch every segment of society. Politics, that is, nationalism, is just black ink that should deceive or stun the victim. That is how it was on all three sides involved in the process, and it turned out to be a perfect ‘recipe’, of course, for those who implement it. Big holes are clogged with loans, and the drive, and some movement of the monster is provided by taxes. Work is practically devalued and the entrepreneurial climate is stifled by constant new levies. And from the levy, as the song says, there is no success.
Meanwhile, sanctions have been announced from the United States against Dodik, and the European Parliament is asking for the same. This is paradoxical because it does not in any way jeopardize his unquestionable place in the negotiations. The rules have therefore been changed, and will remain in force. As long as local politicians do not endanger international ‘stability’ and money flows, that is, as long as their wealth can be ‘controlled’ and do not make a significant share in the international capital chain, nor can they cause serious damage to those flows – they will be where they are. Whatever the consequences. That is why, or mostly because, the war is starting in Ukraine. And it is like this in North Africa, Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Balkans. And that’s why all these parts of the world look strikingly similar. It’s all, basically, the same misery. Made according to the same recipe: the increasingly arrogant behaviour of the arrogant, and the increasingly rewarded rich.
And taking from those who ‘do not listen’.
In that sense, thank heavens, Sarajevo is still a bit resisting.
The latest hit of the Federation Parliament is the Law on Changes in the Distribution of Revenues in the Federation, which is, in essence, a slap in the face of the Cantonal Government of the ‘Three’, whose work is visible and whose non-criminal activities have brought some results. Especially in the payment of maternity benefits and veteran subsidies: this is logical because the distance from the cartel allows for some autonomy. The psychology of the cartel is feudal: in that sense, we should interpret the recent statement of Bisera Turković, which caused a scandal of the almost non-existent public, and which reads that ‘we are all a little spoiled, because who has light in their home and has something to eat must not be tired’. It is, therefore noted, that: if you are obedient, we will give you light, heating, and lunch. And you have to be satisfied. Bisera is part of the cartel. Created in the early 1990s, there is no possibility, no intention, no reason, no need to think about resigning after such statements. That will not change with any American or European sanctions. Nor the opportunity here. It will remain cemented.
Just like the position of Dragan Čović, who says that he will activate the European path if the election law is changed. Secrets? Don’t think so. Leaning on the Russian budget, which is also fattening Milanović, tells us that the European path depends on him. Therefore, the hollow story that he is the one who should take BiH to Europe did not pass, so he barricaded himself. The cartel is currently ‘negotiating’ in Neum, and altogether it is sad to see how in the election year everyone – from the Sarajevo mayor to the clickable media – ‘rolls’ in their favour, in order to burn something from leaving Sarajevo in the feudal, premodern era. Because the political ‘success’ in this country depends on only one thing: the proximity of the centre of the cartel. Everything else is a thorny and uncertain path, which the current Cantonal Government or the Municipality of Centar, are taking today.
For a small consolation, the United States and Russia will not wage war over Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is not yet known about Ukraine, but we hope that it will not be there either. What is certain is that we will have to be grateful if we have heating or food. When we are left without that, only then will our ‘spoilage’, as the minister calls it, come to fruition.
At full capacity. A cartel that, however, feeds best on a subservient mentality.
