by: DEHRAN MURATOV
What is characteristic for the CIVILians is that they can’t sit still and sit in the office. Even in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, certainly in compliance to all the recommendations and protection measures against the virus, CIVIL visited a dozens of municipalities promoting European values.
Tetovo, Gostivar, Kratovo, Staro Nagoricane, Centar Zhupa, Vevcani, Rostushe, Struga, Ohrid, Negotino, Kavadarci, Rosoman, Kriva Palanka, Kocani, Stip, Vinica, Karbinci, Bitola, Prilep, Mogila, Novaci, Strumica, Bosilevo, Novo Selo, Sveti Nikole, Kicevo, Resen… are just part of the route. Reading out loud all the places we visited, at one moment I felt like Vlatko Gjorchev when he used to number the cities in which they had won… (traumas from my childhood).
The newsletter “Europe is our home”, or popularly said mini little newspaper for promotion of European values, was handed out to thousands of citizens around the country.
While setting up the info stand in Tetovo, a lady commented out loud: “Europe is our home” is written on your banner. That’s nice, but how will we become European citizens when we don’t even wear masks. I’m not wearing a mask, but want to be in Europe… She left with a feeling of guilt and self-criticism. We commented together with the colleagues: “There’s no better criticism then self-criticism. With such conscious citizens, we are on a good path to the EU”.
Travelling from Struga to Debar, the beauty of the nature leaves you speechless. We stopped to see the Globocica Dam, which is quite picturesque, and what needs to be especially mentioned are the almost dried up lakes and rivers that can be seen along the road. But more about this in another occasion.
In Debar, empty taverns and stores, there are almost no young people. Senior citizens stopped by the info stand to inform themselves on what we were handing out, and the most frequent comments were: “Your newsletter is called ‘Europe’. What to say, we all want to go to European countries, we know what life is like in Europe, we have children there”.
Our next destination was Centar Zhupa. Nothing has changed there since the last time we were there. The same café bars and teahouses. Empty streets, huge houses looming empty, except for a few houses where you can see lights inside or a chimney with smoke coming out.
The citizens we encountered in Centar Zhupa said that there isn’t a house that doesn’t have at least one member of the family who isn’t in some European country or America.
“Without Europe we are nobody and nothing. I have been living and working in Switzerland for 30 years, and am now receiving a pension of 2.5 thousand Francs. People here live with 200 euros, and for me that amount is not enough just for gasoline. If we want to live better, we have to become part of Europe, because if Europe doesn’t come to us, we will go to Europe, as most residents from this area have already gone there.
After we left by car to go to Rostushe, some citizens started waving to us to stop. For a moment we thought something had happened, so we opened a window of the car to ask what was the matter, and one of the employees of the teahouse approached us and said: “Why don’t you come and have some coffee, tea, a drink, anything. You have come all the way from Skopje”. We didn’t go, we had to leave for Rostushe, but there isn’t a better feeling than when someone offers you coffee and warmly welcomes you.
We arrived in Rostushe, at the beginning of the municipality we encountered a view of an old house which, unfortunately, we didn’t find out what kind of building it was. Across from it is an old Mosque, probably hundreds of years old. The picture in Rostushe was no different from Centar Zhupa.
“You are from CIVIL, I recognize you”, said a citizen, who for a moment stopped chopping wood when we approached him to give him a newsletter. We were surprised how he knew us, but at the same were proud that they hadn’t forgotten us since the last time we were in that municipality. For a moment we switched roles, we from CIVIL took their axes and started chopping some wood, while they rested and read the newsletter “Europe”.
Several kilometres from Rostushe is the Monastery “St. Jovan Bigorski”, I say to Goran – do you want to go to the monastery, it’s very nice, I went there 10 years ago while I was studying? We agreed to go there, and on our way back Goran says to Melisa: “If I were to tell someone that Deki, who is a Muslim, made me go to see the Bigorski Monastery, they wouldn’t believe me”.
If only the “Srmale” Square in Veles could talk and say how many time we have put up an info stand there and talked with the citizens about their problems, about their views concerning a certain issue… Handing out the newsletter “Europe is our home”, some citizens say: “We will go to Europe only when the corruption will be reduced and when the judiciary will start functioning”. The same opinion was shared my most of the citizens in almost all of the municipalities.
The citizens of Kavadarci and Negotino stressed that corruption needs to be reduced, or as they say – the bribes. “Only then Europe will take us, because who wants thieves entering their homes. If we enter Europe, not everyone will be able to meddle with the state treasury. There will be order and discipline. Everyone who has offended will be held responsible, regardless of who and what they are. In Europe, a police officer punishes even his own brother if he has wronged. Here, it’s not like that, not everyone is the same before the law”.
For CIVIL, everyone is the same, regardless of who and what they are. “Europe is our home” reached the hands of farmers, social cases, green market workers, pensioners, the youth… It even reached that small part of citizens who used to say “we don’t need the EU, only Macedonia”.
The football field at the entrance of the Municipality of Karbinci perhaps best describes the divided Macedonian society. At the old football field, there is an improvised village road through which cars, tractors, trucks pass… the village road divides the football field diagonally, but yet nobody closes or tears it down.
It’s the same in our society as well, because no matter how divided citizens are, still, the road through which we need to pass is common, and that is the path to the EU…
translation: N. Cvetkovska
