Democratization and Citizen Activism

Balkan is known as a ‘problem region’. However, problems motivate people into action, or at least that’s what we have come to believe. Last week we had a Civil Society Forum in Skopje, followed by a similar forum in Prizren. These forums started only two years ago, yet they have already become a well coordinated group with great discussions and firm conclusions. The task now is to follow up in our local regions and move from ‘theory to practice’. Furthermore, many have noticed that the topics discussed are no longer limited to the problems in the region but the whole of the EU. This post is my personal take on what was discussed not only during the formal parts of the forums, but also over meals and breaks.

Functioning democracy needs active, well informed citizens. While there are no objections to ‘representative democracy’ and the ‘election system’, there seems to be a need for a more frequent communication between the government and the citizens. In fact, we could go as far as to say that there is a great divide between governments and citizens. In the Balkans, this is because the representatives have inherited a culture of ‘untouchable, distant’, and in the Western Europe because of great dependence on statistical analysis which have led to policy failure, or the analysis does not represent the reality. Suggested model is a system of ‘bridges’, or activists who would work with the people to discover the problems and then articulate them in debates, seminars and round tables with the government officials. The main reason being that people are often unable to articulate their problems concisely, which means having patience and time, while on the other hand they often do not insist on solution since they don’t know how to solve a problem. This is particularly important in the age of ‘lazy’ solutions offered by some political parties which fail to explain how action A will lead to solution of problem Z. However, they often use it to raise the masses, disregarding the fact that action A might lead to more problems. We should also note that there are numerous cases where civil society has made great policy recommendations, which should be considered. Furthermore, observing a problem does not solve it, it only helps us understand it better. A problem should not be brushed aside until it is solved – this applies for the Balkans and the EU.

Barriers to activism are evident in the EU and the Balkans. While the reasons are numerous, including lack of trust, it is believed that the main reasons to inactivism in the Balkans is poverty and culture (democracy is new to all the Balkan countries), while in the EU it is lack of time and education. It seems that the EU has become complex without informing its citizens of the complexities. Citizens of Balkan countries still face ‘simple’ problems, therefore informing the masses is a much simpler task. General opinion is that the EU should formalise education on the ‘country structure’ from an early age, so that citizens understand the basic ‘ins and outs’, and then they cannot be lead to believe that action A will solve problem Z. This also leads to the problem of ‘well informed citizens’. It is no secret that we live in the age of information overload. Some have made it their business to tell lies. Balkan countries are painfully aware of how much chaos this can cause, since we had wars and to this day we are proving which information was true and which was false. And this task is vital to bring peace among the citizens of the region.

Welfare is something people of EU should be proud of. Many citizens of Balkan countries have expressed surprise that the welfare systems are being blamed for various problems. People in general will always want more, and will strive to depend on themselves; it is a question of pride. However, it seems that the governments are seeing businesses as ‘boss of the boss’ – if people employ the governments, and businesses employ the people, businesses become boss of the boss to the government. This is creating a pyramid structure, which is inherently hierarchical and inequitable. If governments could position themselves as the boss to the businesses, there would be a circle, which is inherently equitable, causing a more just division of power. This alone should bring more power to the people, economic freedom and a more just division of resources. This justice will prevent abuse of the welfare state which many citizens of EU are now practicing. Citizens of Balkan countries have often expressed that poverty is not as much of a problem as injustice. In fact, people of Bosnia have often claimed that the war was better even though they had nothing to eat. But it was a situation when no one had anything to eat. However, even citizens of other Balkan countries have claimed that life in previous system was better, even though they had less back then than they do now. It is all relative. Justice is very important to citizens and they measure it by looking at those around them.

One issue that is evident in the EU and we wish to avoid in the Balkan is the housing market. The issues of housing has been a hot topic for decades in numerous EU countries, with housing prices rocketing to the point that large percentage of income is spent on rent or mortgage. As a result, citizens of these EU countries are left with very little to enjoy. It seems that ‘free market’ should have been sacrificed in the case of the housing market. It seems leaving the housing market to the market forces was stupid due to the nature and importance of the ‘product’. We would like to see this problem avoided in the Balkan by introducing regulatory measures before it spirals out of control like it has done in the EU.

This is a time for new ideas. It is not a time to go back and settle for things that, from this perspective, were ‘better’. They were not better. They just seem better since they offered something different. Closing boarders and blaming immigrants who contribute to our society isn’t going to bring desired results. We all have to start with the question: Do we want things to get better without getting much worse? It is time to call a spade a spade and deal with issues not hide behind false sense of honour in hiding that there is an issue. This applies to the Civil Society Organisations as well. Personally, i.e. outside the conference, I believe the CSO sector needs standards. I’m working on developing a model for a CSO rating agency, and testing it in Bosnia. If it works, it might be a foundation for giving power to the people. Not one individual, but organising it so that power is with the people – we already have great ‘wealth’ in the numerous organisations of the CS, we just need to know how to ‘pick’ the right organisations. Of course, countries would continue to have governments, but those governments would have a much better idea what they’re supposed to be doing so that they can live up to the ‘representative of the people’ title. 

In the end I’d like to say that this is a very quick overview of the forums. I welcome questions and comments.

For official information about the forums please visit the organisers. This here is just my personal overview. 

Excuse my ‘blind-eye’

Anyone miss the image of a little boy from Syria, covered in dust and blood, scared and confused, yet silent? Why didn’t the boy cry? Why wasn’t he screaming for help? He should have cried. The image was even more painful to see because he didn’t cry. Even the British do not believe in stiffer-upper-lip before a certain age. What is it that made that boy silent? And is his silence the reason why I cannot be? Why I am raging with fury?

Ladies and gentlemen in your comfy chairs, getting a great wage to make decisions that shape our world, you out there in your suits and ties, your red carpets and crystal glasses, you have failed! You miserable lot, what have you done? Please entertain us with another messed up fairytale about how there are no options. Give us another bully lie about how you’re doing your best. If this is your best, please resign. This is beyond pathetic. Did you not learn anything?

While I feel sick at the thought that someone is getting paid to do this to people, and generation after generation they are getting away with it, I have to wonder: What can I, we (the citizens) do? I cannot ignore it. I cannot say I’m too busy. I cannot turn a blind eye or follow some movie or a book. My dear fellow human beings, please be sure that a war happens to the best of us. No, no one expects it. It’s not like anyone has ‘go through a war’ on the list of things to do before you die. We should not be silent. The dead cannot speak, we must speak for them, or we’ll all face the same horrific fate. Now, that even children are silenced in the face of pain and suffering, what’s next?

There must be something we can do…

Religion and terror

Remember the time God said to one of His prophets: They are ‘sinners’, go kill them? No? No, neither do I. I have never read anything of the sort in any holy script. I’ve read about prophets being told to leave because a great calamity will hit the place where the ‘sinners’ dwell. One even made an arc and took off with animals as if animals were worth more than people of that era and location.

We are now in 21^st century. No prophet ever carried out mass murder (though many did fight, but those were always ‘fair’ fights; armies clashing, defending yourself and your rights, and their behaviour after victory speaks volumes of their morals – freedom of religion was their true way), yet in this day and age, we have all kinds of individuals claiming God wants us to kill innocent people. The bunch that claim to do it in the name of Islam are perhaps most widely spread, larger in numbers than those who claim to do it for Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity etc. We’ve heard from true followers of each of these religions that that is not the way. In fact, we have stories from all over the place about Prophets forgiving infidels, being patient with them, giving them time, praying for them etc.

The amazing thing is that atheists now have this fantastic argument that humanity is better off without religion, even though, in the past, each and every prophet that ever came left their society much better than they found it. So, my thinking is that religion is important, in fact, it seems to be so important to so many, that it is the greatest tool ever. It is currently being used to spread evil, but we could and should use it to spread good. Imagine if this force was applied to do good! That would be a world I’d be proud to leave to our future generations.

What is the real purpose of the ‘use religion to spread terror’? Power, money and more power. That’s the simple answer. Those who lead people to murder and death are not doing it for God (if God wanted us dead, He has His own ways), they do it for god, and their god is their own ego, arrogance and greed. The God, capital G, is far from it. In fact, He is the very opposite of it. It seems too simple to be true, but it seems we need more religion, more faith in God rather than god to set things right. 

Economics – a world of its own, on its own

I’d like to start by asking capitalists to take a chill-pill and stop pretending like everything’s just fine. Everything’s clearly not fine and this is no time to be a spoiled little brat, turning a blind eye with our heads in the sand. We need to face the facts so that we can start working on solving issues. Economics is not supposed to be a world of its own. I get that it is based on assumptions, but some of the key assumptions have gone into ‘fairy tale’ category. This is causing considerable chaos, especially since many of those assumptions are seen as absolute and complete truth by decision makers.

I do not claim to have answers, I only intend to get people of will, courage, imagination and knowledge to start thinking outside the box. I only graduated Economics, so I am no professional in the field. But, as a professional in the field of citizen activism, I have observed numerous curious indicators.

1. Price is not determined by supply and demand. Products get priced randomly and this is particularly important at the age in which markets are flooded with products. We’ve never had so much choice. This choice has its good and bad side.

2. People are rational, generally speaking, but they draw their conclusions mainly by observing the world around them; i.e. Everything’s relative! Person’s happiness does not depend on how much they have, but how much they have relative to what they could have and what others have. Plus, when a person goes shopping, it’s not just about how much they get that matters, it is also about how many things they have to say ‘no’ to because they don’t have enough money. If they say ‘no’ more times than ‘yes’, this will make them feel sad.

3. ‘Over worked and under paid’ – OWUP – is not a myth, and it is not to be taken lightly or resolved by bringing in extra labour force who will be willing to work for ‘that’ wage without complaining. OWUP has a very negative effect on our family life and labour force. Possible causes: 1. One worker getting irrationally more money than another (reminder: everything’s relative), 2. Wage dose NOT equal to marginal productivity of labour, if it did, a firm would do better to employ managers to clean and cleaners to manage, 3. Market forces are almost evil to determine wages.

4. Dividing time between labour and leisure – most people do not face this, most people face bills and decisions how best to make money to cover the costs. This is one area where we have huge difference between different classes of people, so different that we need different theories for each class.  Bear in mind that we live in the age where parents are buying gifts for their children out of guilt for not being with them.

5. People are selfish COMMUNITY CREATURES. So ‘selfish’ and ‘giving’ have to coexist or we have chaos.

Well, I think that’s enough for now. I’m sure any decent economist will see how mistakes in these fields cause an effect on other parts, until we have the whole thing ‘kinda falling apart’.

There are many other issues. I wrote a part of an introduction in my book Just Another Life– I’m thinking I could get people a little more interested if I use fiction and write it as a dialogue; we’ll see. Plus, I didn’t even mention ‘social cost vs social benefit’ – that’s a BIG topic that we have to look into. 

Reviews...

I will not be posting any more background information about my book (Just Another Life) on this blog. From now on, this is open for reviews, which you can leave in the comments section.

I invite everyone to say exactly what they think about the book, ask whatever questions you want, start any kind of dialogue on any topic. Please feel free to express yourself regardless if English is your first language or not; I know foreign language is often easier to understand than to speak – I have been there J

I do not claim that everything I have written in the book (all the ideas) are perfectly accurate, but it is the best I have so far. Please feel free to disagree and don’t fear to stand up for what you believe and do not think others MUST agree with you – discussion is sometimes the best way forward, but everyone must be free to make up their own minds. Also, give others and yourself time to think – this is not a race, we are here to exchange ideas.

I have received many e-mails with views so far, but, just in case you don’t want that to be made public, I will let you choose to either post your own views here or let me copy-paste what you have already sent me.

Thank you all so much for your support.

I’d love to hear from all my readers, so please feel free to come and say exactly what you think!

Love and best wishes to you all!

Meliha

Songs mentioned in the book...

I was asked about songs that I mention in my book Just Another Life:

First one, with relevant lyrics translated, May hears in café River while Benjamin goes to talk to someone:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FVHkbu3_e4 – it is by a Serb who always stood up against the war and I support these people no matter how few they might be… This song is called: “As long as there is no war” – the video is from a concert he held in Sarajevo in 1998…

Second one May and Harris listen to in the car on the way to the mountains; this one I’ve put together from a number of songs so there’s no link :)

Third one May hears in the taxi as she’s leaving the city, moving to the mountains to live there forever, alone with her daughter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXPsAORdTZo – the song is called: “I miss you”, again, relevant lyrics translated within the text of the book.

Back Cover Final

Fools make premature statements, jumping passionately to false conclusions. Wise ask questions and walk steadily to the correct conclusion.

After a life lived, May learns how extraordinary an ordinary life is in the web of love and hate, sorrow and joy, friends and foes, good and evil, knowledge, understanding and ignorance, truth and illusion.

May was born with an open mind and introvert heart. Rest of her character is chiselled by war, loss of her mother, wonderful friends, life-long desire to know her father and the great disappointment when this desire is fulfilled, and other significant and small, happy and sad events of her life.

When she meets Harris, a former army officer, May finds fate generous – his strength helps her overcome her greatest weakness.

Professionally, May chose a humble path in life, though some believed she should do more. Her unique (right or wrong) perspective of the world, that she shared with Benjamin in café River, combined with her education, made some believe May belongs with leaders. However, is May one of the wise who lack confidence?

Future events lead May out of the civilisation and into the mountains. While the mountains granted a refuge from people (averting those she wished to avoid, welcoming those she loved), they could not protect her from fate; and fate followed to please and torment.