CHANGE IS HARD

Many of us resist change only because it’s hard. The more we procrastinate and avoid change the more urgent it gets and the pain grows proportionally with the time misspent in trying to avoid it.

I was born in (what is today’s) Serbia. It was by no means a prosperous country but it was a part of former Yugoslavia and being on the edge of Warsaw Pact, on one side, with NATO alliance (no longer a Pact – now it has been elevated into an alliance) on the other side, the president Tito skillfully manipulated both to obtain low interest loans and credits that he never lived to see paid off. At that time I was doing my graduation project on aviation and air transport. I remember clearly advocating strongly in favor of the Concorde, which at that time had immense advantages of the more conventional jetliners. My prognosis was not sustained since the Concord is now scrap metal. It may be just a nasty coincidence but if you look at this picture of a Concord on take-off, you’ll notice in the background a Pan Am and a TWA planes (equally scrap metal today). After that my graduation work was tested and I passed with a grade slightly above average. That was my last failure. Now my failures are a lot more prominent, but the little ones I don’t make so easily. That same country of my birth is riddled with economic chaos, theft, rampant corruption, lawlessness, lack of a constitution and so much more. I tried to point that out in a few forums where I was present. One of the hardest lessons for Americans is to accept that the liberties and democracy we take for granted over here, is a tough concept to sell to some other countries. Iraq is the first one that comes to mind.

Here is a short comment on the need for change in today’s Serbia and their reluctance to accept the simple fact that 2 + 2 equals 4.


Yes, I do get harsh (and combative) if I smell any leniency within my birth-country that has shown a pronounced proclivity to all things lenient and therefore resumed the acts of doing nothing but only providing lots of lip service. I don't buy those stands any longer. My visit to Belgrade in 1995 was riddled with about 6 images of horrible poverty, empty store windows, rapid lawlessness, utter chaos, etc. My visit to Belgrade in 2001 was twice as bad while the store windows were twice as full. I had noticed a similar trend when I visited Budapest in 1990 and 1996. Their view of "pro-Western modernization" has entailed open prostitution on the streets corners, lots of MacDonalization (believe it or not, it has become a term acceptable to modern economists), Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger Kings, etc. I am afraid there is a similarity to the path Belgrade has taken.


It is precisely the diagnosis that everybody is only now beginning to realize: The comparisons of Serbia to Canada are STUPID. The comparisons of Serbia to Bulgaria are inadequate, and so are all others. Democracy and liberty are a PROCESS not something you pick off a tree, or copy from a textbook. During that process one must fight. My way of "fighting" seems a little more combative since I am no longer prepared to be whitewashed with countless excuses and explanations. The struggle will exist even after Serbia assumes full libertarian democracy. So Status-Quo can not figure in that equation at all. If the 10% of the bright, well educated Serbians are split into the half that escapes, and the other half that sits on their asses - nothing will ever get done. On the other hand, if those 5% start demanding a profound change within the tax system, VAT-tax, constitutional certainty, judicial corruption, etc. - something positive will come out of it. The 10 examples I stated last week, will whither down to 3.


The 10% bright educated advanced thinkers of Serbia is a very generous assessment, but in either case their workload will double once the other half escapes. It has nothing to do with politics or political parties. The process of libertarian democracy is one that is born within the likeminded people and that process will, in turn, produce needed changes to the constitution, economy, infrastructure, culture, education etc. Accepting status-quo is equal to a death sentence.


Serbia has allowed Vuk Draskovic to make live TV comments at the onset of the NATO aerial assault. If you're a native English speaker his words would ring as "Come on and throw your bombs, if you dare.." - that's how eloquent he was. The other half of his broken English contained a repetition: "Believe me, we don't execute Albanians, believe me...believe me..."


Now you can believe me that the TV advert for beer with Lazar Ristovski (“strano - a nase”, or was it "vredi") is far more intelligent and convincing than Draskovic's interview to prevent NATO bombing. Any fool that wants to gamble with that idiot as a country's spokesman, deserves to be bombed. What does that tell you? It tells you that there is ample talent, knowledge and human resources to effectuate that change, but, in my view: "svi junaci - nikom ponikose" – all the progress and bravery for naught.

And that is supposed to be a Secretary or Minister of Foreign affairs?


If there is one wrong way to go about doing that - it has to be the status quo. That Glas Javnosti article is a full page of the language bastardization which continues unabated. If anybody thinks that the language bastardization is the only problem in Serbia - they are dead wrong, it is just one of the many symptoms. Whoever took my examples literally as to illustrate the exactness of some precise grievance is equally deluded. Those are all SYMPTOMS of something much greater which is at odds with itself. That's how the Roman Empire fell apart. It was not only the Bachanalian orgies and theft of Greek styles in architecture. The sum total of the unpalatable, tasteless, poor, corrupt, events and their outcome combined together is what only gives you an indication where to look for trouble. You can have a master thief like Arsen Lupain (the legendary gentleman thief of France) who always left his calling card and one white glove, but his ESSENCE WAS THAT HE WAS A THIEF. Nevermind the fact that he spoke perfect, elevated French with no trace of provincial accent. There is very little I can do from here. Two or three times a year I send a miserable $50.00 donation to the homeless children of Zvecanska Ulica, and that's about as much as I can do to eliminate some part of my own guilt. The secret is well hidden in the communist “Rad spasava coveka” (through work – we succeed) – and since it is now fashionable to be ANTI-communist, anything that even remotely smells of communism is denied. The work (real hard work), not lip service - is the key.


In closing let me leave you with one of the Founding Fathers of the modern United States:


“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography,
natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
John Adams, 2nd U.S. President 1735-1826