Page 23 - Ekonomija i Biznis_May 2016.indd

ОСИГУРРУУБВРАИЊКАЕ
Split personality
For 15 years there is an ongoing hos-
tage drama where the economy is kid-
napped by politics in the Republic of
Macedonia. It is taken to an unfamiliar
direction. The last time it was seen in
more or less good health (real growth
of the GDP of 3.5%) with humble clothes
(GDP per capita of 4,126 Euros) and a de-
celerated pace (non-employment rate
of 28%). Some of its neighbors say that
it was nervous, problematic and fickle
for a long time. It often argued with
itself. “It has all symptoms of a split
personality”, the psychiatrists say. It is honesty and responsibility, it trusted
unfocused and it has temporary inter-
ruptions in memory, probably because
of continuous trauma and continuous
stress. It resembles the disoriented
mister Golyadkin in the famous work
“the Double” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
The two sides of the divided mind,
the two Macedonias, temporarily see
how they are overshadowed by the
spears of the neighboring armies,
however some strange force of God or
equally strong geopolitical struggle of
muscles protects them from stronger
evils for now. There are sayings that
Macedonia itself was distraught and
exhausted in the struggle for suprem-
acy between the two Macedonias. One
Macedonia wanted to join the club of
Europeans and NATO at any price, even
if this would cost it national disfigure-
ment. The other wanted dignified ac-
cession and respect of the national
identity and was prepared to pay a very
high price for this purpose. In such dis-
agreement, Macedonia walked in a cir-
cle, which seemed ridiculous, strange
and pointless to the random and inten-
tional observers.
At least three Macedonias fought in
the business hemisphere of its mind.
One of them was the progressive cor-
Aleksandar Stojkov
The author is an associate professor at
the Faculty of Law “Iustinianus Primus”
in Skopje
porate Macedonia, which had capital-
ist manners and pro-western orienta-
tion and talked in understandable and
accurate language… It adopted deci-
sions in short and effective meetings,
it produced innovations and requested
to make a step forward. With enthusi-
asm it spoke about EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation
and amortization), ROA (return on as-
sets) and RОЕ (return on equity)... The
second Macedonia was focused on the
draining of the last revenues from the
well taught Yugoslav business skills,
it cherished the principles of socialist
in hard work… It often talked with
outdated terminology (turnover, FIFO
(first in-first out) and LIFO (last in-first
out) methods, intercalary interests…),
it worked on typical office furniture
from the eighties of the past century
and it stepped exceptionally on known
business paths… The third one was
the oligarchic Macedonia, built with-
out further ado in the troubled tran-
sition of the nineties of the 20th cen-
tury, financed with billions of denars
of unpaid customs and tax charges and
over-the-top governmental tenders. It
was proprietary cemented with the re-
inforcement of thousands of violently
and forcibly acquired shares of the ter-
rified workers.
In the Macedonian mind there was
a struggle between Racin’s agricultur-
alists, with sweat and burning faces,
with a tired look and hardened hands…
Angry and revolted for all betrayed
promises and underrated denars,
which they received for their work and
annual yield. In the asphalt threshold
to their fields there were new shoes of
the unscrupulous middlemen, who had
come with bundles of thousands of de-
nars and empty trailers, prepared to
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