Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

pen," says a Macedonian woman
from Tearce, with tears in her eyes.
The displaced Macedonians from
the Tetovo region say they will return
to their villages when the
Government will provide the necessary
conditions. Until then they say
they are forced to stay here, and they
ask for better care and more attention
from the Government institutions.
"The first thing the Government
should do is collect the illegal
weapons. There is too much of it in
Tetovo. Even the Albanians are not
safe. Even if I would come back,
there is no life for me and my family
there, because nobody can live in that
kind of fear. How could I let my child
play on the street or go to school,
when, even if everything is peaceful,
I would fear the possibility that a
stray bullet fired at a wedding could
end up in their body? Not to mention
the everyday shootouts between the
criminal gangs in Tetovo region. The
rule of law is absent there. Force and
weapons still rule there. The
Government should help us economically,
help us stand on our feet, it
should evaluate the damage and help
us restore our houses, shops and businesses.
Only then will the region live
as it did before the war. Only then
will we return home," say the internally
displaced persons from the
Tetovo region who temporarily live
in the Skopje district of
Avtokomanda.
According to the European
Agency for Reconstruction, the institution
responsible for the reconstruction
of the damaged houses in the crisis
regions, the reconstruction in the
Tetovo, Skopje and Kumanovo
regions should be finished by the end
of this summer. Besides improving
the security, rebuilding homes was
one of the main preconditions for the
return of the internally displaced. So
far, most of the slightly damaged
houses (from the first and second category)
have been reconstructed. The
houses that were destroyed or burned
down are now waiting their turn.
(The author is a journalist in
Dnevnik)
The bazaar means
encounter, not separation
113
Danilo Kocevski
Everything that is important in the
life of a person, and of a society, needs
to be constantly cared for, built and
rebuilt, to be permanent. It has to be
conquered constantly, every day. There
is nothing that is given once and for all,
which stays unchanged with the passage
of time. Even those things that
have a long and rich tradition are not
immune to spiritual and material erosion.
Those are exactly the ones that
should be given special care and attention.
One of the many reasons, which
have brought the Stara Charshija, or old
town of Skopje to the condition it is in
today, is the lack of understanding or
observance of those principles. We
believe that, provided something has
tradition, it will survive by itself without
our care, without taking into
account the basic parameters of sharing
a common life, history, trade, craftsmanship,
culture and multiculture. No.
Nothing in this world exists on its own,
without care, without work, without
love and creative vision.
Etymologically speaking, the word
'charshija' (bazaar) means encounter,
not separation. The Turkish word
'charshi-su,' which comes from the
Pehlevian and Persian languages,
means meeting, interception, the crossing
of two streets, also the intersection
Etymologically speaking,
the word 'charshija'
('bazaar') means
encounter, not separation.
The Turkish word
'charshi-su,' which comes
from the Pehlevian and
Persian languages, means
meeting, interception, the
crossing of two streets, or
the intersection of many
streets, lanes and paths,
spiritual and material
of many streets, lanes and paths, spiritual
and material. Nowadays, the paths
and alleyways in the old town are not
divided. Far from it, we still meet old
friends there, we can see the few
remaining craftsmen and shopkeepers,
but its spirit seems to be dying away
and extinguishing itself. We are all
guilty, because the old town is a natural
parliament whose disrepair, even temporary,
affects us all.
So sitting together with my friends,
we want to believe that we are the
same, even though years have passed.
Well, we are the same, even with the
passage of time, the setting, the atmosphere
is the same, but the liveliness isn't
like it was before.
A long time ago, before the earthquake,
we would hear a shrill whistle
which was a sign that everyone from
the neighborhood should gather at the
meeting place: that whistle echoed
through the market place to the narrow
lanes of the old town, and we knew that
someone "from the gang" was calling.
Nowadays, I ask Tanas (who works in
Meetings, not divisions, June 2003