Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

was welcomed by one of its ex-hosts,
an old acquaintance: Master Suljo goes
out only in the afternoons, nowadays,"
he says "you can only find him here
until 8 pm at the latest."
"What are we going to do with
Galerija," I ask him "is there a chance
to bring back its old splendor? For a
start, let's organize a meeting in
Gallery, in Bagdad caffe or in Caffe 21?
He smiles at me: "I am up to date
with everything that you do for Skopje.
Of course, there is a chance. The old
town lost its core, that is the problem,
but, trust me, there are people who love
to work, and do work there, and they
would be extremely happy to see the
shine come back. They want to do
something, but often, they do not know
how. It's very hard work, but I like to
be an optimist."
The old town, April 2003.
I pass by the old legend of Skopje,
the old cinema Napredok. At once my
heart starts pounding from excitement.
The roof of the cinema is torn down,
the walls are falling apart, and the blue
sky can be seen through the ruins and
broken windows. Napredok is being
renovated. I go "inside" what was once
the hall. Wreckage, rubble, bricks,
ruin. That cinema will never again be
what it once was. In these moments,
one cannot but feel sorrow in the heart.
The most sentimental and delicate
moments and years of our lives become
lost, they vanish. Farewell, Napredok!
Still, we should not feel such sorrow: a
new cinema Children's Theatre Center
will be born, or so it says on the board
put up on one of the half-ruined walls
of the cinema. New generations will
appear, new artistic excitement. Those
generations will have their own theatre
center, which
will, maybe
have the same
fate one day.
Across from
the cinema
being renovated
there still
proudly stands
the sturdy store
for musical
instruments,
owned of my
childhood and
primary school
friends: Ljube
and Dime. What will they say about
the disappearance of the cinema?
Again, out soaking up the April
sun, we sit in the sweetshop Ohrid:
Rade and Xhavid come, Xhingis
comes, some new faces appear, but also
the old, dear and familiar ones.
Yes, the old town is an encounter,
life, change and exchange, and not
wasteland and separation. This is a
small bit of once-upon-a-time and the
current tale of the Charshija.
The story continues….
(The author is a publicist)
115
The curse of separations
Luan Starova
Part 1
When the
wraith of separation flutters over the
Balkans, the people, as if by fatal reflex,
immediately feel the curse, the damning,
unrelenting Balkan refrain. They see a
wraith confident as it strengthens borders,
extends them and changes them.
And now, in these last few years, here
in Macedonia, in the natural heart of the
Balkans, with an even more powerful
response recently, a young, defeated generation
of "politicians" spreads this desperate
wraith of separation. The wraith is
alone, luckily alone, as it provokes the
sick demand for dividing with new borders.
Playing by the rules of the nationalistic-chauvinistic
option (never mind its
defeats in Europe and the Balkans), playing
naive with inconceivable ease and
arrogance, not only do they appeal to the
fragile identities in these regions, but they
also encourage drawing borders around
the ones and the others, separating everyone
into Us and Them. Never before has
the desperate and impertinent arrogance
of a young generation of politicians of
authority played with the destiny, the history
and the hard-preserved values of a
nation in such an unscrupulous manner
and with such vandalism.
Hasn't European civilization in the
last few years offered numerous guiding
paradigms to show the deadliness of the
nationalistic-chauvinistic ideas, no matter
where they occur?
A day over the
border! It is as
long as a whole
human life. For
how long has
that piteous border
blocked
sharing among
people, among
families, destinies
and of compatriots
of that same
country, the
country of life
Meetings, not divisions, June 2003