Baklava

I think often of my blog, sitting alone out there in cyberspace, but since taking up a teaching position at a university here, have let it be. My adventures and thoughts continue though, as the fodder festers with the springtime warmth. From the lands of the Albanians to Southern Macedonia, to the happenings right here in Skopje, there has been much ado in this little country and region.

Fortunately, March is here. I always give a sigh of relief when this month arrives, for it is an irreversible symbol of the spring and summer to come (and we can forget about what follows until September!). As in the US, spring in Macedonia can be tumultuous and finicky, the warm sun shining one day and a cold rain falling the next. I even recall a cold June day here once where I felt inclined to use our sauna (ah, those were the days of State Department accommodation!)

But as the days grow longer I am only afforded more opportunities to explore, to come out of my cocoon. I see the basil in the window growing in a fury, little seedlings competing for room in the pot, and I think I shall compete soon enough with the creatures in the mountains to cross the rugged terrain. I yearn to float the rivers, to climb the peaks, to descend into the valleys! A “Macedonian Solitaire” of sorts. But that’s not yet; assured warmth is still to come.

In the meantime, this week is the beginning of the presidential election campaign—yes, it is official and only lasts three weeks—and billboards and banners collage the streets and overpasses. They are general elections though, so municipal as well and thus more significant than perhaps the electing of a new president. For, in the country’s 84 municipalities there is a large sense of autonomy and the election of a new mayor means a swift change of administrative positions, not only within the municipal offices but in schools and other government run institutions.

“Free and fair” elections and security in such times are a natural concern, however, and in order to stymie past bad habits such as ballot stuffing and intimidation, several hundred domestic and international election monitors will be present at voting stations on March 22, election day. Indeed, OSCE (The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) vehicles have been seen shooting around Skopje in greater numbers recently, their international passengers preparing for the worst. Having monitored the last major elections in July 2006, I can attest that deleterious activities do persist and hinder the country’s image and EU ambitions, but that there’s no chance of any major incidents here.

Thus, the elections aren’t really what I wanted to write about, because there are so many candidates and so few worth considering, and things won’t really change much anyhow. Most want access to power not in order to truly lead, but to gain for themselves and their friends. That said, at the national level there are some laws and changes being implemented that are noteworthy—the prohibition of free plastic bags (and thus a fee for them if you’re unprepared) and a variety of measures meant to symbolize integration with EU standards.

I think the amazing thing a foreign observer might notice here is how law abiding people in a lawless land can be. Understanding the existence of laws comes to the fore in a country where people are generally friendly, but so self sufficient and used to one new boss after another that they tend to disregard much of what’s said to them by the state. Being used to authoritarian rule though, when that state “walks the walk” peoples’ ears perk up. That is, when the state enforces its laws and punishes offenders, people pay attention. The game they make of it though means that instead of a constant expectation that people will follow and uphold laws, they instead only respect them when someone forces them to. Anti-smoking laws? Only when state inspectors come around. Littering, spitting, paying taxes? Slim chance that anyone’s actually going to be caught and fined!

Seriously, social customs carry the heavier burden in life here. There seems little more powerful than family—the father figures, siblings, cousins, and no doubt mothers and grandmothers, friends of the family, and shame. It seems that any problem, uncertainty, doubt in one’s life is brought to their attention in order to seek some sort of consolation, advice, criticism, justification. That is, answers provided may be bereft of actually assisting, they might even be severely critical and make one feel ashamed, but they might also help the one asking to feel better about what they seek to figure out or make amends for.

Anyhow, speaking of forgiveness, one thing I wanted to write about was this past Sunday, as it was the holiday known as “Prochka.” Prochka is actually roughly translated into “Forgiveness Day.” It is a day when you might get a text message from that pesky colleague who always smokes when you’re around even if he knows how much it bothers you, or from a friend who wronged you and seeks forgiveness. There are many reasons to seek forgiveness, and a holiday existing for this reason is a perfect time to ponder and seek such redemption. Of my students who I asked about their observation of Prochka, they all said that they sought forgiveness from their friends and family.

Another aspect of the holiday is the consumption of baklava. How it’s associated I’m not entirely sure, but the production of the syrupy, nut-filled, filo-dough pastry is only done in mass on Prochka. Given that Prochka is a religious holiday on the Orthodox calendar, marking the beginning of the pre-Easter fast, perhaps the indulgence in baklava before this in a Fat Tuesday, “going out with a bang” kind of event. Regardless, for the next seven weeks, until Orthodox Easter (April 20), Orthodox Christian believers must abide by a restricted diet. Therefore, this week seems to have symbolized the commencement of not only a new month, but a religious period, new season, and time of the year. (And for this author, with my 30th birthday on Monday, it began a new year and decade!)

Yet, in “jottin” style, I want to shift gears yet again and ponder the greater picture of what’s happening in the world, which will no doubt affect Macedonia in time. How it will do so remains to be seen, and given Macedonia’s limited wealth and thus minimal connections to the global financial markets, hopefully there won’t be any severe repercussions here; a counter to the notion of “the more you have, the more you have to lose.” But I fear things will trickle down, and that the financial crisis will be a “Greater Depression” for E. Europe and the Balkans. Already, the countries to the north that grew at breakneck pace in the last decade are falling fast. Their average growth slid to 3.2 percent last year, from 5.4 percent in 2007. And it’s forecast to fall more. Currencies have plummeted in value, with Poland’s slumping 48 percent against the euro, Hungary’s 30 percent, and the Czech Republic’s 21 percent (NY Times, February 24, 2009). In two countries, Latvia and Iceland (the latter not in E. Europe), the governments have collapsed!

What this means for euro-zone E. Europe is severe. It’s not only financial, it’s political. When countries cannot pay off debts and afford to import goods because their currencies have little value, they cut spending and reduce public services. And when companies close up shop because of declining sales and lay off workers, things can get violent. There have already been protests on the streets of most large (and some small) European cities in recent months, and with conflicting geo-political interests involved (such as Russia vs. the West, NATO member countries, and military bases in E. Europe), the potential for conflict flares up in peoples’ psyches.

I don’t think things will go the way they did in the 1930s, when the faltering of European Banks contributed to the Great Depression and Hitler rose to power on the backs of defeated (WWI), hungry, and poor Germans. But history does have a tendency to repeat itself, and without paying close attention to the past while observing the present economic and political situation, we could catch ourselves gasping at things gone awry.