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In what ways is it godforsaken?
Oh, I could go in details, but I don't currently have time, so I'll be short: politics, corruption, air polution, environment polution, inflation, salaries, prices, comodities... there's a lot more. Feel free to ask about any of these in particular, I'll answer a bit later in the evening 😉.
Interested
Well, let's start with the political issues. Almost every politician here claims that they've never taken a cent from the state, when in fact, they have bluntly stolen, and in some cases, they don't even hide it. This goes regardless of left and right wingers, they're all the same, just different flavors of the same thing. What's worse, they have the courts in their pockets, so their cases never even make it to trial... or if they do, they're given a slap on the wrist, nothing more. Corruption rules here. You don't ask "when can I schedule an MRI scan" because you'll probably be dead by the time your number comes up, you ask "how much do you want to schedule my MRI in the next week".
Next, we analyze the people. There were truly intelligent people here, people that you could make interesting conversations with for hour Unfortunatelly, one of two things happened to them. They either died or moved abroad. Basically the only ones left now are the party cock suckers, cuz they get to be on roll to get a state job (you practically can't get fired from state employment here, you'd have to burn down the office building or something like that to get fired). As you probably presume, these people are not very bright and mostly care about the basic animal needs: eat, sleep, get fucked once in a while, have kids, raise the kids, make small talk with your neighbours, etc. While there is nothing wrong with being like that (many people are), the problem is, there can never be enough critical mass to actually start doing something about the oligarh politicians and try and overthrow them. Plus an oposition is not really an oposition if you're basically the same as the other guy, just with a somewhat different mind set (I say it's dark gray, you say it's blackish). So, it's a perpetual problem that has no solution.
Basically, most of the other problems just boil down to bad leadership and 30+ years of it. Not everyone on the Balkans has those problems. Take Slovenia for example, it's doing great 👍. But, while the rest of us down south were under the Ottoman empire for 5 centuries, Slovenia was under Austro-Hungary. It's just not the same... we were blinded during the renesans, Slovenia had front row seats. I'm not saying nothing is our own fault, it most definitely is, but I'm just trying to give a little perspective of why things turned out so different for Slovenia and (mostly) Croatia.
I'm in the group that escaped. Never been happier. Almost everyone who are still in the balkans are those "party animals", but there are few who just can't leave. Maybe because of bussiness, maybe because of money. But I feel bad for them all.
I can't leave 😔. Life decisions that I regret to this day.
But, things are what they are, might as well make the best of it, right 🤷.
Damn man that sounds rough. Having to bribe someone to get a medical appointment sounds like hell :(
Yeah, what about bribing someone to get a new vehicle license (the old one was about to expire). Happend to me. It's my right as a citizen to have one if I passed the driving test, right? Yes, it is, but you're gonna wait 5 months to get it done. Why? Well, we just don't have that plastic that the licenses are made out of. Why don't you get some more? Yeah, see, that's a problem... the prime minister owns the company that imports those for us, but we haven't updated the agreement cuz he didn't like the ammount of extra cash for nothing on the annexes, so... yeah, we're kinda low on those.
In the end, I just bribed someone to get my license in a week instead of waiting for 4, 5 months.
The problem is, this is the norm. It's not an exception, it's the norm.
How much do you usually have to pay for a bribe?
Depends on what the favour is, how hard it is to obtain (taking into account the way this system works) and how important it is to you or your wellbeing.
Fo administrative stuff, anywhere between 50€ and 200€. For medical stuff, usually a lot higher. I had to bribe the doctor that was leading my wife's pregnancy to get "extra care". Basically, she doesn't throw you under the rug like the rest of the patients (quick checkups, reschedules checkups quite frequently, does a 30 second ultrasound, done deal) and really takes care of the person in question and the baby. That cost me 500€. It may not look like a lot to most westerners, but for comparison 500€ was my monthly salary at the time. So, yeah, that is expensive for people that live here.
Other procedures like surgeries usually cost a lot more. Depends on the surgery and how complicated it is, so anywhere between 1K€ and 15, 20K€. Again, this is expensive for our standard. People usually sell aprtments or houses in order to cover these "bills".
Can I ask what country you’re in?
Macedonia.
I'd like to add that there are problems with me, that either just didn't got found, or haven't been done anything about until I move out. of the balkans. So even if you get an appointment, don't expect much healthcare.
Yeah, that too.
So it's basically a bribe for the appointment, a bribe for the doctor, a bribe for the person interpreting the results... it never ends 😔.
Sorry that happened to you, I hope you find a way to get them sorted out
Thank you for sharing!