How many pairs of Adidas tracksuit bottoms do you own?
🤣🤣🤣
None, but I’m not like the majority here 🤣. They’re the most common household leg wear item around here.
I wear baggy pants, always have, always will.
What’s the one thing you would want your average global citizen to know about the balkans?
Is there somewhere else you eventually want to live?
When people say they want to Balkanize _ does that bother you?
Who would win in a fight, a hot dog or a taco?
What’s the one thing you would want your average global citizen to know about the balkans?
Don’t trust anyone fom here, you’re bound to get screwed at one point or another.
Is there somewhere else you eventually want to live?
Yes, preferably somewhere colder, like Canada, Sweden, Norway. Not Russia, cuz the mentality and the people are basically the same as here.
When people say they want to Balkanize _ does that bother you?
I have no idea what that means, it’s the first time I’ve heard that term, could you explain what it means?
Who would win in a fight, a hot dog or a taco?
IDK, we don’t have tacos here, we have gyros.
Balkanize as a verb just means to break up into several smaller states, often but not always based off common culture/language/religion, similar to what happened to both Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Yugoslavia.
I bet the term originated from when Yugoslavia broke up.
It was first used after the first world war to describe what had happened to the region post Austria-Hungary and Ottomans/the balkan wars that preceded ww1. Darkly humorous that the balkans themselves have been balkanized more than once, though.
More than once, ha 🤣. I don’t think anyone keeps count 🤣.
There have been wars here since forever. It’s a crossroad that connects South-East Asia with Europe.
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”.
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!
How many cans can a Balkan ball if a Balkan can ball cans?
21
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Not good. We used to have great weed, hell, hemp grows on streets here, the weather is perfect for that, but then they killed the cannabis plant industry (as an industrial plant, ropes, clothes, stuff like that) and everything went downhill from there. We only have imported now… unless you grow your own that is… just don’t brag about it.
hit or miss & got pretty expensive.
How is the weather?
Meeh, could be better… colder I mean. It’s like 10°C right now. I like it colder, but people here usually like it warmer, like 20°C above, to about 30, then they start bitching about how hot it is.
Same in Germany. I think that’s an international issue.
Yeah, like people make up your god damn mind, summer comes, you’re too hot, winter comes you’re too cold. Just take a pick, which one doesn’t bother you as much and stop bitching about it.
The answer is late spring or early fall but late spring is when the bugs come out around here so that’s wasted too
Same, fall is my favourite season (here in Canada). Sweater weather. You can always take a layer off (take off your sweater) or put a layer on (put on a jacket). Probably around 15°.
I’d opt for winter at any time. I just can’t stand summer here, it’s too hot.
What cheeki’s your breeki the most about Balkanistan?
Everything, I hate this place.
How many languages do you speak? How many did your grandparents speak? How many do your children (or theirs) speak (if you have any)?
Two, my native and English, though I do understand Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian perfectly as well. I do speak them, but not as good as English.
My grandpareents… IDK, probably 3 I guess… tops. Slovenian, Serbian, Macedonian. My granma from my mother’s side also knew a little Turkish and was quite fluent in German (she was in a labour camp during WWII). My kid is little, like 4, he speaks Macedonian and some English (words only, not sentences).
Interesting! Thank you for answering. I’ve met folks from around the bulkans and many speak a few lancuages
Edit: also, the Balkans. Spelling > me
Well, yeah, our local ones, we do usually, at least, understand what our neighbours are saying (Albanian is an exception, it’s not a slav language), and English nowadays. Used to be French or Russian back in the day, in the 60s, but at the end of the 60s, Yugoslavia had a good thing going with the US and a lot of things got centered towards the US, including culture (there was a hippy movement in Yugoslavia as well, not to mention YU rock, that’s a subgenre on it’s own) and which foreign languages were taught in school. English became the default at the end of the 60s, begining of the 70s.
Do you notice any gentrification following the Russians fleeing the war? Or any other changes, positive or negative?
What war? As far as I know, the Ukraine-Russia conflict is still ongoing (I don’t watch the news much).
Yes, I’m talking about that war
But it’s still ongoing… the Russians didn’t flee.
Okay, let me rephrase that. I’m asking about Russian people who fled the regime and mobilization
Oh, and moved here? There aren’t many as far as I know. Why would there be, if I was gonna leave, why go somewhere where it’s more or less the same. Shitty economy, shitty politics… if I was gonna trade up, might as well trade up for something a lot better. So my guess is, they went to western countries mostly.
Yogurt?
What about it? We have it if you were wondering.
Do you like Balkan yogurt personally I meant.
Yeah, sure, it’s good… don’t see anything wrong with it… does it taste funny, is that what you’re asking? Too sour maybe?
I like it with a dollop of honey :)
Really? Wow, never had it like that. Should I try?
I enjoy it! Sorry for being cryptic initially, the yogurt is the first thing that came to mind for me when you said Balkan because I really enjoy it with honey :)
Sometimes if I want a crunch I’ll also ads granola.
Do you know Andrej from the Balkans?
Do you know Nikolai from Russia?
