I know we have critically peeled the poor Prime Minister like a chicken. Or like ‘bodies revealed’, if you will. Every word of hers, every metaphor and comparison. But as much as I feel sorry for her, I really cannot resist one of her confessions. All those smart measures and ideas in the recovery program were conceived, approved, or blessed by none other than while she was washing dishes. In a very feminine way. I am delighted by the fact that such a prominent and important person, and a woman at that, in this age of machine dominance does not have a dishwasher. Why am I pleased by this insignificant fact? Because I do not have a dishwasher either.
So if the Prime Minister does not have one, then I suppose I am neither a freak nor a loser. The only thing is that I am not so nationally important creatively while washing dishes. I am smarter, for instance, when I iron. In those one or two hours, I experience a kind of vision. Of my own life and the state. Or an idea hits me just when I start to feel the first signs of sleep. So I am forced to get out of my warm bed and scribble ideas on paper. My mornings, in fact, are not much smarter than my evenings. And they are completely unrelated. But if I am completely honest, I would admit that I am jealous. How could I not be? The Prime Minister has received all the public attention and applause for a list of common-sense measures that have been flying through the air and media for quite some time. While I had to come up with them for the needs of Lider’s text a year ago. Alone. Without help. Without advisors. I only received an editorial grade – they mumbled something similar to a solid four (if it wasn’t something worse). Neither did the wider public see it, nor did anyone get excited about it, nor could I boast about metaphors, horses, potatoes, dishwashers… Ah, that’s how it is when you are self-loving and egocentric.
And now seriously. I was also thrilled by something else, not at all egocentric. Moreover, promising. The owner of Siscija, Milan Stojanović, offered a job and a scholarship to a beaten high school student from the Sisak Craft School. Because he is talented. Because he is the national champion in tailoring and sewing. He already sees him in the New Product Development Department. He already sees how this talented high school student and others like him will give new wings to our surviving textile exporter. It is a pity that the story remained in the shadow of a larger, I don’t know what is more important, text about the murdered Cvetko Simić and with whom he socialized from the jet set. Even by the number of journalists engaged in that jet-set text (three!), it is clear to me what is considered socially more important. It is really a pity because if there were more ‘mecenskih’ stories, they might not stand out like maladjusted individuals. At a time when that number is mentioned again, which no one wants to say out loud – 400 thousand unemployed, stories about coherent, planned (even creative!) employment seem like a star in the night. The story is from the private sector, although the state one is where chaos reigns. But it is not enough to just turn a blind eye to the state yard. Nepotism and other hiring practices are not the specialty of just the state (semi)world. For decades, the polished model of economic behavior has anchored itself in all parts of society. Equally in small private companies as well as in large systems that employ hundreds or thousands of workers.
