Only Jesus Can Do It

Thousands of hungry Belgraders who fought each other in an attempt to get a free loaf of bread on the Orthodox Christmas Day, really did look as if they'd just had a vision of Jesus Christ. Compared to Jesus, who according to legend fed 4,000 souls with seven loafs and some fish, the 12,000 loafs of bread distributed in Belgrade that day were not enough to feed the hungry. Hunger and misery have been spreading through Belgrade in the last few months with the speed of an epidemic.

That Christmas Day one didn't need money or coupons to get a loaf of bread, but muscles and a bit of luck. Workers of the Belgrade Baking Industry tried, on January 6, for the third time in succession, to make the longest loaf of bread in the world and so break their own Guiness Book record.

In earlier years these events were witnessed by passers by who would break off a bit of the record-long bread and continue on their way. This time the number of such "passers by" reached several thousand people whose curiosity did not indicate that only a few minutes later, most of them would become the participants of the saddest scene in Belgrade seen worldwide. People who like to draw conclusions on the basis of impressions claim that the people waiting to get a bit of bread were those who keep this regime in power. A pre-election joke describes them as people who queue in the mornings for bread or milk. One of them says out loud: "I'm hungry, penniless and frozen, but if Sloba (Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic) loses the elections, then the world's gone to the dogs."

Instead of showing the world that they are prepared to defy sanctions with dignity, and that they aren't starving in spite of sanctions, the mass at Terazije Square started a stampede. Pensioners were jostled, men and women hid the bread under their coats, people crawled, an elderly man lay on the ground holding onto four loafs while a mass of people tried to take them from him and distribute them "justly." The bakers threw the bread from trucks or just emptied boxes of bread over the heads of the crowd. These are just some of the very humiliating scenes seen on Christmas Day, when the laws of the jungle ruled at Terazije Square.

During the past week, "competent" persons have tried to find out what exactly happened and who was responsible. The plump director of the Belgrade Baking Industry (and the spitting image of a cartoon baker) claimed that our lack of good manners and the intention of certain groups to create disturbances were to blame. Journalists and photographers had a field day, so that the scenes were seen all over the world. City government president Nebojsa Covic said immediately that the people and the journalists were not to blame, but those who had come to give the people free bread, since what they were doing was against the rules and in the wrong place. During later analyses, few remembered the simple fact that the people are exhausted by hyperinflation, and that they are really hungry, and that there is a growing number of people who cannot buy a loaf of bread everyday with their monthly cheque.

This line of thinking never occurred to TV commentators who kept harking back to the people's rush to get free bread on January 6. At first they talked only about the Guiness bread, and not the people jostling for a bit of it. A few days later after footage of the stampede had been seen worldwide, the assessment of the event was that the new world order and domestic traitors were responsible. The humanitarian organization "Spona" (sponsored by the Serbian Renewal Movement) was accused of throwing bread to the hungry people, even though the organization didn't have anything to do with the happening in question. "Spona's international financiers" were also harangued. Radio Television Serbia hold "Spona" and its backers responsible for the embarrassing distribution of bread, the introduction of sanctions and all that has resulted from them.

Discussing TV comments has long become a stultifying activity, so that further comment would be a waste of time were it not for a new moment - the implementation of the anti-inflationary program. The curbing of inflation has ceased to be a party issue and grown into a number one state task which requires a consensus. The authors of the anti-inflationary program claim that the sun will not start shining until all key structures in society agree that the full and painful price of curbing hyperinflation is paid; the parallel made most often is with amputation in medical practice. The authorities, the opposition, the workers who will lose jobs, the trade unions, the military-police establishment must all agree, while some add both Krajinas which survive in part thanks to the money printed in Belgrade.

Initial estimates say that at least 300,000 people, albeit fictitiously employed will become jobless, and that the final figure will be much higher. Some Belgrade firms are introducing social cards, demanding that the employed list their property, down to the last chicken running around in the yard. Those with two or three chickens fear that thanks to this "wealth" they could find themselves on redundancy lists, since there are others without any chickens.

Even if an agreement is reached on all details of the anti-inflationary program, it remains to be seen if there is still time for salvation, or if the medicine comes too late. Then again, if the project requires a lot of money from abroad, there is not much hope, since there is no money to be had. The curbing of hyperinflation doesn't differ much from trying to cover an elephant with a few sheep skins. If all don't do their utmost, the elephant will remain uncovered and we are back at the beginning - at the bottom of the abyss.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, the man who started us out on the nationalist project and whose guiding hand has led us to the bottom of the abyss, is now trying to help bring about a national consensus in order to curb inflation. Before calling on the nation to prepare itself for "blood, sweat and tears", Milosevic will have to admit how the current authorities, which have lived off hyperinflation and produced various banking mobsters, lost all moral credibility and the ability of doing the job on their own. Milosevic will also have to admit that the opposition does exist and that they must be consulted sometimes. He will then have to call the RTS director and tell him that a change of editorial policy is needed, that the times have changed and that the RTS programs should be adapted to helping reach a consensus on the anti-inflationary program. Nationalist verbosity, stories of Serbs as a "celestial people" with a "special body temperature", and the surplus production of enemies and "traitors" are passe, and should be put back on the shelf. Motivating people to "blood, sweat and tears" does not go down well with stories that others are to blame for everything, that others are malicious and anti-Serb. Encouraging a psychology of civil war between Serbs is also not conducive to achieving a national consensus.

When Milosevic called on the nation a few years ago to follow him in achieving the project "All Serbs in one state", his starting position was much better. He wasn't starting from zero as he is today, and the most difficult task then was to convince the people that they couldn't live alongside members of other nationalities, or with so called "second grade Serbs". Television was given the task of bringing this about, while the army and the police were in charge of the technical part. The regime has now reached a phase when it is starting to bite its own tail. The country's survival depends on the fate of the anti-inflationary program and the success of the monetary reform. This program can succeed only if an exhausted army and still well-standing police are prepared to join the rest of the country in facing serious existential challenges. Without a general consensus the anti-inflationary program doesn't stand a chance, and cannot be pushed through with a lying TV which is the very foundation of the regime, and which has produced a nation of junkies hooked on lies and deceit.