Institutions are not the biggest culprit for this situation. It is the civil society that has not done enough and the media that has given space to artists who promote crime as a trend and the criminal as “cool”. What should be done?
Author: Xhelal Neziri
It is not bad to talk about politics, much less to show interest in it. Politics is a process that shapes public opinion, legitimizes ideas and implements projects. Plato says that “one of the punishments of refusing to participate in politics is that it ends up being governed by the ignorant”. Pericles says that “the fact that you are not interested in politics does not mean that politics is of no interest to you”.
Interest in politics and participation in politics means interest or participation in changing things that are malfunctioning, improving quality in education, health, agriculture, security…and, above all, it is participation in determining the collective future. He who is not interested in politics is not interested in the present or the future. This, in fact, is what the political parties want. The less interest in politics, the more comfortable they are.
However, there are other things that go beyond politics. They are phenomena that do not become the subject of treatment in the public sphere, which includes politics. They are very low on what is called the public agenda, or the list of priority topics for a society. There are some “small” topics for the assesse to get proper treatment, the same as the “big topics”.
One of them is the mass distribution of drugs in high schools and universities. There is information that the dealers have started to “expand the market” even in elementary schools. The media rarely reports on the loss of consciousness of students in the classroom due to overdose. A truly disturbing phenomenon that requires a wider commitment, not only political or institutional. The statistics are frightening: every year the number of drug users increases by 20 percent. Only in Tetovo and the surrounding municipalities, close to 500 drug users are officially registered, but their real number is somewhere over 4,000. We have the same situation in other cities as well.
This speaks of an increase in market demand, which transforms North Macedonia from a transit country into a destination. When there is an increase in demand, there is also an increase in supply. The increase in supply leads to the operation of various criminal groups. These groups destroy every set of values in a society as they promote as desired the model of the criminal, the “get rich quick”, and destroy the cult of the educated and moral man. Just listen to most of the songs produced in modern genres and you will understand what is being promoted as a “rule model”. “Cocaine”, “criminal”, “fast money”… these are words that you can mostly come across in those hit songs among young people.
Institutions are not the biggest culprit for this situation. It is the civil society that has not done enough and the media that has given space to artists who promote crime as a trend and the criminal as “cool”.
What should be done? A greater commitment and cooperation is really required in the relationship between institutions-media-civil society-universities. We do not dare young people to follow the model of criminals and drug users in order to look “cool”. It is necessary to promote another model that must be followed, where “cool” would be the man of knowledge, success, science, but also the honest worker, the good craftsman, the diligent farmer, the skilled electrician… These projects should not be started tomorrow, not even today, but yesterday.