The Life of the Poor in Macedonia

Dying Slowly by the Day

Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in the Balkans. Over 20 percent of its population have no means of livelihood, 74 percent of the employed receive average wages of some DM 300 and consider themselves "lucky" if they get one meal a day.

AIM Skopje, October 6, 2000

For some people life is prose, for others poetry, says an old proverb. For one fifth of Macedonia's citizens life is a real torment, or better said, a slow death. Here, as many as 420 thousand people are considered to be poor because, according to world standards, they cannot spend 160 denars a day, which is equal to US $ 2.5.

Poverty and want that have been registered in this country, which is among the poorest in the Balkans, have been officially recognised in 1994. Since then the development of this pathogenic social phenomena is being monitored and organised measures undertaken for its reduction, i.e. eradication, where possible. Unfortunately, instead of reduction, the statistical experts have registered constant annual growth of poverty in this country. It has thus increased from 4 percent in 1991, to 20 percent in 1996, and since then its growth rate ranged between 1-2 percent. In the last two years alone, the number of the poor has increased by whole 10 percent. This picture of poverty becomes complete with figures that gyro accounts of 22 thousand Macedonian firms which employ 127 thousand workers, have been frozen and 96 thousand workers receive their wages with two and more months delay. Average salaries are about DM 300 which is not enough to make ends meet. Some 80 thousand households are on the dole receiving between 1,700 and 4,000 denars (approximately DM 50 - 150). That is not nearly enough to cover their needs, so that most of them live on the verge of poverty.

All official documents on the reduction of poverty, especially the recently adopted state strategy dedicated to this problem, prepared in cooperation with the IMF and the World Bank, define several groups of people who need assistance in order to survive. These are traditionally poor people, mostly illiterate and landless from rural areas, then chronically poor – which includes older people incapable of living on their own, and pensioners. Finally, but essentially the most urgent group in need of aid, is the group of the so called "newly poor". Those are workers who have lost their jobs overnight because of the transition process, either as redundant labour or because their firms went bankrupt.

According to the latest data of the Employment Bureau currently 35,168 people receive DM 100 a month from the state. This figure does not include those who, after 18 months on the dole, have lost the right to that allowance. They have become welfare cases that are in the care of the Macedonian Red Cross and various international humanitarian organisations. If we add to this figure the total number of unemployed which is currently 358,502, as well as hidden unemployment of some 152 thousand who have found a side job in an attempt to secure for themselves a life deign of a human being, this rounds off the picture of Macedonia's poverty. From the regional point of view, the rural poor predominate, while the trend of urban want is on the rise. Economic analysts are particularly concerned over the fact that practically 50 percent of the poorest are in the 20 to 30 age bracket, living in despair, on the margins of society and in fear of their future. Most of the young would gladly go abroad and are persistently trying to leave, their success depending on their circumstances and resourcefulness.

Life is not a bed of roses for the employed in this country either. According to statistics, 74 percent of them receive salaries up to 10 thousand denars (DM 322). Only 0.2 percent of the employed receive their monthly salaries of 35 thousand denars (or DM 1,129) regularly. A consumer basket with basic foodstuffs costs around 11,500 denars or DM

1. And man doesn't live just to eat! Statistical experts have calculated that an average worker in Macedonia needs as many 31 salaries to, for example, buy an ordinary Yugoslav-made car make "Jugo-Tempo", which is the cheapest. He has to work two and a half years for that and to set aside his entire salary, which is absurd. Following the same logic, he needs, for example, three salaries to purchase a dinning room furniture, 1.2 salaries for a couch, 2 salaries for deep freezer, 1.8 for a washing machine or 1.7 salaries for a colour TV with 56 centimetre screen.

The unemployed and those on the dole can only dream about all the above mentioned. In a recent survey conducted by the Macedonian Institute for Sociological and Political Legal Research, poor respondents sadly and dramatically referred to their impossibility to meet even the minimum needs. Hunger is the harshest form of poverty both for rural and urban families. "We are lucky if we get one meal a day, just to have enough for two meals for our children", parents say. They also add that they pray to God every day to keep their children in good health. Disease is considered a "death sentence" because they lack the money for medical treatment. People who once belonged to the so called middle class, define poverty in much broader terms.

The loss of social status for them means being unable to buy their children clothes, footwear, to take them to the theatre or the cinema, to enjoy in some other cultural events as they used to in the past, to celebrate birthdays and holidays with friends. Power cuts due to unpaid bills is considered by them to be the most humiliating proof of misery that they have to face, mostly through no fault of their own. As many as 56.7 percent of respondents in this survey conducted this summer by the Research and Analyses Centre of the "Morning News" daily assess that today they are worse-off than at the same time last year. Only 17.3 percent think that their living standards have improved, while 24.8 percent of 1,040 interviewed citizens from all parts of Macedonia do not notice any changes. About 1.2 percent of respondents were unable to say how they were doing. Most dissatisfied were people between 50 and 59 years of age and intellectuals, irrespective of the age group.

A survey of foreign donors recently conducted with a view to establishing where the humanitarian aid to Macedonia should be increased and where reduced, produced interesting results. The survey covered some 400 most vulnerable families of unemployed workers who have been receiving cash benefits between 1,300 and 4,500 denars (31 denar = DM 1), monthly food rations (flour, sugar, oil, salt, rice, beans) and bimonthly sanitary packages which include washing powder, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, toilet-paper and sanitary napkins.

Some 83 percent of respondents stated that they have difficulty in coping with their poverty, because over 40 percent of the assistance they get goes for food, 8 percent for medicines, 7 percent for electricity and water bills, 6 percent for their children's school material, 4 percent for transportation costs as well as for funerals or child birth, and 3 percent for clothes, if anything is left and only for the most essential things. Some 35 percent of respondents admitted that they have been doing some moonlighting because they were unable to live on what they receive. Two percent of respondents stated that they were forced to sell their valuables in order to survive, 9.9 percent live in rented flats and only 41 percent have some kind of flat of their own, while 48 percent were living together with their parents.

Recipients of social welfare live by the slogan "rely on your own devices". Some 15 percent receive help from several humanitarian organisations at the same time, and another 18 percent from friends and relatives. Additional 23 percent have some temporary job, 3.6 percent live from fishing and hunting or try their luck at the lottery. The hope of winning at Bingo warms their hearts and makes their dreams more pleasant on those rare nights when they manage to sleep peacefully and soundly.

AIM SKOPJE

Branka Nanevska