Caught Between Statistics and Empty Stomachs
AIM Sarajevo, January 20, 2001
Scenes previously seen only in movies, as when the bailiffs, because of outstanding debts, carry out all the furniture from a flat but the bed the obstinate proprietor is refusing to part with, are becoming reality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in the B&H Federation. More and more often, overdue heating, water supplies and telephone bills and unpaid rents are resulting in bailiffs knocking at the door of the debtor, whether that is a pensioner, an unemployed person or simply one of the many who has not received their salaries for months.
Regrettably, the ever-higher pile of unpaid bills is not the result of civic disobedience because of the obscenely high rates of public utilities, but rather an outcome of a much too much common poverty. Faced with the perplexing choice between settling their accounts and buying food, Bosnia's and Herzegovina's opt for bare subsistence. At the same time, politicians from all levels of power keep trying to convince their subjects that all is well and rosy with their lives, citing official statistics on the average income and the price of the so-called consumer's (market) basket.
In fact, from a statistician's point of view, the situation is not all that bad. The average salary for November 2000 in the B&H Federation amounted to 436 DM, while the price of the consumer's basket at the time was evaluated at 438 DM. But then again, the relativity of things has been proved such a long time ago, especially when statistics is concerned.
Expenditures included into the much-vaunted consumer's basket - devised so as to inspire envy in each and every dietitian and used by the politicians as the irrefutable proof that the average income is sufficient for the monthly upkeep of a family - consist merely of expenses for the basic provisions of a family of four. In other words, outgoings such as the public utilities costs, the biggest problem of all, expenses for clothing, footwear, textbooks and other school requisites for the children have not been taken into account at all.
These "overlooked" monthly expenses of a Sarajevo family of four living in a flat not larger than sixty odd square meters in reality amount to: minimum 72 DM per month for central-heating, around 20 DM as a compensation for the use of communal premises if you own the flat, the same amount for water supplies, around 60 DM for electricity and TV subscription, between 10 and a hundred DM for the telephone bill and so on. In the best of cases, utilities will cost you around 200 DM per month. These costs are not taken into account by statistics.
Furthermore, some money has to be spent on clothing and shoes. If grown-ups are obliged to wear the same clothes and shoes for years, children have a tendency to grow, meaning they have to have new things from time to time. Shoe prices in Sarajevo range from 100 DM up to matchless 500 DM and kids' ever- preferred jeans may be bought at the starting price of 50 DM (fakes, of course) rising to 200-300 DM for the quality, non-counterfeit product. School expenses have to be taken into account too: textbooks, notebooks, PE outfits, required reading, etc. On the average, having two children will cost you at least another 50 DM per month. With this, the expenses of a family of four not included into the consumer's basket rise for at least another 250 DM. When these costs are added to the 438 "statistically verified" DM, the final monthly sum for the costs of living of a family of four equals impressive 700 DM. In the case of those who do not have a flat of their own, rent costs are the primary burden since this, at best, means putting aside additional 300-400 DM, plus the expenses for public transportation (one ride = one DM) owing to the fact that such cheaper apartments can be found only in out-of-the-way suburbs. Car expenditures need not be discussed, since in these parts that is still a luxury, just as theater-going, going to the movies or, God forbid, having dinner in a restaurant. Politicians and statisticians reckon with the presumption that an average family has two working household members, which may be the standard for normal countries, but B&H certainly cannot be classified as such. What statistical figures about the average income do not show, is the everyday reality of the great majority of the population. More to the point, while it is statistically true that there are over 412 thousand employees in B&H, this does not go to say that all of them can actually count on being paid out in full by the month. Calculated into the figure are the 42 thousand workers "on leave" who, as a rule, do not get to collect a single Bosnian mark from firms they are supposedly employed in.
When the officially recognized figure of 265 thousand unemployed persons and the 40 per cent rate of unemployment in the B&H Federation are taken into account, it turns out that the statistical evaluations on the average income may be mathematically correct, but still have nothing to do with the majority of the B&H citizens. Especially not with the 273 thousand pensioners with the average pension of 178 DM per month. The fact that, in most cases, pensioners live in twos, does not help much. After settling their monthly public utilities bills, all that remains of their joint account are but 6 DM per day, enough to provide for the daily expenses for bread, milk and medicines, naturally - if the old pair happens not to be too sick.
Public utilities costs keep soaring, announcements of further rises are regularly made known while, at the same time, salaries of those who are fortunate enough to be working are becoming more and more irregular and uncertain by the day and the forthcoming cut in pensions is already dead certain. To term the present state of affairs as a "crisis", describe it as a result of "recession" or ascribe any other readily available name to it would mean next to nothing - because the socially most imperiled portion of the population is already facing outright famine. Raising numbers of tuberculosis patients - tuberculosis being the malady of the underfed poor - as well as the growing number of beggars walking the streets and knocking at doors asking for food, are the best proof of the fact.
Despair and hopelessness are spreading like a contagious disease and suicides have become a fact of life long ago. Growing numbers of unpaid bills are therefore not surprising, since they are an attempt to somehow consolidate the household budget. But, even that cannot solve the problem anymore - what remains is not sufficient to provide for the basic necessities of life, not even food.
The final cheque for transition to the market economy was made out to mere mortals who have nothing to do with the situation they are caught in, one in which the government has laid the burden of demonstrating its authority and the general rule of law on their shoulders. The long awaited implementation of the law, amongst other things, includes the regular payment of due debts, whoever the note of assignment is addressed to, an individual or an enterprise. In the first case, the squaring of accounts implies the seizure of all household furniture and appliances of the debtor.
And, while the state monopolists such as the post and the electric-power industry exhibit an enviable zeal in collecting their own outstanding debts, their boss, the government, has not manifested the least trace of willingness to settle its accounts. As an employer, the government had stood aside indifferently while workers in firms belonging to it despaired without salaries for months on, finally showing some interest only after the employees, without any money to feed themselves and their families anyhow, went on hunger strikes - officially, for a change.
The government also owes the pensioners five pension cheques. Tolerating work on the black-market for the sake of social tranquillity, it has brought the pension funds on the brink of bankruptcy. Confronted with the enraged pensioners, it now points to the representatives of the international community who insist that only existing resources may be spent. All in all, the possibility that, in months to come, the average income will continue to grow as far as statistical indexes are concerned, is not to be entirely ruled out. At the same time, more and more people living in empty apartments shut off from electric-power supplies, will continue stepping over the narrow border-line that now separates them from sheer poverty. Who knows, maybe because of the growing numbers of those out-of-work and the unchanging sum-total of incomes, it turns out in the end that the statistical salary has gone up.
The new business and political elite, isolated from all aspects of the everyday life of mere mortals, could care less about all this anyhow. To their minds, dull statistical figures are a convincing enough proof of the well-being of the country or, to put it in their own words, evidence that "things are not all that bad". And, while they cannot restrain themselves from referring to Europe whenever possible, their less fortunate compatriots are nearing the Ethiopian standard of living by which the "well-to-do" have something to eat each day, while the poor can indulge in such a luxury only from time to time.
DRAZEN SIMIC
(AIM Sarajevo)