Global Voices » Albania

Macedonia: Fuel Prices Continue to Rise

Filip Stojanovski — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:18:43 +0000

Continuous increase of fuel prices is a cause of much concern for citizens of Macedonia, and some vent the tension through humor. The prices are set by a regulatory body, and more and more social media users object to the fact that the lion's share of the revenue in fact goes to the government, stymieing the growth of the business sector.

On his blog, Zoriv published comparisons of the prices of oil derivatives in Macedonia, the USA and the EU [mk], and also calculated how much fuel one can buy on an average salary in various countries [mk]. (Both posts are in Macedonian, but the tables with country comparisons are in English and easily comprehensible.)

So, according to Zoriv, Latvia has the lowest price of gasoline in Europe (EUR 1.20), while Norway has the highest (EUR 1.94). Consumers in Macedonia have to pay EUR 1.4. While the official explanation for rising fuel prices is always the change of price of crude oil, Zoriv points out that a major factor in forming the end price are the excise taxes that go directly to the state budgets in countries with the highest prices (Norway, Holland, Italy, the UK, and Greece). He adds:

In Macedonia, for instance, the total taxation together with the profit margin for the merchants form around 70% of the price (Official Gazette of Republic of Macedonia, no. 138/09 and 52/11). The difference between Macedonia and the EU countries, alongside the salary levels which are incomparable, is the tragic fact that even the slightest increase of oil derivative prices affects the personal material existence of every citizen of Macedonia. The latest data show that fuel consumption has decreased by 30% [mk]. The increase of fuel prices leads to a spiral of the increase of all other living expenses, while family budgets drastically decrease.

The Macedonian government temporarily abolished the excise before the June 2011 elections, but returned it later, raising the prices [mk] in August.

By calculating how much fuel a citizen can buy with an average salary, Zoriv tried to shed light on income disparities: in the United States, one can buy 4,296 liters of gasoline on an average monthly salary. In Europe, the top spots go to Switzerland (3,441 l), Luxemburg (3,439 l), and Germany (3.075 l). The lowest on the list are Macedonia (243 l) and Albania (194 l), with a “disastrous ratio of 1:14″ compared to the leading “rich” countries.

According to the 2010 edition of the annual publication 200 Largest Companies in Macedonia, prepared and published by the Euro Business Center – Skopje, the two largest companies in the country are: the sole oil refinery OKTA (owned by the Greek interests, privatized while the current PM Gruevski served as the Minister of Finance) and the biggest oil derivatives distributor Makpetrol, with the total revenues of EUR 512 million and EUR 350 million, respectively.

The prospects for the future seem bleak. According to the UNDP report “Assessing the Economic Impact of Climate Change,” Macedonia also faces numerous other challenges in the energy sector.

Social media users shared various kinds of data related to the fuel price increase, such as the table [mk] showing the elements that form the prices of fuel, originally from an Radio Free Europe article [mk] by Srgjan Stojanchov:

Elements of fuel prices in Macedonian Denars.

They also posted various reactions to ongoing developments with the fuel prices, and the most shared were the humorous responses, such as this joke: “Would you like to take your girlfriend someplace expensive? - Take her to a gas station!” The latest chuckle is a demotivation-style meme featuring the late Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito and a supposed laconic quote in Croatian:

Photo of Tito and a supposed quote: You say the gasoline got more expensive? Well, why don't you make a deal with the Non-Aligned countries?

During the Cold War, Tito was famous for striking a balance between Eastern and Western blocs, with Yugoslavia serving as a kind of a buffer, to the commercial benefit of its people. In 1961, he co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement, which included many oil-producing nations, resulting in favorable trade relations. A famous political-economic quote attributed to him (in the Lexicon of Yugoslav Mythology) is this: “The grain that we received from the Americans is much superior in quality to the grain the Soviets did not deliver.”

Macedonia, Greece, Turkey: Bridging the Divides Through Multilingual Reporting

Filip Stojanovski — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:21:51 +0000

Two recent initiatives by civic-minded journalists added value to the e-content in local languages from Macedonia and nearby countries: Diversity Media is offering news analysis through text and audio podcasts in Macedonian and Albanian, and Balkon3.com is enabling “peeking over the neighbors' fence” in Macedonian, Turkish, Greek, and English. The former also started a competition for news bloggers [mk, sq], ending Jan. 31.

Albania: Eliza Dushku on “Why You Must Visit Albania”

Veronica Khokhlova — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:46:08 +0000

At HuffPost Travel, American actress Eliza Dushku writes about her Albanian roots and her travel to Albania.

Albania: Universities - Quantity vs Quality

Veronica Khokhlova — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:33:31 +0000

Home of the Albanian Blogger writes about a BalkanInsight.com article, whose author has “counted some 10 public and over 30 private universities [in Albania], which beats the rest of the Balkan countries.” The quality of education at some of these institutions is something to be worried about, too.

Albania: One in three pays bribes

Vilhelm Konnander — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:10:43 +0000

Home of the Albanian Blogger reports that one out of three Albanians pays bribes, making the country the most corrupt in Europe.

Albania: “The Civil Alternative” Website

Veronica Khokhlova — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:07:49 +0000

The Albanian Blogger writes about a new website, The Civil Alternative (ALB), which aims at “engaging people in dialogue and raising awareness as well as producing action about major issues affecting the Albanian people and the country as a whole.”

Macedonia: What About the Census?

Filip Stojanovski — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:26:52 +0000

A number of Balkan countries were scheduled to run a census this spring: Macedonia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Local observers link the ability to perform this operation to viability and maturity of a state.

When the ‘census season' was announced in 2010, Dzhaman did a test press clipping [MKD] from various countries. At the time, Macedonian bloggers were mainly discussing the situation in the neighboring Bulgaria and Albania, criticizing these states for not allowing the local ethnic Macedonians state their ethnic affiliation and be counted.

Bulgaria at first had this option, but backtracked. Its census is under way. In Albania, officials promised certain changes to the minorities [MKD] who threatened boycott, but now face disagreement from the majority.

Macedonian bloggers viewed these situations as part of ongoing campaigns for assimilation of ethnic minorities, with discussions often steering toward hate speech, involving labeling and invoking history. For instance, 1979 cited this and the arrest [MKD] of the owner and employee of a printing company in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, who prepared an ethnic Macedonian periodical, an instance of 21-century fascism [MKD], reminding that Bulgaria sided with Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

Inclusion of ethnic and religious affiliations is not a controversial issue in the multi-ethnic Republic of Macedonia. But, as certain “collective rights” guaranteed by law are linked to the number of people registered in a given territory, statistical results have an explosive political potential. For instance, while Macedonian is the official language of state and local administration, other languages automatically become official on municipal level, too, if the number of their native speakers is above 20% of the population. Since the last Census (2002) showed that ethnic Albanians comprise around 25% of the total population, the Parliament uses Albanian as its official language, in addition to Macedonian. This is also linked with the “Badinter principle” of decision making: proposals involving ethnic aspects need support both on the general level and from representatives of non-majority ethnic groups (if they comprise over 20%).

In Macedonia, controversies began with the traditional media publishing “predictions” that the real results can turn out far different than in 2002. Then some of the ethnic Albanian opposition parties demanded that the Census take place in July instead of April, in order to make sure that ethnic Albanians who work abroad and come back to Macedonia for summer holiday are counted. The administration refused, citing the examples of Albania and Kosovo, which also have a lot of guest workers, but scheduled their census for April anyway. Albania in fact just decided to postpone its census, but for a different reason - due to the early local elections.

A more serious problem of boycott by the ethnic Albanian and Turkish members of the State Census Committee arose due to the composition of local census committees, over the rule that it has to have an ethnic Macedonian member, regardless of the ethnic composition of the area. According [MKD] to local portal PrespaSky, other ethnic communities, such as Vlach, also joined the boycott.

In addition, Vasko Krajchevski wrote [MKD] about the looming early elections:

Another important moment is a certain large-scale statistical operation called the Census. If early elections take place in May, the Census surely will not take place in April. What are they trying to prove? Nothing, they just want to play with tenders for four more years. If they want to remove the political (ethnic) label from the Census, they should change the Constitution and declare that the [Framework Agreement] is valid for those below the (infamous) 20%.

In her latest statement, the president of the State Census Committee said [MKD] that “the Government has not informed them about any delays of the Census.”

Albania: Anti-Government Protest in Tirana

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:17:15 +0000

Home of the Albanian Blogger and A Nevada Yankee in King Zog's Court share their thoughts on the Jan. 21 anti-government protests and violence in Tirana.

Serbia, Albania, Kosovo: More Info on “Yellow House”

Veronica Khokhlova — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 14:39:33 +0000

Sasa Milosevic has collected some of the available information about the “Yellow House” and human organ trade in Kosovo on his blog, The Bloody Yellow House (ENG).

Slovenia: Referendum on the Arbitration Agreement

Veronica Khokhlova — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:07:26 +0000

Sleeping With Pengovsky writes - here and here - about this past Sunday's referendum on the Arbitration Agreement between Slovenia and Croatia; posts Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 of The Definitive Guide to the Arbitrage Agreement Between Slovenia and Croatia (links to the earlier installments are here); and notes that “the Arbitration Agreement can (not necessarily will) become a model for solving similar disputes in the region.” More background on the Sunday's referendum - at ESI's Rumeli Observer.

CEE: Facebook Use Stats

Veronica Khokhlova — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:53:02 +0000

Worldwide Facebook statistics - at Facebakers.com: in Central & Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic has most users - 2,634,300 people, the country's overall ranking is #29, penetration is 25.8%. It is followed by Poland (#31), which has 2,604,440 users, with 6.77% penetration. Serbia (#41) is CEE's #3: 1,997,540 users, penetration is 27.07%. Russia is #56, with 1,112,680 users and penetration of 0.79%.

The Balkans, Italy: Berlusconi's “Albanian Girls” Comment; Doctored Photo

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:54:02 +0000

Balkan Travellers re-posts a Balkan Insight piece about the Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi's comment that “his country would accept only pretty Albanian girls as immigrants.” Belgraded writes about the photoshopped photos of Berlusconi and Slobodan Milosevic: “Fours days after the [doctored] photo was published, Milosevic lost the elections by a close margin. Maybe it will be the same for Berlusconi, who is probably the politician with the biggest resemblance to Milosevic-style politics in European Union today.”

The Balkans: A Travel Roundup

Veronica Khokhlova — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:31:51 +0000

“Street and alternative photography of Belgrade” - at Belgrade Raw; “Other people's journeys: Balkan travelogues 2009” - at Balkanology Blog; a map of Belgrade's hostels - at Belgraded; a review of the “best flight options to Sarajevo” - at Bosnia Blog.

Albania: Giving Directions

Veronica Khokhlova — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:28:08 +0000

A Nevada Yankee in King Zog's Court writes that “Albanians are so poor at giving directions that it's easier just to take the lost soul directly to his destination than it is to give directions.”

Albania: A Travel Blog

Veronica Khokhlova — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:58:05 +0000

A Nevada Yankee in King Zog's Court links to the “blog/diary of Mykel's Italian-Albanian trip.”