What do north-African deserts and Montenegro have in common? First, whenever you think that you have spotted something positive, something that may encourage you (either an oasis, or social justice), you can be certain that it is a mirage. Then, the voice of reason is equally worthless in both Montenegro and a desert: whether you complain about the merciless scorching sun, or rationally explain outrage with the DPS rule, it's all the same. In both cases, there is no one to hear you, and the horrible fate that awaits you in the end cannot be changed.
Then, as we know, rulers of deserts are oriental dictators, and the political system in Montenegro could definitively be described as a sort of an oriental dictatorship.
But, let us continue with similarities. Desert towns and their courts are full of dancers, actors and other entertainers - all those skillful in diverting courtiers. Clearly, the same applies to Podgorica - the local court also needs entertainment. At this point the analogy is seemingly interrupted, as desert princes prefer fire blowers and acrobats, while our princes are partial towards theatrical production in the Montenegrin National Theater. But, this is only an apparent difference. Both there and here, in the desert and in Montenegro, courtiers like nude girls. Belly dancing in the desert becomes sex trafficking in Montenegro - the backward Orientals use oriental, while we use pseudo-Western terminology. A rose is a rose by any name, Umberto Eco reminds us. Whatever the case, court needs entertainment.
When writer Milorad Popovic revealed that the annual budget of the Montenegrin National Theater [fully funded by the state] is Euros 1.5 million, while the budget of the Montenegrin Ministry of Culture for all other cultural activities in Montenegro is Euros 1.35 million, I realized that everything would stay the same. Because, to say something like that is no different from complaining in the midst of a desert that there is no water, or that there are no roads, while the court throws money of belly dancers. The court enjoys theater. Consequently, the Montenegrin National Theater will continue to receive more funding than all other cultural activities put together.
The way in which Montenegrin media follow the work of the Montenegrin National Theater is a grotesque caricature. Since the court likes theater, media like it too. From the reporting of the Montenegrin media one gets the impression that the National Theater stages nothing but pure masterpieces. If we were to believe our media, the National Theater is yet to stage a bad production. However, reviews of National Theater's plays, especially those on the [state controlled] TV Montenegro, are so schematic and bland that one gets not only the (desired) impression that all those plays are great, but also the (undesirable) impression that all of them are actually one and the same play ("... at the time of distorted values," as the reporter of the state TV always says).
If Prime Minister Djukanovic hasn't said something about culture in a hamlet in northern Montenegro, the activities of the Montenegrin National Theater, whenever available, are the most important news from culture on any given day. The culmination of journalistic servility, which clearly symbolizes that Montenegro is not a part of western civilization, took place on the day J.M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Putting aside the fact that this is the most prestigious award in the world in this field (only God is above the Nobel Prize Committee as far as literature goes); Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature - his problem. The same day the Montenegrin National Theater opened the 2003-2004 season - that was the top news for the day in all media in Montenegro. Here, we have at work the same logic that would, choosing between the news about the Second Coming of Christ and the news that Djukanovic visited Pluzine [small town in northern Montenegro], open the primetime news program with the latter. Resurrected Christ could go first only under the condition that he was visiting the Prime Minister that day.
Baudrillard offered several definitions of what he refers to as "the desert of reality". Montenegro is just another, living definition of that term. And what else could be the county that only in the year 2003 published the first translation of "Iliad" to its native language - a translation of Homer's epic which symbolizes the beginning of the western civilization and whose translation symbolizes belonging to that civilization? It would be interesting to compile a list of all the capital works of the world literature that haven't been translated to the Montenegrin language. That list would, of course, be several times longer than the one with works that have been translated to the Montenegrin language.
We are talking about civilizational holes that cannot be plugged up with any electoral cosmetics. Only if the funds earmarked for entertainment of courtiers are redirected into translation of capital works of global spirit to our language, only that would be the true step of Montenegro towards Europe and its culture. Directors, stage designers and actors from abroad cannot make up for that.
It is clear that the Montenegrin National Theater suffocates the rest of cultural production in Montenegro. But, that is not an error of the system, that is not something irrational that has been injected in the system. That is the essence of the system, which has been projected to be irrational. Just as the Montenegrin National Theater suffocates Montenegrin culture, thus the KAP [Aluminum production company, the largest company in Montenegro] suffocates Montenegrin economy; thus, finally, corrupted nouveaux riche circle around Djukanovic suffocates all of Montenegro. That is the essence of the system: the fact that the group that controls all levers of power maltreats everyone else, in culture, in the economy, or in any other segment of the society.
All arguments are superfluous, every call to reason in vain. Things are bare and simple, because this is a pornographic system. The Montenegrin National Theater, and that's the truth in all of its banality, has money because people in charge of it drink coffee with Djukanovic and are his friends. That is so simple and so painfully discouraging. Just like in Paul Schrader's movie "Hardcore" a father watches a porno film in which his daughter plays the main role.