In the last three years, she has been working in several private companies that fit the same profile. You have to get by, she says. She also said that she will have to work much more before reaching the valid age for retirement. The new private owner wants more from his employees: the work is different, but the paycheck is bigger. "Anything is better than wasting time in Obuca Beograd," says Milka, who has easily gotten used to the 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (and sometimes longer) - working day. "At this factory, five of us do the work that it took at least 15 to do in Obuca Beograd."
According to data from the Serbian Agency for Statistics, unemployment in Serbia is at more than 30 percent, meaning that there are 950,000 people out of work. This information was confirmed for Vreme by Mirosinka Dinkic from the G17 Institute in Belgrade. However, this number may not be accurate, because the list of unemployed contains names that date back to the 1950s. Marija Babovic, from Belgrade University's Philosophy Faculty, told Vreme that the figures are incorrect. Generally speaking, no one knows exactly how many are unemployed in Serbia, she says. Babovic believes that one of Serbia's gravest problems is that authorities do not have all the relevant data on the situation in the country.
A public-opinion questionnaire in Serbia, distributed last year by the G17 institute, showed that it was possible to roughly define two categories, "winners" and "losers" in the transition process. Dinkic told Vreme that the older generations, employees of state-owned companies, and the less-educated and less-experienced labor force see themselves as losers in the process. On the other side, the list of self-perceived winners includes the younger generation, employees of private companies, and the better-educated and more experienced labor force.
Dinkic says the questionnaire shows that even though salaries have increased over the last year, as many as half of poll participants did not describe the current situation as better than before. Milka the factory worker says that people are looking for a way to survive - and they perceive society in that same way. She admits her paycheck is bigger now, but she does not think her life is better.
Danilo Sukovic, from the Institute of Social Studies, says that the transition is an inevitable process in which (generally speaking) no one is losing: the non-functional system is replaced with a new one that is supposed to bring advancement, which has already been seen in developed countries. But, according to Sukovic, reforms have stalled in the phase of reconstruction of institutions and restructuring of companies. He says it is inexcusable that we still do not have laws on bankruptcy and denationalization, which are necessary to regulate the boundaries of property that still exist and needs to be redistributed. "Institutions and their work must be predictable," Sukovic stressed. He said that in such a situation, it would not matter who is the head of a particular institution. The latest research, conducted this autumn by the Belgrade Center for Policy Studies, shows that the people trust the army and the police the most - while the executive branches of power, the judiciary and legal authorities enjoy little trust. Results of the research show that the biggest issue in Serbia is economic development. In the opinion of 85 percent of the people polled, peace or security in the country are preconditions for economic development. The second most-important condition for economic development is the cessation of political squabbling, according to 77 percent of poll participants. Slightly more than 70 percent of people believed it is necessary for "people to work more, and work smarter."
It can be concluded that the citizens of Serbia expect more from their authorities in the area of improving the situation in the country - yet they do not want to take personal responsibility for any improvement projects. Analysts conclude that the active civic potential of the citizens of Serbia is not great; people prefer to live in peace, mind their own business, and refrain from engaging with others in any group projects.
In a way, political apathy has taken its toll, since only 40 percent of citizens of Serbia have a consistent political opinion, or a positive attitude toward any political parties. The latest protests organized by the Independent Union of Workers illustrated such feelings, as despite great expectations, only a small number of people gathered at the rallies.
Asked if she felt she should engage more in union protests, Milka said that unions have never been trusted by workers, because their leaders have always made secret deals with factory managers. Plus, she does not believe that the strike would make her life any better.
Marija Babovic says that dissatisfaction with change is typical in all countries during the transition period, and that it always brings about a pessimistic mood in the beginning. She says it is often acknowledged that the perception of one's own wellbeing is different from the actual situation, making more people believe that they are losers in the transition process. Milan Kovacevic, a consultant for investment from abroad, believes that the specific nature of transition in Serbia has to do with the recent period of sanctions and conflict with the world. "The end of sanctions could have brought some benefits, which could have covered a part of the costs of transition," Kovacevic says for Vreme. According to him, "that made it possible to blur the definition of the transition, which resulted in low support for the transition and unrealistic expectations, and speeded up the improvement in living conditions, only hiding the necessary price of transition. That was harmful for everyone."
Kovacevic's assertion opens the issue of the price that must be paid for the transition for a better life in the future. The policy of "reduced spending" has been replaced by the omnipresent rhetoric about the need "to remove sick tissue". It seems that the old slogan "a worse today for a better tomorrow" is once again becoming important. The Serbian government has often attempted to explain the situation in this way, to convince the people that they must wait for better times. Danilo Sukovic says it is necessary to pay a certain price in the transition process, to create conditions for a better society, with more solidarity.
Nevertheless, it is hard to tell those who earn around $2.40 per day to wait a little longer. "The burden of transition is hardest for the weakest," says Kovacevic. "A variety of social measures are failing to ease the burden. An inadequate system of taxation, which does not take more from those who have more, adds to the social differentiation," he notes, adding that newly earned capital is not taxed enough.
G17's Dinkic thinks that the price of the transition need not have been highest for the country's poor, since we were granted large donations. It is true, she says, that the authorities managed to increase social payments and to pay pensions regularly, but there should be an easier way of handling the transition years, and for reviving the social system.
Sukovic says that the state managed to maintain macroeconomic stability, but that real economic recovery can be expected "only when institution-building is finished successfully and the rule of law established, since all the countries that managed to establish the rule of law were successful in the transition."
Inspired by last year's initiative of the Serbian government, "Serbia on the Right Path," analysts from the Center for Policy Studies asked people in their own poll if the country is indeed on the right or wrong path. Mirjana Vasovic, a professor from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, said that 25 percent of the people polled believe that Serbia is on the right path, while others either disagree or are apathetic. Less-educated and less-experienced workers show greater dissatisfaction than the intellectuals, which only confirms the assumption that the reforms are not being accepted by the lower strata in the society. Our collocutor, Milka, officially a "highly-qualified worker", says that she has no time to waste on the actions of "those on top", but she is acutely aware that it is still very difficult to make ends meet. "Given that we have survived a lot worse, this situation is surely better," Milka says. With a sigh, she concludes that the "great 80s" and the time of Ante Markovic [the last prime minister the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFRJ] will not return during her lifetime. She believes that the managers will always be in good shape, after stealing the companies they managed [under Communism] and taking over business.
Her opinion on privatization matches the opinion of the majority of persons polled by the Center for Policy Studies. Some 32 percent of them believe the privatization to be pure robbery. Only 11 percent thought that it was a necessary reform process that is being conducted correctly.
At the same time, this autumn, Television B92 has been broadcasting a serial about a man who is fighting the transition, or the changes that are supposed to happen in Serbian society. He is an adorable grouser who yearns for the good old socialist times. ["Mila and the transition", "Mile i tranzicija"]. He is bothered by everything that the "West is imposing on us," but in every episode you see that certain things are inevitable and that there will be no return to the past.
Nevertheless, he is stubborn and attempts to stick to the old system of values. He does not have a job (or, at least, in the show it is not clear that he is employed). Milka says she has heard of the show, but that she does not follow it. "When I come from work in the afternoon, I like to watch a Spanish soap operas. That relaxes me."