"Walk in My Shoes"

There is an excellent rhythm-and-blues song dating from the 1960s, called "Walk a Mile in My Shoes," written by Joe South, a singer and composer from Atlanta, Georgia. Numerous music giants, such as Brian Ferry and Elvis Presley, have made remakes of this song.

Its refrain says,

"Walk a mile in my shoes
Just walk a mile in my shoes
Before you abuse, criticize, and accuse
Then walk a mile in my shoes." [refrain published in English]

The composer here underlines that you should know how a person feels before you accuse him of something or stress his drawbacks. This can be done only if you view things from the other person's perspective. You have to walk in my shoes to understand me and to be able to condemn me.

These verses came to my mind while I was reading a commentary by International Crisis Group [ICG] [Europe Program] Director Nicholas Whyte, issued on the website of the Institute for War and Peacetime Reporting. Whyte's commentary was about Kosovo and was inspired by the ICG's latest report on Kosovo. In one place, he made a maximally inflated statement about Kosovo, saying, "Serbia does not really want it."

I imagine that Whyte has not conducted an opinion poll among the entire Serbian population, so he cannot make such a sweeping statement without mentioning that it does not represent the real situation. It is actually an expression of his personal opinion. However, this is a powerful statement, bearing in mind his post and the ICG's position. Moreover, many governments and influential people are taking into account the ICG and its analyses and they believe that everything that the ICG writes is the naked truth. This is pathetic!

Instead of thinking about Kosovo, his article made me think of the ICG, which Macedonians know very well. As a US citizen who lived and worked in Washington for seven years and who is familiar with the people who are gravitating around the international analysis groups, I can tell you that the analysts who have been engaged in the Balkans are an extremely elitist and left-wing mob. Most of them (at least those who are US citizens) are members of the Democratic Party. They have been biased from the moment they set foot in the Balkans. They also knew what they should think even before they came here. They actually do not spend much time in one place, apart from the marble corridors of their analysts groups.

The ICG is especially problematic, bearing in mind all the people who move through its smooth offices. ICG Director Gareth Evans is a former Australian foreign minister and member of the Australian Labor Party, that is, a left-wing liberal. My Australian friends have told me that he was so "loved" in his country that Australians were thrilled when he left the country and moved to Brussels.

In his article published in The International Herald Tribune on 25 January, he wrote about Kosovo Albanians, noting: "Unless they begin to regard their aspirations for independence as real progress, there could be serious acts of violence in the next few months, just like last March." This is just like saying "unless your child gets what he wants whenever he wants something, he will start crying, so it would be best to give him whatever he wants." In my view, this is not a proper way to raise a child. You must not reward a child for bad behavior and you must especially not yield before his crying and loud requests. However, once again Whyte's view is regarded as nothing but the truth, so the powerful people throughout the world nod their heads as a sign of tacit agreement whenever they listen to him.

The other crisis people [as published] that I know, including my friend Edward Joseph, are also leftists. Ed worked in John Kerry's campaign headquarters during the presidential election. The other ICG members who have crossed through Macedonia have also talked to me about their leftist and liberal tendencies.

You just need to look at the ICG's Executive Committee to realize who dictates their policies and views -- George Soros, a Hungarian donor and the leading leftist, and former US Congressman Steve Solarz, who is an adamant Democrat and a left-wing liberal. We will also encounter General Wesley Clark, the person who organized NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, in the ICG's board. Should I go on?

Most members of this mob of leftists have never lived in Macedonia, or in any other Balkan state. They have never walked in your shoes. Just like Edward Joseph, they have come to the Balkans with a determined and leftist political view on life.

I believe that it is absolutely essential to know what people think and how they feel before they make such political pronouncements. I lived in the Balkans for more than eight years and I have spent a lot of time in Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo. Not to mention my brief visits to Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and certainly Slovenia (although I know how much Slovenes hate it when they are put in the same group as the other Balkan countries). I have walked in your shoes. Actually, I have walked, dragged, climbed mountains, jogged, and crawled miles and miles in your shoes. My views are not the same as when I first came here. I saw "the light" and I was exposed to the truth.

This is why I believe that it is about time for our friends, who are making such nebulous predictions about life in the Balkans, to come to live here and spend some time with the nations living here, with all the nations -- just as I have done -- before they start talking and writing about things with which they are not completely familiar. They must not spend their days in isolated cells in the embassies or other international fortifications. They must honestly become acquainted with the people whom they allegedly understand.