English
“In the past three years, with the support of USAID, we have implemented a project for the preparation of project documentation”. I found this gem of a quote in one of the news items published these days in the lavishly USAID funded media outlets in Macedonia. A number of such articles were written these days and through them this American agency is trying to justify its activities in Macedonia. However, the fall of USAID happened so quickly (right now, as I write this, in Washington they are literally removing the letters from the USAID main offices in the neoclassical complex of government buildings between the Ellipse and Donald Trump’s hotel) that we have not seen a serious attempt to defend the work of this once powerful agency in the Macedonian media. Instead of dozens of columns, articles, television appearances and attacks on those of us who “rejoice” at the closure of USAID, we see only a small, poorly coordinated resistance from enthusiasts in the media. Here we especially see those who relatively recently joined the political ecosystem built on American donations and now seemingly want to prove themselves.
In their articles in which they are defending USAID, an attempt is made to present it as an agency that primarily helped poor rural municipalities across Macedonia build schools. As in the example I cited above, USAID’s activities were often “projects for projecting projects,” i.e. for “building capacity” in municipalities, or used other general bureaucratic phrases that strongly indicate that a good part of the grants were not only wasted but were probably also shared with the grant-givers and embezzled (I know, this is a serious accusation, but Trump and Elon Musk are already openly declaring USAID to be a criminal organization and a money laundering front).
To be fair, some of USAID’s projects have had a positive effect in the real sector and in the lives of citizens – no one disputes that, as a country, we have received several tens of millions of dollars a year for tangible things for some of which I suppose we should be grateful. But this does not even come close to justifying the deeply politicized, ideologically driven USAID projects, also worth tens of millions of dollars, which caused deep divisions in Macedonia, persistently promoted one political option while attacking another, conducted a regime change operation (operations?), changed our name, our identity and the balance of power between the ethnic communities in the country.
Macedonia is a country in Europe, with a budget of four billion dollars. We have many poor and underdeveloped areas and sectors, where any help is welcome. But these days we have heard how we should be silent and not criticize USAID because they bought bedsheets for a hospital, and also how George Soros borrowed us several tens of millions of dollars during the Greek embargo so we can buy oil – and because of this we should do – what? Be forever in their debt?
USAID implemented politicized projects in close coordination with the Soros Foundation. Money from these projects went to violent street protesters who attacked our police, attempted to break into the Government building and set an office of the President on fire. It went to politicized media outlets, all of which coordinated to support one political option over another. Toward training judges and prosecutors who destroyed the reputation of the judiciary in Macedonia, who held people in prison until their death, and used these prisoners as an example to intimidate citizens not to protest while our name and identity were being changed. With this money, one political option was publicly declared criminal, and the other option, despite clear video evidence (clear video, but in a heavy Strumica accent) of its leader asking for bribes, was declared to be progressive, honest, and the only pro-Western option that we should all vote for. T-shirts were printed with that unfortunate person that was named and her two unscrupulous careerist colleagues, and decent people are now ashamed to use these shirts as dirt rags. Members of Parliament were arrested, protesters were beaten, and the crime and incompetence of SDSM was covered up. The media and USAID activists slept through the years of scandals and abuses of power under SDSM and DUI, except for occasional coordinated appearances to show that they are still alive, and in some way justify the grants that continued to flow. Despite their relative passivity, it is clear that if USAID projects continue under “business as usual” mode, they will be an investment in the preparation of the next colored revolution, which some of the SDSM firebrands are already calling for.
To the people who try to defend these USAID activities, I say – please don’t play dumb. You know exactly what you did, what the point and purpose of USAID is, what the American administration did in Macedonia, and why a large part of the Macedonian public began to view American diplomats, and unfortunately America as a whole, with deep, deep skepticism.
But sure, USAID helped the municipality of Novaci prepare a project that would create more projects. Okay, let’s say they helped build some infrastructure. At the same time, with the help of USAID money, an operation was to change the government in Macedonia was carried out, and the dominant position in the new government was given to the DUI party. One contract singed by the DUI Deputy Prime Minister with an American construction company heavily favored by the State Department costs Macedonia billions of dollars – approximately as much as was the amount of all the grants and donations that USAID has given to Macedonia since independence. At best, we are at net zero in our relationship, but if we count the lost years spent under the politicians that were elected in Washington and at the Kale Embassy, if we count the damage to Macedonian sovereignty and standing in the region, the heavy and unprincipled favoritism of the Albanian factor in Macedonia, the divisions and upheavals they caused in our society just because they could.. the damage is immeasurable.
The rare defenders of USAID are trying to cover up the second major weakness of the activities of this organization. Consider that they implemented politicized projects that can in no way be justified within the framework of normal relations between two independent countries (USAID’s activities in Macedonia are a clear violation of the Vienna Convention). These political projects were extremely biased and always went in favor of one of the two main political parties in Macedonia. Perhaps, if USAID had helped media, youth organizations, activists, economic experts… equally, working with both sides of the political divide, and if we had seen American experts and instructors from both the left and right factions in the US working with their Macedonian counterparts, we could have said that their programs might have some point. But even small children know that this was not the case and that for USAID, SDSM were the good guys and partners, and VMRO-DPMNE – the enemy.
USAID defenders these days obsessively point to a political training event that USAID conducted with VMRO-DPMNE in 2019, as well as the fact that a large part of the scarce actual infrastructure assistance went to municipalities led by VMRO-DPMNE mayors. First of all, surviving SDSM mayors can be counted on two hands, so USAID had no one to work with there. Second, we have often witnessed that the goal of these projects is to divide VMRO-DPMNE, to insert various “reformers”, divisive factions, into the party, to raise the ambitions of some mayor (the same way they once tricked Zaev into thinking that he had the capacity to wield at the state level). There were even media reports about an attempt to create a major division in VMRO-DPMNE before the 2024 elections, an attempt that, fortunately, was apparently rejected.
On the other hand, it is clear that the USAID projects aimed at SDSM were done with the goal of strengthening this party, providing it with a guaranteed coalition with Albanian parties (and even directly delivered votes from Albanian communities in 2016), and smooth governance without having it bother too much with criticism from abroad about their corruption scandals or the fact that they are holding political prisoners and carrying out persecution of the opposition party.
In the end, it can be said that this unprincipled American support for one political option in Macedonia was counterproductive for SDSM themselves. On the one hand, SDSM members became convinced that their path to power lies through Kale and the other embassies, and not through securing the votes of the citizens. On the other hand, USAID connection with the Soros Foundation, the ideologically radical bent the implementers of these joint political projects, and their detachment from the opinions of average Macedonians, or Americans, cost SDSM dearly. This once relatively normal party that knew how to defend Macedonian sovereignty and national interests, was willing to accept market solutions in the economy and at least knew that there are is a male and female gender, was taken over by postmodern politicians who gave up on our national interests and entrusted Mila Carovska from HERA with the education of our children. Instead of defending USAID, SDSM should be the first to call them out and ask: why did you elevate and finance political radicals like Raspeani Skopjani, Kolja Mrak, Trichko, Mirko, Jugoslav, Razvigor… If anyone needs to go through a process of deSorosoization and deUSAIDization right now, it is SDSM – if they even want to become a normal political option again that can be accepted by ordinary Macedonian citizens beyond the Brutalisk and Krug cafes. So, guys, I know that weaning yourselves off of the millions in grants you were receiving will hurt, but in the end, it can only be for your own good.
