How to say poverty in Bosnian / Serbian / Croatian

Perhaps I am cynical, perhaps I am short-sighted, perhaps I do not understand at all what this is really about, and perhaps I am simply untalented for politics, which is a platitude as the art of the possible, in which, sooner or later, it turns out that everything(!) is impossible or rather, that nothing is possible... but, something (read: everything!) is terribly wrong in the entire Bosnian-Herzegovinian story. To start and to end with, the indecently and abnormally high incomes of the people's representatives, about whom – the representatives and their salaries – it has long been pointless to even discuss. Audacity and insolence clearly have no limits, nor do they have a national or ideological prefix. The serious faces of deputies who vote to increase their lump-sum allowances as if it were a fateful state issue provoke a physiological reaction, but the falsely concerned and/or cynically (smirking) faces that we have been watching and enduring for far too long elicit no less of a reaction.

I do not understand how MD Bosniaks are to blame for – to put it mildly – poor living conditions and a low standard of living, even where there are not too many Serbs... how and why BI (or ŠDŽ or HG, it doesn't matter) is to blame for Serbs having an entity, and Croats for not having one, when the three of them, mere poor people, neither now nor then, have any idea what they are doing, except that they know they must be in power because that is the will of the people, and the people presumably know because the strength is in them. I do not understand how all Croats, both legitimate and illegitimate, are doing so well, except that if that election law were slightly adjusted, DČ could be the lifelong president of all Croats in the world – for all eternity – and everything would be perfect. It doesn't matter that we don't even have money for bread, but God grant that it rains in Croatia and that wheat grows in Slavonia and that there is a good tourist season in all of Dalmatia (except in Istria) and that the third channel is reserved only for fluent Croatian, even if it only talks about rigged tenders and unpaid subsidies. 

A system in which every move of *ours* is considered patriotism, and every different opinion is national treason and hostility, in which every idiocy of *ours* towards *theirs* is considered *politics*... in which *politics*(!) regulates and determines, controls and conditions everything from jobs to social and state institutions and dictates literally everything, logically, is to blame for poor living conditions and a low standard of living, and the lack of money to pay child benefits and to help those in need through 17020, and the treatment of severely ill children through 17030 and 17050... plus VAT... (the collection of which, even in this quarter, records record highs, although no one knows where these billions go after being announced on the news, what they are spent on, and on what).

The story that even in theory sounded good: talking about what affects, bothers, and hurts every person: their daily life and standard... all indications are, cynics will say, as expected, that it will not end well. The first attempt to introduce into politics and life the discourse on the application of a set of anti-corruption laws, among the first being the law on determining the origin and confiscation of illegally acquired property... and indications of something that could be considered the embryo of a *decent society* – a society in which institutions do not offend residents – at least one reason to awaken the thought: am I living well or poorly; what kind of present do I have and what kind of future can I hope for my child; will I think about going on vacation or will I save money for a one-way ticket abroad... was doomed to failure from the outset. I warned even before it became public: too many prickly and personally interested ego-trips and ego maniacs.

One does not live by identity, nation, past, truth, lies... and especially by slandering others. We know that we are all that we are, that we will not reconcile for a long time that there are others and different people in this country and that they have the same rights as us. Despite our ethno-national awareness and strong patriotism, most of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country at, not an economic but an existential bottom, first place on all negative lists, a country with the most pronounced *captured state* syndrome, the most polluted country in Europe with everything and anything, with the highest number of unemployed, the lowest average income of the employed and the highest income of politicians, the highest level of corruption, the greatest outflow of young people... our streets are dug up, our roads are bad, in 22 years we have not managed to build a decent road between Sarajevo and Tuzla... Isn't it important even for the presidents of the state in what kind of cities they live, on what kind of streets they walk, on what kind of roads they drive...
Despite our ethno-national and religious awareness, instead of respecting diversity and the culture of living in a multi-ethnic environment based on virtues, our upbringing and educational system has trained and educated a workforce for jobs from the last century, as well as generations of participants and viewers of reality shows, singers and wannabe singers, starlets and wannabe starlets, murderers and victims... It is not important to them that the elected officials finance all their whims and luxuries, para-state and anti-state and anti-human institutions and creations from the state budget, imaginary para-presidencies are fenced with walls very similar to those around Arab or Albanian family dwellings, and equally imaginary offices equipped with money from the state budget are privatized... so in the fenced ones they legally act as Serbs, and in the privatized ones they legitimately act as Croats. In short, after yesterday's and the day before yesterday's saga about the formation and dissolution of coalitions, it is quite clear that there are more political opponents within parties than in inter-party relations and relationships.

What else needs to happen for anyone to realize that who is in power is less important than what kind of power it is?! Nothing. Everything has already happened.