Is Benjamina Karić using TVSA for personal promotion and political propaganda: Premature campaign at the citizens' expense!

By: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

Aware that she wasted four years of her mandate traveling the world and offering a smile as a cover for idleness, the Mayor of Sarajevo Benjamina Karić decided to return to the tried and tested method of the Trojka project and impose herself on the citizens as a solution through media pressure.

Because Karić should never have been the mayor, but it "happened" to her, so she had to deal with various challenges she was not up to. In addition to a lack of competence, due to which the city has not moved from the position it was in when she found it, Mayor Karić liked to spend the citizens' money of Sarajevo on travels and low-intensity events.

In recent days, she tried to fascinate us with the only project she initiated and completed in four years of her mandate. The protection of Sarajevo ćevapi, supported by USAID, became Mayor Karić's number one story. And let there be no misunderstanding, Sarajevo ćevapi are now protected so that, God forbid, someone in Travnik or Banja Luka would not think of making Sarajevo ćevapi. And why would they need it when they have Travnik or Banja Luka ćevapi? On the other hand, in Zagreb, Belgrade, or Munich, any reasonably capable butcher can make Sarajevo ćevapi, because much water will flow under the bridge before someone brands Sarajevo ćevapi in the EU.

But Mayor Karić used the ćevapi to appear before the citizens and distribute about 300 portions of this dish to hungry citizens. And all this is not so problematic.

What is problematic is that the public service of Sarajevo Canton - TVSA, through the story about ćevapi, became the media service of Benjamina Karić. Whether this is a premature campaign, let those who deal with it say and judge, but it is interesting that once upon a time, entire entourages of phantom associations and democracy experts followed every appearance of the government on public services during the campaign period and demanded that it be corrected. There are no associations, but Mayor Karić has filled the TVSA program.

Thus, on August 14 (Wednesday), in the news programs of TVSA from 7 to 10 AM, information about the branding of ćevapi and Mayor Karić was published. Then it was repeated in the News at 3 PM, and concluded in the same news program around 10 PM.

All that was not enough, so in the TVSA News at 6:30 PM, there was a report from the City Hall, followed by a video link from Baščaršija. Of course, about ćevapi and Mayor Karić.

Approximately 24 hours later, there was again a report from Baščaršija about ćevapi and Karić.

From experience and some reactions, I know that the management of TVSA is sensitive to criticism, as they believe they are so professional that they should not be criticized, but I must still ask them who promoted whom and what. We know the answer: ćevapi were the motive, and the focus of the promotion was the Mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić.

Now, the entire management of TVSA should answer whether the promotional advertising plan was paid for by Mayor Karić from the city budget or if it was a decision by the TVSA management. Just so we know who bears the costs.

And we are not asking that for nothing. Because, August 16 was a Friday, and those who turned on TVSA could see the show Špica. And in Špica, none other than Mayor Benjamina Karić.

At the beginning of that Špica, the host says that the show is an opportunity to “talk about various projects: facades, ćevapi, ćevapi, facades, and well, about SFF”. If we know that SFF is not the mayor's project, it is clear that Špica was also dedicated to ćevapi. True, with a few sentences about facades, but ćevapi became so contagious that Karić invited the show's crew to go for ćevapi as soon as they finished.

I don't know if she took the Špica crew where she promised, but we certainly know, and it is visible without special analysis, that she sent the citizens of Sarajevo for ćevapi, but in a colloquial sense. Because she arrived unexpectedly and quietly, in the shadow of Bogić Bogićević's betrayal orchestrated by her party and coalition colleagues.

And she leaves with 10 out of half and partially facade-covered buildings, of course on selectively chosen buildings. That is the only thing Mayor Karić leaves behind, hiding a lot of idleness and incompetence behind her smile!