30. 08. 2005

A SURREAL SEIZURE OF MONEY

BELGRADE, August 30, 2005 (Danas) – Imagine a situation when a supermarket shop assistant forces you to pay for half a kilogram of biscuits you haven't bought, or tries to pressure you into buying the very same biscuits although you never eat them because there are many other biscuits which fit your needs perfectly. And imagine that the whole surreal stealing of money is done by having your money taken when you're paying for your electricity bills. In the end, the shop assistant explains to you that the government has come to a conclusion that you have no idea which biscuits are good for you and that it has to prescribe you what you will buy and how much you will pay for it. The government tells you that you are not legally sane and that it has to appoint persons who will educate you and your children because you are not capable of doing it yourself. In short, this is a modern fable about the national television subscription project which is a good example of the paternalistic government which takes the money from its citizens considering them unable to make simplest everyday decisions. The decision that all households in Serbia must pay the service they did not ask for is a robbery of a sort, especially when tens of TV and radio stations are available providing free and similar service. It directly favours state property over the private property, and imposes the position of the minority to the rest of the citizens. This position is more or less clear to the government (it has a track record of hostility towards the free market), so it's trying to put a smokescreen using educational and nationalistic rhetoric and the need for objective information. Unfortunately, all these arguments are just the “emperor's clothes”. For 300 dinars an average consumer can buy more than 50 channels offering all kinds of content: information, entertainment, culture, science and education, even the channels dedicated to most specific areas. Out of these 50 channels, more than 30 are broadcast or subtitled in Serbian or Croatian. Most of them have a news programme, sometimes with positions not encountered on the national television. Since it is obvious that informational argument is not convincing enough, education and culture come into play: in other words, someone must enlighten Serbia, and it is supposed to be done by the government famous for its persecution of the media, physical attacks on journalists and defiance towards the international community. It remains to be seen how the Broadcasting Agency intends to enforce this kind of enlightenment upon the population – unless it intends to close all TV stations which are “ruining” the people, or force citizens of Serbia to watch RTS. This affair leaves a sour taste -- Serbian citizens are being treated as retarded because they don't want to consume things offered to them by the quasi-elite. If the RTS programme has really improved that much, it would be best to scramble it and make people pay for it on voluntary basis. If the programme is so good, most of the people would like to watch it. Of course, this means an end to any kind of financing from the budget and paying for excess expenses. The end result would be that poor citizens who were most supportive of the populist ideas would pay the biggest price. In just one year, by means of subscription, at least 120 million euros will be confiscated from citizens for purposes of something that is freely offered to them by other TV stations. For less than 50 euros a year it is possible to connect to cable TV networks anywhere in urban areas, buy quality antennas and amplifiers or pay instalments for purchase of a satellite dish. Citizens of Serbia will decide whether they will remain silent or protest against this, because it is not only a stealing of money, but also a negation of the common sense of the majority. Refusing to pay obligatory subscription is a good way to awake from the apathy of a country heading for an economic disaster.