By Sam Vaknin
Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"
A common, guttural cry of "Eureka" echoed as the peoples of East
Europe and the Balkans emerged from the Communist steam bath. It was
at once an expression of joy and disbelief. That the West should be
willing to bankroll the unravelling of a failed social experiment,
freely entered into, exceeded the wildest imaginings. That it would
do so indefinitely and with no strings attached was a downright
outlandish fortuity.
Transition in the post communist countries was coupled with a
hubristic and haughty conviction in the transforming powers of the
Western values, Western technology, and Western economics. The
natives - awe struck and grateful - were supposed to assimilate
these endowments and thus become honorary Westerners ("white men").
Where osmosis and immitation failed - bayonets and bombs were called
upon. These were later replaced by soft credits and economic
micromanagement by a host of multilateral institutions.
Accustomed to Pavolvian interactions, adept at manipulating "the
system", experts in all manner of make belief - the shrewd denizens
of the East exercised the reflexive levers of the Great Democracies.
They adopted stratagems whose sole purpose was to extract additional
aid, to foster a dependency of giving, to emotionally extort. In one
sentence: they learned how to corrupt the donors.
The most obvious subterfuge involved the mindless repetition of
imported mantras. Possessed of the same glazed eyes and furled lips,
the loyal members of a perfidious nomenklatura uttered with the same
seemingly perfervid conviction the catechism of a new religion.
Yesterday communism - today capitalism, unblushingly,
unhesitatingly, cynically. Yesterday, a recondite dictatorship of
the proletariat or, more often, a personality cult -
today "democracy". Yesterday - brotherhood and unity, today -
genocidal "self determination". Yesterday - genocidal inclinations,
today - a "growth and stability pact". If required to bark in the
nude in order to secure the flow of unsupervised funding (mainly to
their pockets), these besuited "gentlemen" would have done so with
self-sacrificial ardour, no doubt.
When it dawned upon them that the West is willing to pay for every
phase of self-betterment, for every stage of self-improvement, for
every functioning institution and law passed - this venal class (the
soi-disant "elite" in government, in industry and academe) embarked
on a gargantuan blackmail plot. The inventors of the most contorted
and impervious bureaucracies ever, have recreated them. They have
transformed the simplest tasks of reform into tortuous, hellish
processes, mired in a miasma of numerous committees and deluged by
cavils, captious "working" papers and memoranda of stupefying
trumpery. They have stalled and retraced, reversed and regressed,
opined and debated, refused and accepted grudgingly. The very
processes of transformation and transition - a simulacrum to begin
with - acquired an aura of somnolent lassitude and the nightmarish
quality of ensnarement. And they made the West bribe them into
yielding that which was ostensibly in their very own interest. Every
act of legislation was preceded and followed by dollops of foreign
cash. Every ministry abolished was conditioned upon more aid. Every
court established, every bloodletting firm privatized, every bank
sold, every system made more efficient, every procedure simplified,
every tender concluded and every foreign investor spared - had a
tariff. "Pay or else ..." was the overt message - and the West
preferred to pay and to appease, as it has always done.
The money lavished on these "new democracies" was routed rather
conspicuously into the private bank accounts of the thin layer of
vituperable "leaders", "academics" and "businessmen" (often the same
people). One third cigarette smugglers, one third uncommon criminals
and one third cynical con-artists, these people looted the coffers
of their states. The IMF - this sanctuary of fourth rate economists
from third world countries, as I am never wont of mentioning -
collaborated with the US government, the European Union and the
World Bank in covering up this stark reality. They turned a common
blind eye to the diversion of billions in aid and credits to
mysterious bank accounts in dubious tax havens. They ignored fake
trading deals, itinerant investment houses, shady investors and
shoddy accounting. They expressed merely polite concern over blatant
cronyism and rampant nepotism. They kept pouring money into the
rapidly growing black hole that Eastern Europe and the Balkan have
become. They pretended not to know and feigned surprise when
confronted with the facts. In their complicity, they have encouraged
the emergence of a criminal class of unprecedented proportions, hold
and penetration in many of the countries within their remit.
To qualify to participate in this grand larceny, one needed only to
have a "sovereign" "state". Sovereign states are entitled to hold
shares in multilateral financial institutions and to receive
international aid and credits. In other words: sovereignty is the
key to instant riches. The unregenerate skulks that pass for
political parties in many countries in East Europe and the Balkan
(though not in all of them - there are exceptions), carved up the
territory. This led to a suspicious proliferation of "republics",
each with its own access to international funds. It also led
to "wars" among these emergent entities.
Recent revelations regarding the close and cordial co-operation
between Croatia's late president, Franjo Tudjman and Yugoslavia's
current strongman, Slobodan Milosevic - ostensibly, bitter enemies -
expose the role that warfare and instability played in increasing
the flow of aid (both civil and military) to belligerent countries.
The more unstable the region, the more ominous its rhetoric, the
more fractured its geopolitics - the more money flowed in. It was
the right kind of money: multilateral - not multinational, public -
not private, deliberately ignorant - not judiciously cognizant. It
was the "quantum fund" - capable of "tunnelling" (as the Czechs
called it) - vanishing in one place (the public purse) and appearing
in another (the private wallet) simultaneously. Even the exception -
the never-enforced sanctions against Yugoslavia - served to enrich
its cankerous ruling class by way of smuggling and monopolies.
And why did the West collaborate in this charade? Why did it
compromise its goodwill, its carefully crafted institutions, its
principles and ethos? The short and the long of it is: to get rid of
a nuisance at a minimal cost. It is much cheaper to grease the palms
of a deciding few - than to embark on the winding path of true and
painful growth. It is more convenient to co-opt a political leader
than to confront an angry mob. It is by far easier to throw money at
a problem than to solve it.
It was not a sinister conspiracy of the Great Powers as many would
have it. Nor was it the result of foresight, insight, perspicacity,
or planning. It was a typical improvident European default, adopted
by a succession of lacklustre and lame American administrations. It
enriched the few and impoverished the many. It fostered anti-Western
sentiments. It provoked skirmishes that provoked wars that led to
massacres. To reverse it would require more resources than should
have been committed in the first place. These are not forthcoming.
The West is again misleading and deceiving and collaborating to
defraud the peoples of these unfortunate netherlands. It again
promises prosperity it cannot deliver, growth it will not guarantee
and stability it cannot ensure. This prestidigitation is bound to
lead to ever larger bills and to the attrition of good will of both
donor and recipient. Never before was such a unique historical
opportunity so thoroughly missed. The consequences may well be as
unprecedented.
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AUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)
Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant
Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West
Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician,
Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a
United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and
the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in
The Open Directory and Suite101.
Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government
of Macedonia.
Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com