The Great War: Wherever I’ve traveled in Eastern Europe (Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania or Ukraine), there are monuments to The Great Patriotic War. We simply call it World War II. Many of the monuments commemorate partisans—local civilians who were captured and shot by the Nazis. World War II marked the end of independence for many countries in Eastern Europe after they were swallowed by the USSR and would have to wait 40 years before Communism collapsed. Now they are waiting for economic reforms, political reforms, and social reforms. And, it’s always the fault of someone else—a person, political party or government—as to why things don’t move faster. Meanwhile, Tom Brokaw identified the WWII generation in the U.S. as the Greatest Generation. They certainly put the U.S. on the world map—politically and economically—with our confident outlook about life and certainty of success. This mark still pervades American culture today.

I have spent the last two days in an uncertain circumstance. I’ve been at a municipal television station in Niksic. The people I’ve met are very nice and many seem committed to their jobs and the station. But, in a meeting with the general manager and sales manger, I asked about monthly station expenses…then took that number and reversed engineered to demonstrate the sort of advertising rates the station needed to be getting. Jaws dropped when they saw the number. The manager is new and seems to be a sharp guy. But the sales manager has been there so long that I do not believe she understands what it means to price something at an appropriate market price. They’re selling some spots now at about 50 Euro cents for a 10 second ad. They need to be earning around 10-12 Euros per :30 spot, not to pay all their expenses, but to cover about half their costs, with the municipality covering the rest.

Here’s another reality dose about life in Montenegro and, for that matter, many other places in the world. Employees sometimes work without getting paid. And, there’s little immediate recourse. Two years ago in Uganda, Monica, the manager of an FM station, asked a workshop colleague and me, for advice on how to get her station’s owner to pay salaries that were already two months late. The Niksic station was off the air for two years—there were political squabbles in the multiparty municipal government, the previous manager was ineffective, workers were not motivated (the station’s physical space was in shambles and much of the equipment wasn’t working), and of course, it was Montenegro…with the many larger problems weighing in on the operation of one small TV station. The station went off the air and no one was paid.

The obvious question is why should they be? And, perhaps that’s the answer. The station needs to dig itself out of this salary debt but apparently is prohibited by law from doing so. Even workers who aren’t working can expect a paycheck. And, that’s part of the problem with Montenegro and why it will take substantial reforms, if they win independence, before they can expect an invitation to join the EU.

But wait, there’s more to life in Montenegro. What did those workers do in the two years the station was off the air? I don’t have a ready answer but I know they did something. Were they part of the grey economy—selling goods but not paying taxes? Did they work somewhere else and only rejoin the station because they expected to get their “salary arrears” as the missing pay is called here? No one has told me stories of famine.

Land and property: My apartment was apparently a political patronage gift to its owner. The owner was a faithful supporter of someone in power who simply took this apartment and another one in the complex and gave them away. Today, this apartment is probably worth $60,000….perhaps a little more. When you attempt to reform a country, how far back do you go in your reform effort?

I'm going to make a trip to Dubrovnic next week. I will spend about 165 Euros for a rental car plus gasoline expenses (currently equal to $5.40 per gallon). I will spend more to rent this car than the average worker in Serbia and Montenegro will make in one month.

-0-

Note: I don’t consider anything I’ve revealed here to have been confidential in nature. The station information is generally available information that has appeared in the newspapers and is part of street talk about city activities. It is also the exact same situation I’ve seen in other countries I’ve visited.