Belgrade, Serbia

Bush in Albania: Watch out!

Published: June 13, 2007

Yeah, all the world media is crazy about the Albania Bush watch story so the almighy propaganda tool called Belgrade2.0 had to bite in as well. But let’s try and look at things from a different angle, although i bet that, with all the fuss, someone already covered this angle as well.

Bush’s watch is stolen, says all the media, including Serbian, with a big grin on their faces. Now the big question for me is not whether the watch was really stolen or not – let’s say, for the sake of argument, that it was. What puzzles me is – why the sudden urge to cheer all over this? I think there are several reasons, add more if you want:
1. It’s funny when the world’s most guarded man gets ripped off
2. The media is happy because there is something for them to write about (I am happy because of this too)
3. Third reason – and judging from the blogs, internet forums, countless threads and discussions, the biggest reason for everyone to be happy – is that this confirms one big stereotype: Albanians are all thieves, and furthermore, everyone in the Balkans is just waiting for the opportunity to rip you off, nick something from you and generally fool you in any way they can, just for the fun of it.

Now this is an interesting phenomenon, because, in people’s heads, it develops from one person who managed to grab the watch, to the entire town of watch-stealers, to entire country and finally, entire region populated with people of same, watch-grabbing, stealing, double-crossing and any other kind really, mentality. Well think again – does this sound logical to you that all the people in Albania would like to steal the guy’s watch? Not more than the statement that all Albanians adore Bushie – saying that would also be a generalization of some sort. And you know what they say about people who generalize (and when I say they I mean I) – they are too lazy to think a bit deeper.

It’s sad that a thing like this sparks all sorts of flames and stirs up bad blood between nations, but it did. Here’s what you can find on the net right now: Serbians are laughing at Albanians, Europeans are laughing at the Balkanians and I wouldn’t be surprised if Americans were laughing at Europeans, while everybody laughs at Bush (well, ok, this last one is justified i guess). Albanians are mostly trying to prove that the watch wasn’t stolen, not realizing that this doesn’t really matter.

Another thing that puzzled Americans (and maybe the world) was the incredibly warm welcome Bush got in Albania. Somehow everybody tends to forget that there are more than 62 million Americans who also feel the same for Bush as this Albanian crowd – they also wanted to give him a pat on the back, kiss his hand and cheeks, and rubble through his hair – but, because they couldn’t do that, they decided to express their admiration for him by giving him their vote back in 2004.

Frankly, I don’t see the difference between that and the admiration he got in Albania. Do you?

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