Disco in Kochani with no way out, because it is locked. 200 tickets sold, and 500 visitors inside. License - may be real, may be fake, because in the Balkans there is the magic question "how much... " and then "... no problem, brother, you will have it (whatever it is) to win. "
That's how we are here in the Balkans, good "souls", such humble, somehow strangely self-sufficient, until carelessness hits us. Either through the hands, or straight to the heart, when there is death.
And why is it so? It's simple. We - the Balkans, are different from Westerners. In what way? He will ask someone. On the implementation of laws. Because laws are not just to be on paper, they must also be implemented. In Western Europe, people have respect for the law, and in our country we always try to deceive it. When we use a lawyer, the first question is: “Mr. lawyer, do you know the judge?“ And this is already the final attempt to get by, to give something, to pay the right person. Before that, we asked the policeman: “How much?“ We called the acquaintance at the hospital, another time at the municipality and always with the question: “How much?“ To get our work done. Whether the doctor will see us faster, whether they will remove us from the register with fines, whether the municipality will issue us a document… It doesn't matter. To make it faster and without problems, just say „how much…“.
And when the firefighter comes to inspect the disco, the grocery store, the hair salon, the restaurant, the gym, the office, it still comes down to „how much…“.
In Serbia, a repaired canopy at the station fell and killed 15 people months ago. The protests continue, and the institutions are protecting themselves and shifting responsibility. Children died in the disco in Kochani, so we can understand that it most likely did not have a license. Was there also a question „how much…“.
In Bulgaria
4 years ago, a 16-year-old child died of an electric shock in the area of a capital hospital after stepping on a street manhole on the sidewalk. The cause of the electric shock was a bare cable, from which current flowed along the metal frame of the shaft. Then it was not clear who was supposed to exercise control over the facility located on the boulevard. The municipal authorities claimed that the responsibility lay with the electricity distribution company, which in turn denied being the “owner of the shaft”. Subsequently, it became clear that the day after the tragic incident, no one knew either who managed the shaft or what the cables in it powered. There was also a pavilion there that was powered by electricity from the shaft. Many authorities, many services, and everyone said “it wasn't me”. And what happened!? On February 18, 2025, it was announced that they were closing the case.
The investigation into the death of the 16-year-old boy, who died on February 14, 2021 after being electrocuted by an unsecured street shaft in Sofia, will be closed. This was told to the newspaper "Sega" by the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office. They assured that all possible investigative actions have been carried out, BUT SINCE THERE IS NO REGULATORY BASIS FOR CONTROL OVER THE MANHOLE, it is not possible to trace who violated the rules and whose actions led to the death of the teenager. And what is the difference with Serbia and the fallen visor, now with the disco in North Macedonia. We have a manhole, we have electricity, we have a dead child, and there are NO guilty parties.
And why is all this? Because here in the Balkans we are used to making compromises with ourselves, compromises so that we can survive - Balkan mentality. And this Balkan mentality is precisely related to the "second way", it is related to bribes. Why? Because society allows it. It's somehow accepted as the norm to ask the question "how much...".