More than half of the population in Kosovo lives in ‘general poverty’. Unemployment is sky rising. And than a new drama arise: The disappearing of the middle class. What happens if a society looses its thinking and creative part of citizens? It means that the ‘cement of society’ comes off.
Murat Spahija is facing the consequences of this new drama. He is one of the oldest professors in Peja region. In the crowded streets of Peja, where he has educated many generations of students, the aged man is still greeted with sympathy as “the professor”. In former Yugoslavia, professors were considered as middle class. Now, their status ( is) has changed.
Murat Spahija recalls with nostalgia the times when he had economic welfare. “Until the nineties I had opportunity to buy everything I needed. All things that you see here were bought at that time. Both I and my wife were working. Our salaries were high. We had two children, so we organized our life in perfect way”, said Spahija. “Since then, our life’s quality went downhill. We can’t afford to bUy any thing. We are just trying to survive”.
The term “middle class” has a long history. There are many factors (that can) TO define the middle class of a society. In some countries, money determines an individual’s position in the society. In other countries, determinative role have education, profession, home ownership, or even culture. In general, middle class refers to people neither at the top nor at the bottom of society. According to International Socialist Review, middle class comprises of people, who have a small amount of capital, but huge political influence. It’s group of people who serve as opponents of rulers.
When we met Spahija, he was reading daily Koha Ditore. After he served us with coffee, we entered inside of his house. The living room had a marvelous sight. Furniture was old, but good. Wood engraving rocking chair was placed in a corner, near to chimney. Two sofas, with wood decoration at the top, were nicely arranged. In general, you get an impression that you are visiting a kind of museum of eighties.
Xhavit Shala, a sociologist, has done some researches concerning the middle class. According to him, at the present, there is no middle class in Kosovo.
“According to the definition, the middle class is the one which stands between the highest and the lowest strata of society. Above it is the class of great capitalists. Below it the proletariat, the class of wage-workers”, said Shala. “In Kosovo there is no class who stands between capitalists and proletariat. Here, we have a few capitalists and others belong to the class of wage-workers”.
Shala is pessimistic about the future of middle class in Kosovo: “The middle class will continue to disappear. Economic growth, associated with industrialization of country can stop vanish of middle class. In near future we will not see this. As a result, the process of disappearing is endless”.
Labinot Lekaj, an expert of economy is even more pessimistic than Shala. “The disappearing of the middle class signifies the concentration of capital and the growth of the proletariat. This is happening here. In Kosovo is growing even poor class. According to some statistics, the extreme poverty in Kosovo has increased from thirteen to fifteen percent. General poverty has reached the critical fifty percent”, said Lekaj. “In these circumstances, you can’t even think about the existence of middle class.
According to Obrad Savic, a well-known philosopher from Belgrade, countries that emerged from ex-Yugoslavia, are facing a strange process: “After brutal destruction of Yugoslavia, we are witnessing the disappearing of middle class. This is very bad for a society. The function of middle class is to serve as factor of stability. There is no more class that neutralizes clashes of classes. Accordingly, we are and we will face struggle of classes in our societies”.
Spahija agrees with Obrad concerning the functions of middle class: “Of course, the role of this class is to stabilize society. Middle class is holder of political processes. State can’t exist without middle class. Only the members of middle class pay taxes. Rich people avoid tax-paying. Poor don’t have money to pay taxes”.
Disappearance of middle class is caused by a lot of reasons. The first reason, according to Savic, is globalization. “In Tito’s Yugoslavia, the state was considered as a service of citizens. On the contrary, globalization considers the state as a service of multinational corporations. Globalization considers middle class as an obstacle, which should be removed. When the middle class is gone there will be only rulers and the ruled ones. Rulers will not have an opponent, since there is no more middle class”, said Savic. “Globalization is destroying the middle class in Balkans through a lot of means. The process of privatization is one of them”.
Existence of middle class is related with politics. According to Bajram Berisha, an ex-leader of socialist party, in Peja, socialism supports the middle class. “After the second world war, we established the middle class in our country from nothing. It was very hard, but we did it”, said Berisha. “Now this class is disappearing. Actually, there is no state any more. What kind of state is this? State has duties and responsibilities toward citizens.
According to Berisha, state can encourage as well as discourage the existence of the middle class. “At the past, there was equality between citizens. Middle class dominated society. Only few, if any, were poor”, said Berisha. “Now, there is a group of people that has everything, and all the rest have nothing. Today we have families who don’t have what to eat for dinner! The government like always deals with ‘big issues’. One thing is for sure, these citizens are demanding the socialism’s system of values. They are asking from government to become a social state, like Sweden, or Norway. To take care about its citizens. Not to let them on mercy of great capitalists”.
There are a lot of definitions of middle class, claim economists, philosophers and sociologists. One of them relates middle class with actual economic status. Middle class represents the social group with medium incomes.
Relating to incomes, some data from the Statistical Office of Kosovo, show even more hopeless results concerning the middle class. According to these data, a family of six members which gets less than two hundred euros monthly, lives in extreme poverty. If family of six members gets less than three hundred euros monthly, they live in general poverty. Existence of middle class is disputable, if we add the fact that medium salary in Kosovo is two hundred euros.
Poverty is related with unemployment. “In particular, joblessness is an important cause of income poverty, as labor is usually the only valuable asset of the poor”, states a report of the World Bank.
According to Viktor Buzhala, editor of economy in daily Express, the rate of unemployment and the middle class in Kosovo exclude each other. “Some data say that in Kosovo the rate of unemployment is from forty to sixty. Can you find a definition for this army of unemployed people? Do they live in extreme poverty? Absolutely not. They are lower than that. In fact, the way they live can not be called life. ”, says Buzhala. “In these circumstances you can’t even think about middle class. If there is middle class in this country, then it’s disappearing rapidly”.
Economists, sociologists and political scientists are worried about the disappearing of middle class in Kosovo. Ordinary citizens are concerned too. Lose of their middle class status strikes citizens more than anything. According to Viktoria Cana, a psychologist from Prishtina, losing middle class status causes constant frustration. Sometimes even depression.
Murat Spahija confirms the claims of Cana. “Believe me, there is no worst thing than fighting with poverty, especially during aged years. I am always anxious and worried. I feel comfortable only when I bring back to mind good days of the past”, says Spahija, while cursing the current state. “This kind of ‘state’ doesn’t offer you any thing. In the near past we had a social system. This system took care about people. It gave you a possibility to live as a normal human being. Now we have nothing, except good memories of the past”.
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