Steve Jobs - photo credit: Matthew Yohe - Wikipedia
COULD STEVE JOBS OF APPLE COMPUTERS HAVE
SUCCEEDED IN CITY OF SKOPJE?
By Sasha Uzunov
The legacy of one of the
greatest geniuses the world has ever known, the late Steve Jobs, is that we
have hi-tech mobile phones and computers that have allowed the average person
to become a reporter of world events. This legacy together with the advent of
social media has brought dramatic global political changes. But the question I
would like to pose is could Steve Jobs have succeeded in Skopje, the capital
city of the Republic of Macedonia?
THE ANSWER IS NO
The answer is a very
obvious NO. Putting aside the lack
of economic incentive, from a cultural perspective Steve Jobs would never have
been able to do anything. So hypothetically if by some miracle the European
Union or some other body was to pour a bag of gold or a fistful of dollars into
Macedonia…there would still be no Steve Jobs.
WHY?
Firstly, Steve Jobs
dropped out of university in his homeland of the United States. In status conscious Macedonia, run by the over-credentialed,
City of Skopje cultural elite, Steve Jobs would have suffered ridicule for
being an “uncultured peasant (nekulturen selanec).”
Secondly, Steve Jobs
was not the off-spring of Macedonia’s former communist ruling elite, and in
post-communist Macedonia, not belonging to any of the major political parties,
he would never have been able to open his mouth, let alone create or invent anything.
Thirdly, in order to
conform to the City of Skopje ruling and cultural elite and in order to
“belong socially” he would have had to spent most of his time hanging out in cafes
(kafic or kafani) chain-smoking and listening to Bijelo Dugme or Ceca of
Serbian Turbo-folk music fame, and indulging in conspiracy theories and blaming
everyone, including the government, the state, the CIA, the Vatican, the KGB,
aliens etc for his predicament.
An example of Macedonian style nanny statism is Ana Stojanov(a) who did a Master's degree at Cambridge
University, Britain, in child psychology and then returned to her homeland of Macedonia
complaining about not being given a chance, that is a comfy public service job
in an office!
Link to The Nanny State - Macedonian style article
But we know that Steve
Jobs spent a lot of his time doing “uncool things” like tinkering in his parents’
garage trying to invent a computer. The City of Skopje elite would have
perceived him as being crazy, even though many of them use his products, I-phones
and Apple computers.
Fourthly, and this
ties in with the previous point: Steve Jobs would have been punished by the City of
Skopje cultural elite enforcers for being curious, for asking questions, for
taking things apart and simply trying something different. He would have been hit
over the head with “pravopis,” the obsession with speaking correct and formal
Macedonian even though the elite itself does not practice what it preaches.
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