Civil courage
This week I am thinking about grassroots efforts in Austria, Serbia, Croatia and beyond, and asking myself what if anything changes.
I stepped away from the role of “activist” (hate that term) over a year ago, prioritising my own life, because you have to establish boundaries, particularly when you fell into a role you never auditioned for, and ended up spending hours, days, weeks, months of your lifetime doing unpaid labor to help solve other people’s problems. I fell into that role because I was a middleman(woman): I had language skills, a social media presence, and could connect groups of people (Ukrainian refugees and Austrian journalists) who would ordinarily not find each other. Nearly three years into the horrible war and the situation here on the ground in Austria, I am no longer prepared to play middleman. I have lost faith that any kind of group protest or media reports have any lasting impact on how things work behind the scenes (key word: bureaucracy), and it doesn’t feel right to be representing people as their voice when they are perfectly capable of doing so themselves.
I am describing all of this so you can understand my headspace when this week I was flooded with messages, both DMs and in my group Telegram chat, about the fact that Vienna had basically stopped making basic support payments to hundreds if not more Ukrainians relying on this basic support (€260 per adult per month, €145 per child per month). Many people were reporting not having been paid since October or November. The explanations were several, but all amounted to the delightful (irony) combination of NGO + city government organization now demanding additional documentation, and not paying any money out without warning until said documentation was received and most importantly, processed by their own, as they claim, understaffed teams. Add in the holidays and you have a perfect disaster. The new documentation included bank statements, proof of income (or lack thereof) in the Ukraine, registering with local job centers (for all adults up to age of 65 which seems a bit unrealistic), calculating deductions for days spend out of the country on trips back to Ukraine, etc. In short, many Ukrainians have been scratching their heads with their dependable source of financial aid here in Austria suddenly dried up and no idea as to when payments would resume. Fixed costs, naturally, unchanged. One evening this week, my group chat simply exploded, and I did too. I explained I would no longer be an advocate. If they are upset, instead of yelling into the void, they should contact the media themselves. I pulled two phone numbers out of my contact list. I shared them with one determined elderly man, who was then upset with his fellow countrymen when he discovered how loud they bark but when it comes to biting, i.e. coming to an interview, they weren’t so keen. Nevertheless, two reports appeared in the press yesterday. At one point a journalist called me when I was in the middle of dealing with my own personal mini-crisis in a nursing home, and I nearly lost it when he said the journalist explained he/she could not call a Ukrainian number because that person might not even be in Austria. I tried in vain to explain why not everyone has an Austrian phone number yet (you connect to the internet and off you go over any messenger app).
Bottom line, thankfully, without my direct involvement, two reports came out highlighting the problem to the broader public, and most importantly, putting the government bureaucrats on the spot. They claimed new rules, failing to mention they themselves invented the new rules and also gave people no warning about the delays. But pressure is pressure, and I hope it may (may) have some impact on getting the money in the hands of those who needed it two months ago. It doesn’t change the bigger picture in which I now say to everyone in no uncertain terms that you must be mentally prepared to rely on yourself and only on yourself.
Local newspaper:
Local TV (lead story on evening news):
https://on.orf.at/video/14260760/wien-heute-vom-24012025
It may sound crazy but on a personal level I am proud of myself for refusing to give an interview and not making myself available to translate as it forced the journalists and Ukrainians to work together independently. Finally.
Unfortunately that is not the only story. The “hotel” which has been operating as a refugee home with residents being “fed” and only receiving €40 per day in pocket money in downtown Vienna is now being closed, and there is a great panic about who will be sent where, and how. A group of residents contacted me earlier this week, asking me for contacts where the should send their group letter of complaint. Again, I shared a few, but suggested they try Google. This morning, though, I received a particularly disturbing message from a mother of two young kids, and I shared it on social media (in translation to English), out of desperation. Where is she supposed to go, a homeless shelter?
I share her message here with you:
I keep thinking about what Mario wrote earlier this week, to which I nodded my head in agreement. At some point you feel like a fool, taking on other people’s problems, expecting there to be someone out there who will do the right thing (whatever that means anymore) to help a person in need whose only real mistake was naively expecting decent conditions.
Beyond these particular situations affecting Ukrainians in Austria, in which I became personally involved because of the connections in my phone, I have been watching from afar mass actions of civil society in Serbia, and to a lesser extent in Croatia this week. In Serbia, students have been protesting for months against general government corruption and what they see as a body politic which does not care about ordinary people and only about lining its own pockets and holding onto power. This movement began after the terrible accident this past summer in which part of the roof of the Novi Sad bus station collapsed and killed 14 people. The bus station had been recently renovated. The public believe corners were cut (as is so often the case) and this resulted in these tragic deaths. The movement has now become nationwide, and Friday was a “general strike” meaning everyone from doctors to IT workers joined the students in their protests, taking over major thoroughfares in cities across Serbia. I am not on the ground so I can only describe what I see over social media, but it does seem to be significant and to have momentum. I do not dare make any predictions as to the end result, though. I am not as optimistic as some commentators I read on “X” claiming the end is near for Vučić. I don’t think so. What you see is civil society but not capital protesting. These days, especially in the Trump 2.0 era, I think you have to follow the money, not the footsteps. Unfortunately. The videos, though, have already made it to TikTok, and they show doctors and nurses waving at the crowd from hospital windows, residents joining in and holding up hand-made signs. It is definitely grassroots and genuine, and supported by much of society which is not directly benefiting from the form of managed-democracy--crony-capitalism much of the Balkans now lives under in one form or another.
Serbian students lead strike as protests against Aleksandar Vučić's rule continue
In Croatia, residents across the country are boycotting grocery stores this weekend, in protest over exorbitant food prices. Anyone who holidayed in Croatia in the last few years can attest to the really tangible inflation in Croatian grocery stores, and these seems to have continued in the off-season, leading ordinary Croatians to organise, over social media, and say: no one buy any groceries this Friday. There are videos of empty supermarkets. I cannot speculate on what impact this might have on prices long-term, but I think it is an interesting phenomenon, especially in countries where you might have access to produce in other ways (relatives in the countryside with family farms, etc). And of course, this helps local cafes and restaurants. But I can imagine here in Austria, where we have an oligopoly controlling grocery stories, that such an action on a Friday in winter would have a really dramatic, if temporary, economic impact. More importantly, the media coverage ensures that public attention is drawn to an issue that affects everyone.
This week I also had the pleasure of attending a very interesting lecture on Trump’s America by Martin Weiss of Salzburg Global. I didn’t snap any photos of the slides but a few facts which stuck in my head, in no particular order:
Trump is anti-alliance (my friend turned to me and then reminded me I had written the same in a recent Substack post)
the U.S. is now the world’s leading produce of crude oil thanks to fracking
Germany is massively dependent on its own exports to China (auto sector)
analysts expect a strong next 4 years both for stock market and U.S. economy
very interesting on Putin & Zelensky, that Trump thinks he knows them both, and sees himself as a deal maker, he needs both carrots and sticks to make both come to the negotiating table, mostly in the context of U.S. defence spending for Ukraine which still outnumbers all other countries put together (for now)…perhaps the potential for “peacekeepers” down the line if not from NATO, then from select European countries including UK
no one is using the words “growth” or visionary in the European context (my words)
it was really interesting how the audience, many men who liked to hear themselves talk, were so fixated on this idea of saving Europe yet without seeming to have understood that ship has sailed
I walked away with the feeling that we here in old Europe still think we have a wall built around us which we don’t. I mean this both in defence and economic terms.
On the topic of executive orders, which he covered, showing us a photo of Trump singing those orders in the Capital One arena (!) in front of a huge crowd of his supporters, you must listen to The Daily on Trump’s pardons of the January 6ers. There was a moment in which one of the journalists explained that some believe Trump pardoned all of the January 6 offenders, without cherry-picking, in order to have an unofficial “militia” ready to defend him at any point in the future. This reminded me of a quote I heard recently (and I am sorry I cannot for the life of me remember where I heard it) about Elon Musk reportedly saying he isn’t really the richest man in the world, that man is Putin, because he has his own private army ready to defend him. I had this vision of Musk whispering this into Trump’s ear, and Trump realising what he had to do, in a few swipes of his Sharpies, in order to have a large group of heavily armed men across the country at his disposal should he ever need them, worst case scenario of course, sometime in the future. Wow, just wow.
Hegseth was confirmed as the next U.S. defense secretary. I am sure I speak for a lot of women when I say I was not surprised only disappointed to read this after hearing the statement this week by his former sister-in-law, describing how his second wife allegedly had a “safe word” which she used to call her family when she was afraid of him. It does not surprise me that a white man with an alcohol problem and perhaps the propensity to physically and sexually abuse women has just been handed one of the most important jobs on the planet. As Martin Weiss explained: only the U.S. has a military capable of fighting multiple wars at once across the globe. No other country in the world has this now.
In good news (yes, there is some!) I was so pleased to read about the nominations for Oscar for the lead access and supporting actor from Anora. If you have not seen the film, watch it! I think it was the best I have seen this year, and I have a seen a lot of movies lately. In fact, if you love film, especially quirky film, go watch everything Sean Baker ever wrote and directed. You will not regret it! A friend of mine was in Miami last week telling me how crazy America is and I just nodded along because I saw it all in The Florida Project years ago sitting in the comfort of Vienna’s historic Gartenbaukino.
I turned on a podcast hosted by left-leaning American women sitting in a position of privilege (white, financial), and was about to listen to their podcast episode discussing how to handle Trump 2.0, and I had to turn it off after five minutes when the guests began describing how they ignored the inauguration: had dinner with friends instead, cleaned their houses, watched Netflix, etc. It reminded me so vividly of how Russians handled Putin’s pivot towards autocracy in the early 2010s, by turning inwards, towards creative pursuits, art, foreign travel, pretending they could live in “another Russia”, until one day in 2022 they woke up to see there was only ever one Russia. There is only ever one America. Anyone who closes their eyes and ears will only be doing themselves and future generations a disservice. I am not saying fight the man, but at least be aware of what you are living through. How each of us reacts is our own personal choice.
It is a grey, boring, wet winter day here in Vienna. Now that the crowds are well and truly gone, I may go out and venture. Or I may hide under the covers. Thank you for reading.
p.s. I need to start reading again — please send book recommendations! I lean towards non-fiction but am open to literary fiction (I love reading on the beach but beach reads are not my thing).
I recently listened to audiobooks of novels by Andrey Kurkov, and enjoyed them a lot: Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv, The Silver Bone, Grey Bees. I also hugely enjoyed two books on food (with lots of humor) by Jeffrey Steingarten: The Man Who Ate Everything, and It Must've Been Something I Ate.
Book recommendation: "The girl with all the gifts" M.R.Carey. Got it in my hands coincidentally (would not have read it if someone had told me the plot), and could not lay down until I read it to the end. By the way, have you read Glukhovsky "Post" and "Post 2"? Kinda profetic as to what happened to Russia. Have you read the Soviet Sci-Fi authors Strugatsky? Love them. You can find them online for free in Russian. E.g "трудно быть богом" (hard to be a god), "жук в муравейнике" (beetle in the anthill) или "Улитка на склоне" (snail on a hill). I really miss the times when I was a child , reading the sci-fi about beautiful future of humanity potencially living happily in the comunism, don't laugh ))