By Andrej Nikolaidis, CdM columnist
Montenegro celebrates today. And it has plenty to celebrate. Two decades after the restoration of independence, this country stands on the threshold of EU membership. In the grand scheme of historical time, which is slow and long, that is but a blink of an eye.
Even those who didn’t celebrate back then are celebrating now: that is the best part of it all. If anyone feels bitter about that, they have understood nothing.
Stories about what happened and how things used to be mean nothing to the children who will sing today, wrapped in Montenegrin flags. Today belongs, above all, to those born after 2006. No one will take 21 May away from these kids, because they will defend it. No old wives’ tales about the “legacy of our grandfathers” will change their feeling that this is their day and their country. Let the gusle (*a single-stringed musical instrument traditionally used in the Balkans) hang on the wall.
Today, 21 May is a factor of cohesion. It is a centripetal force: that which pulls toward the centre and holds everything together. It is not about who came first, who was more passionate, or whose contribution was more important. The only thing that matters is that we all are Montenegro.
Two decades later, it is clear that on 21 May 2006, no one was defeated. We all won. It was not the victory of one group of people, nor the defeat of another. No one has ever privatised history: there are, you see, things that no one can own—and those are the only things that truly matter in this world. We were not against them; we were in favour of everyone being free. We were not settling scores from the past; we were opening up the future for all.
There are no permanent victories or permanent defeats. Nor is this about victory and defeat. You cannot defeat a brother or a child. Besides: “A victory later makes a war seem lost,” as Arsen Dedic sings in “With Such Radiance It Can Shine.”
Without 21 May, there would be no EU accession: to enter somewhere, you must first exist. It is in vain to have somewhere to go if you do not exist. Just as there is no one in Montenegro today who truly believes it would be better if this state were not decided upon by its citizens, Government, and Parliament—that it would be better if, instead of our own will, this country were ruled by someone else’s illusions.
Montenegro’s Independence Day is a day of victory for freedom and hope.
Montenegro is a red name for freedom and hope.
21 May is a red-letter day.
On that day, we all won. It’s just that some understand it now, while others have yet to accept it.
They say that Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist and one of the founding fathers of quantum theory, kept a horseshoe above the entrance to his forest cabin: for luck. Confused visitors would point to the horseshoe and ask, “But you are a scientist, surely you don’t believe in this?”
Bohr would then reply, “Of course I don’t believe in it, but I was told it works even if you don’t believe”.
It is the same with freedom: it works even if you don’t believe in it.
(Columnists’ opinions and views do not necessarily reflect the views of the CdM editorial board)
