The black leather armchair swayed. The large, comfortable chair leaned deeply towards the expensive self-portrait on the wall. The boss shook his head, put the glass in his hand and put his feet up on the table. Frowning, looking at his own reflection in the mirror, he toasted. Chivas, what else? Royal Salute. Fifty years old. And two ice cubes. His gaze was reproachful and angry. Another deal of the century is close to collapse. He sensed from the story of his subordinates that things were not going smoothly.
They mentioned to him environmental NGOs, independent media, Brussels, the international community, some experts who are not controlled by the system, European standards and some nonsense. Everyone suddenly got involved in the tender and the story about the dams on Morača. But not so long ago they also mentioned to him the sure spin of the public, journalists loyal to the fees of the energy lobby, piles of money injected into the campaign of manipulation of the public. And, again, nothing. Tara, now Morača.
Becoming aware, who knows how many times, of the inability of his blindly loyal collaborators to "finish" another job of the century, the boss is now tired of sifting through dark thoughts, staring into the mirror practicing various versions of a narrow view, frowning eyebrows, but also looking at polished shoes and unworn soles whose edges were outlined in the mirror. He didn't ask anything of the trapped spirit in the mirror, because that day it didn't matter to him who was the most beautiful, but where the money from the dams would go.
The boss likes the mirror because it is always silent and listens. It calmed him down. Calming the anger that had built up inside him. First the highway, now the dams. How much concrete, iron and work is that for the companies of friends and godfathers. And everything goes. It's as if someone stood on Vizier's bridge and spilled bags full of money from his friends and godfathers in Morač. And the best man is not a button. What is the godfather's is also his. The boss didn't think that it could have been done differently. No, because the state would benefit from that second one, but not him. And then why engage in politics. This is not on the agenda of the current politics of Montenegro.
He knew the phone would ring. He had a premonition that consultations were underway. Who will tell him, in what way, in what tone. How to address him: boss, boss, president, master, or maybe in English - master? Italian would not be a good choice. And he rang the bell. The first associates announced the results of the tender. That is, they announced exactly three months before the end of the tender. He could feel the fear and anxiety in their voice because of the unfinished business.
Chivas, with its intoxicating aroma, was suddenly too bitter and pungent. It was meant to celebrate another job. A job that was supposed to ensure the long-term presence of the family in politics, even fifty years after their reign. That we know it's his. That is, theirs. At least for several generations to come. Until the people become aware, after a generation, a few hundred years, that the dams are theirs, not ours. But things took a different course. Instead of a quick deal, supported by general popular satisfaction, the tender failed. Fell and spilled like a mirror from a fairy tale. And we know what a broken mirror brings, according to belief.
Morača is flowing these days. As things are now, it will continue for a long time. After almost four years of discussion about it, do we need one like this, sunk according to a government plan or some other plan of social interest, we received another slap from investors. Slapstick. And public. Secretly, they agreed on everything, there is no doubt. When they saw that it could not be as they had imagined, when Brussels got involved, and the citizens asked whose electricity it was, everything went downhill.
Strategic partner, communal energy company and our Government. True, they like to call him when he is a sponsor of some events and a leader in environmental protection. The fans of their sponsorship don't know that they are beating him like that for dealing with municipal waste, not dams and energy. But he will know. There is time for them to learn to use the Internet, where they can get information about those whose money they are taking to educate our children about ecology and environmental protection.
What is not new is the former minister's accusation: the bad atmosphere has killed the tender. What is new is the investor's explanation: an economically unprofitable business. They only found it now. When the Government met everything they asked for. Now low Andrijevo is not profitable, while a year ago when they were looking for it in the officially submitted comments, it was profitable. An (un)seen miracle. Perhaps by chance someone still remembers 2007 and the recommendations we received from international experts, that dams on the Morača are not a profitable business.
If you didn't then, during and after the public discussions about the dams on the Morača, you could see for yourself. However, the Government, like a true leader and visionary, looked for economists in the white world in order to prove to us that we have great economic benefits from Morac dams. And in the end, or more precisely after the end of the public debate, she found them. In the Government. She couldn't go further than that. Government experts claimed that the government's plan is economically excellent. And the rest were alone in that opinion. They did not comment on the reason for the investor's withdrawal from the tender, that it was not a profitable job. They emptied themselves on us citizens, whom they "democratically" convinced that it was. And bang, it's no longer valid.
In recent years, they have been environmentalists and lobbyists for the nuclear lobby, and lobbyists for electricity traders, and lobbyists for the energy utility company for the introduction of hydrotunnels in the project and the lowering of Andrijevo. I don't know what kind of story they intended for us today, but I believe it is creative and well thought out. Without a doubt.
They can do it when they try. They practiced administrative pressure on us, supervision of the administration for the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism, threats by phone, court proceedings against NGO activists, prohibition and punishment for walking around Podgorica with a question mark, a symbol of the campaign, lobbying donors to stop funding NGOs, spending money PR agency on the unfortunates who agreed to defend the Government's plan, placing in the first line of defense the plan for HPP ministers who are connected to Brussels, and whose only job was to gossip about NGOs in the corridors of Brussels, imagining that there are unknown palanquin politicians who are used to here.
And finally, a hit among hits and an invention for the Nobel Prize - sea dams are good for the heart because fattened fish from reservoirs are less harmful, but dams are also a lifesaver for traffic accidents, true only if you drive your car into the reservoir with the window open.
My people, is this possible, and is anyone ashamed of this today? No. Some did it for small money, others hoping to get small money in the future, third because of the boss for love, fourth expecting an apartment or a new company car, fifth maybe just for a pat on the head, sixth because of a new mandate in a public company. .. because business is business.
But this time too, personal business is down the drain. Fortunately for us. And some other people who are coming, who will certainly make better use of Morača. Submerged or not, the important thing is that it is for our benefit, not the owner's.
And the story about the tender and Morača will remain. As a reflection of society and all social faces and faces in the mirror. Although many in authority would break it now because of the final result, better not. Because sometimes it's better to look in the mirror.
Bonus video:
