Are you giving it to him, bro? Yes, I did, because I didn't!

My first images from my childhood related to what we call corruption today are the overflowing baskets of my relatives from the village. Long before they get sick, they would hide the most beautiful row of figs, the best piece of prosciutto and the youngest cheese from their family...

There was some fairness though, like unpublished but fair tender conditions. The best doctors, those who never miss a diagnosis or therapy, got the most.

The word corruption was not in circulation, it was tacitly allowed for the patient to honor the doctor. But it shouldn't have happened that he refused to treat someone because he didn't want to or didn't have anything to honor him.

Those gifts were not very valuable, most of the time they were not even extorted, but despite that the doctors who received them did not enjoy any reputation as people...

***

I had my second close encounter with corruption - or just a story about it, I don't know, because then I was just as dedicated to intelligence as our prosecutors are today - only after several decades.

I was in the hospital, after a major operation, for a whole week. All this time, not a single doctor approached me, but I had the feeling that the nurses were boycotting me as well. Partly because of the pain, part because of the fear that paranoia had overtaken me, I kept silent for the first three days.

When I noticed that the lady next to me was constantly being groped, walked around, massaged and taken to the bathroom, I asked her what the matter was...Give me a few thousand and you'll see, she answered from above. As if I am the one to be despised for not giving the envelope, and not her and those who receive it...

***

Furious as a lynx, on the fourth day I asked the doctors during the visit if it was possible that they would not contact me because I did not give them money. They ignored me, and the head nurse rudely snapped that I was not their patient because "my" surgeon was not from "their" department...

I soon found out, sometimes investigative journalism pays off, that that team was convinced that the envelope ended up at "my" doctor. Since he didn't share it with them, let him come and take care of me... He came as soon as I told him everything. Of course there was no envelope, neither then nor ever. Only, after all, neither he nor I wanted to tell them out of spite...

***

In the third close encounter with the story of corruption, I reacted effectively. After the operation, which was performed only a month or two later by the same surgeon, my roommate asked me how much he had taken...

Nikolico, I explained, neither he asked nor would I pay for something that I have been paying for decades like everyone else...

When she told me that he didn't want to operate on her until she brought a thousand euros, I immediately called him and a colleague from the doctor's room to confirm it in front of them...

Chaos ensued, he didn't ask, but she thought she would, she allegedly gave money to someone else before... Even today, I think that my public "reconnaissance" was a complete hit. Why should an honorable man bear another's sin...

***

And why did I mention these old little things, and not today's million-dollar big ones, which are much more dangerous?

Because I think that corruption in Montenegro did not reach such devastating dimensions only because of the creator (I almost wrote creature) of the upside-down regime, but also because of endemic cowardice... Montenegrins will sooner attack NATO as a group than individually report the policeman who offers a deal, the official from whose hands the papers slide fast only if they are lubricated, a surgeon who would not take money alive but needs it for those in the hall...

***

After the embarrassment of the prosecutors appearing in front of the journalists, by Monday, 43 (forty-three) people had reacted in all the media available to me. I mean those who have done it right, under their own name.

What about the others, there are more than 430.000 of them of legal age? And the Supreme Prosecutor turned his back on them. As all the deputies turned them to him.

Only the one who himself is under suspicion is left to defend him. And who - if his suspicions ever approach him - should pursue him.

***

Nothing new, Montenegrin soap opera. Almost half a million viewers remain heroically silent even after the first season and the three sequels of the second... Are you giving him away, brother? Yes, I did, because I didn't!

It is also typical of Montenegrin that in the fourth episode they sweeten each other in houses and bars... I didn't give the prosecutors anything, I just framed DK, he is a bad man...

And the most Montenegrin thing is that both prosecutors and the public are waiting for someone else to do their job. The prosecutor's sometimes will, but the one for which in a normal world the public is in charge - it certainly won't...

***

What kind of business does an individual have in a country where organized rebellion has long been unsuccessful? Yes, for starters, everyone should do the same as Duško Knežević: publicly announce when - if so - how and why they participated in corruption. Or was her witness...

Until then, it is hypocritical to call such a country to action because of what Nenad Vujošević or anyone else did. And at the same time keep quiet about how much lower his own speeding fine was because of the ticket in the driver's license. How many citizens' cash registers are stolen when half the market passes by the register-cash register. What is the price of a nine for a daughter who wants to be an assistant. How much money was in the envelope in order for the mother to go to surgery over the line...

***

Not the same size order? It is not, but it is the same violation of laws and moral norms, and corruption is first and foremost a moral failure. It starts small and leads to this big one, not the other way around.

Depees did not pay for his survival at the first danger with 50 apartments, but with 50 euros. If it had been stopped then, corruption would not be another name for Montenegro today.

Because corruption is also Sinjajeva's, people with an unsold face would not make fun of the poor who live off of it like that. Eleven goats, ha, ha, ha... And only that cow, to squeal with laughter...

Corruption is both small power plants and large concessions. And drilling under the sea. And Tara, which is being dug up because of the highway...

***

And, what did rebellion against that look like? A hundred people came out to raise their voices.

They didn't know? Yes, for 20 days the media was buzzing about that protest.

They couldn't, it's a working day? So what, is it more important that they ink something in the offices or that they fight for the property and life of their children and grandchildren...

Will the boss punish them? Probably, but since ten percent of the salary in the fight to save the little land we have left...

Will they go out on their free time or on a non-working day? It won't, because it's more comfortable to leave 80.000 traces under the video on the portal in one day, than to be on the Street in the same number every day.

And for at least one year! Only in that variant will we not have the next ten mandatory readings for adults: Are you giving him money, brother? Yes, I did, why didn't I!...

PS And what did the Special Prosecutor do? The same as after the previous coup - he saw everything in one day, but this time only the new Sinđelić is to blame. There is not even an iota of remote doubt in the Supreme. Although a log appeared, and very close. To begin with, the one who is not corrupt says loud and clear - I did not take money. And the Supreme just said yes - there is no evidence! Well, he also added that there couldn't be any, but he didn't explain why. Because he is not guilty or because - he was not recorded...