The Eureka Connection

The Eureka Connection

By Sam Vaknin

Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"



A common, guttural cry of "Eureka" echoed as the peoples of East

Europe and the Balkans emerged from the Communist steam bath. It was

at once an expression of joy and disbelief. That the West should be

willing to bankroll the unravelling of a failed social experiment,

freely entered into, exceeded the wildest imaginings. That it would

do so indefinitely and with no strings attached was a downright

outlandish fortuity.



Transition in the post communist countries was coupled with a

hubristic and haughty conviction in the transforming powers of the

Western values, Western technology, and Western economics. The

natives - awe struck and grateful - were supposed to assimilate

these endowments and thus become honorary Westerners ("white men").

Where osmosis and immitation failed - bayonets and bombs were called

upon. These were later replaced by soft credits and economic

micromanagement by a host of multilateral institutions.



Accustomed to Pavolvian interactions, adept at manipulating "the

system", experts in all manner of make belief - the shrewd denizens

of the East exercised the reflexive levers of the Great Democracies.

They adopted stratagems whose sole purpose was to extract additional

aid, to foster a dependency of giving, to emotionally extort. In one

sentence: they learned how to corrupt the donors.



The most obvious subterfuge involved the mindless repetition of

imported mantras. Possessed of the same glazed eyes and furled lips,

the loyal members of a perfidious nomenklatura uttered with the same

seemingly perfervid conviction the catechism of a new religion.

Yesterday communism - today capitalism, unblushingly,

unhesitatingly, cynically. Yesterday, a recondite dictatorship of

the proletariat or, more often, a personality cult -

today "democracy". Yesterday - brotherhood and unity, today -

genocidal "self determination". Yesterday - genocidal inclinations,

today - a "growth and stability pact". If required to bark in the

nude in order to secure the flow of unsupervised funding (mainly to

their pockets), these besuited "gentlemen" would have done so with

self-sacrificial ardour, no doubt.



When it dawned upon them that the West is willing to pay for every

phase of self-betterment, for every stage of self-improvement, for

every functioning institution and law passed - this venal class (the

soi-disant "elite" in government, in industry and academe) embarked

on a gargantuan blackmail plot. The inventors of the most contorted

and impervious bureaucracies ever, have recreated them. They have

transformed the simplest tasks of reform into tortuous, hellish

processes, mired in a miasma of numerous committees and deluged by

cavils, captious "working" papers and memoranda of stupefying

trumpery. They have stalled and retraced, reversed and regressed,

opined and debated, refused and accepted grudgingly. The very

processes of transformation and transition - a simulacrum to begin

with - acquired an aura of somnolent lassitude and the nightmarish

quality of ensnarement. And they made the West bribe them into

yielding that which was ostensibly in their very own interest. Every

act of legislation was preceded and followed by dollops of foreign

cash. Every ministry abolished was conditioned upon more aid. Every

court established, every bloodletting firm privatized, every bank

sold, every system made more efficient, every procedure simplified,

every tender concluded and every foreign investor spared - had a

tariff. "Pay or else ..." was the overt message - and the West

preferred to pay and to appease, as it has always done.



The money lavished on these "new democracies" was routed rather

conspicuously into the private bank accounts of the thin layer of

vituperable "leaders", "academics" and "businessmen" (often the same

people). One third cigarette smugglers, one third uncommon criminals

and one third cynical con-artists, these people looted the coffers

of their states. The IMF - this sanctuary of fourth rate economists

from third world countries, as I am never wont of mentioning -

collaborated with the US government, the European Union and the

World Bank in covering up this stark reality. They turned a common

blind eye to the diversion of billions in aid and credits to

mysterious bank accounts in dubious tax havens. They ignored fake

trading deals, itinerant investment houses, shady investors and

shoddy accounting. They expressed merely polite concern over blatant

cronyism and rampant nepotism. They kept pouring money into the

rapidly growing black hole that Eastern Europe and the Balkan have

become. They pretended not to know and feigned surprise when

confronted with the facts. In their complicity, they have encouraged

the emergence of a criminal class of unprecedented proportions, hold

and penetration in many of the countries within their remit.



To qualify to participate in this grand larceny, one needed only to

have a "sovereign" "state". Sovereign states are entitled to hold

shares in multilateral financial institutions and to receive

international aid and credits. In other words: sovereignty is the

key to instant riches. The unregenerate skulks that pass for

political parties in many countries in East Europe and the Balkan

(though not in all of them - there are exceptions), carved up the

territory. This led to a suspicious proliferation of "republics",

each with its own access to international funds. It also led

to "wars" among these emergent entities.



Recent revelations regarding the close and cordial co-operation

between Croatia's late president, Franjo Tudjman and Yugoslavia's

current strongman, Slobodan Milosevic - ostensibly, bitter enemies -

expose the role that warfare and instability played in increasing

the flow of aid (both civil and military) to belligerent countries.

The more unstable the region, the more ominous its rhetoric, the

more fractured its geopolitics - the more money flowed in. It was

the right kind of money: multilateral - not multinational, public -

not private, deliberately ignorant - not judiciously cognizant. It

was the "quantum fund" - capable of "tunnelling" (as the Czechs

called it) - vanishing in one place (the public purse) and appearing

in another (the private wallet) simultaneously. Even the exception -

the never-enforced sanctions against Yugoslavia - served to enrich

its cankerous ruling class by way of smuggling and monopolies.



And why did the West collaborate in this charade? Why did it

compromise its goodwill, its carefully crafted institutions, its

principles and ethos? The short and the long of it is: to get rid of

a nuisance at a minimal cost. It is much cheaper to grease the palms

of a deciding few - than to embark on the winding path of true and

painful growth. It is more convenient to co-opt a political leader

than to confront an angry mob. It is by far easier to throw money at

a problem than to solve it.



It was not a sinister conspiracy of the Great Powers as many would

have it. Nor was it the result of foresight, insight, perspicacity,

or planning. It was a typical improvident European default, adopted

by a succession of lacklustre and lame American administrations. It

enriched the few and impoverished the many. It fostered anti-Western

sentiments. It provoked skirmishes that provoked wars that led to

massacres. To reverse it would require more resources than should

have been committed in the first place. These are not forthcoming.

The West is again misleading and deceiving and collaborating to

defraud the peoples of these unfortunate netherlands. It again

promises prosperity it cannot deliver, growth it will not guarantee

and stability it cannot ensure. This prestidigitation is bound to

lead to ever larger bills and to the attrition of good will of both

donor and recipient. Never before was such a unique historical

opportunity so thoroughly missed. The consequences may well be as

unprecedented.





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AUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)



Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant

Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West

Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician,

Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a

United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and

the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in

The Open Directory and Suite101.



Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government

of Macedonia.



Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com