Scoping Skopje: Macedonia is a Smoking Country

When I met my friend Suzanna for lunch, she asked if we could sit in the outside section (actually an enclosed by plastic portion) so she could smoke. She said, "Macedonia is a Smoking Country."

Yes.

This weekend was very beautiful - 70 degrees. I tried to find a restaurant to eat inside- away from the smoke to read my book. Not possible. Now that the weather is good, no one sees any reason to eat inside where you can't smoke. In fact, the restaurants have taken all the tables and chairs inside and put them away- you can only eat outside. It is worse here to be a non-smoker than to be disabled. Well, I guess being a non-smoker is a severe disability here.
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I had an interesting discussion the other day with a prominent member of the bar association- someone older who practiced law when this was Yugoslavia. He said that none of these countries is better off being smaller and separate and it was not the will of the people for this to have happened. It was the will of certain political opportunists who wanted to have countries of which they could be the president and engage in financial corruption. He said that everywhere he goes, the people complain about their lowered standard of living, lack of health care, jobs and economic opportunities. He said Yugoslavia was not very oppressive- they had a decent standard of living and were envied by the Greeks and Bulgarians. All that is gone now.