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Macedonia: Greek Pacifists' Visit

2008-05-22T10:44:00.001+02:00

Anastas Vangeli posted his impressions of the anti-nationalistic and anti-militaristic Greek-Macedonian Dialogue which took place last Saturday - in Macedonian and English. The participants were branded as traitors in the Greek media, and the Metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Church put an anathema on them in his Sunday sermon.

(First published by Global Voices Online)

Macedonia: Bloggers Emphasize Need for Open Communication with Greece

2008-05-15T20:17:00.000+02:00

by Filip Stojanovski for Global Voices Online (15.05.2008).

Amid the internal turmoil caused by Greek actions to block Macedonia's accession to NATO and the EU, and due to an increasing number of reports of attacks over Macedonian truck drivers (official reaction) by nationalist mobs in Greece, many Macedonian bloggers are attempting to bridge the gap of ignorance existing between the two nations. On the one hand, they've identified the need to pass information about Macedonians to Greeks, and, on the other hand, some have taken to the task to share information from Greek media with fellow Macedonians.

Many bloggers reacted to a statement by Greek Foreign Minister that even mentioning the existence of Macedonian language and ethnicity is “not helpful” to solving the name issue, perceiving it as continuation of the policy of ethnocide. Zharko Trajanovski, referred to the related U.S. Dept. of State Briefing, extracting the most interesting parts (MKD).

In the same vein, dozens of bloggers promoted the video of the song “Postojam” (”I Exist”), by embedding it in their own posts and even reposting copies of it on YouTube. The video features scenes from documentary films about the ethnic cleansing of Macedonians during the Greek Civil War of 1946-49, accompanied with humanistic lyrics: “I exist… All is forgiven: even your wish for me to be no more.”

The author of the blog Agness wrote (MKD):

Since its official release, the video of the single “Postojam” by the pop rock singer Miyatta received wide media coverage and it is a topic of discussion among the Macedonian population all around the world. Interest for the English translation of the lyrics and releasing it abroad has also been shown. Regardless of the context, the video has become something worth a comment. Those who were familiar with that part of Macedonia's history congratulated Miyatta for delivering this audio-visual expression. Those who see such pictures for the first time, think that it is too painful to be true. Some believe that this is just an attempt at attention-seeking. All kinds of positive and negative comments are yet to be heard. I am happy that the number of people who were indifferent towards “Postojam” is rather small.

Images of sorrow and exile on the one hand, and images of unity and pride on the other make for a rather authentic representation of Macedonia.

The past is not to be revived, but to be outgrown.
Let us outgrow it, but first,
Let us know it!
Macedonia exists.

In the other direction, the blog Drugarche posted translations of articles from the Greek press, including cartoons [MKD]. A number of bloggers also praised the interview of the Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski [GRE], given to the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia, and posted links to its English translations. Some offered more historical information from ancient books [MKD] and Western newspaper archives [MKD], as well as about the possible origins of the Greek flag.

But, most importantly, blogs have proved to be the primary vehicle for distributing information on grassroots peace-building. The news about the upcoming visit of about 50 Greek peace activists to Skopje scheduled for May 17, 2008, appeared [MKD] on the influential Vuna blog first:

This is not an attempt to stoke fires of the Macedonian nationalist sentiments. This is not a call to stone embassies, supermarkets or whatever.

On the contrary, this is a call to participate in an event intended as opposition to all the madness. Greek citizens are first and foremost human beings, and most of them have nothing to do with their retrograde and fascizoid state policy, nor with the hordes of morons who harass people on the highways. At the same time, not all Macedonian citizens are hotheads who “hate every Greek thing” and can't wait to throw stones on the Liaison office.

[…]

Peace, love, empathy!

Macedonia: Sakura - Cherry Blossom Celebration in Skopje

2008-05-07T14:45:00.001+02:00

by Filip Stojanovski for Global Voices Online (May 6, 2008)

Even though very few ethnic Japanese live in the Republic of Macedonia, many locals took part in the second annual celebration of Sakura - the festival of cherry blossoms in Macedonia's capital, Skopje. Organizers of the festivals included martial arts dojos and some prominent bloggers who recently started a collaborative blog, Japan@mk [MKD], and initiated spreading the word through the Macedonian blogosphere.

The festival took place on April 12, on a street lined with Japanese cherry trees in full bloom, next to Skopje's main square. The program consisted of martial arts demonstrations, reciting of haiku in Macedonian language, accompanied by music played on Japanese flute, making of origami, writing the names of participants in Japanese calligraphy, and tasting healthy products made of Japanese fungi.

Thanks to the social networking within the community, dozens of bloggers used the event to socialize, including several who came from other cities. Some of them, like Bi, Volan, Strumjan, and neW1, posted extensive photo-galleries afterwards, while others wrote posts with most favorable impressions. Nadezna and HibernusCorvus, posted their reasons why they didn't attend.

Members of Samurai Dojo in action. Photo by Volan.

Bi, one of the organizers and an Iaidō practitioner, wrote [MKD] about her insider experience:

The origami were quite successful, and were done in three booths… [for samurai hats, cranes, and cats]. The kids were very happy, and many of them took their samurai hats to Nahomi [Japanese lady who did calligraphy] to write their names in Japanese.

Nahomi got genuine Macedonian experience because the audience did not allow her to catch her breath. They crowded around her, handing papers under her nose to write their names in Japanese, without any order. They even overturned her ink. She was confused because the people could not form a line, but accepted all requests with grace and impeccable manners…

The haiku turned out great, and the three guests read poetry by classic Japanese masters and by Macedonian poets. Some in the audience turned a deaf ear on this, and complained of boredom… Other audience members provided an unpleasant experience of rude curiosity, by grabbing and even drawing the swords and the bokken from the participants' hands…

I hope next year we'll have an even more interesting and more beautiful program, with more elements, and the city will help with more than just providing space, and the consulate will provide more than just moral support. We had great time anyway, even when the uncultured mishaps mentioned above are taken into account :)

[…]

Macedonia: Bloggers Discuss NATO Summit and Greece

2008-05-07T14:41:00.000+02:00

by Filip Stojanovski · for Global Voices Online (April 9, 2008) This post is also available in:

mk: Македонија: Блогерите го дискутираат самитот на НАТО и Грција...
sq: Maqedonia: Blogerët diskutojnë samitin e NATOs dhe Greqinë...
es: Macedonia: Bloggers discuten Cumbre de la OTAN y Grecia...

Last week, the Macedonian blogosphere buzzed about Greece's obstruction of Macedonia's NATO entry. This post presents a set of typical initial reactions to this news.

Filip Petrovski described (MKD) the atmosphere in Macedonia several days before the NATO Summit:

The tension in the air is incredible. The upcoming NATO Summit in Bucharest created a heavy atmosphere of expectation in the region. It is absolutely impossible to predict what will happen there. Expecting closure is already unavoidable part of our lives, of all everyday discussions… I recently observed two friends who had different opinions about Macedonia's stance on the latest proposal by the mediator Nimetz. I've known these two persons for a while, and I have never seen them being nervous, aggressive or intolerant of each other on political or historical issues. But this time it wasn't so. One of them simply got up and left in the middle of the discussion.

On the night of April 2, upon learning that Greece would stop NATO from reaching a consensus on invitation of new members, dozens of Macedonian bloggers reacted with angry posts.

Some placed pictures of the current Macedonian flag on their sites, while others chose to display (MKD) Macedonia's 1992-1995 flag, which carried the Vergina Sun symbol and is no longer in use due to Greek objections. Many, including Toast Government (MKD), expressed an opinion that the goal of Greece is to completely negate the Macedonian identity and eradicate the nation. Along with congratulations to Croatia and Albania (MKD), the countries that succeeded in receiving NATO invitations, some bloggers recommended (MKD) that Macedonians unite in the time of a calamity and offered ideas (MKD) to the Macedonian government on how to act in the future.

The next day, there seemed to be more optimism in bloggers' responses; some included video clips with Macedonian music in their posts. One blogger wrote (MKD) that this was not the “end of the world”:

Since morning, people around me seem possessed by some kind of madness or hysteria. They come and go out of my office, and I hear wailing, sighs, conversations about NATO, […] VETO […] …

I see higher spirits on the blogs, but they seem to slide into it, too. Oh, what shall we do, too bad for our youth, loads of such stuff… Hey, people! You were not this scared when the war started in 2001! Come on, let's all cry out to heaven and wait for the judgment day. As far as I can see, the Sun rose up again, my house is still in the same place, and the work I have to do is still waiting for me!!!

Zoriv commented (MKD) ironically on the Greek attempts to monopolize the world's historical heritage, saying that the true heir of Alexander the Great would not show fear that “his country could be invaded by a nation which is five times smaller.”

Anti and Bi (MKD), bloggers who have been promoting principled pacifism for years and advocated Macedonia's non-involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, reiterated their stance against participation in military alliances.

Kalina reacted (MKD) to the new breed of skepticism towards NATO and EU integration, pointing out that after the failure at the NATO Summit, some inconsistent analysts, who have never before questioned this long-term strategic objective of the country, started talking that maybe Macedonia should give up trying to gain membership in these international institutions.

Human rights experts Mirjana Najcevska and Zharko Trajanoski (MKD), held the government accountable for failing to fulfill its obligation to provide NATO membership for Macedonia. The latter warned that the huge obstructive force of Greece could not be the sole excuse for all Macedonian failures.

Bazhdardzhijata criticized (MKD) the Macedonian journalists who protested by leaving the press conference of Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest:

I still can't get over the prideful stupidity of these journalists. Instead of staying at the event and bombarding with revealing questions, which would have caught the Greek fascist policies with their pants down, they decided to leave. And the way they left! They did not make any noise, they just turned their backs on them. After such a departure, I am sure Dora [Bakoyannis] sincerely and silently thanked them.

In the following days, some Macedonian bloggers realized how important it was to communicate about these issue with the world and started publishing more English-language posts.

VBB used historical examples to emphasize that Greek arguments were unsustainable:

There's an island called Ireland. Because of historical reasons similar to those described above, that geographical region became divided between the Republic of Ireland (an independent state like the Republic of Macedonia) and Northern Ireland, a constituent unit of another country- the United Kingdom (similar case as the Greek province of Macedonia). The British crown has imposed harsh measures on its Irish possesions, that also included colonising loyalist elements from Great Britain. Basically its the same story as with Greece. However, the difference is that, today the UK does not demand from the Republic of Ireland to change its constitutional name.

Taking into account the role that politics plays in Macedonia's daily life, it is quite possible that NATO integration will remain one of the hottest political subjects for Macedonian bloggers in the near future.

OLPC in Macedonia

2007-11-30T16:05:00.000+01:00

Two months ago UNDP started a project with OLPC in Macedonia. Two classrooms were set up with 25 laptops each in early September when the school year begun. The news about the project were made available to the public last week when a major newspaper printed a story about the project.

I visited OU "Vojdan Chernodrinski" that is one of the primary schools that have a OLPC classroom to see what's going on. The kids that are using the XO laptops are in the second grade. They seemed very enthusiastic when I entered the classroom. They were chatting on the laptops and telling each other what they wrote to their friends. They had no obvious problems using the laptops although the interface is in English. Some of them even explained to me what kind of things they do and how to use some of the software.

As I understood, classes in mathematics and Macedonian language are held using the laptops. The children are allowed to take them home and do homework.

As a part of the UNDP project and with cooperation from OLPC the teachers had gone through some training so they can apply adequate teaching methods using the laptop.

One of the problems is the fact that there is no Cyrillic keyboard available on the XOs. That means that the kids type Macedonian in the Latin Allahabad which could be counterproductive at their age. However, I hope that UNDP will solve this issue in cooperation with the local Free Software community.

The goal of this project is to serve as a recommendation to the Government of Macedonia in future investments in technology for schools. With the recent purchase of NComputing hardware with Ubuntu, it might seem that the Government made its mind about this, and maybe the OLPC project is rolling out a bit too late even though we still haven't seen the classrooms with NComputing's products.

I would like to believe that OLPC still has a chance in Macedonia.

Source: OLPC@Macedonia. Written by: Novica Nakov.

Tags: olpc, macedonia, school, undp, un, laptop, ncomputing, ubuntu, free, software, education, teaching.

World Bank: Macedonia top reformer in 2007

2007-11-30T14:36:00.000+01:00

Macedonia has had a good year, making significant reform progress that speed up the economic growth and put the country among the world's top reformers, said outgoing and incoming World Bank Country Director and Southeast Europe Regional Coordinator, Orsalia Kalantzopoulos and Jane Armitage, after meeting President Branko Crvenkovski on Thursday.

- It may be early for impressions, but it is clear that Macedonia is on the right track. The situation has been rather improved for the last few years, particularly in 2007. You have had a very good year and I hope that the World Bank will keep supporting the Government, said Armitage, who will take the office on January 1 next year.

Macedonia has made significant progress in fiscal management and inflation control, Kalantzopoulos said.

- Hard reforms, imposed by the international financial institutions, are finally giving results. I think that the Government should stick to this course. Some reforms are not going to be easy, but you have political potential and courage to move on, she added.

Link: World Bank: Macedonia top reformer in 2007 (Macedonian Radio Television).

Tags: macedonia, world, bank, reform, progress, economy, growth, finance, business, fiscal, management, inflation, control.

Canada recognized Republic of Macedonia

2007-09-20T19:38:00.000+02:00

This morning I got an email from the United Macedonian Diaspora, which made my day: apparently Canada recognized Macedonia by its constitutional name. What a bucket of cold water into the face of the Greek politicians that were using radical nationalistic rhetoric during their election campaign in the past several weeks. Here is the announcement:

The United Macedonian Diaspora is pleased to announce that Canada recognized Macedonia by its constitutional name. UMD congratulates all Canadian-Macedonians on this momentous occasion – their dedication, perseverance, and endless efforts contributed towards this positive change of Canadian policy. Macedonians started immigrating to Canada over a century ago and have helped build Canadian society in all spheres of life - social, economic, and political. Today, some 200,000 Macedonians live in Canada.

In addition, United Macedonian Diaspora would like to use this opportunity to thank Macedonia's Ambassador to Canada, Dr. Sashko Nasev for his continuous and tireless hard work to educate Canadian policymakers. Canada and Macedonia are working together to rebuild Afghanistan. Furthermore, Canada strongly supports Macedonia's path to NATO.

Two thirds of the member countries of United Nations, including 3/5 members of the Security Council (USA, Russia and China) are recognizing Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name, despite the provisional reference and the strong political pressure from Greece. Each new country that joins our side in the name dispute is helping us move this issue one step further from nonsense.

Thank you Canada, and thanks to all other 118 countries, from the people of Macedonia!

Link: This text was originally posted on Say Macedonia: Canada recognized Republic of Macedonia.

Tags: canada, greece, macedonia, recognize, constitution, constitutional, name, un, united, nations, dispute, diplomacy, politics.

Imagine all the countries…

2007-06-22T09:41:00.000+02:00

Can you imagine UN and EU to be persuaded by…

Mexico - to use the reference the Former British Colonies of United States of America for the USA, because the "America" part of the regular name implies territorial pretensions to the whole geographical area of America?
DR Congo - to use the reference the Former French Colony of Central Africa for the Central African Republic, because the "Africa" part of the regular name implies territorial pretensions to the whole geographical area of Africa?
USA - to use the reference the Former Spanish Colony of Mexico for the United Mexican States, because the "Mexico" part of the regular name implies territorial pretensions to south-western state of New Mexico?
USA - to use the reference the Former Soviet Republic of Georgia for the Republic of Georgia, because the "Georgia" part of the regular name implies territorial pretensions to their southern state of Georgia?
Azerbaijan - to use the reference the Former Ottoman Possession of Albania for the Republic of Albania, because the "Albania" part of the regular name implies territorial pretensions to the geographical region with that name in the Caucasus?
Macedonia - to use the reference the Former Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro for the Republic of Montenegro, because the "Montenegro" (in original: Crna Gora) part of the regular name implies territorial pretensions to the Macedonian region of Crna Gora Mountain?
Sweden - to use the reference the Former Russian Province of Finland for the Republic of Finland, because of the claim that Santa Claus is the "most famous Finn," while Sweden considers this cultural figure as its own?
France – to use the reference the Former Norman Possession of Great Britain for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, because the "Britain" part of the regular name implies territorial pretensions to the geographical area of Bretagne?
Russia – to use the reference the Former Ottoman Possession of Bulgaria for the Republic of Bulgaria, because the "Bulgaria" part of the regular name implies territorial pretensions to the geographical area covered by the historical country with the same name along Volga River?
Macedonia – to use the reference the Former Yugoslav Republic of for Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia, because all of them were indeed republics in former Yugoslav federation, and it's unfair only one of them to carry this identity burden.

No?

Then please raise your voice against the continuous discriminatory use of the "temporary" reference the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia by both UN and EU when they refer to Republic of Macedonia. Help putting and end to the surreally ridiculous, but very damaging "name dispute" instigated by Greece.

Source: Razvigor :-) blog, June 20, 2007

Creative Commons Launch in Macedonia, this Tuesday

2007-06-15T13:32:00.000+02:00

Macedonia will join worldwide movement for free culture with promotion of the Macedonian version of the Creative Commons licenses.

Official launching ceremony of Macedonian version of the licenses will be organized in Holliday Inn Hotel in Skopje on June 19, 2007.

Special speaker at the event is Mr. Joichi Ito - chairman of the board of Creative Commons and the chairman of Six Apart Japan. He is on the board of ICANN, the Mozilla Foundation, Technorati, and iCommons.

More >>>

A Guide to Contributors to "The Macedonian Tendency"

2007-06-12T17:31:00.001+02:00

A Guide to Contributors to "The Macedonian Tendency"

by David Edenden

I am turning "The Macedonian Tendency" into a group blog. The first thing you will notice is the new URL "http://the-macedonian-tendency.blogspot.com/". This new URL should make it easier for journalists and politicians to find the blog, although there will be a period of adjustment as the search engines indexes it. The old site, http://david-edenden.blogspot.com/ will continue for the time being, until all the articles have been migrated to this site. If, like myself, it is necessary for you to use a pseudonym, please fell free to do so.

If you receive an invitation to join, you must apply a Gmail account which is free and easy to use. Feel free to introduce yourself and write on any topic relating to Macedonia, its history and culture without my prior approval. I do not expect that everyone will agree with my eccentric views, so debate within the blog is not a bad thing. In your Blogger profile, write what your interests are relating to writing for the blog. In this way, we will develop a division of labor so that we are not all writing about the same thing.

Identify yourself and format your writing in italics, while keeping the other material in regular fonts. Hopefully you will write at least one article per week ... not a great commitment. If you have written something in the past, please feel free to publish it here.

The purpose of this blog is to inform foreign journalists and politicians about "the Macedonian question" today. My main focus is to help in the process of recognition of Macedonia's constitutional name, the fight for the rights of Macedonians in Greece and Bulgaria and to a lesser extent in Albania.

We really need book an movie reviews along with the other arts. Sports reviews are also welcome.

I am not really interested in using this blog to display the divisions that are reflected in Macedonian politics. I generally support all Macedonian governments, although I disagree with many of their individual positions. Macedonians need a big tent. One of my favorite expressions is " some people look for converts, while others look for heretics." Lets all look for converts and not needlessly look for battles within our community.

Lets use Jews and Israel as a model. Jewish support for Israel is unwavering, however many Jews fell free to offer suggestions for Israeli policy. I have in the past published warnings against Nato membership, the EU and other issues without damning the Macedonian politicians who promote them.

Since it is a blog and not a online news magazine like "Reality Macedonia", articles should be short with links to the original source. I usually like to comment, no matter how small on all posts, but there have been exceptions. (1)

This long post about Robert Kaplan is a good example of the use of links. This post about Barack Obama needs to have links added. I decided it was worth posting first and then adding links later. After publishing your post, editing the title is not advisable since the search engines will lose the post. Editing of the actual posts is OK for spelling and formating issues.

For the sake of readability, I usually do not copy the entire original article, but do copy relevant material that could be lost behind a "subscription wall" (1) (2) (3). there are exceptions.

Make sure to include the link, the name of the author, relevant people and the core issue that are discussed.

"The Macedonian Tendency" is one of the few blogs where a comments on a specific news item are published from a Macedonian perspective. Lets try to improve it.

UN and EU to Impose New Name on Finland

2007-05-14T11:17:00.000+02:00

STOCKHOLM (Rewters) - Using the precedent set by Greece, which persuaded the international community to punish Macedonia for daring to claim the heritage of Alexander the Great by forcing a provisional name, Sweden decided to use the same remedy on obstinate Finland.

At the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, Finland raised the stakes in an age-old dispute by promoting Santa Claus as "the most famous Finn," which Sweden labeled a grave provocation. This Finish neighbor—claiming that the world-famous figure has their citizenship—retaliated by starting an economic embargo and requiring the EU from now and to all eternity use the provisional reference "former Russian province of Finland" or the short form "FRP Finland" in all international bodies and Europe-wide TV broadcasts.

All over Sweden, angry crowds took to the streets, chanting "Santa Claus is Ours!" and "Nokia, stop collecting people!" proudly waving their Sony Ericsson mobile phones in their clenched fists.

Using the Greek argument that only a part of the territory of Ancient Macedonia now belongs to Republic of Macedonia, Norway, Canada and Russia entered the fray, claiming that they possess far more acreage of the Arctic Circle than Finland, which invalidates its claim. They support the idea of UN arbitration, and require that the matter should be put forward to the Security Council.

An unlikely alliance of diplomatic representatives of Turkey and Serbia also condemned the Finnish "hostile" act. Turkey put forward historical evidence that the historical Santa Claus, who at the time was known as Saint Nicolas, in fact lived in Demre, in the Antalya province. Serbia based its objection on the fact that many Serbs celebrate Saint Nicolas as their family patron saint, and expressed fears that Finnish copyright on the day might lead to increased costs for the members of the Orthodox Christian community aggravating their already grave economic situation.

Coca Cola corporation spokesperson was unavailable for comment on this issue of outstanding international importance.

Source: Razvigor, May 13, 2007

“Synthesis” with Concerts at Antique Sites

2007-05-06T15:29:00.000+02:00

Renowned Macedonian ethno-band “Synthesis” begins Saturday a series of eight concerts, which will be held at famous antique sites throughout the country. Skopje Aqueduct hosts this week’s concert, beginning at 13,00h.

“The idea of this project is to support tradition, wish and determination to affirm these wonderful places, which are a bit forgotten”, says Vladimir Mandicevski of “Bagi Communications”, which are “Synthesis” managers.

All concerts will be open and free of charge. The gigs will last between 40 minutes and one hour, including songs from the old repertoire, as well as several new compositions of the album in preparation.

The concerts in the next eight Saturdays will be held in Strumin Grob (Strumica), Cifte Amam (Skopje), Isar (Stip), Herakleja (Bitola), Matka (Skopje), Vitolista, Mariovo (Prilep) and Stobi (Veles).

source : culture.in.mk

Archaeologists Start Exploring Skopje Kale

2007-04-07T09:29:00.000+02:00

Long announced archaeological excavations on the Skopje Fortress, Kale started yesterday and the area oozing with the spirit of spring was covered by teams of archaeologists in the country and archaeology students. The project was initiated and has been funded with 2 million euros by the current government which is interested in effectuating the main area in town, says Prof. Dragi Mitrevski. “Skopje Kale is now in function of the existing restaurant there and the goal of effectuating the values it posses will be accomplished when the parking lot is full of tourist buses, not only wedding ones.” Mitevski is expecting the two-year exploration work to present at least 10 percent of the archaeological values hidden in the ancient area.
As previous archaeological excavations, this one is also based not only on the archaeological evidence discovered but rich historical evidence and sources. “There is detailed evidence from the Middle Ages, the Ottoman period, there are many written sources and photographs of the Kale. We should define the beginning of life in this area, because archaeological evidence so far is much comprehensive. The oldest records should date from the Bronze Age. Also, this site offered settling opportunities in all the metal periods. We have certain evidence dated from the Iron Ages and early antiquity, from the Early Byzantine period. There is no evidence on the Roman Age because Skupi was the centre at the time, and marble blocks were brought from there and embedded in the Kale walls. So far, the walls are the main element where different constructing techniques and different material originating from different periods are recorded. Our task is to verify the periods with cultural layers,” Mitrevski, the head of the excavations said.
“We need remains of the tangible culture to connect the walls. I expect the fortress to be an area where a lot can be seen and learnt because the cultural values of the Skopje area are here.”
Archaeologists from different institutions in the country who head certain sectors are involved in the project including Kire Ristov, Ljubinka Dzidrova,Branislav Ristevski, Marijan Jovanov, Antonio Jakimovski, Sanja Jovanova, Silvana Blazevska, Zlatko Videvski, Strahil Temov etc.

source

So, why don't you change your name?

2007-01-21T01:03:00.000+01:00

(This anecdote is copied from Say: Macedonia)

Some 2 or 3 years ago, one of our Macedonian politicians was asked by a news reporter: "so, really, why are you unnecessary arguing with Greece and bringing problems to your little country, why don't you just change your name and solve this dispute in one blow"?

Our politician asked her what her name is, and she told him. Then he said:

- Uh, what an ugly name you have! Why don't you change it?

The poor news reporter didn't understand the association and started to explain that her name is normal and that it is only her right to decide what her name should... uh, be.

Help us! More than two thirds of the world countries have recognized Macedonia under our constitutional and only possible name. Tell your government to help stop this diplomatic blackmail and stop offending us by using a name different from the one that we chose for ourselves.

Don't you F.Y.R.O.M. me.
Say: Macedonia

Tags: Republic, of, Macedonia, name, dispute, Greece, diplomacy, anecdote, politics, Macedonians, human, right.

Timeline of Macedonian Blogosphere

2007-01-01T20:59:00.000+01:00

The interactive Timeline of Macedonian Blogosphere depicts the most significant events and developments about Macedonia-related blogs.

Available in Macedonian and English languages.

Macedonian youth and the media

2006-12-23T16:15:00.000+01:00

December 20. The NGO Infocentre from Skopje, in cooperation with the Youth Education Forum (MOF), organized a debate on the topic “Do the Traditional Media Lose the Young Audiences?”

In addition to the two opposed debate teams of MOF, who presented the positive and negative view on the topic, editors from several media in Macedonia, journalists, youth organizations’ representatives and students participated in the debate.

The debate thesis were presented by Branko Gerovski, Editor-in-Chief of “Spic” daily; Aco Kabranov, Editor in “Kanal 5” TV news programmes; Nazif Rasidi from BBC; and Roberto Belicanec, Executive Director of the Media Development Centre.

The debate concentrated on the thesis that the traditional print and electronic media – daily newspapers, television and radio stations – lose the young audience that turns, as is natural, towards the new media that use internet as carrying platform, to get information they need and they are interested in.

Also, according to MOF’s debate teams, the media are not much interested in making an effort to fulfill their educational function, which together with the task to inform and entertain, make the three pillars on which the functioning of media rests all over the world.

MOF debating teams presented an opinion that the media do lose the young audiences, because they cover events that are of no interest to the youth. Also, the media were accused of ignoring and avoiding topics of interest to the youth, as well as of showing little interest for the activities of the youth organizations.

The representatives of the media responded that, as unavoidable an eventual fall in readership and audiences may be, it still is no issue and the latest surveys show that the following of the media in Macedonia remains at extremely high level. Furthermore, it was mentioned that, with the average five hours daily they spend in front of their TV sets, the Macedonians are far above the European averages.

The audience also made several interesting points. Several people warned the traditional media that their domination nears its end, accused them of being slow and focused on a narrow scope of topics, such as politics, crime, and the darker side of social existence.

Of course, different views were presented, too. One interesting intervention was given by a representative of the growing population of Macedonian bloggers (Darko Buldioski - komunikacii.net), who commented that the low visibility of youth issues and activities in the media is due to the weak media education of the youth and the low level of media literacy. He advised his colleagues to improve their skills in the area of rising their own visibility and public relations, which will create greater interest in the media.

What conclusion could one make based on the debate? First of all, there is misunderstanding and a real problem between the media and that segment of the youth population – alas, themselves a small majority among the youth – interested in active participation in social affairs.

Youth activists have to find the ways to, first, use their activities to reach a criticial mass of dissatisfaction among the citizens, and second, to present their activities, views and ideas in a manner that traditional media will understand and accept.

Although the internet and the new media that use it as a platform do exist as an alternative closer to their demands and world-view, the low level of penetration of internet in the country still restricts their influence as a corrector of the traditional media.

Finally, the majority of the youth, outside the ranks of the active and activist youth, seems very much satisfied with the traditional media who offer them information about the marital status of Holywood and music stars, believing that it is, in fact, what interests them most.

Source: NGO Info Center

Technorati Tags: media, traditional media, TV, print, newspapers, spic, kanal5, bbc, macedonia, youth, young, media education, skopje, debate, forum.

Flat Tax Revolution Continues in Eastern Europe-Free-market government in Macedonia to adopt flat tax in 2007

2006-12-12T12:35:00.000+01:00

WASHINGTON, DC – The flat tax revolution taking place in eastern Europe has spread to Macedonia: The new free -market government, led by 36 year-old Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, has adapted a flat 12 percent personal income tax rate for 2007. In 2008 the rate will drop to 10 percent, making it the lowest in the world along with the nations of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. A government statement said: “This step should decrease tax evasion and stimulate taxpayers to meet their obligations to the state. It would also encourage foreign investors to put their money in Macedonian business, knowing that taxes are low.”

While most advanced nations in the West had flat tax rates prior to the influence of Marxism, the modern flat tax movement in Europe began in 1994 -- with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania leading the way. Earning their distinction as the “Baltic Tigers”, the three countries experienced an influx of foreign investment, a drop in unemployment rates, and staggering growth in GDP. Such positive results did not go unnoticed by the neighbours, as the resulting wave of “tax competition” has now spread to ten eastern European countries, with the Macedonia's being the most recent to adopt the flat tax and compete for foreign investment. To protect the flat tax, a new taxpayer group has formed by the name of “Macedonia Citizens for Tax Reform”.

“In a global economy, capital naturally flows to areas of least resistance, which is why we are seeing such explosive growth in flat-tax countries,” said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. “It is ironic to witness the number of eastern European countries, many of them former Communist nations, moving to tax simplification,” continued Norquist, “while the American system of taxation is moving in the opposite direction.”
Source:PRESS RELEASE FROM AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM

Technorati Tags: Tax, Income_Tax, Macedonia, MK, Government, Macedonian_Government, Law, Taxes.

Esma Vs. Borat

2006-12-08T14:14:00.000+01:00

Macedonian Roma singer Esma Redžepova is going to file a lawsuit for the producers of Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat movie.

Redžepova's song Chaje shukarije is used at the begining of the movie, without any legal right or approve from the author.

Esma Redžepova claims that she was never consulted before the song was included in this movie. The question now is who holds the rights to the track?

In the statement for Macedonian daily newspaper Dnevnik, her son, and front man of her Orchestra, Simeon Atanasov, says that they have started the legal procedure but still they are not sure how much money they will ask. The rumors are mentioning the amount of 100.000 Euros.

"I am still negotiating with my managers, but I expect a lawsuit to start any day now. We are also discussing the amount," said Naat Veliov, leader of Kocani Orkestar, the author of the music and text of the song "Siki siki baba," also featured on the Borat movie soundtrack.

Sources: Dnevnik (Macedonia) Vecernji List (Croatia)

Technorati Tags: Borat, Esma, Macedonia, Roma, singer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Chaje Sukarije.

Forumisation of the Macedonian Blogs

2006-12-01T14:58:00.000+01:00

During 2005 I noticed a trend I provisionally named "forumisation of the blogs" from Macedonia, i.e. using blogs as a kind of "dispersed forum" ( Jovan). The blogger plays the role of moderator: starting a topic with his/her post, and then letting the visitors—including many other bloggers—providing comments, sometimes leading lengthy polemics.

This trend is not necessarily bad, but is different from the practice in the outside world, where majority of the bloggers, especially those most successful, use their own blogs to comment posts or articles published on other blogs or websites. Such comments usually consist of:

Short summary/blogger's opinion
Quote, and
(Obligatory) link to the source.

The mutual deep linking in particular (alongside the blogroll) enabled the blogs to rise to the level of new and influential "wave of the future." Mutual links influence increasing the blogs' rank on Google, enabling them to surface among the search results. At a time there was even talk of "blog noise" as major issue Google needed to solve. Nevertheless, Google bought Blogger, the blogs won the fight for their place under the sun, and then they were noticed by the Macedonian public.

Most of the Macedonian blogs that appeared in the last year or two are introspective and serve for publishing of personal views, findings, or literary works. Most of them visibly lack deep links towards other blogs and websites.

I reckon that increase in deep linking will not only widen the horizons of the individual bloggers, but will enable raising of the Google PageRank of the whole Macedonian web – bringing more visits to these websites by new users, especially foreigners.

[Originally published in Macedonian 19.01.2006, translated in English 23.11.2006]

Visa, Forget about it!

2006-11-01T12:47:00.000+01:00

On 9th of November, the international youth organizations AEGEE-Skopje, JEF-Macedonia, supported by the Union of High school students of Macedonia, the Union of Students at the St. Kiril and Metodija University, the Scout association of Macedonia, the Youth Educational Forum and Balkan Idea, with hold a general protest in opposition to the visa regime introduced towards Macedonia.

The protest will start at 11 o'clock in front of the building of the Government of R. Macedonia, going down the streets to the center of Skopje, finishing on Street Macedonia, in front of the building of the Delegation of EC in Skopje.

Link: AEGEE - Skopje.

Tags: visa, regime, youth, protest, forget, about, it, Skopje, European, Union, Macedonia, Македонија, Panta Rei, GoodBytes.

Shields of a Macedonian King Revealed in Prilep Village

2006-10-17T09:07:00.000+02:00

Parts of Bronze shields 2,200 years old, which belonged to the ancient Macedonian soldiers, have been found in village Bonce near Prilep. This exceptional revelation has stirred experts from the Prilep Bureau and Museum because these are unique findings with exceptional scientific and historic value, confirming the spanning of the antique Macedonian state in these areas, as well as the Macedonian identity, says archaeologist Dusko Temelkoski.

The shields’ value is even greater, because they bear the name of Macedonian king Demetrius, one of the heirs of Alexander of Macedonia, stresses Temelkovski, adding that such shields were used in parades by the guard of king Demetrius.

source: - Vest, 13.10.2006

Mobimak rebrands into T-mobile

2006-09-01T13:21:00.000+02:00

The first macedonian mobile operator Mobimak, starting from next week is officially under the brand T-mobile. T-mobile is spread in over 35 countries and has over 90 million users.

Macedonia currently has two mobile operators, Cosmofon being the other. One of the priorities in the platform of the political alliance that won this year's elections was to allow other mobile operators to invest in Republic of Macedonia. If implemented, this strategy might allow for better telecommunication services at more competitive prices.

What's really cool about this rebranding of our mobile operator is that T-mobile will organize a free happening at the Skopje's City Square "Macedonia", with Pet Shop Boys being the stars of the night. The Pet Shop Boys concert starts at 9 PM on September 7^th 2006. Be there!

Tags: Mobimak, T-mobile, telecommunications, mobile, operator, Cosmofon, Republic, of, Macedonia, Pet, Shop, Boys, concert.

Macedonian to English Convertor

2006-08-17T00:58:00.000+02:00

If you need a transliteration from Macedonian Cyryllic (а, б, ц, д...) into Latin English (a, b, c, d...) alphabet (e.g. text from a Macedonian web site), you will probably find this small web application very handy: EN-MK Convertor.

Just enter or paste the text in the "Text to convert" field, select the conversion direction and hit the Convert button. Typically, you will need to select the "Transliterate MK >> EN" option as conversion direction. The convertor is free, very fast and registration is not required to use it.

Link: EN-MK Convertor.

Tags: English, Macedonian, convertor, Cyryllic, Latin, alphabet, web, application, online.

Become citizen journalist and win a prize

2006-08-11T20:04:00.000+02:00

The firs, and so far only, free daily newspaper published in Macedonia, Spic (Шпиц) recently started to publish user generated content.

They have announced wining prizes for the best story of the week, month and for the most successful contributor.

Within the first couple of days they have published several stories and printed several photos from Macedonians living in and out of there own country.

This is not first example of content provided from users (citizen journalist) to be published in Macedonian newspapers, but the previous attempts were aimed only at citizens as photo reporters.

Spic who started in June 2006 is the only free daily newspaper published in Macedonia.

Technorati Tags: Macedonia, Citizen Journalism, Citizen Reporters, Citizen Journalist, Spic.

Macedonia: English Language News Sources

2006-07-19T16:35:00.000+02:00

The following websites offer news and opinion pieces from Macedonia in English, listed in alphabetical order:

Balkanalysis - independent news and analysis group focusing on security issues, providing frequent reports and original reporting, especially based on interviews.
Civic World - monthly magazine covering civil society issues and the development of the NGO sector.
Culture in Macedonia - Government sponsored site which provides updates on cultural events, mainly based on translating newspaper articles.
Idi vidi [Go and see] - the portal of the Macedonian Telecom offers news generated by the Macedonian Information Agency, a government run public enterprise. Unfortunatelly MIA does not keep a public archive on its own site.
Makfax - independent news agency providing frequent updates on political and economic issues.
Metamorphosis - provides original content and translations from the Macedonian press, with a focus on building the information society.
NGO Info Center - provides news mainly based on press conferences of NGOs held on the premises of this institution.
Press Online - internet outlet of the now closed Albanian-language political weekly Lobi, which outlasted its home publication.
Reality Macedonia - nonprofit site, providing news and opinion pieces with decreasing frequency, but has huge archive or similar articles dating since the summer of 2001. Originally starting with focus on security issues and experiences of regular citizens, it soon expanded its interest both to politics and enterntainment.
Sekoj den [Every Day] - provides translations of some of their articles, mainly dealing with local politics.
Skopje Online - information and announcements about cultural events in the capital.