The Macedonian Tendency: June 2008

Monday, June 30, 2008

Beatles Want to "Help" Macedonia!

By David Edenden

Beatles - "Help" (Youtube)

Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I've never done before.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these daya are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me, oh.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush to Macedonia - "Don't give Up"!


By David Edenden

Someone should translate this song and record it, then post it to Youtube!

Here is the video on Youtube













"Don't Give Up"

PETER GABRIEL LYRICS

In this proud land we grew up strong
We were wanted all along
I was taught to fight, taught to win
I never thought I could fail

No fight left or so it seems
I am a man whose dreams have all deserted
I've changed my face, I've changed my name
but no one wants you when you lose

don't give up ... 'cos you have friends
don't give up
... you're not beaten yet
don't give up
... I know you can make it good

though I saw it all around
never thought I could be affected
thought that we'd be the last to go
it is so strange the way things turn

drove the night toward my home
the place that I was born, on the lakeside
as daylight broke, I saw the earth
the trees had burned down to the ground

don't give up
... you still have us
don't give up
... we don't need much of anything
don't give up
... 'cause somewhere there's a place where we belong

rest your head
you worry too much
it's going to be alright
when times get rough
you can fall back on us
don't give up
please don't give up

'got to walk out of here
I can't take anymore
going to stand on that bridge
keep my eyes down below
whatever may come
and whatever may go
that river's flowing
that river's flowing

moved on to another town
tried hard to settle down
for every job, so many men
so many men no-one needs

don't give up
... 'cause you have friends
don't give up
... you're not the only one
don't give up
... no reason to be ashamed
don't give up
... you still have us
don't give up now
... we're proud of who you are
don't give up
... you know it's never been easy
don't give up
... 'cause I believe there's the a place ... there's a place where we belong

Friday, June 27, 2008

Columbus Local News: Region > News > Village's Taneff strives for Macedonia-Columbus link

Columbus Local News: Region > News > Village's Taneff strives for Macedonia-Columbus link:

Village's Taneff strives for Macedonia-Columbus link

By MERYL WILLIAMS
Published: Friday, June 27, 2008 9:37 AM EDT
The Macedonian ambassador to the United States made his second trip to Columbus in a year on Thursday, June 19 very a special reason.

"The main event for our visit here is to open the Honorary Consulate office here in Ohio," said Ambassador Zoran Jolevski, who visited the area with a delegation of five others.

New Albany's own Thomas Taneff was named to the honorary consulate to the ambassador. Taneff served as a village councilman for 10 years and is a prominent adoption attorney. The appointment is the first in the Midwest. There are only two other Honorary Consuls in the U.S.

Taneff, a first-generation immigrant from Macedonia, said he is honored to be the honorary consul for the ambassador, and he has a personal tie to the country.


"The love of the country was instilled in us the day we were born," said Taneff. "Also the love of the culture, music, art, and food."

Taneff said he hoped the office would lead to stronger ties between the Macedonian population in Ohio and their native country.

Ohio has a population of at least 100,000 Macedonians, and a large portion of them live in Columbus, said Andia Sangale, an advisor in Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman's office.

She spoke at the opening ceremony which was held at 5:30 p.m. June 19 evening at the office in Taneff's downtown Columbus law office.

"We're so thrilled to have this office here," said Sangale. "We hope this brings more Macedonians to Columbus."

The ambassador shared some of his favorite moments in his career, which began last July when he presented his credentials to President George W. Bush upon starting his post.

"We had a good discussion with President Bush, who was a good friend to my president," he said.

His proudest moment came this past May, when the Declaration of Strategic Partnership between the U.S. and Macedonia was signed. The creation of the Honorary Consulate Office in Ohio was as a direct result of the signing, which was done out of recognition of the common goals between the two nations.

As consulate, Taneff will work to promote good relations between the countries, and strive to stoke culture exchanges, trade and tourism.

"It is emotionally very rewarding," he said. "I want to know that I might help improve the lives of people in Macedonia and help people here with local business opportunities."

The delegation and Taneff met with the Chamber of Commerce of Central Ohio to discuss benefits of investing in Macedonia, and they hope to see a return on their efforts.

"We've had two good meetings with local corporations that might invest over time," said Gligor Tashkovich, minister of foreign investments, who accompanied Jolevski as a representative to the government of Macedonia.

The ambassador said his second trip to the city was en enjoyable one.

"I hope to make two trips a year," he said. "We now have a strong tie with Columbus."

A reception was held at Taneff's New Albany home after the ceremony.

"It is emotionally very rewarding. I want to know that I might help improve the lives of people in Macedonia and help people here with local business opportunities."

--Thomas Taneff

U2 -Elevation

By David Edenden

This is for my most loyal reader!
Elevation (U2) (See Youtube video here)

High, higher than the sun
You shoot me from a gun
I need you to elevate me here

A corner of your lips
Is the orbit of your hips
Eclipse
You elevate my soul

I've got no self control
Been living like a mole now
Going down, excavation
Higher now, in the sky
You make me feel like I can fly
So high, Elevation

A star
Lit up like a cigar
Strung out like a guitar
Maybe you can educate my mind

Explain all these controls
Can't sing but I've got soul
The goal is elevation

A mole
Digging in a hole
Digging up my soul now
Going down, excavation

Higher now, In the sky
You make me feel like I can fly
So high, Elevation

Love
Lift me out of these blues
Won't you tell me something true
I believe in you

A mole
Digging in a hole
Digging up my soul now
Going down, excavation

Higher now, In the sky
You make me feel like I can fly
So high
Elevation, Elevation, Elevation, Elevation, Elevation

Thursday, June 26, 2008

It's A Mystery - "One of A Macedonian Minority"

By David Edenden

It's a mystery. It seems that 20 % ( 53% as of 27th eve) of the hits to my site today come from the search phrase "One of A Macedonian Minority". I searched Google using this phrase and could find nothing.

I assume it comes from an e-mail list. If anyone has any information about this search, please contact me.

It's a mystery!

Oh by the way ... your other friends are going here ...
Sarkozy to Macedonian Minority in Greece: Drop Dead!

Mystery solved
:

Apparently the answer is "Slav" if you are looking for the answer to the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle. But the LA times is WRONG! "Ethnic Macedonians" speak a Slavic language and are a minority in Greece. See Some Get's It Right About Macedonia vs Greece! or June 6th - "Slav-Macedonian" Rears Its Ugly Head!

Finally
... you may be surprised that Barack Obama supports Greek racism against its ethnic Macedonian minority. See "Oprah, Obama Will Disapoint You!"

June 26th - "Middle East" Beware ... Sarkozy Is Not Trustworthy


By David Edenden

I guess Sarkozy is ignorant of the fact that the people in the "Middle East" can read newspaper accounts of his sniveling performance at the NATO meeting in Bucharest.

What a pathetic tool!
Sarkozy Offers Help in Mideast Talks -
NYTimes.com:

Sarkozy:
I am so constipated, I can hardly sit down!


Olmert:
Israel does have 130 nuclear weapons. One of them up your ass should do the trick!





"JERUSALEM (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy put himself forward on Monday as a possible Middle East peace broker, offering in a speech to Israel's parliament to help reach agreement and mobilize French troops if necessary.

'I ask you to trust us because we want to help you,' said Sarkozy, the first French president to address the Knesset since Francois Mitterrand in 1982."


Mahmoud Abbas: What the f**k happened to my ring?

Sarkozy: C'est Quoi?

Family Tree: Consciousness

By David Edenden

I know for a fact that I have Grkoman (Hellenophile) relatives in "Northern Greece" whose children do not know they are Macedonian. The kids, no doubt have gone to demonstrations shouting "death Skopjians" without knowing that they have relatives in Skopje. Without a doubt they have "Greek Consciousness".

It reminds me of the story of a Polish mother who tried to start a relationship with her daughter who lived in East Germany after WW2. It seems the girl was kidnapped by the Germans because she had blue eyes
and blond hair. This girl, now a woman, would not go back to Poland
even though she knew who her real mother was, because she "felt"
German. She had a "German Consciousness"


Another story from Chile or Argentina about a police chief who
kidnapped a suspected terrorist (female and pregnant) who was tortured
for information. The woman was allowed to live long enough to give
birth and then she was killed because she could identify her
torturers. The baby was taken by the police chief and raised as his
own child. The woman's brother eventually found out the truth and
tried to legally get the boy back. The boy, who was then 16, would not
go back to live with the brother of his mother, even though he knew
who his real family was, because he "felt" like the son of the police
man ... the man that murdered his mother! (Where is Shakespeare when
you need him)

I am sure that if Cyprus is unified, Greek relatives will find a
woman or man in their 30's who was taken as a child by the Turks
during the Turkish invasion and now refuses to have anything to do
with the Greek relatives because of his or her "Turkish Consciousness"

We can then invite Bill Clinton to have Macedonian and Greeks get together and share each others pain, because the Macedonians will know how the Greeks feel.

Family Tree - How my Grandfather Quit Being a Grkoman and Embraced "Macedonianism" (part 1)

By David Edenden

I was doing some research in my family tree and it seems that my Grandfather's Grandfather thought he was being very clever by sending one son to the local Greek School and another to the local Bulgarian School. Had he realized the implications of this action, I think he would not have sent one son to the Greek School. He would have stuck with the Bulgarian school.

In the Ottoman times, Greek and Bulgarian churches subsidized the education of only one child (I'm not sure but it was probably only the boys). The theory being that if one child was provided with free education, the family would them pay for the rest of the children to attend the same school. As in the case of our family, many families sent children to both.

The whole confusing statistics on Macedonia could be settled if we go to each village today and estimate it's population at the turn of the century and identify those villages that are real Greek and those who are "Slavophone" Greek. It is the "Slavophone", Vlach's, and Christian Albanians that fluctuate from one side to the other in these statistics. It is very easy to get the true picture of what happened in the past. With so many "bilingual Greeks" now coming out of the woodwork, it is no longer seem as an obscenity to say that your parents or grandparents spoke "an unmentionable Slavic dialect.

The teachers on both sides promoted their theories of the ethnicity of the "Macedonian Slavs" or "Slavophone Greeks" if you will. What was unexpected was that the two brothers chose different churches to marry in, Bulgarian and Greek respectively. One married into a Bugaroman family and one married into a Grkoman family.

In our village, the Balkan wars and WW1 did not cause much suffering. The Greeks were tolerated since they never physically came into the village. Although the Bulgarian Church and School were closed, the people were promised education in their language. They were not forced to leave for Bulgaria during the population exchanges. There was peace after years of banditry, revolution and war.

The Greeks differentiated Macedonians from the true Greeks, with respect, as Slavomacedonians . Second class citizens, no doubt, but they were not considered to be "number one Bulgarians" which was considered and obscenity. All the villagers knew about the ABCEDAR. It was a reader with the latin alphabet for the primary grades developed by the Greek government to meet League of Nations minority rights obligations. Since to be educated meant going until grade six, that seemed to be enough for the people.

Everything changed in1926 (?) The ABCEDAR was abandoned, the names of the villages were changed, family names were changed. I'm not sure how it happened bureaucratically. Were the people lined up in the village square, with a policeman in the center handing out new identity papers with new Greek names or were people called to the local church and had it done there? Were people forced to be re-baptised in the Greek Church? I don't know.

The "urban legend" is that if two brothers, assume they were sons of Giorgi Popov, were living in different villages, one could have had his name changed to Papas, while the became Papagiorgiopoulos. Another urban legend was that farmers were fined if they spoke Macedonian to their sheep dog. Castor oil poured down people's throats. If they were true, we need to hear the stories from those who experienced it.

What was true was that people were fined for speaking Macedonian in public, relatives informed on each other. Those who resisted were denied bank loans and generally harassed.children were not taught Macedonian for fear of their children making a "mistake" at school. Children with "suspect" parents were not allowed to go "high school" - grade 7. Greek teachers would say to their students, if they spoke "this Slavic gypsy language" at home, a wolf would come and eat them when they slept.

The struggle between Bugaroman and Grkomans ended. Bugaromans lost but Grkomans did not win. The Greeks won and all Macedonians lost. The villages lived under constant petty terror. An elderly aunt put it this way. "I do not want all the Greeks to leave Macedonia. They should leave one in every village, pickled in a glass jar, in the village square, near the fountain, to remind the people how much suffering they have caused".

Life under the Turks had at least the possibility of choosing one's own identity and religion and the Turks very rarely came into the village. Greeks came in with both feet using informers to divide and destroy the village society. To this day, Macedonians have tough time working together and trusting each other.

Under this atmosphere, my grandfather (from a Grkoman family) married my grandmother (from a Bugaroman family). The differences between the two factions seemed to be bridged by their disgust with the Greeks. Having to bow your head to the Greek policeman, a Greek teacher, Greek priests was infuriating, more so because these people were often very stupid because no smart Greek would be caught dead in this area of "northern Greece". To pretend that you did not know the language that your mother and grandmother taught you was humiliating and degrading. To have to laugh at their stupid jokes about "Slavic gypsy pigs" was more than one could take.

In this atmosphere, the communists thrived ... secretly. They promised a 'Balkan Federation" with a united Macedonia. Few knew who Dimitar Vlahov was, or what United VMRO was. All they knew was that the "communists" with the backing of "our Russian brothers" would save Macedonians. To hell with the Greeks; to hell with the Bulgarians; to hell with Serbs.

"Mu baktisa na narodot" (the people were fed up). Russia will save the Macedonians. As far as my father can remember, growing up in this time, he was never a Bulgarian or Greek, he was always a Macedonian.

Although the vast majority of the villagers were pro-communist, the villagers always voted for the royalists. You can't be too careful with the idea that voting for the extreme right would somehow save the village. I'm not sure if it made any difference.

Family Tree - How my Grandfather Quit Being a Grkoman and Embraced "Macedonianism" (part 2)

By David Edenden

The personal rebellion of my Grandfather.

Even though my grandfathers family was Grkoman, (Hellenophile) he felt a solidarity with his fellow Macedonian relatives against the Greeks who pushed their weight around anytime they entered the village.(brainwashed by my grandmothers family, or so the story goes).

One time a group of Greek police (or army?) came to the village and entered the coffee shop where the men played poker, backgammon, etc during the winter months. Naturally, all the Macedonians had to stand and leave their seats to allow the Greek policemen to sit down. Apparently they took all the seats. It was a common occurrence for the police to "show the flag" and to show the Macedonians who was boss. The Greek Captain suggested a "sing-a-long" (yes you heard me). I think it was a new song about Crete (or Cyprus?) that was popular at that time.

My grandfather suggested instead that they sing a popular "real Greek Macedonian" song about "real Greek Macedonians" being the first to be subjugated by the Turks and the first to suffer, but that one day the Turks would be expelled from Macedonia and that "MACEDONIA WOULD BE A COUNTRY AGAIN". Those were the real lyrics of the song, and when they came to the last line, all the Macedonians sung (in Greek) loudly and with gusto.

Apparently, the Greeks were not amused and left in a huff and the Macedonians laughed and were congratulating themselves on this minor successful rebellion. The next day the police came and took my grandfather to the police station in the next village. I am not sure if he had to walk, take a donkey, go by bus or by car. Anyway he went and was interrogated for an hour or so.

The Captain said my grandfather was a traitor and an enemy of Greece. My grandfather protested that he was a true Greek patriot (yeh right!) as can be vouched for by his family. He dared the Captain to prosecute him for singing a famous "real Greek song". The Captain replied that my grandfather should stop being so smart. The Captain did not have to take him to court to smarten him up. The Captain warned my grandfather that if he continued being an asshole, "he would find himself walking with two feet in one shoe"

Ouch!

Family Tree - A Greek in the Family (Yikes!) and a Greek from Albania (Northern Epirus)

My grandfather had at least two real Greek friends both of whom were
leftists (aka "commies").


One of them was married to a distant cousin. He was born in Athens
(more likely a small village nearby) and was "half Magir". He met his
wife while on army duty in "Northern Greece". They married, lived in
"the village" and worked the family farm, and believe it or not, he
learned to speak Macedonian like a native. They had children moved to
Canada. I did not know that he was "a real Greek" since he spoke
Macedonian, as did his children, came to all the Macedonian dances,
picnics and the weddings at the Macedonian church.

The other Greek was from Albania and worked with my grandfather at the
same company. He sat at the same "slav lunch table" (Croatians, Poles,
Slovak, Ukrainian, etc). There were no Greeks working there but there
were a few Grkomans who shared a table. These Grkomans were
"royalists" and this guy could not stand them. Apparently, they also
spoke bad Greek, unlike my grandfather.

Both these Greek friends talked politics over the years with my
grandfather and they seemed to come to a consensus as to how things
should have worked out. Below is a rough outline as I understood it.
Not bad for people with a grade six education.

1. It was a big mistake for Greece to have a German King in the first
place (Catholic or Protestant ... who cares). They should have gone to
a Russia for an Orthodox king if they really wanted one. It was a huge
mistake for the Greeks to fight against the fellow the "Orthodox" in
the Balkans during the "Macedonian Struggle". This was the fault of
those "Bishops under Turkish control" and Melas was their dupe. Turkey
was the real enemy and Constantinople was the real goal ... even
today. It was a mistake to ally with Protestant England against
Orthodox Russia after WW2.

2. If Stalin had not put the boot Tito, the communists in Greece would
have won, a Balkan Federation would have become a reality and solved
all the problems of the Balkans. Everyone in the Balkans would be
free! (with the help God and Stalin!).

3. The proposal for a "united Macedonia" was a bad idea because too
many Magirs in Greek Macedonia, especially in Solun. This cost the
communists Greek support during the Greek Civil War. Unless the
Magirs could be sent back to Asia Minor, a "united Slav Macedonia"
including Pirin would be OK, but minor border changes to include
Macedonian speaking villages in the new United Macedonia. (especially
our village). This would have given the Republic a huge Macedonian
minority.

4. With Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria about the same size, no country
would dominate the Balkan Federation. Rivalry between Serbia and
Bulgaria would have meant that the Slavs could never gang up on
Greece. Croatians, Macedonians, Slovenians, and Albanians (yikes!)
would have been eager to put the screws to any republic that got out
of line.

5. Russia should have helped Greece to re-take Constantinople and to
allow the return of Magirs to Asia minor. This would have kept "the
Dardanelles" in the hands of the friends of Russia. (naturally no
Turks would have been allowed back in the Balkans ... screw the
Turks).

6. Epirus should be united and part of Greece. (screw the Albanians
... except the Orthodox)

7. Unification of Cyprus with Greece should have been part of the
'Balkan Federation" plan.

It may sound like these people were living in a "Pan Orthodox Fantasy"
(I think they were) and it may not have worked out that way. However,
today we can see that in the Balkans everyone is at each others
throats.

Also, after a century of racism and xenophobia (a greek

word!). Greece has no friends in their fight against "their real enemy
- Turkey". Somehow this all works out in favour of the US, which like
Britain, has sold out Greece in the past, and will in the future, if
the price is right.

Farewell to the Bosniaks


By David Edenden


This is a post transferred from my old site. The Bosniak leadership was discussing amending the Bosnian Constitution (aka - The Dayton Accords).


The Bosniaks are lucky that my fears have not been realized ... yet!
By David Edenden
March 20, 2007
When my grandfather and I were watching video footage of Mladic taking the Bosniak males away on buses, he had two comments:
1. "It's not fair".
2. "The Serbs are making the Germans happy, because when any European thinks of fascists, they will think of Serbia!
In Bosnia, Catholics are Croatians, Orthodox are Serbians and Muslims are Bosniaks. This gives Bosnia a certain symmetry which makes it easier to discuss a very complicated political situation .
The Bosniaks are making a huge mistake to try to change the Bosnian constitution for Srebrenica, which to me, seems totally beside the point.
The Bosniaks first mistake was to go along with the independence of Slovenia and Croatia. Their second mistake is to not voice objection to the independence of Kosovo. Bosniaks must realize that they will be the immediate losers if Kosovo gets independence, because what's good for Kosovo is good for Republica Srpbska, not to mention Herzegovina.
Watch for the US/EU to start criticizing the Bosniaks, in the press, as being obstructionist and not willing to compromise. Then you will know that betrayal is in the air.


Calls for Srebrenica secession follow ICJ ruling
(SETimes.com):

"In the aftermath of the ruling, Bosniak leaders are calling for Srebrenica to secede from the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS).

'The territory of the Srebrenica municipality needs to have the status of district and as such should be taken out of the jurisdiction of the Republika Srpska institutions,' the Bosniak and Croat members of the BiH presidency, Haris Silajdzic and Zeljko Komsic, said in a statement. 'We are entitled to justice.'"

Family Tree - Macedonian Visiting His Grkoman Relatives in Canada

By David Edenden

This is a story I heard about a young Macedonian relative visiting from the Republic of Macedonia. He made the rounds to all the relatives including two Grkoman cousins.

Both brothers were married to Greeks. The younger one was married to a fair haired, good looking woman, (probably a Vlach ... as my mother would say), while the older one was married to someone that looked like Maria Callas ... you know the type ... a real Greek.

It turns out when he arrived at the house both brothers and their families were waiting for him. The brothers first starting talking to him in Greek. Since he did not speak Greek, they switched to English. He also did not speak English. There was an awkward pause and they then started to speak in Macedonian.

The good-looking wife of the younger brother, naively started asking, in a chirpy voice, what language are you speaking? How did you learn to speak this language. How come you did not tell me you spoke another language. Probably realizing that is must be the language they speak in "southern Serbia" she said that she want to learn this language. The two brothers totally ignored her, as did her sister-in-law.

The jaw of the wife of the older brother ... dropped. It seems that she must have immediately realized that she had unknowingly been married to a "Slavic Gypsy Pig" for all these years.

Yikes!

Family Tree - Grkoman Lawyer and His Manga Cake Wife

By David Edenden

It seems that a Macedonian met a Grkoman distant cousin at a kids hockey game. He was lawyer married to an educated "manga caksa" ... teacher ... I think.

He sent his fiance to a tutor to learn Greek, before the wedding, because they were going to the "Greeks Islands' for their honeymoon. They would also go to the old village" to show the new bride to his grandparents.

The wife said to the Macedonian:

"You Macedonians are weird. They sent me to a tutor to learn Greek, but every time my in-laws come over they only speak Macedonian. What's the point"

The husband ignored this remark and the Macedonian woman said nothing. Too embarrassed for her cousin.

Ouch!

June 26th - Obama is Very Understanding

By David Edenden

Obama seems to understand everyone except the Macedonians ... because money talks and bullshit walks!
"Obama understands Serbia better":
B92 - News - Politics -

21 June 2008 | 09:46 | Source: Tanjug
WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama has considerable understanding for Serbia’s position towards the EU and Kosovo, while John McCain is undefined, says U.S. analyst John Sitilides.

Barack Obama (FoNet, archive)
Barack Obama (FoNet, archive)

Sitilides, from the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, told Voice of America that Obama’s position was influenced to a large part by the strong Serb community in his home state of Illinois, for which he is senator.

Thanks to the community’s engagement, Obama’s people have got a clear picture of Serbia’s relations with the EU and Kosovo, says Sitilides.

McCain’s position, on the other hand, remains unclear, even though he earlier supported "humanitarian military actions“, intervention in Kosovo, and the province’s unilateral independence declaration, the analyst points out.

He says that more recently though, McCain’s team have been talking of a balanced approach towards Serbia and Kosovo.

It is not that McCain, the senator for Arizona, has anti-Serb views, rather he needs to better familiarize himself with the situation, says Sitilides, adding that in that respect, the Serb lobbies in the U.S. and lobby companies engaged by Belgrade need to start functioning properly.

As far as the two U.S. presidential candidates’ views on the EU are concerned, the analyst says there is no significant divergence of views.

Both Obama and McCain, he says, support a strong alliance with the EU and NATO in various issues, including the war on terror, both in the Middle East and in Europe.

The main aim of this policy is to bolster bilateral relations not only with the EU as a bloc, but also with individual countries.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Help Children in Macedonia

"UMD" and "Splash of Hope "announce partnership
"Fund for Macedonian Children":
United Macedonian Diaspora -

DATE: 06-25-2008
Contact Information: United Macedonian Diaspora,
Charitable Efforts Coordinator
Aleksandra Trpkovska, (586) 383-1721,
charity@umdiaspora.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. & LOS ANGELES - June 25, 2008 - The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) and Splash of Hope are pleased to announce a partnership to form The Fund for Macedonian Children. The Fund’s goal is to invest in the creation of effective humanitarian programs designed to benefit the youth of Macedonia and thereby forge a better future for the entire Balkan region.

The first signature project of the Fund will be a project entitled Building a Future, Today (BFT). The Macedonian Mission for Humanity (MMH) will join UMD and Splash of Hope in the execution of the Building a Future, Today project.

The project aims to foster a positive development for children and youth in Macedonia based upon the principles that all 180,000 primary school students in Macedonia deserve:
• A safe environment that encourages personal growth;
• Hygienic supplies necessary for healthy development;
• Freedom and resources to utilize and apply individual talents, ingenuity, and resourcefulness;
• A strong sense of personal dignity and self worth based on strong Macedonian traditions and cultural values;
• Access to world-class education in order to prepare for the growing demands of a global economy.

Upcoming plans of the project are to:
• Provide educational supplies on an ongoing basis to schools and foster homes in need;
• Provide clothing, shoes, and other necessities to orphans throughout the country;
• Foster a partnership with USAID ’s Primary Education Project in Macedonia to improve the quality of primary education by developing extracurricular academic activities for children; and;
• Establish a scholarship program for Macedonian youth to help them pursue higher education.

For more information or to become a partner, please contact UMD Charitable Efforts Coordinator Aleksandra Trpkovska at (586) 383-1721 or charity@umdiaspora.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

To donate or become a sponsor of The Fund for Macedonian Children, please click HERE.

The Republic of Macedonia is a nation of 2.1 million people situated in the Balkan peninsula of southeast Europe. Currently, Macedonia is the first wireless country in the world and is implementing a project called “PC for Each Child.”

United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) is an international non-governmental organization addressing the interests and needs of Macedonians and Macedonian communities throughout the world since 2004.

Splash of Hope is a non-profit organization founded by Macedonian-Ukrainian-American actor Kristopher Maslardzievski dedicated to improving the lives of foster children in California, and is seeking to expand its vital work internationally.

Macedonian Mission for Humanity (MMH) is a U.S. based non-governmental, non-profit organization that seeks to provide humanitarian assistance and support to Macedonian individuals and businesses around the world.

What Are the Odds ... Last Stamkos Story!


David Edenden.

I would like a "stats major" to compute the odds of an ethnic Macedonia hockey player ... Steve Stamkos, being the number one NHL draft choice and then being drafted by a team, in which one owner is an ethnic Greek ... Oren Koules!

What are the odds?

Oren ... sports and politics don't usually mix, but consider coming out in favour of human rights for ethnic Macedonians in Greece. It would do both Macedonia and Greece a world of good!


Bolts take Stamkos with top pick in NHL draft
- NHL - SI.com:

OTTAWA (AP) -- Maybe it was emotion. Perhaps it was for effect. Oren Koules, who heads the new ownership group approved to take over the Tampa Bay Lightning, is a Hollywood producer, after all.
Koules stepped to the podium at the NHL draft Friday night and announced the Lightning's selection of center Steven Stamkos with the No. 1 pick.
"I can't think of a better way to start things off," Koules said, his voice suddenly cracking as if he was going to tear up.
The Lightning came away big winners in selecting Stamkos during a first-round that featured numerous trades and a major run on what's projected to be a talented crop of defensemen. Stamkos, the consensus top prospect, is already penciled in to be the team's second-line center this season.

Macedonians ... You don't have to live like a refugee!

By David Edenden,

Someone should translate this into Macedonian and record it and post it on Youtube!

Here is the Youtube song by Tom Petty at Live Aid"

Here is information about Macedonian refugees from WW2, still not allowed t return to Greece (a Nato and EU member ... whose values Greece embodies!)


Refugee lyrics | LyricsMode.com:
Tom Petty

We don't talk too much about it
Yeah it ain't no real big secret all the same
Somehow we get around it
Listen it don't really matter to me baby
You believe what you want to believe
You see you don't have to live like a refugee

Somewhere, somehow somebody
Must have kicked you around some
Tell me why you wanna lay there
And revel in your abandon
Listen it don't make no difference to me baby
Everybody's had to fight to be free
You see you don't have to live like a refugee
Now baby you don't have to live like a refugee

Baby we ain't the first
I'm sure a lot of other lover's been burned
Right now this seems real to you
But it's one of those things
You gotta feel to be true

Somewhere, somehow somebody
Must have kicked you around some
Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped
Tied up, taken away and held for ransom
It don't really matter to me
Everybody's had to fight to be free
You see you don't have to live like a refugee
I said you don't have to live like a refugee

June 25th - Macedonians - "I Won't Back Down"!


By David Edenden,

Someone should translate this into Macedonian and record it and post it on Youtube!

It may stiffen the spine of the Macedonian politicians!
Here is the Youtube song by Tom Petty.

I Won't Back Down lyrics | LyricsMode.com:
Tom Petty

Well I won't back down, no I won't back down
You could stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won't back down

Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around
And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
Gonna stand my ground and I won't back down

Chorus
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground
And I won't back down

Well I know what's right, I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin' me around
But I'll stand my ground and I won't back down

Hey baby there ain't no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground
And I won't back down"

June 24th - All Macedonian Hockey, All The Time!

Macedonian heritage alive through Stamkos and NHL brass:
King Sentinel

"Nia Ve Sakam".
This is old version Macedonian for "We want you."
Well, the Tampa Bay Lightning wanted York Region resident (Unionville) Steven Stamkos with the first overall pick in the National Hockey League entry draft for 18-year-olds at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa Friday.

The former Sarnia Sting centre is of Macedonian decent, like myself. Having roots of similar nature, I grew curious as to what NHL players and owners/executives, who come from the same heritage.
During TSN's broadcast of the draft, it became known that Stamkos was the first Macedonian Canadian taken with the first overall pick in the NHL draft since defenceman Ed Jovanovski (Windsor native) in 1994 by the Florida Panthers. He has since moved to the Vancouver Canucks and is currently a member of the Phoenix Coyotes defence core. The 31-year-old has developed into a premier blue-liner during his 12-year NHL career, producing 397 points (109 goals and 288 assists) in 821 games.

Another current Coyote, Mike Zigomanis (North York), also has Macedonian roots. He was drafted twice in the NHL, first to the Buffalo Sabres in 1999 (second round - 64th overall), then 46th overall in 2001 to the Carolina Hurricanes after he couldn't come to terms on a contract with the Sabres. The 27-year-old has spent time in Carolina, with the St. Louis Blues, and now in Phoenix, acuminating 33 points (19 goals and 14 assists) in 134 career NHL games.

Defenceman Steve Staios, 34, is a Hamilton native, whose stay-at-home caliber semantics have him steadily on the Edmonton Oilers' blue-line. He is a proud Macedonian Canadian, who has also journeyed from the Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks and the Atlanta Thrashers (a former captain) during his 13-year NHL career. In 759 games he has 178 points (50 goals and 128 assists).
Colorado Avalanche goaltender Jose Theodore, 31, has backstopped fame and scrutiny, as the most unknown Canadian of Macedonian roots, being from Laval, Quebec. He spent five successful seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, winning the Hart (NHL MVP) and Vezina (best goaltender) trophies in 2001-02, before being traded to the Avalanche in 2006.

The trade could be credited to the netminders' failed drug test prior to the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino. Later it was revealed the failed drug test was contributed by the prescription hair loss medication Propecia, which Theodore had been taking legally for eight years. He has a win-loss record of 155- 176-30-7, with a 2.68 goals against average and 23 career shutouts during his 11 NHL years.
Other notable Macedonian Canadians include Chris Kotsopoulos, Alek Stojanov and Steve Gatzos.
Kotsopoulos (native of Scarborough) was a rugged defenceman who played nearly 500 games in the NHL during the 1980s, with the New York Rangers, Hartford Whalers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings. He was a top defence-minded blue-liner and also chipped in with 153 points (44 goals and 109 assists) in his 10-year run in the NHL.

Stajanov, of Windsor, had short-lived four-year NHL stint with the Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins, last donning a Pens jersey in 1997. He only had seven points in 107 games. Gatzos (of Toronto) spent time with the Penguins as well, between 1981-85, producing 35 points (15 goals and 20 assists) in 89 games.

It's also worth noting that former Leafs' owner and chairman Steve Stavro (born Manoli Stavroff Sholdas), who died April 24, 2006, was a Macedonian Canadian, and current Detroit Red Wing (and Tiger owner in Major League Baseball) owner, Mike Ilitch, is a Macedonian American.
With the praise Stamkos is receiving as the first-overall pick, he could develop into the most successful Macedonian Canadian NHL player ever.

I hope Stamkos represents all Macedonian Canadians proudly with his future NHL successes.
Congratulations to Stamkos and other York Region residents who were drafted into the NHL and good luck with all your careers!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Steve Stamkos, Macedonian, is Number 1

Lightning do the expected, select Stamkos
globesports.com:

Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The Tampa Bay Lightning don't need Steve Stamkos to be the Michael Jordan of hockey.
That was the label former owner Art Williams famously placed on Vincent Lecavalier after the Lightning drafted him first overall in 1998. The comment followed Lecavalier early in a career that got off to a bit of a slow start.
There won't be that same level of expectation placed on Stamkos, who was selected by Tampa Bay with the first pick at the NHL draft on Friday night.
He's walking into a much different situation than Lecavalier did 10 years ago.

June 23rd - Great Review of BEFORE THE RAIN

By David Edenden

This is the best detailed review I have read of "Before the Rain" which was recently released in a superior edition by the publisher of classic DVD films - Criterion Confessions

Even if you have seen the movie and have the VHS tape, this is a must have DVD for your library!

BEFORE THE RAIN - #436

Jamie S. Rich



"Time never dies. The circle is not round."

Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski made Before the Rain in 1994, and it was the first film to be shot in his native country after it became an independent republic following much political turmoil. Thus, it is of little surprise that the narrative largely concerns itself with the nature of violence and the schisms between people, particularly the ones that form in our inability to express ourselves. Or perhaps more accurately, the disparities in the methods we choose for expression.

Manchevski, a photographer and music video director most famous for directing Arrested Development's "Tennessee" (included on this DVD), was quite ambitious for his debut feature. Before the Rain is broken into three separate sections that all connect in some way or another. Like a Kieslowski triptych, you won't always see the connections immediately, but as the writer/director pulls his threads together, the image he is creating does tighten up into something that is, for the most part, profound.

Story #1 is "Words,"


Story #1 is "Words," and it involves a scared Albanian girl, Zamira (Labina Mitevska), who hides out in the room of a Macedonian priest, Kiril (Gregoire Colin). The young clergy has taken a vow of silence, so even when her hunters come searching for the girl, whom they have accused of murdering one of their family, he refuses to admit she is there, neither through words or any other means. This includes lying to his head priest, who expels the two of them from the church once the lie is exposed, making the girl Kiril's responsibility. He can speak now, but they still can't communicate verbally, as she only speaks Albanian and he only speaks Macedonian.

In this simple set-up, Manchevski quickly introduces the conflict that is threatening to tear Macedonia apart. The separate languages is the first line, and the second is religion. The Albanian minority is largely Muslim, while the other Macedonians in the area are Christian. In this sense, Zamira and Kiril are the most unlikely of allies, praying to different versions of God that many would say are mutually exclusive. Though Manchevski is admirably sympathetic to his religious characters, avoiding portraying them as cartoons, I don’t think the director is that sympathetic to them overall. Note how quickly Kiril embraces the idea of a new life, planning to take the girl and journey all the way to London, where he has an uncle that will help them.

Story #2 is "Faces,"


London is the setting of Story #2, "Faces," and the movie takes a hard shift from the rural environs of Macedonia to the urban sprawl of Britain. Anne (Katrin Cartlidge, Naked) is a troubled woman working for a news agency. The vast scope of their coverage is represented in the pictures she must sort through, where a snapshot of Madonna's breasts is of equal importance to more gruesome shots from European war zones. Anne is estranged from her husband, newly pregnant, and not at all prepared for the unannounced reappearance of Aleksandar (Rade Serbedzija, who is probably familiar to many American viewers from a recent stint on "24"). Aleksandar is a war photographer who has just left his assignment in Bosnia under a dark cloud. He wants to take Anne back with him to his native Macedonia. She refuses, not knowing how to deal with her current state of being, and also fearful of the violence happening on the continent.

Of course, in a movie like Before the Rain, Anne is going to quickly discover that as long as one place in the world suffers from violence, then nowhere is safe. An unexpected attack in the restaurant where she is dining--an old, unexplained feud between two men that erupts into something that effects everyone, a microcosm of the world's problems--alters her life again whether she likes it or not. Before his departure, she had noted how Aleksandar's face had changed, telegraphing a change in him. In the final scenes of this segment, another face communicates a much more horrific transition.

Story #3 is "Pictures,"

Story #3 is "Pictures," and it is the longest of the movie. It involves Aleksandar's return to his hometown, where he discovers that everything is too tellingly the same. Old blood feuds are as alive as old romances (Aleksandar pines for his high school sweetheart, who is Albanian), and the changes in the country have only made certain divides grow even wider and less traversable. Aleksandar has come to the same town we saw in "Words," and his relatives are the men who hunted the little girl. Though his intention was to leave the field of battle to find some peace in the familiar, as it turns out, battle is what is familiar.

It's probably telling that Manchevski chose "Pictures" as his main story, that the mode of expression that Aleksandar had been using to communicate the horrors of the world to a populace that rarely sees such violence is the one most related to the director's own. He, too, is using pictures to show the moviegoing public what has been happening in Macedonia. Thus, Manchevski must also feel quite deeply what it means for Aleksandar to forsake photography. He takes only one photo in Macedonia, a family portrait that shows how out of step he is with his native people. Just as the auto timer was about to snap the image, Aleksandar swats an insect. In the picture, his family is looking at the camera, stable and frozen in place, while Aleksandar is looking away, restless, trying to stop a nagging problem.



Anne had told Aleksandar that he has to pick a side, something a journalist is never supposed to do. Cozying up to one side in Bosnia is what caused his existential crisis, and he'd rather stay out of it back home, as well, but his former flame (Silvija Stojanovska) also pushes him to take a stand. It's her daughter that the men have been after, and there are intimations that maybe it could be Aleksandar's daughter, just as even though Anne tells her husband that her baby is his, there is no way to know for sure. Anne wanted to tell Aleksandar that she was pregnant, but when she asked him if he wanted to have children, the expression on Aleksandar's face is all she needed for an answer. I think Aleksandar's eventual decision, however, is not a statement that one can't remain neutral forever, but having chosen one side, he must redress the balance by this time choosing the other--though this is a function of his own code, and not necessarily an overall point of Manchevski's.

Milcho Manchevski has a pretty solid grip on what he's trying to do here. As a first-time director, he shows an exceptionally capable eye for visual images, working with director of photography Manuel Teran (District B13) to create a strong sense of place, from the sweeping, almost epic shots of the open fields of Macedonia to the more claustrophobic, gray streets of London. In keeping the metaphor of the constant movement of time, Before the Rain is a movie that feels like it is constantly in motion, only stopping for the most intimate moments, when two people take the time to stop and talk. I like how the story titles move us from one code to another: from words being the most fundamental of our communication tools, language being one thing that makes us distinctly human, to faces, which we universally share, and finally to the still image, which both freezes time and allows it to travel anywhere in the world.



These metaphors are handled much better than the titular imagery. In each story, there are multiple references to an oncoming storm, the climate of the day always being just before the deluge. It's not exactly a new metaphor, and the execution can be heavy handed, particularly in the final shots, when the music swells and a montage makes sure we understand the full connections at last. Manchevski's independent budget also becomes apparent when the story takes its violent turns. I suppose I could accept an argument that the killing of an obviously toy cat and the London shooter's gun with its ridiculously ample ammunition clip are purposely fake in order to comment on how consumers of Western entertainment view violence, but even if that were true, it's a misguided artistic conceit that takes the viewer out of the movie and undermines the gravity of Manchevski's larger issues. Plus, it's an inconsistent technique. While the footage of real calves being born could be put up as juxtaposition, of how in Before the Rain birth is natural and death by gun is not, we'd still have to reconcile other realistic scenes of violence, such as the children burning the turtle in the beginning.

Of all of Manchevski's artistic choices, the one I find most interesting is his treatment of time. "Time never dies. The circle is not round," shows up more than once in the movie. It's spoken by a priest in "Words," and then it's seen as graffiti in "Faces"--the slogan thus following the path of the rest of the movie from active to still. It's a seemingly contradictory statement since the movie is very much a circle, with the ending of the film taking us right back to the beginning.



And yet, this return does comes as a bit of a surprise. That's because there are several story points that are out of joint. Time in Before the Rain is a wavy, inconstant line that only doubles back on itself at random. In "Words," Anne looks at photos of Kiril and Zamira that she receives prior to Aleksandar's departure, though most will wonder later if he actually took them (as events will show us, he clearly could not, at least not by that point in the timeline). After he has left and is on his way to Macedonia, Anne also takes a call for Aleksandar, someone from Macedonia whom we assume is Kiril and that would lead us to believe the photographer is actually the uncle he mentioned in London.

These happenings cannot be reconciled with where Aleksandar eventually ends up in the story, at least not unless we are missing a chunk of time in Anne's life. I don't see this as a flaw, however, it looks to me like this is by design. It's almost as if Before the Rain is a time travel movie, and Aleksandar's going back in time accidentally instigates the events he is trying to stop. Certainly that has happened in a kind of literary sense, as he has tried to return to his childhood home as a way to escape violence and then becomes a part of it.



It's through this seeming anomaly that Before the Rain makes its most compelling argument for the inevitability of human action and the difficulty we have in affecting change. Life goes on and on, despite our best efforts to help or hinder it. In that sense, it is larger than us. Time is beyond our control. The same priest who first says that "Time never dies" amends that assertion in the final montage to "Time doesn't wait." The final shot of Aleksandar, though, and the beatific look on his face, tells us that this is not a warning to get out of its way, but instead an admonition that we best not dawdle too long before jumping in and at last say what we mean, to at last pick a side.


Heading for the tree of life...?

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Macedonia Get Ready ... The Rain Is Coming!

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall See the Youtube video here
(Bob Dylan)

Oh where have you been my blue-eyed son
Oh where have you been my darling young one
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's hard and it's hard and it's hard and it's hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh what did you see my blue-eyed son
Oh what did you see my darling young one
I saw a new-born babe with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping
I saw a roomful of men with their hammers a-bleeding
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's hard and it's hard and it's hard and it's hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

And what did you hear my blue eyed son
And what did you hear my darling young one
I heard the sound of a thunder as it roared out a warning
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazing
I heard ten thousand whispering and nobody listening
I heard one person starve I heard many people laughing
I heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
I heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's hard and it's hard and it's hard and it's hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

And who did you meet my blue eyed son
And who did you meet my darling young one
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
And it's hard and it's hard and it's hard and it's hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh what'll you do now my blue eyed son
Oh what'll you do now my darling young one
I'm going back out before the rain starts a-falling
Where I'll walk to the depth of the deepest dark forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly where souls are forgotten
Where black is the colour and none is the number
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it
And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking
But I'll know my song well before I start singing
And it's hard and it's hard and it's hard and it's hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Wonder Why Szarkozy Has Adopted The Greek Position?

Turkish Intelligence Activities under Increased Public Scrutiny in Turkey and Greece:
Balkanalysis.com
By Ioannis Michaletos and Christopher Deliso

"There are clear interrelations with other regional issues as well. France, notably, has supported Greece on the Macedonia name issue, with President Sarkozy’s avowed Hellenism perhaps bolstered by his country’s sale of billions in arms to Greece.

The two countries held a joint military exercise in May. As Balkanalysis.com reported last year, France has also been keenly interested in reported oil deposits off the coast of Cyprus, which the country opened to foreign exploration last year- despite vociferous Turkish protests."
Publish Post

Friday, June 20, 2008

June 20th - Nothing Has Changed - Macedonia Still Being Screwed By The "European Powers"

The rules of the Macedonian Rebel Commitee of the Kresna Uprising, 1878
Makedonika: The Macedonian Blog:

1878

The rules of the Macedonian Rebel Committee of the Kresna Uprising

It is well known to all of us that this ill-fated country of ours, Macedonia, owing to the egoistic aims of the Great Powers, was gain left to Turkey after the Congress of Berlin.

As a result of that, in certain regions of our fatherland many scenes full full of blood, known to all of us, took place….

We rebelled as advocates of freedom.

With the blood we shed all over Macedonian fields and forests, we serve freedom, as the Macedonian army of Alexander of Macedon did, with our slogan “Freedom or Death!”.

The aim of the Uprising in Macedonia;
1. The uprising in Macedonia…should be extended all over Macedonia.

2. Those people from Macedonia who feel themselves to be Macedonians and love the freedom of their fatherland are taking part in the uprising.

From the private archives of Cyril, Patriarch of Bulgaria, Arch. of Act 2341, AE 50, pp. 30-61. The Residence of the monastery of Dragolevci, Sofia, P.R. Bulgaria.

United Macedonian Diaspora - UMD Thanks Congressman K. Michael Conaway

UMD Thanks Congressman K. Michael Conaway
United Macedonian Diaspora -
Friday, 20 June 2008






June 18, 2008

The Honorable K. Michael Conaway
511 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

RE: Withdrawal of Sponsorship of House Resolution 356

Dear Congressman Conaway:

On behalf of all Macedonian-Americans, the United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) thanks you for withdrawing your co-sponsorship of House Resolution 356.

Your wise decision to withdraw your sponsorship of House Resolution 356 honors the Republic of Macedonia, the outstanding relationship amongst the United States and Macedonia, and is welcomed by all Macedonian-Americans as House Resolution 356 inaccurately portrays Macedonia’s constructive approach to resolving the unfortunate “name dispute” over Macedonia’s name. Your decision is also in keeping with our nation’s rightful policy of recognizing and employing Macedonia’s constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia, and our nation’s desire that Macedonia be admitted to NATO.

As you know, Macedonia is a strong and committed ally of the United States with combat troops serving alongside American troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Macedonia, like the United States, is committed to the principles of individual liberty, civil rights, freedom, and the rule of law. Macedonia’s transformation from a constituent republic of a failed communist state to a stable. multi-ethnic, democratic and independent nation is a remarkable success story; Macedonia’s continued success and its full Euro-Atlantic integration, including its NATO and EU membership, should not be impeded by Greece’s baseless objection to Macedonia’s name.

Once more, on behalf of all Macedonian-Americans, thank you for withdrawing your sponsorship of House Resolution 356 and for your service to the American people and our great nation.

Sincerely

Metodija A. Koloski
President


June 20th - EU Supports Macedonian Election Terrorists

By David Edenden

The EU has given terrorists in Macedonia a veto in coming EU membership by postponing entry talks because of the violence perpetrated by terrorists!

Well done EU!

Good for Ireland ... giving the boots to these fakers!
European Union gives Macedonia cold shoulder at summit after election violence -
International Herald Tribune:
Friday, June 20, 2008

BRUSSELS, Belgium: The European Union on Friday punished Macedonia for election violence by not fixing a date for the start of accession talks.

An earlier draft statement by EU leaders said the EU was "looking forward" to the opening of talks with Macedonia on possible future membership by the end of the year.

But an edited copy endorsed at an EU summit now merely acknowledges that "further steps" by Macedonia are still possible in 2008 in its drive to join the EU.

Macedonian parliamentary elections on June 1 were affected by violence and irregularities, leading to reruns in 183 polling stations on Sunday.

Those reruns were also marred by complaints of irregularities, including ballot stuffing and multiple voting, prompting Macedonian election authorities to annul the results from 12 polling stations Friday and plan to hold ballots for a third time in 10 of them on June 29.

The EU called on Macedonia to respect its commitment to uphold EU standards on democracy and human rights and to resolve its long-running dispute with Greece over Macedonia's name.

Croatia, Turkey and Macedonia are candidates for EU membership, but only the first two countries have started accession talks.

June 20th - Nato to Turkey: "Wipe the Kurds Off the Map"!

Kurdish child choir case dropped:
BBC NEWS | Europe |

There is far more freedom in Turkey today to speak or sing in Kurdish than when the PKK took up arms, in the days when even the existence of the Kurds was officially denied here.

Private courses in the Kurdish language are now permitted and there is some Kurdish language broadcasting on Turkish state TV.

But there are still strict limits. Those who insist on a distinct Kurdish identity are widely viewed with suspicion and state prosecutors regularly file criminal charges for spreading PKK propaganda or for supporting separatism.

The main pro-Kurdish political party, the DTP, has 20 seats in the current parliament but is now on trial and facing closure. It is accused of having links to the PKK and being the "focus of activities against the integrity of the state".

Kurdish human rights groups also say many children who were involved in street protests that became riots in the south-east two years ago are still on trial there.

They have been charged with supporting the PKK - or even belonging to it.

June 20th - Abuser (EU) Bashes Abused (Macedonia)

By David Edenden

The contempt that EU politicians have for Macedonians is similar to the contempt that an abusive husband has towards his abused wife. He does not change his ways because she keeps on coming back for more.

Macedonia would get more respect if she invited the good cop ... Putin to her side!

The EU's demand that Macedonia "maintaining good neighbourly relations" while ignoring Greek policy of cultural genocide against its ethnic Macedonian minority takes your breath away. Thank god for the Irish!

I had often said that the EU would never allow a country to join if it had adopted the Greek position on the Macedonian identity.

BUT I WAS WRONG!

Bulgaria also denies minority rights to its ethnic Macedonian minority and got in the EU ... not questions asked ... except of course bye the angels at the European Free Alliance.

Question: Why can EU politicians never contract "Mad Cow Disease"?
Answer: Because they are PIGS! (immature - yes ... but also good fun!)

Macedonia told must solve name row for EU talks
Reuters:

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union told Macedonia on Friday it must resolve a row with EU member Greece over its name to get a date to start membership talks, but did not rule out new steps this year towards entry.

"Maintaining good neighbourly relations, including a negotiated and mutually acceptable solution on the name issue, remains essential," said a draft final statement from a meeting of EU leaders.

The draft, obtained by Reuters, said further steps "are possible by the end of this year" if all conditions are met.

Macedonia, which split from Yugoslavia in 1991, has the same name as Greece's most northerly province. Athens says Skopje must use a compound name such as "New" or "Upper" Macedonia and already blocked Macedonia's bid at a NATO summit in April to be invited to join the defence alliance.

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said late on Thursday resolving the name dispute was also key to advancing ties with the EU.

"What I can say for certain is that Macedonia will be given a date to resume negotiations as soon as all conditions are fulfilled," he said after the first day of talks.

"There are some conditions that need to be met which are not completely in the remit of the EU institutions," he said, citing "the issue of the name."

Gunfights and fraud during Macedonia's June 1 elections did not help Skopje's case. In the summit draft, the EU called on Macedonia to ensure that elections due next year would be free and fair, and to crack down on corruption and organised crime.

(Reporting by Mark John and Ingrid Melander; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

June 20th - Macedonia Between Three Rocks and a Hard Place!

Bulgarian propaganda in Macedonia, 1888!
« Makedonika: The Macedonian Blog:

May 9, 1888 Salonika.

Temko Popov to Despot Badzovic

…I shall try to write to you, as far as possible, in our language, replacing the words I don’t know with Bulgarian ones. What else can I do, Despot? While our language could one dictate to the other Slav languages, it has now remained the poorest of all, and like a beggar, it serves either Bulgarian or Serbian….

Let us no lie to ourselves, Despot, the national spirit in Macedonia has reached such a stage today that even if Jesus Christ had come to the Earth, he would not have been able to persuade the Macedonian that he was a Bulgarian or a Serb, excepting those Macedonians in whom Bulgarian propaganda has already taken root.

In order to convince yourself of this, you must have Bulgarianism in view. Bulgarian propaganda has now been working for 20 years in Macedonia, in the blindest of times - when Hellenism, coming from and entirely alien nation, started to take root in the Macedonian heart; but the Macedonians, seeing a ray of Slavism, rejected everything as if eyeless, without paying attention to the difference.

It was sufficient for them to have broken with Hellenism. But what is to be done now i.e. after twenty years of Bulgarian striving, indoctrination and unsparing pecuniary sacrifices?

My dear Despot, everybody does what is natural, but unexpected for the Bulgarians, that is, now every Macedonian admits he is not a Bulgarian and declares loudly his nation, even though he may still use Bulgarian means, not having his own, of course. …

Your friend T. Popov

Narodna Biblioteka, Belgrade - fond - Jovan Hadzi Vasiljevic II 413/III May 9 1988.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Top 100 Intellectuals - 5 Silent On Macedonians

By David Edenden

Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines compiled a list of the top 100 Intellectuals in 2008. What is interesting to me is that five of these intellectuals stayed silent on the plight of the ethnic Macedonians of Greece, even though they wrote extensively on the wars in the Balkans in the 1990's and 2001.

They all seemed to be hot for human rights for the Albanians of Kosovo, the Bosnian Muslims, the Gypsies of course, and some even mustered a tear or two for the Serbs of Kosovo, but nothing, nada, niende, nistho for the ethnic Macedonians living in Greece.

Its a mystery I tell ya ... or maybe a plot!

Anne Applebaum, United States

Journalist, historian
A regular columnist for the Washington Post, Applebaum is a veteran journalist and author of Gulag: A History, a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Soviet prison system



Christopher Hitchens, Britain/United States

Journalist, author

One of the English language’s most sought-after polemicists, Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair and the author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything







Michael Ignatieff, Canada

A past winner of the Gelber Prize for his book Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism, Ignatieff is a leading thinker on human rights issues. He is deputy leader of Canada’s Liberal Party and former head of Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.










Tony Judt, Britain
Historian

Judt is the Erich Maria Remarque professor in European studies at New York University, author of Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books.







Samantha Power,United States , Journalist

 A former foreign-policy advisor to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Power is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. She is the Anna Lindh professor of practice of global leadership and public policy at Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

EU to Greece "Lets Wipe Macedonians Off The Map!"

A Modern Day Ethnocide:
Balkan-Jews :

12 June 2008

Katerina Stamatova-Petrovska
macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/1772/53/

Can one get rid of a nation without being labeled a fascist оr a Nazi?
According to the latest example put forth by Greece -- and supported
by some EU/NATO members like France -- it can be done!

Last April, three countries were supposed to get a NATO membership
invitation; only two of them did - Albania and Croatia.

The third, Macedonia, got an ultimatum instead: change your name,
i.e., change Macedonia's ethnic identity, and only then receive the
long-coveted invitation. And don't forget to put your signature, to
legitimize the unprecedented act of canceling yourself out from the
face of this Earth and from history.

That is what an aspect of a modern day ethnocide looks like. Refined
yet hypocritical, and rotten to the core. Other aspects include
economic embargos, bullying and harassment, obstruction and blockades
at all levels internationally.

Macedonia did not receive a NATO invitation because it failed to meet
the posed qualifications for membership; it met them all. Macedonia
was denied entry because of Greece'a racism directed against people
called Macedonians, complete with their own Macedonian language,
culture, customs, and rich history. They form a minority on Greek
teritory. It is this fact that Greece tries to hide.

"We duly recognize the work and efforts of Macedonia on its road to
NATO accession" stated NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Schaeffer.
However, he went on, because of the alleged "dispute" over the
country's name, the invitation will await until Macedonia gets a new
name to Greece's liking.

Greece objects to Macedonia's name allegedly because it implies
territorial claims on northern Greek territory. Only in the late
1980's, when it was clear that the Republic of Macedonia would declare
independence from Yugoslavia, Greece renamed its northern territory
"Macedonia." Prior to this, it refered to it as "Northern Greece".

Why? That territory did not belong to Greece before 1913 at all.
Greece, along with Serbia and Bulgaria, annexed Macedonia by force and
partitioned it in 1913 without the consent of the majority Macedonians
living there. Greece then illegally acquired 51% of Macedonia's
territory -- teritorial aggrandizement based on greed and brute force.

Soon thereafter, the Greek government began to forcefully assimilate,
expell, or kill Macedonians. The assimilation campaign included
punishing Macedonians severely for even uttering a word in the
Macedonian language, including the word "Macedonia" itself.

If Greece felt that these were Greek people on Greek land, it would
not have expelled nor repressed them.

After all, these events are recent history, and many Macedonians that
suffered the Greek terror and expulsions are still alive. They are
still struggling for recognition of their rights, including to return
to their property in Greece. There are over 2,000 lawsuits as of now
filled at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg related to
the Macedonian ethnocide.

Yet, the harassment by Greek authorities continues, including on
ethnic Macedonians with U.S. or Australian citizenship. Last February,
a dual U.S. and Macedonian citizen was denied entry to Greece because
he identified himself as Macedonian. In October 2007, another dual
Australian-Macedonian citizen was denied entry because he stated he
was to visit relatives in the town of Lerin. Lerin was renamed into
"Florina" by Greek Authorities, a verbal "offense" for which he was
blacklisted. Indeed, by using the (ancient) Macedonian names for towns
and villages, one is considered by Greece as criminal and he or she is
blacklisted forever.

Indeed, when Greece acquired 51% of Macedonia in 1913, in order to
'hellenize' Macedonia it also began to change the ancient Macedonian
toponyms and hydronimes.

It is a disgrace that in 2008, Greece's policies have an ally in the
European Union; it turns a blind eye to Greece's human rights abuses.
Greece is the only country in the EU that does not recognize ethnic
minorities. EU bureaucrats blatantly dismisses the Macedonians'
history and rights, and follow blindly the Greek propaganda line --
contrary to all international norms. The EU conveniently "forgets"
that people have a most fundamental, God-given right to self-identity
expressed by their name, a principle on which the very international
order is based!

The EU should take a lief of history from the United States, where all
can be who we are (and who they want to be) rather than aid Greece's
preposterous demands on Macedonians to wipe themselves out. It cannot
and will not be done.

Greece's forced assimilation of Macedonians has gone for over a
century and a half. For almost 18 years now, Greece bullies
independent Macedonia. It is time for Greece to stop, or be stopped by
proudly proclaiming Macedonian's identity and history everywhere.