The Macedonian Tendency: April 2010

Saturday, April 10, 2010

US State Department confirms Macedonia is the "Pearl of the Balkans"

 By David Edenden

Dear Meto, on your US census form are you going to put down American-Macedonian or Canadian-Macedonian?  You sound like a Canadian hockey player who was hit one too many times by the puck! What's this all about ... "I can't believe the image on the cover ..."? 

Be an American-Macedonian for god's sake! Here is how it is done in the US ...
"As a result of the massive lobbying campaign by the "United Macedonia Diaspora", the employee magazine of the US State Department has a feature story on Macedonia along with a picture of a 13th century monastery on Lake Ohrid on its cover.
You would not believe what had to be done to convince the delicious Stephanie Rowlands to write this article, and sneak it past the admirers of "Greek culture" at the State Department.  Rest assured that boundaries were respected and everything was consensual."
Can't wait to hear the question of the of the Greek  journalist at the State Department briefing on Monday ... fun times.

"U.S. State Department Magazine:

Macedonia's Pearl of the Balkans
Friday, 09 April 2010

By Meto Koloski

We just got a copy of the April 2010 State Magazine and couldn't believe the image on the cover - Macedonia's Pearl of the Balkans - Lake Ohrid, Macedonia!

Then you look on page 20, and there is an article on Skopje, Ancient Macedonia Builds Modern Democracy by Stephanie Rowlands. Beautiful pictures of Skopje life!



Click HERE to see for yourself!"

Friday, April 09, 2010

Dear Howard Kurtz - The 13th Anniversary of Slate's Mistake Is Near!

By David Edenden

I suggest for your April 25 edition of Reliable Sources, you invite the current editor of Slate, David Plotz and former Slate alumni Michael Kinsley, Franklin Foer to discuss the 13th anniversary of this minor mistake of April 27th 1997 and why , as of today, April 9th, it has yet to be corrected. This minor issue can be used to discuss the very structure of journalism in today's environment focusing on the three issues below

Eastern Europe
By Franklin Foer
Slate, Sunday, April 27, 1997

Macedonia (-3.2 percent growth; 50 percent private. Democracy relatively strong: free elections, though minority groups claim oppression.) Though Macedonia avoided the Balkan War, ethnic tensions and instability are a problem. Last year, the country's liberal, pro-West president was seriously injured in a car-bomb attack.

A Greek minority demands that Macedonia, with its ethnically Albanian majority, be absorbed into Greece.

Response:

THE LAST LINE WITH 15 WORDS, HAD THREE ERRORS, IT SHOULD BE REPLACED BY:

An Albanian minority (23%) demands that Macedonia, with its ethnic Macedonian majority (67%) be changed from a unitary state into a "confederation" of two states with their respective ethnic majorities.

Ethnic Macedonians fear this would be the first step to the partition of Macedonia and the creation of a "Greater Albania".


Greece demands that Macedonia change the name of its country, its Macedonian language and Macedonian Orthodox Church because Greeks feels that "Macedonian history" belongs to Greek heritage and there would be increased pressure for greater human rights for its own small ethnic Macedonian minority.


I immediately sent a correction to the writer, Franklin Foer (who is currently editor of "The New Republic"), and then editor Michael Kinsley, to no avail. In the past 13 years, I have made a nuisance of myself sending letters to almost everyone at Slate including "Corrections", "Kaus Files", "Explainer" etc, Plus I posted this letter to Alt.News.Macedonia.
I no longer receive confirmation emails from Slate, so I think that I must be blocked by the "spam" filter. Hre are my suggestions.
1 Corrections.


A few years ago, Howard you were amazed to learn that during the "Jason Blair affair" no one, who was quoted by Blair, called the New York Times to report that Blair's articles were complete fabrications, and that they had never met the man. Their reason was that it would do no good to contact the New York Times, because nothing would be done. I believe that your comment, at the time, was "incredible".


The "comment section" of news sites should be the vehicle by which corrections can be directly communicated to the author. The title of the corrected story should have, in brackets and in bold, an indicator that this has story has been corrected. You are then takrn to the original story, which would no longer be searchable. Sending it to "Corrections" as Slate does, seems not to be working, at least for me. A consensus among leading publication would be helpful.


2. General Journalist vs Journalist/Scholar/Stringer


It is painfully obvious to me that young Franklin Foer (22 at the time), did not have the expertise to write such a story. In the same way that a high school teacher needs to be expert in a particular subject, a journalist must be expert in the subject that the article explores. The era of a "general journalist" is dead. Lets bury it. This model for this old breed is Christopher Hitchens (here) and Robert Kaplan, (here) (here) both of whom have written howlers on the Balkans in general and Macedonian in particular ... yet stubbornly and militantly ... refuse to correct them.


Long live the "journalist/scholar/stringer" (the name says it all!).The model for this new bread is Slate's Lee Smith and Salon's Juan Cole, both discussing "Greater Middle East "issues.
3. Implications for Journalism Schools


All undergraduate shools of journalsim need to close. If I were an editor of Slate today, I would only hire someone with a post graduate degree in journalism, with a undergraduae degree in a specialized field such as Law, Political Science, Business, etc. The day of the English/Journalism graduates are over. Stick a fork in them ... the're done!


Discuss!


Thank you, and don't be a stranger.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Notwithstanding Virginia's Confederate Resolution, Obama! There is no Shame in Being a Slave!

By David Edenden

Obama! There is no shame in being a slave.
There is shame in owning a slave.

There is shame is supporting slavery

There is shame in ignoring slavery.



Obama! There is no shame for the ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece being repressed.

There is shame, for Greeks, in repressing its ethnic Macedonian minority.

There is shame, for EU politicians, in supporting Greece in the repression of its ethnic Macedonian minority

There is shame for US politicians in ignoring Greece's repression of its ethnic Macedonian minority.

Obama, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Barack Obama and "The Banality of Evil"

I'm Not in Love With Obama

Robert Redford: Listen Up!

Obama Ignores Macedonian Cry, Accepts Greek Gifts

Will the Macedonian-Greek Dust-Up Sink Barack Obama

Samantha Powers, Obama's Advisor

More on Samantha Power

Samantha Power - One More Time

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

"The Fray" Editor at Slate Hate Me!

By David Edenden

My comment regarding an article by Christopher Hitchens has been deleted, but my re-posting of the comment still stands as of now.  I have my theories involving conspiracies and plots ... since I am from the Balkans. We will see if light on this subject is indeed an antiseptic.

My comment regarding an article by William which contained an obscenity in the title, has been deleted because, I assume, I satirized the obscenity  in my comment. The original obscenity has been removed from the title, but not from the article, (Update Apr 8 - mystery solved ... no harm no foul)

My link to this site on my Slate profile has been deleted three times, and I have put it back three times. It still stands as of now.
Update - taken down and re-added April 8th

And don't get me started on this Slate atrocity!

If anyone has had similar experiences, please post here.

Monday, April 05, 2010

How Vile Is Christopher Hitchens? ... Let Me Count The Ways.

By David Edenden

I can't read minds, but I doubt that Christopher Hitchens gives a damn about the Armenian Genocide, notwithstanding the article below. 

Turkey denies history—all the more reason for the rest of the world to tell the truth about the Armenian genocide. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine:

"the later erasure of all traces of Armenian life, from the destruction of their churches and libraries and institutes to the crude altering of official Turkish maps and schoolbooks to deny that there had ever been an Armenia in the first place."

 It is merely a sort of reparation payment to his Greek Cypriot wife for abandoning her in England (along with his children) while he takes up with"true love" in the US.

Inaddition to Cyprus, the Elgin Marbles, comrade Hitchens has found time to applaud the cultural genocide the Macedonia people in Greece in their struggle to maintain a semblance of their culture. Along with Greece's campaign to export that genocide to the people of the Republic of Macedonia. Here he is condemning George W. Bush for doing the right thing.

"The unmistakable Greekness of the trove is part of the reason that the Greek government is so upset at President Bush's recent decision to recognize former Yugoslav "Macedonia" under its assumed name."


Apparently it was only recently that Hichens discovered that his grandmother was Jewish, a fact that she hid from her own children. It is still not enough for him to summon one ounce sympathy for those Macedonians in Greece who hide their ethnicity from their own children. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Anyway ... to much time spent on this vile excuse for a human being.