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DEFINITIVE BREAKDOWN: Why Macedonians Aren’t Slavs

Slavo-Skopijans. Slavo-Bulgars. Slavo-Tito-Vardarskians. For a people claiming descent from the great rhetoricians such as Demosthenes and Aristotle, our Greek friends find it incredibly difficult to conjure a cogent and scathing insult against us. Any derivative with the “Slav” prefix seems to be the end-all, be-all argument. After all, it is the Slav communists, together with the Jewish bankers, and the Turkish army that conspire against the Greeks in a fantastic, global, anti-Hellenic conspiracy. For those who have not uttered the name “Macedonia” on social media only to be hounded by a nameless, faceless, group of Greek internet warriors pasting the same canned responses ad infinitum, the Greek narrative usually goes something like this:

 The barbaric Slavic tribes came from the swamps of the Ukraine to the Balkans in the 7th century. Presumably, they were either turned back at passport control at the modern Medzhitlija-Niki border crossing, or they found Macedonia completely de-populated, since the modern-day Greeks completely escaped the Slavic incursion. Somehow, these wandering Slavs managed to displace the Byzantine Empire and impose their language on most of Eastern Europe, while it was the gracious Greeks to gifted them their alphabet. Fast-forward to Tito and 1944, and these subhuman Slavs, now communists, wanting to usurp the proud “Hellenic” history, were artificially made Macedonians by Tito in a bid to annex Greek land. And they’ll show you an out-of-context stamp [1] to prove it!  The Jews are also probably complicit here, but one paranoid delusion after the next.

So what exactly are “Slavs”? Besides the so-called “usurpers” of Greek history, are modern-Macedonians really the result of a recent colonization to the Balkans? Let’s start with the word “Slav” itself and branch out. The world “Slav” comes in its present form from the Latin Scalvus which, in turn, comes from the Byzantine Greek Σκλαβηνος (Sklabenos), which was ultimately a corrupted form the Slavic relation term  словѣне (Slovene). “Slovene” according to most linguists, comes from the Slavic-root слово (slovo) meaning “word”. Put differently, the “Slavs” were a group who could reasonably understand each other, as opposed to the German “Nemci”, whose name literally means “mute”. So did the tribe of the “Word People” somehow manage the greatest demographic displacement in history? There are detailed records of the migration of the Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Goths, Tartars, Mongols, Turks, and other groups yet the Slavic-migration, which would be arguably one of the most massive migrations in recent history, went virtually unnoticed by historians. This begs the question–could the Slav label simply be a new reference for existing populations undergoing a dramatic linguistic and political shift?

Let’s look at it piecemeal.

Historical Evidence

The first time the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire came across these Slavs was under the reign of Justinian in the 6th century, by which time a group of barbarians (non-Greek speakers [2] ) from across the Danube river began to regularly attack the Empire. Beforehand, the Balkans were home to the Illyrians, Greeks, Macedonians, Dacians, Triballians, Thracians, Veneti, Sarmatians, and Scythians to name a few. Most sources placed the Slavic-speaking tribes right along the Danube River, and no source indicates a recent arrival instead referring to them as “our Slavic neighbors”[3]. In fact, Byzantine chronicler Theophylact Simocatta gives an interesting perspective as to what Slavs (Sklaebenes) could have meant to Byzantine administration. He states, “As for the Getae, that is to say the herds of Sklabenes, they were fiercely ravaging the regions of Thrace”[4]. The Getae, however, were an indigenous Thracian tribe that has been recorded since ancient times [5]. It is clear that they did not migrate from anywhere, nor were they previously called Slavs until this moment in history. A possible explanation is that they became labeled Slavs because they, along with other tribes, began revolting against and attacking the Byzantine Empire. More importantly, it was not limited to the attackers; it soon became used to refer to local populations who also rebelled against the empire; some Slavic “tribal” names, such as the Timochani [6], Strymonoi [7], Caranatianians [8] are indigenous Balkan place names, having existed long-before the Slavs ever arrived.

Florin Curta’s 2005 book “The Making of the Slavs” provides scholarly criticism of the so-called “Slavic Migration”

Therefore, Sklabenes, based on Slovene, came to signify a rebel, with a derogatory connotation. In other words, they did not become Slavs  because they exclusively spoke in a Slavic tongue. In fact, some Slavic tribal names have Iranian [9] and Nordic [10] roots. Even though some groups may have used Slavic languages as a lingua franca [11], the important takeaway is that they all became Slavs because at least some of the participating groups used the relational term Slovene to signify kinship. By the time indigenous pockets of population began to ally themselves with the Slavic-speaking groups  and started forming rebel enclaves called Sklavinaes, the derogatory term became synonymous with an anti-Byzantine rebel or marauding barbarian. As Florin Curta, leading archaeologist and historian on the early Slavs says in “Making of the Slavs, “Instead of a great flood of Slavs coming out of the Pripet marshes, I envisage a form of group identity which could arguably be called ethnicity and emerged in response to Justinian’s implementation of a building project on the Danube frontier and in the Balkans. The Slavs, in other words, did not come from the north, but became Slavs only in contact with the Roman frontier” [12].

The idea that the people who became labelled the Slavs in the 6th and 7th century were, for the most part, the same people who existed previously has found more support in modern academia. “It is now generally agreed that the people who lived in the Balkans after the Slavic “invasions” were probably for the most part the same as those who had lived there earlier, although the creation of new political groups and arrival of small numbers of immigrants caused people to look at themselves as distinct from their neighbors, including the Byzantines. [13]” Italian anthropologist Mario Alinei states the Slavic-migration is full of inconsistency, demonstrating that both linguistic and archaeological evidence points to the earliest presence being the in the Balkans [14]. Even the taboo subject of speaking of modern Macedonians in books on ancient Macedonians is slowly being breached. In his book, By the Spear Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire, British historian conceded the point that the ancient Macedonians may have been a Slavic-people that “fell under heavy Greek influence and embraced their culture”[15].

Genetic Evidence

I believe that genetic testing to prove how pure someone is not only incredibly myopic, but only diminishes the best among us. After all, some of the greatest Macedonians in history have been either partially Macedonian or not at all ethnically Macedonian. Many Aromanians and Jews that fought for the independence of Macedonia are just as Macedonian as we are. But since this is the game of racial identities we are forced to play, we must nonetheless defend ourselves. Modern research has revealed the fallacy of using such an approach to explain our “Slavic” origins. In an attempt to solidify the homeland of the Slavs, geneticists isolated a special haplogroup-, a group of similar DNA variations, to be the “Slavic gene”. Named Haplogroup R1a, it naturally showed its highest frequencies in Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus, averaging 65%-70% [16] . In the Southern Balkans, however, the national frequencies averaged only about 15%, not nearly enough to show evidence of mass-migration. More troublesome for the Slavic Migration Theory is that some Scandinavian countries show a higher frequency, about 30%, than the Southern Balkan populations.  Furthermore, the one haplogroup that is the highest defining haplogroup for the region, Haplogroup I2, is simply labeled “Southern Proto-European”. This is not shocking; modern Macedonians differ even anthropologically from the so-called Slavs,  described as being tall and with reddish blonde hair, a trait much more frequent in Central Europe [17].

However, if were to look at the same primary sources and come up with a theory of a great migration, we must take that premise to its logical conclusion. The so-called Slavs, if part of a massive migration, reached into the Southern Greek Peloponnesus region, meaning Greeks are also partially Slavic. It was by no chance that German historian and linguist Max Vasmer’s work in the 1900s, discovered more than 1,300 Slavic place names scattered all throughout Greece [18]. So our Greek friends have an “either or” conundrum at hand–either the Slavic incursions and raids weren’t part of a massive migration, or they were, and most of the Balkans would have been affected by it. But then again if Albanian speakers in the Attic region [19] can magically become descendants of ancient Hellenes by speaking Greek, “abdication from reality” seems to be the filled-in answer for some Greek nationalists.

Cultural Evidence

The Macedonian sun adorned in traditional Macedonian architecture from the 1800s and before.

It is a modern travesty that archaeologists and historians alike go to the far-reaches of Pakistan to look for the remnants of the ancient Macedonians, while completely glossing over the treasure trove of information our culture has to offer. The very core of ancient Macedonia has remained part of our national identity for centuries. Kostur, from whence the Macedonian kings descended, is still proudly Macedonian-speaking. Beautiful Voden, rumored to be the first capital of Macedonia, has a mythical founding by King Perdicas that has found its way into the pages of the Brothers Miladinov in the mid-1800s. Pella, the seat of Macedonian power and the city where Alexander took his first steps, was the birthplace of the modern Macedonian language by way of its native, Krste Petkov Misirkov. The list goes on. Our churches were adorned with the Macedonian sun in the 1800s, more than a century before Greece “discovered it”. Our national animal since ancient times has been the lion [20], showing up in our modern coat of arms as early as 1314. Not only has Greece never decided to usurp this otherwise obvious symbol of Macedonians, but by the time the so-called Slavs came to the Balkans, the lion had been long extinct in Macedonia. Our songs and folklore, once performed by our illiterate peasants, have songs about Alexander, Phillip, Olympia, Caranus [21],  and Perseus [22] to name a few. In 1867, a traveling Jewish salesman (deep breaths, Golden Dawn) was amazed when he heard the Hazhi-Sekov brothers sing of King Caranus [23], the mythical if albeit obscure first king of Macedonia. When asked how they knew such a song, they replied they learned it from their grandfather! Even our first constitution, from the Kresna Uprising in 1878, makes explicit reference to Alexander the Great in its preamble. Defying modern science, our uneducated villagers also knew that Alexander died of a mosquito bite, decades before British researcher Ronald Ross hypothesized this in 1878, and some 100 years before it was universally confirmed that mosquitoes carry malaria. For all this rich cultural heritage, there is conspicuously not one song or folklore tradition detailing our supposed migration from the great Carpathian mountains.

Linguistic Evidence

As Macedonians, we lose little by conceding we do, in fact, speak a Slavic language. Many nations today speak a completely different language than they did in ancient times. But seldom has our language, and the language of our ancestors been properly studied. After all, by virtue of being “Slavs”, we are immediately disqualified from having a seat at the table. Nonetheless, our language proves a degree of continuity between ancient and modern Macedonians.  

  • The Bryges, the ancestors responsible for the ethnogenesis of the Macedonian people, have a tribal name akin to the Slavic root БРЕГ meaning “hill”, an adequate description for hillsman of ancient Macedonia [24].
  • Stobi the Paeonian city, now an archaeological site in modern Macedonia, has a name deriving from the modern Macedonian words СТОЛБ meaning “pillar”, possibly denoting the presence of a religious temple there.
  • While Greeks may claim the true name of Voden is “Edessa”, ancient history shows the original name was ΒΕΔΥ (B/Vedu), meaning “watery”, a clear cognate that shows remarkable continuity by way of of the modern name, Воден [25].
  • German linguist Heinrich Tschiner, in his lexicon of the ancient Macedonian language, has determined the city of Pella, to be a cognate with the modern-day term ПОЛЕ, meaning “field” [26].
  • The Macedonian-Paeonian city of Bylazora, containing the last temple of ancient Macedonian kings, comes from the Slavic roots БѣЛъ  and ЗОРА meaning “white dawn”.
  • The ancient Macedonian city of Gortunia, lacking any etymology in Greek, is remarkably similar to the proto-Slavic root ГОРДъ meaning “city”.
  • Modern-day basic Macedonian words such as ГЛАВА [27] (head), ГРАНКА [28](branch), ГУДЕ [29] (pig), ЗЕЛКА [30] (cabbage) also have roots in the ancient Macedonian language.

Furthermore, there are ancient Macedonian words that are not present in Macedonian, but in other languages grouped in the wider Balto-Slavic linguistic classification [31]. Slavic words that show up in antiquity do not end there, as it is also found in Illyrian, Thracian, and even Homeric Greek [32]. As an example, compare the following hypothetical sentence, constructed entirely from known Thracian words and compared to modern-day Macedonian.

As for the name Macedonia? Recall that blue flower that is at the center of our sun, the ethnic symbol of Macedonians going back millennia. The Macedonian and general Slavic root for poppy happens to be “макъ”[33]. Now, I am not claiming that the ancient Balkan peoples were Slavic speakers. I am not even attempting to claim we speak the same language as the ancient Macedonians. But it is difficult to ignore the presence of Balto-Slavic words in the Balkans before the so-called Slavic migration.

However, let us not lose the forest for the trees. We can look to any number of people today who have ancient roots. Did the Egyptians become any less Egyptian when they underwent Arabization in the 7th century? Do the Mexicans, who experienced near exterminations  throughout history, and who are now mixed with the Spanish and speak almost exclusively Spanish, any less descendants of the Mayans? How about the French, a people descended from the Celtic-speaking Gauls, and who have a Germanic ethonym? As a result of their Latinization, are they any less French? 

But as Macedonians, even if we concede (however inaccurate) that our name is Greek, that our roots are mixed, and that our ancestors once spoke Greek, by what objective standard, applied consistently to all nations, are we excluded from being Macedonians? By what standard should we submit to being called “Slavo-Macedonians” when the world is conspicuously absent of the “Slavo-Czechs”, or the “Latin-French.” When we realize that our identity, is no different from any number of other people, the double standard becomes something much more sinister—cultural genocide. And this cultural genocide cannot succeed, so long that a small mountainous patch of earth, one that means the world to us, remains Macedonia and its people Macedonians.

Citations/Footnotes

[1]  “Vardarska Banovina” was simply an administrative region of Yugoslavia, and in no way corresponded to the borders or names of any country. The same stamp also doesn’t show any country named Serbia, Bosnia, or Slovenia, but instead has their Banovina titles.

[2]Perseus Tufts Ancient Greek Lexicon Entry for “Βαρβαρος”

[3] Curta, 108

[4]  Simocatta, The History of Theophylact Simocatta. IV, 4.7

[5] Encyclopedia Britannica Entry for “Getae”

[6] From the Timok River, Timacus in Latin, which flows through the duskiness of the Škocjan caves. In Slovenian Ti(e)ma means “darkness”

[7]  Strumon, a river in ancient Macedonia. From the proto-Slavic *struja meaning “flowing current”

[8]  Possibly derived from the Proto-Slavic *korǫt’ьsko meaning “rocky”. France Bezlaj, Etimološki slovar slovenskega jezika(Slovenian Etymological Dictionary). Vol. 2: K-O / edited by Bogomil Gerlanc. – 1982. p. 68. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1976-2005.

[9] Curta, 11

[10]  See Guduscani, etymologically related to Gothiscandza, ultimately derived from Scandza (Scandinavia)as attested in Jordanes’ Getica.

[11]  F Curta, “The Slavic Lingua Franca, Notes of an Archaeologist Turned Historian”, 2004, East European Dark Ages: Archaeology, Linguistics and History of Early Slavs

[12] Curta, 11

[13]  T. E. Gregory, A History of Byzantium, pg. 169 (Edinburgh, 1855)

[14]  Mario Alinei, Origini delle lingue d’Europa, Vol. I: La teoria della continuit, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1996

[15] Ian Worthington “”By the Spear Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire” (Oxford University Press, 2014) pg. 20

[16] http://www.eupedia.com/europe/european_y-dna_haplogroups.shtml

[17]  Procorpius, De Bellis

[18]  Max Vasmer “Die Slaven in Greichenland”  (Berlin, 1941)

[19] Edmond About, “Greece and Greeks of the Present Day”, pg. 32

[20] http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/Macedoniansymbols/MacedonianLion.html

[21] “Mihailo Georgievski “Slavic Manuscripts in Macedonia), (Skopje, 1988), pp 161-173, citing “The Anthology of Macedonian and Bulgarian Folk and Art Songs (1909-1910), pp 68.

[22]  “Narodna Volya” (Blagoevgrad, July 1994).

[23] Isaija Mazhovski “Memories”, (Sofia, 1922)

[24] Müller, Hermann. Das nordische Griechenthum und die urgeschichtliche Bedeutung des Nordwestlichen Europas, p. 228.

[25] http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=edessa-1&highlight=vedy

[26] http://www.heinrich-tischner.de/22-sp/1sprach/aegaeis/mak-th.htm#%CE%A0%CE%99

[27] Ancient Macedonian word ΓΑΒΑΛΑ http://www.palaeolexicon.com/Word/Show/26691/

[28] Ancient Macedonian word ΓΑΡΚΑΝ  http://www.palaeolexicon.com/Word/Show/21689/

[29]  Ancient Macedonian word ΓΟΤΑΝ  http://www.palaeolexicon.com/Word/Show/25662/

[30] Ancient Macedonian word ΖΑΚΕΛΤΙΔΕΣ: Cited by the Macedonian lexicographer Amerias, this was the ancient Macedonian word for “turnip” or “cabbage.” According to Dr. Otto Hoffmann, it is cognate to the Brygian word “ζέλκια (zelkia)” or “ζέλκεια (zelkeia)” and the old Slavic word “злакъ (zlakă)” meaning “cabbage.” ( Hoffmann, Otto; Die Makedonen, ihre Sprache und ihr Volkstrum; p. 8)

[31] Authentic Ancient Macedonians words such as ΒΕΝΔΙΣ (goddess of hunt) and ΠΕΛΙΓΑΝΕΣ (senator) are both preserved almost identically in modern Lithuanian and Latvian. 

[32] Homeric familial terms such as ΔΑΒΕΡΟΣ/DAVEROS, (brother-in-law), ΣEΚΥΡΟΣ/SEKUROS (father-in-law), MAIA/MAYA (mother, older woman) are terms still used, albeit slightly changed, in modern-Macedonian. For more information see: http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/cunliffe/#eid=1&context=lsj

[33] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BA#Etymology

 

 

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Greece is the Hypersensitive College Student of Europe

A Tale of Two Pamperings

Update: As of 2/21/2018, in affirmation of the claims presented below,  a group of Greek Twitter spammers has taken to relentlessly harassing a 19-year old Macedonian girl online whose only affiliation to the writing of this article was her ethnicity. 

Ideological purity. Intolerance of dissent. Denial of facts. College campuses in America have been run amock by all this due to a culture of hypersensitivity. Hear ideas you disagree with? Shut them down, resort to violence if necessary. Feeling attacked by the curriculum? Destroy the professor’s reputation. Dislike another group? Exclude them entirely. The impetus for such an inane perspective rests on a three-pronged view of the world:

  1. The validity or invalidity of a statement can be judged solely by the ethnic, cultural, or political association of the claimant
  2. Anybody who disagrees with (1) is engaging in a dangerous and harmful ideology
  3. Repression, sometimes violence, is necessary to stamp out such an ideology.

What’s worse, of course, is the college authorities and campus police that cater to the whims of an otherwise coddled group. While concerning to say the least, for the time being, it is at least localized to a campus setting. No country has yet risen to this level of absurdity…or so we think.

Enter Greece, the country equivilant of a modern-day college student: terrible at saving, selective in its approach to work, and consistently given everything it wants.

While already drawing the distinction as one of the most debt-ridden countries in Europe, few dare also call Greece one of Europe’s most hypersensitive countries in existence. Disagree with a Greek historian? Threaten her life. Offended by the use of “Macedonia” in Indiana Jones? Threaten to sue Steven Spielberg. Overly traumatized by the existence of a Greek-Macedonian dictionary? Assault the academics presenting it. Of course, the problem with Greece’s hypersensitivity does not begin nor end with Macedonia. In 2016, despite previously almost bankrupting the entire European economy and still being given a bailout, many Greeks conjured up fanciful anti-Hellenic global conspiracy theories to explain their problems.

So, why has it come to this?

Greece has long been the darling of Europe and the West; not only did the Phillhellenes of 19th century Europe help resurrect a modern Greek state amidst a hodgepodge of ethnic groups, but being the one country in the Balkans to stave off the spread of communism saw the West pamper Greece with an unearned sense of moral superiority and entitlement. In other words, Greece has been a silver-spoon baby of Europe with its first steps.

Like the trophy generation of today, Greece’s sense of entitlement continues to fuel its hysteria, much to the chagrin of Europe. After all, the West created it. It was the West that first caved during Greece’s tantrums over claims that Macedonia’s flag and name threatened the entire security and integrity of Greece. Of course, back in reality, we recognize that Greece’s military budget is larger than the GDP of Macedonia. But facts do not matter here, feelings do. It only mattered that Greece felt like it was threatened for Europe to respond. Much like college professors caving to the absurd demands of trauma from students reading Shakespeare in an English class, so too did the West with Greece.

Greece can only derive a sense of purpose by feeling purely Hellenic–the cultural giants who gave us philosophy, arts, music, and the New Testament Bible. It has been force fed this continuous message from the days of Lord Byron: “You are special, no one else is like you”. Again and again, it was repeated and reinforced, much like the millennial generation of today. (Unfortunately, none of us is special) The comical “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” might have accidentally shed a truthful side of the Greek mentality when one of its characters stated that he believed there were only two types of people: “Greeks and those who wish they were Greek”. For Greece, being Greek can mean only being  a Greek-speaking Orthodox Christian, direct descendent of Pericles and Herodotus. Anything outside of that narrow chasm is a direct and dangerous threat to their identity. After all, how else can we make sense of a Greek populace that was once partially Albanian-speaking, partially imported from Turkey, and all ruled by a German king?

-Create the biggest safe space in modern Europe, free from all dissent and opposing facts.

The biggest enemy to Greece is not the Macedonians, Turks, or elite international bankers– it is their own leadership, who continue to propagate and enforce a dangerous ideological purity with a brutal intolerance of dissent and change. Greece may herald itself as the cradle of democracy, but it was within the cradle of fantasies and pampering that modern-day Greece was born. And this swaddled fantasy cannot survive, so long as the Macedonians are allowed to exist.

—

The views of the author may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Macedonian Diaspora and Generation M.

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Macedonian Sun and the Little Bird

The sun would always be a curiosity to me, the way it stretches its rays across miles and miles of land, like open arms. How it breaks through the darkest of clouds, still bringing light. Even when you can’t see it, it’s there.

 

This is a story about the sun and a little bird.

 

As a youngling, from sun up to sun down the little bird would play and laugh and live. Without a care in the world and run wildly, as free as could be. It would play hide and seek with the sun, and the sun would play hide and seek with her.

 

They would do this for hours, the childlike nature of the small bird, hiding in the typical Eastern European backyard, between the crops and tall grass. A world so big in its eyes, a woodland of adventure.  They would play for hours until mother bird said it was time to go home. So the little bird waved goodbye to the sun and the sun smiled and waved back “Goodbye little bird”.

 

As the little bird grew, the sun continued to watch over, keeping her warm and strong. The little bird would still play with the sun, weaving its way through the crops and tall grass, only this time, it had to be smarter about her hiding place. You see, the little bird grew in height and that was a certain give away of her location. So, she crawled through the slightly smaller woodlands that she now sees through older eyes, attempting to stay undetected in the shadows. The little bird thought she grew smarter in her years, but soon came to realize, no matter how much she would grow, the sun will always be wiser than her. It’s been through a lot more than her, seen more than her and experienced more than her. And so the older the little bird grew, hide and seek turned into story time.

Returning to the family nest, surrounded by pictures, old and new. On these walls is a story, a story that only the sun, moon and stars can tell.

The sun still near, even in cold weather, it’s rays might not be as warm as they use to be but they still stretch far and wide, crawling through the curtains of the windows, through the smallest cracks of the walls, still bringing light into the darkest of rooms.

 

“What was it like back there?” The little bird chirped with curiosity. The sun smiled. You see, “back there” referred to a land his rays once adorned a land across the oceans, on the other side of the world. In a country full of life and love, history and wisdom, much like him.

 

The young sun rose over a small village in the southwest of this country, and would watch over the hills and valleys. Guide flocks of sheep across the plains, create warmth over the fields where the people would work.

 

Over time the sun would see things that brought pain. He told her of his travels, how he’d spend from rise to fall travelling from one city to the next.

 

On the suns journey over this land, he would spend some time shinning over army bases, travel through harsh winters and summers. He saw poverty and war, great loss and pain. He spoke very little but still told of how he had lost something very close to him along the way, how a young star in his sky was lost too soon. He also told the bird of his journey to a land on the other side of the world. His journey began in Macedonia, travelled through valleys of what is now, Kosovo, Montenegro, across the adorning coast of Croatia and through the vineyards of Italy. Land meets ocean, something the sun has only seen in dreams, in the city of Genoa. Then he spoke of a boat, a grand boat that the people would call the ‘Angelina Lauro’, that would sail from Genoa, across the ocean to new lands.  

Weeks of charting new territory, ocean met land again and sunlight met a skyline. Tall buildings, buzzing neighborhoods, vehicles that raced around the busy streets and a bridge that would stretch from one side of the city to the other. The sun overheard the people below in this new city, call it ‘The Sydney Harbor Bridge’. Yes, this is where the sun would shine bright and strong in for many years.

17 years past and the little bird had grown and so had the sun. As she grew older, so did he, but as she grew stronger, he grew weaker. Winter was coming and the world grew colder. The little bird, now almost at the coming of age, wondering where the light she grew up with was. This was not a game of hide and seek anymore.

 

As the day came for the little bird to leave the nest, the sun was still there but didn’t shine as bright as it used to. Clouds mask the sky, a small ray of silver trying to squeeze through the grey.

 

In all her glory, gown and all, the little bird left her graduation ceremony still dressed and proud, to see the sun and show him all his light has done for her. She stayed with the sun, until it’s time to go home. Holding the suns hand, the little bird said her goodbyes, the sun whispered back. “Goodbye little bird”

 

A week since I visited the sun, I wake up to a different setting…today there is no more sun.

 

I sit on the balcony of the little house on the hill which my grandfather spent 45 years building from brick work to a family, overlooking the small Sydney based town in front of me, in the far distance, the same skyline my grandfather would talk about. The city of Sydney.

 

Months pass and all the crops which I would once play in are now withered away or are too small to hide between anymore. Storms would rage without end for days, months…I still refuse budge from the dark place I was trapped in. Until one day, the storm had calmed. After the long wait, the light I never expected had returned, the clouds dipped in silver and the light shining through the rain, a sun shower.

My Sun has returned, but this time, my sun was above me rather than next to me holding my hand. The world continues to spin and the stories the sun would tell me; I carry with me to tell another day.

 

The sun would always be a curiosity to me, the way it stretches its rays across miles and miles of land, like open arms. How it breaks through the darkest of clouds, still bringing light. Even when you can’t see it, it’s there.

 

 

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On This Day: Death of Jane Sandanski

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Macedonian revolutionary Jane Sandanski, a legendary commander of VMRO and the Macedonian struggle for freedom. Nicknamed “The Tsar of Pirin”, Jane was born around his namesake in the village of Vlahi, present-day Bulgaria. Even from an early age, Jane was steeped in a revolutionary milieu–his father was a leading figure in the local militia in the 1878 Kresna Uprising, which produced Macedonia’s first constitution. Even when playing a game of war as children, Jane would always take on the role of the Macedonian komita. However, the defeat of the uprising saw Jane’s family move to Dupnica, a town near Kyustendil, Bulgaria. Entering high school, as was the case for many Macedonians, was Jane’s formal exposure to the revolutionary ideas that spoke of an independent Macedonia–a home for all of Macedonia’s ethnic groups to live side-by-side in peace.

By 1892, as well-paying jobs within Macedonia were scarce, Jane joined the Bulgarian Army which helped to mold the patriotic mindset into a a skilled leader of military forces. Despite being a Macedonian in Bulgaria, he still remained connected to his homeland and the revolutionary movement starting within, To do his part, Jane formed a Macedonian youth organization called “Mladost”. Further exposure to VMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization), including a historic meeting with Goce Declev, saw Jane dedicate his life to the movement.

Jane in military uniform. (Mario Hristovski collection)

Recognizing his military prowess, Goce appointed Jane as military commander of Serress–a highly contested region often the scene of vicious pro-Bulgarian propaganda. However, as the village was relatively weak and impoverished, Jane took to alternative means to raise funding and awareness for the situation of Macedonians. In 1901, 18 komiti rebels under Jane’s command kidnapped Protestant missionary Miss Ellen Stone, and her friend Katerina Cilka. Dubbed America’s first international hostage situation, the event was widely circulated in Western media outlets. Most surprisingly, however, was that the hostages would eventually begin to sympathize with the movement and even celebrated the birth of Katrina’s daughter with the rebels–an early form of Stockholm syndrome. Evading both the Ottoman and Bulgarian Supremacist forces, the two were held by Jane’s komiti for about 6 months, after which they were released for a ransom of 14,000 Turkish lira.

 

The Miss Stone Affair (From Wikipedia)

By 1903, many leaders became dangerously confident that an armed uprising was finally achievable. Jane, following the Goce school of thought, adamantly disagreed and said the Macedonian population was not nearly prepared. Not wanting to cause dissent, Jane did not object to being overruled and he launched an attack on the Turkish forces in Serres during the ill-fated Ilinden Uprising. While the Aegean Macedonian regions saw more success in liberating territory, the nucleus of the revolution, Krusevo, fell within 10 days.

Jane, however, was quick to point out that such a defeat would create a vacuum that Macedonia’s neighbors could seek to exploit. By 1904, Jane had re-directed his fighting towards Bulgarian militias, often armed by the rival Supreme Macedonian Committee in Sofia. It was during this time that VMRO started factionalize around its relationship with Bulgaria. The conservatives, though in principle opposed to Bulgarian assistance began to accept as a necessity after the Ilinden uprising. The liberals headed by Jane, however, outright rejected all forms of aid from Bulgaria, and actively fought against their influence. Their views centered around the idea of an independent Macedonia, possibly part of a larger Balkan federation, but staunchly outside the realm of the Principality of Bulgaria. Another faction, the third so-called circle, was headed by Boris Sarafov, a former Supremacist member who advocated the use of terrorism and publicity to pursue the goals of the movement.

Seeing the turmoil both within VMRO and the Ottoman Empire, Sandanski directed his attention towards political activism and reform within the Ottoman Empire itself. He became integrated with the 1908 Young Turks Movement, which pushed for a series of reforms and a return to the 1878 Constitution which made all subjects Ottomans under the law. By doing so, everyone, regardless of their religion had the right to liberties such as freedom of press and free education. When Sultan Abdul Hamid II attempted to reverse his position on the constitution once more, Jane joined thousands of others in the wider Young Turk revolution on a march to Constantinople to overthrow the Sultan and replace him with his half-brother, who would be the last Sultan.

During the outbreak of the Balkan Wars, Jane again used his military prowess to organize the komiti. His forces captured many cities in the Pirin region, before finally joining “allied” Greek forces on a march to Salonica. Initially believing that Macedonia had been freed with the assistance of the Balkan states, reality soon took a turn for the force as Macedonians realized that the Greeks, Bulgarians, and Serbs did not intend to leave Macedonia after the removal of the Ottomans. Fighting soon broke out once more between the previous allies over the division of Macedonia, and launched the Second Balkan War.

Jane attempted to repel the new invaders, and even resorted to strategically using the Bulgarian army in many cases. With the final partition of Macedonia on August 10th, 1913, Jane retreated to his domain, the Pirin Mountain, fully encircled by new enemies. On April 22nd, 1915, Jane was ambushed on likely orders from the Bulgarian king Ferninand in mountains around the town of Nevrokop.  The death of the Tsar was mourned by Macedonians all over, and his legacy and fight for an independent Macedonia remains enshrined in our folklore, songs, and memory.

Macedonian reference to Jane Sandanski, the “Tsar of Pirin” as having been killed by the “evil-doing hand of the Bulgarians” (Archiva Ministerul externe RS Romania, fond No. 21, Konstantinopol, politice, vol. 61, Microfilm, Archive of Macedonia, Skopje)

His life-view on the long and continuous fight for Macedonia, both militarily and diplomatically, is summed up by his famous quote: “To live means to fight! The slave fights for freedom, and the free man for perfection!”  102 years later, we continue Jane’s fight for perfection in Macedonia.

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The views of the author may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Macedonian Diaspora and Generation M.

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Macedonia 2001: Uncovering the Truth

Over the past couple of decades, a lot has happened in the Balkan region ranging from ethnic tension and small conflict to full-scale war.  One nation that has traditionally dealt with fewer ethnic issues would be the Republic of Macedonia.  Macedonia has long been considered the “Switzerland of the Balkans”, having been able to avoid bloodshed on its way to independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.  In this role as the supposed land of peace, Macedonia has been the homeland of ethnic Macedonians and also served as a secure multicultural land for many other diverse ethnic groups, such as Albanians, but also Turks, Roma, Vlachs, and Serbs, among others. For a long time there have been minor conflicts between Macedonian-Albanians and ethnic Macedonians, but generally the two groups of people have had little trouble coexisting.  Broadly speaking, these groups have both lived side-by-side for hundreds of years and have been able to look passed the ethnic and religious differences.  Nonetheless, there have been cases where this peace has been challenged, especially between 1999-2001, when an overflow of Kosovo refugees entered Macedonia.

The 3-year span during 1999-2001 has undoubtedly played a large role in influencing the growth and stability of Macedonia today.  However, to adequately assess what has happened in the country we must first uncover the root cause of ethnic tension.  Let’s start with the late 1960’s, when ethnic clashes in Macedonia became more vivid.  In November 1968, there were intense nationalistic uprisings taking place in Pristina, Kosovo (then part of Yugoslavia) leading up to Albanian Independence Day.  These protests were a by-product of ethnic Albanian demands for increased autonomy in the years following WWII.  Just a month later, the same types of riots took place in Tetovo (a city in northwest Macedonia), and it appeared that Macedonian-Albanians had followed the trend of their neighbors in Kosovo. However, this chain of events is a bit more complicated than it appears.  One prominent professor of Turkish studies, Isa Blumi, makes the intriguing argument that these protesters in Tetovo were actually Kosovar Albanians who fled Pristina after fierce suppression from Yugoslavian armed forces—this would explain where unrest within Macedonian territory stems.  Other established scholars from the region have shared similar sentiment, implying that the ethnic issues in Macedonia have long been associated with instability in Kosovo.  Biljana Vankovska-Cvetkovska, a well-known professor at the University of Skopje sums it up best in her 1999 article, stating, “One can notice that almost every tension in Macedonia has been a reflection of the influx of Kosovo activists rather than a result of an authentic activism of Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians.” It is crucial to understand this because it exposes the often-forgotten reality of the situation: Macedonian-Albanians were not inherently anti-Macedonian and never really were, but they have frequently been influenced directly and indirectly by the Kosovars over the past several decades.

Source: CNN

Now, let us fast-forward to 1981, where this situation grew more complicated. One common misnomer is the perception that the Albanian minority in Macedonia has not had proper rights—and this is simply untrue.  A fairer evaluation would acknowledge that Albanians were somewhat underrepresented in political and economic institutions in the early 1980’s, which is certainly something that needed to be addressed.  However, to surmise that this alone would create a basis for ethnic conflict in Macedonia would be a major overstatement, especially given the fact that Macedonian-Albanians have traditionally been seen as one of the better-treated minorities in all of the Balkans.  Moreover, there are many other minorities that have had more constrained representation in the Macedonian government but violent measures were never taken because of it. In other words, there are dozens of nations all over the world that have had issues incorporating an appropriate proportion of minorities into political and economic sectors, and this often leads to a degree of political discourse—but never a full-scale insurgency such as the one in Macedonia during 2001.  Now that the foundation of this discussion has been laid, we are able take a closer look at the infamous conflict itself and where it began.   

Prior to 1999, there were major clashes taking place in neighboring Kosovo between the Kosovar Albanians and Serbian government, under the watch of Slobodan Milosevic.  The Serbian government, in an effort to express its control over the territory of Kosovo, killed thousands of Kosovars, prompting international intervention. NATO, in 1999, decided the best course of action was to evacuate huge groups of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and let them seek refuge elsewhere— primarily in Macedonia and Albania.  This was problematic for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, because NATO sent over 360,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo into Macedonia, a country of just 2 million people.  It is interesting to note that there was immense international pressure on the young country to undertake these refugees, with the understanding that many of them were supposed to be heading towards Albania proper.  The whole operation put a major strain on the Macedonian people and government, having undertaken a large group of refugees that amounted to approximately 15% of its total population.  To put this into perspective, imagine the United States taking in 50 million refugees from Mexico; the problems that it would cause the citizens and government are inconceivable. It is highly unlikely that the United States would take in so many refugees, but that’s precisely the ratio of migrants Macedonia was taking relative to its population in 1999 during the Kosovo conflict.  

A Macedonian policeman walks ahead of a group of refugees crossing the border checkpoint of Blace, some 25 kms north of the Macedonian capitol Skopje 24 April 1999, after their arrival from Kosovo by train. Source: European Pressphoto Agency / Georgi Licovski

Aside from this major misstep by NATO and many western powers, greater concerns exist when it comes to Macedonia’s well-being. An even bigger issue is the constant reference from mainstream global media describing the 2001 conflict as being a near “civil war”. What took place on Macedonian land in 2001 was terrorism at its worst. The extremists of the Kosovo Liberation Army (or KLA), led by Ali Ahmeti, had a chief goal of taking over the western territory of Macedonia and dividing the state. The dream of these radical guerrilla fighters was to create a “Greater Albania”.  One of Ahmeti’s commanders explicitly said this after the conflict ended, stating,  “like all wars, ours was for territory–not because of some “human rights” problem!”.   This is what the west does not seem to understand (or chooses not to understand)–the fight in 2001 was not  for “greater rights” on behalf of Macedonian-Albanians, but was a legitimate attempt to destabilize the country and take over the predominantly Albanian western territory.   Just because there was violence done upon the people of Kosovo by the Serbian government, this does not and should not permit ethnic Albanian extremists to attack and terrorize a nation that did nothing to provoke such violence.  It is at this juncture where the international community failed by taking a deplorably soft approach post-2001 when dealing with these terrorists, an approach that has not helped the situation in the slightest. For this reason, it is imperative that the rest of the world takes a closer look at the situation in Macedonia from a different vantage point.

One thing that will inevitably not be forgotten by the people of Macedonia is what became of the KLA terrorists—thanks to the Ohrid Framework Agreement and international pressure for peace the vast majority of them were granted amnesty. Several of these same KLA extremists (i.e Ali Ahmeti, Talat Xhaferi) who attempted to destroy the unity of the Macedonian homeland and instill fear amongst its citizens now possess power in some of the most influential political offices. In the vast majority of democracies around the world, it is doubtful that such criminals would even be granted forgiveness let alone serve the people of the country they tried to demolish.  Having allowed these kinds of guerrilla fighters the right to serve in the domestic government has only incited violence and created unnecessary ethnic hatred amongst Macedonians and Albanians.

“Our aim is solely to remove [Macedonian] Slav forces from territory which is historically Albanian” – Ali Ahmeti to a western journalist in March 2001. Source: The Coming Balkan Caliphate
The biggest problem that remains is a continued tension ever since this conflict between Macedonians and Albanian extremists in 2001.  Macedonians feel threatened by the possibility of another Albanian uprising, and Albanians who have lived in Macedonia their whole lives feel unfairly blamed for a conflict they had no hand in.  This conflict is all too often made into an issue of Macedonians and Albanians hating each other, and to many outside of the Balkans this is “just another fight in a region that just can’t seem to get along”.  And yes, there was a faction of Albanians (mostly based from Kosovo) that did pose a major threat and had a strong hate for the Macedonian government, but this does not accurately represent the Macedonian Albanians.  There were (and still are!) a large group of Albanians who never even considered supporting this violent action and had no reason to dislike the Macedonians or their government.  However, the external actions of political leaders in both Kosovo and Albania have made ethnic harmony difficult, especially in recent months.

When it comes to relations with Kosovo since their independence, Macedonia has been a great ally. The country has practiced good neighborly relations on countless instances: Macedonia welcomed a large amount of Kosovo refugees during 1999, recognized Kosovo knowing that it would severely hinder relations with Serbia, supported Kosovo’s UNESCO membership, and consistently helped Kosovo have a seat at the table. Macedonia has served as Kosovo’s top supporter in the Balkans after Albania.  One recent development that has caused instability and brought further resentment from the Macedonian people and government is interference in Macedonia’s internal affairs by Edi Rama, Albania’s Prime Minister. Prior to Macedonian parliamentary elections, Rama invited the main Albanian parties in Macedonia to attend a meeting in Tirana to discuss a joint political platform for all Albanians. This is a clear overstep by Rama and it can only breed further instability in Macedonia—Edi Rama does not have the right to exert influence on a foreign nation. Other provocations have come from Hashim Thaci, the President of Kosovo. He has harshly criticized the actions of President Gjorge Ivanov, who refused to grant the government mandate to SDSM and its coalition with three Albanian parties. It is these types of provocations that make it challenging to maintain ethnic cohesion within Macedonia.

With all factors considered, the main takeaway here is this: NATO and other western powers were the largest culprits of this conflict and its aftereffects, because they put groups of people into a place and situation that was ripe for violence to break out.  Knowing the history and vulnerability in allowing Kosovars to flood into Macedonia should have immediately deterred them from implementing this plan. In the end, the ones who have suffered most are Macedonian citizens of all backgrounds, and the effects of this are still felt today—people and government have both become more polarized than ever, creating a highly unstable and increasingly nationalistic atmosphere.

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The views of the author may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Macedonian Diaspora and Generation M.

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Growing Up a Diasporan Series – The Macedonian Home

Toronto Dance Ensemble "Makedonka" Source: Youtube Screenshot

Being a part of a Macedonian home in the Western world is interesting. You have a lot of things to learn, a lot of rules to follow, and a lot of cooking and cleaning to do. These are the circumstances most diaspora members experience in the Macedonian household.

Thankfully, when it comes to keeping Macedonian culture in this household, parents typically push their children to learn how to speak both Macedonian and another language. In my case, like many others, I learned to speak Macedonian first, but then I stopped because I had to learn English for school. I later learned to speak it thoroughly when I was 7. Having children go through this means that the Macedonian culture will still be able to live on in other places. Unfortunately, in many instances,  the culture has had to be put on the back-burner due to the immediate need of a family to assimilate and acclimate to a new location.

Typical Macedonian households, aside from valuing Macedonia’s culture and language, also value education. Parents usually hold their struggle to get here over their children to ensure they work hard because they “came here so you could get a better education and future”—meaning excellent grades must be maintained. This staple argument rebuttal is used to remind children where they came from and how to do something to show that there is a higher purpose to the sacrifices that have been made for them. I would be lying if I didn’t say that this mean getting almost straight A’s for as long as I could remember.

Not only does being in a Macedonian household change one’s habits, it also changes their taste buds. Being in a common Macedonian household means a feast of traditional Macedonian dishes is guaranteed– even for the smallest of gatherings. Whether that is for coffee or for a slava, parents and grandparents try to teach the youth as many recipes as they can to ensure that when they are off on their own one day,  they can learn to make these for their own children, and try to keep their Macedonian culture alive. Don’t get me wrong- I could go for a typical Western meal any day, but burek, gravče and sirenje will always have a special place in my heart.

The Macedonian parenting style in Western culture is very hard to find a balance in. For instance, you might drink your first glass of rakija before you enter high school, but might not be able to go out past 10 pm unless you’re with Macedonians. Unfortunately, having this diaspora lifestyle means that your social life is barely existent unless you’re with Macedonians. For instance, if you had to go to dinner with Rachel from school, you wouldn’t be allowed. However if you were going to a party with Bojana, they wouldn’t care as much- after all, naši sme right?

All of these little lessons taught from Macedonian households that are still adapting to a new society teach great skills of independence, hospitality and heritage. Although unconventional to onlookers, new generations of Macedonians are going to go far with what they have obtained in their household. However, in all of these a common thread of one lesson can be learned, which is to raise Macedonian kids to be proud of who they are. It is the best way for us to help our homeland, by raising Macedonians invested in helping our ancestral land and being able to make changes.

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The views of the author may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Macedonian Diaspora and Generation M.

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Jana Burćeska’s Exploration of Virtual Reality in “Dance Alone”

While Jana Burćeska infectious pop ballad finds itself to be easily one of the best entries Macedonia has had for Eurovision in years, it also raises some interesting, (and quite sophisticated) questions and assumptions as to where the nature of virtual reality will head next.

In her video, an elderly version of Jana is seen in a neutral toned room, with shattered glass and plates, and a shot of a former lover it is presumed next to a VR headset. Elderly Jana runs her fingers along her skin, pushing her hair up in an updo, before a panning shot of her hand picks up the glasses, places them over her face. She is immediately thrust into a much more modern setting of the same room with the man in the photograph we see at the beginning of the music video dancing alongside her. Shots of a much younger and playful Jana are intercut with bright flashes of red and blues that demonstrate what she is actually seeing through her VR headset. The VR headset functions as a way for Jana to relive her past to relive moments of dancing with a loved one.

And pretty sophisticated ideas are explored : Can VR be a stand in for people to be able to relive precious moments?

 

Most VR is used and implemented in video games allowing its user to to be involved in a completely immersive experience. Along with gaming, virtual headsets, specifically the Oculus Rift, are trying to break through to different forms of media such as film. Spherical videos (which are also known as 360 degree videos) can be viewed by the user by simply moving the user’s head around creating a full space and which you’ve probably seen as an option in some of the Youtube videos you’ve come across.

As for the social implementations of VR in it’s current state, VR developers are currently testing ways to allow multiple users to inhabit a shared space and to interact with objects. Some VR headsets are also used for treatment for patients suffering from PTSD and this form of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy is used for the reduction, primarily, of PTSD in veterans.

 While VR is in the works to be a household item in the next few decades, this implemented technology and its ability to traverse different forms of media allow it to affect and appeal to many different people – especially to people who want to relive

Jana removing the VR headset.

specific moments and times in their lives. Currently in development, there are multiple VR platforms that allow users to record moments, functioning like a camera, as it records a video and creates a 360 degree version of the file. You’ll be able to recreate the moment you tied your cousin’s shoe, a night out with friends in Bitola, or the time you had your first swig of rakija. But while VR might be a fantastic way for us to document and save our most cherished memories, there is a danger that VR poses like any other new form of technology – it may affect our interpersonal skills and affect our ability to relate to actual reality. We could use VR as a means of escape – as perhaps an addictive alternative to the real world.
 At the end of Jana’s video, we see her young self lift her headset off her head, and she is thrust back into the reality- and we realize the room is the same as it has been for years – The broken glass in the same spot, the frame in the same corner of the room suggesting our elderly Jana and her complete negligence of the room’s state, and of her own. While VR can replicate and allow us to feel certain things once more , we will still find ourselves “dancing alone.”

 

[trx_infobox style=”regular” closeable=”no” color=”#FFFFFF” bg_color=”#E60209″]         Best wishes and luck to Jana Burćeska this year at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv![/trx_infobox]

If you are interested in VR, please be sure to visit Kinetiqreality.com, a Macedonian company providing world-class virtual reality technology

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The views of the author may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Macedonian Diaspora and Generation M.

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Internet Connectivity in Macedonia – Why It Matters

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%86%D0%B8_04.jpg
The village of Ivankovci near Veles, Macedonia.

Walking down the roads of the village Ivankovci in Veles, one can truly appreciate the way that the picturesque architecture complements the trees and grasses on the hillside. With peaks reaching up to the sky, the air is pure. The lifestyle is simple and comfortable. But, a trip to the more developed metropolitan areas, such as Skopje, reminds one of the stark differences between the rural and the urban realms of Macedonia. And one important difference is affordable Internet access.

Access to affordable Internet, a privilege that many of us who have gone to *stranstvo take for granted, was scarce in the beginning of the 21st century for Macedonian citizens. This scarcity was particularly problematic because while the rest of the world was quickly integrating the Internet into every aspect of daily life, students in Macedonian schools rarely if ever had access to the wealth of information available on-line. In just under a decade, however, all of that would change.

With the support of USAID, the approximately 460 primary and secondary schools throughout Macedonia now have access to this important resource for education in the modern world. USAID also provided many of the same resources to institutions for higher education. Modernizing education in Macedonia by providing Internet access was accomplished through several programs, spanning the years from 2001 to 2007. The time-line of events and initiatives is as follows:

  • 2001: USAID provided funding to South East European University in Tetovo, Macedonia. This allowed the University to acquire up-to-date technology for its’ computer center and library, as well as hire instructors that teach business administration and computer science and technology courses.
  • 2002: The USAID’s Creative Teaching and Learning Project installed 63 media labs with computers capable of accessing the Internet in 45 primary schools and 18 secondary schools.
  • 2003: Due to the progress so far, only 4% of the whole population had Internet access.
  • 2005: Through the E-School Project, USAID installed computer labs in the primary and secondary schools in Macedonia. First, the 2,000 computers donated from China were installed in all 100 of the secondary schools. Then, another 3,300 computers were installed in wireless labs in the 360 primary schools.
  • September, 2005: USAID’s Macedonia Connect Project helped provide Macedonians with accessible and affordable broadband internet. Due to this step, 550 primary schools, secondary schools, university departments, and educational-support organizations have access to high-speed internet.
  • 2007: The project wrapped up, and approximately 95% of the population had access to affordable Internet.
Wi-fi kiosks attached to schools in villages of Staro Nagoricane municipality.

Granting the rural citizens access this increasingly important commodity certainly helped curtail the education gap between urban and rural Macedonians. Moreover, it also provided the country’s ethnic minorities, the Romani (2.66% of the population) and Albanians (25.2% of the population), access to the same quality education. For a long time there was quite a disparity between the lifestyles of ethnic Macedonians and the aforementioned ethnic minorities. These minority groups primarily live in the countryside, alongside Macedonians of a low-income background. Due to generations of segregation, the Romani and Albanians had experienced a lower quality of life. In their efforts to aid the Romani population, USAID, in cooperation with the Macedonian government, enacted the Roma Education Project, with its goal being:

To close the gap in welfare and living conditions between the Roma and the non-Roma.

To this end, USAID in 2004 provided 269 Romani students in secondary schools and 31 Romani students at university with scholarships intended to  encourage higher levels of Romani enrollment in institutions of higher education. The project also established Roma Educational Centers for out-of-school aid in Skopje, Kumanovo, and Prilep. As for the Albanian population, Zoran Popovski, Secretary of State for Education and Science, said of the Macedonia Connects initiative in a 2005 interview with the BBC that:

It should serve as a very useful tool for interactive communication between multi-ethnic schools.

Internet connectivity in Macedonia, thus, not only serves to connect wealthy urban students with educational opportunities that match those available in many Western industrialized nations. It also enables the citizens of Macedonia to break down barriers constructed due to generations of wealth disparities and ethnically segregated schools and villages.

Now, on to the technical side of the matter. You may be wondering, “just how exactly did they manage to go from 4% to 95% of the population having Internet access?” Well, close that tab and look no further. Joe Duncan, who serves as the G.B.I. Program Lead for USAID, provides the following explanation:

This connectivity was undertaken through a competitive process where a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) was able to build this nation wide network in just 4 years. Motorola provided the wireless technology solution set, Canopy, a pre-WiMAX solution.

Put into layman’s terms, local ISP’s, such as On.net, create Wi-fi clouds through Strix Systems radio-mesh technology. These “clouds” encompass whole towns and villages and are accessible to anyone with a wireless-enabled laptop upon purchasing a card with wireless credits. Glenn Strachan, Macedonia Connects director, explains that “people will be able to view the various wireless solutions within any given spot in Skopje or Bitola and connect to the Internet just as you might in New York City.”

Some of the available Wi-fi hotspots from village Vrapchishte to village Zrnovci.

The transition from only a minority of Macedonians having Internet access at the beginning of the century, to nearly all citizens having affordable access in just under a decade placed Macedonia as 92nd in the world in regards to number of Internet hosts, and 79th in the world in regards to fixed Internet broadband subscriptions.

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*stranstvo: abroad

*pictured above: image of Ivankovci, near Veles, Macedonia.

Notice: The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of myself, UMD, and generation M.

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Message from Bitola

Anybody who has ever met somebody from Bitola knows that we hold our city on a pedestal unlike many others. Seldom can any warm-blooded Bitola native hear “Bitola Moj Roden Kraj” and not shed a tear. 500 other recorded songs alone attest to the fact that the city has had a particular prestige in the hearts and memories of its natives and all those who found warmth in its hospitality. Part of our folklore, like elsewhere in Macedonia, talks about the heartache of pechalbari* leaving their homes, and Bitola waiting for their return that would never come. As an emigre who never returned home, I know this separation first hand. I know the pain of being torn from one’s home. However, I also know the pain of watching the life of your city slowly drained.

Part of growing up in the diaspora is coming to terms with the fact that our beloved homeland, so adored in our songs and hearts, is not what currently exists. Having gone to Bitola more times than I can recall over the years, I have seen this first hand. Every year I noticed more and more of my family and friends having gone to stranstvo**. Just on my street alone, friends I knew have moved to Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark—and sadly, even Bulgaria. Out of a scene from Atlas Shrugged, I drive by and see the abandoned factories—vestigial remnants of a once proud and industrious city. Ironically, in a Shakespearean twist, the biggest employer of the city is also slowly suffocating it.

Closed stores in the Old Bazaar district of Bitola

Now, the disease has spread to the very heart of the city, the famed Sirok Sokak. Not only is it a shell of its former self, with no youthful exuberance and carefree idleness to stroll through its street, but it is has become anemic for businesses. Recent reports show that some 12 stores in a row have closed their doors. With uncertainty about the future, and less overall consumer spending, stores and restaurants that once served to distract us from the coming storm have now also abandoned us. Now, reality has set in.

The prime movers and intelligentsia of the city have fled. For a city of the arts that once boasted 1,200 private pianos that filled the air with Mozart, Bitola in 2017 does not even have a proper bookstore to showcase its proud history. For a city which boldly and unapologetically pushed into the future with its first film footage in the Balkans shot by the Manaki brothers, it now does not even have an official theater. In its past, Bitola had running water and electricity before Skopje even did. Now, the city is dotted with abandoned construction sites for shopping centers, garages, and houses—a painful reminder of the hopes and dreams we shared as a city.

Between our love of our homeland and a good vacation, the diaspora often come across a negative stigma when at home. We may shout our love of Macedonia to the world, but we are often asked if our patriotism would remain true if we were to live the lives of our brethren back home. I don’t know how many of us, myself included, can answer in the affirmative. As Bitolchani, we may be sustained by images of our former glory—a veritable European cosmopolitan and City of Consuls– but the truth is, our city is not the city we remember.

Many decades ago, we waited with sorrow and disillusionment for our pechalbari to return. Now, we are waiting for our city to return. Statistics on GDP growth and official unemployment may be used to paint a different picture, but no numbers can cover up the fact that life is pouring out of Bitola. The current system is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to a loss of not just Bitola, but many parts of Macedonia. No party platform can fix this. As the diaspora, our dollars can only go so far in the summer months, before the cold reality of winter sets in. The first step in solving a problem is realizing there is one. As the diaspora, we cannot live on just singing songs about our home and then returning for vacation as more foreigners than actual Macedonians back home. The only way to stop the bleeding is to re-build. We must support our communities, support worthy causes, and develop a true connection to our land and the struggles of its people. Most importantly, we must restore the confidence in Macedonia that is depleted every single day from another person having gone abroad. We have been blessed to call America, Canada, and Australia our homes, and we cannot stand by while the life is drained from the cities that gave us form. We cannot be the disillusioned lost generation that parties aimlessly to drown out the moans of our city. We cannot, and will not, be the pechalbari that did not return.

*pechalbari is the name for Macedonian migrants that sought to temporarily work abroad to save up money and eventually return home
**stranstvo is the catch-all word denoting abroad, but usually referring to the West.

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The views of the author may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Macedonian Diaspora and Generation M.

Categories
UMD Voice

Why Coffee Makes Macedonia Go ‘Round

Coffee.

Where would we be without it?

Coffee has been a staple drink since the 11th century when the coffee plant was discovered in Ethiopia and the beans were boiled and thought to have medicinal properties. Its popularity spread like wildfire through the Arabian Peninsula reaching Yemen by the 14th century. From there it was introduced to Istanbul in 1555 where a new method of drinking the coffee was uncovered. The Turks roasted the beans over a fire and then ground them before cooking them with boiling water; a method that is very familiar to us today.

This brings us to where Macedonia’s love affair with coffee began. Coffee was introduced to Macedonia by the Turkish in the 15th century during the rule of the Ottoman Empire. By the 17th century, both the acts of making and drinking coffee were intertwined with almost every aspect of Macedonian life including marriage, politics, and everything in between. It is no surprise then that drinking coffee has now become a concrete part of Macedonian social culture.

While you’re chugging a venti something-or-another during your morning commute, a Macedonian woman is calling her neighbor over to have a cup of coffee. Come back in two hours, after you’ve arrived at work, clocked in, and been through an entire meeting and you’ll find the two Macedonian women in the same place you left them, their coffee only half finished.

Instead of drinking coffee for an energy boost, the people of Macedonia, both young and old use it to interact with each other daily. Like you would invite someone over to your house because you want to spend time with them, a Macedonian person would invite you na kafe which loosely translates to out for coffee. There you would spend at least an hour and a half, if not more, just talking and taking increasingly small sips of your coffee to make it last.

This staple of Macedonian living creates a culture that encourages interaction with others routinely. In fact, it is not uncommon for individuals to have more than two coffees a day because they are often spending time in cafes or at other people’s houses.

Unfortunately, this concept of frequent social interactions has become increasingly foreign to people outside of Macedonia in recent years. Considering the size of the population of Northern America one would assume that society has become more social but that is simply not the case. In fact, in recent years people have become more secluded and self-interested than ever. Being “anti-social” is even touted as something to be proud of by young people on social media.

If there is anything that should be taken away from Macedonian coffee culture it is that we need to take a page out of their book and begin making time for one another. Whether we gather around a cup of coffee or for a round of bowling it doesn’t matter as long as we’re spending time together.

So, the next time you’re in the mood for coffee invite someone along, spend a couple of hours talking, see what difference that makes.

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The views of the author may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Macedonian Diaspora and Generation M.