Razvigor :-)

Macedonia: Crowdmapping Projects Overview

2012-01-11T10:32:00.000+01:00

Boris Ristovski provided an overview of crowdmapping projects in Macedonia [mk] and asked [mk] local netizens to respond to his online survey [mk], part of his masters thesis research.

Macedonia in 2012: The Challenge of Climate Change

2012-01-03T09:42:00.008+01:00

This article is also available in Macedonian
- на македонски на Блогерај: Македонија во 2012 г.: Предизвикот на климатските промени
- на македонски на Блогспот: Македонија во 2012 г.: Предизвикот на климатските промени

We are in real trouble. Macedonia, that is. Unless we analyze, think, and adapt - and focus on solving the problems identified by UNDP in its report Assessing the Economic Impact of Climate Change:

Energy will become much more expensive.
We'll have less water. Investing in hydro power will be worthless.
Agriculture will also be worthless, with lower yields the expected damages are bigger than current net income.
We have no analytical capacity = as a society and a state, we are clueless about what's going on. We do not want to know.

Municipal workers cutting trees on the river bank in Veles.
Locals claim Vardar has never been this low in December (2011).

Our top political leaders never talk about projections beyond the next elections, and in the meantime they privatize the natural and economic resources for the benefit of political party-family oligarchies. Their followers indulge in nationalistic fantasies about conquering neighboring fields, or splitting the country along ethnic lines through referendum or war - never thinking about the living conditions in the resulting political entities. As if once they accomplish their political goals, everything else will magically solve itself. The big picture, making analyses and plans spanning decades or generations to enable public good, is as absent now as it was in the XVIII century.

Read the report, at least the Executive Summary.
What is your priority for the next year? Next decade?

Macedonia: Christmas Tree made from Plastic Bottles

2011-12-25T22:17:00.003+01:00

Inspired by the example of Kaunas, Lithuania, Macedonian Twitter users made a Christmas tree from plastic bottles in Skopje City Park on December 25, to raise awareness about everyone's responsibility for the environment.

The tree and the team. Click for full size/uncut version.
Photo by Dimitar Atanasov.

Some of the action organizers used their blogs (Tamara Atanasoska, Dushica debarmaalka, Darjan Radenkovic, Jovana Tozija) as starting point for the quick social media campaign #елкамк. Elka is the Macedonian word for fir, the usual tree used for Winter Hollidays (actually, for the New Year's Celebration, and not for the local--Orthodox--Christmas, which falls on January 7, but that's another story) .

The tree remained in place during the night, and if the poor people that gather plastic for recycling from the streets and garbage dumpsters don't harvest it, the authors plan [mk] to properly dispose of it after the New Year.

Update: A photo gallery from the two days of the action.

Macedonia, China: Comparing Air Pollution in the Capitals

2011-12-07T09:02:00.002+01:00

Anastas Vangeli, а Macedonian studying in Beijing, compared the levels of air pollution and policy measures between that city and his hometown Skopje.

Macedonia: The Third Fruit by Ribaro

2011-12-05T09:13:00.000+01:00

Video blogger Ribaro, who usually makes satirical mashups, published an "apolitical," "poetic," experimental film available in Macedonian and Russian. He wrote somewhat cryptically that the viewers can choose their third fruit, "under condition to eat lentil with someone else."

Macedonian blogosphere in German media: Zeit Online

2011-12-01T00:01:00.002+01:00

This article is also available in Macedonian
- на македонски на Блогерај: Македонската блогосфера во германски медиум: Цајт Онлајн
- на македонски на Блогспот: Македонската блогосфера во германски медиум: Цајт Онлајн

The influential German magazine Zeit published an article on the Macedonian blogosphere and media situation in general. I was quoted among other sources about the development on the blogosphere.

Hasstiraden verschmutzen die mazedonische Blogosphäre, or--as far as I can tell--Hate speech polluting the Macedonian Blogosphere.

The article contains a link towards Global Voices post on hate speech between Macedonia and Bulgaria, which incited me to revisit it and to update the Twitter link for one of the sources. This was also done in the Spanish translation by Adriana Gutiérrez. The exchange caught the eye of Vnukot, who posted a critique to some aspects of the quoted text.

So, the article generated more feedback than can be supposed by just reading its comments section.

News about Macedonia in English, Ver 0.5

2011-11-15T17:01:00.007+01:00

A friend from abroad interested in Macedonia asked me to recommend local Twitter users who write in English for him to follow.

I could not identify many users from Macedonia who tweet in English only. Locals mostly use a mix of their own native language and English - which can be confusing for those who don't speak their native language.

(There are some expats who live in Macedonia that I know of: @Balkanalysis, @SamVaknin, @hschenker, and Macedonians who live abroad like @UZI9mmmm.)

Therefore, I set up a group account to filter and share such content and invited some like-minded friends to contribute with their editing too: @Macedonia_en.

Web sources in English about Macedonia are pretty scarce too. I'll list several with short introductions bellow, please contribute with your information if there are more.

There are but a few media outlets based in Macedonia that provide news in English:

MIA - Macedonian Information Agency - owned by the state, presents mainly brief news and interviews with government officials
MakFax - private news agency, owned by major IT company
Balkanalysis.com Macedonia section offers reportages, interviews and analyses of various key issues, often connected to regional and wider geo-strategic developments

International civil society or nonprofit initiatives:

Global Voices Online Macedonia page gathers all GVO articles related to the country in one place. The content is mainly based on reporting of social media conversations and issues not covered by commercial media. (Twitter: @globalvoices)
OneWorld SEE Macedonia section offers regular news from the region, mainly focused on civil society activities (@owpsee)
Balkan Insight Macedonia Page and its parent organization BIRN Balkan Investigative Reporting Network both offer reporting by professional journalists and recaps of the media coverage (@BalkanInsight).
Cafe Babel: Macedonia, part of a network of volunteer journalists from Europe. (@cafebabel_tweet)

CSOs from Macedonia:

Metamorphosis Foundation's website is fully available in Macedonian, English and Albanian. News are divided into two parts: the activities of the CSO, and news related to its area of interest - development of information society: human rights online, privacy & security, freedom of expression, citizen participation in policy-making, capacity building of the civil sector, inclusion and protection of disadvantaged groups... in Macedonia, and abroad. (@fmeta)

Several other NGOs also run regularly updated versions of their websites in English.

Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia (@fosim)
Macedonian Center for European Training (@mcetmceo)
NGO Info-Centre
Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (@mcms_mk)
Mladi Info the website is entirely in English, and covers much wider area (@mladiinfo)

Please use the comments option to inform on other sources who actively publish online or tweet about Macedonia in English.

Blog Action Day 2011: Food

2011-10-16T21:05:00.005+02:00

This article is also available in Macedonian
- на македонски на Блогерај: Ден за блогерска акција: Храна
- на македонски на Блогспот: Ден за блогерска акција: Храна

As previously announced via Global Voices, today is Blog Action Day. Bloggers around the world are invited to join in and discuss about a topic with worldwide importance. This year the topic is food, in concert with World Food Day. On Twitter: @BlogActionDay and #BAD11.

It's not too late to write up a post about any aspect of food, from hunger to recepies. I volunteer to report for Global Voices about the participation of Macedonian bloggers. So far, according to the list of participants, three have signed up, and one has published a post:

Colorful Portal: .среќен Blog Action Day & World Food Day [#bad11]

More posts are appearing world over, for instance

from Madagascar: Blog Action Day 2011 #BAD11- About Food (also available in Malagasy)
to Germany/Morocco: Friday is Coucous-Day – Dialogue through Food (also available in German)

For my part, here are some random photos taken today on the green market in Skopje, Macedonia, named Bunjakovec.

USA: Computer Scientist Dennis Ritchie Dies

2011-10-13T15:43:00.001+02:00

Computer science legend Dennis Ritchie died, leaving a lasting legacy of enormous possitive impetus to the global development in the last decades of the XX century.

According to Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing, the news was first made public by Rob Pike via Google+. She wrote:

He was the designer and original developer of the C programming language, and a central figure in the development of Unix. He spent much of his career at Bell Labs. He was awarded the Turing Award in 1983, and the National Medal of Technology in 1999.

“Ritchie's influence rivals Jobs's; it's just less visible,” James Grimmelman observed on Twitter. “His pointer has been cast to void *; his process has terminated with exit code 0.”

One of the few public photos of Dennis Ritchie (1941-2011). Source: Wikipedia (Public Domain)

Taxgedo used the words from Ritchie's seminal textbook The C Programming language to create a word cloud as a tribute, and wrote:

We lost a tech giant today. Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie, co-creator of Unix and the C programming language with Ken Thompson, has passed away at the age of 70. Ritchie has made a tremendous amount of contribution to the computer industry, directly and indirectly affecting (improving) the lives of most people in the world, whether you know it or not.

Andygoyap's comparison was even more explicit:

[Isaac Newton] once said he stood on the shoulders of giants. Dennis Ritchie was a giant on whose shoulders people like Steve Jobs stood on.
….
You don't know him? He is the Father of C, without him Operating Systems (Windows, Apple) wouldn't be here; Games, Programs, Apps on your Apple, Android, wouldn't exist. Many say he is the Father of Computer Science, He has so many achievements…

Readers who haven't had Programming 101 with some derivation of C as their first object-oriented programming language during their undergraduate studies might find it hard to grasp the influence of such a modest and private person, who did not flaunt his many achievments nor served as a business icon. For instance, most most modern operating systems such as GNU/Linux and Apple's Mac OS directly descend from UNIX, or that computers running UNIX or GNU/Linux basically provide the infrastructure for the Internet, either as servers or routers, or platforms for running applications like Google search.

Macedonia: Comics Workshops with Jamal Igle from DC Comics

2011-10-12T17:16:00.003+02:00

This article is also available in Macedonian
- на македонски на Блогерај: Стрип-работилници со Џамал Игл во Скопје, Битола и Велес
- на македонски на Блогспот: Стрип-работилници со Џамал Игл во Скопје, Битола и Велес

American Corner network is organizing workshops with DC comics author Jamal Igle (@JamalIgle) in several places in Macedonia. This looks like a great opportunity to learn more about this art form. The first workshop was supposed to be in Skopje, and then Makstripovi [mk] (forum/NGO dedicated to advancement of comics art) informed that there will be a workshop in Bitola, too.

So far, from what I've gathered the schedual is:

October 13, 5-6 pm. Mladinski kulturen centar, Skopje [mk] (Facebook event)
October 14, 12-1 pm. Dom na kultura, Bitola [mk]
October 14-16, probably Veles (according to Igle's blog)

More info: Dnevnik daily published an interview with Igle [mk], and the links above contain his illustrations and frontpages, like this one with Teen Titans.

PS
A Facebook event has been set up for the Veles activities (via Google+)

Greece: Baroque In Vogue Again – Literally

2011-10-03T10:50:00.003+02:00

This article is also available in Macedonian
- на македонски на Блогерај: Грција: Барокот повторно во мода - буквално
- на македонски на Блогспот: Грција: Барокот повторно во мода - буквално

This blog's correspondents discovered rising interest about baroque in Macedonia's Southen Neighbor. The August edition of the Greek Vogue features an article entitled "Modern Baroque" about sunglasses in quasi-baroque style.

So far we could not determine whether this fashion trend owns its origin in the criteria of Macedonian government's tenders from Skopje 2014 project. The calls specifically included use of baroque style for the look and feel and the ornaments of the future ministry buildings, refurbished facades of existing buildings, and even garages [mk]. As confirmed by Anastas Vangeli in his study "Antique Present" [my unofficial translation of the title], if Macedonian leaders could learn and apply the antiquisation model for creation of new nationalism from the practice of the Greek state, maybe their fashion gurus could have acquired appreciation of baroque due to our influence.

UNESCO Call for Young Bloggers (Trip to Paris)

2011-09-13T09:38:00.000+02:00

This seems like good opportunity for young content creators. Please check the original UNESCO call for any further information, I am just passing the info and have no additional knowledge of the competition.

As part of the 7th Youth Forum, UNESCO will be offering five young journalists and bloggers the opportunity to participate in the Paris event. A young blogger from each of UNESCO’s five constituent regions (Africa, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America & Latin America and the Caribbean) will be selected. General requirements for youth journalists and bloggers:

Be below 30 years of age,

To have journalism (online, print, photo, video, radio) and/or blogging experience,

To have a working knowledge of English and/or French.

Knowledge of another of the six official United Nations languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish) will be an asset.
The application deadline is Thursday, September 15, 2011.

Information received via Rising Voices.

Caligula - the original Scrooge McDuck

2011-08-24T16:47:00.004+02:00

This article is also available in Macedonian
- на македонски на Блогспот: Калигула - првобитниот Баја Патак

In his seminal work "The Twelve Caesars," Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus described the following behavior of ancient Roman Emperor Caligula:

42

But when his daughter was born, complaining of his narrow means, and no longer merely of the burdens of a ruler but of those of a father as well, he took up contributions for the girl's maintenance and dowry. He also made proclamation that he would receive New Year's gifts, and on the Kalends of January took his place in the entrance to the Palace, to clutch the coins which a throng of people of all classes showered on him by handfuls and lapfuls.Finally, seized with a mania for feeling the touch of money, he would often pour out huge piles of goldpieces in some open place, walk over them barefooted, and wallow in them for a long time with his whole body.

Of course, the later is signature behaviour for Scrooge McDuck, who loves to swim in money in his Money Bin.

Black Propaganda: An Example of Fueling Hate Against Soros

2011-07-17T19:10:00.002+02:00

This article is also available in Macedonian
- на македонски на Блогерај: Црна пропаганда: Пример за градење омраза кон Сорос
- на македонски на Блогспот: Црна пропаганда: Пример за градење омраза кон Сорос

On July 11, 2011, people who follow the media and social networks' activity in Macedonia witnessed a discussion incited by the mini-campaign to taint the American businessman and philanthropist George Soros. Several media distributed a "news item" based on two lies:

that the respectable newspaper Wall Street Journal published an article about Soros
the quoted content of the "news" alleged that Soros sponsored the Kosovo War, had ties with the KLA and is now rewarded by opportunities to invest in some profitable mines there.

Again, as in the case of murder of Martin Neshkovski, the first line of defense against deception were the Twitter users. JankoL tweeted a comparison [mk] between the article in the online edition of Dnevnik daily and the original quoted text, which is clearly not from the Wall Street Journal newspaper, but is some sort of comment by a reader with a Serbian name and surname from their forum.

I personally do not find the scandalous claims of this comment credible, because I know that Soros does not invest in countries where his foundations are active. Foundations that advocate the principles of open society, and oppose the principles of violence and war profiteering. Moreover, if a man of such a stature has been in any way involved in financing military operations more than a decade ago, something more substantial would have been revealed by now. It would have been a scandal of global proportions - an opportunity too good to miss for any of his many enemies, some of whom are media moguls.

All in all, it is clear that this is a disinformation aimed at domestic audience in Macedonia. It is useful to examine its spread, because people usually take for granted data from the media, and might think twice if they are aware of how information spreads and helps them form their opinions. It can be expected that, as in other cases, in a while public discussion participants would use this item as a reference or an argument.

The disinformation was first published by the Government-owned news agency MIA. News agencies function as services that distribute news to other media--their subscribers--like newspapers, television and radio stations. They mainly transmit short fact-based reports about events covered by their reporters, such as press conferences and statements by officials. If in this case there was no evil intent, then this is a case of gross incompetence, as the news item has not passed basic journalistic validity check. It equates an article in a well-known newspaper (abusing the credibility of that brand) with a comment by a de facto anonymous reader on a forum.

During the afternoon of July 11, several media relayed the disinformation. I have no information whether this was done through some top-down command, or they simply used what was sent by an agency they thought they can trust. Each of the media from the following time-line might have their own reasons...:

13:35 MIA
13.54 SITEL
14.10 Kurir
15:06 Dnevik on-line
15:49 MTV - Macedonian Televison (public service)
~ 17:00 PlusInfo – the article was soon removed, probably they've read it twice over, or did a check after the Twitter reactions
MTV presented this item in the evening news too, and several other TV stations had it in a ticker
July 12 (the next day) - the news did not appear in the paper editions of daily newspapers - maybe they figured that such an outright lie which can get them a slander suit
11:30 MK Fondovi website relayed the news, citing SITEL as an author.

Basic rule for any media would be to check any information they receive by consulting at least two independent sources, and to do everything possible within their powers to make sure it's accurate, before publishing. Imagine what would happen if journalists publish as news everything they hear or read, without checking - for instance some bloggers claim high political party officials are closeted homosexuals who promote homophobia in public to camouflage themselves, or that there are high commissions on the public works like the monuments - a money laundering schemes through cousins, that state offices are abused for personal gain... For a person to bear the title of journalist, and for a company to bear the title of professional media, they have to meet certain standards, related to the role in society media play, as protectors of democracy.

Let's assume there was no ill intent. Even without a despicable motive, these media acted unprofessionally. They did not check the information, they did not contact any other source (except MIA), they did not check the Wall Street Journal website where they would see that it is not an article but a reader comment, nor they have done the basic journalistic duty to seek comment by the persons and institutions mentioned in the article. On top of all this, they did not even inform that MIA was the source. All of them are unsigned, which by default means that the media claim authorship and responsibility for the news (in an ideal world).

AFAIK, none of the companies whose articles are linked above has published a retraction or an apology to the mentioned persons and institutions on account of (possibly unintentional) damage to their reputation, nor have they apologized to the readers for serving them a lie.

The issue is not whether any legal protection mechanism from defamation would be activated by the concerned parties. This is more about how these media build their relationships with their readers. Keywords: respect versus underestimation, truth versus mistrust.

Macedonia: Shakira Used for Local Political Propaganda

2011-07-09T13:53:00.000+02:00

Several pro-government media from Macedonia revived an old Internet hoax about supposed Macedonian roots of global music star Shakira in order to provide more air time for a local politician.

In a seemingly coordinated effort on June 29-30, 2011, Sitel TV and Makedonija 24/Kurir virtually simultaneously relayed the "news" that at Shakira "dedicated her concert in Beirut to her father, who is half-Lebanese, half-Macedonia," that she will become a lobbyist for Macedonia, and that as UN goodwill ambassador she opened a summit in Israel, attended by Macedonian president Gjorge Ivanov.

While the unattributed and unsigned text of the announcements in various media is virtually identical, Sitel and Makedonija 24 used different video clips to illustrate it. There's a recording from Shakira's concert (no date) in which she says she dedicates it to her father, but it is the announcer's voice-over that adds the "information" about his Macedonian heritage. The claim about her being lobbyist remains totally unfounded, serves as reminder to the population about Government campaign claiming they invest much in lobbying efforts. The second section, intended to promote the president, contains number of his close-ups from other events.

The "news" was retransmitted by number of portals and local agencies, and then the daily Utrinski Vesnik published an article [mk] on July 6, 2011. Entitled "Macedonian blood flows through Shakira's veins," they say they've confirmed the claim, because that information about Shakira's father can be found on several websites, including FoxNews and Madam Tussauds Hollywood (without links).

This is at least the second time for Macedonian media to inspire joy and happiness about Macedonia's importance by claiming relation to Shakira and attempt to lure readers using the obviously huge interest about the pop-star. In 2006, spurred by article in Utrinski Vesnik, the portal Taratur provided links [mk] to several Shakira bios which include the tidbit about her Macedonian heritage, including FoxNews article from November 29, 2006, which seems to be the perpetual source of the rumor all along. It does not provide any references, nor does the like-minded bio on Madam Tussauds site.

However, on February 2, 2007, Vest daily debunked the claim in an article [mk, en] about an interview made with Shakira in Berlin. When asked about her Macedonian heritage, the Columbian pop star laughed and said it's not true, even though she would not mind to have such ancestry. The full interview was shown on Sitel TV. This article used a more benign form of nationalist spin, with the headline claiming that the singer "wants to be Macedonian."

Shakira by Wikipedia. Photo: Georges Biard, CC-BY-SA.

Macedonian-language version of this propaganda deconstruction attempt was published on the versions of this blog on Blogeraj & Blogspot.

Comics Trappers and American Revolutionary War

2011-07-04T18:43:00.003+02:00

Long before Mel Gibson starred in the Patriot, comics readers from southern Europe learned to hate the despicable redcoats and root for the noble American revolutionaries. This upsurge of sympathy for the American independence was fueled by two comics-book series originated in Italy: The Great Blek and Commander Mark.

Both series depict guerrilla struggle against the British in terms very similar to the resistance movements against the Axis occupations of World War II, which made them instantly recognizable and appropriate for the kids in Italy, France, former Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey - their main markets. The comics expound the values of patriotism and personal heroism, which presumably resonated with nation-building efforts of the goverments of these countries during the second half of XX century.

Iconic exchange between Blek and a redcoat:
"But, you are rebels!" - "No! We are patriots!"

It is highly probable that most Americans have no clue of the debt of gratitude they "owe" to a couple of trappers wearing fur hats with raccoon tails, and their quirky bands of companions. However, most of [male] former Yugoslavs growing up in the sixties, seventies and eighties know that:

The Great Blek or Blek the Rock (pronounced the same as Black, but presumably meaning golden hair in some native American dialect) - a tall, blond giant of a man used his fists and cunning, aided by Professor Occultis (who looks like proudly-overweight Ben Franklin from Ben and Me) and the kid Roddy. They cooperated with the Boston lawyer Connelly, who acted as liaison relaying messages from the resistance HQ.
Commander Mark was more sophisticated in a swashbuckling sort of way - tall, dark, dashing - his main weapon was a rapier, and as sidekicks he had Mr. Bluff - a bald, bearded former pirate, Sorrowful Owl - native American chief-at-large (reminiscent of status of Chingachgook) and grand-grand-son of medicine man, and Bluff's flea-infested dog Flock. Unlike Blek, Mark also had a fiancée, the lovely and blond Betty who tended to their home base - a fort on Lake Ontario.

While most of the episodes of both series tended to follow familiar "Western" adventure patterns and had little connection to historical events of the American Revolution, occasionally a historical figure would pop-up, including General Washington.

Both comics were initiated by the comics author trio EsseGesse, who completed the whole Mark series (1966-1990), while Blek (from 1954) was turned into franchise and had numerous authors of various quality, often poor. During the eighties there was even a Yu-Blek series drawn and inked by local artists (mainly from Novi Sad and Belgrade), which besides comics spawned a sticker album.

Numerous ex-Yugoslav websites offer scanned versions of these comics, and in recent years Croatian and Serbian publishers have issued new paperback versions, sometimes with compilations of episodes. The best Wikipedia articles about these comis are in Serbian (Veliki Blek) and Croatian (Komandant Mark).

If you feel like celebrating the Fourth of July in a cinematic sort of way, I would not recommend the jingoistic Mel Gibson interpretation from 2000, but Revolution with Al Pacino, "a film about a New York fur trapper during the American Revolutionary War" made in 1985.

Support Protests Against Police Brutality through Video-Clips

2011-07-02T22:43:00.000+02:00

On Thursday 23rd June 2011, @vlashko_lobi said:

please RT #protestiram YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS NEEDED:

Dear Friends,
as you might know, big things are going on in Skopje and the rest of Macedonia. After the brutal beating to death of the 22 year old Martin Neskoski by a police officer, and the failed attempt by the government to cover up the murder, people of all ethnic groups have taken to the streets and for almost three weeks now, carry on with the most significant civic rallies in the history of the country. We demand justice and responsibility, resignation of the minister of the police and the lying spokesperson, as well as a police reform that will bring the ruthless police brutality to an end. Put simply, we want to live free from fear.

The government has tried to silence the rallies via shameless media campaign that featured false claims, conspiracy theories and personal attacks of the people who take part in the protests, as well as staging so-called "counter-protests against the political abuse of the youth" organized by the ruling party (sic!). In the meantime, the responsible ones are still trying to cover-up as much as possible. They are trying to distract the public by carrying on with their national-populist policies. But we say NO PASSARAN! It was enough. Our slogan is "No More Silence!"

YET, WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Among other things, we are compiling videos of our supporters. Now we want to take it global. If you feel like joining our cause please do the following:

1) take a short video of yourself or your friends in which you will tell your name and preferably your location, and sound your support for our movement (Hi, I'm John from London and I support the protests against police brutality in Macedonia) - the video does not have to be longer than a few seconds (we won't mind longer videos though) - also, quality is not important as long as we can see and hear you - it can be taken by phone, webcam etc.

2) send the video to both of these email addresses: nieprotestirame@gmail.com | macedonianspring@gmail.com

--

What kind of phrases you can use in the video (of course you can come up with anything as long as it is not offensive):

"Stop police brutality"
"Fight police brutality"
"Police brutality must end"
"Speak up against police brutality"
"Violence might end"
"I ask for justice and responsibility"
"No more silence"
"Silence kills"
"Justice for Martin"
"I support the people of Macedonia in their demands"
"Macedonia, rise up!"
"I support the people of Macedonia rallying for justice"
"Every day!"
"Until they resign"
"Macedonia, don't give up!"
"In solidarity with the people of Macedonia rallying against police brutality"

etc.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

you can follow the developments and find some information here:
http://www.protestira.me | vnukot.blogspot.com

a review of the events in Macedonia:
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/blog/a-nameless-warrior-and-the-end-of-a-shameless-period

don't forget that the video, if you decide to take it, should be sent to BOTH of these email addresses:
nieprotestirame@gmail.com | macedonianspring@gmail.com

Global Voices Posts about Macedonian Protests Against Police Brutality

2011-06-28T13:28:00.006+02:00

This post is also available in Macedonian
- Блогерај: Глобал војсис за протестите против полициска бруталност во Македонија
- Блогспот: Глобал војсис за протестите против полициска бруталност во Македонија

This is an attempt to documents all the posts about the protests against police brutality in Macedonia that have appeared in various languages via Global Voices, starting with June 6, 2011.

English

2011/06/27 · Macedonia: New Parliament Assembles, Cements Election Victory for “Big Fish”
2011/06/24 · Macedonia: .mk Twitter Republic
2011/06/23 · Macedonia: How the Protests Started
2011/06/23 · Macedonia: Spreading the Word About the Protests, in Spanish
2011/06/19 · Macedonia: Pro-Government Media Promote Protest Impostors
2011/06/17 · Macedonia: Protest Achievements So Far
2011/06/17 · Macedonia: Gathering Prohibited in a Public Space?
2011/06/17 · Macedonia: Twitter as a Vehicle for the Protests
2011/06/17 · Macedonia: Concerns Over Anti-Protest Collusion of Facebook and Police
2011/06/14 · Macedonia: Reasons for Protesting
2011/06/13 · Macedonia: Spreading the Word About Protest and Civic Journalism
2011/06/11 · Macedonia: Protests Against Police Brutality/Murder Cover-Up Spread
2011/06/10 · Macedonia: Shameless Refusal to Accept Responsibility
2011/06/09 · Macedonia: Reminders of Unresolved Killings
2011/06/08 · Macedonia: More Anti-Police Brutality Rallies Planned
2011/06/07 · Macedonia: Online Community Prevents Murder Cover-Up
2011/06/07 · Macedonia: Protests Against Police Brutality to Continue
2011/06/06 · Macedonia: Alleged Killing of Young Man by Policeman Sparks Protests

Greek (Έλληνικά)

French (Français)

2011/06/24 · Macédoine : Twitter Republic.mk
2011/06/23 · Macédoine : Comment les manifestations ont commencé
2011/06/18 · Macédoine : Les premiers point positifs amenés par la contestation
2011/06/17 · Macédoine : L'utilisation de Twitter pendant les manifestations
2011/06/17 · Macédoine : Inquiétudes sur la suppression de pages Facebook
2011/06/12 · Macédoine : Les manifestations se multiplient contre la dissimulation des violences policières
2011/06/08 · Macédoine : Mobilisation des internautes contre la dissimulation d'un meurtre par la police

Spanish (Español)

2011/06/26 · Macedonia: Cómo empezaron las protestas
2011/06/25 · Macedonia: Medios progubernamentales promueven a manifestantes impostores
2011/06/22 · Macedonia: Logros de la protesta hasta ahora
2011/06/22 · Macedonia: Twitter como vehículo para las protestas
2011/06/24 · Macedonia: Razones para protestar
2011/06/21 · Macedonia: Difundiendo el mensaje sobre protesta y periodismo cívico
2011/06/23 · Macedonia: Se propagan protestas en contra de la brutalidad policial/encubrimiento de asesinato
2011/06/13 · Macedonia: Vergonzosa negativa a aceptar la responsabilidad
2011/06/10 · Macedonia: Recordatorios de asesinatos no resueltos
2011/06/16 · Macedonia: La comunidad en línea se manifiesta en contra de un encubrimiento de asesinato
2011/06/08 · Macedonia: Continúan las protestas contra la brutalidad policial

Chinese (Traditional - 繁體中文)

2011/06/07 · 馬其頓：警方涉嫌施暴

Chinese (Simplified - 简体中文)

2011/06/07 · 马其顿：警方涉嫌施暴

Hungarian (Magyar)

2011/06/27 · Macedónia: Twitter Köztársaság.mk
2011/06/24 · Macedónia: Spanyol blog a tüntetésekről

Malagasy

2011/06/27 · Makedonia: Repoblika Twitter .mk
2011/06/15 · Makedonia: Fihetsiketseham-panoherana ny Herisetra Afenina Ataon'ny Polisy
2011/06/10 · Masedoana : niteraka fihetsiketsehana ny lazaina ho famonoan'ny polisy tovolahy iray

Bangla (বাংলা)

2011/06/08 · ম্যাসিডোনিয়াঃ পুলিশের বিরুদ্ধে এক তরুণকে হত্যার অভিযোগ দেশটিতে বিক্ষোভের সৃষ্টি করেছে

Portugues (Português)

2011/06/16 · Macedônia: Protestos contra a Brutalidade Policial e Acobertamento de Assassinato se Espalham
2011/06/16 · Macedônia: Comunidade Online Previne Acobertamento de Assassinato
2011/06/16 · Macedônia: Suposto Assassinato de Jovem pela Polícia Inicia Protestos

Korean (한국어)

2011/06/09 · 마케도니나: 살인 사건 무마를 막아낸 온라인 커뮤니티

Macedonian (македонски)

Greece: Documentary Film "Debtocracy" Available in English

2011-05-06T15:26:00.000+02:00

Debtocracy, a documentary film by Katerina Kitidi and Aris Hatzistefanou about the causes and possible solutions of the Greek debt crisis, can be viewed with English subtitles from today. It's distributed under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license and allegedly had over 1 million views so far. This “documentary produced by the audience” was filmed with only EUR 8.000 recuperated through small donations [gr] from individuals and trade unions. It contains comparisons with the cases of Argentina and Ecuador.

Very Different Survey Results: Telephone vs Personal In-Home

2011-04-20T18:26:00.001+02:00

This post also available in Macedonian:
македонски @ Блогерај: Анкети со мноогу различни резултати: телефонски наспроти теренски
македонски @ Блогспот: Анкети со мноогу различни резултати: телефонски наспроти теренски

A current discussion on Twiter is based on a question by @banekoma:

#howcome [mk] 2 surveys with completely different results
1. Survey: VMRO-DPMNE persuasivelly ahead of SDSM [mk, 28% : 12%, Kurir]
2. Survey: VMRO-DPMNE 22% : SDSM 20% [Press 24]
#onlyinmk [mk]

Assuming that both surveys were honest, they still can yield different results because the first was a telephone survey, and the second, as far as I know, was a personal in home survey.

Telephone surveys are conducted via fixed telephone network(s). In Macedonia, maintaining a fixed phone line is a luxury for some social strata. After some relatively inexpensive prepaid mobile options became available, poorer citizens renounced their fixed phone numbers on a massive scale. According to the Enlargement Countries Monitoring Report by Cullen International (Dec 2010), published on the website of the Agency of Electronic Communications, fixed telephony in Macedonia has a negative "growth" rate. In January 2005 there were 29.21 fixed phone lines per 100 inhabitants, which dropped to 20.56 in January 2010 - almost by a third.

Allegedly, this trend is especially present in more rural areas. Therefore, a survey based on calling people via fixed telephone would not accurately reflect the general opinions, unless it contains additional mechanisms to provide a representative sample of the whole population. Just doing a telephone survey with the same number of people as an in-house is simply not enough, because it would omit representatives of people who (no longer) own a fixed telephone. If the survey designers did not take this into consideration, their results will deviate from reality. During the 2009 Presidential Elections there were instances when some politicians who were oriented toward the rural population "surprised" with a better vote count than the surveys predicted

Also, there's a difference in the level of ease of the surveyed people depending on the method. Probably there's a precise psychological formula on how to relax the subject, but I think that when someone gets a telephone call he's more aware that someone could relate his personal data (telephone number leading to name and address) with their political orientation and would respond more carefully. Due to politicized nature of our society and the real influences on personal and family well-being, probably a portion of the future voters would decline to respond, or would say they are undecided, or would say they'd vote for an option they think would look best if checked by someone who they fear.

Unfortunatelly the website of the Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research presents no data on this survey with explanations of the methodology. It seems that the quoted Institute Dimitrija Chupovski has no website at all. There's a Facebook page [mk] with that name which has a free Gmail as e-mail contact address, which does not contribute to building trust. Anyone can open such a page in literally 4 minutes, which does not help its credibility.

During the same discussion, pointed [mk] an example of a famous U.S.A. survey which failed due to non-representative sample, even though it covered an enormous percent of the total population.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites List

2011-03-31T23:00:00.001+02:00

This post also available in:
македонски @ Блогерај: Листата на УНЕСКО за културно наследство
македонски @ Блогспот: Листата на УНЕСКО за културно наследство

Browsing through TargetMap service I stumbled upon a map of UNESCO World Heritage Sites by Country. (I was also testing the option to embed the code into blogs posted on various platforms - works on Wordpress and Blogspot.)

Considering our vanity, it would be useful to compare Macedonia (1 site) with the wealth of other countries.

Most Commented Articles About Macedonia on Global Voices Online

2011-03-30T22:43:00.009+02:00

This post also available in :
македонски на Блогерај: Најкоментирани написи за Македонија на Глобал Војсис
македонски на Блогспот: Најкоментирани написи за Македонија на Глобал Војсис

I found it interesting to take a peek which articles about Macedonia published in the last couple of yearts on Global Voices Online received most comments. I checked the "main", English version, which is read by people world over and is the basis for translations into various languages, including Macedonian and Albanian.

Title	# Comments

Macedonia: Bloggers Discuss NATO Summit and Greece	96
Macedonia: Bloggers Emphasize Need for Open Communication with Greece	38
Macedonia: Online Rebellion Against “Skopje 2014″ Plan	28
The Balkans: “Whose is This Song?”	16
Macedonia: Violent Inter-Ethnic Incident on Skopje Fortress	14
Macedonia: Student Protest Ends in Violence	13
Macedonia: Alexander the Great as Media Bait	11
Macedonia Timeless	8
The Balkans: Byzantine Nostalgia	6
Macedonia: Grassroots Effort to Preserve Folk Music Online	5
Macedonia: Early Elections Imminent, Date Uncertain	5
Macedonia: Sakura – Cherry Blossom Cebration in Skopje	5

The works of Vito Volterra and F. Scott Fitzgerald enter the public domain

2011-02-09T22:30:00.004+01:00

This post also available in:
English @ Metamorphosis: The Works of Vito Volterra and F. Scott Fitzgerald enter the public domain
македонски @
- Блогерај: Делата на Вито Волтера и Ф. Скот Фицџералд влегуваат во јавниот домен
- Метаморфозис: Делата на Вито Волтера и Ф. Скот Фицџералд влегуваат во јавниот домен
- Блогспот: Делата на Вито Волтера и Ф. Скот Фицџералд влегуваат во јавниот домен
Shqip @ Metamorfozis: Veprat e Vito Volterës dhe F. Skot Ficxheraldit hyjnë në domenin publik

One of the events marking the Public Domain Day on a European level was organized by the NEXA Center for Internet & Society at the Polytechnic University of Turin on January 22, 2011.

The topic of the event was the importance of the entry into the public domain of works by two authors who had deceased in 1940: scientist Vito Volterra and writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

According to copyright laws in both Italy and the United States, 70 years after the death of the author, the author’s work is being “returned” for public use, and the heirs or rights holders are no longer able to limit the use of the work. For example, now anyone can republish the book "The Great Gatsby", to publish a new translation, or make a new film based on it, without needing to seek permission or pay any royalties to the family of the writer.

The Public Domain Day event is intended to allow the public to identify all the works that have become fully available during the previous year, in order to allow rapid cultural development. Advocates of the free culture movement believe that no work can be created without the author "borrowing" elements from "his" or from the world’s culture, so they also consider the termination of restrictions for free use by other people as a "return" of the works.

Prof. Juan Carlos de Martin, coordinator of the COMMUNIA network within which the Public Domain Day was established believes that the first celebration in Italy is very important because...

"...The public domain is essential for our cultural and economic life. Unfortunately people do not know what it is and why it is important, which is why we organized this celebration - to tell people what the public domain actually is – the works that you can use freely. In order to make it more tangible, we selected a couple of authors... and we told people about their life and work. We helped people realize that now they can use these beautiful works in any way they want ...We are planning to organize these celebrations every year to increase the awareness about the public domain."

During the celebration in Turin, Primavera De Filippi, representative of the Open Knowledge Foundation, with a masters’ degree on copyright in the digital environment, made the following statement:

“It is important to promote the public domain, to inform and sensibilize the population to the richness of European cultural heritage. The public domain day serves as a reminder that, every year, a whole new range of cultural works becomes available to the public for use and re-use. These works represent the basis of our common culture and an input for the production of new culture”.

Vito Volterra PhD. (1860-1940) was an Italian mathematician and physicist known for his contributions to mathematical biology and integral calculations, as well as a fighter against fascism. In 1931, he was one of the 12 professors out of a total of 1,250 who refused to give the obligatory oath of loyalty to the regime of Mussolini.

Writer and playwright Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) is best known for his book "The Great Gatsby" (1925) considered to be a classic of American literature. It was chosen as one of the hundred best books of the twentieth century and has a great impact on popular culture and through other media, especially the Robert Redford film from 1974. An example of this influence is also the fact that there is a pizzeria in the town of Radovis called "Gatsby".

The public domain is not explicitly defined as a special condition in the Macedonian legal system, but it is indirectly defined as the termination of copyright validity. As in most of the other member countries of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the termination takes effect automatically 70 years after the author’s death.

Unfortunately, the volume of works by modern Macedonian authors deceased 70 years ago is relatively modest, but as time passes by there are more and more possibilities. For example, the public use of the works of Koco Racin, the founder of the contemporary Macedonian language poetry will be possible in 2013.

As part of the efforts for spreading free culture, the Metamorphosis Foundation seeks to define the public domain in the legal system of Macedonia as a concept and develop mechanisms for greater legal availability of the contents. One option is the entry of all contents created with public money in the public domain, such as the products of public services and results of scientific research, as well as culture projects supported by the state. These efforts are consistent with the activities of the COMMUNIA network, whose founders include the Metamorphosis Foundation, working in this field on a European level.

Metamorphosis is also an advocate of the Creative Commons movement, offering legal tools - licenses, tailored to the national legislation. With these "agreements for non-exclusive copyright transfer" the individual authors are transferring part of their material rights to the public under certain conditions. One of the conditions is the obligatory attribution of the source, which provides additional promotion, particularly on the internet. One of the users of these licenses is the world's largest encyclopedia - Wikipedia.

Napoleon Bonaparte in Skopje?!

2011-01-06T13:00:00.005+01:00

This post also available in:
македонски на Блогспот · Наполеон во Скопје?!
македонски на Блогерај · Наполеон во Скопје?!

Autumn issue of Croatia Airlines in-flight magazine has an article on Skopje. Some of the history data are pretty puzzling.

The feature on Skopje, one of the destinations covered by the Croatian state airline, is available online in Croatian and English in the Autumn 2010 issue, pg 106-116. Most of it refers to Mother Theresa and the consequences of the 1963 earthquake. The photos don't look too fresh, even though the text mentions some more recent buildings.

The rest of the article is devoted to city's history. I got an impression that the author received a briefing from an overly enthusiastic source, someone with a burning desire to accentuate the city's importance over the centuries, with little interest for the truth. For instance...

"Until 1453, the city was the seat of Turkish Sultans."
"Napoleon himself choose the trade route through Skopje, a melting pot of cultures and religions, on his travels to the Middle East."

Napoleon indeed lead a Middle East campaign in 1798, but his route was over sea to Egypt, then over land to Syria, and then back to Egypt with sea voyage back to France. The impact of his passing through Skopje in either direction would have considerable changed history, as it would imply the destruction of the Ottoman Empire.

Still, my biggest objection is about the following claim from the article:

Prayer calls still resound from the slender mosque minarets which tower above the Carsi [Old Bazaar], and remind everybody of the city's multicultural past.

As if our present is not multicultural! And as if there are no functioning mosques with minarets elsewhere in the city in which about one third of the inhabitants consider themselves Muslim.

PS
The illustration was made using two Public Domain works as basis: the painting by Jean-Antoine Gros "Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul, Reviewing his Troops after the Battle of Marengo" and an old photograph of the Stone Bridge.

My Son's Favorite Cartoons (These Days)

2010-12-31T23:31:00.010+01:00

"With Goofy and the Little Piano" [Moving Day] was made during the Great Depression. Disney's protagonists are members of the working class who lost their home because they cannot afford the rent, so they attempt to save their furniture from impounding and the authorities' auction.

"With the Musicians" [The Band Concert] incited the weirdest present request I've ever heard: "Daddy, buy me a storm! A big one, so I can play with it."

Oh yeah, :-) Happy New Year to all

Introducing the Hunza Affair Abroad

2010-12-12T23:27:00.004+01:00

This post also available in:
English at Global Voices (short version) · Macedonia: Introducing the Hunza Affair
македонски на Блогспот · Претставување на аферата со Хунзите пред светот
македонски на Блогерај · Претставување на аферата со Хунзите пред светот

On the Nationalities Blog, Anastas Vangeli, aka Vuna, analyzes from the perspective of Orientalism an ongoing Macedonian political affair: fraternization with the “Hunza people” from the remote mountainous region of Pakistan, who claim ancestry from the soldiers of Alexander the Great.

Front page of "Orientalism" by Edward Said (1978)

I've written on this subject * before, and I'll repeat that I am sorry that instead of real appreciation of the culture of these people, and scientific, linguistic and historical/genetic research, the citizens of Macedonia get only politicking that brings profit to certain parties.

So far the pro-government media haven't shown recordings of Hunza people speaking in their native language [which is allegedly close to Macedonian, so I presume the facts would work against this fallacy], or from their everyday life. They only show some old photos in folk dresses and reiterate the claims of their promoters.

Moreover, the orientalistic stereotyping has been perpetrated not only by the critics of the affair, but by the promoters of the 'reunification' with the Hunza, too. Starting from Janko Ilkovski, the influential late-night talk show host (Jadi burek show on Nasha TV) who provided excuses for our long-lost Pakistani relatives by saying that they practice "a light version of Islam."

The latest example sounds like direct transmission of vicious Hindu Kush rumors, reminiscent of the scenes in the related film "The man who would be king" when villagers claim that their neighbors upstream are dirty bastards who intentionally urinate into the stream to give them hard time. This is an excerpt from Kanal 5 news item (bold is mine):

The Hunza live in northern Pakistan, administratively they are part of the Pakistani state from 1974, but they've retained their king. Besides the Hunza which number around 50,000, the Kalash tribe also consider themselves descendants of the army of Alexander of Macedon. Unlike the Hunza who are Islamized and educated, the Kalash are an ignorant tribe.
This fact is used by neighboring Greece, which opened a cultural center in the Kalash area, and donates significant financial funds for education of the Alexander the Great's lineage.

From such coverage, one can assume that "ours" Hunza people simply burst from being too educated, as if they have tons of universities and scientific-research institutions... I hope you noticed the accent of superiority of religious orientation i.e. the spreading of religious hatred.

Correlation between number of tweets and followers?

2010-11-02T17:30:00.004+01:00

This post also available in:
македонски на Блогспот · Корелација меѓу број на твитови и читатели?
македонски на Блогерај · Корелација меѓу број на твитови и читатели?

Few days ago I used the hashtag #kvantitet [quantity] to initiate a little survey among Macedonian Twitter users about how many tweets they've published so far. The results of all who took part in the conversation are presented in the graph bellow. The number of tweets is on the X-axis, while the Y-axis represents the number of followers, i.e. readers.

Click on the graph for a bigger version.

Some statistics about this post by Bit.ly.

Angelina Jolie and Lustration in Macedonia

2010-11-01T22:23:00.002+01:00

This post is also available in
македонски на Блогспот: Анџелина Џоли и лустрацијата во Македонија
македонски на Блогерај: Анџелина Џоли и лустрацијата во Македонија

Considering the maelstrom of vagueness, speculations and "movies" that came about the lustration in Macedonia, I expect one more element that would enable enlarging the circle of suspects, i.e. persons who unnamed sources would be able to accuse as collaborators of communist secret services.

A Skopje cinema started showing the the film "Salt" with Angelina Jolie. Her role is an American secret service employee who was in fact planted as a sleeper agent by the Soviet secret service during the Cold War, after being trained in spy-craft since she was a baby in the 1970s.

If we consider the fact that Communism was an international movement with ample opportunities for exchange of experiences between Tito and Breznev, as well as the Janissary tradition in the Balkans (taking small children from their families in order to make them work as slaves of the state), it turns out that if something like that happened in the USSR, it could as well happen in the SFRY.

With this assumption in place, Macedonian lustrators could point as secret service collaborators people who were underage before the breakup of Yugoslavia (and are currently in their prime). It would be enough for them to be born before 1991 to suspect that appropriate "programming" took place.

This would expand the possibilities to discredit or blackmail to yet another generation, regardless if they are self-proclaimed leftists or rightists who nevertheless use Communist methods in organizing their parties and the way they rule. This would also provide an excuse to mention Ms Jolie in a context related to Macedonia (co-branding).

Therefore, I expect something of this sort to be revealed on some of the fear-mongering TV shows, which already spread much hatred and conspiracy theories - after some of the great intellects of the Macedonian rebirth watches the movie. Of course, it would continue to serve the purpose of a smokescreen diverting attention from the facts about which current big shots also ruled in the former system - and why should anyone care.

The movie itself is an attempt to create a new franchise using James Bond as basis--a kind of female Jason Bourne, with using automotive elements from the Matrix, but without as good an explanation about how the protagonists remain alive through deadly stunts.

Movies about Privacy, Part 1

2010-04-16T01:37:00.003+02:00

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984). Film adaptation of George Orwell's classic. Relevant. Stylish in a nostalgic, pre-consumerist British way.

Green Street Hooligans (2005) references the influence of governmental video surveillance on crime in Britain, and also raises the issue of snooping, counter-snooping and data retention by private persons and media.

Gattaca (1997) - the notion of DNA as personal data is central to this an American dream come true story. Parallels can be drawn to the next Ethan Hawke movie, the Great Expectations (1998). During that decade, Uma Turman used to be way cooler than pre-LOTR Gwyneth Palthrow, which is another advantage for Gattaca.

Addicted to Love (1997) is a cheesy love story, enjoyed at the time by kind of people who later got hooked on Sex and the City. The movie has nothing to do with Robert Palmer. Apart from "romantic" thrills for masochists who basically get served the lesson that you love the one you get stuck with, this "lemonade" also raises issues such as is it ethical for an astronomer to use his telescope-handling skills to spy on the former girlfriend. And yes: Meg Ryan. Hey, at least it's not Julia Roberts!

Rear Window (1954) spying on your neighbors can sometimes benefit the society, including them. Remember that when you realize you've been under surveillance - it's not just motivated by boredom of civil servants who have nothing better to do at work, their ultimate motive is altruism.

All the President's Men (1976) the cast, the revalations, the cover-up, the journalistic courage and perseverance, the popular culture-based nicknames unthinkable in later, prudish movies. Even the book has the two main actors on the cover, they were so good at their heyday. The book is highly recommendable - in addition to Watergate, it discloses details about Republican campaign practices.

Equilibrium (2002) attempted to recycle number of computer game visuals and storyline elements from the Matrix and other successful films, possibly including the Ninety Eighty Four homage Brasil. Few scenes had Batman: the Dark Knight flavor. Spoiler: the single most interesting segment is about how indoctrinated family members inform on each other.

Death Wish (1974) - Stealing private data (peaking into an address) starts off a chain of events leading to tragedy, and the birth of one of the most influential crime fighting role models (at least for 8-bit video games fans).

Sliver (1993) - picking off where Hitchcock left off in Rear Window, this movie dares to show some skin while addressing the manipulative nature of high-tech voyeurism.

Enemy of the State (1998) is a beautiful fairy tale about righting the wrongs against incredible odds. Even more incredible is that it aided the process of disuniting the terms "The Fresh Prince" from "Will Smith," increasing the coolness of the later. Gadgetry level in this movie is pretty high, and nicely executed. If it has to make you think about something, think about how fast gadgets advance in a decade. This film was shot 13 years ago.

More to come...

Excerpts from S. Drakulić "How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed"

2010-04-10T16:57:00.008+02:00

I found the following excerpts from the book How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed by Croatian author Slavenka Drakulić (1993) quite useful in explaining some contemporary situations in Macedonia, as well as providing general introduction for people from the Western block of the Cold War.

I have to add that as a citizen of Yugoslavia, a socialist country which was not a member of the Warsaw Pact, I grew with the notion that the Iron Curtain fell on our Eastern, and not on our Western borders. At the time we could travel almost anywhere in the world, thanks to Tito's balancing acts and feats of international diplomacy.

(pg. xvi-xvii)

I understand that in the West today ‘the end of communism’ has become a stock phrase, a truism, a common expression supposed to indicate the current state of things in Eastern Europe. It sounds marvelous when you hear it in political speeches or read it in the newspapers. The reality is that communism persists in the way people behave, in the looks on their faces, in the way they think. Despite the free elections and the celebration of the new democratic governments taking over in Prague, Budapest, and Bucharest, the truth is that the people still go home to small, crowded apartments, drive unreliable cars, worry about their sickly children, do boring jobs – if they are not unemployed – and eat poor quality food. Life has the same wearying immobility; it is something to be endured, not enjoyed. The end of communism is still remote because communism, more than a political ideology or a method of government, is a state of mind. Political power may change hands overnight, economic and social life may soon follow, but people’s personalities, shaped by the communist regimes they lived under, are slower to change. Their characters have so deeply incorporated a particular set of values, a way of thinking and of perceiving the world, that exorcising this way of being will take an unforeseeable length of time.

The following excerpt might explain why Macedonian newspapers frequently refer to leading politicians by their first names or nicknames, esp. in headlines. Somehow there’s no need to use the surnames – everybody knows who is Kiro, Branko, Ljubcho, Ljube, Johan or Grujo (pg. 16-17)

…Nobody seems to mind that there is no more food on the table – at least not as long as a passionate political discussion is going on. ‘This is our food,’ says Evelina. ‘We are used to swallowing politics with our meals. For breakfast you eat elections, a parliament discussion comes for lunch, and at dinner you laugh at the evening news or get mad at the lies that the Communist Party is trying to sell, in spite of everything.’ Perhaps these people can live almost without food – either because it’s too expensive or because there is nothing to buy, or both – without books and information,, but not without politics.

One might think that this is happening only now, when they have the first real chance to change something. Not so. This intimacy with political issues was a part of everyday life whether on the level of hatred, or mistrust, or gossip, or just plain resignation during Todor Živkov’s communist government. In a totalitarian society, one has to relate to the power directly; there is no escape. Therefore, politics never becomes abstract. It remains a palpable, brutal force directing every aspect of our lives, from what we eat to how we live and where we work. Like a disease, a plague, an epidemic, it doesn’t spare anybody. Paradoxically, this is precisely how a totalitarian state produces its enemies: politicized citizens. The ‘velvet revolution’ is the product not only of high politics, but of the consciousness of ordinary citizens, infected by politics.

The aspect of having no choice but to live at home has advantages as social net at times of dire poverty and abject unemployment, but its effects on individual growth must be taken into account (pg. 88-90, bolds are mine)

…in 1987, a serious sociological study was conducted at Split University. Professor Srdjan Vrcan was interested in a characteristic but illogical phenomenon: why, in spite of probably the highest unemployment rate in Europe and the fact that about 85 per cent of the unemployed were young, there is not any kind of social movement or protest against an economy that forces people to wait an average of three years for their first job. The results confirmed what was already suspected: the reason is the conservative role of the family in our communist society. A relationship that from outside looks like a romantic tendency toward strong family ties in our culture has its less romantic side. Young unemployed people live in their parents’ apartments; their parents feed them, dress them, even give them some pocket money. The family furnishes complete protection and, in fact, young people have no reason to protest. Besides, protesting wouldn’t lead anywhere. The gigantic government bureaucracy – a system that was built just to keep communists in power and that perceives every spontaneous movement (whether for peace, ecology, or simple demand for jobs) as a threat to their rule – would put an end to any protest very efficiently. They would be considered ‘hooligans’ and punished as such.

But the problem is that even when young people get jobs, they cannot get away from their parents and still need their support. In such a society – all over Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union – young people cannot move up into important positions. They remain at the very bottom, no matter how skilled. It might be called youth discrimination. Parents could be accused of infantilizing their children and prolonging the status quo, but at the same time they are keeping their children off the streets. How can parents divorce children – or children parents, for that matter? Later on it is, perhaps, too late; the grandchildren have come, and who but grandparents will take care of them? Who want to expose kids to ‘care’ in kindergarten, to frequent illnesses, to early-morning dragging out of bed? Once again, when the children get a job and an apartment, divorce becomes impossible. To understand at least a little of this complicated situation, one has to know that this is a geriatric society, in which political leaders over sixty are considered to be ‘still young,’ not to mention those long dead, embalmed so they can live forever in their apartments – absurd mausoleums built of marble.

At the beginning, people multiplied in apartments. But later on, a strange phenomenon took place: apartments themselves started to divide and multiply. Like living organisms, prehistoric animals, protozoa perhaps, they divided into two or three, becoming smaller and smaller. Afterwards, with the help of a little money, they eventually got bigger again…

The book is worth reading as general introduction, even though some generalizations must be taken with a grain of salt, as the differences between countries, even between republics (of Yugoslavia, or USSR) must be taken into account. Moreover, different generations within the same location had vastly diversified experiences of communism.

Marry Anning, a female scientist from the steampunk era

2010-03-24T18:47:00.006+01:00

As part of the celebration of women in science and technology through the Ada Lovelace Day (#ALD10), I present Mary Anning (1799-1847) an autodidact paleontologist from Lyme Regis, England. She is noteworthy as a fossil hunter, who identified and dug out fossilized animals from the Jurassic period from Dover limestone cliffs for a living.

Fossil hunting requires both keen pattern recognition abilities, to differentiate bones turned into stone from ordinary rocks, and high hand-eye coordination, required while extracting the fossils from the sediments without damaging them. Anning family made a modest living by finding fossils and selling them to collectors as geology and nascent discipline of evolution started converging at the beginning of the XIX century.

Some of the most interesting finds related to the Annings included marine dinosaurs: Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs. Sadly...

...the majority of Mary's finds ended up in museums and personal collections without credit being given to her as the discoverer of the fossils. As time passed, Mary Anning and her family were forgotten by the scientific community and most historians, due to the lack of appropriate documentation of her special skills. Contributing to the oversight of Mary Anning and her contribution to paleontology was her social status and her gender. Many scientists of the day could not believe that a young woman from such a deprived background could posses the knowledge and skills that she seemed to display.

Sounds true. For instance, even though her story and finds are quite interesting the otherwise excellent Dinosaurs (Pockets) (1995) managed to omit Ms Anning entirely, even though it dedicated several pages to fossil hunters.

Plesiosaur: can you dig it?

I first found out about Ms Anning from Bil Bryson's excellent tome on the history of science A Short History of Nearly Everything. In addition, there are several biographies available about this remarkable person on the book market.

Join Ada Lovelace Day 2010

2010-02-09T17:52:00.006+01:00

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science. On March 24th the participants post about cool women.

I participated last year [MKD] and received an e-mail reminder to join this year too. I plan to cover another geek girl this time, but in preparation, here's what I wrote then:

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852) is the world's first programmer, who worked with Charles Babbage--the creator of the Analytical Engine, the first modern computer--during the steampunk era.

She was also a daughter of Lord Byron and invested her soul and body in the aristocratic-intellectual world of "sex & drugs & rock & roll" of her time, which then had the form of "sex & drugs & romanticism."

In order to support this international awareness raising action about the important role of women in the technological progress, sign the pledge ;-) [last year's version, closed now - the smiley is due to particular choice of translated word, which has pompous, even religious overtones in Macedonian] and publish a post about one of your techno-heroines.

This is very important for the women of the world, especially little girls, who are overwhelmed with non-proportional presence of male authority figures in all areas of social life. In Macedonia this pressure is omnipresent, from primary schools (just look at the proportion of male and female faces in the textbooks, for instance on literature) to politics [MKD].

Prediction: Josipović to Win Croatian Presidential Elections

2010-01-09T22:48:00.003+01:00

This post is also avaliable in:
македонски (Блогерај): Предвидување: Јосиповиќ ќе победи на изборите во Хрватска
македонски (Блогспот): Предвидување: Јосиповиќ ќе победи на изборите во Хрватска

If I would need to bet on the outcome of tomorrow’s Croatian Presidential Election, I would put my money on Ivo Josipović, who I think will crush opponent Milan Bandić.

I do not base this prediction on the outcome of the first round of the elections, or the polls. News about these favor Josipović, even though A1 TV speculates [MKD] that there could be a reverse if right-wingers, and the Diaspora rally around Bandić. I base the prediction on the method I tested through the research done by Metamorphosis Foundation about the use of new media during the Macedonian Presidential elections in 2009 (PDF) [MKD].

This research showed that by measuring the support on Facebook before the election, one could accurately predict the outcome, which in case of Macedonia also meant predicting the percentages of actual votes with an error of around 1%. The method involves identifying and comparing the forms of support (profiles, pages or groups) with maximum supporters.

In case of Croatia, I identified the official pages of Ivo Josipović [CRO]—with 22,729 fans—and Milan Bandić [CRO]—with 20,853 fans. The comparison yields the prediction that the former will triumph with around 52.15% votes, while the later will win no more than 47.85% of the valid ballots.

(The data is from 20:00 hrs on January 9, 2010. While the absolute number of supporters can change over time, I think that the critical mass is achieved and that any changes will cancel out each other and the percentages would remain similar.)

Okay, now let’s wait and see if we can use Facebook again as good prediction tool.

Biodiversity on the coats of arms of Europe & surrounding areas

2009-11-07T21:36:00.007+01:00

This post is also available in
Macedonian: Лавот наспроти орелот (на грбовите на Европа и околина)

As a contribution to the decades-long public debate on the coat of arms of Republic of Macedonia, I provide a graphic analysis of the animals used on the coats of arms and emblems of Europe and nearby areas. It's a kind of best practices study. Since the dispute in Macedonia focuses on two alternatives, with some ethnic Macedonians favoring the lion, and some ethnic Albanians favoring the eagle, the map pays special attention to these two symbols.

Click on the image for a larger and more detailed version of the map.

This is not a scientific study (yet), since the main source of data used is Wikipedia:

It would be interesting to do an overview of symbols used all over the world. For instance, no country uses an ostrich, but two have Kalashnikov assault rifles.
Note: on the map, the "no animals" category includes coats of arms featuring human figures (even though humans are animals, too).

First "Laptop" Discovered in Flash Gordon Comics

2009-08-31T17:28:00.000+02:00

Probably the earliest depiction of a communication device resembling a laptop has been discovered in an ancient Flash Gordon comics (from 1937) by Mende Petreski of Prilep, Macedonia.

What do Macedonian Facebook users do with the ads by Macedonian companies?

2009-05-27T01:51:00.014+02:00

A survey of 450 Facebook users from Macedonia indicates that very few of them—one percent—actually use the benefits of e-commerce provided by this environment, and that over a third of them do not click on the advertisements by Macedonian firms served by this social networking platform. Even though majority claim to click on the advertisements, most of them do not do that often, and almost two thirds of them have visited the advertised websites only once.

Methods

To gather the data, I posted a note (simple text article) available to all Facebook users, containing the question and the alternative answers (closed set). Users were invited to provide the response via private messages or to post them as comments with the number of the alternatives, and additional info at their convenience. The decision to use a note, as opposed to a specialized poll or quiz application, was based on the aversion experienced as a user, and corroborated by other users, to the constant influx of invitations to install new applications.

This user-friendly approach and the nature of the social media contributed to increasing the number of participants, some of whom shared the link among their friends. The data gathering took place from May 20, 2009 till May 30, 2009.

All communication and inviting took place strictly in Macedonian language, in order to provide a sort of filter for foreign friends of the surveyor and the respondents who might notice their activity regarding the note.

The responses are based on respondents’ recall and can be used to gain a rough sketch of the current state of the affairs, but cannot be taken as precise measurement of the effectiveness of the Facebook ads, or the level of use of e-commerce in Macedonia. However, it must be taken into account that Facebook users as a group can be considered to be potentially more wired than the general population of Macedonia, for at least they need to know to use the web and e-mail to start using Facebook.

In addition, six respondents, who reside outside of Macedonia, also took part in the survey. Their responses—that they do not notice such ads—confirming that the ads by Macedonian firms are targeted according to geographical location of the viewers. The responses by the Diaspora members were not included in the final tally.

Results

Out of total of 456 survey respondents, 450 persons from Macedonia answered the question: “What do you do with the advertisements by Macedonian firms on Facebook?”. Cleared data from 435 respondents indicates that:

27,4% do not notice those advertisements
6,0% intentionally do not click on them
37,0% click on those advertisements very rarely or never
25,3% occasionally click on such advertisements, and
4,4% often click on them

Several respondents who choose the first option also reported that they use Adblock Firefox Add-on, or other service which automatically prevents them from viewing ads. Future surveys on this topic should add this possibility as separate option.

In addition, the respondents were asked what they have done after clicking on such advertisements. The 294 survey participants, who first confirmed that they’ve clicked on such ads, responded as follows:

67,7% - I have visited the advertised websites only once (then and never again).
16,0% - I have returned to an advertised website several times.
3,1% - I have placed an advertised website in the bookmarks/favorites.
1,4% - I have bought a product or a service directly from such a site.
0,3% - I have bought an advertised product or service via telephone.
2,7% - I have bought an advertised product or service from a shop.

These results show a correlation with the results of a study of banner ads effectiveness published by the American company iProspect, in particular in regard to 36% of users who choose the option “Nothing. I haven’t responded to any such ads,” within this survey, which is quite close to over 33% of Macedonian users who selected one of the two options with the result of non-clicking on the ads.

However, over 66% of all respondents reported clicking on the ads by Macedonian companies, which points out that this targeted advertising on social networks indeed has a strong potential for reaching the intended audience. This notion needs to be confirmed by data on the actual Click-through rates (CTR), even though the CTR can take a back seat to building brand awareness by users who just see the ads and tend to get familiar with the advertised brand name.

The low level of actual online purchases done by the Facebook users can be due to the low level of development of e-commerce in Macedonia, which also indicates low user confidence in the existing domestic e-shops. Only one percent of the respondents who clicked on the ads confided that they’ve purchased an advertised product or a service online, as compared to three percent of them who later used a brick-and-mortar shop to conduct an actual business transaction.

Assumptions and Limitations

The main limitation regards the possible bias of the sample, which included 450 self-selected respondents, a number of whom are not surveyor’s Facebook friends, so even their self-reported data such as sex could not be accessed and verified. Estimated sex ratio for this group is 48% to 52% for males and females, respectively.

The assumption for this survey is that ratio of male to female users on Facebook reflects the estimate for the general population of Macedonia of 50% each. This could not have been verified, as Facebook estimates the ratio of males to females for users of all ages (by the rule: over 13) from Macedonia to roughly 51% to 49%. This estimate is prone to errors due to using self-reported sex info as basis, and taking into account that some users do not input this data. For instance, on May 26, 2009, the official estimate by Facebook for the total number of users from Macedonia was 170,360, with 84,660 males and 83,120 females, leaving 1240 unaccounted for. Even more peculiar is that the total number for males and females from Macedonia provided by Facebook is 168,800, while the simple sum of the above numbers is 169,120, with an unexplained difference of 320.

A rough estimate of the ethnic affiliation could be made, based on personal acquaintance and used surnames, yielding a ratio of 82% of ethnic Macedonians, 4% of ethnic Albanians, and 12% of people belonging to other ethnic communities (Serbs, Croats, Turks, Vlachs, Roma, Slovenes, etc.) or whose affiliation is undeterminable at this point. This does not provide a strong correlation with the general population. According to the 2002 census, the population of Macedonia consists of 64% ethnic Macedonians, 25% ethnic Albanians, and 11% others.

Facebook does not collect data on ethnicity or native language, and it cannot be verified if the above estimates point to a kind of digital divide between ethnic communities, indicating that a larger proportion of members belonging to one of these categories use the system.

Taking all the assumptions and limitations into account, no efforts were made in order to dig deeper into the data, such as cross-indexing of gender and a particular response. Even though the sample size of 0.26% of the total population of Facebook users from Macedonia is not negligible, to segment it even further would be too ambitious for a survey of this kind.

80 years of Tintin

2009-01-28T21:44:00.001+01:00

Brussels celebrated the 80th birthday of the comics hero Tintin two weeks ago (Jan 14 2008) by unveiling a huge mural in the Luxemburg train station. The representative of the copyright holder mentioned that one of the important values promoted by the comics is the right of young people to travel.

The photo: “official” collectible figurines with the comics’ characters I photographed on Brussels airport in March. These are some of the "moderately" priced, over EUR 200 each. There are other similar collectibles which cost three times as much, and I’ll write some more about it soon.

The First (!?) Macedonian webcomics: Vlado’s World

2008-11-29T23:40:00.001+01:00

At last an independent Macedonian artist has started publishing a genuine webcomics [MKD].

The artist Vlado Janevski has posted several ironic-autobiographical strips on his blog, made in English:

Paris: Street Protests against Education Budget Cuts

2008-10-30T15:06:00.001+01:00

Last Sunday the protestors filled the streets of Paris, demonstrating against the decisions of the French Government to cut the education budget, while using public money to subsidize banks, using the financial crisis as an excuse.

Numerous leftist political parties, unions and groups took part in the protest. For me as a visitor it was interesting to whiteness the diverse demographics of the participants, both in regard to gender and age. I tried to document the various message spreading techniques by this small video made with a mobile phone:

Such tools included disseminating lyrics from protest songs and slogans on paper (leaflets), groups of drummers using professional drums or plastic cans, while using balloons as effective placards was a novelty to me. Concerning logistics, the march included vans selling sandwiches to the participants, and other logistics. The walk took many kilometers, through several main Paris boulevards.

In fact, the most effective noise-making tool available to individual persons seems to be the cowbell, like those on the photo. Their sound travels very far with high quality.

Macedonia: Fighting Corruption with Online Video

2008-09-19T17:26:00.001+02:00

In order to aid the fight against corruption, and for increasing transparency and accountability of the government, the Macedonian blogs Komunikacii and Panta Rei published several video-clips used by citizens to document abuse of power in the municipality of Centar, а constituent part of the Macedonian capital Skopje.

The clips posted on YouTube contain fragments of conversations with the municipal officials and public servants who allegedly refrained from removal of illegal buildings under their jurisdiction. This online video aspect of the "Platina" case—named after the building company—was first revealed by the Nova Makedonija daily, and was also reported by the portal Taratur.

Gamers as a media target, symptom of wider discrimination

2008-07-26T10:54:00.000+02:00

This is sort of a follow up-prequel to the article I published on Global Voices Online:

Macedonia: Traditional media demonize gamers

Regardless if a person considers oneself a gamer or not, I think they should become concerned by the pattern of discrimination labeling group by group as abnormal, wasteful, and dangerous even. And this does not concern the various breeds of geeks only, it’s not just about technophobia. As Umberto Eco points out in his essay “Eternal Fascism,” the nascent forms of such movements incite the fear of difference.

Articles inciting fear of a minority can incite real problems for its members (“What does he do in his spare time? Playing DotA or Counter Strike? How can I employ this guy, he can go postal any minute.”), but seem to fit into divide and rule tactics used against the society as a whole. Instead of becoming united, Macedonian society becomes segmented into ever smaller, isolated groups which can be easily branded as freaks and dealt with as part of some final solution scheme.

Considering all of the above, I dared to paraphrase the antifascist quote by the German pastor Martin Niemoeller:

“First they came for the hackers,
but I was not a hacker so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the pirates, forgetting that Jesus said:
“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone”,
but I did not resell other people’s software, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the gamers,
but I did not consider myself a gamer so I did not speak out.
And when they came to hunt the bloggers down,
there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Does this make sense to you? If yes, help raising awareness by digging the article, or join the discussions (in Macedonian) on Kajmakot or Blogeraj.

Blog about the poetry of Jovan Koteski launched

2008-06-03T16:09:00.000+02:00

A blog dedicated to the poetry of Jovan Koteski (1932-2001), containing his complete published works and personal archives was released this week by his daughter. The famous Macedonian poet has suffered decades of "Kafikian" persecution and surveillance by the former communist regime. Entire content of the blog is free to use for noncommercial purposes on condition of attribution.

Macedonia: Greek Pacifists' Visit

2008-05-22T10:46:00.000+02:00

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

(First published by Global Voices Online)

Macedonia: Bloggers Emphasize Need for Open Communication with Greece

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

by Filip Stojanovski for Global Voices Online (15.05.2008).

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

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

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

The author of the blog Agness wrote (MKD):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[…]

Peace, love, empathy!

Macedonia: Sakura - Cherry Blossom Celebration in Skopje

2008-05-07T14:42:00.001+02:00

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

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

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

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

Members of Samurai Dojo in action. Photo by Volan.

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

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

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

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

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

[…]

Macedonia: Bloggers Discuss NATO Summit and Greece

2008-05-07T14:36:00.000+02:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greece, Macedonia, name issue

2008-04-22T11:31:00.002+02:00

Macedonian perception of the name dispute can be described using the following fable. The Greek excuses for inciting the name issue sound childish, irrational and irrelevant precisely for the reason they are. Macedonia has never attempted to monopolize the word Macedonia, nor prevent anyone else, including Greece, from using elements of the world heritage left by the ancients. On to the fable...

Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.) Fables.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

The Wolf and the Lamb

ONCE upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. “There’s my supper,” thought he, “if only I can find some excuse to seize it.” Then he called out to the Lamb, “How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?”
“Nay, master, nay,” said Lambikin; “if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.”
“Well, then,” said the Wolf, “why did you call me bad names this time last year?”
“That cannot be,” said the Lamb; “I am only six months old.”
“I don’t care,” snarled the Wolf; “if it was not you it was your father;” and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and—
WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA—
ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out—
“ANY EXCUSE WILL SERVE A TYRANT.”

Creative Commons: 11 Shakespeare e-books in Macedonian Published

2008-03-21T11:56:00.002+01:00

Creative Commons Content Portal for Macedonia published Macedonian translations of eleven Shakespeare plays as downloadable e-books, made available by the renowned storyteller and translator Dragi Mihajlovski.

The e-books have been published in weekly batches of two to three PDF-files between the 8th of February and the 20th of March 20, 2008. The following plays have been published under the Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Macedonia license:

The portal is managed by Metamorphosis Foundation, and it continues to provide space for e-publishing of works by contemporary Macedonian authors, as well as possibility for all who use the Creative Commons licenses elsewhere on the internet to add links to their content published elsewhere on the internet.

Macedonia's Animal Kingdom

2008-01-31T13:33:00.000+01:00

The resting jaguar. Click on the image to enlarge

Visit the Skopje Zoo. Help feeding the needy animals by paying the 50 denars ticket.

By Filip Stojanovski

Skopje (28.09.2002) � Even though it manages to survive in dire times, Skopje Zoo needs help. The management obviously tried to use the meager resources to reconstruct the infrastructure and even add new content. There are obvious signs of recent rebuilding of the walls, the place is kept clean, and there's a special place for kids to play on their own.

Of course, you might object to the whole concept of the Zoo: purchasing animals in order to put them in cages, ruining their lives and their population in the wild, so humans can take a look at them up close. I, for one, would not perpetrate such a thing. But, this is not an ideal world. We better make the best of what is, because things sure don't feel like moving into the direction of what should be. So, a walk through the Zoo can provide you with a lot of benefits, both educational and social.

First and foremost, you would be able to help the animals much more than if you ignore the problem. Paying the ticket helps the food fund, obviously. Just like in the elections, high turn-out declines the possibility of abuse. There are visitors who, alongside taking a throng of their kids to the Zoo, find sadistic pleasure in abusing the animals, especially the hippo or the monkeys, throwing (hard) objects at them and making a nuisance of themselves. Such persons think they are funny � and their children follow their example. I bet they'll think twice before they do such things again, if there are other visitors around to reprimand them about their improper behavior.

You can also find nice ways to communicate with the animals. This provides for a spark of the great feeling of oneness with nature, something of which many city-dwellers have forgotten. The effect is hundred-fold if you are a child. We can all benefit from the notion that we are not alone in this world.

The jaguar cub

Some visitors buy smoki snacks at the gate and feed the non-carnivores. This practice seems to be tolerated by the staff, which comprises of but a few persons, who are too busy taking care of the facilities anyway. There are several species of deer, horses (ponies, and "normals"), goats, and birds�ducks, swans, and geese--which all seem quite tame and act friendly.

The jaguar cub (born this winter), like any baby, is always happy to play and likes the visitors' attention. He is yet to become like the other cats, which have "got used" to being crammed in the cages the size of a large room, instead of roaming through tens of kilometers of territory, a normal habitat for the lions, jaguars, or leopards. They seem numbed, lying all day, breaking the habit only to pace nervously from time to time in great speed in front of the iron bars.

One of the jaguars. It's funny that no prominent paramilitary organization has taken the name of this great cat species. They are the most numerous great cats in captivity in Macedonia

There's plenty of more to discover in the Zoo. Some cages are eerily empty, but there are still families of camels, peacocks, chicken, vultures, pigs, llamas, alpacas, and African and Tibetan cattle, some of them with offspring. The Zoo also houses the Museum of Natural History (closed after 4 pm), where you can see fossils, mammoth tusks, sculls and bones of prehistoric animals, and dioramas of our contemporaries, insects (colorful butterfly collection), and fishes.

Be there. It's cool to be kind to animals... and other people.

The black panther.

The jaguar cub:

The baby jaguar among the smoki snacks thrown by the well-wishing visitors.

[This article was first published on now-defunct Reality Macedonia news and opinions website on September 28, 2002.]

Web Usability of e-Gov Applications in Macedonia

2007-12-11T15:28:00.000+01:00

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Respect for the Waste Collectors (on the Road to EU)

2007-11-06T23:50:00.000+01:00

This photo is of a shelf with toys from Eindhoven, Netherlands shop. I found it very interesting that two out of three best European toy brands, Playmobil and Lego, choose to include waste collectors in their palette.

Like the third one—Papo—these two also feature toys with other backgrounds, from nature-orinted, to inspired by history or science-fiction. But I'm impressed by the inclusion of everyday professions, and women and children as characters, which enables the kids who play with them much wider educational benefits.

A long time ago (around 1979 – when I was five) you could buy similar toys in Macedonia too: Play-BIG, the vanished competitor of Playmobil. They had similar approach, I remember having a road worker with pike and cone, and fluorescent overall. I consider importing such egalitarian toys for the children of Macedonia a matter of national interest. They have had enough romantic-militaristic indoctrination by the cowboys-Indians-knights-army men toy establishment (mostly Chinese copies of American sets).

Dutch Design Week Highligts

2007-11-06T00:36:00.000+01:00

Dutch Design Week is an annual event taking place in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, with a packed activity schedule at various locations in the city (20-28.10.2007), as well as some cars driving around with funny sculptures on top of them.

Judging from several of DDW's deliverables, it seems to me that the message was that design should be considered an integral part of innovation. Such implications included a city re-design competition initiated by the municipality, and Philips' presentations on future buildings equipped with built-in recycling system similar in function to the stillsuits of Dune and e-tattoos.

Stumbling upon the huge exhibition space in former industrial complex called Strijp S was quite lucky coincidence, enabling me to enjoy various design solutions, from a chamber cinema for animations, to quite toys and chairs with style, to new models of cars and cool t-shirts.

The designers' collective Groene Honden (Green Dogs) occupied one of the most vibrant and interesting spaces in the exhibition. The group features upstarts who've teamed up to combine their creative forces and youthful optimism. For instance, take Ms. Rosalie Bak (pictured), a designer who uses inspiration from medicine and anatomy to create home-bound items which look and feel great, from dolls made of bandages and cotton, to bottles and vessels resembling human organs.

Taking a sip from a heart-shaped bottle must be a far cry from the heart-shaped box of Nirvana fame, since the bottle is not only anatomically correct - as opposed to overly stylized, and radiates fresh, upbeat vibes associated with the welcoming future of scientific progress.

New Timeline: Heroes of Plutarch's Lives

2007-08-19T15:42:00.000+02:00

The Timeline of Plutarch's Lives presents the lifespans of the characters presented in one of the most influential biographical works in history. Among others, Napoleon Bonaparte used to carry the Lives with him on his campaigns, and the book is also featured at the bottom of J.L. David's painting "Napoleon in his study in the Tuileries Palace."

The Wikipedia entry on the Parallel Lives and the appropriate articles on individual characters provided the basis for the timeline.

Chàchipe: Photo Competition Deadline Extended Till August 15

2007-08-14T13:24:00.001+02:00

The organizers of Chàchipe - the Decade of Roma Inclusion Photo Contest, Open Society Institute and OSA Archivum, announce extension of the deadline till August 15, 2007.

read more | digg story

Interviews with authors of Macedonia graphic novel

2007-07-04T11:05:00.000+02:00

A graphic novel by Harvey Pekar, Heather Robinson and Ed Piskor about Macedonia has been published. It describes Ms. Robinson's jurney into the country, investigating why peace, and not war, broke few years ago.

My review of the book will hopefully be done soon, in the meantime check out these interviews with the authors

This book is hugelly important, as one of the few really dealing with the country available in the West. This problem is mentioned in the book itself, and by the authors in the interviews.

Two interviews with Joi Ito in the Macedonian Press

2007-06-25T23:17:00.000+02:00

At the Creative Commons Macedonia launch last week, Joichi Ito gave two interviews for two Macedonian daily newspapers:

the first (pictured) on the spot, for Nedelno Vreme published this Sunday,

and the other over the web, for Shpic, to be out tomorrow (Tuesday).

The first interview was supplemented by adaptation of the How it Works comics.

The Quest for Perfect Strategy Game

2007-06-25T00:18:00.000+02:00

Can real-time strategy (RTS) games be used as a tool to learn strategy? Can the politicians and other leaders use them to learn how to better manage resources, envision moves, plan activities to the benefit of real states? Yes, but only if they use games which apply the accumulated wisdom in this field.

Filip Stojanovski

The basic challenge facing the authors of computer games is balancing the degrees of simulation and playability. The game should tend to reflect the real circumstances, but it also needs to condense and abstract the boredom inherent to war. A game becomes uninteresting failure both if it's too hard and if it's too easy.

The basic factor whether a game is good for learning strategy is whether it uses the knowledge accumulated by the classics in this discipline through history. Games that provide conditions for forcing gamers to apply these lessons are best learning tools.

All the ingredients

Ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu teaches that "All warfare is based on deception." In his book The Art of War, he states a general should be familiar with five factors.

These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.

• The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.
• Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
• Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.
• The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.
• By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.

British military theoretician Basil Henry Liddell Hart, whose students included legendary generals such as Rommel and Patton synthesized the historic experiences from the last 2500 years in his book Strategy (1967). He reveals that:

...throughout the ages, effective results in war have rarely been attained unless the approach has had such indirectness as to ensure the opponent's unreadiness to meet it. The indirectness has usually been physical, and always psychological. In strategy, the longest way round is often the shortest way home.

More and more clearly has the lesson emerged that a direct approach to one's mental object, or physical objective, along the 'line of natural expectation' for the opponent, tends to produce negative results. The reason has been expressed vividly in Napoleon's dictum that 'the moral is to the physical as tree to one'. It may be expressed scientifically by saying that, while the strength of the opposing force or country lies outwardly in its numbers and resources, these are fundamentally dependant upon stability of control, morale and supply.

The concept of Four Generations of Modern War, developed by the American strategist and former marine William S. Lind provides another intellectual framework:

The First Generation (1648-1860) - the state established a monopoly on war, with a military culture of order, with imposed discipline and strict hierarchy, reflected in the way armies act on battlefield, using line and column tactics.

The Second Generation (1860-1939) brought reaction to the suicidal insistence of order against industrialized weapons such as machine guns, using mass firepower, most of which was indirect artillery fire, as a solution. According to Lind:

The goal was attrition, and the doctrine was summed up by the French as, "The artillery conquers, the infantry occupies." Centrally-controlled firepower was carefully synchronized, using detailed, specific plans and orders, for the infantry, tanks, and artillery, in a "conducted battle" where the commander was in effect the conductor of an orchestra.

The Third Generation resulted from the German reaction to the former two, developed during World War I and applied during World War II. Its basis is "speed, surprise, and mental as well as physical dislocation" of the opponent, focused on solving actual problems in the field, not blindly following orders. This resulted in development of the "first non-linear tactics. On the defense, the objective became sucking the enemy in, then cutting him off, rather than holding a line. On the offensive, the attack flowed like water through the enemy's defenses, always seeking the weakest point to penetrate, then rolling him up from his own rear forward. Operationally as well as tactically the goal was usually encirclement."

Besides states, main actors in the Contemporary Fourth Generation wars include irregular, guerrilla, terrorist and/or mafia networks, with additional complication of clashing cultures on tribal, ethnic, ideological, and/or religious grounds. Such wars represent "mix of ancient and modern," with obvious primacy of the indirectness and the morale, especially regarding developing loyalty of the population as opposed to accumulation of resources, numbers, and firepower.

Games of note, not of use

Popularity of a game does not imply its usefulness as a tool for learning strategy. When the gaming industry overcomes some set of technical limitations, it mainly improves the visual elements and scope of activities - for instance, moving from isometric 2D to 3D, adding more kinds of troops, etc. Unfortunately, most of the contemporary games have not moved from the concept of Second Generation War – their main goal remains solving the equation of inflicting/avoiding physical loses.

In these games, the winner accumulates more resources, increasing the size and firepower of his or her army. The soldiers act as machines, without fatigue or fear even in dead end situations, toiling while they have enough "fuel" or until they suffer enough damage. This concept is partially due to the historical success of games with robot-like units, such as Dune II (1992). They have absolute hierarchy of control, the information and resources travel instantaneously from point to point, and the player's role resembles an omnipresent and omniscient deity, not a flesh-and-blood field commander.

Classic examples of this kind include the serials Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Cossacks, Warcraft, and Starcraft. These games limit their users to partial control of but two out of the five Sun Tzu's factors (distances, roads, and expenditures), and only the external factors pointed by Liddell-Hart (numbers and resources). Even in games that perfected these elements, such as Sudden Strike, gamers have minuscule or no control over morale or indirectness, and get an impression that they can take them for granted, or completely disregard them.

The key reason for this approach is that the mainstream of American culture remains stuck in the Lind's Second Generation of warfare. Air force has replaced artillery as deliverer of superior firepower, followed by invasion supported by superb logistics. Since the USA's resources remain far larger than any of its opponents, the losses get replenished until total economic collapse of the enemy, or until those who resist are exterminated, disregarding the high cost of lost human lives and overall destruction of the targeted lands.

Winning Fourth Generation Wars require minimizing the losses on both sides, and also avoiding humiliation and destruction of the institutions of the opponent, because they will be needed in the post-conflict period to provide law and order against the chaos incited by the anarchic and criminal groups. Renaissance thinker Niccolo Machiavelli recommends similar approach in The Prince (1513).

In reality, striving to physically destroy all enemy personnel remains unfeasible due to decreasing of differences between warriors and civilians, and their usual intermingling. Civilian losses increases the will to resist of the targets, and it also increases the negative public opinion world over, and in some cases can lead to legal repercussions. The first two years of the current occupation of Iraq vividly displayed the consequences of such errors.

Regrettably, very few strategic games takes morale as a success factor, with most of them representing the soldiers as blindly obedient executors of players' orders; displaying constant high level of courage, regardless of consequences. Genocide over the "enemy" also remains one of the basic assumptions of games like these. This approach can dramatically mislead the future strategists, leading them to disregard of emotions and empathy, to forgetting that they deal with human beings, and resulting in catastrophic mistakes in interpersonal relations with the subordinates or the opponents.

Such elements remain more present in the city/state running simulations, such as SimCity, Caesar, and Sid Meier's Civilization; or strategy/adventures such as Dune I (1992), where economic factors and satisfying various needs of the population dominate. Still, these games most often concentrate on global (or grand) strategy, with minimum real-time tactical elements – out of focus of this essay.

Another especially unrealistic element of the games such as Age of Empires is building wonder – usually huge buildings such as pyramids or the tower of Babel, leading to swift victory. In fact, such projects prove too expensive and with too minuscule effect in contrast to capacity building of the whole economic and societal system: agriculture, industry, science, education, and defense.

Doing it right

Pioneer of taking morale as element of strategy is Centurion: Defender of Rome (1990), which divides the action in concord with Liddell-Hart's concept of strategy—high politics, diplomacy, propaganda, choosing allies, choosing enemies, decisions to move—lead on a map similar to Risk board, and tactics—positioning the army, maneuvering, and actual fighting. In this case, for instance, attacking from the back brings enormous advantage, while killing a leader can result in a rout of his troops.

In this sense, Centurion had no real competition until the appearance of Shogun, the first Total War sequel in 2000. This game followed the same principles, supplemented with lessons by Sun Tzu and the Book of Five Rings (1645) by samurai Miyamoto Musashi.

Total War introduced limit to player's omniscience, creating the need of intelligence gathering through espionage. It also replaced the isometric display of battles with full three-dimensional environment. Unlike most other RPG serials, which focus on improving the design, this franchise also adds more simulation elements with each new issue, retaining the interest both of more experienced players and history buffs. Such elements include soldier fatigue and terrain type, present in earlier sequels, and role of nepotism in choosing field commanders, introduced in the later. Total War is not (yet) perfect, as it still retains some elements of god-like perception for the player, such as instant transport of resources (money) from and to any point on the map. Adding the element of logistics, such as tax collection caravans and dealing with corruption of governors, and info lag - the time messages need to travel from distant provinces, can add more flavour and realism. At various levels of the game these features can be automated or left to the players to control them hands-on.

Most Fourth Generation War elements remain present in Total War, but not all, such as role of propaganda, victimization, and social engineering, partly due to its historical setting. One game which explicitly refers to them is September 12th. This is a simulation intended to show the futility of tactics of killing "terrorists" with disproportional force – rocket attacks which also harm civilians. In the game, the relatives of civilians who perish become "terrorists" too, so the only result gain is continuing the cycle of violence.

In the past, gamers eager to acquire strategic skills faced a choice: either popular, but not very educational titles such as products by Microsoft and Blizzard, or games requiring high investment in equipment and steep learning curve. Total War solves this dilemma by enlarging the repertoire of activities for solving strategic problems, using both direct and indirect means.

Like all other human skill, strategic thinking can be learned. In the past, the main tools for this included study of history and critical thinking, because they enabled learning from other people's mistakes. Computer games present a welcome enhancement, because they also provide painless learning from one's own mistakes.

Strategy Books Available Online in English

2007-06-21T11:40:00.000+02:00

The Art of War by Sunzi aka Sun Tzu, China, 6th century B.C.
The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, Greece, 5th century B.C.
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, Italy, 1513
A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, Japan, 1645

Imagine all the countries…

2007-06-20T15:19:00.000+02:00

Can you imagine UN and EU to be persuaded by…

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

No?

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

UN and EU to Impose New Name on Finland

2007-05-13T01:12:00.000+02:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

Emperor's Daughter and the Healer (Macedonian folk story)

2007-02-13T18:54:00.000+01:00

A bad thought is a full-fledged disease - Macedonian proverb

Once upon a time, an emperor's daughter suffered from a bad thought she had. All imperial healers and physicians attempted to heal her, but nobody could find a cure. From day to day she grew worse, and her face was dying out.

An old healer heard about her plight. He was forgotten by the world forgot a long time ago due to his old age, and nobody ever sent for him any more.

"Ah, wait," the healer told himself, "I should go to the emperor's daughter, and see what kind of illness she has, so I can heal her."

He went to the castle and presented himself in front of the emperor's daughter. After he questioned her from all sides on what ails her, he found her cure.

"Many healers," the old healer said, "attempted to cure you by way of herbs, but they failed to make you well, daughter. I will cure you without herbs, so you will remember me and always mention me in your prayers 'may God have mercy on the old healer who cured me without herbs.'"

"Oh, gradpa," the emperor's daughter said sadly "If you can cure me, I will tell my father to make you the first healer of the capitol, and give you great riches."

After the healer heard this words, he went to the goldsmith and had made a golden ring, with a stamp on top. In the stamp, he wrote these words: "All that was – has come to pass, and all that will be – will pass also." He brought the ring to the princess and put it on her finger.

"Here's you cure, o imperial girl," said the healer. "Every hour of every day, when the bad thought comes to torment your heart, read the inscription and think about it a little bit. This way, if you read and think, in forty days you will be healed. Do this, I beseech you, and I guarantee with my own head: cut it off if you don't get well."

And in truth, the emperor's daughter recovered from the illness in her thought, in even less than forty days. She was cured, and the healer got great honors.

Written by Marko Cepenkov (1829-1920), translated into English by Filip Stojanovski.
Source: Царската ќерка и екимо.

How to Get Over 10000 Visits to a Webpage in a Day (Case Study)

2007-01-28T12:43:00.000+01:00

In the night between December 4 and 5, 2006, in the twelve hours between 7 pm and 7 am, one article of the Science Fiction Observer blog received over ten thousand visits. The lessons of this success are useful to all interested in online marketing and promotion.

This blog was opened for the reasons of testing the new Blogger software, learning about social networking as promotion tool through practice, and--of course--to present news and opinions about science fiction and related subjects, by the blog members.

1. The website should be appropriate for the purpose

Blogs are good tool for web marketing and e-publishing experiments because the initial financial expenses are minimal, while the very nature of the medium enables quick linking among the sites, which are already optimized for search engines (if they use Latin alphabets). Large portion of their audience consists of other bloggers, who by default surf more than the usual internet users, so the results are obtained quicker, in comparison to the overall internet-space.

2. Present Relevant Information

During the previous weekend I came across a news item that I found fitting into the concept of the blog, and could be tied in to some previous posts. In the presented form it did not provide complete information. The topic was updating the legal framework on copyright in the U.S.A. in some special cases, enabling access to abandonware, including some old DOS games mentioned on the blog. Besides a link to the news, I also found the original text of the new regulation and posted a link to it, alongside with a quote of the most important article. By this I provided a complete information, enabling further research for the readers who would like to pursue it.

3. Invest in Promotion over the Internet

Few days before that I already promoted the basic website of the blog over the StumbleUpon, generating over 1000 visits. I decided to use Digg's Gaming News channel for this article, because its readers would be most interested. The platforms both social networking services, but Digg's advantage is that it's completely web-based, while StumbleUpon requires users to install toolbar. (StumbleUpon's advantage is the ability to initiate direct communication among users, which is somewhat complicated on Digg). Digg articles receiving enough votes appear on the extremely popular front page.

This happened with the article in question. After getting initial support by dozens of voters, the visits skyrocketed to a few hundred. It ended its stay on the front page with over 1440 diggs, leading to over 14.000 visits from all over the world in the next couple of days. Links on other websites and blogs continued to supplement the Digg effect. Most of the visitors came from locations where potential foreign investors reside (North America, Western Europe, East Asia, Australia).

4. Follow the Situation Closely and React Accordingly

During the evening, I stayed on the particular Digg page used for voting, responding to comments by other users. This also helped the promotion, because their friends can see if they are active and post comments to certain topics, and get curious about it. Also, I invited my friends who were online at the time to join the party via IM.

In this case, the financial investment was minimal, and most of the investment consisted in applying experience and knowledge of operation of systems used.

5. Analyze and Make Room for Further Development

According to the results by the blog aggregator Digimak, which uses the data from the public counters of around 88 Macedonian blogs, an average Macedonian blog has about 40 unique visits per day. The most popular Macedonian blogs seldom top 200 visits per day, with the exception of porn blogs, which remain a separate world anyway. Judging by the available public counters and some insider data, Macedonian business-oriented websites probably do not stray much from this pattern.

This case remains important not only because it contributed to world promotion of the product in question (the article and the blog), but it contributed to raising the average visits level of the whole Macedonian blogosphere. If the Macedonian firms and institutions require business promotion over the internet, they must necessarily take into consideration the need for proactive web-marketing, and hire relevant experts.

Source: Како до над 10.000 посети на ваша веб-страница во еден ден (студија на случај). Filip Stojanovski for Razvigor in Macedonian blog, Jan 15, 2007.

PS
If you like it, please digg this article ;-).

SEO for Blogs – Harder for Other Alphabets and Scripts

2007-01-28T12:15:00.000+01:00

Blogger.com, Joomla and other popular contemporary content management systems (CMS) provide a feature that creates URLs for each article based on the words in the title, but this works only with Latin alphabets.

So for instance, if you have an article titled "10 Top Things", and instead of an URL based on its ID in the CMS database, such as

http://www.yoursite.org/show_article.php=23

you will get an URL such as

http://www.yoursite.org/2007/Jan/10-top-things.html

The article's URL is one of the most important elements to the search engines and the more keywords it contains, the higher the rank of the actual article. Unfortunately, this HTML dump technique is currently non-applicable to websites using scripts other than basic Latin, because the domain names are allowed to use only English Latin characters.

For instance, for an article written in Macedonian Cyrillic, with a title „Граѓаните имаат право на избор“ (Citizens have the right of choice) you would get a generic link such as

http://razvigormk.blogspot.com/2007/01/blog-post_16.html

because Blogger.com has no ability to include the words from the title into the URL.

One temporary solution would be to include a feature for transliteration, or converting the text written in other script into English Latin alphabet, and then using it in for the URL. For instance, the title of the above article would be "Gragjanite imaat pravo na izbor".

This SEO technique would at least help surfers who would search for Macedonian content but have no ability to write in Cyrillic at the moment, and would be especially helpful with search engines who do automatic conversion and cover both original Macedonian Cyrillic and English transliteration, such as Pogodok.

Timeline of Macedonian Blogosphere

2007-01-01T20:52:00.000+01:00

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

Available in Macedonian and English languages.

Christmas Atmosphere in Zagreb, Croatia

2006-12-23T01:18:00.000+01:00

A shot I made on the Ban Jelacic Square in Zagreb, Croatia, 22.12.2006. The people prepare for Christmas, and the shops expect an invasion.

Which Website are You?

2006-12-12T21:15:00.000+01:00

.
Which Website are You?

Snopes.com

USA Legalizes Abandonware

2006-12-02T12:38:00.000+01:00

According to PCS Intel, the U.S. Copyright Office has issued new rules, effective November 26, enabling public access to commercially unavailable software.

New rules officially permit the use and distribution of so-called Abandonware, or software that is no longer generally available to the public (in the form it was originally released). Meaning, you can now legally use MAME to emulate classic arcade games on your phone (assuming it's powerful enough... and the game is no longer available).

The above article speaks specifically about phone software, and the good news from the original text of Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works is:

Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

Meaning, your use of classic science fiction games for DOS, such as Dune and Elite, from sites such as Abandonia is officially decriminalized!

Source: Science Fiction Observer, 02.12.2006.

Testing Blogger in Beta by opening a new blog: SF Observer

2006-11-29T13:11:00.000+01:00

I started a new blog--Science Fiction Observer--as a way to test the new version of Blogger, Blogger in Beta. The new systems retains all the advantages of the old version, while the following added functionalities seem most useful at this time

modular design elements - they can be included in the template or turned off with great ease
dynamic catherogizing of the posts via "labels" (tags, keywords)
redesigned user interface - it's more user friendly and "better looking"
you can still manually change and adjust the template code

I have extremelly positive general impression. When possible, I'll migrate the existing blogs from the old to the new Blogger. This possibility is currently delayed for large blogs or in some other cases.

PS
Help promoting the new SF and related topics blog by putting links to it or particular posts from your blogs/websites. If you are a member of StumbleUpon or Digg, put a good word through those services. The former proved quite effective, garnering over a 1000 visitors during yesterday, according to SF Observer's SiteMeter.

Sources (from the Macedonian version of Razvigor)

Who is Your Favorite Hominid?

2006-11-23T23:42:00.000+01:00

[Originally published January 26, 2006]

Australopithecus Africanus
Paranthropus Boisei
Homo Georgicus
Homo Heidelbergensis
Homo Floresiensis

Australopithecus Robustus
Homo Habilis
Homo Erectus
Homo Neanderthalensis
Homo Sapiens

Current results

Forumisation of the Blogs from Macedonia

2006-11-23T23:32:00.000+01:00

[Originally published January 19, 2006]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Announcing: Best of Razvigor ;-) in Macedonian

2006-11-23T23:08:00.000+01:00

Coming up soon – some of the posts from the Macedonian version of Razvigor blog which made a mark or are somehow significant, published during the last year.

2006-02-10T02:33:00.000+01:00

TOL Training: "Journalists in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus are encouraged to apply for a workshop on education issues in Prague, Czech Republic. "

2004-09-27T18:28:00.000+02:00

I redirect all my blogging activity on my StumbleUpon blog. It has a convenient user interface (after you install their toolbar) and a lot of new possibilities for interaction.

2004-09-03T14:29:00.000+02:00

The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.
– Ambrose Bierce

An Antiwar.com random quote.

2004-08-31T14:57:00.000+02:00

balkanalysis.com - Interview with Boris Trajanov (Part 2)

Excerpt:

CD: What about with the new minority language rights, and new Albanian university in Tetovo. Do you think these things will lead to federalization, with or without the decentralization?

BT: That’s interesting. Several years ago, when [the furor over an Albanian university at] Mala Recica happened, I surprised some people when I said, “why not? Why not let them study in their own language?” After all, Nikola Tesla, one of the most brilliant people in history, came from a small village in rural Yugoslavia. Right now, perhaps somewhere in Macedonia, in some small mountain village with an Albanian population, is sitting some genius of a child. He’s growing up with Albanian language only until the age of 7 anyway, and so it’s much easier for him to learn in that language. Why not give him the chance to study in his language?

So that could be fine. But on the other hand, the Albanians are generally not paying their taxes. Understandably, it becomes very difficult for the Macedonian population to see why they should support such a university, one which will not benefit themselves in any way, when they see that they alone must fund it!

So if we will share in this country, then let everyone be a loyal citizen. I was 8 years living in Germany. I paid more taxes than most Germans, but I had to because I was living there. In the end I became a German citizen. After 8 years they said, “Okay, you always pay regularly your taxes, you didn’t get into any problems with the law, here’s your citizenship.” And I was very grateful for that.

It comes down to this: if DUI wants to show their loyalty to Macedonia - not only with demands “we want this, we want that!” all the time, but to give too – they should convince their voters to pay their taxes. And not only to get their way, like in the last meeting in Radusa, by reserving the threat of war. We are not afraid because of that intimidation, and we could defend ourselves very successfully, but I think that war, as in the rest of Europe, should be left in the past. A life together, with a fair basis for all, this is our future.

2004-08-31T14:52:00.000+02:00

A BrainyQuote by George Eliot (1819-1880).

Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing. That's my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat.

2004-08-31T12:23:00.000+02:00

BBC NEWS | Europe | Croatia erases 'fascist' tributes

Get a load of this blurb in the article about removal of monuments of Ustasha ("rebels" in Croatian, coming from "ustanak" = "uprising") officials:

Following the Nazi invasion in 1941, a "Greater Croatia" was formed, also comprising most of Bosnia and western Serbia.
The fascist puppet government under Ante Pavelic acted brutally against Serbs and Jews as it sought to create a Catholic, all-Croat republic. (my emphasis)

Wow! As far as I know, a republic is a form of democratically elected government based on representation of the voters. BBC continues its series of misrepresentation of balkan issues by bestowing such a noble title to a genocidal Nazi dictatorship.

2004-08-31T11:25:00.000+02:00

Taiwan Cancels War Games to Reciprocate China's Friendly Gesture

Hurrah and Hazzah for peace!

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has asked the military to call off annual war games in a goodwill gesture aimed at mirroring China's cancellation of its military drills, newspapers said on Tuesday.

International News Article @ Reuters.com. Thanks Antiwar.com!

2004-08-07T15:14:00.000+02:00

Groupthink Viewed as Culprit in Move to War

A Los Angeles Times article has a good analysis of an important phenomenon in this day and age, which infests a wide range of organizations:

"Groupthink," an insular style of policy-making, has been identified as a chief culprit in all. And to these, the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday added the process leading to the decision to attack Saddam Hussein in March 2003.
Irving Janis, a Yale psychologist, coined the term in 1972 to describe a decision-making process in which officials are so wedded to the same assumptions and beliefs that they ignore, discount or even ridicule information to the contrary. When members of a cohesive, homogeneous group value unanimity and agreement on one course of action more than a realistic appraisal of alternatives, they are engaging in groupthink.

Applied psychology! I love it.

2004-08-04T12:01:00.000+02:00

Revenge of the Mahdi

The latest article by Antiwar.com's Justin Raimondo discusses an important issue: the timing of Islamic terrorist attacks. Starting of from the information that a captured al Qaeda "operative, described as 'credible' by British intelligence, told his debriefers that the attack would take place '60 days before the presidential election' on Nov. 2," Raimondo proceeds:

No one doubts for a moment the willingness or ability of the War Party to manipulate public opinion in an election season by ratcheting up its system of color-coded terror alerts. But seeing everything through this particular prism is typical Western "it's all about me" narcissism. It is blind to the reality that some people are not entirely focused on American politics, and that the terrorists come from a different mindset – one which recalls a long history of grievances against the West.
Al Qaeda is the spearhead of a movement that is still seething about the Muslims' loss of Spain, which Bin Laden refers to as "the tragedy of Andalusia." It is reactionary in the essential meaning of that much overused term: Bin Laden seeks vengeance for wrongs that, to any Westerner, seem ancient, and laughably archaic. We are faced with an invasion from the past, as 12th century Islamist warriors utilize 21st century technology to devastate the symbols of modernity.
The image of George W. Bush addressing the Republican national convention on Sept. 2, just as a few more "iconic" American buildings go up in flames, is more fodder for the kneejerk scoffers, who see everything in terms of the election. But that date has significance other than in terms of American politics: September 2 is also the 106th anniversary of the Battle of Omdurman, which marked the triumph of the British in the Sudan over an army of Islamic fundamentalists known as Mahdists. It is an anniversary fraught with significance for Osama bin Laden and his followers worldwide: the history behind it illustrates both the nature of the threat we face and the inability of the U.S. to effectively confront it.

Raimondo proceeds to inform us that:

The popular idea that the 9/11 date was chosen because "911" is the common U.S. emergency response number is typical of the ethnocentric mindset of Western universalists. That it is also the anniversary of the day Britain seized Palestine, in 1922, with the complicity of the League of Nations, would seem a bit more relevant. Anniversaries are a big deal to these fighters for antiquity: the August 7, 1998 simultaneous bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya took place on the eighth anniversary of the entry of foreign troops onto Saudi soil. With targets in Britain as well as the U.S. apparently in Al Qaeda's sights, the September 2 date follows a similar pattern.

Come to think of it, forces willing to change the course of history to fit their nationalist and irredentist goals have been at work elsewhere, notably in the Balkans. All who wish to understand these movements may benefit from reading this article.

2004-08-04T10:31:00.000+02:00

Daze of Our Lives - Club Iceberg

For the adventurous spirit on a severely limited vacation budget:
"Go Club Iceberg".

2004-08-03T00:26:00.000+02:00

Boris Strugatsky Interview: "We cannot do it any other way yet"

The Moscow News has an interview with one of the greatest Russian SF (sci-fi) authors, who alongside his brother Arkady wrote a number of great books I've read during my teens (Serbian translation, from the edition "Kentaur"). The intro says it all: "A famous sci-fi writer believes that the authoritarianism of Russian society is thus far incurable. So the screen version of his novel It's Hard To Be A God, now in the making, is not about to lose any of its relevancy." Excerpt:

For some reason, one outcome of a decade-long democratic reform has been the revival of the autocracy - the building of an authoritarian regime. Why is this?

Because we cannot do it any other way yet. We can only hope that all of this is but a stage in the transition from the accustomed totalitarian Russian system to a totally unaccustomed democratic system. At the end of the day, we are less than 20 years removed from classic totalitarianism - less than the lifetime of one generation.

How long could the "authoritarian stage" last in Russia - until,for example, an economic catastrophe strikes with the plummeting of oil prices?

Should - God forbid - an apocalypse, called "the crashing of oil prices," occur, a real "authoritarian stage" will set in. The present situation will be just the thin end of the wedge - nothing compared with what is to come. A new serious decline in living standards will only be compensated by a further tightening of the screws. It is another matter that the screws are not what they used to be. So what - a new Great Anti-bureaucratic Revolution? God forbid! There has been enough trouble, enough damage caused already. High oil prices impede our advancement. ("Why do we need advancement if things are going so well for us?") With low oil prices advancement raises its head, but then it turns out that this is the head of a dragon (uprising, coup, revolution, etc.).

People's tendency to swap freedom and democracy for order and security is unmistakable. Is this a purely Russian phenomenon?

This is characteristic of any country with a rich totalitarian past. In 1933, the Germans traded freedom and democracy for "order and statehood." But Nazism is a dictatorship of nationalists. Ours is somewhat different - a dictatorship of bureaucrats. The similarity comes from dictatorship. The common denominator is dictatorship. Always and everywhere it has the same characteristics: the iron hand, the rigid vertical chain command, unbridled demagoguery, the enemy stereotype, etc.

Why is there none of this today in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, or Bulgaria? How do they - those that at one time resembled the USSR - differ from us now?

As a matter of fact, they have never resembled us. Their peoples are also different, with a different history. The same with their rulers. Their method of governance is more European. It's simply that there are no Soviet troops there now nor Soviet secret police, which were the only source of this "similarity."

2004-07-28T14:49:00.000+02:00

Antiwar.com's random quote:

"A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over...is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen.
- G. K. Chesterton "

2004-07-27T12:35:00.000+02:00

Incompetent Imperialists - by Charley Reese

Quote:

Let's face it – we have become a secular and materialistic society. The two kinds of people we have real trouble believing actually exist are people of true religious faith and people to whom honor means more than money.
Years ago, an understandably irate chiropractor said of medical doctors, "If they can't drug it or cut it, they don't know what the hell to do." Similarly, if we can't bribe with our dollars or intimidate with our bombs, we don't know what to do. That disqualifies us to run an empire, so we ought to cut our losses and go back to being a republic.

2004-07-22T13:12:00.000+02:00

Wherever All the Turks Go, So Goes Little Mujo

(Kud svi Turci, tamo i mali Mujo)

The New York Times has a great article by Frank Rich, "Happy Talk News Covers a War," which should be a required reading for all who desire to influence the way people get their information.

In the now legendary White House press conference of March 6, 2003, not a single reporter, electronic or print, asked a tough question about anything, including the president's repeated conflating of 9/11 with the impending war on Iraq (eight times in that appearance alone). To some critics on the left, this Stepford Wives performance indicated a press corps full of conservatives, but I doubt it. This lock-step spectacle was at least in part an exercise of the Burgundy principle of pandering: don't do anything that might make you less popular with your customers. In that same month, Frank N. Magid Associates, still a major player in the news consulting business, released a survey telling its clients that war protests came in dead last of all topics tested among 6,400 viewers nationwide. In other words, if you're covering the news based on what's happening as opposed to what your viewers like, you're taking a commerical risk. Given that the ownership of local stations, networks and cable news alike is now concentrated in far fewer hands than it was in the 1970's, such thinking quickly becomes orthodoxy in much of the American news business.

Good morning, America!

2004-07-19T15:24:00.000+02:00

Play Chess, Go to Jail

Guardian of London tells the sad tale of end of Bobby Fischer's 12-year long flight from relentless persecution for playing chess in then-ostracized Serbia and Montenegro. Apparently, the controversial chess champion can't be persecuted for his anti-US, anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian views, but he's still liable for "trading with the enemy." AP's shorter version of the same story is also available.

2004-07-13T13:21:00.000+02:00

The New York Times > Magazine > Not Funnies - and article about the mainstreaming of the graphic novel.

2004-07-12T17:09:00.000+02:00

Some of the Better-Looking Legs from Macedonia

Vest daily published, and Reality Macedonia republished the article about some of the most beutiful pairs of legs in Macedonia. Educational? Not. Entertaining? Yes.

PS
He Ate Till the Morning! - more Macedonian trivia

2004-06-15T21:49:00.000+02:00

One Big Leap for a Gorilla, One Small Murder for Mankind

The article "Gorilla leapt over wall, officials say" tells a story of a "gorilla that was shot to death by police after breaking out of its enclosure at the Dallas Zoo in March escaped by leaping from a mound of dirt over a 12-foot wall."

Gorillas have no underground railroad, no Warshaw sewers, no ways to communicate their stories of slavery and genocide. Like the ancestors of today's African-Americans, they've been snached from their homes, taken across the sea never to return. Those who remain free face extinction more surely than the Jews in Nazi Germany, their population just a shadow of its former self.

Yet, their genetic material (as I recall) differs from hominids' for just a few percent. They are capable of using sign language, of caring and bragging, of love and hate. They are far less violent than "humans."

Unless they evolve and take over the world soon, there will be no "Roots." No "Night." When we kill them all, we will make computer simulatated interpretations of their lives, and sad movies similar to those about the Indians/Native Americans. If Nazis had won the World War II, would the "pure aryan" people in their distant future of such a society write sad stories and make tragic movies about the doomed yet romantic "subhuman" "races?"

2004-06-14T01:32:00.000+02:00

"A Linux Poised to Remake Telco Markets"

But since the operating system is Linux and since Linksys has respected the Linux GPL by publishing all the source code for anyone to download for free, the WRT54G is a lot more than just a wireless router. It is a disruptive technology.

PBS | I, Cringely . Archived Column

2004-06-13T21:02:00.000+02:00

Live Free, or Be Killed

David Gordon of the Ludwig fon Mises Institute explains:

I am no expert in Islamic theology and, in any case, have no wish to defend Wahhabi Islam. But before we take action against the religion of millions of people, ought we not to be cautious? Surely belief in fundamentalist Islam does not always lead to anti-American violence. It has after all not prevented Saudi Arabia from entering into an alliance with us. I suggest that watchful waiting is a wiser course of action than a quixotic attempt to cram neoconservatism down the throats of the world’s Muslims.

Along the same lines, Antiwar published a short history of recent U.S.-Iraq relations, from a perspective of a former Iraqi general Jaber who "was in charge of communication and radar for the Iraqi military," during the Iran-Iraq war, which coincided with the reign of Reagan.

2004-05-31T13:16:00.000+02:00

An Art Lesson in Usability

I like Kimberly Kopp Krause's article
Your Web Site Is A Wonderland What Picasso's Art Taught Me About Persuasive Design, and recommend it to all who would like to understand good organization of a web site. Short quote:

Persuasiveness and desirability in web site design are in the details. They're in the point of view and in the delivery, and more than anything else, in the experience of interaction. They are that inner cosmic connection between the web site and site visitor.

2004-05-29T10:31:00.000+02:00

Would you be willing to die to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq?

The libertarian Harry Browne asks: How Much Is Hussein's Departure Worth?

2004-05-21T13:32:00.000+02:00

Eurovision soap opera

Few days ago, On.net published a slanderous reaction to my text "Life is a bitch and then you die" by an alegged Emilija. Considering the fact that the message contained untruths and libels, I decided to join the exchange. On.net published edited version of my response, while you can read the full version here.

Евровизиска сапуница

Пред некој ден, Он.нет објави една оцрнителна реакција на мојот текст „Лајф из а бич енд ден ју дај“ од некоја си Емилија. Со оглед на тоа што пораката содржеше невистини и клевети, решив да се вклучам во полемикатата. На Он.нет се појави скратена верзија од мојот одговор, а него во целост може да го прочитате тука.

2004-05-18T00:47:00.000+02:00

Life is...

Reality Macedonia published my article "Life is a Bitch and Then You Die", about the Macedonian participation in the Eurovision Song Festival. It's a review from the aspect of strategic thinking, and so far, its reviews are quite favorable. :-)

2004-05-15T16:18:00.000+02:00

Slashdot | Flash Mob Gang Warfare

2004-05-13T11:59:00.000+02:00

Step Back for Greek Nationalism, Step Forward for Greek Democracy

2004 Rainbow - Vinozhito Congress in Thessaloniki / Solun

2004-05-11T15:35:00.000+02:00

Useful Definitions

Hits, Visits, Uniques, Users and User Sessions...

2004-05-11T09:47:00.000+02:00

Riverbend

Baghdad Burning is a "Girl Blog from Iraq" inviting people to "talk war, politics and occupation." She deservingly gets major coverage. Check it out!

2004-05-11T09:13:00.000+02:00

Converted Insight

Former Iraq war supporter repents:

But it doesn't matter why we supported the war - because we truly believed the lies our Prime Minister told us about weapons of mass destruction, because we thought that Saddam deserved to be buried by history, or because we have a sentimental attachment to the armed forces of this country and could not contemplate criticising our soldiers when they were fighting and dying - we were wrong.

Whatever the reason, we were dead wrong.