Macedonia: Christmas Tree made from Plastic Bottles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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.