The Economist (a Euro Rag) consistently refers to Macedonians as the 'Slavs'. It's a perfect example of the endemic racism of Europe.

I have an exercise for you people. I'd do it myself but I'm a bit screwed for time.

Put together a brief one or two paragraph explanation as to why this article from The Economist is offensive to Macedonians. Explain that The Economist has been asked numerous times over the years to refrain from using this type of derogatory language.

You folks start up the letter and I'll help edit it.

Then, we can send it to the US Dept. of State as an example of Euro-racism. We can also send it to as many rights groups as we can, e.g., Helsinki Watch, Amnesty, etc. We can use this vulgarity from The Economist to help make our point.

Are you guys willing to run with this and turn this negative into a positive?

-------------------------------------
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/d ... d=10170016

Macedonian Mess
Nov 22nd 2007
From Economist.com

Time to look past archaic disputes


FOR anyone who cares about peace in the Balkans, few things matter more than keeping intact the country most of the world calls the “Republic of Macedonia”. Its perilous stability will wobble more with looming independence for next-door Kosovo, which will delight Macedonia’s Albanian minority, and stoke the Slav majority’s fears.

In theory, no rich country should care more about Macedonia than neighbouring Greece. Yet relations are hampered by an arcane dispute about nomenclature. Greece insists that “Macedonia” was, is and can only be part of Greece. The name’s use by a region of Yugoslavia was, it maintains, part of a communist-era plot aimed at destabilising Greece. Greece therefore insists that the country be called “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (FYROM).

6The end of an acronymExtremists on both sides use rhetoric (seen, among other places, in clumsily made presentations on YouTube) so ill-phrased and comical that Borat himself could claim authorship. They share the unspoken but absurd assumption that the features of the entity known as Macedonia in ancient history should be of decisive importance in modern ethnography or political geography: because an ancient kingdom called Macedonia existed, only one modern entity can claim that name. The region is still waiting for a statesman to pick that assumption apart.

It is a close call, but the extreme Macedonian nationalist position, which argues that most of northern Greece is “theirs”, is perhaps the battiest. It is as if the Greeks insisted that unicorns were pink while the Macedonians maintained, even more absurdly, that the horned beasts were of a colour found nowhere on the conventional spectrum: moonlight, perhaps.

Greek twitchiness about even mythical controversies was more understandable in the early 1990s, when the whole future of the southern Balkans was alarmingly fluid and unpredictable. Amid disputes over Macedonia’s future involving Serbs, Albanians and Bulgarians, the Greek objection to the name was part of a wider pattern of worries about borders and minorities.

But the Macedonian nuts have little effect on their government’s policy these days. The country has changed its flag and constitution in order to accommodate Greek sensitivities. The forward-looking government in Skopje is into flat taxes, e-government and attracting foreign investment (paradoxically, in large measure from Greece).

Greece, however, still insists that the mere existence of a next-door country called Macedonia “is directed against the cultural heritage and historical identity of the Greeks” and “there is no question of its neighbour acceding either to the European Union or to NATO under the name Republic of Macedonia”.

A lobby group called the “Association of Macedonians” has issued an appeal this week noting that Greece does not fully recognise Macedonian passports and that Macedonia’s state airline cannot fly to Greek airports. That, they say, adds insult to injury.

Slavophone people in northern Greece have had a tough time, not only with mass deportations in 1949 but also in their treatment by the authorities on issues such as surnames and schooling ever since. (Greeks saw the slavophone minority, with some justice, as a security threat during the Cold War, and Greek minorities have been abominably treated too in other countries. But even multiple wrongs don’t make a right).

The great tide of EU and NATO expansion that has served the continent so well in the past ten years is already running worryingly slack. Pushing ahead with Macedonia’s applications to both bodies will change the mood in the whole region. Prosperity and stability in the Balkans will benefit Greece hugely. It is time to relegate the name issue to the backwaters of bilateral diplomacy, and highlight the benefits to Greece of Macedonia’s stability and prosperity—and the dangers of its disintegration.

Maybe macedonians newspapers should print pro-IRA articles and let them see how it feels.

When it comes to communication matters there is a golden rule: Be pro-active. A journalist before writting an article about something, he double clicks a relevant subfolder in his "My documents" folder. The article he will write depends on what he will find there. Additionally he will do some googling around.

The fact that this article contains the key words "slavophones" and "Slav majority" shows that when he double clicked the subfolder, the big Greek troll rushed out shouting skopia skopia skopia.

Don't blame the journalist because the Greeks were there first and told him their opinion, nor the Greeks of course that they were proven to have done their job well. In a few words don't blame the others for your insufficiency.

Alki, please don't blame Macedonians for the racist rantings of this Euro magazine.

Another golden rule says: Never open war against the journalists. Try to take them by your side instead.

A journalist is neither fair nor unfair - he is just a journalist. A man who does his job and he rushes to finish work in order to return to his personal life where he has the luxury to be fair or unfair. And his job is to collect information that is within the reach of his hand, compile them into an article and forward it for publishing. And if in every single file he double-clicked the Greek troll emerged by saying "skopia", it is not his fault. He is just an emploee.
He is neither bad nor good. He is journalist.

I agree there is some Greek influence here, but this article is an 'opinion piece'. The Euro ostriches are realising the world is moving on with regard to this issue and their outdated views are becoming more untenable and isolated.

The Economist routinely refers to Macedonians as 'the Slavs' they've been doing this for over a decade. I, alone, have sent them dozens of letters asking them to stop using such denigrating terminology. To no avail.

hey maknews what do you think about the resolution in the us congress , isnt that the same racist shit as the eu .

That resolution, sponsored by Dora and the gang in Greece (an EU member state) is turning the American House of Representatives into the same kind of racist shithole as the European Union.

Fortunately, as the article indicates, over 75% of these American politicians appear to be vaccinated against the Hellenic virus.

US House Resolution on Macedonia

Here is how the United States government regards the Macedonian issue:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26759.htm

Osiris, can you give me an example of how the European Union deals with Macedonians? That way we can better appreciate who is more racist, the United States or the European Union.

I hate these type of western styled articles It really sickens me reading articles like that, it sounds like some pompous ass wrote it grr

I don't want to split this thread so I'm reposting this letter from VMRO here:

-------------------------------------
Dear Economist.com,

I am deeply outraged and appalled regarding you article “Macedonian mess” published on Nov 22nd 2007 and found at the following domain, http://www.economist.com/world/europe/d ... d=10170016

I cannot comprehend how you can label the people living in the republic of Macedonia as Macedonians and the Macedonians in Greece (Aegean Macedonia predominately) as Slavophone, I am from Aegean Macedonia and have never known Slavaphone is a nationality as I see myself as nothing other than a Macedonian.
Your article distorts the truth as if to say there are no Macedonians in Greece by labeling the Macedonians in Macedonia as Macedonian while the Macedonians in Greece have been christened to Slavophones which the Greeks have created to promote their dirty propaganda, the Economist is just promoting Greece’s propaganda by publishing this kind of material.

If the Macedonians in Macedonia are Macedonian and the Macedonians in Greece are Slavophones then what are the Albanians in Kosovo? Shouldn’t they be known by another name to the Albanians in Albania, just because they live across the border does that mean they are not Albanian, Why treat the Macedonians in a different way, do we Macedonians not deserve the right to self determination.
In your article you state that Slavophone (Macedonian) people have had a tough time with mass deportations and issues regarding surnames and schooling which in reality are just some of the oppressive measures they experienced, but you fail to mention why they were treated in such a way, maybe because you would have had to state that because they were Macedonian.

My final point to you is, who are you to state who Macedonia rightfully belongs to, I suggest you study the treaty of Bucharest and see how Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania acquired/occupied Macedonia.

Kind Regard’s,

Kire Makedonski (VMRO)

I have an exercise for you people. I'd do it myself but I'm a bit screwed for time.

Put together a brief one or two paragraph explanation as to why this article from The Economist is offensive to Macedonians. Explain that The Economist has been asked numerous times over the years to refrain from using this type of derogatory language.

You folks start up the letter and I'll help edit it.

Then, we can send it to the US Dept. of State as an example of Euro-racism. We can also send it to as many rights groups as we can, e.g., Helsinki Watch, Amnesty, etc. We can use this vulgarity from The Economist to help make our point.

Are you guys willing to run with this and turn this negative into a positive?

You can use VMROs letter as your starting point.

sorry for splitting the topic haha

You wrote a great letter, VMRO, I'm proud of you!

thank you, i also sent one to Mike Rann. But the one for Mike Rann was more of an email to piss him off.


"Australia is as Aboriginal as the Ayers Rock (Uluru) mountain"



Your ancestors stole a whole country from the Aboriginal people and have been exploiting all their symbols and history, so before you open your mouth look at your own backyard before you spread your propaganda about Macedonia.

You do not know what you are yourself, yet you go in a foreign country and preach propaganda.
Word of advice, first find out what you are in regard's to ethnicity then maybe you can open your mouth on foreign matters.




Kind regard's,



Kire Makedonski (VMRO)

Sent to the following emails; premier@saugov.sa.gov.au; ramsay@parliament.sa.gov.au;

Macedonian mess or Magazine mess ?

I think the Economist as a respected publication should look at the article and journo more closely, what a mess??? It does little to preserve the quality of the journal.

VMRO, the email to Rann is a beauty - short, to the point and revealing !! Mmmm Australia 40000 years Aboriginal !!!!

lube all i am trying to do is understand why you consider the usa as a progreesive countryu compared to the eu.

i dont see much difference between them in terms of human rights in their owm countries and internationally.

i mean iraq was invaded so that they could gt rid of a dictator and establish a democracy, what ever happened to saudi arabia and kuwait, two democraies run by elected officials. i know where i would have preffered to live as a woman or a modern man, sadams iraq anyday, yet sadam was as bad as hitler and the saudis are moderates.

Bravos VMRO Kire! Great Letter.

Here's something I just sent to their editor, which I doubt they will publish:

Dear Editor,

I refer to the the above article, which was published in the Economist.com on November 22nd 2007.

The hypocrisy exuded by the article is astounding. On the one hand the author ridicules those who rely on ancient history to lay exclusive claim to the name of Macedonia, yet on the other he/she adopts the racist language of Greek nationalists who deny the contemporary Macedonian ethnic identity on the basis of no more than distortions of ancient history.

The majority of the citizens of the Macedonian Republic have freely and repeatedly identified themselves as ethnic Macedonians. There are no census figures showing that any of them identify as ethnic ‘Slavs’. The people from the part of Macedonia in Northern Greece, to whom the author of the article refers to as ‘Slavophones’, also identify as ethnic Macedonians. On what basis does the author refer to these people as ‘Slavophones’, other than on the basis of someone’s theory of ancient history?

In a report entitled ‘’Denying Ethnic Identity: The Macedonians of Greece”, Human Rights Watch Helsinky found that the Greek Government’s insistence on refererring to ethnic Macedonians as “Slavophones” or “Slav-Speakers” constitutes denial of the existence of the Macedonian minority in Greece, which violates international human rights agreements to which Greek Government is a party. The report notes that the reason for this policy is the extreme nationalist position that the Greek state is ethnically homogenous. Greece’s intolerance towards persons wishing to express their Macedonian identity has also been noted by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance.

By adopting Greece’s racist slurs, ‘Slavs’ and ‘Slavophones’, in place of Macedonians, while at the same accepting Bulgarians as Bulgarians and Serbs as Serbs, the author of the article is demonstrating no more credibility than the extremists who are ridiculed in the article for using rhetoric “so ill-phrased and comical that Borat himself could claim authorship”.

Igor Aleksandrov, Association of Macedonian Communities of Australia

I am not so angry with the slavophone or slav phrases. If somebody looks thoroughly through this article the final paragraph has great importance:

"...The great tide of EU and NATO expansion that has served the continent so well in the past ten years is already running worryingly slack. Pushing ahead with Macedonia’s applications to both bodies will change the mood in the whole region. Prosperity and stability in the Balkans will benefit Greece hugely. It is time to relegate the name issue to the backwaters of bilateral diplomacy, and highlight the benefits to Greece of Macedonia’s stability and prosperity—and the dangers of its disintegration."