Bibliography

Bibliography:

HANS-LOTAR STEPAN:

“Macedonian Knot”.

The identity of the Macedonians is depicted by the existence of the Balkan Alliance (1878-1914).

THE MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE

The opportunity to write this article was given to me by the Symposium organized by the Ministry of Economy in cooperation with the Economic Chamber of Macedonia held in order to stimulate export in the economic sector.

Industry experts from the Ministry of Economy provided the businessmen with the newest targets for influencing companies to adapt to the new global economic conditions and to the economic crisis so that they can start exporting as soon as possible. All branches of the economy here were targeted as was done in the western countries visited by our people. We were told to do everything possible to get out of the crisis first.

We were instructed to apply for European funds to aid the development of small and medium-sized companies. For important things such as these, our experts offered us new workshops if we needed them or if we did not understand things because our companies were not as sophisticated as the western companies with rich backgrounds.

We were all so happy that no one touched the coffee issue which gave us a special impulse for the occasion!

As I sat there I thought to myself: when I came to Macedonia forty years ago, my goal was for my children to learn the Macedonian language. I always got angry when they told me that “it was more modern and musical” to say “zhuto” (yellow in Serbian) and forget about saying “Zholto” (yellow in Macedonian). But events have been creeping up over the years and many things have changed: today even my grandson who is eight years old is sifting and downloading all the “fire games” in my laptop and without anyone having to show him how.

What great progress: the Macedonian language is becoming richer and more extensive! I think that in a decade or so our language will be so musical it will surpass the Italian language which, for a long time, has been declared very melodious. Today it would appear it is important or “cool” to remove the Serbian words and replace them

with a mix of modern Anglo-American words and everything will be O.K.

When I was a little boy everyone around me used the word “spolaiti” for thank you.

Now you only hear “spolaiti” being said in old Macedonian stories and the word has become an archaism!

What great progress! Not even the modern computer technology can evolve with such a spin. What can we, the older generation, do when we can’t even keep up with such trends? I bought myself a computer but very late in my life. Now I find it hard to figure out how things work. I even have difficulties sending and receiving e-mail messages, let alone attach documents or print them. I don’t have anyone near me who I can ask to help me. But in the work I do corresponding with foreign companies I need to know how to attach documents, how to e-mail my messages, print documents, log on to various websites, and download information from the Internet. All I know is what I taught myself which is very little and difficult for an old man to do. It has not been easy and I have not made much progress. I don’t know how anyone can call this progress?! I am almost ashamed to say that I am not able to contact even my best old friends electronically. As soon as I try I realize I don’t know anything about the principles of this newest technology and things that are taught in the western advanced countries! This is how it is! If you haven’t learned English from very young you will be like me… technologically challenged!

I feel handicapped. The world is changing rapidly around me. The Macedonian language is also changing. I think that in a few years our language will become Esperanto without any claims of copyright.

If you don’t want to be a loser, you should learn English even if you have no money to pay for it. My wife and I often go to Solun to do some shopping and she always asks if she could spend all of our money. There is nothing wrong with asking except instead of calling it “pari” as we Macedonians do, she calls it “money” as if this English word is part of our Macedonian vocabulary. I no longer

argue with her… If it makes her feel more “modern” saying “money” instead of “pari”, so be it. It must be so… otherwise I will be fighting a losing battle...

There are many of us who like to use English words mixed with Macedonian in our daily communications. For example, our very well-informed journalists who have graduated from the faculty of Philosophy and have taken workshops abroad, which they believe are worthier then the faculty they graduated from, very often use foreign words in their daily vocabularies. In my opinion they believe they are enriching our language. They monopolize the media and when they come back from the west, they look down at our language because they believe it does not conform to modern western trends and conditions on the ground. Simply said, they believe the Macedonian language is not modern. Especially interesting are the television shows which interview elite and glamorous personalities such as the children of politicians and leaders in politics who decided to educate the children in western circles - or in workshops where they could learn everything about “modern man” in a short time and come back to implement what they have learned here and take maximum advantage all the benefits. Oh, how nicely they speak and pronounce the words of the most modern Macedonian language! How nice it is to hear the mix of words! It’s a miracle!! Just listen to them constantly chatting and laughing in front of the cameras wearing their brand name clothing and their imitations - N.Y. hats and hairstyles rich with the finest lotions… What a miracle!

They speak, smile so sweetly and laugh all the time… but say nothing. You can educate yourself about everything and about nothing… then talk about how to decorate the corners of the rooms in your house with all kinds of brand items. Or talk about what kind of underwear you bought at the Seychelles shop, or how many “lion” adventures you had, and so on. But, compared to them, we know nothing! That’s how they see us!

The glamour of our elite, surrounded by the finest Balkan habits, will be the subject of envy at the Cannes Festival! Hey, look how far we have come… fallen!

I also think that our Macedonian radio did not miss out on the “modernization” of our Macedonian language. No! It even got around the “framework” law on representation of the “old” Macedonian language in its programs. How nice is that? Everything that is in “old” Macedonian can be heard in the early morning programs when the elderly rub their sore, arthritic fingers and can’t fall asleep again, and everything that is in “modern” Macedonian and progressive American starts at ten o’clock. This is when the young and trendy who prefer the new Macedonian language wake up. In other words, everything is set in its place and is as it should be. There is only one exception; when the morning program begins, it starts with the hit song of the week which, without exception, is always an American song, of course, and that’s the way it must be. Even though when the Macedonian song “Tik-tak” was heard one time it was very beautiful and acceptable to all of us... What can we do: we need to be in the trend with things?

And now allow me to tell you how the Minister of Health introduces visiting doctors from the west who are here for screening visits. He downplays the skills and experience of our doctors and makes them feel like they need to be educated by these westerners. There is one thing I could not accept though; are our doctors not properly educated and therefore need to be educated or it is a pure exchange of experience? You know, this too happens to me often because I don’t speak English. It would appear that if you don’t speak English you are automatically assumed to be… let’s say inadequate and “stupid”! If this is how the Minister of Health feels then he should change the name of his ministry to the Ministry of Education and he should try to educate our youth in the “modern” Macedonian language in order to increase their quality, which will then automatically boost his “acceptance” from the westerners.

Take a look at Macedonian company advertisements and promotions and see how “advanced” they are. You would think they are targeting only American and English speaking consumers. And why not?! When the American and English speaking people enter the “Shouz Shop”, “Toy Shop” or “Gift Shop” they will see how low prices are and they will buy everything, right? Unfortunately, it’s too bad that the tourists from England and America don’t come here to shop. Most of the tourists that visit us are from Turkey, and they

are numerous, but they don’t speak English. Well, that is why so many of these shops and markets go bankrupt so often.

The job-market too has become very fashionable. If you want to work in the west just go apply at the “job market” and everything will be opened up to you; the highest paying professional positions… but first you have to start with washing dishes and pans in a modest restaurant.

Who dares claim that Macedonians are poor when sandwiches or any kind of food will be catered to them even in bed!

We will soon surpass the French bourgeoisie of Ludovic XIV. Why did we have to lose fifty years being entangled in Marxist socialism, when we could have by now been even farther away from the billionaires we see every other day on television telling us how much they spend in one day - which equals half of what all of India cannot earn in eight hours?! Here is why we need to fight! Macedonia can be transformed into a second California; we have all the right conditions. Our bourgeoisie has enriched itself a hundred fold in just a short time, much shorter than the Californians have. Just keep up with this pace and we will all become big “richmani” (rich men)!

The government is about to embark on amnesty for our wealthy people who keep their money in foreign banks in order to allow them to return to our country and freely walk on our streets without us having the right to call them “thieves”! Now imagine how far we will go if we continue with this kind of progress? What will we become!?

When I took my Californian guest to lunch up at Vodno, he asked me: “Do you know what the difference between California and Macedonia is?” I said: “It’s huge!” He then smiled and said: “No, only two degrees Celsius just enough for you to raise up your sleeves a little”. Not thinking of what he meant by that I was about tell him that here in Macedonia we wear short sleeved shirts, but at that point our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of our waiter.

It is a pleasure for me to listen to the brave journalists on television, as they strongly criticize the state for allowing the Macedonian language to degrade, even though every national television station has several editors. Censorship was never suitable not in the Middle Ages and not now!

Is there a better government spokesman in the Balkans, who is so grandiose on the Macedonian TV program “Road Show” than our prime minister who claims that his targets and investment successes are the best in the entire world? No! No, there isn’t!

How can our unemployed go wrong with their applications when their activities are managed so well by NGO volunteers? It is nice to hear them eloquently pronounce the word “aplikatsija” (application) when urging the unemployed to apply quickly because they will lose the opportunity to find a good job.

When you hear the Minister of Agriculture so eloquently say that he donated so much subsidies to the development of “rural tourism” or, more precisely to our “village tourism”, you might think that the villages have advanced so much that every street is paved with asphalt the same as our city streets.

Oh my dear Minister, if the truth be told, you will be shopping in the village shops up to your knees in mud. Words, old or modern, are still just words. We need deeds not modern words!

Perhaps education and more practical educating may be needed here or perhaps less talk and more work!

A few minutes ago, a minister announced the construction of a “greenfield” at St. Nikole. What is a “greenfield” and what do the “rural people” around it know about it? Does he mean a park? A park in the villages, who wants a park in rural Macedonia?

I did not want to mention this but the “rurals” too have become “modern” and have started to apply in droves for benefits from the government and from the European Union. They do this because the “application” and not the request (groveling) for funds is the best diplomatic word for getting money from European funds. This is

where the benefits are! Applying for this money does not mean that they are seeking or begging for it. Not at all. It means that you do not have to work to get paid, it’s a nice way to get money, just like the way the Greeks are doing. They managed to make a poor state, but with rich Greeks. And that’s what needs to be done!

I wonder about the Greeks! They have managed to pull all of Europe by the nose… even Angela Merkel! Hey, it must be very important to have a good language like the Greek language! The Greeks managed to shake the euro solely with their language which they speak without the coarse letters “Dzh”, “Ch” and “Sh”, and do it beautifully by wrapping their tongues around the letter “Ts” for all three. Even Sarkozy liked it! That is why he persuaded Merkel to kneel before these ancient Greek philosophers and gave them 23 billion dollars. She gave them this money so that these “chosen” people don’t fail to carry the torch of Hellenism, synonymous with civilization, progress and, most importantly, democracy with complete human rights, inside and outside Greece, from ancient times to the present!

But, putting politics aside, when I heard that all the young people were invited to attend the “eco happening”, I remember what my grandmother, who was not so lucky to have lived through these times, told me one time. She said she was taking me to a picnic when in actual fact she took me to a place in the woods near the village so that we could collect green grass for the donkey and dry wood for burning in the fire. We did this with bare hands. She is dead now, may God forgive her sins, and will not see the “benefits” of this “happening”!

That’s modern times for you!

The academics Ristovski and Stardelov, joined by the eminent politician Ljupco Georgievski in the defense of the arrival of the Slavs from behind the Carpathians and the Slav brothers and their language, made a lot of effort for nothing. I don’t know why they put so much effort into this defense? The two Slav brothers did cross the Danube with straws in their mouth to breath under water, like all other Slavs in the Balkans, but they went in the opposite direction. What is there about that that needs defending? There is no national

merit attached to their effort: they did not turn the Moravians into Macedonians even though they gave them Slavic literacy. Unlike the Turko-Mongol-Bulgars who only had a straw in common with us (the Slavs) when they crossed the Danube, they became the largest Slavs in the Balkans and even adopted the “orphan brothers” Kiril and Metodi as their own because they gave the Turko-Mongols literacy. Great generosity on their part wouldn’t you say?!

Hey Macedonians, we need to think whether we will follow in the footsteps of the Bulgarians or develop a modern Macedonian language. Now we have plastic straws which our experts who are studying in western workshops can build for us with which we too can cross the Danube River in the opposite direction and take our “modernized” Macedonian language north just like the brothers Kiril and Metodi did at one time.

I don’t know why the Greeks spend so much money and effort to prove that we are not who we are! Is it because we have an old Macedonian language? They don’t even know that we are changing our language by ourselves and have modernized it to the extent that, if the English and the Americans find out about this, we will automatically become their allies and then the Greeks will not be able to do anything…

Chao, chao, “ai love you na site” (I love you all)!!