Razvigor :-)

Why there are no children's comics in Macedonia?

2012-02-23T16:20:00.002+01:00

Lack of kids' comics publishing is a strong economic indicator related to absence of literate population with interest in development of their children.

Disney publications from Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria (Jan-Feb 2012).

POINT Conference, Day 1, Part 1/2

2012-02-17T17:04:00.005+01:00

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - The POINT Conference on Political Accountability and New Technologies is taking place from 16 to 18 of February 2012. In this post I'll share some of my non-comprehensive impressions of the first day, while you can check the excellent site, which includes live video feeds, and Twitter (@PointConference, #PointSarajevo) for more info from this great knowledge-sharing event.

Photo of the opening by Ivana Howard featuring (left to right)
Marko Živković (CRTA), Elena Ignatova (Metamorphosis), Darko Brkan (Why Not)

The event is hosted by the Bosnian NGO Why Not (Zašto ne) as part of a regional project which had similar events in Belgrade last December and will have another in Skopje in the Fall. The Sarajevo event takes place in the Art Cinema Krtierion, very suitable facility with all the technical features, located in the city center. I am pleased with the overall organization, esp. because I speak the local languages and don't need translations to talk to the people from the vibrant crowd that probably gathers at this alternative cultural space regardless of context. The whole conference invites various kinds of stakeholders to interact and network, enabling very interesting results.

Initialization

The morning session was quite inspiring. It started with TOL's Jeremy Druker who presented open-source media literacy tools NewsTrust, enabling crowd-sourced evaluation of media content. This remains relevant worldwide, most of the speakers spoke about control of traditional and other media by totalitarian forces, and the activits in the Egypt Revolution panel in the evening noted that the dark side of use of online tools in their country is use of vicious rumors - by the government against activists, and by the Islamic radicals against Christians.

Irina Šumadieva & Popravi.mk stats

Then, several citizen participation tools were presented: Moldovan alerte.md, and Macedonian Popravi.mk. These two applications are intended for citizens to communicate their needs to local authorities. The transparency site VlastiBiH.com (Authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina) which tracks enormous amounts on government data.

Input by politicians

The session Using New Technology – a Real Leverage for Political Parties? consisted of the panel that joined young politicians from three mayor parties in Bosnia (out of 7 invited) and experts on communication, sociology, and political campaigning. The experts insights were quite on the target, for instance prof. Majstorović noted that even though the Internet penetration increases, it does not influence the decisive population groups. In a rural country like Bosnia the other media play the main role with the voters - everybody watches the main evening news on TV (and the nascent Twitter community comments during). This was corroborated by one of the politicians who said that "personal contact"--meaning face-to-face meetings and local events/debates--win their votes. "You need to put on booths over the knee" (moraš obući čizme preko koljena) to walk the muddy roads of remote villages to win people over to your party.

Julius Van De Laar - pol. campaign expert, Danijela Majstorović - sociologist,
Tatjana Indzić - politician, Denis Vrhovćić - politician, Mirza Ustamujić - politician,
Damir Kapidzić - communicologist, and activist Darko Brkan at the panel

As one could expect, the politicians appropriated much of the time, even though they did not provide many innovative insights. They all said that they care about their websites and value Facebook as means for connecting to their constituencies, because huge percentage of citizens use it. Going online won't win the elections, but you cannot afford to ignore this aspect.

Politicians seemed to interpret transparency in terms of PR: one of them pointed a shining example of his party colleague who responded to all comments on his blog (which was disputed from the audience). They did not speak much about political accountability too ("responsibility" in Bosnian). One of them cited the case of his party that allegedly used Facebook to organize an action for showelling snow as example of responsibility for the welfare of the citizens. In the age-old tradition of the ruling classes, they spoke about the hardship of being a politician, because the citizens think they are all crooks. One of them even spun the topic towards self-promotion by retelling an anecdote in which a woman passerby remarked that he was very handsome, but her friend scolded her because of his profession ("they are all the same").

However, he had a valid point: honest people in politics get bunched up with the dishonest to the benefit of the dishonest. This is even more valid for people who would like to enter politics in the future to change the world for the better, the current ruling practices would make them immediate target of this kind of labeling and mistrust.

The discussion contrasted activist way of thinking, based on individuality and values, and the way of thinking used by political activists/functionaries. For the later, individual expression, including via social media, is "guided" by the decisions of the party hierarchy. And the political party can easily "jump out" a politico who "jumps too high" (neodskačete puno, jer da odskočite niste više u stranci - as noted by Fayah) in public via new media. As a result, the parties use new media for top down "informing," which as the communication expert Kapidzić remarked does not equal communication with the citizens.

@MarkoZvkvc: "We shouldn't be angry
at politicians..."

The panel was a good learning experience, because it provided the activists a bit of direct contact with the political class. Some audience members were not so happy with the feedback by some panelists, but I agree with Marko Živković who said activists should not be angry at politicians for not using the full potential of new technologies. It's up to the people to force them to use them, on their own, they'll just do what they always do - use their positions to extract society's resources with as little expense for them. So the activists better learn who they deal with, and not rely on the should. We all know what should be done, esp. politicians who are not less intelligent than the geeks or human rights activists - proof: they get away with the current state of affairs. In this sense, the activists might think more about the need to mobilize the "regular" people they strive to represent.

Next: Day 1, Part 2 - experiences of measuring truth, political campaign technologies, and Egypt; and a concert

Minister of Foreign Affairs to Determine Who May Report from Macedonia?

2012-02-10T12:43:00.003+01:00

According to Telma TV news item (Шефот на дипломатијата ќе одлучува кој може да биде дописник, 9.2.2012) by Julijana Peshevska, The Minister of Foreign Affairs will have personal discretionary right to determine which foreign correspondents will receive accreditation to report from Macedonia.

...According to the ongoing changes of the Law on import, distribution and spreading of foreign print, films and information activity, the competences related to issuing of permits for work of representative offices of foreign media will pass from the General Secretariat of the Government to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Minister of Foreign Affairs will have the last word, and will need to respond to requests for accreditation no later than 15 days from the date of application.

The opossition objected to this ruling on the freedom of speech grounds. The response (my bold):

"We cannot allow just anyone to come from abroad, as if they would report, and to conduct diversions in this state. This legal solution is of state interest and we cannot act nonchalantly," Telma TV quoted Ms Blagorodna Dulic, MP from ruling VMRO-DPMNE political party and head of Legislative Committee of the Parliament of Republic of Macedonia.

Macedonia: Icy Grip on the Center of Skopje

2012-02-09T20:18:00.002+01:00

While the carriageways of the main boulevards in the center of Skopje are clear, the pavements and the side streets in the municipality of Centar remain icy. Some are covered by layers of ice or re-frozen slush, by old frozen snow, or an unevenly hardened mash of snow and "salt."

Fokus daily claimed that the authorities avoid declaring nationwide state of emergency in order to "prove" that they were prepared for the snow.

Mitropolit Teodosij Gologoganov boulevard, evening of Feb 8.

An alley near the Universal Hall. This and all other photos bellow made on Feb 9.

9 Maj str. layers and bumps of various material

29 Noemvri str. the biggest in the area, seems most cleared.

20 Oktomvri str. hard snowy ice

Pavement on Rajko Zhinzifov str.

Multilayered Nikola Trimpare str.

The pavement in front of Bunjakovec shopping centre.
The pavement on the other side of Partizanski odredi boulevard seems clear.

Macedonia: Talking About Religious Sterotypes

2012-02-09T10:45:00.000+01:00

During last the few weeks, political parties used a series of violent incidents in South-West Macedonia for political mobilization, increasing religious & ethnic tensions.

Media expert Roberto Belichanec blogged about stereotyping [mk] as a process of avoiding the labor of thinking in concrete terms through bunching people with group traits, reinforced by the media. According to him, religious stereotypes in the Balkans are not necessarily negative, but are “used to underline national stereotypes and confirm national rivalry… Faith functions at the level of group membership, not as a religion with its inner values. Appearances and declarations are considered important, not the spiritual aspect.”

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.