The Return: A Book for Frances about Life and Death
             Preface
            Back Cover
      You're in Charge: A Guide to Becoming Your Own Therapist
            Introduction: The Art of Self Observation
             On Dreaming
            Foreign Editions
   Since the New Deal: An Annotated Chronology of the Events That Have Changed the United States
             The C.I.A. (excerpt)
             Origins of the Cold War (excerpt)
             Some Quotations that Demonstrate the Underlying Philosophy Since the New Deal

 
      Afghanistan, "Terrorism," and Blowback   About Anthrax
     Some Thoughts on 9-11-2001

MACEDONIA or What I Did on My Summer Vacation, 1999 by Janette Rainwater

August 1999                                                     1 2 3 4        p.5

The symbol on the FYROM’s flag of the Vergina sun of Philip II which had offended Hellenic historic sensibilities was changed to a sun---in red and yellow--- that is reminiscent of the World War II Japanese flag. Holders of Macedonian passports, however, particularly those with a birthplace in northern Greece or Tashkent can still expect a lengthy wait at the border while nationals from Germany, USA, etc. pass through with no harassment. Some Macedonians are deemed to be “spies” and “terrorists” and refused admission to visit Greece.

The fourth wolf, Albania, was incorporated by Italy with Kosovo and parts of western Macedonia into “Greater Albania” for a brief period during World War II. That is recently enough that the prospect of another Greater Albania is very enticing, especially for the Albanians in the diaspora who have been tithing their 2% to the Homelands fund. The Albanian president, Rexhep Mejdani, declared on a recent state visit to Macedonia that Albania was “free of the myth of a greater Albania”; at the same time he said he foresaw the breakdown of traditional national borders as a result of the “Pact for Stability for South-Eastern Europe” and the emergence of two new states, Montenegro and Kosovo. (This second part caused considerable consternation among Macedonians.) The government also received the head of the KLA, Hashim Thaci, in the interest of maintaining an open dialogue with what could become their fifth wolf, Kosovo.

The problems for Macedonia seem to me to be these:

— how to get more capital investment so as to solve their unemployment problems, raise the standard of living, and improve the infrastructure without selling their soul to the US and other NATO countries

— how to satisfy the demands of the restive Albanian minority so that they will be contented citizens within Macedonia and yet retain the identity of a Macedonian state.

— how to create better communication between Macedonians and Albanians. For starters, how about mandatory instruction in Albanian for an hour a day for non-Albanian children, starting in the first grade? (And the reverse of Macedonian for Albanian children.) I met not one Macedonian who could speak Albanian.

The West could help by investing money, and by sending teams to teach and do reconciliation work with groups of Macedonians and Albanians similar to the black-white groups that Price Cobbs started in San Francisco in the ‘60s. If I should go back to Macedonia, the next time I would want to meet some Macedonian Albanians and spend some time with them. As on this trip I met none— unless you count my Albanian American seat mate on MAT from Amsterdam who assured me that Macedonia was 80% Albanian just as Kosovo was 98% before the bombing started!

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