MHR Review Issue #18 March 2014 IISSN 1839-8707 ContentsMHR Review no.18 published in March 2014 as a review . of. the preceding December-February 3 The Good Neighbour By George Vlahov 5 Venizelos’s Adventures in “Pseudoland” By Dr. Chris Popov 9 Early Elections in Macedonia 2014 By Dr. Vasko Nastevski 12 Identity Politics By Tom Vangelovski Macedonian Bone Marrow Donor Drive 16 April 15, 2014 Vinozhito & The Difficulties on Participating in Elections 17 By Dimitri Jovanov 19 Greek Humanist Harassed by Racist & Anti-Semitic Author February 19, 2014 20 OMO at the EFA Conference By Alexander Spassov 21 The Poetry of Kocho Solev Ratsin By Dr. Michael Seraphinoff 23 An Interview With Simon (Spire) Damevski By John Tsiglev 29 Ottoman Macedonia & Greek Nationalism By Dr. Dimitar Vamvakovski 34 Mladi Bilbili and Vinozhito on Tour in Australia February, 2014 EVANGELOS VENIZELOS: THE ‘GOOD NEIGHBOR’ By George Vlahov We shall begin by noting that even if it dering or itinerant kind, but one who Venizelos, by calling to mind that it is is true that the rumors which assign a is here today and disturbingly, not not unknown for a foreign minister to different original surname to our good gone tomorrow. Thus by way of com- apprehend his or her employment title teacher of civility are false and mali- pensation for tolerating the presence, with literal zest, even to the extent of cious in intent, they serve him well in as Mr. Venizelos would have it, of the treating a time honored neighbor as a the context of the discourse in the paradoxical outlander, the latter, in a consummate alien. And that is not all, subsequent paragraphs. For whether somewhat curious spirit of good Mr. Venizelos, in what would have or not there is accuracy in such hear- neighborliness, is obliged to alter his been for him, a deeply thought out say, some of his compatriots have form, specifically his appellation, to a proposition, as one would expect from zealously raised the volume of those shape befitting his alien content. One a Professor of Law based at “Aristotle whispers to that of a well broadcast should not underestimate the cogni- University,” declared that the Arctic shout, which has aided in creating the tive potency involved in the charting trespasser must abide by a set of perception that the apparently former of such a reimbursement, as it ap- ordinances, which among other mat- Mr. Turkoglou (son of Turk) is a prac- pears to have been arrived at, by an ters, demands respect for minorities. titioner of at least some of what he approach towards history akin to the To all appearances, Mr. Venizelos was preaches. public accounting methods which, dur- motivated by an invincible yearning ing the course of the last few years, for all that is pure, just like his imag- In the purview of Evangelos Venizelos, have made Mr. Venizelos’s patria, re- ined homogenous homeland. the diminutive Balkan co-resident lo- nowned, the world over. cated just beyond Greece’s northern In response, a veritable verbal crash frontier, in manifold ways, is unrecog- If you remain unconvinced, it is well was heard, as if a tongue could be nizable; a stranger, not of the wan- worth adding to the case of Mr. used to slap somebody down; that, at 3 any rate, is the conclusion to be might safely assume he has never incompatible interests, but they are drawn from the manner in which some intentionally done so, unless it was as one in their disdain for the “Gypsy inhabitants of the country Mr. Venize- for his own benefit. He evidently has Skopians” and this filters through to los would have us regard as a malig- no false or squeamish modesty when the masses via the media and the edu- nant interloper, drew themselves up it comes to availing himself of cation system. to their full height while shrieking measures which might make Brussels about duplicity, charlatanism and so turn scarlet; for there are still an Therefore it is more than likely that a forth… Well Mr. Venizelos might un- abundance of votes to be gained, from multitude of Greeks will continue in derstandably be forgiven, for believ- a constituency educated to believe it the foreseeable future to negatively ing it would not dawn on any of the is the direct progeny of the ancient exoticize their northern neighbor. The presumably churlish inhabitants of a adulators of Zeus and that it is bor- Republic of Macedonia will continue to ‘pseudo state-let’ that they are in dered to the north by uncouth intrud- be viewed as a misnamed obscenity social practice, even if not by geogra- ers who speak a bizarre and mis- and Greece’s Macedonian minority will phy, considerably more proximate to named idiom. Incidentally one must remain officially non-existent. The Copenhagen. simply marvel at the didactic aptitude fact that the maintenance and misuse of a schooling structure which ap- of a mythical dogma of homogeneity It would be partially appropriate of pears in general to have convinced reaching back to an ancient primordi- Mr. Venizelos to riposte by shrugging Mr. Venizelos’s constituency of chil- ality, apart from being of some short his shoulders in association with the dren and grandchildren of refugees, term electoral assistance to Venizelos display of a sickly smile, as he has about their ownership of a place- & co, is also contributing to the rise been seen to do on a previous occa- name due to their very distant but of forms of fascism and the decidedly sion; for it is not entirely the fault of apparently no less direct antecedents, embarrassing presence of Neo Nazis Greece, as a long time member of the even though the exiles in question in the Greek parliament, does not ap- continental club, that it enjoys a cer- often conversed in a mode of expres- pear to have given the Venizelos’s of tain amount of liberty to regard its sion quite distinct from their sup- Greece any desire to reconsider their domestic exotics as non-existent… the posed forefathers and previously in- attitudes. administrators of the club must habited a different land. shoulder some of the responsibility George Vlahov and even after that has been noted, But we digress, or do we? Well to put one should also at least consider the it more seriously than hitherto, it has P.S. As an epilogue, some words contention, that, as the word hypocri- been a tradition in numerous socie- from Carl Jung: sy comes from the Greek, it is thereby ties, modern and pre-modern, to sin- the property of the Greek. It is a line gle out internal and external Every individual needs revolution, in- of argument related to the logic used strangers, who confuse and obscure ner division, overthrow of the existing to require the northern neighbor’s boundaries which those seeking or order, and renewal, but not by forcing self re-designation. From this peculi- already possessing power, find useful them upon his neighbors under the ar, though not quite unique perspec- to present as necessarily and per- hypocritical cloak of Christian love or tive, as a Greek, Mr. Venizelos is well fectly discernible. As indicated in the the sense of social responsibility or within his rights to use and abuse his previous paragraph, focusing atten- any of the other beautiful euphemisms discretion… to evince a stingy dispo- tion on people who do not fit within for unconscious urges to personal sition and to advantageously proffer the lines drawn from the values un- power. advice to the ‘unsophisticated north- derpinning a society, can deliver ben- erners,’ with much warmth; some efits from the ballot box. If people can be educated to see the might even say, with an exceptionally shadow-side of their nature clearly, it sultry intensity. It is of course true that the construc- may be hoped that they will also learn tion of the cultural, political and eco- to understand and love their fellow Still not convinced? Neither am I. It nomic frameworks of all societies, men better. A little less hypocrisy and seems to be time to change tack. Let more or less, manufactures a little more self-knowledge can only us proceed by attesting, that if in the strangers; so the problematic nature have good results in respect for our course of his public life, this product of the stranger tradition has much to neighbor; for we are all too prone to of a supposedly advanced yet ancient do with the behavior of elites. Greek transfer to our fellows the injustice culture, has now and then attempted elites, like all holders of power, have and violence we inflict upon our own to play fancy with naked facts, one their internal disputes, rivalries and natures. 4 translation into French of his re- marks at the official press con- ference with his French counter- part, lest he be seen to be giving credence to French claims that their language is in fact French. Moreover, he travelled to and left Paris in his own diplomatic vehicle in order to avoid landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport, the name of the founder of France’s Fifth Republic. The above account is of course fictitious, given that France and Germany have no dispute about the other’s name, language and culture and have as mature mem- bers of the EU, long ago resolved any disputes over territory, politi- cal and economic relations. Venizelos’s Flight of Fantasy and his Demands On 20 February 2014, Greek For- VENIZELOS: ADVENTURES IN “PSEUDOLAND” eign Minister, Evangelos Venizelos, paid an official visit to Macedonia By Dr.