SKOPJE STRIKES BACK – do I have permission to speak?by Sasha Uzunov Professor Biljana Vankovska is a highly credentialed “public intellectual” and charter member of Macedonia’s “Capital City of Skopje elite”. She has this shtick of being feisty in her writing, whether it be a newspaper column in Macedonian, or offering an opinion on politics, […]
MACEDONIA – FROM THE YUGOSLAV HELL TO THE EU NIGHTMARE subtitles:SFRJ becomes Socialist Federal Republics of Europe (SFRE)USSR becomes the European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (EUSSR) by Sasha Uzunov Initially, Macedonia’s communist ruling elite was reluctant to embrace an independent Macedonia in 1991 and for that matter membership of the European Union. But […]
FILM REVIEW – SINISTERAustralian cinema release 30 May 2013 by Sasha Uzunov. I was surprised to find an envelope with a DVD of the supernatural horror film Sinister, starring Ethan Hawke, from Mel Gibson’s former production company, Icon Films, in my Post Office box. No doubt sometime ago I was put on a mailing list of bloggers/journalists/independent […]
ESPANA EXPIRED – the end of Spain ?by Sasha Uzunov The concept of Spain has survived the ravages of time: the Moorish invasion, a brutal civil war, a repressive dictatorship and various separatist movements but now a demographic crisis might accomplish what swords, bullets and bombs fail to do so. Spain, Espana in Castillian Spanish, is […]
THE N(ANA) STOJANOV(A) STATE ?by Sasha Uzunov A Macedonian woman complained recently about how her Masters Degree from the prestigious Cambridge University was not enough to get her a job in academia in her homeland. It brought to the boil long simmering issues of nepotism and indirectly the concept of the Nanny State, hence the […]
TEAM UZUNOV medical exclusive by Sasha Uzunov Cancer Council Australia has cautioned against the use of a “sun gazing” therapy advocated by a Balkan health guru, which has gained popularity amongst some of this country’s ethnic communities. Dr Slagjana Velkova (Sladjana Velkov) is a Macedonian born but Serbian raised doctor of medicine who is advocating […]
Photos: Top left: Rupert Murdoch media mogul (World Economic Forum-Davos). Top Right: Paul Moran, ABC cameraman killed in Iraq in 2003. Boston Marathon Bombings courtesy of Aaron “tango” Tango – Wikipedia /Flicker MURDOCH, MORAN AND BOSTON MARATHON BOMBS by Sasha Uzunov To some of us, who are not part of Australia’s journalism in-club or clique, we […]
One of the most notorious international terrorists during the later stages of the Twentieth Century, Carlos the Jackal, spent three days in 1976 as a guest of Communist Yugoslavia, a defacto ally of the West, according to US diplomatic cables published in wikileaks. Carlos, real name Ilich Ramirez, posed as an Algerian professor during his […]
KOMRADE KIRO – a 1973 US diplomatic cable, released by wikileaks, reveals Kiro Gligorov, then a leading Yugoslav Communist and later to become the first President of the Republic of Macedonia in 1991, urged strong security measures to be taken by the Yugoslav government against, ironically, striking workers and equated their actions with anti-state activities. […]
Two interesting documents have emerged in the recent batch of United States diplomatic cables to be released by international whistleblower organisation, Wikileaks: The first is a 1973 US State Department cable detailing the Yugoslav government’s fears of “extremist” Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian activities on American soil. We hear of the Macedonian Patriotic Organisation (MPO). Link: […]
