The Macedonian parliament has begun the process of changing the country's name, ending a long-running dispute with Greece:
Macedonia's parliament has ratified an agreement with Greece to change the former Yugoslav republic's name at a plenary session that was boycotted by the main opposition party.
Lawmakers on June 20 voted 69-0 to ratify the agreement, which changes the country's formal name to the Republic of North Macedonia. [...] Lawmakers on June 19 launched the process of ratifying the accord, as hundreds of protesters gathered in the center of Skopje for a third day to vent anger over the deal.
[...] The agreement, signed by the two countries' foreign ministers on June 17, ends a 27-year dispute between Athens and Skopje and paves the way for Macedonia to begin membership talks with the European Union and NATO.
But it will take months to complete and faces several hurdles along the way, with President Gjorge Ivanov pledging to veto the deal. That would force lawmakers to repeat the vote, and if the deal is ratified again – this time with an absolute majority -- then Ivanov will be unable to block it.
See also: Why all the furor over Macedonia name change? It goes back to Alexander the Great
(Score: 3, Touché) by aristarchus on Friday June 22 2018, @10:21AM (3 children)
About time! Now if only people would respect the request of the Mayor of Lesbos that we only refer to residents of his island as Lesbians. Sappho was one, you know!
And then we can move on to "Georgia" and "North Dakota". Both need rectifying badly.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 22 2018, @06:43PM (2 children)
I think "United" States has priority in the need-a-fix queue.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @06:52PM
Yeah probably only need to push Macedonia up the need-a-fix queue if they start trying to call themselves the Democratic Republic of North Macedonia or even the Democratic People's Republic of North Macedonia... ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @08:57PM
Eris's children will reclaim EFNet, and once more bring disharmony to the network formerly known as the United States!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @10:56AM (12 children)
This could have been done. The first obvious way would have been to admit them before Greece, or better yet, just don't admit Greece ever. The second obvious way was when Greece was negotiating their way out of their financial mess. The rest of the EU could have demanded that this issue be dropped, or even that Greece has to abstain from voting for a decade.
Now though... where is the value? The EU has failed to protect the people from invasion. That's kind of fundamental to being country-like. The EU imposes all sorts of overhead. The EU can't even keep things all that stable really, with that narrowly-averted PIGS crisis being a huge warning.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 22 2018, @11:10AM (11 children)
Where is Germany? The most powerful country in Europe?
I don't know, but I will say: Putin stated that Soros is somehow linked to the U.S. State Department. Soros and the U.S. (At the time, which means the Obama regime) are using weaponized immigration as a tool to weaken the EU such that it won't present a threat to American hegemony.
The Wikileaks long ago stated that the American NSA has access to Merkel's personal phone. Europeans, help we the people (Americans) cleans ourselves of this scum.
We, like you, are under attack from weaponized population replacement. Call out those elements in our government who are subverting you as they are subverting us. Call out those elements who are subverting you. Let us help each other to attack forces beyond our imagination!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 22 2018, @11:13AM (4 children)
Give us allowance to scuttle their ships alongside you and identify and eliminate the human traffickers who cause your shores to be invaded!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 22 2018, @11:16AM (3 children)
You will not like what I am saying here, but we must revert to a darker age in order to save our societies. Do not listen to the fifth-columnist critics. Your very lives are at stake! Great Britain! The United States of America! Renaissance European society at large! We must expell the foreign invaders!
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday June 22 2018, @04:11PM
Oh is that why Trump started tariffs on steel against his European "allies" for national security reasons?
I thought the reason was a bit unclear at the time.
Actually...
I still don't understand the reason why you're boycotting our (EU) steel industry!
Would you like us to boycot American stuff? For national security reasons? You know, expel the foreign invaders from the USA? Or does that logic only work one-way?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @07:58PM (1 child)
Ethanol_fueled, the "John McCain" of immigration policy! Ha ha!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 22 2018, @09:21PM
I'm the Adolf Hitler of immigration policy.
(Score: 5, Funny) by pkrasimirov on Friday June 22 2018, @11:20AM (1 child)
> forces beyond our imagination!
I see many forces from beyond your imaginations but no one here is able to help you with that. I recommend you to seek professional help.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 22 2018, @11:28AM
Suck my dick, Ukranian CIA scum. We're on to your tricks. No matter how many Jewish fifth-columnists you manage to plant into our societies, you will lose.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday June 22 2018, @03:16PM (3 children)
Your tenses don't make any sense. You may have heard, Obama is no longer president?
Pick one of:
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 23 2018, @09:52AM (2 children)
Well, shit, I guess Hunter S. Thompson gets a D- in English because he uses too many commas?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Sunday June 24 2018, @09:39PM (1 child)
This has nothing to do with commas...?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday June 24 2018, @09:59PM
Grammar pedantry, is the lowest form of criticism, anybody could offer either here, or on Slashdot. The context, is clear.
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Friday June 22 2018, @11:28AM (3 children)
That's the best Balkans event of the decade! I have no idea how these two heroes, Zaev [wikipedia.org] and Tsipras [wikipedia.org], managed to do it but I think they outdid many other politicans and positioned themselves on the world stage.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 22 2018, @11:34AM (2 children)
I like This [youtube.com] one.
(Score: 3, Informative) by pkrasimirov on Friday June 22 2018, @12:26PM (1 child)
Yes, these are the dark times, tanks rolling and people dying. Do you know the song you posted is about Alija Izetbegović [wikipedia.org]?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday June 24 2018, @10:02PM
Thanks for schooling me. I modded you up. All I saw was tanks and shit blowing up, and making fun of George H.W. Bush and Germany. I guess I need to just post the Momčilo Bajagić video of him declaring that Serbia will blow all of the Mosques away. Catchy tune, by the way, I believe it's called Dzamije lete.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @12:29PM (1 child)
Now Republic of North Macedonia needs to liberate its brothers and sisters of South Macedonia.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 22 2018, @02:50PM
Idea:
People of the North fight to liberate those in the South from the government of the South.
Concurrently . . .
People of the South fight to liberate those in the North from the government of the North.
It not only applies to Macedonia, but to the Carolinas and Dakotas as well. Coming soon to the Californias two! (or three)
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @12:51PM (5 children)
I am reminded of this because as per the article, the mayor is saying that Alexander conquered and occupied India. I can feel his urge to use India as an example of everything Alexander or Macedonians were not, but Alexander neither conquered not occupied India. India is where he lost, and consequently instilled a deep urge in the West to go back and conquer the east. There is a plaque in London which says, in Sanskrit, that Greek women were enslaved and prostituted by the Indians.
So the question comes, why use this lie in an argument? It is common in all nationalists I have met, they deliver one historical lie after another even when they don't have to. Is it denial of a deep seated inferiority complex? It is perplexing. Does power rely on lie or does it rely on truth.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tangomargarine on Friday June 22 2018, @03:12PM (1 child)
It sounds like he did conquer parts [wikipedia.org] of India. India wasn't a unified thing until circa WWII.
Admittedly they sound like small parts of India.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday June 22 2018, @03:21PM
It of course always depends on what you consider part of "India". If you include what is now Pakistan, which historically was a part of India, then Alexander conquered quite a lot of India. If you only consider what is now India, then he only conquered one of the fairly major provinces.
It's also worth noting that the reason he stopped had everything to do with his subordinates refusing to go any further, and nothing to do with losing battles (unless the historical accounts were falsified to make Alexander look better, of course).
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fritsd on Friday June 22 2018, @04:16PM
It doesn't need to be *true*, it just needs to *believed* by a sufficient minority. Self-consistency is not required, either!
Umberto Eco tried to explain this a bit in his essay on Ur-Fascism. And he was an expert on words and meanings.
Read his essay [nybooks.com], it's a bit difficult but it pays off!
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Friday June 22 2018, @07:19PM (1 child)
The entire issue of Alexander is irrelevant. He was neither greek nor slav. Macedonia is name of particular geographic region irrespective of ethnicity of inhabitants which is currently divided by Republic of Macedonia and Greece. So at least from this point of view it totally makes sense to name it Republic of North Macedonia instead. But bringing up Alexander the Great is pure bullshit sophistry.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday June 22 2018, @11:59PM
Maybe they should name it Alexandria.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday June 22 2018, @01:23PM (1 child)
Whoa that's like half of Macedonia, isn't it?
You know something is a propaganda lecture fake news instead of real news, when nobody gives a F about it, but the "news media" is screaming about it. Not so much a Macedonia thing as a story about news media.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 22 2018, @02:52PM
A major media news outlet can, with very few Macedonians, and camera trickery, make it look like half the country is gathered to protest. I think I saw this done before somewhere.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 22 2018, @02:47PM (1 child)
Will they have to get a new top level country domain name?
Will they get one that is kewl enough that people from other nations want domain names ending in their two character country domain name?
What would be a neato top level country domain? Maybe that is better left as a pole question on SN? But that would be better left as a question for a poll dancer who performs for people willing to submit to survey questions.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Friday June 22 2018, @11:21PM
They keep .mk TLD and language codes mk, mkd etc. but should change the car plates to NMK.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @03:05PM (1 child)
With the amount of muslims flooding in their population will be soon bred out of existence
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @06:15AM
How is this wrong? Their last census had the population at around 2 million people.
More than one million people passed through Greece in 16 to 17. It is so bad that European countries have to shoot people at the border or face being overwhelmed.
If Macedonia does not fix this problem they won't own their own country any more.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MrGuy on Friday June 22 2018, @04:00PM
Compare this:
To this:
Emphasis mine in both case.
They did not "formally change" the name. They are attempting to do so. They still need to survive a potential presidential veto and override, and possibly other political hurdles. They won't "formally" change the name until that's all put to bed.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @05:20PM
in full battle array still works I guess