We were deciding between grabbing a drink by the river or at a traditional Macedonian restaurant when he got a call from the president of the university student body. "Change of plans," he told me. "No drink. I must go meet the president."
Backstory: my friend is running for president of the medical school student body. But student elections here ain't no Yale College Council "who the hell even knows who's running" walk in the park. The major national political parties endorse candidates, and a successful campaign often means employment with the party (which, as we have seen, seems to be what the parties are primarily useful for). My friend thus was quite the freewheeler when he decided to run as an independent (I guess he'll have to employ himself). His opponent is from VRMO.
But last summer, while the entire country was on vacation, the current med school student president - also VMRO - somehow sketchily enacted changes to the student body constitution extending his term for one year. My friend, naturally, just about went Balkan-crazy on him, while the prez soothed the other candidate's unease by hinting (according to my friend), "Don't worry - you're VMRO, I'm VMRO: you'll be a president one day, too." Now the Medical School Dictator (or, “The Meditator,” as I’ve taken to calling this elusive foe) is getting sued in the national court system. It's Third World-style power usurpation at the undergraduate level! START 'EM YOUNG, that's what I always say!!
Now we headed to the president of the overall student body's office to discuss some next steps. Entering the office, I felt like I was in an important government ministry or the office of a mafia boss (according to many Macedonians, there's not a whole lot of difference). The Don greeted me and my friend, while his two assistants sat playing games on their iphones, waiting for orders. Above my head on the wall were posted seals of the Great State of Macedonia, including, of course, Aleksandar. (If Alexander the Great's last name was Waldo, this part of the world would be the easiest game of Where's Waldo ever.)
I'll let you know if the situation progresses. Reporting live from Skopje on the Macedonian Medical Succession Crisis, this is Xheremi. Now back to the studio for more on the Greece-Macedonia name dispute:
In recent conversation with an academic known for being unbiased and level-headed, I received the following piece of sarcastic wisdom: "Alexander slaughtered thousands of Greek civilians. If the Greeks want to claim the identity of a man who massacred their ancestors, I guess that's fine with me - just don't tell me what to call myself." Touché, assuming that's historically accurate. But just one question, which I wish I had asked him: if Alexander was such a serial killer, why exactly do you want to claim him as your ancestor or national hero? Jeremy - 1. All sides of nationalist disputes in the Balkans combined - 0.
Not to be outdone in praise for mass murderers, a Greek neo-Nazi organization harassed some "Slavophones" a few days ago during a ceremony in Athens celebrating the publication of the first Greek-Macedonian dictionary. (remember: since non-Greek Macedonians don't exist, their language doesn't exist either. duh.) I was just trying to relax and soak some rays on a Greek island, when I got an excited text message (think: :~))))) from my jolly TV anchor friend in Skopje telling me that something had happened. You can read about it here and watch a video here - there's no subtitles on the video, but luckily fascist yell-grunting sounds the same in any language.
Now, I know that many people in the Balkans are crazy, but I also know that most of them aren’t that crazy. I assume, for example, that the meatchunks in the video don’t represent the Greek consensus. Nonetheless, it takes some serious diplomatic fortitude to completely avoid associating those guys at least somewhat with the Greek stance on the name dispute. That reaction leads to an idea that is worth some mental marinating, especially for those of us who are members of communities in conflict (cough, all us Jews and Palestinians, cough): conflicts rarely exist in a vacuum. And since peaceful resolution necessitates a compromise that is often brokered by a third party, winning the image battle is a crucial aspect of strengthening one’s position at the bargaining table. When VMRO makes plans to build a 30m-tall singing fountain statue of Alexander the Great in the main square of Macedonia’s capital, that lends credence to Greece’s complaints and undermines Macedonia’s claims; similarly, when angry off-duty linebackers barge in on an esoteric intellectual gathering to verbally assault a bespectacled renowned American linguist, that makes the Greek side look a little, ahem, overzealous. As a result, it may well be that a group in conflict’s worst enemies are not the members of the other side, but the extremists in one’s own camp.
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Pictures: Would you believe me if I told you that my real estate agent stole my camera again? Neither would I. Luckily, that didn’t happen. Honestly, though, I don’t have a whole lot of new interesting pictures. But for good measure, here’s a photo of my apartment building, just to prove I’m doing the post-communist thing furrealz:
I bet the architect studied at this place(I hear the dorm food really sucks):
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