Help needed for the victims affected by the heavy rain and flooding in Macedonia

The Macedonian Red Cross is on the ground helping the victims affected by the heavy rain and flooding in Macedonia. 

At least 22 people are confirmed dead and many more are injured or missing. If you would like to help bring much needed aid to the victims of the floods, please consider making a donation to the Macedonian Red Cross!

--DONATIONS OUTSIDE OF MACEDONIA--

Name of Organization: MACEDONIAN RED CROSS
Bank Name: KOMERCIJALNA BANKA AD SKOPJE
Bank Address: UL. ORCE NIKOLOV NO.3, 1000 SKOPJE, MACEDONIA
Bank Account: 300000000000133 25730522-11
Swift Code: KOBSMK2X
IBAN Code: MK07300701000001228

--DONATIONS INSIDE MACEDONIA--

Call 143-400 to make a 100 MKD donation!

Solidarity Fund of the Macedonian Red Cross Bank account: 300000001327966
Tax number:4030984271620 AD KOMERCIJALNA BANKA

Donations of food, clothing, footwear, hygiene, bedding and other articles can be delivered to local Macedonian Red Cross Branches throughout Macedonia.

‪#‎prayformacedonia‬ ‪#‎helpmacedonia‬ ‪#‎macedonianflood‬

If you lose your identity, you are a nobody

...If many Macedonians sound insecure about their identity, they have reason to be. Greece accuses Macedonia of trying to appropriate its history. In fact, Greece insists that Macedonia change its name. 

But Macedonian cultural anthropologist Aleksandar Ristevski said his compatriots have already done more than enough to appease the Greeks.

“We changed our flag, we are calling ourselves internationally the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, mentioning a country which doesn’t exist for 20 years using some idiotic acronym. We changed the constitution because of them. We changed millions of things. What did we get? Blockage, degradation and sanctions,” Ristevski said...

(full article)

http://www.theworld.org/2011/06/macedonia-gets-a-statue-of-alexander-the-great/

...“If you lose your identity, you are a nobody,” said Alexandar Ristevski, 32, an ethnographer.

Macedonia was promised an invitation to join NATO in 2008, but this was vetoed by Greece because the name issue was unresolved. In 2005, Macedonia also became a candidate for the European Union, but still has no date to start accession talks because of Greek resistance...

(article in New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/world/europe/24iht-macedonia24.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=global-home

Skopje city centre (photos)

Photos from the Skopje city centre. Enjoy the view, and of course, visit Skopje!

Alexander The Great errected in Skopje

The statue of Alexander the Great finally arrived in Skopje central square. Thousands of people, hundreds of cameras, reporters and journalists all watched as Alexander "climbed" this grandiose fountain. 

Need we say more? Enjoy the photos.

Alexander The Great rides back home to Macedonia

(Skopje, Macedonia) Since early this morning, big trucks are headed towards the central square, Plaza Macedonia. Alexander is coming!

A statue, almost 13 meters high, on a pedestal 15 meters high, will make the center of the capital spectacular.  The fountain, with the sculpture, is expected to be completed in a few weeks. 

Enjoy the sites, and visit Skopje.

A Spectacular Premiere of “Dracula” at the April Ballet Evenings 2011

The premiere of the spectacle entitled “Dracula” performed by Vortice Dance Company from Portugal and supported by their Macedonian counterparts took place on Friday (29 April) at the closing ceremony of the first ever April Ballet Evenings 2011 at the Macedonian Opera and Ballet.

Rafael Caricco and Claudia Martins were the people responsible for the choreography of this amazing ballet spectacle with music from Voyceh Kilar, Phillip Glass, Rachmaninoff and Lou Reed. Rafael Caricco was the genius behind the stenography, videography and sound effects, Claudia Martins was woman behind the costimography, while audio-visualization and technical director was João Neves. Light design of  Luis Paz and João Teixeira.

The soloists in “Dracula” were the amazing Aleksandra Mijalkova, Mimi Pop Aleksova, Biljana Basmadzieva, Ivana Kocevska, Igor Velanoski, Cláudia Martins, Rafael Carriço, Boban Kovachevski, Trajche Stojkovski, Jorge Libório, Simona Vasilevska, Jan Kisilev, Razvan Mazilu, Gabi Pavlovska,  and Lile Milenkovska.

Dracula… An attack on all senses! How else could we describe what went on the stage of MOB on Friday?

ZOO Skopje photo galery

Enjoy the pictures taken in the ZOO in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia in the past few months.

Show them to your friends, spread the good word about the Skopje Zoo and of course, visit it! ;-)

 

 

 

Our Name is Macedonia

Who gave YOU the right to negotiate MY name?

The most basic human right is self - identification.

Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) and the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) have launched an ad campaign demanding an end to all negotiations with Greece over its name.

MHRMI and AMHRC ask every Macedonian organization, in the country and abroad, to join our call for Macedonia to immediately cease name negotiations.

To sign on or see the ad campaign, please visit www.mhrmi.org/our_name_is_macedonia

Sculptures in the city center Vol.2

Almost two moths ago I had a post with some of the sculptures in the city center of Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.

Here are some of the other statues that you can see, if you visit our capital. Visit Skopje, visit Macedonia.

Zoo Skopje

I already wrote once about the reconstruction of the Zoo garden in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.

Now, i will present to you some new photos, taken in the last 10 days, with the new inhabitants and their new homes. 

I hope you will enjoy the gallery. 

See you all, in Zoo Skopje.

CNN - Creating Napa Valley in Macedonia

One more article on Macedonia, on the series of articles promoting the country.

This time Nic Robertson visits Jordan Trajkov, the owner of Popova Kula Winery in the Tikvesh region. 

You can see the Macedonian potential in the wine industry, as well as the possibility to travel around the country and check out all the natural beauties, and the cultural heritage.

Republic of Macedonia. Cradle of culture. Land of nature. 

Macedonia. Timeless.

CNN on Macedonia's name issue

The World media finally decided to spend some time, and analyze the "Macedonian issue", the name dispute and the meaningless requests by the Greek government.

The reporter Nic Robertson plastically presents the current situation, interviews the Prime minister Nikola Gruevski, and shows a new perspective on the whole problem.

I think that finally is the time for the World to know that Macedonia is mobbed by Greece, and that all international law are broken in this despute with no ending.

Mother Teresa Memorial House

Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), born Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (Agnes Gondza Bojadziu), was a Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1950.

Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was born on 26 August 1910, in Skopje, capital of the Republic of Macedonia. Although she was born on August 26, she considered August 27, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday." Her father Nikola, died in 1919 when she was eight years old. 


In her early years Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service, and by age 12 was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life.She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never again saw her mother or sister.

The Memorial house of Mother Teresa is non profit organization financed by the Government of Republic of Macedonia.

The Location of the museum is not randomly chosen. That is to say, on this exact place the old Catholic Church “Sacred heart of Jesus” used to stand. It is where Mother Teresa, then Gonxha Bojaxhiu was baptized just one day after her birth, on the 27th of august 1910, place where she received her first communion and where she find her inner peace after her father’s death.

This place had a great importance and influence on developing of the character of young Gonxha and to her desire to help the poor people. Since she was a child she sang in the Catholic Church choir and participated in charity organizations. Somehow the location itself represents a symbolic bridge that connects little Gonxha to one of the greatest humanitarian of the world, Mother Teresa.

The desire to pay respect to one the most famous person and Nobel Prize winner from Macedonia was accomplished on the 30-th of January 2009 with the opening of the Memorial house dedicated to Mother Teresa. 

The next day, on January 31, 2009 the Memorial house of Mother Teresa was formally promoted in front of several hundred of people. For this special occasion the Catholic Church brought a relic of Mother Teresa.

Sculptures in the city center Vol.1

Here are some of the sculptures in the city center of Skopje, the capitol of Republic of Macedonia. 

The sculptures are situated on the main pedestrian street Macedonia and the national plaza Macedonia.

Enjoy the view.

Night before Easter in Skopje, Macedonia

The night before Easter, Macedonians gathered together in the local churches to attend the Easter liturgy. The central feast was in the Apostolic Church St. Clement Ohridski (македонски: Св. Климент Охридски) where people massively gathered.

Easter is the central religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to Christian scripture, Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. 


Some Christians celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day or Easter Sunday (also Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday), two days after Good Friday and three days after Maundy Thursday. 

  

Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter. Easter also marks the end of Lent, a season of fasting, prayer, and penance.

Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the vernal equinox.

  

 Macedonian Orthodox Church bases its calculations on the Julian Calendar whose March 21 corresponds, during the twenty-first century, to April 3 in the Gregorian Calendar, in which calendar their celebration of Easter therefore varies between April 4 and May 8.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar.

Easter egg "battles" are tradition among Macedonians. After midnight ans Christ uprising, the believers are "fighting" trying to discover who has the strongest Easter egg.