Testify Author’s note: Every fifty columns, I try to write something a bit more reflective, thoughtful, and, hopefully, inspiring, for my Macedonian family and friends. This is the 850th column I have written over the years, and I hope this column meets those self-imposed requirements. “Testify.” Among the definitions of…

The French-Bulgarian proposal and bad behavior The story goes that American J. Paul Getty, upon achieving status as the world’s first dollar billionaire, was asked by a reporter, “Mr. Getty, how much is enough?” To which the billionaire replied, “Just one dollar more.” The refrain from the Macedonian government and…

Appeasement never works Why can’t people learn this lesson? History is rife with the lesson that appeasement never works. One does not have to go too far back to know this to be true. And yet it continues to happen. Why can’t people learn this lesson? Especially people considered to…

The Year 2042 Imagine for a moment, and if you dare, that the year is now 2042. Imagine also, that, no matter what your age is at this moment, you are still alive and healthy in 2042, 20 years hence. Furthermore, imagine, happily for all of us, that, no, World…

What the State Department gets wrong on Macedonia’s name For this column, as I go into my 27th year in and with Macedonia, I thought I’d return to a frequent theme in my writing as a way of remembering (for myself and others) a few important facts. So, here’s an…

How Macedonia changed my life (for the better!) Reflections on 26 years with Macedonia Today is May 25, 2022, and today, I celebrate 26 years with Macedonia. That is over a quarter of a century. If the average life expectancy of an American male is 77 years (and we men…

May the fourth is the anniversary of the death of Goce Delcev, Macedonian teacher, revolutionary, and hero who was killed in 1903, just months before the Ilinden Uprising, for which he had been preparing. For fans of the science fiction Star Wars franchise, May the fourth is also a time…

If you are a fan of the so-called Prespa agreement which was rammed down the throats of Macedonians to appease Greece, change Macedonia’s name and identity, and usher Macedonia into NATO (where its new abbreviation is the very wrong “NM”) then you probably should be a fan of what Bulgaria…

“There is a great deal of ruin in a nation” In my last column, Of woes and joys, (Маки и радости) I wrote how Macedonia had faced a great deal of “woes” as I called them, both from the outside, and self-inflicted, but that, also there could be a lot…