Athens Greece 30/03/2018
France is in the EU and should know a suggestion for taking off the name FYROM from the Republic of Macedonia. This abbreviation is totally Greece’s fault and France’s fault as well because they listened to Greece whereas it would be rather better to suggest some funny ideas for the really non existent issue for the majority of normal people in Greece.
People in Southern Macedonia who have businesses can promote their name as Aegean or Southern Macedonia but not all the people of the Southern Macedonia are producers in the primary sector or in the industry, they are not all farmers, or fishermen or engineers so as to have access in the Balkan market with the brand name of Southern or Aegean Macedonia. There is a demand from these people not to pass a message to the world that Southern Macedonia which is Greek doesn’t exist. This is primeraly a Greek issue, is not the Republic’s of Macedonia mistatke so the solution has to come from the inside of Greece.
A suggestion may be to create two bands of singers for the Eurovision song contest. The Southern or Aegean Macedonia band and the rest of the Greece band may compete in an internal preliminary round, for which of the two bands will sing for Greece. This is an anomaly, but since the people of Southern Macedonia asked it, they should take responsibility on what they ask and on what they say.
In the above suggestion in the worst case scenario there may be voices of independance of Southern Macedonia from Greece, but the Catalonia case explains and stops this. In Catalonia people live within Spain for the last fourty years, they know each other very well, they have invested in infrastructure in roads, ports, etc, and an independant Catalonia would mean an unfair duty free border zone between the assuming country Catalonia and the rest of Spain. This is because the tax on trade between, two different EU countries is zero. This can’t be accepted for the rest of Europe, because every single territory in Europe would ask the same short of independance for avoiding tax on trade. Therefore the failure of the Catalonia independance case is a barrier to the fear of voices in Southern Macedonia to do a similar claim. In other words the benefit of Greece and of the Republic of Macedonia is for both countries to be in the EU (in case Macedonia wants to go all te way to an entrance in the EU) because of zero tax trade rule between the two on a fair and a legal way. The question is whether it does worth for Greece to sacrify in a way Eurovision in song contest for the shake of having good affairs with the Republic of Macedonia and the world, and on the same time not to neglect the identity of the Southerns who want their name of their country to be heard internationally.
On the previous suggestion dozens of other small or big funny or not funny suggestions may arise so as to strengthen the identity of the Greeks in the Aegean Macedonia part. Greeks can produce a video game with two football teams, the Greek Team and the Southern Macedonia Team. That would be a virtual reality it is not real and it may affect positively the psychology of children in the Southern Macedonia. The example in Ireland is similar but football is a British traditional sport and is rather unlikely that the Greeks can handle a separate football association as the Northen Irelanders have, for the obvious reason that football is a foreign sport, is too big, too popular, too much great, it involves budget, it is too much symbolic too much connected with pride and it may be a dangerous path on this case for people who don’t know to play.
Other ideas to strengthen the Greek Southern Macedonia side is to rename the film festival of Salonica into Southern’s Macedonia film festival and why not to make it a festive of the Balkans including the invitation to the Republic of Macedonia.
Perhaps it has a say the fact that the country which has more wins from any other European country in the Eurovision song contest is the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Republicans probably felt the need to strengthen the Irish voice somehow in Europe because Ireland was part of the UK and they decided to go out of it in the early 20th century. So the stakes are for the Southern Macedonians to compete somehow and somewhere either on an easy way with the rest of Greece in singing for the Eurovision or in a hard and more descent way by making global businesses, brands and products that would advertise their name as Aegean Macedonians. In case all the previous suggestions fail then Greece will have to pay the cost of keeping the pride of the Southern Macedonia. The Greek air carrier may be the Aegean Macedonian airways but the cost to rename the airline and make it more flying exceeds the capacity or sustainability of a small Aegean Macedonian economy.
By concluding I think it is good a copy of the Eurovision idea for parts of France such as the French Polynesia so as to see participation from Pacific France from time to time. And this has a double meaning which is France to stop hide the Pacific for the obvious reasons of the wrong nuclear tests that eroded and will erode the French nationality and flag in fishing for the next millenia and created a disgust to all the earth both to human and to non human nature.
Konstantinos Chatzis
BSc Environmental Science
Plymouth United Kingdom
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