AMERICAN CORNER
Project: National Poetry Month,
April 24th, 2014
A MONTH FULL OF POWERFUL LOVE:
UGD STUDENTS INSPIRED BY GOCE DELCEV,
W. WHITMAN AND BEYOND
D-r Marija Emilija Kukubajska
Harvard professor Michael Porter’s book on
Competitive Advantage, and his numerous articles
and books on domestic and world competition in
any area, contribute to the interdisciplinary thought
on
managing
constructive
competitiveness.
(Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at
Harvard Business School) In addition to Prof.
Porter’s extensive research, teaching and
publications on issues of competitive strategies
between nations, or neighbors, his ideas on
business of esthetics, music, art and sports are
applicable in over 100 countries.
When getting familiar with Porter’s initiatives for fair
competition, it seems unavoidable to compare
Goce Delcev motto for competitiveness. Delcev’s
19th century understanding of the socio-cultural,
national and political conditions of the occupied
Macedonian people affirmed itself as a lasting and
sustainable call for competitive strategies. Delcev’s
competition concept does not lack global
applicability either, when compared to various
contemporary academic, government or NGO
sectors and their missions for individual or societal
advancement, reaching nations, communities and
neighborhood formations.
In the name of equal opportunities in the competitive
world, on the other side of Porter, the republican
thinker, agents of change are also being promoted
through left-of center American education, mass
media and culture diffusing their neo-liberal agenda
with similar goal. This neo-liberal experiment has
been repositioning itself to impose its own
interpretation of fundamental change of ideas and
ideologies by managing their own competition of
ideas, lexicons and practices. Its massive, globally
intended socio-cultural experiments certainly include
the art and science of thinking - through literature,
poetry, poetics and their impact upon the societal
transformation and the thinking processes.
Regardless to its left or right-wing interpretations in our time of posthuman, post-postmodern, transnational, new world order missions for
saving and promoting mankind’s wellbeing, the concept of social
progress index (SPI agendas) should be paid attention, even by
poets and writers, their literary production in a country, their academic
or popular domain. Therefore, Delcev’s motto: I understand the world
as a field for cultural competition among nations, is given a particular
attention in this presentation, since its validity persists for over 100
years, and is now more applicable than ever. It addresses
competition of comparative advantages, and of intellectual and
factual values in national and social performance, regardless to the
wealth (the GDP) of a country, and despite, or because of,
disadvantages of certain countries. In many aspects, according to
professor Palmer’s SPI (Social Progress Index), countries of
emerging markets, or even developing countries score much higher
in top-educational and socio-cultural results than the US.
Nevertheless, however, the US still remains to be the champion of
highest performances in most parameters.
Within these parameters smaller societies and
educational and cultural systems in the world could
find their level of knowledge, skills or abilities worthy
of consideration by the progress index, precisely
because of their cultural and intellectual wealth. If
contemporary socio-cultural and historic social
awareness and engagement is to be the measures
of such progress, then the young generations of the
world (particularly the least well off in the world), are
evidently given the chance to justify their dedication
to competitive platforms where they could indicate
and compare and compete with their own “index” of
social and cultural engagement, be it through
material prosperity, or creative writing assignments,
as this one.
In such new constructs of the inherently existing
exchange and change, globalism, which is a metaphor
togetherness, displays its intrinsic nature since the dawn
of civilization, including the golden age of Alexander the
Great, Persia, Babylon, Rome, Genghis Khan,
Napoleon, Hitler or contemporary others. Competing on
global level of opportunities is nothing new under the
sun, real or virtual sun, and yet, what is new is the new
combinations of participants/supporters or their input, or
output in the cultural fields of mankind. If viewed as
innovative and integrative, the tools for social progress
index could be expected to enable greater socio-cultural
knowledge-sharing through forms and platforms that
apply to educational tools for the “small countries”, such
as teaching literature through foreign language
acquisition.
If, according to the SPI, social progress is defined as the
capacity of a society to meet the basic human and
creative needs of its citizens and young generations,
establish the building blocks that allow citizens and
communities to enhance and sustain the quality of their
lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to
reach their full potential, then Walt Whitman’s support
for the industrial revolution or Goce Delcev’s call for
cultural competition ultimately coincide with today’s spirit
and strategy for competitiveness with authentic values
as peoples, as nations and as individuals. For this
presentation a number of our UGD students offered their
divergent thoughts on values they hold dear to their
spirit of competitiveness.
Student’s competitiveness in literary
assignments:historic, social contexts
Doing research in literary and cultural
contexts on the name issue of the month of
April, my colleague Krste Ilievski easily found
the Roman/Latin language origin of this
month. April means opening (of the spring
season). Comparison with student’s activities
imposes itself: April may refer to opening up
of students’ intellectual “season-ing” and
their preparation for professional skills,
knowledge and abilities. The very title of this
presentation refers to this month’s openness
of our students in their various competitive
views on current, past and future projections
of human values.
Thirty four undergraduate and graduate English
literature students at the UGD School of Philology
employed their imagination in both contemporary and
historic, socio-cultural contexts. They sincerely opened
up their reaction to the idea of love for their country and
for the world as a whole. Excerpts from their creative
writing response to the universal notion of love
composed their collection into a collage of issues on
love for the homeland, for the mother tongue, for the
meaning of independence and freedom, the importance
of identity – personal, cultural, national and global, the
concerns about transformations taking place within the
family, society and human interrelatedness between
tradition and advancement.
The segments and their messages are rendered in a
language of the young generation of communication
that rapidly becomes an instrument for simplified verbal
socialization (over the social media). As simplified as it
is, this language nevertheless conveys complex and
crucial aspects: preparation of the young minds for
defending (their) competitive qualities: expanding the
understanding that knowledge remains to be the
universal commodity and power. This collection
diffuses a rather youthful, early life opening to some
everlasting, persistent human issues, and therefore the
voices of this young generation become a respectdemanding call: “know yourself”.
These concerned minds and caring hearts
touch contemporary and actual, as well as
authentic, historical and timeless notions on
love, tradition, human rights, justice,
responsibility, trust, honesty, ethics, family
values, unity, courage, and - competition of
quality
As a direct or indirect response, this small body of
personal poeticized views spell out students’ reflections on
two major sources of inspiration: the universally applicable
proverbial sentence of Goce Delchev: I understand the
world as a field for cultural competition among nations,
and the celebratory poem of the American poet, Walt
Whitman: I Hear America Singing. Both Delcev and
Whitman’s ideas reflect love for mankind, faith in the
human genius and hope for a better future. Their ideas
are being briefly revisited by our 21st century students,
together
to
celebrate
the
human
perennial
acknowledgment of the greatness and goodness of the
human being in its solemn but firm and real pursuit for
peace through strength of country and of character.
The students’ confidence in the prosperous
future of their country extends from dedication to
the constructive history-making, to the winning
spirit and leadership of the current homelandbuilders. In their modest but sincere and direct
expressions students address their views, needs
and concerns over the advancement vs
devaluation of human life in modern times. What
is to be recognized as difference-makers, what
is to be selected from transition-trends and what
is to be protected from deterioration, from
imposed control also finds place in our students’
articulation of poeticized expressions.
Students review their expressive assignments in brief, sharp or
tender, tones of lyrics, ballads, hymns and narrative reporting.
They range from artful, mindful, didactic and informed braveheart seriousness to childlike naiveté or scholastic artlessness,
as they all indicate levels of today’s variable state of awareness
among the young generations of the world. In the end of this
parade of fiction and non-fiction, conclusion is easily made:
students impose respect for their original love and genuine
devotion to what they believe in and transcribe in their own
words as the essence of the grand idea: the invincible love for
the Creator of the universe. Based on this idea students believe
that: Sacred is our name (despite hatred against sacredness
and religion in modern times), sacred is our human life
(sacrificed in defending our tragic history), and sacred is our
intellectual and cultural IDentity (unaltered by enemies,
denigration, provocations, and conflicting views or factual
conflicts).
One will be surprised to hear the 21st century students
stand against new forms of alienation despite of the
social connectedness, to stand against new conflicts of
cultures, ideologies, religions and other uncompromising
divisions. These students choose to write about selfless
sacrifice for big ideas - for the good of mankind, to
mobilize their thought against hypocrites and traitors,
convinced that preserving and protecting honesty, peace
and wisdom is a fundamental value for the individual,
the society, the country, and the world, value that
naturally restores and heals the ailments of human
civilizations, so that people can freely prosper in their
cultures, singing, writing, producing healthy food for
healthy minds in the fields of positive competition.
I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to
our host, the American Corner Stip, and to our
inspired students, especially the graduate
student Mrs Biljana Aleksova Danevska, for her
power point design. Very special thanks to my
colleagues from the office of literature: Krste
Iliev, MA; Natalija Popzarieva, MA; Marija
Krsteva, MA, Frosina Jovanova, MA candidate
and to the poster graphic designer Miss Andrea
Mitreva.
Our
collective
and
dedicated
educational work is serving the intellectual,
moral and artistic stimulus of our students. That
is how we collectively contribute to the students’
development and preparation for “cultural
competition in our challenging world”.
Four days after Easter, I would like to greet
the student’s faith in the everlasting good,
by saying “Hristos Voskrese and Navistina
Voskrese!” And three days before the
national presidential and parliamentary
elections – I would also like to wish that
real values and most valuable strategic
solutions win this election competition
among the citizens of Macedonia, and
within the prosperous world community.
Students participants in the presentation:
1. DAVOR PAVLOV
We, without us
what can we obtain
if we lose ourselves in the process?
What are we without us?
Just a speck
on the windshield of the world.
Only a wreck
from a shell that lost the pearl.
Our identity is who we are
and who our forefathers were.
Without our ID nothing we are
but… an obscure,
generic emptiness without cure.
2. HRISTIJAN DIMITROV
“I understand the world solely as a field for cultural
competition among peoples” - Goce Delcev
There is a small piece of land in Southern Europe, at the
center of the Balkans, a land called Macedonia. Because
of all it stand for, it is to me the most beautiful and most
meaningful country… fascinating nature, beautiful lakes,
pure rivers, wide fields, high mountains, and above all –
deep hearts brightened up from the bottomless history of
tragedies and triumphs, tradition and contemporary
success.
My Macedonian country is the land of the sun - shining
for many cultures, peoples and religions growing
together. Macedonia is the motherland of numerous
heroes who sacrificed their lives for its freedom.
Macedonia is the birthplace of Alexander the Great, of
Cyril and Methodius, Tsar Samuel, Goce Delchev - the
patron of our university, and countless other leaders
throughout the Macedonian and European history and
culture. Delcev’s motto for peace, understanding and
cooperation in the world is universal, “I understand the
world solely as a field for cultural competition among
peoples” – is fitting the world today as it did in the 19th c.
It is never outdated to protect human rights and freedom for
all, regardless of their nationality, religion or gender. Delchev
was a hero, a national but not nationalistic hero. That is why
we, the descendants of Goce Delchev, continue his ideas of
intercultural inclusiveness and respect for each other’s
Macedonian heritage, on both national and global scale. We
should transfer the best testament to our children and
grandchildren, so that Delchev’s dream, which is our
forefathers’ dream, continues living through the coming
Macedonian generations. We should teach our children to
love each other, respect and help each other, share their
happiness with each other, and oppose war. We should give
our successors a chance to have a better world, and always a
better life, for they are the ones, who will continue making
their own best in the competition among their best minds, for
the best goals of mankind.
3. BILJANA ALEKSOVA DANEVSKA
For Easter or for Christmas, for other
holidays, or for every day –
- in God we trust, to God we pray, in
America, in Macedonia and everywhere
where believers live.
In this world of globalization, people
believe in money and power, but who’s the
powerful one?
“The one and only, mighty God”, believers
would reply.
When hard times come - we pray to God, for
our beloved ones, for our family, for our people,
for the patients in the hospitals, for the people
in the barren fields, for the soldiers around the
world … When hard times are over, shall we
forget God, the giver of life, and turn again to
sinister, secular insensitivity and chaos? Or
keep the sacred circle of life. God created
humans and connected them in holly circles of
life,
communities,
countries,
families,
matrimony, children, parents… bonds of love
and respect.
You are going to ask me why God, family, country?
I’ll tell you why. And I am neither afraid nor
ashamed to stand for what I believe in, as a
mother, as a wife, and daughter of my family, of my
country and of the world that God created.
God created the family to give us strength and love
and support in hard and in good times. Family with
a mother and a father, not a family consisting of
two mothers, or two fathers.
That is my right and my husband’s right,
to believe in what we believe,
and let others live in their beliefs,
but leave us with ours.
Because… because - if there were two mothers,
or two fathers, there will be no children in the
schools, and I am a teacher; and there will be no
soldiers in the army, and my husband defended
people’s lives in Afghanistan, American and
European, Afghan and Macedonian people;
there will be no one to protect and love the
country, which is the people, which is the
citizens of our planet’s cities and villages,
country-sides and sea sides.
To me, and to billions others, the country is sacred as
God is, although globalism and trans-nationalism
envisions countries in a generic way, without borders or
identity. Globalism, as more and more scientists and
common citizens react – falls into its own contradictions
when protecting cultural identity and integrity while also
trying to erase identity and integrity from the traditional
concept of a country, family, God.
We take an oath of loyalty to our ancestors,
to love and protect our country.
Presidents of America take that oath too.
Our ancestors and our present leaders take that oath
as well. I do too.
I believe in the one and only all mighty God! I believe in
love and family! And I love my county, my Macedonia!
4. LIDIJA JANKULOVA
Patriotism is the loving awareness and the unalienable knowledge for
our own identity that we all carry within ourselves, even though we
often move through different parts of the world. Every human being is
encoded to love the country of birth, the land of his ancestors, the
parents, relatives and friends in that land. Love for the mutual space
and time they spend, or I spend – is a never old-fashioned attitude
towards the personal and intimate contents of being. History is made
of thinkers and doers, writers and poets… leaders who wrote
patriotism upon their lives, their deeds and their sacrifice. And history
goes on, being the mother of life (Magistra Vitae), and the parent of
the future. If Thomas Jefferson did not draft the Declaration of
Independence in 1776, and if George Washington did not keep the
continental army from dismantling in the Revolutionary war for
sovereignty and independence from the British superpower, the then
New World of America would have not become the experiment that
most successfully competed among the nations, states and
governments. England sued America against its rights to self-governed
peace and prosperity.
Yet, the new and then still weak country won, and then
became the winner of all times. On the other side of the
Atlantic, Macedonia was a stage for constant invasions and
divisions ever since 168 BC, when the Greeks, the Romans,
the Ottomans, and then in the 19th and the 20th century
again the Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs, assisted by their
sponsors, the European powers, terrorized, massacred,
burnt, plundered the Macedonian land and its tragic
Macedonian people. Yet, we are alive today, living the dream
that nations and people from around the world shared in
historic road to independence. Today we live our reality, which
is no longer a dream. During terrible centuries of brutal
aggression and suppression of the Macedonian people,
language and culture, our country of Macedonia lost its best
sons who led various uprisings, battles and wars for freedom,
peace and human rights.
VMRO had become the leading liberation organization
that introduced the “unseen” Macedonian tragedies to the
world. Its firm yet tolerant policies allowed for its members
to even join Tito’s partisan war, in order to find
understanding in search for justice and independence.
Macedonia again sacrificed its historic and natural rights
to identity when accepted the Greek dictatorship through
the EU to impose the artificial FYROM name, as absurd
as calling the USA a Former Great Britain’s colony, or
Kosovo, a former Serbian province. Becoming an EU
candidate in 2005, Macedonia is steadily progressing
towards the goal of being “recognized” under its native
and historic name, despite of the intransigent position of
the country that cut of the largest portion of Macedonia in
1913, and is therefore uncompromisingly holding to its
theft, Greece
A nation should always be a friend with other nations.
People should always be ready to cooperate with each
other and help the ones in need, benefit spiritually,
learning about understand other nations’ prosperity
and culture. It is what Goce Delchev had in mind when
thinking of uniting the Macedonian nation. The USA
has broadly demonstrated to the world that they are
the greatest help supplier whenever and wherever
needed. We are thoroughly glad to be their friends and
cooperators. There are many students from our
country who visit the USA during summer and who
also work there to pay their stay and even bring some
savings back home. America helps foreign students in
a lot of other ways, such as all the different programs
of part-time studies for the best students in our country.
Students from all around the world take these
programs and are very content with it. In that way
we the students actually undertake the cultural
competition among students from different
nations and learn a great deal through it. We love
competing, on fear ground, if not with equal
power and size of the country. May be the motto
“less is more” could apply in this competition as
well. Didn’t David show Goliath his wise means of
competition?
5. IVAN STOJMENOV
If there was no goodness, the good old goodness, the
world will be just an awful vacuum full of dark forces and
residues of destructiveness. I believe that love for your
people and your country is giving and sharing, creating
opportunities, helping the needy... We do not have to be
rich to help other people. But if we are not helping
others, not even helping ourselves, even God will seem
“helpless” for us. I wish that we could all keep helping
each other, employing common sense, sharing
understanding, sharing the freedom of being creative,
constructive and positive, being good, even when evil
seems to be overwhelming around all networks or
websites today.
6. DEJVID ATANASOV
My heart is where my home (and my homeland) is.
Millions of citizens in the modern, post-modern or postpostmodern world are not even aware what they have
lost by having to move so many times in their life-time,
abandoning their childhood home, forgetting their street
of growing pain melted in sweet dreams, losing the
feeling about the town of birth, having no attachment to
the homeland, being persecuted, displaced or becoming
refugees. Massive waves of people on our planet agree
to jump into the “melting pot” of the world, just to get out
of their homeland. They consider the world as an open
store for shopping new citizenship. They flee away from
their free lands, and fields, and farms, and families… just
for more money and more material commodities in life
. But money does not buy happiness and
unknown, foreign, hectic, modern life more often
than not - contribute to more stressful and less
healthy minds, less peaceful hearts, less
freedom. Wisdom comes from within us first, and
does not necessarily come from getting out of our
stable and responsibly built home and homeland,
just as knowledge does not depend on virtual
games that create artificial worlds and creatures.
Understanding the world will be impossible unless
we understand what peace, freedom, integrity
and love is – within us and between us and the
world.
7. ZORICA ILIEVA
Love is the greatest value, the greatest reality on
earth, yet not everyone on earth is given the privilege
to have it, to comprehend it. All say they have some
kind of love in themselves, and maybe they do, but
that kind of love looks and feels less and less like
godly or humanly love. I have genuine love in me and
that is why I can say: A small piece of happiness is in
my eye, shining and leading me through the afternoon
when everything around is so wrong. There is so
much good to do among so much cruelty. And there
are so many, so many good people, so many good
parents, but so little time to teach the others that
negative forces destroy and break - material and
spiritual values, undercut our foundations and cut our
future growth.
8. CVETANKA SHEMOVA
By nature, people love to travel, to cross the unknown, to
expand their horizons. However, being far away from home, or
from the homeland, some people get overwhelmed with an
unreal feeling of alternative reality. Millions of people go
through various processes of change, and many of them get
transformed to the extent of having no feelings for belonging
to a family or a country. Only those who have not lost the
feeling and the connectedness with their family home and
their homeland remain capable of loving the most unique
values in life: the smell of the snow in the long winter nights in
the neighborhood, the smell of flowers in grandma’s garden,
the blooming countryside in the Spring, the miracle of the
Summer sunset or the power of the Autumn rain pouring in the
night, while you happily rest in you “home-sweet-home”, after
the hard and honest working hours in your blessed and
prosperous country.
9. MILENA GAVRILOVA
We should be grateful for having our own place and our
own path in this universe, our own home and homeland,
and from there – our own direction in creating and
developing our own qualities and our own projection in
the world. We cannot but have respect for the place we
are developing ourselves in, a place which offers
endless opportunities at home or abroad. We all have
something invisibly worthy in ourselves, to compete with
and to celebrate – while building our world. Walt
Whitman’s celebration of America’s prosperous new
world has a practical and metaphorical meaning
transferable to all others, even today. We, the young
people of Macedonia, have our own reasons to
celebrate, with our own song of Macedonia the
Beautiful, Macedonia forever.
10. NENA NACEVA
Fatherland (татковина) and mother tongue
(мајчин јазик) – two supreme issues of our
identity as citizens and as family members. I
love my country and I love my parents. Just as
my country of Macedonia, my mother is the
most loving and the strongest one for me. With
my mother I never feel alone or lonely, I never
feel I am out of place or out of love. Mother
tongue – mother’s love, mother-daughter love…
is forever. Diamonds are not forever.
11. MARIJA STOJANOVIC
One of the most important goals in life is to know who
you are, what your origin is, to know your genes and
genealogies that make you aware of your past,
present and future life projections. People can take
your money, but they cannot take your knowledge or
your awareness about yourself. That awareness
makes you feel alive as a unique and a distinct
personality, as a special part of humanity… Love and
respect for what is yours, love for your country, love
for your freedom, love for your happy home in your
free homeland is what makes you feel uniquely
valuable and independent, filled with joy and pride,
peace and faithfulness.
12. VLATKO STOJANOVSKI
Love is not a disease; patriotism is not a disease either.
Love is not jealous – patriotism is not possessiveness
either. From the Latin word Pater (father) comes the
meaning of patria, which is homeland, and patriotism
includes love for the parents, for the family and the country
of your ancestors. Love, true love – is selfless, with
determination, dignity and trust. Love for country still
remains in the lexicon of the human beings - in the hearts of
those that have kept their closeness and care for their own
beloved ones, and that kind of love should not be
considered selfish by the contemporary nomads. Love for
the own country is not felt only by those who have been
caught by the disease of feeling lost in this world, searching
for identity… only to find themselves imprisoned in a
confused and confusing world.
13. DAVID ATANASOV
We all have different opinion, different views of the
world and different appreciation of what is to be
loved in the world. As for me, I immensely
appreciate and love everything that this world has
to offer. Yet, what I have acquired in my life, in my
own world, in my own country - makes me stronger,
more powerful, makes me happier, just by knowing
that what I have is given to me out of love, by those
during my lifetime and those who lived centuries
ago and fought for the freedom and existence of
my people, my country, my language, and for me
today.
14. IVAN VLADIMIROV
Everyone is a citizen of the world. We are all
connected regardless to the borders and their
necessary mapping. Being within those
borders or beyond them, we need to share
knowledge and opportunities. We all live
under the same sky that holds our common
and still beautiful planet Earth.
15. ALEXANDER KRSTEV
Identity – a word with so many connotations to different
people and nations. Identity – it is the talk of the day, in
December or May, in medicine, in architecture, or
society. But, what does it mean to the nations? Our
Macedonia is a land with identity, with people who
survived through thousands of years fighting off
enemies from all sides, and still believing in
brotherhood, justice and freedom. Today, as always,
we stand united and proud of our national identity and
our rights to our own culture. We have all the right in
this democratic world to protect, promote and nurture
our national identity and freedom from any oppression
from outside or inside.
16. MIHAIL VELICHKOV
Identity of a person, as well as a nation, is
essential. It is what we are, and none can take
that from us. We the Macedonians are a part of
the global community of nations, peoples, clans
or tribes, all forms of togetherness with various
identities. As such, people function for ages, and without having to invent the idea of globalism they
shared the globe as multiple cultures. We have
been for ever global and multicultural. Therefore,
each person or nation should continue preserving
the integrity of the identity which keeps the multicoded existence in the free world.
We must be proud of what nature and history made
us of, and we must defend our unique values as
they are inseparable from the world heritage as
they are inseparable from us. We need to know
where we come from, in order to protect our road to
cooperation with other different identities, without
letting them steal our identity, and without stealing
anyone’s identity. Our homeland, our Macedonia has never stolen anyone’s right to their own selfdetermination and self realization. Experiments by
controlling anyone’s identity is a dangerous plot for
further control over individuals and societies.
Enslaving those without identity is much easier.
17. ELENA MITEVA
It is not old fashioned, nor outdated to love your
country. It is not old fashioned, outdated or inhuman
to sacrifice for the love of your country. And it could
never be out of political or cultural style. I am still
young but I understand that I am ready to sacrifice
myself for my beloved people, and for my only
country of origin, for the language I speak, and the
music and the arts I create and express in this
language, the books and the lessons on where we
come from and who we are… I am ready to sacrifice
for this heritage and for this knowledge, ready to
protect and collect it for our children, always ready to
give thanks to our parents who preserved it for us.
18. MARTINA PARIZOVA
Personal freedom and individual identity is
what makes a person different from others.
It should not be incorrect, or wrong or
unsustainable to be different today, as it has
never been natural to go against nature. It
is crucially important to have your own
opinion, to be yourself, and to not give up
your freedom, because without freedom of
identity people live in a puppet-cage under
the influence of others that dictate what is
yours and what not.
19. IVANA PETROVSKA
The only difference between merely living and
actually loving life is simply the choice between
making the right decision and giving it up. A decision
to be thankful for each blessing no matter how
small, to be positive and happy with what you
create, to cultivate a cultural attachment, devotion
and loyalty to your home and to your homeland, to
have the freedom to invent your own world, to follow
your own justifiable and meaningful determination to
achieve your highest potentials – is a decision
made for the wellbeing of the outer world while you
keep achieving the wellbeing of your own
responsible and valuable inner self.
20. TAJOVA VERICA
Only people surrounded by love can give love, can
generously bring happiness to themselves and
others. There are more and more people without love
and more societies without care and mercy for the
children and youth, and more cities with lost roads to
the essential point of life: Love. Love without
exploitation and hypocrisy, brotherhood without envy,
without selfishness and cynicism. To deserve to
receive love, but more importantly – to be able to
give love, is the essence of being human. Without
the essence of love and care for the people the world
is increasingly becoming a place of dark, negative
forces and sinister conflicts.
21. SLAVICA CHURULINOVA
I am one, and I am all. I am a single pebble of a
once concrete stone. A grain of sand in the
scattered soil. A daughter of a son of a mother
of this world. I burn with an ancient fire and will
never stop burning, as the light is forever. A fire
that can destroy and give birth at the same
time. With a yearning to explore and light up
every single atom - to give that fire a meaning.
To create, to contribute, to put a fingerprint of
mine in the collective knowledge of life.
22. DRAGAN CEBOV
Identity is sacred. A nation without identity is like a
human without a soul. If we have to - we should stand
against everything and everyone who is trying to
erase, destroy or even insult our identity. I am so
much proud of my identity because it is my cultural
and biological ID card imprinted in history. Without
that identity I cannot read where I come from, I
cannot see the distant past of my nation, or the far
future of my people. To know your past is never to be
considered a prisoner of the past. To know your
people is to love them more, and do the best for
them, as I am a part of them, as I am myself.
23. IVANA STOJILOVA
Life is an endless school and everyone is going to die after
going through life’s schooling, but not everyone will learn the
priceless values of family and country, as less and less
families pay attention to family relationships, and less and
less people care about love for country. Their primary goal
has become material possessions. They forget the wisdom
that money can’t buy the essential values in life. Money
cannot buy happiness in family life if happiness is destroyed
in the search for personal independence. To be independent
and still know how to maintain family ties and prosperous
connections with your countrymen – that is the greatest
treasure of success enriched with happiness, even if you live
among less kind, less appreciative people. We should invest
ourselves in doing our best to change people into better
human beings.
24. RISTE DURDUBAKOV
Defending what is yours and what belongs to your
beloved ones, what is inherited from your past and
what is to be introduced to your future – presents a
sacred weight to carry on. We are who we are. If we
do not know who we are and do not respect
ourselves, who will. Together we can go beyond and
far and still remain faithful to our commitments to what
is ours, and what is theirs, what is known and what
unknown, what is behind and what is ahead of us.
25. IGOR KAMCHEV
In an age when almost everything is digital, surprisingly there
are still true feelings, and I do not mean over the net, but in
person. This gives humans a renewable hope that machines
cannot teach people how to forget the meaning of the heart.
This age has to be one of the most difficult eras in view of
socialization, but still – people are learning to be aware of that,
and individuals make efforts to prevent social disorders or
wrong social orders. For some the goal is to push bit-coins
instead of money, for others stopping the bit-coin is crucial.
For some Facebook is THE venue for communication, for
others Facebook is a hated substitute for live content and
communication. As for me, and my family and my chosen
friends, it is: get out there, there is a whole wide reality and
truth waiting to be understood and used for our benefit…
reality and truth more meaningful and more beautiful than any
imaginary and misleading new world.
26. EMILIJA STOJKOVA
Love for country is different than my love for
the sun, for the flowers, for my home, my
parents, and my friends. But my love for my
country makes me happy and fulfilled in a most
special way.
27. GORDANA ATANASOVA
I come from a traditional community and a patriotic nation
where the father, the male figure, the man of the house is
actually the head of the family. And all of our family members,
my dad, mom, sister and my extended family tree relatives, all
of them accept and respect the leadership responsibilities that
the father, my dad has undertaken – to help us manage our
shared family enterprise. Although the forms of living and
organizing life have been changing, I believe traditional and
patriarchal and patriotic values should remain the core values
that need no change, while many uncertainties put pressure
from outside. However, if the family does not survive to be the
circle of life in the grand scheme of being – to be there for you
at all times, you will be left feeling alone and more vulnerable
than a healthy human being can stand. Your friends can leave
you when life gets hard, however the love and care built in the
family tree will continue growing with you, for you, for me.
28. BLAGOJ MILOSHEVSKI
The Elders. Each person needs to be loved and
supported by the elders who usually gained more
decision-making abilities than us, the young ones.
Likewise, every person needs to cultivate love and
respect for the elders, so that life success through
this world comes in better and easier ways. Just like
with the elders, every country has its relics that need
to be appreciated, protected and secured, by the
government, and by us, the people of the country. No
one has the right to destroy the national treasures
that our elders built.
29. SARA SOKOLOVA
What makes a human great? It is not how rich he is but
how much richness he creates and contributes to his
society, community and family. It’s about his generosity,
about his moral wealth, his virtues. It is about his healthy
ideas that make a beneficial difference in the world.
What makes a nation great? The same matter that makes
all men and women great. Human beings can feel the
greatness of a nation coming from their spirit. Common
men are not so common as other people think they are.
Common men are the foundation stone of every
successful country. The mechanic, the carpenter, the
mason, the boat man, the shoemaker or the woodcutter
make a perfect balance of labor that contributes to a
vibrant and complex togetherness as people of the land.
When listening to the poetry of Walt Whitman, we
can also hear the singing of our mothers, wives and
girls at work or travelling around our beautiful
country. Happiness expressed in song can be found
in everyone who understands how to contribute to a
greater good, and enjoy every single hill and valley
of their land. We the young generations of our
country are getting trained to build new opportunities
for a prosperous civil society in a free world. The
world is indeed a field for cultural competition where
ideas and their realization are cultivated. However,
there are far more people staying invisible in the
shadows.
A small number is eager to stand up and enter
the competitions, stand up against obstacles
within themselves, or out there in the world. The
goal is not to put down the ones that are not
better than you, but to encourage as many as
possible to achieve their own potentials. People
are often miraculously surprised at how they can
make their dreams come true when they follow
their vision, desire, determination and love to
create a better future, in their ordinary
surroundings and in high places.
30. SOFCHE SHATEVSKA
I believe in love. Love is simple yet complex. Love is
indispensible, often speaking in a language strange to those
who have no true life experience. Love is a miracle-conductor
conveying people’s inner and outer understanding, from an
invisible to a public domain. Love is all around us, yet
unreachable for the poor without the fruit of the spirit. Love is in
the air we breathe, and in the water we drink; it has filled up
every space of the universe in countless dimensions, forms and
substances. Love is the power of the Light, and the way of the
enlightening Truth. Love is inspiration for all who felt its fire,
coming from the rhythm of the loving Heart. Love is a timetraveler through age and space. Where there is love there is
pain. The pain of love must be felt by everyone that felt the
sweetness of love. But love-pain can be defeated by a single
move, by one word, one look only…
Love opens everyone’s heart and mind (when love is not
a matter of the instincts). Love opens roads to happiness
that literatures and philosophies describe as eternity, and
religions describe as paradise of perfect balance of
minds and hearts. When love comes to crossroads,
people can lose themselves and change directions. The
next instance you find yourself in a jungle of unpredicted
dangers and fears. They drain you, you fight them. In this
love-battlefield some get addicted to it and make
mistakes that cost lives.
Love hurts, love makes us laugh, and love continues to
be what it is: a simple yet strange wonder of life. These
words come from a personal journey, from the lovejournal of a victim of true love.
31. STOJCHE PORJAZOVSKA
The world is a rainbow of cultural, religious and
linguistic riches, a magic box of traditional and
contemporary treasures compiled by all nations and
civilizations, enriching our lives. I understand the
world as a place where other cultures are another
inspiration in addition to my authentic cultural
worldview. Your different language of love and
understanding is my additional warm coat. I yearn for
a world with no pain and tears of despair, a world
without hatred, negative rivalry and absurd violence.
We should be constantly re-learning the lesson of
unlocking the door to understanding, a language that is
easily lost as an endangered species. Every holiday and
weekday we should create reasons to celebrate the
wonders of diversity without envy towards each other’s
rich identity. I believe the world is still a field where we
can spread the light of knowledge from here, from the
Balkans to the end of this small, small world of endless
puzzles multiplied with every heartbeat and with every
bite of our natural and artificial intelligence. People’s
diversity should be their positive strength and not a
divisive obstacle. No matter where we come from, out
human hearts are the same – a field for cultivation of the
good, of the best in us, and around us.
32. DANIEL NASEVSKI
Macedonia – the priceless, ageless
necklace decorating our Balkan heart:
Our sun bathing in the mirror of the Ohrid
Crystal water, while Prespa Lake invites you.
Vardar is the fearless hero watching the shores
From dust to dawn.
Shara, Bistra, Belasica or Plachkovica
Mountains embrace flower valleys
And take over my heart and mind.
Every corner of my land
is a new dimension of heaven on Earth.
Every sight of my beloved country
Enters my world
With the brightest sun.
Where freedom is
Where love is
There is my beloved
Macedonia.
33. DAVOR JAKIMOVSKI
To be a patriot - for me isn’t to take a weapon and go
to war only. Patriot is the one who makes peace and
does good for his people. Patriot is also the baker
who makes good bread, the doctor who treats
patients… and all other ordinary people who care
about the father and the fatherland. Goce Delcev said
it in only one sentence – respect people from all over
the world and compete with them – in all you know
the best: in sciences and sports, inventions and
construction, compete in proving your love for your
country and your people, make others live better,
happier, smarter. That is patriotic for me.
34. ANGELCHO SHTRBEVSKI
For some the word patriotic is meaningless, for others it
is the key word for the meaning of love for family, country
and God. For some people patriotism is the reason to
fight for independence and human rights, for others fights
for human rights are only a big lie. People who are
patriots often tend to be more caring, loving and
responsible, people with greater level of common sense,
together with high ideals for justice. They understand that
family and traditions are one of the most important issues
in life that money cannot buy, that military or propaganda
force cannot destroy. Patriots respect everyone, but fear
no one. You can find these qualities in our patriot Goce
Delcev’s reality-based ideals: I see the world like a
battlefield for cultural competition of all nations”.
35. DRAGAN PETROV
We live in times when it is not easy to be yourself; there is
always someone trying to control you, to control everyone. We
live in times of constant murder, child abuse or church abuse,
legal abuse, ideological abuse…Since the dawn of mythology,
history facts or the Bible, people murder each other, however,
in the 21st century brutality and hatred should have been
unexpected. Today fathers murder their daughters, for religious
“honor killing”; sons kill their parents under the influence of
mind-altering substances, soldiers kill defending their
governments’ version of what is rights or wrong, “evil or good”.
I believe this is happening because people do not believe in
the one and only father, God, the Creator, because people do
not fear the consequences of their wrong doing, because
people mixed up what is right what wrong.
There is no perfection except the perfect laws of life
established by God, but features of a “perfect man” on earth
should be a human being with a heart where there is no room
for destructive ideas and deeds. Today however destructive
and degenerative is accepted as normal, and God’s Way,
Truth and Life are expelled from people’s hearts, leaving the
hearts without protection from thought of war and struggle, of
terror and intolerance, of misunderstanding … We, the honest
and honorable hearts must stay together and protect our love
for country, and defend our culture, our people, just like our
ancestors, like Goce Delcev, who devoted their hearts and
souls to the never dying ideals for free and independent
Macedonia, with faith, hope and love for God and his people.
Love is the greatest of all, and people who have true love in
their hearts - do not think of evil. If you have love you have it
all, if not – you are “nothing”.
36. SASHA JAKIMOV AND PETAR JANGELOVSKI
My land bears ancient wounds and sacred secrets
Unraveled, still unknown, yet famous in its grandeur.
My land - a part contained by all continents. Nothing could prove
otherwise. Our wisdom flows from prehistoric roads.
My land … blood and tears shed for ages
Yet its sinews remain against terror tearing us all apart.
True strength lies in handling tough times with mind revolving
around patience and perseverance not submitting, not yielding
to vicious violence around borders. Not extinguished by terror
of all unimaginable pro-portions. Unseen, invisible, visible,
grand lies and grand shame did claim piece by piece
of our land and life, cut off by monstrous invaders from the east,
from the west, from the north, the south… competing
in eating and burning our sacredness alive.
And here we are, again, renewed, strong as ever, a never erased ID,
never sold out integrity. Sparks and flames preserved to serve
loving, caring aims of our hearts - flames that never extinguish…
shining rays of our inner and outer sun.