Macedonia Goes Green
Posted Friday, March 14, 2008, 5:06 AM by Lonely Planet
In a move that should catch the attention of larger, richer and purportedly greener countries, Macedonia took a day off work on March 12 to plant some trees.
No, it's not because they've suddenly discovered their green karma. The aim of the project was to restore the countries forests which suffered over 600 fires during the summer of 2007 - fires that also swept through swathes of forest in Greece and Italy.
For such a small and usually headline shy nation, it is a commendable and newsworthy piece of action. Especially as Macedonia has long been regarded as one of the greenest and wildest parts of Europe. Just take a look at gorgeous, tree-fringed Lake Ohrid - Europe's oldest lake renowned for its botanical diversity and overlooked by the ridiculously charming Church of St John of Kaneo.
The event was the idea of Boris Trajanov, one of Macedonia's leading opera singers, and a UNESCO ambassador.
More than 200,000 people planted over 2 million trees - a nice piece of civic symmetry that makes for one tree for every Macedonian. Participants included government ministers, policemen, celebrities and members of the general public (we've heard that even border guards from neighbouring Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania joined in with their shovels in an encouraging show of cross-border co-operation).
Go forth and plant, we say!
Will Gourlay, Commissioning Editor, Eastern Europe
Labels: Macedonia, Sustainable and responsible tourism
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11 Comments:
i think you mean skopje.macedonia is greek.if you want free history lessons,tell me.
Skopje is the capital city of Macedonia. Clearly, the blog is talking about the nation and not the Greek territory. Congrats to the people who want to see their forests flourish again.
We all love Macedonia.Skopje is the capital city of Macedonia.The people are very friendly.Grece is diferent country and for shure is not Macedonia.
There is no nation called "Macedonia". There is one nation whose last official names were South Serbia and later Vardarska Banovina. Currently it is characterised as FYROM (Former Yogoslav Republic of Macedonia)but the term "Macedonia" is non valid, since it refers to a large geographical region with different parts throughout the centuries. Nonetheless, the "ancient Macedonia" 800-146 BC, is placed, according to archaeological and historical findings, entirely inside the Greek borders as they are formed today. That is, the land of Alexander the Great.
Thanks for taking time out to comment on this post.
Lonely Planet fully understands the official, Hague-vetted position regarding Macedonia (FYROM). It is a complex and obviously sensitive issue, which can lead to confusion. In no way do we seek to offend anyone concerned with this issue.
We do our best to be even-handed and respect the wishes of our guidebook and website users.
However, we are in business of providing content for travellers that is easy to find and informative. We refer to 'Macedonia' as Macedonia not FYROM because this is what the vast majority of people looking to visit Macedonia and visiting our site would be looking for. This is the same on the BBC website.
If people would like to know the official name, they would find that on our site as well.
Thank you Lonely Planet....well said :)
Dear lonely planet, in a previous post you posted the following:
"However, we are in business of providing content for travellers that is easy to find and informative. We refer to 'Macedonia' as Macedonia not FYROM because this is what the vast majority of people looking to visit Macedonia and visiting our site would be looking for. This is the same on the BBC website."
I would like to note though, that a well known informative web page like yours, especially when it concerns information about places on our planet, should be quite precise with the legal terms and names. I think that if the state of FYROM is named as "Macedonia" in your web page, because all people who visit your web site know that they can find the most correct and valid information there, they will directly think that the name "Macedonia" is the valid one, and this is a kind of misinformation that I am sure you don't want to give to your public!
There is a really big dispute about this name between Greece and Skopje and it's not only about a simple name, but about the history of Greece that goes thousands of years back! So I would kindly ask (also in behalf of quite many people in Greece and elsewhere) for the name to be corrected, and if you want to make sure your readers understand in which country you are referring to, you can make a note next to the name FYROM denoting that you mean the country that calls itself "Macedonia". I think this would be quite a good and fare solution for the Greek history and quite clear for your readers to understand what they read!
Thank you!
First, I'm sure LP does not seek to offend anyone concerned with this issue, but the truth is that you do offend a good part of those concerned with this issue, every single time you refer to this country as "Macedonia".
Second, I don't see how you earn the "even-handed" title when you call this country "Macedonia". You would be even-handed if you called it "FYROM". If you called it "Skopje", like we, Greeks do, you would be wrong, because your position would be totally pro-Greece. But you call it "Macedonia", which is exactly what FYROM's citizens say. So, how does that make you even-handed? Honestly...
Third and last, if I got that right, in such a delicate issue, you don't care what is right and wrong, you care what is practical and impractical. Calling it "Macedonia" is "practical", because this is how everyone calls this country, right? So, let's stick to what is practical, and who cares if it's actually wrong? Did I get that right?
LP is not a Historic Society, nor an international tribunal to decide on such disputes, we don't expect you to know why calling this country "Macedonia" is wrong, but in such delicate issues I'd expect you to be a little more sensitive and careful. That would be very welcomed.
Sorry for the length of this post.
We do our best to be even-handed and respect the wishes of our guidebook and website users.
However, we are in business of providing content for travellers that is easy to find and informative. We refer to 'Macedonia' as Macedonia not FYROM because this is what the vast majority of people looking to visit Macedonia and visiting our site would be looking for. This is the same on the BBC website.
If people would like to know the official name, they would find that on our site as well.
This is a very very delicate controversial matter.
Discussions still take place, both sides are sensitive about it.
I wish and find it most reasonable, that an international corporation, such as Lonely Planet, which wants to habe an international reading puplic, sticks to the official name.
Regardless what the outcome of the diplomatic discussions may be, Lonely Planet owes not to cause any discomfort to ANY ethnic groups.
Well, Macedonia is above all a Greek province but both the Greek Macedonia and FYROM should stay green. It's good for the two peoples' standard of living...
Macedonia is not Greek and there are many proofs about it...sadly that the greeks must argue and destroy everything that is good...i feel sorry for you and your nationalistic belives...and if you want free history lessons,tell me.
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