Блогот на Јован :: ^blogzen

I would like to recommend Go Nomad’s text on Macedonia. It has some good points and ideas for your next trip.

To beat high euro zone prices, how about visiting a European country where the prices are low and the locals love the USA? It’s a country of medieval monasteries, Turkish bazaars, ski resorts, three national parks great for hiking, and an increasingly cosmopolitan capital city. Its biggest tourist draw is the deepest lake in Europe which has more historic and cultural sites around its shores than many countries can claim for their entire territory.

Compared with my earlier visits, the capital Skopje now has an almost glitzy feel to it. A Via Veneto world of sofas, chairs and tables have sprouted up along the Vardar River in the heart of downtown. Roller-bladers whiz by, tykes on starter bikes wobble, three generations of one family amble along the quayside, and lovers walk arm in arm.

More…

To:  European Institutions and National Governments of the European Union

Current requirements for obtaining a visa are a barrier for many young people who want to explore European cultural variety and put efforts to develop an open-minded civil society. We can expect neither a full European integration, nor a good EU neighbourhood if those young people have no opportunity to travel, learn, exchange information and personally experience European Integration. The visa obtaining obstacles cause frustration which leads to intolerance and strengthens prejudices. Therefore we regard visa regimes and obstacles to mobility as tools for exclusion and discrimination.

International mobility of young people helps developing civil society in Europe. It is also an essential element of non-formal and life-long learning and increasing competencies important in the knowledge-based society. The mobility of young people from neighbouring countries into the EU helps to build up stable democratic countries throughout the whole of Europe.

Therefore we call the EU Institutions and the national authorities in charge of migration policies to:

• Introduce a special type of visa for young people involved in international youth activities
• Abolish fees for visas for the ones involved in cultural, educational and civil society activities
• Establish transparent Europe-wide common criteria for visas for young people involved in youth work
• Ensure coherent regulations in the field of migration and youth policy, in favor of youth policy
• Enable easy and transparent registration procedures for both short- and long-term volunteers and employees in NGYOs.
• Develop and implement other policies to enhance the mobility of young people in the wider European area in order to help building a sustainable European civil society based on democratic principles, inclusion, openness, knowledge and cultural exchange.

Mobility is a fundamental freedom recognised by the European Union. European Students’ Forum – AEGEE and other NGOs involved in the European Youth Forum Campaign “GET VISAble” believe that the right to mobility should be granted not only to EU-citizens, but to everyone who can and wants to contribute to European integration and growth. To achieve this aim we demand that these process leads to abolishment of the above mentioned visa barriers.

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION!

The third Web Technology conference and Expo in Bulgaria will be held in June 2006 in the city of Sofia. Within its framework, the Third Bulgarian PHP Conference will be held. The event will take place on the 30th of June and the 1st of July at the conference area of the Kempinski Hotel Zografski. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the new tendencies in this direction and to popularize the internet technologies in the spheres of business, education, and services. The range of subjects includes technologies like PHP, Perl, business systems through web, education through the internet, and others. Info…

American residents and businesses now pay two to three times as much for slower and poorer quality service than countries like South Korea or Japan. Since 2001, according to the International Telecommunications Union, the United States has fallen from fourth to 16th in the world in broadband penetration. Thomas Bleha recently argued in Foreign Affairs that what passes for broadband in the United States is “the slowest, most expensive and least reliable in the developed world.” While about 60 percent of U.S. households do not subscribe to broadband because it is either unavailable where they live or they cannot afford it, most Japanese citizens can access a high-speed connection that’s more than 10 times faster than what’s available here for just $22 a month. (Japan is now rolling out ultra-high speed access at more than 500 times what the Federal Communications Commission considers to be “broadband” in this country.) Source: Washington Monthly

This week’s theme: French terms for food.macedoine (mas-i-DWAN) noun

A mixed dish, usually of fruit and/or vegetables, in which several different varieties are combined into a colorful tableau.

[From French macédoine, from Macédoine (Macedonia). The reference is to the Balkan area of many different territories and ethnic groups that Alexander the Great welded into a single unit.]

Source: Wordsmith

Recipes: 1, 2, 3.

The aim of this web portal is to help improve the business of small and medium sized enterprises in Republic of Macedonia by:

• Integration and affirmation of SMEs from Republic of Macedonia to the global market

• Stimulation of the IT infrastructure development and monitoring of the global world trends

• Placement of Macedonian products on the foreign markets

• Acquire foreign partners

• Sales and profit increase in the SMEs in Republic of Macedonia

• Improved communication within the government of RM and the governmental institutions

• Expansion of their independence in the promotion to the foreign markets

eMarketPlace.org.mk

Risto Karajakov / Transitions Online:

A regional Balkans non-governmental group, Citizen’s Pact, recently ran a public request to collect stories like these for an ongoing campaign for increased freedom of movement for citizens of the region. They will no doubt make for interesting reading. A man from Albania reportedly killed himself earlier this year after being denied a Greek visa that he had tried to get for over a year. Another person in Bulgaria went on hunger strike this March in protest against the humiliating procedure he endured while trying, and failing, to get a U.K. visa,. He said that his compatriots standing in line to apply for visas looked as if “waiting for a verdict.”

Link