MAK-NEWS 02/09/95 (Book Launches)
Announcement:
*** Book Launch ***
Pollitecon Publications is pleased to invite all Macedonians and friends to the launch of its latest book, Macedonian Agenda. The book explores the life of the Macedonian people and culture in Australia and contains work by 14 Macedonian- Australian writers. The book will be launched by Senator Michael Baume, NSW member of the Australian senate. The launch will be held at History House, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney on Thursday, September 7, from 6 to 8 pm. Entrance is free.
Further information on (Sydney) 02 713-7608.
POLLITECON PUBLICATIONS PO Box 324 Five Dock NSW 2046 Australia PH: (02) 713-7608 [IDD+61-2-713-7608] FX: (02) 713-1004 [IDD+61-2-713-1004]
Macedonian Agenda Editor Victor Bivell paperback, 232 pages, 228 mm x 152 mm, three colour celloglazed cover, $25 inc postage
Macedonian Agenda is a selection of 16 of the best essays by Macedonian-Australian writers from the period 1988 to 1995. Written in English, the essays explore the development of the Macedonian people and culture in the Australian setting.
The fourteen authors give an insight into a range of topics close to the Macedonian heart: cultural values, language, religion, arts, identity, women's issues, the elderly, settlement, politics, human rights, and the child refugees among others.
The authors, seven men, four women and three organizations, are from Perth, Adelaide, Geelong, Melbourne, Canberra, Wollongong, Sydney, and Newcastle. Half originate from the Republic of Macedonia and half from Aegean Macedonian (Northern Greece). The fact that most were born in Australia indicates how Australia has allowed the Macedonian spirit to find a freedom and expression that has frequently been denied in its divided homeland.
Original, wide ranging, informative, and sometimes controversial, Macedonian Agenda will appeal to general readers and researchers as well as to people of Macedonian background.
The Drought A play by Tom Petsinis paperback, 68 pages, A5 size, published 1994 by Currency Press, $13.95 inc postage
The drought tells the story of Vangel, a Macedonian- born Australian. Having failed to find his fortune and to fulfil the hopes of those he left behind, he returns to the village of his birth, now stricken with drought.
Haunted by years in the Australian outback, he is tempted to return to the peasant life of his youth. But his presence, acting as a catalyst for dark emotions amongst his family which has been labouring for many years in a drought- stricken land, leads to a disturbing and dramatic climax. The Drought won the Wal Cherry Play of the Year Award in 1993.
Tom Petsinis was born in Macedonia in 1953 and came to Australia in 1959. He is a mathematics teacher at university. As well as a number of plays, Tom has written fiction and poetry. His novel, Raising the Shadow, and a collection of poetry, The Blossom Vendor, were both published in 1992. A second collection of poetry, Offerings: Sonnets from Mt Athos, was published in 1994.
Denying Ethnic Identity: The Macedonians of Greece by Human Rights Watch paperback, 92 pages, 228 mm x 152 mm, published 1994, $15.00 inc postage
Although ethnic Macedonians in northern Greece make up a large minority with their own language and culture, their internationally recognized human rights and even their existence are vigorously denied by the Greek government. Free expression is restricted; several Macedonians have been prosecuted and convicted for the peaceful expression of their views. Moreover, ethnic Macedonians are discriminated against by the government's failure to permit the teaching of the Macedonian language. And ethnic Macedonians, particularly rights activists, are harassed by the government - followed and threatened by security forces - and subjected to economic and social pressures resulting from this harassment. All of these actions have led to a marked climate of fear in which a large number of ethnic Macedonians are reluctant to assert their Macedonian identity or to express their views openly.
Ultimately, the government is pursuing every avenue to deny the Macedonians of Greece their ethnic identity.
The Rising Sun in the Balkans: The Republic of Macedonia by International Affairs Agency paperback, 68 pages, A5 size, attractive four colour cover, published 1995, $12.00 inc postage
When the Republic of Macedonia voted for independence in 1991 its international recognition was temporarily delayed by the nationalist objections from Greece regarding the use of the name Macedonia, the use of the Macedonian Sun symbol, and Macedonia's Constitutional concerns for the Macedonian minority in northern Greece. This book presents the arguments of both countries and an objective, third party analysis.
The positions of the neighbouring countries, Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania, are also outlined. In examining the Greek-Serbian alliance on the issue, the book places in context the events leading up to the deployment of United Nations and United States peacekeeping troops in Macedonia to prevent the spread of hostilities from former Yugoslavia and possible territorial aggression.
The book also contains essential facts about Macedonia regarding population, religion, language and the current political and economic situation.
What Europe Has Forgotten: The Struggle of the Aegean Macedonians by Association of Macedonians in Poland paperback, 68 pages, perfect bound, 250 mm x 175 mm, published 1992, reprinted 1995, $15.00 inc postage
What Europe has Forgotten: The Struggle Of The Aegean Macedonians examines official discrimination against the Macedonians minority of northern Greece and the struggle for human rights, particularly by the 28,000 ethnic Macedonian child refugees evacuated in 1948 during the Greek Civil War.
The book outlines the obligations to fully protect the Macedonian national minority assumed by Greece when it took over Aegean Macedonia. This was to include full civic and political rights. However, instead of fulfilling these promises, the Greek authorities instigated policies aimed at assimilation and displacement and the report identifies and summarizes a number of anti-Macedonian laws introduced by successive Greek governments.
The report contains 28 photographs and over 20 pages of letters, certificates and documentary evidence.