ESMA THE QUEEN: PROPAGANDA AND REALITY

Following the article of Harald Schenker in the Balkan Insight

Xhabir Deralla

Well, legends and reality are two different things; more precisely: propaganda and reality. Esma Redzepova was self-proclaimed queen of Roma music. The former Yugoslav propaganda machinery has created and launched Esma's as one of the many agitprop products. What we see from Esma in times of independent Macedonia is YU inertia, as so many other things. Her music, frankly, is far from being so royal as she and the (post)Yugoslav prop machine claim; there are quite a few kings and queens of the Roma music. Her charitable work has a rather disputable background. She’s a small time and irrelevant politician. Altogether, she’s got a deserved position at the Eurovision contest to which she participated after a scandalous string of events back home – paid by the citizens of Macedonia.

SHAME

In a few words only... The political elite of the Republic of Macedonia, the government, the president, and the parliament's speaker proved - once and for all - they are supporters of war crimes. They did so, by organizing a spectacular welcoming celebration upon the arrival of Johan Tarculovski from the German prison where he served his prison sentence for war crimes committed in the 2001 ethnic war in Macedonia.

LONG IS THE SHADOW OF THE BALKAN BUTCHERS

A Note, the night before another War Criminal is welcomed as a Hero

The killing fields of the Balkans in the recent decades are still steaming. The sound of the bloody wars, death and suffering of hundreds of thousands of people are still in the air. Wounds are still open and memories are loaded with rage and grief. Mass murder, pogroms, executions, ethnic cleansing, concentration camps…