Before reading this article I thought the issues was a silly thing about a name, now I know it's a silly thing about a name.

Renegade Science,


"Fortunately I can and will find better ways to deal with differences".... and these are? Now Mr Ghandi, come down from the moral high ground and enlighten us.

"...violence is unacceptable, but it should be just as unacceptable in their countries as in ours" Should? That's the point, it's often endemic in "their" countries and part of the normal political process.

I note that Renegade Science espouses his high moral ground from ground stolen from Indigenous Aussies :) good call RS. (assuming you live in Australia)

MAC... indeed..I quite agree.. but I'm pessemistic when Dimitri tells us we have an:

"ultra nationalist fundamentalist Greek Group"

Good GRIEF.. isn't it enough that a group of Muslims wants to blow up the MCG during granfinal.. now we have Greek 'ultra nationalist/fundamentalists' ?

Dimitri..the best thing mate is to FORGET all that historical rubbish and simply learn to say with Dorothea McKellar..

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

If migrants cannot love this land, warts and all MORE than their 'old' country..they are not WORTHY of this country.. and I uncordially inviate ALL such fundy Greeks..Serbs..Macedonians...Croats,Bosnians..Chinese.. Cambodians.. any.. who hold this petty historical squabbles high in Australia.. to leave.. get out.. go back to your own places..THIS is NOT yours.

I see that the discussion has veered away from the point of the article - but it is an interesting discussion nonetheless.

A current running through the responses is the idea that past hatreds and animosities should be left behind, and I think this is a valid argument. My family came to Australia from Zimbabwe when I was a little kid. The Zimbabwe we left behind had its share of problems - ethnic struggles amongst the native population and an all-round hatred of white people like myself. Certainly we had reason to hav chips on our shoulders. Indeed, we could have been angry at the whole world for fifteen years of economic sanctions which helped to plunge our country into the third world.

The point is, we didn't. We became Australians. We recognised that we left our country for a reason, and needed to set our sights on the future. When we come across "Mugabe's mob" - the Mashona - or other black Zimbabweans, we don't hate them. After all, they're here for a reason as well. When we come across people who hated the evil regime (Ian Smith's, not Mugabe's) and actively supported sanctions, we don't hate them. They're Australian and so are we. We just took a bit longer to get here.

Yes, past animosities are hard to get over, but if immigrants don't get over them, they find themselves in the situation the had hoped to leave behind. In that situation and a long way from home.

The past is always with us. It's the sum total of everything we are today. To deny it is to deny ourselves.

This is of particular importance to immigrant cultures like Australia. I have little knowledge of the Macedonian/Greek situation, but I am glad to have the opportunity to read the author's point of view.

With NATO's pledge to militarily respond to the invasion of any of its member states, the internal politics and past 'squabbles' of the countries in the NATO apex are now of vital concern for future world peace. As Australia's foreign policy automatically locks us into Anglo-US conflicts, regardless of their morality, these 'squabbles' DO have relevance for Australians.

This whole thread has been hi-jacked by the likes of David Boaz and the like.

I suspect that the owner's of this site knew that would happen.

A serious issue on so many levels (Academic, Historic, Psychological, etc) has been rendered meaningless by deflections and histrionics.

Pretty pathetic.

Then again, what do you expect when the articles provided on this site are by the major extremists in the debate.