young aegean macedonians in melbourne

[Bill77]

My input on this subject is.....

During my teenage days i often came across young aegean Macedonians who spoke nothing but Macedonian at home and yet they would claim to be Greek at schools or out on the streets. These same people would boast how George Micheal was Greek, Jenifer Aniston is Greek, Some (at the time) AFL/VFL stars are Greek, there was a very popular song, a one hit wander at the time "Paul Lekakis" and of course the first comment that came out was "He is Greek". There was a club dance version of Zorba the Greek played at parties and night clubs where everyone went crazy on dance floors which seemed cool.

There are many more examples, but what i am getting at, there were many stars, popular names, role models around and it was seen to be cool to be Greek. The same went for Italians and there seemed to be a competition between the two. Where us Macedonians had none of the type to hang our hats on and boast we are like him or her. Infact, we were taunted we had no country, we were "Yugo's" ...... so why would these aegean youth want to associate with that? What we needed and still do, are role models, be it sporting or in the entertainment (music or screen) industry to fly our flag and kids want to be just like.

[chentovist]

My input on this subject is.....

During my teenage days i often came across young aegean Macedonians who spoke nothing but Macedonian at home and yet they would claim to be Greek at schools or out on the streets. These same people would boast how George Micheal was Greek, Jenifer Aniston is Greek, Some (at the time) AFL/VFL stars are Greek, there was a very popular song, a one hit wander at the time "Paul Lekakis" and of course the first comment that came out was "He is Greek". There was a club dance version of Zorba the Greek played at parties and night clubs where everyone went crazy on dance floors which seemed cool.

There are many more examples, but what i am getting at, there were many stars, popular names, role models around and it was seen to be cool to be Greek. The same went for Italians and there seemed to be a competition between the two. Where us Macedonians had none of the type to hang our hats on and boast we are like him or her. Infact, we were taunted we had no country, we were "Yugo's" ...... so why would these aegean youth want to associate with that? What we needed and still do, are role models, be it sporting or in the entertainment (music or screen) industry to fly our flag and kids want to be just like.

sadly many Vardar Macedonians hung their hats on Red Star Belgrade, Yugoslav sports stars, and Serbian turbo-folk.....

[Niko777]

alright, but let's fast forward to today. Aren't younger Aegeans (and most second generation Macedonians) today simply identifying as Australians?

[chentovist]

alright, but let's fast forward to today. Aren't younger Aegeans (and most second generation Macedonians) today simply identifying as Australians?

i wouldn't say second generation, maybe third generation - especially those of mixed parentage, do identify as Australians, but of Macedonian descent. Those Macedonians still know the Macedonian language, thanks to their grandparents.

[SirGeorge8600]

You'd be surprised. I've met 4 people so far in occurrences who were half Macedonian and half Greek. So yes technically they would say I am Greek-Macedonian or Macedonian-Greek.

[BigMak]

Dunno what's going down in Victoria. But here in Perth, all the young Aegean Macedonians, myself included know what we are and were we come from. We never have been fully assimilated into Aussie culture, some aspects yes. However we do have some cases were there are some young Aegeans that have forgotten about their roots.

Most of Perths Greek communities most prominent business men are really of Macedonian Ethnicity, They are classified as the Master Grkomani in my books, lets name a few Paul Afkos, former co_owner of Perth Glory and high ranker in Football westcoast = Lerin, The Kailis Brothers = Lerin, so on and so on, I'm not sure what u are on about, in all honesty, I would say its about 40% of Egej Migrants iN Perth are Grkoman, But the ones that do identify themselves as ethnic Macedonians such as yourself, well done, and importantly well done to your parents and grandparents, as you said there are many in Perth that do, although many egej Macedonians do not mix with the so called Vardar Macedonians as there is still some conflict there.

And in ending Im no Slav, I neither believe its a ethnicity nor even a linguistic term, And I do not believe in the so-called Slavic migration theory, All so called slavs are speaking a dialect of Macedonian, linguistically and culturally, the sooner the so called SLAVS and some Macedonians on this forum understand that the better

[Stojacanec]

This is where we need some sports men or women to stand up and be counted. It can really only come from places like R. Macedonia. We need a Nove Djokovic or national soccer team to do something worthwhile. They need success, some runs on the board. Then we can hang our hats on that.

Sadly Macedonians from Egej can't show they represent a Macedonia if they do well in a sporting event.

My dad speaks of the Maco soccer clubs back at home and it seems that they barely have enough money to buy boots. Not sure why things are so lifeless there. For example, a town like Gevgelija has 15 thousand people, but they can't field a soccer team. Which I think is disgusting.

On a bright note, Sasha Ognenovski is making a name for himself in Aus and Asia. He is impressing the soccer elite here and is putting Macedonia on the map somewhat.

[Risto the Great]

And in ending Im no Slav, I neither believe its a ethnicity nor even a linguistic term, And I do not believe in the so-called Slavic migration theory, All so called slavs are speaking a dialect of Macedonian, linguistically and culturally, the sooner the so called SLAVS and some Macedonians on this forum understand that the better

I'm not sure why you ended with this or who you seem to be attacking.
If the "so called slavs" are speaking a dialect of Macedonian, then you would have to believe they were speaking something else before the Macedonians taught them how to speak.

Can you tell us what the Russians or Serbians were speaking before the Macedonians graced them with the joy of a written language? Can you show me proof of these "pre-Macedonian" languages for these peoples?

I just think some people might recoil and die if they ever hear the word "slavic".

It is a unique phenomena because I never hear such naive responses from anyone in relation to say Latin languages.

I don't believe in the slavic migration theory either by the way.

[Big Bad Sven]

sadly many Vardar Macedonians hung their hats on Red Star Belgrade, Yugoslav sports stars, and Serbian turbo-folk.....

Unfortunately many still do.....

I usually see some young macedonian bimbo's with red star shirts at soccer games or party's, and a lot of young macedonian guys getting behind Novak Djekovic in the tennis....

[Big Bad Sven]

Most of Perths Greek communities most prominent business men are really of Macedonian Ethnicity, They are classified as the Master Grkomani in my books, lets name a few Paul Afkos, former co_owner of Perth Glory and high ranker in Football westcoast = Lerin, The Kailis Brothers = Lerin, so on and so on, I'm not sure what u are on about, in all honesty, I would say its about 40% of Egej Migrants iN Perth are Grkoman, But the ones that do identify themselves as ethnic Macedonians such as yourself, well done, and importantly well done to your parents and grandparents, as you said there are many in Perth that do, although many egej Macedonians do not mix with the so called Vardar Macedonians as there is still some conflict there.

I heard Stan Lazararides is a grkoman. He played for Stirling Makedonijia back in the day and had no problem speaking macedonian in the change rooms. When he became famous he became a proud grik.
A few old aegean macedonians who i spoke to over the years told me that his brother is a proud macedonian but Steve and his sister are grkomans.

Apparently Daniel Metropolis is a grkoman, i met some aegean macedonians who have the same surname as him and are distant cousins, and they disown him.

During my life i have met many grkomans who are in high places that own hotels or are lawyers or accountants - so i agree with you that almost half of the people from aegean macedonia are grkomans, which is a shame

Also alarming i notice a lot of aegean girls seem to be dating marrying grks for what ever crazy reason, which i think is a shame and cultural suicide.

I met a few older people who are srbomans as well unfortunately, people who came to australia before WW2 from macedonia.
The most famous serboman in Perth is Bobby Despatovski

[lavce pelagonski]

all the clubs in ROM play serb music

[George S.]

have you seen the latest serbs play macedonian music on you tube

[Risto the Great]

During my life i have met many grkomans who are in high places that own hotels or are lawyers or accountants - so i agree with you that almost half of the people from aegean macedonia are grkomans, which is a shame

I would say "almost half" is as good a statistic as any other.

Honestly, I am sure I would have a much larger marketing pool to work with if I decided to get infected with some strain of Grkomanitis.

Having said that, I think I have about 2 or 3 Macedonian clients so it clearly hasn't been to my advantage playing the Macedonian card.

If one is philosophical about it, these Macedonian people living in Greece now have just as much (or possibly more) in common with some lazy peasant in Crete than a Macedonian in RoM who isn't even aware of his ethnic Albanian brother's usurpation of his country.

I met a few older people who are srbomans as well unfortunately, people who came to australia before WW2 from macedonia.

My perception in my youth was that many RoMacedonians felt they were more Macedonian than Egejci because they could speak Serbian. Looking back, it was a little silly to think like that but the RoMacedonians of the 1980's definitely felt they were more Macedonian than anybody else.

[lerin]

phoenix, yes but that is people form the republic i am talking about people from lerin or anywhere south of the republic. These people are all grkomani!! . Dragosh is in the republic. People in step from aegean are all grkomani as i said these are only some of them: paraskevas, kreskas, pat eras, paras, karcoushkas, sfetcopolous. etc. Cheers.

[Phoenix]

phoenix, yes but that is people form the republic i am talking about people from lerin or anywhere south of the republic. These people are all grkomani!! . Dragosh is in the republic. People in step from aegean are all grkomani as i said these are only some of them: paraskevas, kreskas, pat eras, paras, karcoushkas, sfetcopolous. etc. Cheers.

lerin, you need to step back from that attitude...there's plenty of egjeci on this board to prove you wrong...some of the most dedicated patriots for the Macedonian cause in Australia are egjeci and if it wasn't for them our fight for recognition and rights would be greatly diminished.