Macedonia was misteriosly changed to FYROM after we already pledged.
Posted June 12th, 2008 by glisha
When I pledged on the 28.05.2008 on the map my country was named as it should be Macedonia.
Now it has been misteriosly changed to FYROM. Why have this happened?
It is ofending that it was changed in the map after I and ~1.300 from Macedonia already pledged to participate in the Download day when you called my country with it's proper name.
Does anyone know a way to cancel my pledge?
The truth is that Firefox
The truth is that Firefox did exactly the right thing. The official name of the country is FYROM and it called as such by all international bodies.
For the rest of the world: The name issue is really not as important as it seems. FYROM can call themselves 'never-never land' as far as I am concerned. But, a clear distinction needs to be made between ancient Macedonians who were a Greek tribe and the Slavs living in FYROM.
The problem lies in FYROM's attempt to steal some of Greece's history in order to get an identity of its own. But the thing is that FYROMians are Slavs. Maybe they live in a region part of which used to be under the rule of the ancient Macedonian kingdom, but this does not change that they are Slavs(i.e. established in the region after 500 A.D., speak a Slavic language which can be understood by Bulgarians, Serbs, Croatians etc., they write in Cyrillic which is typical for Slavic nations).
Once they accept their own heritage, things are going to improve substantially
This is ridiculous. Come
This is ridiculous. Come on, guys, just lighten up. Let's say that, even if Macedonia was named FYROM on purpose, that's still the opinion of ONE individual that changed it. It doesn't necessarily reflect the opinion of the entire Mozilla team. There are law enforcement officers that are arrested for drug use, despite the fact that the law is supposed to stop that kind of misuse of substances. Similarly, one individual in Mozilla could have decided that they wanted to call Macedonia FYROM, and that doesn't make Mozilla bad.
Furthermore, it's a piece of software. Just because it was made by a person with with an opinion you find offensive doesn't make it bad. I find it funny that you'll quickly dump Firefox from your computer just because you're a little upset at one single person out of many in the Mozilla team that might have intentionally disrespected you.
Also, on top of that, the individual that changed the country name could have done it on accident, not knowing that Macedonia is to be called "Macedonia" and not "FYROM". Honestly, I believe that's more likely that not.
Ok you have a point there,
Ok you have a point there, but that doesn't leave out the fact that two million people were offended.
And you know how it goes "any chain is as strong as it's weakest link".
That's how I am judging on EU democracy. Only one country is a problem, but it's a part of the EU, so the democracy in the European Union must be on a really low level, since basic human rights are abruptly broken and no one cares about it, they even support greece. Tirany shows better respects to human rights.
A little upset you say....it's me and my identity and who I am out there, not yours.
Oh, since Mozilla changed the name back to Republic of Macedonia, on behalf of the macedonian people,
we accept the apology. And Thank you.
I'm just saying...
If, for whatever reason, my country, The United States of America, was listed as something like "The British Colonies", I wouldn't be upset. I would wonder why someone was playing such a stupid joke, but I wouldn't be upset. If there was even reason to believe that someone would have a logical reason to think that the US still belongs to Britiain, then I would even discard the wonder about the possibility of a joke. Either way, though, I wouldn't be offended. I would, however, politely ask for a correction after presenting proof that the country should be recognized as The United States of America.
I'm sorry your country was incorrectly named, but just try to consider possibilities before jumping to conclusions.
Hmm..
Pretty ruff text. You guys are really pissed off. To 99,9999% of the worlds population this is the tiniest thing ever. 99,999% of the worlds population don't have any idea what is this name conflict about. 99,99% world population doesn't know where is Makedonia or FYROM. (Well ok I made up the figures and I might be exaggerating little, much or even more..). Anyways, my point is that you guys don't realize that:
a) The person or persons who changed the name do not necessarily represent the entire firefox-mozilla organization.
b) In addition they might not be from Makedonia and do not understand the seriousness of this matter (to Makedonian). Perhaps they just red from wikipedia that: "Most international organisations adopted the same convention, including the European Union, NATO, the International Monetary Fund, the European Broadcasting Union, and the International Olympic Committee, among others. The EU recognises the country as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the negotiations with the EU are held using this reference,[26] [27] EC report]." and decided to change it because they are pro EU or NATO, not to disrespect Makedonian people or show tribute to Greece.
First off all Former
First off all Former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia is a temporary solution of the dispute, second of all over 120 countries in the world acknoweledge Macedonia under it's constitutional name (Republic of Macedonia, common Macedonia). (BTW Greece now doesnt even accept FYROM, since it vetoed Macedonia's membership in NATO which leads to the conclusion that Greece in fact doesn't have any issues with the name. It's the nationality (Macedonians) that bothers the greek government.
Also the problem was that on the pledge map at first it was Macedonia, and after people pledged it was changed to FYROM. It's shameful and deceitful.
"Perhaps they just red from wikipedia that: "Most international organisations adopted the same convention, including the European Union, NATO, the International Monetary Fund, the European Broadcasting Union, and the International Olympic Committee, among others" and perhaps someone told them to read it. Because I don't see someone in Mozilla saying "hey lets see now if the names of the countries are correct".
I don't know where are you from, but just think a little bit how would the greeks feel if the world starts calling them something they are not like mangurians for example.
The greek government build up this nationalistic, anti macedonian feelings among their people, and it's using this to stay governing. And they are so deep into this irational that now they feel like there's no going back.
It's ironic how the EU proclaims it's democracy while it's breaking the most basic human rights.
If, as the website states,
If, as the website states, Mozilla is not trying to make any political statements by its choice of country names, then why change the map midway through the pledge drive?
The use of "Macedonia" as the name of the country in question is common throughout the world. In fact, that's the reason why your mapping service had it listed as the default in the first place. Check any "choose your country" dropdown list online and odds are that you'll see "Macedonia" listed with the M countries - not as FYROM. (On Ebay, for example, or on the front page of the CIA world factbook.)
The commonly used name is also found in many reputable news outlets:
"Sunday's vote could determine whether Macedonia joins both Nato and the European Union, most of whose members did recognise Kosovo when it declared independence in February."
"NATO decided today to send 400 British troops to Macedonia as the first wave of a contingent to disarm ethnic Albanian rebels..."
"The company's products include brake discs for high-speed applications, as well as tread brake units and pneumatic brake valves that meet International Union of Railways (UIC) standards. POLI has about 500 employees at production facilities in Italy and Macedonia."
(headline)
War or peace in Macedonia?
The fact that this was apparently the default status of your own map makes the point very well.
Without even addressing the absurd reasoning behind the Greek protests, it's a fact that the rest of the world - save a few organizations where Greece forced Macedonia to make concessions regarding the name in order gain membership - refers to Macedonia as "Macedonia". ) The politically neutral stance would be to follow suit.
It's more then shameful,
It's more then shameful, Firefox just joined in the neo-nacistic, unreasonable acting of one country's desire to change to name of another, and destroy the cultural identity of it's people. For something that procalims freedom and cultural and society advance, changing the name was pretty much a counteract and a dark spot on Firefox 3 as a software, that is suppose to take the leading place in the market in future.
I for one will not be helping this to happen. As from today I will first remove the banners on my blogs, for download day, any firefox links. Then I will remove Firefox 3RC2 from my computer and never install it again. I guess Internet Explorer will do just fine, at least it won't remind me of the shame and humiliation I felt when I saw the name was changed. I will also make an effort that everybody else I know will stop using Firefox too.
Some might say this is toomuch, just imagine how will you feel if something you adorned and supported started calling you names and disrespect you. Whoever taught that it was a good idea to change the name and involve in a politics didn't think through it well. And it must have been someone from Firefox community. That is not how you change the world, by seeding political and nacionalistic hatred.
I still can not believe in what has happend. How can somebody dare to this, not thinking that it wil affect many , many people. But iot's not the numbers that are important. Should even one person feel like I do no, and a thousand other that pledge to download? We are a small number , and Macedonia is a small country (that is about to deploy 180.000 Ubuntu machines with Firefox installed on them, as from the start of the next school year, September 2008), but the deed is done Firefox just became the filtiest thing I ever had on my PC. I 've had had viruses that were less hated.
thanks for listening and Goddbye.
The record
posted in wrong section lol