Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

ties, both physical and psychological.
Thanks to this exercise I became
aware of the limits to which a human
being can be pushed and I also realized
that I can take on a greater burden
than what I previously could. I
have become a flexible person made
of rubber, able to reach to the bottom
and stand up again by inertia. I have
become a plant that vegetates and
survives thanks only to photosynthesis.
Excellent!
We also practiced long debates,
negotiations and discussions. We
learned how to speak for a long time
using only a limited number of
words. We have excluded words
like: love, feeling, happiness,
dreams, kiss, smile. We started to
speak in only the singular first person.
The exercises are still ongoing. It
seems that the members of our group
will be monitored for some time.
"For our sake!" Now I know one
thing-I know nothing. Yet, I know
that my name is Aleksandra
Tanurova. I have… I don't know
what I have.
(The author is journalist)
Bridges
Few Albanians decide to visit some place located on the right side of the city and few
Macedonians decide to visit some place located on the left side of the city. Skopje has
currently lost its human touch. As if someone has given an attribution of "bridge of
division" to the Stone Bridge. Yet when it comes to poets, the bridge has always been a
symbol of love, closeness and warmth. I believe that there are many poets among us…
52
Xhengis Aliu
Every war leaves a painful history
behind.
Regretfully, the consequences of
the war in Macedonia deeply
touched young people, especially
when it came to their relationships,
which became chillier as days went
by. Arctic ice has squeezed in
between the relationships between
young Albanians and Macedonians.
But through no fault of their own.
No matter how hard the young
try to avoid politics, they still cannot
isolate themselves from it. Because
now the politics deals with them.
Nobody feels safe, but at the same
time, everybody is hoping that it will
get better, and that the end to the
problems bothering youth will come
soon. Sedat Abazi, is a17-year-old
from Tetovo and a student at the secondary
school Kiril Pejchinovich in
Tetovo. Talking about interethnic
relations he said, "I live in a Tetovo
suburb, with an ethnically mixed
population. There are Albanians,
Macedonians, Roma and Turks on
our street. I can say that before the
war, we all used to be well organized
in terms of our mutual relationships.
But this altered significantly when
the war broke out. For the time being
we are not together with our former
Macedonian friends. They play basketball
separately on one side, and
we play on the other side. I do not
know why, but we tend to run away
from each other. It was different in
the past. This is how the present relationship
looks. I do not know what to
say about the future. There is a saying
that time is the greatest healer,
and I hope that months spent in war
will be forgotten and left to the past."
The same image is portrayed by
18-year-old Daniel Stojanovski, a
secondary school student who
resides in Skopje on the left side of
the city in the suburb of Chair. He
also admits that interethnic relations
have significantly altered, compared
to those before the war, but he is
hopeful for better days to come.
"I've lived in this suburb since I was
Youth and crisis, October 2001