[QUOTE=Niko777;113232]Today, the Macedonian government installed a 30-meter state flag in Struga. They are calling it a victory, but what kind of victory is it when (a) it was a ventilator, and (b) they had to install the flag on the property of the city police station because the local Albanian authorities did not allow such a thing on public space?[/QUOTE]

What can we say about this Niko?
(a) Macedonians did not vote for the ventilator (however they have effectively supported it by not protesting against it)
(b) Macedonians wanted the local ethnic Albanians to have more say when the referendum failed. What did they think the ethnic Albanians would have wanted?

If the Macedonian government indeed calls this a "victory" (I would like to see more about this btw) it is a a clear indication that the local ethnic Albanian authorities in power are in fact enemies of Macedonia.

[QUOTE=Niko777;113232]Today, the Macedonian government installed a 30-meter state flag in Struga. They are calling it a victory, but what kind of victory is it when (a) it was a ventilator, and (b) they had to install the flag on the property of the city police station because the local Albanian authorities did not allow such a thing on public space?[/QUOTE]

The silly thing is that the gutless Macedonian government and too a lesser extent the Macedonian citizens are too scared to stand up to minority that is only 17% of the population in the country.

They should keep sticking their heads in the sand and hoping they will all get into the EU one day, everything will then fix itself and we will all have a happy ending

I would like to see more about this being called a 'victory'. The government plan was presented a couple of years ago to install 100 very large flags/flagpoles in various obvious locations across the country. These are noticeable atop mount Vodno in Skopje, Strazha rest stop between Gostivar-Kicevo, in Kicevo I believe along the main road, and many many other locations. I don't think it would be any 'victory' or 'surprise' to the people of Struga or the government that this was done.

I have been in Struga many times, including recently, and there are many Macedonian flags all over the place. To get to the village of Vevchani from Struga you have to drive through an albanian village that has some shiptar flags along the electrical poles, then you get to the city or Vevchani and the Macedonian flags reappear.

I would like to see more about this being called a 'victory'. The government plan was presented a couple of years ago to install 100 very large flags/flagpoles in various obvious locations across the country. These are noticeable atop mount Vodno in Skopje, Strazha rest stop between Gostivar-Kicevo, in Kicevo I believe along the main road, and many many other locations. I don't think it would be any 'victory' or 'surprise' to the people of Struga or the government that this was done.

I have been in Struga many times, including recently, and there are many Macedonian flags all over the place. To get to the village of Vevchani from Struga you have to drive through an albanian village that has some shiptar flags along the electrical poles, then you get to the city or Vevchani and the Macedonian flags reappear.

Sorry for not being clear, it was after reading people's comments from some articles that I got the impression that this was a "victory". Some were making comments like "pozdrav do Gruevski" or "chestitka do vladata" for installing the flag.

BTW I have found other past articles that the government did the same thing for the cities of Tetovo and Gostivar, which I was unaware of, that they installed the flag near the police stations. In these cities the police stations are not near the central square and cannot be seen from the center. In Gostivar the mayor already made comments like the flag is illegal because it did not have a proper permit from the municipality................ I wonder if the hundreds of mosques built in Macedonia have any permit?

[QUOTE]What can we say about this Niko?
(a) Macedonians did not vote for the ventilator (however they have effectively supported it by not protesting against it)
(b) Macedonians wanted the local ethnic Albanians to have more say when the referendum failed. What did they think the ethnic Albanians would have wanted?
[/QUOTE]

These are very valid points Risto

I didn`t know that the mayor of Skopje speaks Albanian...

[IMG]http://static.makedonija24.mk.dl1.ipercast.net/uploads/thumbnails/extract_from_8599_9005_koce%20grad__makedonija24_5453.jpg[/IMG]

Couldn't this sort of thing be used during a census to eliminate some of the fraud - no person standing in front of you to be scanned, no count. Period.

Being based on an I-Phone it should be easy to implement and use in the field.

[QUOTE][B]US Turns into a Police State, Iris Scans Next![/B]

[url]http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/18670/56/[/url]

Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Dozens of police departments across the USA are gearing up to use a tech company's already controversial iris- and facial-scanning device that slides over an iPhone and helps identify a person or track criminal suspects.

The so-called "biometric" technology, which seems to take a page from TV shows like "MI-5" or "CSI," could improve speed and accuracy in some routine police work in the field. However, its use has set off alarms with some who are concerned about possible civil liberties and privacy issues.

The smartphone-based scanner, named Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, or MORIS, is made by BI2 Technologies in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and can be deployed by officers out on the beat or back at the station.

An iris scan, which detects unique patterns in a person's eyes, can reduce to seconds the time it takes to identify a suspect in custody. This technique also is significantly more accurate than results from other fingerprinting technology long in use by police, BI2 says.

When attached to an iPhone, MORIS can photograph a person's face and run the image through software that hunts for a match in a BI2-managed database of U.S. criminal records. [B]Each unit costs about $3,000.[/B]

Some experts fret police may be randomly scanning the population, using potentially intrusive techniques to search for criminals, sex offenders, and illegal aliens, but the manufacturer says that would be a difficult task for officers to carry out.

Sean Mullin, BI2's CEO, says it is difficult, if not impossible, to covertly photograph someone and obtain a clear, usable image without that person knowing about it, because the MORIS should be used close up.

"It requires a level of cooperation that makes it very overt -- a person knows that you're taking a picture for this purpose," Mullin said.

[/QUOTE]

Brian, did you not read the article you posted? Who the hell would advocate for less privacy of regular citizens, and more power to corrupt politicians?

Yes, I did read the article.

Obviously, judging by the article, "[B]Dozens[/B] of police departments across the USA are gearing up to use a tech company's already controversial iris- and facial-scanning device...".

If the USA can do it, why not Macedonia where they already have ID cards? The hardest hurdle to setting up something like this would be convincing a society to have a photo ID system. In Australia the idea has been knocked down at least twice because they don't already have a standard ID system in place (the driver's licence is a kind of defacto system used).

In Macedonia the government should already know who is who from their ID cards. Obviously they do not know when a person has 2 or more identities or dead or fictitious identities exist. A bio-metric system (facial or retina) would put an end to all the Albanian's BS (except where the main database was corrupted), and at about $3000-00 per field unit, not too expensive to implement.

In corrupt places only less liberties will work, and what more corrupt than the massively bloated Albanian census figures? [B]Where so much hangs on the result of a census, I think everything else (not money) it costs Macedonia with BS figures, how can they NOT afford to do it?[/B] Besides, weren't the passports supposed to be bio-metric?