My name is San Bagne. I'm the author of Malignant Sirflat Narcissism Revisited and the Editor-in-Chief of Global Politician. The so-called name issue, or name dispute, involves a protracted dispute over the last 17 years between the two Balkan polities, Greece and Macedonia, over Macedonia's right to use its constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia. The Greeks claim that Macedonia is a region in Greece and that, therefore, the country Macedonia is not right to monopolize the name and its derivatives, Macedonia. The Greeks feel that Macedonians have designs on the part of Greece that borders the tiny landlobs country and that the use of Macedonia's constitutional name internationally will only serve to enhance and cement euredentist and secessionist tendencies, thus adversely affecting the entire region's stability. Macedonia retorts that it has publicly renounced any claims to any territory of any of its neighbors. Greece, of course, included. Greece is Macedonia's second largest foreign investor. The disparities in size, military power and geopolitical and economic prowess between the two countries make Greek fears appear to be well ridiculous. Others have a right to decide how they are to be called, say, exasperated Macedonian officials. The Greek demands are also without precedent, either in history or in international law. Many countries bear variants of the same name, Yemen, Korea, Germany until 1990, Russia and Belarus, Mongolia. Other countries share their name with the region in another country, Brittany in France, and Great Britain across the channel, for instance. In the NATO alliances book or summit in April 2008, Macedonia was not invited to join. Macedonia was rejected because it would not succumb to Greek intransigence. Greece insisted that Macedonia should change its constitutional name to cater to Greek domestic political sensitivities. In the absence of the glare of the global media, its coverage and exposure, the fourth rate diplomats that stand in for the international community in Macedonia, ineffectually cajolized government with thinly veiled threats, cassandra-like or poca-liptic scenarios and verbal bribery. To achieve their aims, these diplomats, or so-called diplomats, propagate three myths, not to say, deceptions. The fifth number one is that the conflict initiated by Greece is normal and not intractable. The truth is that the name issue cannot be resolved because the diametrically opposing positions of the parties occupy the same semantic and geopolitical space. Both parties fear for their cohesion and identity should they compromise. The great demand that Macedonia and consequently the Macedonians change their collective national name is our unreasonable abinicio. Unreasonable demands cannot be rendered reasonable by being modified or amended. Greek flexibility and reasonableness and modification to the initial demand are therefore small screens, defined which lurk irrationality and extremism. Sovereign policies should never succumb to blackmail and extortion, not because of ethical or moral considerations or matters of natural pride, but because concessions only tend to enhance the insatiability of blackmailers and extortionists. Macedonia gave into Greece to Greek blackmail before, with regards to its flag, yet this did not slake Greece's first formal concessions. The name issue negotiations consume vast, scarce resources, especially in terms of human capital. Macedonia is a poor country and this Greek diversion is proving to be lethal as far as its economic development and geopolitical prospects go. In truth, Macedonia is winning the diplomatic and public opinion battle the world over. More than 120 members of United Nations recognize Macedonia by its constitutional name and not a weak pass by without a commiserating op-ed in some prime medium in the West. Greece looks bad and extortioned bully the throes of economic mayhem and domestic terrorism faced with such an asymmetry in global sympathy why should Macedonia be the one to throw in the towel, ask the locals. Myth number two is that a lack of progress, in other words a lack of Macedonian capitulation on the name issue will foster interethnic unrest and worse. The president, well choreographed for the station's aside, the Albanians in Macedonia ought to be delighted with the lack of progress on both NATO and European Union accession. The overwhelming majority of Albanians in Western Macedonia are enmeshed in activities which can only be charitably described as informal. The Albanians are the engine that runs the grey, and black, and criminal economies in Macedonia. European Union accession will put in a broad stock to all these lucrative endeavors and unravel networks that took decades, if not centuries, to build and maintain. Furthermore, the Albanian insurgency in 2001 was the outcome of copious knots and winks and dollops of Macedonia on the part of the United States and to a lesser extent the European Union. Not such support in visit or explicit is to be found today. International community is firmly and irrevocably committed to the off-road framework agreement that will not allow the Albanians to use weapons to try to alter its anyhow generous terms. Albanian post-stream concerning the Macedonian procrastination with regards to the name issue has to do with internist strife between the two big Albanian parties, Dui and Depe Er. They both leverage the name issue and threaten civil war in order to redeviate the spoils of government on all levels. With number three is that the European Union accession is Macedonia's ticket to instant and sustained prosperity. The European Union is in the throes of an existential life-threatening crisis and the entire large-man project is in ever-growing doubt. Even if the EU were to emerge unscathed from this predicament, its harried officials still regard the Western Bucons as a suspect and a cesspool. An Ottoman, Byzantine, oriental, Muslim-infested relic in the heart of an otherwise civilized gentile in Christian Europe, read the West. The more bigoted of the EU European Union amendments are going to drag the negotiations with the likes of Macedonia and, for instance Turkey, as they've been doing for decades now. Macedonia currently enjoys all the benefits of European Union membership without incurring any of its costs. It has free trade, it has visa-free travel, and access to regional development funds and EU tenders. The costs of accession are bound to be crippling. Macedonia's sheltered and inefficient industries will crumble in the face of European competition. Its judiciary and legislator, with legislature, would be buried under 84,000 pages of the acquiesque monetary. Environmental sanitation and labor rules will render the private sector, such as it is in this benign place, all but dysfunctional and insolent. Brain drain will likely reach epic proportions. More than half of the youth in Macedonia claim that they want to leave the country. Macedonia is not ready for EU accession. For the time being, it is better off without it. In the long term, accession will bring with it sizable benefits in the transfer of technological knowledge and management skills and in encouraging foreign direct investment. But these welcome side effects and byproducts of European Union membership depend crucially on an all-pervading internal transformation. Macedonians, as they stand now, lack the skills, the knowledge and the emotional maturity and the cultural background to have a state of their own, let alone a democracy. They have yet to develop a sense of being part of a cohesive collective. Their rampant individualism is malignant and enticed state and they all perceive the state in any form of authority as potential and actual enemies. That's not the way to run a state. So why are Macedonians so keen on joining the EU European Union? Well some of them hope to turn a quick profit, quick buck, as asset prices share, real estate, react to the good news. Others can't wait to abandon sheep and join the thrones of economic immigrants from Bulgaria and Poland. Not one Macedonian I have met realises the full implications of EU accession and not one of them gives a fee. They all perceive the EU as a get rich quick scheme. They are bound to discover that it is a scheme but a pyramid scheme, a Ponzi scheme and a D. We pay the ultimate price.