What do Prince and Macedonia have in common?

Last week I went with a colleague to the Macedonian delegation, we were reviewing a list of NATO activities that they want to participate in for 2007. The list of activities is chosen via a computer system, however the Macedonians refuse to use the system themselves, they boycott it because in the system they are labelled as FYROM. Macedonia became independent in 1993 and named itself the Republic of Macedonia. The Greeks rejected this name claiming that it belongs to Greek culture and the ancient Kingdom of Macedon, and that the modern day peoples who are descendants of slavic tribes have no claim to it. Nevermind that the people living in the region have self-identified as Macedonian since at least 1944, the Greeks refused to budge resulting in a dilemma at the UN, where the body could not admit the new state without an accepted name. The temporary compromise was to officially refer to the country as FYROM (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), a name that makes grows more archaic as each year passes. At NATO we use the official name FYROM, except the Turkish delegation which recognizes Macedonia, probably just to piss off the Greeks.

I forgot I was going to the Private Office today, and because I was pressed for time I didn't bother to shave. I stare disapprovingly at my peachfuzz in the mirror but there's nothing to do about it. I head in and wait for the Macedonian Foreign Minister to arrive, different levels of visitors get different degrees of treatment. Last week when it was a President the Sec-Gen went down to the front door to meet him and walked him up to the meeting room. The Foreign Minister has to make his own way up and he waits in the couch area for the Sec-Gen to come out, at just 30 he stands out a bit, though not nearly as much as me.

The Sec-Gen mentions the importance of resolving the name issue, as his predecessors have probably been doing for the past decade. I remember how once a colleague suggested that the computer system could maybe use flags instead of names for the countries, as a way around the dispute, I really wonder what the programmers who probably spent years studying engineering think about our requests.

Despite the fact that everyone knows the conflict is basically at a standstill everyone talks hopefully about resolving it. The foreign minister quips that he would be prepared to replace "former" with "future" and "Yugoslav" with "European", when the entire room laughs I wonder whether its because they all think its clever, or because they think its so unlikely.