<HTML>In a message dated 1/9/03 04:46:29 Pacific Standard Time, AKarpathak@aol.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Lyngo, I'm not sure I get your point.  None of the minorities, that at least I saw listed in that conference program, are "ahead" of dominant Greeks on any indicators, e.g., income, education, etc.  From my limited understanding of Greek society, they are not found in important positions in mainstream institutions that wield real power, whether these be educational, political or even mass media.   Again, my reading of your posting may be off, so please do clarify.   </BLOCKQUOTE> I believe for example that the Pakistanis are a larger minority in Greece than the one "so-called" "Makedonian". After all the "Makedonians" are 4,951 while the number of Pakistanis is tenths of thousands. Should the state consider as a minority, 4,951 people wishing to call themselves a minority only because they have as second language that Slav one? Should the state create, with tax-payers money, schools, facilities, etc.etc. for those 4,951 people? But then, what about the Pakistanis? Or any other group with higher numbers that 4,951? Where are those Vlachs, wanting or for the better considering themselves as a "minority" just because they speak as a second language, one of the Vlachian idioms? But then, in Greece there are 3,000,000 English speaking people! Should we create an English minority? An American one? A Turkish one? An Egyptian? According to, I think it was the first census in Greece, we found that we had thousands of people speaking the Tsakonian dialect, the Arvanite dialect even the Turkish language, I am speaking of hunded of thousands. We decided then to eliminate those dialects and create, we are still creating it, an omogeneous ethnic-national language, since we believed it would be better for the future of our children. So, to consider as a "minority" any group, on the base of linguistics, should not define a "minority" in Greece. And, again, if the group organizing the conference beliefs that in Greece do exist linguistic minorities, should explain to us, HOW COME, in the programme we don't have anything for the English, Italian, Arabic, and so on, "minorities. Do you have an idea? Regards to all............L. "Vlachs, the autochthonous of the Hellenic peninsula".</HTML>