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About Me ~ About the Gorani Web Portals.
Welcome to Nezavisnagora and NGlove portals, past, present and future.
For a long time I have been thinking about explaining how I came up with the idea to create a site where Gorani and like-minded people can connect and communicate.
For those who do not know us, the Wikipedia describes the Goran, or Gorani people as “a Balkan ethnic group characterised by their adherence to Islam and by their dwelling in the border region between Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, and Kosovo. The region is generically referred to as Gora (meaning “mountain” in Slavic), now known as Gora-Dragaš. In turn, the people are called Gorani, meaning Mountain People or Highlanders.” There are Gorani people living in many countries across the world, especially since the Kosovo War of 1999.
My name is Erol Sadiku and I was born in Kosovo in 1982. I got my first computer when I was 19 years old.
It was somewhere in 2001 when I started to browse various sites and participate in several forums in which I noted participation by many Goranis that I then knew, or partly knew. I saw that almost all Goranis in all forums and sites hid behind different nicknames and group names and besides that, I noted that a large majority of Gorans, on almost all sites were hiding their religion and I gained the impression that the Goranis that I knew from childhood (childhood and early youth I spent in Urosevac) were in some ways ashamed, or afraid, to say who they were and what religion.
And so it came to be born in me the idea to create a site that will gather mostly Goran, the site at which they will meet Goranis, create friendships and maybe even serious relationships. From humble savings, I bought the necessary equipment for creating the site and bought the server which was necessary. The cost was not small, because in 2001 computer equipment in this area was very expensive, but I somehow found the money, sometimes with loans from friends. It was exclusively a goranska idea, by myself, with the help of friends, to create the site. To create a place where the Goranis would always be able to be themselves and find others who are not ashamed of their origin, their names, their beliefs and their language, and to speak in Goranska language.
From this idea, after much preparation and editing pages, finally on 13.12.2006 I launched NezavisnaGora.com, then the first and only Goranska site.
Initially all did not go well, a lot of problems were appearing, from the lack of electricity in the Mountain and to all of Kosovo, members unfamiliar with computers, and the all too unstable internet connection in Kosovo. But even at the beginning, the work at NezavisnaGora.com showed up that I was largely right when I thought about the Goranska situation.
As time went by and the number of members at NezavisnaGora.com increased, I realized that it had to a great extent achieved its goal. I saw that the visitors to NezavisnaGora.com had become freer somehow, when not alone in their thinking, or needing to hide behind a variety of other people’s religions and nations their positions, and were discussing the issues that are inherently Gorani, where on these topics they had been shy on other sites. I was overjoyed to find out that my idea of a highland site was on the right track.
The number of guests and members who misused the possibility of the presence of the highland site was very small, maybe 1% . Members are in fact very well-mannered or otherwise I could not function. NezavisnaGora.com became a reality and has created a large number of friends, people from all over the world are together in one place, commenting about all topics and proud of their culture, and later even marriages between registered members. Numbers at NezavisnaGora.com every day increased, so that as of 31.12.2008 the number of registered mainly Goranies was 2180, which is a large figure given that the total Gorani population is maybe 18000 people.
Lately on NezavisnaGora.com I realized that the majority of visitors to the site used only 30% of what the site offers and generally chat and surveys, so I decided to create next another Goranska site, but to make it so that a larger number of options can be used, so that people would see everything all in one place. So on 01.01.2009 I launched the second Goranska portal site, the social network NGlove.net.
After 5 months of work NGlove.net portal has 680 registered members and at this rate by our first anniversary Nglove portal should welcome 1500 registered members.
I am delighted by this, as I hope you are also, my dear friends, brothers and sisters. Both Goranska sites have become the brand for Goranska information. What forced me to make the Goranska sites is achieved. Goranis are now be free to discuss the issues, share images, to survey and write blogs, all without fear and without shame about their origin, and in a democratic way.
Radio Gora was established in Dragas 2 years ago. Prior to this there was no possibility to listen to the authentic and recognizable style of Goranska music or news around the world, where many Goranies now live, far from their homeland. Knowing Gorani, and their desire to hear the news of Gorani topics, and desire to listen to goranska, folk and pop music in concert, I worked with the director, Mr. Nuhija, and took upon myself the obligation and responsibility for radio to be broadcast via the internet to where Goranies were. I took responsibility for creating the website for RadioGora.net as well as for the radio server, which despite limited resources now plays almost all over the world to Goranies everywhere.
Currently for internet radio the maximum listening is 100 listeners at any one moment, but from this month we will switch radio-servers and be able to support 200 listeners at a time. RadioGora.net also has auto dj so that RadioGora is broadcast constantly, and, even at times when the Kosovo and Montenegro do not have any electricity, which is often the case, you will always be able to listen without problems to goranski or foreign music.
Always at your service, administrator Erol Sadiku!
Author: Erol Sadiku
