The Entrepreneurial Scene in Kosovo

Kosovo is not necessarily the first place you think of when you think "START UP." But like any new born country, you need young entrepreneurs to get things to happen (or at least raise some hell on occasion to get them to happen) . Meet Kushtrim Xhakli (pronounced like "exactly"). A young Kosovar, living in Lithuania, working on his own IT company, maker of trajnimi.com, which brought free IT education to Kosovo, later recognized and picked up by the "European Computer Driver's License" program and one of the contributors to Ipko, one of the few telecom companies and foundations in Kosovo. Yea. All that, and he is 27.

I originally intended to meet Kushtrim for coffee to talk about starting an incubator program for entrepreneurs at the American University in Kosovo. What we talked about was a lot more than that, and quite revealing of the business climate, the cultural climate, the corruption, and the frustrations in Kosovo. Not to mention, Kushtrim himself had a telling story that shunned nationalisms while upholding the basic idea in life, "TO JUST LIVE AND DO!"

We begin with business. He tells me about himself. Being bored with the rather ineffective education he was getting at the University of Prishtina, he dropped out and joined some guys at Ipko, a telecom company that is among one of the most successful, young, and innovative companies. (Recently bought out by a foreign investor for over $300 million or so). Getting the chance to build a company was rare. He began to get involved with the foundation after that, and soon enough, found himself designing trajnimi.com, a free IT education platform, which brought free IT education to Kosovo under the European Computer Driver's License program, software that taught people how to use certain basic programs (Word, excel, ppt) for business. At the time, it was hard to get people to buy it. There was private competition that would not let him enter the market. Some schmoozing with some guys in Politics (this will look good for you if you get elected), and soon everyone in the country had access to this FREE program. Over 18,000 people use it today. His project got him picked up by international news and he got involved with some Lithuanian investors. Today, he runs about 5 different projects.

One of the things he tries to do is introduce third party telecom companies into Kosovo. To him, its been like beating a dead horse. Currently, telecom is in many ways controlled by the state under a group called "PTK." (PTK has been under investigation for corruption for quite some time.) PTK is the telcom and postal authority here. The infrastructure is deteriorating and cell phone use is limited to calls and texts--for the most part in the country. Compared to the rest of Europe, cell phone capability is limited. Kushtrim comes in with investors to open up new companies. Basically, PTK officials say, "No, unless you give us money for a cut that we can take, we won't let you come in." Investors leave, disheartened by the blatant corruption and organized crime within the political parties here.

Kushtrim isn't afraid to say it. He is not afraid to point out that most of the people in the government are making a lot of money and not doing good for the country. Sadly, many of the people his age, who used to be young and idealistic, are trained in the system that has taken over "politics" in Kosovo. They are just as good and trained at taking money than anybody else.

So what does he do? Kushtrim, and a community of people like him, keep pushing the issue. He keeps building his own business in Lithuania (seeing that the Balkans can learn a lot from the Baltics and vice versa). He does not leave Kosovo though. It needs people like him. Revolutionary thinkers who know how to work through the bullshit and get something done (the program under European Computer Driver's License for example).

Patriotism for a working Kosovo comes in his blood, though not along ethnic lines--this brand of ethnic nationalism captures the minds of many young people. Kushtrim's father and siblings are painters and his mother teaches Ethics. Back during the war, Kushtrim's dad printed a magazine called, "Uprising" about independent Kosovo. It was distributed in Kosovo, but when his partner was caught and killed by Serbians (Milosevic's men), the "Xhakli" name was blacklisted by those Serbs. Fellow Kosovar Albanians next door (in the neighborhood) did not protect them, but booted them out for fear of their own welfare. They fled to Macedonia then Germany in cognito.

Naturally, after such experiences, Kushtrim is far from being an "Albanian Nationalist" and has, in his mind, more important things to do than argue who was in Kosovo first--an common discourse here. Kushtrim is, however, a patriot. He needs to bring in companies, bring in investors, and get past the bullshit that is plaguing Kosovo both on the international and domestic fronts. He sees the beauty and possibility of this New born Place ("way less boring than a place like Denmark or Sweden!" as he says). He won't give up on Kosovo. He holds Kosovo and its people accountable for what is happening there now.

In the mean time, he will live a humble life that Facebook pictures won't reveal (Portugal, London, Geneva, Monte Carlo). Traveling to San Fransisco next week, he will take on the giants of "Venture Capitalists." ("Not too different from Kosovo politicans" a friend told him. He should be fine).

His advice to Kosovo? "Just DO something with your life!" Its not about serbs or albanians, its about living a decent life, regardless of who or what or where you are. DO something! CREATE something! He is a living example of alternative life, education, and credentials.

The life on the unworn track is far more interesting after all.

ICJ Decision: Thoughts

July 22, 2010 marked a historic day for Kosovo when the International Court of Justice declared that Kosovo's Declaration of Independence was not illegal under international law. That night, the streets were riddled with Kosovo and Albanian flags, as youngsters partied, now having a new excuse to go to clubs on a Thursday night.

Yet, what are the implications? I sat in a cafe, watching the live proceedings on Al-Jazeera in English with my classmates, and one fascinating Serbian intellectual (who used to hang with Derrida and Foucault). The proceedings could bore anyone to sleep. Regardless, we all got beers and smoked cigarettes as if it were a sporting game. Barnaby Philips from Al-Jazeera gave commentary from a top the Grand Hotel Prishtina as if he were giving a play by play in football. The Hague looked like something out of Kafka: tall, menacing wood panels, with green felt adorning the judge's stand, and men dressed in large black robes with lace kerchiefs, an old man reading the proceedings as other judges remain silent.

Suddenly, it says on the screen that Kosovo's Declaration of Independence was legal. Cool. But we are skeptics in the audience. No statement on status? No statement on independence itself?

You see, the Court only decided on the legality of a DECLARATION of independence, not on Kosovo's status as a nation, or legality as an independent state. From the ICJ:

56. … The Court is not required by the question it has been asked to take a position on whether international law conferred a positive entitlement on Kosovo unilaterally to declare its independence or, a fortiori, on whether international law generally confers an entitlement on entities situated within a State unilaterally to break away from it. Indeed, it is entirely possible for a particular act ⎯ such as a unilateral declaration of independence ⎯ not to be in violation of international law without necessarily constituting the exercise of a right conferred by it. The Court has been asked for an opinion on the first point, not the second.

So, essentially, this was a question on a declaration, not on the rights assumed to be exercised under it.

Yet still, the BBC, Al-Jazeera and other news stations immediately slate the event as Kosovo's Independence is a legal matter itself.

Some concerns:

I wonder now, if other nations will use this as a prompt to actually declare independence, under the assumption of having a legal precedent, when in fact, the legitimacy of their statuses could be rather flawed. Meaning to say, if the declaration is legal and they take it as an exercise of the declaration is legal, what could this mean for the future of their states? To be honest, how feasible is it for the Basque region to declare independence? Did the ICJ open Pandora's box?

Next, Serbia shot itself in the foot if it was expecting a statement on status of Kosovo by asking the wrong question. They, instead, got a Kosovo Favored 10-4 response that Kosovo's declaration was legal. Naturally, asking a question on the status of Kosovo might have been premature, especially when it is such a tenuous topic in Serbia at the moment. If they have voted on the status of Kosovo, and it was favorable, would the country go into serious political discontent? Already, there is an economic system in place that is heading towards what Greece looks like, and they choose to focus on the status of Kosovo, instead of perhaps putting European integration ahead of status...

As one Serb told me upon the declaration, she was happy for Kosovo. Kosovo deserved this, but she wept for her own people. As she said, they keep on concentrating on Kosovo when we are already a poor country. They won't let it die and it is killing our nation and preventing us from joining the EU and perhaps salvaging ourselves. I want to change things in Serbia, but I'm losing a battle. Serbia, even with the ICJ decision still chooses to ignore their statement and pursue this cause of Kosovo when it is not worth it. Its a huge waste of Money. I hope to tell my children someday that I helped change Serbia, but if this hard-liner attitude keeps up, I may just tell them I left Serbia for their sake.

I weep for Serbia, not because they lost this battle, or even for losing Kosovo, but because they won't give Kosovo up and concentrate on other issues that are more in their power to change.

A Serious Cafe Experience

Sitting in comfy white deck chairs, outside a Corbusier-esque building, with black window linings and Janis Joplin rockin in the background, bullshitting with some hip, well dressed college kids, you would never think that only 11 years before this place, Kosovo, would be suffering from a bloody war.

Yet despite the posh cafe environment, don't for a minute think the conversation is fluffy and as white as the furniture. I'm sitting in a cafe with my friend Gresa, and her friends, Edon, Kaltrina, and Besart. We begin talking about how cool Kaltrina's heart shaped pupils are, and about how Besart goes to school in Pittsburgh at RMU. Yet our conversation falls into something serious and honest: what is it like living in post-war Kosovo? what do you think about it?

Our conversation has trips and turns, coffees and cheesecakes. While some conversations (as we've seen) can get very Nationalistic and political in Kosovo, these level headed, visionary, brave, and extremely well dressed (!! hehe) college kids reveal what they think. They came, interested with my blog, but eager to debate a few points. I told them my frustrations, but after they gave me theirs. The dialog, abridged here, could not better sum up an honest Kosovo experience:

Me: So I told you how the bullshit, the corruption can get to anyone here in the development community. You read the blog. What do you guys think? Tell me what I should know. The table (and cheesecake is yours).

Besart (B): You get used to the Bullshit. After hanging out with the bulls for so long, you get used to it. But for me, once I left Kosovo to Pittsburgh to go to Robert Morris University, the bulls looked like ants from afar, and then once I came back, I was not used to the bull's and their shit. I was depressed for a month, wrote poetry. People just hold a lot in, get used to the bullshit, then explode on things, like the panel. At a certain point, when one thing is done well, you almost don't believe in it because all you hear about is corruption in the papers.

"You might not have seen worse, but for many people, they might not have seen better."

At this point, Edon comes in. He has a great kind New York accent, but is all about Kosovo. He does graphic design, art, and other projects. He is about images and focuses on the significance of the Albanian eagle in his analysis.

Edon: "I think if you wanna understand it, you gotta go WAY back, I mean WAY back."

We then proceed to go into milestones in history of the regions. For those of you who don't know the history, here is a brief overview of what we looked like:

"6th century, we say Serbs and Albanians meet. We, Albanians, lay cultural heritage to the Illyrians, who had been living in the area. From the white pure hats we wear, we get the name, 'Albanoid'. The Balkans have always been the site of conflict between East and West. So the mentality, of 'Protect you own because the enemy is coming' might have developed. Its not even about serbs and Albanians, its just about keeping yourself safe from any intrusion. So time passes, Slav rulers invade. Later still, the Ottomans.

"Now, our national hero, scanderbeg"

Me: "Now, who is this guy? Everyone claims him as his own! Serbs say he's serb, Albanians say he's Albanian."

Edon: "He was Albanian. When the Ottomans came, Albanians fled to the hills and 'stayed with the eagles' hence how we got the Double headed eagle"

Me: "Wasn't that also a Russian, slav symbol too?"

Edon: "I mean, sure, but its very Albanian. Our language, which we call 'Shqiptar' literally means 'Eagle'. Symbols have brought us together and united us in times of adversity. We trace this back to Scanderbeg. Fast forward. Albanians are converted to Islam in the Ottoman empire. The Ottomans are defeated, Austro-Hungary comes from the North. Nationalism is growing anyway, all over the place. Thanks to France, haha. In 1912, the serbs, Bulgarians, and others team up against the Ottomans. But Albania doesn't join the alliance. why? One, we aren't Slavic, our language is completely unrelated to ANY other language, kinda like the Georgians, the Basque people."

Gresa: "Yea, when I worked in Disney World on work-study, we used to make bets on whether or not Brazilian or Albanian was a stranger language. We won."

THE 20th CENTURY

Edon: "But once again, in 1912, Albania got its own country. Once again, this Albanian eagle arises. Once again, war strikes though in WWII, Nazi Italian occupation, you know the drill."

Besart: "Now you know how we have dark hair and aren't pure white Albanoids... haha"

Edon: " Anyways, I mean, once again, later on, Albania fights back. After the creation of Yugoslavia in the 40s, Albania is a separate country. However, a lot of Albanians are living in Kosovo, which is part of Yugoslavia. Kosovo is not a republic, but rather under Serbian control. Under Tito, things were fine, but once he died, it got back for Albanians in a Slavic nation. Everyone wanted their own nationalism. Under Serbian Milosevic in the 80s and 90s, Albanians really suffered in Kosovo.

THE 90s

"Growing up in the 90s Albanians did not have the right to go to school or use public benefits. We were marginalized. It was like Milosevic wanted us out. Cops would walk down the street, we would get scared and run away or else they would beat our parents up for fun. They wanted us to go back to Albania. "

Me: " Why?"

Edon: ....."Because they wanted more territory."

Me: "Okay, but there is more to it...."

Edon: " Of course, but this is generally speaking. Albanians were makin' a lot of kids. No Condoms back then. Only 3 kids?? Anyways, once again, the ALbanian flag comes back to keep us united and strong against others."

ON HISTORY

Me: "But up to this point you gave me landmarks, not really why things happen. You are trying to explain this Albanian unity, but history is not fact. Its the facts you choose."

Edon: " I mean, yea. But you asked about unity. This is the history. This is how we keep together. History."

Conflict

Edon: So 1994, KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army began to fight back against oppression by Serbs headed up by Hashem Thaci. Things heat up, until 1998-1999. Now it gets bad. You know about the massacres that start international attention. Thats when shit happened.

Gresa: I remember hearing about how NATO was gonna start bombing. The war was starting. We left to Macedonia. We were refugees. I was just a kid. People were even getting killed at the border at the neutral zone. It was hard. You get through to Macedonia and the press attacked! They had not been let inside. I remember being hungry. Were you hungry?

Besart: "Day 6? I felt really shitty. Hundreds of cars were at the border, but Kaltrina's dad let us pass them."

Gresa: "I remember not sleeping for 48 hours."

Me: "Why did you think all of this was happening."

Gresa: "It was hard to say. I was young. It was hard to understand. Kosovo is rich in resources, and a lot of Albanians were actually very well educated. Before, they went abroad, like our fathers and Grandfathers, they went to Sarajevo, Zagreb, Germany, even Belgrad during Tito to learn. it was just our generation that suffered, but our parents made sure we were educated. We weren't all poor!"

Edon: "You are lucky you got out. I was stuck in Kosovo. I remember 3 months, staying in the same apartment. No food, water, electricity. My mom was fluent in serbian. She would go out, dressed up as a beautiful serbian woman and get us food. she would come back with bread. The windows, I remember, were covered so no one would know and no snipers could get us. Sometimes, paramilitaries would come, dressed in masks, cowboy hats, military gear. They would beat up your parents.

"Yet I remember during this time, I would draw a lot. I had a notebook and would draw Albanian Eagles and NATO soldiers. My mom found a drawing once. She was so angry, saying it could kill us. I still have that drawing.... "

Kaltrina: "I remember too, this first and second floor thing. We would all want to stay on the same floor together. The brave people stayed on the second floor. It was harder to get out. Also with airstrikes. It was safer below. The sky was like morning...."

Besart: "You would also never know. Your Serb neighbors would turn out to be paramilitaries. When we left to Macedonia, we were stopped by some. One turned out to be our neighbor. He helped us by telling us a better route to leave so we wouldn't get hurt."

Gresa: "Guys, Danielle and I have a paper. We should get going."

If only you were there to hear this. There is much to learn. Call it raw material for short stories, but here is text for you all in the States to chew on.

More importantly, the calm attitude. These students, sitting in a cafe in Prishtina, listening to Janis Joplin, are the future. They are my anti-bullshit factor. My anti-drug. The composure... like they were telling childhood stories.

I have much to learn from such composure.

Announcement of New "Voices" Series

Suddenly realizing that more people read my blog than I imagined, I feel a higher call of duty to provide unique perspectives and stories about the people who "move" Kosovo.

This is also an attempt to amp up my own writing and chronicling of lives, people and places. I understand that my writing here has never been (and never admitted to be) professional pieces, though I definitely do all I can to present accurate facts and figures. I am, I repeat, 20 years old, not a professional journalist, but rather a person in showing pictures and places.

So. Look out for a new "WOMAN OF MANY NATIONS." Someone who does more than tweets fun tidbits, but also more mature content. More than Mom and Dad apparently read this (the blog was originally started for them to keep track of me...) I never knew the scope of my audience until now, especially in Kosovo.

Check out my new "Voices" Series. Certain posts about the lives in stories of individuals that show society. I'm not trying to do politics. I'm simply trying to show something you would not see otherwise. I'm trying to experiment with a type of writing that is not journalism, but almost contemporary story telling. I promise no more cheesy snoop dog, kanun comparisons!

Get ready!

Internal Conflict: Keeping your head with your heart in Kosovo

When I try to tell my parents over Skype what I see here, the first thing they may ask "Are you safe? Don't cause trouble. Don't get hurt."

Don't get hurt.

C'mon. This is Prishtina. Generally speaking, a safer place than New Haven, CT. But sorry to report, I have been "hurt" here.

Look, I'm not going to pretend that I am "hurt" more than someone who actually experienced the war. Not for a minute. However, let me explain.

Truth be told, trying to understand a conflict is not as easy as passive observation. It takes a desire to understand suffering, hate, violence, strategy, injustice, defense, aggression, economics, politics, law, and power. To see all of this played out on a daily basis, even 11 years after the war, and 6 years after major uprisings... well, lets just say it takes its toll. It hurts the most optimistic of optimists. And I tend to be cynical.

In reaction to injustice, corruption, hatred, defensiveness, and politics, I feel a strange sense of idleness, inability, frustration. I get angry having been thrown into a room to discuss (for 9 hours each day) the politics of conflict, listening to who was hurt more, and seeing the anger and frustration between Serbs and Albanians in the classroom (some of whom had family members in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and had family members die either from airstrikes or people). After a while, the anger, frustration, prejudice, and politics get to you. You can no longer passively sit, watch, and understand. Unless you (as the "western observer") check your emotions from time to time, they can consume you. At a certain point, your blood boils and reason is lost. Then you realize, "Shit son! This is conflict!"

Let me explain a day in my life here to elaborate:

Friday: A panel between two journalists, one Serb, Nenad Maksimovic and one Albanian Kosovar from the BBC, Arber Vllahu, and the moderator, a Kosovar Albanian, Behar Zogiani. The panel is "supposed" to be on how to conduct ethical, unbiased journalism in a warzone.

The speech begins with Arber saying that what happened in 1999 was a "genocide." He goes into a description of his personal experience of people being tortured, and wounded.

Yea. The room gets heated. The Serb rebuts with numbers (a quick fact check follows by everyone in the room). Then, all of the Albanian Kosovars in the audience sit up in their seats, start shouting out loud at the Serb, trying to convince him it was a genocide, or ethnic cleansing. A genocide, defined by article two of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, is "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.". I am not here to tell you what I think about whether it was a genocide or not (Noam Chomsky, for instance says no). There is no UN ruling or court ruling that what happened in Kosovo was a genocide. However, the Jews in the audience are getting frustrated and upset that the "G" word is applied to something they think it is not. Everyone has a conflict, an experience, a suffering, or a side to defend. Both my friend Anastasia and I ask if the moderator could clarify the argument. He had let it go unchecked up to that point.

As the conversation continues, you get more attempts at "who was hurt more and why" in the conversation. The politics in the room are heating up and soon some of the staff of the university chime in their two bits. A lone Serbian student in the room asks for respect--it was Milosevic, not him or the journalist on the panel, who conducted the horrors of 1999.

The BBC journalist is trying to uphold his unbiased view towards news. The Serbian is trying to not be the "ugly Belgrade Milosevic lover" in the room. I get so fed up with "I AM AN UNBIASED JOURNALIST" defense that I ask about the media's role in the 2004 uprisings, where 3 Albanian kids drowned in a river. The TV blamed it on the serbs and consequently riots broke out, hundreds of churches were destroyed and people (mostly serbs) were killed or thrown out of their houses. HOW can media be unbiased in a place where Albanian flags and Serbian flags still mark territory as if Kosovo itself did not exist? I get the confession, "MEDIA IS BIASED IN KOSOVO" straight from the horses' mouths.

The question remains, "Why did I want such a confession? Why did I feel so angry at both parties for their fighting?"

I leave the room wanting to crawl under a table. My blood is boiling with a frustration, "DON'T THEY REALIZE THIS FINGER-POINTING IS WHY THEY ARE STILL SUFFERING?" I can try to empathize, but I want peace. There are frustrations running all over the place by westerners in the class who just do not know what to think or do now. When you have never had to experience war, empathy may be there, but how much do we really understand the psychology of war? Its easy for me to see this, but I did not have an uncle shot by Milosevic's guys or a church burned.

Fast forward to later in the day. I'm already sweating bullets. I'm riding a cab to a group of Serbian refugees who live in shipping containers (and have for 11 or 6 years, 1999 or 2004 being the move-in date). They sit on their "porches" and usually share cigarettes, jokes, and grievances. Most are old Serbs, still fighting land disputes with Albanians.

One woman, Toni Schmilka, has been there for 6 years. In 2004, a group of Albanians brutally beat up her husband and kicked them out of their apartment. Today, an Albanian lives there. When her husband went back later (even to collect bills in his name there...), he fought with the Albanian. He had a heart attack in his car from the stress, and died. Toni is now fighting a legal battle for the land, but all of the judges are on vacation and there are way too many cases like hers for anything to happen quickly.

The refugees may have families in Serbia, but they do not live with them. Many of the refugees are older, very sick, in need of medicine, and more. They do not go hungry but eat moldy bread. They cannot get jobs. Even Kosovar Albanians cannot get jobs when 40% of the population is unemployed, and its worse for Serbs. Soon, KEK, the Kosovar power plant will start charging them for electricity. KEK does not employ Serbs and will be privatizing soon, so no hand outs to Serbs. The Serbian government does nothing for them. The Ministry of Returns and Refugees in Kosovo does nothing.

All I could do for these guys was share some fancy Djarum cigarettes I brought for them. Its about the nicest thing someone has done for them in a while. I didn't want to make any more empty promises.

The thing that angered me even more was the man with 7 children who moved there 3 months ago because of a land dispute with a brother serb. He was shouting at his wife and demanding that my russian friend Anastasia get Russia to do something for them. His daughter was dying of brain cancer.

So I sat there, angry at the Serbs, the Kosovars, the Albanians, the Serbian government, this asshole who could not take care of his 7 kids, all the while, this blind girl dying of a brain tumor traced the lines of my Orthodox cross bracelet. She pulls me close to her and kisses my cheek when I leave. I look at the eyes of a Canadian girl with me. The sense of inability, confusion, and frustration was enough to make me call a cab early and leave.

Later that day, a man came up to me in a cafe, shouting at me in Albanian. I didn't know what to do. Later, I found out that he was upset that I was an Albanian who did not speak Albanian. That I was forsaking my people. That I should be ashamed at my inability to connect to my people. I had enough.... I told him I was an American so he should just speak English to me or leave me alone. Apparently I look like an Albanian.

Later again, a man grabbed my sweater in the street and I screamed at him. I suddenly was filled with so much rage.

I can only tell you that later that night, someone asked me what I was doing in Kosovo. I was too emotional to answer. Even to someone I love, I lashed out, "I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT! I FEEL SO FRUSTRATED I CAN'T TAKE IT HERE! I HATE THE POLITICS! I HATE THE LACK OF ABILITY! I HATE THE ALBANIAN NATIONALISM! I HATE THE SERBIAN INABILITY TO HELP THEIR OWN REFUGEES! I CANNOT STAND THE POLITICS OF EVERY CONVERSATION! I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING HERE SO DON'T ASK!"

Later, I calmed down. I realize what I was doing. I was beginning, ever so small and minutely, to understand conflict. I was understanding pieces in the chess puzzle of conflict, and not just as another law student studying Kosovo from afar, but as a human being.

I started writing a short story.

How do you keep a mind and heart in check? How do you keep your head when conflict and violence are not there "to make things clear," but rather confusion, frustration, nationalism, hate, prejudice, and pain that you don't understand? I had been feeling these things and the fact that I felt them scared me.

I realized that I would have to continue observing, feeling, hurting, but making sure to keep my perspective. I really am learning something and understanding some of the most ugly and beautiful interactions we humans must face.

I know I have not expressed every "side" here, or everyone's experience. I have listened to the grievances of Albanians from the time before 1999. I have visited Reycak and seen the graves of the massacre there. I have listened to Serbs talk about their houses being burnt down and their husbands beaten to death in 2004. I have listened to Albanians tell me about how they watched their families killed in front of their eyes by the hands of Milosevic's army.

It hurts me. I cannot deny it. Of course not as much as they have. The first problem a "third party" faces is the feeling of inability, the feeling of the need to take sides in order to "help." Feeling these frustrations, seeing the suffering, all of this hurts you. You can't understand why they cannot understand that these ethnic hatreds are what perpetuate conflict. Yet at the same time, you know they that even though they may know this, psychology is a funny thing. Death and war does hard things to the mind. Hurt continues.

What I have written here has not come to any conclusion on "who was right and who was wrong." I only wanted to show the mental difficulty of all sides in trying to move on (or understand) after conflict. This is written for those abroad, who have not seen such things as Kosovo. Those Kosovars here, (whether you are Albanian, Serb, Turk, or Egyptian), please understand that I do not want to take sides. I only want to show something to those at home that this conflict is not so easy as they may think. I'm sorry if I have offended anyone, I do not mean to. I am sorry for what has happened to you. I will empathize, but never enough for what you truly deserve. Yet you have a heavy and hard job now to make peace. Change history. Just because fighting happened before, does not mean it has to continue. I have faith in you.

Snoop Dog and the Kanun

" No one in my clique fails
As females with the almighty Father lead
Succeedin' ta give my peep's just what they need
And it ain't no party like this kind,
Cause you can leave your worries behizzind " ---Snoop Dogg, "The Doggfather"

With lyrics like this, I could not help but think that Kosovo was the perfect place for an artist like Snoop Dogg to visit.

Yes. Y'all hear me. Snoop D double O G came to Prishtina on July 10th with Z mobile. After .50 cent made an appearance last summer, Kosovo has been bringing a lot of older generation rap artists to Kosovo.

Now, Kosovo, as you all know, and Albania for that matter has always been stereotyped as a place of corruption, the mafia, pretty women, and big parties that made The Boston Globe vote Prishtina the "ugliest and most fun capital in Europe." (March 21, 2010). Basically, there is a culture here of good drinks, good clubs, sexy women, horny men, and maybe even an admiration for the mafia culture (family, blood, money).

This family, blood culture (both mentioned above and in Snoop Dogg's gangsta lyrics) recalls to me the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, an ancient code of Albanian law dating back to the Bronze Age, whose four main "pillars" are

1) Honor

2) Hospitality

3) Right Conduct

4) Kin Loyalty.

The Kanun also permits a practice of Gjakmarrja, a blood feud or revenge where a family member can kill someone for some sort of dishonor or death of a relative even generations before. This creates (or comes from) a very close knit, almost mafia culture itself.

So Snoop Dog. Albanians here must be diggin his sounds. So, I go to the concert for 10 Euros. The place is hopping. A haze of cigarette smoke covers the crowd (a Ferrari with free Winston cigarettes was parked outside). Lots of boozin and lawlessness, though they did pat me down and search my purse quite seriously.

I stand in the crowd and listen to a ton of other Kosovar artists (one just holding a mic to do "O! O!" voice overs to Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg). After all of this and a bunch of call and response, an hour after the opening acts, Snoop comes on, singing a lot of his old 90s hits.

When the crowd gets a bit tired, he says, "I know what is goin make y'all jump around!" Cue the song, "Jump Around." Snoop Doggy Dog brings out an Albanian flag, making all of the ethnic Albanian Kosovars freak out in delight. A mosh pit erupts.

Later on, Kosovars give him a "Kosova" flag and shirt, making the lyric true,

I'm a gangsta, but y'all knew that
Da Big Bo$$ Dogg, yeah I had to do that
I keep a blue flag hanging out my backside
But only on the left side, yeah that's the Crip side
Ain't no other way to play the game the way I play
I cut so much you thought I was a DJ" ----Snoop Dog's "Drop it Like Its Hot"

A gangsta kid comes on stage and the delight trifecta is complete: Kids, Kosova, and Albania.

Snoop Dog ends up speaking about how "I Love Kosovo, its a beautiful country and whenever you Muthaf***ers want me back, I'm here yall. If all you hatas don't like it, you can just f**k off!"

I really think he is an Albanian Kosovar, or maybe this whole country just thinks that they are all Crips.

"The Sun Rises in the West"

When the UN and NATO sought to create a stable multi-ethnic society in Kosovo, I don't know if they envisioned a multi-national society as it is now. Walking down the streets, you see more Norwegian NATO, American lawyers, Austrian bankers, and Turkish businessman more often than not. An Albanian once joked with me, "Because I'm an Albanian, I am a minority here." Talk to many Albanian Kosovars here, and they will tell you they like the international presence. They are thankful for it. As the joke goes, "The Sun rises in the west for Albanians." The society here attempts to adopt the styles, the fashions, the look and feel of the West (whether by choice or by the forces of internationalization of the region... you choose).

In reality, UNMIK, EULEX, and K-FOR sought to create a multi-ethnic society where the Albanians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Turks, Christians and Muslims could live in peace. Generally, society is getting along with help of international security and heavy policing, but some ethnocentrism and blood feuds from the war and ongoing conflict remain. For instance, the divided city of Mitrovica, where Serbs live in the North of the central bridge and Albanians live in the South, there is still ethnic violence. A few days ago, a grenade went off killing one. Ethnic tensions still exist, even as a lot of the population westernizes or caters to international expectations.

All of the ethnic divides in a NATIONAL population of around 2 million are a cause for concern for the population living there. Can 2 million people of different faiths, ethnicities, and historical antipathy towards one another really live together as such distinct identities? To many, the answer is no. The result? The government tries to homogenize some of the most obvious outliers of the population. They try to ban Muslim headscarves first of all from public places. The result? A huge protest of 1,000 people wearing traditional Muslim garb. Two days ago, a Kosovar Serb Parliamentarian went to North Mitrovica to convince the Serbs there (still living under Serbian flags, Serbian money, and no license plates), to accept Kosovo's legitimacy and government and was consequently shot in the leg.

Trying to force the population under a single identity is not easy. Clearly.

One wary taxi driver once told me, "We have to be the same. We cannot have one foot in the West, one arm in Islam, one head in Albania, one leg in Austria, one hand in Serbia, and this idea that we are still Kosovo. It is not possible."

Can Kosovo be a multicultural America with such a small population? As they say here, "What to do..." No question mark.

PS Keep your eye out on my piece of Journalism about Serbian Refugees.

The 51st State and the 4th of July

Many people ask me about the culture in Prishtina. While I cannot speak for the greater Kosovo area, I can give you a glimpse into life here:

On any given weekday, you can walk down the main boulevard to see plastic seals, gummy balls, and corn being sold to young mothers in flashy clothing holding finicky two year olds. Young tween girls flock arm in arm in excessive amounts of what looks like Limited Too pink gear. Boys in embroidered jeans and high maintenance hair styles stare at me. Women who look like Ke$ha trip in high heels. Many people sip tasty macchiatos in outdoor cafes, while young professionals from around the world carry backpacks and speak loudly in English. Kosovo is a poor country, judging by the high numbers of brand new Mercedes Benz SUVs, BMWs, and even VWs. Store fronts boast "AMERICAN CLOTHES" and "VICTORY FASHIONS" with flashy made up women as models. Streets are cracking and old buildings in the center of the city still stand. Inserted in the cracks are pieces of American capitalism gone a little haywire.

Despite being a generally poor country, everyone is decked out in many accessories that begs a sort of western acceptance. As one Albanian joked with me, "We albanians are minorities here. Everyone is either a foreigner or wants to be one."

This is accurate. On the 4th of July, I celebrated with hundreds of other Kosovars, listening to local artists on a main stage that had an American flag waving proudly, with the words "Hello America" on a poster with the statue of liberty behind the stage. Everyone stood back as camera crews took up the closest spots to the stage (a good 15ft by 15 foot square). The broadcast was certainly for someone else. I had "Enchiladas ala bil clinton" at the "Route 66" cafe. There were fireworks and celebrations. Even the Canadians, Dutch, and Swedish Ex-pats were celebrating.

On a banner nearby, there flew the Albanian flag, the American flag, the Kosovar flag, the British flag, and the Italian flag. Another building was waving the Swedish flag. Viennese chocolates are sold in grocery stores and Turkish Borek and Doner is everywhere. Don't forget the mosques and the ladies in hijab. Like any good European country, Kosovo too is trying to ban the veil--though protests fueled with 1000s of Muslim veiled women, men in beards, and foreign money take to the streets.

Where is Kosovo? Where is the "culture"? Call it what you will, but in many ways, it is a bit of a mini capitalist Epcot center, where the culture is an amalgamation of cultures, dollars, and music tastes.