Failing Parallel Systems: Serbia Can't Afford Kosovo

For the past 12 years, driving through many Serbian enclaves in Kosovo one would see an abundance of people sitting as "security guards" at banks, post offices, and courts. However, none of these banks, post offices, or courts were run by Kosovo. Rather they were part of a parallel system funded by Belgrade. The many people employed there were also funded by Belgrade. For 12 years, many of these Serbs in Kosovo collected a check from Belgrade to resist assimilation into the Kosovo state system, or to even open businesses, go to Kosovo run schools, or take advantage of other benefits from the international community that was aligned with Kosovo.


For many years, these Serbs were under the patronage of Belgrade, collecting checks. That said, there were other checks from other internationals, and from Kosovo. Lets just say, there was money from different people at different times.

This kind of apathy and stagnation trickled down to the kids in the population, as described by my friend from Belgrade working there with the international community (excuse the vagueness, I just don't want to "expose" him). When the system was such that you could collect a check, very few youngsters made an effort to take advantage of opportunities within Kosovo or beyond.

This same friend mentioned before, working with Serbian IDPs in an enclave here, then told me something crazy. He could not get into his office because of very large protests of Serbians. He inquired into what was happening.

Belgrade had cut funding. They could not afford to pay for the six security guards at the post office in this parallel system. With economic troubles, it just was unfeasible to keep the remnants of this protest against Kosovo alive. At a certain point dollars speak louder than nationalism.

To boot, no one really reported this on the news; neither in Kosovo, nor Serbia, nor the English sources. Naturally, there is a strategic interest to not report this. Serbia doesn't want to seem like it is giving up on Kosovo and Kosovo often times doesn't want to admit this parallel system.

Naturally, all of this information is from word of mouth and from spending time with Serbian IDPs in this country. However, this is a critical sign at a critical moment in Kosovo. Serbia can't afford Kosovo anymore. There are bigger fish (like EU membership) to fry. With money leaving from many of the serial donors of days past, Kosovo could be facing a lot of civil unrest from the youth and now, even from the old who received those checks. Time is ticking in Kosovo.

Congrats South Sudan: Reflections from Kosovo, the 2nd Youngest

Last night, I sat in the NATO military base in Kosovo, Film City. With the American and Portuguese troops, I had delicious BBQ, sang 50s songs, and joked about riding a tank with them that is still on the base. These troops were still getting combat pay, meaning to say that they get the same pay in Afghanistan and Kosovo if they are the same rank. We drank to the fact that NATO will never leave in 100 years (the hope of many here) and that Kosovo was no longer the youngest country in the world.

Today, at a constitutional law conference designed in part by USAID to consult on amending the articles of the constitution dealing presidential elections, revamping the presidency (possibly making changes from vote by parliament to direct vote), and rethinking presidential powers. Considering 2/3 presidents in Kosovo have violated the constitution, serious problems exist in both the constitutional court and very possibly the constitution itself. Anyways, one person with a kind of melancholy announced, "KOSOVO IS NO LONGER THE YOUNGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD."

The room was quiet for a moment. Suddenly constitutional reform was not as much an adventure of a new nation, but a task and duty that had to be readjusted because of failure. Naturally Kosovo is still new born, but the branding of "THE YOUNGEST" is not there. There was a lot of work to do, a lot of laws to change, a lot of rewriting of constitutions, a lot of corruption to kick, and a lot of mandates to meet.

Reflecting on all of these things, I realize that the term "STATE-BUILDING" is perhaps more of a vogue thing in Political Science terms; it sounds nice and when you look from afar, it certainly does seem like "building" a state. It was very attractive for a while until I think many realized, on the ground and not from afar (with the challenges--sometimes failures--in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, etc.) that you don't go in and "BUILD" anything. I argue the better term is "TRANSITIONING" not so much building. "STATE-BUILDING" seems vain, imperialistic even as a term. Frustrating at times. Perhaps some think it is like building a country in Sid Meiers Civilization. The thought is that "THE PEOPLE" will build this government and state, when in reality power remains in the hands of very few, if not completely foreign individuals. "Building" is one thing. "Getting by" seems more like it. Even just not falling backwards, but moving forwards. With failed missions like the ICO in Kosovo (recently insinuated by many journalists and newspapers as a failed mission), there are a lot of haunting and frustrating things ahead in the future for young states coming out of serious conflict zones.

I think about what is ahead for South Sudan. Secession is easier than building a country. "Getting by" is hard enough. The expectation of international assistance has its own complications as well. While I tend to be happy for South Sudan for its secession (and its recognition, something Kosovo will continue to struggle with), I can't help but think of the challenges of just putting together a decent constitution... and making sure people follow it. Luckily its secession was recognized by Sudan (Serbia still refuses to recognize Kosovo), but challenges still lie ahead. one challenge out of the way...

Kosovo is a lot better than it was 12 years ago, but it has a long way to go and optimism is beyond even waning. While I am happy for South Sudan, I can't help but think about where it may possibly be 5 or 10 years from now.

Liminality: Kosovo in Stages

Pardon my perhaps "aimless" reflection. Indulge me in this post. I promise some more investigative and interesting posts after this:

A dear friend of mine once describe me as a liminal person: always between one belief, place, status, identity or another one. I would say this may be true, but less because of liminality and more because of my own personal interest in both sides of the same coin.

Perhaps this is what draws me to Kosovo, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Palestine, Nagorno-Karabagh and many other places that have a liminal status.

The fascinating thing about Kosovo is that I have seen it develop and change in three years now. Someone has joked to me that Kosovo is kind of like Hotel California. You can check in any time you like, but you just can't leave. You can stab it with your steely knives but you just can't kill the beast. Its a kind of place that endlessly has something to change, develop or grow. Because of the general openness of the population here, most things like national politics, information, gossip, networks, and news are in your grasp. Learning about how development, change, transitioning, and growth (or decline) after a high profile war is all at your finger tips here and there is a temptation to continue to watch where it goes.

In any case, I have seen Kosovo on the threshold of many different stages each year. When I first arrived in 2009 for only 4 short days in Kosovo, NATO (KFOR, the Kosovo NATO mission) was just beginning to pull out its street patrols in the capital. I could still see Italian troops in the street, guarding Mother Theresa street. Kosovars, still high from independence were very optimistic; I was, after all, at a youth entrepreneurial conference. Many internationals were very obviously still here. The following year, the first day I touched down in 2010 there was a some several thousand Muslims protesting for the right to wear hijab in school. A stray away from the farm? NATO still patrolled parts like Mitrovica and I witnessed IDPs that still did not have homes. KFOR billboards lined the streets and so did Tony Blair's face!

This year, I had to search for NATO cars and the billboards were not as obvious. Barbed wire still abound, but rusting everywhere, the first thing I see are Muslim protests in the street for the right to mosques. Major mergers in parties had occurred between a very pro-economic reform group and a seemingly anti-internationalist, near anarchist group (that had not been a political party until recently). One politician, recently charged with war crimes, had his party pay for billboards showing their support for him and denouncing any allegation of violent crime. Somehow, things were on a different stage entirely. People were restless. There were recent protests against government corruption as well. That said, the IDPs I had visited, now had houses. Something had developed and grown, though the main street (Mother Theresa) still had not been completed and was the same as it was last year. Kosovo seems to be a place that always changes but always stays the same.

Perhaps there is a constant state of limbo in Kosovo that is of interest to a scholar or journalist. The general openness of all the people here allows you to get a glimpse into everything from pop culture, corruption, islamic fundamentalism, politics, education, and the military. Though now 12 years after the war, Kosovo has a long way to go, but with every year, takes a step towards a new "inbetween." I am fascinated to see its direction and its development and have been honored to watch it.

Belgrade and the Theater of Necessity

In geopolitical lingo, the word "theater" describes a "region where active military operations are in progress" or more generally "a region where significant events and actions are played out." The world naturally has many theaters of this sort.

Somehow, Belgrade is a true theater, of both the artistic and geopolitical sense of the word.

During my time in Belgrade this weekend, I had the honor and pleasure of visiting with Borka Pavicevic, an iconic artistic, political, social, and activist figure in Belgrade for the past 30 or so years. She is an actress and theater maker by trade and part of the famed Belgrade circle of intellectuals, a now dying or disbanded breed that included Foucault, Habermas, Derrida, and Savic (who I also met) among others. Borka has an air about her. Probably 60 something, she wears slinky shifty dresses, old pearls, dons a bold dark stripe in grey hair, wears deep matte red lipstick, and never is seen without a cigarette. Her deep voice is a strange mix between an old bubby and a sex symbol. Her presence commands attention and her words reveal a depth of understanding in terms easily understood (to agree or disagree with!).

Borka Pavicevic

Today she is a leading chair at the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade and an active translator, writer, theater maker, and cultural envoy in Europe and the world. She works also with the Youth Initiative for Human Rights--the most effective, organized, and professional human rights agency I've ever witnessed. They have objectives, strategies, and achievable goals to promote democracy, civil engagement, and a revival of Serbian optimism for a new option and new alternative to old Nationalistic discourses that cling to Kosovo at the expense of progress.

As an artist in a theater of operations that has seen Turks, Austrians, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Russians, Internationals, the US, and more, she is very concerned with elements of identity--both as we understand and construct it. The Balkans have historically been a clusterf*ck of identities. In Borka's example: "Former professors of Marxism are now professors of religion!" Particularly now, when old religious and nationalist identities are reemerging in the vacuum of money, stability, and economy in Serbia, identity is a huge issue. She described the reemergence of these beliefs and ideologies--particularly with the Orthodox Church and its relationship to culture and even art.

One of her most memorable quotes to me was this, "A Church without belief is kitsch. Church and the theater require belief, a necessity. With a church, you can build a building and they will come when they need it. With a theater, you cannot just build the building. The people ARE the theater."

Borka, admittedly said that the Theater was mostly disbanded in the 1990s. Today, she is trying to bring it back. As she said, she NEEDS to bring it back to counteract the extremist nationalist, old-school-Serb dialog that holds back a lot of progress in Serbia. The theater gets to those people and the people are going to the theater. As a symbol of progress and peace herself, Borka is shaping a "Theater of Necessity" in Belgrade (not an official title mind you, but concept). There is an agenda in this theater (theater defined here by the people in it), an agenda to salvage, form, and show a process of forming an identity that will move Serbia forward and not keep it back.

The Theater is Necessary because Change is necessary or else Serbia will face dire economic, political, and social consequences (estimated to be on level with those of Greece's recent economic collapse.) When done well, the theater is a machine which we must desire to create and by which we rethink ourselves.

I have been reading current plays from the region, particularly those of Jeton Neziraj, a Kosovar playwright who has gained international renown for single handedly creating a theater in Kosovo, but a theater that actively helps the population rethink war, conflict, and identity. For those skeptics of political theater (I speak to those purists out there!), Neziraj's plays are not solely works of political theater, but are strong piece of literature, regardless of where you come from.

It got me to thinking about my theater. All of these artists are using the theater, not for commercial or entertainment reasons solely, but for a necessary political, ideological, and life-saving agenda. Theater, not just film, has always been a way of bearing witness to people and their actions in a way that film just does not achieve in the same way. It is a near religious experience when done well.

These artists NEED the theater they create and form. It begged me to rethink what I am creating, doing, and saying with my theater.

Immediately after talking to Borka, I contacted several dear theater making friends of mine, calling for a reform of our juvenile theater and coming to a greater intensity of purpose and ideas in what we create. What do we need in creating theater? Why do we need it? Do we even need it?

I beg of you to post responses about what you need in theater.

Responses, however random or unorganized they are, are below:

"I thought how wonderful it could be to teach kinesthetic response workshops to people all over the world. The workshops are aiming to get people in touch with their own center, to respond physically and emotionally to their own complicated thoughts and drives, in a creative, instead of destructive, way; as well as responding to others in the same ways." Timmia HF

"[Theater] goes deeper than that (or perhaps shallower), I'm talking about people like us. not every so-called intellectual is ever going to want to really think. Not every so-called artist is ever going to want to truly create and speak to God. But artists are modern-day prophets." -Timmia HF

"At Yale, in theater, and often, in class, we try to say and do things that are "necessary" because their necessity is a sign of their worth. We want to be good at making theater (or writing essays, talking in section), and surely, a
good theater-maker or thinker would produce work that is "important," "relevant," "vital," and "necessary." I do believe that this compulsive drive toward accomplishment is poison for the thinker and theater-maker. It makes the shows and the papers more boring than a pissing contest. The question is, what can take the place of that drive? If we are not guided in our thought and in our theater-making by love of praise, what are we guided by?" -Rachel P.

What does she want?

"Choosing/designing projects around what I consider to be theater's greatest asset: the fact that the actor/character may fail to achieve his goal at any moment, that the 2 hours of the play are the only chance, that the audience is bearing witness to a real attempt." --Rachel P

I encourage my theatrical community to continue posting ideas (by choosing to follow my blog!!) and keep this discourse going.

Our theater must be more similar to the geopolitical definition. "A PLACE WHERE SIGNIFICANT ACTIONS AND EVENTS TAKE PLACE."

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.

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.

Another New Kosovo

Last year, my impressions of Kosovo were as follows: war torn country with the UNHCR in the middle of town, KFOR walking around, NATO with their guns, empty streets with a clear view of Mother Teresa and Bill Clinton, optimistic youngsters with new business plans, disco-disco clubbing girls, a multi-ethnic society, the world's best kept legal secret (well, obviously not so secret, but for students, hell yea!).

In some ways, my impressions still hold true, but there are many things I see completely different, having changed, or just a difference nuance that I did not see.

A list (I like lists) of new or different things:

--Prishtina has busy streets, no lie. I was here on the weekend last summer (no one is out on weekends) so I never really saw a busy city.

--NATO is leaving, so not as many guys with guns (though some Portuguese NATO/KFOR guys did try to pick my friend and I up today. As Anastasia, my hard as nails/soft as cotton/funny as hell filmmaker, journalist Canadian Russian buddy, says, Prishtina may not be quite as "badass" without NATO, but it definitely does not feel like a warzone anymore. This is the general consensus of most journalists who are packing up for Gaza, Afghanistan, or Iraq... and Turkey.

--Not every man looks like they are on the Yugoslavian basketball team, despite some people thinking so.

--Muslim Fundamentalism is on the rise.

--Kosovo feels even safer than it did last year. Not only that, it is safer. The economy may be corrupt, but the crime rate in Prishtina is lower than most American cities.... though keep your wallet in check. This rate could just be that the retired NATO officers living here know how to keep their shit together (forget Boca Raton, Prishtina is cheaper and more interesting to retire to).

--Albanians are a minority in a sea of Canadians, Americans, Germans, and international acronyms. Like the Jews and Israel, there may be more Albanians in NYC than there are in Albania or Kosovo.

Naturally, there are many new things I am encountering. Like any new kid to town, my eyes are starry eyed and I look inquisitively at everything. More "enlightened" analysis will come later as I begin my mile high stack of books in my new apartment here. Thought I would give the update though.....

Simply put. Mom, I'm safe.

NEW BORN : Kosovo Recap in 10 Points

After the JADE Summer Meeting of Junior Enterprises in Prishtina, Kosovo,

I feel NEWBORN.

Some Hallmark Card once told me inspiration and hope have the power to give birth to a new sense of self, understanding, and purpose. Goddamit, it was right! 

Right in the  city center of Prishtina (the capital of Kosovo), there lies the letters to make up "NEWBORN" from Kosovo Independence Day on February 18, 2008. This makes it the youngest country in the world, which currently, 62 countries recognize--including the United States and Saudi Arabia. How to truly explain/organize my time there is difficult without being excessively verbose, so I have: 

 10 POINTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MY TIME IN KOSOVO 

1) HOLD UP? Where is Kosovo? What is a Kosovar? 

Kosovo is located in the Balkans south of Serbia and north of Albania and Macedonia. Some of the borders are still disputed, as it is such a young country. Long story made VERY short, Kosovo for the longest time was part of Serbia. However, Kosovo is made up of ethnic Albanians mostly (though they have a multicultural/multiethnic population of Serbians and Turks) and Serbians are Serbians. Kosovars had been fighting for independence through the 90's until the conflict came to a violent head in 1999, when NATO (with the help of Bill Clinton) intervened. Later in 2008, Kosovo declared its independence. Though it is ethnically tied to Albania, there are many Serbian, Turkish, and Bulgarian Kosovars. Though they claim to practice Islam, most are just culturally Muslim. 

The country is overwhelmingly multicultural, religiously plural, and multiethnic. There is a strong sense of being a KOSOVAR (kind of like what America used to be, right?) 

2) WHY WAS I THERE???//WHAT IS JADE???

In May, I was in Brussels working with AEGEE (the European Students Forum) conducting the Ivy Europe Middle East Conference. Florent Barel, from JADE Junior Enterprises, was invited to speak at our conference. JADE is a network of 20,000+ Junior Entrepreneurs from around Europe, all of which run Junior Enterprises, which are like non-profit organizations/businesses that work in management, consulting, or product sales. The aim is to give practical experience to theoretical knowledge. JADE also has a sister network in Brazil, called Brazil Junior. 

About a month later, I get an e-mail from Lindita Komani, JADE's international enlargement manager, saying (this is me paraphrasing in "Amuurican English") "Yo, we want JADE's network in America. We know you do this sorta thing. Come to Kosovo." To which my response was (after rethinking my trips to Greece or Amsterdam), HELL YES! (When else would I have the incentive to go to Kosovo...)

Throughout the year, JADE has various meetings to bring members together. This Summer Meeting was held in Prishtina with a focus on Sustainable Development in Business in the 21st century, particularly using Kosovo as a case study. 

3) Kosovo is young. And Youthful. 

Kosovo is truly a "NEWBORN" country, with under-30-year-olds making up about 70% of the population. Lets put this into perspective: 

Upon meeting a professor from the American University of Kosovo, he invited me to meet his Professional Studies Class--where he teaches members of the cabinet about International Law, Politics, Political Economy etc.  Classes to run a country basically. I went to a local cafe and basically had a beer with Kosovo's various ministers. Most were under 30. 

The Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was 27. Yea. Most Americans this age can only do this sort of thing on "Empire Earth" or "Sim City." Youth are running this country. 

Prishtina screams youth. There are almost as many discos as supermarkets. New store and cafe facades a la New York City pop up over old buildings with concrete peeling on top and barbed wire fences. Most of the youth are coming back from the USA or Austria to claim the opportunity of running their new country. 

People are selling their farms to send their children to university. It is amazing. 

When the panelists at the conference spoke to us, they spoke to us as if we were CEO's of major companies here to invest. The thing is, there is no franchising or branding. Kosovo depends on small start ups to invest. So essentially, we were their future. There is a spirit of entrepreneurship, of starting new, of starting something of one's own after years of, after one panelist put it, "Communism, Socialism, then I don't know what." 

4) Kosovo is rebuilding with optimism

Okay, so the numbers look grim economically. 95% import with 5% export. Loans at 14-16%. Yet EVERYWHERE you look, there is building. Bricks and car sales are way up. They are trying to build a new power plant. Everyone is opening a cafe, a telecom company, an IT firm, a consultancy office, a bank, a disco. Barbed wire and the UNHCR building sit next to the Route 66 Burger Cafe. We visited many small start ups, including MDA (Consulting and Management), Cacttus (IT), and even a fashion designer, Krenare Rugova, who studied/worked at Parsons in NYC and in Paris (please see my fashion blog)

The conflict is visible, but deteriorating, quite literally. For instance, the 10-13 floors of "Grand Hotel Prishtina" where I stayed was accessible via stairs. These floors were used during the war as "Interrogation" centers (use your imagination), according to the American Journalists we met there. The floors were stripped of their carpet and there was evidence of old electrical fires. Look off the roof and you could see a city of satellites. Old concrete and barbed wire walls are falling. In their place, new facades and signs of new businesses were coming up. 

As Mimoza Kusari, from the American Chamber of Commerce most powerfully said at a Panel on July 18th,  “We exist. The war is over, it is long over. We have to be in charge. We have to be trusted.”

5) Religious Plurality (ahem Secularism) in Kosovo

Most people are surprised to know that Kosovo is made up of primarily Muslims. This is almost a misnomer. No where else can you hear an electronic, recorded call to prayer. This would be so Harram anywhere else. Most Kosovars are very secular. Religion is a cultural thing that poses no problem to them. 

I did go to a 15th century Serbian Orthodox monastery in Kosovo, where I crashed three weddings in 30 minutes. It was guarded by Swedish military forces and I saw Irish NATO walking around. Kids were singing 50 cent to me while asking for money. I saw the most beautiful frescos of my life in that little monastery. I kissed them. The smell of incense came over me and a reverence filled me, like an imploding explosion. The Serbian Nun (who spoke perfect English) had help me out after a moment... 

Christians and Muslims live in peace in Kosovo. They drink together, that is for damn sure. 

6) Kosovo is Safe

Kosovo recently joined the IMF and the World Bank, as well as OPIC. This is a testament to the development of the country. Never did I feel directly in danger (though I always kept my guard up!) While there remains to be some ethnic tensions between Albanians and Serbians, some small crimes arising etc, this is nothing compared to say NYC or something. The War is over though. Move on friends. 

7) Kosovo is Wired

I cannot get Youtube in Turkey, but I can in Kosovo. Free wi-fi zones are EVERYWHERE. We visited many small IT companies. Everyone has a cell phone, yet Vodafone does not exist there yet, only the domestic carrier, Ipko. Everyone is very knowledgeable of global news, culture, events. Satellites are everywhere. It was their only way out. 

Driving down the broken highway on a flat tire listening to Kanye along the border is something I will never forget. 

8) Kosovo LOVES America

Rt. 66 Burgers and Fries. American Flags everywhere. More than America. Bill Clinton Street intersecting with Mother Theresa Street. Celebrations for the 4th of July. People blessing me everywhere I went. People naming their children Bill Clinton or Hillary. This is about the only place on the European Continent where you see so much pride for America. Everyone speaks English too! (Along with Albanian)

9) Kosovo can be the Future

People seem to have forgotten about Kosovo in the scholarly community. Everyone is packing up and going to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or Iraq. Perhaps rightfully so. 

Yet Kosovo offers itself as a multicultural, multiethnic, religiously plural country, who needed help to be liberated with US intervention. Sounds like Iraq, right? Kosovo could be a model of post-conflict development if we only give it the chance to be so. We need to study it, give it a chance, invest in it, REMEMBER it. 

In the main square, there is a building that says, in English, "WE ARE THE FUTURE." In many ways, they are. They have the capability to fashion a whole new sort of state and be the model to the world for this. 

In short, this multiethnic, multicultural, religiously pluralistic (Muslim and Christian!), youthful, and young country is everything the EU wants to be and everything America stands for--at least value/ideal wise. Granted, Kosovo has a long way to go, but the fact that it symbolizes these values is gigantic. 

10) Kosovo and Me

I suddenly find myself as a "soft" diplomat for America. I find myself thinking of different business plans every moment. I'm reading everything I can on the Balkans. I am basically giving myself a crash course in international investing and real estate. I'm so eager I cannot sleep. 

I had a long conversation with Lindita (which I won't share entirely here). Lets just say that the memory of what Kosovo has gone through is definitely not forgotten, but there remains a spirit, not just in business, but in art, politics, and music too that exists to keep everyone going. 

I don't know how such a small country can have such a huge power on me. Everyday, I get bombarded with emails and Facebook messages from curious Kosovars, who want to know why I was there, if I'm coming back, if I liked the country. They are the most curious, proud, and kind people I have met in quite some time. 

I'm exhausted but energized with life. With pride. With Hope. With innovation. With creativity.  "Yes, We Can" is a motto for the world, but "NEWBORN" is an idea for the future of it. 

 

A Snapshot of Kosovo on 12 hours of Sleep... in 4 days

I am broken. The struggle bus has a flat tire. I am officially going to my bed and praying the sheets are not going to make me break out in a rash. 

But all this aside. I am more excited and inspired than I have been since.... well maybe ever. 

Why? My experience in Kosovo. 

I will go into this later, but I wanted to leave my community with a glimpse of the people, the nation, the spirit, and the nature of this self proclaimed "Newborn" country. 

Flying back on a delayed jet, with no working camera, and little sleep, with a pilot who was probably a fighter jet pilot at some point by the barrel turns we made, I was seated next to a Turkish/ Albanian looking guy. He did not have the typical "Former Republic of Yugoslavia" look about him. He grabbed a Turkish newspaper and politely sat a seat away from me. He offered me chewing gum after our meal and that broke the ice (this is a trick I always use!) Turns out his father was Turkish but his mother was Albanian. He was living in Prishtina with his family. His wife is Bulgarian and their son's name is Edward. He owns two toystores. One in Prishtina and one in Istanbul. He traded in Istanbul and Hong Kong. His dream is to open a Toys "Rooys" or Toys 'R Us in Kosovo. He worked for 10 years without much money but the past 3 years have made it up. He is fluent in Albanian and Turkish, with decent English. He may have a Turkish passport, but he loves Kosovo as his own country and loves American for what it has done there and what it represents: multicultural, multifaith, strong democracy, entrepreneurial values. 

After four days of meeting with the ministers of this country (most under 30, as 70% of the pop is under 30), young business people from all over Europe with JADE Junior Enterprise Network, and witnessing Kosovo, this story is a great picture of what Kosovo is becoming and is: multicultural, multifaith, a recent democracy, with stronger entrepreneurial instincts than what most American have. Plus they love American--Bill Clinton street intersects with Mother Teresa Street in the center of town. 

Welcome to the best kept secret in political science, business, and the developing, post-conflict world. That no one knows about. 

Now we do.