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Kosovo Group Reflection Paper Group F – 2019 Zane, Tamara, Jeff & Adele

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Kosovo Group Reflection Paper Group F – 2019 Zane, Tamara, Jeff & Adele Kosovo Group Reflection Paper Group F – 2019 Zane, Tamara, Jeff & Adele In this group reflection paper, we pick out some common themes in our personal reflection papers and integrate them here in an attempt to form a discussion about our personal and collective experiences during a seven-day immersive field trip to Kosovo. In the first part, we reflect on our impressions of Pristina and Mitrovica. In the part two, we discuss the varying perspectives we encountered during meetings and conversations with a variety of local, national, and international actors. I. About Pristina: Adele: Pristina struck me as a city of great contrasts. My first glimpses of the landscape and pedestrian center reminded me more of European resort towns and bustling shopping districts than of a country still struggling with the aftermath of war and ethnic conflict. Wandering the streets to find a restaurant during our first hours, I was impressed by the clean streets, glass-fronted shops, and trendy interiors. Similarly, in our meetings with politicians and international organizations, we were welcomed into luxurious spaces that showed-off the best and most expensive the country had to offer. Venturing further into the city and the homes of locals, however, revealed a very different side of the city; the side which has not received the same inflow of cash as the tourist areas, political complexes, and international institutions. The entryway to my host family’s apartment for example, was a far cry from the polished entryway to the UN building where we met with the UNDCO. Instead of marble-lined hallways and gleaming glass windows, we were greeted by battered metal doors, cement and cracked-tile floors, shattered glass and graffiti. The impression received upon entering the University of Philology was, though less drastic, in some ways similar. The unlit, unheated interior of the auditorium where we were to meet our host families with its once-chic walls and upholstery suggested that funding priorities were elsewhere. One of our groupmates shared their reaction on entering the main hallway, exclaiming, “This is a university?! It feels more like a prison!” Though insensitive, there was a certain truth to this. Certainly, the chipped paint, dim lighting, and general state of disrepair did not confer any great sense of soaring hopes or expectations. The contrast between the marble-lined entryways of political buildings and UN receptions and the broken-down infrastructure of the “commoner’s” spaces could be a metaphor for various aspects of the current situation in Kosovo: the corruption that keeps money from being invested in basic infrastructure while politician’s offices gleam with the best building materials; the nepotism that restricts employment and a higher quality of living to those who already have an “in”; or the lack of serious investment in the educational system. Zane: The thing I find interesting in Adele’s report was the line some student mentioned—that the University of Pristina looks like a prison. The university indeed looked old when I was in a classroom for a meeting. But as I was born in 1991 in China, the university and many buildings in Pristina—or Pristina in general—all feel more like something or somewhere stuck between the 1950s and 1990s. In another way, it is ‘modernly old’, something that Chinese cities have in common with Kosovo—especially given that both countries had a communist period. But the two most interesting features of Pristina for me were its peculiarity and the local obsession with the US. The Cathedral of Saint Mother Teresa in the central area of the city for me is the representation of this peculiarity. If I am to describe Pristina with one very long sentence, this will be it: a grand Romanesque cathedral, which is dedicated to a Roman Catholic saint who was born in today’s Skopje in Macedonia (but was part of Kosovo Vilayet of Ottoman Empire) and had spent most her time in India (and therefore was canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta) stands in the centre of the capital city of a (so-called) Albanian Muslim country where around 3% of the total population are Catholics, and is considered to be the holy land of Serbian Orthodox, on the intersection of Bill Clinton Boulevard and George W. Bush Road, not far away from which a mosque is sealed off, and an Eastern Orthodox church is incomplete and said to be illegally built. This scene is probably coherent with the complex reality of Kosovo but does not straightforwardly fit into people’s normal stereotype about dominant religion and city landscape. It is interesting that the city had its first ever Christmas market in the main pedestrian zone this year (according to a lecturer from the Venice group). But I guess it shows the complexity of the political and social reality in Kosovo. And while the warring history of the Balkans has demonstrated the intolerance of nationalism and religious enthusiasm, the scenes I have encountered and mentioned above show the very tolerant side of Kosovo. The obsession with the US is illustrated by the fact that two main roads are named after former US presidents – a cosmetics shop on one side of the Bill Clinton Boulevard even advertises themselves as providing ‘American quality’ ‘#fromUSAtoYou’. This is understandable given the history of Kosovo War but the blatant presentation of it is still shocking, as Tamara will discusses further. Tamara: A similar perspective that Zane and I share, is our first impressions on arriving to Kosovo was the ubiquitous USA propaganda. On our bus ride to Pristina, we both noticed a miniature replica of the Statue of Liberty placed on top of the building and the USA flag stood beside the Albania and Kosovo Flag in front of many buildings. As mentioned by Zane a couple of the major streets are named after former USA presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, also there is a statue of Bill Clinton in the city centre. Throughout Pristina, regardless of their proximity to government buildings, cafes and shops opening displayed laudatory USA propaganda extolling their affinity to the US belying their status as any more than an American client state. Many had USA flags hanging, pictures of tanks and posters saying, “Thank you USA”. Though some may say these praises may appear inconsequential and tacky they do serve a purpose of perpetuating the division and tension from the 1999 conflict. For me these tributes of admiration to the NATO bombing campaign and the US is not a step towards reconciliation as it maintains and legitimizes one side of the narrative, therefore, taking precedent over opposing narratives. Jeff: Street children and friendly stray dogs welcome you to Pristina. An experience similar to Kampala, the Capital of Uganda. On the other hand, the people in Pristina are very friendly and welcoming. The standard of living in Pristina is relatively affordable, food is readily and cheaply available. The City infrastructure is good - the Cathedral of Saint Mother Teresa located in the City provides a topological view of the whole city, at an entrance pay of EUR 1. We happened to watch the Sunset in the Middle of Pristina. However, in Contrast to Adele’s comment, I would note that the Air in Pristina is so badly polluted, it smelt all the time as if tires were being burnt in the city. However, I enjoyed the night life in Pristina. About Mitrovica: Jeff: To me, this city felt like a Ghost town - there was no vibe in the City. One could easily feel the division and the uncertainty of security there. Guards situated at the bridge that separates the Sothern and Nothern side of the City with Armored vehicles made it look like there could be a fight anytime. It felt to me that this city was sitting on a time bomb. The Albanian flags on the Southern side and the Serbian Flags on the Nothern side could easily explain a lot about the tension in the City. I felt unsecure and I wanted to leave as soon as possible. When I asked our local guide Valentina who is an Albanian from Pristina about how she feels crossing to the Northern side for the first time, she told me she didn’t feel secure at all. That escalated my security fears. Zane: Contrary to Jeff, I do not think that Mitrovica is a ghost town. The north Serbian side is actually quite vivid—perhaps especially with the number of Serbian flags and political posters about the ‘friendship’ between Serbia and Russian, Vučić and Putin in the city. Time bomb? Perhaps, and the sense of danger was particularly felt by our Albanian guide from Pristina, when she expressed her sincere fear that she felt unsafe and her opinion that it was best not to speak Albanian in North Mitrovica. Contrary to her, the much older local Caritas workers seemed to be confident and at ease about the division; they are the older generation that can speak both Serbian and Albanian, knowing people from each side, and they are Serbian in the Serbian party of the city. So perhaps that is the reason why they felt relaxed in the situation. Even so, this caught my attention because for me, it is another aspect of the peculiarity and complexity of the Kosovo reality. II. Perspectives encountered: The physical spaces of Pristina and Mitrovica left us with strong impressions of the socioeconomic, political, and cultural dynamics of Kosovo. However, equally important to our understanding of the country’s internal and external relations were the perspectives we received in meetings and conversations with a variety of societal sectors.
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