Take 2: No Bullets this Time

This coming Saturday, there is going to be another protest organized by the Vetevendosje (Self-determination) movement. This is not the first protest and will not be the last of its kind. The leader of the Vetevendosje, Albin Kurti, was arrested after the violence that took place in the last protest, February 10, claimed 2 people's lives - Arben Xheladini, 34, and Man Balaj, 30. The investigations in their deaths have not been concluded by authorities thus far. Some blame 'rubber bullets fired by some Ukrainian international police contingent.' That and many other versions are still speculations currently. The issue being that these protest usually end violently at the end of the day. They reflect the frustrations of the Kosovo people with the pace of the independence process being led by the UN.

Kosovo2007 recently heard a rumor that during negotiations between the Kosovo Police Service and the Vetevendosje, there was much disagreement about the definition of violence - who let in lawyers for this meeting? The Vetevendosje apparently does not believe that throwing cans and bottles of red paint at UNMIK's main headquarters constitutes violence. KPS disagrees ... where are the textualists when you need them? In any case, many international organizations seem to have taken the lead of UNMIK and are giving their staff Friday off so they can, unofficially, "leave Pristina" before the day of the protests. My organization chose to wait until last night to let us know about this "learning day" off. Muchos gracias para the warning. Yeah, a day will be enough for me to plan accordingly - not.

After the last protests a little over 2 weeks ago, some people started sharing pictures and analysis of the protests of February 10. I came across some pics and analysis via a colleague in Monaco who got them from another friend in Toronto. Hope you appreciate what these mean. Here's to freeware share and the public domain ;)

Chinese New Year

Picture of UNMIK Vehicles after Explosion

Apparently, some folks here ne Prishtine think the Chinese New Year party is forever. Yesterday, several vehicles belonging to the OSCE were damaged by an explosion ne Prishtine. This follows barely a week after the explosion that destroyed three UNMIK vehicles. C'mon, kids, stop playing with exploives, you might get hurt. Seriously though, even though no one has been hurt yet, these destabilizing people ne Prishtine need to be reigned in by the powers that be here. These images of Kosovo will not serve anyone positively. How does one expect foreign investors to come to Kosovo, even after independence, if it becomes known as the region where explosives in the streets is the norm. Acoording to the Associated Press:

"The blast may have been caused by a hand grenade, said regional police spokesman Avni Gjevukaj. It shattered windows and slightly damaged seven vehicles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the agency's parking lot. Two other vehicles that did not belong to the organization were also damaged. OSCE spokesman Sven Lindholm said there was no indication so far that the OSCE had been the target of the attack in Pec, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Pristina. He said another unexploded hand grenade was found in the street outside the parking lot."

Yep, that just makes me feel better: It's not a calculated attack, there are just dumb people running around playing with hand grenades!!! Kosovo, my Kosovo, we still have some ways to go.

Bananas are not Lunch

Ne Prishtine, there are all sort of celebrities one can run into randomly anywhere: UN bigwigs, OSCE bigwigs, current government presidents of ministries, ex-government officials, tax guys, mafia bosses and their bodyguards, the UN yoga dude, etc. Yesterday, being that I get paid not much working for my small INGO, I head to a local market with a friend for lunch. Market lunches are good for 3 reasons: (1) You get to eat real local Kosovan food; (2) Chances of running into an international person there are small hence one can have a peaceful and "I feel like the Kosovans" lunch; (3) They are cheap and they overfeed you. When I get into this particular eat-shop, I saw 2 international military guys there looking very serious. No biggie, they have right to eat local food also; except that they were not eating. Turns out they were there guarding Albert Mostowitz, the Director of UNMIK Department of Justice. I have since heard from the hood that "Big"Al "not" loves eating at local eateries and dislikes going to the usual international eateries that most internationals here feel they have be at to show of their cosmopolitan gastronomical capabilities. Way to go Al, we gotcha your back here at Kosovo2007 just for that. This blog will have to look for a way to get an interview with Al. He would make an excellent local restaurant critic for Pristina,

Reasoned Legal Reasoning or a Bunch of Crock?

Today was "carnival" at the International Court of Justice aka The World Court. All legal and European eyes were on the Court today when it made its ruling in the Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro. It has not had this much attention since ... heck .. the ice age. Many were hoping the Court would actually leave its mark and flex its muscles. But what does it do? It lets the government of Serbia almost free of responsibility for genocide. Mind you, I am not saying Serbia should have been found guilty for the hell of it but evidence laid out during this trial were pretty convincing. The government of Sudan must be smiling now. Whether we like it or not, state sovereigns are still the powers that be in our structural realist world. There has to be other means of holding them accountable apart from bombing them to the stone age. The ICJ should have used this case, with all its evidence and reality, to set a precedent that states that choose to sponsor genocides will pay. Maybe when a state pays billions, its citizens will learn to hold its government more accountable. Alas, we might have to wait another 100 years for this sort of opportunity again. If you are a nerd who likes to read legal jargon, here is summary of the Court ruling on the case. And why is this posting needed for a Kosovo related blog? Well, Serbia has its quirky issues many of its former yugo-partners and with Kosovo, of course. I am sure Kosovo might have taken Serbia to ICJ also except that it is not a recognized sovereignty here; which is what brings us to where we are now. This ruling, like it or not, plays in the politics here if only for rhetoric sake but it has huge symbolic impacts also.

Some pictures of Prisitina ...

... that i borrowed from other sites. I have some pics but forgot my download cable in the States so looking to buy a card reader now. Once I get it, I will be posting more recent pictures.

Pristina during Daytime showing SportCenter

Pristina in the Evening



Pristina at Night

The Fork




Clinton Boulevard

"Police Avenue" (if you look closely, you can see my apartment in this picture ;))

How is Kosovo?

I get the title question a lot from people both outside and inside Kosovo. I usually pull a dumb face before I say "I dunno." This is not far from the truth. I have not had time to form an opinion of Pristina, talkless of Kosovo. Between trying to make weekend trips, settle in at work, fixing everything breaking in my apartment, making contact with people at home, and taking my class, it is hard for me to make some concrete and meaningful opinion. As the days go on though, I will be picking specific topics and using them to tell you about life here.

At last I have CNN and BBC on my tv. I have been so freaking tired of EuroNews. Talk about repetitive news forever. I can see that Iraq is still burning and people are not caring. Iran is hoping for a fight. Timor Leste is looking for new leadership. Senegal is also looking for this also. Guinea's president, Conte, might be coming around the fact that he might have to share power? Why don't they just put that relic in a museum? How is Castro? Does he still breath?

I need to go out more as I need to see if there are cute people in the international community. I am trying not check out local people here because I am here to work and will not date where I work. But the internationals are another story. I just wish many of them were not so damn annoying. Especially the ones that work for the big multi-lateral organizations ... ay. Hope is not lost. I might still find a cutie to sweep me off my feet yet. I am trying to also decide if I should start shopping again. I have gone through almost all the clothes I brought with me. I will also need some toiletries. I wonder if tampons are made locally in Kosovo.

Shameless Plug

I would like this blog to be a good source of good information about Kosovo and Pristina. For this to happen, I will need your help ... yes, you reading this. Please, if you or someone you know comes across kosovo-related pieces of articles, news, write-ups, pictures, exposes, gossip (no state secrets though), etc., pass it on so I can share with those reading this. Send all info to me at:

Kosovo2007@gmail.com

Do not be shy about referring this blog site to all you know too and leaving your comments ;)

Beginning ....

So here is my first post. It's been even more hectic here than I anticipated. So, I have sort of come to a decision that I will communicate more with you using pictures and links than words. It's interesting that I have the urge to write more about politics in the US than here. It seems the only way to be in the know-how here in Pristine is be in some mafia or the other, otherwise it's all just hearsay. That said, I believe the first thing I need to do is introduce you to Kosovo and Prishtina (Depending on my mood I can interchangeably use Prishtine (definite form), Prishtina (Indefinite form) or Pristina (Western form)). What bettter way to introduce these to my intelligent audience than referring you to other sites that talk about them ;)? I intentionally steer clear of local references because everyone on the ground here is usually biased and they tell their stories 'truthfully' or as truthful as they can anyway. I will be listing other blogs that talk about Kosovo really soon.

1. Kosovo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. The Guardian on Kosovo (I like this site especially as it is very current and rich with all sorts of info)

3. CNN focus on Kosovo

3. BBC on Kosovo