Thursday, July 13, 2017

Ten things I learned and miss from Kosovo

By Robbert Muller 
 
Ten days ago, we returned back home in Amsterdam from Pristina. Ten days is also the number of days we spend in Pristina, which seems strangely far away now, yet still so close by. In the past few days, life has returned to normal, but also not. On the one hand, I am doing things I also used to do before the trip to Kosovo, such as having nice dinners with my friends, working, and cycling all around Amsterdam. On the other hand, I have gained so much knowledge both in Kosovo and during the last week of the Peace Lab class, with a key word of this new knowledge being perspective. Therefore, I decided to include 10 things I learned or miss from Kosovo in this blog post:
1.     Sometimes a story can have multiple truths. Although as academics, we like to have certain hypotheses to be either accepted or rejected, it sometimes can happen that it is considered positive by a certain category of people and negative by another category of people. Then, within these categories, there are individuals whose perspective differs from the generalized subjective perspective, which one should be aware of all the time. 

2.     Although we mostly looked at the role of young people in peace-building, which makes a lot of sense since they embody the future, it is also important to look at the role of other age categories. In Kosovo for example, the Yugoslav Kosovar-Albanian and Kosovar-Serb generations have a wonderful potential in the peace-building process, since they actually speak each other’s language and have more knowledge about each other. Although they are also the ones who were alive during the war – and in many cases have historical grievances – there are also shared memories of good moments in the past. 

3.     Another group with a wonderful potential for peace-building are some of the members of the Roma community, since they actually speak both Serbian and Albanian. The problem is that, just like in every other country, this group is very much marginalized and discriminated against, and therefore cannot realize this potential. 

4.     The EU’s demands for visa liberalization might make sense from the EU’s perspective, but have such horrible consequences for the people of Kosovo – particularly the country’s young people. They all have hopes and wishes to travel, but they are unable to do so. If the EU wants Kosovo to become a fully integrated European country – in which people identify themselves with Europe- they should not bar these young people from entering their countries, since it results in frustration and anger, which can have counterproductive consequences in the future. 

5.     Talk with people about food! For our project, we researched the potential of food as a peace-building tool. Food is something we can all relate to, have opinions about, can share with others, can feel proud of, and can spark interest in other elements of a people’s culture. Look up the term gastrodiplomacy to see how some countries – both officially and unofficially-  use food to meet both foreign and domestic policy goals.

Connecting with people via food

6.     If you – just like me – really enjoy to do some people watching, go to Pristina’s main boulevard.

People watching at my favorite café in Pristina

7.     I am not sure if I will ever find as affordable and yummy coffee in any other place in the world again. Italy might be the country associated with yummy coffee, one of Kosovo’s many secrets is that the coffee there is just as good – if not better – for less than half of the price.

8.     If you ever decide to go out in Kosovo dress up!! Although it is okay to go out in shorts and a t-shirt in Amsterdam, you will most likely feel very underdressed. 

9.     If you do not have a nice shirt with you when you go out, just wear a t-shirt with the Kosovo flag. It will result in lots of free drinks and can be an important step to becoming a local celebrity.

10.  This course really was the most memorable course I took in my AUC career, and I truly hope to stay connected with many of the people I got to know so well during this trip. Thank you everyone!!

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