By Jan Rustemeyer
Today its soul remains beautiful, but it is covered by garbage
and pollution
Free interpretation of the speech of a Kosovar man about the
Gazivoda lake, on our second night in Kosovo, inspired by both the beauty of
the surrounding lake and raki.
During our nine day trip to Kosovo, we spoke to many different
individuals and several of them used an almost poetic language to explain the
current challenges and their dreams for their own and Kosovo’s future. Is this
poeticism inspired by the search for new ways to describe the same problems?
Kosovo’s potential is still haunted by obstacles such as corruption, poverty,
unemployment and ethnic divisions, yet we encountered plenty of people that
looked into the future with hope. The source of this positivism: Kosovo’s
youth, and the belief that the younger generation will change the situation for
the better. This is not merely a belief. Grassroots organizations working in
Kosovo, such as the New Social Initiative in Mitrovica, or the Kosovar Youth
Assembly in Pristina, depend on the insights of young people, and come up with
numerous projects aimed at increasing the livelihoods of the Kosovar
population. When we visited these organizations, I was inspired by their
capacity to change old systems.
Nevertheless, I remain doubtful. During our stay
in Kosovo, we also encountered voices which spoke skeptically about the younger
generation and its potential. According to them, younger people were being
corrupted by the national political parties.
When we departed for Prishtina on the early Tuesday morning of June 12, we
had spent a week learning the ins and outs of Balkan history and its crucial role within the creation of
Serbian or Albanian identities. We did this on the third floor of AUC’s academic building.
Every Serbian possessed a relic of the battle of 1389 against the Ottomans and
every Albanian whistled songs about Skanderberg while showering. These
perceptions are obviously slightly over exaggerated, but the general theme
remains; I went to Kosovo with some generalizations about the Kosovars,
Albanians and Serbians.
Unsurprisingly, soon I discovered how false
these generalizations had been. Not only those based on the historic roots of
identity failed miserably, but also during interviews Sarah, Ella and I
conducted for our podcast on Kosovo’s future. Some students would like to live
in Germany or Switzerland and some didn’t think about this at all. Some
interviewees wanted to join Albania and some didn’t. No generalization or
certainty would sustain.
Sadly, perhaps the perception that the youth are the ones to
change Kosovo is similar. Is it just another unsuccessful generalization doomed
to fail? Kosovo’s future will answer that question, yet moving away from
skepticism and generalizations, I believe that during our time in Kosovo, we
talked to individuals who are already positively transforming the country, no
matter how small these changes might looked like. And to return to and continue
with the words of the old Kosovar during our second night there at the Gazivoda
lake: ‘But if you clean up the mess, the diamond will appear again’.
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