By Eline Koopman
All
readings have been read, all exams have been made, all presentations have been
presented and all projects have been wrapped up. The end of Peace Lab, as well
as the end of my second year at AUC are in sight. While I am looking forward to
a summer filled with sun, laughter and new adventures in my home country as
online travelling seems to continue to be the only option for now, I am also
quite sad to end the academic year like this, as well as having to say goodbye
to our online Kosovo trip. No Dormfest, no goodbye and ‘see you after summer’
hugs to friends, and no final dinner with the amazing Peace Lab group. However,
the last month of virtually travelling through Kosovo truly has been a
memorable experience.
As
the course came to an end, together with Rosalie de Kerf, I created an online
magazine called ‘Othering and Belonging’. We were interested in the experience
of growing up in a society which has been at peace for a longer period of time,
known as positive peace, and the experience of youth who grew up in a country
where peace is still taking shape, called negative peace. We had conversations
over Zoom with Kosovar and Dutch youth who told us about their opinions and
experiences of growing up in a ‘peaceful’ country.
The magazine will guide you
through their stories, experiences and sometimes conflicting opinions about
matters such as marriage, othering based on someone’s background and the
meaning of peace. One of the topics that particularly stuck with me was the
question whether the interviewees would marry someone who belonged to the group
they considered to be othered most in their society.
Many of the Kosovar
Albanians and Kosovar Serbian interviewees would feel comfortable being friends
or neighbours with each other, but would consider marrying yet one step too far in today’s
world. When we would ask this question to our Dutch interviewees, we first
asked who they considered to be the group that has been othered the most, whether
they would feel comfortable marrying someone from that ‘other group’, followed by
the question ofwhether they would feel comfortable marrying a person from German
origin. The answers we received to these three questions varied greatly. While
the question whether the Dutch interviewees would marry someone from the group
that would be othered varied from an instant ‘yes’ to answers filled with
slightly more hesitation and doubt, the question whether marrying a person from
German descent would be acceptable generally resulted in the reaction of ‘Yes,
of course, especially if they bring an extra beer!’.
This made me wonder
whether time is really the important factor that could solve all problems
throughout the generations coming after conflict, or that some level of
othering will always be present regardless the situation. The Kosovar
interviewees reminded me once again that 20 years post conflict is not that
long ago. It has only been one generation, who are around the same age as I am,
growing up in peace. Processes of forgiveness, reconciliation and friendship
building simply need time. Steps have been made by many Kosovar youth to study
together, go out together and build friendships, not to only co-exist with
each other. Will the next step for Kosovar youth, as well as Dutch youth, be
saying ‘I do’ to the other without any hesitation?
All
in all, the project of creating an online magazine as well as the experience of
an online Peace Lab taught me many valuable lessons. I am no longer looking for
the ‘bad guy’, as there is no such thing as only one bad guy. There are always
multiple perspectives to any story, opinion or even history. When it comes to
learning more about peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping, I can’t wait
to put everything that I have learned into practice in real, non-virtual, life.
The question is not whether I will go to Kosovo, but when planes will land in a
corona free Pristina again.
I
want to thank everyone who contributed to creating our magazine, all the
organizations we have met during the classes and, of course, all the
interviewees with whom we had inspiring conversations. If you are interested in
the stories the Kosovar and Dutch youth have to tell, please click on the
following link to view our magazine ‘Othering and Belonging’. I hope you
will enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed creating it!
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