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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