Changing the way I look at the world

By Suzanne Broer

The trip back to the Netherlands was a lot quicker than our travels to Prishtina. This is, of course, nice on one hand, but on the other hand it caused me to not completely realize that we were actually leaving Kosovo after all this time. We arrived home, and all of a sudden it was over. Just as during the trip, events took some time to sink in, returning did as well. The boat trip through the Amsterdam canals on Saturday morning was perfectly timed: we didn’t have to miss each other for that long.

In the days following, we had some time to rest, although we also had to get back to the order of the day: I will be moving out on the 11^th of July and my search for a new place to stay in Amsterdam continued. Catching up with friends, meeting some friend before they will leave for the summer, celebrating Dormfest, and more – but also meeting up with the Peace Lab group. After having doing these things, the projects needed more attention. It was actually a really good process to work on your project and to make it into a final product: this makes the trip clearer in your head as well. With Louise and Nathan, my group members, we would meet to work on our project in the AB, but also we went to a café and sat outside in the sun to work on our project. 

With our project, combining all the pictures from all the different interviews and being able to compare the answers of different people was very interesting at this point: we had only met the people separately. When we were able to compare the pictures, the differences in personalities became clearer and it felt as if we got to know the people even better. Also, in the meantime, many of the people we interviewed we were able to find on Instagram or facebook, or they found us. It was enjoyable to also meet them through social media: you get to know a different part of someone. It is an example of how, again, the people from Kosovo are just like us: they put effort in creating a nice Instagram profile with photos of experiences, or you can see that they are clearly more into sharing selfies.

On Thursday and Friday we had the last classes. These classes took a long time, but it was good to see everyone again and it was wonderful to see all the projects and to experience Kosovo once again in this way. Kosovo was not really a holiday, and we have certainly learned a lot of things, but it was a lot of fun and I am really happy that I experienced it with this group of people. I am looking forward to the next reunion!

           

My uncle Frank, who likes biking, asked me if I would recommend Kosovo as a holiday destination. I think I would, it is a beautiful country, even though there’s a lot of things that aren’t as comfortable as they are back home. It has a unique charm, the people are lovely, the food is delicious, and the coffee is the best. I would, however, also try to visit NGOs: it is a very important part of Kosovo and the progress that it’s making. Maybe that should be a holiday thing in general: when travelling and visiting museums, perhaps also visit important organizations in that area.

As I am writing this blogpost, I am in the plane to Valencia, to celebrate graduation. Louise is actually also in the plane, a couple rows behind me. She’s also working on her blogpost. We can see if there’s some organizations that we can visit there J.

Kosovo has changed the way I look at the world: change apparently happens slowly but surely, and it is important to keep the faith. Moreover, just because a lot of infrastructure is not in perfect condition, or because there are stray dogs walking around, or your house is unfinished, that doesn’t mean that you will not be happy and can have dreams. The Kosovars are just like us. 

Thank you to everyone who was involved in the trip, Anne & Erik, Enver & Bardha, Chiara, all the organizations that we visited, and my fellow students. I hope to see everyone again someday!

Being Othered

By Rayan Vugdalic

This trip was full of remarkable moments: people I met and places were discovered that will leave a mark on me for many years. But there are two moments that, in particular, I would like to reflect on. In both instances, I was for the first time in my life othered because of who I was. Actually, not because of who I was, but because of who someone else decided I was. An identity I had not chosen was imposed on me.

The first instance happened on Friday morning during the trip, when we were in northern Kosovo, in the Serbian area. I decided to go on a run in the morning, before we would take the bus. I was supposed to go with Lisa but she forgot her shoes in the bus, so I decided to go by myself anyway. After just 10 minutes, a police car pulled over in front of me. A hand came out of the right-hand side window, indicating me to come closer. A policeman, sitting in the passenger seat started screaming at me in a language I did not understand. The other one, behind the wheel, was silently staring at me. I tried to explain why I was there, but no one spoke English. The man closest to me asked for my passport. Thankfully, remembering Anne’s advice of the day before, I had decided to take my papers with me before leaving for my run. After leafing through my passport for a moment, the policeman pointed at me. French, he stated. Then, he read out loud what was written. Amsterdam, he said. His tone got a little more inquisitive when he read my family name. Bosnian, he asked? Well, not really. I mean, yes; sort of, I suppose? He was not convinced. 

 

As he started to check the authenticity of my passport by looking at it through the light of the sun, he asked me for more details. He made the universal sign of sleeping, by tilting his head and putting his hand together under his cheek. I explained I was staying at a hotel, pointing at the direction I came from. He did not seem very convinced. He grabbed his walkie-talkie and started to read the numbers written in my passport. To whom, I am not sure; a colleague at the police station, I presume?

After a tense silence, he moved two fingers in the air, in a way that meant: “go on before I change my mind”. I quickly reached for my passport and ran away. I found out later that the policemen went to the hotel to corroborate my claims. What was most troubling about this event was not the fact that I was being questioned by police officers. It does happen everywhere, and I knew I was not going to get in trouble simply because I had done nothing wrong. Rather, it was the fact that I could tell in the body language, the facial expression, and the questions asked by the policemen that there was something about who I was (Bosnian? Foreigner? Student?) that they did not like. They had assumptions about who I was because of what I looked like or what was written in my passport. What it made me realize is how lucky I am that this virtually never happens to me. I have never been a victim of discrimination, and no one ever forced an identity on me that I did not choose. This slightly uncomfortable encounter gave me a minuscule glimpse of what it means to not be part of the dominant, majority group. I am not claiming to understand what it feels like to be victim of discrimination – I don’t – but it gave me, at least, a more direct perspective on it than I usually get, as a white, straight male living in Amsterdam.

A similar episode took place in the Monastery of Gracanica. The monk giving us the tour asked to talk to me in private. He asked me if I was white to which I answered that I thought I was. When I mentioned my Lebanese, Serbian and Bosnian roots he was very displeased. What upset him the most, however, was that I was French. Coming from a secular country, he assumed that I was an atheist. He concluded to me that I could therefore not understand the art that was surrounding me. Another consequence of being French (or of my mixed origins, I am not sure) was that I lacked a soul, he said. Most outrageously, his final claim was that France, a secular country, would not win the World Cup – God is not with you, he said. Of course, he was wrong – I might lack a soul or the ability to appreciate frescos, but France will most definitely win the World Cup! Joke aside, this was a shocking moment because someone made assumptions about who I was and about my worth as a human being based on my origins. It was also very strange how he mixed ethnicity, religion, and football in the same discussion. Most definitely a memorable experience!

Drop in the bucket

By Iman Azganovic

It’s been more than a week since we came back, and I still can’t make sense of everything this trip has made me feel. I imagined that since I come from the region this trip wouldn’t be as impactful, but it ended up the other way around. Both similarities and differences between Kosovo and Bosnia made me see some things in a different light and changed my perception of the region and interactions between different ethnicities. It has been an incredible learning experience and I was amazed by the range of institutions we had the opportunity to see.

At the very beginning, in Vienna, we talked to Wolfgang Petritsch, once High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Union’s Chief Negotiator at the Kosovo peace talks in Rambouillet and Paris.  I came to the meeting quite prejudiced - in my eyes, in Bosnia he, as the most prominent international figure in the country at the time, has imposed laws that still hinder progress today. But after talking to him I realized some things that apply not only to my country but to international intervention in general - people from the outside often have visions and plans that are not necessarily compatible with the mentality on the ground. Thus, despite their best intentions things rarely work out the way they planned. 

Later in the trip, this was again confirmed when we talked to international institutions. They themselves seemed very proud of things they were doing and the things they accomplished. Unfortunately, lots of locals didn’t perceive it that way. An example was given to us by the representative at the University of Mitrovica who sarcastically remarked how IOs take kids to the beach so they can “become friends” thus helping the peacebuilding process, instead of opening the factory and ensuring jobs that are necessary to both Kosovo Albanians and Serbs. Later on, I did a little digging and found that there is indeed a huge mining complex which is largely not used but has amazing potential. Unfortunately, despite having quite a bit of influence over it, IOs failed to help rebuild it to its former Yugoslav glory.

So in the end, IOs didn’t really live up to my expectations. On the other hand, meetings that I was least enthusiastic about ended up being the highlight of the trip - the NGOs. The first one we met was The New Social Initiative. They work in Serb communities on educating them and helping them integrate into new Kosovar institutions and thus helping end the big segregation between the communities. The Ideas Partnership works with the Roma, Akshkali, Egyptian community. We had an opportunity to talk to some of the kids and I was amazed by how well they spoke English for their age. It really showed that with just a little bit of effort these kids can have incredibly bright futures despite the prejudices surrounding their community. Lastly, Kosovo 2.0..  Independent media is one of the pillars of democracy and in my opinion, has always been lacking in Balkans, including Kosovo. However, this bright team of young people showed me once again that there is hope. They have a very inclusive team that reports on various topics, not just in Kosovo, but in the whole region. All these NGOs may not make a huge, instantly obvious impact, but in my opinion, the work they do, even if it is just a drop in the bucket at times, can make meaningful change in the long run.

Lastly, I learned so much just by talking to people on the streets, mostly students. For our project, we were comparing universities of Prishtina and Mitrovica with the IBCM. Our final product is a reflective booklet. While the institutions and their work didn’t really impress me, the students really did. Their enthusiasm and their faith that they can do better than their forefathers was really inspiring. There was no hate in their words, only hope and willingness to fight for a better tomorrow. Youth truly is the future.

Reflections on Kosovo: What Lies Ahead?

By Shambhavi Chouhan

As I write down this final blog, it stems from a sense of finality and melancholy, as after this assignment, Peace Lab is officially over.

Reflecting on the first few days home after our arrival from Kosovo, many things felt distant and alien, to an extent. I was still immersed in the experience of Prishtina and was coming to terms with settling back in Amsterdam. We had met young individuals who were forced to live in a system which was corrupt, inefficient and devoid of opportunities. The country is still buzzing with frustration and unemployment. The last few days in Prishtina were monumental for me as we met inspirational individuals who through their power were trying to push for a change. Despite the magnitude of the given problem, they were hoping to create a dent on the inefficient system. Examples included young women such as, Tadi, Mr Petrit Selimi’s assistant, who apart from working for the Millenium Development Fund were also organizing drag parties. And young men such as Rinor, from Kosovo 2.0, who while working for an unconventionally bold magazine were also trying to narrate their story of growing up as Albanian in Serbia.

Kosovo suffers from an unfortunate geographic situation, with unfriendly neighbours but the warmest people. What caught me off guard, was the kindness and the warmth of the people. We were living with Enver’s family and they immediately made us feel at home. It was unfortunate to witness the challenges they had to face due to the circumstances of the society around them. A lot of the youth wanted to leave the country, but a lot of them didn’t want to either. These Kosovars maintain a strong relation and identity towards Kosovo and want to make it economically prosperous. As Petrit Selimi, the founder of the Millennium Development Fund stated, he eventually hopes that the “brain drain” in Kosovo becomes “brain gain”.

Significantly, Kosovo is brewing with history and hope (for a better future). It was inspiring to witness the role of small NGOs such as the Kosovo Women’s Network or the New Social Initiative, and the strength of their vision, as opposed to the international organizations which were often bureaucratic, riddled with inefficiency and corruption. The importance of narrative also starkly comes into play in Kosovo as a lot of people relate their identity to their Albanian or Serbian past. A uniform identity in Kosovo is missing and as we witnessed while meeting Albin Kurdi, a lot of politicians push for a historical narrative which relates to their ethnic identity.

Currently a daunting number of challenges lie ahead for Kosovo: visa liberation, fighting corruption and inefficiency and possibly joining the European Union. The government still lies a world apart from the grievances of the locals. The only thing which is pushing the country forward right now is the cluster of social initiatives by the driven locals and the hope for a better future. The question then remains whether this would be enough?

Closing thoughts

By Louis Sutcliffe

Eleven days have passed since I returned from Kosovo. After having time to process and think about my experiences in Prishtina and across the country, it’s time to draw up a final reflection on the things that I’ve learnt, both inside the country and upon my return. 

Perhaps the most immediately recognisable thing that I learnt during the trip was the way that I perceive statistics and articles. Kosovo was my first field trip into a post-conflict zone and was hence the first occasion wherein I had the opportunity to put a face to the numbers, so to speak. It’s very easy to think of statistics discussing deaths and refugees nonchalantly when they’re written in a book, though as soon as you meet the people affected you realise the gravity of the situation and indeed your own naivety in the way that you respond to said statistics. One is taught to remember that each number in the statistic represents an individual with aspirations or a mother to a daughter. I think that the trip helped me to bind this to the way that I analyse sources and I am intent on carrying this with me further.

With this in mind, the trip gave me a greater sense of responsibility to humanity. You realise after days of speaking with people from a different culture that really we are all the same and that we ought to care for each other much more. Particularly if you are in a privileged position as our group is, in the sense that we have access to a quality of education afforded by few, we certainly have a responsibility to use our position to help others: Our brothers and sisters in whichever culture they reside. 

Returning home was an equally abstract experience. For nine days, my mind has constantly been filled with meaningful thoughts about Kosovo and its people, the project and the questions I would ask the next speaker. The intensity of the trip gave such stark contrast to the reality that I returned to, which was one thing I did not prepare for nor did I expect. The evening that I returned, I went for some drinks with some friends and was immediately peppered with questions pertaining to the trip. Mostly, people asked in positive tones about how much I enjoyed the trip, which was met by my sombre answers. A friend of mine began to dully natter on about her problems with a different boy to the week before and other uninteresting drivel. I coolly responded by continuously nodding and allowing the words to flow into one ear and out the next. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to satisfy their superficial quizzing and her bumbling musing, it was that I physically couldn’t. To go from a place that feels real to a place that seems a parody of itself was something I couldn’t get over, that evening, and so I returned home rather early.

The thing that I took away from this experience at the bar was that I no longer had any desire to put up with trivial annoyances and I began to understand the things that are truly important in life. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with small talk about your problems with your friends, but it should by no means be a focus in your life (not for me, anyhow). That being said, I must give kudos to a number of my friends that approached me a number of days later who were excited to really talk about my experiences in Kosovo and learn about the country. I was impressed by peoples’ desire to understand and to learn through my own learning. 

I suppose what this taught me was that we can and we should tell people that want to listen about these experiences in order to supplement group learning. It doesn’t have to be anything like a seminar or a lecture, but a casual conversation can go a long way. My roommate, for example, spent approximately 8 years of his life in Albania. We spoke casually for an hour on and off about Kosovo and the Albanian identity there. For the first time in over a year, I saw him wearing his Albanian football shirt yesterday. It could be coincidence, but I like to think it isn’t.

Realisations

By Nathan Luetchford

This blog post is not going to be well structured; I merely aim to express the things that linger in my mind as I arrive at my final assignment of Peace Lab and by default this academic year. Overall this course has been an incredible experience for me, both in terms of what I have learnt and seen, but also personally. I got to the end of the sixteen-week period in something of a motivational slump. For reasons that I won’t dwell on, I was feeling pretty apathetic about many things, not least my current path of academia. I feel a renewed motivation to achieve and I think this is because Peace Lab put into practice what I was trying to grasp in theory. I am also very grateful for the group dynamic that developed over the course of the trip. I had so much fun and I would love to do it all again.

Kosovo clearly has its own unique set of challenges, ranging from a lack of visa liberalisation for its citizens, to a lack of recognition from many other countries (most significant of all being China and Russia). Aspirations of becoming a European Union member state are stalled by continued allegations of corruption and unrelenting organised crime. The current political elite is divisive and it is clear that no progress will come as long as they remain in power. The remnants of the UN Resolution 1244 remain, despite continued efforts to transition custody of social order to the local Kosovars. Nonetheless, in the midst of all these struggles I see a recurring commonality. Politics is both a curse word and at the same time the only means through which society can improve (at least in my opinion).

The reality of modern civilisation is that large groups of people living together need legitimate organisation and leadership. People are angry and frustrated at politicians, and rightly so. However, I think we go wrong when we reject the political order altogether. “What about civil society!?” I hear you cry. Well, I agree that civil society should play an important role in pushing for the things that people need and want. However the point is that we need politics and government to deliver it. Civil society is not centrally organized enough to ensure stability in the long term. It should push for these things, but cannot be counted on to provide them in itself.

At the end of this course I have realized the following: 1) The people of Kosovo deserve better. There is an undeniable will to progress and become an advanced nation. We just need to work out how to remove the obstacles in the way of this. 2) The expectations you have about a place are more likely to be wrong than right, and the only way of verifying is to go there and see it for yourself. Despite the struggles (of which some I have described above), Kosovo functions very well, especially considering the lack of resources it has at its disposal. 3) My passport holds so much value compared to that of other people. Okay, we can drop the Brexit joke here, but regardless, I am extremely lucky to be born on the particular area of the earth’s soil that I was, as opposed to another patch of ground on the other side of a socially constructed border.

Thanks for reading and I will leave you with a photo I took when we were in the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian community on the outskirts of Prishtina. 

Two takeaways

By Louise ten Bosch

During the trip itself I found it difficult to take time for myself and reflect on the trip. I am not one to often take a moment every day to properly look back on the day and write down what I felt, I often found myself simply writing down an itinerary of some sort. However, with the day now I’m starting to realise more and more the effect that this trip had on me. I would say that I can streamline these lessons into two major ones.

The first is the presence of biases, the second is the danger of generalisations. Although these are two separate takeaways they were also often interwoven, and one often appeared alongside the other. Before the trip, and often even during, we often used the term Serb or Albanian to describe certain characteristics or traits. This was where the lesson about biases came into play. Being in Prishtina for one day amongst Albanian people already allowed for a bias, unbeknownst to me, against the Serbs to take shape. 

So, when we headed up to Mitrovica the second day to meet with the Serbians I realised that my stance was already rather pessimistic and that I would often already in my head blame all Serbs for being against the independence of Kosovo and not allowing the country to move forward. However, with every new organisation we passed and every new person we met who was from Serbia I started to truly realise the naivety, but also the danger, of the biases that I held. If I was already feeling like that after one day I couldn’t imagine what other people must be feeling. 

Besides the obvious points, one specific danger with this attitude of mine was that I was generalising, I was painting one group of people with the same brush, without hearing the different perspectives first. It was the New Social Initiative in particular that made me realise the extent to which my biases had been wrong. The passion and drive that the head of the social initiative showed was truly inspirational and definitely also filled me with a drive that I hadn’t felt in a while.

All in all, an amazing trip from which I will take away lessons that will hopefully stick with me for life.

Youth dialogue

By Sahar Afzal

This will be my final blog post about Kosovo. I will use this blog post to describe the final part of my project. Together with Iman, I made a personal reflexive booklet on our stay in Kosovo. In this blog, I will expand recommendations I had following my experiences in Kosovo. 

We researched dialogue opportunities between young Kosovar Albanians and Serbs living in Kosovo. We hardly came across any form of interaction, except for the International Bussiness College Mitrovica. At this college, Kosovar Albanians and Serbs study together. However, I was not too pleased with the atmosphere at the college concerning dialogue. Therefore, my first recommendation comes from IBCM.

Coming to the business college my expectations were high of real dialogue between Kosovar Albanians and Serbs. The way they portray themselves is as the only place where Kosovar Albanians and Serbs really meet. This university is meant to bring people closer together, however, the real level of engagement is quite low. To a certain extent, there is some interaction which means sitting in the same classroom but hardly talking to each other. They would not meet with one another because it would not be accepted, or they are too busy with their own friends. I wonder if the money spent on such a Business college could not be spent in a better way toward dialogue, since real dialogue is not really happening at the IBCM. This gave me food for thought and I came up with the following ideas. 

First of all, putting students together at the age of 18-19-20 does not really improve dialogue. Frankly speaking, it is too late. All students already grew up on their own side of the bridge, have their family and friends. They basically do not need to interact to have a social life. Moreover, they are still split by the bridge when they go home. Therefore, there is no real way of interacting even though they follow the same courses. I believe children from a young age should study together. 

Another problem occurs here and that is language. Today the younger generation of Kosovar Albanians and Serbs do not speak each other's language. So if children already go to the same school, they would be in separate classes. To make it practical, I think as a start, schools with both children that already exist throughout Kosovo should organize classes together. Classes like the English language, which both groups need to learn. Moreover, I think it would help if the children have physical education together. No language is needed to play sports together. Hopefully, starting by having two classes together that can unite them is a better way of starting a dialogue.

It would be lovely if children from a young age already started engaging. However, in Kosovo, there is an older generation of youth that goes to universities where dialogue is still needed. As seen with the business school, real engagement between the two groups is quite low. Moreover, the University of Prishtina in Prishtina and the University of Pristina based in Mitrovica both fail in having any level of interaction. Both universities refuse to start a dialogue and blame each other for not recognizing one another. They state that politics is in their way of starting a dialogue. Therefore, another level of dialogue is needed which I personally experienced when I was 17.

When I was 17, back in 2014 I went to Belgrade for a conference for the European Youth Parliament. Young people from all over Europe including Bosnians, Serbians, Kosovar Albanians, Kosovar Serbians, and Albanians came to Belgrade. All different groups of ethnic young people were divided over teams discussing a certain issue of the European Parliament. In my committee we were discussing an aid package for the Balkans, this really helped the level of dialogue between the youth from the Balkans. At one side a German guy and I would argue that it would be too expensive for our own budget and hard to sell to our people back home. Namely, that we could not spend money on the Balkans while we had an economic crisis. At the other side the youth from the Balkans, including Kosovar Albanians and Kosovar Serbs would side with each other arguing why the Balkans needed this aid package. This was the first time for me, meeting any people from the Balkans and speaking to Kosovar Albanians being scared in Belgrade. But they became friends with Serbs so easily that Serbs would protect them. For example, Serbs guided Kosovar Albanians back to their bus that would take them to Prishtina. It was also an opportunity for the Kosovar Albanians to see what the bombing of Belgrade did. I remember a Serbian girl missing a hand because of the bombing. This was the first time the Kosovar Albanians got to see the other side of the war. Because of this experience, I hoped universities in Kosovo would have the same experiences. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Since universities are not going to take the initiative, NGOs like the "New Social Initiative" should get the opportunity to expand their work. We visited the New Social Initiative during our trip in Mitrovica. They recruit young people from universities to participate in Model United Nations Meetings, which is similar to my European Youth Parliament experience. I believe bringing young people together, who are able to discuss politics while having fun is the best medicine to start a dialogue. One thing that is missing at the business school, is that the student council organizes activities but all of them won't include politics. IBCM explicitly stays away from politics. But without discussing politics there is always something in the way between Kosovar Albanians and Serbs like students told me at the University of Prishtina and IBCM. Being in a MUN or EYP simulation discussing politics creates an environment for both ethnic groups to be themselves and get to know one another.

I hope these recommendations one day will have an effect. I will send my recommendations back to the Universities and NGOs we visited in Kosovo. Also, please let me know if you, reading my blog have any suggestions!

Thank you for reading my blog post!

Monday during the trip

By Louise ten Bosch

Theme of the day: politics 

Strolling onto the Newborn square, the word that could be used to describe the appearance of the AUC group would be nothing but dapper. Dressed up for the first time on this trip in suits and business clothing, the feeling of officiality was lingering in the air. Today was going to be a day filled with official visits with organizations such as EULEX, the youth parliament and Vetevendosje on the program. 

The first stop was EULEX, where we were greeted with airport-like security and rows of 4x4s with official EULEX license plates. The set up of the meeting room had a similar vibe where the EULEX Representatives were quite frankly grilled by the students on everything from the vision for EULEX to the hotly disputed topic of corruption within the organisation. Thankfully at the end the Representatives thanked us for the questions and said that it truly made them think critically. 

Our lunch was equally businesslike with a brief stop at the hip healthy food bar Green and Protein which was a welcome change from all the Albanian pastries which we had consumed over the past few days. From there we strolled over to the parliament where we met the youth parliament representatives. We were herded into the meeting room after shaking, what it felt like, every person in the building’s hand. After a quick round of introductions we quickly got onto asking questions which were translated by numerous people at multiple points, sometimes making for a rather different interpretation or response than anticipated. 

They led us to the chambers of the parliament where we sat in the seats of the most powerful men (and some women) in Kosovo, or at least that’s what it felt like. Again the response to some of the questions posed to the youth parliament was rather activistic, which can be highlighted with the response by one of the students to the question ..., which was “three words: corruption, corruption, corruption”. Where in response the president of the youth parliament took him aside and proceeded to give him, what it looked like, a stern telling off. However, it was in Albanian so the true sentiment of the discussion will never be known to us. After the parliament we proceeded to the bar Soma where we had a drink with the youth parliament members before quickly heading down to the Vetevendosje where we met the disputed leader Albin Kurdi. Which was to the least a very interesting encounter. 

I don’t think that an accurate description can be made of the man, so I will therefore simply present you with a number of interesting quotes he made:

The first being “when you cry you see clearly”, and describing Kosovo as being situated at the heart of a “Russian babushka doll”. He also threw around the names of several European philosophers and writers such as Foucault, Bourdieu, Wendy Brown and Judith Butler. However, i got the feeling that this was more of a name-dropping exercise rather than that he truly understood what the meaning of the texts were. Somewhat disingenuous, but passionate, are perhaps the words I would use to describe Kurdi, but then again this description may be used to describe most politicians. 

After dinner we headed over to Bon Vivant for Chiara’s birthday where we reconvened with the members of the Youth parliament! 

 

Old obstacles and new dreams

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’.

Saturday during the trip

By Nathan Luetchford

On Saturday evening, while in Kosovo, we watched the World Cup at a restaurant next to Newborn, before heading to a Cuban bar. This peculiar mix of impressive salsa dancing in the centre of Prishtina and a dose of international football got us in the zone for the clubbing extravaganza that would follow. The blasting tunes in the taxi ride out of town hyped us up sufficiently, although I questioned the club of choice when the boys were charged €10 each and the girls got in for free, although this made a little more sense when we saw the 1-10 ratio inside. Nonetheless it turned out the be quite the experience. The lights were sensational and the music strictly Albanian. I was left with a lingering sense of bemusement when the DJ played a series of nationalistic anthems coupled with Albanian flags. I imagined the English equivalent: a club in suburban London playing a remix of "God Save the Queen" whilst displaying the flag of Saint George.

After dragging myself out of bed the next morning and finding our way to the morning meeting place, we slept off our hangovers of repentance on the bus southbound to Prizren. On arrival I was instantly struck by the age of the town in comparison with the relative modernity of Prishtina and Mitrovica. The centre felt much more like somewhere in the Mediterranean than the Balkan region. The sun was shining and the squares were bustling with people eating and drinking at the numerous bars and cafes. 

We started our visit with a guided tour of Prizren's must-see spots, including a Serbian Orthodox Church, a Mosque, and the fortress on the hill overlooking the city. The weather was clear which provided us with a view of the mountains in the distance. I was instructed that knees would not be tolerated in the mosque and that I should wear trousers, however I paid a heavy price given that I only brought a pair of tight black skinny jeans with me. 

The temperatures rose in the midday sun, as I searched the town high and low for a pair of breezy linen trousers I could change into. My search was to no avail and I took refuge in a cafe and cooled off with a Coca Cola in hand. Our culinary indulgences included the local speciality of the Prizren kebab and a subpar ice cream, after which we boarded the pleasantly air conditioned bus. With the distant rumbling of thunder in the distance we drove further south towards the Albanian border, stopping for dinner at a restaurant amongst mountains and next to a sizeable lake. We relaxed on the grass outside and watched the last of the sun set behind the mountain on the far side of the lake.

Reflecting on the trip so far I would say that the greatest satisfaction for me personally is in seeing the things we learnt abstractly in the classroom. We studied these organisations and learnt about their involvement in the process of building peace in Kosovo. However it is one thing to read and another to see and hear from them in person. Overall I feel extremely privileged to be in a position where I can travel to this extremely interesting country, whereas the same cannot be said for the people of Kosovo we have met. The trip is nearing its end and I am grateful for this opportunity. 

“Be the change you want to see!” - Qendresa Ujkani

By Lisa van Holsteijn

Coming home has not been easy. Returning back to the dorms felt strange. Being alone again also felt surreal. And it took me several days to get used to living in such a well-organised, (comparatively) immaculate city again. We can drink water from the tap! We can throw toilet paper in the toilet. Suddenly I was able to look at Amsterdam with new eyes and was reminded how privileged we are to live in such a safe, clean and well-organised city.  

When reflecting on the time we spent in Kosovo, I’ve been trying to filter through all my experiences to discern what the most touching, or meaningful moments were. I’m going to outline one of these moments below:

Overcoming the divide: IBCM

This encounter came as a real surprise to me. On the 3rd day of our trip we headed up to the north of Kosovo to the city of Mitrovica. Mitrovica is a divided city; in the centre of the city is a river that divides the Serb-populated north with the Albanian-populated south. Emblematic of this divide is the bridge across the river, that is currently barricaded and out of use - stopping the crossing of citizens from the one side of the city to the other. (Ironically there is now a park called “Peace park” that has been built on the bridge, and its this park that acts as the literal divider between north and south Mitrovica.) Tensions among Albanians and Serbs are felt very strongly by most who live in this city. Nevertheless, there is one institution in Mitrovica where these tensions are being overcome: the international business college (IBCM). This college is the only multi-ethnic college in Kosovo and is a place where students from many different ethnicities (primarily Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Croats, Bosnians) all come together with the common aim of obtaining an internationally recognised bachelor degree. The college teaches all its courses entirely in English (to emphasise the neutrality of the space) and has also just renamed its two campuses from north and south Mitrovica to “riverview” and “riverside.” When talking to two girls Abide and Qendresa who study there I was amazed to see how mature and assured they were about their hopes for the future.

Both girls expressed immense sadness when explaining that many young people who obtain degrees in Kosovo want to leave as they don’t see a positive future for themselves if they stay in Kosovo. Both Abide and Qendresa however talked passionately about how they recognised that many things needed to be improved in Kosovo, but that they were the ones who were going to make that change. “Be the change you want to see!” Qendresa told me with an enthusiastic smile, “Who else is going to change if you don’t do something about it?” 

The fact that these two girls felt so passionately about taking their country’s future into their own hands and wanted to dedicate their lives to improving the situation for others, really touched me, and I was almost brought to tears listening to them speak. This selfless dedication was something we hadn’t heard from any other person. What Abide and Qendresa said resonated very deeply within me - it is something I also strive for. It really felt like we developed a strong connection in a very short time, and I sincerely hope that we will meet again at some point in our lives.

This was a very special moment for me, and it really felt like a huge gap had suddenly been bridged - we connected and I could see how at the end of the day we are all striving for the same things. Our different nationalities, age, race, ethnicity were all irrelevant. Through this realisation I am slowly starting to realise how harmful the omnipresent dichotomy of “us and them” can be. Abide and Qendresa remind me to always look past the black and white portrayals of situations presented in the media, and instead to look to the humanity in all of us.

As the beautiful Besim would tell me a few days later, “at the end of the day we are all human beings, and that’s what really matters.”

If you are interested in reading about other future perspectives from Kosovars that Petra, Xanne and I interviewed throughout the trip then please take a look at our Instagram called “Kosovar Dreams.” This is the link: https://www.instagram.com/kosovardreams/?hl=en