By Xanne Vos
I notice I find it hard to explain the wide range of
thoughts that comes to mind whenever someone asks me: “So how was Kosovo?”.
Most people don’t even know where or what Kosovo is and it’s then hard to provide
an answer as nuanced as I would like. World Cup football helps. The day after
we came back I had to work a shift at the canal boat company I work for and I
found myself trying to explain what I had done and seen in Kosovo to grumpy
captains and tired office staff by emphasizing the consequences of the game
between Serbia and Switzerland for Kosovo.
Since the ethnic tensions in Kosovo
are generally between Serbs and Albanians – and four Albanians play for the
Switzerland team – the Northern region of Kosovo supports Serbia, whereas the
rest (roughly – there are of course enclaves with non-majority Serbs, Turks,
Gorani, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian) support Switzerland. Even though the game
started out in Serbia’s favor, eventually Switzerland won 1-2. More
importantly, the goals that allowed Switzerland to make a comeback were scored
by two Albanians: Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri. After they scored they made
an Albanian eagle sign with their hands – the symbol of the Albanian flag.
Video footage from Prishtina that night shows the whole town is out waving
flags and partying in the streets – shame we missed that by 24 hours. Even
though the symbol is definitely cheered among Albanians in Kosovo, it can be
highly offensive to Serbs, and both players showed the symbol to Serbian fans
as well.
Apart from the effect of the symbol, mixing nationalism with football
– especially if it is not nationalism for Switzerland, but an entirely
different country – was not appreciated by many, including the FIFA, and both
players were fined for their celebration using the eagle symbol. This football match
showed how the current peace has not resolved the tensions in Kosovo and from
time to time, one spark can cause heightened tensions and incidents of
violence
The rest of the week back in Amsterdam was spent working hard on our projects.
It’s great to see how invested we’ve all become in our own projects. As I
explained in my earlier blogpost, Lisa, Petra and I made an Instagram page
called Kosovar Dreams, with pictures and little stories of people’s dreams and
expectations for Kosovo’s future. You can follow our Instagram on: https://www.instagram.com/kosovardreams/.
Last week we spent a lot of time synthesizing our notes into little stories and
emailing the people we interviewed many times to ask for their consent. Many
students or people we interviewed on the street were very easy about consent
and already gave their consent beforehand or quickly after we asked. The
organizations were more of a challenge; from many we haven’t heard back yet and
we are still sending follow-up emails. From others we got a definitive no.
Organizations such as the UNMIK and the OSCE have a mandate and an official
stance, therefore all communication has to be extremely nuanced and in line
with the organization’s vision. Often statements have to be made by their
official communications team – no room for personal quotes by employees on
Kosovo’s future there. It is understandable, but a shame. Even the
representatives from bigger organizations we visited made unexpected comments
that we would love to have included. Overall I am very satisfied with our
project, though. The people we met gave us great comments and were so vocal about their
ideas. At the same time it was so much fun and the final product looks good too.
It’s also a really nice reminder of our time in Kosovo and everyone we met.
On the last Thursday and Friday of June we all presented our projects and
it was so much fun to see all the different things people had done. As a
graduating student it is weird to say goodbye to this amazing group, but I am
really glad I got the opportunity to end my time at AUC with such a great and
memorable experience!
An unrelated but nice picture: Louis &
Frankie at the lake
No comments:
Post a Comment