Keeping up with Peace Lab

By Anette Mäletjärv

Welcome back to Keeping Up with Peace Lab. In this episode we will see how the group’s dynamics have evolved by Wednesday. The notes from your favourite field reporter Anette Mäletjärv that follow, will bring to you only a handful of the most interesting developments as well as some highlights from key meetings. 

Log: I wake up at 7.30, even though I set the alarm clock for 7.00. For a second I regret only getting 4 hours of sleep, as my promise to myself to have “only one drink after dinner” actually meant staying up the latest and ending the night at the only open fast food place with Audra, Minouche, Blerta and Ilir, discussing our fields of studies and future plans. But then I remembered that Tuesday was one of our last chances to go out with our newly made friends from Prishtina University and I have no regrets.

At 8 we eat breakfast with our little Kosovo family, prepared every morning by Bardha’s mother, with whom we have a slight language barrier, but her food and smiles warm our hearts (and bellies) every single day. Bardha translates that her mother asks if she can wash my white sneakers in the washing machine. The reason probably being that my white shoes haven’t been white for a looong time, as I use them these days as my festival shoes. At this point I truly feel at home and it all reminds me of my mother, who cannot stand me walking around with such sad-looking dirty shoes. Knowing that Eastern European mothers have special sneaker-washing skills, which do not destroy the soles of the sneakers as AUC dorm washing machines do, I thank Bardha’s mother and realize that this is the Albanian hospitality we’ve been hearing about.

 As usual, our household is 10 minutes late at our meeting point by the Newborn monument. We already know we can expect to have a group sitting at café Zoom, where everybody’s chugging their espressos and macchiatos like there’s no tomorrow, as the drinks always arrive 30 seconds before Anne and Erik announce that we need to leave. The only one who has learned from it is Chaz, who has his coffee to go.

 Our first stop of the day is Millenium Foundation Kosovo (MFK), which is located on the 9^th floor of the former Ljubljana Bank Building. Waiting for the elevator, Viktoria decides to take the stairs, it’s her thing. Lou and Enver follow, slowly some others do as well.  A little competition follows. In the elevator I complain about being tired, to which Nada says she is not that tired, as she is excited about the meeting. She made her presentation about the central election commission, and now she can see the building in which it originally was. I say that for me, that’s the beauty of Peace Lab: from theory to practice. Anne reminds us that this is the motto of another school. Indeed, that is the official motto of IBC-M, which we had visited before. However, together with their presentation about how their university strives for excellence, multiethnicity, diversity and priding themselves on having compulsory internships, I feel that AUC and IBC-M are not that different. 

Once we arrive to the conference room in MFK’s office, which is very modern and urban, we notice that on the table little presents are waiting for us: aesthetically pleasing minimalist notebooks and MFK’s newsletter “The Challenger”, the title page of which reads “Women in Energy. A new challenge for the new economy”. 

Then Petrit Selimi, the CEO of MFK arrives. At first, he gives us a brief overview of the company and the energy sector, which at least to me it seemed that most of the class was not that interested in. However, as Mister Selimi is also the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, the conversation soon switches to Kosovo’s and also world politics. Both the class as well as Selimi suddenly wake up and become more passionate; many of the employees around the office gather around the room to listen. 

The main topics included Kosovo’s current politics, visa liberalisation and Kosovo’s attempts to join the EU. “Being outside in the woods, it’s way colder there, than inside the house”, he said, using it as a powerful metaphor to illustrate that Kosovo would heavily benefit from joining the EU. He also explained that Kosovo, being the only state in the region that does not have visa liberalisation and that Kosovar people cannot travel in the Schengen area, has created more frustration, anger, and feelings of isolation within the country. We learn once again, that even though Kosovo works hard to meet the requirements set by the EU, those boundaries are constantly shifted. 

Besides that, high-level world politics also play a role in the way Kosovo is being treated in the international community, which makes it more difficult to achieve anything. Moreover, the existing negative stereotypes and prejudices toward Eastern Europeans in the eyes of Western Europeans further complicate those processes. Kosovo is being constantly portrayed in the media as this poor post-conflict area, full of radical Muslims, where everybody either traffics drugs, organs or humans, and where people’s values are regressive. Our experience in Kosovo has been the opposite: the state is rather secular, the legislation regarding LGBT+ rights is one of the most progressive in the region (even though a lot more is to be done and it does not necessarily reflect the reality), people are super friendly and hospitable, there are numerous human rights NGO-s, and young people are active and care about their country. Even though Kosovars cannot travel freely, there are still smartphones and internet, which allows them to get information and people don’t live as traditionally as we think they do. 
  

After the meeting there is a heated discussion among the students. We hear that during the meetings with Selimi in previous years he restrained from expressing some opinions or sharing some thoughts/information. However now, as he is not in the government anymore, he was much more open and brutally honest this year, telling us some fascinating things off the record. Witnessing such passion from a person regarding his country, as well as his frustrations, I ask the class the same question I asked him: “what can we do?”. I personally believe that coming back to Kosovo for jobs and internships is highly problematic, as the unemployment rate is 31.4% , so those opportunities should be saved for the Kosovo’s youth as we keep hearing that young Kosovars who graduate from universities struggle to find a job corresponding to their degree. Instead, I would love to see that us, AUC students, as we are told that we will be world leaders one day, and might find jobs at the EU, the UN etc. (or maybe whose parents work at ministries, as diplomats, or in higher positions), can break those stereotypes of Kosovo, and raise awareness regarding the importance of visa liberalisation.

 Not surprisingly, the Minister of European Integration, Dhurata Hoxha, with whom we had the next meeting, expressed the same sentiment at the end of the meeting: “I hope you all become bureaucrats and work in the EU and I hope you remember us then as well and work to break those prejudices.” Hoxhata gave us a brief overview of the mission of her Ministry, which is to reform the country in order to achieve membership in the EU. This includes measures, such as moving the country forward in implementing women’s rights, having a clear strategic policy goal, as well as working on becoming a member of NATO. Once again we are reminded that while Kosovo met the 95 criteria, which were confirmed, they still do not have visa liberalisation. 

 Among other things Hoxha shared about her experience of being a female minister. She expressed the struggle of feelings of having to do her job better than men, as many women look up to her, while at the same time if something goes wrong, then she is being judged for both being a politician and being a woman in politics. Hoxha also was proud of Kosovo’s laws regarding LGBT+ rights, as in the constitution marriage is not defined as between a man and a woman, which would mean that same-sex couples can also marry. However, as my project here is about LGBT+ rights and identities in Kosovo, I asked her what about the family law and if the legislation actually reflects the reality. And it turns out that indeed, due to the family law, marriage is defined between a man and a woman, which contradicts the constitution. The minister admitted that a lot more has to be done in the region regarding LGBT+ rights, but that she believes that “love is love” and she attended the last Pride parade. Apparently, the government shows its support to the community by draping the government building in rainbow colours during Pride. I remain sceptical, as I have witnessed the same kind of pinkwashing elsewhere as well. And from what I have heard during my interviews with locals, the government could, instead of providing passive support, also work on court systems and legislation regarding hate crimes, helping prevent LGBT-phobic attacks or to ensure that the attackers get prosecuted accordingly. But oh well, at least some steps have been taken.

Once the meeting is over, it is suddenly time for lunch. My household and I, as well as Nini (our coordinator and an AUC alum) and Enver (one of our hosts) make our way to Green and Protein, where I had the best vegan burger I have had in ages. Enver also had a burger, and I was almost excited to witness a Kosovar person voluntarily eating vegan food, but then I realize he’s having a chicken burger instead. (The joke lies in the reactions of the Kosovars I met and their reactions once I revealed I am vegan and does not reflect the overall society).

Next up is some exhibition, about which we do not know as much. As usual, we are calling taxis and Enver tells the driver where to go. While most of the drivers usually speak also some German, English or French, this one was from the older generation and spoke only Albanian, which meant that once he did not know where to go, we were also unable to explain that we do not know either. After some struggling, and with the help of two men from the street who helped us with translation, the taxi-driver managed to call Enver and we found our way to the place. 

The exhibition took place in the basement of a library, but the doors were closed, and nobody was to be found who would know anything about it. But to be honest, none of us really minded sitting in the refreshingly cold basement to cool down from the 30+ degree weather. Jet, the cool mum of the group, reminds us to be a bit quiet, as the building is a library. Noé suggests that maybe this waiting is an experience and meant to be some performance art. Minouche starts singing, as usual, to practice for the graduation ceremony. Audra this time doesn’t. Jet’s headache is slowly going away, Tara has more paracetamol. I take out my Kosovo 2.0 journal, as Merci brought me the edition of “Sex” from last year’s trip to Kosovo and I read to the class an article, or more of a guide: “How to date a Balkan man”. It lays out some stereotypical characteristics and behaviours of men in patriarchal societies. Some of us find it relatable and agree that many of those things apply also to men from our home countries, as patriarchy still rules in the whole world, not only in the Balkans. Soon it becomes clear that we will not see the exhibition, because we have a bus going to the lake soon. 

 I’m not going to write much about our experiences at lake Batlava, but let’s just say that on the lake with little paddling-boats it became apparent how united our group is and how fast we had bonded. Maud played some disco tunes, there were refreshments, sun, jumps to the water. In the beginning I thought it felt like Kings day, in the end it rather reminded me of the Titanic, as 2 little boats united and we sailed to the coast, singing (if it can be called singing) My Heart Will Go On.

 Dinner took place at another place, nearby the lake. The view was magical, and the beginning was beautiful, as the view was magical. We heard that there is a reservation for 250 people that evening, who invited also a live band. Indeed, it was a group of middle-aged or old men, all men, with a very loud band singing traditional Albanian songs and a lot of dancing. At some point it turned out that the group consisted of KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) veterans, who were celebrating 20 years after winning a battle in their region and being liberated from Serbian oppression. As I had done my presentation a few weeks earlier about the KLA, I looked at those men and remembered article titles along the lines of “KLA – a liberation army or a terrorist organization”, the accusations of war crimes and massacres conducted by the KLA members and felt slightly uncomfortable during the dinner. Though it was a bit amusing how the waiters enthusiastically tried to guide AUC students from the restroom back to the table to not bother a circle of men sitting together intensely singing war songs.

After such a long and eventful day, we all went to our homes and to sleep once back in Prishtina.