Erasing the distance

18 June 2020

By Stan Bride

Our virtual journey to Kosovo ended this Friday after several follow-up interviews (which took place for some of us) and our final meeting with Kosovo 2.0.  This independent media organisation publishes content both on paper and online and covers a great  diversity of topics. In fact, throughout our meeting, Jack (deputy editor-in-chief) and Iliriana (managing director) mentioned topics which echoed almost every single theme which we had been confronted with in these last three weeks. In that sense, the name of the organisation is very telling as the magazine is to a certain extent a crystallisation of all the different topics which make up Kosovo.

Interestingly, the fact that all this information  – which I wouldn’t have had without Peace Lab – but also the pictures and stories were made so accessible through the organisation’s website made me feel as if I was almost in Kosovo physically and erased some of the distance which I think most of us felt during our meetings. This distance is something which I felt several times throughout the last two weeks but particularly this Friday. More specifically, it has been something very paradoxical in the sense that technology allowed us to connect with people in Kosovo without being actually there. In some instances, it certainly felt as if we were there, however you are brought back to reality the moment the meeting ends, and you are suddenly alone on your desk chair. Because of the pandemic, this distance has most likely been felt by many people around the world in one way or another. 

However, on a more political and geographical level, Kosovo is also subject to a similar paradoxical distance. Often described in the readings as a region at the heart of Europe, the absence of visa liberalisation or the length of Kosovo’s candidacy to EU membership prove otherwise. This was made very explicit during the follow-up interviews which also took place on Friday for some of us. I can only speak for my group, but when Rosa and I talked to the students, mentioning our inability to be in Kosovo because of the pandemic often led to the topic of the complexity for people in Kosovo to travel in the EU. In other words, without realising it and in the flow of the conversation, we associated these distances. 

This comparison is not without any significance for it bears a message of hope. Whether it is Anne’s decision to maintain Peace Lab virtually, the rich journalistic work of Kosovo 2.0, or the friendly conversations we exchanged with the students during the follow-up interviews, all these actions erase some of the distance I mentioned earlier. Even if temporary or small, I have a feeling that these actions have an impact. In the same way that we have been able to erase the 2,300 km between Amsterdam and Pristina, I feel like the same can be done, step by step, between the EU and Kosovo.