“That’s what it feels like in the U.S.”

By Stefanía Ragnarsdóttir

Similarly to my first blog post entry, written on the plane home from Kosovo, I again find myself writing this one on a plane – this time on my way from Amsterdam, home to Iceland for summer break. I currently sit in seat 6E on the plane, right in the middle of two American men, both on the verge of retiring, with whom I have been chatting for the past two hours (luckily both are sleeping at the moment). I’ve enjoyed the conversation – it started out slowly...where are you from...what do you do...and so on. The tone of the conversation changed when I unknowingly threw them a curveball: "So, how do you feel about the upcoming presidential elections?" I asked. 

This was a sensitive topic, not least because one of them supported Trump while the other was for Biden. The fear in their faces became understandable to me when they shared that both had lost connections with close family members due to the political divide that now characterizes the U.S. Luckily, the conversation remained civil, and all three of us made an effort not to say anything that could upset any of the others. Feeling a bit guilty about bringing the topic up, I decided to change course. 

I told them about the trip to Kosovo, which turned into a crash course on Kosovo’s history. I told them about the bridge in Mitrovica that embodies the divide between the Kosovo-Albanians and the Kosovo-Serbs – a few tens of meters of steel truss that symbolize the polarization between the two groups. I also told them about the NGOs we met during the trip that work hard towards bringing the two groups together in hopes of fostering some kind of understanding – for example, through initiatives like the Coffee Festival on the very bridge that divides them. 

“That’s what it feels like in the U.S.,” one of them said, referring to the bridge, and added, “I don’t read the same news as him (referring to the Trump supporter); we live in two different worlds in the same country.” Although the divide in the U.S. and the situation in Kosovo are very different, born out of very different reasons and with different characteristics, I thought this was a good reminder of something that is probably important to every single society – the willingness to try to understand the “other.” 

Thinking back to our meetings in Kosovo, many of the grassroots organizations spread this message as a goal, the organisation advocating for LGBTQI+ rights (CSGD), and the two organisations in Mitrovica, New Social Initiative and Community Building Mitrovica, serve as examples. (Previous blog posts have written about these organisations in detail.) 

For me, this is the message that stuck with me the most after the trip. Seeing the initiatives of NGOs and brave individuals in Kosovo who work towards bringing together groups who usually don’t see eye to eye was inspiring and a good reminder to safeguard against or combat polarization in our own societies by trying to understand the “other.” Maybe the two Americans will also be thinking about this when they lie down on their pillows and close their eyes tonight.