We all were once children. Some of us still are.

And we all had dreams. Some came true, some we forgot about, and some we are still dreaming and expecting to happen. Or we’re working hard to achieve them.

Of course, this is not always easy. One should earn enough for a living, you know,  for children’ education, new shoes or vacations. Each and every one of us has a thing or two that distract us from those bold goals we set when we were kids – to be pilots, doctors, firefighters, teachers… To fly to the moon. To make a summer vacation last for 3 months, they way it’s meant to be. To simply do what we love to do and be happy.Of course, that’s far from easy.

And if  you live in Kosovo, it’s even harder.

Everything around you tells you that you should stop dreaming – poverty, politicians who are playing their game with your life in stake but for their own short-term and personal gain, life that is “neither here or there”, and above all – uncertainty. You’re waiting to receive some help or humanitarian aid, waiting for some of the numerous international organizations to hire you (because they are the only ones hiring), waiting for the whole situation to just finish already and your life to finally settle. You’re simply waiting.

But you want to believe! And you are hoping!

Because faith and hope are the main drivers and motivators of people to persist and fight in order to be able to experience sometimes the chance to do what they love doing, and there is no environment bad enough or the darkness that dark to kill this faith and hope in people.

Ramonda Serbica is a flower that perhaps describes the best what I am talking about – it’s a rare plant, found only in certain parts of Serbia and it’s very specific: even if it is completely dried, it miraculously comes back to life when watered. Some say that this special attribute helped it survive the ice age. This ability to return to life was discovered by the Russian botanist Pavel Černavski who had this plant placed in a herbarium back in 1928. And when he accidentally spilled some water on the herbarium, previously completely dried plant suddenly bloomed. Magical.That is why people never stop struggling, never stop trying to survive, and always  believing and hoping that someone will appear and spill, accidentally or not, a drop of water in the direction of a forgotten flower archived in a herbarium long time ago. And when something happens by accident, maybe in the form of your brother’s friend, who accidentally discovers that, in all this darkness around, you’re creating beautiful origami models in all colors and shapes, and when this brother’s friend again by chance has something to do with “The Week of Japanese Culture” in Gracanica, you realize that this is your drop of water, the chance that something that waited patiently in the herbarium finally blossoms, be noticed and light up the whole surrounding with it’s beautiful glow.

Meet Mateja, my nephew.

He lives in Kosovska Mitrovica and a few days ago he had his first solo exhibition of origami models in Gracanica, where he also tried to demonstrate his skills and creativity in order to motivate and inspire a crowd of children to, regardless of the overall darkness around them, they still need to keep doing what they love doing and never give up.

By the way, Mateja is the cute little guy on the photo. He is 9 years old.

I am convinced that he is a drop of water for many kids in Kosovo.

Check out all photos here.

Note: this is a translation of my text written in Serbian for 365lepihdana.rs (365 beautiful days), which is a “river of optimism” of people that strongly believe that, despite all the pessimism and criticism around us, we are still surrounded by so many wonderful things that we simply fail to articulate and notice. Therefore – 365 blog posts for 365 days this year, to remind us where we really are living.

 

“Legal experts said that while the International Court of Justice had ruled that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was legal, it had avoided saying that the state of Kosovo was legal under international law, a narrow and carefully calibrated compromise that they said could allow both sides to declare victory in a dispute that remains raw even 11 years after the war there.”
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/world/europe/23kosovo.html?_r=3&ref=world

Disgrace.

And I’m not saying this as a Serbian nationalist from Kosovo or anything. It is a disgrace because  an institution that is supposed to use the logic and common sense (whatever that is in this case) decided not to decide at all (!!!), and left the politicians in the UN to play the game and make a “final decision” withing the General Assembly of the UN. An easy parallel would be if the pedagogues in the kindergarten would be asked for an opinion on who is right and who is wrong and they just tell the kids to decide themselves. Who wins? Bigger and stronger, of course, and in most cases those that won’t ever admit they made a mistake.

This way, all they did was to pretty much retain the status quo for now. Both sides will read between the lines in their own ways and we are still far from any kind of a decision. Disgrace!

What has this shown us? Only one thing, in my opinion – that ICJ doesn’t have cojones/balls/muda to do their job.
I mean, since the ’90s, we are being told that we have to deal with what our leaders and people did in the past, been that Srebrenica or whatever else. And we pretty much have dealt with it. I don’t know many people in Serbia that don’t accept Srebrenica as a crime against humanity, and don’t feel ashamed that someone of our kind did that. Sure, there is still a lot that needs to be discussed and accepted on all sides in that bloody war, but we are going into the right direction. As a whole region, that is.

However, what we have in this case is that a major institution – International Court of Justice, which was created to deal with such situations, clearly rejected to show some courage and either confirm that independence is OK, or admit a mistake and support the negotiations about the final status.

What kind of a crap is that? Were they afraid to make a decision that either USA or Russia will not like and thought that this way they won’t get in a position where one super-power doesn’t care about and overrules such decision (remember USA and UN)? Or were they just afraid that a clear decision will spark either fights between Albanians and Serbs or enforce secessionist movements in many regions in the world (Catalonia, to start with - check out the reaction of their PM yesterday, or Armenians in Azerbaijan, or Cyprus situation - check how quickly Germans issued this press release)? (check also other reactions here and here)

I honestly believed that this agony will be finished, whatever the decision would be… Honestly… For the sake of  the youth that should grow up learning about important things and enjoying life and not watching the news and looking forward to find a way to get a passport and leave the country. I honestly believed that international community has balls to make a decision and stick with it.  And, believe it or not, I was ready to accept that Kosovo will not be part of Serbia anymore. I knew it would be hard, but I was ready to cry my ass off and feel miserable for some time. For the sake of the future.

But that was until yesterday. Who is going to convince me today that it is OK to be OK with losing Kosovo? Nobody. Ever. Again.
I’m OK when someone proves me wrong. Someone with a clear idea why I am wrong and he/she is right. But who can prove me wrong here? Someone without a stand?
And stupid rhetorics about “de-facto situation” or “it would be too hard to get back there and convince Albanians that living with Serbs is OK” doesn’t work anymore. It’s just absurd.

And don’t think I’m becoming a nationalist. Nope. Never been, never will be. My thoughts are on a much higher level. I’m actually sure now that my old idea about the need of the  World War 3 and “restart of the system” is actually very good. Couple of nukes would probably help solve all the world’s problems. Am sure that Mr. Bush and Clinton would agree with me, along with all leaders of NATO countries. Don’t you agree?

That, or and old idea of Mr. Arthur C. Clarke (somebody reminded me of this idea today):
“Any teacher (leader) that can be replaced by a machine, should be!”
Machines think logically. They know only 1 and 0, true or false. Their logic cannot be affected by Monica Lewinsky, Mr. Putin or fancy Mr. Obama and his administration. They don’t know what the word “inat” means. They don’t give a fuck. That’s why I love computers.

It’s funny ’cause it’s true…

Cartoons from: http://www.donika.com/cartoon.html

2 important things happened in last 2 days, and both are moving Serbia forward, one way or another…

First is long waited abolishment of visas for Schengen zone for Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, or in other words all EU countries except UK. What this means for Serbian people cannot be translated in words, really…
Most of my readers probably don’t know that 20 years ago Serbian (well, Yugoslav at that time) famous “red passport” was among the most respected in the world. Yugoslav people could travel freely to most of the countries of the world etc.
Balkan wars and sanctions did the thing and in last 2 decades borders of most of the countries were closed for Serbs (in order to stop refugees and immigrants), and getting visa was for most countries so tough that we often felt really helpless…
I mean, when they ask you to bring confirmations that you are paying taxes regularly (along with the actual amounts), or to confirm that you don’t want to immigrate to this certain country by submitting proofs that you own real estate in Serbia and also salary slips of all family members, then you really feel small and pathetic… and you are not sure anymore if you want to go to this country or not…
Myself, I consider myself a very lucky person, because being an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) in such Serbia is definitely not an asset However, I started working early (when I was 19) and could support myself for travelling quite a lot in last 10 years, and was really lucky to get proper support for visas when I needed them the most (and couldn’t really prove to consulates that I’m not a potential immigrant). Support from relevant individuals and institutions, that is…

All this resulted into almost 70% of people in Serbia not even having a passport! Can you imagine that?

Therefore, this abolishment of visas means much easier traveling for us. Not only that we don’t need visas, but also the prices are going down… Low cost airline companies are already announcing flights from Belgrade so for example a return ticket to Vienna is not anymore 300 EUR but around 100 EUR…

As soon as it was announced, people on twitter got crazy with planning the trips for new years and Christmas, so I think that only Slovenians will be in Belgrade on December 31st (traditionally there are thousands of tourists from Slovenia in Belgrade for new year eve)

There’s another joke already: “Last one that leaves Serbia on December 19th should turn off the light!”

Read more at:
EU scraps visas for three Balkan states
The EU has granted visa-free travel for citizens of three Balkan countries – Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
From 19 December citizens of the three former Yugoslav republics who hold biometric passports will not need visas to enter the borderless Schengen area.
Read the rest here…

Second big thing happening is Kosovo case debate at International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Everyone basically knows the story – Kosovo unilateral proclaimed independence, Serbia rejects it, around 60 countries recognized it so far, and then Serbia managed to move this fight from political to legal/judicial arena, so Int. Court of Justice is supposed to give an opinion now.
This opinion is not something obligatory whatsoever but it is a big thing anyways.

If you are not convinced that it is a big thing, let me just tell you that 29 UN member countries are going to debate this topic for 10 days, including all Security Council members, and it is going to be the first time the China is giving an official opinion before this Court.

Regardless of the process and results, this is a big thing for Serbia and Serbs. It’s a step. We still don’t know in which direction, but it is a step forward!

Read more here…

And then again – I am sure that both of these are taking us forward!
Have never been so sure, to be honest…

I guess we all knew this was coming, just never knew when… And we thought they might calm down a bit and start it again in a few decades or so…

I hope I’m wrong, but this looks like the same scenario that we all have seen already… Incidents, requests for more and more autonomy etc…

For those who are not getting it, I am referring to the “project” of “Greater Albania”, where certain Albanian groups are trying to form what they call “Historical Ethnic Albania”…

Picture shows how it should look like – you can clearly see which part of Southern Serbia (apart from Kosovo) they want:

And this is today’s news at B92…

Ethnic Albanians push for “region” in south
3 August 2009 | 09:56 | Source: Tanjug
PREŠEVO — Ethnic Albanian councilors in Serbia’s south have launched an initiative to form Albanian regional institutions and a separate region of Preševo Valley.

Read more at B92…

I immediately got flashbacks from 10 years ago…
Please please please – no more blood!
So help us god…

To be honest, I would prefer our foreign affaird minister addressing them, as he is a bit sharper then Tadic, but I think this is direct enough too…

Serbian: click here

English translation by google: click here

In Serbia, we say Dobar dan (Good day), but those 78 days of NATO dropping shitloads of bombs on our heads, we used to say Bombardan… Traditional Serbian humour – the darker, the better…

So it’s been 10 years since NATO started what they called action “Merciful Angel” “Noble Anvil”. This angel used 1000 airplanes and 38000 “combat missions” and dropped  who knows how many bombs that are either old (with depleted uranium – cheaper to drop in Serbia then to destroy) or very new and experimental (special bombs that destroy complete electrical network etc) or just against humanity (cluster bombs – aimed at killing as many people as possible).

And it’s been 10 years since they admitted that only by bombing 10 million people they can take care of Milosevic. That was, as they said, the reason for bombing…

And even 10 years later, they are still killing us… Depleted uranium is a very serious thing and many young couples are afraid to have children nowadays… Read more here – http://arirusila.cafebabel.com/en/cbtag/191033

Bombing itself was meant to be aimed at military targets and infrastructure, but this was not really true, as they were hitting anything that moves (buses, trains, refugees in the road, whatever) and other important targets like Hotel Jugoslavija and Chinese embassy (both in part of town where there is absolutely nothing military kilometers away). Here’s a short list of “mistakes” that BBC made – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/340966.stm

Not to be too subjective, here’s what Noah Chomsky thinks about it:

Then even better – General Lewis Mackenzie, Canadian dude that commanded UN troops…

To conclude – check out this awesome documentary by some Serbian guys. It has been made during the bombing and, in my opinion, in a true Serbian way:

I believe I wrote something similar somewhere once already, but nevertheless:

There is a saying about Serbs, that we always forgive but never forget and this is very true… For most of us, the war and the hatred towards the West ended with the last bomb that fell in Serbia (or even before, as a guy in the last movie in this post states). We come back to this and many other events every year, to remember the fallen and drop a swear or two on our miserable lives, but that’s pretty much it… We don’t hate, we don’t have terrorist groups trying to plot a nuke in Washington or whatever (I wish we are able to be so organized like that Serbian terrorist group in the Season 1 of 24 ), we just continue rebuilding quickly where we stopped. Quickly, as you never know when the next war will happen (someone said – only in Serbia there are 5 seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter and war)…

So, what makes us so calm, in peace with the situation? I think it’s history… Actually, am pretty sure about it… We subconsciously know that this is just another “great empire”, another in a row, so to say…let’s just see if this one falls in our lifetime or a bit later… and if the next Great war will start somewhere else and not in this unlucky area…

http://peckopivo.nomadlife.org/2005/12/7-years.aspx

This is my homecity…

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Fresh blast in Kosovo

26 February 2007 | 11:35 | Source: AP

PRIŠTINA — Explosion damaged several vehicles belonging to OSCE on Monday in Peć, a police official said. No one was hurt.
The blast occurred around 3:30 a.m. and was caused by an explosive device – possibly a hand grenade – that shattered windows or caused other light damage to seven vehicles in the parking lot of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
Investigators were not certain whether the OSCE was the target of the attack, which occurred in a residential area in the city of Peć, some 80 kilometers west of Kosovo’s capital, Priština, said regional police spokesman Avni Gjevukaj.
Two other vehicles that did not belong to the organization were damaged in the blast. There was no immediate comment from the OSCE mission in Kosovo.
Tensions in Kosovo are running high amid negotiations between the ethnic Albanians and Serbs over the disputed province’s status.
Three U.N. vehicles were bombed in Priština a week ago. In other recent violence, two people were killed in clashes between police and ethnic Albanians protesting the U.N. proposal on Kosovo’s final status.

By John Phillips
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 20, 2007

ROME — Any attempt by the international community to deny Kosovo independence will set off “a new Balkan war,” a senior Kosovar negotiator cautioned yesterday.
    Speaking as he prepared to take part in final talks between delegations from Kosovo and Serbia scheduled for today in Vienna, Austria, negotiator Ylber Hasa said Kosovars believe they already have made extensive compromises.

rest of the story at Washington Post

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I`m going home in a week… Hopefully not directly to war…