Road trip to Albania

I just came back from a short trip to Albania. We drove from Prishtina through Macedonia and finally across Albania to the city of Durres in the Adriatic. It is only a 10 hours drive, but it was a very interesting experience, with my Albano-Kosovar trip mates telling me how some of them drove these same roads as refuges in 1999 when trying to escape from the war with Serbia, having to wait at the Macedonian border for days.

Only a 10 hour drive (and 10 more on the way back), but a lot of stamps in my passport and some border anecdotes:

On the way there, we got stuck at the Macedonia-Albania border for more than one hour because of a power cut that had shut down the computers. Border police stood the complaints, ironic suggestions and jokes of the people waiting in the burning sun with patience and good humor, chatting and smoking with everybody. When it was finally our turn, the civil servant kept asking our driver, -with my Spanish passport in his hand- if I was Albanian or could speak Albanian in an attempt to save me the 10 Euros fare every foreigner has to pay when entering the country (this is a curious fare supposedly for non Albanians, but seems to apply only to non Albanian speakers). I’m sure I will daydream about this anecdote in my next passport control experience at Heathrow or JFK airports…

On the way back home, the Kosovar border police checking our passports called me out of the car. I got out ready for the typical series of questions about “the purpose of my visit” and so on, but the serious-looking policeman flagged my Spanish passport in my face and shot a single question: “Who are you with in football?” Even I am a complete ignorant in Spanish football (and football in general), by now and with the World Cup being broadcasted every day in the screens of every bar and house of the Balkans, I know my lesson well: “Barcelona!” I shouted out enthusiastically. The policeman smiled and shook my hand saying: “Good, good, then you can go”.

Albania is a country of contrasts and unfinished buildings.

As we were driving across the country, one of my Albanian travel mates was pointing at the hundreds of never finished buildings topped with the national flag that fill in the landscape and saying with a smile: “Albanians are optimistic people. They start building their houses when things seem to go better, but there’s never money enough to finish them”

With an economy traditionally agriculture based, this ex-communist country starts to show the “benefits” of capitalism and international intervention. Albania is still one of the poorest countries in Europe, but its capital, Tirana shows some of what at the eyes of Westerners is usually considered indisputable signs of progress and modernity; things like food chains, big expensive-looking new governmental buildings and a lot of construction being done everywhere by American-branded Caterpillar bulldozers. While I admire all that, about 5 different kids not older than 9 approach our group (Kosovar students in a study visit) selling anything from candy to cigarettes. One of my Kosovar friends tells me that the city is full of these street kids that live from charity; but, before I can inquire more about them, one of the well-dressed private security guards of a nearby official building washes the kids away…

On the coast of the Adriatic, the city of Durres and its port have a long history of occupations, political turmoil and resistance. During the past nine centuries Durres has changed hands from one ruler to another more than 30 times and has participated in several uprisings. Some of the most recent: In 1939, Durres became the center of the resistance to the Italian Fascist forces that had occupied the country, and in 1942 the Albanian National Liberation Council was formed in the city. In August, 1943, the city was taken by the Germans, which blew up the port in 1944.

All this history coexists today with the epidemic of uncontrolled, fast construction that has turned the beaches around the city into that:

I spent some afternoons on the beach, with the monster-like forms of the buildings under construction right on my back, reviewing Michael Albert’s book PARECON, life after capitalism. My little symbolic act of resistance in this new paradise for the western and eastern Europe free-market sharks.

Check out all my pictures from the trip to Albania, and some new pictures from Prishtina here.

It wasn't this... the Catalan "Estatut"

A quick report about the last events in my home country, Catalonia:


Companys, no es aixo...

No era aixo, companys, no era aixo
pel que varen morir tantes flors,
pel que varem plorar tnats anhels.
Potser cal ser valents altre cop
i dir no, amics meus, no es aixo.

No es aixo, companys, no es aixo,
ni paraules de pau amb garrots,
ni el comerc que es f amb els nostres drets,
drets que son, que no fan ni desfan
nous barrots sota forma de lleis.

No es aixo, companys, no es aixo;
ens diran que ara cal esperar.
I esperem, ben segur que esperem.
Es l'espera dels que no ens aturarem
fins que no calgui dir: no es aixo

Lluis Llach



That was Catalan. Here is an aproximate translation:



It wasn't this, my friends...

Not for this, my friends, not for this.
It wasn't for this that so many flowers died,
that we cried upon so many hopes.
Maybe it's time to be brave again
and to say no, my friends, it wasn't this.

It is not this, my friends, it is not this.
Nor the peace words imposed by sticks,
neither the trading of our rights,
theese rights that exist regardless of
the new cages they build with their laws.

It is not this, my friends, it is not this.
They will tell us that we have to wait now.
And we'll wait, for sure we'll do.
But ours is the wait of those who won't stop
until there's no more need to say "it is not this".

Lluis Llach



This is a song the political Catalan singer Lluis Llach wrote after the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. At that historic moment Catalonia saw how its aspirations for a broader self-determination and social change after Franco's repression were disregarded with a new conservative Spanish Constitution and a watered down Catalan "Estatut" (Constitution). Well, his words are actual again:

Yesterday Catalans voted in a referendum to approve a new "Estatut". It's been months of negotiations between the Catalan political parties and the Spanish government. Months of boicotts and hate-campaigns organized by the Spansih right wing on the media. Months of constantly hearing words such as "terrorist" or "civil war" linked to the words Catalan and Constitution...

Anyway, the point is that the the text the citizens voted on yesterday, was a completely watered down version of the first draft that the Catalan Parliament first presented... and that first draft was not that ambitious, well maybe it was on the self-determination issue, but definetely not in social justice issues. The result of the pathetic circus the polititians organized for months and the disregard, once again, of the claims for a broader self-determination and care for social justice was that less than 40% of the Catalans voted. The more progressive sectors of Catalan society had called for abstention as a way to invalidate the referendum and to oppose a constitution that ignores the right of self-determination as well as social justice in economic, social, gender and immigration issues. Many of us followed the call, but still we were not onough. So it looks like we will keep being a neoliberal, conservative, politically correct little colony for many years...

I tried to find some good links with information in English, but the articles on the European press are as conservative and depressive as we could expect.

Be tolerant! (??)

More messages in the street walls of Prishtina... These posters are a call to the Kosovar population to boycott all Serbian products. Besides the loss of human lifes, one of the consequences of the war with the Serbs was the destruction of Kosova’s economy, which was already damaged after decades of explotation by the Serbian government. Kosova is still facing economic undevelopment and high rates of poverty six years after the war. Serbian products flow Kosova's markets, many times with cheaper prices than the local ones, making it even harder for the economy of the country to recover. As if it was some kind of mean joke, Kosova's population ends up buying the products -and so, enriching the economy- of those who killed and emprisoned them. Sometimes there is no other choice; some Serbian products (such us medecines) are the only affordable option for the more empoverished sectors of the population.

See more pictures and comments of boycott posters here.

On the meantime, KFOR (NATO Kosovo force) has posted these signs all over the city. The text on top of the image of a trench and barbed wire says: "Are you tired of that? Be tolerant!"

For the international community "fixing" the situation in Kosova seems to be only a matter of that, of the population being tolerant and willing to live together with the Serbs, disregarding the background of the conflict. A little story to illustrate that: a local Albano-Kosovar college professor was telling me a couple days ago how an american collegue couldn't understand the obstination of Albano-Kosovars for independence and their unwillingness to mix with the Serbian minoritythat still lives in the country. The American made the comment: "why can't you all just live together in peace as we do in the US?"

Well, beisdes the fact that if US society is an example of something is of a sophisticated racism and discrimination machinery, the "living all together in peace" option that the international community advocates so fervently dosn't take some important points into account:

Around 14,000 people were killed by Serbian troops and militia in the 1999 war, most of them civilians.

Around 3.000 people were kidnapped and are still missing.

Near to 20,000 women were raped.

Around 700.000 people were displaced and more than 100,000 houses were destroyed or damaged by the Serbian army during the war.

Before that, Kosova lived under Serbia's government repression for years, intellectuals and college faculty were purged from public positions and humiliation was a common ingredient of Albanians' daily life.

That should help anybody with a minimum of common sense to understand why some Serbian Orthodox churches have been destroyed after the war, why Albano-Kosovars want independence, and why they have trouble living a political and social honey moon with the Serbian minority that still remains in the country. But, instead, the Interantional Community keeps shouting "Be tolerant!"

Check out all my pictures from Kosova anytime at the koreland photos link on the right column

No negotiation, self-determination

“No negotiation, self-determination”, street walls of Prishtina are covered with this phrase that is the presentation card of Vetevendosje (self-determination), a revolutionary citizen’s movement which opposes the negotiations taking place right now between Kosovars, Serbs and the International Community to decide the final status of Kosova.

Even if it’s getting clearer that the international community and the Serbian government will have to accept some kind of independence for the region, Vetevendosje reminds everybody that Kosova should have the right to decide its own future without negotiating with the government that was its oppressor for decades. They also oppose the “conditional” self-determination that the international community is pushing through resolution 1244, which preserves nominal Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo. The movement’s manifesto points out many other reasons to oppose the negotiations. Read them here.

Last Thursday, Vetevendosje gathered around a thousand of people in a protest outside the UNMIK (United Nations Mission in Kosovo) headquarters. Their demands were clear: unconditional independence and UNMIK –who they accuse of protecting Serbian interests and limiting Kosova’s right to self-determination- out of the region. The protesters camped in front of the UN building and erected tents blocking the entrance. At 3 am on Friday police violently broke up the protest and arrested more than 50 people, among them the leader of Vetevendosje movement Albin Kurtin, a former student leader and political prisoner. The arrestees have been sentenced with 10 to 15 days of jail and have been sent to prisons all over Kosovo, their families not being informed of their location. Kurtin and his movement Vetevendosje have become very unpopular among the more conservative and pro-UN sectors of Kosovar society because of their calls for a revolution to end up with UN control and corrupt government institutions and their campaign to boycott all Serbian Products.

See Vetevendosje website here (Albanian and English)

See some images of last week's UNMIK protest in Prishtina in Vetevendosje’s weekly magazine here

Read more about ALbin Kurtin here. This page was set up when Kurtin was a political prisoner in a Serbian jail 7 years ago.

Read Resolution 1244’s full text in English here

Prishtina, Kosova

The building in the picture is one of the first things that were pointed out to me when I arrived to Prishtina three days ago. It is an orthodox church, a large one, and it sits unfinished and looking like a big brick fortress on the central yard of Prishtina University's campus. The story of this religious building provides a good introduction to the recent history of Kosovo: The church was built right before the war that broke out in March 1999, after the Albanian majority in Kosovo had been bearing, for about ten years, a harshly repressive regime and a drastic reduction of their autonomy imposed by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. During the years previous to the NATO intervention in 1999, the Albanian majority in Kosovo was largely purged from state industries and institutions, while the Serbian minority accumulated property and power. Prishtina University was one of the most harshly punished institutions by the Milosevic regime, as it was seen as a focus of Albanian nationalism and dissidence. Within two years after Milosevic took over Kosovo, 90% of the faculty and 98% of the students left or were expelled and Serb nationalists were in charge of the administration of the university. In this political climate, the Serbian authorities gave permission to the Orthodox Church to build the temple that you see in the picture right in the middle of Pristina University's campus only large green space. Religion had nothing to do with that, the construction of the religious building was a totally political act aimed to show off the power of the Serbian, orthodox minority over the Albanian, mostly Muslim majority. The church was never finished, as the NATO air attacks in 1999 interrupted the construction works. In the chaotic days right after the war, somebody tried to blow it up, but the building withstood the attack and KFOR warned the Albanian leadership not to try again. So here it is, rising in the center of Prishtina, unfinished and unused but still reminding everyone in the city of their past under Milosevic’s oppressive regime.