Response question: How many albanian students attend and how many albanians professors teaching are there in the Presevo Valley?

Albanians can’t do anything right (except for running crime), Albanians are unable to run a state so they deserve none at all, Albanians are nazi-fascist islamic savages…so it’s perfectly fine to butcher and cleanse them as the world watches…the usual stuff staright from serb websites and stormfront Srbija…right Hawk?

Anyways, good responses (except for one small line) from Mr Muir as far as Kosovo’s history is concerned. Now, onto the main point, the article :

The picture is not as bleak as it seems, or even that it will be so for a long time.

1) Modern Pec 3 substation has just recently been opened, bringing Kosovo’s energy generating capacity from 930 MW to 1200 MW.

http://kryeministri-ks.net/?page=2,9,999

2)There are quite a few projects involving several small hydro-electric stations (80MW, except one near Prizren who’ll be 300MW) and wind farms (30MW)

Sorry, I cannot find good links for these in English, both forums, skayscrapercity (albanian section) and urbania.al have only Albanian articles.

http://www.newkosovareport.com/200905121762/Business-and-Economy/Kosovo-pioneers-wind-energy-in-the-Balkans.html (NKR’s hippy style reporting is unbearable I know)

And there can be more projects in the future by foreign investors as the world economy recovers from the global crisis. Several companies have alredy started employing people and Easy Jet will soon ease the burden of disaporids visiting their homes.

For those interested, some of them are mentioned here

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=543010&page=57

3)Currently Albania is helping, and will continue to do in the future, especially since most of the foreign investment in the country is in the energy sector.

http://www.emportal.rs/en/news/region/104469.html

The Durres-Kukes road was very prolific this summer for both travellers and Albanian exporters (July 2008 : 50 thousand people & 19 thousand cars, July 2009 : 447 thousand people & 215 thousand cars), heck Albania’s farmers sold everything they produced til Central Europe. In a few weeks, it will enable Kosovo to have its own port, that of Shengjin/Saint Eugene.

That said, this does not excuse the very disgraceful situation of having to import lignite from the opposite corner of the world. I just hope the politicans turn to real work when they are done with the post-election political games.

I apologize for any English mistakes.

Four years ago, I wrote a short post at my home blog about electricity generation in Kosovo. Unfortunately, much of it is still relevant today:

http://www.bookcase.com/~claudia/mt/archives/000818.html

Things have improved since then, but they’re still not good.

Doug M.

Everyone says dumb stuff sometimes — me included. I treat all commenters here the same, and I don’t demand better treatment for myself.

But if this is too rough for you, well, shrug. It’s a big Net.

Doug M.

But since this is your blog, you are free to do whatever you want.

Have nice life.

– I’m sorry, but no.

In Serbia, Milosevic’s government was corrupt and incompetent. In Kosovo, it was just as incompetent, more corrupt, and far more brutal.

Economically, Kosovo went through a decade of massive disinvestment. No new infrastructure was built except to serve the Serb minority. Albanian services — from elementary schools to hospitals — were either shut down or deliberately starved of resources. This is not a myth, nor is it a mystery; it was widely known at the time.

“very well known fact that every single of todays K-Albanian leading politicians is suspected of having some kind of deal in the drug smuggling and human trafficking business.”

Really? Fatmir Sejdiu is a drug dealer? Nexhat Daci is a trafficker? Remarkable.

I could mention Arkan and Legija, but let me throw out a blast from the past: Radovan “Badza” Stojicic. Remember him?

Several members of the current Kosovar government have violent pasts and/or dubious associations, yes. That’s true. But “they’re all drug dealers and human traffickers” is just idiotic. Every one of them? Really? Can a single country support so many mafia chieftains?

I note in passing that, for a country ruled by criminal gangster terrorists, Kosovo has a remarkably low rate of violent crime. It’s been falling rapidly over the last five years and is currently not much higher than Serbia’s. Prishtina’s murder rate is almost exactly the same as Nish’s.

– I actually agree with you that domination of Kosovar politics by the KLA generation is a problem. Too many ministers and parliamentarians are KLA veterans with few credentials beyond “he fought for our freedom”. And since most of the KLA were quite young — the majority were under 25 — this generation is going to be around for a long time.

On the other hand, I am much less certain that they will continue to dominate Kosovar politics for the next 30 years. Kosovar Albanians are a young population, and the aura of magic around the KLA has already faded quite a bit.

“First K-Albanian mass and violent protest happened just a few months after Tito’s death, in march 1981.”

– I know. But then from 1982-88 things quieted down, with occasional protests (and lots of football riots) but relatively little violence. Whereas starting in 1989 things got bad and then got worse.

You say that “every year” in 1981-9, there were protests with “tens of dead and hundreds wounded”. If so, you should easily be able to provide a cite for this.

“much more brutal and bloodier than crackdown Milosevic tried to implement in 98-99.”

Really? In the 1980s, JNA wiped out an entire extended family in their compound, massacring over 50 people, many of them unarmed civilians? In the 1980s, tens of thousands of Albanians were driven from their homes, and dozens “disappeared” to never be seen again?

Again, it should not be difficult for you to provide cites for this.

“Kosovo-Republic”. Why? Because that was the first step in their plan to secede from what was then YU.

– I am impressed by your power to read the minds of people hundreds of kilometers away and thirty years ago. But when you talk to Albanians today — the ones that are old enough to remember — they say, no, they wanted a republic independent of Serbia, which would be equal with the Serbs, Slovenes and Croats. I’ve never met a single Albanian who has said “oh, yes, we wanted independence from the beginning”.

The great majority of Kosovar Albanians liked being part of the old Yugoslavia just fine. Why wouldn’t they? They got subsidies, freedom to travel and study, and the best passport in the world. They had a sweetheart deal, and they knew it. (They still do — Yugonostalgia is very strong in Kosovo.) They wanted the autonomy and prestige of Republic status, but they had little interest in independence. That exploded in 1989 and after.

“Milosevic insisted that Albanian professors should sign the loyalty paper to Yugoslavia (not Serbia). And I agree with that move.”

– as noted in the last comment, most professors were not fired for this. Only a few high-profile professors were asked to sign. Most were fired for “violations of the Serbian Education Law”.

You’re trying to say they deserved to be fired because they were disloyal. In fact, they were fired because they were Albanian. Loyalty or not had nothing to do with it.

“I must say that it saddens me to see that the fact that is not a single Serb student or professor worked in Prishtina University (from 1999 up until now),”

– You know there’s also a ‘Prishtina University’ in Mitrovica and other Serb areas of Kosovo, right? It’s the Serb University, evacuated in 1999. (They took all the money, all the lab equipment and quite a lot of the books.)

There are plenty of Albanians living north of the Ibar, or for that matter in Serbia itself. How many are enrolled in the Serbian ‘Prishtina University’? And if the answer is ‘none’, does that make you sad?

Doug M.

Your second post is substantially different then your first post. It is much lighter and I believe that with that kind of attitude of yours we could continue to discus the matter.

First of all, we must separate two things: Politics and Economy. It is not always easy, but I’ll try.
First I’ll try to address political stuff you introduced, and latter I’ll talk little bit about economy, since I don’t have much time now.

All those talks about Milosevic and his mismanagement, Kostunica, Serbia’s interference etc. are just plain propaganda stuff. Tough I agree that Milosevic implemented enormous damage to the economy, as I already said – he did that to all of Serbia not just in Kosovo. Every single accusation after Milosevic (from 1999 onwards – and remember that Milosevic died in 2006), is just plain Albanian propaganda and brilliant excuse for K-Albanians to continuously cover up not just their incompetence, but much more important thing – the lack of will to do something good for Kosovo society. Most easier solution by far for the ongoing problems is to blame it on the others!!! So, whatever they say to you, try to filtrate that through this prism.
Pardon me saying, but it is also very well known fact that every single of todays K-Albanian leading politicians is suspected of having some kind of deal in the drug smuggling and human trafficking business. With that kind of politicians one could not see prosperous life of the region in the foreseeable future. Especially since all of them (Thaci, Haradinai, Limai etc) are young people (around 40) and full of energy and enthusiasm to rule Kosovo in the next, let’s say 30 or 40 years.

Now little bit about political past.
Again, you are pretty wrong about the facts. I reckon it is due to your lack of first hand knowledge about situation in former YU before 1990.

-You said: “…you know, the modern era of violence in Kosovo got started when 25,000 Albanian miners went on strike in March 1989…”

That is completely wrong. First K-Albanian mass and violent protest happened just a few months after Tito’s death, in march 1981. More the 100 000 of them (mostly Albanian students) went out on the streets of Prishtina, crying paroles “Kosovo – Republic”. That was Albanian agenda from the day one. “Kosovo-Republic”. Why? Because that was the first step in their plan to secede from what was then YU. Since Kosovo was just autonomous province, under YU constitution it didn’t hold the possibility to secede legally from YU. Therefore the parole “Kosovo-Republic”.
That protest, and every single Albanian protest (which happened at least once a year) from that time onwards (until 1989) was cracked down by brutal force of Yugoslav police and army. But, in that time – please bear that in mind – YU police and army were “multiethnic” (whatever that word means) – so it consisted of the Slovenian, Croat, Bosniak, Macedonian and Serbian police officers and soldiers. Ethnic composition of those two was not at all in the favor of Serbs. There were even K-Albanian policemen in that force but they were in substantially smaller numbers because of the fear of the Albanian revenge toward their families.
And that continued to happen every single year up to the 1989. Albanian protest, parole “Kosovo-Republic”, brutal crackdown by YU “multiethnic” police and army, with tens of dead and hundreds of wounded. Much more on Albanian side, but there were police officers and soldiers who died too, you know. So, if you want to talk the past, you must talk everything and not just calling me ignorant (calling someone ignorant is very easy).
BTW one of very important thing to know about that times is that those crackdowns (81-89) were much much more brutal and bloodier than crackdown Milosevic tried to implement in 98-99. But during that time YU was not on the USA agenda (and the crackdown forces were of multiethnic origin), so who cared?

Then it came 89, and you are right. I don’t have anything to add to that, except that in that period Slovenians and Croats didn’t want to send their policemen in Kosovo, so crackdown of Albanian coalminers strike was executed by the police force consisted mainly of Serbian (with the about 20% Macedonian & Bosniak) policemen.

Since the cradle of Albanian protests was Pristhina University (as I already said – young people are easy to manipulate. Especially by their professors), Milosevic insisted that Albanian professors should sign the loyalty paper to Yugoslavia (not Serbia). And I agree with that move. It is absurd to have someone teaching children and telling them that YU was not their country and that Kosovo must secede from it. I mean, do you really believe that there is a single country in the world which will let unpunished someone who openly opts for its dissolution? I don’t think so. If you don’t agree with me, we could discuss that matter in the light of Turkey’s 50 years long actions against 10 million of its Kurd minority who demand just “autonomy within Turkey”.

Everything what happened from 1990 onwards are more-less well known so I don’t want to waste anyones time writing about that.
At the end I must say that it saddens me to see that the fact that is not a single Serb student or professor worked in Prishtina University (from 1999 up until now), even if you don’t approve that, represents a matter of complete indifference to you.

In my next post I will, hopefully, try to address Economy matters with the special emphasis on the problems regarding about 5 billion dollars of foreign donations and “investments” in Kosovo which “M.G. in progress” stipulated in his post.

With respect.