Try to be sort of on-topic. Don’t call each other, or us, nasty names. No commercial spam. No racism.

This shouldn’t be hard.

Doug M.

My point is, Serbs have very strong negative stereotypes of Albanians: violent, dirty, drug dealers, ignorant, traffickers in prostitutes, mafia… you know. But at least some of these are Serbian problems that the Serbs are projecting on to the Albanians. The political culture of Kosovo is not more violent than the political culture of Serbia. (At this point, the political culture of Albania may be better than either.)

Wars and bombardment: the point here is, Serbs like to consider themselves as superior to Albanians in every way. If you look at the numbers, though, that’s no longer true. The average Albanian is now about as rich, healthy, and educated as the average Serb. Tirana is not quite as nice a city as Belgrade, but it’s not far behind — and it’s much nicer than Kragujevac or Nis.

But I still encounter Serbs (and others) who talk about “the lawless wastes of Albania” and such. The average Serb seems to think that Albania is a hellhole of crumbling buildings, blackouts, drug gangs, and blood feud.

I say “seems to think”, but maybe “wants to think” is more correct… if I say, “no, Albania is all right, it’s really not that different from Serbia,” people sometimes get upset.

The funny thing is, it’s not hard for a citizen of Serbia to visit Albania. Very few do, though.

Doug M.

[links snipped]

[Miki -- our blog software won't allow more than two or three links in a comment -- spam protection. Your comment was put in the spam trap. I rescued it, but had to remove the links. If you really want to give them, put one or two apiece in separate comments. Sorry for the inconvenience. -- Doug M.]

and regarding our economic growth compared with Albania… we waged 3 wars in 10 years and we were bomabarded by NATO resulting $33b of total damages and 4000 people dead…so i think we are doing just fine when you look at things this way…

Banana republics: The Yugoslav republic that avoided war — Slovenia — is doing just fine, thanks; rich, peaceful, and a member of the EU.

It’s interesting to note that 20 years ago, Serbia was part of the richest country in Eastern Europe, while Albania was by far the poorest. Now they’re at almost the same level.

Doug M.

I’ve been around all three places, though, and I have to say: Serbia feels a little more advanced than Albania, but not much.

Both countries have nice capitals with all the amenities — fancy hotels, nice shops, good Internet connections. Both have some interesting stuff going on in the smaller cities, and a lot of grinding rural poverty. Serbia has a lot more unemployed hanging around doing nothing; Albania has more young people going abroad as guest workers. But, you know, they’re not that different.

Kosovo is something else again. Once you’re outside of Prishtina, it’s a mess — no industry, no investment, people working as subsistence farmers or not working at all.

As for the EU getting along: there’s a school of thought in Brussels that thinks Serbia should be bribed into accepting Kosovo with a fast-track to EU membership. This is about three different kinds of stupid. (If Brussels Gonzo is attending this thread, I’d love to hear his take.)

Doug M.

Serbia, including Kosovo: $4,400
Albamia: $5,700

As for the Stabilization and Association agreement, it seems that if the EU can get along just fine without wealthy Switzerland and Norway, hearts in Brussels will not break over the lack of Serbia.

Don’t believe? Statistics from wikipedia:

Per capita GDP (PPP)

Serbia $7,265
Albania $6,140

Unemployment

Serbia 20.9%
Albania 13.9%

Inflation

Serbia 6.6%
Albania 2.0%

Gini coefficient (inequality)

Serbia 0.24
Albania 0.27

Growth rate

Serbia 7.5%
Albania 6.0%

Percentage of population in poverty

Serbia 18.5%
Albania 18.5%

So, pretty much the same.

Yeah, the blackouts are a serious problem. Serbia’s economy has no problems at all, so that’s definitely a plus for Serbia.

I suppose I should mark that last bit as sarcasm.

Doug M.