Life

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it - W.M. Lewis

My New Favourite City

Lisboa / Lisbon has streaked ahead of the competition after a wonderful (too-short) 5 days there.

It has seemingly everything you could want in a city! History, modernity, tradition, poetry, music, architecture, stencil art, cool bars, diverse restaurants, a river, great weather, amazing food, close to surf beaches, fantastic public transport (trams AND funiculars - yay!) and pedestrian friendly! Well apart from all the big hills and thousands of stairs, that is.

View of Lisbon from the freestanding elevator tower

The most divine custard tarts ever made - at Pasteis de Belem

An alleyway in Alfama district

The Calatrava designed Orient Train Station.

Some of the Stencil Art in Barrio Alto

15 minutes - more like 2 minutes

I've been mentioned in the main Kosovo newspaper!
Here is the translation....

All together for a better city

UN-HABITAT officers have presented the results of Visioning Workshop of Mitrovica “ Make better Mitrovica Together” that was held in Skopje, in January of this, where were planners and Civil Society representatives from two sides of this city.

Economic crises and low life quality which is faced by the citizens of two sides of the city, was the starting point for discussions and dialog between two communities.

Presentation of these result was done by the UN-HABITAT representative Natalie Mitchel, while in maps where exposed all the ideas and the visions for improvement of living conditions in Mitrovica, which was the main aim of the workshop.

According to UN-Habitat representatives, the results that came out from this workshop will be handover to municipal authorities as a help for drafting MDP and UDP.

Source: Koha Ditore, 12.07.07

State of EXIT

Now that was a festival!
EXIT - 4 days of music in an old Fortress overlooking Novi Sad in northern Serbia, practically in the backyard for those of us working in Kosovo, was an awesome way to spend a summer weekend.
In fact it was 4 nights, with the bands not starting each day till around 7pm and DJs played till 8am, which left days free to sleep in, hang by the riverside, walk around Novi Sad and regroup. We also made the excellent decision to rent a room in an apartment rather than camp out, which meant plenty of quiet, comfortable and cool rest was possible with access to a bathroom and kitchen - and all closer to the fest than the festival camp area.

Now 6 hours in a clunky old bus meant it didn't exactly feel like it was in the backyard, but the travel was worth it. I arrived late on Thursday and managed to catch the end of The Prodigy's set, which sounded amazing and the atmosphere was electric, it seems they still got it. Some fireworks followed to officially launch the festival then Groove Armada hit the stage and had even our died-in-the-wool rocker friend dancing along.

Highlights would have to be a very cool Beastie Boys set with loads of old-school tunes including Egg Raid on Mojo and No Sleep till Brooklyn as well as quite a few of the new instrumental jams, Basement Jaxx impressed me despite not knowing much of their set and had me dancing like a fool and unusual for me, I also enjoyed dancing till dawn to a set by the dj Roger Sanchez.

I was sceptical as to whether CSS would translate to a main festival stage, after seeing them earlier in the year at a small venue in Sydney with a bad sound mix... but they pulled it off, sounded fantastic and were lots of fun. I especially loved the singer stripping off several layers of dodgy jumpsuits and having the attitude to make it seem cool.

Lauryn Hill seemed to pull some kind of diva stunt, going on late and playing past the timeslot, delaying Basement Jaxx for over an hour, which did not impress the fans... but she played some Fugees towards the end when we wandered over which somehow made up to it.

There were loads of stages, but just the one main stage, which made it easy to catch the extended sets of the major acts. None of those paltry 45 minute sets here!

Everyone was friendly (well, almost everyone), the weather was perfect, despite the huge crowds there was never a problem to get where we wanted to go (except to get beer during a main act set) and to top it off it was cheap!

There were messages of peace and ending discrimination, with many organisations granted stalls and space on site, harking back to the original intentions of the first EXIT festival in 2000 to bring youth together and move past the period of war in the former Yugoslavia.

While there is still much tension surrounding Kosovo, it was heartening to know that several hundred kosovars travelled from Pristina to the festival to enjoy it alongside people from all over former Yugoslavia and the world.

Gandhi

"We must become the change we wish to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi

Vidovdan

I have just learnt a little about June 28th, and its significance in this region particularly.
Vidovdan, St Vitus' day is a religious holiday on the Serbian and Bulgarian Orthodox calendar.

More importantly, it is the date that the following events occured:

• on June 28, 1389 the Ottoman Empire fought against Serbia in the Battle of Kosovo.
• on June 28, 1914 the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke triggers the First World War.
• on June 28, 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending the First World War.
• on June 28, 1921 the Serbian King Alexander I of Yugoslavia proclaimed the new Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution (Vidovdanski ustav.)
• on June 28, 1948 the Cominform published, on the initiative of its Soviet delegates Shdanov, Malenkov and Suslov, in a "Resolution on the State of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia" their condemnation of the Yugoslavian communist leaders - this happening is seen as the date that marks the final split between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
• on June 28, 1989 — the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo — Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević delivered the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle.
• on June 28, 1990 draft amendments to the Constitution of Croatia, which deleted references to the Serbs as a constituent nation of Croatia, were revealed by Croatian President Franjo Tuđman.
• on June 28, 2001 former Yugoslav leader Milošević was deported to The Hague to stand trial. (He died while imprisoned.)
• on June 28, 2006 Montenegro was announced as the 192nd member state of the United Nations."[wikipedia]
  

Tim Judah wonders if it can really be a coincidence that, "with uncanny regularity, the most momentous events of Serbian history have often taken place?" (guardian.co.uk).

What will happen this year? Will they take the occasion to make a point about the status negotiation process?
At least one group has set off on a march from Belgrade to Kosovo for the occasion wearing t-shirts that say "Vidovdan march 2007" [reuters.com]
though the request to march to Gazimestan (the site of the Battle of Kosovo) was rejected in favour of bussing people there.

The reason I have just now leant of all this day and its significance? I have been told to stay in my apartment for the next three nights between 7pm and 8am "for my safety". Those staff not already living in Mitrovica have been restricted in coming up north.

I am currently feeling something between fear and fascination as to the likelihood of any trouble surrounding this 'holiday'. Fear of unrest and a need to evacuate, fascination with the possibility of being caught up in such unrest (as wrong as that sounds). Something tells me all will be calm, but should there be any trouble I'm sure I'll be hightailing my way out of here quick smart, I'm no war tourist.

Culture Week, Kosovan Stars

It is Culture week in Mitrovica south and last night there was a free concert in the city centre featuring a competent backing band and a rotating list of local female singers, as well as a somewhat disturbing display by the local karate club.

One of the singers was Rona Nishliu, who I have been seeing on local tv a lot recently. A pretty daggy video (you can see on YouTube here - watch for some terrible dance moves and worse outfits) has been playing, I've seen her sing 'live' on a show reminiscent of Countdown, seen her in a kind of game show, and popping up on things that look like variety shows.

So you can imagine that after this much exposure I had it in my head this chick was a bit of a celebrity, so it was fun to see her up close and personal singing her hits and some rather cheesy cover versions of american songs both solo and with the other singers at the concert. It was almost Kosovo's answer to the Young Divas.
Anyway, it turns out this girl is some kind of over achiever, go-getter, and the more Kosovo can get of them, the better!

"Rona Nishliu was born in Mitrovica and attended high school in Pristina, both in Kosovo. In the top 1 percent of the student body at the American University in Kosovo, Nishliu is also a well-known singer in the Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia regions and was one of five finalists among seven thousand participants in an Albanian Pop Idol show. She is the host of a daily radio show for one of Kosovo’s most popular radio stations, Bluesky Radio. She participates in various volunteer activities, including initiating and organizing Kosovo Remembers, a concert to support the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina Fund. She also works with movie and documentary companies and collaborates with international artists visiting Kosovo." rit.edu

Click and feel good...

Some cool Melbourne peeps have put together this click to donate website - reminds me of the old click once a day hunger site for the world food program - which, it seems (as I just looked it up), is still going...

Anyway, go ahead and click away, add a button to your site, spread the word... and help in some small way some worthwhile (mostly Aussie) charities.

In this day and age?

Can this be true?

“The Serbian government is prepared to choose Kosovo over Europe”, says Sabine Freizer, Director of Crisis Group’s Europe Program. “The West needs to prepare to live with an isolationist and nationalistic Serbia in the coming years.” ICG

and everyone is just asking "why?".....

Fur Babies

Conversation on Saturday night:
Her: "So we have to send our two cats to live with a friend in Vienna regularly so that they get enough stamps in their passports"
Me: "Your cats have passports?"
Her: "Yeah, we had to get them Austrian citizenship"
Me: "And you fly them to Vienna regularly?"
Her: "Yeah, we book those special half-seats at the front row on Austrian flights that they use for kids"
Her: "It was so hard to get the cats to sit with a straight face for the passport photo"

They really love their rescued cats here in expat-land.
Apparently, there are such a thing as EU Pet Passports that make it easier for pets to travel with lesser quarantine restrictions.
It also apparently makes it much easier to then have them 'migrate' to places with strict rules, such as Australia. Which is where these guys already have a few cats that live in their beachside apartment with cat-sitters they employ while they work overseas.

Is this taking the "fur baby" thing too far?

Eurovision Controversy!

It has been claimed that the winning song at Eurovision was, at least partly, a copy of an Albanian song.
"A striking similarity exists between "Molitva" sang by Marija Serifovic in Eurovision 2007 and an albanian song "Ndarja" performed by Soni Malaj in Top Fest 3 in 2006, Albania" esctoday.com

It would be controversial enough just to claim they copied the song, but for it to be Albanian raises the stakes so much higher given the tensions in the region.

So much for Eurovision changing the world and bringing peace to the region!

P.S. Seems we weren't the only ones thinking about possible conspiracies regarding the political influence of winning the contest...

"Probably the most outrageous story concerning the singer appeared on May 9, in the Serbian tabloid Press. It claimed that the Western powers fixed the Eurovision contest in order to ensure Serifovic's victory. "Lulled by a triumph in Helsinki, Serbs are expected to calmly swallow the imminent secession of Kosovo," the paper claimed." time.com

Perhaps Eurovision really can change the world?!

The Eurovision Song Contest, that cheesy, bizarre and addictive event where European countries (plus a few hangers on) compete for musical glory (or infamy) was held on Saturday.

Out of all the bubble-gum pop, dramatic rock, folk-punk and cross-dressing madness, the winner was a love/religious ballad from Serbia called 'Molitva' sung by Marija Serifovic.

As the BBC said this morning, International success is something Serbia has not experienced in some time. Serbia will now be the host of the finals next year, a boon to the country and the region. You cannot begin to understand how exciting and important this is around here.

Our first thoughts of course went to the possibility of Kosovo being a semi-independant state by then, and of the huge desire of locals for Kosovo to have an entry in the contest. I wrote a while back that it would be one of the more important measures of independance for Kosovans - who needs membership in international organisations, as long as you've got a song in Eurovision?! Imagining a Kosovan entry into the Serbian-hosted Eurovision event was almost too freaky to contemplate. But could it be the ultimate reconciliation?

This morning there was news of the nationalist, hardline, speaker of Serbia's parliament, Tomislav Nikolic, stepping down from the job after only 5 days and it somehow felt like Eurovision may have played a part in the decision.

"opposition MP Nenad Canak said Mr Nikolic's nationalist and anti-European stand no longer had a place - especially as Serbia had just won the Eurovision song contest. Mr Canak said Serbia's neighbours had all awarded his country maximum points in the contest. But Russia, described by Mr Nikolic as Serbia's only friend, had only awarded his country five points." bbc.com

Block-voting aside, this victory was pretty astonishing and has the potential to influence far and wide. We asked ourselves at one point if there was some kind of underlying conspiracy leading to the high votes for this song?

Can Eurovision change the world? It certainly has the hearts and minds of millions in its grasp... and therefore great potential to influence.

Back to the old school

After years of sticking with my trusty SLR film camera, last October I went and purchased a snazzy compact digital camera. Up to a few weeks ago it served me very well, as my flickr site can attest.
Helpfully, this camera decided to stop working on the first day of my holiday. Before the holiday even started really - at the airport! Arrghhh.
Luckily John had a brand spanking new one to bring on the trip, and once again I reverted to the old school film camera. I look forward to the delayed satisfaction of seeing my photos developed and printed.

Whirlwind Holiday

Its been a whirlwind week and half, with no less than 4 countries and 5 cities in two continents so far....
Posts will come, as will photos, but adventure has the priority right now...
Highlights so far:
*The weather - its been perfect, sunny, not too hot, gorgeous
*Almost free city bikes in Vienna
*The hole in the wall wine and snack bar in Florence
*The cava bar in Barcelona
*The insane night market in Marrakech

Getting to Meteora Greece

So the plan for the Easter weekend was to get to Meteora, Greece. A place with amazing rock formations and even more amazing monasteries perched atop them.

First we were distracted by Thessaloniki, the second city of Greece, and its wonderful calamari.

Then we got stuck at a random railway station in the middle of nowhere (Paleofarsalos) and waited hours for a train connection that was meant to be minutes... at least there was spring sunshine to enjoy.

We eventually arrived in Kalabaka, at the foothills of the Meteora mountains, hiked up a steep, tall mountain for an hour or so, then found ourselves running from busfuls of Japanese tourists.


But it was all worth the effort as this was indeed a spectacular place.

(I'm squinting, not winking)

Greek Orthodox Easter

Its the biggest event on the Greek Orthodox calendar so we arranged to attend a midnight service to witness the candle lighting ceremony. The hotel provided us with candles and red-dyed eggs, so we couldn't not go really.

The church was an old, quite small church that was rather spectacular inside, but the majority of people were outside for the service.
I wish I had a photo of the outside and the amazing effect the candle lighting part of the ceremony had. Suffice to say it was something to experience the spread of light from the centre all around the grounds from person to person. Combined with the traditional singing of the priests, the group of armed soldiers and the military band (that seemed to be there to play only when the General was walking past), it was quite an event.

Heritage gets crowded

Last weekend I went to Thessaloniki in Greece. Quite a cool city, though it was pretty dead due to the Easter weekend....
Anyway, there is lots to see even if nothing is going on, and just hanging by the water in the sunshine was a great feeling after winter in land locked Kosovo.

All over town there are relics of former empires and traditions, it was fascinating to see so much heritage on almost every street... however I got the feeling that with so much of it, it was in danger of losing its appeal, especially to locals.

This was evidenced by the general feeling of crowding around many of these objects, development encroaching on churches and ruins all over town.





At what point do you simply have to stop providing appropriate space around historical buildings and allow a modern city to develop and flourish?

Eurovision as good as independence?

The Status of Kosovo is still somewhat up in the air, but I came across this article that shows what is REALLY important here. Its getting into Eurovision of course....
"Next year, predicts Selimi, Kosovo would see 'mass hysteria' if Flakareshat got to go to Eurovision. 'Even if we don't get a flag in front of the United Nations,' as a result of the current talks, he says, 'as long as we get that song in the Eurovision Song Contest, I think we will be pretty happy with it.'" kosovareport.blogspot.com

Public Transport system incites violence

There have been a few months of protests over the new public transport system in Santiago, Chile and yesterday an annual 'Day of the Young Combatant' demonstration turned violent.

"The Transantiago plan, designed to improve the city's chaotic system of buses and reduce pollution from the transit vehicles' exhaust, has instead stranded passengers, generated marathon waits and overtaxed the city subway." latimes.com

While the violence is a terrible shame, what fascinates me is that people are so passionate and interested in the quality of their public transport system. Granted there is little choice for the hundreds of thousands of poor in Santiago, so their interest in effective public transport is not surprising. But that they believe that the system can work, that it can be better, and are demanding it and want to use it, is a very positive thing in this world of ever increasing freeways.

It is great that the Chilean government has made such a bold move to completely overhaul and improve the system and reduce polluting emissions, however it seems the implementation of this new system has been poorly managed. Fingers crossed they can get the bus companies to provide the necessary buses and routes that were envisaged in the plan as soon as possible.

To maintain or increase the percentage of the city's journeys made by public transport (a whopping 59% in 2001) will take a very effective and responsive system and to build it effectively from scratch is a mighty ambitious move. Particularly in a place where more informal transport has developed organically over time to provide the necessary services...

"The overwhelmingly comprehensive transportation reform is trying to replace the chaotic private system characterized by its unruly drivers, poorly maintained and visually unappealing yellow buses and high speeds. It was also known for being fun, especially near Barrio Suecia
at closing time around 4 am, slightly dangerous, relatively effective and an incredible study in anthropology." nowpublic.com

This film sounds like an excellent portrayal of the chaos of the former system...

Brezovica

Brezovica is said to have the potential to be one of the best ski resorts in southeastern europe, right here in Kosovo!
The spooky fog might be a problem however.... it was like ascending into the clouds, quite surreal.