Towards Pristina

Headingtowards Pristina, my coach crawled through Kosovo’s hills on a far-too-slimroad. With each passing lorry, we were squeezed further into the mountainfoliage. But, reaching the highway, the road was reassuringly wide, flat, andendless. This left little to do but study the frenzy of roadside development –equally as interminable. Construction projects by the highway are constant andeither unfinished or strangely isolated, incongruous with the sparse landscape.There is a sense of inchoateness; a developmental plan without a destination.

Toillustrate the point, ponder this: is it odd to have a store selling upmarketfurniture on the side of a barren highway, with few houses around? How aboutfive of them, stationed at different, equally lifeless points? All virtuallyidentical and people-less, with no branding?

Itfelt odd to me on my way to Pristina and I began to wonder whether the incompletehouses, brick skeletons with rebar springing from every raw wall, were a signof things to come.

Thefeeling I got on the highway that buildings, that stuff, was beingthrown up in feverish incoherence did not completely leave me when I settled inKosovo’s capital. Pristina’s identity seems unfixed and often unnatural. Therush to develop has begun without certain questions being asked: what doesdevelopment mean for Kosovo, and how does it get there?

Nestledin the Western Balkans, bordered by Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and NorthMacedonia, Kosovo is very much a product of its geography. Formerly part ofYugoslavia, Kosovo’s recent history is, like its neighbours’, defined by itsinter-ethnic, inter-state relations. Yet, whilst its history is tragicallyregional – following a pattern of conflict and, like Bosnia, attempted genocideafter the breakup of Yugoslavia – its capital feels strangely international.

Restaurantsin the city centre could have been flown in from New York or London. One of myfavourite haunts, a cat-themed café called Dit’ e Nat’ (‘Day and Night’), featuresa Bob Dylan print explaining the artificiality of nature, a poster for Lars VonTrier’s Nymphomaniac, and David Bowie tracks on the sound system. Dinerscan pick English-language volumes off the shelf and read with a latte or alocal lager whilst stroking the resident feline. Live music plays past dusk andinto the night (hence the name).

Inthe streets, countless US flags spill from windows and hang out on clotheslines in the street. One American flag floods the south-facing wall of thenational Assembly building, framing Kosovo’s red, white, and blue pledge thatit ‘will always be grateful’ to the United States.

Thispledge has to do with Kosovo’s aforementioned recent history. During the 1990s,the paramilitary Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fought back against Serbianrepression of Albanians. From 1998-99, the KLA and Serbian forces engaged in abrutal conflict, marred by atrocities committed on both sides – and for whichboth sides felt they had a justification. NATO intervened on the side of the KLAwith the backing of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. The results were, among otherthings, NATO victory and, by 2008, independence for Kosovo. That independence,however, goes unrecognised by many countries (Serbia included of course).

Butthe flags, along with Bill Clinton Boulevard and Tony Blair Street, areunderstandable tributes to people and powers that the Kosovars believedelivered them independence. Meanwhile, the cutting-edge aesthetics ofPristina’s eateries were clearly not adopted in celebration of NATOintervention. The war displaced thousands of Albanian-Kosovars. Amid attemptsby the ethnically Serb President of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, toexterminate ethnic Albanians in Yugoslavia, many migrated to neighbouringcountries such as Albania and North Macedonia. Some went to Western Europe, andhave now returned to an independent Kosovo, starting businesses with a Westernflavour. People have got a taste and the flavour is spreading.

Thecity’s youth adds to the impact of its cultural imports. A communist campaignof rapid development in Pristina in the mid-20th century led to thedestruction of many of the city’s ancient sites. Consequently, there are fewsigns of Pristina’s heritage outside of the Kosovo Museum and the country’sappetite for Western cultural forms is more pronounced as a result: inPristina, there is little to counterbalance the fervency to Westernise.

And,despite its host of ancient materials on the first floor, Kosovo Museum’s focuson conflict entrenches the two aspects of Kosovo’s history most visible inPristina. On the second floor, materials from the 1998-99 war abound in theform of uniforms and weapons: given that much of the living populationexperienced it, history for Kosovars is personal and violent. It is thereforeunderstandable that the museum should present it as such. But, besides the brutalityof war and the heroism of its fighters, the museum presents little in thecountry’s recent past but salvation by the USA – a point illustrated by thedisplay dedicated to Madeleine Albright. In Kosovo’s historical memory thereis, beyond violence, the West. Saying this, only in June Bill Clinton was inKosovo, taking home the ‘Order of Freedom’ – proof that the US’ impact here ismore than memory, it is part of Kosovo’s identity.

Inthis context, it makes sense that the goal of Pristina’s development, at leastculturally, would be to Westernise. But beyond imitation and adulation,the exact meaning of that goal seems unclear and the route to it haphazard.

InPristina, the destination of the city’s cultural evolution remains unclear.This returns me to the frenetic development along the road to Pristina; therandomness of the construction. It was as though someone were speeding alongthe highway, erratically distributing the seeds of development from their carwindow.

Andbecause the road to development is not straight nor signposted like the highwayto Pristina, those seeds sprouted into strange, nameless furniture stores inthe middle of nowhere.

ForKosovo, it is more than planting the seeds that matters. It is knowing what itwants them to become.

Noah. D. Merrin

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