From suffering to anger?

International negotiating tables, that are still seeking a difficult agreement between Pristine and Belgrade, appear to be at light-years’ distance from Kosovo’s busy urban roads and silent villages. These are the places where local populations are called to confront problems that everyone shares, regardless of religious identity and ethnicity. One year after its independence and ten years since the end of the war, Kosovo has not yet succeeded in undertaking the path of development, while ongoing problems linger on. In this framework, SIR Europe correspondent from Kosovo Michele Luppi, after having interviewed the Apostolic Administrator of Prizen, Msgr. Dode Gjergji (SIR Europe 11/2009), met the representative of NGOs actively working in the Country. Youth and Migrants. “In the past year – said Lorena Martignoni, local coordinator of IPSIA peace development and innovation institute of ACLI (Italian Workers’ Catholic Association) – major diplomatic efforts were undertaken, while social issues were left aside. Indeed, consistent migration flows are due to the long-lasting crisis”. Over the past few years IPSIA has been actively monitoring migration flows providing information to people who wish to leave the county, mostly young people who find it hard to envisage their future in this land. Kosovo is one of Europe’s youngest regions; half of the population is less than fourteen. But in a country that doesn’t produce, where a large part of factories and mines are shut down, and where unemployment ranges between 40 and 60 percent, most people regard emigration as their only choice. Their labour remittance enables many families to struggle along, not to mention the contribution of local and international organizations. These include Caritas Kosovo, which few months ago set up a soup-kitchen in the centre of Pristine. Despite the many difficulties, new buildings are being built across the country: a social divide due marking the ongoing expansion of the gap between the poor and the rich since the end of Yugoslavia. “Here the youth don’t have many reasons to hope in a better future, which they seek by emigrating, often to reach their relatives living abroad”, said IPSIA-Kosovo coordinator. A large part of the youth attends the country’s universities, but employment is hard to obtain even with a university degree. The economy – and hence development – can be boosted only if fundamental questions such as employment, privatization of old-dated state-owned enterprises, relaunch of the agricultural sector, along with new production facilities and infrastructures are duly addressed”.Prices and wages. The large majority of the Country’s produce is imported from abroad; notably from Macedonia, Germany and Serbia. The balance of trade for the year 2007 registered a deficit of almost one and a half billion euro, with heavy repercussions on the population. The negative trend has been confirmed also for 2008. In the past, when Yugoslavia still existed, the economy of this province, that was indeed the poorest of the federation, was supported by mining and agricultural yield. However also farming, regarded as crucial in a territory where 60 percent of the population live in rural areas, providing employment to almost a third, is striving to progress. Many enterprises are small and family-managed, and are mostly devoted to rural livelihood, rather than being open to the market. Black wages are a widespread phenomenon, not to mention illegal trafficking profits transiting across Kosovo, a leg of the long Balkan journey across Europe. “Resorting to imported goods – added Lorena Martignoni – triggered price increases that reached so-called ‘European levels’, while wages have remained the same for years and in most cases are not sufficient to cover family expenses. The mean income of a public teacher or a doctor amounts to 230 euro: a meagre wage considering the price of essential goods”. Common problems shared by Kosovar population. Unemployment is currently the Country’s most serious problem, which affects all social brackets. Thus also a large part of Serbian youth emigrate to Belgrade and most refugees that fled during the after-war period are unwilling to return since they don’t envisage a future for themselves in Kosovo.