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Fri, Feb 10 2012
A curious attraction
CAFÉ LAND: Rruga Nëna Tereza, named after Mother Teresa, is the main pedestrian street in Pristina.
Photo: Magdalena Rahn
SECULAR: While Kosovo is 90 per cent Muslim, observation of the religion is nominal.
Photo: Magdalena Rahn
SLEEP TIGHT: At the main market in Pristina, one can still find many hand-made, and homemade, goods.
Photo: Magdalena Rahn
HISTORY: Many of the old, Turkish-era buildings in Pristina were destroyed during the 1998/99 war and the ensuing modernisation of the city. This one has survived, for now.
Photo: Magdalena Rahn
GOODBYE: KLA founder Adem Jashari and his family were killed in their house in a three-day attack by the Serbian army in March 1998.
Photo: Magdalena Rahn
Rural vs urban
A further difference is observed in expectations between the "city folks" and the "rural folks", as Gabbard puts it.
"I can only speculate, but the reason I say this is that in the city it was not uncommon to see handfuls of kids sitting on stoops or playing. My impression of the countryside was that there was not so much idleness," Gabbard says. "That division came up several times in conversation as well... ‘So-and-so is a country boy’, and that was meant to indicate some larger cultural context whereby the cities are taking the lead in this push forward."
During the summer school, we students are taken on two field trips – three, if counting our meeting with Kosovar president Fatmir Sejdiu one morning at the presidency. One, a Saturday bus trip to Pejë (Peć in Serbian), Rugova Canyon and eventually Prizren, and the other one Tuesday afternoon to Harilaq, a fortress dating to the fourth to sixth century CE, and restored in 2009 by the ministry of culture. This visit to Harliaq is followed by a most jolly evening of food (the regulatory salad, bread, and two types of meat and rice and potatoes), drink (the sole local beer, Peja, and good red wine from Bodrumi i Vjetër – choose the vranaç grape variety) and dancing of horo to incredibly loud pop-folk that makes you leap from your seat. The banquet hall in question is decked out with red and white satin-covered chairs; it is called Restaurant Ana and is next to a petrol station in Sllatinë-Fushë Kosovë – otherwise known as Kosovo Polje (yes, the site of the Blackbird Field War back in 1389).
For what it’s worth, about 95 per cent of venues in the country play Albanian and Kosovar music, ranging from folk, to pop-folk, to pop. It is good to hear.
The Saturday voyage brings us in more contact with non-Pristina locals. Getting somewhat accidentally left in Peja after the buses took a 15-minute break, Gabbard and I decide to make the best of it, and explore the city, Kosovo’s fourth-largest. Along with buying some CDs of Kosovar music from a man who, on observing our foreignness, speaks in Serbian (thus facilitating communication), and stopping for coffee, we buy that special Balkan beverage boza, homemade and sold in re-used plastic bottles, kept chilled in a tub of ice water. The best part of it is our interaction, albeit limited, with the young husband and wife who are selling it. We take a photo; she says that she wants one. I ask for her e-mail address; she says they do not have one. Oops.
Some days later, walking with Gabbard in Pristina, we come upon an older man whom we crossed the day before. Like the first time, again this time the old man, named Šaip, invites us in for coffee. More so, he barks at his youngest daughter, Gjylieta, to make coffee for us. Cigarettes, water and good Turkish coffee. We are not quite sure what to make of Šaip, what with his stories of bombings and Jesus and Mohammed on a hill, a hajj to Mecca (which results in me being given a Koran on a string to wear around the neck...), his sister who sent him a TV from The Netherlands, and his time in Macedonia... He brings out medical records, typed on transparent paper; it turns that he received extended treatment in Skopje for schizophrenia in 1990. So we are not sure how much of what he has been rambling on about is true. In any case, his bastardised Serbian-Albanian is no match for my language skills.
Still, the point is that he is more than hospitable. Says Gabbard: "The experience of being behind the wall and in the intimacy of a local’s garden was not only an unexpected delight but one that gave me a glimpse of local culture in an unfiltered way. The Kosovar staff for the (language) seminar were, of course, cordial. It was when I saw that same treatment from a complete stranger that I began to understand better; the politeness expressed by many seems to come from some habituated cultural expectation."
On our last night there, we go to a tavern, and order raki, the traditional brandy. At the table next to us, a group of young people is singing. They start to sing something that sounds familiar, "Hubava si, moya goro". I go over to the girl playing the çiftelia, a traditional stringed instrument that resembles a guitar.
"What are you singing?" I ask.
"Albanian folk songs," she says.
"We sing the same tune in Bulgaria," I say. "Balkan folk songs."
We smile.
A further difference is observed in expectations between the "city folks" and the "rural folks", as Gabbard puts it.
"I can only speculate, but the reason I say this is that in the city it was not uncommon to see handfuls of kids sitting on stoops or playing. My impression of the countryside was that there was not so much idleness," Gabbard says. "That division came up several times in conversation as well... ‘So-and-so is a country boy’, and that was meant to indicate some larger cultural context whereby the cities are taking the lead in this push forward."
During the summer school, we students are taken on two field trips – three, if counting our meeting with Kosovar president Fatmir Sejdiu one morning at the presidency. One, a Saturday bus trip to Pejë (Peć in Serbian), Rugova Canyon and eventually Prizren, and the other one Tuesday afternoon to Harilaq, a fortress dating to the fourth to sixth century CE, and restored in 2009 by the ministry of culture. This visit to Harliaq is followed by a most jolly evening of food (the regulatory salad, bread, and two types of meat and rice and potatoes), drink (the sole local beer, Peja, and good red wine from Bodrumi i Vjetër – choose the vranaç grape variety) and dancing of horo to incredibly loud pop-folk that makes you leap from your seat. The banquet hall in question is decked out with red and white satin-covered chairs; it is called Restaurant Ana and is next to a petrol station in Sllatinë-Fushë Kosovë – otherwise known as Kosovo Polje (yes, the site of the Blackbird Field War back in 1389).
For what it’s worth, about 95 per cent of venues in the country play Albanian and Kosovar music, ranging from folk, to pop-folk, to pop. It is good to hear.
The Saturday voyage brings us in more contact with non-Pristina locals. Getting somewhat accidentally left in Peja after the buses took a 15-minute break, Gabbard and I decide to make the best of it, and explore the city, Kosovo’s fourth-largest. Along with buying some CDs of Kosovar music from a man who, on observing our foreignness, speaks in Serbian (thus facilitating communication), and stopping for coffee, we buy that special Balkan beverage boza, homemade and sold in re-used plastic bottles, kept chilled in a tub of ice water. The best part of it is our interaction, albeit limited, with the young husband and wife who are selling it. We take a photo; she says that she wants one. I ask for her e-mail address; she says they do not have one. Oops.
Some days later, walking with Gabbard in Pristina, we come upon an older man whom we crossed the day before. Like the first time, again this time the old man, named Šaip, invites us in for coffee. More so, he barks at his youngest daughter, Gjylieta, to make coffee for us. Cigarettes, water and good Turkish coffee. We are not quite sure what to make of Šaip, what with his stories of bombings and Jesus and Mohammed on a hill, a hajj to Mecca (which results in me being given a Koran on a string to wear around the neck...), his sister who sent him a TV from The Netherlands, and his time in Macedonia... He brings out medical records, typed on transparent paper; it turns that he received extended treatment in Skopje for schizophrenia in 1990. So we are not sure how much of what he has been rambling on about is true. In any case, his bastardised Serbian-Albanian is no match for my language skills.
Still, the point is that he is more than hospitable. Says Gabbard: "The experience of being behind the wall and in the intimacy of a local’s garden was not only an unexpected delight but one that gave me a glimpse of local culture in an unfiltered way. The Kosovar staff for the (language) seminar were, of course, cordial. It was when I saw that same treatment from a complete stranger that I began to understand better; the politeness expressed by many seems to come from some habituated cultural expectation."
On our last night there, we go to a tavern, and order raki, the traditional brandy. At the table next to us, a group of young people is singing. They start to sing something that sounds familiar, "Hubava si, moya goro". I go over to the girl playing the çiftelia, a traditional stringed instrument that resembles a guitar.
"What are you singing?" I ask.
"Albanian folk songs," she says.
"We sing the same tune in Bulgaria," I say. "Balkan folk songs."
We smile.
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Magdalena:
"As a female who was born and raised in Southern California, though, I had no qualms about going somewhere by myself, nor in Western Europe."
Makes sense now that I think about it.
I know quite a few Americans who would travel in Europe on their own, while probably not so much in the States. Often young Americans, especially the more alert ones, find themselves in Europe and enjoy their individual freedom, as they couldn't in the US.
You can see how there's nothing wrong [...]
Read the full comment with an American lady spending a week in Paris, walking the streets, enjoying the cafes and so on. It's romanic to them. The same person going to Florida or Vegas on her own, would be another matter. In the US being by yourself, brands you with the stigma of loneliness and the implied undesirability that comes with it..
Being in a larger company of peers, makes them feel "popular" - another strange notion, characteristic of the American high school, of which many of them never really get out of....
Trinity:
"As for you valerie, your culture seems to be some caveman paranoid who the husband likes to go in individual holidays to get better looking younger woman."
That's your Muslim way to look at things. Why is everything about the evil sex, with you folks?
For example, I can never get my wife to go to India - she fears the filth and the people. She can never get me out to some spa resort - not my thing.
In a civilized (European) society, we can keep our individuality [...]
Read the full comment and still have the strong relationship.
I have been to Turkey many times and am speaking from personal experience. Turkey is very modern in many ways, until you scratch the surface. The signs to look for is gender balance in the establishments. If they are predominately men, then you kind of figure out where you are.
Kosovo's declaration of independence had nothing to do with individual freedom, but had everything to do with ethnic separation. I've been to Kosovo and in the country side they live in those "family compounds" - large, very patriarchal, family homes - not exactly a bastion of individuality. Many of them have very small windows to the street. The Serbs in that respect are much more advanced.
As a rule, the stronger the family, as institution, the less individual rights in a given society.
Magdalena.
I agree with you. Greece though is probably the most culturally conservative country in the EU. The difference between BG and GR in many ways, is how we were affected by Christianity.
In addition to our Communist decades - very important period for tracing our secular values, we have deeper roots of mistrust for organized religion.
Throughout the Ottoman "Long night", the Turks basically placed the Greek clergy in charge of the Bulgarian Christians. That actually gave the Church the status of an outsider, borderline "an associate of the oppressor", and it wasn't until the 19th century, when the Bulgarian National Church was recognized, that we started identifying with it.
Orthodox Church is genuinely indigenous to Greeks and their faith until this day, seem much more heartfelt - hence the relative conservatism.
From my experiences, while the tradition of women not going to restaurants/cafés alone might have its basis in religion, such is not confined to Islam -- take Greece as an example, where, even in Athens, from my experience living there, women rarely dine/drink coffee alone.
As a female who was born and raised in Southern California, though, I had no qualms about going somewhere by myself, nor in Western Europe.
Neither is good, neither is bad, it just is.
Great article,
Good to have seminars on language and culture were it can be aprociated from people with interest.
As for you valerie, your culture seems to be some caveman paranoid who the husband likes to go in individual holidays to get better looking younger woman.
No need to share your domestics with all of us, its simply nasty.
And have you been to Turkey before or are you so desperate to cling on to your schicofrenia?
Plus it was their individual freedom that was met [...]
Read the full comment with all of Kosovo to declare their independence.
This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained Обиди, дискриминация, срещу журналисти
I disagree that it isn't natural for a man (or a woman) to go places alone.
In fact I see it as a mark of civilization, when members of society do not seek safety in numbers. I am happily married, yet we occasionally take individual vacations and certainly have common, as well as separate friends and associates.
The mark of advanced society is the high degree of individuality of its members, which in turn spells the lesser need for conformation and tribal approval.
And you are right, it isn't about religion.
[...]
Read the full comment /> In the US when you say "Islam" or "Christianity" people automatically hear "religion".
That's because the US is a fundamentally a religious society and they are prone to see it much too literally. Very few in Europe are deeply religious, so to us religion is little more than a code word for culture.
Sadly, American values, through Hollywood, are confusing the terminology for many Europeans, these days.
Religion dictates culture. I don't fear Allah, but I do fear Islam, because that tidal wave could undermine many of the individual freedoms we've achieved in Europe.
Christianity learnt to adopt and co-exist with freedom in Europe. Islam will not have the chances, given their population pressure...
I wouldn't say it has always to do with religion. It's a common human trait and a natural thing that a woman (or a man) would be hesitant to go places alone. Having companionship plays an instrumental role in societies. But comparing them to religion seems like branding them. I would take both sides.
"... it is simply that females do not go to bars/restaurants/cafés by themselves: it is simply part of the culture."
That's not an Albanian thing but a part of the Muslim wide culture.
Turkey is the same way. In fact you can't get into a night club without a woman there (you have to bring one, since they are not going to come on their own), otherwise there will be just a bunch a guys dancing with each other - the norm in countries like Pakistan.
The inter gender relations [...]
Read the full comment is among the biggest problems with Islam. I personally have very little hope for areas predominately Islamic, because they will never utilize the creative energy of half of their population fully and generally in order to have an advanced society, individual freedom must be the # 1 prerequisite.
To a degree the US has similar characteristics, as it is the most religious and conservative, Christian society.
A woman would rarely sit to have lunch by herself in the US, and of course much less go to a club. They need to be in pares or more and preferably in a group.
I loved that in Europe one can go out and meet a girl without necessarily needing the support of something the Americans call "wing man" to distract her girlfriends (modern day chaperons), or to provide cover, so to say.
Very 19th century, I must say...