Sunday, February 17, 2008

Tangled in History

It takes gallons of guts to be Kosovo. Not that they're at risk, but no one familiar with what used to be Yugoslavia can read the headline: "Belgrad declares seccesion illegal" and not shiver a bit.

Something else catches my eye besides the headline. In the photo appearing beneath it on the Haaretz website, Albanian flags are seen flown next to the Star Spangled Banner on the streets of Pristina. in the days of Communist Tirana, who'd have ever thought this combo would someday make political sense?

Ok, fine! fine! I'm willing to shake off the past. It's irrelevant. I blame fashion designers. It's those stupid comebacks that prevent me from realizing the 80s and 90s are over. Down with the huge sunglasses! long live whatever new Republic pops up next.

3 comments:

david santos said...

Thanks for your posting and have a good week

Anonymous said...

Viva aviva! The chef at my bar is Serbian and he gets super upset when we play pool toghether, he misses a shot, and I tell him he "plays like an Albanian"... Last night I made him a drink and offered to "drink for Kosovo", Needless to say. the man was not amused...

יובל בן-עמי Yuval Ben-Ami said...

Take chances with Serbs at your own risk. I remember sitting in a car driving through Belgrad with my friend Dejan and his father Dragan, the year was 1995 and atrocities were taking place a few hundred kilometers away. Serbia was under embargo and there was not enough gas in the tank to take us out of the city. For some reason, following some train of thoughts, I mentioned Gavrilo Prinzip. To my amazement they both simultaneously cheered: "Gavrilo Prinzip, Hey!" Then Dejan said: "We Serbs are good people, but don't mess with us."