New Realities in Kosovo

I am sitting here in my hotel room in Pristina, Kosovo at 9.30 after dinner with my good Kosovar friend Arlind and listening to the beautiful sound of the last call to prayer at the mosques dotted around the capital. It is almost like a competition. The Imans ‘sing’ at call to prayer time and at this moment I can hear the sounds of around 6 Imans all singing in a kind of competitive symmetry.

Tonight we debated the future of Kosovo. I bemoaned the fact that billions of dollars have been spent on creating stability with it seems little thought given to the fact that what gives most people stability is a job and money in their pocket. With unemployment running at 70% and with a rapidly declining inward financial contribution from Kosovars working in Germany and Switzerland it is extremely difficult to see where economic growth will come from. Nation status will make it more attractive to foreign investors and that will create jobs but not enough to make changes. I fear that too much money has been spent on job creation opportunities for Europeans with too many educational certificates who can theorise and pontificate but who lack the real Can Do mentality to do the things that really matter. This is a great place to test out whether all of that theoretical stuff you learnt between the ages of 18 and 26 mean much and I guess that many learn that these theories do not apply in places that are very different to your frame of reference. The frame of reference that is universal is a job, money in your pocket, the possibility of being entrepreneurial if you are so inclined and the wherewithal to make business work. Western values mean so much more if you can afford to have them. And to pay for them.

Europe has too many people who stayed in further education with nowhere meaningful to go and they end up working for international agencies funded by American and EU money and achieving little because they have been shielded from the real world. I am increasingly angry and frustrated by this. We have too many overly qualified people in Europe and we seem to think, in the UK at least, that 50% of our young people getting degrees is a good thing thing. I think it crazy. Where do they go? Ultimately states have to create work for them because this never-ending educational circus kills off the Can do, Will do mentality. Many of us need an element of real-world struggle to define and shape our lives. Formal education does not provide this.