Opinion/Kritike

Kosovo: Time For Serbia To Wake Up
By Gordana Knezevic
Friday, February 29, 2008

Last week's pictures from Belgrade were ugly. Broken windows in the city center, the burned flags of foreign embassies, and thinly veiled justifications of the violence by Serbian officials. A government minister, Velimir Ilic, went so far to say that violence against foreign embassies was the appropriate answer to the "violence" committed against Serbia by taking away its province.

However, Kosovo left Serbia a long time ago. Most Serbs did not notice that departure, since Kosovo was not present in their conscience as a place to visit or, God forbid, a place to move to with a business or the family.

Opinion/Kritike

Is Kosovo Serbia? We ask a historian
Noel Malcolm
The Guardian, Tuesday February 26 2008

"Kosovo is Serbia", "Ask any historian" read the unlikely placards, waved by angry Serb demonstrators in Brussels on Sunday. This is rather flattering for historians: we don't often get asked to adjudicate. It does not, however, follow that any historian would agree, not least because historians do not use this sort of eternal present tense.

History, for the Serbs, started in the early 7th century, when they settled in the Balkans. Their power base was outside Kosovo, which they fully conquered in the early 13th, so the claim that Kosovo was the "cradle" of the Serbs is untrue.

Art/Proze

Fytyra Njerezore e Shkrimtarit
Nga Altin Topi
Shekulli Shkurt 25, 2008(botuar me shkurtime)

Perseri e perseri, duke iu rikthyer leximit te autoreve qe kemi per zemer, bindemi se ata edhe pas rileximit te vepres se tyre, kane aftesi te na befasojne serishmi. Shkrimtaret e medhenj na mahnisin me universalitetin e tyre, sepse ata nuk jane thjesht nje miniere apo forxhe ideshe, por gjithmone edhe nje "kuti e magjikeshme" prej ku dalin panderprere gjera te reja e te befasueshme, qe ne jemi ne gjendje t'i percojme sensualisht, apo t'i abstragojme vetem pas nje ripertypje te gjate te vepres se tyre. Te pushton frika se ndoshta, kurre nuk mund te depertosh plotesisht ne boten e tyre. E larget, e huaj perngjan magjia e tyre ne njohjen e pare, shume larg ne rete e pafundesise eshte mendimi i tyre, shume i vecante mesazhi i tyre.

Syri i Fotografit

Shqiptaret, - nje Popull i Çbere (pjesa e dyte)
Nga Altin Topi

Diku nga vitet 1980-te, ne nje vizite ne New York, Ibrahim Rugova, iu krijua mundesia te takohej me nje gazetar te nje te perditeshme prestixhoze te New York-ut, i cili kishte marre persiper te shkruante nje artikull per Kosoven. Ishte nje nga ata gazetaret “junior”, qe nuk dinte shume per Kosoven dhe shqiptaret e Kosoves. Rugova si fillim nxorri nga canta qe gjithmone mbarte me vete, nje harte te krahines autonome te Jugosllavise te atehereshme, - Kosoves. Biseda sic zakonisht ndodh ne keto lloj rastesh, nuk zgjati shume.

Opinion/Kritike

The Serbs' Self-Inflicted Wounds
With Kosovo independent, Yugoslavia is finally dead.
By Christopher Hitchens
SLATE Magazine

Someone with a good memory of the conversation once told me how Lord Carrington, then one of the "mediators" of the incipient post-Yugoslavia war, came to the conclusion that Slobodan Milosevic was a highly dangerous man. Well-disposed toward Serbia (as the British establishment has always been), Carrington told the late dictator that he understood Serb concerns about significant Serbian minorities in Bosnia and Croatia. But why did Milosevic also insist on exclusive control over Kosovo, where the Albanian population was approximately 90 percent? "That," replied Milosevic coldly, "is for historical reasons." It's a shame, in retrospect, that it took us so long to diagnose the pathology of Serbia's combination of arrogance and self-pity, in which what is theirs is theirs and what is anybody else's is negotiable.

Rite de Passage

Zentana ne Qytetin e Bardhe
Nga Altin Topi

Zentanasit e ata pak jo-zentanas qe ne nje menyre ose nje tjeter kane kerkuar nje fat me te mire per Zentanes, besojne se ajo nuk eshte as Euritane e as Aziane. Prirja kryesore, drejtimi dominues i Zentanes ka anuar me shume nga Euriana, Perendimi se sa nga Aziana, Lindja. Fatkeqesisht per shkak te rrethanave historike, qendrimit te gjate nen dominimin e perandorive me origjine e shikim nga lindja, arbitrarisht, perkatesia e saj kulturore eshte referuar me shpesh, si kulture lindore se sa perendimore. Kjo reference mbizoteruese, ka shkaktuar qe Zentana, te mos perfshihet si nje pjese e globusin kultural Eurianas. Te kunderten e nje tendence te importuar nga jashte, nuk ka shfaqur deshiren t'a besoje askush, pervec se ndoshta vet zentanasve.

Syri i Fotografit

Shqiptaret, - nje Popull i Çbere (pjesa e pare)
Nga Altin Topi

Kosove, 17 Shkurt 2008 Kosova Deklaron Pavarsine

(Ja si jepet lajmi minuta prej shpalljes se pavarsise nga agjensia e lajmeve The Associated Press)

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
PRISTINA, Kosovo - Kosovo declared itself a nation on Sunday, mounting a historic bid to become an "independent and democratic state" backed by the U.S. and key European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia.

"Kosovo is a republic — an independent, democratic and sovereign state," parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi said as the chamber burst into applause.