Like most Albanians who grew up in Kosovo in the early 1990s, Gëzim Gjikolli stopped going to public school when Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic effectively shut down the Albanian education system and fired most of the teachers. Instead, he and the other children in his village of Pejë were educated in private homes, moving every day to avoid the detection of police until war broke out between Kosovar rebels and Serb forces in 1998, bringing their schooling to a standstill. Desperate for a better life after the war, Gjikolli taught himself English by listening to Mariah Carey songs and eventually won a scholarship to Bowling Green University in Ohio.
Gjikolli is now a success story — at 29, he's running his own company in the capital Pristina, overseeing a $100 million project to build a new office tower and entertainment complex called the World Trade Center. But he still finds daily life frustrating in isolated and impoverished Kosovo, which he sometimes thinks the world has forgotten about. "We're happy now," he says, sitting in his office across from the snowy construction site, dressed in a sharp black suit. "But after a while, people will become numb if things don't develop faster."
As the world's newest country marks the two-year anniversary of its declaration of independence from Serbia, optimism is slowly fading as the harsh realities of life in a quasi-legitimate state set in. Kosovo has been recognized by only about one-third of U.N. member states — five European Union members are among the holdouts — because of concerns over the legality of its split from Serbia as U.N.-backed negotiations on its final status were still taking place. Kosovars need visas to travel to every country of the world but four; Afghans and Somalis have greater freedom of movement. And despite the fact that Kosovo's love affair with the West continues — Pristina saw the addition of a giant statue of Bill Clinton (on Bill Clinton Boulevard) last November — investment from the U.S. and the E.U. is hardly rolling in. Investors fear instability, endemic corruption, weak rule of law, rampant organized crime, drug smuggling, human trafficking. The list goes on and on.
In short, Kosovo may finally be free of its former Serbian masters and it may have all the symbols of a state — its own flag, national anthem and passports — but the country still has a massive image problem to overcome. "People think that whenever they come here, after they get off the plane, the very first thing they'll see is an Albanian running after a Serb to try to kill him. Or in some places, the opposite," says Luan Shllaku, head of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, part of George Soros' network. "Why should we suffer from this negative image? It's not true."
The government has responded to this problem by taking a very Madison Avenue approach. It's hired the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi to create a new "brand" for Kosovo, which it hopes will dispel the negative stereotypes and change people's perceptions about the country for the better. Nation branding is not a new concept, but previous campaigns elsewhere have focused primarily on boosting a country's tourism sector ("Malaysia — Truly Asia," "Colombia is Passion") or attracting foreign businesses (Macedonia's "Invest in Macedonia"). David Kosmin, the planning director in charge of Kosovo's campaign, said his team had to start with a more basic goal: convincing people that the country was not a lawless, war-torn place of despair.
The Kosovo in the agency's first TV spot, released late last year, is certainly postcard perfect. Based on the theme "The Young Europeans" — at just 25, Kosovo has the youngest average age of any country in Europe — the ad features gorgeous young Kosovars putting together a giant puzzle in the shape of their country, the implicit message being that the puzzle of Europe isn't complete without the final piece of Kosovo in the southeastern corner. The campaign's print ads depict equally photogenic Kosovars — think an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue — with snippets about their passions and hobbies. The branding team has also harnessed new media, setting up a Facebook group that now has nearly 19,000 members and inviting people around the world to send video birthday greetings to YouTube. Though it's still early, Kosmin says that in surveys of people who had seen the ads, there was a remarkable improvement in their overall image of the country.
Some Kosovars, themselves, however, are less impressed by the slick makeover. Besiana Musmurati, a 19-year-old public policy and economics student at the American University in Kosovo, says the ads don't showcase what she says are the best assets of the country's youth — their language abilities and highly entrepreneurial spirit. "It's creating an image of something we're not," she says. "It's too superficial." Albin Kurti, leader of an opposition group called Vetëvendosje!, or Self-Determination, says the campaign is a distraction from the more serious problems facing Kosovo. That, in turn, he fears, will only prolong the presence of the 2,000-strong E.U. mission deployed two years ago to help the country set up a police, judicial and customs system. "We have no army, no control over our borders, no sovereignty, no economic development," Kurti says. "[The campaign] seems like we're trying to prove ourselves to others. But it will not help us to stand on our own." To that end, his group has been tagging "Young European" posters in Pristina with graffiti stencils reading "Isolated."
The government maintains that it is committed to tackling corruption and improving the judicial system, widely seen as two of the most important issues in the short term. Memli Krasniqi, a political adviser to Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, says that in the coming weeks, new judges and prosecutors will be appointed following a thorough vetting process and judicial reform laws will be passed. Critics question whether the changes will actually have any effect in strengthening the judiciary, pointing out that anti-corruption laws have thus far resulted in few cases being prosecuted, but Krasniqi says the government and its European monitors have only just begun their work on the system and it will take time to develop. "We're a young country that has been subject to apartheid, violent oppression and occupation for many years, so of course, we'll suffer many problems," he says. "But in many ways, Kosovo is quite a normal country."
See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
See the Cartoons of the Week.
POWERED BY digg
The 'Newborn' sculpture in downtown Pristina was unveiled in February 2008, when Kosovo declared its independence and became the world's newest country
Like most Albanians who grew up in Kosovo in the early 1990s, Gëzim Gjikolli stopped going to public school when Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic effectively shut down the Albanian education system and fired most of the teachers. Instead, he and the other children in his village of Pejë were educated in private homes, moving every day to avoid the detection of police until war broke out between Kosovar rebels and Serb forces in 1998, bringing their schooling to a standstill. Desperate for a better life after the war, Gjikolli taught himself English by listening to Mariah Carey songs and eventually won a scholarship to Bowling Green University in Ohio.
Gjikolli is now a success story — at 29, he's running his own company in the capital Pristina, overseeing a $100 million project to build a new office tower and entertainment complex called the World Trade Center. But he still finds daily life frustrating in isolated and impoverished Kosovo, which he sometimes thinks the world has forgotten about. "We're happy now," he says, sitting in his office across from the snowy construction site, dressed in a sharp black suit. "But after a while, people will become numb if things don't develop faster." (See pictures of riots in Belgrade after Kosovo's declaration of independence.)
As the world's newest country marks the two-year anniversary of its declaration of independence from Serbia, optimism is slowly fading as the harsh realities of life in a quasi-legitimate state set in. Kosovo has been recognized by only about one-third of U.N. member states — five European Union members are among the holdouts — because of concerns over the legality of its split from Serbia as U.N.-backed negotiations on its final status were still taking place. Kosovars need visas to travel to every country of the world but four; Afghans and Somalis have greater freedom of movement. And despite the fact that Kosovo's love affair with the West continues — Pristina saw the addition of a giant statue of Bill Clinton (on Bill Clinton Boulevard) last November — investment from the U.S. and the E.U. is hardly rolling in. Investors fear instability, endemic corruption, weak rule of law, rampant organized crime, drug smuggling, human trafficking. The list goes on and on.
In short, Kosovo may finally be free of its former Serbian masters and it may have all the symbols of a state — its own flag, national anthem and passports — but the country still has a massive image problem to overcome. "People think that whenever they come here, after they get off the plane, the very first thing they'll see is an Albanian running after a Serb to try to kill him. Or in some places, the opposite," says Luan Shllaku, head of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, part of George Soros' network. "Why should we suffer from this negative image? It's not true." (Read: "A Pariah No More: Serbia Bids to Join the E.U.")
The government has responded to this problem by taking a very Madison Avenue approach. It's hired the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi to create a new "brand" for Kosovo, which it hopes will dispel the negative stereotypes and change people's perceptions about the country for the better. Nation branding is not a new concept, but previous campaigns elsewhere have focused primarily on boosting a country's tourism sector ("Malaysia — Truly Asia," "Colombia is Passion") or attracting foreign businesses (Macedonia's "Invest in Macedonia"). David Kosmin, the planning director in charge of Kosovo's campaign, said his team had to start with a more basic goal: convincing people that the country was not a lawless, war-torn place of despair.
The Kosovo in the agency's first TV spot, released late last year, is certainly postcard perfect. Based on the theme "The Young Europeans" — at just 25, Kosovo has the youngest average age of any country in Europe — the ad features gorgeous young Kosovars putting together a giant puzzle in the shape of their country, the implicit message being that the puzzle of Europe isn't complete without the final piece of Kosovo in the southeastern corner. The campaign's print ads depict equally photogenic Kosovars — think an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue — with snippets about their passions and hobbies. The branding team has also harnessed new media, setting up a Facebook group that now has nearly 19,000 members and inviting people around the world to send video birthday greetings to YouTube. Though it's still early, Kosmin says that in surveys of people who had seen the ads, there was a remarkable improvement in their overall image of the country.
Some Kosovars, themselves, however, are less impressed by the slick makeover. Besiana Musmurati, a 19-year-old public policy and economics student at the American University in Kosovo, says the ads don't showcase what she says are the best assets of the country's youth — their language abilities and highly entrepreneurial spirit. "It's creating an image of something we're not," she says. "It's too superficial." Albin Kurti, leader of an opposition group called Vetëvendosje!, or Self-Determination, says the campaign is a distraction from the more serious problems facing Kosovo. That, in turn, he fears, will only prolong the presence of the 2,000-strong E.U. mission deployed two years ago to help the country set up a police, judicial and customs system. "We have no army, no control over our borders, no sovereignty, no economic development," Kurti says. "[The campaign] seems like we're trying to prove ourselves to others. But it will not help us to stand on our own." To that end, his group has been tagging "Young European" posters in Pristina with graffiti stencils reading "Isolated." (Read: "Joy in Kosovo, Anger in Serbia.")
The government maintains that it is committed to tackling corruption and improving the judicial system, widely seen as two of the most important issues in the short term. Memli Krasniqi, a political adviser to Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, says that in the coming weeks, new judges and prosecutors will be appointed following a thorough vetting process and judicial reform laws will be passed. Critics question whether the changes will actually have any effect in strengthening the judiciary, pointing out that anti-corruption laws have thus far resulted in few cases being prosecuted, but Krasniqi says the government and its European monitors have only just begun their work on the system and it will take time to develop. "We're a young country that has been subject to apartheid, violent oppression and occupation for many years, so of course, we'll suffer many problems," he says. "But in many ways, Kosovo is quite a normal country."
See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
See the Cartoons of the Week.
POWERED BY digg
The 'Newborn' sculpture in downtown Pristina was unveiled in February 2008, when Kosovo declared its independence and became the world's newest country
Like most Albanians who grew up in Kosovo in the early 1990s, Gëzim Gjikolli stopped going to public school when Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic effectively shut down the Albanian education system and fired most of the teachers. Instead, he and the other children in his village of Pejë were educated in private homes, moving every day to avoid the detection of police until war broke out between Kosovar rebels and Serb forces in 1998, bringing their schooling to a standstill. Desperate for a better life after the war, Gjikolli taught himself English by listening to Mariah Carey songs and eventually won a scholarship to Bowling Green University in Ohio.
Gjikolli is now a success story — at 29, he's running his own company in the capital Pristina, overseeing a $100 million project to build a new office tower and entertainment complex called the World Trade Center. But he still finds daily life frustrating in isolated and impoverished Kosovo, which he sometimes thinks the world has forgotten about. "We're happy now," he says, sitting in his office across from the snowy construction site, dressed in a sharp black suit. "But after a while, people will become numb if things don't develop faster." (See pictures of riots in Belgrade after Kosovo's declaration of independence.)
As the world's newest country marks the two-year anniversary of its declaration of independence from Serbia, optimism is slowly fading as the harsh realities of life in a quasi-legitimate state set in. Kosovo has been recognized by only about one-third of U.N. member states — five European Union members are among the holdouts — because of concerns over the legality of its split from Serbia as U.N.-backed negotiations on its final status were still taking place. Kosovars need visas to travel to every country of the world but four; Afghans and Somalis have greater freedom of movement. And despite the fact that Kosovo's love affair with the West continues — Pristina saw the addition of a giant statue of Bill Clinton (on Bill Clinton Boulevard) last November — investment from the U.S. and the E.U. is hardly rolling in. Investors fear instability, endemic corruption, weak rule of law, rampant organized crime, drug smuggling, human trafficking. The list goes on and on.
In short, Kosovo may finally be free of its former Serbian masters and it may have all the symbols of a state — its own flag, national anthem and passports — but the country still has a massive image problem to overcome. "People think that whenever they come here, after they get off the plane, the very first thing they'll see is an Albanian running after a Serb to try to kill him. Or in some places, the opposite," says Luan Shllaku, head of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, part of George Soros' network. "Why should we suffer from this negative image? It's not true." (Read: "A Pariah No More: Serbia Bids to Join the E.U.")
Read Full Article »