I thought I'd send along some of what I've been reading in the international press. Below are links to two articles which focus on North Mitrovica, where I teach Serbian young adults. This semester I go there once a week, and I have plans to start traveling there twice a week starting in mid-January, although my schedule may change as the political situation shifts.

I think the NPR piece is better, since it doesn't resort to hyperbole. One thing to remember: the reporters sweep into town (Mitrovica was crawling with press last Wednesday), get their interviews, and leave. The people that actually live here - I'm thinking of the diplomats up the hill - do not expect this place to explode in violence. That said, there is a great deal of tension and uncertainty here. It's been a stressful week. I teach Serbs and Albanians, and this came up in several of my classes recently. There is so much poison and fear under the surface here: you don't have to scratch very deep to get there. We watched a film in my university class about tolerance and intolerance in America. I asked students how this applied to their lives. I unleashed the genie from the bottle, and what followed was a passionate, sad, and frank conversation about tolerance and justice, and reasons why it's a good idea in general, but won't work in reality. At one point, one student said, "They (the Serbs) killed my whole family. I hate them and wish they were all dead."

So, what's the best thing to bring into this volatile mix? How about a concert by 50 Cent, a gangsta rapper that embodies all the violence and bravado that we associate with rap music. He's coming to town on the 17th, and his blog is filling up with hate speech by Albanian and Serb kids. Just what we need...happy Bajram and Merry Christmas.

Someone reminded me of one of Lincoln's speeches recently. It's from 1861:

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Isn't it lovely?

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2220393,00.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17122630