Happy shooting

Last week I recieved an internal memo with do and don'ts for the independence day that is widely expected to happen next Sunday February 17th. I appreciated the memo because it made me aware of many things that an Amsterdam city centre boy just isn't expecting: "During the course of the celebrations ‘Happy Shooting’ is likely to occur; there is a strong possibility that there will be an influx of visitors to Kosovo from neighbouring countries, causing roads throughout Kosovo to be heavily congested and driving may be erratic; it is possible that the mobile phone network will be so overused by celebrants that it will not function correctly; all mission members who have handheld Motorola radios are to ensure that they are charged and tuned into the appropriate radio channel for their region."

The note on the bottom was a real after burner: "... What goes ‘up’ during ‘Happy Shooting’ must come ‘down’ ..."

50 Cent

Yesterday 50 Cent gave a concert in the football stadium of Pristina. He was the first famous Western artist to visit Kosovo ever. There was a lot of excitement about his arrival. On chat groups of the Serbian website B92 Kosovo Albanians teased Serbs that he had not gone to Belgrade.

The new telephone provider IPKO organized the concert. A ticket was 5 euro. 4,50 Euro of this amount could be reimbursed in the form of mobile phone credit. In that case the damage of ticket to the concert was only 50 Cent.

Since I have been actively following 50 Cent's career for several years now, I was going totally crazy when I heard that Billy had arranged VIP cards. The VIP room was open air, from dilapidated concrete and filled to the brim with drunken male adolescents. It was 5 degrees below zero and the wind was blowing harder than on a Dutch dike. Nensi, Donika and I danced a little on the 0,5 square meter of stage and discussed in length the absence of toilets. We waited until the star came on stage; I made some pictures (see above) and then left as soon as possible home. We seem to have missed a magnificent fireworks show.

Let's get the party started right!

Last week during the lunch of a conference that we had organized I was seated next to the main editor of Koha Ditore - the biggest Kosovar newspaper. To get the conversations started we discussed if and when independence would come. Since talking with Kosovars about independence is like talking with the Dutch about the weather or with Americans about how you are I felt the need for a different angle: I wanted to know if anybody was preparing the independence party... (you know me).

And yes they are. He told me that the current Kosovar President Fatmir Sejdiu recently visited China to discuss their support for the UN Security Council Resolution on the independence of Kosovo. The journalist told me he was there to do other things to: to buy huge amounts of fireworks for the independence celebration.

I was pleasantly surprised. But I was also worried. The visit was already one month ago and storing fireworks is not an easy thing to do. I asked him where the fireworks were now. Then he leaned over and whispered: "Don't worry... we know how to hide ammunition..."