Happy Birthday to my daughter

My five-year-old turned six today!  Here's the 46 kindergartners in her class partying.

A good time was had by all....I think :)

Tentative good news about the Kosovar economy

According to an ECIKS report, the extensive economic reforms which began in 1999 are finally showing measurable and sustainable results.  Here are some highlights:

• Kosovo’s GDP is estimated to have grown by about 3% in 2006
• After a fall in 2005, Kosovo’s exports grew remarkably in 2006 by 54%, with a modest growth of imports by 5%.
• the rate of non-housing private investment grew impressively by 61% and lending to the private sector also increased.
• The rate of inflation stood near zero, in spite of accelerating economic activity.
• Government spending was kept within the prescribed and sustainable levels, in line with a Letter of Intent, which the Government of Kosovo signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2005

This is pretty good news, though largely invisible to the average Fatmir on the street.  In fact, most would dispute the inflation statistic as the price of food is sky-rocketing.  Prices of essentials like oil, flour and milk have increased by 70-80 percent!

Overcoming cultural biases

Below is an interesting video documentary.  It shows the experiences of ten students from Kosovo and Serbia who live together in Prishtina.  Both groups share their ingrained biases about the other (hygene, family size, etc.) and work to overcome them.

It's interesting because it shows the deep-seated prejudices that exists, few of which are based in reality.

via FreeKosova

Why Serbia can't let Kosovo go

Great article in Christian Science Monitor about the Serbian physiology behind the Kosovo question.  It doesn't offer any solution, but is a very short primer on the issue for folks who want it boiled down.

 

Why Kosovo is central to Serb national epic

Good video intro Kosovo

A Canadian Broadcast Company journalists travels back to Kosovo to revisit a doctor she had met during the war.  This is a good introduction to Kosovo for those unfamiliar with its recent history and present aspirations.  It's a little over eleven minutes long.

It's fun to see clinic and restaurants I've been to and eaten at!

via FreeKosova

Bomb goes off in Prishtina: two killed

Both the AFP & BBC are reporting on an explosion early this morning in Prishtina, Kosovo's capital.  Two people were killed, one immediately and the other from their wounds.  At least ten others were wounded.  VOA is reporting that the explosion occurred on Bill Clinton Boulevard, a major street in the capital. 

This bombing reminds me of one that happened in 2003 (?) which also occurred on Bill Clinton Blvd.  That one happened much earlier in the evening, around 10 PM and was easily heard at our home in Prishtina.

No details on the type of explosive or the motive are yet known.  The previous bombing on this road was "business," not politics.  I'm speculating, but I'm guessing that this is "business" as well.  In the past, most of the politically motivated bombings have targeted UN facilities in another part of town. 

The things kids say....

As I've mentioned before, our kids are in an unusual learning situation.  Both are in local school, but both also spend several hours each day in 'home schooling."  That's a big load, not only for them but also for my wife, who teaches "mommy's school."

But the struggles are broken up into fits of laughter too.  This week my wife was working with your kindergartner on the alphabet, specifically the letter "f".  Reilly, my daughter, was trying to come up with all the words she could think of that started with the "f' sound.  "F..f..f..foot," she said.  My wife clapped, "great!" And so Reilly went on, naming a number of other items until she came to, "F..f..f..fecal contamination!" 

My wife nearly hurt herself laughing.  The things kids say.

You know you're back in Kosovo when...

Both our kids are students in the local school system.  We're now in the second week of the school year.  My youngest daughter is in Kindergarten, the oldest in 3rd grade.

Yesterday my oldest came home with a note written in her assignment notebook: Beginning tomorrow school would start at 1:50 instead of 3:35.   That's right, tomorrow come to school two hours earlier.

You know you're in Kosovo when your recently settled family schedule is up-ended by a brief note from school.  Of course, schedule changes aren't unique to Kosovo...its just one of those things.

Russia Draws a Red Line in Kosovo

 This comes unsourced from Strategy Page, but seems consistent with what I've read else where.

September 3, 2007: The Russian government said that Kosovo is one of Russia's two "red line" issues in Europe. The Russian foreign ministry defined "red line" as an issue where Russian national security or the world order is threatened. Moscow also considers the U.S.-NATO European missile-defense shield to be a "red line" issue. Would Russia really go to war over Kosovo on Serbia's behalf? No, but it would veto a UN resolution, and this rhetoric is designed to have a major political effect. Russia's bellicose language echoes a Serbian statement in late August when the Serbian government said that if Kosovo declares "unilateral independence", Serbia would "inflict some damage in return." The Serbian statement did not indicate what kind of "damage" it would seek to inflict.

This seems to reflect what I've been saying for a while.  There is linkage in the Russian foreign policy between the Kosovo issue and the US-NATO missile defense system.

The Russians do not appear to be giving any ground on this issue.  They've been resolute, as has been the Serbian government, that they are not willing to flex on the issue of independence in Kosovo.

Balkans: Russia Draws a Red Line in Kosovo

The silly challenges of transition

Occasionally the differences between life here and back in the US escape me and help me waste all kinds of time.  Yesterday for example, I spent my morning renewing my vehicle registration...or trying to.

The local government recently created a new vehicle registration regulation which requires that people produce proof that they don't have a debt with the electric company.  Having learned that, I walked down to my local electric company office.  I got a recent statement of account and then waited in line to have my account validated.  The man was helpful and friendly, filling out the required forms before the all-important stamping which would tell the vehicle registration folks that I was debt free.

Then I walked back home and later took our vehicle down to the inspection station.  As in most of Europe and the US, vehicle are subjected to an annual inspection.  Good enough.  They guys did the inspection as I waited patiently out front.

About twenty minutes later the service man came in with a quizzical look on his face.  "Ah, you have another month to go on your registration....you can't renew your registration yet," he said, pointing at my vehicle registration document.

"What do you mean?" I said, peering at the date, which clearly said 9/10/2007.  I had carefully read the registration and insurance documents.  They expired on Sept 10th....or did they?

"It's not due until October...nearly a month away," he explained patiently.

Oh crud, I said to myself.  Of course, the European date system goes Day/Month/Year, not Month/Day/Year.  I had, in fact, come a month early, misreading the date in US format, not European format.  So I sheepishly left, thanking them for their help.  They graciously invited me back next month and didn't charge me for their time.

The suddenly rare pleasures

We're enjoying being back in Kosovo.  The last two weeks have been full of new discoveries, renewed relationships and growing vision for what God wants to do here.  It's also become a time to re-learn where pleasure comes from. 

Pleasure comes from the distance between the ordinary and the unexpected and serendipitous.  Pleasure doesn't come from the having of a lot of stuff...or even always having "necessities" like water and electricity.  Pleasure comes when moments of unexpected happiness intrude on the ordinary.

For example, our water goes off for 24 hours, two days per week.  It's not a big deal and one adjusts pretty quickly.  This morning I went out for my run assuming the water would be off by the time I got back.  I got back in time, though and started running the water to bathe. 

Now, understand that thus far "bathing" has consisted of climbing in the bath tub and sticking my head and various body parts under a weak stream of mostly cold water, requiring contortions that would impress a circus performer.

Today, for reasons unknown, I had water, water pressure and HOT WATER.  I sat in my tub and experienced the simple pleasure of gallons of spraying hot water.  WOW.  That was my first hot shower since our return.  THAT is pleasure.

Back in Kosovo

We're finally back in Kosovo after a thirteen month absence.  It's amazing how much changes in a year! 

Yesterday we got our Internet service set up and I was surprised at how simple the process was.  I went to a local reseller and filled out a form.  They gave me a window of time during which the installers would come.  The following day they came, only a half hour after the window they gave.  They set us up and now we have a 2MB connection for about $33 per month.  That's pretty cheap compared to US prices.

Another thing that's changed since we left is the water situation.  Because of the amazing lack of rain over the last year, and the even more amazing lack of snow over the winter, there is a severe drought in Kosovo right now.  Water rationing is in effect and our water is out for 24 hour periods.  Supposedly our neighborhood loses water for 24 hours (roughly) twice a week.  We're grateful however, for how "good" our water is.  Our landlord's sister went 23 straight days without water!  None the less, it's a bit challenging to bathe when it's in the nineties, flush the toilets and wash clothes.

But God's doing good things.  Last night I had the great joy of attending our Bible Study and saw some of my good Albanian friends for the first time.  I also met four people at the study whom I'd never met.

Once we point to the transcendent, now we point to technology...to our loss.

Wired Magazine has an interesting write up on the new stained-glass windows at Germany's Cologne Cathedral. 

Blood-spurting martyrs, biblical parables, ascendant doves — most church windows feature the same preachy images that have awed parishioners for centuries. But a new stained-glass window in Germany's Cologne Cathedral, to be completed in August, evokes technology and science, not religion and the divine.

Stained glass windows used to present biblical narratives and church lessons to help instruct the illiterate and remind people of God.  Now, in Germany, they're being used to point people to technology.

Where once they pointed people to transcendent, eternal realities, now they point people to time-based technologies that may be obsolete before the glass is even completed.  It's pretty sad, but this has always been humanity's tendency: to replace the Creator with the Created.  One might hope, however, that it is not the church that is leading the way.

US & EU withdraw Security Council Resolution

The media is reporting today that the US and the EU have withdrawn their UN resolution on Kosovo after a third round of negotiations with Russia failed to produce any results.  In response, Kosovo Prime Minister, Agim Çeku, has announced that Kosovo will declare independence on November 28th.

Thus far, it appears that the Kosovar government would follow the Ahtisaari plan following an independence declaration.

Kosovo's government would invite Nato's peacekeeping troops to stay and ask the EU to implement a supervisory mission – as proposed by Mr Ahtisaari – over a four-month transition period to take the place of the UN protectorate. But doubts remain about the resolve of the EU to step into the role without a UN resolution.

A real question will be whether American and European leaders have the political will to do something or whether they'll allow the present boondoggle to continue.

Read more here and here.

Russia rejects latest UN resolution

The saga at the UN continues to churn on, consuming a lot of energy and producing very little tangible progress.  Yesterday Russia rejected the latest UN resolution which would have called for four months of intensive discussion between the governments of Prishtina and Belgrade.

The US and EU sponsors of the resolution called this latest draft the "final attempt" to reach an agreement with Moscow.  More from the Charlotte Observer:

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Friday that a Russian veto "will not stop the situation from moving forward in Kosovo, but it will be outside the Security Council framework, which is not what we want, and it's not the desirable way to go forward."

But he also said: "We are determined to move forward either within the council or otherwise."

It's my contention that Russia continues to use the situation in the Balkans as a bargaining chip in the US-Russia missile defense talks.  Last week Russia raised the stakes by unilaterally withdrawing  from the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, citing security concerns related to eastern NATO expansion and the US missile shield program (more here).

On Kosovo the EU is united...by a sickening lack of will

My silence on the status of talks over Kosovo over recent weeks is merely a reflection of the lack of progress.  The following is a great excerpt from The Guardian.

If proof were required that Europe, with or without the prospective new high representative, still finds it almost impossible to have a united foreign policy, take the first crisis to return to the agenda since the Brussels summit - Kosovo. Here is a major European issue on which the union's members are split several ways, though they share a sickening failure of will.

Until last year, Europe's Kosovo policy was a lowest common denominator of playing for time. The issue was handed to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari to craft a solution after talking to all sides. When he came up early this year with a call for the territory to have qualified independence, European leaders responded with a demand for one more round of talks. Then, at last month's G8 summit, the brash new French president stunned everyone with a weak-nerved call for between four and six more months of delay and yet more talks. He had not even consulted his own foreign ministry, let alone his European G8 partners. But once the demand was public, they rallied in support.

Instead of leadership, the EU then left things to Washington, in the hope that at his meeting in Maine on Monday, George Bush could persuade Russia's president Vladimir Putin not to veto a UN resolution giving Kosovo independence. Bush seems to have got nowhere. But, unlike Europe, the Americans have been crafting a plan B. They are considering the idea of encouraging the Kosovo Albanians to declare independence unilaterally with the promise that Washington will recognise the new state.

The paradox of Iraq is back again, in a reverse form from 2003 but one that is just as depressing. When Washington did the wrong thing by invading Iraq, too many European states said yes. Now, when Washington is thinking of doing the right thing over Kosovo, too much of Europe is saying no.

Eight years after Belgrade was forcibly stopped from driving the Albanians out of Kosovo, it is time to recognise that Serbian politicians will never agree to abandon the territory formally. They know Kosovo is lost but cannot say so. A unilateral declaration of independence by the Albanian majority is not ideal, but it is a solution. Further talks with no deadline will lead to greater impatience in Kosovo, a sense of betrayal, and the risk of violence - an outcome which only Belgrade wants. Collectively or individually, European governments must tell Washington and Kosovo's leaders that they too accept the territory's hour has come [emphasis added].

The process seems to have ground to a halt.

via SEEO

Cool heads prevailed

Today's celebration of St. Vitius day, the 618th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, was apparently violence free.  We praise God for that.   Yesterday I wrote that the Tsar Lazar Guards, a volunteer Serbian paramilitary unit had announced its forthcoming visit to commerate the battle.

Yesterday UNMIK spokesmen had announced:

The SRSG intends to issue an Executive Decision in the course of today prohibiting the
Guard or any similar paramilitary group from carrying out any activities in Kosovo, such
as the wearing of uniforms, or inciting ethnic hatred or violence.
Any presence by the Guard in Kosovo will be considered a breach of UNSCR 1244 and a
threat to civil law and order. Police have full powers to take whatever steps required to
maintain law and order, and the SRSG will provide clear guidance to the Police
Commissioner on this issue.

According to Reuters hundreds of people traveled from the site of the battle to the church and monastery in Gracanica to remember the battle.  They arrived by bus, having been escorted by local police.

They later reported that they day ended without clashes and the,  "in a show of strength and a nod to the territory's de facto independence, the bulk of the extensive security operation was handed to Kosovo Albanian police."

Thanks for your prayers!

Please pray for cool heads to prevail tomorrow, June 28th.

BIRN  is reporting that the the St.Tsar Lazar Guard I mentioned here is on its way to visit Kosovo tomorrow.

26 06 2007  Pristina _ The Kosovo police have taken pre-emptive measures to stop trouble from occurring in the event of a visit by the so-called Guard of Tsar Lazar.

The newly formed hardline Serbian nationalist group has proclaimed its readiness to keep Kosovo Serbian if necessary by fighting.

The Guard has announced a forthcoming visit on 28 June, the anniversary of the Kosovo Battle of 1389, to Gazimestan, near Pristina, the site of the battle.

On Sunday, the Kosovo Police Service, KPS, arrested several persons in northern town of Vushtrri / Vucitrn, for delivering flyers put out by a militant group, the Albanian National Army, AKSH, warning of reprisals.

“The AKSH is here, we will wait for you with bullets,” the AKSH message in the flyers read.

This could very, very easily turn ugly.   Prince Lazar was the Serbian monarch who faced the Ottoman Turkish army outside Kosovo on June 28th, 1389.  The Serbian forces were crushed, and it became the most memorable battle in Serbian history.

This is a highly provocative move, especially given the status of negotiations before the UNSC.  Please be praying that cool heads prevail tomorrow.

Scripture Memorization -- Part II

On Saturday I finished my 100 day wrap-up on 1 John.  Since I wrote about this back in December, I thought it would be good to give a summary of my experience.

Back in December  I shared a methodology from Dr. Andrew Davis that is particularly helpful in memorizing long selections of Scripture.  In summary, the methodology involves learning one verse a day and then repeating/reviewing the aggregate each day throughout the book or selection.  When the selection is memorized you recite the whole each day for 100 days. 

In summary, this whole deal is awesome.  I am such a believer in memorizing large sections of Scripture rather than bits and pieces.  It's phenomenal to get your mind around a whole book.  It's rewarding to be listening to a sermon, or reading a book where one of your newly memorized verses is referenced.  Let me make four summary statements: 

1. It is long and slow.  Both of these words have negative connotations in our society.  When I posted about this in December I had already been memorizing for a couple of months.  That means from start to finish it took 8-9 months to memorize to memorize a small, five-chapter book.  Yikes!  That doesn't appeal to my desire for microwave spirituality.

But this "long-ness" and "slow-ness" is an upside.  You don't have to burn out doing it.  You don't forget everything you've memorized half-way in.  It becomes a daily discipline that I could do long-term.  While there were many days when I just wanted to hurry up and finish the book, the slow pacing of the process is a spiritual discipline in itself.  It is the discipline of "slowing."

2. It's thorough.  Using this methodology ensures I've read, memorized, chewed on, pondered and reflected on each verse dozens and dozens of times (or hundreds, in the case of the early verses).  While I still make mistakes and have mental blocks, I generally know this book word-for-word.  For a guy with a mind like a steel sieve (where everything falls out) this is great.

3. It gets the Scripture down deep. While memorizing a book word-for-word has obvious intrinsic value on its own it's not an end in itself.  More than just memorizing, I feel like I understand  this book better.  I have been seriously impacted by the message of the book.  I've recited over and over, "do not love the world or anything in the world..." several hundred times.  That has affected me.  Even when my I'm sitting in traffic or washing the dishes, my mind goes to these verses and goes through them almost naturally.

4. Other Scripture seems to stay put better. This is purely anecdotal and non-empirical, but having disciplined myself to study this book it seems other Scriptures stay in my mind better . 

If you're interested in memorizing longer passages of Scripture give this a try!  You won't be disappointed...even if you're not a good "memorizer" like myself.

 

Technorati tags: memorization, Scripture

Serbian--US ties worsening over Kosovo

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica is warning that US-Serbian ties are worsening as a result of the US's pro-independence position regarding Kosovo.   While many Americans might say, "ah... so what," we ask that you'd be in prayer that a relatively just solution could be found for the final status of Kosovo.

Many of us travel through Serbia regularly and the Joshua Project lists the Serbian people as .19 percent evangelical Christian.  Though some are finding true faith in the Orthodox church, Serbia remains a country desperately in need of the Gospel.

Please keep praying for Kosovo!