When politics messes with beauty

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

The Miss Universe pageant that's gonna start in São Paulo on September 12 became a reason for strained relations between Serbia and Kosovo. Just when things between these two started to look somewhat quiet, a picture of Miss Serbia and Miss Kosovo caused an uproar.

It all began when during the rehearsals for the contest and between the time spent in the hairdresser's saloon, the gym sessions and the charity events, the two beauties found some time to make friends and even have a picture together. Then Miss Kosovo placed the pic on her Facebook wall. OH THE HORRORS!!!

The backlash came almost instantaneously. Both girls were accused of national treason. The Kosovars reminded the 25 year old Aferdita Dreshaj about the bloodshed in Kosovo caused by the Serbs. But she refuses to get defensive and is stubbornly keeping the photo on her FB.

In turn, the Serbs accused the 21 year old Anja Saranovic that by posing for a pic next to Miss Kosovo, she's officially recognizing the independence of the former Serbian province. This forced Anja to make a statement where she emphasized that she still considers Kosovo "an inseparable part of her fatherland", and she even called Kosovo "the Serbian Jerusalem".

Whether she believes what she said, we may never learn. But we've seen yet another example of politics messing up with people's lives and politicizing non-political events, and pulling out the worst side of people. It reminds me of the story about the Montagues and the Capulets, where the grudges between the two warring families caused the death of the two kids who fell in love, Romeo and Juliet. Will peace ever be achieved in the minds and hearts of people, if even they have to wait a bit more after achieving it on paper? One can only hope. Time heals wounds, but how much time will be needed?

Comments

[404.livejournal.com]

I fully support Europeans getting past their historical differences. It is just a shame that many within the continent refuse to move past the last century.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the support, and I'm sure you'd love to visit Sweden or any one of its neighbors some day. You could also visit any of the 26 EU member states and see how things are on the field, so to speak. There are several spots where grudges remain and the Balkans is one of them. Looking at those spots and imposing that picture onto the rest of Europe is a big mistake, though. If I go to a ghetto in the suburbs of Detroit, and I conclude that "America is poor and miserable", I'd be equally mistaken.

Bottom line: don't generalize like that! Use your brain wisely.

(Btw the invitation for Sweden was serious).

[404.livejournal.com]

I was being a little cheeky when I lumped all of Europe in, but the Balkan instability and petty differences are those things that has seemed to be an eternal weakness of the European system, but I digress, especially in light of the centuries of blood shed on the continent over silly things like religion and ethnicity.

I visited Öland in 2009 while on a cruise. Too bad we were not able to stay more than a night there.

I'd like to go back, and spend more time, heck, I am trying to learn German at the moment.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

I noticed you were being cheeky, but the upside is that this way you helped me raise a valid issue. Others might not be so cheeky when they're doing it, and that's kind of disturbing - on both sides, actually. Many Americans genuinely hate France because... well, because they've heard bad things. And viceversa.

I was in Dalarna last week. The place is fabulous at this time of year.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I don't see anyone there trying to recreate either totalitarianism and certainly nobody wants the Habsburgs, Romanovs, and Hohenzollerns back. What does this refer to?

[404.livejournal.com]

Um, the OP?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

You said that they refuse to move forward from the last century despite that these individuals have. Isn't the usual drum-beat from libertarians and conservatives on this community that society does not exist, individuals do? So where's this European/American bullshit coming from?

[404.livejournal.com]

So did you actually read the OP?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes, I see two individuals who got along great from societies that have done bad things and a tempest in a teakettle about it.

[404.livejournal.com]

Don't you ever stop to think you are conversing with humans, not replicants of a hive mind?

The backlash came almost instantaneously. Both girls were accused of national treason. The Kosovars reminded the 25 year old Aferdita Dreshaj about the bloodshed in Kosovo caused by the Serbs. But she refuses to get defensive and is stubbornly keeping the photo on her FB.

In turn, the Serbs accused the 21 year old Anja Saranovic that by posing for a pic next to Miss Kosovo, she's officially recognizing the independence of the former Serbian province. This forced Anja to make a statement where she emphasized that she still considers Kosovo "an inseparable part of her fatherland", and she even called Kosovo "the Serbian Jerusalem".

I'd say the people that are calling them traitors are firmly seated in the past.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Well technically it's still their present, since Serbia still insists that Kosovo is part of Serbia. I don't know what hope they're realistically holding about that, but it's a fact that this is still an issue being discussed.

[404.livejournal.com]

That's the point, it's not going to happen, but they keep fighting against the reality.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I certainly stop to consider it thus. They aren't living in the past, the creation of the new Kosovo state is quite recent and a matter of this century.

[404.livejournal.com]

A greater Serbia is a thing of the past, they need to move on and get with the fact that Bosnia Kosovo, unless conquered, is not rejoining them.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I agree with that, the creation of Kosovo as a state still happened in the 21st Century, not the 20th, and primarily to piss off Russia more than as an example of rational realpolitik on the part of the democracies.

[terminator44.livejournal.com]

Psychologically recovering for national defeat takes years, if it happens at all. It wasn't until the Gulf War that most Americans viewed Vietnam as a thing of the past.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

I want those back? OK...

[404.livejournal.com]

huh?

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Underlankers: "I don't see anyone there trying to recreate either totalitarianism and certainly nobody wants the Habsburgs, Romanovs, and Hohenzollerns back."

404: "the OP"

I'm the OP. I don't want the Habsburgs back.

[404.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry, I just didn't feel like having a whole page discussion over this one middling thing. Underlankers went off the deep end, extrapolating something that was not even implied, I didn't care to refute him on it because, why bother, he'd just keep replying until he is in a corner and have to backtrack.

The girls obviously want to be friends regardless of where they are from, moron nationalists from both sides want to turn it into a slogan to fire up their side. News at 11.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

My point was that Kosovo was created in this century, not the 20th, and that they didn't stay in the past, it's a contemporary issue about pissing off Russia, not national self-determination. It was pedantic, not off the deep end.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

"OP" can refer to either "original poster" or "original post", depending on context. It looks to me like it was intended to be the second in this case, so you wouldn't be the OP. :P