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

[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.