SO! Kosovo declared independence today! Yay Kosovo. But what should you know about the repercussions of this historic event?
Wait, what? What the hell is Kosovo?
Kosovo is a region in The Balkans that there's been fighting in and disputes over for ages. As of yesterday, they were part of Serbia.
And they declared independence? Why?
Well, 90% of those living in Kosovo are Albanian Muslims and hate Serbians and their Christian religion. Also, Kosovo is very very poor, mostly because everyone bombs the heck out of them every time there's an ethnic war in the area (and there are a lot), so the economy pretty much sucks. When you have a lot of poor people in one group who are hungry and have a common enemy in common, some crazy stuff can happen.
Wait. This is because they all hated the same people and they're poor and hungry and frustrated?
...Yes.
That's a dumb reason to declare independence.
That's the reason the Angry Women of France started the French Revolution and ~20,000 people died.
...well, still. But Kosovo is way over in Europe. Why should I care?
Today when Kosovo declared independence, they waved American flags alongside their own. Kosovo views their declaration of independence to be following in the paths of the American Revolution in 1776.
Serbia and Russia, however, are majorly pissed at this "illegal" revolution. The region is already crazily unstable, and this will likely set off another "conflict". Russia called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which is still meeting now.
Wait. So what's that mean?
Serbia is blaming the U.S. for giving Kosovo a negative example of being "ready to violate the international order for its own military interests". The U.S., however, really does not like being called names like that and wants to play nicely with Russia as well. Kosovo might ask the U.S. for help, which the U.S. will either support and interfere in another age-old conflict that we'll never get ourselves out of, or ignore the request and let the quixotic visionaries get crushed.
...you're very cynical. Is this really a lose-lose situation?
Yes.
What's going to happen?
There's no way of telling that right now. The U.N. Security council hasn't published their conclusions yet.
What do you think is going to happen?
One of two things.
1. The U.N. will form a committee to "look into the matter", and meanwhile, Serbia will either bomb the hell out of Kosovo or destroy all the Albanians by hand, all of which will be kept very hush-hush while the rest of the world turns a blind eye.
2. The U.N. could actually decide to Do Something, like make Serbia and Kosovo have peace talks, which would degenerate and the Serbs would follow Possibility #1 as soon as the U.N. was busy with other things.
In your opinion, what would work the best to keep peace and prevent loss of life?
Let the Kosovians declare independence. It's their business. They're poor and no one really cares about them - they're just a trophy sort of area at this point, anyway. Wait until they all starve themselves with their poor economy and then ask if they want to come back or peacefully take over again, and the Albanians will be a lot happier to be under Serbian rule.
If something really insane and crazy happens and Kosovo becomes a flourishing nation, though, everything goes out the window, because the Serbians and Albanians are both going to be trying to kill the other to prove they're the stronger one.
So... this isn't really very important and it won't affect me?
...I suppose. Just... some people care about genocide and what's going on in the world.
Is that all?
...yes.
This blog entry wasn't very funny. I'm didn't like it. You made me waste my time reading this. Do you have anything to say for yourself now?
Just that I feel terribly disillusioned about people's concern for the rest of the world and America's overwhelming exclusive self-interest. :/
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I, too, am disturbed by the lack of caring what is going on in the rest of the world. The U.N. will let genocide happen until the United States finds some reason to come in and (hero music: dun, duh, duhhhhhh) save the day. That is if we can find some self-serving reason to do such an action with our hands, legs, and intestines tied up in other "affairs".
Go politics!
And I feel the need to clarify the French Revolution thing (I happen to read this subject alot). As much as I would love French women to be the cause of the revolution, it was actually a bunch of quote-unquote "ugly" white men in the upper-middle class who were part of the "sans-coulettes" or not of royal or noble birth and therefore own the land but have no rights. The women just created all the wonderful drama and had a major hand in prix-fixe or the art of setting price caps on in demand items...which reminds me:
Memo
From: me
To: United States government c/o G.W.Bush
Subject: How the French Revolution is viable today...
It has come to my attention that many Americans are unable to afford cars because gas is sky-rocketing. Read up on your French Revolution history and you will learn a good lesson. Buy locally (a.k.a. use local resources) and require prices to stay low. Businesses, when forced, will find cheaper way to create energy and invest in new and cheaper energy sources if oil is unprofitable. I realize, Mr. President, that reading is hard and history was never your best subject, but I encourage to keep trying.
TT
P.S. I encourage everyone looking for a good read to pick up Vive La Revolution! by Mark Steel. It is a humorous guide to the revolution, the results of the unrest, and exactly why you should care.
Think about it...
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tomorrowtoday
So true!
And your memo to the president is ridiculously amusing and accurate. But that would have required him to have retained information from history classes in order to understand it :P
"Buy locally (a.k.a. use local resources) and require prices to stay low. Businesses, when forced, will find cheaper way to create energy and invest in new and cheaper energy sources if oil is unprofitable."
Buying locally would make almost everything more expensive not less. If we only used US sources for our oil we would pay more, and have to live at a reduced standard of living. Drilling in places like Anwar, and off shore Florida would have happened long ago, though we would produce less greenhouse gas because we couldn't afford to drive SUVs.
We are presently subsidizing the development of Solar, fuel cells and other alternative energy sources. They are becoming cheaper, but the entire subsidy so far has not done as much as the high price of oil to encourage development. The world demand for energy is increasing; Oil production will not be able to increase fast enough to keep pace. That drives the price up and makes alternatives more competitive.
Looking for the president or any government body to reverse economic laws will always be fruitless, though the power hungry will promise to do so every election.
A Fact is Always Better Than an Ideal.
Ummm... are you sure you commented on the right blog entry? If so, I'm very, very confused. :?
That I was refering to at the begining of my comment. It was from her 'memo' not the blog itself.
A Fact is Always Better Than an Ideal.
I have a question on this one. Are you for, or against US intervention in places like Iraq, Darfur, and Kosovo?
It is easy to be against the abusive acts of foreign governments, but doing what needs to be done is an entirely different matter.
A Fact is Always Better Than an Ideal.
See, that's a hard one. I'm generally against intervention - leave people to better themselves and get the same chance we did. But with genocide, I'm for making it stop and then leaving. Like with Darfur, we could stop their genocide with our military before lunchtime. But then we should leave. Problem is solved, let them pick up their own pieces.
What about you?
The Kosovo situation is an interesting oportunity that Bush will almost undoubtedly miss. As the USA we should always try to promote independance and freedom. We cannot do that in every situatuion arround the world because even though we are rich, we arn't that rich, and there just are not enough of us.
We are fighting a 'war on terror' which has been hard to distinguish from a war on fundamentalist islam. That is a PR mistake because the islamic terrorists of the world could be contained much more easily if more of the majority of the followers of Allah that are not terrorists were on our side.
If I were President ChillBill I would loudly support the newly independant nation for ideals that include RELIGIOUS freedom for the muslim population. I would make it clear that I expected civil and human rights to be observed, and elections held as a condition of US support, but also make it clear to those that might be considering military action against the new nation that the US Air Force would crush any such aggression.
Supporting Islamic interests when they are just would go a long way toward reducing the support for Terrorist tactics from average muslims arround the world. One act wouldn't make up for everything we have done to earn the title of 'great Satan' in the middle east, but it would be a first step.
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Iraq
http://progressiveu.org/132710-the-good-side-of-the-war
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Darfur
This is actually the hardest one of these three. The UN providing peace keepers long term may be the only way. If you go with 'making it stop and then leaving' you will just make it worse. Destroying the military of the evil perpetrators just frees the hunger for revenge that naturally exists in the victims. A civil war, or just a reversal of who is commiting the genocide follows.
I am in favor of intervening, It is a shame that the UN is so ineffective, because as a single nation intervention is easily mistaken for colonialism.
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Your humor is great, but is also a bit more cynical than I am. I have faith that good will prevail. Just maybe not in round one.
A Fact is Always Better Than an Ideal.