Some time ago I wrote an entry about the similarities between the struggles of the Kosovo Albanians and the Tamils of Sri Lanka. This time I will list some similarities between another minority that has been source of problems for a long time.
Just like the Albanians of Kosovo the Palestinians were the rulers of Israel for a long time. In both cases the new rulers (Serbs and Jews) were more modern what contributed to the marginalization of the Albanians and Palestinians. Their pride as former rulers contributed to make this backwardness last much longer than necessary. You have to swallow your pride to learn from people you consider inferior. Discrimination didn't help as it obscured the benefits of modernization. The result was an uncertain public led by populist politicians that promised the sky but in reality were mostly busy filling their pockets.
As I pointed out in my previous post the absence of exporting companies plays an important part in the irreality of Kosovo's foreign policy as there is no strong voice that advocates normality. We see the same thing with the Palestinians. Israeli propaganda complains endlessly about Palestinians duplicity. Palestinian leaders - also from the PLO - praise suicide attacks and hold for their own population much more belligerent speaches as for the international audience. It reminds one of the internet articles about Albanians sabotating Serbian companies in Kosovo. It is the resistance of people who don't see they have a stake in their own development.
Nowadays Kosovo hardly exports anything and it survives on international aid and emigrant remittances. Nearly the same applies to Westbank and Gaza.
In my opinion it is useless to criticize the Palestinians and the Kosovo Albanians for this situation. This is the politics of dependency. The only thing that will help is making them more responsible for their own fate. In this context it may be good to remember that many poor countries for a long time found themselves in a similar position when most of their budget came from development aid. Only recently has Western policy towards the developing countries shifted to one where the own responsibility is stressed. This has been partly accomplished by lowering import tarifs for their products.
1 comment:
There are some huge differences.
For one, the Palestinians have made themsevles into a pariah state because its government's #1 foreign policy goal is invasion and conquest of a foreign nation (Israel) and extermination of a large proportion of its population (millions of Jews).
The Albanians have no such designs. They are happy to have their homeland back after the temporary and horrific colonization by Serbia during most of the 20th century. They have no designs on Serbia or any Serbian land, nor do they wish to go exterminate the Serbs.
Kosovo would become a lot more isolated if Serbia would grow up and stop whining that its colony is once again free of its control. Let Serbia worry about Serbia, not a non-Serbian foreign nation that should have never been forcibly annexed to Serbia during the misguided creation of Yugoslavia.
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