Posted on 11/28/2007 7:01:09 AM PST by lupo-de-mare
Kosovo auf Deutsch 11/18/2007 (Balkanalysis.com)
By David Binder
Forget about status negotiations for a moment. The near-term outlook for Kosovo is unalterably grim: an economy stuck in misery; a bursting population of young people with criminality as the sole career choice; an insupportably high birthrate; a society imbued with corruption and a state dominated by organized crime figures.
These are the conclusions of Operationalizing of the Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans, a 124-page investigation by the Institute for European Policy commissioned by the German Bundeswehr and issued last January. This month the text turned up on a weblog. It is labeled solely for internal use. Provided one can plow through the appallingly dense Amtsdeutsch - German officialese - that is already evident in the ponderous title, a reader is rewarded with sharp insights about Kosovo.
Occasionally a flicker of human frustration with the intractability of Kosovos people appears in the stolid German text. That reminded me of an encounter 44 years ago in the fly-specked cafeteria of Pristinas Kosovski Bozur Hotel, occupied by a lone guest drinking a beer. He introduced himself as an engineer from Germany.
What was he doing here? I inquired. Ich verbloede, he replied - I am stupefying myself. - (or, I am making myself stupid)
http://www.balkanalysis.com/2007/11/18/kosovo-auf-deutsch/
Original Studie: Kosovo by the Institute for European Policy commissioned by the German Bundeswehr http://balkanforum.org/IEP-BND/iep0001.PDF
—reading the article, it sounds as if Kosovo is about like Chicago—
There’s always Paris..... ;)
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