My Kosovo Politics - Meeting the President, and other random tales

I realise I’ve been blogging about my latest trips in disorder, with some Italy posts taking precedence on Kosova stories despite the inverse time sequence. Oh well.

My last day in Kosova was really surprising - and a fantastic closing to my trip there.

My friend Tony - who will someday be Kosova’s President, remember you read it here first - is quite a political rising star (you can see his campaign website here) and he was invited to a political reception to Prishtina. And he secured an extra invitation for his humble guest - yours truly.

And I found myself dressing into a suit of Tony’s - and Tony is larger than me so I was kinda floating in his clothes - and shipped to the Nation's capital (Prishtina), where I was ushered the celebration of the 18th anniversary of the Democratic League of Kosovo, the country’s ruling party (and that of former iconic president Ibrahim Rugova (in the poster to the right), to whose grave I paid respects the day before).
And I got to meet a bunch of fantastically brilliant young politicians, theoretically peers of mine but light-years ahead of me in terms of experience and political maturity, with whom I made some small talk, and discussed the recent events (mainly the round of negotiations on the Status of Kosovo held at the UN in NYC, which have failed in the narrow sense - no outcome or agreement - but have succeeded in cementing international support for the cause of Kosovo’s independence) as well as other world events.

And I got to meet the President, Fatmir Sejdiu who is indeed a charming person and who took the time to ask me (in flawless English) about my impressions about Kosovo. And we took a photo.
Pretty cool, huh??

The event was rather smallish and throughout the whole thing my job has just been to not look too stupid whenever Tony introduced me to this or that political figure (almost all - or rather all of whom - I didn’t know, of course), reply gracefully, comment nicely on their beautiful country, make 3 sentences of small talk and give an intelligent and short answer when asked a direct question by Minister X or Parliamentarian Z.

I felt that I was a fairly singular case of “Sois belle (beau!) et tais toi” - “be pretty and shut up”, which is essentially the job of any good political wife!!
It doesn’t help that I helped Tony choose his shirt and tie before the event...

After the event - which ended with an electricity shortage, typical Kosova... we went to a nearby café with some of this young political A-team of Kosovo.

And me, who was coming for some family holidays and some unique sightseeing, had found myself joining these guys around a Schweppes in discussing the development of the Party in light of the recent elections (where the LDK suffered a serious setback). Seriously, it was PHENOMENAL.
I was connecting with these young politicians, who considered me as a friend and listened carefully to my humble (and sometimes misplaced) opinions, and who are shaping the present and the future of a country in the making, setting the bases for its political identity - and doing so fantastically well.

The kind of things that really made me want to move back to Cairo and jump head first into politics. I know I could - I have the brains for it and I love my country. As I recall these events now to write this post, I twitch my hands a little as I relive this rush of political stamina.

I was wishing I was a Kosovar, involved in shaping the future of my country. I guess we'll get around this in Egypt someday soon.
I guess I should start planning my campaign sometime soon! If anyone out there has a moment to help.. :)