Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Kosovo's alleged "population bomb"


Population 000s Albania Kosovo Morocco Philippines
1971 2189 1244 15711 37602
1991 3299 1956 25039 62538
Increase% 51 57 59 66


Statistics off the internet. Countries from faostat. Kosovo statistics from Yugoslav official statistics.

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.osa.ceu.hu/files/holdings/300/8/3/text/79-4-148.shtml


RADIO FREE EUROPE Research

This material was prepared for the use of the
editors and policy staff of Radio Free Europe.

COMMUNIST AREA

0996

YUGOSLAVIA:
Internal Affairs
Nationalities

5 May 1971

SHARP GROWTH IN KOSOVO POPULATION

Summary: The 1971 Yugoslav census has
revealed that during the past decade
Kosovo has set a national record in
population growth. On 1 April 1971
the province's total population was
1,244,755 -- a 29.1 per cent rise in
comparison to the 1961 census. Of
this total, 73.8 per cent of the
population is of Albanian origin
compared to 67.1 per cent in 1961.
This paper reviews the results of the
1971 census along with the controversy
which has arisen around the question of
national "majority."

According to the Yugoslav census figures of 1 April
1971, the total population of the Kosovo province is
1,244,755. This total represents a 29.1 per cent growth
over the previous census of 1961. The structural
composition shows that the Albanians comprise 73.8 per cent
of the Kosovar population in comparison to 67.1 per cent
in 1961. [1]

[page 2]

The census results for Kosovo have a special
socio-political meaning because of the province's unique, position
within the Yugoslav Federation. The Federation's largest
nationality group, the Albanians, reside in Kosovo -- an
area whose past history is studded with controversial
issues. The province is extremely underdeveloped and
serious efforts are being made to solve this problem.
At the same time, Kosovo plays an important bridge-building
role in relation to Albania and steps continuously are being
taken to expand its autonomous rights. Consequently, any
major developments in the province, e.g., changes in its
demographic structure, take on special significance.

The province's population growth during the 1960s set
a record for Yugoslavia. Kosovo's 29.1 per cent population
increase during the past decade contrasts with the 6 per
cent for Vojvodina, 8 per cent for Slovenia, 9 per cent
for Serbia, 12 per cent for Montenegro and 17 per cent for
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Kosovo's population growth for the same
period is almost three times higher than the Yugoslav
average of 11 per cent. Changes in the nationality
structure for the period 1961 to 1971 are quite revealing as
the following chart shows:

Nationality Group 1971 Census[2] 1961 Census

Albanian 918,864 (or) 73.8 (%) 346,681 (or) 67.1 (%)
Serb 228,541 18.4 227,016 23.5
Montenegrin 31,528 2.5 37,838 3.9
Turk 12,151 1.0 25,764 3.7
Gypsy 14,711 1.2 --- ---
Other 38,960 3.1 26,989 2.8

The marked structural shifts in percentage figures are
largely a result of the sharp increase in the crude birth
rate and a decrease in the death rate among the Albanian
nationality group. The changes also confirm reports
that citizens of Serbian and Montenegrin origin have migrated
from the province in recent years for different socio-economic
reasons. Another important factor in these changes is

[page 3]

the fairness with which the census was conducted
this time in contract to the irregularities experienced
during the 1961 census. In the past many Albanians, for
unspecified reasons, preferred not to reveal their true
nationality. This was especially the case with those
claiming Turkish nationality or with families of mixed
nationalities -- such as the Albanian-Serbs or
Albanian-Montenegrins. Also of interest is this year's self
assertion among the gypsy nationality group. During the
pre-census period, a press campaign was carried out calling
upon the Kosovar populace to not be "afraid" and "misled"
by "hostile" elements but to claim their proper nationality,
The Rilindja article states the following in describing
the "democratic" nature of the latest census:

The census officials of communal commissions have
particularly stressed the maximum fundamental
constitutional rights of the citizens to declare
freely their nationality. As a result the 1971
census, in contrast to the previous one, was
not only received with unusually great interest
but was highly welcomed by the citizens.

Anonymous said...

...consequently the popultion of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo increased 74% in 20 years. This figure isn't strictly comparable to statistics for countries because, as is typical of capitalist society, the ethnic structure merges into the class structure. However the population in Uganda, for instance, grew by 92% over the same 20 years.

74% population growth in 20 years does seem significant (you really need to regress by GDP), but I'm yet to see any convincing evidence that this was ordered by someone or other. Nor do I consider population growth morally equivalent to an act of aggression.

Also, how Enver Hoxha, Marxist-Leninism and Islamic Fundamentalism fit into this shaggy dog story I do not know.

In other Parodycentrum fact check news Bosnia pre the Ottoman invasion was a seperate yugoslav kingdom, the majority of its population wasn't, in any meaningful sense, composed of Serbs and Croats.

Anonymous said...

In other Parodycentrum fact check news Bosnia pre the Ottoman invasion was a seperate yugoslav kingdom, the majority of its population wasn't, in any meaningful sense, composed of Serbs and Croats.

The CIA World Fact Book points out that Bosnian Muslim is an imprecise synonym for Bosniak, because in Bosnia, Bosniaks make up 48% of the population, and 40% of the population is Muslim.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosniaks

And ''Bosnjaci'' share the same
Ilyrian ancestry with Serbs and Croats, that is all classified under Southern Slavs, it's very hard to set clear boundaries in ancestry. But there is
one thing the Bosniaks are not: MUSLIMS.
This ''imprecise term'',as the CIA terms it, is actually a politicized fabrication of the Tito regime.

74% population growth in 20 years does seem significant (you really need to regress by GDP), but I'm yet to see any convincing evidence that this was ordered by someone or other.

It wasn't only ORDERED of course, though there were also direct orders. Evidence of this is unavailable on the internet, or if it's available, it may be coming from Skinheads and ultranationalists, so I am not going to quote it. Breeding in huge numbers is a part of this certain backward patriarchal culture, also found in the neighbouring republic of Montenegro, where polygamy and wimmin-bashing reigns supreme. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the planners of the terrorist policies, from NATO down to the Albanian terrorists themselves, were very well aware of the biopolitical power contained in sheer numbers, that would eventually lead to an ethnically pure Kosovo. This is why they stimulated massive uncontrolled immigration from Albania on top of doing nothing to influence the backward patriarchal culture. In addition Tito's Communists sealed off the province, making it impossible for the population to mix with other nations, while actively stimulating the genocide against Kosovar Serbs (which was then inverted into the genocide of Albanians, that never took place, or there wouldn't be so many Albanians around don't you think).

Anonymous said...

here are some interesting articles from the late 80s/ early 90s about Yugoslavia

Anonymous said...

"it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the planners of the terrorist policies, from NATO down to the Albanian terrorists themselves, were very well aware of the biopolitical power contained in sheer numbers, that would eventually lead to an ethnically pure Kosovo."

of course I think this is bullshit, so, why tell me? Skinheads are waiting for your call.

Anonymous said...

here are some interesting articles from the late 80s/ early 90s about Yugoslavia

What´s interesting about these articles? They repeat the same Marxist obfuscations that do not allow the reader to see how Titoism bred nationalism(s). Which is logical, because the texts are Marxist.

Besides it would upset the fragile sensibilities of your British Marxist friends, wouldn´t it, if it turned out that Yugoslav Communism was neither sweet nor good.

I don´t care whether you believe me or not, but then don´t go around pretending that you´re my friend, go get drunk on your Marxist selfimportance with Colonel Sherbert. She just published another masterpiece of totally empty rhetorics.

And, this is what I was able to find on the net that doesn´t seem to come from any ultranationalist/Skinhead/NeoNazi resources. I know this guy from before, he is a political analyst not affiliated with any rightwing party.

http://www.guskova.ru/misc/balcan/AT/eng/03

The rapid population growth of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija, and the simultaneous fall of the Serbian and Montenegrin population in the province, was accompanied by a proportional level of indoctrination concerning ideology, culture and economy. The ethnic Albanians were being linked to all that came from Albania in a blatant and undeniable way. Furthermore, nobody — political leaders, intelligentsia and even simple ethnic Albanians — made any effort to hide it. Even textbooks were obtained from Tirana, and on the first page of the book of ABC's for first-graders there was a picture of the Albanian leader Enver Hodxa with the motto “Our motherland is Albania”. This is what Enver Hodxa used to launch a fierce attack against Yugoslavia in his speech at the Albanian Worker's Party congress in 1981 — the fact that the Albanians are living “divided” in three former Yugoslav federal entities: Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. Hodxa openly asked a change of the status of Kosovo and Metohija and anticipated the existence of a plan for creating a new geopolitical situation in this part of the Balkans.

http://www.guskova.ru/misc/balcan/AT/eng/02

The plan essentially had three phases: in the first one Kosovo and Metohija were to be given the status of republic within the framework of the Yugoslav federation; the second phase was to be used to integrate all territories inhabited by ethnic Albanians in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia in a compact and ethnically defined federal unit within Yugoslavia; it was to leave the Yugoslav federation either with a referendum on independence or with the use of violence, armed rebellion and secession; the third phase was to cover the unification of the secessionist republic and Albania, the mother-country. Obviously, in order to secure the approval of the international community, the broad and coordinated efforts were to be used to influence the international public opinion and political factors and secure their consent and legitimacy for the “democratic decisions and resolutions of the Albanian majority in occupied territories”. In view of this plan mass demonstrations were set up by ethnic Albanian secessionists and — in spite of the efficient government measures to suppress political and nationalistic passions — they had a strong echo among the Albanians in Albania and those living abroad.

Anonymous said...

...I suspect in the population figures I listed a large number of people migrated from Albania to Kosovo between 1971 and 1991.

The purpose of these figures was to disabuse samuel who commented the other day with some theory that Enver Hoxha was an agent of Islamic Fundamentalism via sexpol tactics.

Dejan, the articles I linked to were critical of Tito's Yugoslavia and discussed the politics of nationalism. I don't care to have anything to do with you for various reasons that ought to be obvious. I do think though that since you're looking for work in a field where your biography will be checked you would do well to exercise some caution with regard to the suspect ideas you push. This is a whole different world than university marxism which is considered semi-respectable in bourgeois circles (not M-L though). I assumed the article you linked to that I deleted was intended as a deliberate smear. If this wasn't your intention, god help you.

Colonel Petkovic's pamphlet is quite close to what I'd expect a UK police chief to write about the IRA.

Anonymous said...

...there's a very good discussion of the terrorism analysis industry in Western State Terrorism edited by Alexander George

Anonymous said...

Will you please show me WHERE your articles critisize Tito´s system in satisfactory fashion, making the conclusion that Commmunism bred nationalism. I read them carefully and found such a thought nowhere.

I assumed the article you linked to that I deleted was intended as a deliberate smear. If this wasn't your intention, god help you.

No it wasn´t a smear, why would I want to smear without a provocation, but on the other hand I didn´t see that the author was a Neo-nazi, so in other words it was a mistake. I was rushing to find some kind of a document backing up my views. Anycase his story, neoNazi or not, is also repeated by the Serbian government, and as I told you before, ask any second Serb or Greek on the streets what he thinks and he will endorse THIS story, not the Communist one (by which Communists usually want to wash their hands of the fact that they did absolutely nothing to resolve or stop the issue of Kosovo developing as it did).

In addition since I´m not engaged like you and Colonel Sherbert in high-pitched moralizing, I´m not the one who would automatically dismiss a text just because it was written by a Neo-Nazi. That would indeed be like saying that there´s nothing worthy of interest in Heidegger because he was a Nazi, or that Einstein´s teaching is all crap because Americans used it to throw the N bomb on Hiroshima. (I think you also need to take classes in Structural Marxism at the Parody Center´s People Prole Edukation center.)

Next to this you´ve known since you met me that I am not a Communist, that I accept Marxism only to the extent that it critisizes capitalism, and not as any positive system to be pursued until the proletarian Revolution cometh. On what basis do you expect me to take a Communist view on Kosovo?

Colonel Petkovic's pamphlet is quite close to what I'd expect a UK police chief to write about the IRA.

I don´t see how you can JUST make that anology - how these things can be thought of as equivalent. The islamic culture in Kosovo and the historical context are all very very different. Not from a Marxist perspective, though. In a humanitarian Marxist´s mind, it´s all the same.

I don´t work on any academic scene,I don´t understand the meaning of your remark on work.

Anonymous said...

The purpose of these figures was to disabuse samuel who commented the other day with some theory that Enver Hoxha was an agent of Islamic Fundamentalism via sexpol tactics.

The ´´sexpol tactics´´ were not the main thing, of course. Claiming such a thing would be idiotic, because that would mean every single Albanian family was instructed by their terrorist guru to make children. But the whole ideological framework, supported by Hodza, Albanian Marxists, the iredentists, the terrorists and ultimately also NATO, was a very fascist plan involving an ethnically pure Greater Albania, pursued with fanaticism. Inside that plan, the ideology pretty much relied on an exclusivist view of Albanian culture - which involves strict patriarchal families with lots of children - and which whether you admit it or not is different from the European culture - and that they knew would end up lending political advantage once there weren´t any Serbs in Kosovo. In itself, the Albanian culture doesn´t bother me, or anyone in Serbia: have as many children as you want, what concern is that of mine. But the Kosovar Albanians just don´t want to live with Serbs in any shape or form, and they do see their culture as superior. They do not integrate, for decades. In effect, their culture is plugged into a fascist-nationalist agenda: they see themselves as a chosen islamic nation that will install an islamic stronghold in Europe. With such overwhelming majority that you can hardly speak of a lack of indoctrination among the general populus. Ninety percent doesn´t go to vote for independent Kosovo because they are naive, poor and uneducated, because they don´t know what they´re doing et cetera.

Anonymous said...

"The situation in Kosovo having taken a dramatic turn in the past few months requires some comments:

1) In Yugoslavia, in relation to other regions, Kosovo is not a hot bed of social agitation that is more opaque than the rest. However due to a number of reasons and particular blunders it became an exemplary instant of repression.

For more than four years an uninterrupted wave of strikes, with its peaks an and troughs, shook without distinction all sections and regions of Yugoslavia.

2) Social awakening has taken on some years the character of a profound movement of drawn out, on- going maturation but which up to the present and including the recent riots in Kosovo, has not yet been marked by a rupture with a nationalist stance.

The real strength of communitarian traditions in spite of the exemplary determination which it has shown during the course of these events only underlined, very dramatically the power of national ghettos.

The defeat of the Albanian rioters today is matched by the fact that the first uncompromising social confrontation since the war was castrated, for the time being, by its inability to extend beyond a strictly Albanian riot. The State has been able to pass over in silence the fact that for the first time in history the militia has had to face armed proletarians in the streets protesting against their poverty.

3) This riot in its nationalist aspect is a consequence of the political manoeuvres which the Slovene and Serbian bureaucracies within the federation enjoyed in and over these two republics - a consequence of the ideological confrontation between the different fractions of the federal state.

As a mode of government the "madhouse" is one of the well-springs of Yugoslavian ideology. The ~e consists in periodically putting into play the internal equilibrium of the different republics and autonomous regions, renegotiating each individual part by raising the spectre of excess imputed to one region by the others while pitting each nationality against the rest. The end result of this process is to regularly re-affirm that only unity around the federal State can ensure an equilibrium of interests.

The constant justification that abets each political destabilisation is clearly the necessity of reactivating a nationalist stance against a social awakening. This was clearly understood when Serbia took the risk of provoking a constitutional crises in Kosovo. In the same vein shortly afterwards Slovenian bureaucrats sympathised with the Albanians; whom they scorned on other occassions, because that allowed them to defuse social tension directed against the Serbs. On the other hand they could float, without getting wet, the risks of a bloody repression regarding irresponsible social attitudes."

emphasis mine, also I've corrected the typo "pining" to "pitting"

Anonymous said...

I never moralise about anything, really. The author you quoted wrote that the KLA came out of five M-L terrorist groups. He neglected to describe them as five projects of Hoxha's police. I don't actually believe this author, and I don't think this is what you mean to be common knowledge. Since I don't advocate M-L it wouldn't harm my supposedly "fragile" worldview anyway, since there's many examples of M-L terrorist groups bringing about disastrous results.

I'm certainly not a Communist as you perhaps think, I've merely lived through twenty odd years of marxist history.

Anonymous said...

for the first time in history the militia has had to face armed proletarians in the streets protesting against their poverty.

the Albanian protests were not against their poverty, unless you invent the straw people ´´helpless wimmin and childrin´´ which your average Commie would indeed do in this case, in this way annulling the islamic-fundamentalist and Albanian nationalist content of the protests, as well as their separatist agenda, which as I told you existed long before the current skirmishes. Not to mention defending the Leninists and Trotskyists in England, their culpability namely in the success of NATO´s campaign. The thesis that everything can be pinned down to the peoples exploitation and underprivilegedness (for the greater part self-chosen by the way, because Serbia paid dearly into the development funds) and poverty (when Kosovar Albanians actually lived much more handsomely than they ever could in Albania) is entirely simplistic.

The real problem is that SERBIAN COMMUNISTS never took a stand against Tito. They followed orders because he gave them privileges. Then when things got tough, they left the country. It is not for no reason that our state emblem contains the phrase ONLY UNITY SAVES THE SERB.

by raising the spectre of excess imputed to one region by the others while pitting each nationality against the rest.

this is that famous ¨neutral´´ theory justifiably repudiated by Zizek when he said that the West creates this myth of mutually envious and warring wild Balkan tribes (that in turn need Western enlightenment, democracy and dialog). According to that theory, everybody is equally to blame and the solution is to hold hands together, as on your average UN poster advertising global sympathy. It´s part of that multi-culti politically correct discourse. But this is the crucial Commie deception: the Yugoslav state was created in such a way as to inspire nationalism and separatism AGAINST the Serbian-led federal state. This because Serbia, and not the other republics, is the only Russian ally in Yugoslavia. Not because the world hates the Serbs in any racial way. The greatest majority of the Western world has no fucking clue who the Serbs are. Rather, it´s because Serbs stand in the way of neoliberalism´s triumphant march. Slovenes, Albanians, Croats, Bosnjaks and Macedonian´s don´t. They cooperate, and they have never suffered the same repercussions that the Serbs did. There is a REASON for that.

Anonymous said...

"an ethnically pure Greater Albania"

this won't happen. The only unification I can recall is Germany in 1990 which was surely intended as a prop against the USSR and involved a country with dominant international capital. Kosovo is already a NATO statelet and will remain so as long as NATO remains dominant

Anonymous said...

In other words, had the Serbian Communists taken a responsible stand in the matter, the constitution of Yugoslavia would have been revised so as to eliminate the status of the ´´autonomous province´´ that Kosovo enjoyed under the Commie constitution, to take more effective measures against the illegal immigration and drug trafficking, and to make a concentrated effort to integrate the Kosovar Albanians (for example by making it obligatory to learn Serbian if you want to migrate to Kosovo - a requirement EVERY COUNTRY in the world follows), as well as to open numerous possibilities for dialog in order to resolve the inter-religious conflicts of the sort that now plague most Western European countries. In addition the Serbian Communists would have gotten Slovenia to actually PAY into the development funds for Kosovo, preventing the development of structural poverty in the province.

Instead, Serbian Communists drank wine and ate pork chops supplied by the Party, dumped money into their Swiss bank accounts and FARTED, mostly. This is the point where my grandfather left them and cussed them for the rest of his life.

Anonymous said...

this won't happen.

Now you see this is the problem: I know that NATO doesn´t give a flying fuck about the Albanians´ nationalistic myths, but what NATO underestimates in their infinite arrogance is that they can hardly control the situation on the ground. This because NATO really thinks it´s the Left hand of God, as I believe Chomsky said once. Things could easily get out of hand, among other reasons, because there are Albanian minorities, equally extremized, in other areas of Serbia, such as the neighbouring Sandzak. Once Kosovo gets the greenlight for independence, have no doubt about it, there will be agitation for Greater Albania, and NATO, famously impotent to handle the situations on the ground (remember Rwanda) won´t be able to stop blood-spilling and terrorism. And this is just one problem. The bigger one is the incentive that will be given to separatist movements all over the world. And if this sounds like paranoia or conspiracism, think of the fact that in both world wars, Yugoslavia served as the lakmus paper indicating all the conflicts of the entire globe. It is absolutely no accident that the wars started or had their crucial turning points on our territory. It is a neuralgic spot, a vortex, a black hole, as Kusturica once said, the belly button of the world.

Anonymous said...

I'm certainly not a Communist as you perhaps think, I've merely lived through twenty odd years of marxist history.

Yeah well I´ve been wondering who you actually are for a long time, you change identities faster than Madonna and are in this sense a PoMo blogger par excellance. If you´re not Commie though why do you hang out with Sherbert etc?

Anonymous said...

"had the Serbian Communists taken a responsible stand in the matter"

well, presumably they couldn't because the balance of power favoured "liberal wing" oriented toward capital in Slovenia and Croatia

Anonymous said...

Comrade Leninushka's SWP has neglible political weight, and they will never be allowed to govern. They were though, the only group that agitated effectively against the war, and on a completely commonsense basis. To this extent I'm in favour of their organisation. It's obvious that only a mass movement can change anything.

Also, I think the M-L groups provide good analysis, Wsws for instance, as well as Leninushka's blog.

Anonymous said...

"the Albanian protests were not against their poverty"

GDP in Kosovo now is something like $5 a day, in the 60s it was close to $2

Anonymous said...

GDP in Kosovo now is something like $5 a day, in the 60s it was close to $2

Poverty plays an important part in the generation of extremisms of all sorts, but is not the only reason. Islamic fundamentalism is another big one. The figures you mention are official, they do not take the black market in account, or Serbian incentives for help (such as free schooling, development programs, employment programs et cetera). In my own comments boxes I made a parallel with the situation in Holland that Turkish families refuse to learn Dutch for twenty years, despite having a lot of support from the state once they get their Dutch nationality. I have no idea how we can overcome it. Neither side in the conflict is especially tolerant. But that doesn´t at all imply that Islam is impeccable, and that it may not be critiqued - Lawrence of Sherbertia´s bittersweet and idiotic position that started this war.


well, presumably they couldn't because the balance of power favoured "liberal wing" oriented toward capital in Slovenia and Croatia

yes well none of it would have happened if there was a strong and rich federal market, which only Serbs supported. On the other hand, the favoring of Slovenian and Croatian capital was no excuse for Serb Communists to act as they did. Serbia was rich enough throughout the processes to deal with this problem. I don´t usually subscribe to blaming others for my own insufficiencies.

Anonymous said...

Lenininini and K-punk, who I assume are aligned on the same socialist line, seem to support this ´´neither nor´´ clause which is perfectly logical as a response to the Republican ´´either or´´ clause and for me the only sane and logical socialist position you can hold in this insane historical moment. In the case of Serbia, neither to support Serbian nationalists nor corrupt governmental socialists, but a third entity - Yugoslav federalism. I mostly agree with this line of thinking. But the problem appears when they try to formulate this third entity - this is where they face the emptiness of the ´´proletarian struggle´´. This could mean that the world is still looking for a response, or that the response will never come and capitalism will just be reformed. Or we will all just go to Hell, a war will be necessary to get us to come to our senses, and it will possibly also produce the Third Element. Noone has an answer to these questions, but I am quite certain that there is no sense in resurrecting the specter of Marx, Stalin, Lenin, Wilhelm Reich or Deleuze for that matter in order to REPEAT mindlessly the mistakes they made in the past. And I think Sherbert´s pastoral Communism - the return to the human beink, Nature and Tito´s utopia - amounts to.

Anonymous said...

re the possibility of Serbian hegemony within Yugoslavia, Ante Ciliga writes regarding the 1929 coup of General Jivkovic:

"Given the relative national forces, this struggle demanded a disproportionate effort on the part the Serb masses, which yet drew no noticeable benefit from Belgrade's policy of hegemony; hence they greeted the dictatorship with coldness and reserve. From the beginning, therefore, it was doomed to be suspended in a vacuum; in order to ensure its existence, it had to have recourse to a terror as cruel as it was senseless."

Anonymous said...

...it's hard to draw conclusions from Albanian Terrorists because it strings together anecdotes and irrelevant details so much - in journalism this is frequently done in place of presenting a structured argument because none can be made. Also it evades the the issue of US involvement in the KLA, which came only one year after the pamphlet's publication. These diplomats and PR firms are mentioned as if the US administration had no interest at all in these events.

Anonymous said...

Rabbit I just talked to my mom on the phone and mentioned this conversation, to which she told me that you should be aware of the fact that Kosovar Albanians still to a large extent live in a TRIBAL i.e. CLAN TYPE organisation. It is a custom of most tribes, especially if they´re looking for a home, to rely on their numbers in the fight for territory. This does not necessarily imply that tribal life must under all circumstances be seen as inferior, but the tribe in queston is especially aggressive and vicious in their refusal to adopt the customs of the neighbouring Serbian tribe, in fact to the extent that even under a democratic Serbian leader (the current Serbian government is democratic, namely) they would go for the independence option.

Whenever you wish to make a judgment on the possibility of Serbian hegemony, you should consider two things:

(a) none of the republics who joined Yugoslav federations - all of them led and fought for by primarily Serbs and Serbian armies - were ever coerced into doing so, but actually ASKED to be taken in.
This one is easily testable through most historic records, including the Rebecca West you mentioned.
Symptomatically, whenever the Empire would regroup itself and come up with new threats, these same republics started whining against Serbian oppression and wanted to be readmitted into their imperial serfdom. This is slightly typical masochism for socalled slave mentality, which these republics all have in common.

(b) at the moment of Yugoslav divorce, Slovenia was the richest republic in the country, with Croatia following suit much more closely than Serbia. Serbia was burdened with the maintenance of two autonomous provinces, of which Kosovo ate up A LOT of the budget. Slovenia ignored its federal obligations to pay into this development fund. This was one of the big questions at the round table in talks with Milosevic. You will never hear this question being asked when one tries to asses to what extent Milosevic was bullying the other republics. Or to what extent their complaints were just another instance of slave morality: now that Communism is losing in Russia, and the West has more money, we should leave the Serbs and follow the money.

Your economistic interpretation is perfectly applicable to this case, for the economic interest was far more important than any political and or religious themes.

Anonymous said...

"Jelko Kacin predicts the creation of two new states during Slovenia’s EU presidency: Kosovo and Palestine.

The European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia said that both of these new states would be formed during the first six months of 2008, when Slovenia heads the EU.

“A state of neurosis currently reigns in Serbia, but none of the politicians have the courage to say that an internationally recognized state will be formed in the Balkans,” Kacin said.

He said that the “neurotic state” was also tied to the pre-election situation in Serbia and the messages from the international community that there would be no progress on the road to EU integration for Serbia until Hague fugitive Ratko Mladić was arrested and extradited.

The rapporteur said that Kosovo independence would occur in the first half of 2008 during Slovenia’s EU presidency, adding that “turbulent times” lay ahead.

He said that recognition of Kosovo’s independence was vital for stability in the Balkans’ and the region’s progress towards European integration.

“Now all those countries are victims of Serbia’s fate and Kosovo’s unresolved status,” Kacin said."

here

Anonymous said...

...and because the discussion of money is elided from Western discourse about the problem, a perception is created in the public that the conflict was a kind of a political theater, with Milosevic´s Commie authoritarianism hampering all these majestic Western processes like global democracy, global gay rights and global feminism and whatever the burgeoisie pisses into each other´s mouths these days. Nobody and I mean nobody that matters mentioned the money, how the actors were unwilling to go bankrupt together with Russia.

Anonymous said...

Indeed, HEIL ZIZEK!

Anonymous said...

...I heard Mr Kacin on BBC radio last week going through the same schtick. He's a member of Dr Zizek's LDS and EU Special Rapporteur for Serbia. I understand you don't hold to materialist ideas, but, if you did, I'd ask what the mechanism was whereby rightwing ideas seem to enjoy popular support in Serbia, rather than, say, non-marxist social democracy etc. Which is the impression I get from negligible research.

Anonymous said...

I'm not going to disagree with your mom, but this was your claim specifically:

"the overpopulation of Kosovo is a result of sixty year long PLANNED POLICIES"

Anonymous said...

I'd ask what the mechanism was whereby rightwing ideas seem to enjoy popular support in Serbia, rather than, say, non-marxist social democracy etc.

But that's the wrong impression. Slobodan Milosevic was no right-winger. The current president is a nationalist, although not of the radical variety, but the government is mixed. I furthermore don't subscribe to the idea that everything rightwing comes from Satan.

Anonymous said...

"the overpopulation of Kosovo is a result of sixty year long PLANNED POLICIES"

look Rabbit don't play these stupid verbal games with me. If breeding is a way to set your tribe on territorial conquest, then if your leader says LET"S CONQUER TERRITORIES of course you're gonna breed.

Anonymous said...

"then if your leader says LET"S CONQUER TERRITORIES"

Hoxha?

Anonymous said...

Hoxha?

No I was not speaking of the Hoxha. Albania did not have a single leader who didn't rally for independence as a national project. I am also talking about the organized alternative schools for Albanians.

Anonymous said...

Given your relatively satisfactory performance on this thread, I decided to reinstate your blawg on my roll, but it will be THE RABBIT CLIT until you get a full grasp of Yugoslav history.

Anonymous said...

The birth rate in Kosovo shows a declining trend. The population has grown because the mortality rate has fallen more quickly. Traditional highland societies often have many children in order to mitigate against a high mortality rate. See Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations chapter VIII.

Anonymous said...

Traditional highland societies often have many children in order to mitigate against a high mortality rate.

This is 1) not a traditional highland society, but a TRIBAL society with strong influences of (several strands of) islamic fundamentalism significant and 2) what does this have to do with overpopulation, Kosovo is quite evidently overpopulated. The population physically pushed out whatever stood in the way of its expansion. But 3) what the Hell are you defending? NATO's or the European ''multicultural state''? The proletarian international? The panEuropean islamic state? Neither of these options is self-explanatory, stable, reliable or even positive! And why a foreign multicultural state instead of a Serbian multicultural federation, if not to assist the spread of Western-owned Capital?

Anonymous said...

what are the political implications of objectivity? - that's a good question?

Anonymous said...

second ? should be .