Football Diplomacy

Croatia's top football team, Dynamo Zagreb, announced it is organizing a "friendly" match in Pristina against a local Kosovo side, Trepca 89. According to balkaninsight.com, this match is part of Croatia's ongoing bilateral initiatives with Kosovo, with who they have "positive relations." This is, of course, the same Dynamo Zagreb that was involved in the famous 1990 clash with Red Star Belgrade, which was the prelude to the break up of Yugoslavia.

Belgrade hasn't shown much reaction yet, but it will obviously see this as a direct slight by their neighbors. It is not like Serbia and Croatia are exactly best friends, but this is a strong statement by Croatia. Football maybe only a sport in some eyes, but its global popularity and financial value make it much more than that. In this case, where Croatia is further legitimizing the independence of Kosovo by sending its best soccer team in, the game has political significance. Serbia does not recognize the independence of Kosovo, nor is it going to any time soon, and thus seeing its neighbor to the north make such a clear statement of its own, which is in direct opposition to Serbia, is a studs up diplomatic tackle.

What is the motivation for Croatia in all this?, would be the key question. Politically it is clear that Croatia is working hard to get a spot in the EU, and since 22 of the 27 EU states have recognized Kosovo, it is fairly clear that Croatia is following the trend (the same argument can be made for Montenegro and FYROM by the way). Croatia is gaining some bonus points by engaging with Kosovo on the civic level, as well as on the political and the economic. But I think one needs to look deeper than that as this is also a move to shore up internal support for the Nationalistic government currently in power in Croatia.

Croatia has benefited in the past from taking aim, literally and figuratively, at Serbia. Likewise, Serbia has done the same to Croatia and benefited as a result. During the 1990's the Tujman and Milosevic regimes were rather complementary in achieving their designs for the territory of Yugoslavia. Their vicious brands of Nationalism, Leftist in Serbia, and Rightist in Croatia, enabled them to mobilize their people to break free from Yugoslavia and from each other, and to make their claims over Bosnian territory. So while they were in direct conflict with each other, they were actually helping each other at the same time.

While the context is different now, and there is less perceivable benefit for Serbia in this, beyond what Carl Schmitt would argue is giving Serbia a clear enemy against which to define itself, Croatia can marginalize its own Serbian minority from the political and cultural sphere, keep the nationalists happy by poking Serbia in the eye, and please Europeans by being a nice brother to little Kosovo. This also serves the American agenda that, for very unclear reasons, seeks to keep Serbia down. Having regional actors, especially such 'clean' ones as Croatia (an image not at all justified) engaging with Kosovo only blosters the inevitability of its de jur status as a Nation-State.

So football has a clear political agenda here. It serves Croatia in sprucing up its image abroad and in securing support back home; it serves Kosovo because it gives legitimacy to the institutions (such as the Kosovo Football Federation) and the government itself; and it serves the Pro-Kosovo international community in legitimizing its bid for statehood. 

Conversations With My Spam Mail

or Why I Am Insecure

Between messages suggesting I buy a masters degree to strengthen my employability or get some pills to help relax me, my Spam Mail also screamed out at me: If there were only girls around, would you be ready?

Jesus! Would I be? I don't know. I should know though, right? I mean, it could happen that I am in a club one night and there are only women around me. It might happen that on that night I would be the only male who attempts to get into this club! And, my God, I have no idea what I would in that situation. I'm so f'ed!

Seconds later my Spam Mail casually asked Need Pain Killers? Get 'em here! Hmm, I have been feeling a of pain in my knee lately. My back is also often sore after work. Yeah, maybe some pain killers would be a good idea. They might help me relax a bit too, so I can get two birds with one stone... quick, I'll cancel my order for the Happiness medication you offered me last week.

But before I could act, the next question was being asked of me! Hey David, Over 10 million men made their women happy, and you? How did you know of my failings!! Quick order me what ever it is you are offering! I must make her happy.

The message is clear: I am an incomplete human, I am too tense, my Johnson is too small, I'm not employable, I'm unhappy, unable to give women what they want, and my wrist watch is not the latest knock off model. Basically, I'm totally uncool. But I'm glad I know now, I'm so thankful for Spam Mail for telling me this, and for offering me a solution to all my problems

I'm going to be happy at last...

Dreams and Moments as experience.

I fell asleep on the couch watching Schalke 04 Vs Bremen. I dreamt I was playing in the match, but couldn't communicate properly with Rosenberg and didn't have an amazing game. He kept passing into empty space for me to run onto, but I always was going the wrong way.

...

Last night was a strange night. Your fucked if you perform. I don't perform for anyone he said, quiet serious. I defended my position well non the less.

Everything is a performance because we a but an amalgamation of experience and taught behavior. We are a unique combination of this, but we are created out of what came before us.

Never say anything about anyone you wouldn't want to say if they were next to you he said, quiet serious.

Day in Moments

The morning was cold despite the weatherman's promise of warm weather. Well, solidarity with the UK I suppose.

But the day also had a strange start to it. He looked up at me as he raised himself from his seat. I wondered why he was getting up well before our stop. He was only half standing when he looked the other way towards Tito's grave and the trees beyond.

I was in those woods when the NATO bombing started he said, smiling.

Though the sun appeared briefly at the end of the day, it did little to warm things up. Nor, for that matter, did the Chairman (woman) in Office. She was glowing with power and money and her new position. I though she was beautiful, and more honest than I expected.

Personally I think their [Holland's] position is totally wrong she said, smiling.

The day ended as it began. Cold wind and a bus ride. But just before that I walked to the bus stop with him and we talked about the hidden power center of the institution we work for. I also said something about the foreign service. He snapped his head towards me.

The foreign service! You don't want to join the foreign service! he said, laughing.

On Happiness (revisited)

...maybe 'part two' would be a better title...

In rereading the previous post I asked myself what it could mean to "be happiness"? I spent the whole entry arguing that we struggle to define happiness for ourselves, but I couldn't avoid suggesting the answer was simply to find happiness inside... Yet, what is it? Moreover, what does it mean to "be happiness"?

Here is what old Lao Tzu, in chapter 38, suggested:

It is because the most excellent do not strive to excel

That they are of the highest efficacy.

Thus according to Lao Tzu happiness, or anything for that matter, is actually only attainable when we don't forcefully attempt to obtain it. It is our attempt to define it which actually stops us from experiencing it, precisely because we are obsessed with achieving it. Perhaps it is not so different from John Lennon's line: life is what happens to you when you are busy making plans. Things never work out the way you planned, not matter how detailed your spreadsheet is. So to plan for 'it' is counter productive. Happiness is not a destination, not something to plan for, and it is not a future destination, subject to flight schedules or Gucci suits. It only exists in the present moment.

Or maybe it is more like those strange pictures where you can only see the shapes by un-focusing your eyes. When you stare at the page with your 'normal', rational vision/mind, then all you see is a bunch of spots of color. But when you when you let go of the normal method of digesting information, you reveal the actual meaning of the picture.

So the whole approach of trying to find your happiness is wrong, because you are already your own happiness, you just cannot see it because you are trying to hard. Of course, the danger here is that one might understand that we should just stop trying and everything will find its order. This is not totally correct, not in the economic and not in the political or social sense. We still need to be aware of our surroundings, we still have to make decisions and that always involves a degree of coersion. But we can do it in a way that is more balanced, that involves a critical self-awareness, and that doesn't essentialize any maxims or trends or medications.

Thus to be really objectless in one's desires is how one observes the mysteries of all things,

While really having desires is how observes their boundaries. (Chapter one)