Publishing for Brussel Deze Week

Christophe Degreef will work for the Brussels weekly Brussel Deze Week starting from March 25th 2008 until mid-june 2008.

Items, ideas, opinions about everything related to this blog and Brussels are welcome on christophe.degreef@gmail.com

Self-fulfilling prophecy?

The past events in Kosovo have made me thinking. I can hear some ghosts from the past coming back.

For the good understanding, without losing objectivity: I fully endorse an independent Kosovo. I did research for the subject, and if there was something I could conclude, it was that Kosovo deserves a chance. A chance for dealing with its own problems, a chance to make something out of their story and the chance to construct itself. But these things take, as you might have read while I was in Kosovo, time. Much time.

There are voices appearing that now every part of the Balkan can claim its independence, and that there are also many Albanians living outside Kosovo. So? Has the world met new Liberation armies the past year that wanted to split a region of? I mean, if you are talking too much about this subject, it will happen one day. Self-fulfilling prophecy. There surely are people left that want to create a newly independent state. And indeed, there are many reasons to be warned, but you have to give the region the time to be itself. And by calling on unsolved minority claims, it is my opinion that the longer you wait and the more you fear that some groups may separate, this will actually happen.

So, just wait and see. There isn't anything burnt now. Except for a frontier post and some embassies...

While writing my article about my journey in Kosovo - which is almost finished - I offer you a photographic journey troughout Kosovo. With some powerful, and for me, very speaking photographs, I want to give you an image of a country that isn't officially a country.