If Only It Were Really So

“When I was small I used to think that Shiptar was the name for a profession”, admitted a colleague journalist recently.  The mind of a child — as usual — grew into the real meaning of overly refined psycho social attitudes: the perception of Albanians in Belgrade during the fifties (in actual fact, from the thirties on) was precisely that.  The only Albanians Belgrade knew of were pastry shop owners, few goldsmiths, and mostly migrant workers: carpenters, carriers, physical laborers from poor mountain villages from Kosovo — quiet, hardworking, modest people that were honest in an old-fashioned way.  They came to earn a dinar, living just about anywhere and on the edge of hunger, saving every coin in order to help their families get back on their feet.

Today “Siptar” no longer stands for a profession, but for an ethnic insult, such as “Ballist” or “Ustashe”.  The nationally conscious daily Vecernje novosti until recently systematically printed the word “Siptar” with a small letter “s” — except when printing an interview with Ph.D. Mira Markovic: there they were designated as “Albanians” with a capital “A”.  The press agency Tanjug, renowned for its refinement, in the same news item from several days ago makes a distinction between “albanian traders from Pec”, who did not want to close shop as a sign of protest on the occasion of the newest events in Drenica, and Siptars, who demonstrated in Pristina because of the same events.  RTS, developing and encouraging the intention of the Regional Public Prosecutor in Belgrade in initiating suppression of those journals “which have a masochist attitude toward facts” with which “they encourage terrorism” in Kosovo, had set the norm: one does not say “Albanians”, but “terrorist Siptar gangs”.  The word “Siptar” and its offshoots suddenly became a new forbidden word in Serbian.  There were, and still are such words: Raska instead of Sandzak, Srbinje instead of Foca, etc.  Not to mention the fact that Albanians call themselves Shqipetars; that’s not relevant here.  (By the way: Serbs in Kosovo will rarely in normal daily communication use either of those two terms: Albanians are merely referred to as “they”; everyone knows who “they” are.)  That’s how things are in Serbia, where few people actually know anything about Albanians in Kosovo, with very few people being interested in getting to know more.

And how are things in Kosovo, where Serbs and Albanians have been living next to each other for centuries and should know each other by now?  One public opinion poll last summer — the first since 1990 which included both Serbs and Albanians, both as those questioned, as well as those asking the questions — offered some interesting facts on this.  The team of the Forum for Ethnic Relations from Belgrade (Ph.D. Dusan Janjic, Ph.D. Djerdj Repi, M.A. Srecko Mihailovic, Ramus Mavrici and Ph.D. Srdjan Bogosavljevic) conducted (among other things) research on perception of others and perception of oneself among Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo.

How do Serbs and Albanians perceive themselves and each other?  The results are extremely interesting.  Namely, there is a certain symmetry, both in self-perception, and in perception of the other.  Albanians perceive themselves (in order of percentages noted according to each category) as: hospitable, peace-loving, brave, clean, sincere, intelligent, unified and hardworking.  Serbs perceive themselves as: hospitable, brave, peace-loving, clean, intelligent, cheerful, sincere and braggartly.  Both ethnic groups rank hospitality, love of peace and bravery among the top three.  None of the Serbs think that Serbs are: pushy, introvert and that they hate other people, even though 1% think that Serbs are backward, rough and sly, and 4%, that they are lazy and abrupt.  Albanians are somewhat more self-critical: up to 1% from that ethnic group allows that Albanians are introvert and that they hate other people; up to 2% think that Albanians are sly and selfish; up to 4% think that they are braggartly, 5% that they are rough and lazy, while 7% think that they are pushy.  This disturbingly sentimental picture of the lying mirror from the tale (if only they were really so!) changes abruptly when it comes to perceptions of others.
Serbs perceive Albanians (again in order) as: unified, as the ones who hate other people, sly, backward, rough, hardworking, introvert and selfish.  On the other hand, Albanians perceive Serbs as: the ones who hate other people, as sly, pushy, selfish, rough, braggartly and abrupt and unified.

Interesting symmetries can be noted in this: Serbs acknowledge two virtues in Albanians — unity and hard work — while Albanians place unity as the least evident quality where Serbs are concerned.  There are no other words of praise.  Now, it’s a big question whether unity and hard work among Albanians is perceived by Serbs as a virtue or as yet another aspect of the anti-Serb conspiracy, such as the high birth rate, for instance.  On the other hand, that the Albanians consider unity as the least pronounced quality among Serbs appears more as scorn, than as praise.  None of the questioned Albanians acknowledged that Serbs are clean, hospitable, peace-loving or brave; none of the Serbs acknowledged that Albanians are intelligent, cultured and peace-loving.  Admittedly, culture is not highly rated in either group: only 11% of Serbs questioned think that Serbs are cultured, while only 7% of Albanians think this about Albanians; none of the Serbs think that Albanians are cultured, while 4% of Albanians allow that Serbs are cultured.
The choice of categories offered in the poll was very limited, because of reasons concerning methodology.  Had there appeared categories such as “tendency toward genocide” and similar ones found in the common rhetoric of “patriotic” media on both sides, the results would have been even more interesting.  The overall impression left by the analysis of this research is gloomy, but not surprising.  From it, one can clearly see above all complete separation of two territorially mixed ethnic groups which live in conditions of Apartheid, separated linguistically, sociologically, politically and by class.  The sense of threat coming from the Other literally shouts out from this public opinion poll: Albanians feel threatened by Serb authorities, while Serbs feel threatened by the Albanian majority in Kosovo.  Both groups, autistically closed within themselves and their nationalist motives, perceive themselves as epitomes of sheer virtue, denying the Other even the smallest presence of the same virtue.  But, on the other hand, it is evident that both groups share the same value system in which hospitality, bravery and love of peace are the most prized virtues.  That is not so surprising because they have lived for centuries together and have shared the same customs.  Perhaps it would be good for both to begin practicing the virtues which they prize the most: love of peace and hospitality.  Bravery is quite secondary, as long as there is agreement on these two virtues.