Finally the "I" word has been mentioned officially for Kosovo. Today Ahtisaari unveiled his plan for Kosovo and after avoiding now, as expected, mentions that Kosovo should be given independence. The hesitancy over the past seven years to name future status of Kosovo this explicitly has been understandable, but also gave unrealistic hope to the Serbian elite that anything else was an option. At this point, unfortunately, it still looks like Serbian authorities will be busier preventing the decision in the Sec. Council and any implementation, rather than making the best of the offer and the extensive minority rights protections offered in the package.

Where's Veljko?




A few years ago when looking to rent a flat in Belgrade, we nearly rented from Veljko Kadijevic daughter-in-law. She shared her outrage with us that he was wrongly maligned as the last minister of defense of Yugoslavia. Apparently the USA agrees.
As Blic reports, he is living in Florida, advising the Pentagon in Iraqi bunkers these days. Wasn't that the same Kadijevic who was raving about the 'foreign factors' destroying Yugoslavia ...

In Sarajevo last week I noticed that Vucko posters in town to remind of the Winter Olympics. The International Olympic Committee has possibly the best description of this little furry wolf with the howl which seems to call for cough-drops:

"Vuchko", the tough and courageous wolf. This mascot helped to change the traditionally frightening and bloodthirsty image of the wolf, which is present in the region. This wolf has both a serious and a cheerful side, but is happy rather than serious. It symbolises the desire of human beings to make friends with animals, to make a wolf into a Vuchko.

Spam of the day:

Von: "UNITED NATIONS AWARD DEPARTMENT." info.message04...Betreff: UNIVERSAL AWARD

Did you know that the UN is handing out awards these days? You can expect my disappointment when it was not for my contributions to global peace.

Motto of the day: Graffiti from Belgrade