UNEMPLOYMENT STRETCHES BELOW GLOOMY SKY OF KOSOVO PEOPLE
Before the crack of dawn, mr Ademi, 61, a father of five, rushes up towards the tiny roads of Prishtina suburb, one of the largest Kosovo shanty parts to make it to the corner next to the District Court in Pristina where hundreds of unemployed hope to find a day’s job.
Fazli RREZJA
In four years time he is supposed to be retired because he will be 65, an age when people get retired, but he was not qualified so he had worked just in private sector during his life.He still survives as an unemployed while at the same time supports his family only by working sometimes as laborer or loader.
As he reaches the corner where a dozen of others are lined up, smoking and chatting about their daily problems , he is quiet and keeps looking left and right on the cars passing by wondering whether any of them would stop by and ask for “a favor”. “I am too old for this job, but I must work in order to support my family” he says.
He is only one from the constantly growing contigent of among more than 300.000 (three hundred thousands) unemployed people who live in Kosovo, a country that is considered to be the poorest country in Europe, with the highest rate of employment.
Kosovo, the country which is home to 2 million people is aspiring soon to achieve independence however the contigent of the unemployed that has grown steadily over the two-three decades risks to strangle the aspiration even before it has been realized.
Once a centralized economy, dependent on the aid that was puring in from other regions of ex-Yugoslavia, Kosovo has been over the past 8 years, ever since the bitter conflict between Serbs and Albanians has left the country devastated, mainly dependent on the international aid and investments aimed at correcting the wrongs of the past regime.
Looking back, several decades ago, Kosovo's economic problem seems also intractable because of historical and geographic as well as demographic reasons. Kosovo, unlike the once Austrian-ruled Slovenia and Croatia in the north, was for centuries under the rule of an Ottoman empire that cared very little for industrial development. Kosovo was among the most undeveloped of all. Even the unification of Yugoslavia after World War I did little to modernize this part of a region.
In the post-World War II period, setbacks have included, except the birthrate, politically guided investment in prestige projects rather than in a sound economic base, a draining of Kosovo population away from farms to the cities, and overeducation of an unemployable Kosovo brains in the Pristine University that has a short experience tradition.
The root of Kosovo's discontent even at that time was economic, and its plight is but the severest of these less-developed regions. Thus, Kosovo had per capita gross national product of 31 per cent of the Yugoslav average,
In fact, Kosovo's particular problems have not gone unnoticed by the regional fund's administrators who have steadily increased the share going to the province, from 30 per cent of the total in 1966-70 to 42 per cent in 1981-5. But the effort clearly failed, for reasons, some of which are special to Kosovo such as politics and others typical of the whole underdeveloped region. While in nineties, during the regime the people of Kosovo were supported mostly from Diaspora because most of Albanians in all public sectors were thrown out of jobs because of political reasons.
Regarding to some old statistics, dated on 80 ies, the Albanian population in Kosovo was of over 1.2 million and was expanding at the fastest pace in Europe.
The diversion of capital investment funds was included into operating social services for an expanding population, investment into energy and extractive industries, products from which were kept artificially low in price by the federal government, and production of other goods poor in quality and design
The broadest cause of Kosovo's troubles, officials and residents said even twenty years ago, is its pervasive poverty. Living standards here were comparable to those in some poor African states and are less than one-third the level of those in Yugoslavia as a whole. About 124,000 workers or more than 35 percent of the work force were unemployed regarding to statistics of beginning of the eighties.
The provincial economy authorities for a long time were wrong in policy. They were afraid of investing in agriculture and the private sector. They tried to put peasants from the countryside straight into modern factories and it proved to be wrong step.
During that period the money was pouring from all over and Kosovars invested in bricks and cement and this situation is still the same at present as they continue only to invest in the same manner and are focused on small enteprises that largely employ tighly knit families
From 1998 until the summer of 1999, Kosovo was the scene of armed conflict and ethnic cleansing. Thousands of the region's Kosovar Albanian inhabitants were killed and nearly a million were driven from their homes. Serb forces and administration left behind an economy on ruins and more than 500 enterprises mostly in poor conditions.
The destruction caused by the war in Kosovo has ravaged also agricultural sector already crippled by a decade of repressive policies and neglect by the central government in Belgrade. State-run enterprises had fallen into decline, cooperatives had collapsed and irrigation schemes had become useless as a result of poor maintenance. Kosovo had become increasingly dependent on imported agricultural commodities.
After the war, the jobs offered to people were those in the foreign organizations, bars, restaurants, petrol stations and building houses. The infrastructure is better than it was - but far from being that of modern European standards.
The privatization process that began then in Kosovo in 2002 was additionally delayed with quarrels between Belgrade and KPA over the competences and the fund .
In spite of fragile economy, infrastructure damage, poor economic policies, broken external trade and a long-standing lack of investments that were inherited during a long process under Yugoslavia unity and recently after war, the privatization process that is undergoing now continues to make the situation of employment worse.
The view of more than twenty years ago has not changed since then, people’ walk the main street of Pristina - a stretch of grandiose modern buildings that separates near-slums on suburb side - offering to shine the shoes of passers-by who could hardly afford such luxury. Begging children accost diners in restaurants
Since then the view has changed only for small nuance, high building rapid reconstruction while the streets are full of beggars and people who search work.
Almost three decades after the situation does not seem better as corners such as the one next to District Court or the other corner next to the cross-section of Rilindja press house, just few hundred yards away are filled every morning more and more with unemployed people who shout to the passers by “Do you need any worker”
The number of inhabitants is unofficially considered to be about two million people but authorities have not yet clear statistics. More than sixty percent are unemployed, and half of this percentage is females, while the average age is 25 to 30, but about 60 percent from the overall rate of unemployment are without qualifications according to recent government statistics
The chain of unemployment process has been boosted by privatization recent process. Lot of jobs existed have been lost. Kosovo Trust Agency has observed about three hundred millions of euros from the social enterprises privatization, but even though there still is a high percentage of unemployment and poverty, this fond is not managed properly said experts from Economy chamber of Kosovo.
Since 2002, Kosovo Trust Agency has privatized more than two hundred social enterprises, from which are created more than four hundred new enterprises and a fond of about three hundred millions, but at the same time have increased the unemployment because the privatized enterprises have reduced work force hugely, to expand their individual benefits
In spite the increasing the number of unemployment through the process of privatization KTA has not yet given to employees 20 percent of their amount from their privatized enterprises.
According to estimation the fond from privatization is 278 million euros, and it is kept at Kosovo Central Bank. There are about 55.6 million euros that belong to the ex workers of privatized enterprises but until now about 45.6 million euros are distributed yet.
KTA authorities seem to not care about this emerging unemployment situation.
They don’t have any clear statistics about people who become unemployment because of privatized enterprises. Thy simply don’t consider the fact that regarding to officials, every year about thirty thousand people become unemployed in Kosovo.
Just in the capital city there are hundreds of people who search temporary jobs as a laborer and loader and thousand who search other jobs. The loaders have a certain places where they expose their unemployment that has become the bitter side of Kosovo.
In the capital city, there are three main places were laborers and loaders search for a temporary job while in the busy streets you can see a massive crowd of young people wandering around the city streets and pubs.
The life situation of Mr. Ademi has become even worst because, he does not receive anymore social assistance of forty euros per month. His family doesn’t belong among forty eight thousands Kosovo families who take social assistance of forty euros per month, the reason is that his youngest daughter is five years old now and he says that regarding to social law he doesn’t have right to receive anymore social aid.
At an age when he should be looking forward to retirement and spending time with his grandchildren instead he finds himself in a hard life pushed hardly in the streets, where he desperately searches for a job. “When I get a job I am paid approximately 10 euros for day. I don’t choose my job, I work as a loader and also in house building” said Ademi with his thick wrinkles in his forehead.
His house conditions are also in a bad situation. His family lives in a one floor old house with an old red bricks and tiles. He complains that he does not have financial means to renovate it.
“When it rains it leaks raindrops inside the room”, says Ademi. He complains that cannot earn enough money even for family needs.
Some of laborers are nervous and coarse, pointing out the government politics and saying they are responsible for these deep unemployment crises.
In their wrinkled faces and sleepy eyes you can see that they are just eager to get a job, to pass another day, and find some survival in their gloomy life sky. The age average of this people that wonder around the laborer places is from 18 to 60.
The number of people who search for job in all sections has increased, according to official reports. During three month period, only in capital city there were evidenced about twenty three thousand people who search for a job, half of this number are females, says the report done by office of employment in Pristine region
The age of people who embrace unwillingly the unemployment that it is considered to be about eighty percent, is a young generation of ages 8 to 39 years old said the director of office for employment for Pristine region, at labor and social welfare Ministry.
One the other hand, there are more pessimistic comments from Kosovo Economic chamber officials, who say that unemployment in Kosovo is considered to be on of the highest in Europe.
The worsening and increasing employment situation can be seen even from the different data of international surveys. There are about fifteen percent of Kosovo people live in extreme famine while about fifty percent of population lives with poor life conditions according to the latest statistics from World Bank.
Kosovo has the highest rate of unemployment in Balkans region. It is also four or five times higher than the average unemployment rate in European countries. At the end of 2006 the number of unemployed individuals in Kosovo totaled more than three hundred thousand and there are around 530 unemployed candidates for one job position.
Many of the laborers in the streets emphasized that are not receiving even the social aid and they support their families only by doing a very hard work as a laborers and loaders.
The efforts that are being made to change the situation through privatization process put obstacles such as the workers losing more jobs, fired and dismissed from a privatized company.
The frustration of unemployment and poverty can even lead some people to commit horrific acts with tragic consequences.
While outside the district court there is a crowd of jobless frustrated people who try to survive in the haze of their welfare searching for a job, inside the court there is another drama going on about the murder as a result losing a job. A person found out that he was not in the list of workers.
In the first floor in the court room of Pristine district court was held the third session for the murder case that took place three years ago. The head of six members poor family, who never before had committed a criminal act, went to his working place found out that his name is not any more in the list of employed people. The next day he took a gun and went again to his working place and then the drama happened. “I didn’t intent to kill him” his voice was trembling while confessing the story in a court session. A father of four children is being given the sack from the job, one day before the murder happened, his name didn’t appear in the worker’s list. The reason was that the factory don’t need for his work anymore.
Out of district court, I hear again the same phrases of eager people looking for job “Do you need any worker”,” have you got anything to load or unload”?
Lawyers say that unemployed people are exposed to the challenges of life difficulties and emphasize it as the main stimulating factor that drives people toward the violence and criminal acts.
Tom Gashi, an advocate, who often passes near by this laborer place believes that unemployment in Kosovo is a trauma that drives people criminal acts. An unemployed person easily can stimulate violence in comparison with a person who has a job and better life conditions, he says.
Kosovo sociologists and psychiatrists say that unemployment has influenced widely Kosovo people who are victim of hard individual and collective war traumas and the most endangered category of people from post trauma stress and depression is the category of unemployed. Whereas well known Kosovo psychiatrist, Mr.Ferid Agani, who is also the head of professional council of mental health in Kosovo says that the work is one of most effective mechanism to get over these crises and improve situation, but the phenomena of unemployment have left out Kosovo people for a faster rehabilitation”.
The employment is one of the most negative elements that stimulate the domestic violence, suicide and different criminal acts point out Kosovo police officials. Trying to justify the lack of statistics regarding to this issue, Police spokeswomen Sabrije Kamberi explained that taking into the consideration that more than 60 percent of Kosovo people are unemployed, it is obvious that of most of people who are involved in criminal acts belong to the category of unemployed people.
The police statistics have a general view, there are no specific statistics of unemployed people as a category that are involved in criminal acts and violence or impose danger in society. But, the lawyer Tom Gashi, says that obviously unemployment increases crime in our society.
The chances of inmates finding work when they leave prison are even more remote because there are no rehabilitation programmes . Many will slide back into a life of crime. “If we consider the number of prisoners, most of them before the punishments were unemployed. And even when they finish prison service they still remain unemployed because in our country does not exist institution that helps prisoners socialize and rehabilitate” says Mr Gashi
Unfortunately, Prishtina is not alone. Many Kosovo cities and villages are experiencing the same dilemma, How to survive in this unemployment ocean! About 80 kilometers far from the capital city, in the south of Kosovo, in the yard of sport centre of Prizren City there was a young man wondering around and playing with his kids. Islam Morina, 34 years old, unemployed, father of four children, lives in a small flat with his family. During the day he takes his kids for a walk near by a sport centre yard that is considered as a park by citizens of this city.
A single room where he lives with his children and wife, Mrs Morina, is in the third floor of an old flat. One small room, a bathroom, an old sofa and one mattress are his temporary heritage while an old fashion TV and an empty fridge are his families “luxury”.
“During the war my house in the village was burnt and cattle killed by Serbian army and police. And soon as the war was over I came to the city to find a better prospective. I found an abandoned small flat in Prizren and I have been living here for seven years”, says Islam while remembering the past bitter years.
He lived in village Drenovc, where he has finished his secondary school and after that he enrolled in economy faculty but he had to leave studies because of very bad financial conditions, his parents passed away and no one to take care of his family. “When I came here I found some temporary work as a labor but I am sick from a spinal cord and doctor sad to me that I must not work” he says while he faces the challenges to feed and educate his children, two of them go to school and while two are still young.
Mr.Morina takes a monthly social aid of 50 euros from social centre but he says I have problems to meet the both ends “This amount it is not enough even for basic things, so, my wife helps us by working sometimes as a cleaner”.
Couple times his wife finds a job as a cleaner in a restaurant. She says because of unemployment and poverty her husband suffered a nervous breakdown, his behavior changed, but now she works sometimes as a cleaner in a restaurant and earn a little amount of money just to get through for some days
Mr. Islam can not go to live in his house in the village because he does not have money to build it. He can not work as a laborer because of sickness. Stuck in a somebody else’s flat with his family he is disappointed with the government policies on employment issue ”Government does not have any project to help people find jobs and social centre aid of forty euro is very low “says Islam
Disappointed about a bitter life and unemployment, Islam is a pessimistic about his future, because he cannot build his house, can’t work as laborer anymore, and to find a job has become one of the hardest things to achieve.
The consequences of unemployment are hard and complex, points out Psychiatrist, Agani. He talks about the consequences wherein in a psychical sphere the results on unemployed people are direct encroachment of self-confidence, emotion and the will, while on social side the consequences manifest inability of an access in social development, isolation, and the complex of inferiority.
Most of experts agree that unemployed people are more likely to commit crimes than those in work. The most cases of Domestic violence, suicides and criminal acts are committed by people who live in very bad conditions, no financial incomes or unemployed and also people with post war traumas. “Kosovo society can be endangered in future from phenomena of unemployed only if this high rate of unemployed people will organize a riot protests in the streets of Kosovo cities”, said police representative Mrs Kamberaj.
Lawyer Gashi, also emphasizes that even though of unemployment there are a lot of people who earn low incomes such as category of people who receive social aids. So, the difference with unemployed people is that this category of people who earn low incomes have place where to spend their time and the other category does not have this possibility.
On the other hand Psychiatrist say that it is the last moment to do something in order to stop this unemployment spiral that leads toward political instability and social riots.
”The only way to get out of this situation is a huge economy development. If it doesn’t happen in a near future, beginning from 2008, I foresee deep psycho-social crises, massive youth emigration out of country and total society stagnation” said Mr Agani.
It is late afternoon, Mr morina takes his kids inside the flat and begins to watch news while pouring a tea into his mug and mine, hardly believes that this hard situation will improve soon, but he hopes for better.
The day is over, night is falling, darkness slowly begins to embrace the gloomy sky of capital city, Prishtina, the laborer and loader places are empty at this time, most of laborers are back at their “empty hearth” only some who found any work might have been “celebrating” now, while a laborer Ademi, is also returning back at home, his bare hands and wrinkled face is all that his five kids could expect today ” It was not his lucky day, he could not find any work today”. He took off his old jacket, rolled up his sleeves washed his hands and asked his wife “what’s there for dinner”?
