While I was waiting in front of the office of a professor with a crowd of other students from the Faculty of Chinese people (the metaphorical expression for the crowded Faculty of Economics), a colleague in front of me kept talking about the sacrifices she made to leave work to come there on time. The waiting continued, as did her conversation that piqued my interest. After a while I decided to participate in the conversation, to forget about the waiting. I asked her how long she had been working and where. She said, I applied two months ago. She was interrupted by another girl who reacted with surprise and asked “and you were accepted just like that?” Of course, the answer was: no, naturally I also had connections. This answer didn’t surprise anyone. But it bothered me a lot.

Somebody has an uncle who works at the Post and Telecom of Kosovo, somebody is helped by a loved one, somebody by a cousin, and there are cases when you have a decent neighbor who knows someone in a ministry. Kosovo, my new state that has begun growing seems to me like a child that remained behind in class and doesn’t know how to connect letters. Eleven years after liberation, more than 40 percent of the population is unemployed and having connections is very “in.” During breaks between lectures I hear various stories about students who are interns in banks and the way the staff there treats them. Usually the results of these programs are very different from their goals. If you don't have connections, you don't have work. If someone gets hired without connections, they are considered lucky. In the worst case if it’s a girl there could presumptions about “did she...?” But these things are not always true. Kosovar youngsters, who make up a large percentage of the country’s population, are good and intelligent students – they’ve proved this at all times and places. Many of them today are in good positions thanks to their own merits and without anyone’s help.

Since we’re on the topic, I want to tell you something funny that actually happened, maybe you’ll laugh a bit. In a cafe in Prishtina, three cute guys overheard a couple of girls at a nearby table speaking in English. This made them think that the girls weren’t Albanian, since Albanians speak Albanian with one another. One of the guys approached the girls:

“Hello, my name is Genci. Where are you guys from?”

“Haha, we are from AUK (American University in Kosovo),” one of them replied.

This shows what a great privilege it is for them to study at an American university and have moderate knowledge of English. Many young people did not have the luck to be children of businessmen and be in a position to pay big sums of money for their education.

I think that everyone who deserves it should experience the profession they want and that they’ve chosen to study. As children, we all dream about what we’ll be when we grow up, so we must find the strength to not allow any unfair rules written in the minds of the ignorant people to ruin this long-cherished dream. If nothing changes, nothing will be fixed.

The article was originally written in Albanian.

Photo credit: Roni Kleiner

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