Nita and I had a long history together. We had lived together, we were friends for a long time and we shared similar world views.
We would often find ourselves defending each other when we argued about change, reform and proper governance with our friends in Prishtina. Even more often, we would be accused of being too idealistic and having lost touch with the reality in Kosovo.The hot summer of 2007 found us fresh out of university, unemployed and looking for something interesting- but not too time consuming- to do. That is when we met Behar. Behar had won a US$10,000 Peace Fellowship by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Foundation. He had established an initiative to promote dialogue, but had not worked out the details. Like the two of us, he believed he could change the world and it was his duty to do so. But, since US$10,000 was not enough to change the world, we had to settle for less.
Soon, we realized, we had a killer team: the BIG idea person who was not quite in touch with finances-Behar, the rational one- Nita and the enthusiast (says Behar on Gtalk now) me, plus Safet, Nita's boyfriend, who kept a clear head for Behar (and Nita).
Between long creative rakia-inspired nights in Tirona and hot brainstorming days in Strip Depot, a little baby was born. "Talk for Tomorrow" would stand for dialogue, cooperation and tolerance; it would build a bridge between young people in Serbia and Kosovo and the region. In fact, we wanted big goals through simple means. We just wanted to bring people together and let them talk to each other and get to know each other.
5:5:5
There would be 5 students from Serbia, 5 students from Kosovo living together for 5 days in one flat in Prishtina. They would live together, cook together, learn together and party together. A tight agenda was drafted so that the learning part was ensured. They would meet with officials from the government, active members of the civil society and other interesting personalities. We named it Beyond Differences.
Once the creative phase was over, real life issues started surfacing. All of us had been away from Kosovo for four years, at least, and we did not have many contacts. The event was going to take place in the peak of the holiday season, mid-July: not a very appealing time to be spent in Prishtina. Finding a flat which would be able to accommodate 10 people was another difficulty, plus owners did not want to lease for such a short period. Budget constraints, time constraints, lack of working space. It was all such a mess!!!
But we believed in what we were doing. Through friends or family, we managed to present our project and attract the interest of everyone we wanted to be a part of our project. From one meeting to another, we got more inspired and the scope of our project expanded. Even more so, when we would meet people for the first time and they would be ready to assist us with anything we needed: from facilities to equipment and stationery. We worked long hours in the little corner in Strip Depot in the midst of the heat.
While we were getting ready for the final phase of the project, the idea of having the event done into a documentary came up. A documentary could serve our purpose: it could break borders, it would reach a wider audience and the effect of the project would not be limited to those few days spent in Prishtina. And we were right.
Our little Big Brother show turned into a success. My friend at the University of Nottingham is going to show it to her students in the next term. She might also organize a public viewing at the local cinema. It had over two thousand hits on the internet; all of us received emails from literally all around the world praising our little project.
Looking back, there were many things that could have been done, planned or foreseen better. But in the end, what matters is that each of those ten people, and the four of us, made new friends, learned something about each other and listened to each other. We talked about good music, better movies, amazing concerts and shared our love problems. We keep in touch, we visit each other, and some of us even remember birthdays.
So, when someone calls me idealistic, I smile and nod. I know now that a healthy dose of idealism when matched with enough will is just what's needed for change:
today a small one, but tomorrow maybe a more significant one.
