Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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<strong>Psychosocial</strong> <strong>Notebook</strong>, Volume 2, October 2001<br />
nism, their account serves as a reminder that adolescents have a particular<br />
perception of the war, in which tragedy and play can live side by side<br />
(Prica and Povrzanovic, 1996; Vrecer, 1996).<br />
Of course, during our conversations with them, Bekim, Florina and their<br />
classmates pointed out that the war had been a bad experience, even for<br />
them. According to Florina:<br />
We are children, so we did everything to feel better, but it was terrible.<br />
We knew that there was war and they could do everything they wanted<br />
with us... we played for several hours... for two or three hours... to save<br />
ourselves and forget, but we didn’t forget...<br />
Their conversations progressed as if this memory of “leisure” produced in<br />
them a sense of guilt and had been balanced by an equivalent memory of<br />
suffering.<br />
A similar process occurred when the narrative of suffering focused on the<br />
present, as happened among Kosovar-Serbs. Like others, Tanja tended to<br />
stress the difficulty of the situation she was experiencing in Pristina and<br />
that of the other Kosovar-Serbs still living in the city. She explained how<br />
she could not move freely, and constantly felt as if she was in danger. She<br />
added that she had quit her job, feeling threatened by Albanians:<br />
I worked in the hospital. I finished medical school and I was a nurse. But<br />
after the war I had to leave, because there were only Albanians working<br />
in the hospital. I was threatened and I felt in danger. Therefore I left.<br />
Later on, however, Tanja found new work as a reporter for a multicultural<br />
radio that was run by Albanians, Serbs and Turks. Since then, she has travelled<br />
a lot and met a lot of new friends:<br />
Tanja: I attended a course for journalists in Italy, in Rome. And I<br />
have travelled also inside Kosovo, I visited many towns<br />
where I hadn’t been before. Before I didn’t travel so much.<br />
Question: It seems to me that you are very happy about your new<br />
profession…<br />
Tanja: Oh, yes, my life is much more exciting now than it was<br />
before!<br />
Paradoxically, the difficult living conditions created for the Kosovar-Serbs<br />
after the war both strongly limited the freedom of Tanja’s daily life, and<br />
opened for her new geographical and experimental horizons. In her<br />
account, however, this positive effect remained almost entirely obscured<br />
by her emphasis on hardship.<br />
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