I confess: I am not surprised that no kind of reply or interaction from the author has arisen from my comments to the last post.

I do believe that freedom, life, death, brotherhood and so on are concepts, and even realities, that exist even in the 21st century, although some people may find it more comfortable to try and ignore them. It seems to me that it hasn't proved to be a viable long-term strategy in the history of this world. Maybe things are different in Jasmina's, but the astrology pun makes me wonder where this piece of writing is trying to be serious and where it is ironic.

The interested reader, the reader who wants to think on his own about how much of Europe is on the verge of a state of emergency with an independent Kosovo here and now, is encouraged to compare the Serbian minister of FA's speech and this post.

Thanks, Jasmina. It is very refreshing to hear that what is happening now is entirely the Serbs' fault, and has nothing to do with the building of the largest US military base since Vietnam, or – in the long run – splitting up Europe into comfortably small morsels.

As for who decides and sets the rules, and the new Albanian leadership's commitment to the well-being of its own people, I can but quote James Rubin, the widely-known Serbian nationalist:

The only carrot I had left to offer Thaçi was a telephone call from Clinton. So I asked Jonathan Prince, a White House aide who had been assigned to Jackson's headquarters, to have us patched through to the president's hotel room in Germany. Then I told Thaçi if he accepted this one change and agreed to sign then and there, he would receive a congratulatory telephone call from the president of the United States. He looked at me for a few seconds, then said: "Yes, yes, let's do it now."

("Countdown to a very personal war", Financial Times, October 6, 2000)