Well, I’ve finally made it to the fabled Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communication.

My apologizes for the hiatus. My ailing organism is on the mend in Berkeley. If you’ve been following my Twitter, you know that I’ve been fighting a second case of Kosovo-perversion-acquired food poisoning for the past week or so. Yes, this republic has been an abusive lover, but what a lover she is. There is [...]

The devout Muslim buys me a beer.

“It’s all about love, man,” Venet, a bartender, says in a thick Albanian accent between sips of Schweppes Bitter Lemon.

Tags: Albanianism, Islam, Pristina

In quick succession, the black-clad monk administered a holy trinity of beverages: water (father), espresso (son) and raki (holy ghost) accompanied by chocolate and poppy seed cookies. A kamilavka hat concealed abundant gray hair that matched his beard whose length reflected what were most likely decades of celibate life in one of Serbian Orthodoxy’s holiest sites, Visoki Dečani monastery, in western Kosovo. This was a hardcore holy man, and his appearance made me think of the eerie footage of Serb paramilitary forces being blessed by a priest before they went on to perpetrate in Srebrenica the worst atrocity of the Bosnian civil war.

Tags: Kosovo, Serbian Orthodox, Visoki Dečani

The hunt for Bosnia’s most-wanted war crimes suspect, Radovan Karadzic, is showing signs of life. Today Bosnian Serb police searched the residences of two former bodyguards less than a week after EU and NATO forces raided the homes of his wife, daughter and aide. However, given that the Bosnian Serb wartime leader has evaded capture [...]

Tags: Bosnia, Bosnian War, Karadzic, Mladic, Republika Srpska

Croatia and Hungary (aka Kolbaszorszag) have joined the growing list of countries that recognize Kosovo’s independence. Naturally, Serbia responded by recalling its ambassadors from both countries.  Hopefully this won’t screw over the few hundred thousand Hungarians living in the Serbian province of  Vojvodina.  At least Magyar State Secretary Marta Fekszi Horvath has their back: 
         We think it is [...]

Tags: Croatia, Hungary, independence, Kosovo, Vojvodina

What is Balkanized Brunch? Prepare to have your mind blown in the days to come.