Written by: Ag Apolloni
Eight years ago, the academics of ASHAK published the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Kosovo. They made so many mistakes that the work was even considered anti-national (because Albanian villages were registered as Serbian villages). I know that many Kosovar professors and intellectuals reacted, including me, who suggested that a different method for encyclopedic registrations be followed, in order to save money for more useful work. My suggestion was: such works should not be put into print immediately, but left on an online platform, where everyone can provide comments, which a special commission takes into account, improves the information and, in the end, puts the book into print. Encyclopedias and total monographs (that want to cover a country) should not be published as in the time of the encyclopedist Denis Diderot. Times have changed, thankfully we can create an online platform and we can discuss a major state or national project.
After that scandal from an academic staff, now another scandal from an activist has broken out. What strikes me about the second scandal is that it is being used politically, instead of being treated professionally. Even though the book seems to have serious problems (and, as far as I remember, these problems were highlighted in the culture supplement of the newspaper “Koha ditore” by a UP teacher a year ago, when he described this monograph as a ‘massacre’: From one massacre to another).
Some books are noticeable as not serious, even without opening the book at all. How? A monograph on massacres, as a rule, does not bear the author's name on the cover, but, as the case may be, there may be a compiler's name, after or below which the editor is written, because it is neither an authorial scientific study nor a novel. But these are such elementary problems that they are not worth discussing.
However, it is worth discussing the chain of errors (faults):
1. First mistake: A monograph is published, in which errors are identified a few days later and, instead of being withdrawn from bookstores, revised, supplemented and reprinted, it continues to be promoted and exhibited not only in Kosovo or Europe, but also in America. This is the arrogance of activists, who do not ask for professional comments. It is a mistake to promote a mistake.
2. Second mistake: Based on that monograph, an exhibition (with those errors) is organized in the square, for no particular reason. It is a mistake to expose the error.
3. Third mistake: The organizer does not take responsibility for the mistake, blaming the Serbian source (which he misinterpreted) and the Kosovar state (accusing him of not having made accurate records to date and thus letting him make a mistake). It is a mistake not to feel responsible for the mistake.
4. Fourth mistake: the Kosovo Assembly says they sponsored the exhibition, without verifying the project. This means that tomorrow someone else can organize an exhibition where Serbs are victims and Albanians are murderers, and the Assembly finances it. It is a mistake to finance a mistake.
5. Fifth mistake: just like the “author” (organizer), the Assembly also evades responsibility, saying that they were not aware of the content. It is a mistake to evade responsibility.
6. Mistake number six: Supporters of the ruling party mobilized to defend the organizer, implying that the government was behind the exhibition. Well, it's a mistake to defend a mistake.
7. Seventh mistake: Critics of the ruling party, especially those known as the 'war wing', mobilized to attack the organizer, becoming guardians of science, even though they have no connection to science, and have never reacted to any "historical" book written by the fingers of that war wing, not even when the authors themselves have admitted the 'stylistic' exaggerations. Now it is a mistake to react just to please your party.
And those who are insulting Nataša Kandić, I advise them to stop and think, because she and Sonja Biserko, although with neutral research (as professional work requires), have done more for Kosovo than many Albanians; they are people of high moral integrity.
I want to believe that the “author” (editor)/organizer of this monograph has compiled it with love for the truth and that the statistical errors (which are equivalent to the ‘stylistic’ errors of those others) were made unintentionally. There seem to be more methodological errors (inability to verify the facts) and strategic errors (he has stubbornly ignored the sources that could have avoided his errors). But, as can be seen, love is not enough, a little professional knowledge is also needed. If we allude to the title of a well-known Albanian novel (“One Love and Seven Guilts”, 2003), ‘one love’ does not justify the ‘seven sins’ of him and the others I mentioned above.
Sadly, in Kosovo, weak books (encyclopedias and monographs) are also written by academics, not activists.
t7 live
