Kosovo Insurance Buerau

My German insurance is good internationally, but not in Kosovo. The border guard instructed me to park and pointed me to the buerau. Inside, when I said “hello” to the salesman he asked if I were with the US Army or the UN. When I said “no” he wanted to know why I was there. I told him I am interested in history, that I’d read about the war when it happened, and now I want to see the area for myself, that I’d already been to Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. Ah, he said, the war started in Slovenia, then it went to Croatia and Bosnia, and it ended in Kosovo. He asked where I was from, and I said the US. What state in the US? California. Ah! California is the best state. Why? I ask. They have the ocean. And the second biggest economy. He says he thinks Texas has the biggest. Albania has good relations with the United States, he says. (Understand that it is my impression I am entering the country of Kosovo. The Serb in Novi Sad had talked disparagingly about Kosovo, saying it’s not a real country, they don’t even have their own currency, but use the Euro. He’d said Albanians move in to Kosovo and then they try to say it’s Albania, not Kosovo. At the time I hadn’t known what he was talking about). Slovenia, says the salesman, Slovenia has good relations with the United States. They are in Europe. (Slovenia’s in the EU). Slovenia and Albania like America. Everybody else in the world – he reconsiders – everybody else in Europe hates America. Here in Kosovo we like America, he says. America helped us after the war. I like America, he says. I like California. I like California too, I say, but I don’t like Donald Trump. Donald Trump! he shrugs. In America it seems you have eight years of one and eight years of the other. You had Bush, then Obama. Now you have Donald Trump. The politicians, they are like – he holds his hand palm down over the desk and wiggles his fingers. They are like marionettes. I am impressed that he knows this word. The government, he says, the government is… He stops. He’s trying to think of the right word. We wait. Corrupt? I offer. No! I am apparently way off. We think. Not one person, he says. Oh! I say. A committee! No! he says, but I am on a roll. An organization? Yes! I have scored. The government is an organization. Who the person is does not matter. When they want the hammer: Wham! his fist comes down on the desk, illustrating the hammer, there is war. When they don’t want war, there is no war, everything’s ok. In America, he says, you have it figured out. I am not sure what he means, and look at him questioningly. You pay taxes in America? Yes, I confirm. And what happens if you don’t pay taxes? I look at him questioningly, not sure of the right answer here. You go to jail! he says, smiling a bit patronizingly. This was apparently an obvious one that I missed. What happens if you don’t pay taxes in Kosovo? he asks. I’m thinking he probably is about to offer a contrast, but being a poor student I am caught not knowing the answer to this one either. I look at him questioningly, hoping for a lifeline. Nothing happens! he answers his own question. If you don’t pay taxes in Kosovo nothing happens. The poor get poorer, and the rich get richer. In America you have it figured out. We talk a bit more, but then another man comes in needing insurance and I take my leave.