Monday, February 18, 2008

Kosovo Independece

Confession: I'm totally naive. And I realize this is a very nuanced, complicated story. But can someone explain to me why so many people are freaking out over Kosovo independence? From what I've read, it seems like a reasonably good thing.

Help me out here. (Yeah, and while you're at it, explain, briefly, why quantum physics and relativity theory don't mesh up =)

2 comments:

Joe said...

I think the Serbs have some religious tie to the geography of Kosovo. Generally it is just macropolitics of one side liking something because the other side doesn't.

byron smith said...

I think there are some more specific reasons (not least because the whole region has been very unstable and violent over the last couple of decades), but here's a general one: most countries (esp in Europe) have sizable minorities, often concentrated in a particular region. Every time one of these regions declares itself independent, all the countries with similar groups get nervous about their own minorities getting ideas.