Periodial Editor: Should diaspora vote in Kosovo

The tight outcome of the runoff in Pristina has prompted conditional votes and those from the diaspora to have the crucial word. Knowing that the votes from the diaspora will be majority enough for Shpend Ahmeti of Vetevendosje that makes him sure that Arba Abrashi's supporters have recently expressed disappointment over this.

In principle, that may seem right. People living in different Western countries don't share the same fate as us, the people here. Especially when it comes to local-level problems.

But things are more complicated than that. The Kosovo diaspora, or the vast majority of it, is unidentifiable that there have remained non-ac-integrate with the countries from which they came. Also, it is inevitable through ASS statistics that a large part of them come to Kosovo at least once a year. And their contribution to our economy is enormous.

The severe poverty in Kosovo has been softened following by family members abroad. Their continued arrival, and their contribution to poor family economies, has led the diaspora to know the overall economic-Social situation we were in and out of. According to the Kosovo Statistics Agency, 63.4% of Kosovo immigration people had visited Kosovo three to four times within a year. This number speaks out clearly of their right to vote on the composition of Kosovo institutions.

Another statistic must be taken into account is the large number of people who fled our country in the postwar years. According to the same agency, 52.1% of our exile has left Kosovo in the post-war years [by 2013], while 47.9% in all years and decades of pre-war. It is incomprehensible to think that these people, whose numbers are large, have completely severed ties with their homeland in such a short period. In addition, we have to argue what we put higher than to explain Periscop's attitude: since most people who leave Kosovo did so because of the serious economic situation, it can be said that they are part of the poorest classes of developed countries, and thus are unintegrate in respective societies.

The diaspora must not only vote but also be encouraged to become more involved in our affairs. Kosovo has a special ministry for the diaspora. Furthermore, the Kosovo National football site serves as a very good illustration of the diaspora's contribution to our country. More than half of national players belong to this category. Of course, the best diaspora players, like artists and scientists, choose to represent the nations in which they have developed, but that is no reason to get rid of all those left out, or that have a weaker level of performance [in sport, culture, politics, and elsewhere]. The politicians of important entrepreneurship from the diaspora have no interest in dealing with Kosovo, and their contribution and direct it completely in the countries they live in. But neither is this the reason to prevent others, less important and less successful, from getting involved in our affairs and if they want to vote.

Kosovo is not a loving place for Kosovars. And this was also witnessed by the great influx of people who rushed to Hungary to penetrate western lands. Of course, there is a lot of hypocrisy in a considerable portion of the diaspora. Kosovo needs changes starting from within. Kosovo needs entrepreneurs and politicians working in Kosovo. It is easier and more superficial to commit to Kosovo, simply as a vote, or on social networks being hundreds or thousands of miles away from it. And it is much harder to love Kosovo the way it is, and to do more for it, being fully present in its destiny. Despite all of this, the diaspora contribution, not only the financial one but also the one that comes just through the keyboard, is constructive.

Kosovo has serious problems almost everywhere. And it's the last, not just in sports and education, which proved to be in almost every other kind of culture. Thus, our association with developed Western societies can and should be cultivated even through the unintelligents of the diaspora, or parts of us in the most insignificant societies of Western societies.