In 2005, while in grad school at the University of Toronto, I wrote a paper entitled "Approaching the Final Act: The Drama of Kosovo."  Based on the evidence available at the time, I came up with four possible scenarios for the future of Kosovo.

Scenario #1: Kosovo remains a province of Serbia, but with greater autonomy.  Ethnic Albanian Kosovars are unhappy in the short run, but ultimately (in a generation or so), grumblings of independence could cease if Serbia modified its policies/treatment of the province.  Combine that olive branch along with a continued flow of aid from outside entities (the US and the EU, for example) and strong leadership in Kosovo bent on rebuilding the province, and the possiblility of Serbian happiness (i.e., it retains the territory that is amongst other things its religious heartland) increases.

Scenario #2: Kosovo breaks away from Serbia and becomes part of Albania.  Not a very likely scenario, but on the table at the time nonetheless.

Scenario #3: Kosovo declares its independence and is recognized by the international community (including Serbia and Russia) as its own sovereign nationstate.  I didn't see this scenaro very likely, either.  Let's consider the domino effect, for if Russia recognizes Kosovo's independence, what other territories that are currently "Russian" would jump on Kosovo's bandwagon?  Furthermore, the European Union, as a block, would not come have a concensensus (think about Greece and Cypress).  IF Kosovo was recognized and accepted as its own nationstate, there would need to be some major changes in the dynamics of the world.  Without that, scenario #3 had no chance of being the final outcome.

Scenaro #4: Kosovo declares its independence with the backing of some big dogs in the international community (like the United States), but not all (like Russia).  Political, if not physical struggles ensue, with the stability of the Balkans threated yet again.  This, folks, is the status quo we face today.

Personally, I support the Kosovar independence movement, but it's going to take some serious international maneuvering before everyone's happy.

Links:

• CNN's In-Depth Special on Kosovo
• BBC's Kosovo Fact Files
• EU Politics Today - EU-Kosovo News
• Kosova.org

Since my last post three years ago, I've been pretty busy.  I landed a job -- a great job -- as an associate with a prestigious bipartisan lobbying firm in the state capitol.  Politics is in my blood, and I confess that I loved my job.  I relished the everyday challenge of holding chaos at bay -- the kind of chaos that arises when a small firm represents nearly 40 corporate, non-profit, and local government clients.  Anyone with any experience visiting an law-making body can have a slight inkiling as to the kind of chaos I'm talking about.  Want to know what my job was like?  Imagine Stretch Armstrong trying to juggle two dozen balls.  Yep, that was me.  It was tough at times, but I appreciated the challenge.  Anyway, I'll stop there and let it suffice to say that I spent two years as a decently paid lobbyist with a really cool job, and then I quit.

Yes, I quit.

Why did I quit?  The easy answer is I'm getting married and didn't want to start another legislative session.  I didn't want to have to commute weekly to the capitol, didn't want the extreme levels of stress.  I mean, come on, who would want to work from 5am to after midnight on a daily basis while trying to plan a wedding?  No thanks.  I've spent the last four years travelling at light speed, and preferred not to make my wedding just another ball to be juggled.

So I prayed.  And prayed.  And prayed some more.  Finally I came to the achingly difficult decision to leave the firm and the political realm behind, and find another job (one in my home town this time!).  But the rest of this is for another day.  Cheers to all.  It looks like I'm back to blogging, eh?

So...I went to a "Career Fair" today (TOTAL WASTE OF TIME!) and found several different cellular and insurance companies looking for motivated self-starters to work for commission and table scraps.

Did I mention that it was a total waste of time? 

It's not as if I had delusional ambitions of waltzing in and some recruiter pointing at me and yelling, "OMIGOD!! We simply must hire you for a Governmental Affairs position!"  But I sure expected a little more than what I found.

First, let's talk fashion.

There is a little term that I usually would apply to my grad school dress code.  "Shit-bum."  My clothes were clean---well, most of the time--and not shabby.  But compared to how I dressed for the duration of my undergraduate career, my jeans and tees were not the height of fashion.  Shit-bum does not describe my outfit today.

Today, I dug into the farthest reaches of my closet and found my suits from my lobbying days.  Thank God I had got them all dry-cleaned prior to high-tailing it off to Canada.  I selected one of my more modest suits--a pale gray--and paired it with a pseudo-conservative little black top.  A little search through my jewelry armoire yielded a nice string of pearls that I had received from my folks a few Christmases back, and I matched them with some dainty pearl earrings.  I finished off my outfit with a nice little pair of black Bandalino pumps. 

All in all, I looked like the young professional that I hopefully soon will be.

When I got there, I saw some women going in wearing slinky sundresses.  Granted, it was a sweltering 99 degrees F (37 C), but I was like, "OMIGOD, are they actually here for a job fair?"  How incredibly unprofessional!  To make this even more of a farce, I was dressed more professionally than all but one of the recruiters.  Eeek, scary stuff.

Next, let's talk about about the 'deer in the headlight' face.

"Hi, I'm Beth."  <smile> <handshake> <more smiling> Blah, blah, blah, exchange of pleasantries.  Then they ask, "So, what type of a job are you looking for?"

"Well, (insert particular recruiter's name), I interested in your Governmental Affairs or Public Relations department."

I kid you not!  This is the progression of every last one of their faces:

 Recruiter smiles as he or she listens to the beginning of my sentence.

 His or her face goes blank as he or she figures out what to say.

 His or her eyes grow large (like a deer's in the headlights) as it dawns on them that he or she (a) knows nothing about whether or not the company he or she works for has anything of the sort, and (b) that therefore the 'logical conclusion' is that the company obviously has nothing I'd be interested in.

 This is the "I'm sorry, I have no job to offer you" face.

BOTTOM LINE: I think I scared them at the point where "government" came out of my mouth.

I'm getting bored with this, so I guess I'll wrap up.  I learned a couple of things today.

Lesson #1: DRESS TO IMPRESS, and you'll probably outshine your competition.

Lesson #2: When they say "HIDDEN JOB MARKET," they're not kidding around.  I know that many of the companies represented at the job fair had government affairs departments, but these departments must consist of a small group of people.  Recruiters, from what I've observed, are out to snag those "Entry Level" peeps.

I am not entry level, for goodness sakes!  So...should I bother with going to anymore "Career Fairs?"  NOPE.

 But then again, after tomorrow, maybe I won't need to.... hee hee hee! Guess who has an interview tomorrow morning at 9am...

Wish me luck.  

 Cheers, friends