How Kosovo COVID-19 cases are increasing compared to the world

1.    In the literary circles of the last century there were talks how a bet was placed on who could write the shortest story, and that this bet was won by Ernest Hemingway. So, true or not, it entered in the history of literature as the shortest story: ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn'. The six-word narrative (five in Albanian) should illustrate how a whole human drama is intertwined with as little description as possible. To me, it sounded similar with a non-literary account, and in the form of a bureaucratic information of the State Department prevents the language from literary emotion. And yet, the US Embassy in Pristina issued a statement describing Kosovo as follows: 'Deteriorating ability to deal with Covid-19 patients, lack of supplies and unimplemented safety measures resulting in one of the highest levels of Covid-19 per capita infections worldwide,”.

2. In the creative writing classes of American universities, it may be a good idea to start the class with five or six words of Hemingway's story to show the dramatic capacity to describe anxiety, in which case losing a baby, in few words as possible, as winners of the bet understand the story.

In the political science classrooms, the US Embassy's 27-word statement on the coronavirus situation in Kosovo can be seen as the most economical description of the anguish of a society or state.

Twenty-seven words capture three basic moments of the current Kosovo drama. ‘Deterioration of the ability to deal with Covid-19 patients’ indicates a qualitative movement, i.e., from a state where there was the ability to deal with patients, to a state where there is less and less ability to do so. ‘Lack of supplies’ is a further description of this deterioration; the fact that the supply in the public health system is the prerogative of the state, then the state, i.e., the government is responsible for the lack. And, finally, there is talk of 'unimplemented safety measures', which speaks of the inability of society/state institutions to establish control over public behavior.

As a result, like the most painful part of Hemingway's story, is the finding that the baby's shoes were never worn, in the US Embassy statement Kosovo is described as the country with 'the highest levels of per capita COVID-19 infections in the world'.

3. In an extended sentence of Ernest Hemingway's story, Kosovo leads today in the number of coronavirus infections in the world, because it is showing less management skills, does not show supply skills needed to fight the pandemic and is not capable of enforcing safety measures that would prevent further infections. This is a description of the powerlessness of the state on the verge of another risk, the breach of the basic social contract. So, if the state is not capable (or sufficiently capable) of fulfilling its obligations to the population - and this is the description of the American Embassy then the next stage is the distrust of the citizens in the state institutions. This phase has already begun. According to the same statement from the US Embassy, ​​"although measures for social distancing and face masks are mandatory, the rules are openly disregarded in public places, such as restaurants, shops and cafes." This disregard is called, in a small but significant instance, civic disobedience. In this case, and unfortunately at the state-wide level, there is already a distrust between citizens and the state in dealing with the pandemic.

The exponential growth of infections has occurred in the same country, with the same population, with the same medical system. But between Kosovo, which was in the first places in terms of prevention of new infections and Kosovo, which is among the first countries in terms of new infections worldwide, a political crisis occurred. A government that was built with the slogan 'Believe' was overthrown with the slogan 'Do not believe'. Others are, then, consequences.

4. In the descriptions of the situation that Kosovo is experiencing, it seems to me that the concise descriptions, the telegraphic ones, are easier.

In the coming days it will no longer be possible to talk about how to increase Government performance, how to strengthen inspection or add police penalties.

That state has already passed; in Hemingway's analogy, that baby no longer needs shoes. Now we are entering the time when a new contract is needed between the citizens and the government.