"Cancel Culture" also breaks down with the Italian on a "mission" for the violation of freedom in Kosovo

Francesca Borri has returned to Kosovo as a participant in the international literature festival "Polip". The lady journalist, a reporter from the Middle East, also writes fiction, but in the debate between writers she has brought her true story. 17 years ago, he worked in what is now the Italian Embassy in Kosovo. "My job was to refuse visas for everyone", she recalled, explaining the behind-the-scenes game with those who applied for visas. There she realized that she was violating human rights, and now as a journalist she faces those who kill and violate freedom. "Freedom, culture and free speech vs. 'cancel culture'", was the title of the panel, in which the German writer Ralph Hammerthaler and the poet from Kosovo, Agon Rexhepi, also participated.

In 2004 Francesca Borri was at the end of her studies in Florence. As a law student, at that time she guessed how she would deal with people's rights. Probably, at least from what she has shown, it hardly occurred to her that in a few months she would be forced to violate human rights. But this would change his life 180 degrees. It is exactly Kosovo the experience that would make Borri what it is today. In the country that at that time was under the administration of the United Nations, Borri saw the reality where people were treated as dangerous beings. They didn't have to travel.

She shared her experience with the audience on the last day of this year's edition of the "Polip" international literature festival.

"Freedom, culture and free speech vs. 'cancel culture'", was the midday panel on Sunday that brought together Borri, the German writer Ralph Hammerthaler and the poet Agon Rexhepi under the moderation of the German-Croatian writer Alida Bremer.

Borri: "My job was to refuse visas for everyone"

That the international administration after the last war in Kosovo has considered local residents as "dangerous" is not something new. Yes, not especially in the first days of freedom. But this qualification continued until at least 2004. The war reporter from the Middle East, Francesca Borri, is a witness to this. At that time, she would benefit from an opportunity to work for a short time in what was practically the Italian Embassy in Kosovo, but was not formally recognized as such since Kosovo was not yet a state.

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"Everything that I am today essentially comes from Kosovo", he said on Sunday afternoon in the "Oda" oct., where the 11th edition of "Polip" organized by the "Multimedia" center was held. The Prishtina of that time, according to her, was completely different. Like most, he remembered that there was no electricity supply. Her work at the Embassy was quite simple.

"My job was to refuse visas for everyone," she said emphatically. It has shown that there are many possibilities of how such a thing can be done. It has shown that the procedure to get a visa from the Italian Embassy was humiliating. He qualified it as such since the procedure was secret.

"The embassy was in 'Dragodan'. We were forbidden to go down to the city because you were dangerous", she said in the style of a reporter.

He explained that the staff dealt with visas on two floors of the building, while the diplomats stayed on the third.

"To apply for visas you had to make an appointment. My job was to stay on the first floor. I answered the phone and told the party: 'You are wrong, you should call the other number. The other said 'you need to make an appointment and this is not the right number'".

In the meantime, he found out how a person with his brother in a boat had mercy on Italy. It was about a man who needed medical treatment. The same one had died. "He couldn't get a visa to go and heal. I saw that this had to do with human rights", said Borri.

"The door that should not have been opened"

She lived not far from the Embassy, ​​as she remembered, some 200 meters from the building that represented Italy in Kosovo, she described the crisp mornings of November, December and January. As he walked to work, the crowd of people in front of the building waited in vain. This situation irritated the Italian woman who, unlike those who ran after visas, could travel freely herself.

"One day I opened the door of the person in charge of the Visa Office and said: 'What are we doing? Do you see these people?'. She closed the door and said, 'Look, you're young. But it's easy. Never open a door in your life. Never'. This is the title of my first book, 'Never open'", said Borri. But the advice she received from her superior at that time would influence Borri to do exactly the opposite.

"Then I left Kosovo and I think that my whole life is going by opening doors", she said.

In 2007, she would move to Ramallah, Palestine as a human rights specialist. She has been a war reporter since 2012. It has covered the "Arab Spring", including Aleppo. Since then he has been working in the Middle East. It has also covered the exploits of jihadists in Southeast Asia, the refugee crisis in Europe, but Ramallah remained the base. He writes for "Yedioth Ahronoth", which is Israel's largest newspaper, the Italian "la Republican" and the "Al Jazeera" network. Recently, it has dealt with many countries where the pandemic has caused signs of problems in people's lives. Her works have been translated into 24 languages. The last book is the one from 2018, "Destination Paradise. Among the jihadists of the Maldives" (Destination Paradise. Among the jihadists of the Maldives".

"The country where I have no freedom at all as a journalist is Italy"

As a war reporter, Borri considers herself a jihadist specialist. When talking about "Cancel Culture", which is also the central theme of this year's edition of "Polip", she said that in Italy this term would remind people of the period of fascism led by Benito Mussolini. He has shown that the Taliban - this group that at the end of last month returned Afghanistan under administration after two decades, and this month also formed the government - use a lot of violence, "but you cannot call them a terrorist group".

She has shown that two years ago she conducted an interview with the leader of Hamas, Ismail Abdel Salam Ahmed Haniyeh, and there was no western media that published it. "They didn't want to hear it", she said in the context of "Cancel Culture". He said that the Israeli newspapers wanted to publish it because they wanted to know what he said. According to her, the Hamas leader had given an interview to an Italian journalist because he wanted to talk to Israelis without wanting to talk to an Israeli.

"As a human rights specialist, I would not imagine that the country where I have no freedom as a journalist is Italy. Always if you touch the strong ones. But wherever you touch the power, everything ends," she said.

Maldives as the most dangerous country

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During the war in Syria - this conflict, which according to Borri is still ongoing, but is not in the attention of the West - he encountered many jihadists coming from the Maldives. He was very impressed that the country known as "Paradise on Earth" provided many jihadists to Syria. According to her, the Maldives is the non-Arab country with the most jihadists in Syria. The archipelago is governed by the rules of Islam, namely Sharia Law. All these circumstances had filled Borri's mind to teach the Maldives. This country is also the subject of her latest book.

"I was interested in this: how jihadists come from that paradise. There is strict Sharia law in the Maldives. In Ramadan, only if you eat gum will you be arrested. There are public punishments. This happens in the capital and the rest around is our paradise", she said. He immediately drew a conclusion. "For me, the Maldives is the most dangerous country", he said emphatically. This has been justified by the violence in the streets, the fact that, according to her, the resorts are owned by a group of people from the Maldives and international businessmen and the population has nothing.

"There are only drugs and violence in the capital. When my book was published in English, I saw what the ban on culture by the jihadists of the Maldives is," she said.

She has repeated several times that she is a war reporter and not the voice of those who have no voice. He said that in Syria people have never had a voice. While talking about the work he does, he showed that now is the time of social networks. But, according to her, despite all the fading, traditional media still have power.

"The old media have lost a little power, but we journalists still have power. We decide what you know", she said. For him, "Cancel Culture" today is inequality.

"We can't say to someone: 'I don't want to know you.' You have to open the door because if you don't, someone with a Kalashnikov in hand will open it for them", was her last sentence.

Rejection of right-wingers in Germany, a book about Kosovo

But opening the door turns out to be a problem everywhere. The phenomenon of "Cancel Culture" nowadays, according to the writer Alida Bremer, is being used by right-wingers whom the leftists accuse of being "politically correct and destroying art".

Writer Ralph Hammerthaler, born in Wasserburg, Germany, lives in Berlin. His most popular works are "Everything is Fine", "The Fall of Friedrich Voss" and "Short Novel About a Crime". Recently, his works "Kosovo's Daughters" and "The Fifth Night" were published. He said that he is close to the theater magazine "Theater der Zeit". He remembered that two years ago the leaders of the magazine had decided to call Marc Jongen for an interview. He is a politician who, from 2003 to 2017, was a philosophical research assistant at the Karlsruhe State University. Jongen is considered the "chief ideologist" in the right-wing party AfD (Alternative for Germany), or the cultural spokesperson of this party.

"But there is a movement in Germany that does not want these people anywhere in the institutions. They tried to interfere and said we can't interview him as they (leftist opponents) will boycott us. This is heavy for a magazine. They didn't just see it as an interview," Hammerthaler said. According to him, all this fuss has helped the rightist a lot. "But I know one thing, that in this case the right-winger was the winner", he said.

As for the book about Kosovo, he said that it is a good work.

"When I write something, for example about Kosovo, I need empathy and a little imagination. With these I develop the characters. Based on these two, the reader traces the characters", he said.

The human rights activist and poet from Pristina, Agon Rexhepi, said that the situation in Kosovo is complex. According to him, if someone says something in the sense of being politically correct, then he will be ignored by the majority of the public.

"I don't know if 'Cancel Culture' can work. You can 'Cancel' someone but not the phenomenon", he said.

On Sunday afternoon, the well-known Turkish-British writer, Elif Shafak, was expected to discuss in "Polip". Even the online conversation with him was announced as one of the main events of this year's edition. The attendees gathered at 17:00 and waited a long time, but it was not announced online.

"After four months of communication and three confirmations of the virtual participation of the Turkish author Elif Shafak in the XI edition of 'Polip', she was not able to join us today. We want to believe that due to some technical problem during her return from Iceland, where she had received a decoration for her last book", announced the playwright Jeton Neziraj, who leads the "Multimedia" center.

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On Sunday evening, on the third and last day of the Festival, the authors Adela Demetja, Halil Matoshi, Ralph Hammerthaler, Genc Kadriu, Nurie Emrullai, Dhurata Hoti, Agon Rexhepi and Nora Prekazi-Hoti read parts of their works.

"Polip" has united the people of the literary world in Pristina this year. With "Cancel Culture" he has sifted cultural relations and trends through culture. Even for the stories about how Kosovars had to close the door. The festival in its 11th edition has opened the door for many local and international creators. He has closed the door for this year. But in the coming year, he plans to reopen it to the public without restrictions, even from the pandemic.