1,720,989 research outputs found
What Marketing Strategy for Sacred Geometry Discoveries to Make Archaeotourism Work?
Get PDFArchaeotourism can take place in two main forms: i) on site or locations of discoveries; and ii) assembling the discoveries into museums or exhibitions. Given that the first option in Kosovo has not proven viable, a marketing strategy went on to be explored for the latter in broad terms by taking into account Bronze Age artifacts with engravings from the sacred geometry discovered by the Author of this paper during 2013-14, which were the work of ancient Illyrians. Yet, the results suggest a third alternative of archaeotourism development, and that is the interest by respective foreign scholars, institutions, and foundations by using Long Tail marketing approach. The paper interprets some astrological metaphors of sacred geometry in literature review, but draws conclusions from archeological discoveries
Why archeological tourism does not work?: Evidence from two discoveries in Kosovo
Get PDFThis paper brings the evidence about two unique archeological discoveries in Kosovo: i) Fingerprints in a rock from Pleistocene period; and ii) the Star of David, the Flower of Life, the Tree of Life, and “Eye of the Masonry” found together engraved in a marble stone 1 meter long and 30 centimeters wide. The carbon test (C14) of the latter puts the age of the engravings circa 2 500 BCE. It was found by the Author in 2013, located in the coordinate 42o48’41.50”N 20o34’16.00” E, 400 metres away from Fingerprints to the southwest, in Shushica village, municipality of Istog.
Archeological tourism is subject to a number of measures that should be undertaken to make it work. The sites where the two our discoveries are located are intensively polluted by the nearby residents. The municipal authorities of Istog have further neglected the sites after taking away the artifacts and no longer showing any interest
Tax reform in emerging transition: Is Kosovo’s Government and NGOs mathematical economics rational?
Get PDFTax reform in small emerging democracies is difficult to measure what effects is likely to produce due to countries’ aggregate political and economic vulnerabilities. If both are taken as remaining relatively stable, then it is easier to discuss what impact the reform introduced may have in the economy and her stakeholders. In absence of a monetary policy, the Government of Kosovo in mid-2008 adopted the changes in tax rates taking effect from January 2009, with the aim to foster economic growth and improve business competitiveness at least in the regional market of the Balkans. This article critically assesses the proposed and approved changes by the Government that were in line with the proposals made by business community Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), and concludes that this tax reform is not well thought-out and properly analyzed to expect the benefits for which it was too optimistically hoped for, especially in relation to key stakeholders such as the Government’s budget, business development, and consumers.Kosovo, Ministry of Economy and Finance, tax reform, business associations, value added tax
Forgotten status of many: Kosovo's economy under the UN and the EU administration
Get PDFAfter eight years of the United Nations (UN) administration, Kosovo again is returned to the international centre of attention - this time about her future political status. The document presented by the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, proposed an ambiguous status settlement that is portrayed and understood as a supervised independence. Whatever expectations from political perspective will be, that is of secondary importance for this paper - the aim is in Kosovo's aggregate uncertainty about her economic sustainability, namely to investigate the relationship between fragile institutions, poor governance and weak economic performance. With a foreign aid since the second half of 1999 amounting to €22 billion, Kosovo still has massive unemployment and widespread poverty. How the UN's largest experiment ever undertaken, involving considerable resources and long time, left the economy in such a poor state
Self-management socialism compared to social market economy in transition: Are there convergent paths?
Get PDFDespite considerable and miscellaneous research in transition economics, some of its aspects have yet to evolve and come up with a more standard theory. After the initial systemic change in two versions of socialist systems - centralist in the former Soviet Union (FSU), and self-management in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), and rush towards a market-based system, setbacks in economic performance were marked by a sharp decline in living standards for the majority of population. A soar in socio-economic trauma during economic transformation from self-management to a (full) market economy along with civil wars, has mostly hit the middle class bringing them around the poverty line. Although economic recovery and growth picked up after a decade of downturn to reach the pre-transition level, the rise in income differentiation has not changed much the situation of poverty which in the former SFRY countries (except Slovenia) remains widespread, whereas it has made a tiny minority better-off, namely private entrepreneurs, politicians and professionals. Yet, this polarisation may be natural after ownership transformation and privatisation in the short to medium run. But among majority who slide towards poverty, there were, and still are, nostalgic attitudes about economic welfare in the previous system. The pressure for more socially-oriented economic reforms has mainly come from this group, though policy makers too, were aware that this approach which is necessary to fix structural-adjustment problems, is more likely to be successful at aggregate level for sustainable and long term development, ceteris paribus. By looking back at the previous system and exploring current social and economic reforms in the former SFRY, this paper aims at investigating common points and theoretical convergences between self-management socialism and social market economy (SMEC) in line with the challenge of economic development. --SFRY,self-management socialism,transition,social market economy,development
The Battle of Gallipoli/Çanakkale was Ottoman Albanian and German
Get PDFThe Battle of Gallipoli/Çanakkale or the Dardanelles Campaign as one of the greatest catastrophe of World War I (WWI) and major Axis victory, apart from Turkey, received little attention in the history textbooks of European countries until recently. It was most likely neglected because the Allies emerged victorious of WWI in aggregate terms. The belligerents from many nations in the Battle of Çanakkale, especially from the Balkans, ended up in the camp which they fought against – the victorious Allies. The sacrifice in that battle went missing for taking part and falling for the “wrong side.” In such a vacuum, the suffering, pride and legacy of the battle remained rightly to be exploited by Turkey to the present day. The aftermath impact of the battle was the establishment of new nation states among the Allies fighting mainly under the command of British Commonwealth, then the event was silenced. Its use by Turkey due to the territory in which the battle took place for a national pride and subsequent nationalism, does not imply that the Turks had absolute or exclusive role in waging that war. Looking more closely at the evidence, events, causes, course and consequences of the time, makes it more clear that what is presented as a Turkish sacrifice and victory, was a participation of multinational defenders with German and Austro-Hungarian support. This paper aims at unfolding some crucial aspects of the Battle in Gallipoli which in modern times show a tendency of sharing the contribution by many nations, Albanians in particular, as an inspiration of alliances not for future wars, but as a common heritage for longer term perspective and peace
Delayed privatization in Kosovo: causes, consequences, and implications in the ongoing process
Get PDFKosovo is distinguished from other transition countries by being the last country to embark on privatization. The wave of revolutionary political and economic changes spreading like wildfire across the Central and Eastern European countries and in former Soviet Union since 1989 found Kosovo under occupation for a full decade. Privatization as one of the most crucial elements of market-oriented reforms was not extended to socially owned enterprises (SOEs) in Kosovo, despite the fact that it was originally initiated by the last president of the Federal Executive Council of former Yugoslavia, Ante Marković and used in a limited number of enterprises. The overwhelming majority of SOEs in Kosovo came under a series of the so-called emergency measures introduced by Serbia during the 1990s, resulting in the dismissal of the Albanian employees at large, the de facto occupation of Kosovar SOEs, and the forced merger with Serbian companies. For nearly a decade, SOEs in Kosovo became subject to illegal ownership transactions and transformation with serious implications for the post-war legal privatization.
With the disappearance of the Serbian state control after the 1999 war, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has been in charge of Kosovo’s development. At the beginning of the transition to a market system, the discussion of privatization also resurfaced under the UNMIK. It took nearly one year to come with the first privatization proposal. Other proposals followed, until June 2002 when the final proposal, envisaging privatization via the spin-off approach and reorganisation or liquidation through the bankruptcy process was approved.
In this paper we look at the specific features of the delayed privatization in Kosovo, emphasising in particular two stages: i) the events during 1990s, including the consequences of emergency measures, ii) the impact of an autonomous privatization in the early 1990s in a limited number of SOEs in the Gjakova region based on a survey of these enterprises, and iii) the critical assessment of the privatization proposals and the challenges in continuing the ongoing privatization process after the war
Redefining Property Rights with Specific Reference to Social Ownership in Successor States of Former Yugoslavia: Did it Matter for Economic Efficiency?
No full textHigh economic growth rates after World War II characterized both socialism and capitalism. There have been impressive results in the former socialist block, Western Europe, USA, and Japan. Apart from these models based on private (capitalist) and state (socialist) ownership, the fastest economic growth in the world for some time was recorded in former Yugoslavia under social ownership with no specific owner having full ownership rights. The issue of property rights despite being subject to comparative analysis, did not matter much. After social ownership was privatized, the effects were not only as they were expected to be, but the countries like those that emerged from former Yugoslavia have yet to cope and strive for greater efficiency than before. This paper looks at the redefinition or privatization of social ownership in successor states of former Yugoslavia, and identifies the causes of smaller effects than expected of this redefinition.property rights; social ownership; privatization; former Yugoslavia
Forgotten status of many: Kosovo's economy under the UN and the EU administration
Get PDFAfter eight years of the United Nations (UN) administration, Kosovo again is returned to the international centre of attention - this time about her future political status. The document presented by the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, proposed an ambiguous status settlement that is portrayed and understood as a supervised independence. Whatever expectations from political perspective will be, that is of secondary importance for this paper - the aim is in Kosovo's aggregate uncertainty about her economic sustainability, namely to investigate the relationship between fragile institutions, poor governance and weak economic performance. With a foreign aid since the second half of 1999 amounting to 22 billion, Kosovo still has massive unemployment and widespread poverty. How the UN's largest experiment ever undertaken, involving considerable resources and long time, left the economy in such a poor state? --Kosovo,UNMIK,Provisional Institutions of Self-government,poverty,political status settlement
Tax reform in emerging transition: Is Kosovo’s Government and NGOs mathematical economics rational?
Get PDFTax reform in small emerging democracies is difficult to measure what effects is likely to produce due to countries’ aggregate political and economic vulnerabilities. If both are taken as remaining relatively stable, then it is easier to discuss what impact the reform introduced may have in the economy and her stakeholders. In absence of a monetary policy, the Government of Kosovo in mid-2008 adopted the changes in tax rates taking effect from January 2009, with the aim to foster economic growth and improve business competitiveness at least in the regional market of the Balkans. This article critically assesses the proposed and approved changes by the Government that were in line with the proposals made by business community Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), and concludes that this tax reform is not well thought-out and properly analyzed to expect the benefits for which it was too optimistically hoped for, especially in relation to key stakeholders such as the Government’s budget, business development, and consumers
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