The Pity of War and the Joy of Training

Today was a bit of a jolt after several pleasant days spent in Pristina. I travelled this morning over to Mitrovica and I have to say that whereas Pristina has, on the whole, recovered from the 1999 conflict the situation on the road to Mitrovica showed a completely different side to Kosovo. In shades reminiscent of my trip to Bosnia-Hercegovina in October 1998, there were a significant number of bomb damaged, burnt out and bullet holed buildings along the main road between Prishtina and Mitrovica. Very sad to see.

My colleagues and I didn't cross over the river running through Mitrovica into the Serbian part of the city, instead we were training in a hotel on the south bank. Sadly, for reasons of concern for their personal security the would be Serb trainees didn't attend today. This made me personally sad since I have always taken the view that it is important for people to rub along together even if we don't always see eye to eye. Perhaps it is my instictive Liberalism that gives me this view.

The training went well today. Everyone seemed happy (including me) and I had my usual fun time delivering training on people management (which, according to one or two people near Folkestone, I apparently know nothing about) and project management. It's always good fun getting people actively involved in their learning and I also learned a lot about what it is like trying to run a legitimate business in Kosovo (difficult, apparently) - Don Liberali, take note.

I hope to see our Serb colleagues tomorrow and look forward to another day doing what I love doing - developing managers. Businesses in Kent, take note.