That’s a flag, not a blindfold, buddy

It got cold yesterday in Pristina . The sunny, unseasonably warm weather that we enjoyed over the weekend came to a wet, windy end. Looks like winter has decided to arrive.

The news from the weekend’s referendum on Serbia’s new constitution was good and bad. The good news, from the Serbian point of view, was that the referendum passed. The bad news, yet good from the Albanian perspective, is that it barely passed.

At the end of the day Saturday, the issue looked to be in doubt. Voting was down all across Serbia, and news stories were quoting some Serb voters in Belgrade and elsewhere as saying that they were boycotting the vote because they were sick of the Kosovo issue .

The constitution states that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia, a position that the mostly Albanian Kosovars reject. They want full independence, not just autonomous rule under the auspices of greater Serbia. As such, most Albanians – who make up roughly 90 percent of Kosovo’s estimated population of 2 million – refused to take part .

The surprise wasn’t that the referendum passed. As the past two American presidential elections have proven, voting chicanery happens everywhere. There was simply no way that this constitution was going to fail. Too many Serbian politicians had too much to lose, if you catch my drift.

The surprise was that it was so close a call. That in itself is a sign that the Kosovo issue just doesn’t have the compelling quality that Serbia’s leaders have been insisting runs deep throughout today’s Serb culture. Or, worse, that the constitution itself didn’t strike Serb voters as the wave they saw for their country’s future.

Like all politicians, even here among the Albanians in Kosovo, Serb leaders like to play upon nationalistic fervor to get what they want. Sometimes, though, the voters end up thinking for themselves.

That happens even in the U.S., though less so since the events of 9/11.