Where's the smile

"“In the Balkans the transition is over,” Remzi Lani, an Albanian political analyst, told me some time ago. But unlike in many post-Communist countries, Mr. Lani didn’t mean a transformation from dictatorship to democracy. “We transitioned from repressive to depressive regimes.”" "He is right. The old Communists and radical ethnic nationalists are largely gone; in their places is stagnation — economic, social and political."

There are approximately fifty thousand Serbians in the Tampa, St. Petersburg area of the United States.  People move outside their national borders for improved living conditions.  A better life meant leaving their country, and sometimes family behind.

Vladimir Zivojinovic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Source By Ivan Krastev

Contributing Opinion Writer for www.nytimes.com