An uncertain future

One of the things about writing a blog about living in Bosnia is that I'm aware of the need to every now and then set the context. UK and US bloggers don't need to write about the Credit Crunch, the recession or global economic meltdown, everyone knows more than they ever thought they would about that already. But, bar the Bosnians, most readers of this blog have no idea about Bosnia beyond that there was a pretty nasty war here a while back.

In general, that is more than enough needed to read the posts. I specifically want this blog to be about day to day living in Bosnia which really isn't that different from living elsewhere in Europe. However.....(and that is a big word). The political situation here is tense. Really tense. Occasionally it becomes a little less tense but the fundamental problems and issues remain. The UK and US media haven't really been reporting it, but I just read an article in The Economist from earlier this month: Bosnia's Future: A Tearing Sound, which finishes off saying that there is a remote but very real chance that the country could slip back into conflict, particularly if the politicians continue to play on the fears of the population. It also says that there is no appetite for war amoungst ordinary Bosnians, and that could not be more true.

I don't think the article was written following any particular incident. The situation has been tense here for a while (see earlier posts Getting Tenser and Letting Some Steam Out of the Pressure Cooker) and although the new EU representative who oversees Bosnia has arrived it does seem to be more of situation normal here, so fingers crossed the article was in response to a general kind of feeling rather than knowledge of anything specific.

We obviously worry, we are here with 2 small children and we do not want to find ourselves in the middle of a nasty situation. Despite the political wranglings, day to day life has not been affected. So all we can do is watch and hope that the politicians respect the wishes of the people and do not bring the prospect of a return to conflict any closer than it already is.

General Bosnian news

An article in last weeks Economist (click here) shows quite well the current situation with Bosnia (and other Balkan countries) when it comes to joining the EU. Everyone wants to join, even Serbia has elected a EU facing government. But political situations across the region has led to everyone getting a bit 'stuck' and are not being helped by the global economic situation, which is slowing investments and manufacturing.

Also, Chris Patten not in the running for the High Representative's job, but another Brit is the current front runner. According to general gossip Emyr Jones Parry will be confirmed in the role today. (see here). Good luck to him, he will surely need it. Lajcak, the previous holder of the role, compared the job to flogging a dead horse due to the lack of policial will within the EU to act against the Bosnian politicians.

And it looks as if the Bosnian politicians need a firm hand. This weekend saw an indication of how deeply corruption is embedded into Bosnian life. The Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, and 10 others were accused over the weekend of embezzling something in the region of 74million Euros (see here). Just a mere 74 million. You could buy yourself a new car with that.

As the Economist says, the day to day life goes on without too much trouble masking some of the serious challenges that Bosnia still faces.

Bosnia(n)

Those who read this blog in the hope of occasionally finding out more about Bosnia than the fact they have great coffee, it's pretty warm for the time of year and Bosnian is a really difficult language to learn might be interested to read this article by The Economist last week.

For the rest of you, I was told yesterday that Bosnian (or Croatian or Serbian or whatever you want to call it) is in fact the 3rd most difficult language in world. No idea if it is true but makes me feel better about speaking it so badly.