Visas and politicians

I've been spending the last couple of days trying to finish off bits and pieces of my research, which has meant driving all over the country and a lot of coffees with lots of different people, talking about all sorts of things. It has been illuminating for me, a wonderful way to finish my time in Bosnia.

Mostly we've been talking about the situation in Bosnia now. There are elections to be held in October. The politicians are getting ready for them, which means more and more nationalist rhetoric. The Dayton Peace Agreement which bought the war to an end in 1995 established the political structure which operates today. It ensures that each group, the Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs are guaranteed a certain number of seats according to their 'nationality'. The unintended effect of this is that the politicians only need to appeal to their own in order to be elected and there is no incentive reach across the divides to appeal to others. In practice this means the politicians become more and more nationalistic as they fight to exaggerate the threat to their people and claim that they are the only ones capable of  protecting their heritage and rights. It's fairly disgusting to watch, makes the nauseousness I feel watching the British politicans point scoring off each other seem insignificant.

The banging of chests started early. The Bosnian Serbs are leaping about saying that they are going to hold a referendum seeing whether the Republika Srpska (the Serb half of the country) should move away (possibly cede altogether?) from the rest of Bosnia. The Croats watch carefully, if the Serbs can then maybe they can too. The Bosniaks leap up and down claiming that their country is under threat. Everyone ignores that constitutionally it can't be done, where's the vote winner in being rational?

Talking to the local Bosnians, you realise that they don't pay that much attention to the politicians. Most of them won't vote anyway, believing it doesn't make any difference whatsoever and that all politicians are crooks. The Brits get expenses scandals, the Bosnians understand that to be a way of life.

There is one thing though that the Bosnians are incredibly bitter about. In December, Serbia was entered onto the White List, permitting Serbs to travel to Europe without a visa. Croatia has been allowed to do so for some time now. Bosnia, although only just slightly less prepared that Serbia was, was not allowed to join as they didn't quite meet all of the standards required. As most Bosnian Croats already hold Croatian passports and Bosnian Serbs can apply for Serbian ones, it is really only the Bosnian Muslims who can not travel freely.

People resent this. They really really resent it. Some people say it is unfair becauseSerbia and Croatia didn't suffer as much in the break up of Yugoslavia and chose to fight their differences on Bosnian soil, for which Bosnians are still paying the price. Others say that it is a conspiracy by Europe against the Muslims in Bosnia, that Europeans are discriminating against them because of their religion. People say that it is deeply unfair that the perpetrators of the genocide in Srebrenica (Serbs) should be allowed to travel freely but their victims (Bosnian Muslims) cannot.

Just sitting and chatting to people, it is this topic more than any other that causes people to get angry and upset. In the run up to the election, with the politicians starting to agitate a nationalistic agenda, Europe should look carefully at their decision not to allow Bosnia visa free travel. There are rumours that they may be granted it in the summer. It would be enormously helpful to the country if that were to happen.

In the News

Having spent most of the last year saying 'I can't believe Bosnia isn't in the news more! Look at what is going on here people, it is serious stuff!', I now find that I can't escape it.

Last week Radio 4 went Bosnia mad, sending its presenter Ed Stourton out to Sarajevo and Banja Luka. He did a couple of reports, including one from the annual British Embassy Guy Fawkes fireworks party in Sarajevo*. Interested parties can listen to them here: Wednesdays report was at 7.20 from Banja Luka, Thursday's reports were at 7:32 (on ethnic tensions and violence) and 8:33 (interview with the former High Representative here, Paddy Ashdown) and Friday's was at 8:45 (main topic, Tito).

Then, as I tapped away at my keyboard, Midweek ambushed me with a piece featuring Jayne Torvill talking about that Olympic Gold win in Sarajevo in 1984 and her subsequent trip back there to stand on the spot where she and Christopher Dean had started their Bolero routine after the war.

I suppose this new attention isn't surprising. There is an awful lot going on at the moment. There are the shenanigans of Karadzic's trial (latest, he has been told he cannot represent himself, has been given some lawyers, has refused to pay them, trial has been postponed to March 2010: This one will run and run). Then Karadzic's deputy during the war, Biljana Plavsic, who voluntarily surrendered herself to the War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague, pleaded guilty to several lesser charges (the more serious charge of genocide being dropped) and was released after serving only seven years. The Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, firmly nailed his colours to the mast (again) by flying out the Republika Srpska jet to pick her up and fly her back to Belgrade. Not often you get political leaders going out of their way to associate themselves with those convicted of crimes against humanity.

The real issue at the moment though is not the war crimes tribunals but the talks in Butmir designed to bring about some form of constitional reform and pave the way for the strong international community presence that still overseas the Bosnian political scene to finally leave the country.

In 1995, when the conflict was still raging, the only way that anyone could see to stop the violence was to split the country into two, and to install an all powerful High Representative to ensure that the peace was kept. It did the trick, the violence stopped. By now, 14 years after the war came to a halt, many people feel that these two things keep Bosnia in a permanent state of perilous peace and are preventing the country from moving forward to develop into a stable, prosperous, potential candidate for the EU.

These talks, at Butmir, are trying to gain some form of agreement on constitional reform and then the closure of OHR (the Office of the High Representative), but there doesn't seem to be any agreement in sight. The politicians are posturing, rattling sabres and the international community is wagging its finger but nothing much seems to be actually happening. For a far better summary of what is actually going on it is worth looking at the International Crisis Groups report 'Bosnia's Dual Crisis' published last Thursday.

But why then sudden attention by the Western media? I don't think anything in particular has changed. Instead, I suspect the Western politicos are playing a canny game. By raising the possibility of a return to conflict in Bosnia, the so-called 'Heart of Europe', those involved in handling the negotiations are hauling Bosnia back up the international agenda. Headlines from the Daily Telegraph saying that Bosnia is on the brink of civil war are forcing Europe to look again at Bosnia and sending a strong signal to the Bosnian politicians: 'You may think that we are preoccupied with Afganistan and Iraq but you will not be able to skate under the radar. We are watching you carefully.' With the next set of elections in BiH approaching, this is indeed a welcome thing.



* Yes this is the same Guy Fawkes party that we couldn't go to because the car was still lost in the red tape of the police department and trapped in Tuzla. Yes, this is also the same Guy Fawkes Fireworks party that we didn't think we'd ever be invited back to following the now infamous incident from last years party concerning the Ambassador, the flower pot and the just potty trained small boy.

Bosnia, back in the spotlight.

Today is supposed to mark the start of the trial of Radovan Karadzic, accused of 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Undoubtedly there will be twists and turns, Karadzic will be playing the International Criminal Court for all he is worth. He is unlikely to turn up, will refuse to recognise the courts jurisdiction, will claim he hasn't had enough time to prepare his defence and will be doing all in his power to discredit the court and drag the trial out indeterminably.

I will write a post at some point talking about the trial and how people feel about it here. It is, as you can imagine, a contentious issue. Some people passionately feel that the trial is needed; to establish what happened, to create a legally recognised truth that can't be twisted by every side to suit its own agendas. Others feel that it is important that those responsible for creating the events of the 1992-95 conflict are held to account, made to take responsibility for their actions. On the other hand there are some who would rather that the events of the war were placed firmly in the past, and who wonder if whether another trial highlighting Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo serves to keep Bosnia firmly orientated towards its conflict years, preventing them from looking towards the future. Of course there are also those who vehemently protest against the proceedings, claiming them to be unfair and illegitimate.

But the start of the trial, coming as it does as the various political Bosnian leaders are trying (or not trying so much) to establish how the country can move forward out of the political molasses pit that they seem to have found themselves in, will put Bosnia back onto the global news agenda. Whilst most people here think that the articles in The Telegraph and Time Magazine claiming that Bosnia is once again on the brink of war, to be an exaggeration of the situation and a strategic move by the internatinal community to put pressure upon the Bosnian politicians, there is definitely a sense that this is a crucial moment in post war Bosnia. Suddenly people who usually ignore the political shenanigans are talking about it. There are rumours about some people rearming themselves (but then again, there are always rumours about people rearming themselves).

These next couple of months will be interesting times for Bosnia. And now I am starting to understand why it is that the Chinese saying 'may you live in interesting times' is understood to be a curse.

Super Nanny lessons

As the parent of any toddler knows, there are a few golden rules that you (try to) follow.

The first is that if you make a threat then you must be able to carry it out. So, when you say to your adorable offspring in their least adorable state 'if you do that again then we won't be going to the playground' you must be able to not go to the playground if they continue to spit yogurt drink all over their brother. This punishment can often be as much a punishment for the parent as it is for the child, to not go to the playground will obviously entail a screaming tantruming child who wants to go out, is now corralled at home with a parent who now has to deal with the little angel and has to find something else to do to fill the afternoon. The key here is obviously to find a better punishment, but I'm drifting off point.

If you don't carry out your threat you lose all legitimacy and, in the words of the great Potty Mummy you are toast. The kids have you were they want you. They don't need to listen to what you say, they know you don't mean it.

So, us lowly mums have a lesson for the International Community present in Bosnia. When you say to the Bosnian Politicians, you are all very very naughty and you must do what I say or else, you need to have an 'or else' or the Bosnian politicians will consider that you, too, are toast. Or at least irrelevant and will laugh at you when you get all cross and huffy. Trust me, there is nothing worse than being laughed at when you are cross and huffy.

It isn't surprising then that the role of the International Community here is being questioned, with quite a few people pushing to close OHR. Without teeth, without the ability to do the 'or else' (or even have an idea of what the 'or else' will be) it doesn't appear to have a whole lot of relevency.

But, the political situation here is still ever so tense. The situation has not improved with yesterday's decision to allow Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro visa free travel in the EU, but not Bosnia or Albania. As the Bosnian Croats mainly have Croatian passports (and visa free travel) and the Bosnian Serbs can legally obtain Serbian passports (and therefore are about to get visa free travel), the only group of people this is affecting is the Bosniaks (also known as Bosnian Muslims). There is a concern that isolating Europe's Islamic population in this way will lead to increased tension in the region (as detailed by the European Stability Initiatives report here). Some people here are questioning why it is that the victims of war crimes, such as Srebrenica, are to be denied visa free travel, while the perpetrators, by stint of their passports, will be able to travel freely (see the Balkan Insight article, but a few people I've spoken here have said the same thing). It should also be said that Serbia did meet the requirements laid out by the EU for visa free travel, and Bosnia has yet to do so, although the difference between the two countries is very slight indeed.

So, with an already tense political situation, decisions being made that will only make it even more so, it is important to think through what exactly an international presence here in Bosnia is designed to do. OHR (the international community organisation here in Bosnia) thinks of itself as stabilizers for kids learning to use a bicycle. Others say having the stabilizers stops the kids from learning how to balance. Either way, as all parents can tell you, if you want respect you must be prepared to be unpopular and carry through clearly defined threats. Otherwise you become an irrelevancy. In the decision of having an international community presence or not, the choice of having an irrelevent one is the least attractive of all.

Bosnian news

Well, blow me down with a feather. There I am complaining that Bosnia never makes the news in the UK and when I listen to the news on Radio 4 last night (you have to love radio over the internet, the inside of our house sounds just as it did before we left the English shores) the second story was about Bosnia. It seems that the head of the Bosnian Serb army during the conflict here, Ratko Mladic, has been caught on video apparently as recently as last year and this video was aired on Bosnian TV on Wednesday night. Mladic was indicted on various war crimes and genocide charges and has been on the run for the last decade (reportedly in Serbia and rumoured to have been protected by the Serb state until recently).

This being the Balkans, nothing is as straightforward as it first seems. The timing of the release of the video coincides with two things. First the Bosnian Serbs had a June 11th deadline of complying with international community ultimatums which they then proceeded to ignore (more on this from my post earlier this week) and I don't find the release of a video of one of their previous leaders suggesting that the international community are getting closer to finding him entirely coincidental. Second, many believe that it is to put pressure on the country Serbia who are, with the election of a more Western inclined Prime Minister, to shortly have discussions about their route to EU membership. The apprehension of Radovan Karadzic in Belgrade last year by the Serbs (complete with beard, top knot and new career as an alternative medicine practitioner) was probably orchestrated with one eye on their EU credentials.

Either way there is nothing that the Bosnians love more than a good conspiracy theory and everyone is talking about it. Whether they will catch him and whether the war crimes tribunals in The Hague will deliver effective justice is a totally different story

normal service will be briefly interrupted..

I can't write a blog about being in Bosnia without occasionally taking a moment to step outside of the mummy and expat mantle and writing a bit about the situation in Bosnia itself. I tried to set the context of the country in a post back in April (An Uncertain Future) and every now and then put links up to articles about the country in The Economist and other such venerable publications.

When I left the country for the UK 6 weeks ago, the political situation in Bosnia was tense. I kept up with the news, scanned the foreign pages for news of Bosnia and generally kept my ears open. I didn't hear a thing about the country so I figured it was back in its more usual state of tense political stalemate but everyone getting on with their lives just fine.

Back in Bosnia I caught up on what has been happening over the last 5 weeks. Turns out that quite a lot has been going on, none of which had been reported in the UK.

The Office of the High Representative (OHR) who are the International presence in Bosnia and are there to make sure that everyone is behaving themselves, sticking to terms of the peace agreement and generally trying to build up useful things like a stable and uncorrupt government have found themselves in deep conflict with the Bosnian Serbs. In a nutshell OHR is trying to realign some powers that the Bosnian Serb government currently has with the central Bosnian government. Anyway, the Bosnian Serbs are up in arms, threatening to declare independence from Bosnia and there is a lot of throwing toys out of prams, rattling the bars of their playpens and general tantrums worthy of a two year old. For a more grown up take on the actual situation Balkan Insight have a couple of articles worth a peek.

Declaring independence from Bosnia is the ultimate threat. This was what the Bosnian Serbs fought much of the war for, and a declaration of independence could well spark another conflict in the region. There are some who think that the whole mess in Bosnia has gone on for so long that independence for the Republika Srpska is the only way forward (the former US Ambassador William Montgomery writing in the New York Times for example). Others such as Marko Hoare suggest this is allowing the architects of ethnic cleansing to achieve their genocidal aims.

Anyway, the point of this post is not so much a lesson on the Bosnian political situation. More it is to say that I cannot believe that there is so little media coverage of the situation in the Western press. The situation here is tense, very tense. There is a very real possibility that the region could sink back into conflict, and no one is really paying attention. Bosnia is not in the depths of Africa or the mountains of Asia. It is European, it is in Europe. It is just east of Italy, it is north of Greece and is just south of Hungary. The Europeans are in charge of Bosnia (they run the councils that control OHR) and seem incapable of sorting out the situation. The Americans have more influence and clout (Vice President Biden came to speak at the Bosnian parliament and tried bashing a few heads together to try and start some form of cooperation between the different leaders) but see Bosnia as a European issue (for more on this have a look at this recent Economist article). Nobody seems to be getting anywhere, and the situation goes on and on to the huge detriment of the Bosnian people.

The politicians and the media are focused upon how to extract ourselves from the quagmire of Afghanistan and Iraq, and rightly so. But, by ignoring Bosnia today they are both failing to learn useful lessons which could help them. Furthermore, if I was a suppressed Iraqi insurgent, the lesson I'd be learning would be if I kept quiet for a couple of years and waited for the next crisis to crop up somewhere else, I'd be able to do pretty much whatever I wanted as no one would be looking.

Normal service with tales of small children and cultural misunderstandings will be resumed in the next post. Thank you for bearing with me.

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.

letting some steam out of the pressure cooker

The pressure cooker that is the Bosnian political world appears to have eased somewhat in recent days. The American Assistant Secretary in charge of the Balkans, Stuart Jones, met with the President of the RS (the Serb half of Bosnia) and following the meeting talks of splitting Bosnia in two appear to have stopped. Experienced followers of Bosnian politics have commented wryly that the Bosnian Serb leader, Dodik, is an experienced political operator so the majority are taking a 'we shall wait and see' attitude. The Bosnians, whilst enjoying a relaxation in the tensions, haven't missed that it is the Americans who have managed to provide a respite and the European Union who has control of OHR, and is therefore responsible for overseeing the country, seems to be without political will to act in Bosnia. More on this here). As an aside, the saga of the appointment of a new High Representative continues. Rumour has it that the Russians and Serbs opposed the appointment of a Brit to the post, and now an Austrian is in the running - see more here.

spring into actions

Last weekend we spent most of our time building snowforts, throwing snowballs and sledging. This weekend we haven't needed to put on a jacket.

Spring has arrived, and although we're not ruling out a return to some miserable weather, right now the good people in Tuzla are out enjoying the sunshine, seeing to their gardens, doing a spot of DIY, having picnics, congregating in the cafes which have suddenly appeared outside and generally enjoying the first day of spring.

It would appear that with the arrival of warmer weather comes the season of citizen protests and actions. We popped along to one such event on Saturday. The Tuzla Blind Association had organised a day of action to highlight how difficult it can be to negotiate some of the streets in central Tuzla when you can't see. They were putting blindfolds onto people (including a number of fairly high level politicians) and letting them try to walk along the Korzo (the central pedestrianised drag in town).

Adam was intrigued. He didn't want to try it out himself, but he was thrilled to be able to help guide me when I was temporarily without sight. He took his responsibilities very seriously and negotiated me up and down the Korzo at some speed, rather faster than I was totally comfortable with, but with no accidents.

Having shown our very responsible and helpful 3 year old at his best, Jessie then let the side down somewhat. Spotting an abandoned chicken wrapper across the way, she charged across the flow of unsighted people and gave us a clear demonstration of exactly why she will never be a guide dog for the blind.

getter tenser

The accusation of a Euro 70million odd fraud against the Bosnian Serb leader has just added to an already very tense political situation in BiH. Turns out there are irregularities in the way in which the charge was bought about whereby all Bosnian Serb representatives were by-passed. In a country that loves conspiracy theories, this is turning into a humdinger. Everyone is nervously watching developments. More on this story from Balkan Insight here and about the conspiracy theories that are circulating here for those interested.

a tense political situation

Today is the first anniversary of Kosovo's independence. Kosovo, originally a part of Serbia and an enormous part of Serb history and folklore, was populated primarily by ethnic Albanians who didn't want to be a minority in the greater Serb state. Serbia does not recognise the Kosovan state and the atmosphere in the region is strained.

Kosovo doesn't border Bosnia but there are a number of ramifications. Bosnia is split into 2 entities, one of which, the Republika Srpska known as the RS, is primarily populated by Bosnian Serbs. Ultimately, the RS would like to gain independence of its own, creating a separate Bosnian Serb state. The Bosnian Serb politicians see similarities between Kosovo and the RS and continue to push for RS independence, most recently opening a representative office in the EU to the fury of other Bosnian politicians.

It is no surprise that the first anniversary of Kosovan independence should see the head of the Bosnian Serb state calling for greater independence and increased separation from the overall Bosnian state (see article here). It makes an already tense political situation worse, bringing about one of the worst political crises since the end of the war in 1995.

swimming, splashing and building

It may be winter in Tuzla, so swimming in the outdoor lakes is out (even for us hearty Brits), but that doesn't mean that there is no swimming at all. The Hotel Tuzla, a communist beast of a hotel if ever I saw one, has got a pool that really isn't bad at all. 25m, not too busy, not too chlorinated, it is a pool that you could do laps in no trouble at all (pictures of pool and associated bevy of beauties here - but a heads up for those surfing the Hotel Tuzla website, don't be fooled by pictures of lovely clay tennis courts - they are in Tuzla, but are not a part of the Hotel Tuzla complex).

We took the boys there on Sunday. Sadly, no laps for us, more standing in the shallow end getting cold while the boys in their armbands splash around having a splendid time. It does tire them out though, to the extent that both boys had a nap in the afternoon at the same time - a state otherwise known as nirvana to us fraught mummies.

We hadn't been swimming for a while as the hotel has been undergoing pretty extensive renovations which have now reached the changing areas of the pool. These are much needed and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

On the way home it struck us that there really is a lot of renovation and innovation going on in Tuzla at the moment. Squares in the centre of town which were car parks are becoming places to sit with cafes and benches. Dilapidated buildings are becoming brand new, smart attractive buildings. The saltwater lakes now have a series of waterfalls with pools in which you can sit. The old, tired zoo is becoming a cracking playground. The football stadium has got renovations going on all around it. There is talk of putting a part of the ring road underground, which would allow a huge green park to connect the centre of town to the Panonica Lakes and Slana Banja. I almost want to ask "Is Tuzla becoming "up and coming"? I may have to completely revise my perceptions of the city.

The citizens of Tuzla are proud of their mayor, who does appear to be doing a great job in improving the city. They are also proud of their non-nationalistic attitude and Tuzla is one of the few cities in Bosnia that doesn't elect nationalist politicians, one of the major reasons why Bosnia has got itself stuck in a bog of political fug (see article here for more on this if interested). I hope other Bosnians look at Tuzla for an example of what can happen when effective politicians are elected to power.

Bosnian rumours

Of interest to the Brits who read this blog and further to my post yesterday (here) - one of the candidates rumoured to be in the running for the job of High Representative is Chris Patten. This is true Bosnian rumour and probably not based in any truth whatsoever, but it wouldn't surprise me.

boring but important

There's a magazine in the UK, The Week, which is a neat summary of all the news, comments, editorials etc. in the UK press. One of their sections is called 'Boring, but Important' and I feel that accurately sums up the gist of this post.

Regular readers (hello Mum!) will know that I try to steer clear of the Bosnian political situation, but occasionally there is an important development that I feel I should point out. On Friday the international community's representative in Bosnia, The High Representative, resigned - leaving his job to become foreign minister in Slovakia.

The High Representative is probably the most powerful person in Bosnia (Brits may remember that Paddy Ashdown held the post for a couple of years a few years back). Unelected, he has the power to force the Bosnian politicians to do all sorts of things that they can't normally agree upon. Opinion is divided on whether having a High Representative is a good thing. Certainly, the office has been able to push through a number of laws that have been unpalatable to the nationalist politicians that dominate the political scene here. Others think that this permits the politicians to hide behind OHR; they have not needed to learn how to take difficult, potentially unpopular decisions.

OHR mandate was due to end in 2009, but many believe the current political stalemate (see Nov 16th post and Economist article here for more details) in Bosnia will mean it will have to be extended. It will be difficult to find anyone to take the job without knowing what their mandate will be. It looks as if the political impasse is unlikely to finish soon.

It doesn't have to be tako je kako je

The Bosnians are remarkably American orientated (particularly around here) so I wasn't too surprised to discover that the American Corner in Tuzla's Library would be showing Obama's inauguration live on TV. They had also arranged for a woman from the American Embassy to come and give a talk.

Her talk was remarkably good, concentrating upon why it is so historic having Obama elected now. She focused upon how much has changed in such a short space of time and of how important it is for the general population to engage in the political process.

I hope that the reasonably large crowd of Bosnians were listening. They are highly suspicious of their own politicians, suspecting them (usually accurately) of corruption and of serving their own interests before that of the population. However, they choose not to get involved in politics to try and change it. An astonishing number of people don't vote, let alone try and change the status quo. Instead they moan and bitch about their politicians before shrugging and saying something along the lines of tako je kako je - translating as something like it is how it is.

If the election of Obama proves anything, it proves that it doesn't have to be how it is, and that seemingly insurmountable change can come about remarkably quickly if you really want it to and are prepared to work for it. The Bosnians themselves could help change their own country by engaging in the political system rather than leaving it for those who want to be politicians.

More articles on Bosnia

I know I said that I wasn't going to be political in this blog, but I found this article published last week in The Guardian and thought to provide a link to it here: If it is read together with the comments following it it provides quite a good idea of the different perspectives on Bosnia and what has been done in the years following the war, which might be interesting to some of this blog's followers.

Hague in Bosnia

This blog is intended to be about settling into a new culture, learning a new language with all the stresses and strains that this entails (particularly with 2 toddlers and dog in tow). It is not intended to be political or a commentary on the political situations in Bosnia in any way. However, for any of you who are interested there will be the odd link to an article about Bosnia and some of the challenges facing it. This is one, an article by The Spectator to accompany William Hague's trip to Sarajevo this week: curious parties should click here