Peace is a concept that has changed dramatically for me since experiencing the war here. It's something I believed in a very idealistic way. It's something I believe in now, even more so, in a very realistic way. Peace for me isn't the absence of war, the rumors of war, or the threat of war. What it is, for me, is a state of being. Yet 'peacetime' here has given me a schooling of sorts. Peacetime can be harder than wartime. The initial transition from war to peace was easy, I think. It was jubilation..until it wasn't. If post-war is peace, then that is what this section is about. Our triumphs and tribulations from Dayton until today. The good, the bad, the ugly.
I think for the most part this blog has faded into oblivion. I think it would be easy to blame the sneaky snatching of my .com domain. Too easy, in fact. It would probably be even easier to blame the overwhelming feeling of apathy and lethargy that has gripped me and what seems, from my […]
This may be depressing. Then again, maybe not. No, it probably will be. Not too long ago we had the good fortune to move into the eco-house we have been building for seven years. It was a rewarding and equally frustrating process. One I am most certainly grateful for. I sat on the terrace to […]
It's a party in Pale. The flags are out. So are the three fingered patriots. The collective has awaken. Momcilo Krajisnik is on his way home after serving a part of his sentence for war crimes that took place during the Bosnian war. I thought we may have witnessed an unheard of breakthrough when he […]
Usually when the father of the bride addresses both families at a wedding he speaks of his love for his daughter, how pleased he is to welcome the grooms side into the family, and (whether he believes it or not) that his son-in-law is a great man that truly loves his baby girl. Not my […]
For a continent that has produced the likes of U2, the Beatles, Gainsbourg, Pavarotti, Goran Bregovic and ABBA, I am stunned, year in and year out, at the old continents enthusiasm for the Eurosong 'contest.' And yes, I'm well aware that ABBA won Eurovision before I was even in kindergarten. So what?! Even though there […]
I go about my daily business lately with just one slight adjustment to my routine. Ok, I'm lying, I don't really have a routine. But I do make that one adjustment. I click, about every half our, to the BBC website to see if a war on the Korean peninsula has started- as if that […]
The period around April 6th is usually a nice one for me. We celebrate our city in what I find to be a very dignified and modest way. Manchester City football star Edin Dzeko and the SOS orphanage shared the 6th of April award given out by the City of Sarajevo each year for the […]
I said I wouldn't talk politics. I lied. This place never - ever - ceases to amaze me. I think we're the only city in Europe that does not directly elect its mayor. We 'the people' have no say-so whatsoever in who will represent us in the city we purport to love so much. So […]
It's been two years since the Syrian 'crisis' began. Two years since CNN and BBC, and now even Al-Jazeera, tell us the same stories they were telling in 1994 about the sad fate of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Years of failed 'diplomacy' had seen millions flee their homes, hundreds of thousands dead, and billions of people […]
Yup, Sabina was right. Definitely not much flowin' off the fingertips. Danis Tanovic's film won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale. That made me happy. The topic of his film made me sad. Or maybe even mad. But problems don't get solved until we start talking about them. So let's hope we start talking. Thank […]