Don't mention the war

At least for Europeans the war in the area of the former Yugoslavia was an impressive, depressive event. I remember many discussions at my school times what this war is about and why they fight. We always ended up that nobody really understood neither the reasons nor the goals. Being in Bosnia I took the chance to find this out.
So I went to the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an ugly building which represent the war itself - the facade is branded by shrapnels and also the interior was only repaired provisional. There is only one permanent exhibition room which contains some information tables about the very interesting medieval history. Reading them you get the impression that Bosnia was a prototype how different races with different languages and religions can live together peacefully. But it turned out that this only works if the people are not forced to but decide to do so. The exhibition tries to explain what happened in 1991/1992 leading to massacres but apparently even after 20 years there is no simple explanation. The exhibition contains many textual documents and images and shows how people had to live during the Siege of Sarajevo. All together is very shocking and I could not resist to scream silently. It is unbelievable how cruel this conflict was.

For reasons nobody can really tell, some people begun to divide the population into Serbs, Bosnians and Croats. But many people did not know to what group they belong because the groups were heavily mixed up. Yugoslavia was a very atheistic country so most of the inhabitants are not religious but were also divided during the war by their religion. It is incredible how a minority managed to feign that living together is much worse than having separate states for each "group" and that this is something one must fight for.

Image from the museum exhibition showing the result of a grenade exploded at a market.

What is really important in life to fight for?
To be loved, having enough to eat and drink, having a family and children, having a place to live, having a job, earning enough money to pay the food and the flat, that all children get a good education and that everybody in the society gets a perspective.

And what have they got?

• A destroyed country, therefore almost no industry and therefore no jobs and a youth without a future. All over the country the cafés are crowded with young people. No matter who you ask, everybody states that the real unemployment rate is about 50 % for young people so they have time to invest their little money in cafés. Everybody who has the chance leaves the country and those who are now living abroad only come back for vacation, because
• the country is divided into 2 entities with corrupt leaders that are not interested to work together to take care for the whole country. For example founding a company is very hard if you don't know important people in the administration or have money to bribe. (Just today Živko Budimir, the president of one of the entities, was arrested because of his corruption.)
• The administration of each entity works on their own. Nothing is planned together, but industry requires a market with the same rules all over the country. If for example help is offered from abroad that can only help a certain city one entity tries to stop this like a child wants to have a sweet too if the brother gets one. Both entities act like a little boy and girl who have not yet begun to discover each other's attraction and being far away from the necessary marriage.
• Moreover, the country lives more or less from the other European countries and the governments don't really want to change that. The real president is the High Representative who has for example the power to dismiss everybody. The position of the representative was designed as a temporal office but it still exists because there are no efforts to set up a sensible constitution for the whole country.
• People are still suffering from the war. They lost family members and many cannot forgive that. Only the young people might be able to draw a cutting line so that the country comes out of the victimhood. There are so many seeing themselves as victim of the war, of the neighbor, of the administration, of corruption, of modern times, ...

So they achieved almost nothing they once might have fought for.

However, one cannot change the past, there will remain injuries and scars in the soul but they are no excuse to learn to live with them to be able to enjoy life nevertheless. (Watch Rudimental's video for the song Waiting All Night to see what is meant.)
There are people starting this - there are for example groups fighting for a constitution for the whole country (I met people from the Anti-Dayton group acting to abolish the paralyzing 2 entity state) and, very important, there are business men that work without bribing, no matter that this is harder. I got the feeling that the necessary change has already begun.
Croatia will become a full EU member this summer. To achieve this the government learned that ideologies are unimportant. They made progress in installing an independent jurisdiction, simplifying rules to support the industry etc. Of course there is still some way to go but being an EU member there is no longer the need to fight for territories. With today's apologize from the president of Serbia for the war crimes an important step has been made to forgive and this is the base for more, personally I hope for a Serbia in the EU too. May Bosnia follow!

Observation of the nation

The trip to Bosnia was so intense - I could tell so much more than I can post. Therefore only 2 more posts. The first one is about some general observations I made.
At first, music: A Guy Called Gerald - Humanity

I have only been in the part of the country where most of the Muslims lives. There are many beautiful mosques all over the country but due to the Yugoslavian, atheist times only a few people are still very religious. In the media the population of the country is often divided by the religion but whenever I asked somebody I got the reply that their family has a certain origin but for themselves they often could not tell if they are really part of a religion. This was especially the case for younger people. The religious Muslims I met were very liberal. It was the time of Ramadan and normally they are even not allowed to drink. I asked our bus driver in Mostar and he explained me that he got an exception from his imam that he is allowed to drink and also to eat a bit because he is responsible for many people and needs to be fit enough to drive safe. Others explained me that it is stupid not to drink when there are 40 °C outside and that this cannot be in the sense of Allah. Another one stated that if they would follow Ramadan strictly the whole country would stand still for a month because one cannot really work being hungry and thirsty.
I could visit mosques without problems: I took off the shoes, washed my feet and went in like everybody else. I was surprised to see there women sitting in the same room with men. Due to the talks I had I got the impression that the hardliner Muslims in western Europe would not be welcome in Muslim countries and therefore also not in Bosnia. I met a teacher from Leeds (UK) and he was very surprised to see much less women wearing a headscarf than in the UK. He was also as impressed as I that going to a mosque works like going to a church - nobody asks you if you are religious or not. Besides this, for everybody I talked to it was important that religion is split from the state constitution and law. Maybe I only met liberal Muslims but personally I fully agree with them.

Both just came out of the Ali Pasha's Mosque - a man and a woman!

The Serbian orthodox cathedral.

The catholic cathedral.

Next topic. What do you notice in this image immediately?:

Exactly, there are no timetables and line numbers at the tram stops ;-).

As you might have noticed, architecture is for me an essential part of a city. I already explained why Sarajevo has many different styles and also some modern buildings are very interesting. Taking for example the new bridge over the Miljacka river close to the main university building:

The bridge was designed by students and it was not yet opened for public.

 Another nice example is this building:

A cathedral-like entrance within the nowadays typical glass and steel facade.

A corner of the same building. A great idea to break the otherwise boring facade.

What architecture is for the eyes is food for the mouth. I enjoyed almost everything I tried and I tried to try almost everything. In the old town of Sarajevo you can find most of the specialties. However to get cold and fresh food, one should go to the "Markthalle". This nice building was once built as city hall and therefore one does not expect that it is a market hall. I can recommend to ask there for capsicum filled with cheese. This is very refreshing and not too spicy.

Inside the Markthalle.

Totally off-topic: I like the Flag of BIH: