I Find it Harder and Harder
to give a final shape to something. Not a single cup I scoop up water in, not a single jug I carry it in attains the balance between full and empty. Today I dare not […]
Articles
Human Rights Plaintiff: US-EU Election Plan for Bosnia Rewards Nationalist Agendas
This essay was originally published in Just Security. The Biden administration and European Union officials are barreling ahead in Bosnia with a politically expedient “fix” for the country’s electoral and political dysfunction. But the result […]
Open Letter to Secretary of State Blinken
August 19, 2022 The Honorable Antony J. Blinken Secretary of State US Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520 Dear Secretary of State Blinken, First and foremost, we are grateful for the […]
Afghanistan
They‘ve killed our interpreter: who will interpret for us? Who will take us out of this fucking movie when we have no interpreter? When we are deaf to what we hear and blind to what […]
Ćamil Sijarić, The Man of Exile
In the year into which we have just been slid, it will pass one hundred years since the birth of the author Ćamil Sijarić. The man of Bijelo Polje, born in a village of Šipovice, […]
MOTHER
There lies far behind me, more than fifteen years far, my silenced Bosnian childhood. Do I remember? There was a box – a room, and through it was walking a weary thin face, legs in […]
THE BLIND HORSE
The estates in our neighbourhood were renowned for their fields, forests and cattle. Widely known were the arable land, groves, horses and oxen. Everybody could list the possessions of a high standing estate and what […]
LETTER TO SECRETARY OF STATE BLINKEN
Working Group for Bosnia and Herzegovina 18 April, 2022 The Honorable Antony J. Blinken Secretary of State US Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520 Dear Secretary of State Blinken, We are […]
BOSNIAN WAR POSTERS
I got involved with Bosnia on a political level—and emotionally, too. Like many foreigners who went there during the war, I was bewitched by the country, horrified by what was happening, and fast became obsessed […]
WAITING FOR THE BOGUMILS
For Mak Dizdar Just as Tibetan nomads choose their headman by a throw of dice in which the one who loses the gamble wins, it’s fallen to me to continue to wait for the Bogumils […]
The Politics of Forgiveness and Bearing Witness after a Genocidal War: Three Short Films from Bosnia-Herzegovina
One way to distinguish short films from feature length films is to point out that they are shorter. There are also other ways to distinguish short films. Short films are non-commercial, allowing a greater degree […]
Letter to the Office of the High Representative
Mr. Christian Schmidt September 25, 2021 High Representative The Office of the High Representative Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Your Excellency, We are writing to you about a matter of grave concern. Within the entity of […]
Ectopic Pregnancy
There are things known and unknown, Between them there are, they say, doors. And while I stand and wait Before one such door Between the one that exists And the one who could not be […]
Letter to President Biden
December 13, 2021 President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Biden: We are writing to urge you to respond decisively to the threats to Bosnia […]
Letter to Secretary Blinken
November 12, 2021 Dear Secretary Blinken: We write to you on behalf of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an organization assembling more than 250 university professors, scientists and researchers, medical doctors, artists […]
Meaningful and Comprehensive Constitutional Reform: The Way Forward in Bosnia and Herzegovina
I write to you as your concerned constituent, to seek your support in solving the dire political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Bosnia”). The U.S. spearheaded the international community’s efforts that ended the war in […]
The National Anthem
We moved a lot. In the waters of countries and cities, our fingerprints have washed away; in alcohol, our blood group has evaporated. We no longer belong to anyone. Any national anthem I hear, I […]
Bosnia And Herzegovina: Facing the Challenge of Independence
Introduction What holds today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina together? Unfortunately, there is no internal cohesive energy that would be strong enough to keep it together if the international community would cease to guard its integrity. This […]
POLITICAL REFLECTIONS ON BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AFTER DAYTON
Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Light of European Integration Debates held at gatherings to discuss the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina all too often involve abstract theoretical reflection, without taking into consideration the […]
Bosnia after Dayton
Bosnia is a name for a model of community life shared by the inheritors of different holy traditions. Its history bears witness to efforts to formalize this model in contemporary modes of thought. In an […]