HOME AGAIN
Although it’s still summer the surrounding peaks are white with clouds of snow. The creek by the road is springing like a goat. You think, here it’s more beautiful than in heaven but that overpowering […]
Articles
TWO SIEGES, TWO EXPERIENCES
I am eighty years of age and still enjoy the privilege of writing, as this text is witness. Ever since my wife died almost four years ago, I have lived by myself in a large […]
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 reasons […]
EVIL IN BOSNIA – IN THE EYES OF ARNE JOHAN VETLESEN
Introduction Evil does not lie in one place and is not related to one actor, but it is fiercely realized at a particular place and by particular actors toward particular people. It is hard to […]
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF HOPE
Looking for who knows what, I stumbled upon a set of silverware sunk to the bottom of the last box with things no longer needed. It does not fit in with anything in my kitchen […]
NO NEED
to balance one’s accounts, friend, for every grain in the hourglass falls in its place anyhow. What used to hurt is now foreign: it had gone by like a movie on the screen while we, […]
THOSE DAYS
it was such a winter that swans’ webbings were getting stuck to the frozen Vltava. And they could never fly away from my memory. Just like you. In such cold – it no longer hurt […]
MARGITA
She’d pull a blanket over her head. She’d say: Although I see buds on branches, spring will not come again. Sometimes she didn’t have enough strength even to answer the phone. I’d wait outside the […]
WOMAN OF MY LAND
With this small infinity surrounding you in every situation you cannot be satisfied. Because, you are powerful and glorious, Not without pedigree There is no exit in your soul. They want to break you, mold […]
We, Bosnians and Herzegovinians in the US
The Bosnian –Herzegovinian diaspora in the US seems to be somehow different. They do not let others call them refugees. They are exiled,, they were driven out of their homes by ethnic cleansing, and they […]
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
To Dana and Anna Redford and Newman, in the famous movie from ’69. The idols of generations. And why wouldn’t they be when they look good, shoot with precision and, in the most dramatic of […]
Dzamilla’s Ideal
This morning I was to deliver a lecture for the upper level students of the Siblings Scholl Gymnasium. As I was about to enter the room, I instantly noticed a familiar face. Who could have […]
Ethnic homogeneity in BiH: prosperity or poverty?
Ethnic homogeneity in BiH: prosperity or poverty? Ethnic diversity is an ongoing research topic in economics, investigated both at macro and micro-economic levels, and is a topical issue among policy makers. Motivated by a growing […]
A Letter to Tuzla
I have never been the kind of person to do exactly as I am told. I am bad at following the crowd, tend to be contentious when I believe something is true and I know […]
“Miss Sarajevo” and Spivak
Miss Sarajevo is a short film about the siege in Sarajevo from 1992-1995. The siege lasted for one thousand, four hundred and twenty-five days, which is the longest siege of a capital city to ever […]
Sarajevo: A Spivak Interpretation
The Bosnian War from 1992-1995 was a haunting experience. The genocide in Srebrenica stands as one of the worst episodes of ethnic cleansing in modern history. The Serb military forces massacred thousands of Bosnian Muslims, […]
Internationals in Bosnia and Americans in the Middle East
Last year, I gave a presentation on Kimberley Coles’ article, “Ambivalent Builders: Europeanization, the Production of Difference, and Internationals in Bosnia-Herzegovina.” In her piece, Coles explains the role of the international community in rebuilding Bosnia […]
Special Story of Višegrad
They killed all her sons. She knew that a return to Višegrad was never going to happen, yet she never uttered a single word of hatred. The parade of Chetniks in Višegrad recalls 1992 memories […]
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
After the devastating war in Bosnia & Herzegovina of 1992-1995, the warring sides were amnestied, and an official winner was never proclaimed. A war, civil war, an aggression or a genocide, are all titles assigned to […]
A Bosnian Jordanian
AMMAN — A painting of the famous Mostar Bridge sits atop the shelves behind Nadia Bushnaq, a former senator and a social activist. The Bosnian landmark is a reminder of her family’s heritage. Sitting in […]