Magic Dead of Winter
For Petr Hruška Short days of a long winter, the sun blinds you worse than in midsummer. On the white snow, dotted with raccoon pawprints, falls the dark shadow of a pine trodden down by […]
Articles
The French Cotton
On clear nights, a man can look to his heart’s content at that infinitely long starry way across the sky, so bright and mysterious, that is called Kum’s Hay. There is an ancient story that […]
Being Roma: Impressions of the Book “Cenotaph for the Murdered Roma from Tešanj” by Amir Brka
In April 2022, which today slips away from the being, but not the memory of the human individual, there were several dates of all three monotheistic faiths that rarely occur in exactly one month. Although […]
How a German Diplomat Jeopardizes Bosnian Democracy: A Controversial Intervention in the Balkan State’s Recent Elections Risks Empowering Nationalist Extremists
First Published in New Lines Magazine. Before Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine in February and the ensuing carnage against the country’s civilian population unleashed by Russian occupation forces, it was Bosnia and Herzegovina that held […]
Letter to Secretary of State Blinken
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 writing to express our concern about High Representative Schmidt’s October […]
A Foucauldian Critique of the Dayton Accords: The Iron Cage of Surreality
The manifest function of the Dayton Accords was to stop the sociocidal war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a war that was killing the country’s society. The war was unconscionable and immoral bringing deaths and horrific consequences to […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]