Bosnia Blog

The Mehmed Paša Sokolovi? Bridge over the Drina River in the town of Višegrad was recently added to Unesco Hermitage List. This historically
significant bridge is featured in Nobel Prize-winning author Ivo Andric’s
“Bridge over the Drina,” a novel describing century-spanning stories and
events taking places in Bosnia, affecting the lives of multi-ethnic Bosnians: Muslims, Turks, Serbs and gypsies.

“Bridge over the Drina” is a super fiction about which I should have written a long time ago. I have since forgotten most of the details and probably have to reread the book again in order to review it properly.
The bonus story of how I got hold of this book and my long trip to
return it to its rightful owner is also interesting.

Soon, I will tell.

[Link]

This rebellious intellect was born in 1952 in Bosanski Samac, a town of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He criticized Communism and led protests against Tito’s government which resulted in his jail time in Slovenia in his twenties. After the release, he left Serbia to continue his Philosophy study in Germany. Upon returning to Yugoslavia, he taught university courses and found the Democrat Party with other Serbian dissidents.

The pro-Western, idealistic and pragmatic, at the time, was seen as Serbia’s only bright hope who could reform the paralyzed economy and bring Serbia closer to Europe. Zoran’s dream for a better Serbia was cut short in 2003 when he was gunned down on his way to work; the bullet pierced his heart and killed him almost instantly.

His closest ally, Zoran Zivkovic, the new PM began a witch-hunt for the assassination’s killers and conspirators. However people saw his zealous determination to clean up a mafia infested state as an abuse of power. He soon lost popularity and support from coalition parties, then later his PM job. Despite being a good leader, Zoran Zikovic could never hold a candle to his predecessor, Zoran Djindjic, who:

He was someone who could have seen the reforms through much better than I ever could. He got people to cooperate. The coalition included fifteen parties. Zoran excelled when it came to patting others on the back, talking with everyone, listening to other points of view. I never had his patience. And eventually we became utterly paralyzed. [source]

Like his and his successor’s (Zoran Zivkovic) short term leading Serbia, Zoran Djindjic’s reform program vanished when Serbian fell back to the conservatism and nationalism.

I stopped by a book store in Prague one morning, intended to find good books about the Czech Republic when I spotted “With Their Backs to the World.” It is written by Asne Seierstad, a Norwegian journalist who spent an extensive amount of time in Serbia from 1999 to 2004 reporting for the Norwegian press.

The author explored the lives of a diverse group of Serbs with dissimilar thinking, hopes and dreams. Through her non-judgmental stand, we can see Serbians through different lenses: a farmer who struggle to put roof over his head, a student’s hope of Serbia’s place in the EU or nationalists’ longing to return to “easy” days of Milosevic regime.

For once, we can get a without-biased look of Serbians as individuals and not an egoistic collective–often portrayed by the media–which hates Muslims and Albanians and started one war after another only to lose them all.

If you have read this book, please share your thoughts.

Tags: BeyondSarajevo, serbia, asne seierstad

Bosnia & Herzegovina: The Bradt Travel Guide by Tim Clancy

You can buy this book, used version, from Amazon.com for $9. In case you forgot to shop for a guide book from home, you can always find this book in at least Sarajevo and Mostar. I think this is because the author of the book, Tim Clancy, has worked and lived in this country for more than 10 years. He runs an eco-tourism called Green Vision in Sarajevo.

However, it is more expensive to buy the book in Bosnia. Be sure to pay at least 20 euros. I saw the exact same book which covered only Hercegovina for 15 euros.

Bosnia: A Short History by Noel Malcolm

The book avoids many of such hatred, prejudice, accusations, nationalist preachings you might have encountered while researching about Bosnia’s history. Perhaps, the author’s being an English helps in this matter.

Other recommended books I haven’t read
The bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric, a Nobel Laurete from Travnik.

Booklet (you can get at the Tourist Information Office in the center)

Tourist Info Sarajevo (small blue book with addresses and phone numbers)

Local review

There might be many other places who give this review for free. At the moment, I only know of Hemingway bar, located across from the National Theater.