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 or in my life except an old fancy of my mother regarding my future. Translated by Omer Hadžiselimović
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, munching on pumpkin seeds, sat comfortably reclined in our dreams. But when the lights came back on after the show, a heavy feeling would remain: […]
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 nor could it heal. One needed to wait. Translated by Omer Hadžiselimović
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 door, she wouldn’t open. We’d sit in silence – she on one side, I on the other – waiting for something to happen. And it […]
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 you, accustom you to pain Make a doll of you, with restricted movements in the large joints The more difficult to you it is, the […]
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 like to point it out. In most every name of our organizations there is something Bosnian-Herzegovinian: BOSANA, BHeart, Bosnian American Professional Association (BAPA), New England […]
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 moments, conduct dialogue with composure? Even when wounded and surrounded they know what to do: from Bolivia they would find refuge in Australia. “There we […]
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 overlooked the dark glistening eyes of my neighbor Dzammila? This unexpected encounter was not exactly pleasant for either one of us. We knew one another […]
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 body of literature that investigates the effect of ethnic diversity in economics, we conducted three targeted surveys in BiH over the period 2011-2015 to explore […]
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 it to be so, and generally come to conclusions only after long debate and consideration. So, Tuzla: you and I, we have that in common. […]
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 happen in modern times. Almost fourteen thousand people were killed during the siege and nearly five thousand of those were civilians. This film shows the […]
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, while thousands of women were raped, and children killed. While there were losses on all fronts during the war, the Bosnian Muslim community paid the […]
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 and Herzegovina after a brutal war and ethnic cleansing campaign left the country’s institutions in shambles. Internationals, as Coles calls them, are the mostly Western […]
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 from this city. When in the night of May 1992 in the place of Stupe in Višegrad, they took away my uncle Muhamed who wore […]
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 this conflict in which around 200,000 people died. The ambivalent reality and the different histories allow for media and scientific approach to this problem, yet […]
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 her favourite chair at her Amman home, Bushnaq remembers the days in the early 1950s when her mother and aunts would gather to make pita: […]
In Rusmir Mahmutćehajić’s narration of the sufferings of Bosnia as a cultural-political entity and regarding his Stolac as a spatio-personal one, one should be wary of being misled into thinking that his spirit is a parochial one. The cosmic significance of both Stolac and Bosnia lie not in the fact that they are where the author was born and raised, but […]
Leafing through the folk songs of the Mohammedans in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a careful reader will quite often notice verses mentioning the ritual kinship, godfatherhood [kumovi]. I will quote some verses as examples: ”Lika kumom bio kod djevojke.”……(Lika was godfather to a girl) ”Evo t’ kuma, bega udbinjskoga.”…..(Here is your godfather, bey from Udbina) ”Pa mu sinu kosu kumovao”….. (So […]
With heartfelt thanks to PD “Horizont” Bihać 2006 and Edin Delić and Anel Osmanović from Lukovac Marš Mira on Wikipedia Essay on Marš Mira by Keith Doubt in Berfrois
I believe, honorable judge, That you understand the people well You at least have an occupation temper is temper but the law is the law I believe, distinguished figure, you studied law To fairly judge each person Honour is honour and authority is authority Let the laws govern, I am all for that. There wouldn’t be this blood, if the […]