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I'm going to keep my description of today's events slightly more brief, for two reasons. One, not a ton happened, and two, I want to discuss the economy and housing briefly.
First, today's events. We went over to AUBiH (American Univ. in Bosnia and Herzegovina), where we had the opportunity to speak with Bogić Bogićević, also known as "Mr. No." As the Yugoslav crisis escalated in the early 90s, and republics and citizens were nearing independence declarations, the State Council of Yugoslavia, which acted as Head of State for the country, held a meeting. The purpose, unknown at the start to most of the members of the Council, was to vote on declaring Martial Law, to allow the army to quell the uprisings. They needed a majority vote of the 8 members to enact it, but Slovenia, Croatia, and Macedonia, as the republics with the most secessionist people, were clearly against it. That meant the other five leaders had to vote yes, but Bogićević, in a surprise move, voted no. Despite death threats and bribes, he refused to budge. Had he voted yes, it's entirely possible that Yugoslavia might still exist today.
After meeting with Bogićević, we
went to the Jewish Community Center, to meet with their leader, Jakob Finci. He told us about how the Center provided wartime aid during the siege, including 3 free pharmacies, food for the hungry, a two-way radio connected to Zagreb, from which the people could call out of the country, among other aids. In a true statement of tolerance and acceptance, they neither knew nor asked which of the people who came to help or who came for help were Jewish or not; everyone was welcome. He was also exceedingly humble and all but left out one of his biggest accomplishments: he was one of two plaintiffs in a case before the European Court of Human Rights, in which the Court declared the Bosnian Constitution in violation of Protocol 12, the anti-discrimination treaty. The Constitution states that the House of Peoples and the Presidency are made up of equal parts Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs, which ensures the people are equally represented. However, Jews and Romas, which make up about 2% of the population, are therefore unable to run for office. He sued, and won in 2009. Bosnia has yet to change its Constitution.
The reason I wanted
to take the rest of this to discuss housing and the economy is because of our drive to Srebrenica yesterday. It was mostly through the countryside, and it's impossible to not notice certain things. This country has unemployment around 44%, which you don't notice much in the city. But in the countryside, it seems as though there's no places of business; you either farm, own a shop, or don't work. After the war, they fixed the facades of buildings, but never reopened factories, meaning few long-term jobs were created. As such, the cost of living is low and many people live somewhat simply in similar houses. Unlike the US, there are few sprawling houses. Most have a floor plan that is 15x15m or smaller. For some reason, although many have balconies on their upper floors, railings seem to be forgotten on them. Every fifth house still has clear remnants of the war: bullet holes in some cases, missing windows or gaping holes in others. Some houses have one floor bombed out, while the other floor is lived in. Many look half-completed and forgotten rather than destroyed.Then there are those houses that are completely destroyed. Some sit unused in someone's backyard.
Some are repurposed as barns and silos. They are still recovering from the war.
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