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Published: July 10th 2014
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Note: I finally realized I can title and caption photos...if there were any that seemed unclear, please look back through my posts! Hopefully you'll better understand what they are now.
Srebrenica, if you're wondering, is still not over. Today the bodies of the 175 identified victims were brought in a procession through the streets of Sarajevo on their way to the Srebrenica Memorial. The wounds are still fresh, the people still mourn, and the victims are not all known.
On a happier note, we visited the US Embassy in Sarajevo today. I felt like I was going through TSA for their security. On the flip side, if any civil unrest starts, I know where I'm going. For one thing, their guards are Marines. We talked to Ken Zurcher, who's the Deputy Political Chief. He talked to us about the role the embassy (and the USA as a whole) plays in the messy political field of Bosnia. For one, it's tough to change their political landscape: our main tactic is to withhold aid, but it comes in from elsewhere shortly after. The people also have very little incentive to push for change, as the politicians wield all the
power. There were protests back in February, but as soon as those who would be able to lead to protests to change (i.e. prominent professors, authors, etc.) realized that the politicians could literally take away their entire livelihood, they disappeared from the protests. Just under a third of the Bosnian population actually hold EU Passports as is, so EU ascension isn't prevalent on their minds. Overall, no matter which way you look at it, very few Bosnian citizens have reason to push for change, or at least have enough reasons to not push for it.
Yet, on the flip side, it's a broken system. The Dayton Peace Accords, which provided the Constitution Bosnia was recognized as independent under, were intended to last 3-5 years. That Constitution is still in place. Society is as broken as politics: they have no fund for the $4B in damage from the recent flooding. There are communities with 2 schools under one roof: half for Bosniaks, half for Croats. Worse, often one of those two halves will receive significantly more funding, so the school will be divided by more than just ethnic lines. However, Ken noted that this is one situation where
Stacy, our "pet"
Stacy is the (male) stray dog who has taken to following us around the city. (S)he even waited outside the Embassy for the 2 hours we were in there! Don't worry, we keep our distance in case of infections... things might need to keep getting worse before they get better. Hopefully, for the sake of all the citizens, their safety, and the region's stability, the improvement starts soon.
It's necessary, at some point while I'm in Sarajevo, to mention the streets of this city, in a few different ways. For one, although many US cities do not have drivers that are good for pedestrians, the cities themselves are well designed for walking. In Sarajevo, neither the streets nor the drivers are good for pedestrians. The drivers would make any Boston driver look good. Almost every street has a sidewalk no wider than a meter; many are a matter of centimeters. To make it worse, whenever possible, people park on the sidewalk. Not next to it; on it. Drivers also cruise past pedestrians at high speed with no regard.
I will give them one piece of credit: the stoplights here are designed to work better. When green, they flash before turning yellow, then red. Then when red, the yellow also lights up for a second before both yellow and red turn off and the light turns green. They're generally designed to give drivers more
warning. The long and short of it is, while this city could be a hallmark of vehicular efficiency, the streets were designed with precisely zero thought put towards the pedestrian.
That said, this is still an amazing city and I absolutely love it here. I went for a run today that took me up to the hills south of the city, which is a different view than I normally get. It was around
8:00 pm, just before sunset, and the city looked gorgeous. I'm definitely going to remember my time here.
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