My Bosnia Book: Part 1

Links to itunes

This is a multi-part post that covers my Bosnia Book (a post a day until it is complete).  I wrote this book and posted it last year after a second trip to Bosnia.  I didn't expect to sell any, per say, but I wanted to explore what fascinated me about this country so much.  I traveled back at the end of 2013 and this book was the result.

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Any, if you are dying to blow  $1.99 for the pictures made correctly and everything, feel free (link).

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But if you just want to see what I experienced, feel free to read this in installments.

Chapter 1: Bosnia as Metaphor 

       There is ample reason to think of Bosnia Herzegovina in terms of a metaphor for the USA or the World.  The country was pushed into an unimaginable war in the 1990s and the outcomes are so profound and contradictory that the country and people can be used as short hand for any argument.   

Mostar in the Moonlight

       It is possible to us Bosnia Herzegovina as an example of what happens when the purveyors of intolerance gain a foothold in the national conscience.  Or Bosnia shows that religion is intolerant.  Or Bosnia shows how people are able to do horrible things.  Or Bosnia shows how people can come together after atrocities.  Or Bosnia shows what happens when guns invade a culture – disaster.  Or Bosnia shows what happens when guns invade a culture – safety for those that have them.  Or Bosnia shows the stupidity of multiculturalism.  Or Bosnia shows the only answer to ethic strife is multiculturalism.

It is a simple and elegant way to illustrate nearly any point you want to make.  But that metaphor, whatever it is, immediately casts Bosnia as a reflection.  And that is a massive disservice to this land of beauty and complexity.

It is quite impossible to visit this country and forget the war that so recently occurred there.  But to only see the past, the heartbreak, and the broken buildings is to miss so much.  Bosnia is a study of rugged nature in the middle of Europe.  History is deposited in some many layers that it brings its own heavy burden, yet the people of the country are building their own way.  Visiting the country right now is like seeing signs of spring poking through the snow.  And hoping, against reason – against history – against rational arguments, but hoping nonetheless that spring blooms.

My story, this story, isn’t linear, nor comprehensive.  It is a love song to a country I have no physical attachment to and I barely know.  It is a paean to hope for a people I barely met, but who have shown me nothing but warmth and smiles.  I once had hope for the world and humanity – for people’s better nature.  The history of Bosnia Herzegovina shows the futility of that hope, and yet the people of that land make me strive to rediscover it.

Top, the hills above Zenic.  Lower left, remains of Travnik Fortress.  Lower Right, ancient Roman ruins at Počitelj.