It is complicated – the context of work in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Can a text that presents the context of building peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina be written on one page only? Yes it can, and we are about to prove it. In an attempt to explain the whole complexity of Bosnia and Herzegovina in one page, the sedativeness of its citizens is rather helpful. Inertness has been well ingrained in Bosnia and Herzegovina for years now. Forget about catastrophic announcements of social unrest, strikes and international conflicts, or even about the possibility of a new war. None of the aforementioned is going to happen, at least not soon, although the majority of people living here would agree that the situation in the country is desperate. It is very important not to jump into conclusions from such a diagnosis, by thinking that we should expect any sort of reaction to this catastrophic situation. Reactions might happen elsewhere, but not here. With us, it is important that what little energy we have left is conserved to allow people to operate on an everyday level- to go to their underpaid jobs that they don’t like or, preferably and gladly to the next bookmaker’s. Of course, we should preserve some energy for the (pseudo) criticism of the government (which is awaited to be formed for more than a year), and, most importantly, just enough for dealing with vital national and other interests and defending them from the  ‘others’. And in order to preserve the picture of the light-headed Bosnian joking with everything and everyone, and who uses humour and irony to defend himself from hardship, there comes an offensive attitude towards mortification of anyone who tries to make a move and change something, in a ‘as if they can do something’ way.
And while citizens are apathetic, national workers work hard and collaborate on robbing anything that can be robbed, wrapped  in a thick smoke curtain of national interests, ‘irreconcilable’ opposites, ‘incompatible’ collective identities. Theft is not being hidden anymore; why waste time on hiding if it does not  shock anyone anymore and when one needn’t worry that someone would react to it. Numerous cases of corruption have been documented, proven or explained, analysed, and nothing happened after that.
Bosnian society refuses to come out of the war, in spite of opposite being claimed. Stopping the war means stopping the domination of that kind of ethic that allows everything and thanks to which, all kinds of injustices are normalised. Inside many heads around here the war is still going on because people have been refusing to come out of it. The reason of it is not fear of the other community (although widely real and present), nor is it the number of war wounds (undoubtedly deep and painful). It is not even because of many political problems such as majoritarianism, outvoting or systematic discrimination, but because people are not ready to ripen politically and take responsibility into their own hands.
In a protest strikingly named ‘Occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina’ that took place on the 15th of October in Sarajevo, fewer than 200 of us showed up. A fairly small group of people with different ideological views but with the same need to make a change, took a walk on the pavements and along pedestrian zones of the capital that day. And if we overlook slightly inept organisation, justified complaints about those kinds of protests, disharmony between a proclaimed revolution and the appeal to the protesters not to cross the street before the green light appears…. if we forget all the possible ideological and other complaints and critics… the most fascinating thing I found that day were the faces of the people who were watching the protest from the numerous coffee shops and other places- there were no signs of anger, nor support or curiosity, not even of open ridicule… just a couple of confused, gentle smiles here and there and an obvious message- ‘Like you are going to achieve anything… it’s all way too complicated.’ Two days later, media in Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that about 48% of people in the country live on the brink of poverty and 18% are categorised as very poor. But that is the problem of our society to be dealt with only when and if, more important issues are solved- the question of borders, territorial possessions, opposed nationalistic interpretation of both past and the future…. Unfortunately, there is plenty of work for ‘peace builders’, but the question, who is going to be willing to do that job remains open.
To conclude, a story. There was a friend of ours at the protest, a Serb. He is an electrical engineer who decided to return to his family house, in a village near Sarajevo about a year ago. He lives there without running water or electricity because his father, unhappy with his decision to go back to Federation(!), doesn’t want to give him the necessary papers for solving utility problems. Unemployed, he manages to survive with help from his Bosniak(!) friends and neighbours.  He doesn’t find it too complicated to give up and stop living for the cause he believes in. Fortunately, he is also a part of this situation and, as a true peacebuilder, he deserves to be mentioned, and to close this text.
Tamara Šmidling