Bassim
VIP Member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Bosnian
- Home Country
- Bosnia Herzegovina
- Current Location
- Sweden
Would you please correct the second part of my text?
There is a curse in my homeland, which people believe is one of the worst. “May god give that you have and then have not.” This is exactly what happened to me and many of my countrymen. Once we had a good life and did not lack anything, but then the war broke out, and we had to leave everything behind and flee all over the world. The Bosnia and Herzegovina that once existed does not exist anymore. Divided by the three nationalistic parties, the country has become a dysfunctional state. The Americans have built a large embassy in the centre of Sarajevo and taken a big piece of land, as if they want to show the locals who is the true master of the country. The American ambassador regularly appears on TV and comments internal politics, pontificates about democracy and berates Bosnian politicians as if there were children. In an ordinary country, such behaviour of a diplomat would never be tolerated, but Bosnia is not an ordinary country. It is the product of the Dayton Agreement in 1995, when the three leaders from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia were convened to an American military base to sign the peace agreement. They were left no choice.
As I watched the spectacle on TV, it reminded me of the Middle Ages, when the master summoned his vassals. If anyone defied him, the master would snap his fingers and his henchmen would rush inside, hacking the rebel or rebels into pieces. Of course, Bill Clinton could not threaten the three leaders with execution, but he had a modern sward in his hands, called money. He told them that if they did not sign up, not a single cent of the American help would ever reach their poor countries. So they did what they were ordered, gathered for a group photograph, and then returned to their people telling them they got more than they ever imagined.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, after years of killing and destruction, peace returned to the troubled part of Europe. The world could turn its attention to other conflicts and offer help to people in greater need. Bosnia and Herzegovina quickly faded from the headlines, while the journalist packed their equipment and flew off from the place which did not give them gruesome material for their stories any longer.
People in Bosnia and Herzegovina were not jubilant. They had believed the world would stop the war at the beginning, but the great powers were not interested in their cruel fate. The hearts of politicians were hard, and they did not pay attention to cries and wails of innocent people. Now when peace had finally descended upon the hills of the Balkans, the suffering masses were already in the throes of apathy to be able to rejoice in anything. Hundreds of thousands displaced persons listened to the radio and watched TV in refugee camps, wondering if they would ever return to their homes. Many sensed that would never happen. Those who lost their limbs stared at their damaged bodies, wondering was it worth it. Families looked at the pictures of their fathers and sons who would never return from the war, asking themselves what they had sacrificed for. The three leaders could have signed a similar document before the conflict even started and thus spared their nations from the terrible war.
When the first building machines and builders arrived in villages and town, people were excited. They believed the time had come to build up the country again, just as their parents had done after the end of the Second World War, but the first buildings that rose from the ashes were churches and mosques. People were surprised. They expected factories and other industrial sites, which would give them and their children an opportunity to work, but instead they got at least two churches or two mosques in every village. They were beautiful both outside and inside, and people came in draws to see them and prey. But soon, they understood that these temples could not feed them. They listened to promises of afterlife and rewards for believers, but they returned home hungry and dissatisfied. They had already heard from their politicians that everyone was going to eat with a gold spoon, but that promise was just a pie in the sky. Some people indeed ate with a gold spoon, but they were criminals who suddenly turned into successful businessmen. Using bribes, contacts with politicians and the police, they made enormous amounts of money, while the authorities turned the blind eye.
People waited for the builders and the machines to return, but they never came again. Factories and companies built under the socialism stood abandoned and went to rack and ruin. Millions of dollars of international donations went down the drain, winding up in the pockets of people who drove expensive cars along the streets which still bore scares from the war. Luxurious houses grew like mushrooms after the rain, while war veterans lived in shacks, without any prospect of getting a proper flat in a near future. Men who before the war were nobody, suddenly started building restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and block of flats, and gave interviews in the media, proud of their wealth and achievements. Nobody saw them ever at the front line, but now they were prancing around as if they had been seasoned soldiers and heroes.
TO BE CONTINUED
There is a curse in my homeland, which people believe is one of the worst. “May god give that you have and then have not.” This is exactly what happened to me and many of my countrymen. Once we had a good life and did not lack anything, but then the war broke out, and we had to leave everything behind and flee all over the world. The Bosnia and Herzegovina that once existed does not exist anymore. Divided by the three nationalistic parties, the country has become a dysfunctional state. The Americans have built a large embassy in the centre of Sarajevo and taken a big piece of land, as if they want to show the locals who is the true master of the country. The American ambassador regularly appears on TV and comments internal politics, pontificates about democracy and berates Bosnian politicians as if there were children. In an ordinary country, such behaviour of a diplomat would never be tolerated, but Bosnia is not an ordinary country. It is the product of the Dayton Agreement in 1995, when the three leaders from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia were convened to an American military base to sign the peace agreement. They were left no choice.
As I watched the spectacle on TV, it reminded me of the Middle Ages, when the master summoned his vassals. If anyone defied him, the master would snap his fingers and his henchmen would rush inside, hacking the rebel or rebels into pieces. Of course, Bill Clinton could not threaten the three leaders with execution, but he had a modern sward in his hands, called money. He told them that if they did not sign up, not a single cent of the American help would ever reach their poor countries. So they did what they were ordered, gathered for a group photograph, and then returned to their people telling them they got more than they ever imagined.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, after years of killing and destruction, peace returned to the troubled part of Europe. The world could turn its attention to other conflicts and offer help to people in greater need. Bosnia and Herzegovina quickly faded from the headlines, while the journalist packed their equipment and flew off from the place which did not give them gruesome material for their stories any longer.
People in Bosnia and Herzegovina were not jubilant. They had believed the world would stop the war at the beginning, but the great powers were not interested in their cruel fate. The hearts of politicians were hard, and they did not pay attention to cries and wails of innocent people. Now when peace had finally descended upon the hills of the Balkans, the suffering masses were already in the throes of apathy to be able to rejoice in anything. Hundreds of thousands displaced persons listened to the radio and watched TV in refugee camps, wondering if they would ever return to their homes. Many sensed that would never happen. Those who lost their limbs stared at their damaged bodies, wondering was it worth it. Families looked at the pictures of their fathers and sons who would never return from the war, asking themselves what they had sacrificed for. The three leaders could have signed a similar document before the conflict even started and thus spared their nations from the terrible war.
When the first building machines and builders arrived in villages and town, people were excited. They believed the time had come to build up the country again, just as their parents had done after the end of the Second World War, but the first buildings that rose from the ashes were churches and mosques. People were surprised. They expected factories and other industrial sites, which would give them and their children an opportunity to work, but instead they got at least two churches or two mosques in every village. They were beautiful both outside and inside, and people came in draws to see them and prey. But soon, they understood that these temples could not feed them. They listened to promises of afterlife and rewards for believers, but they returned home hungry and dissatisfied. They had already heard from their politicians that everyone was going to eat with a gold spoon, but that promise was just a pie in the sky. Some people indeed ate with a gold spoon, but they were criminals who suddenly turned into successful businessmen. Using bribes, contacts with politicians and the police, they made enormous amounts of money, while the authorities turned the blind eye.
People waited for the builders and the machines to return, but they never came again. Factories and companies built under the socialism stood abandoned and went to rack and ruin. Millions of dollars of international donations went down the drain, winding up in the pockets of people who drove expensive cars along the streets which still bore scares from the war. Luxurious houses grew like mushrooms after the rain, while war veterans lived in shacks, without any prospect of getting a proper flat in a near future. Men who before the war were nobody, suddenly started building restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and block of flats, and gave interviews in the media, proud of their wealth and achievements. Nobody saw them ever at the front line, but now they were prancing around as if they had been seasoned soldiers and heroes.
TO BE CONTINUED
