Monitor the Monitors
So, the decision is made, les jeux sont faits, alea iacta est, etc.etc.: I am going to Brcko for the weekend. To monitor the monitors, because of course I was too late with getting accreditation as an elections observer, or monitor. I have to admit that that pisses me off a bit, but hey, one can not have it all. So instead of having nothing, I am going to breath a friend down his neck, a friend who actually is a monitor in Brcko. I will be following him around, check every step and move he makes, ensure that he does do his democratic duty, and see what he is doing to enable the voting process in this young democarcy....... And ofcourse we will be informed on how the voting is done (although the procedure is not that alien to the one in Holland- one just fills out a box on a ballot...), and that it was done in the most honest and fair manner, and so on, and so on....
Brcko is an interesting place in BiH. It is neither part of the Federation, nor of the RS. It is an entity in itself, in which all ethnic groups live together. One can say it is sort of a mini- Bosnia. It is situated in the triangle BiH-Croatia-Serbia, so it will be interesting which (nationalistic) party is going to win there.
The other day a political rally of the SDA, the Bosniak/Muslim party was held in town. Afterwards there was a caravan of cars circling through Sarajevo. A lot of honking, a lot of flag waving and and a lot of screaming as if they had already won accompanied the caravan. One way or another it only seemed intimidating to me, while the idea behind a political rally is, in my view, the build trust. Tsja.....
Yesterday some unemployed youngsters from Kakanj, a city 50 km outside of Sarajevo, threw paint at the Presidency building. There where 4 of them, and they were protesting against the fact that they are unemployed, and that the government is not doing anything about it. Apparently it was one Serb, one Muslim, one Croat and one Jew. That would be too good to be true a story, and sounds like the beginning of a joke. However, there was no joking around when they were arrested- they were apparently beaten up quite severely. There was a video about it on youtube.com, but the maker of the video took it off the same day as he posted it, which I find very odd. It can not be found on the web anymore...
Nenad the neighbour, born in 1948 but also unemployed, told me that the world should know about this protest, and that it should do something about the situation here- when he told me this I decided not to get into a discussion with him about foreign aid to biH, because I can understand his frustration. He told me he will leave BiH next year (he only wants to leave once his 93-year old mother is dead, and he seesm quite convinced that taht will be next year), sell his house and move to Croatia. He says that the politicians there are equally bad, but it will be easier for him to go to Europe, at least. According to him BiH needs a revolution, in which the youth takes over. He claims that the same thugs who were in power during the war, pull the strings here now....
Anyway, Brcko it is. they have the biggest mall in BiH, so I have been told. But duty first: monitor the monitors!
Brcko is an interesting place in BiH. It is neither part of the Federation, nor of the RS. It is an entity in itself, in which all ethnic groups live together. One can say it is sort of a mini- Bosnia. It is situated in the triangle BiH-Croatia-Serbia, so it will be interesting which (nationalistic) party is going to win there.
The other day a political rally of the SDA, the Bosniak/Muslim party was held in town. Afterwards there was a caravan of cars circling through Sarajevo. A lot of honking, a lot of flag waving and and a lot of screaming as if they had already won accompanied the caravan. One way or another it only seemed intimidating to me, while the idea behind a political rally is, in my view, the build trust. Tsja.....
Yesterday some unemployed youngsters from Kakanj, a city 50 km outside of Sarajevo, threw paint at the Presidency building. There where 4 of them, and they were protesting against the fact that they are unemployed, and that the government is not doing anything about it. Apparently it was one Serb, one Muslim, one Croat and one Jew. That would be too good to be true a story, and sounds like the beginning of a joke. However, there was no joking around when they were arrested- they were apparently beaten up quite severely. There was a video about it on youtube.com, but the maker of the video took it off the same day as he posted it, which I find very odd. It can not be found on the web anymore...
Nenad the neighbour, born in 1948 but also unemployed, told me that the world should know about this protest, and that it should do something about the situation here- when he told me this I decided not to get into a discussion with him about foreign aid to biH, because I can understand his frustration. He told me he will leave BiH next year (he only wants to leave once his 93-year old mother is dead, and he seesm quite convinced that taht will be next year), sell his house and move to Croatia. He says that the politicians there are equally bad, but it will be easier for him to go to Europe, at least. According to him BiH needs a revolution, in which the youth takes over. He claims that the same thugs who were in power during the war, pull the strings here now....
Anyway, Brcko it is. they have the biggest mall in BiH, so I have been told. But duty first: monitor the monitors!
Labels: elections
posted by David Hein at 12:28 PM
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