Slovenia to Sarajevo
Nov. 2, 2005
Somewhere in Bosnia (Bosanski Brod I think)
I thought it was bad enough to find a Burger King along the Austrian autobahn. In Slovenia, a bleak strip of land below Austria, there stood the golden arches of McDonald's. Aaah, EU membership has done wonders for little Slovenia. Here in Bosnia, about 50 miles past the Croatian border, in a little village, was a Chinese store along the road. Store might be an exaggeration: it was a house with the same cheap Chinese-made junk you find an any 99 cents store in the U.S.
Aside from Chinese stores, there are houses being built in every direction you look. Next to the new homes are the burned out hulls of their predecessors, destroyed during the 92-95 war, or left to fall apart by those who fled the fighting/genocide. I didn't want to assume anything so I asked a Bosnian girl, Jasma, who has been studying in Germany. The first town over the border belongs to the Republika Srpska. (The Dayton Accord, which ended the fighting 10 years ago, divided Bosnia into two regions. The Bosnian Serbs got the RS and the Bosnians/Bosnian Croats formed a federation.) It's a dreary, muddy town with every other house ruduced to its grey cement foundation. The RS gets less money, Jasma said, than the Bosnia-Croatia federation for reconstruction. What a dismal place. Rats rumage through garbage strewn around. If this is bad 10 years after what was it like during the war?
Somewhere in Bosnia (Bosanski Brod I think)
I thought it was bad enough to find a Burger King along the Austrian autobahn. In Slovenia, a bleak strip of land below Austria, there stood the golden arches of McDonald's. Aaah, EU membership has done wonders for little Slovenia. Here in Bosnia, about 50 miles past the Croatian border, in a little village, was a Chinese store along the road. Store might be an exaggeration: it was a house with the same cheap Chinese-made junk you find an any 99 cents store in the U.S.
Aside from Chinese stores, there are houses being built in every direction you look. Next to the new homes are the burned out hulls of their predecessors, destroyed during the 92-95 war, or left to fall apart by those who fled the fighting/genocide. I didn't want to assume anything so I asked a Bosnian girl, Jasma, who has been studying in Germany. The first town over the border belongs to the Republika Srpska. (The Dayton Accord, which ended the fighting 10 years ago, divided Bosnia into two regions. The Bosnian Serbs got the RS and the Bosnians/Bosnian Croats formed a federation.) It's a dreary, muddy town with every other house ruduced to its grey cement foundation. The RS gets less money, Jasma said, than the Bosnia-Croatia federation for reconstruction. What a dismal place. Rats rumage through garbage strewn around. If this is bad 10 years after what was it like during the war?
posted by A.W. Woodall at 2:15 AM
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