25 Years After a Conflict: Helping the Youth in Bosnia
Dubioza Kolektiv, a popular Bosnian avant-garde group would say – or rather, sing – that Bosnia-Erzegovina is in Europe “just in Eurosong”. By that, meaning that the country is only welcome as a full-fledged member of Europe when this benefits the image of a multicultural, welcoming continent. But when the lights of Eurovision go off, Bosnia is likely to disappear from the public discourse. If anything, it may come up in conversations simply as the place where “there once was a war”.
In part, this is understandable. How is it possible that a European country could be majority Muslim? Why does it stubbornly refuse to behave like a “normal” democracy? And yet, no matter how divided or unstable, Bosnia is clearly a member of the wobbly, colorful European family.