No hope?

My trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina has come to an end and I must say goodbye.

What a trip, what an experience.

Still my question remains the same: what to say about Sarajevo?

I have met many interesting people and heard at least as many interesting stories and viewpoints about Bosnia and Sarajevo. From each and every one of the people I interviewed I asked one same question: is there hope for Bosnia?

Unlike anything else in Bosnia, the answers were strongly united: No.

There is no hope for Bosnia.

No hope?

How to respond to that? I don't know. How could I understand what Bosnia has been through, how the people are feeling? 

Maybe I can't understand it, but I do care. That's why I am in journalism: because I care. Doesn't mean I can fix things, doesn't mean I can provide hope for people who seem to have none. No. But I do care.

I do realize that I am just another traveller, who passes this place by; just like many other places. I don't live here, I don't plan to live here. I don't have to deal with the trauma of the war or the problems of the government. 

But the people I meet and the stories I hear deeply shape me as a human being. They have much greater impact on me than I can ever have on them. 

But this is not about me, no. This is about Bosnia.


"This place is a black hole, with only small sparkles of light. We are still falling and eventually we have to crush."
- Danis Tanovic