Friday, December 26, 2008

One Month!

me: "I'm studying abroad in the Balkans."
you: "....hmmm.... where is that....?"
me: "You know, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo?" (or a simple, "near Italy." HA.)
you: "Whoa. You can go there?"
me: "Um, sure, why not..."
you: [inevitably] "Don't they have, like, landmines?"

I'm leaving in a month. Jittery, restless, excited.... but I still have a long To Do list!

Sretan božić i sretna nova godina!
(Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDd_Km853P4&feature=related

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Sarajevo Roses

For those who are curious...

"A Sarajevo Rose is a concrete scar caused by a mortar shell's explosion that was later filled with red resin. Mortar rounds landing on concrete create a unique fragmentation pattern that looks almost floral in arrangement. Because Sarajevo was a site of intense urban warfare and suffered thousands of shell explosions during the Bosnian War, the marked concrete patterns are a unique feature to the city.

As the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo was a central zone of conflict during the Bosnian War. The Bosnian Serb Army deployed troops and artillery in the surrounding hills, and on May 2, 1992 began imposing a blockade on all traffic in and out the city, starting what was to be known as the Siege of Sarajevo. The Bosnian Serb Army constantly bombarded the civilian population in the city in an effort to prevent the home army from deploying. It has been estimated that on an average day more than 300 shell rounds were fired into the city.

As a memorial, throughout the city, explosion marks have been filled with red resin to mark where mortar explosions resulted in one or more deaths." -Wikipedia "Sarajevo Rose"

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

CNN presents "Scream Bloody Murder"

(CNN) -- They share a deep sorrow: an idealistic American who tried to protect the Kurds of Iraq, a Canadian general who refused to follow orders in Rwanda, a French priest who fought for the soul of Cambodia.

Each one tried to focus the world's attention on the world's most heinous crime: genocide. Each time, they were shunned, ignored or told it was someone else's problem.

To understand why, CNN's Christiane Amanpour traveled to the killing fields of Europe, Africa and Asia for a two-hour documentary, "Scream Bloody Murder."

Having reported on mass atrocities around the world, this time Amanpour traced the personal accounts of those who tried to stop the slaughter.

The yearlong CNN investigation found that instead of using a U.N. treaty outlawing genocide as a springboard to action, political leaders have invoked reason after reason to make intervention seem unnecessary, pointless and even counter-productive. (Read more...)

"Scream Bloody Murder" will air again on Friday, December 6 at 8:00pm Eastern.


Other CNN media about Bosnia & Herzegovina is available here.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Lunch with Zeljka

The end of my time in D.C. (for the next few months, at least) is quickly approaching - 3 term papers, 2 finals, and I'll be saying PEACE OUT CUA!!

I had lunch with Zeljka, the institutional advancement officer (a.k.a. fundraiser) at Women for Women International, today. W4W is an organization that works with women survivors of war with a holisitic approach to transform them from victim to survivor to active citizen. I've been volunteering at their headquarters in Van Ness since September and it has been awesome!!! They have programs in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo, in addition to the Middle East & Africa. I hope to visit a Bosnian women's group as part of my ISP project when I'm in Sarajevo (and I'm totally getting an internship at W4W for next summer)... maybe a Kosovar group too, if I can engineer it! Please check out their website and consider supporting W4W.

Anyways, Zeljka is from the Balkans herself (how cool is that?!?). She grew up in Belgrade (the capital of Serbia) and her dad is Croatian. She was so excited to hear about the SIT program and was eager to give me all kinds of information. She's also my lifesaver, becuase I have a huge term paper on NGO management for my social change/int'l development class due next week and I wanted to profile W4W, since I'm already familiar with its mission, vision, and programming. She gave me some good insight on how W4W is organized internally and put me in contact with some of the other officers who can give me even more details. One can only learn so much as a fly on the wall (as a volunteer), so I'm really glad that I had to chance to speak with her.

Before I decided to study abroad in the Balkans, I had never [personally] met anyone from the region before, didn't know anyone who spoke Croatian, and only encountered a few people who could point to any of the countries on a map. Since then, I've talked to so many people who know people/have family there, or speak Croatian (shout out Suzie!), or want to visit me - especially in Dubrovnik. It's really weird how one finds connections like these!

I am so ready for this semester to be over and to get on with the holidays, inauguration, and leaving (Jan 26!) already!!!!!!!!!!