The only essence of the state as a construct and consensus that citizens, under normal circumstances, agree to is its ability to provide protection, provide the necessary resources and infrastructure so that existence takes place as painlessly and with as few problems as possible. In other words, any talk about ethnic, religious, identity, cultural or anything similar, is in a different plan if the state is not able to enable the population that lives in it to enable those systems necessary for the vitality of life to function and for the elected government to fulfill its legal obligations. serving those who chose her.
If we look at Bosnia and Herzegovina from that side, we will see that from the end of the war to the present day, this community has in no way left the impression on its citizens that it has any strategy, plan, prevention, intention to protect, contribute to betterment and development. Power has long since become an end in itself, hence before each election cycle ethno-national mantras and fear are mostly traded, and after power is won on the elements of the nation's low passions, what remains turns into a four-year struggle on the same waves, between which the wanton consumption of the remaining resources, the enrichment of individuals and the general hopelessness of the majority of those who have not yet left or agreed to join the party locomotives.
And so it has been for three decades, without certain indications that some things will change in the near future. Simply, one model of behavior has been adopted, eternal transition, Dayton's stupidity of this country, from which there is not even a step forward. More precisely, the only thing we know here as normality is a permanent time of crisis, a constant spilling from hollow to empty, while time and generations pass, managing, cheating with what is offered and often agreeing to that game of inaction established by the rulers. Because there are almost no other ways to survive.
The floods that last week caused devastating consequences in parts of this country, taking many lives, have once again brought us back to that point where it is quite clear that all of the above in moments of crisis come to be paid for, first of all because a society where there are no worries and reason, which does not take into account nature or where what and how can be built, usually suffers in the worst possible way when natural disasters occur. We didn't learn anything ten years ago from the floods, which were also terrible, we didn't learn anything from the time of the pandemic, when the death rate due to the lack of necessary medical supplies was huge, we will obviously learn nothing even now in case of this disaster.
Some will say that these are natural processes that cannot be prevented, others will say that it is God's gift, while few ask the question of what we really could have done to, if not prevent, at least temporarily mitigate the consequences of what happened . The multi-year collapse of all systems of expertise and science, of those who warn that one cannot cut down forests, that one cannot build quarries, threaten water protection zones and tame rivers beyond all logic, is now coming back to us like a boomerang, and the one that goes the farthest, taking lives.
And when lives start to be lost, property is destroyed, existence in a certain environment is made impossible, every other story stops, that means the complete defeat of everything that is proclaimed as the meaning of this state. If we do not start taking care of all the mentioned issues, what happened now will become our practice, leaving the citizens of this country to fend for themselves, while the government does everything to threaten its survival.
There is, however, something else, and that is the question of our habituation to disasters and misfortune. Until it hits us directly, we tend to overlook the scale of our real problems and delude ourselves that we can get away with the bad practices that allow these things to happen. Agreeing to compromises, the absence of rebellion, when the lifeblood of existence in these areas is in the middle, leads us into an ever deeper abyss and exposes us more and more to new troubles.
The solidarity that appears these days with the victims of the floods is to be commended, but the other side of the coin also arises, does something drastic like this have to happen in order to show that solidarity. If there was more real solidarity, general concern for everything that surrounds us, more pressure on those we entrust to manage public goods, maybe there would be less of such horrible scenes that we are witnessing. Without the constant struggle to make it better for all of us, there is no hope that we will avoid tragedies like the one that happened in the future.
Bonus video:
