Fire starting and extinguishing

(oslobodjene.ba)

We are almost to the elections, and the campaign, like anything related to Bosnia and Herzegovina, cannot take place in isolation from the regional and geographical context. And of course, this horror of the state glorification of Ratko Mladić in Serbia and the practical announcement that they would do the same in the event of new war circumstances, overshadowed everything else. All of that other stuff is the role of the Government of the Republic of Croatia in the HDZ campaign and the accusations of treason against the troika and the undisguised ideological outburst of the opposition in Republika Srpska, which in terms of war crimes and policies shows no difference compared to Milorad Dodik and the SNSD. The issue of giving the Mostar and Sarajevo airports to the Americans as a concession, which has finally become aware of, has also been overshadowed. The reason why such an event could overshadow everything else is the same reason why the state does not function even minimally. And that is the fact that the war is not over, but frozen and that the glorification of war crimes and war policies is a sure way to gain power. Slightly more broadly than that, keeping the war in focus is also that same path, and again for the reason that it is impossible, even if you had the best intentions, to pretend that it is possible, when every event like this immediately brings you back to traumas and fears for the future.

All of the above refers, for now, only to the metaphorical lighting of a fire. However, no one tells us anything about the actual extinguishing of the fire.

And here we are at the greatest and most disastrous tragedy of today's life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. While a good part of those in power in the state are doing everything they can to obstruct any functionality of that same state, there is no real capacity for that part of society that wants a normal life and a functioning state to simultaneously deal with major political obstructions and the functioning of real everyday life. Which really does not wait and goes at its own pace. But at the same pace, unbearable nationalism continues, which has not stopped for a moment and said ok, we do not think the same, but let's agree to at least preserve the basic things in this country, such as healthcare, firefighters, infrastructure, water and rivers, and together maintain all of the above, and we will conduct other discussions independently of that.

Given that this is not happening, that more decent people are logically emotionally involved and crazy, while wars and aggressions continue, we are not able to complete a single highway that would integrate the entire country, even though it is fully financed by the European Union, we are not able to buy a large number of medical helicopters, we are not able to legally protect forests, rivers and mountains, the most valuable things this country has, nor are we able to buy even one firefighting helicopter, and realistically we would need an entire fleet.

This summer, and there is every chance that it will be the same, if not worse, every summer, the whole of Herzegovina and a solid part of Bosnia were on fire. Moreover, even at the very end of the summer, when we have already entered the climatological autumn, it is burning so much that smoke has covered the entire Dalmatian coast and islands, which are over a hundred kilometers away from the fire. The drought is so severe, the terrain is such, and the type of fire is such that it is impossible to put them out with just men and tankers. Without a serious fleet of fire trucks, the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina will burn down in a few years, just as without the law on forests and without serious protection of rivers, the country as we knew it will disappear.

And when we have all this in mind, and it is impossible not to because we all read the news and, after all, we literally see what is happening around us, one has to ask oneself is it possible that all these responsible people, even if they do not want this or that country, do not at least love their own homeland and is their ideological illusion more important than not turning everything here into a desert?

If that's the case, and it clearly is, because it's not primarily about money, but about political will, then we're in a much bigger problem than we think. And we know we're in a huge problem. One that won't go away when we wake up on October 5th, whatever the election results.