Living in the Balkans is wonderful. Well most of the time.

As in every country across our world not everything is perfect in so many ways and I suppose that’s normal.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has more than its fair share of dysfunctionality and that is certainly a fact, combined with an amazing low standard of human rights, it can be depressing at times.

I find myself at times looking away from my normal optimisic view of the future of BiH and  wondering about “how much lower can certain things go”?

There are always campaigns here to raise money, especially for children, who need medical help that the country simply can’t afford (maybe because politicians believe that grandiose government buildings are better value for money) and the population are asked to donate.

One such campaign at the moment is for a young boy from Trebinje, who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is a cancer originating from white blood cells.

He needs a lot of financial help if he is to survive. One of the ways people can help is to call a dedicated phone number where an automatic donation is deducted from the phone bill.

No problem you might say, EXCEPT (alledgedly), that the government levy value added tax to it (some 20% I think).

You can dress the levy of a tax on a donation like this anyway you like, but it comes down to making money out of misery!

As I say, how low can officials go?

If Bosnia and Herzegovina was a functioning democracy (which it is far from being), this might not occur, but unfortunately the country isn’t. The citizens just accept it. They moan. Yes. They critise, Yes. But they won’t speak out and challenge the ruling powerbase.

When Josip Broz (Tito) successfully put these current nations to sleep for some 40 years he also sapped the will from the everyday person to question and demand.

Next time I drive past the impressive government buildings, I think my revulsion will be even worse than before.

Unfortunately as a foreigner I can’t do anything more than to “suck it up”.

Sad :( 

Last week I spent a short, but enjoyable, amount of time in the village of Krupa na Vrbasu, some 25 kilometres south of Banja Luka, here in Bosnia and Herzegovina,  watching a collection of International acrobats and circus skills performers conducting workshops with children from the locality.

Krupa na Vrbasu was the location chosen to host some 35 performers for a 7 day period, where professional development workshops would be held, as well as a chance for like minded acrobats to get together in an informal gathering to exchange experiences.

The 2011 BiH Acrobatics Festival was the brain child of Berengere Dambrine and Daniel Meijers, French and Dutch respectively, who now live and work in Banja Luka.

Daniel is an expert acrobat in his own right and sees the benefits to all aspects of the continued development of BiH through activities such as acrobatics and circus skills.

In a country where western, urban, progressive moves and developments are shunned and discouraged by both politicians and the current establishment under the guise of “infecting and destroying the rich historical culture and heritage” of the area, the efforts of Berengere and Daniel are continued small steps to better the chaotic world that is BiH.

My impression of both the work conducted in Krupa as well as an excellent, FREE, open air acrobatic performance on the 19 August in the centre of Banja Luka, was that a real breath of fresh air was blown through this part of the country.

Of course no one will know if both Berengere and Daniel “broke even” (events like this do cost money to put on) but I do know sponsorship, even a tiny amount, was difficult to generate.

The courage of people like this to forge forward and do something for a country that isn’t theirs is truly commendable.

Sometimes it’s a pity and a shame that the leadership of this region fails to acknowledge the efforts of outsiders, rather preferring to find continual excuses why anything and everything that is bad, is not their fault, blaming it on a corrupt international community.

So, well done Berengere, Daniel and their team of acrobats that came to BiH!

To see some of the success of the festival you can check out the following links:

Acrobatics Festival in BiH

Cool Social Media

I really think it must be hard to be a rebel here in this part of the Balkans. I really do. The peer pressure that’s so evident stifles the will of most young people to want to do much in the way of progression (apart from run away to another country where they think the streets are “paved with gold”). They simply don’t want to see that it’s “Same Shit, Different Location”

Being an immigrant is cool.

Yeah right!

Together with the schadenfreude that is expressed almost on a daily basis here, the recipe for disaster especially for civil society lurks and looms over the shoulder every single day.

Why this depressive tone you may well ask.

These past few days, I have spent some time at “Demofest”, a local indie/rock band competition organised for groups based in the region. It’s well put together and has managed to get the financial support of a Serbian brewery to cover the costs.

The reason for attending the event was that, together with two local girls, I had the crazy idea of seeing if using simple equipment and free social media tools and platforms, we could provide some alternative coverage of the event and have fun. The experience would be useful even if it all went wrong. It was self funded so what the heck! Maybe someone would ask us to cover their event.

Our initial experiment can be seen HERE

You will come up with your own comments and criticisms (please make then constructive?) I am sure, but during the course of gathering content I found out two rather disturbing facets surrounding Demofest.

The first was a response from someone in the audience when I asked about how events like this are funded. It seems that the local/regional/entity/national government are not too interested any more in stumping up cash and so the commercial sector has to be approached. That’s normal actually as I still believe hard earned taxes shouldn’t be spent on raves or “headbanger gatherings”. Funding hospitals etc is FAR MORE important.

Pause here. OK Bosnians aren’t too keen on paying taxes but you get the drift?

The local brewery, “Nektar” had funded the first few Demofests, and, allegedly, once they found they were the most recognised beer brand in the area, ceased to sponsor any further as “well we are the top so what’s the point”. Now I say allegedly. I haven’t checked the facts in any way whatsoever, and to be frank am not going to bother, but the perception on the streets is powerful. The perception is that a major local business doesn’t care about promoting anything youthful. If the big players don’t care it won’t say much for the small ones. As I say, perceptions.

The current sponsor “Jelen” is a Serbian brewery, no local connection there at all.

The next concerning strand was that during interviewing some of the festivals’ organisation it seemed that Banja Luka youth don’t want (or don’t see the point) of paying to attend these types of festivals etc. Demofest hadn’t sold too many tickets preferring to allocate various media outlets with competition give-aways.

Pause again.

The “urban” youth of the region aspire to be at the cutting edge of entertainment, technology, fashion and sport. To a greater degree they are doing extremely well in all of the above, but when it comes to pay to see something that’s professionally organised there’s a “push back”. It’s certainly strange to see why.

Bringing good quality acts and performances that are seen across Europe don’t come cheap. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Sponsorships are a contribution towards operational expenses NOT the funds that will totally pay for an event.

On Day 1 at this years Demofest, there were numerous local bands to see, Kelis was the major attraction and the after party was Ian Pooley. Now argue if you want about the standard of the artists I mentioned, but for 10 BAM (the local currency) = £4.50 = 5.12 Euro = $US 7.40 to see all that is the bargain of a lifetime.

So what is causing young people to complain, to baulk at paying such a small amount?

Maybe they prefer to spend what little money they have on drinking coffee in coffee bars. Maybe “smokes” are better value for money. Maybe the “dependence” culture that the International Community so successful cultivated here both during and post conflict in the late ‘90’s and early 2000’s is now maturing.

I don’t know the answer. I am not that clever.

What I do know is that slowly sponsorships wont be including quasi free entrance to events. If the youth of Bosnia and Hercegovnia don’t start to place some value on their cultural and social activities, then international performers wont come and possibly unscrupulous political concerns will fill the void to manipulate with their own twisted perceptions.

God help us all if the “Turbo” world fills the void.

I had really planned to get to Social Innovation Camp, in Sarajevo, to see what was brewing and to meet some people I feel can stimulate me professionally.

Sadly it wasn’t to be BUT this video really makes the pain of not having been there worse (in a good way people)

Well the Sarajevo “Arches” has some 18,750 likes on their Facebook Fan Page as at 19 July, so the “Games afoot”.

Menu is: BigMac, Royal, Cheeseburger, Nuggets, Pomfrit, McSundae, McFlurry, Happy meal s poklon igračkom, McCafe sa izvanrednom ponudom različitih vrsta kafa i kolača

NO “Turbo-Mac” YET!

My holiday “read” this summer has been “The Dark Tourist” by Dom Joly.

For me it was a book that showed the human, more personal life of Dom, who is famous for his off the wall and cutting comedy on TV. You can get the book and read it for yourself if you are weirdly interested in what a “Dark Tourist” does, but Dom said something that struck me in regards to Bosnia and Hercegovina where I now live.

“Spotting your first Starbucks or McDonald’s in any travel destination is such a depressing experience”.

Well, in the next few weeks McDonald’s will finally arrive in Bosnia. The first store will open in Sarajevo followed by Banja Luka. Banja Luka authorities are still to give planning consent for the outlet.

How successful will the “Golden Arches” be in a business sense?, we’ll have to wait and see.

“Maccy Dees” will be setting up in direct competition with the quintessential Cevapcinica that are plentiful across the country.

Initial reactions from people are:
that its a western fad and wont last long, that the cevap is made from high quality ingredients that McD’s cant deliver, that no one will want to go there at all.

Whilst I am an avid supporter of the small restaurants that sell the culturally incorruptible cevap and šiš, I can’t help but think that the underground “new urbanites” will simply be ecstatic at Bosnia taking another positive step towards both Europe and wider international integration. That they will be able to enjoy a burger (and apparently eating a Big Mac can be enjoyable) in their own country rather than travelling to Croatia, Serbia or Macedonia (where the nearst arches are).

The presence of a McDonald’s seems to be widely associated with “normality”.

McDonald’s do have high standards, everyone knows that and the design of the restaurants will be corporate, the packaging corporate, in fact there won’t be much that’s culturally Bosnian, except the language on printed products.

So can McDonald’s do what the International Representatives here have failed to do?

Can they bring a powerful and successful business model into a country where local politicians and criminals think that they set the commercial agenda?

I mean, you need a bucket load of cash to sue McDonald’s and McDonald’s profits are way way way in excess of the entire GDP of Bosnia and Hercegovina.

No Contest.

My Fear is that McDonald’s allow a concession to Bosnia and launch the “Turbo-Mac” complete with sponsor credits from Jelena Karleuša!