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 :(