A bit of a grab bag today. I was out of town at a youth soccer tournament (our son's team made the final only to lose 2-0; a good result for a new team still trying to gel as a unit) and yesterday I was simply too tired to jump back into the groove. I plan to resume the book review this week.
Anyway, speaking of soccer, the Bosnian national team clinched a spot in UEFA second-round qualifying with a 2-0 win over Estonia in Tallinn. This is a great achievement for this team, and we should soon know who their competition will be in that final round. A World Cup appearance could be a real boost to a shared sense of Bosnian identity.
As long-time readers of this blog know, I have a bad habit of periodically realizing that I've been visiting another Bosnia-related blog for months or even years without ever remembering to add it to my Blogroll. So today, allow me to partially atone for yet another oversight by giving a big tip of the hat to Tuzla Daily Photo, a fantastic photoblog which has been documenting daily life in Tuzla for over three years now. Word is that at least one of the two authors is getting discouraged with low traffic and is considering throwing in the towel; this blog is a fantastic resource documenting the day-to-day realities of life away from the headlines in post-war Bosnia, and it would be a shame if it were to go into disuse. Please give them some more traffic (and then continue to do so) so we don't lose yet another wonderful blog.
Finally--and I hate to end on a somewhat pessimistic note--anyone with an interest in Bosnia and its continued viability needs to read Marko Attila Hoare's sobering piece Bosnia: Weighing the Options. It's grim reading, but given that he may very well be correct that time is running out, this may be the bracing splash of cold water some policy makers need to hear.
5 comments:
Kirk, that's an excellent endorsement for Jazzy's Tuzla Daily Photo Blog. As you say, it's a picture of normal life away from the headlines, ordinary daily life as it should be in one of the most normal, politically broad-minded and positively progressive parts of Bosnia. The only problem is too many blue skies, making me jealous after our miserable summer.
Kirk, I forgot to say, congratulations to the football maestro - and wish him good luck collecting the cup next year!
At least there is football to give people some small moments of joy...
The Tuzla dayly photo blog is indeed excelent. Discouragement is something that affects all of us small blogs from time to time, but we have to think that sometimes just a few readers are already worth the effort. For me, I only travelled briefly to Bosnia, and although I went there tree times already, I still haven't had the time to travel around a know the real country beyond the touristic part of Sarajevo, so a blog like that allows me to at least have a glimpse of real Bosnia, and the photos are very good and worth seeing, independently of one's interest in Bosnia.
Spain : Bosnia = 5 : 2
Ouch!
can you believe this: play-off Portugal against Bosnia!!!
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