“Yugonostalgia.” It’s an expression that suggests many things at once. Generally, it refers to a feeling of longing for “the good old days” felt by citizens of those countries which comprise the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A recent survey shows that among all the former Yugoslav republics, Bosnia-Herzegovina […]

Several years ago, my middle-aged father was chopping wood in the forest behind our country cottage. After not returning home on time, my mother went out searching for him. As she got closer to the forest, she heard his screams. It turned out that a tree had fallen on his […]

The current economic crisis has no doubt affected every country in one way or another. I can only speak of my own experience. As I described in my previous blog, many citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina are dependent upon remittances from their relatives living in more developed parts of the world.  The 1992-1995 war displaced […]

The problem of labor in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) is less a problem of intergenerational competition than a problem of general unemployment and lack of opportunities for all. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, as in many countries around the world, villages are “aging.” This means that young people are leaving rural areas, which provide few […]

When I was a kid, I could play this game for hours: staying in front of the mirror, moving my left hand to see whether the person on the wall would move her right hand… And I was incessantly expecting she’d move her left hand, just like myself. I had […]