After surviving a war and struggling through university while living away from home in Sarajevo without financial support, I thought I had finally made it to somewhat safer ground when I was hired to work at a state institution in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian educational sector. I was excited and hopeful because […]

Look at any TV report about a business forum in Macedonia, a chamber of industry and commerce convention, a government session, a high level political meeting or a conference of municipal mayors* – and what do you see? You see that there are almost no women there! Then listen to […]

I have been mulling over how to frame my thoughts about the ‘relationship trouble’ between the people and the institutions that govern them. On FutureChallenges, Corina Murafa phrased a very interesting perspective; I, however, disagree with her main proposition: “governments, be they local, regional or national, are no better than […]

At the moment Bulgaria is governed by a caretaker government appointed by the president because the ruling party GERB resigned at the end of February after a series of country-wide protests. They started innocently enough against the unexpectedly high electricity bills people were unable to pay. All that citizens wanted […]

Young Poles do not seek to redefine their relationship with the state. At least not all of them and not fundamentally. As Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said in an interview with the Wprost weekly in late summer 2010: “(…) Editor: But politicians ought to have more ambitions to change […]