I woke up at dawn this past Saturday, my one day off from work and looked around my house. There was laundry to be done, dishes to be washed, writing to catch up on and a relaxation session to be … Continued
Pursuit of Perfection
My pursuit of perfection became much easier once I started school. Not only did I have tangible proof of my worth in the form of grades, but I also was able to spend time with Tata, since he was in … Continued
Orphaned Father
A man of brilliant intellect and sparkling humor, tata went through life largely unrecognized and unrewarded for the depth of his observations and quickness of his wit. Abandoned and neglected at the age of four, after his mother’s tragic death … Continued
International
Polako, nigdje ne gori
According to our family’s lore, I was born on a coldest day of the winter, 1976. On that second to the last day of January a snow and ice storm raged all over the Sarajevo valley, turning the quaint city … Continued
Politics
Part Two: Forgetting-The protest turns deadly
It’s a strange thing how some faces become etched in memory, serving as a visual representation of events. For me, the face of protests in Sarajevo 1992 belongs to a man for whom the intensity of his emotions became more … Continued
Politics
Remembrance
There are moments in my life when I regret not keeping a journal; the kind whose pages are filled with mundane details, only seldom interrupted by fragments of insightful thought. In my early teens I tried this exercise in self-awareness, … Continued
Politics
Dispatch from Sarajevo
I recently returned from a week-long visit to Sarajevo. Flying into Sarajevo airport and watching the awe-inspiring mountain ranges and green hills, I could not shake off the memories of my escape over them during the war. As the plane … Continued
Culture
Echoes Of A Dark Past
For a long time now I have been living with feelings of alienation from the culture of my youth, as well as the pain that comes with the feelings of non-belonging. I was a product of a mixed marriage, a … Continued
Who Will Protect You?
Ignored by most of the world, an ongoing refugee crisis in Kenya is at a breaking point. The plight of Somali refugees, who are seeking a safe place in Kenya against persecution and violence, is becoming increasingly grim. Human Rights … Continued
International
I Am More Than My Body
Women’s experiences of war are almost exclusively examined through the prism of rape and sexual torture. With the mass scale and the organized nature of rape during the Bosnian war, these stories were important to tell. In many ways, they … Continued