David Bailey MBE.

My new “Bing” Moleskine :)

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 :( 

Last week I spent a short, but enjoyable, amount of time in the village of Krupa na Vrbasu, some 25 kilometres south of Banja Luka, here in Bosnia and Herzegovina,  watching a collection of International acrobats and circus skills performers conducting workshops with children from the locality.

Krupa na Vrbasu was the location chosen to host some 35 performers for a 7 day period, where professional development workshops would be held, as well as a chance for like minded acrobats to get together in an informal gathering to exchange experiences.

The 2011 BiH Acrobatics Festival was the brain child of Berengere Dambrine and Daniel Meijers, French and Dutch respectively, who now live and work in Banja Luka.

Daniel is an expert acrobat in his own right and sees the benefits to all aspects of the continued development of BiH through activities such as acrobatics and circus skills.

In a country where western, urban, progressive moves and developments are shunned and discouraged by both politicians and the current establishment under the guise of “infecting and destroying the rich historical culture and heritage” of the area, the efforts of Berengere and Daniel are continued small steps to better the chaotic world that is BiH.

My impression of both the work conducted in Krupa as well as an excellent, FREE, open air acrobatic performance on the 19 August in the centre of Banja Luka, was that a real breath of fresh air was blown through this part of the country.

Of course no one will know if both Berengere and Daniel “broke even” (events like this do cost money to put on) but I do know sponsorship, even a tiny amount, was difficult to generate.

The courage of people like this to forge forward and do something for a country that isn’t theirs is truly commendable.

Sometimes it’s a pity and a shame that the leadership of this region fails to acknowledge the efforts of outsiders, rather preferring to find continual excuses why anything and everything that is bad, is not their fault, blaming it on a corrupt international community.

So, well done Berengere, Daniel and their team of acrobats that came to BiH!

To see some of the success of the festival you can check out the following links:

Acrobatics Festival in BiH

Cool Social Media

sliva i rakija

I really think it must be hard to be a rebel here in this part of the Balkans. I really do. The peer pressure that’s so evident stifles the will of most young people to want to do much in the way of progression (apart from run away to another country where they think the streets are “paved with gold”). They simply don’t want to see that it’s “Same Shit, Different Location”

Being an immigrant is cool.

Yeah right!

Together with the schadenfreude that is expressed almost on a daily basis here, the recipe for disaster especially for civil society lurks and looms over the shoulder every single day.

Why this depressive tone you may well ask.

These past few days, I have spent some time at “Demofest”, a local indie/rock band competition organised for groups based in the region. It’s well put together and has managed to get the financial support of a Serbian brewery to cover the costs.

The reason for attending the event was that, together with two local girls, I had the crazy idea of seeing if using simple equipment and free social media tools and platforms, we could provide some alternative coverage of the event and have fun. The experience would be useful even if it all went wrong. It was self funded so what the heck! Maybe someone would ask us to cover their event.

Our initial experiment can be seen HERE

You will come up with your own comments and criticisms (please make then constructive?) I am sure, but during the course of gathering content I found out two rather disturbing facets surrounding Demofest.

The first was a response from someone in the audience when I asked about how events like this are funded. It seems that the local/regional/entity/national government are not too interested any more in stumping up cash and so the commercial sector has to be approached. That’s normal actually as I still believe hard earned taxes shouldn’t be spent on raves or “headbanger gatherings”. Funding hospitals etc is FAR MORE important.

Pause here. OK Bosnians aren’t too keen on paying taxes but you get the drift?

The local brewery, “Nektar” had funded the first few Demofests, and, allegedly, once they found they were the most recognised beer brand in the area, ceased to sponsor any further as “well we are the top so what’s the point”. Now I say allegedly. I haven’t checked the facts in any way whatsoever, and to be frank am not going to bother, but the perception on the streets is powerful. The perception is that a major local business doesn’t care about promoting anything youthful. If the big players don’t care it won’t say much for the small ones. As I say, perceptions.

The current sponsor “Jelen” is a Serbian brewery, no local connection there at all.

The next concerning strand was that during interviewing some of the festivals’ organisation it seemed that Banja Luka youth don’t want (or don’t see the point) of paying to attend these types of festivals etc. Demofest hadn’t sold too many tickets preferring to allocate various media outlets with competition give-aways.

Pause again.

The “urban” youth of the region aspire to be at the cutting edge of entertainment, technology, fashion and sport. To a greater degree they are doing extremely well in all of the above, but when it comes to pay to see something that’s professionally organised there’s a “push back”. It’s certainly strange to see why.

Bringing good quality acts and performances that are seen across Europe don’t come cheap. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Sponsorships are a contribution towards operational expenses NOT the funds that will totally pay for an event.

On Day 1 at this years Demofest, there were numerous local bands to see, Kelis was the major attraction and the after party was Ian Pooley. Now argue if you want about the standard of the artists I mentioned, but for 10 BAM (the local currency) = £4.50 = 5.12 Euro = $US 7.40 to see all that is the bargain of a lifetime.

So what is causing young people to complain, to baulk at paying such a small amount?

Maybe they prefer to spend what little money they have on drinking coffee in coffee bars. Maybe “smokes” are better value for money. Maybe the “dependence” culture that the International Community so successful cultivated here both during and post conflict in the late ‘90’s and early 2000’s is now maturing.

I don’t know the answer. I am not that clever.

What I do know is that slowly sponsorships wont be including quasi free entrance to events. If the youth of Bosnia and Hercegovnia don’t start to place some value on their cultural and social activities, then international performers wont come and possibly unscrupulous political concerns will fill the void to manipulate with their own twisted perceptions.

God help us all if the “Turbo” world fills the void.

I had really planned to get to Social Innovation Camp, in Sarajevo, to see what was brewing and to meet some people I feel can stimulate me professionally.

Sadly it wasn’t to be BUT this video really makes the pain of not having been there worse (in a good way people)

Well the Sarajevo “Arches” has some 18,750 likes on their Facebook Fan Page as at 19 July, so the “Games afoot”.

Menu is: BigMac, Royal, Cheeseburger, Nuggets, Pomfrit, McSundae, McFlurry, Happy meal s poklon igračkom, McCafe sa izvanrednom ponudom različitih vrsta kafa i kolača

NO “Turbo-Mac” YET!

My holiday “read” this summer has been “The Dark Tourist” by Dom Joly.

For me it was a book that showed the human, more personal life of Dom, who is famous for his off the wall and cutting comedy on TV. You can get the book and read it for yourself if you are weirdly interested in what a “Dark Tourist” does, but Dom said something that struck me in regards to Bosnia and Hercegovina where I now live.

“Spotting your first Starbucks or McDonald’s in any travel destination is such a depressing experience”.

Well, in the next few weeks McDonald’s will finally arrive in Bosnia. The first store will open in Sarajevo followed by Banja Luka. Banja Luka authorities are still to give planning consent for the outlet.

How successful will the “Golden Arches” be in a business sense?, we’ll have to wait and see.

“Maccy Dees” will be setting up in direct competition with the quintessential Cevapcinica that are plentiful across the country.

Initial reactions from people are:
that its a western fad and wont last long, that the cevap is made from high quality ingredients that McD’s cant deliver, that no one will want to go there at all.

Whilst I am an avid supporter of the small restaurants that sell the culturally incorruptible cevap and šiš, I can’t help but think that the underground “new urbanites” will simply be ecstatic at Bosnia taking another positive step towards both Europe and wider international integration. That they will be able to enjoy a burger (and apparently eating a Big Mac can be enjoyable) in their own country rather than travelling to Croatia, Serbia or Macedonia (where the nearst arches are).

The presence of a McDonald’s seems to be widely associated with “normality”.

McDonald’s do have high standards, everyone knows that and the design of the restaurants will be corporate, the packaging corporate, in fact there won’t be much that’s culturally Bosnian, except the language on printed products.

So can McDonald’s do what the International Representatives here have failed to do?

Can they bring a powerful and successful business model into a country where local politicians and criminals think that they set the commercial agenda?

I mean, you need a bucket load of cash to sue McDonald’s and McDonald’s profits are way way way in excess of the entire GDP of Bosnia and Hercegovina.

No Contest.

My Fear is that McDonald’s allow a concession to Bosnia and launch the “Turbo-Mac” complete with sponsor credits from Jelena Karleuša!

Maybe they’ve been waiting for Google+ ?

A totally roasting weekend (eating, funnily enough, “roast lamb”) has had me considering whether or not to sacrifice all my current social media platforms and tools for a solitary presence using Google Plus, or Google+.

I am not sold on the argument that Google+ is another passing fad, as already I can see how more in control of my content I am. The idea of “circles” certainly looks a better privacy proposition for the everyday user like me.

Wondering if the News of the World would have found a way to hack them though?

Anyway, I have migrated all my Facebook (FB) images into picasa, and so by default, into google+ and next I will see what other existing media and data I have on line can also be migrated.

I also have researched a little about google plus and came across “How Google+ Will Balkanize Your Social Life”

WTF has the term “Balkanize” really got to do with Social Media?

Maybe the idea of segragating content in a more controlled way is a step forward from what we all experience now. I mean, FB is forever being slated for exposing privacy flaws concerning the data WE put on line.

Balkanization though?

The word itself has such emotional overtones as a result of the “Terrible Nineties” in this region where I now live.

Whatever.

Maybe Google+ is what the Balkans need though as a tool for open communiaction without “Big Brother” (Veliki Brat) being able to snoop and thereby snuff out dissent.

For more about Balkanization click HERE

Walking around my local town of Laktasi and the city of Banja Luka some 25kms away, in this glorious summer weather, there is, I feel, something missing that’s so evident in other countries across Europe and in fact, the world. 

What’s missing?

Tourists.

Well there may well be the odd one or two, but as you walk around this beautiful country you very rarely hear a non Balkans accent or language being spoken.

Why?

Maybe the events of the “terrible nineties” that occurred in the region especially here in Bosnia and Hercegovina, still linger prominently in peoples minds. I say this as some of my friends still ask if they need a steel helmet and body armour when invited to come and visit. Weird and stupid maybe but a fact.

Bosnia has been looking at developing their tourism for years now, but it seems to be amazingly slow in developing.

This country now boasts quality venues for certain extreme sports, has some of the most stunning landscapes in the world, the only “jungle” left in Europe, food and drink to die for and hospitality that’s certainly second to none.

If you are reading this, then think about changing the venue for your next break away. Oh by the way its sooo cheap here as well!!

Where to stay?

There are hotels from International 5 star standard down and also high quality hostels at 22km a night (that’s 10GBP). One such hostel in Banja Luka can be found HERE.

I have no contact with any tourism element for Bosnia and Hercegovina so I am not selling anything other than a tip for a great place to visit.

The past few days have seen a catastrophe unfolding in the UK concerning unethical and I have to add, unlawful, practices by journalists especially surrounding the use of “phone hacking”.

Centring on the News of the World newspaper, it has transpired that as well as “snooping” on the lives of so called “celebrities”, the newspaper has also hacked into voice-mail and landlines of victims of tragic, serious crimes.

There is now a growing groundswell of public opinion that this type of journalism is both obnoxious and disgusting and that such behaviour should be stopped by law.

What has transpired so far is obnoxious and disgusting, without a shadow of a doubt.

BUT there is an even greater danger looming.

That danger is a total over-reaction by government to current events and laws being passed that will seriously curtail future investigative journalism.

Challenging and investigative journalism is almost the bedrock of policing democratic systems by exposing wrongdoing and thereby holding politicians and senior public servants to account.

Here in the western Balkans (and especially in Bosnia and Hercegovina) the media landscape is controlled by “elitist groups” masquerading as “political parties”. Anyone who even considers BiH as a country with free, independent media, is certainly drinking the “Kool Aid”.

Balkan politicians and media controllers, are masters at using western European examples of behaviour as they see fit and they will certainly be watching how this story unfolds in the UK.

Their argument, I suspect, will be to tell their constituents (the Bosnian people) that free media is not needed (“just look at what’s happening in the UK”) and that having a muzzled or gagged media landscape is good for everyone.

“AND you see, the UK want to have what we have always had, so how cool are we?”

Whatever the outcome of the phone hacking saga in the UK, what’s needed is an ongoing, robust, media landscape that can continue to expose wrong doing.

A spin off of this will be, that truly independent media practitioners in the western Balkans, will still have role models and procedures to base further developments on, in this still insecure, part of south east Europe. 

Just a thought.

Banja Luka meets Chiswick (London).

We LOVE NATO :)

I am now settling into my new, “slower”, lifestyle here in north west Bosnia.

Living in a very rural environment does takes some time to get used to. Firstly, I am a city boy who was born in London and I have never sat comfortably with gardening and traditional ways of doing things and secondly, the pace of life for me has always been hectic to break point, maybe that’s why I still expect to be jumping on a plane very soon.

Of course that’s not the plan.

What is the plan however, is for me to slow down and not to focus on tasks and jobs that would take me away from my new “home” for anything longer than 4 weeks at a time (with long breaks in between).

I have designed and put together a really superb working environment just a few steps from my front door (bliss) and can work, rest, whatever I please, when I please.

I know!

It’s what most of us dream of. Right?

But these life changes are taking time. Changes do, after all, require time.

I have been, for a while, considering a potential project to follow and document (utilising social media tools) some part of Balkan culture or lifestyle.

It looks very much as if I have found my “hook” and will very shortly start to document the activities of a local ethno music group, based in the local town of Laktasi, called “Trag”.

I had my first meeting with 3 members of the group last night sat outside a coffee bar in Banja Luka. As well as discussing what could be achieved etc, we talked about the changes that this part of Bosnia has undergone.

I was very keen to describe my observations from the past 13 years, about the cleaner streets, more professional looking police force, better road and other civic infrastructure, the border crossing even looking a bit tidier at Gradiska!.

How things had changed and for the better!

The response to my observations was that they hadn’t thought things had changed that much, but now that I had mentioned it in the way I saw progress, yes, things were changing. It seemed that because they didn’t travel outside the country as much as I had these past years, their perceptions were of a much much slower progress.

Bosnia is moving forward. Well in this part of the country it is. It’s no way democratic (as northern or western Europeans would perceive democracy) in fact its just as autocratic as in the days of the late Josip Broz (Tito), where loyalty to the party over-ruled loyalty to civil society, but things are moving, slowly, towards a pluralistic environment. And that’s got to be good for everyone.

To help with speeding up change, more people from Bosnia, especially younger people, need to travel abroad, experience new lifestyles, see how others with similar problems resolve and improve situations and then come back and implement change.

A dream too far from a foreigners mind?

Maybe.

But whatever happens, you can’t get away from what Bob Dylan sang back in 1964 “The Times They Are a-Changin”

You know, when you commit to writing about almost anything, there should be an element of research, cross checking content to see how factual and credible the information is and if the story is interesting. Some of the basics of “Journalism”.

I look at things differently. I am not a trained or even experienced journo, rather a broadcaster that’s fallen (on occasions) into a “newsy” type of role.

Inform, Educate, Entertain = “Content is King”

Of course I know the principles and can give basic common sense advice on how broadcast journalism works, but when it comes to my blogging I just prefer to write about MY observations, the world as I see it.

Being a non conformist excites me!

It’s also my blanket excuse for my lousy spelling and grammar!

So having been back in the Balkans for a few weeks now, I have started to once again immerse myself back into the local “scene”, talking about hyper local events, listening to the gossip (Balkan people JUST LOVE to gossip!), feeling part of the “pulse” of everyday life.

My Facebook friendships have started to take on a local flavour as well.

In this region of South East Europe there seems to be a trend of what I call “jealousy paranoia”. Everyone it seems, loves to relish in either “rampant schadenfreude” or simply can’t bear to recognise that people have become successful through their own hard work and merit. An extremely weird and destructive characteristic amongst a group of people who are so warm and hospitable. I mean, when you think or even talk about Bosnia, “tolerance” doesn’t jump at you word association-wise now does it?

So, back to Facebook. Anyone here who gets mildly creative, wants to push the envelope or dares to be different with either style or content of their Facebook status updates is immediately branded an airhead, stupid, or even worse.

Being different simply isn’t on.

So how do the youth of Banja Luka for example, use Facebook then? Surely the peer pressure of publishing your life on such a dynamic social media platform would drive fear of public ridicule deep into the heart?

The answer it seems is two fold.

1. Facebook is used as a glorified “Chat Up” and “Dating” platform.

2. A place to post links to Youtube music videos (which some people do with AN almost addictive fervour).

Why the above?

No one seems able to provide a reason.

Mister Zuckerberg’s plan didn’t pan out too well here. Although Ceca’s could be.

Balkan “vets” will understand the description “Turbo-Facebook”

This is not to say however, that there isn’t a westernised, European, progressive and urban sub culture that is lever-aging Facebook as a social media information and influence platform.

There is, BUT this sub-culture is not in the ascendant.

YET.

Some times living in a country “in transition” can be very frustrating and hope can quickly get lost when “normality” (whatever that is) disappears from everyday life.

It happens all too often, even 16 years after the terrible 90’s here in Bosnia.

So 2 weeks today I intend to be on my way to Sarajevo to attend a weekend of “Social Innovation (SI) Camp”.

The reason for the journey is to blog about my impressions from an event that aims to improve civil society through ideas and concepts devised by everyday people.

One of the main people behind the SI concept is Dan McQuillan, a Brit living in London and whom I had the great fortune and pleasure to meet just over a year ago, during one of my short visits back to the UK whilst still working in Kosovo.

Dan is extremely active in promoting civil society at many levels and I hope will be able to make it to Sarajevo, as maybe there will be another golden opportunity for me to get a “re-charge” of enthusiasm from him.

The aim of Social Innovation Camp is to bring together social innovators from the non-profit, media, commercial and public sector and talented software developers and designers. Over the course of 48 hours, teams will build effective web-based solutions to real social problems.

Social Innovation Camp (Sarajevo) is based on the successful model pioneered in the United Kingdom and aims to jumpstart a “digital activist” movement across Central and Eastern Europe, South-eastern Europe, and Central Asia, committed to using information and communication technologies for positive social change.

The project is organised by Internews, an international NGO that fosters independent media and access to information worldwide, and Transitions (TOL), a Prague-based media development organization that works to strengthen the professionalism, independence and impact of the news media and civil society organizations in the post-communist countries of Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Social Innovation is very much “Don’t just talk, do something!” and after more than 70 ideas being submitted to Social Innovation Camp Internews, the pre-selection committee agreed on 7 ideas to help build the Sicamp weekend.

The winning ideas are…

Newsify / Ukraine

The idea behind Newsify is to create a mobile/online game for journalists in which players can register as a journalist attached to a media outlet, a freelancer, or as a citizen journalist (for any citizen who wants); it will function like FourSquare with geolocations, and the players will compete to be the one to break a story (around a city, state, territory, country) in a variety of categories (crime, politics, business, arts) with their tweets, bit.ly links, or blog posts; at the end of the week, on the site, there will be weekly ‘peoples’ voting’ on who did the best coverage of a particular story based on different news values (fairness, balance, accuracy), as well as best analysis.

Badu – Mobile Agency / Armenia

The idea is to aggregate and report on hot topics in social networks within a certain community (country wide or topical) and to bring the social media content into the mainstream media. The aim is to help editors and journalists to better understand what people talk about, what they request as well as to empower people to influence national news agenda.
The system should motivate bloggers and social media activists to strengthen the veracity of information, to check their sources, produce more original content and less copy-pasting. A system of rewards ( “stars”, “badges”,…) would be introduced in order to highlight those who are more accurate and meet preset criteria.
Such application could install anyone and customize it for any language, some seven key categories (e.g Politics, Economy, Culture, Technology, Society, Environment) would be identified as basic filtering method. This should be a very useful tool for journalists, media experts, as well as organizations, businesses engaging with the social media in any country.

Map4Youth / Belorussia

The idea is addressing the problem of young people who are lacking enough opportunities to spend their leisure time in active and meaningful way. Proposed platform with interactive map would at first record locations where young people most often gather and spend their time and consequently would provide geospecific information about variety of available activities such as skateboarding, running or cycling, including more detailed information for beginners and those interested.

Can I Help You? / Belorussia

This project aims be the first to network people suffering terminal, complicated, or rare diseases, and the handicapped people together.

People with some medical, social, psychological as well as adaptation problems (they are too shy being interviewed, for going outdoors, etc.) can’t get normal medical aid as well as advice what to do, where to go. They all are feeling isolated in the Belarusian society. There are nearly no charities providing relief to people with cancer or AIDS or similar diseases; the society is full of prejudices against those people. Handicapped people bound to wheelchairs are bound to their homes as well since the elevator doors in residential houses are too narrow for a wheelchair to fit, there are no ramps or moving doors to enable easy access. These people feel that they are lonely and no one else suffers this illness – whilst this is not true.Our objective if to bring the people suffering, terminal, complicated, or rare illnesses together so they could help each other and get objective information.
This project will be the first to network these people so that they are able to share their experiences, consult each other on treatment and rehabilitation issues, help in finding relevant medical specialists and getting relevant legal advice to protect their rights and thus – not to feel lonely and abandoned. This idea aims to empower them to solve problems together and fight with their diseases, protect their rights and improve medical help they get.

Positive2Day / Bosnia,Slovenia

Internet users that navigate Bosnia Herzegovinian online portals after one week get the impression that everything is going down. Drowned and poisoned by fragmentation, ethnic-politics, corruption, poverty and stigmatization, one might feel that everyday life in BiH is frustrating and dis-empowering.  All of this despite the fact that one can experience positive, engaging personal stories and accomplishments on a daily basis.
The idea is to provide an alternative to infotainment as a representations of “easy” daily news by establishing an platform, both internet and mobile based, enabling its users to share positive reports and personal accomplishments in their daily lives.

Journalist2Journalist Solidarity / Bosnia

In most countries in transition, media professionals are under the strong pressures of various centers of power, both political and economical. While doing their job, they are often scorned or suffer direct oppression leading in some cases to violence and deaths. Those responsible often get away without punishment.
In many countries, there are mechanisms for journalists’ protection. They include reporting to journalist associations, ombudsmen or to the police. However, there is still a gap between presupposed formal systems of protection and wider social mobilization of journalists increasing their mutual solidarity and support. Journalists who follow and respect professional codes of their work are often on their own without an adequate support of their colleagues and the entire media community when they need it the most.Online platform/application would enable the engagement and participation of the entire journalist community, by establishing social network and tool for rapid and effective information sharing that is necessary for timely and efficient mobilisation in cases when necessary.

Open Ukraine Land Ownership Platform / Ukraine

On 2011 Ukrainian Government is going to cancel moratorium on the free trade of land. At the same time a lot of agricultural and recreation lands in Ukraine are already disposed and belong to politicians and olygarchs.
The idea is to create an open and free online CMS (Content Management System) that will be available to local publishers in order to provide them with a map visualising market pieces of land with location specifics (including GPS data), size of land, ownership details, when it was sold by the state, for how much money, and other relevant data as well as multimedia.The project could serve also to investigative reporting efforts and will help reporters to create general picture from local maps. This idea may partly solve the problem of transparency of land ownership in Ukraine and can be scalable also to other countries facing similar issues.

I am certainly excited to see how these teams of “social innovators” plan to make the small changes needed to make the world a better place and what the challenges they see lying ahead of them.

If you are interested in SICamp and can make it to beautiful Bosnia and Hercegovina, then come along to the centre of Sarajevo, to Hotel Europe 9-10 July 2011.

Back in late May 2010. I was in the admin phase of my departure from Kabul and had an amount of things to “take back home”. My employers (NATO/ISAF) gave a generous 50kg shipping allowance for personal effects, which I fell easily into BUT I had a small portable suitcase studio that I wanted to ship to Bosnia, rather than the UK where my personal effects would be delivered.

Off I went to the base DHL office, who said for the princely sum of US $236, they could ship direct to Banja Luka.

Now I have had the ultimate in shitty customs experiences before when shipping effects from Canada to Bosnia, where my clothes etc spent some 5 months in the customs sheds at Sarajevo airport while people decided about the rules, import duty etc etc. Finally everything WAS released but the duty I paid was, to say the least, rather High!

Shipping again but this time using DHL would be easier, less stressful, Right?

Wrong!

The shipment didn’t make Banja Luka to start with. Once again Sarajevo comes into play. Bosnian Customs asking for all kind of documentation (I have to point out here that there’s nothing of value, well intrinsic value, in the suitcase), but no! they want to know everything. I was waiting for them to ask for my inside leg measurement.

Again the total valued case (US $170) gets an import duty of 135 BAM (US $99), some 40-50% of the value!!!

Can this possibly be correct? On researching the web it seems Bosnians are almost united in their annoyance regarding 40-50% import duty.

But in this part of the world people power makes little difference as the country is still run by politicians of extremely dubious credentials and where “Back Hand Bribes” are still the way life goes round and round.

I am NOT saying Bosnian customs officials are corrupt.

But the following statistics for 2011 so far might just suggest …..

79.3% Bosnians and Hercegovinans pay in cash (a sum of 222 Euros average - 28% of the average wage), 14.5% pay in food & drinks, while 10.8% pay through other means. The remaining 2% do not recollect.

According to total calculation of all factors and to the corruption rates, the most corrupt nation in the Western Balkans is Bosnia and Hercegovina, with approximately 20.7% of the country corrupted.

Stats from Corruption in the Balkans, 2011 report

So, should you have gifts or anything else for friends, relatives, significant others in this beautiful country in the “Heart of the Balkans”, then wait till you can bring them yourself (or find a mule). The chances of a border crossing inspection is a lot less likely and you just MIGHT be able to “negotiate” any duty should it be asked for.

Me?

Well 135 BAM is being paid and I now wait to see if DHL will finally complete the “door to door” delivery.

Serbian Christmas morning sky 2012.
“Hristos se rodi”

Home made Uštipci ;)

The new iPhone cradle ;) (Taken with instagram)

Happy New Year ;)

Icing sugar view ;)

A “Cooper” solution until we find something better. At least he ant run off and get hurt.

The powers is back so let’s get cooking

Another power outage

OK so some 30sec “burst video” from the area where I live starting very soon ;)

How can I make my content from over here in Bosnia more interesting for you guys?

Back on Keek. Thx Phil C! Would luv you all to follow my blog about life in Bosnia at davidbailey.posterous.com

Jack Frost morning

My “Alarm. Clock”

Time to light a nice log fire