Bosnia and Herzegovina...

Some people believe that Bosnia and Herzegovina has almost 100.000 mines as a result of the 1992-1995 war. As you can see many places which have been natural protected sites are marked as land mines. The scars of the war can still remain.

Thank godness, people have finally started looking at the signs and stopped taking them off. Land mines have killed almost 2000 people since the end of the war 11 years ago. This does not mean that the country is not safe, it just means that you have to watch where you are walking, ask the people where the mind fields are (because some of them are really close to the cities) and don't go into the hills and forests alone!

For those of you who don't know it, demining is a very expensive process which sometimes takes years. At least the people know where the mines are and the signs are there so you can watch your step, at least for the time being (some estimate even for the next 5-10 years).

If you are visiting Sarajevo, you can contact me and I will show you where NOT to go :)

Destiny...

Do you believe in destiny?

Do you believe that if something is meant to happen it will happen no matter what we do or try not to do?

I am a great believer in higher forces, nothing religious, just plain forces which have written down a part of our destiny for each and every one of us and no matter what we do, we cannot change the things that will happen.

I believe we can influence the effects and the way we are going; those are the things we can control but in general life is just about reacting to these impulses we get from the outside world.

I also believe that everything happens for a reason whether it’s something nice to reward us, or something bad to teach us a lesson.

It might sound pretty plain and boring but some time ago I read that life is about 2 things:

1. Surviving
2. Reproducing

Quite sad... from a biological perspective this might be true, but from the human side it is much more.

Life is about art and enjoying, about having fun and creating, about doing what you love and creating a perfect world around you etc.

Life to me is exploring, learning and creating something to be proud of when we die.

My destiny seems to be taking me to Singapore, of course with a little help from my travel agent and the bank…

Where is yours taking you?

Love song...

Your Love Song Is

Yellow by Coldplay "Look at the stars, Look how they shine for you, And everything you do, Yeah they were all yellow" You're so in love, it's like a drug.

What Love Song Are You?

Ha ha ha, they got it right... I love Coldplay and this song. :)

Loveless life...

I came across this picture which got me thinking... Do you agree with this because I am still not sure ..? Does love really make the world go round? Can love save us all? Is there lack of love in the world?
In a world like we live in today,
is a story which lacks love really not worth telling?
If this is the case, I am afraid you migh wait a while untill I post my next story :P - 38 more days :)

If you are not prejudicial

I come from a mixed-non-religious family and have been brought up to appreciate all the worlds’ religions and nations.

But living in this part of the world, it has been quite difficult to adjust to the fact that religion=nationality which I was not brought up to believe in.

For me religion is something personal. Something no one should be fighting about because at the end of the day all religions have the same fundamental teachings and believe in a force (God/Allah or any other name) which has created everything on earth and beyond.
They are all based on teachings such as: don't kill, don't steel, be kind, help the poor, don't do to others what you wouldn't want to be done to you etc.

My grandmother is an Orthodox Christian, my mother is a Catholic Christian and my father is a Muslim.

We have survived in our little community as a family thanks to the fact that we all respect each other and each others beliefs. This had, thankfully, never been a serious issue in my house. But marriages are always more difficult and more demanding than the ones of the same religion.

I had a friend once who said "all kids from mixed marriages are messed up" I got very mad at this and don't agree at all. I think I have become richer and more concious about a lot of things or maybe just be the fact that I can get info about the religions first hand.

Questions to answer:
1. Which way is the couple to get married? (church/mosque/the municipality office/other way)
2. What are the children’s names going to be? (are they going to be neutral or something which emphasizes which religion they are)
3. Are the children going to be baptized or circumcised or undergo any other special ritual which is connected to religion?
4. How are the children going to be brought up? What are they going to be taught?
5. Where is the family going to be buried after its’ members pass away?

All of the above questions are things which are not discussed and I have only a few years ago understood the complications and how difficult and demanding living like that is.

I don’t know about the other countries but in Bosnia and Herzegovina the matter of religion is the main topic and one of the things over which people here fought for 4 years (1992-1995).

I have tried reading all the holy books, went to a Pakistani school with Muslims, went to a Church of England school in UK, celebrated all Bayrams, Easters and Christmases.

I am Muslim and proud of it, but I never intend for my children to be pressured into picking a religion or being religious at all. Just like my parents let me make the choice and let me do my thing.

This has really opened my eyes and made me become more awake to everything that is going on in the world. What for?

The thing which I am the most proud of though is the fact that I can be very sarcastic, cynical and ironic about a lot of things concerning the current conflict between the East and the West and the political games which more or less are made to rotate around religion so people would look past the fact that the politicians are after only one thing: money, which at the end of the day makes the world go round.
If you have time I have a fantastic clip about Muslim irony called if I wasn’t Muslim. Check it out.

I just had to post this :)

Green green mountains

Igman 2
Originally uploaded by *Merili*.

After the azur blue seas in Greece and the dusty roads of the 'under construction before the summer film festival' Sarajevo, the roads took me to the Olympic mountains above Sarajevo.

I was lucky enough to get $5.000 from the WB for a project called the Greening Challenge which involved 15 people from my consultative group at the WB to go to the mountains, stay at a mountain house, cooperate with the national forest association and plan some trees, post some signs, clean the rubbish on the mountains, put some garbage cans and have a lot of fun doing it.

I have always been in love with the nature and this might be the primary reason i fell in love with Bosnia and Herzegovina, it's green mountains, it's 24km blue coast line, it's wild rivers and friendly people.

I used the three days spent in the mountains to reflect, meditate and almost freeze to death because it was soooo cold.
I couldn't believe that it's June and I was wearing all of my winter clothes.

It was a memorable project and we had lots and lots of fun. I suppose that's what it's like when you are with a bunch of people you like...

Not much more to go...

The countdown on my blog is coming to a zero very fast. Not much more till my lift off to Singapore. :)
I have one of my last partial exams today. Just taking a break from my studies to write this post. In exactly 5 hours I have an exam from Marketing Communications I wrote about at the beginning of this blog.
If I pass this exam, I have only 2 more exams untill graduation.
What, once upon a time, seemed so far away and quite unreachable is really coming true. I will be graduating this year. Finally!

So this is the plan:
- pass my exam today
- pass the two more exams untill July
- go to Singapore on the 28th July
- celebrate my birthday on the 29th of July when I land there
- spent a wonderful month in SE Asia
- some back home and start working for a job (have a zillion options already)
- finish my graduation paper
- be happy doing all of the above.

Even though it's been raining in Sarajevo, I am in a surprisingly good mood hope this works well for the exam.

Cheers..