Labour on a Leash

The last few weeks have become a bit of a blur - after settling into a place for a few days in Sarajevo, I hit the road about a week and a half ago to spend some time with family and go down to the beautiful Dalmatian coast of Croatia. It was magnificant, with it's clear, warm waters and beautiful cliffs, vegetation, fauna and smiling happy people. I had a really great time.

I was on the island of Brac, which is a 50 minute ferry ride south of Split for those that know their geography. My cousin Marijana and I stayed in a student dorm in a small town on the island called Pucisce. This town hasn't really been hit by tourist stampeads yet so it was pretty quiet, and we got a taste of the normal lifestyle that goes on among the locals. So no Euro-Turbofolk night clubbing, but one has to cut their losses when under such extreme circumstances.

We seriously struck gold.

The place we were in was in line with a 4-star hotel and had a room to ourselves, breakfast and dinner every day, our own bathroom and fridge space, and across the road from one of the best swimming spots in town...all for the price of a typical night in a Split hostel. I got a bit of a tan!

We also visited the other side of the island - a town called Bol, which has the most famous beach on the island (pictured above). It really is something else! I couldn't quite believe the beauty of it all and that I was there. I missed out on snorkelling and other water sports though, due to lack of planning this time, but we spent all day lounging on the beach and swimming.

In among all of this pristine beauty and amazing landscape, I also found out about Julia Gillard's climate policy and her inability to recognise the public's cries for action. Talk about a sinker.

From the snippets of media releases I've read and Julia Gillard's speech for the election anouncement, Australian politics seems to be lagging, still. Australia may have an Environmental Protection Authority, recycling (though off-shore half the time!), world class water treatment, and other environmental policies, we seem to be lagging in terms of climate action just as much as Bosnia - which lacks all of the above.

It's not fair that Australia's young generation that is now entering the workforce and influential voting basket is not getting what it was promised - firmer action on climate change.

I happily voted for K-Rudd and labour in 2007, and nervously crossed my fingers in front of a friend's TV as I followed the election. I cheered and hoo-rahed as he won more and more votes. I breathed a sigh of relief when I thought 'now my thoughts and actions may actually come to fruition'. But I was fooled - by a government made up of politicians that are led around Canberra by the mining and coal lobbyists.

Labour is on a leash. It's complicated, simply put.

The environmental movement in Australia, and in fact around the world, is campaigning and fighting for social, political, financial, environmental, economic and moral reasons. Never, ever have we all had to fight for all of these things at the same time. All previous social movements have had one focus - for example the Feminist Revolution, the Gay Rights movement, Carson's fight against DDT and other atmospheric pollutants - all one major focus.

Climate change literally changes everything.

Our tiny global village that we've created is struggling - we've bitten off more than we can chew and now the people and it's government are squirming.

Australia's mining industry has significant leverage and good reason to fight. It's our bread and butter, and it has been for many terms for many governments. It's made Australia competitive on the global market, and raised/maintained our standard of living - Australia really is a superior country to live and love. Am I wrong?

BUT.

For how long can we sustain this way of life if our north, south, east and west coasts all suffer major climatic shifts in the next 10 years? Where's that outlook Ms. Gillard? How will we 'create a better future, together' if together by your definition excludes generation X and Y - who have voiced in numerous ways that they want action. Remember the election in 2007 when you got a bit of a pay rise and a better job? Remember we voted you in because your government outlined a better approach and more desirable outlook on life in 2020-2050?

I'm not going to spend time looking for quotes from IPCC reports, and other scientific proof that climate change is in fact happening now - it's a waste of time. Everyone knows that climate change is happening, everywhere around the world. Get a grip, Ms Gillard. You have fucking consensus.

My 72 year old grandmother experienced her first flood in the north of Bosnia last month - never in her memory had such rains fallen this time of year. They also had a longer and harder winter. The mosqiotoes are in the gazzillions. Fruit and veg is a bit slow this year. Things ARE changing.

Australia has so much potential, as a rich and young country. We have the resources and brain power to create a renewable energy baseload power supply nation wide. We're just lacking a leader who's willing to chew on the leash or choke a little to get it's owner to do what it wants. We've got a little terrior for a leader when what we need is a great dane (punn entirely intended).

I feel a little uncertain about Australia's future, and uneasy about our globalised world - what have we actually come to?

With big hopes for the future, and drive to kick ass when I vote and later when I get home, thanks for reading.

Sej x

Bosna and it's lack of functioning toilets...

OK, so when you go to a country that's in the developmental/reconstructive phase you're not really supposed to expect things to be perfect. But Bosna, to my complete annoyance, has this strange inability to get their shit together....literally!

When I went to check out the first apartment I ever looked at last week, the place was really sweet as were the owners, but the bathroom consisted of a 1x1.5m space, with a small sink, a squat toilet, and a shower head for showering ABOVE THE SQUAT TOILET. Mmmm...yeah.

Let's not get into the nooks and crannies of public toilets except that you should ALWAYS carry tissues, and if there's a roll of paper, steal half of it on your way out. Ha..

But, on a more serious note (!), I have a new place in Sarajevo! Eyyyyyyy!!!!! It's got it's little quirks, like things going wrong with the toilet, but after two days of cleaning (and a few odd jobs in the next week or two), this place is turning out to be quite sweet. I've managed to score the bottom floor of a house to myself. Upstairs are the owners - a family of 8. There's mum, Amela who's 35. Dad, Sadik, 42. Then the kids...Merijem (15), Aisha (13), Fatima (9ish), Lejla (7), Amina (5) and Muhamed (3). And the cat whose name is Chiribu or something....didn't quite get that one!

They're the cutest kids. Yesterday day I enjoyed Amela's eggs for breakfast with Muhamed, who loved the salami I shared with him. Think I won his love..he visited me about another 6 times during the day, each time with a new stain on his t-shirt, a new dose of that 3 year old snotty charm and babbly conversation. They're all really smiley and happy go lucky. It's probably got something to do with the fact that their contact with the internet and TV is quite limited, and this house is nestled amongst fruit trees and greenery - meaning they're outside most of the day.

Sarajevo is a pretty old city, so when you're as close to the centre as I am, you don't really expect a garden. It's nice!

In my last blog I mentioned working in an environmnetal activist group. Well, I had a snoop around and found a group called Eko Akcija - who mostly work on projects as they crop up but their main aim is to bring awareness about the environment to the public, and highlight the governments short comings. An example: there's a super highway getting built and it's supposed to be going through Prenj (which is a national park). So Eko Akcija isn't against the highway, they'd just like to see more responsible development...cool! So I've told them that I have some time and they've asked me to maybe help with some translation, and also some water related issues. I'll be volunteering about 2-3 days a week maybe, but I'm starting properly in late July/early August.

The other topic I promised was politics. Very briefly, Bosnia and Hercegovina has 3 presidents. Each one represents the major ethnic groups, the Muslim Bosnians, Catholic Croatians, and Greek Orthodox Serbs. They have a four year term as per usual, except that they take turns of being leader for 8 months. Each president is part of a different office, meaning different administration. This means that a lot of tax payers money ends up in the poorly maintained toilet, figuratively speaking.

This sort of government, as far as the street has taught me, gets very little done and the politicians have far too much money. It also means that the essential departments such as water utilities, healthcare, power, civil works and so on are always behind with work, and there's always someone else to blame.

Water authorities, to my amazement, don't exist. I'm not entirely sure about who does the water treatment here and to what capacity. As far as I've been able to construct from conversations with a few different groups of people, the sewers here are combined. For those who don't know what that means - combined sewers put the stormwater from the streets and gutters together with the wastewaters from homes and industry. This sort of water conveyance was phased out in Australia and the States decades ago. So I suspect this combined water is directed to a river somewhere. It's a little scary. And a little freaky that no one really seems to know what happens to water!

There's an election here in November, and in Australia as far as I've been told. I get to vote in two seperate countries in one month! Two votes one day, queen of the world tomorrow!!

Alright, I'll stop punishing you all.

Enough toilet humour.

Thanks for reading and for all your awesome feedback :-)

Sej xx

Deep Roots..

I've spent nearly a week in Sarajevo and it kind of feels pretty homey. I have to say that I'm looking forward to finding a place and unpacking my bag for a little while, getting out my bits and pieces that remind me of the people that I love and fill my fridge with the amazing seasonal summer fruit and veg.

I've been thinking a lot about what home means, and what this identity issue means to me. The time I've spent here has really put me in amongst a community that think my story is relatively normal and common compared to others. The more time I spend at this hostel, the more times I've repeated and retold my story - each time it's slightly different in level of detail and length.

What it comes down to really - my identity hasn't got much to do with where I'm from at the end of the day - it's more about where I feel comfortable investing my time and with who I choose to spend it with. I don't have to be Bosnian or Australian necessarily - it's more about how much of an understanding I have of both of those cultures that affects how I fit within them. Obvious maybe? I'm almost sure that I've come to this conclusion in one way or another at some other time, otherwise I'd be incapable of making friends in either culture.

There's a distinct difference between the Bosnian community here in Bosnia and the ones over in Australia. The youth that I've spent some time with here are all pretty clued into the politics, official and unofficial. They all seem to have a pretty good grip on why the country is still so unorganised and often in a complete administrative mess. They're all studying - and studying hard, so have this amazing understanding of the world. I heard a statistic the other day that nearly 70% of annual government expenses go towards administration - since there are 3 presidents at any one time and each needs their own office and team. I'll get onto what that means in a minute, but my point here is that people of all ages have evolved within this society since the war. No one appreciates the atrocities in the 90's in any way - obviously - and everyone pretty much agrees that no one side got anything out of it. The whole thing was a complete waste...of everything, unfortunately. But the important point here is that they've grown as the city has been rebuilt, and things have changed, they've changed.

The Bosnian youth and older generations in Australia however are a bit behind - I don't have any memories of talking Bosnian politics with anyone apart from my parents back home...what the fuck's with that? I wonder if they know how the local and national governments work, and what life is actually like here. This has left the Bosnian community in Melbourne in the past a little - most people associate Bosnia with pre-war lives and any family holidays that they've gone on. It's a damn shame. This place isn't greater than what it was, it's different. I just find it a little wierd that some of the Bosnian Australians that I've known in my time can be so patriotic when they have no real idea of what Bosnia has evolved into since they left it.

This country isn't unsafe.

Sarajevo isn't a place filled with pick pockets.

Sarajevo has it's scars, but it's not a tortured city under siege any more - it's beautiful, vibrant, bubbling with life and full of mosques, cathedrals, churches, synagogues, and other temples. It's full of galleries and museums, bookshops, cafes and bars, and people who always 'know a guy' if you need something.

This place is amazing - the people here are incredible.

Every non-Bosnian speaking visitor that I've met feels a sense of anger towards the US, UN and Serbia in some ways. They've spoken to me about how they're so angry about the fact that a war that took a month to stop in 1995 was allowed to go on for 5 long years. Why was Sarajevo under siege for 4 years? It's nice to know that there is a whole generation of people coming through here and seeing Sarajevo/Bosnia for what it really is, not associating it with the images that the media portrayed in the 90's. Hopefully the bad reputation that the war has left behind will be obliterated as more people see it as an attractive tourist destination.

Today a convoy of trucks adorned with flowers and roses passed through the city on their way to Potocari, in Srebrenica, which is on the mid-east boarder with Serbia. It's a town where the biggest genocide occurred since WW2, and Sunday is the official day of recognising/mourning for all the fallen souls. The trucks were full of coffins filled with the remains of bodies that have taken this long (15 years!!)to be sorted and identified since they were found in mass graves in various locations around Bosnia. These trucks were big, and there were about 6 or 7 of them. A man standing close by told me that the trucks were transporting 700 coffins.

I cannot really begin to describe the atmosphere at the main square in the Old Town of Sarajevo for the 5 minutes that it took for these trucks to go past. And this happens every year.


On a brighter note. I went to Vrelo Bosna yesterday for my birthday, which is this amazing natural spring that is the main source of drinking water for a part of Sarajevo. It was heaven on earth! And it truly made my birthday very special - thank you Abby for coming with me and for coming into my life in such a beautiful way! I also went out last night with a bunch of locals, who took me to a place called Sloga. It was a trashy-music turbo-folk kind of nightclub. I had a great night - got to bed by 4.30am, and woke up fully clothed. Oh. Dear.

Hmm...think I may leave politics and my new volunteering position with an environmental activist group for another time - this got way longer than intended!!

Thanks for reading!

Hope you're all getting through winter :-)

Sej xo

Saraj-evo-ti-sve

So guys.

This is it.

I'm here - arrived in Sarajevo yesterday morning at sleepy 6am - in the midst of Bosnia's cultural centre, from eons before me and the more recent drama from the 90's.

Fuck, it is a COOL city. In two days, this city has delivered so much and all at my fingertips. Here's a short little spin on what I've experienced so far. I got into a cab yesterday and got completely ripped off, and taken to a hostel that I really didn't want to be in.

Little did I know at the time - I was mostly relying on my gut instinct (and I have to insert here that my gut is VERY confused at the moment with all the anxiety I've been feeling) but my leaving that first hostel was SO crucial.

I am now staying at Haris Youth Hostel - a place that was born post war, by a 15 year old (Haris - a year my junior)! This kid. Started. A. Hostel. From. Nothing. At. 15. And he had been here in this house his whole life and through the craziness that was the war.

I've had the enormous pleasure of hanging out with some local girls and guys that I met by accident at a music festival in Zagreb a few weeks ago.

I've met Haris' parents, who have now offered to help me find a place. I've gone and inspected an appartment which is very close to this hostel - situated about 15 minutes from the main old town square (bas carsija). Still have to look at a few places tomorrow, but it's all looking incredibly promising.

I've seen the most amazing sunset - overlooking Sarajevo - something that would be across the road if I take this first apartment.

I'll add more in my next entry about the emotional and anxiety ridden roller coaster ride that I've been experiencing. Also something I must get my head around before I can write about it.

Thanks for reading!

A small shout out to Dane for all of your support, and to my family for their persistance with contacting me - I love hearing from all of you, and love YOU even more.

Emily Lois if you're out there - I miss your guts.

Thanks for reading!

Cao cao for now :-)

Sej xo

P.S. 'evo ti sve' means 'you can have everything' - that little punn's for you Laura Harris xoxoxx