I was scanning the news articles on the Internet the past few days while waiting for it to warm up outside, and something “caught my eye.” It seems that a certain Bosnian city, MOSTAR (Balkans area), which is in the southern part and famous for “differences of opinions along ethnic lines,” but also for fine architectural accomplishments (Bosnia-Herzegovina), made headlines for something we take for granted.
News reports state that Mostar ended a deadlock between two dominant parties this past June, which cleared the way for the city’s FIRST ELECTION in TWELVE YEARS!
To set the background, Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats (SDA and HDZ), in a 1992—1995 war, had fought long and hard and violently for control over the city, and the area is still split along those lines.
Mostar has not held a local election since 2008. At that time, Bosnia’s Constitutional Court ruled that local election procedures were discriminatory and demanded that they be changed, and the two major parties (Croat and Bosniak) dawdled around for more than one decade, disagreeing about how to go about doing that!
And GUESS what took place during all that time of fighting between themselves? Basically, the city and its inner workings crumbled, while garbage piled up in the streets, needed repairs waited and waited, quality of life dropped and dropped, and people feuded and squabbled!
Ultimately, thousands of quality citizens, who were the backbone of the city, gave up the fight and began their searches for a better life in other locales—even many, many miles abroad!
What finally resolved the dispute was a ruling in favor of a local teacher, who bravely sued Bosnia for “discrimination” with its failure to hold local elections in Mostar! The court that stood up for the people was the European Court of Human Rights.
Unfortunately, as many voters lamented, “We waited too long to demand and implement local elections.”
Our hope, though, is that Mostar will be like it was before the war—a cosmopolitan city with quite a few ethnically mixed couples with a mixture of peoples in all parts of the city.
However, during the war, Croats moved to the Western side, and Bozniaks moved to the East. And since the war, we have had two post offices, two electric providers, two water suppliers, two phone networks, two public hospitals—and both sides are CRUMBLING!
According to hopeful reports, several smaller “Multi-Ethnic” parties were seeking seats in the City Council, along with the continued push of the two dominant parties.
From what I can tell, the election took place on Sunday, 12/20/20, but disappointingly, fewer than half of the eligible voters had voted about three hours before the 150 voting stations around the city were slated to close.
“Long-entrenched ‘ethnonationalists’ were projected to win,” but it also appears that the multi-ethnic alliances and parties now may have much more influence in the future of the city!
So, could this division happen in CITIES in the United States?
So, could this division happen in the UNITED STATES?
“Surely not!” But it is something about which to think!
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