The Balkan Perspectives podcast is forumZFD’s audio format on Dealing with the Past and Peace Education in the Western Balkans. The podcast is produced in four languages (Albanian, BHCS, Macedonian and English) by the forumZFD offices in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
As I was pondering how to start this article, I recalled how after the revolution or putsch of 5 October (depending how various people see it), when Milošević was kicked out of politics, the great reactivation of youth occurred sometime around mid-2006 with the referendum for the amendment of the Constitution of Serbia and the parliamentary elections of 2008.[…]
The process of transitional justice and dealing with the past has been going on for over twenty-six years. However, it seems that credible information about the war, and about the process of reconciliation between the countries in the region is not available to young people in Serbia. The Balkan Perspectives interviewees agree that institutions bear great responsibility,[…]
Throughout history, the region of the Western Balkans has been an overly complex one. For some, the Balkans produced more history than it can consume, and this has been the root cause or the casus belli of numerous conflicts in the 1990s. However, for other critics, cultural diversity poses a potential threat to the region. The diversity[…]
I firmly believe that journalism, as a force of responsible, professional, and ethical public speech, has the potential to create a democratic and open society. In this article I share personal reflections on why I perceive journalism as a peace mission, especially in a post-conflict society such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. Here – under the influence of[…]
The history of Bosnia and Herzegovina has many words to say about the young people living there. Those words, however, have yet to find their way to a common binder. Marked by a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-national coexistence, we are still unable to finalize the process of building peace, or at least establishing a lasting dialogue. Peace[…]
Just as bridges are important to cross from one side of the river to the other, so are the youth and their role in allowing our society to keep moving forward. We would all appreciate relying on a safe bridge that would not let us fall into the river. So, what makes us feel safer while crossing[…]
“If we are to reach real peace in the world, we shall begin with the youth,” Mahatma Gandhi once said. The same could be applied in the case of peace and reconciliation process in the Balkans. Young people, born during and after the wars in Yugoslavia, are precisely those who can play the crucial role in building[…]