Day 67: Stubbornness May Be A Good Trait Sometimes

(Her :  Joanna)

Can you imagine yourself living in a war zone for three and a half years without water, food, electricity, an army to start with and military weapons?  People in Sarajevo did.  Per information the guide of the infamous “Tunnel” tour and in museum, we gathered a few things have make it possible for Sarajevo to withstand the war for this long without giving in to Bosnian-Serbs:

• There happened (luckily) to be a natural water spring within a brewery in town that supply the whole city drinkable water during the whole war
• UN occupied the airport of Sarajevo for supplies to fly into the area
• Army of Sarajevo dig the “Tunnel of Hope” that allows supplies (food and weapons) to get into the city   

The will for people in Sarajevo to defend their land was incredible.  Since Bosnia had only declared independence the day before the war started, Bosniak had no proper army nor weapons when the war started.  It was amateur civilians who volunteered.  In the History Museum of Sarajevo, you can see home-made military uniforms that the soldiers worn during the war.      

Despite seeing the brutality of their own city being destroyed and death of their love ones, people in Sarajevo stubbornly refused to be despaired.  Throughout the war, cultural events such as beauty pageant, music concert, night life and soccer games still went on.   Isnt’ it impressive?

I knew war was bad but seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp from WWII and hearing from locals what had happened in Sarajevo with my own eyes and ears, it put bad into perspective.  We are the lucky ones living in a peaceful part of the world but are we bystanders witnessing war around us happening everyday in parts of the world distant from us?  Are there anything each of us can do?  If wishing “world peace” is your New Year wish, what have you done to contribute on that?  Seeing what’s happening in Syria breaks my heart that we, human being, didn’t learn our lesson from our history……

With this thought, it reminds me of a song of John Lennon – Imagine.