School of Life .. Why do the Bosnians coexist easily with the siege of Coruna?

Muhammad Sharbi-Sarajevo

The Bosnians repeat a famous phrase written by Ali Izzat Begovic in his autobiography, where he said: "Sometimes you do not know what is good for you and what is evil in this life. If I had not been imprisoned in 1946, which is what I and my family considered a catastrophe, we would not have been killed by the killing that It was my fellow colleague who resolved my place in the organization after my arrest. He was executed by firing squad after his trial in October 1949, and so the prison saved my life! ” 

The Bosnians did not know that the years of the Serbian siege on many of their cities, led by the capital Sarajevo, and that the severe suffering they lived, would one day be beneficial to them, as the cruelty of the years taught them an invaluable lesson, they say, and made them a strong people and a role model in defiance. Difficulties and crisis management.

Today they realize the value of the lesson and the greatness of the experiment, and courtes each other saying "What does the Corona blockade mean for a siege that lasted 1425 days" and make comparisons between those harsh conditions and the conditions of social separation imposed now on the country.

Lessons of life
The Bosnians do not remember the lessons of the siege alone, but some of those who lived with them brought it with them, among these American journalist Barbara Demic, who wrote in the Los Angeles Times editorial, an article entitled "How did life in Sarajevo prepare me during the siege to coexist with isolation due to the Corona virus?"

"She started her career as a foreign correspondent in the 1990s in Sarajevo, which was almost under a medieval siege, where she was isolated and bombed constantly," Barbara says.

"I remember when a Bosnian woman asked me," What do you think, how would you have lived, Americans, if you were in such circumstances? ", The question has stuck with my mind over the years, and now, with the Corona virus, I got to know part of the answer."

Then she continues, "This does not mean equating the suffering of the people of Sarajevo with the suffering of the Americans today, as the shortage of toilet paper, for example, is one of the major problems. In Sarajevo, people could not get water, and leaving the house in search of food meant Risking your life. "

Keeping pace with life
and the multiplicity of lessons I learned from Sarajevo and "is to adapt the population to the new reality and exert their effort while they are trapped in their homes or in underground shelters to keep up with the aspects of normal life, including their daily attempt to change their clothes, despite the difficulty of washing them without a regular water supply."

Football teams also played mini games in underground shelters - and talk to Barbara - and women devised recipes for "state of war eaters" to simulate the happy times kitchen.

One popular recipe is to assemble old bread and soak it in water, to remake it, and then cook it to look like a Vienna steak. "It was a pie with air pie without filling at all." When coffee was running out of the house, people used lentils, they put it on the stove until it prevailed, then they ground it and prepared it to drink like coffee! "

During the siege, Sarajevo was also known for its black humor, sarcastic posters and sarcastic graffiti. At the intersections of the streets where Serb snipers are expected, Bosnians wrote to the walls one sentence, "Run or rest in peace!"

And about the role of art in increasing the ability to resist, she says during the siege, the importance of art and music is increasing, but in a new way, as it plays a role in arousing the emotions that people retain from happier times, and "I watch recent videos of Italians singing opera from their balcony. I remembered the cello player who played, in the wreckage of the Sarajevo Library in 1993, the track "Adagio in the Little Ladder of the Music Composer Tommazo Albinoni". 

The American journalist was not the only one who witnessed the steadfastness of Sarajevo, as did the well-known Serbian writer, "Biliana Sirljanovic", during a television interview, on the "Brava Tema" program, the "Brava" channel, after recovering from infection with the Corona virus.

"Some complain about measures of isolation and social separation, and they claim this is a violation of freedom and human rights," she says. "I would like to remind viewers that it is precisely these days that the anniversary of the beginning of the Sarajevo siege passes, as people stayed there for four years, under lead, without electricity, without electricity." No water. "

And she added, "The cry of these people was not for the freedom to go out, it was a cry for a drink of water, and for fear of snipers who were on the lookout."

Post-crisis
As for the psychologists, they see the issue from another angle. In her interview with the newspaper "Factor", Professor of Psychology at the University of Sarajevo Jannah Huserimovich says, "I am not concerned about our ability to manage the crisis, we have learned this well and trained for four years during the aggression against us, But I am concerned about how to manage post-crisis. " 

And she added, "During the years of aggression, we believed that the most important thing was to stay, to escape our lives from the imminent danger that surrounded us, we did everything to stay alive, and we succeeded in that, but then we realized that the risks of post-crisis are more serious and difficult, and it took a long time to treat After the crisis a long time, we are still suffering from its effects. "

And now - Husrimovich asserts - "We must not repeat the same thing with the Coronavirus, we must work to survive, but at the same time our eyes must be on the future for post-crisis management."