Friday, October 13, 2006

Article: Bosnia's Education System

An in depth article about some of the problems facing the Bonsian education system.
The UWC schools do seem to be a positive factor though.


Article

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really a good article on education in BiH! There is no question that the UWC model ought to be followed. The fact is that without education Bosnians can neither improve their circumstances at home nor be desirable immigrants elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

It is despicated, offensive, and quite barbaric to see Bosniak and Croat children segregated in some schools in Central Bosnia. That's disgusting. It does not bring any positive move for Catholics and Muslims who were living and will live in peace for centuries to come.

When I was in highschool during the war, there was no segregation. Muslims and Catholics went to school together. I even enjoyed staying on optional Catholic religious classes, listening to their view of god and spiritual life. Although I never embraced religion as something that I must follow, I do have appreciation towards Islam and Catholicism.

I have never seen any photos about Catholic priests blessing Croat soldiers or defending massacres that Croat soldiers committed. But there is plenty of photos showing eastern Orthodox (aka: Serb) priests doing nasty blessings of war criminals.

No matter how many political disagrements we have, Bosniaks and Croats will always be brothers.

Anonymous said...

I think the difference between Catholic clergy behavior in the war and Orthodox clergy behavior in the war had a lot to do with Pope John Paul II. If Catholic Croats did bad things to Muslims, then Pope John Paul II wasn't afraid to rebuke this behavior. So while I know bad things were done to Muslims, it was NEVER approved Catholics. Pope John Paul II was respected in Croatia, and by Croats in BiH. even by people who disagreed with him.
In the case of the Orthodox Church there is no similar central authority and the other difference is that peace is that the Catholic Croats and the Muslim Bosnians are very close in history, most Bosnian Muslims can trace Catholic Croat ancestors.

Shaina said...

Interesting point about the difference between the Catholic community (as a whole) and the Orthodox community (as a whole) reactions to the Balkan wars.

Besides the factor of Pope John II speaking out against atrocities; another factor was that there was very little (if any) speaking out against atrocities on behalf of the hierarchy in the Orthodox community.
I remember reading of an Orthodox Priest based in England who signed a statement condemning atrocities; but as far as I know, there was very little (if any) condemnation of the ethnic cleansing on behalf of Russian, Greek or the Serbian Orthodox leadership.
If anyhing the leadership, especially the Serbian and Greek leadership appears to have played a role, either tactically or morally supportive of the ethnic cleansing campaign against the Bosniaks.
The books: "The Bridge Betrayed" by Michael Sells and "Genocide in Bosnia" by Norman Cigar do a good job at outlining the role and support the hierarchy of the Serbian orthodox church gave to the "cause" of "Greater Serbia."