A Woman of ALL Nations (or no nation)

In the West, we hypothesize about why the conflict in the Balkans happened: the rise of Nationalism, the strive or ethnic independence, ethnic supremacy, da da da (as they say here), but talking to locals who have been displaced by the war gives you a different insight, naturally.

The first was my hostel/homestay host in Mostar, Bosnia. She was a Catholic, married to a Muslim, displaced to Croatia and then Norway (because a Muslim last name just did not work out in Croatia). She was explaining the war to me in terms of sides. She however could not explain to me how or why these sides developed. As she said, "It was confusing. No one knew what was going on. I just knew to leave .

Here in Kotor, Montenegro, I met a Bosnian woman from Banja Luka (she was the hostel manager). We got to talking. When I asked her what nationality she was, she said, "Nationality? I am a woman of the world. I just happened to be in Montenegro, but I'm from Bosnia. If I felt like living in Spain I would. You need to stop thinking of nationality. People who thought of that were stupid. "

I asked her how she got here, she said she was on holiday here then the NATO airstrikes began and should could not get back to Banja Luka, so she opened up shop as a hairdresser and a clothing maker. As she said, "Forget what you know. Nationalism or politics. All that matters, just in case is what you can do with your hands."

I asked her what she thought had happened and why it happened (a broad question I know, but I wanted to keep her talking. She was very bright and enthusiastic to talk about this, unlike others I have met here). As she said, "Yugolavia was a beautiful thing, but then this whole WW2 fright got in the way. The Croatians started wearing symbols that scared others. If they had not been allowed to remind us (the children of a scarred generation) of this suffering, then we would have been okay. But no, the get Milosevic in and they ordered a war. Who? I don't know. Its not Nationalism its MONEY. We did not cause this war. Someone else did. Someone said, "Okay, 60,000 people will die, we will focus on the Bosniaks, go!" and that is what happened. It was money. Why else is Russia invested in Montenegro, or Italy in Croatia, or the US in Kosovo? Others dividied it up. Someone ordered a war. Yugoslavia was strong."

She continued her distaste for nationalism, humanitarianism, etc. "Humanitarian workers were all young, like you, and had money. They all just sat in fancy houses with electricity, when we had none. They could not help except with a bottle of water. That is all."

As she said, "Memory is a scary thing. Nationalism was dangerous, but people are stupid. We were beautiful united. It is not stopping me. I am a woman of this planet."

Whether I agree or not, I do agree with her last statement.