Bosnian Friday Fact of the Day

The largest Bosnian community outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina is located in St Louis, USA. 

St Louis, Missouri, USA. (Source: Capt. Timothy Reinhart / USAF)

It is estimated that more than 50,000 Bosnians - including Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox - call the eastern Missouri city their home.
In fact, St Louis even has its own Bosnian-language newspaper publication titled 'Sabah', which is sold across all of the United States.

Overall, it is believed that there are over 2 million expatriate Bosnians around the world, with around 500,000 based in the United States, followed by an estimated 200,000 in Germany.

Lets not forget that the current population of Bosnia and Herzegovina is thought to be roughly 3.7 million - giving you some idea of how significant these numbers truly are.

Football: Greece host Bosnia-Herzegovina in Athens

Bosnia-Herzegovina is attempting to qualify for their
first major football tournament since the nation's
independence in 1992.
(Source: Kip.ba)

Bosnia and Herzegovina's quest for qualification for the 2014 Brazil World Cup continues tonight as they travel to Athens to take on 2004 European Champions Greece.

With both sides currently sitting atop of Group G after two qualifying matches - BiH is slightly ahead on goal-difference - the match could prove crucial to whether or not one or both nations will qualify for the Brazil tournament.

Only the top two sides from the six-team group will qualify for the World Cup, and with Slovakia hot on their heels in third place, a loss tonight for either side would be a huge set-back.

In their opening two matches, BiH obliterated minnows Liechtenstein 8-1 away from home, before going on to claim another three points with a 4-1 drubbing of Latvia in Zenica; whilst Greece opened their campaign with an impressive 2-1 win over the Latvians in Riga, before backing up with a 2-0 victory over Lithuania on home soil.

If Bosnia's football side - nicknamed 'Zmajevi' (or, 'Dragons') - manage to reach the 2014 World Cup, it will be the first time they have qualified for a major football tournament since becoming an independent nation in 1992.

As for the Greeks, despite their surprisingly lofty position of 10th on the current FIFA World rankings, their national side has failed to reach any great heights since their surprise success at the 2004 Euros.

As has been noted, however, Greece has the surprise factor - demonstrated by their ability to reach the final-eight of the Euro 2012 in June - not to mention that they are a very formidable opponent on home soil.

Ahead of tonight's fixture, just one thing can be certain; the Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens is sure to be the centre of a hot atmosphere, and I, personally, cannot wait to see the outcome of the match.

More than 200 Bosnians are believed to have travelled to Greece to support their side.

Good luck, Bosnia!
Sretno Zmajevi!

Photo of the Day: 10.10.2012

Supporters of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) prepare to depart from Zenica for Athens ahead of Friday's crucial World Cup Qualifying fixture between Greece and BiH.

(Source: Jasmin Hadzic / ZenicaBlog)

Football: BiH - Lithuania sold-out within hours

Zenica's Bilino Polje will host the World Cup Qualifying
fixture between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Lithuania on
Tuesday October 16.
(Source: Panoramio.com)

In somewhat farcical circumstances, it took just a number of hours on Monday for all tickets to be sold for next week's World Cup Qualifier to be held in Zenica between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Lithuania.

After going on sale at Zenica's 'Centrotrans Eurolines' outlet at 9 o'clock in the morning, all tickets for the October 16 fixture had been snapped up by midday - mostly by scalpers.

Restrictions upon purchasing tickets were relatively light, with people able to buy up to five tickets at a time without any need of showing identity cards. Unfortunately - and, apparently, not for the first time - this allowed scalpers to exploit the system by visiting the store back-and-forth several times to purchase a large number of tickets.

However, for those still wanting to attend the match, it is not all doom and gloom. There are still plenty of tickets available on the 'black market'.

As I discovered first-hand today, a number of scalpers are selling tickets for around double the price of the original cost, and only a matter of metres away from the door of the 'Centrotrans Eurolines' store!

Now, it has to be said, it is rather unbelievable that people are able to get away with ticket-scalping, and so publicly.

There are no two ways about it: scalping rips off real fans.

It is time for the authorities to stamp-down on such blatant acts as this.

It is, also, time for the ticketing companies to bring their selling procedures into line; therefore allowing more people to purchase tickets, and at normal prices!

----

All a bit of a shame, as I was planning on taking my partner to her first ever football match.

Oh well, looks like it will be another game in which we watch it from our couch with, maybe, a drink and bowl of chips!

Good luck, Bosna.

Bosnians embark on Hajj Pilgrimage

Participants of this year's Hajj Pilgrimage depart from
Zenica on Tuesday morning.
(Source: 7dana.info)

More than a hundred citizens from across Bosnia departed on buses on Tuesday morning for the annual Islamic pilgrimage to the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca.

The 127 participants took off yesterday as part of the Hajj pilgrimage; a yearly event in the Islamic calendar whereby Muslims from around the world descend on the cities of Mecca and Medina.

The pilgrims - comprising of people from Sarajevo, Zenica, Tuzla, Mostar, Kakanj, Tesanj, Travnik, Jajce, Visoko, Vitez and Bosanska Krupa - will drive to Istanbul where they will catch a flight to Jordan, before re-boarding buses to continue their journey into Saudi Arabia.

People of all ages are included in the Bosnians to make this year's Hajj pilgrimage by bus.

At the age of 83, Sarajevo's Aziz Frlj is the oldest person to participate, while 20-year-old Elma Talic, of Zenica, is the youngest.

This year's Hajj is expected to fall between the 24th and 29th of October, with the Bosnian bus travellers predicted to return to BiH on November 3.

Overall, more than 1,200 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina are expected take part in the pilgrimage this year.

BiH's Municipal Elections: Some Interesting Facts.

Municipal elections took place across Bosnia and
Herzegovina on Sunday October 7.
(Source: Klix.ba)

As I reported to you yesterday, citizens in 136 municipalities across BiH went to the polls yesterday for local council and mayoral elections.

Already, just one day later, some facts and figures have been released which have made for some very, uh.. well, interesting reading.

Thanks to state news agency Anadolu, here are some of yesterday's interesting occurrences:

• Only 53.37% (1.65 million) of registered voters in BiH took to the polling booths yesterday to cast their votes. The nation's Electoral Commission deemed this as 'satisfactory'.
• A mayoral candidate in the municipality of Odzak was disqualified after it was discovered he had placed 55 'fake' votes for himself in the ballot box.
• Elections in Srebrenica were temporarily halted on two occasions over the course of the day due to running out of voting slips.
• In the municipality of East Mostar, a candidate won to the position of mayor with just 96 votes; further intriguing, he only had one rival - whom trailed in the final count by just five votes.
• In Neum, a town on the BiH coastline, there was only one candidate running for mayor. Unsurprisingly, he received 100% of the vote.
• For the first time in the history of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a covered woman was elected to the role of mayor. Amra Babic won through to office in the area of Visoko; also making her the first hijab-wearing female to be the leader of a municipality in Europe.
• In the locality of Jezero, a candidate became mayor with less than 10 votes; while the person with the least amount of votes received just one. Another unsurprising fact; he voted for himself.
• In Travnik, 1,713 votes were deemed invalid out of the 44,320 which were counted.
• Out of the 1.5 million BiH citizens living overseas - and of which are permitted to vote in these elections - just 37,359 bothered to cast their vote.
• It is estimated that almost 9 million BAM ($5.85 million AUD) was spent on political advertising by the competing parties and mayoral candidates. As pointed out by Bosnian news portal Klix, this figure would more-than-likely be enough to fund the monthly pension to more than 30,000 people across BiH.
• With more than 190 active political parties, BiH holds the record for the highest number of parties in relation to its population. Statistically, there exists one political party for every 20,209 inhabitants in this country.

Politics is a fun game, huh ..?

The Cafe - Bosnia's Future (Al Jazeera)

Over the weekend, I had the fantastic opportunity to catch up with another 'Aussie in Bosnia' (yep, there's more of us!) by the name of Dimitri.
Sitting down for a coffee in central Sarajevo - at a cafe I have regularly visited - Dimitri recognised the coffee bar as the scene of a very interesting discussion which took place last year for a documentary shot by the Al Jazeera network.

Upon my request, Dimitri forwarded the link to me (thanks, mate) - and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the 47-minute-long interview last night.

If you are interested in learning about the current, and extremely complicated, issues which are effecting Bosnia and Herzegovina in this current period, this documentary is well worth a watch.

For myself, it showcases a fascinating array of opinions; but, still, leaves me wondering what is 'the' solution to improve the quality of life in Bosnia, and how to foster better relations between the three major ethnic populations in this complex nation.

Check it out:



PS. It is worth noting that Al Jazeera filmed a follow-up to this discussion by interviewing a number of Bosnian youths to gauge their personal opinions on the current situation in the country.
Although I, myself, have yet to watch that particular episode, you can have a look by clicking on this link here:

The Cafe: Young and disillusioned in Sarajevo [YOUTUBE].