Today marks the one-year anniversary of my book launch. It is fair to say that the world is still, and maybe more dangerous now than it was a year ago. Fascism appears to be on the rise globally, and we here in the U.S. are not immune to the autocratic inclinations being espoused in politics today. Trump, Putin, Orban, Xi and others of their ilk find that fear-mongering, lies, and oppression are the best means of securing their power. The tactics used by nationalist Serbs against Bosniaks and Catholic Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s, continue to be employed politically by the entity Republika Srpska, but also by Serbia, Croatia (though more subtly), and others in Europe, while Bosnia's allies, the U.S. and UK especially, are failing to support true democratic reform despite the numerous rulings by the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of Bosnia.
So, what is my point? My book, which chronicles the lives of one family being subjected to the violence and persecution at the hand of the nationalists, provides a deep dive into the human toll if we allow this to happen. I believe that reading books like mine will serve as cautionary tales for what can happen to nations with autocrats who peddle fear and demonization of targeted groups to both divide, and to gain control of its populace.
If you haven't already, please pick up a copy of my book to understand how the lessons of Bosnia need to be learned, or we run the risk of having several Bosnia's erupting, until we, as citizens of the world, stop it from happening.