Numbers.

 Today was dedicated to visiting the Parliament of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Upon arrival we were ushered into a large conference room. A lovely woman told us about the building and set up of Bosnia’s parliament. The building is brand new, since most of it was destroyed during the conflict. The architects worked to make the space as conducive to the ever-changing world as possible, making rooms of various sizes. She then went on to explain the two houses. The first is the House of Representatives, which is made up of 42 members directly elected, and the other is the 15 member House of Peoples elected by the republic’s parliament. The thing about the House of Peoples is that there must be 5 elected who are Serb, 5 who are Bosniak, and 5 who are Croat. The division of the house was setup by the Dayton Accords in order to keep equality in this section, but instead this causes ethnic tensions to rise.

We then toured the building; it was so interesting to get to see the inside of yet another parliament in the Balkans. Our tour guide talked even more about how Bosnia and Herzegovina has done such a good job keeping the media involved, and making sure the people see what is going on. She said that even Slovenia, a member of the EU, is looking at the techniques they have in place. We were able to see a meeting on Foreign Policy in progress as well (above). Then two Members of Parliament (pictured below, on the left and center, on the right is Mladen our TA) stopped by and discussed their views about the situation in Bosnia. As true politicians, both remained optimistic about the future.

Later that night the majority of our group got together and went out, it was so nice to explore the city together and have some bonding time. All the people on the streets were friendly, and the city had this quaint charm, aside from the plaques that are on some streets, it is almost easy to forget that this city was a battleground just 20 years ago.