Resilience Amidst Adversity: An Essay by TGS Class of '24 Student Raya N.

Resilience Amidst Adversity Unveiling the Lingering Effects of 20th Century Wars on Bangladesh and Bosnia

by TGS Student Raya N.

SARAJEVO, BiH

43.8563° N, 18.4131° E

TERM 1 LOCATION

DHAKA, BANGLADESH

23.8041° N, 90.4152° E

MY HOME CITY

Foreword

During Term 1 of the 2023-24 school year, Class of ’24 student Raya N. and eight of her classmates participated in the “AI Journalism: There is a Human for That” project-based learning module. Over the course of their seven weeks in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Raya and her classmates met with many guest speakers, conducted vast amounts of research, went on a series of place-based field experiences, and used AI-assisted technology to answer the driving question: How can AI be applied in investigative, opinion, and solutions-based journalism in the context of digital communities in Bosnia?

The following piece of writing represents Raya’s final product for the AI Journalism module, and it was selected by the module leads as the overall best piece of writing for the term. We hope you enjoy her piece, which has been modified slightly by an editor for readability purposes.

Raya and her module partner Mabel present their project during their Showcase in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Photo by Maya G..

Coming to Bosnia, a country with rich cultural diversity and a recent war in its history, I was able to make a lot of connections to my home country of Bangladesh and its own history of war.

I had lots of questions in mind as I came to learn about Bosnia's history of war. As part of my project excursions, visiting the History Museum of Sarajevo piqued my interest and gave rise to questions that wired connections between the Bosnian War and Bangladesh's Liberation War in my mind.

Working in the museum as an intern in charge of the photojournalism department, I labeled postcards, wrote about the pictures, and scanned documents from the Bosnian war. In doing so, the brutality of the war in Bosnia became vivid to me.

Nedim, a senior assistant at the photojournalism department, guided me through my internship journey learning about the Bosnian language, the emotions in the postcards as lovers yearned to meet each other, mothers crying for their sons, and news of deaths that gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes.

A monument at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery marking the number of victims recorded in the Srebrenica massacre.

Photo by Matt Rogers.

This has to be written about. More people need to learn about this, I thought in my mind.

As I had past experience with doing research work, Nedim asked me to help him with his research on examining the permanent exhibition hosted since 1966. The objective was to experiment with the content and presentation methods, particularly concerning past exhibitions and the concealment of partisan crimes, given Culacunacuv's proximity to the Ustasha regime.

The warred past of the country is deeply ingrained in the everyday life of Bosnians.

The bullet holes in the buildings are preserved as war relics; the "Sarajevo Roses" refer to the distinctive flower-like patterns of mortar shell impact marks on the streets of Sarajevo, left as a somber memorial to the victims of the Bosnian War's Siege of Sarajevo; and mines are still prevalent in a lot of regions. When I landed in Bosnia, the taxi driver spoke about how the devastating war scars still plague them.

They proudly talk about the Bosnian history. It's a country where three specific ethnicities are prominent, and the tensions in politics and culture still echo loudly.

The three ethnicities are Bosniaks, typically Muslim; Croats, typically Catholics; and Serbs, who represent Christianity.

Mosques, churches, and synagogues can all be found side-by-side in the city of Sarajevo.

Photo by Amel.

My five-hour flight to Sarajevo from Doha was the first time I delved into Bosnian culture, even before I stepped into the country. I had a conversation with two Bosnians who currently live there. The memories I made and the knowledge I gained, I believe are worth sharing.

"So, what do you think about the Bosnian war?" I asked them as my unbounding curiosity made me do so. I was not surprised to find out how open and social Bosnians are, as I learned about it during online learning ( they have the best humor). To my left was a 47-year-old woman and to my right was a man of 35.

Both helped me learn about Bosnia, making me more and more excited to step foot in the country. Showing me Bosnian food items her mom taught her to cook, to the tensions between ethnicities, we bonded very quickly. Me being very curious, open, and willing to learn, and them being open to sharing and filling me up with wonder.

Our conversation started with them trying to guess where I came from. It pained me a bit when one of them thought Bangladesh was a part of India. As I described proudly how valiantly the heroic soldiers of my country fought against Pakistan in 1971 and emerged as an independent nation, how the Bangladesh economy developed quickly as a country that was devastated by war, I was able to make sure they will never forget Bangladesh as a proud country in the world map.

This also prompted them to talk about the brutal Bosnian war against the Serbs and how the country was bombed and scarred. War history brought us together. I was surprised to learn, however, that the lady's son is a Bosniak married to a Croat, and she was proud of it. Later, during my stay in Sarajevo, I didn't quite feel the same way. I learned many people of the older generation typically tend to bear more nationalistic views and tensions with the other two ethnicities, but the younger generation is happily embracing it.

I am a practicing Muslim. My views for my religion contradicted how they viewed it, and they called it being culturally Muslim. In Mostar, our tour guide helped me expand my idea on this. He said, "Here, people usually do not know what religion you are until you die." He then showed us the graveyard with different tombs - the moon, the cross, and the Catholic cross.

But I didn't have any idea how brutal the war was until I worked at the 'History Museum of Sarajevo' as an intern. The pictures gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes. Empathy, I thought. Is it because I know about my country's brutal past? Could someone with no such experience feel that, too? Either way, I knew in my mind the stories and experiences I've had are worth sharing.