Sick Society, Sick State, Citizens in Prison

By: Gradimir Gojer/Oslobođenje

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For two days now, I have been a detainee. I was forced into confinement by the air pollution in Sarajevo. I am not leaving my house because the Canton and City of Sarajevo are not providing me with the minimum conditions for normal movement outside of enclosed spaces.

And for days they have been declaring an ALERT, which formally pacifies their conscience, although hardly any of them actually have one!!! I wonder what citizens gain from the alert that the authorities declare, other than the fact that they will certainly have a higher number of sick traffic police officers, on whom I do not see protective masks that they should be wearing, although I don't know how they would communicate with drivers they stop with those masks. It is clear that this is a theatre of the absurd...

This year there are local elections, which means that those who have managed the cities where citizens choke every winter, the elderly often die because of it, and children fill hospitals instead of school, have been in office for four years, for which they have neither the knowledge, nor the expertise, and what is worst, nor the interest to represent the interests of those who elected them...

But this is not just about the worst and most severe air pollution in the world. On the contrary, this is about a sick Bosnian-Herzegovinian society, a deep crisis of government in the Sarajevo Canton, an unbelievable amount of arrogant neglect by the authorities towards their residents and taxpayers. It is about a deeply ill state of BiH where political maneuvering, crime, corruption, and the logic of exclusive party affiliation triumph.

So who in such a sick society and state can care about the health of the residents of BiH cities? The endangerment of citizens' lives is the pinnacle of irresponsible governance at all levels in BiH.

In the name of the children who are not going to school tomorrow due to the alert, I call on the authorities at all levels in BiH to present to the public, within three months at the latest, the plans they have developed that can be implemented to prevent unacceptable air pollution in cities next winter.

I call on citizens to organize and sign petitions to the authorities, demanding the same from them. And after three months, if they do not present solutions to the public and begin their implementation as soon as the wind allows, let us rise with mass protests against those who are destroying the remnants of our lives, which the triple aggressors on our country did not manage to finish!

Everyone to the streets!

(The author is a director and writer. This text is his Open Letter to all those responsible for endangering the lives of BiH citizens)