'Threes' against Common Sense, killed by politics that have yet to destroy the sporting spirit in BiH

By Ernad Metaj

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The 'threesome' is symbolically important for the fate of BiH, and especially for Sarajevo. Through this concept, the past and future are refracted, all our contradictions are reflected in it, from war, suffering, and fears, to glamour, happiness, and endless hope that something will fundamentally change. In all these turbulences, anxiety has become one of the few constants in the life of an ordinary person, because BiH said goodbye to 'Common Sense' long ago, only no one has paid tribute to it in memoriam in the newspapers like in England recently.

A news item from the weekend reminded me of this. KK Bosna was defeated by Leotar from Trebinje by an incredible 48 points. In fact, it was a humiliation for the former European champion, of which only the name remained, and even that has been desecrated. More than the defeat, the fact that the fate of the only basketball giant in BiH reflects the politics from which it can be inferred that all our 'threesomes' are merely a matter of personal prestige, without concrete impact on the final result, is more painful. 

The fate of the once basketball giant irresistibly resembles the state of the country it is named after. The country is falling apart, citizens are wallowing in quicksand, drawing immense energy daily to avoid being completely swallowed. Common sense could not bear it, so it moved out of BiH. As in an obituary from an English newspaper, Common Sense lost the will to live when religious communities turned into businesses, and criminals began to receive better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense left BiH back in the nineties. It could not bear the hypocrisy of the ruling 'threesome' at the time, reflected in tying national flags without a sincere intention to save the brotherhood and unity in the spirit in which the generations of that time were raised. Nationalisms in BiH have remained inextricably linked to this day, feeding each other, with people's lives, children's lives, on the table; blood was poured instead of wine, homes were destroyed, ethnic cleansing was carried out, and genocide was committed against the people of Srebrenica. Common Sense did not return after the war; it would not have tolerated the glorification of war criminals. It would have been killed by predatory privatization, the devastation of natural resources; it would not have understood how one cannot survive on a minimum pension and salary. Common Sense goes mad when it sees that conflict is again imposed as the future after the war.

If Common Sense had stayed in BiH after the Trebinje debacle of KK Bosna, it would have lost its footing because its children have turned their backs on the 'pride' of Sarajevo. Three Bosna basketball players are an important factor in Sarajevo's 'threesome' today. Their reach in basketball jargon is a 'dunk', only no one applauds this, because it has dragged Bosna to the bottom of the table. Sarajevo's 'threesome' wants to fly high; for them, KK Bosna is less important than a helicopter. The Minister of Culture and Sports, one of Bosna's legends, Samir Avdić, is nevertheless a better basketball player than a politician. The rest of the basketball 'threesome' that rules the KS seems to be unable to rise above average in either, if they have even reached that. For now, it's not going any better for the political 'threesome' either, because individuals are failing to realize that BiH exists beyond Sarajevo. This was shown by the election of the mayor of Mostar, as well as the expressed readiness at one point to open the door to a third entity for HDZ through electoral reform.

Three peoples, three entities, a 'threesome' in power (SDA, SNSD, and HDZ) with which BiH is as far from the EU as it was in the nineties, a 'threesome' in the opposition of RS (SDS, PDP, and DNS) that has not evolved civilizationally to stop supporting the denial of genocide and all crimes, and the Sarajevo 'threesome' (SDP, Naša stranka, and NIP) torn between civic and ethnic, between LGBT and family parades, powerless to rise above Sarajevo without a helicopter, tell Common Sense that it is (not) returning to BiH, a country that politics alone keeps among the world leaders in terms of corruption.

Fortunately, other 'threesomes' preserve the hope that BiH can be part of the normal world. The image of Bosnia is preserved by athletes without state support who show and prove that this is a land of people with big hearts, perseverance, and stubbornness, people who have never accepted that divisions lead to the future. This is shown by the emotions and support for Nikola Prce, who is saying goodbye to the national handball jersey. Prce, along with Malinović, Terzić, and the rest of the company, has risen above the political mire in BiH multiple times, bringing joy to the ordinary person, proving to them that there are still reasons for pride. This was also shown by the brilliant BiH female basketball players who once again defeated politics and lifted BiH to European and world heights, and the team of Vedran Bosnić, the coach of the men's national basketball team, is also taking us there. Common Sense does not understand how, but I am convinced that it is pleased and would return to BiH if politicians were like athletes.