Big news & black humour

Today the big news from this part of the world is making the headlines around the globe. It's always difficult to know what if anything we should write about such things. If we've learned anything in these past few years it is that war stories are really as simple as most news outlets like to paint them. We were in Croatia last weekend and there were plenty of visible declarations of support for General Ante Gotovina. A UN war crimes tribunal recently sentenced him to 24 years in prison for persecution, murder and other war crimes during the conflict in the 90s, but that doesn't stop him being a hero to many Croats. Likewise, in Bosnia and Herzegovina the arrest of Ratko Mladic will be met with different reactions. It may bring closure for some, reopen old wounds for others. And then there are those who will think he's being falsely accused. Discussing it could prove a conversational minefield; a sad reflection of the physical minefields that still litter the country.


In the light of all this, perhaps it is permissible to quote a light-hearted tweet on the subject. Like the British, many Bosnians we've met do a good line in black humour. I think they'd get a smile from this, if they could get their heads around the pseudo-archaic English of DrSamuelJohnson: Gen. Ratko MLADIC / Both evil & tragick / Vanish'd from View / 'til SERBIA wish'd to adjoin the EU.

Comments

Love the tweet - and it will appeal to the Bosnian humour as well. Brilliant.

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