The Sarajevo Survival Guide

THE MODERN SARAJEVAN FEMALE
She cuts wood, carries humanitarian aid, smaller canisters filled with water, does not visit a hairdresser nor a cosmetician. She is slim, and runs fast. Girls regularly visit the places where humanitarian aid is being distributed. They know the best aid-packages according to their numbers. They get up early to get water, visit cemeteries to collect wood, and greet new young refugees. Many wear golden and silver lilies as earrings, as pins, on necklaces.

Sarajevo is a city of slender people...wearing youthful clothes of teenage size. Sarajevans have lost about [8 million pounds]...They greet each other with--TAKE CARE!

I found this website a couple of years ago, and I thought it might be helpful to anyone who considers a societal collapse a real possibility.

It addresses day-to-day living in a war-ravaged countryside that had previously been a cultural Mecca. It's proof that everything you know and love can change overnight.

Some of you may have already visited this site, but for those of you who haven't, it's very informative, and a great read as well.

The Sarajevo Survial Guide

Very, very good find Lloyd!

I browsed through some of the links on the website. The adaptive measures taken by the Sarajevans is simply incredible. The descriptions reminded me of the resourceful spirit found in PoW camps in the second world war.

While some will get saddened by the information found, I am not. I find great hope that people can adapt and survive. Maybe the light of our species hasnt gone out just yet

Originally posted by 44soulslayer
While some will get saddened by the information found, I am not. I find great hope that people can adapt and survive. Maybe the light of our species hasnt gone out just yet

People can always adapt and survive - it's the fact that we have to that gets us upset you dork.

reply to post by 44soulslayer
I thought it was great to see they could keep their sense of humor through such a terrible ordeal. They're truly a resourceful and brave people.

I served in Sarajevo in 1995 whilst with the military. Their is great spirit in that dear place with ever resourceful, Polite and Generous people. We daily completed foot patrols through the city to be welcomed by housewives to share coffee with them. We were even challenged by the local men one afternoon......Challenged to a game of football which we enjoyed playing. One of these men had a false leg having lost it via a mine.

yep - just took up - how many hrs. of my afternoon ?
don't know, but read the entire site. great link - thanks for that
our situation won't be quite the same - at least in terms of being hemmed in to a small area with enemy all around the perimeter - and especially with visiting journalists and the like who have special privileges - that just blows my mind
The scenario of how people got on with life as best they could is informative.
i'm taking notes.

reply to post by LLoyd45



You may have found it a couple of years ago, but the information sounds another decade or so anterior to your find... This is more like Sarajevo A.D. 1995.

I've actually visited Sarajevo (twice), although it was before the war that ravaged it.
I am not sure what the author means by "cultural Mecca". That's not the word I would've used for it, but it certainly was a multicultural town at its best. (It wasn't unique in that aspect, but that's a long story.)

What prompted me to respond was my personal (and only secondarily journalistic) hatred of stereotypes, I suppose - because even the best-intended stereotypes are still stereotypes, thus ultimately "bad".

But I am certainly not bashing you for unearthing this, not at all.
If a person can derive positive inspiration from any piece of information, even an obsolete one, I'd say that was time and effort well-spent.