News

Dear friends,

The Peace Academy Foundation has existed since August 2010, and we hope that it will continue to exist for many more years.  After organizing 3 Post-Yugoslav Peace Academies, we decided that we need formalization, structure, and a clearer strategic approach to our work. This is the reason that we created the PA Foundation which will continue serving as a place of reflection, learning, and exchange of experiences for people from the area of Southeast Europe and beyond, who are interested in peacebuilding and related problems and phenomena.

The values that we strive for as well as the core people of the Peace Academy have not changed.  We continue to be focused on and are intensively preparing for the 4th Post-Yugoslav Peace Academy which will be held from July 17-26, 2011.  For next year we envision the following topics: gender and sexuality in war and peace, media and memory, language and ideology.  We are in the process of communication with potential instructors and you can stay informed about all news about the PA 2011 via this site.

Besides organizing the main Summer Academy which has become well known throughout the region, we are also planning to begin organizing follow-up activities which should contribute to strengthening the peacebuilding process and critical reflection on our political and social reality.  We wish to strengthen our partnership and be more present and more visible across the region.

In any event – we will see you soon - at the regular place in Sarajevo, but with new geographic, activist, and intellectual foci.

Until soon,

Peace Academy Organizing Team
December 2010.

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Ubleha for idiots

  • Internacionalac

    Engl. An international. Commonly known as a foreigner but that’s not the way it is used in polite speech (See). S/he is a guest in the land of the locals (See) wishing to contribute to the development of democracy (See) and enhance human rights (See). Has read at a minimum one book or at least the more important chapters on the history of B&H or even the entire region of South-East Europe. Has got money. Gladly takes other internationals out to dinners whenever s/he can charge it to the budget of a project (See). S/he likes the locals and considers them to be her/his equal, to be de facto equalized to her/him. And the locals love her/him, too. S/he knows how to say GOOD DAY, THANK YOU and NO PROBLEM in local languages of which s/he is very proud.  A vegetarian, a feminist, a non-smoker and not a racist; s/he points that out very often and is not ashamed of it at all.  Additionally, s/he thinks that war criminals should be brought to justice in Den Haag. In general, a happy character. See: expert. Translator's note: BSC form of an English word „International“ when taken from English and adjusted gramatically to BSC language.

from Ubleha for Idiots – An Absolutely non useful Guide for Civil Society Building and Project management for Locals and Internationals in BiH and Beyond by Nebojša Šavija-Valha and Ranko Milanovic-Blank, ALBUM No. 20, 2004, Sarajevo, translated by Marina Vasilj.