The creativity team, Bosnia y Herzegovina	back
Essay "Respecting diversity" Time-edition: 2002

Respecting Diversity During its history, Bosnia-Herzegovina has always been in the middle of the interests of the neighbouring countries and countries which have been the most powerful in the world. Bosnia-Herzegovina has been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries and under the rule of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire that brought great changes in the tradition, culture, religion and all other aspects of life of the native people. It is impossible to expect from the nation who conquered your country to show any respect towards it, considering the fact that they didn’t just want to broaden up their borders but to spread their own way of life. In the very essence, all emperors have the same goal but various ways of achieving it. The Austro-Hungarians, compared to the Ottomans, surprised us when they came, although some of us foresaw the occupation but still didn’t want to believe it would come so far. The new situation was accepted differently. There was a conservative stream presented by people who ignored everything that came from the strangers. Then, there was a group of people who were ready to accept only the improvements and good innovations without leaving aside the lives they used to live before and of course there were people wanting to accept everything just because they wished a new authority or because they didn’t respect what they already had. Despite all these differences people lived in peace, respecting each other at least as human. After the Austrian-Hungarian period, Bosnia-Herzegovina became a part of Yugoslavia. Throughout the history, which obviously repeats itself, Bosnia-Herzegovina didn’t fully achieve independency, sovereignty nor integrity. In 1992, after the world had recognized as such a country, we were faced with an aggression and had to fight against injustice. People were killed just because they had some other religious orientation (Islamic), nobody before felt such negligence, terror and fear for such a long time. Prejudges as a result of a long time ago passed reproaches and conflicts often lead to hatred or are used as motives to attack or, if nothing else, to disrespect someone. One should respect oneself as a condition to be respected by others. Why is it so difficult to respect diversity? Or how long could we bear a monotonous, same looking world? The Creativity Team B&H