In Eastern Herzegovina, Bosnia, wine is the invisible and lasting tie with both the land and its generations.

Trebinje, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Along the banks of the Trebisnjica river, in the Petrovo and Popovo Polje plains, vines grow surrounded by stony and lunar mountains. These vines give life to zilavka and vranac, two wines that have made the history and success of enology in Eastern Herzegovina.

Is the future of Bosnia grim? Unemployment is high, nationalistic leaders ignore the people in pursuit of their own self-serving goals and gridlock is the norm.

Many youths in Europe are struggling with unemployment and young adults sense that their institutions are failing. Will we see a “youthquake” in the Balkans?

Twenty years after independence and the tragic civil war that consumed Bosnia, cities like Mostar are on the mend. A walk through Mostar at night shows promise and haunting memories.

Religion, education, politics. Observations on some recent events in the Bosnian news, a few weeks before the activities scheduled to remind Europe and the world of the twentieth anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo and the war in Bosnia Herzegovina.

On March 20 years ago, after the victory for the affirmative vote in a referendum abandoned by the majority of the Bosnian Serbs, Bosnia Herzegovina declared its independence. A month later the war began.

Side notes to the agreement that allowed for the formation of a new government in Bosnia. The role of the High Representative, the position of the social-democratic party and the true dividing lines crossing Bosnian society.