Good Morning, Sarajevo:
It has been a while. Last moment I spent any time here, the Balkans were spiraling into a brutal, murderous ‘uncivil war’ — one that returned the horror of ethnic cleansing to Europe after half a century of European postwar peace.
Then, it would have been unthinkable to linger for selfies’ on this spot in Sarajevo Bosnia where the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Archiduke Ferdinand catapulted the world into a First World War. I have no ‘before/after’ ‘cellphie’ to compare from my reporting days here in the 1990s. No ‘cellphies’ because there were no cellphones. What there WAS in Sarajevo was….snipers in high spots and artillery in the hills that surround this beautiful and historic mountain city. In the mid-1990s, no one was lingering in downtown Sarajevo to point a Leica in their own face.
But it’s today and let the record show: A peaceful Sarajevo that is safe for selfies in 2025. And that is progress.
Although the Balkans remains restive (where isn’t)? In fact the situation here is nothing like what it was in the early 1990s. Incomparably better.
I am here this time for a meaningful and important convening of Balkan and global journalists about technology and AI and misinformation and disinformation, convened through our Center for News, Technology and Innovation (www.cnti.org) and the great folks at The Thomson Foundation. That alone is a sign of progress.
And it is my great good fortune to be able to return to such cities as Sarajevo that were important in my reporting life and which remain important in civil society and to the world as a whole. And to see them at peace in a way unthinkable a few decades ago. That gives me hope. And thank you @normpearlstine and @paulsteiger who sent me here in the first place, and provided me the invaluable gift of this perspective.
Craig Forman's Blog 
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