(Re)actions for Democracy from the Balkans

Democracy apart, there is no other idea so often extinguished, despised, rejected as irredeemably utopian and reborn again and yet again as the deep human need for justice. Even so, less noble human characteristics such as greed, envy, arrogance, intolerance and aggressiveness, combined with our tendency to avoid responsibility seem to be the factors that have underwritten most of human history.

A call for more ethics and a new social paradigm is a current trend but there is no guarantee that this will remain a progressive process. Moving forward requires taking action. Without action there is no prosperity of any kind so even small steps count.

With this in mind, a group of fine people meet once a year in Croatia at a regional event called the “Summer School of Democracy”. This event is held on the Island Brač and is co-organized by the Civil Committee for Human Rights from Zagreb and Igman Initiative, an umbrella association with a mission to encourage and normalize overall relations among the countries of the Balkan region and exert a positive pressure on their governments, aimed at resolving key issues relating to citizens of the countries of the Dayton Quadrangles. It is an opportunity for participants to hear and discuss theoretical background and practical aspects of current problems and obstacles to the development of democracy in the states of the region and to the cooperation in the region as a whole. Lecturers are mostly renowned individuals from various areas of the society: media, politics, culture, civic sector, etc. Every year the school gathers over 60 people, mostly youth, from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.

See the video from this year’s reunion, 28 September – 1 October 2012, Brac, Croatia at: