The Damned Balkans Quotes

“As one refugee, Amila, from Gradačac, commented 20 years later: “The most important part of being a refugee is being a good loser; it’s the only way to survive this. You learn to lose your nationality, your home to strangers with bigger guns, your father to mental illness, one aunt to genocide, and another to nationalism and ignorance. You learn to lose your kids, friends, dreams, neighbours, loves, diplomas, careers, photo albums, home movies, schools, museums, histories, landmarks, limbs, teeth, eyesight, sense of safety, sanity, and your sense of belonging in the world”.”
― John Farebrother, The Damned Balkans: A Refugee Road Trip

“But Milošević, like Rasputin, refused to die, even as Tony Blair continued his miraculous pilgrim’s progress in search of bigger beasts to bag.”
― John Farebrother, The Damned Balkans: A Refugee Road Trip

“As in the NOZB, there were those in the 5th Corps who quickly realised that not only personal security but also wealth and power were to be found in the civilian and military power structures; but instead of 'Živio Babo!', this time the password to the alternative reality above the law was 'Allahu ekber!' ('God is supreme'; describing the situation in the Borders on the eve of the Peasants’ Revolt, Milan Božić’s son Stevo said: 'The police and other people in the authorities had everything. Guns, meat and rakija went together, while ordinary people were dying of hunger' ).”
― John Farebrother, The Damned Balkans: A Refugee Road Trip

“Medicinal rakija can be applied externally or internally for the relief of any ailment, physical or mental, including AIDS. According to Selimović, 'Rakija never did anyone any harm, as long as it’s taken as a medicine and not drunk like water' (it’s also good for cleaning glass and polishing furniture).”
― John Farebrother, The Damned Balkans: A Refugee Road Trip

“My senses, until now starved of any except visual stimuli, were suddenly assailed by a concentrated, if not distilled essence of the sounds and smells of Bosnian country life. Witty, earthy idioms, formidable oaths, and strains of turbofolk music combined with fresh farmyard fragrances to deliver a triple whammy.”
― John Farebrother, The Damned Balkans: A Refugee Road Trip

“Babe i žabe ('just say no to Greater Serbia, Greater Croatia and Islamic State!')”
― John Farebrother, The Damned Balkans: A Refugee Road Trip