What is a state without people? Nothing. And the number of those people, citizens, peasants, constitutive, non-constitutive, believers, atheists, agnostics… is decreasing.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was originally supposed to conduct a census in 2011. But since there was no political will, and no functional government in that period, everything was prolonged. Still, the census was held in 2013. Then we learned that there are supposedly 3.5 million of us, most of them constitutive, but disappointed.
And from then until today, some analyzes show that there are even 200.000 fewer of us. And considering that the number during the census was certainly added, regardless of the census, BiH probably did not have 3.5 million inhabitants, the situation is even more devastating today.
Those who are bold predict that only 2.8 million people live in BiH today. Whether this is true or not we will probably not know for a long time, and from a political point of view, it is much nicer to live in delusion and dreams while believing that there are more than three million of us. And when we face the numbers one day, it may be too late for any strategies.
The census in our country was supposed to be organized in 2021, but it was not. Because once the state gets used to the omissions, it is difficult to get back on track, so violating obligations, procedures, and laws is becoming simpler. There is a justification for everything – there is no political will.
So maybe we wake up one morning and they tell us that there is no political will to allow our existence, to be in BiH. And that shows the current situation. The continuity of the crisis, political apathy, and general lack of ideas are persistently working to ensure that there may be no need for a census in this country. Someone will list us somewhere.
Despite the fact that BiH missed the deadline to conduct the census in 2021, and even though we are already in 2022, no one is raising the issue of the census. True, the political situation in the country did not leave much room for such a thing, so for more than half of 2021, citizens listened to stories about the Election Law, but also the separatism of Milorad Dodik, who tirelessly undermines state institutions. Still, an excuse for failure will always be found. By 2020, BiH should have made most of the preparations for the census.
Ultimately, even when we get the census, as we got it in 2013, there is not much use if its results are not used to make state strategies. And how many strategies has the BiH done after the 2013 census? Probably none. That is why the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test on children’s functional education are devastating. That is why every day, as paradoxical as it may be, we listen to and watch commercials about Germany looking for workers in BiH. Well, such advertisements are retold as if they were about the export of some good, and not about the export of the most valuable thing – people.
That is why we already have a need for foreign labor, which we can see in BiH construction sites. Investors’ apartments are now increasingly being built by craftsmen from Turkey, Uzbekistan,and the like.
Once they organize a census, there will be no need to look at the results.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba
