That “self-determination” is just nationalism — and often a fiery, violent kind — writ small and wanting to be bigger, may be one of the most important issues we need to face in the 21st century.
Maybe the most frustrating, teeth-gritting moment of news coverage — in terms of the selective blessing of nationalisms and self-determinations — I’ve ever experienced was a BBC report, which unfortunately I haven’t been able to find and post, that aired on the July anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre the summer of 2016.
At the end of it the BBC reporter was interviewing a Bosnian man, in his forties maybe, selected for his Bosnian-ness — tall and handsome — whose father had been killed by a Serbian sniper in Sarajevo in the 90s. In their interview on a bridge over the lovely, gurgling Miljacka, he talked about how he was happier that he was the child of that sniper victim and didn’t have to live with the conscience of being the child of that sniper instead.
He then pulled out a photo of his high school class:
“See…
“This guy was Serbian. This guy was Croatian. This guy was Croatian. This guy was Bosnian. This guy was Serbian… That’s how it was then.”
“So,” says the dull-tool BBC reporter:
“This was Bosnia before the war?”
“Yes,”
says the Bosnian, shaking his head sadly with the weary, self-righteous pride of the victim,
“This was Bosnia before the war.”
No, buddy. That wasn’t BOSNIA before the war. That was YUGOSLAVIA before the war. AND YOU DIDN’T WANT TO PART OF IT ANYMORE…
So, to paraphrase the identity-politics, American new “left” cliché: “Check your victimhood!”
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Comment: nikobakos@gmail.com
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Jadde: from Bosnia to Bengal 
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