(A paper presented at the Symposium on National Strategies for the protection and restoration of cultural heritage in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, July 5th, 2001)
Thirteen-13[1] years[2] ago I wrote and published in the Magazine for Education, Science and Culture of MOST[3] in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina an essay which was focused on unifying diversity within the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The sad and tragic conclusion is that none of the above, except for “surface mining”[4], is realized. Therefore, I am repeating that essay. And I will continue to do so. Until Judgment day:
When we speak about cultural heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its protection, an indispensable item is certainly the media, i.e. all forms of immediate communication within one society. Generally looking, a mass media that is focused not only towards informing, but also towards educating the human mind must have a significant role in the protection of cultural and historical treasures of BiH. Bearing in mind the fact that in the years we have left behind, video, audio and written media had a retrograded role in guiding the people of this area with the aim of satisfying their needs, let’s say, of “nationalism”, the word that was raised on a pedestal of human manipulation feeding itself on destruction of others and different ones, and often all that is good within its own habits that can be openly titled as self identity of own being.
Mentioning media as one direct and immediate form of manipulation of human souls, in this time and space that we call ours, we cannot find “modus vivendi” for the use of the best assumptions of using of media – use for educational purposes. Because mass media is not just the means of public communication, the media is all of us because if we are using MPC[5] as extended arm of human communication we need to focus on the individual who, through interaction with others, exchange information, takes over the feed-back, creating a picture about things that are of his interest. But what is an extremely neglected spectrum within Bosnia and Herzegovina is, surely, the work with future generations, generations that we must raise and education towards the orientation that fits on one country should be built taking into account the understanding of not only the historical moment in which we live right now, but also taking into account the so-called “the memories of the past” inscribed in characters, works and monuments which marked epochs before us. Of course, we cannot deny what is really the part of the quality within the education system and refers to the study of parts of the history, part of which deals with “the memories of the past“. Yes, the memories of the past and perhaps it sounds a little but rugged, but the truth is always painful as dealing with history in this region, and especially dealing with cultural heritage, at least for now, has always been burdened with everyday politics needs of those in power. With minimum focus they practiced a comprehensive analysis of the rich heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina area being focused only, ad-hoc, only towards their narrow-pragmatic-political-national interest.
And because of that, new generation deserves a better and clearer picture of everything including the full assumption of heritage. No, I do not want to advocate for a new course/subject in school which would deal only with that aspect of education, but I would like to advocate for use of existing human and material resources which should be aimed towards building of lost awareness of the cultural heritage of the area. Yes, because it is necessary to awaken the memories of all the good times from the past when there were institutions-wide on the state level which took care about the heritage of the local people(all of them). Someone will say: We have them now, don’t we? I will answer with counter-question: Would we be here and now like this if that is functional? However, the methodological question ….. HOW? … Imposes duties for all of us to try to shape that up. And here we come to the media in which we have to include all forms of communication despite the education of young generations with the help of the school system. I will return to it, but to name a few forms of direct/immediate communication: All forms of written materials which are, on everyday basis, bombed through marketing messages, billboards, logos of all kinds and even on ordinary lighters, etc. .; and most important form of globalization of the communication – the Internet – a place where everything becomes possible – Simultaneously of asking questions and providing answers[6], within the global village that the world has been called upon as. Than we will finally arrive to the answer to the given topic: Raising awareness about the value of cultural heritage and media activities: Medium – Heritage – School – Individual – Medium. The answer lies within the above premises characterized as follows:
1. Presentation of the first concrete task- How to make a presentation with the help of the media?
In this form should be included professionals of excellent historical and journalistic profession in order to indicate and prepare joint efforts of basic guidelines towards the protection of cultural heritage with the help of the media.
2. Breakdown of topics – How to introduce communication as a “condition sine qua non” for raising awareness of the values of cultural heritage?
a) Separate the global public and local public media (here we take into account the private media as well as those that are falling within the above two categories within its work). Why to separate them? Simply, to get more quality: Global Public Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina here are seen as the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)[6], Federation Television (TEST channel)[7], Radio Television of Republic of Srpska (RTRS) Radio Federation BiH[8], BH Radio 1[9] (Although the Symposium referred to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the unavoidable fact is that we must take into consideration inclusion of the entire territory of BiH), which should be directed towards the global assumptions, to become the unifying factors of information that makes the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through that of the educational system as a whole in BiH.
At the same time, we need to focus all attention to the thumbnail that makes the mosaic of entities and cantons that is the country made of – local radio and television stations, which can certainly be helpful in the education of younger generations when it comes to cultural heritage.
Following are the ways:
a1) Radio and TV shows of contact types- regularly participation of professor of history from local schools with talks about specific localities where there are monuments of importance to the cultural heritage. And not only the participation of teachers/professors, but also students who expressed interest in the study of cultural heritage. The term should be matched with specific classes so that students can follow the program and make contact (through the phone and/or email) and through doing that to be able directly to participate in The show.
a2) Simultaneous involvement of local radio and television stations at the lessons of history and viewing of certain presentations that are related to the cultural heritage of the local habitat.
a3) Use of all parts of curriculum which are, in this way, in a possible correlative relation with the theme: Fine arts, geography, history, mother tongue language[10].
a4) Specialized programs during which you can watch, comment and analyze certain epochs that marked these areas and in the same time focusing on what is a part of the cultural heritage of the epoch that was viewed.
a5) Marketing covered so. “Quiz show” that in a fun way makes closer cultural heritage to younger generations.
a6) Dedication made few requirements in the newspapers/magazines as a prerequisite for future analysis of events/contents by the students.
a7) Encouraging communication not only within the school between teaching staff and the students, but also going out to interesting locations and active learning “on the spot” with the comments of professors and students. At the same time it was the working visits (in the case of neglected space) where will be, on the so-called “working actions”, through the work on arranging and cleaning the spots, students build awareness not only about the cultural heritage but also about the country of which they are an integral part.
a8) Making the WWW (World Wide Web) page on the Internet that are related to cultural heritage, and which will, through Internet connections be “linked” to each other and together formed the common aspirations of a wider Bosnia and Herzegovina area.
3. Individual focused towards media presentation – Are student tours another valid form of communication with the cultural heritage?
a) Going from local towards global, and with the help of competent institutions: it could be develop strategic forms of communication of local and global (global is here: BiH) level, and on this occasion in the form of media monitoring of the exchange visits of students’ field trip around Bosnia and Herzegovina. How? Simple. If students from Jajce staying in a day trip in Bugojno and/or Trebinje, or vice versa, then, in that case, the local media, and the global mass media certainly find time and space to record the visits and meetings aimed towards raising the awareness of the cultural heritage that does not belong to this or that people (read: nation), this or that “nationalism”, but belongs to the society as a whole.
4. Entity institutions (as well as cantonal) dealing with cultural heritage and their role in all of this – How to take advantage of existing institutions and prevent further erosion of our own destinies by building new understanding of ourselves, and with the help of studying of cultural heritage?
a) Here we have these institutions as the main coordinators of decentralization (in accordance with the Dayton Accord assumptions) of work and reflections about cultural heritage. What is it? Specifically, training with the help of all the variety listed media will not be sufficient if adequately are not included also the appropriate entity and cantonal institutions, (not to mention even state level ones) whicch are dealing with the study and protection of cultural heritage. These are, of course all so-called: Institutes for the protection of cultural and historical monuments, Commission to Preserve National Monuments, and others. And all of this in coordination with the relevant Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, which is responsible for this issue. In what way to take advantage of the media here? Simple. Regular reporting with the help of means of public communication (MPC) about the activities of the competent authorities in connection with the protection of cultural heritage areas that are “covered” by media.
5. The last, but not least – is definitely treatment of media with the touristic signs of specific locations of cultural monuments in the region. At the same time will establish the economic potential of certain areas as well as will educate the public about the attractive tourist sites. Although a cliché, “meet your homeland to prefer it more” in this way it gets more quality considering that there are a small number of those who are familiar with the fact of existence five digit numbers number Medieval tombstones in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina[11]. Tourism may succed to create the economic prerequisites for the development of protection of cultural heritage and not only externally (towards other countries), but also internally (within BiH).
And, as a logical conclusion of the imposed thesis we come to a simple formulation – Mass communication (ie Means of Public Communication) are and remain the form of education of the youngest population, but also an indispensable form of awakening of “dormant consciousness” of the rest of the population (us so-called. “adult small people“) when it comes to protecting of the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We must deal with that, because the countries without memories are doomed to oblivion – or simply: dissapear.
Bosnia and Herzegovina must not allow that to happen to itself.
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[1] July 2001
[2] September 2001.g “MOST“ in English is: “THE BRIDGE“
[3] French King Philip, Pope Clement V ordered the arrest and execution of the Templar Knights at dawn on Friday, 13 October / October 1307. All were accused of heresy, blasphemy and other offenses – this is just one reason, but we can not forget other ones: a) There were 13 of them at the Last Supper; b) The Norse god Loki who appeared as the 13th, the uninvited guests at the table and who murdered another god; c) Cain and Abel – their tragedy occurred on the 13th day; d) The 13 steps leading to the gallows; e) Apollo 13 – see the number of aircraft which had its air tank blew out, but still came back to earth … Info: http://dnevnik.hr/vijesti/zanimljivosti/13-reasons-why-is-number-13-is considered -nesretnim — 269563.html [4] “surface mining”: scratching on the surface – Symposia, “extinguishing a fire with a glass of water”; the absence – non existence of the State Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport; national, or to say in better way: nationalist “coverage” of only “of our own territory”; individual activities:
a) http://www.diogenpro.com/rasprodaja-bh-cultural-bastine.html
b) http://www.diogenpro.com/sumrak-BiH-sjecanja.html
c) http://www.diogenpro.com/povelja-Kulin-ban-charter-of-salami-ban.html
d) http://www.diogenpro.com/posljednja-Bosnia-princeza.html
e) Commission to Preserve National Monuments: http://kons.gov.ba/index.php?lang=4
[5] MPC- Means of public communication
[6] Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram) especially
[7] Today it is BHRT – BHT 1
[8] Today it is RTV FBiH
[9] Today, it is RTV FBiH
[10] Today, it is BHRT- BH Radio 1
[11] Native Language: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian
[12] Today, this is more known in the world than among us. Problems of cultural heritage protection: http://www.diogenpro.com/zastita-bih.html
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