Today’s Enlightening
Entertainment will be
presented in Bosnian,
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, Malay,
Persian, Portuguese,
Russian, Spanish
and Thai.
Greetings,
good-hearted viewers!
Welcome to
Enlightening Entertainment.
Today, let us go to
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
a beautiful country
located in southeast Europe
on the Balkan peninsula.
Formally
a part of Yugoslavia,
the country gained
its independence in 1992,
with Bosniak, Serb
and Croat as the three
main ethnic groups.
The region is a cradle
to one of the most
ancient civilizations.
Its magnificent sceneries,
rich culture
and friendly people have
attracted so many visitors
from all over the world.
We are honored
to meet Her Excellency
Biljana Gutic-Bjelica,
Ambassador of
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
in Ottawa, Canada.
She shared with us
about natural and cultural
heritage of the country.
The whole
Bosnia-Herzegovina is
a very beautiful country.
It is a heart-shaped
country, (Yes.)
in the Balkans, and it’s in
the center of the former
Yugoslavia Republics,
and in the centre
of the Balkans itself.
We have mountains,
beautiful ones.
We have the sea, the coast.
We have many
beautiful rivers, and I know
that all the foreigners
that come as a tourist,
on business trip,
whatever, they come to
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
they stay pulled by
the rivers.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
has always been
at a crossroads.
This has helped
to create a rich history
of contributions
by many cultures.
Each child
in Bosnia-Herzegovina
knows how the mosque
looks like,
how the synagogue
looks like,
and the churches –
either Catholic
or Orthodox churches –
look like.
They can even
recognize the sounds
that come from
different worship places.
We are an Olympic country.
If you know
the Olympic Winter Games,
the 14th in 1984, were
in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
So all our mountains
surrounding Sarajevo
as a capital,
are Olympic mountains.
And our rivers are
so beautiful.
One of them was called
“Una” by Romans.
When they came, and saw
the beauty of the river,
they said, “This is Una,”
meaning in Latin
“the Only One.”
And that is the name
of my daughter, and
that is very familiar and
common name among
the female children in
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Nature’s beauty
permeates all across
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The beauty of the Una River
is indescribable,
and the famous waterfalls
of Strbacki Buk
are magnificent.
The Neretva River
was compared
by famous Arthur Evans
to a peacock’s
glorious feathers,
showing all the colors
of the rainbow
fluttering in the breeze.
Along the banks
of the Drina River,
known and unknown
writers, poets, artists, and
travel writers marveled.
There are also the Tara,
Krivaja, Vrbas, and
Sana rivers whose beauty
has been portrayed
in many paintings.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
also has many lakes and
a wealth of waterfalls.
There’s some
beautiful waterfalls.
Yes, yes, in Jajce,
which is applying
to be also enlisted in
United Nations
Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO)
World Heritage list.
And we have
two beautiful bridges,
“Old Bridge” in Mostar,
and “Mehmed Pasa
Sokolovic Bridge”
in Visegrad, both listed in
the World Heritage List
of UNESCO.
And it means
that Bosnia-Herzegovina
is a country of beautiful,
beautiful landscapes, and
bridges that symbolically
connect people, do not
divide them by rivers,
but connect people,
different religions,
different cultures,
languages, traditions
and so on.
I understand
even eco-tourism is
becoming quite popular?
Yes, yes, very popular.
We have many
very nice villages,
intact villages where only
our asphalt roads
are the signs of
modern city living.
The beautiful nature,
beautiful landscapes…
and I think that
all the people that go to
Bosnia and Herzegovina
will take with them
beautiful memories
of their time spent there.
A lot of forests too, I hear?
Yes, lots of forests.
We actually have
the only forest
of that kind in Europe,
it is called Perućica.
Perućica is one of
the last remaining
primeval forests
of Europe, that is,
an old-growth forest
with very old trees.
One of the trees is
the tallest measured
Norway Spruce tree,
reaching a height
of 63 meters!
Perućica is part of the
Sutjeska National Park,
and unless accompanied
by park rangers,
people are usually
unable to enter due to
its dense verdant foliage.
It’s an undisturbed forest?
Yes, yes,
that’s a virgin forest.
It’s so thick that
it is very easy to get lost.
So only experts and
scientists are allowed to
go there and explore it.
Beautiful. (Yes.)
When we return,
we’ll find out more
about the cultural
and spiritual beauty of
Bosnia and Herzogovina,
with Her Excellency
Biljana Gutic-Bjelica,
Ambassador of
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
in Ottawa, Canada.
We will be right back.
Please stay tuned
with Supreme Master
Television.
Thank you for joining us
again on today’s
Enlightening Entertainment,
featuring the glorious
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Her Excellency
Biljana Gutic-Bjelica,
Ambassador of
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
in Ottawa, Canada,
shares with us highlights
of her country’s food
and music culture.
Many salads, many meals
made of cabbage
and carrots
and different kinds of
preparing of potato,
it is very common
in our cuisine.
And of course,
Mediterranean food because
Bosnia-Herzegovina has
two kinds of climate,
it’s Mediterranean
in the southern part
and it’s Continental
in the northern part
of the country.
So many, many meals
that usually are, let’s say,
eaten in those
Mediterranean countries,
especially in Croatia,
which is our
immediate neighbor,
and on the coastline
of Croatia, is also eaten
in the southern part of
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
And I understand here
you’ve quite a reputation
for coffee as well?
Yes, coffee as well.
We have a
very interesting proverb.
Whenever you are invited
for coffee, don’t ever say,
“I do not drink coffee,”
because people
are not inviting you
to have coffee,
they are inviting you
to have chat
and some leisure time.
During the day
coffee is drunk
for two or three hours,
maybe even longer if
we have time and themes
to discuss.
It is a favorite Bosnian
and Herzegovinian
leisure time,
time to spend with
your friends, your family.
Bosnia-Herzegovina is
a country of
many ethnic groups,
including Serbs,
Bosniaks and Croats, and
smaller groups such as
Jews and Roma people.
Each adds
their own traditions,
folklore, and music.
So-called
ethnic instruments are
maybe Gusle, Sargija,
Flula, those are mainly
string instruments,
but really characteristic
for that part of Europe.
And I think that
some of them are not
to be found anywhere else.
And our folklore,
meaning traditional dance,
folk dance, is very popular.
And I know
that even in Canada,
our diaspora, which is
very huge and numerous,
has their own
cultural associations
that are fostering
the cultural tradition
of the people that
they originally come from.
There was one dance
in particular?
Yes, in our language
it is “Nijemo kolo.”
Translation in English
could be “mute dance,”
where there’s no music
but the rhythm for players
is given by thumping
your feet on the ground.
And it also is intended
to be enlisted
for an UNESCO list
as a unique dance
of that kind in the world.
Many great
and creative minds
have graced this nation.
Ambassador Biljana
Gutic-Bjelica mentions
a few of her heroes.
Nikola Tesla, a famous,
famous scientist, who
actually was born not in
Bosnia and Herzegovina;
he’s a Serb from Croatia.
And we all learned
about him, his life,
and his achievements
in science.
And he’s famous for
Canada as well, you know,
the Niagara Falls.
He had experiments there
and many of
his famous achievements
and um experiments
and technical things
that he made
were installed
at the Niagara Falls
at this hydro plant.
And he had really
a great mind
that could influence
any child of that time,
because we read a lot
about him and we were
very proud of him.
Ivo Andrić was praised
with the Nobel Prize
in 1961
for his novel in Bosnian.
And in the languages
of our country,
it is “Na Drini cuprija.”
In English, it is
“The Bridge
over the Drina River.”
And that is the very bridge
that was enlisted
on the UNESCO
World Heritage List.
That is the bridge
in Višegrad,
Mehmed-Paša Sokolović
bridge, and very famous
for his architecture.
And that part of
Bosnia-Herzegovina
has always been
very interesting to historians
and to novelists as well.
It is a remarkable novel.
The whole environment
that we lived in
and the whole curricula
at school really gave us
some ideas of noble lives
and noble achievements
in life. So myself
and my friends we all
were inspired by them.
Next, in describing
the characteristics
of the people of
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Ambassador
Biljana Gutic-Bjelica
said the following:
We are famous
for our humor,
and it is a capability
to make a joke
from any, absolutely
any situation in life,
no matter how sad it is.
But it’s so, so clever
a way of making jokes
that many foreigners
are sometime surprised.
The spirit of people, this,
this funny side of each of us
still is very alive.
People who live
in Bosnian-Herzegovina
are very famous
for its humor.
I didn’t know that,
that is actually lovely.
It really is
the characteristic that
I admire at my co-citizens.
The different groups
of religious believers of
Bosnia and Herzegovina
have always kept
a strong faith in God.
Bosnian-Herzegovina’s
history has always been
very much influenced
by religion.
Two major religions
that are practiced
in Bosnia-Herzegovina:
That is Islam by Muslims
in Bosnia-Herzegovina
called Bosniacs, [and]
it is Christianity, both
Catholic and Orthodox.
The Catholicism
is practiced by Croats
in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
the Croatian people.
And the Orthodox
Christianity
is practiced by Serbs
in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
And there’s also Judaism
and some other religions.
People of
Bosnia-Herzegovina,
they are very spiritual.
The spirituality of people,
their need to believe in God,
to practice their religion,
to keep
the traditional customs
that are particular
for Bosnia-Herzegovina
for each of the religions,
that is being
practiced there, it always
has been very important
to people and it is still.
Thank you,
Your Excellency
Biljana Gutic-Bjelica, for
opening our eyes and hearts
to the lovely land
and spirited people of
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
May your jewel of
a country and co-citizens
continue to live in
happiness, prosperity,
and peace.
It was a pleasure having
your company today on
your company today on
Enlightening Entertainment.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television
for Words of Wisdom,
up next after
Noteworthy News.
May your life be blessed
with joy and harmony.