World Animal Day Ambassador for Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dear readers,

some of you may know how much I 16.2.2008 8_00_13love animals. Ever since I was a baby, really, I’ve been enjoying their unconditional love and company and I’ve tried to return these wonderful gifts as much as I could (here’s me with a cat my mom saved from death when he was only six days old and left all alone).

I owe this love to my family, who’s been dedicated to helping animals for the better part of the 20th century. Even my great-grandfather, who was a Muslim priest, loved animals, especially cats, and paid extra attention to whom he would give kittens to – only people with cows and sheep, who could, therefore, provide milk and other food to the little ones (and that was about a hundred years ago at least). Looking back at the path I’ve taken in my life so far, it has been filled with animals and much effort to improve the state of their welfare here in my town and elsewhere.

with_Barky_01This was the reason why my colleague Mevlija, my uncle Hajrudin and I founded the Animal Protection Society “Warm Paw” in Velika Kladuša. Now, more than two year later, we can also look behind and marvel at what we’ve accomplished so far, with the help of like-minded people here: our colleagues, friends, volunteers. But this is just the beginning.

Yesterday I received news which brought me immense joy and now I am spreading it, proud and humbled at the same time by the honour bestowed upon me: I have become the World Animal Day Ambassador for Bosnia and Herzegovina! Here you can read the entry at the official website of the World Animal Day initiative at:

http://www.worldanimalday.org.uk/ambassadors/bosnia-herzegovina/

Here’s the news on the official website of Warm Paw.

I will do everything in my power to fulfill my duties as a World Animal Day ambassador and strive further to raise awareness on animal rights. I’m so honoured by this title and happy to be a part of such extraordinary team of animal advocates around the world!

“The Only Way To Soothe My Soul…”

za_index_1 Always fascinated with the passage of time, I marked another milestone five months ago (almost to the day, hence my writing) – as you may have seen from my revised biography, I’m a doctoral student as of November 2012! I’m currently attending the Doctoral studies in Linguistics at the Faculty of Philosophy, University J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Croatia. It didn’t take me long to get back into this “comfortable” role (less than a year after I finished the Master studies), but I ascribe that to the general notion that rules my thoughts which is: “if you’re not going forward, you’re stagnating”. Good old Oscar Wilde would put it: “You can never be overdressed or overeducated“. So far, I’m more than impressed with the quality of the programme and I’ve gained seven new colleagues, to whom I give my best regards. Accepting this new challenge, I found myself invigorated by the overwhelming amount of new knowledge and I felt that Yeats’ fire rekindled inside! This is truly the only path for me, the only way to soothe my soul... Recently I passed two exams (collecting As again!), so basically I still got the mojo (couldn’t resist this sentence)! This is also the reason why I’m not posting as I’d like to (or as someone dear has said to me recently “your neglected website”), but I’ll find time here and there to put some new travelogues up (Bratislava and Vienna, respectively), as well as some photo galleries from journeys past (btw, the photo on the left was taken for my student report card – tried to project a bit of Princess Leia and Jesse, the clever librarian because of a bad hair day). New verses are not forgotten, only carelessly hidden inside my journals until it’s time for them to be published – speaking of, I’ve got the title of my next book down to two possible choices – exciting times! Until then, be well and enjoy my music picks of the year so far (looking forward to their summer shows!):

We’re in Exile… Hurts Show & Meeting Theo

dsc04425What could I possibly say that doesn’t fall short of the amazing performance Hurts gave just a few nights ago in Vienna? I’ve tried my best in my review for Venia Mag and that is all I can offer, beside a heart that beats to their songs and spirit that calls out “Evelyn” for years now… And the meeting with Theo, oh, the meeting with Theo… His embrace and words took my breath away…
And now Theo and Adam have my book too! Even now I can’t quite grasp the notion, but I was even less myself in the presence of this man, this poet. He was so pleasantly surprised by the gift that he gave me an embrace right away, and his words could’ve melted the deepest ice…dsc04439 Another connection happened minutes later – Claudia and I were wearing my fan-made t-shirts with my favourite lyrics from “Evelyn” and Theo, spotting the inscription, said they were his favourite lyrics! You could’ve killed me right then and there and I wouldn’t be able to remember even my name, let alone something else… We then talked about how they “describe the band perfectly” and remembered the hotel sign in Berlin Theo tweeted about not so long ago. The smiles, the photos again… the embrace.
And now all we can think of is July and seeing them on a summer festival in Hungary. Hopefully the same crew again on the Exile: wereinexileClaudia, Sabina, Ivana, Vesna and moi! And Theo, the orchestra that played in my mind in “What if” is from “Evelyn“… I will never mind, the lullabies from the machines…