Bridge of Unity
The last time I was in Mostar was 20 years ago. At that time, in 1987, Mostar was a city in Yugoslavia. Since I last visited, the city has been the scene of intense fighting, Yugoslavia has disintegrated, and Mostar is now in the main city in the Herzegovinian sector of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
I have not yet quite returned to Mostar, but I hope to be there tomorrow night. I am writing this blog in Sarajevo where I arrived this afternoon and I am posting the blog a day earlier than usual because I have an expectedly great internet connection. I may or may not be able to connect when I arrive in Mostar tomorrow.
I am returning to Mostar to represent Li Po Chun United World College at the opening of the 12th UWC, called simply the United World College in Mostar, on Tuesday morning. To be frank, the timing of the opening could not be more inconvenient from my perspective. We are about to begin the last week of the academic year, and there are reports to sign, functions to attend, people to see and documents to prepare. In the four days before I left Hong Kong to visit Mostar, I checked 
and signed all 130 reports for our graduating 2nd Year students, completed the annual SRD (staff review and development) interviews with every teacher, hosted a music concert in our house, prepared and presented a lecture on the Philosophy of Religion to all the 1st Year students, dealt with a couple of disciplinary matters in support of other senior staff, liaised with the architects to fine tune the plans for the new auditorium, caught up with most of the students I am supervising for 
Extended Essays in Geography this year, took my tutor group out to dinner at an Indian restaurant in Chungking Mansions in Kowloon, corresponded with many National Committees about the new students they will be sending in September ... and lots more - I’m really tired just thinking about those four days! And then, I will need to leave the opening ceremony before it finishes to drive back to Sarajevo in time to catch my flight so that, even with a tight connection in Munich, I can catch a plane that is scheduled to land in Hong Kong just 3 hours before our graduation dinner begins.
Suffice to say that this is not the time I would have chosen to be away from campus. However, all the UWCs have been strongly encouraged to be represented at the opening to show support for the new College, and as our Chairman is unable to travel for health reasons, the responsibility has fallen to me. The UWC President, Queen Noor will attend the opening, which is a joint celebration with the IB (International Baccalaureate) which has also supported the new College’s establishment.
The Mostar UWC has particular significance for us In Hong Kong because we will be sending the first Hong Kong student to the new College in September this year, one of the few students not to be coming from a conflict or post-conflict area. The arrangements for this new placement and possible future reciprocal exchanges need to be cemented and formalised during talks with the relevant senior officials on the day before the official opening.
My memories of Mostar 20 years ago are still vivid. My strongest visual memories of Mostar focus on the famous Old Bridge that spans the Neretva River that flows through the centre of 
the town. For example, this photograph shows my daughter, Liesl (then aged 6) and my son Phillip (then aged 4) sitting beside the iconic bridge; they spent most time looking the other way, fascinated as local men were diving off the top of the bridge down to the river below.
The bridge was built in 1566 by the Turks who occupied the area at the time. It stood for 427 years before being blown up in November 1993, a victim of the fighting between the warring factions in Yugoslavia’s civil war. The river was part of the front line of fighting between the Bosnian Croats and the Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), and the bridge took a hammering. It was blown up in 1993, partly as a strategic move but also to symbolise the physical and spiritual division of the city.
Because of its symbolic importance, it was decided to re-build the bridge after peace returned in the late 1990s. Most of the original stone could no longer be used, but the original plans were still available and it was possible to obtain the distinctive Tenilja stone from the original quarry. The new Old Bridge was opened on 23rd July 2004, lifting the spirits and hopes of Mostar’s people and enabling free movement of people between ethnic sectors to begin once again. I have heard that the new bridge is a bit too perfect, clean and sterile, but even if that is so (and I am really looking forward to seeing for myself tomorrow), I think the most important thing is that it is there!
Something of the same symbolism surrounds the new United World College. Housed in a Austro-Hungarian style building that began as the city’s most famous grammar school (or gymnazium), it was (like the bridge) situated on the front line of fighting during the 1990s. The UWC is the first school in Bosnia to teach students from all the ethnic groups, and thus, like the bridge, is a very powerful statement of unity in this post-conflict society.
I will make a point of uploading a mid-week blog on Thursday next week to share my thoughts on the opening ceremony of the College.
Saturday, 19 May 2007
The original Old Bridge in Mostar, photographed when I visited in August 1987
