2343 - Across The Borderline

OK, I’ve given in, I’m with Feedly now as well. It’s different from Google Reader, but it works, it is cross-platform on all the platforms that count for me (i.e. Google Chrome / Firefox and Android) and it simply works. It is a bit different, but in the end it all boils down to habits and internalized motions. Use it a while and it becomes as normal as every other program.

This does not mean that I won’t look at all the other contenders that might come up until the final demise of Google Reader, but at least I know now that I can survive if nothing better than Feedly materializes.

As to Google Reader, I’ve stopped using it on all platforms. Better unlearning it now and trying out alternatives, than to rely on it any longer.

While I used Feedly, I read about some photo contest (honestly, I can’t remember which), and I saw the images of one of the winners, seemingly a young woman from Bosnia, whose work is about the repercussions of the war in former Yugoslavia.

In a way this was shocking. Bosnia is not exactly just across the border from Austria, but it’s not far away at all. Four small countries, three borders, ridiculous distances on a global scale. And still: here 68 years of peace, there still the wounds of war.

Yes, yes, my fellow compatriots, I hear you saying that “… it was their own choice! They didn’t need to fight a war!”. But that is wrong. Wars are never chosen by those who lose them. The decision to fight a war is always made by those who do not have to take arms themselves. War always takes the innocents unaware. War always comes upon them like an elemental force - and it never is.

No, no, it was not their choice, and like it has devastated them, it could have easily devastated us. The distance between Bosnia and Villach is about the same as the distance between Villach and Vienna.

Yes, yes, there were conflicts in Yugoslavia that were much stronger and unlike any conflict in Austria, that’s right, but there is a reason for that. Bosnia was a border zone for many centuries, and Austria as it exists since the end of World War I is at the heart of a former empire. We were rulers, they were subjects. But of course it could have been different. Centuries ago Vienna was under siege by the Turkish Empire, and only with a lot of luck did we fend them off. Had we not, the former border zone would run right across Austria, possibly leaving it in the same state of conflict today, that damaged Yugoslavia so awfully.

That it came differently, it is not ours to take credit for. We did not earn our state of fortunate peace, it is with us as a consequence of conflicts long past.

But if that is so, then we have all all the reason in the world to not only be thankful, but to help in any way we can. Remember: It could be you, it could be I, and in that case, wouldn’t we be thankful for any help we can get?

The Song of the Day is “Across The Borderline” From the 1992 Flaco Jimenez album “Partners”. Hear it on YouTube.