Celebrity Sighting

We were driving off to a rehearsal late this morning. (First Gilgal gig of 2010 happens Thursday night!) At one end of Mostar's Bulevar our progress was hindered by a guy trying to pull off a reversing-off-the-pavement-into-traffic manoeuvre. His move was a little ill-timed but we stopped anyway. The car coming the other way sort-of did too, but not completely. It kept trying to squeeze through the ever-decreasing gap between the opposite curb and the rear light cluster of an Opel Zafira.

Having nudged himself suitability back into the face of the oncoming traffic the driver of the blue Opel turned his face towards us, pulling a blame-it-on-the-other-guy face, with accompanying shrug and hand gesture. I turned to Rowan: “I know that person, aren't they an actor?” She thought for a moment before nailing it in one. Alex Baldwin. Put politely, the real Alex Baldwin carries more weight but the likeness was uncanny. For this we forgive the driver his impatient exit from his pavement parking space.

However, Bosnia and Herzegovina can boast a real, bonafide celebrity sighting, even if we can't. Yesterday Brangelina (that's Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to the celebrity averse) lent their weight – although not in the Alex Baldwin sense – to the plight of Bosnia's many refugees. Thousands are still displaced fifteen years after armed conflict ended in the country. Jolie has been an ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 2001. As volunteers with an organisation that has been personally involved in the lives of displaced people since the mid-nineties we only too aware of how important it is that these people are not forgotten.

Defining 'not forgotten' would be a long and complicated post. Perhaps one day I'll offer my opinion on it but for now let's just hope this flying visit plays its part in building a better future for the disadvantaged in Bosnia and Herzegovina.