NYU Gallatin Global Fellowship in Human Rights Blog

2013 Fellows

And So Week 2 Begins

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Cheryl D’souza
International Gay and Lesbian Human Right Commission
New York City

Week 1 was, to put it simply, wonderful. There are definite advantages that come with working with an organization as established as this one – communication is direct, expectations are clear, everyone is friendly and I’m never at a lost as to what I’m supposed to do next. Right now, I dare say I have the perfect amount of work, not too little so I’m bored but not too much that I feel drowned. It’s a good balance! There are 3 other interns in the office besides myself, but only one other works with me in communications.

So what exactly am I doing? I just spent week 1 researching the various media outlets in 5 different Asian countries, which were the sites of a longitudinal research on violence against LBT women that we’ve just completed. Not only was I just listing media outlets, but I was also researching their likelihood to feature an LGBT piece, as well as trying to figure out how to contact them (not always easy when their websites were in a foreign language, or better yet, when they didn’t have a website!). It was definitely an interesting experience simply because it gave me a chance to understand how the same media works differently in different countries. This week I’ll be starting media monitoring for Asia and what that means is that I’ll be keeping track of news items that relate to LGBT issues in different Asian countries and summarizing them on a weekly basis. This will help the organization stay abreast of the current affairs that is pertinent to their work.

One of the things I appreciate about IGLHRC is their mission of aligning with local activists. So for example, if something occurs somewhere, they make it a point to check in with the local activists as to what they can do that will be most helpful before they take action or release a statement. Too often I think, international organizations rush in head first without thinking about the effects of their action because they are so focused on doing good, and sadly, while their intentions might be admirable, the direct effect is not quite as desirable. So, I like that we focus on mobilizing with the people who know best, those who are on the ground and thus have a better grasp of the issues at hand.

I don’t want to comment more as of yet (it is only week 2) but I’m still as excited as when I first started, and I’m confident that my time here is going to be brilliant! That aside, New York is rainy and gloomy and grey for the most part (okay, the past 2 days) and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the sun will pop up sometime soon.

Filter Installation

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Carolyn Balk
Trailblazer Foundation
Siem Reap, Cambodia

All of the time I have spent sifting sand, sifting gravel, washing sand, and washing gravel has paid off! On Friday, I went to Lolei Village outside of Siem Reap to install eight water filters which–let me tell you, reader–was a very long and arduous day.

The village had no electricity, only one generator in one of the nicer houses. There was one dirt road that went through the village, houses lining either side, and a few small shops. Behind the houses were either more houses or gardens / farms / open land. Most of the villagers were at home to receive the filters, and from what I observed at least, about half of the children went to school.

We installed eight filters, which took a total of about six and a half hours including lunch, installation time, and driving time. The filter mold comes from a Canadian organization called CAWST (The Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology) that creates a lot of filter molds, I am told, for NGOs all over developing countries. The filters are immensely heavy, as they are made out of concrete, and so are the bags of sand (I really never realized how heavy sand could be). The filters are relatively easy to install seeing as they are just plopped on the ground wherever the family wants them (and this means they can be near a toilet or sewage source, but because the filter does not draw on this water (necessarily) this is theoretically fine). We installed the filters either next to their well or next to their kitchen area.

Basically, we wheeled the filter on a dolly to where the family wanted it installed. The family pays 13,000Riel, or $3.25, for the filter that then goes to the village fund. The price in 2012 was $2.60, but due to inflation, I am told, the price increased. This place has to be level in order to function properly, and in a few cases we had to add sand or a pebble or two underneath the filter in order to ensure this. We then put some water into the filter, pour the large gravel into the bottom, and level it. I leveled the gravel as I can reach the bottom of the filter with my rather long arms and still not get my sleeve wet. Then, we pour in the small pebbles, level these again, and then the sand which two people need to pick up to dump in due to its immense weight. We level the sand carefully without packing it in, and also then clean the filter using water and a cap-full of bleach. Finally, we pour more water into the filter and place the blue perforated filter contraption on top of this sand and water (it fits nicely into the concrete filter). You pour water on top of the blue filter and then, after about two weeks of being installed, clean water comes out of the drinking end.

The two-week waiting period is for the biofilm to develop and mature in the sand. The biofilm is created in the sand to trap bacteria in the water (it will consume bacteria such as E.Coli), and is developed organically and biologically specific to that water source. A biofilm for pond water would be different from a biofilm for well water, for example. The biofilm traps about 40% of the bacteria, while 60% or so of the other objects / not-so-great minerals in water (if there is a lot of iron, for example) is physically trapped with the blue filter or does not make it through the sand at all. For example, pond water had a lot of silt that is physically blocked with the sand and/or blue filter. Biosand filters trap about mid 80s to high 90s % of the bacteria and objects found in water, with percentages varying due to maintenance and quality of the original water source. When the biofilm develops after about two weeks, clean water is good to go.

The cleaner the water is going into the filter, the cleaner the water is coming out. Therefore, if you use water from a stream that feces run into, the water that comes out of the filter will not be as clean as water coming from a well 30 meters or so from a toilet. With each filter Trailblazer installs, they also hand out and explain a blue booklet in Khmer with pictures to show how to maintain the filter, how to use the filter, and how to drink/use water responsibly and sustainably in general. The pictures show fenced in livestock so they do not poo in streams, and also enclosed toilet areas, for example.

By the end of the day sand was sticking to me and my shirt nearly transparent in the back. We arrived back in Siem Reap by four, and I took a well-needed shower.

“You must be the tallest woman in the universe”

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Carolyn Balk
Trailblazer Foundation
Siem Reap, Cambodia

Well, contrary to the popular belief held among many Cambodian villagers, I am not the tallest woman in the universe. In fact, the tallest woman ever was reported to have been eight foot four inches, while I am a mere six foot 1 inch. But, this is what everyone (so I am told, I have not learned the Khmer sentence “you are the tallest woman in the world” but am on lesson three with my tutor!) has been saying about me, wherever I go.

Although this week at Trailblazer I have mostly been working on filtering sand for the water filters or picking salad / weeding (and dealing with my uncooperative stomach), on Tuesday I (along with others) delivered 82 new cooking stoves to eight different villages (or rather, we went to one village where villagers from eight different villages gathered). The cooking stoves are meant to simulate what Cambodians normally use to cook, but instead of fill the enclosed cooking space with smoke, these new cook stoves make the indoor air quality much better (and contrary to popular belief, indoor air quality is often worse than outdoor air quality). The stoves are also meant to reduce time spent cooking, allowing the villagers to pursue other projects and improve overall quality of life.

We arrived at a village Town Hall at about 9:30am, and the families from the eight villages selected to receive the stove also met us there. In order to be selected to receive the stove, each family had to fill out a baseline survey, asking questions such as “How long does it take for you to cook dinner?” or “How many people do you cook for?” The surveys will avoid yes/no questions unless it is about something directly observable (ex: “is there soap in your bathroom area?”) and not opinion (“do you think you cook for a long time?”). After the families who want the stoves fill out the survey, the village chief (of the eight villages, there was one female village chief which is quite rare–they are almost always male) decides who gets the stove. Trailblazer picks the villages, the village chief picks the villagers. Trailblazer works within the already existing systems as not to impose onto the villages; however, this can also create problems if the village chiefs are corrupt (as is often the case).

The Cambodian president of Trailblazer, Ratanak, showed the villagers how to use the stove briefly, and the stove itself came with picture instructions. Scott, one of the American founders of Trailblazer explained how it had taken two years to get the stoves shipped from the US with customs and everything. Some villagers had already paid the $1.50/6,000Riel fee (Riel and USD are basically interchangeable all over Cambodia) for the stoves, while with others we saw the transaction take place with the village chief taking and recording the money for bookkeeping. The money goes to a central village fund / savings account, as I described a bit in my last post.

Getting the stoves turned into a celebration of sorts. With each stove handed out, we got a photo of giving it to the villager handing it to them. One of them men receiving the stove remarked about its high quality, literally saying “Looks like quality” and was very excited and proud to have the stove–it was truly moving. Men, women, and children strapped the stove to their motorbikes or bicycles to go home, excited to use them.

Be Careful

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Anna Callaghan
OCCRP
Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Be careful. The two words that people keep leaving me with.

Of course this is sound advice to a girl living alone in a foreign country for a summer. I’m not saying it’s silly to offer that advice, but rather pointing out that it’s coming from two different places of concern. One come from the same place that would deliver the same sentiment had I been off to London or Rome. The second has to do with the country itself. The country is scarred by war and still plagued by the paralysis that was codified into the peace treaties that ended it. War still lingers, it’s true. But the war ended almost two decades ago.

War is what people remember about Bosnia. If they were conscious during the Clinton Administration they likely remember the intense, dramatic media reports coming from inside its borders. The Balkans has a history of wars after all. The Austro-Hungarians. The Ottomans. Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo – the event that sparked WWI. The countries of Tito’s Yugoslavia. There’s a verb for that: Balkanize. It means to break up into small, often hostile units.

Bosnia is no longer dangerous like it used to be when the place was often compared to hell on earth – one of the 14 worst places in the world at one time. The arms have been lowered. Churches and mosques have been reconstructed to an extent. Some bullet holes have been patched up with red – Sarajevo’s roses. The war is over.

Though I suppose people aren’t wrong in associating the place with war. The scars it still bears hinder progress and impede the population from reaching the high standard of living that many enjoyed before the war. The ethnic tensions between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats have created a bureaucratic gridlock that makes the US government look like a utopia. So don’t think danger and war when you think Bosnia. Look forward rather than back. In order to move forward many things need to be forgotten, memory must be tempered against forgetting.

Bosnia is far from perfect. It’s riddled with problems. But it’s also beautiful and full of hospitable people. The perpetual narrative of war corrupts the latent potential that does exist. Not to paint too rosy a portrait, but searching for hope is always better than looking for the opposite.

Confounding Contexts

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Rebecca Haque
Handicap International
Yei, South Sudan

As my fellow fellows launch into their sophisticated human rights analyses, I can’t help but feel a little lacking in coherent articulation myself. Over the past semester’s seminar my views on human rights clicked into place with Sally Merry’s observations that Human Rights is akin to language: both are vernacularized according to the contexts in which they operate. Presently, I am struggling with providing that context, for both my (numerous, I’m sure) readers, as well as for my own mind.

I obsessively scroll through news articles about South Sudan to find those two sentences that give context to the situation here. Lately, in the reports about the town of Pibor being ransacked by rebel troops and the army alike, it’s a “about two million people died in the war that was fuelled by divisions over religion, oil, ethnicity and ideology and ended in 2005 with a deal that paved the way for Juba’s secession.” The “deal” refers to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), a set of agreements signed by the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). It was the official end to the Second Sudanese Civil War, and made the South semi-autonomous in an attempt to develop democratic governance and “pave the way” for the referendum that resulted in the creation of the world’s newest nation in 2011.

So, due to the nature of conflict the country has faced, the category of “disability,” covers a broad spectrum—from victims of mines and unexploded ordnance, to those with cognitive disabilities as a consequence of malnutrition. What is significant is that an official governmental definition of People With Disabilities (PWDs) does not exist in South Sudan. Disability is most commonly associated with war injuries, with war veterans being the favored target group of Disabled People’s Organizations as their recognition is aided by their ease of recognition through formal registration. This reveals an interesting dynamic- while there is little recognition of the spectrum of disability, those injured from the war are greatly respected and valorized. Government programs that provide support to PWDs almost exclusively tend towards the local production and dissemination of prosthetic limbs for persons with physical disabilities.

South Sudan is not yet a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), and there is no mention of PWDs in the present draft of the South Sudanese constitution. These facts are deeply significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is difficult to engage Human Rights discourse surrounding a particular population when there is no official recognition of a population in need of special attention. I have realized that organizations like HI are establishing the disabled as a vulnerable population—they are explicitly identifying PWDs as their own particular social category.

Secondly, because they are not identified within any official framework it is very difficult to hold violations against PWDs to any sort of legal framework or jurisprudence. There are very few larger scale stakes for the Government of South Sudan in leaving the broader needs of the disabled unfulfilled. Bringing this into the realm of development, until programs towards the disabled are mainstreamed into development programs, there will be little accountability.

My first two (sunburnt) days in Cambodia

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Carolyn Balk
Trailblazer Foundation
Siem Reap, Cambodia

I arrived in Cambodia early early morning May 20th and was able to get to Trailblazer foundation by 9:30am. My home-stay unfortunately fell through, but I booked a guesthouse for three nights and will go on the hunt tomorrow to find a cheaper one with a monthly rate that is closer to Trailblazer. I have been taking motos or tuk-tuks to Trailblazer and unfortunately, this will begin to add up more than I would like (even though I love motorbikes with a passion).

When I arrived, I had a tour of the NGO grounds, and learned more about what they are doing. The three main areas of work that Trailblazer is involved in are agriculture (a recent addition), water for families (filters), and township water (wells). The Cambodian people pay a very small amount ($5) for the water well, and the money is collected by the town and creates a sort of town trust. People can borrow from the trust to buy chickens or to take their child to the doctor’s office, for example. The filters provide water for up to three families, and I have already witnessed that this water comes out very slowly so it cannot be used for commercial use (such as creating a fish pond). As for agriculture, Trailblazer is working on setting up local gardens in towns in order to jumpstart economic activity with the vegetables. At the moment, Trailblazer is test-driving arugula and other high end salad greens to sell to tourist restaurants in Siem Reap as that is where the most money is and the demand is highest. If all goes well, Trailblazer will set up gardens in the village communities to give extra sources of income. Trailblazer also attempted to grow and sell mushrooms to restaurants, but this did not work and right now, I am helping with the aftermath of this. Next week, I was told, I will be working on installing filters (and will also likely help a current intern inputting data about filters).

After the mushroom attempts failed, I have been opening each plastic bag that held the soil, comprised of lime, sawdust, and rice for the mushrooms, and emptying it into large bags, formerly used for fish, to be used for compost in the future. The mushrooms were grown in plastic bags molded in the shape of plastic bottles. My first day was brutally hot, while yesterday it had cooled down a bit after it rained last night–making this work much more enjoyable (because I went to bed at 6pm May 20, and accidentally screwed up my alarm and woke up 11pm, I missed this rainstorm although I heard the thunder was very loud–a testament to my heavy sleeping). By hot, I mean it feels like the sun is pressing against my shoulders, and as sweat drips off me (in waterfall proportions), my knees my buckle into the dirt ground and I will slowly melt. Although it is somewhat mundane work, I am still learning a lot about how things are run at the NGO and although it sounds corny: I am learning that not everything attempted works (which might seem obvious), and it is good to know that when things do not work, they don’t try and pretend they do but rather stop (what also might seem obvious but think about it: how often do people recognize their mistakes and backtrack just like that?). Mushrooms can work in Cambodia, so I have been told, they just need to have very specific conditions.

On a more academic and environmental note, rice farming in Cambodia overwhelmingly uses pesticides, while there is a new push to use organic pesticides (don’t be fooled: organic pesticides are not always better for the environment than synthetic, and in fact, synthetic pesticides can be better), according to my supervisor Rataunak. Fun fact of the day: the verb “to eat” in Khmer actually means “to eat rice.” This reminds me of the verb “to work” in Indonesian and how it literally means “to work in the rice field.” This further proves how rice is not only ingrained in the culture and nutrition of Southeast Asia, but also in linguistic structures.

Reframing Human Rights Discourses for the Postcolony

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Declan Galvin
United States International University
Kenya

I wanted to dedicate my first blog post to discussing the human rights research I will be conducting this summer in Kenya. I am fortunate enough to be able lean on my prior experience living as a student and volunteer in Kenya, which has proven to be significant as I developed my research design with my advisor Rosalind Fredericks, the HR Fellowship advisor Vasuki Nesiah, and my classmates in our Human Rights seminar.

As I began to write the statement of purpose for the Gallatin Human Rights Fellowship application (which was nearly a year ago) I used that opportunity to reflect not only on my previous experience living in East Africa, but also on some of my frustrations with what seems to be many of the prevailing notions and discourses relating to human rights. Specifically, I have always been frustrated with the implicit assumption by some major international organizations and many donor nations that human rights is to be, first and foremost, viewed through and dealt with by “the modern state.” While I am not ignorant to the fact that the international system, particularly in the immediate aftermath of WWII, is primarily comprised of modern nation-states; I cannot help but recognize the growing importance of non-state actors (e.g., NGOs and non-profit organizations), civil society, and even business actors in reinforcing prevailing international norms, and specifically in this case human rights.

Moreover, and this is the line of inquiry that my research seeks to address, there are states which possess so little capacity that they cannot devise effective policies or standards of public health, safety, agricultural production, or urban planning; and thus, seriously affecting their capacity to promote the various economic and social rights so often invoked within human rights discourses. In other words, the state-centric emphasis implicit within conventional notions of human rights offers little guidance for states confronted with these circumstances and political realities (i.e., those in the postcolony, especially in Africa, parts of Asia, and South America) which are still expected, by threat of international law, to establish and maintain human rights within their sovereign borders.

It is this inconsistency—between international law, human rights discourse, and state capacity in the postcolony—that is at the center of my research. While in Kenya I will interview members of urban gangs and youth groups who promote the social and economic rights of “slum” dwellers by providing essential services like access to water, electricity, and protection; but who simultaneously use violence to exploit and intimidate these residents. I want to understand how these youth groups and urban dwellers, together, construct human rights in the informal settlements of Nairobi where consistent state authority is tepid or weak.

Within this, I am curious about what these residents and youth groups believe constitutes “human rights,” and whether their actions or behaviors reinforce or contradict their own notions of human rights, rather than simply comparing their behavior with an external concept of human rights (introduced in that case by the researcher). I hope that this research will inform our understanding of the construction of authority and power in the postcolony, some of the weaknesses of conventional human rights discourses in the era of globalization, and the use of violence in peri-urban settings.

Traveling to India.

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Lily Jordahl
ARMMAN India
Mumbai, India

When I left Delhi at the end of July of 2012, it was difficult for me to imagine how I could find a way to come back to India in the near future, yet I remained determined to do so. While my seven week trip to Delhi and the Northern regions of the country last summer was wonderfully fulfilling and left me with a host of memories that I will likely never part with, it also felt more like an introduction than a conclusion to my relationship with the country. As I became comfortable there, I found myself wanting to know more about how different parts of society intersected and to delve deeper into the parts of culture which I have been drawn to in most places that I visit: gender and health.

Thus, it has been a complete shock and blessing to me when I realize that I will be returning to India in several short weeks to examine both of these subjects in greater depth. This time, however, I will be traveling to Mumbai, India where I will be working for the nonprofit organization Advancing Reduction in Mortality and Morbidity of Mothers, Children, and Neonates, or in shorter terminology ARMMAN. This organization has several projects in action, yet the one which I will be working directly with is an initiative which transmits voice messages to the mobile phones of pregnant women living in rural areas outside of Mumbai, which provide them with information about their body and the growing fetus, as well as ways which they can care for themselves during this time. This project is extremely interesting to me as it takes an approach to public health that is localized and also gives women the opportunity to control their own healthcare by providing them with knowledge, rather than simply the administration of medical care.

At times, especially as my departure date looms closer, I become nervous, as I am sure anyone does when embarking on this type of trip, about traveling to India and taking on this type of human rights project, but I tend to assure myself by remembering the whole host of research that I have done on the topics of gender and health. I have created a concentration in Gallatin titled Reproductive Justice and the Politics of Motherhood, which focuses specifically on the way in which reproductive healthcare is skewed and manipulated by public viewpoints and socially created ideals about gender, sexuality, and reproduction. Furthermore, I have focused even greater on this topic, specifically in the context of India, through my independent study during this past spring. Through this course, I have been able to gain a greater perspective of the historical nature of Indian development, as well as to understand the different actors in the field of social welfare. I believe that all of this information that I have accumulated will be helpful in my journey to India. But, this study has also made me recognize the extremely complex nature of the way in which international relationships and pressure have influenced the development of the Indian state and population. As a result, I believe I will have to think very cautiously about my own role in the country as a white American woman traveling to work there.

In all honesty, however, some of the best advice that I have received about my upcoming trip is that as much as I can prepare for it, much of it will be about learning to release my own expectations for everything that I will be doing there and simply take what comes my direction. One of the most wonderful things that I learned when I was in India the previous summer was to relax and recognize that things may not go as planned, but then a better plan may appear as a result of that. I am extremely positive that this upcoming trip will hold amazing academic prospects that will expand my way of thinking about my subjects of interest, yet it is difficult to say exactly where I will find the most moving and interesting information.

30 Hours

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Katherine Campbell
Iganga, Uganda
Women Alliance and Children Affairs (WAACHA)

With the clock ticking, and the countdown on, let me tell you about my summer plans:

As a Gallatin Global Fellow in Human Rights, I am aiming to develop a comprehensive sex education curriculum to implement with a local NGO, Women’s Alliance and Children’s Association, (WAACHA), in Iganga, Uganda. From January 2013, up until my departure for Uganda on May 23, I have been and will continue to work on an effective and comprehensive sex education applicable to all the integrated members of the WAACHA community, and more broadly within Iganga. This summer I will spend ten weeks in Iganga, working with WAACHA to implement this curriculum as a sustainable education program by training other educators to teach this curriculum.

Sex education is fundamental to human development. Sex is a powerful tool. I have found sex to have great power in our world, fundamentally because it is an act that requires consent, without which it becomes an act of power and submission; sex in the form of rape is used as a weapon of degradation and control, violating human rights and inhibiting peaceful relations. It can be a powerful exchange of love and trust through consensual choices to engage in it, or it can be a tool for destruction. I believe sex education is one of the most influential lessons one person can give to another in helping him/her shape his/her own future because knowledge is power. Education on sex and sexual health allow individuals to take control of his/her sex life, and to be proactive about his/her sexual health by providing the knowledge and skills needed to make independent decisions as they relate to sex and health. Education on sex and sexual health empowers individuals to be autonomous beings.

Furthermore, human sexuality is a large component of human personality, so much so that a persons’ sexuality can impact a persons day-to-day interactions with others.

International law asserts and upholds the human right to comprehensive sex education. Several international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, (ICCPR), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, (CRC), assert this governmental obligation.

The right to sex education is also expressed in inexplicit terms in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (UNUDHR).
The right to comprehensive sex education probably derives its greatest legitimacy as a human right through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and specifically through articles 3, 13, 19 and 24. Article 3 to the CRC asserts that all actions taken for children must be in best interest of the child. National governments need to address the educational needs of its youth population to the best interest of each child, thus including comprehensive sex education and largely eliminating the concerns of parents or religious organizations. Article 13 establishes that children have a right to seek, receive, and impart information of all kinds regardless of outwardly imposed limitations. This is clearly making it a direct violation to withhold or deny students information on their sexual health and educational needs.

Article 19: “State Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child,” (CRC, Art. 19).

Comprehensive sex education has been found to be a key element to protecting children from sexual violence. It has been found that education, particularly for young children, about sex and sexual boundaries gives people the knowledge and skills they need to identify sexual abuse, feel comfortable discussing it with others, and potentially lower their risk of sexual violence. Sex education provides a safe environment for children who are or have been victims of sexual violence to recognize the abuse they have experienced and seek protection with authority figures who hopefully have the child’s best interest in mind. The above article recognizes this, and goes so far as to directly call for the implementation of educational measures for the prevention of sexual abuse.

Finally, Article 24 addresses the child’s right to health, specifying what is included within that right, and clearly identifying the need, “To develop preventive health care, guidance for parents and family planning education and services,” as an essential health care service that children should have access to, (CRC, Art. 24, (f)). The Committee on the Rights of the Child has concluded that the rights to health and information require states to provide children with adequate, appropriate and timely HIV/AIDS and sexual health information. Additionally, in consistency with their commitment to ensure the right to life, survival and development of the child (art. 6), State parties must ensure that children have access to the knowledge and skills they need to protect themselves and others as they begin to express their sexuality.

What Happened to the Balkan Burger?

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Anna Callaghan
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Sarajevo

What the place lacked in curb appeal, it made up for in hospitality. I was welcomed with a refuge from a bitter February evening and offers of hot coffee. Dark beams crossed the ceiling, sitting atop bright orange paint. Small square tables were in rows around the room, and brown benches lined the perimeter, topped with red vinyl cushions.

The smells from the stove-top drifted into the dining area. The dishes, like their preparers, were born in the Balkans but exist today in Queens, New York. The plate of food exits the Old Bridge kitchen in the hands of a smiling chef, her cheerfulness almost tangible.

I was served cevapi (chay-vop-ee), a dish of the heavily seasoned beef sausages that are a staple in Bosnian cuisine, not too different from American sausages. They’re served inside a warm pita with chopped raw onion, topped with a red pepper and yogurt sauce.

Though the food is popular, business at Old Bridge is struggling, according to Adnan Rudanovic, who helps his brother run the restaurant while also working as a broadcast technician. Business boomed following a 2010 New York Times article but has since dropped off significantly.
“It’s not crowded – it should be. People should want to come support this place,” he said.
Roughly thirty minutes outside of the city by subway, Astoria, Queens is across the East River from the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The unassuming one-story building sits on 42nd Street just off 30th Avenue, a two-lane arterial lined with businesses and restaurants, their ownership a microcosm of world ethnicities.

Parked cars and a telephone pole obscure an overhang displaying stark white letters – Old Bridge Balkan Burgers. The faded, curling Times article taped to the window praises the burger.
The restaurant used to be where the Bosnian community gathered to watch the national soccer team. As long as crowds avoided politics they could find some semblance of unity around the starting lineup.
“There is no other place that shows games, Old Bridge is the only place to watch in New York City,” Rudanovic added proudly. But these days fewer people show up.

In many countries, watching the national team evokes nationalist sentiments. Games offer a platform where people can band together, but Bosnians seem more used to being pitted against one another.
Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, sparking the Bosnian Civil War. Ethnic cleansing and forced migration populated the next three years. The worst atrocities ceased with direct conflict, but manufactured ethnic tensions between Muslims, Serbs and Croats that helped catalyze the war still linger.

“The Bosnian community was bigger maybe 10 or 12 years ago, more united then and more willing to participate socially,” said Rudanovic.

Old Bridge is English for “Stari Most,” a bridge that crosses the river Neretva in Mostar, Bosnia. Like many things, it was destroyed during the war. Today it’s a divider. On one side the Muslim Serbs and the other the Catholic Croats.

A half-mile away is another restaurant, Djerdan Burek. First opened by their parents, Selma Medunjanin-Ismajli and her brother mainly run it now. Unlike Old Bridge, Djerdan Burek has seen steady business.
“You can get the whole world in New York,” she said. “It’s great exposure.”

Djerdan is famous for their burek, another popular dish made of hand-stretched phyllo dough filled with meat, cheese or spinach, brought to the Balkans by the Ottomans.

“In Sarajevo, the old town smells like cevapi,” said Medunjanin-Ismajli. “The whole town smells delicious.”

Burek, like cevapi, is simple, cheap fast food. But making burek by hand is a complicated, expensive process. Women of an older generation know how to make it, but few young people can.

“A couple of years ago I realized we were going to run into trouble,” said Medunjanin- Ismajli. “The people who make the burek were getting older.”

Djerdan Burek purchased machinery from Turkey that expedites the process. It allows them to sell frozen burek in grocery stores and support the catering arm of the business as the women retire.
“It’s not just Bosnians that eat here,” she said, “You’d really be surprised.”

The Bosnian community in New York is a nice group, however small, according to Medunianin-Ismaili. The annual Bosnia and Herzegovina Film Festival (BHFF), held every spring, is an opportunity to come together. Despite Medunjanin-Ismajli’s noticeable accent, she feels more like a New Yorker.
“I speak the language actively and am connected to my roots,” she said. “Everybody loves Bosnia, but it’s not everything.”

The community is different now than it was in the mid-1990s, when Rudanovic and Medunjanin-Ismajli came as refugees, it’s also different from when they started their restaurants, in 2004 and 1998 respectively.

Food was once a unifier and restaurants a place to hold court, but Bosnian identity has become less central, lost amidst an ethnically diverse society.

So why does Djerdan Burek find success while Old Bridge struggles? The answer may lie in the gap between generations. Medunjanin-Ismaili came to the U.S. in her early teens, while Rudanovic came at 25, bringing distinctly different memories.

Both were kind and trusting. I tried to pay Rudanovic for my meal, but he waved my money away.
“No,” he said sternly. “You are our guest.”

I had been the only person in the restaurant for two hours.
Identity seems to be eroding as the older generation tries to forget a painful past that the young can barely remember.

Certain members of the community, particularly the filmmakers, argue that regaining old memories is part of moving on. More frequently it seems that people would rather forget. Others, however, are tired of new narratives being anchored in an old identity.

“I have mixed feelings,” said Medunjanin-Ismajli. “It’s such a horrible tragedy that shouldn’t be forgotten, but can we make a movie other than a war movie?”

As time passes, generations take their place on either side of the river Neretva, connected by a bridge between the past and the present, passable only by rendering the difference between memory and forgetting.