[ Bosnia-Herzegovina ]

While waiting for the end of the baking process of my muffin-cookies, I am reading some articles on the constitutional reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina, or rather about the failure of the reform. On Thursday night (27th April), after 14h of parliamentary debates, 26 of the 42 members of the House of Representatives voted for the constitutional amendments (cf. this blog, 25.4.2006, for more details on the amendments). Only 2 yes-votes were missing for the 2/3 majority necessary to adopt the reforms.

Deutsche Welle speaks of "one of the biggest political failures after the last war". Nevertheless, remembering the ups and downs of the police reform negotiations, and considering that the constitutional reform has a similarly symbolic character, it is (a) not that suprising that the parliament failed to adopt the reform and (b) probably not the end of the negotiation process. With all international actors in Bosnia-Herzegovina supporting the process and exercing strong pressure on BiH politicians, the reform will ultimately be adopted. Nevertheless, in this pre-electoral phase, it could take a bit longer...

The non-adoption of the reforms is due to domestic policy struggles before the October elections: the most passionate opponent of the reforms is Bosnia's former prime minister Haris Silajdzic (Party of BiH), who campaigned against the reforms because he considers them as not radical anough and proposes to abolish the two entities - a relatively popular idea in the Federation of BiH, but much much less in the Republika Srpska... (cf. Deutsche Welle, 27.4.2006, and BIRN, 12.4.2006).

...To cheer you up after these somewhat heavy thoughts I will conclude in the best tradition of the EastEthnia blog (which provides "commentary and news on the Balkans, the United States, the social sciences, and the culinary arts") by revealing you my cookie recipe, which is an adaptation of a muffin recipe I found on the internet. These cookies are not Balkanese, but can be realised in any spot of the Balkans, as you can find the ingredients in the smallest mini-markets and as you do not need any special cooking instruments (such as a mixer). They do not contain any eggs, and are thus completely avian-influenza-proof.

Mix together with a spoon (in this order): 400 g flour and 1 little bag of baking powder
+ 75-100 g of sugar (this is the not-so-sweet variant, but you can of course add more sugar)
+ 100 g of dried rasped coconut (kokos brasno in B/C/S)
+ half a teaspoon of salt
+ 100-125 g of melted margarine
+ milk (100-200 ml, maybe you will need a bit more, but the dough should not get liquid!)
+ a tablet (100 g) of baking chocolate cut into little pieces
Form little table-tennis-sized balls and put them on an oven grid with baking paper on it. Bake them at 175 C for 30-35 minutes (heat from above + underneath!). Comments and suggestions are welcome!