Friday: Vukovar Flags

After a morning in the office, I went to Vukovar to attend a roundtable on multilingualism where, along with other colleagues, I was also asked to speak on the experiences of other countries.  

It was a curious event.  The issue of multilingualism is such an emotive subject in Vukovar that this is precisely why the event was held there.  In a nutshell - the Croatian constitution stipulates that where there are minorities of 30% or more in a given place then local signage etc. should also be in the language of that minority.  This means that in Vukovar all signage on public buildings, street signs etc, should be in Serbian, i.e. Cyrillic.  But, to Vukovar, Serbia, and Serbian, is associated with wartime atrocities and the devastation of the town, so any attempts to introduce the signage has failed - hence the event today.

It was an interesting event and pretty emotive at times with lots of interjections from the floor.  It never got out of hand but it is obvious that feelings run incredibly high.  

Consequently it went on for much longer than anticipated and I wasn't really able to get any shots other than the outside of the building where the event was held........

Then the three hour drive back to Zagreb so it's been a long day.  I got home about 10pm but, the lovely thing was that K. was back when I got in!  Don't worry, I was actually expecting her, it's not like she crept in........

Just an additional thought - I think that sometimes, like today, I rely too much on one event or opportunity to get my photo.  I really need to train myself to be taking pictures throughout the day..........