In the heart of Europe

Europe's forgotten powder keg.
Europe is incapable of sorting out its own backyard and yet it is venturing out to Somalia, Afghanistan and other trouble spots.
Put your house in order first!

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk Bosnia's "crisis" is so much talked about these days, yet so difficult to define. Bosnia is not a failed state. Not yet, at least. Instead, it is more like a zombie state. Like Afghanistan and Iraq, Bosnia has been reanimated out of conflict following external intervention. Outwardly it appears to be in possession of the institutions of democracy, but those institutions, say critics, are moribund in most respects. It is a country, warns Paddy Ashdown, the former UN High Representative for Bosnia - the country's internationally appointed administrator - that if not tackled will become "a black hole of dysfunctionality, corruption and tension in the midst of the EU". Now, however, Bosnia is on the verge of economic bankruptcy, with unemployment running at more than 40%, leading it to canvass for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.