The first in a series of civic debates was held on Sunday, 31 May via the online platform ZOOM Meetings. Together with mreSVUB&H staff, 16 participants from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the civic debate. The topic of the first debate was the coronavirus pandemic.
At the very beginning, the participants introduced themselves and exchanged first impressions. Then they had the task to tell others in the most creative and fun way where they came from, what they did, what they studied or what school they attended.
In the main part of the debate, participants discussed the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on our society. They also discussed the global situation due to this virus. Participants linked the pandemic to numerous problems in BiH such as nationalism, manipulation by authorities and the media, as well as war legacy in BiH, all with the aim of building critical objective thinking derived from the facts and attitudes they arrived at on their own. The participants were divided into five smaller groups with the task of finding an example of two manipulation strategies in their community, state, region, which they had previously written and sent to all participants.
After exchanging opinions in groups, they returned to the plenum where they explained and commented on all ten strategies and found appropriate examples in their communities. Working in groups significantly helped the participants to become even closer, relax and express their critical opinions to each other. Afterwards, the participants commented on the state-level reconciliation survey conducted earlier.
B/H/S