When I was 14 I lived in a country called Yugoslavia.
This is a civilised country, people said, there will be no war.
We had hyperinflation. That means that they had to knock zeros of the currency so you didn’t have to carry buckets of cash.
This is a civilised country, people said, there will be no war.
We had lots of nationalist chatter. Even some pop songs that triggered fights at school discos.
This is a civilised country, people said, there will be no war.
Then I was 15. Teachers didn’t get paid. My mother was a teacher, so I know.
But this is a civilised country, people said, there will be no war.
It’s the others people blamed. The ones not like us.
But this is a civilised country, people said, there will be no war.
I was in Mostar in school and I wondered how I would get home if there was a war.
But this is a civilised country, people said, there will be no war.
When I was 16 my parents went out to dinner one night. I babysat my siblings. It was a Saturday.
We are going to England, my parents said, we think there will be war.
It was 1991, and there was war.
It is 2019, I am 44, and I live in Britain.
But this is Britain people keep saying.
I first wrote this as a Twitter thread which you can find here.
