We Are All Bruce Lee

4 September 2003 When the Urban Movement group from Mostar brought up the idea of building a statue of Bruce Lee in the center of the city, the nationalists were disturbed. But the idea’s realization has ushered in the beginning of a new period of civilization for this city that suffered much during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Out of all the ethnic heroes and those who have a material interest in acting as victims, we have chosen Bruce Lee. Now they can rack their brains trying to decide whether he is he Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim), Croat, or Serb,” said Veselin Gatalo, one of the initiators of the idea.

“To be honest, I get sick every time I tell someone I am from Mostar and they ask me whether I am from the east or west side of the city (the city is divided into the Bosniak east side and the Croat west side),” said Nino Raspudic. “That is one of the reasons for building a statue of Bruce Lee. We are hoping that someone in the future will say: “I knew Mostar. That is the city with the Bruce Lee statue. If we succeed in that, then I can retire.”

Raspudic is one if the founders of the non-governmental organization “Urban Movement-Mostar.” Of course, he wasn’t serious about retirement because he only recently finished his literature studies at Zagreb University and he is only 26. He also said that he has only recently discovered the music of Michael Jackson and Julio Iglesias. But speaking about the Bruce Lee statue, he is very serious and he has no intention of giving up.

It is difficult to say what made them choose Bruce Lee. Younger generations can’t remember the excellent moves of Mostar football player Blaz Sliskovic. Politicians would spend years discussing which ethnicity poet Aleksa Santic was. The life-size, bronze statue of Bruce Lee won’t be placed in front of one of the three movie theatres in Mostar, but on the former front line of the Bosniak and Bosnian-Croat armies, on the Spanish Square.

“It is like when you have to explain a joke to some people. But we live in times when you have to explain,” Gatalo said. “People have gotten so stupid that we have to explain irony. But that is not hard for us.” (…)

“With this action--despite all the politicians’ interpretations--we are trying to prove that the existence of a long period of our past lives cannot be settled with ideology and politics.”

“Bruce Lee--as an icon, a man who fought for justice and earned success through his own hard work--was a very logical choice. He is like a child’s dream about a better and world with more justice. (…) We knew that people would ask themselves whether he represents Bosniaks, Croats, or Serbs,” Gatalo said.

“The same people will probably do research about what his family was doing during World War II, and who is actually behind this initiative,” said Boris Jovanovic, a sculptor and a member of the Urban Movement who has been charged with designing the model for the statue. (…)

There have been numerous and varied commentaries in the media regarding the Bruce Lee initiative. “There is a minority that does not support this action--the kind of people who take the world and their role in it very seriously. But generally reactions are positive,” Raspudic said. Positive reactions came from the Chinese Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is considering donating 7,500 euros ($8,100) to the cause.

The Mostar City Council finds the idea rather nice, even though there is no doubt that the statue will spark much debate among politicians when they see a statue to “some Chinese guy” in the center of the city and it is clearly not a local nationalist folk singer.
(…)

The idea to erect a statue of Bruce Lee is not the first provocative idea to come from the Urban Movement. Last year they confused the Mostar public with a photo exhibition called, “Beauties of reconstruction and building--34 pearls of Mostar post-war architecture.” In the exhibition they presented 34 of the most showy and spectacular examples of urban ‘destruction.’ Among them were buildings owned by new tycoons with the necessary kitsch elements, mosques that would make Saudi Arabia jealous, churches with towers the size of rockets…

“It is important to stress that this action is not a joke. How can you joke about something so sick? We have a sick state, a sick judicial system, corrupt police…Actually, all this came from the Mostar blues,” Gatalo said.
He said that in a situation in which doctors and intellectuals earn between 250 and 350 euros in one month, and criminals and other social groups who do not respect the law live like kings, the appearance of Bruce Lee can be only welcomed. Especially for this generation of teenagers who have no role model except those with guns.

“Can you imagine how I feel when in the last two months all am I doing is trying to erect a statue of Bruce Lee--like he is going to save us?” Raspudic asked.

When we know that institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina are not functioning as the international community would like them to, that the Old Bridge in Mostar, which is supposed to be connecting citizens of the city, has to connect itself first, that politicians in Mostar can’t even agree to unite the ethnically segregated communal services, the idea of putting a statue of Bruce Lee in the center of the city doesn’t appear too strange.

Under these conditions, where nationalist politicians are constantly worrying about ethnic interests and parity--even when the problem is one of fixing potholes in the roads--the Urban Movement’s idea of renaming streets after comic book characters doesn’t look less serious.

Maybe the time has finally come for Mostar to allow people like Nino, Veselin, and their friends to declare peace and the true beginning of a civilized era, symbolized by Bruce Lee.

By Hrvoje Prnjak. Translated by Anes Alic.

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