DRVAR, Bosnia-Herzegovina – If a town is dying, doesn't it at least deserve a decent funeral?
With candles, speeches and an obituary plastered on walls reading "Town of Drvar 1883 - 2013," residents symbolically laid this west Bosnian town to rest on Monday.
Two months ago, the last company in Drvar closed down, sending the town's unemployment rate skyrocketing to 80 percent — double Bosnia's average.
What Bosnia's 1992-95 war had not destroyed in Drvar, the global financial crisis and Bosnia's interethnic bickering seems to be finishing off. Even those Bosnians who have a job can cover less than half of their essential living costs with their salaries.
And last year, deaths in Drvar outnumbered births 119 to 27.
