There is a phrase that I often pick up in all my favorite watering holes in Zagreb: “during the war.” This was so while I was growing up, as well, but it was World War II that people were talking about. Only a few old ones would have World War I in mind, which is why they had to specify the war in question. Now they talk about the Croatian war of independence, of course. And everyone has something to say about it. Some people lost loved ones. Others went through hard times. But there is no-one who has gone through the breakup of Yugoslavia unscathed. The phrase is thus alive and well. Only a few newcomers, like me, feel the need to specify the war in question. Which is why I feel ever so slightly uncomfortable whenever I do, for I was far away during the war. And well out of harm’s way. I only wonder what the future holds in store. In these part, the old phrase “during the war” has a nasty habit of popping up again and again. And again.