Miss Sarajevo (Fools Rush In). Exclusive interview with Bill Carter!

Bill Carter‘s book “Fool Rush In” will be officially published in his italian version on June 15th and we’re really proud to publish this interview that we recently realized with the author. We have to thank Maja Ajdin for her kindness and her help to get in touch with Bill. She took care of the italian translation of the book that here in Italy will be titled “Miss Sarajevo”.

In this book Bill Carter talks about his own experience in Sarajevo during the war, about his fight against the indifference of the outside world towards the bosnian city. He shows us how he tried to bring world’s lights to a city where darkness and death where present everyday and how the people of Sarajevo tried to stay alive in their hearts and minds and how the city never really surrended to the war. Bill also talks about his connection with U2 and how he persuaded them to follow his idea to help the city of Sarajevo and let all the world know what was going on down there.

We just wanted to report a couple of beautiful passages of the book before leaving you to the interview. You will find a lot more all through Bill Carter’s “Fool Rush In”

Bill about one of the Satellite Links with U2’s concerts: “It wasn’t the first time I’d experienced it, but it might have been the most overwhelming demonstration of the primal power of music. That it can cross any border, whether it be phisical, political, linguistic, or emotional.”

“(Bono) asked if I had a title for the movie. I told him I had a notebook full of titles but none seemed to be working..’Didn’t you say there was a Miss Sarajevo beauty contest in the war?’ he asked..’It’s the perfect metaphor. Miss. It can be a woman. It can be a city. You call it Miss Sarajevo and I will write you a song’ “

Your book “Fools Rush In” is about to be published in Italy . There is great expectation for this book, right here where your collaboration with Bono and U2 started. Could you tell us some interesting details of those days. How and when did you decide to reach Sarajevo, knowing about all the difficulties that You had to face? Is there an event or something particular, something that induce You to go in the middle of the war or was it just something growing inside yourself slowly?

I was 26 years old when I arrived in Zagreb in March 1993. I knew about the war but honestly I had no idea what I was getting into or what I would do when I arrived. Once in Split, I found an old high school friend who was working for the IRC, International Rescue Committee, and through him was able to find a way into Sarajevo, with a humanitarian organization called The Serious Road Trip. They were off the NGO radar and dressed as clowns while delivering food. Crazy, mad group of guys but with big hearts. To answer the other part of the question…I had no idea what war was like. Crossing into Bosnia felt ominous and dangerous, but I didn’t know why. Within two days I was being shot at and seeing people die. Kids were tearing our trucks to pieces, looking for food and things to steal. It was madness.

To say I had a solid reason to enter Sarajevo in the late winter of 1993 would be wrong. What was driving me as a human being was the loss of my fiance and someone I loved dearly. Her death two year before had sent me into an emotional tailspin that is difficult to describe. The pain I felt was overwhelming and at the same time I experienced the world in a way I could never have imagined. I was well traveled by the time she died, spending two years in Asia already, but now I saw the world through the eye of grief. I saw the smallest details and relished the off handed conversations that my ear seemed to catch. Like a vampire, with ultra hyper senses-touch, smell, hearing, taste, and sight- I could hear everything. It was a strange feeling and when I walked into Sarajevo all that just got more intense. It wasn’t until years later, while wrting the book, that I realized my grief made me very capable of living in Sarajevo during a very dark period of their history. Death bothered me when I saw it, but somehow I was emotionally prepared. I found myself running into situations that were chaotic, as if it were natural. On the flip side I was able to laugh deeply with Sarajevans. I felt freed from my own pain, as if it had leaked into the thick air of grief that hovered over the city like a fog. I was able to exist in the present and only the present.

You lived in Sarajevo, a town from which everyone wanted to escape. Do You think that things You’ve seen in Sarajevo changed Your life in some way? Is there something from that experience that changed the way you live your life today?

Sarajevo changed my life permanently. It was the hardest time of my life, but the best time of my life. I met people I will know until the day I die. They are etched into my soul. I live my life differently. I appreciate it all the more. I remember a certain moment, usually something happy, and feel blessed to have that memory. The difficult part of war, the thing that stays with me forever, is not the horror of what man can do to another man. Instead it is the genuine humanity that rises to the top. The kindness, the simple gestures of love and community that utterly shatter me. I have seen it elsewhere, in almost every war or “stressed” location on earth. In the most difficult of times, human beings can become amazing creatures, filled with hope and love and goodwill. To ability of a starving man to offer me half a can of tuna, or to share a coffee. Things like this were commonplace in Sarajevo and fill me with great hope.

How do you describe “sarajevans”, people you met in one of their darkest moments?

It is difficult to put one word on “Sarajevans.” They were surreal, funny, and at times have a terribly dark outlook on the future of their city.
During the war they were all of these but also very open and kind to a strange young Californian wandering their streets with a camera and delivering food. I found Sarajevans to be one of the most enjoyable people on earth to spend my time with. I find the city to be irresistible and full of life, art, and humor. I think today there is an unsettled mood in Bosnia on the future of their country, which tends to allow for a passive citizenship. At least politically. They know they want something different but are not sure as a people how to recognize it or fully fight and struggle for that better place.


You were in Sarajevo, isolated from the rest of the World, living in very difficult circumstances, but however You were determinate in contacting the U2, aware of the fact that they could influence the European public opinion. What do You think, why they decided to follow You? And why You were so convinced that they would have listened to You?

The connection with U2 has always been somewhat of a mystery to U2 and myself. A wonderful mystery. To fully appreciate the connection I must go back a few years. Before coming to Sarajevo I lived for one year in Trinidad, in the West Indies. I was there to hide from my world, to hide from my grief. I had three cassette tapes (yes, cassette tapes!) 1. Neil Young’s Weld 2. Lou Reed’s Magic and Loss 3. U2’s Achtung Baby. The three albums became the soundtrack to my life when I was alone with my thoughts. I was fully engaged with the music of the island but when alone the sonics of those three albums somehow eased my mind.

Flash forward to Sarajevo and I am hanging out with musicians and actors and comedians, all smart and interesting people. They were frustrated no music and culture could get into the city. I found out U2 were on tour in Italy and thought, “why not reach out. What can they say, no?” Also I had this inner quiet confidence that came from my own journey in love and grief. I had no interest in some gain for myself, only to connect the outside world with this cut off world of Sarajevo. After meeting with Bono and the rest of the band that night in Verona, they decided to follow my idea of using their concerts as a vehicle to connect the world, or at least young European audiences with Sarajevo.

Why did they agree to this crazy idea? I think for a few reasons. One, they are Irish and it is in their genetic makeup to root for the underdog. They heard me tell them there is a place where people are down and getting kicked while they are down. And there are bad guys and here are their names. Two, I think they realized I had no interest in something else. Money, fame, etc. I was in this for the reasons I told them. Once we emotionally connected on all those factors there was no stopping me, or them. U2 truly elevated a simple idea I had to a place that is hard to fathom. They don’t do things small. They think big and allowed my dream to come true. To connect the outside world with Sarajevo, and perhaps more importantly let people know what was going in Sarajevo. It was emotionally difficult for them to beam these satellite feeds into their shows, and they took some heat for supporting the satellite links but as time went by I know they are proud of their decision to do it. It can be difficult in the heat of the moment to know whether to trust something. They trusted me and that is something that stays with me. They met me one night and risked a great deal to support me. The thing we had on our side is that we were right to do it.

What impression did you have the first time you met Bono? And what about the other members of the band?

When I met Bono my mind was racing on two fronts. One, I knew I met a rock star, but two, I was thinking of how to get back into Sarajevo. But, the great thing of meeting Bono is something you hear from many people who have met him. He is present. He looks you in the eye and is with you. I have known Bono and the rest of the band almost 20 years. Over the years we have met up, and caught up on our lives, etc. They are rock stars, but more importantly they are genuinely interesting people. And they are curious people. I have met many musicians, actors, and famous people and they are not always interesting or curious. The lifestyle can muddle that aspect of the mind and soul. But the band, and those around them, continue to be humans interested in this journey we are all taking together on this rock through the universe.

I think music just happens to be the medium that makes the most sense for them. But, if it weren’t for music, I have no doubt they would all still be interesting human beings.

Do you think it is still possible to do things of such importance in the light of what is happening in the world today? Do You know about somebody else who did or still do the same thing as You have done for Bosnian people? If You do, why their commitment is unknown?

I am not sure of this. What U2 and I did with the satellites feels like it was a bit revolutionary, meaning no one had done it. The nightly news beamed lots of satellite images and interviews, but by 1993 the viewing audience was already starting to recognize what we now know to be true: that the news is the world’s biggest source of entertainment. What we did in the satellites was different. I wanted to beam real people, not politicians, or military types to the world. Let Sarajevans speak unedited to the world and see if there was a way to spark a tiny flame of compassion from the audiences at U2 shows. To wake up that part of us that wants to know more and reach out and help.

I think today the world is different. In many ways what I did with U2 is done today with youtube, iphones, facebook and all the immediate ability to post to the world. I think the Arab spring showed some of this. At the same time it is different in that with so much information it is difficult for people to filter the world in a demanding 24 hour news cycle .

I don’t know of anyone that did what I did, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people doing extraordinary things all the time. There are people in all walks of life whose work goes unnoticed but are doing miraculous things with their energy and time. Helping people, solving problems, building things, bringing water to dry places, teaching people how to grow food, not for a year, but for a lifetime. There are so many people involved in making our world a better place. And even though Syria feels like Bosnia all over again, and Iran feels like a ticking bomb, and Europe’s money woes keep growing, I am optimistic that the good will overcome the bad in the long run. I have to. I have two small children and want them to see the beauty of the world that I have witnessed. To think otherwise would be much to overwhelming.

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