Elvir Causevic left Sarajevo in 1990, just before the war engulfed Bosnia and smashed it to smithereens. Now 33 and educated in America, a member of Yale University’s research staff, he recently moved back-and continues to be amazed at the town’s transformation. The city he had seen so often on TV during the dark years was devastated, full of scarred and burned-out buildings, bereft of its once vibrant cosmopolitanism. But no more. Sarajevo today is the very image of a thriving European capital, chockablock with chic restaurants and upscale art galleries. Cranes punctuate the skyline, erecting offices and putting a new face on, among many other things, Bosnia’s postmodern Parliament, ruined during the war. Strolling the cobbled streets of the capital’s ancient Old Town-a twisty maze of bars and tourist shops selling everything from Turkish coffee sets to T shirts reading i’m muslim, don’t panic-Causevic is positively boosterish. ‘Now is the time for this country,’ he exults. His plan: to set up branches of his New York medical-instruments company in Sarajevo and Tuzla-a great investment, he thinks, because of Bosnia’s strong engineering tradition and still inexpensive work force. He’s already hired 12 employees and expects to grow to 100 […]

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