Well . . . it's an answer

There is a saying that visitors and locals alike use at the Jahorina ski resort, just outside Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. They use it when they want to invoke the problems of a country a decade removed from a brutal war without getting into specifics. They use it when they're trying to convey the frustrations of running a business in their young year-old nation to a passing travel writer; they use it to explain to the same writer that his traveler's checks might as well be newspaper.

They can say it without saying it, exactly. The shrugging shoulders, raised eyebrows and palms skyward at hip level all connote the same, catchall phrase that means, "There's nothing I can do for you."

"This is Bosnia."