Pigs are out though at least one flabby Amerikanka still gets in

  Toy pigs have been removed for sale from the BBI Centar.

   That was a much-talked about story in the local news today. The BBI Centar is a spanking brand new shopping tower in the center of Sarajevo. My gym is on the fifth floor. 

Upscale shops and cafes  (see photo) an indoor parking garage and fancy escalators have made this a hangout and you'd think people would be thrilled to have this gleaming, modern unit in a place that for years was occupied by a dirty, vacant crumbling shell of construction. Many are.

   Others scoff that someone got a juicy deal, obviously, or how else could have ended up with this bit of prime real estates? That doesn't really jibe with the fact that the property for years was an eyesore.

    What really offends the multi-cultural minded here are the rules at BBI. It was built with money from the Gulf and those rules are strictly Muslim. No alcohol is served anyway in the structure, no pork either.  But banning the sale of toy cartoony pigs seems like a bit much.

    One wag (Croatian) noted with a snicker that it must be because babies are likely to put such toys in their mouths and Islam allows no eating of pig.

    In other local news the baton used to light the Olympic flame in Sarajevo in 1984 has turned up for sale on E-bay for $1,500. Nothing is sacred and everything is for sale, it would seem. The local reports say, though I've not checked this and picking up from local reports without checking is not a good idea, that Sarajevo was the only socialist country ever to be chosen to host the Olympics. Wait -- wasn't there a Moscow Olympics that the US boycotted? Wouldn't that count?