-Politics must not use education as a tool to stuff children into cages, to perpetuate backward narratives of hatred and intolerance that only serve that same policy to survive, emphasizes, among other things, in an interview for Kliker Dr. Ismar Volić, full professor of mathematics at the prestigious American Wellesley College in Boston. Immediately afterward, the native of Sarajevo, who came to America in 1991 as a high school student, indirectly sends a message to those in power in Bosnia and Herzegovina since, as he says, he knows for sure that there will be no progress if the attitude towards education does not change radically. Today, a respected American professor whose lectures and guest appearances are fought for by famous universities around the world, some long ago, before coming to America, he also played in the band Convoy, while through high school, college, and postgraduate studies he worked as a waiter to support himself. After all, he graduated in mathematics from Boston University, received his doctorate from Brown University, and before settling down at Wellesley College, worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia. It is also worth mentioning the fact that he was a visiting researcher at the famous MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), although he, as a man who knows where he comes from, prefers to mention the fact that he once spent a semester at the University of Sarajevo as a Fulbright scholarship winner. Recently, as we learn, he was elected to the board of an important organization that is trying to change the way voting is done in America, and what kind of work it is. The fact that three Nobel laureates and one of the leaders of the Boston Celtics are on the said board also speaks volumes. In his native country, where his mother lives, our famous theater and film actress Jasna Diklić, he comes every year with his American wife Catherine Volić and two children, which shows in the best way how much this respected American professor with Bosnian roots is dedicated to his family, profession, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He talks about it in this interview, which is based on issues related to science, mathematics, the pandemic, his Institute for Mathematics and Democracy, whose mission is to spread awareness about mathematics in politics, and the Bosnian-Herzegovinian-American Academy of Sciences and Arts (BHAAAS). Kliker: Scientists who believe that every form and process is defined and described by numbers came to their senses during the still existing coronavirus pandemic when, first of all, all the news is in the media, then the reports and decisions of the world, state and city governments, health centers and institutions were flooded with numbers, percentages, graphs, and other mathematical symbols and expressions. That's how mathematics came and stayed among us to indirectly shape our present and future. As a mathematician, are you satisfied with this development of events and what do you expect to happen in the future in this matter? Volić: Mathematics has always been there; only now its relevance has come to the fore. Also, she does not tailor but explains, gives insight, and shows the way forward. It should be clearer to everyone now than ever that without science, and therefore mathematics, which is its foundation, it is not possible to overcome global challenges such as the current pandemic. The only reason we even have a weapon to defeat it, a vaccine, is because scientists around the world have joined forces and selflessly set to work. But after the pandemic, we are left with even bigger problems: climate change, socio-economic inequality, distribution of natural resources... For this reason, science must remain in the foreground, and politics must take a step back and be at its service. That is my hope for the outcome of all that is happening to us with the pandemic. Kliker: A little over two years ago, you founded the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy in America with the mission of spreading awareness about mathematics in politics. Tell us how you came up with this idea and what the Institute can boast about now. Volić: The Institute for Mathematics and Democracy deals with education and research at the intersection of mathematics and politics. It arose from the desire to point out the importance of political quantitative literacy and to bring it closer to the public. Some of the basic democratic processes, such as voting, allocation of parliamentary seats, and districting, are fundamentally mathematical. Our mission is to spread awareness that there are mathematically better and better methods for implementing these processes and to raise the level of political quantitative literacy through the integration of these topics into the curricula of primary and secondary schools, and even colleges. Our institute has experienced incredible expansion in the last few years because it is clear that this kind of literacy is crucial for effective civic participation in democracy. Over thirty experts are our members, we have completed dozens of research projects, and hundreds of students have already gone through our education programs. We expect that we will continue to grow rapidly because the interest of academic workers, students, educators, and activists in our work is growing and growing. Kliker: I assume that you have planned the mathematical tools and guidelines proposed and used by your Institute for use in our Bosnia-Herzegovina territory as well, because the Dayton political arrangement of BiH is quite complicated, and abuses and manipulations for political purposes have been brought to perfection. Volić: The topic that our institute deals with is universal and applies to any political system in which democratic processes are mathematically incoherent. This is the case here, but also in America. For example, we unfortunately use a relative majority in elections, so the candidate with the most votes wins. Such a system can cause various problems and often does not represent the true will of the voters due to the possibility that a candidate was elected who did not receive the support of an absolute majority. There are better, mathematically smarter, and more objective methods that ask voters for more information and then apply more sophisticated vote-counting algorithms. The only obstacle to the implementation of such systems is insufficient education about the fact that they exist at all and how they are applied. (And the reluctance of politics to change the status quo, but that's a conversation for another time.) Whenever I explain one of these methods to someone, they're amazed at how superior they are to what we're using now and wonder why they're not in use. Therefore, the validity and potential of smarter mathematical methods in a democracy is only a matter of education and the lack of political quantitative literacy. Enhancing such literacy would also have the positive effect of raising awareness about the misuse and manipulation of mathematics and statistics for political purposes. Faced with statistics, citizens would have the habit of looking for an explanation and the origin of information, would not take numbers for granted, and would be better able to recognize suspicious data from unreliable sources. Political manipulation of numbers and the prevalence of conspiracy theories would consequently be significantly reduced. Kliker: As a mathematician and a man who comes from BiH, how do you comment on the fact that a few days ago our native country became the worst country in terms of mortality from the coronavirus per million inhabitants in Europe? Ahead of us, says Worldometers, in the whole world is only Peru? Volić: Tragic data, but I think it is simply a manifestation of a deeply dysfunctional system. Political, health, and educational decentralization and fragmentation; egomaniacal behavior of politicians who do not care about people; unhindered proliferation of disinformation... Unfortunately, nothing else could be expected. The progression of the pandemic in Bosnia and Herzegovina is just another symptom of a larger disease for which we still, unfortunately, do not have a vaccine. 
Kliker: Your friends and acquaintances claim that you never forget where you come from. That's why we ask you what kind of future you predict for the state and society, which have been in a permanent crisis since the war until today, and according to all possible parameters they should have disappeared, but somehow they still maintain themselves and resist all challenges and temptations? Volić: Forecasting is done by statisticians, and I am a mathematician! Joking aside, I'm not competent to make such predictions, but I know for sure that there will be no progress if the attitude towards education does not change radically. Education must be a priority, investment must be made in it, criteria must be raised, and teachers must be trained on modern trends in education. Politics must not use education as a tool to herd children into cages and perpetuate backward narratives of hatred and bigotry that only serve the same politics to survive. Any progressive developments in our education are mainly the product of the efforts of individuals and happen despite the system, and it should be the other way around—that the system is at the service of innovation, that it encourages education that nurtures critical thinking, and that it prepares our children to be citizens of the world. Kliker: According to announcements and established procedures, at the end of this month you will become the president of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian-American Academy of Arts and Sciences (BHAAAS). We assume that you already have a list of priorities when it comes to activities in North America and BiH. Volić: BHAAAS has grown tremendously in recent years and gained in importance. Our annual conference, "Days of BHAAAS in Bosnia and Herzegovina," is one of the largest scientific events in the region, and we were also active in the transfer of knowledge throughout the pandemic. Operationally and logistically, we have outgrown ourselves and that's why we decided to start the reorganization process, which will certainly last longer than my mandate. The scope of our activities is huge, the responsibility and desire to contribute that we feel is even greater, and at the same time, we are an organization of volunteers who do all this in their free time and at their own expense. During my presidency, I would like to put in place a structure that would reconcile these things—to functionally and financially put BHAAAS on an independent footing so that our expertise and valuable time can be directed where it will have the greatest impact. At the same time, I would like to increase the number of projects in which we are involved, to have a more continuous presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to expand the membership, and to devote ourselves more to the networking of our experts in America. Kliker: And finally, one question of a somewhat personal nature. You come from an artistic family and became a mathematician. Volić: My grandmother worked at the Youth Theatre, my mother, Jasna Diklić, is of course known to the public as an actress, and my uncle is also a theater director. I grew up in the theater, and art, especially music, was and remains integral and irreplaceable in my life. However, I still decided on a profession in mathematics because its universality and abstractness always attracted me. The perception of mathematics is that it is rigid and closed, but this is far from the truth—it indeed has frameworks and rules of the game, but within them, it allows infinite creativity and variability. It is the basis of all science that explains the world and, at the same time, is not bound by itself to anything earthly; in this dichotomy is its true beauty, and that is why I enjoy it. Halil Šetka (Kliker.info)
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