Although Andrej Nikolaidis is right to claim in a Comment is free article that floods have united the people of the Balkans, it is not only rediscovered solidarity that has surprised many of us who survived the wars of the 1990s – when instead of helping to save a house, neighbours were burning down buildings just because someone was Serb or Croat, Muslim or Christian. After the current mood of self-congratulation, we should ask some serious questions.