Croatia Today

[Ivo Skoric]

One morning I left Zagreb, the city all ironed and starched up for 
admission to the EU, with the word 'euro-atlantic integrations' still 
buzzing in my ears from it being repeated too often in Montenegro, 
Slovenia, Croatia, and wherever else I went in the region.

I went to Dubrovnik. Between the two there is seven hours of relative 
nothingness. The only annual attraction in Zagreb's sattelite 
Karlovac are The Days of Beer. 

Beer is very important segment of the depressed economy. 0.5l of beer 
costs the same as the 0.2l of non-alcoholic beverages everywhere 
along the road, encouraging people to drink beer and drive.

Krajina, Kordun, and Lika, are devastated. You drive tru villages 
that do not exist any more, although the table wit the name is still 
there. 

Like the boomtowns in Nevada, built for the gold (or silver) rush, 
then abandoned. Ten years after war, empty ruins of houses that were 
formerly owned by Serb, and by Croat families. 

Even those that want to come back - do not want to go back there, but 
would rather settle around capital, Zagreb, where the jobs and 
services are.

Even more stunning is the emptiness that existed before the war. Not 
many people lived there. And now there is even less. And with the 
motorway taking another route (tru Gospic), there is no much hope of 
recovery.

After all, this is not new. Makarska coast is dotted with abandoned 
houses built of solid rock, even whole villages in the hills: people 
left. A long time ago. To the US maybe.

Dubrovnik looks like an oasis of civilization in the dessert. There 
is toilet paper in clean bathrooms (unlike in Montenegro's Ada Bojana 
rseort). It is very busy with foreign tourists, yet the 
infrastructure holds well.

As a result, its inhabitants hold their noses very high, and pinched. 
Only the smell of forest fires coming from Bosnia (Republika Srpska), 
opened them for an idea about economic co-operation with their former 
and natural hinterland (Trebinje), which, of course is financed by 
the 'international community.'

Wakeboarding there is very expensive - at $20 for 10 minutes. That's 
because Croatia has 3x more expensive gas than the US. With not much 
hope for recovery. Croatia has a record number of unbelievably bad 
economic joint-ventures.

The rumors just surfaced about a joint venture with Italy exploiting 
oil off Adriatic coast in North Croatia. Both sides put down same 
amount of money. Yet, miraculously, Italy is getting 90% more gas out 
of it. Reasons, perhaps, should be searched for in some pockets of 
Croatian businessmen and politicians.

Weed, however, is cheap beyond belief in Croatia: it retails at $40 
for an ounce. War veterans in Hercegovina do a rather poor job of 
'post-production', so the product is too dry, but at that price it is 
impossible to complain.

ivoIvo Skoric
1773 Lexington Ave
New York NY 10029
212.369.9197
ivo at balkansnet.org
http://balkansnet.org