Draxblog III

Depressing January

There are few things that could sum up current Croatian condition as this underappreciated column by Mislav Bago. In short, Kosor tries to distance herself from Sanader, despite desperately trying to repeat his best achievement - snatching victory from the jaws of certain defeat in 2007 - and mimic his strategy.

Whatever happens, due to accumulation of corruption scandals during last eight years, HDZ definitely doesn't deserve to remain in power. Unfortunately, SDP and its leader Zoran Milanović, doesn't deserve to win power either.

Wasted Freedom

Two years after Feral Tribune became history, another icon of Croatian indepedent journalism is going down. And, unlike Feral, which arguably never had large popular following, this one had much better credentials as Croatian "beacon of democracy". Few Croatian institutions brought 120.000 men to the streets (argubaly the greatest public protest in Croatian history) like Radio 101 did in November 1996.

Yet, for all of its glory and heroism, Radio 101, just like so many heroes of "interesting times", had trouble adapting to new, more banal and mundane democracy. Most of the informed people pointed towards large scale financial mismanagement, allegedly by very heroes who bulit their reputations on Glorious November 1996.

In many ways what happened to Radio 101 is not very different from what is happening with Croatia.Heroically and "gloriously" won freedom is slowly and unceremoniously wasted away due to corruption, greed and incompetence.

New Optimism in New Year

Croatia - or at least its establishment - is so hungry for the good news that even a most modest positive prediction would do. The Economist in its World in 2011 special edition published its appraisal of Croatia in this year, which says that the BDP would finally start to rise, reaching 2 percent, while the unemployment is supposed to drop and salaires are supposed to rise.

This vision of a near future became idyllic state of today for Jadranka Kosor, who, asked for comment, began to brag that people mock her optimism, reminding the public of her own prediction about 1.5 percent BDP rise in 2011.

Needless to say, those good news from the future are increasingly going to appear on Croatian front pages as the inevitable elections approach.