Some reflections on the news here,
or You can take Croatia out of Yugoslavia, but you can't take the Balkans out of Croatia.
These a quick responses to some things I've been reading in the papers or seen on the TV relating to current events here.
The affair de Brodosplit: The day I arrived here, news broke that Brodosplit, a government owned shipbuilding company (actually, it may just be government subsidized, issues of who "owns" these big, industrial enterprises seems just as murky as when I was here 20 years ago) "lost" some money. Now, you're probably thinking, so what, companies loose money all the time, that's the way capitalism works, some companies make money, others loose money. Well, when I said lost, I meant lost, as in no one seems to be able to find $5,000,000. Actually, that's an estimation, because they are not even sure how much is exactly missing. It seems that who ever did this managed to take advantage of the negotiations for the price of building some ships, and the company thought it was getting one price, while the buyer thought they were paying a higher price, and the difference in those two amounts just vanished. This is obviously rather embarrassing for quite a few reasons, which I might go into later if I have the time.
Croatian Army draw down: The current government wants to cut the size of Croatia's military from over 400,000 to around 300,000. That sounds like a big cut, but Croatia only has a population of around 4 million. That means right now over 10% of the population is in uniform on active duty or the reserves. That's kind of astonishing when you realize that the US has a population of around 285 million, and we have a military of about 1.5 million including all of the reserves and national guard.
Bosnia's elections: I got to watch the debate between the four leading candidates for the Croatian member of the Bosnian Presidency. Funny thing was it was done on Croatian National TV in Zagreb. All but one of the candidates was there in person, and one appeared via video link from Bosnia. So, how many other countries have their presidential candidates debate on live TV in a foreign country? Just wondering.
Finally, on the lighter side, Croatian TV is producing a TV version of Mujo and Haso. For those not familiar with these two, they are a pair of Bosnian friends who are their own comedy genre in Former Yugoslavia. I really don't know what to say about this.
These a quick responses to some things I've been reading in the papers or seen on the TV relating to current events here.
The affair de Brodosplit: The day I arrived here, news broke that Brodosplit, a government owned shipbuilding company (actually, it may just be government subsidized, issues of who "owns" these big, industrial enterprises seems just as murky as when I was here 20 years ago) "lost" some money. Now, you're probably thinking, so what, companies loose money all the time, that's the way capitalism works, some companies make money, others loose money. Well, when I said lost, I meant lost, as in no one seems to be able to find $5,000,000. Actually, that's an estimation, because they are not even sure how much is exactly missing. It seems that who ever did this managed to take advantage of the negotiations for the price of building some ships, and the company thought it was getting one price, while the buyer thought they were paying a higher price, and the difference in those two amounts just vanished. This is obviously rather embarrassing for quite a few reasons, which I might go into later if I have the time.
Croatian Army draw down: The current government wants to cut the size of Croatia's military from over 400,000 to around 300,000. That sounds like a big cut, but Croatia only has a population of around 4 million. That means right now over 10% of the population is in uniform on active duty or the reserves. That's kind of astonishing when you realize that the US has a population of around 285 million, and we have a military of about 1.5 million including all of the reserves and national guard.
Bosnia's elections: I got to watch the debate between the four leading candidates for the Croatian member of the Bosnian Presidency. Funny thing was it was done on Croatian National TV in Zagreb. All but one of the candidates was there in person, and one appeared via video link from Bosnia. So, how many other countries have their presidential candidates debate on live TV in a foreign country? Just wondering.
Finally, on the lighter side, Croatian TV is producing a TV version of Mujo and Haso. For those not familiar with these two, they are a pair of Bosnian friends who are their own comedy genre in Former Yugoslavia. I really don't know what to say about this.
posted by The Solitary Traveller at 9:07 AM
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