Babies and birds

Lately I don't have much time to write posts for my blog, but I want to take away the impression that Croatian Crescent is dead. The easiest and fastest thing to do is to refer to other sources with interesting stories, and that's precisely what I am going to do.
Babies first. The Economist writes about alarming demographic trends in several Balkan countries. I have earlier paid some attention (Dutch) to Croatia's declining population, despite the strong position of the Catholic church and despite president Mesić's repeated calls for the return of Croatian Serbs.
Next birds. The Daily Telegraph ran an interesting article on griffon vultures on the Croatian island of Cres. "Griffon vultures are extinct in many European countries and are endangered in Croatia, but this sanctuary at the picturesque village of Beli has rescued, healed and released 95 birds since it was set up in 1993." Beli is picturesque, I can tell, as I visited it earlier this year.
Unfortunately, for some reason the vultures in the sanctuary were stressed out and the people working there (often volunteers) advised me not to approach them, so all I saw was a shadow in the distance.
Speaking of birds and babies, Croatia has a huge population of stokes. I took these pictures in Križevci, a pleasant town north-east of Zagreb.

Exit gas, enter bananas

Many Balkan countries are in trouble after Russia cut the gas supply to Ukraine. I saw reports from Sarajevo, Serbia, Bulgaria - places colder than Croatia and without gas. The premier of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nedžad Branković, has sent a letter to Gazprom, saying that the current situation in Sarajevo reminds of the war period 1992-1995. He strongly urged Gazprom to resume the supply of gas.
Tonight the temperature in Zagreb could go as low as -11 degrees. I was surprised (and happy) to learn that the situation in Croatia is much less alarming than in Serbia or Bosnia. Croatia has gas reserves that can keep us warm for three weeks, i.e. the 600.000 households that depend on gas.
Currently, Croatia imports forty percent of its gas, I learned from the website of Plinacro, the company that deals with gas affairs. By 2030 that figure will have rises to 87 percent. I guess that means Croatia's gas reserves are almost depleted.
If the Russians don't give in soon, we will be "u banani". Being "in bananas" is a Croatian expression for being in trouble. I hadn't heard that expression in years, but since the financial crisis started to be felt in Croatia I hear it everywhere. Am I right that it is now used so much more than before? And can somebody tell me where this expression comes from?

Balkan countries

President Bush said in spring 2008 that he was happy to invite three Balkan nations to join NATO: Croatia, Albania and Macedonia. When Bush spoke these words, I realised how angered Croats would be by this formulation because more than sixty percent of the Croats don't consider Croatia as a Balkan country. You can read this and many other findings in the Gallup Balkan Monitor.
The fact that Croatia is included in the Balkan Monitor already shows the problem: whatever Croats think about themselves and their country, most of the world considers Croatia a Balkan country.
Is that fair? I have heard many reasons why Croatia should not be called a Balkan country and some of them make sense. But looking at the whole picture, I think it is fair to say that Croatia is part of the Balkans. History, food, music, language, geography - you name it. There is more that Croatia has in common with other Balkan nations than with non-Balkan nations.
The aversion against the label Balkan comes, of course, from the many negative associations: war, bloodshed, ethic hatred, violence and so on. Instead of denying that Croatia belongs to the Balkan it would make more sense to demystify and decriminalise the concept of the Balkans. Once you have eaten burek in Sarajevo, wandered through the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria or Diocletian's palace in Split, seen the confluence of the Danube and Sava from Belgrade's Kalemegdan fortress or marvelled at the city walls of Dubrovnik, you will think: this is a nice part of Europe.