Nives Celzijus, or the internet democracy

Generally, I write about serious things. The terminal decline of Croatian literature, the beauty of Dubrovnik, the economic crisis, language issues - you name it. Sometimes, a literary prize is awarded to a celebrity known for her unconventional sex life, Nives Celzijus. "Serious" literary critics subsequently showed their anger and a scandal was born. I dedicated a post to it. It went unnoticed I thought, like most things I write here (please allow me some self-pity). Therefore it was a kind of shock to me to see what people were actually looking for when visiting Croatian Crescent. The number one search term is, believe it or not, "nives celzijus naked". This is the top 10:

1. nives celzijus naked
2. dubrovnik murder
3. Nives Celzius Naked
4. ikea graz
5. Ikea zagreb
6. slovenian partisans
7. nives celzijus nude
8. meštrović “Seljaci”
9. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you in croatian
10 ikea zadar

Apparently some people looking for nude pictures of Nives Celzijus prefer capital letters. As they left out the "j" in Celzius (required, as Slavic languages are largely phonetic) I suspect they are Germans. By coincidence, the much wanted pictures of Nives can be found in a magazine with a title in capitals.
FHM in Germany has everything you want to see of Celsius ("die schönste Spielerfrau der Bundesliga") and I am not even going to try to compete with their photo's. I close the Celzijus case by saying that her fan club (i.e. certain visitors or this weblog) is truly international: from Italy, Ireland, Germany and Belgium to Peru. Should husband and Karlsruhe footballer Dino Drpić ever play for a club in another country, a red carpet will be laid out for the couple.

Open doors to the East

We have been waiting for several months, with clamped firsts and and in full hope. Today it was finally delivered: the baby of Damir Bajs, Croatia's Minister of Tourism. Alas! The baby, with the name "Action plan for tourism", is stillborn.
Let me start mentioning a proposed measure that makes sense. Bajs wants to ease the visa regime for tourists from Russia and Ukraine. Also, some local fees will be cut. But that's pretty much it. It is still being considered whether visa requirements will be suspended for Chinese and Indian tourists too. One out of three people in the world is Chinese or Indian, but Croatia is not sure if it's smart to let them save the Croatian economy (every fifth Croatian euro is earned in tourism). Croatia's VAT rate of 22 percent might be cut next year at earliest, so the Russians and Ukrainians won't come here for a cheap cup of coffee.
I would have appreciated if, for example, Bajs had urged tourist agencies to be more customer friendly, to provide accurate information and, most important, to offer tourists access to Croatian cultural heritage. I can give countless examples of how Zagreb could become a much more interesting tourist destination than the rather dormant provincial town it is now. However, this example is from Križevci, a small town northwest of Zagreb I visited last weekend. You might say: "Who cares about that part of Croatia?" But then you don't know how much Croats expect from rural tourism and how frequently one can see reports on Croatian state TV about the "rich cultural heritage" of town like Križevci (not to mention places without any obvious touristic potential, like Sisak).
Here is a photo manual:
1) If you have no car, take a train or bus. If you are from Africa or Asia, please ignore the few idiots that make fun of you (this is not a joke, unfortunately).
2) Križevci welcomes you in Croatian. "City of history, culture and the Križevci statutes".
3) Walk to the centre. This 35-minute walk will lead you along the socialist history of Croatia. As it is unclear where the centre is, please follow the locals who have left the train with you.
In the good old days, factories provided much more than just an income. So did and do the local tileworks. (Radnik means "Worker")

4) Pay attention to culture and nature. You'll see storks all over.
5) Visit the true treasure of Križevci: its churches. There are normally closed, so you need ask the nuns to open the doors.
The director of the local museum proved to be very kind and helpful.
6) Sit back and relax with a beer.
Finally, have a second beer to wash away your grief over the fact that you couldn't visit the beautiful Kalnik mountain range because there is only one bus per day from Križevci.

Croatia in NATO

"Following the English alphabet, Croatia's flag flies after the Canadian and before the Czech," was one of the comments that was repeated over and over again in Croatian news programs yesterday. Below is a report from Nova TV. Even if you don't understand Croatian, the flags, anthems and speeches make clear that Croatia is very proud of being a full member of NATO as of yesterday. Croatia's flag was hoisted in Brussels and, in turn, NATO's flag in Zagreb, where many gathered in front of the Ministry of Defense. Looking at the facade of the building, you'll see the EU flag waving too. I don't know if there are any rules concerning the right to fly the EU flag. I guess not, since you can see them all over the country, even though Croatia won't join the club before 2012.

Despite opposition from some Slovene nationalists, Croatia belongs now to the "world's most elite club", as prime minister Sanader once called NATO. Croatia's own elite gathered in the evening in the National Theatre to celebrate the entry with a concert.
Croatian satisfaction with NATO membership is more than understandable. Next time the Serbs, or whoever, attack "our beautiful homeland" (a very normal way of saying in Croatia) American, Turkish, Canadian and Dutch troops will kick in to kick out the enemy. So we hope...
Less understandable is the habit of Croatia's political elite to link NATO membership with EU accession. I heard people saying that "Croatia is now half way" and Sanader even thinks that EU countries will reconsider the Croatian-Slovenian border dispute, to Croatia's advantage of course.
Personally, I don't see why. First, not all EU members are NATO members. More important, not all NATO allies belong to the EU. Turkey is a great example of the latter categorie. Despite old promises about EU membership and unwavering support from the United States, Turkey is not an EU member and maybe will never be one. Although Turkey is a NATO ally since 1952!
As the Croatian-Slovenia border dispute is concerned: Marrti Ahtisaari was tipped as mediator, but he himself says he has never been formally asked to solve the crisis. Asked what his answer would be to a possible request, he said: "Highly unlikely. I am tired of the Balkans".

Meštrović's relief damaged in Zagreb

In an earlier post I wrote about the sculptor Ivan Meštrović (1883-1962), one of Croatia's most famous artists. "Zagreb isn't exactly a top destination for art lovers," I wrote then, "so it is a pity that it neglects its greatest artist. After all, Meštrović is omnipresent in Zagreb."
Maybe his omnipresence has led to neglect. Otherwise, how can you explain that a construction company, in order to provide support for the scaffolding, made holes in Meštrović relief?
The scaffolding was put up for a huge advertising banner. After it was removed, the construction company provisionally filled the holes in the relief with some substance and painted over some parts, pretending there was no damage at all. In the end the truth was revealed.
The relief was put up in 1907, some 30 meters above street level on the facade of a rather ugly building overlooking Zagreb's main square, Trg bana Jelačića. Not much is known about the work, except that is is popularly called "Seljaci" (Peasants) and made of ceramics. It was Meštrović first public work in Zagreb and as there is no model of it, restoration will be difficult.

Spain and Serbia must save Croatia

The Croatian government has finally announced its budget revision to combat the consequences of the economic and financial crisis. From the first of April onwards, wages of public sector personnel will be cut by 6 percent. Considering the fact that Croatia's public sector is oversized and terribly inefficient you wonder why this measure wasn't taken a whole lot earlier. I know that cutting wages by 6 percent is unthinkable in Western Europe, but the number of Croats on sick leave and the overall lack of productivity of those that bother to show up at work is unthinkable in Western Europe too.
The budget revision is the first accomplishment (of ten promised) after the government put forward an anti-crisis plan, about a month ago. In a few days, all eyes will be on Damir Bajs, Croatia's minister for tourism. He is supposed to present a plan to draw more tourists to Croatia by the end of this month. Only tourism can save Croatia's ailing economy. (The idea is the Croatia is the nearest Mediterranean country - instead of flying to Greece, Germans will travel to Croatia by car.) But it won't, I am afraid. All indicators predict a mayor downturn in the tourism industry too.
So far we haven't heard much of Bajs plan, except for Croatia's strong presence at Belgrade's tourism fair. Last year 17.000 tourists from Serbia visited Istria, and some 10.000 spent their holidays in Split - negligible numbers compared those from other countries and, also, to the great number of Serbs that go to Montenegro. I would welcome more Serbs to Croatia, but I doubt their willingness to the spend their dinars on the rather expensive Croatian coast.
Another way to boost the Croatian economy is to penetrate foreign markets with Croatian products, something that has not succeeded so far. But there is a first sign of success. A Spanish department store chain, called El Corte Inglés, will put products on the shelves that are world famous in Croatia: Kraš, Gavrilović, Klara Marić, Franck, Zvečevo, Jamnica, and others. If you live in Spain, buy them! You not only help your Croatian brethren but you also show that you are a real gourmand. And please send me a picture of the Croatian product you bought, as many promised success stories of Croatian products abroad turn out to be false after all. As is the case with Croatian trams, that were supposed to be seen on the streets of Beijing and Helsinki, but, in the end, only cruise in Zagreb. More about that in the next post.

Let love live - homosexuals in Croatia

Life is not easy for gays and lesbians in Croatia, as the almighty Catholic church is one of their principle enemies. Croatian bishops recently asked people to sign a petition against rights for homosexuals and against abortion. One signer explained why he put his signature under the petition: "Gays are not only annoying, it goes without saying that they are weird".
The church and minorities (ethnic, sexual or else) in Croatia - an awkward relationship.
Kontra, an organization for lesbians and Iskorak, a center for the promotion of equal rights for sexual minorities, started a campaign for more rights and less discrimination. Posters like the one above will be hung all over Zagreb, Osijek, Split and Dubrovnik. One of their wishes is the possibility of same sex marriages.
I keep my fingers crossed, but I am very pessimistic. If you want to know how tragic things can be in Croatia, please read this article (in English) about a girl who received a mental treatment for five years after she had told her parents she was lesbian.

The paper crisis

Which is the fate of the Croatian press? This question was being debated at yesterday's round table conference on the future of Croatian newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. The media landscape in Croatia is not very diverse anyway, and newspapers are being hard hit by the economic crisis. Newspaper sales went down by 20 to 40 percent and advertising revenue with 30 percent.
One of the participants of the conference was Večernji list. In an article about the meeting it writes: "Although the facts indicate that the sale of newspaper copies is in decline, those present rejected the possibility that the press will disappear."
What I find most interesting is the word "facts". As a matter of truth, we know preciously little about the facts. For example, there are no data available on newspaper circulation and sales. We have no idea how many copies a paper like Jutarnji list or Vjesnik sells on average per day. A public opinion poll, done by Mediapuls, produced incredible statistics about newspapers and their readers in Croatia. Of all Croats 63 percent daily read a newspaper. What is most surprising is that these are not the pensioners that make up a large part of Croatia's population. An amazing 72 percent of young people, age 15 to 19, read a paper every day.
There are no official data to prove this poll wrong. But my gut feeling says it is wrong. I don't believe that more than two million Croats spend a euro per day on newspapers. I hardly see people reading newspapers in the tram and not a single family in my sizable apartment block is subscribed to a paper. Not even the National and Scientific Library in Zagreb is a subscriber! Can you image the British Library or the Library of Congress without a single newspaper?
I would not mind if some papers disappeared. Croatia's biggest paper, 24Sata, writes mostly about fun and sex, gossip, celebrities and "black chronicles" - murder, rape, corruption, you name it.
I am rather pessimistic by nature, but I do think that, also in Croatia, their is a market for a serious, non-aligned, internationally oriented newspaper. Or maybe a regional newspaper, if that would boost sales. That has nothing to do with "jugonostalgija" (Slobodna Dalmacija, for example, has a page on Bosnia). Serbia's Politika issues a regional edition, but unfortunately it is printed in Cyrillic only.
If you have data about newspaper sales and the media landscape in Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia or Montenegro, former Yugoslavia, the Western Balkans, South Eastern Europe, this part of Europe or what ever you want to call this region, please comment below.

From ally to enemy: Slovenia (3)

Slovenia had the chance, earlier this week, to literally become Croatia's ally. Or rather, to ratify Croatia's NATO membership so that Croatia could join the club Slovenia is already in. However, instead of easing tensions NATO membership proved to be another source of discontent between the two countries.
Slovenia did ratify the protocol that extends NATO membership to its neighbor, but it hasn't send the necessary documents to Washington yet. Responsible for this delay are two Slovenian groups, The Institute of the 25th of June (a reference to the day in 1991 on which Slovenia declared independence) and the non-parliamentary Party of the Slovenian Nation. These groups were afraid that Croatia's accession to NATO (and the EU) would imply Slovenia's consent with the current, heavily contested Croatian-Slovenian border. To make clear that Slovenia does not accept the Croatian territorial claims, the two groups demanded an explicit statement on this matter from the Slovenian parliament. Without this statement, they would try to organize a referendum on Croatia's NATO membership.
They got their way: "Slovenia's Parliament on Wednesday afternoon adopted a declaration on the protection of the Slovene national interests during the procedure of Croatia's admission into NATO which reads that at the time when Slovenia declared its independence in 1991, it had access to the high seas and that it had control over some other "disputable" points along its border with Croatia."
Case closed? Not really. The Party of the Slovenian Nation insisted that Croatia should withdraw from some territory and dismantle a border crossing that it considers illegal. This demand is not included in the adopted declaration and therefore the Party of the Slovenian Nation will still try to organize a referendum. A referendum will become inevitable if the party collects 40.000 signatures. Slovenian premier Borut Pahor, meanwhile, is doing his best to convince the Party of the Slovenian Nation that a referendum will further damage Slovenian-Croatian relations.
Like with Croatia, Slovenia is largely ignored by the Western media. I don't think we will see another Balkan war, but if you want to understand why Croats and Slovenes turned into political adversaries, you better keep an eye on Slovenia these days.

Neanderthals in Croatia

When in 1899 Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger, a Croatian paleontologist, found remains of Neanderthals in Croatia, the so-called Homo sapiens neanderthalensis was already known for decades. What made Kramberger's discovery unique was the richness of the site. He did not find a bone or a single skull, but literary hundreds of fossils. You can admire a Croatian Neanderthal skull in the Natural History Museum in London.
Scientists of the Max Planck Institute in Germany are using these bones to unveil the Neanderthal genome, so they can compare it to human DNA. It is believed that the last Neaderthal became extinct around 30.000 years ago. The common ancestor of Neanderthals and humans lived some 660.000 years ago. The Neaderthals found in Croatia are sometimes referred to as the Krapina man, called after the small town of Krapina.
Today's men and woman of Krapina take great pride in the Neanderthal site close to their town. Search for "Krapina" in Google, and you'll see that the first hit is "The world's largest neaderthal finding site - Krapina - Cradle of the mainkind". The spelling mistake is theirs. Apart from that, it is contestable that Neanderthal belongs to mankind.
When I visited Krapina last autumn, the local Museum of Evolution was a must, I thought. Who would not want to peep into the cradle of mankind? I was not least discouraged by the fact that I had to ask two beer drinkers who sat on a bench where the entrance to the museum was, for it was far from obvious that the museum was open. It was open, but it could equally have remained closed. The exhibits take you back to the time that countries like Czechoslovakia were still among us and typewriters the latest means of producing (very little) written text.
The Path of Evolution, just outside of the museum, offered more to the eye but equally little to the mind. You get to see some bronze figures with the inscription "Neanderthal family". The addition "reconstruction" is a useful reminder of the fact that you are not looking at mummies, but at the product of a sculptor's fantasy.
The other attraction in Krapina is the house and museum of Ljudevit Gaj, the leader of Croatia's national awakening in the nineteenth century and great modernizer of Croatian language. It was closed, much to my disappointment. I can't say I was surprised, however.
What did surprise me was that I could enter the Church of the Madonna of Jerusalem, a real gem. This church is one of the finest baroque buildings in Croatia, but largely ignored in travel guides. In a later post I hope to do it justice.

Miroslav Krleža's lost notes discovered

Miroslav Krleža is a towering figure of 20th century Croatian literature. His tremendous activity and great contribution to Croatian culture don't allow for a summary in a post like this, so I gladly refer to the Wikipedia entry for more information. Surprisingly, that entry makes no mention of the fact that Miroslav Krleža (1893-1981) was the editor in chief of the Enciklopedija Jugoslavije. Precisely about his work on the encyclopedia some until know unknown documents have been discovered.
The 536 pages with Krleža's notes give an interesting insight in the daily course of events in the editorial offices, according to Jutarnji list. He not only had to accommodate the ruling socialist ideology - he and Tito got along quite well, by the way - but also to satisfy the editorial team of each and every of the six republics that made up Yugoslavia.
And that's pretty much all Jutarnji had to say, as the promised insights are nowhere to be found on its website. I was interested in knowing how Krleža kept a balance between the interests of Yugoslavia's many nations and nationalities and the unitary political and economic doctrines. So I turned to the institution that published Krleža's notes, the noteworthy Matica hrvatska, the mother of all Croatian cultural institions. The latest issue of Kolo, one of Matica's periodicals, is devoted to Krleža's outpouring, but on their website the winter issue 2007 still figures prominently. Croats did not yet fully embrace the internet, to put it mildly.
I went to the National and Scientific Library, in potential a fantastic place but in reality rather disappointing. Their latest Kolo issue was from spring 2008. I give up on Kolo, for now.
If you are a real fan of Krleža then it's good to know that the Lexigographic Institute Miroslav Krleža, formerly know as the Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute led by Krleža, has published a three volume encyclopedia about him. It treats in great detail everything that is remotely connected to Krleža.