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.

A quarrel over cracklings

Please watch the short video below and answer the following question. Do you think this dish should receive the label Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), like Gorgonzola?
According to Wikipedia PDO aims to "protect the reputation of the regional foods and eliminate the unfair competition and misleading of consumers by non-genuine products, which may be of inferior quality or of different flavour".
You might not know what the substance in the pot is. The floating brown cubes you see are čvarci, or cracklings in English. My Longman dictionary says a crackling is "the hard skin on a piece of pig meat when it has been cooked for a long time". Please note that this is the British English definition. In American English cracklings exist in plural only: "pieces of skin, usually from a pig or chicken, that have been cooked in hot oil and are eaten cold".
In either case, it sounds disgusting. You would guess people are ashamed to admit that this dish is part of their cuisine. Not in the Balkans! On the contrary, Croats and Slovenes even argue about the origins of cracklings. Croatian entrepreneur Tomo Galević tried to get European permission to label cracklings as an authentic Croatian product, but he got the Slovenes in his way. According to Slovenian ethnologist Bogataj cracklings are being made "almost all over Europe, and especially in Central Europe. They differ only in preparation and thickness".
I don't care. Give the Croats their cracklings! Maybe you'll get the Bay of Piran in return.

Australian TV angers Dubrovnik

On 17 September 2008 the Australian girl Britt Lapthorne went missing in Dubrovnik. She was last seen in Club Fuego, a night club in Dubrovnik, a bit after midnight. Three weeks later her body was found in the sea. Since that day Croatian and Australian media have been speculating about the cause of here disappearance and death. Croatian police haven't found a murderer and a Croatian autopsy found no evidence of violence. A second post-mortem examination, performed in Australia, failed to determine the cause of death too.
The case seemed to have reached a dead end. But this week Australian Channel Seven aired a report on Britt Lapthorne's death. According to Channel Seven's investigation there is a "pattern of criminal activity in Dubrovnik". Several non-Croatian girls have fallen victim to abduction or abduction attempts, both before and after Britt's disappearance. The abductors pretended they were police and ordered the girls to step into a van.
One girl did step into the car, but managed to jump out of it when she realized the men were no police at all. About a year ago she reported the abduction to the Croatian police. Despite that, a Croatian officer initially denies to Channel Seven that there are any reports of abductions in Dubrovnik. A moment later he has to admit there are two reports of abductions. You can see the program on YouTube (part 1-7, in total about 30 minutes) or read a summary in The Australian.
An American expert made a forensic sketch of one suspect, based on what one girl, named Amber, saw that night. So, who is this guy?
A Croatian cop!
According to Croatian police, the men that approached Amber did not pretend they were police, they were police. As The Daily Telegraph wrote: Croatian police last night confirmed the men that approached Amber afterwards were officers. But they said the officers were trying to help after hearing of a disturbance. "He is a police officer but he was there on duty," police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said of the sketch of a blond man. "He and his colleagues heard something was going on, some noise, so they ran to help her."
Why would Amber blame an honest Croatian cop who tried to help her? What's behind all this? Croatian police know the answer: "It's an attempt to trash the tourist season."
I have heard a great number of Croatian conspiracy theories, but this beats everything. However, it is not unlike the general opinion in Croatia about Britt's case. Vladimir Faber, spokesman for the police, said that the abduction story is simply made-up. On TV and in newspapers citizens of Dubrovnik air their opinions. A pensioner said to Jutarnji list: "Dubrovnik is one of the safest towns in Croatia. I don't know why they are doing this to us."
There is even a Facebook group with over 5.000 members to show the world that Dubrovnik is a safe place. Rather sad, if you ask me. I know Dubrovnik is a safe place, but that doesn't mean something like a murder can't happen.
At the end of the day, we still don't know what happened to Britt and who the men in the van are. Real of fake cops? Criminals or police that tried to assist foreign backpackers?
To be continued.

From ally to enemy: Slovenia (2)

The dispute between Croatia and Slovenia over the Bay of Piran is not been solved yet. On the contrary, the relationship between the former Yugoslav republics worsens by the day. About a month ago Slovenia blocked Croatia's advancement towards EU-membership and Slovenia hasn't budged yet. Slovenian prime minister Borut Pahor said yesterday that his country will not yield to pressure from Zagreb or Brussels.
Croatian president Mesić responded in a way that is not untypical for him. He said that if there had not been Croatian partisans the Slovenes would be looking at the sea from a twenty kilometer distance, referring to the fact that Croatian partisans liberated Istria and the Slovenian coast. Out of 60.000 soldiers of the Fourth Yugoslav Army, almost 40.000 were Croats.
Slovenian politicians were, of course, not amused with Mesić's remark. "Scandalous", is the general political opinion. One historian said that it is regrettable that Mesić destroyed the Slovenian and Croatian brotherhood that existed during the war.
That brotherhood is long gone. Almost half of the Slovenes would now vote against Croatian EU-membership in a referendum. Slovenia threatens to organize a referendum if the border issue is not resolved to its satisfaction.
The satirical show Laku noć, Hrvatska (Good night, Croatia) mocked Mesić and the partisans in one of its sketches. We see how Mesić finds a strategy to kill Italians after Tito's complaint that the partisans didn't shoot a single Italian yet. If I heard it well, Mesić says that Italians are as naive as Albanians, using the derogatory term "Shiptar" but then changes the word into "šiperica" - a flapper. But I am not quite sure about that, so help from a native speaker is appreciated.

Croatian literature in Leipzig

Croatia was the guest country of last year's Leipziger Buchmesse, the biggest German book fair after the Frankfurter Buchmesse. A great opportunity to present Croatian literature to the (German speaking) world, one would say. The weekly Stern remarked that Croatia is a literary terra incognita for Germans: "No wonder," explained Stern, "as Croatian is a very young national language."
Croatia, however, blew it. Right before the fair a split occurred in the Croatian Writers Society. Members and a breakaway group of writers accused each other of "sabotage", "questionable morale" and the like. In addition, a journalist of Jutarnji list reported how Croatia's performance at the fair was pregnant with amateurism.
Fortunately, Croatia will get a second change as the Leipziger Buchmesse 2009 features the Balkans (and China). Oliver Zille, the fair's director, expressed his satisfaction with forty translated Croatian titles so far. He wants to exploit this "Swung" to the benefit other ex-Yugoslav republics, like Bosnia and Macedonia, that make their debut in Leipzig this year.
A Croatian author who has successfully entered the German market is Edo Popović. The paper Die Zeit interviewed Popović (in German) about his new novel Kalda. Popović was one of the main actors in the row within the Croatian Writers Society, but obviously not to his detriment.
Member of this year's representation in Leipzig will be Robert Perišić. With 1904 sold copies of his Naš čovjek na terenu in 2008 Perišić is by far the number one best selling Croatian author. Naš čovjek na terenu (meaning something like "Our man on the scene") offers us, according to the reviews, a cross-section of modern Croatian society. Something like Croatian Crescent, so to say. I'll let you know when this weblog has welcomed its 1905th visitor.

A street for strangers

The Bishop's palace that encircles the cathedral of Zagreb is an interesting sight. Build in the 15th century, it not only provided the clergy with accommodation, but was also designed to keep the Turks out. Therefore, the palace resembles a fortress.
We can only guess how the interior looks like, as the premises are firmly closed to visitors. A shame, if you ask me, but not uncommon in Zagreb. Other cities would gladly share their beauty with tourists (and charge them for it, of course) but Zagreb prefers to keep them out. Tourists are considered the Turks of the 21st century. Not surprising that Zagreb was chosen as one of Europe's most boring destinations.
A little street runs along the base of the low hill on which the cathedral stands, called Vlaška ulica. The adjective "vlaška" comes from the noun "Vlah", the name used for descendants of Roman colonists in the Balkans. As Romanians are the only Balkan people that speak a Roman language, the word Vlach became associated with Romanians, and especially with Romanians living outside of Romania.
In Croatian, however, the them Vlah was used for foreigners in general, and Italians in particular. Foreigners in Zagreb lived mostly at the foot of the Bishop's palace, just outside of the walls. That is how Vlaška ulica got it's name. It is a street for strangers.
Vlaška is one of Zagreb's oldest streets. The small houses look humble but cute next to the thick towers of the palace and the spires of the cathedral. Precisely this part of the street is in a terrible condition. The houses have been deserted, the doors and windows barricaded, the walls are crumbling. The foreigners are long gone. Zagreb's history is falling apart.

James Joyce in Siberia

Ireland, Croatia and literature figured in the previous post. Inevitably, James Joyce sprang to mind. When I walked around in Pula, I saw a wall plaque close to a Roman arch. It commemorates the fact that from October 1904 to early 1905 Joyce taught English to Austro-Hungarian naval officers in Pula. Joyce had wanted to go to Trieste or Zürich, but the Berlitz language school he worked for stationed him in Pula.
He seems to have disliked Pula and was burning with desire to go to Italy, or Trieste to be more precise. Joyce writes in a letter to his aunt Josephina Murray: "I am trying to move on to Italy as soon as possible as I hate this Catholic country with its hundred races and thousand languages (..). Pola is a back-of-God-speed place - a naval Siberia (..) Istria is a long boring place wedged into the Adriatic peopled by ignorant Slavs who wear little red caps and colossal breeches." (Quoted in a book with the amazing title Sentimente, Gefühle, Empfindungen: Zur Geschichte und Literatur des affektiven von 1770 bis heute.)
If Joyce had not gone to Italy, Italy would have come to him as Italy colonized Istria after World War I. Apart from that, I don't quite understand what drew him to Trieste. First of all, it was not until after the First World War that Trieste belonged to Italy. Trieste, just as Pula, belonged for centuries to the Austro-Hungarian empire. Second, if I were a writer, longing to work in Italy, I'm sure a could find a more inspiring town than Trieste. Not that I hate the place, but it's not quite like Florence or Venice. And if it was melancholy Joyce was looking for, why didn't he simply move to Zagreb?
Whatever made Joyce dislike Istria, the Croatian peninsula is hugely popular with tourists. Not without reason. The best compliment is maybe a complaint of an Italian friend of mine: "I don't like Istria. It reminds me too much of Italy."

Literary life and death in Croatia

With 4,5 million inhabitants Croatia is a small market. And it is getting smaller. Over the last few years, Croatia has witnessed an annual natural increase of about -10.000 (minus ten thousand). That's a quarter of Dubrovnik's population. If nothings changes, the Slovenes will outnumber the Croats in the future.
The Croatian population is now about the size of Ireland's. That is probably they only thing the two countries have in common. Ireland is booming, dynamic, thriving. Croatia, on the other hand, is slowly dying. Recent research shows Croats are among the most pessimistic peoples in the world. One out of four well educated young people leaves the country. The Croatian economy takes a bottom spot in European competitiveness and liberty. People take loans to go skiing and use credit cards for daily shopping. Croatia's internal and external debt is staggeringly high. How long can this go on? All ingredients for a major crisis seems present, yet not much has happened. It's a miracle. It's got to go wrong one day.
I got into this pessimistic mood when I saw the (domestic) bestsellers top-20 in Jutarnji list. The bestselling book of 2008, Naš čovjek na terenu, written by Robert Perišić, sold 1904 copies. Only ten books broke the magic number of 1000 copies. Not more than 484 buyers were needed to make Drago Britvić the 20th best selling domestic author of Croatia.
Is it safe to say that the Croatian literary scene is dead? Even a world famous Croatian author as Slavenka Drakulić sold no more than 1601 copies of her Frida ili o boli (translated as Frida's bed) which won her the second place on the ranking. I wonder if the situation in other ex-Yugoslav republics is better or worse.
Foreign non-fiction is much more popular. The best sold book (20203 copies) is Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. As The Secret is new to me, I quote from Wikipedia: "The Secret is a book that presents what is claimed to be a centuries-old technique of the Law of Attraction, which in essence is the power of an individual's positive thinking to change and influence outcomes in their lives. The book claims that by using the "Laws of Attraction", an individual can become wealthier, healthier, and happier. The "Laws of Attraction" are the "secret" that the title of the book suggests to the reader. The book claims that the secrets outlined in the book have been known by famous and influential people for centuries, but that they have conspired to keep these secrets hidden from the general public for their own benefit."
Unbelievable that such crap sells better than the combined top-20 of literary authors in this country. I suddenly understand why Slavenka Drakulić and Dubravka Ugrešić live abroad.