It has just crossed my mind that I am being sued for writing in my Residua about the conflict of interests in the Motovun Municipality and Croatia as a whole because those who are suing me have no idea what the term actually means. According to Webster’s, for example, the term stands for “a conflict between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust, as a government official.” It does not mean that something untoward has actually happened, but only that it may happen because of the inherent conflict between private and public interests involved. To wit, the most likely reason why all manner of conflicts of interests are rife in Croatia is that no-one understands the very concept! Or is even interested in it.

Addendum (January 11, 2009)

My ruminations about the concept of conflict of interest came a day or two after a major article appeared in the local newspapers about a man who recently founded a private firm with the same remit as the public organization he leads in Istria. Incidentally, the two organizations deal with the development of golf on the peninsula. Not surprisingly, the man is close to the governor of Istria. To the astonishment of the journalist, however, neither of them sees any conflict of interests in this case. And neither of them has any intentions of doing anything about it. Apparently, both of them believe that a conflict of interests may arise only if something untoward were to happen either in the public or the private firm led by the same man. Mind you, Istria prides itself on being the most developed region of Croatia!