Residua

FUNNY LETTERS

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:08:25 +0000

Croatian language is saddled with a whole bunch of diacritical marks, which were introduced a century ago or so by intrepid language specialists eager to impress their colleagues abroad. As the written language had no history worthy of mention, it was easy to fool around with a large number of new letters crowned with all sorts of obscure symbols that look rather like accents. So many years later, these funny letters are not yet internationally recognized, though. And so, young people write as they can in the standard Latin script. To make themselves understood on the World Wide Web, for example, they write “sh” and “ch” and “zh” instead of letters with local diacritical marks. Would that language specialists were capable of learning a thing or two from such childish tricks! The number of letters in the Croatian alphabet would plummet, and everyone around the world would be able to read Croatian names, among other things. Do not count with it, though. National pride is often based on sheer idiocy. Or worse.

LAST WORDS

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:16:37 +0000

Once again, I bump into Relja Basic in the center of Zagreb. “Ranko Bon,” I offer him my hand. As always, he is happy to see me. I tell him that Motovun is dead in the winter, but that it is love that actually brings me to the Croatian capital. “Ah,” he offers me his hand in turn, “I’m not going to say, ‘Take care of Yugoslavia for me,’ but, ‘Take care of love for me’.” To the best of my recollection, he is quoting a Serbian king’s last words.

DIGITAL NATIVES: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:34:24 +0000

Those born between 1980 and 2000 are variously known as the Net Generation, Millennials, Generation Y, or Digital Natives. Growing up with the World Wide Web, it is often argued, they will transform education, work, and politics. Or will they? As you argue, the argument is surely overblown (“The Net Generation, Unplugged,” March 6, 2010). Sweeping generalizations about this generation, which can be found in many a blockbuster, are easy to debunk. As is the very notion that it is a generation at all. But the attention that those born “digital” are now receiving from many a hack writer will still have an effect on the hapless generation, arbitrary as the years demarcating it may be. Many of them will grow up special, at least in their own minds. And the groundless generalizations will thus take root. By and by, Digital Natives will leave their mark as though it was actually preordained.

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:21:51 +0000

As I am reading, my beloved plops herself down next to me: “What will you do with that marvelous mind of yours?” “Don’t worry,” I hug her, “absolutely nothing!”

GENDERCIDE: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:48:41 +0000

Proposed by Clara Zetkin in 1910, the International Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1911. After a few years, March 8 became the day to celebrate the advancement of women’s rights around the world. Now it is an official holiday in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Yet, millions of baby girls are still disappearing every year through abortion, murder, or neglect because boys are still preferred to girls (“Gendercide,” March 6, 2010). As you say in your main leader, “it is no exaggeration to call this gendercide.” And China and India are the worst offenders. Technology, declining fertility, and ancient prejudice are combining to unbalance entire societies. What is to be done? Many things are proposed left and right, but the main problem behind gendercide is that attitudes toward women have not changed much the last hundred years. This is especially true in developing countries. Clara Zetkin’s job is far from done. The first and foremost right of women is to live. And the International Women’s Day should thus be focused on gendercide.

EUROPE’S HYPOCHONDRIACS: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:58:59 +0000

“Most Europeans are doing better than they think,” you argue, “and can take more fiscal austerity” (“Europe’s Hypochondriacs,” March 6, 2010). You are probably right. The Germans and the French can take fiscal austerity for a few other countries besides. For now, at least, the pessimism is overblown. But do not forget the future when you write about the European psyche. Entire continents can smell things to come well before their time. And Europe’s hypochondriacs are on the mark in this regard. The sub-continent is facing inexorable decline. Which is why some fat for the lean years ahead is in order even now. For Europe has nothing to offer, with the possible exception of tourism. Greece. Rome. The Middle Ages. The Renaissance. The Industrial Revolution. And that is about it. Much of Europe has lived off the past for a long while already, and the future is thus sweet enough. But a healthy dose of hypochondria is still perfectly understandable. It is but a justifiable affliction of ripe old age.

PULA’S BANKSY

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:06:24 +0000

One of the leading Croatian newspapers has an article today about a graffiti artist in Pula who focuses on the Istrian governor, Ivan Jakovcic. He is billed as Pula’s Banksy. Apparently, the governor’s men are doing their best to remove the graffiti, many of which link him with Russia’s Putin. Lately, the governor is portrayed as a personification of the former prime minister, Ivo Sanader, thus suggesting their close political and other ties. One of the ties is golf development, which also figures in some of the graffiti. The article mentions urban guerilla, but it eschews the very reason for it: widespread censorship associated with pervasive political repression. Linking Jakovcic with Putin or Sanader in print would be perilous to the writer, as witnessed by the libel and insult cases against me by the mayor of Motovun, Slobodan Vugrinec, who is one of the governor’s closest associates on the peninsula. As political repression is not even mentioned in the article, the connection with Banksy is also misinterpreted. Namely, the British graffiti artist would have no reason whatsoever to attack British politicians. That can be done in other ways, and without any fear of censorship. Political repression in Croatia is so long-lasting and far-reaching that all this escapes the writer of the article. Here, censorship is hardly needed any longer.

APEX OF CULTURE

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:11:30 +0000

“Maybe there is culture to this barbarism?” Or so I quipped in 1978. Indeed, the then barbarism already boggles my poor mind as an inaccessible apex of culture.

THE VISEGRAD CLUB: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:35:04 +0000

I am sure that many a reader from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia will be proud to learn about the mighty Visegrad club, formed in a Hungarian town by that name in 1991 to foster energy security in Central Europe (“Central Questions,” March 6, 2010). Hungary and Poland will have six months each in the European Union’s rotating presidency next year. The Visegrad club will have as many votes in the Union as Germany and France combined. And the club is growing to include a number of countries from the former Austro-Hungarian empire, all of them in the Western Balkans. Most of these countries are heavily dependent on Russian gas and oil. These are both costly and unreliable. The alternatives are few. The first one is to form a grid by adding north-south links to the existing east-west pipelines. In a pinch, the grid will help, but not for long. The second is to import liquefied natural gas via coastal terminals in Poland and Croatia. In a pinch, again, the terminals will help, but not by much. And the third one is Nabucco, a pipeline to connect Caspian and Iraqi gasfields and Europe via Turkey. Of course, the main problem is Russia. But the other problem, which you do not even mention, is America. Without it, Nabucco is a pipedream. But America is now turning to China, and the pipelines from Caspian and Iraqi gasfields can very well go east rather than west. And this is where the Visegrad club will have no say whatsoever.

A FASTING DAY

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:07:22 +0000

We know the fish market at Dolac pretty well, and so we were surprised when we walked into it this morning. The place was swarming with people. The choice of fish, shells, mollusks, and crustaceans was quite stunning, too. We were pretty impressed by the size of tuna steaks on offer. “Ah,” exclaimed my beloved after we left the market, “it’s Friday!” We both laughed. Indeed, Friday is a fasting day, and fish are not food. Not really. In fact, fish are very like air. Catholics!