Residua

THE MEANING OF LIFE SQUARED

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:51:58 +0000

Over after-dinner drinks at Klaudio’s, Miro Kopcalic kept repeating that life had no meaning. Or that there was no meaning to life. I kept nodding in agreement. Every now and then, however, I would gently suggest that only he could give meaning to his life. By and by, I let go of this simple if useless message. And it is utterly useless, indeed. Miro will have to come upon it himself.

BARBA RANKO

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:04:01 +0000

When I first came to Motovun, I was in my mid-fifties. Now I am in my early-sixties, and my age is starting to show, especially because of my gray hair and a bit of a paunch. Several years ago, little kids waddling around town started calling me barba or “uncle” in the Venetian dialect. Taught by their mothers, they used this honorific term with ease customary in these parts. But even women in their late twenties and early thirties are now starting to call me barba, as well. Silvia Ujcic started this fashion in a teasing sort of way, but her friends Zdenka Percic, Nives Valenta, Tatjana Sutera, and Sandra Caligari picked it up quickly enough, and in the same vein. In a few years, this is how everyone will be calling me, no doubt. Teasing will stop, and the honorific term will stick till the end of my days. Anyhow, it is time for me to start getting used to all this. Barba Ranko is here to stay.

ZAGREB AND FASCISM

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:51:21 +0000

There is many a surprising twist and turn in Roberto Franzosi’s book about content analysis.[1] Today I stumbled upon a page that touches on the origin of fascism in Italy. Citing two experts on the subject, Franzosi states that fascism represents the class struggle of the petty bourgeoisie, wedged between capital and proletariat, as well as that it is a middle-class movement against both capitalism and socialism, as represented by big business and big unions.[2] I was electrified at once. “Zagreb,” it flashed through my mind. The very capital of petty bourgeoisie or the middle class (“Zagreb and the Jews,” August 2, 2008), Zagreb is a natural setting for fascistic ideas of all sorts. Ah, it is an unsurpassable joy being the leading theoretician of this miserable country on the very edge of the known world!

Footnotes

1. From Words to Numbers: Narrative, Data, and Social Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

2. Op. cit., p. 119.

THE EARTHLY PARADISE

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:30:46 +0000

I have always read that the world of land and sea is spherical. All authorities and the recorded experiments of Ptolemy and the rest, based on the eclipses of the moon and other observations made from east to west, and on the height of the Pole Star made from north to south, have constantly drawn and confirmed this picture, which they held to be true. Now, I have found such great irregularities [observed on my voyages] that I have come to the following conclusion concerning the world: that it is not round as they describe it, but the shape of a pear, which is round everywhere except at the stalk, where it juts out a long way; or that it is like a round ball, on part of which is something like a woman’s nipple. This point on which the protuberance stands is the highest and nearest to the sky. […] I believe that the earthly Paradise lies here, which no-one can enter except by God’s leave.

From The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus, London: Penguin, 1969, pp. 217-218, 221.

THE HOLY TRINITY

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:15:05 +0000

As of late, each morning I order the holy trinity at Klaudio’s. And each morning I get a short espresso, a glass of mineral water, and a large glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice. Without a word, too. Only those who are new to the café get confused by my wishes. Which is what happened this morning, when a couple of Croatian tourists at the counter overheard my order. The raised eyebrows only reminded me of my favorite summer drink at Klaudio’s, the martyr’s. That is, a large glass of white wine and soda. Just like the holy trinity, the martyr’s gets newcomers to the café pretty confused. And especially if they are religious, of course. The bliss.

DO YOU REALLY EXIST?

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:02:41 +0000

My faith is a bit wobbly today, I must admit. I find myself fumbling in the dark. Feeling forsaken, I am yearning for answers. Dear reader, do you really exist?

INSISTING

admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:18:54 +0000

Having had some trouble with his lower back, Dave Plant started going to a covered swimming pool that opened in Motovun only a few months ago. After a few visits, a lady working at the pool started chatting with him. “Are you English?” she wanted to know. When he told her that he was, she was rather surprised. “Why are you so surprised?” he wanted to know. She would not tell him, but he kept insisting. “Well,” she spilled the beans at last, “you aren’t ugly!”

ARTHUR KOESTLER TO THE RESCUE

admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:12:18 +0000

Suddenly remembering Arthur Koestler’s famous essay, “The Yogi and the Commissar” (1945), I searched my Residua on the World Wide Web with the word “revolution” on the one hand, and words “yoga” or “yogi” on the other. At first glance, the results are far from surprising, as the first word appears ever less often and the second two pop up ever more often as years go by. But details are still of some interest. Although the usage of the word “revolution” peaks in 1979, when it appears sixteen times, it rapidly declines in the early 1980s, and it pops up only a few times a year all the way to the present. However, it appears as many as eight times in 2006, which is worth investigating further. Now, words “yoga” or “yogi” do not appear at all before 1994, and they pop up ever more frequently ever since. More specifically, they appear eleven times in 2006, thirteen times in 2007, and fourteen times so far this year. As it seems, the peak is still some way away. Anyhow, Koestler’s essay seems to be worth rereading so many years later. Although he meant to shed light on two kinds of people, perhaps he inadvertently shed light on two ages of each person. Come to think of it, is there any difference between the two?

CROATIA SPELLS CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:46:58 +0000

Politically and administratively, Croatia is a bizarre country. Only consider the key players in Motovun’s golf development, which is currently being vetted by the state, regional, and local authorities. This is a protracted and complex process, but one of its features is abundantly clear.

The investor is Jupiter Group, a fund management company from London. Used to development in risky places such as the Caribbean and Russia, they hired the Croatian Civil Engineering Institute (Institut Gradjevinarstva Hrvatske) from Zagreb to produce the environmental impact study of the proposed development. The Institute’s director, Jure Radic, used to be Franjo Tudjman’s minister of construction. He teaches at the Civil Engineering Faculty of the University of Zagreb. The Institute straddles the academia and commerce, and it is one of the most profitable commercial outfits in Croatia with strong performance on the Croatian Stock Exchange. Not surprisingly, it is believed to be the center of the Croatian construction lobby.

Next, the environmental impact study is submitted to the Croatian Ministry of the Environment, led by minister Marina Matulovic-Dropulic, who is one of the Institute’s commercial partners and owner of a large segment of its shares. Following the law, she puts together a commission to vet the study, but she soon intervenes in its work to ensure that the investor’s interests are not jeopardized by expert judgement about development in a very sensitive place like Motovun. Although the commission is ultimately split, the study is deemed by the minister to have been successful.

The environmental impact study then comes to Motovun, where it is open to the public for scrutiny and discussion. The mayor of Motovun, Slobodan Vugrinec, also serves as deputy mayor of Vrsar on the western coast of Istria, thus effectively holding two jobs and spending too little of his precious time in Motovun. The town council that will ultimately decide what to do with golf development includes many members who stand to gain directly from it by the sale of their land. This is why the mayor has selected them for the council in the first place. One way or another, the mayor and the council will do their best to limit and marginalize public discussion of golf development in a town considered for inclusion in UNESCO’s World Heritage sites together with its historic surroundings.

Parenthetically, Jupiter Group plans to build a settlement with five-hundred beds within sight of Motovun, whose historic core now holds three-hundred permanent inhabitants. Among other strategic resources, the new settlement will use a large amount of water in a region increasingly susceptible to drought on account of rapid climate change. Golf itself will use agricultural land of high quality, which will be subjected to a plethora of herbicides and pesticides right next to Motovun Forest along the Mirna river, which is famous for its rare white truffles, as well as a wide variety of wild animals.

Before it moves to detailed urban planning, golf development will also be vetted by the regional authorities. Governor of Istria, Ivan Jakovcic, will be directly involved in this process. It was he who had placed the mayor of Motovun in his post to promote golf development, and it is he who has promoted it for at least a decade in the context of the privatization of state land. In major developments, such as golf in Motovun, the state land is leased for a period of many years, while the private land adjoining it is sold outright to foreign investors. The spatial or physical planning process preceding individual development projects is widely used in the region to ensure that leasing and sale go hand in hand. In accordance with the Croatian law, agricultural and urban land use can be switched in the planning process without informing the owners. This holds in spite of the fact that the value of agricultural land is about ten times lower than that of urban land.

Croatia is a bizarre country, indeed. Foreign investors and state, regional, and local politicians regularly collude to achieve their joint objectives, which are carefully hidden from public view. In the process, conflict of interests is rife. In fact, Croatia spells conflict of interest.

KNOW THYSELF

admin — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:34:04 +0000

All too eager to tap into the magic of content analysis, I am dashing backwards and forwards through the just-acquired book by Roberto Franzosi.[1] I am truly excited when I bump into a section close to the end of the book that bears a most promising title: “Know Thyself: Notes on Reflexive Sociology.”[2] He begins with Thales’ admonishment from the section’s title; continues with Thomas Aquinas, who laments that alchemy will yield nothing, but that looking into himself is the only way forward; goes on to Descartes, who has resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of himself; and then proceeds to Montaigne… As I read on, I expect to come upon some great thinker who has applied the rudiments of content analysis on his own writings, but to no avail. By the time I reach the end of the section I realize that not even Franzosi thought of such a feat as a grand finale to his own effort. Alas, am I destined to be the first?!

Footnotes

1. From Words to Numbers: Narrative, Data, and Social Science, Cambridge: Cambridge Universitiy Press, 2004.

2. Op. cit., pp. 318-324.