I just sent my last book in a Portable Document Format file to Ranko Borovečki, the editor of Glas Istre (The Voice of Istria), the leading newspaper on the peninsula that is mentioned often enough in the book’s pages. More often than not, though, it is mentioned in derogatory terms. “A small gift…,” runs the subject of my electronic-mail message, “… to a small newspaper!” The message is plain enough, as well as right on the money in terms of size. Still, there is much for him to learn from the book about his political bosses, I reckon. I can only hope the good editor can read English. Perhaps I am overly optimistic on this score, as usual.

Addendum (July 15, 2016)

I did not expect any reaction from Borovečki, it goes without saying. And I did not get any. Zilch. The same holds for the editors of other newspapers in Croatia, all of whom I regaled with a copy of the book about my struggle with Croatian courts. Not a peep from any of them, let alone an article or two about my predicament. Still, I wanted them to get a sniff of what lied ahead. Of course, I was expecting a victory at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In that case, they will all get the same book one more time, but with a happy end of sorts. And Borovečki’s newspaper will be uppermost on my mind both because it is geared toward Istria, where both a municipal and the regional court clobbered me in turn, and because it is in the hands of the Istrian Democratic Assembly, the leading political party on the peninsula since Croatian independence. I am thus dying to see Borovečki’s reaction to the book in its final edition. Will he dare shove it aside one more time? Or will he do his best to limit the damages to the party bosses hovering above him?