The Croatian Telephone Company was sold to Deutsche Telekom soon after Croatia’s independence. A handful of Croatian politicians must have made a pile of money in the shady deal, but I have heard from several people in the know that the German company was interested primarily in the real estate in the possession of the company. After some quick technological improvements, even more real estate was not needed for telephony any longer. Having established themselves on the Croatian soil, though, the Germans left the running of the company to Croats. And Hrvatski Telekom is atrocious in terms of service. Among other things, I have had tremendous problems with my electronic mail ever since my move from Britain. But the last few days have been the pits. Something is wrong with the service, but there is not a word about the cause of the troubles. As I bang into my laptop in yet another attempt to get to my mail, I keep swearing at the top of my voice: “Fucking Croatian servants, why don’t you learn a thing or two from your German masters?!” Which only goes to show the high esteem that Germans enjoy among Croats. Chances are that Deutsche Telekom services are as lousy in Germany as they are in Croatia or anywhere else where it has put its paw. The mammoth monopoly is untouchable everywhere. So, why bother?

Addendum (February 16, 2015)

The German masters and their Croatian servants outdid themselves yesterday: I could not get to my electronic mail from the time I got up in the morning to the time I went to bed in the evening. What is more, there was no explanation of the outrageous outage. The only message that appeared on the screen came from the Internet itself: “Temporarily out of service.” Luckily, my electronic mail is available this morning, but the explanation is still missing, as ever. Neither the servants nor their masters are doing their job. It is only Croatia, after all. And Germany has better things to do, anyway.