Thus the title of my last piece for a local online newspaper. My sixteenth in about nine months, if my recollection is serving me right. And I most sincerely hope, my last. In it I endeavor to paint a picture of the future of the peninsula some ten years after Croatia’s accession to the European Union, which is likely to take place in 2010 or 2011. And I paint it in plain Croatian. The picture is bleak. My own vision of the future is much bleaker, but I feel it should stay my own. The way I see things, the onus is on Istrians, but they are not up to the task in front of them. Enough said, though. Although I do not expect any meaningful reaction to this piece, or anything else I have written in Croatian, I do hope that a few people will remember it in 2020. That will be my only, if benighted, reward.

Addendum I (September 17, 2010)

Croatia’s accession to the European Union in 2010 or 2011? Well, well. This only goes to show how optimistic I am in my pessimism. It appears I can never get pessimistic enough to fit this miserable world. They way things look at the moment, Croatia’s accession in 2012 or 2013 sounds rather optimistic, too. Assuming the silly Union is still around, of course!

Addendum II (December 9, 2014)

As it happened, Croatia acceded to the vaunted Union in the summer of 2013, the very last year I considered in this connection. A year and a half later, the Union is still around, too. So much for my pessimism and optimism combined. Seven years after my piece about Istria in 2020 and a bit more than five years till that year, I would write it rather differently. To begin with, Croatia’s accession has been hardly felt anywhere across the country, including Istria. Many hopes have been dashed quickly enough. What with the incompetence of Croatian politicians and the incompetence of the bureaucrats in Brussels, the accession has been a complete and total flop. More important, the global financial crisis of 2008 has rendered the Istrian real estate market moribund. The only asset of so many Istrians has evaporated as if by magic. Returning to the question of where the peninsula will be in 2020, it is a safe bet that it will be roughly where it was in 2007, when my last piece for a local online newspaper was written. Amen.

Addendum III (May 25, 2019)

I came across this piece on one of my uncharted journeys through my writings. And I quickly realized that the previous addendum was off the mark concerning the effect of Croatia’s accession to the European Union. In particular, the number of tourists visiting the country has exploded since the accession. Strangely enough, this is rarely acknowledged by anyone in the country, which is especially true of untold government agencies dealing with tourism, the most successful sector of Croatia’s economy. One more time, it is assumed that the explosion of tourist numbers has to do with the beauty of the country rather than the safety and security provided by the Union. Returning to Istria, tourism is in full bloom. At the same time, foreign organizations providing tourist services are growing in number and in size. It is ever more obvious that Istrians will be the last to enjoy the windfall. They will remain in the lowest ranks of service providers while the highest ranks will be filled by clever foreigners, mainly from the neighboring Union countries. This is where the profits will be going, as well. Predictably enough, this also holds for the rest of the country. Once servants, always servants!