I was in for a big surprise today when I went to the store in Zagreb where I regularly order my contact lenses. They are not produced any longer, I was told. The message was beyond me. “Should I get rid of my eyes, too?” I asked. I had to see an ophthalmologist attached to the store first. She looked into my eyes with utmost care, but I could not figure out what the story was about. It took quite a while for the good doctor to spell out the change in policy. I was used to three-month cycles, which worked perfectly well for me, but the medical profession now advises one-month cycles at the longest. “Hygiene,” the doctor explained. In addition, the material the lenses are made of has changed lately. Now it is silicone, which is much better in terms of hygiene than the material used heretofore, whatever it was. And it all boils down to a new prescription plus twelve pairs of lenses a year rather than four. The prescription is not cheap, it goes without saying, and the new package of lens for the whole year is three times as expensive as before. “Well,” the doctor smiled sheepishly, “hygiene is key to the health of your eyes.” Doctors and lens producers work together pretty well. This is capitalism at its best. By the time I left the store and its clinic, I was livid. Fucking capitalism. I would have not been able to read in the stone age, but everything else would have been just to my liking. Besides, reading and writing are mixed blessings at best.