Matthew Treadwell wrote a wonderful account of my struggles with the golf lobby in Motovun, Istria, and Croatia some four years ago (“Abandon and Absolve,” August 22, 2010). A copy of his article, which can be found on the World Wide Web under the title of “Slinging Stones at Goliath,” can be found on the desktop of my laptop ever since. I see its felicitous icon every day without fail. Over the years, the title has become etched into my mind. But my appeal of nearly three years ago with the Constitutional Court of Croatia against the decisions of municipal and regional courts in Istria is still awaiting the highest court’s decision.

But all I wish is to go to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where I am sure to defeat the former mayor of Motovun, who had filed no less than three court cases against me just before the municipal elections five years ago, which took place shortly after the onset of the global financial crisis. I have written to the president of the Constitutional Court, Jasna Omejec, over and over again, but without any success. And this is where my sling now strikes me as pretty powerless. In the case of Croatia, the Goliath is ultimately its court system. This is where the slinging of stones is for the birds.

Prime ministers enamored with golf fall, as witnessed by Ivo Sanader. Although he has been in jail for several years now, he has never been charged with the golf scam involving much of Croatia, but especially Istria and Dalmatia. Regional governors fall, as well, as witnessed by Ivan Jakovčić, Sanader’s closest Istrian ally in the multi-billion-euro golf game. And so do golf-loving municipal mayors, as witnessed by Slobodan Vugrinec, who lost the municipal elections only a year ago. He was the very last in the chain of power, too. Unperturbed, the Goliath still stands, though. The wretched country’s court system is beyond the reach of my sling. Or any other sling, for that matter.