Croatian Media Compares Paul Bradbury Lawsuit to Kafka's 'The Trial'
As the articles surrounding the Paul Bradbury lawsuit launched by the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) continue being published in the Croatian media, one portal even brings the likes of Franz Kafka into the mix.
As Express/Emir Imamovic Pirke writes, had Franz Kafka been born exactly 100 years later, and not in 1883, and if he'd been born in Zagreb instead of Prague, he would be less than forty years old today, and he'd have started writing his most famous novel only in 2014.
His (would-have-been) Croatian publication "The Trial" wouldn't have had just under 300 pages in the Croatian case, and readers would have to either go to the library in a car or have his book delivered with a vehicle of some sort.
"Someone must have slandered Josef K." is the first part of the first sentence of "The Trial,", a famous book which is still relevant to this very day. The situation surrounding the Paul Bradbury lawsuit must ring true to the feelings brought about by Josed K these days. He doesn't know who is going to judge him, nor does he really have a clue as to why.
"Ha! What have I done... My lawyer Vanja Juric is trying to understand that herself. The thing is that I've been writing in Croatia for a decade now and nothing about the Croatian National Tourist Board surprises me anymore. Honestly, all of this is quite hilarious to me, but I was shocked when I received the lawsuit,'' Paul Bradbury told N1 when commenting on the lawsuit filed against him by the Croatian National Tourist Board, who allegedly did so because they felt offended because he'd played around with the slogan ''Croatia full of life "on Facebook, turning it instead into “Croatia full of uhljebs”.
If, then, the move on social media was defaming or slandering the Croatian National Tourist Board, then Bradbury is a slanderer who must now defend himself against such an accusation in a Croatian court of law, even though he expressed what has become very much a majority opinion with a bit of satire. Most people, however, cannot be prosecuted, so the British blogger and promoter of Croatian tourism will, sooner or later, have to face slander at his own expense because he can't be punished for this otherwise. Namely, his guilt in this case must first actually be invented.
Almost two decades ago, Paul Bradbury sold his house in the UK and, thanks to a TV commercial, decided to come and live here in Croatia. What caught his eye was a video with the usual depiction of the natural beauty of the country and that old slogan about the Mediterranean as it allegedly used to be, and it was produced and paid for by no less than the Croatian National Tourist Board.
Yes, that very same Croatian National Tourist Board that has since created the very bizarre Paul Bradbury lawsuit all because of a Facebook post.
"The crazy Englishman/Ludi Englez", as Bradbury is affectionately referred to in Jelsa, didn't realise his Croatian dream by converting pound sterling from the sale of that house in Britain into euros and merely buying a Hvar property with them, then sticking that familiar old blue ''Apartments'' sign somewhere near the door - much more than that was done.
In his now long time spent discovering a country that advertises its own tourist offer as if the whole world is still using dial-up, he first launched the portal Total Hvar, then Total Split, Total Inland Dalmatia, Total Zagreb and Total Dubrovnik, and finally Total Croatia News, which has since been declared the most influential local medium in the English language. In addition, Bradbury is considered the most influential Croatian blogger and a very sharp critic of the Croatian National Tourist Board, considering it to be cumbersome, expensive and passive, and aldo claiming that its abolition wouldn't negatively affect the tourism industry in any way.
There are, for example, county, city and local offices of the Croatian National Tourist Board that have purposes for themselves and themselves only, as well as those without which a good part of the independent cultural scene on the coast would find it even more difficult to survive than today, just as there are employees whose only obligation is to come to work, and there are those who aren't lazy at all and often find themselves engaged in tasks which go far beyond those prescribed by their employment contract.
However, the naturalised British journalist won't go to court because of his lack of a distinction between any of the above, but because of the excess fears of certain individuals whose dire inefficiency is inversely proportional to the opposite effects of Bradbury's hard work, and because the deep urge for self-preservation has become stronger than the interests of the body itself.
Recalling the events which take place in the aforementioned, famed publication, in the Croatian Trial, had Kafka been born in a different time and place - the Croatian National Tourist Board vs. Paul Bradbury - the prosecutor, ie the Croatian National Tourist Board, is actually performing a Kafkaesque play in which they turns their own guilt for the success of the independent initiator of tourist portals around, but not because the accused is wrong - quite on the contrary - because he's essentially right.
After all, could the Croatian National Tourist Board have launched the Total Croatia News portal? After the success of the Total Hvar or Total Split platform, could the Croatian National Tourist Board not simply purchase both the name and the concept from the author and then go on to further develop them? Couldn't someone, given that Paul Bradbury has already dotted all of the i's and crossed all of the t's, have had the bright idea to hire him the way production companies are hired to create videos of pretty panoramic shots of the islands and close-ups of wine glasses that would bring British tourists with deep pockets flocking to Brela during summer?
Why, after all, does the Croatian National Tourist Board not use resources it has within reach to develop its own network of sites made in foreign languages - media that will offer better content than that of Paul Bradbury, whose Croatian mixes an English accent with a Hvar dialect? As simple as the answers are to each of these questions - each of them would imply effort being made. The very notion of that would mean that the entire local administrative apparatus would end up working against itself.
Namely, it all rests on the fact that nothing changes at any cost, so that, when it is shown that changes are both possible and necessary, instead of autocorrection and moving forward, it starts the Kafkaesque process of removing evidence that would not exist if Bradbury hadn't managed to find empty space to profit from tourism in a country that otherwise lives from tourism almost entirely. Oh, and of course, from EU funds, loans and... And... That's mostly it.
For more on the Paul Bradbury lawsuit (both of them), click here and here.
Istrian Companies Launching Projects Selling Adriatic Delicacies
April the 28th, 2021 - The Adriatic sea is full of resources for a very good and very healthy meal, and several Istrian companies decided to embark on projects showcasing the best of what the rich Adriatic sea has to offer.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, although Istria is perhaps best known for tourism and for its tobacco and construction industries, and more recently for technology, beautiful Istria County is increasingly focusing on the development of its local fisheries and aquaculture. One of those Istrian companies in the sector is S.I.C. from Visnjan, which wants to expand its fish processing programme with products from Adriatic algae.
Back in 2014 they moved into their new business complex larger than 6000 square metres, intended for their production, processing and the trade of fish products, including the centre for the purification and dispatch of live shellfish. They successfully place their products on export markets, which account for more than 80 percent of their total sales.
The company buys fish for further processing, purchasing the catches of about 150 fishing boats along the entire Adriatic sea, and they point out that Adriatic fish is among the highest quality and most appreciated across Europe and the world.
Otherwise, S.I.C. has been operating since back 1994 as a business venture of two entrepreneurial families, their headquarters are in Visnjan, and today it has more than 160 employees. Their annual income stands at just under 80 million kuna in total.
Market recognition for Istrian companies operating within this sector
The Istrian Development Agency (IDA) recently prepared an analysis of the current situation and guidelines for the development of fisheries and aquaculture in Istria County for the period from 2021 to 2027 as part of the Investinfish project.
IDA Director Boris Sabatti emphasised that the document contains a vision of implementing the strategic transformation of fisheries and aquaculture development in Istria County for the upcoming programming period until 2027, with the aim of strengthening the overall sustainability of the blue sector.
''The emphasis in the analysis and guidelines is placed on strengthening the sustainability of Istrian fisheries and aquaculture in all its aspects (ecological, social, economic) and on introducing innovations in fisheries and the value chain of fishery products, strengthening cooperation between the public sector, the scientific community and the private sector in piloting new and innovative technologies, production processes and the standards of market recognition certificates, as well as the transfer of knowledge and experience,'' said Sabatti.
He added that the most of what is in the aforementioned document is dedicated to processing the specifics of Istria's fisheries and aquaculture sector, based primarily on input data collected from eight Istrian companies and enterprises from the fisheries and aquaculture sector who responded to a public call announced by the IDA.
In addition to the already mentioned SIC, another company, Milena from Bacva, which deals with cod processing, wants to expand its range with white and blue fish products from the Adriatic sea, while Levan from Medulin, which recently launched its first canned sardines with the Hook & cook brand, wants to expand its range of canned sardine products with different flavours.
The Medulin-based enterprise Ruza plans to open an anchovy shop in Pula, and Ribarska zadruga Istra from Porec recently developed a burger made of mullet and Adriatic shrimp as a new product through another international project, Prizefish, and this encouraged team wants to develop other new Adriatic fish-based products.
Another Istrian company, Istrida, grows oysters and mussels in the Lim Channel, and wants to get closer to the tourist market by purchasing a tourist boat for sightseeing the farm, which would also double up as a tasting room of sorts for their own products.
The projects being taken up by Istrian company has also been joined by Oli Mare from Porec, and the fishing enterprise Bonaca from Stinjan. The total value of the planned investments of the eight involved Istrian companies stands at a massive 72 million kuna.
The Investinfish project, with a total value of 11 million kuna, is being implemented with the co-financing of the cross-border cooperation programme Interreg V-A Italy - Croatia.
For more, follow our business section.
Croatian Economics Student Dorian Antesic Launching Finance Podcast
April the 28th, 2021 - One Croatian economics student, Dorian Antesic, has decided to see how interested he can get today's youth of Croatia interested in finances and money with his new podcast - Pricajmo o novcu (Let's talk about money).
As Ivan Tominac/Novac writes, blogs are typically the choice of many young people today, and the topics talked about on blogs are often contemporary and lifestyle related. They are also read by Dorian Antesic, who we recently interviewed, and who is also the first winner of the Croatian Smart Croatia competition in the Financier category.
In fact, by launching his Let's talk about money blog, he went one step further, and as he pointed out himself, he believes that this is a good format for sharing knowledge and learning. He has further enriched his blog with a podcast, and today he networks with colleagues and presents them to potential business partners.
Student Investment Fund
“I started the blog because I had something to say. I think it's a good format to express ourselves on some topics and to throw out some ideas that are going around in our heads. I started the podcast a little later than I did with the blog. I realised that talking to people suits me more than just writing things down, if I want to have some kind of constant content publishing.
I noticed that there aren't really many podcasts in Croatia, especially not one focused on finance and economics. There are smart people in Croatia in finance and economics and I wanted to talk to them. There are a lot of podcasts in the world specialised in finance and economics, but here in Croatia, Let's talk about money is the only one of its kind,'' began Dorian Antesic, a student at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Rijeka.
Dorian Antesic actually embarked on his path of popularising the topic of finance even earlier than this, and appearing within the project Hrvatska pamet Hrvatskoj, he presented his project STOK-student investment fund. He delighted the jury with his attitude and thoughts and thus entered the column of the first winner of the Financier category.
According to Antesic, the project consisted of two parts: the establishment of an investment fund that would be managed by students who would invest real money in the financial market and the publication of educational and informative content in the field of investment.
The competition was followed by a series of steps, one of which is investing and implementing a project idea in a slightly different form. From this idea, the Let's talk about money project was born.
"After winning the award, I thought about starting an association through which students couldd invest, then I decided that I wouldn't do that, but that I'd implement the project in a different way. Instead of starting an association and a fund, I decided to spend that investment part by creating my own personal investment portfolio.
I withdrew all my savings and started investing with the prize money from the competition. In addition, I started a blog, and later a podcast where I publish educational and informative talks and articles. So in the end, I implemented the project from the competition, I just did it in another form. This way gave me flexibility in my work and greater concentration, since I invested all my money and thus had a dog in the fight when it came to investing,'' added Dorian Antesic.
His personal mission, as he went on to explain is to create generational wealth. It is, he added, everything that one generation leaves to another, regardless of whether it is money, real estate or the mentality and system of thinking.
“Caring for generational wealth makes people think long-term. This makes it clearer to them what's more important to do and have in life, and what's merely superfluous. I run that mission through a podcast and a blog. With this podcast, I want to create value for financiers and people interested in the field. I talk to professionals and through these conversations I try to touch on some things that would be useful to financiers for their careers and business operations. A successful career and company is the initial condition for creating generational wealth,'' explained Antesic.
It can be said that the Let's talk about money blog is something that brings some new perspectives on financial reality closer to Croatia's younger generations. The blog's repertoire includes, of course, economic topics, and the desire is to use its content to help people advance their careers, improve their businesses and adapt to the future. The podcast is reserved for topics related to corporate finance, investment, personal finance, the state of the economy and economic education.
“We'll talk about the skills that financiers need for successful career growth, and then about the labour market trends for that group. Topics will also be related to the health of financiers - their physical and mental health, since it's a stressful job where people are under a lot of pressure,'' said Dorian Antesic, adding that he has had six guests on his podcast so far. The biggest impression was left by Pavao Pahljina, also the first guest, and the topic was bitcoin.
The Let's talk about money project and initiative is one way of bringing finance closer to Croatia's young and often not so interested people. This has been firmly proven by the amount of inquiries that the innovative Dorian Antesic receives on social media, and the advice such individuals seek is often in the domain of personal finances.
For more, follow Made in Croatia.
Croatian National Recovery and Resilience Plan Arriving to EC Door This Week
April the 28th, 2021 - The Croatian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which has been met with many criticisms and questions, is set to arrive at the European Commission's door this week.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, Portugal is the first EU member state to submit its own national recovery and resilience plan to Brussels, with twelve more countries announcing that they'll do the same by the end of the week, including Croatia - officially launching a two-month evaluation.
The formal delivery deadline for not only the Croatian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, but that of all EU member states is April the 30th.
That being said, half of the countries will still spend time ''polishing'' up their respective plans. The European Commission have stated that they'd much rather see the delivery of quality over quantity, saying on Friday: ''The plans are meant to cover the next six years, it's important that they're done properly and nothing will happen if they end up being sent later. We want EU member states to submit a ready and finished plan, not one with holes.''
Subsequent negotiations are indeed possible, they pointed out from the EC, but "for the sake of efficiency we want to limit that possibility".
Questionable projects will also enter the race...
Assessing the strategic documents of the 27 remaining EU member states is an enormous share of work for about a hundred people from several segments of the EC, and the plan of Andrej Plenkovic's government alone will boast about 700 pages when it is completed, and only a summary of about 80 pages has been published and made public, attracting attention and criticism.
In typical Croatian style, this combination of a very large volume of text and only a short time to compile it resulted in a great deal of concern and skepticism on the part of experts who worried that due to limited resources, questionable projects will end up flying under the radar.
EU member states must direct at least 37 percent of their money to the green transition, at least 20 percent to digitalisation on the principle of not causing significant damage to the climate and the environment, and the guiding thought is reforms to emerge more resilient after recovery from the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
How countries will use the available funds (in the Croatian case, 6.3 billion euros of non-refundable cash and 3.6 billion euros in loans) is left to the member states depending on the structure of their respective economies, but in line with specific recommendations issued to them (CSR).
As touched on, the Croatian National Recovery and Resilience Plan has come under significant and quite fierce criticism that too much money has been directed to the public sector and infrastructure to the detriment of the private sector. The "green" threshold has been exceeded by the majority, and in many cases the figure is over 50 percent, so Brussels estimates that this could generate around 250 billion euros in investment.
At the same time, more than 50 billion euros are to go to energy efficiency and the renovation of buildings. High on the list of priorities is green mobility, investments in railways, e-mobility, electric charging stations and the like. Many have also skipped the digital minimum, which means more than 130 billion euros will go to investments in high-speed networks, the digitalisation of public administration and even cross-border projects, of which there are many at the EU level.
Robust control systems
With coronavirus still hovering quite ominously in the foreground, as much as 28 percent of the money will go to the healthcare sectors and social cohesion; from renovating and building hospitals, to strengthening primary care and linking up the social welfare and healthcare systems.
Journalists were naturally interested in whether the fund could finance (higher) salaries in healthcare, but this isn't an option because it represents multiple costs.
The key message is the expectation that members will “establish robust spending control systems”. After the advance payment, the next tranches will depend on the fulfillment of the objectives. A missed goal means the stopping of these payments, and by that point there is very little room left for negotiations.
"The EC can decide on a partial payment, but the amount of the payment is a discretionary decision," they stated from Brussels.
For more, make sure to check out our dedicated politics section.
Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman Says Ambassador Hidajet Biščević Enjoys Government's Support
ZAGREB, 27 April, 2021 - Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Tuesday that Croatian Ambassador Hidajet Biščević enjoyed the support from the Croatian government, in his comment to the ethnic Croat leader's accusations against the diplomat.
Addressing a news conference in Petrinja, Minister Grlić Radman said that the experienced Croatian diplomat Biščević enjoyed the support of the government in Zagreb.
He says that exclusively Croatian institutions are in charge of assessing the performance of Croatian diplomats.
The minister said that the status of the Croatian community in Serbia is one of Biščević's priorities.
"Media speculations and such statements in media about Croatia's diplomats are not the best way of communication. Croatia's diplomacy does not deserve that and furthermore this could also be an indirect attempt from outside to impact the political relations in Croatia," said the minister who will travel to Subotica on Wednesday.
He also said that it was also inappropriate to disseminate reports against Biščević after the recent incident in which the Croatian flag was removed from the residence of the Croatian ambassador in Belgrade.
Following media reports about the criticism targeted against Biščević, President Zoran Milanović said that he would recall the ambassador for consultations to establish the truth.
Minister Grlić Radman also rejected Milanović's claims that it was him who appointed Grlić Radman to an ambassadorial post.
Grlić Radman said that he had been employed for diplomatic tasks for the first time in 1991 by the first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman and since then he has been an official in the foreign ministry.
For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
PM Andrej Plenković: At The Moment I Don't See That Gabrijela Žalac is Guilty of Anything
ZAGREB, 27 April, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that at the moment he did not see that former minister Gabrijela Žalac, an official of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), is guilty of anything after the USKOK anti-corruption office expanded its investigation in the windpark scandal.
"I read the press release for my information. Our judicial bodies are independent. You are aware of our position - we have zero tolerance to corruption. I don't what is behind that and I cannot deduct from the press release what exactly it has to do with," Plenković told reporters during a visit to Split-Dalmatia County.
I don't have any information about what USKOK and the State Prosecutor (DORH) are doing.
What he does know is that the loan in question was approved, as far as he is aware, in accordance with the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) rules.
"We have to see here what this is about exactly. At the moment I don't know nor do I have any detailed information of what USKOK or DORH are working on. She is a member of the HDZ. At the moment I don't see that she is guilty of anything," said Plenković.
He claimed that he saw Žalac about a month ago but they did not discuss the windpark case.
"She will deal with this situation on her own and as far as our relationship is concerned, it is as it was in any case," underscored Plenković.
For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
President Zoran Milanović to Recall Ambassador to Serbia Over His Alleged Disregard For Ethnic Croats
ZAGREB, 27 April, 2021 - Croatia's President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday that he would recall Croatian Ambassador to Belgrade, Hidajet Biščević, after the ethnic Croat leader Tomislav Žigmanov criticised the diplomat for working against the Croats in Serbia.
In the meantime media outlets have reported that Ambassador Biščević did not react to the developments in which ethnic Croats received death threats, and that he also failed to even telephone those members who received threats to express sympathy with them.
Žigmanov, who is the leader of the Democratic party of Croats in Vojvodina (DSHV), recently claimed that the Croatian ambassador had made a "tepid reaction" to attempts by Serbian authorities in Subotica to introduce the Bunjevci vernacular as an official language in that northern city and that the ambassador communicated with people whom Žigmanov described as persons "who are actively working on the destabilisation and dissolution of the (ethnic Croat) community."
All that prompted President Milanović to say today that he did not know whose policy Biščević "is pursuing there."
I cannot know whether all those headlines are true and I will summon him back to Zagreb for consultations, Milanović said in his address to the press at the Gašinci military range in eastern Croatia.
The Večernji List daily has reported that on 30 March, Žigmanov sent a letter to Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman to inform him that Biščević was working against the interests of the ethnic Croat community in Serbia.
For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
Zagreb Stock Exchange Crobex Index Surpasses 1,900 Points
ZAGREB, 27 April, 2021 - The Crobex index of the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) went up on Tuesday for the fourth trading day in a row, closing above 1,900 points for the first time since February 2020, while trading remained modest.
The Crobex increased by 0.27% to 1,900.52 points, while the Crobex10 slipped by 0.03% to 1,177.83 points.
Today's regular turnover was HRK 3.6 million, which is about HRK 600,000 less than on Monday.
The only stock to cross the one million kuna turnover mark was the Atlantska Plovidba shipping company with a turnover of HRK 1.35 million. Its price went up for the seventh consecutive day, today by 3.56%, to HRK 262 per share.
A total of 50 stocks traded today, with 19 of them recording share price increases, 15 registering price decreases and 16 remaining stable in price.
(€1 = 7.567140)
For more about business in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
Nikola Grmoja (Most Party): "PM Andrej Plenković is the main sponsor of corruption in Croatia"
ZAGREB, 27 April, 2021 - MOST Party Member of Parliament Nikola Grmoja on Tuesday commented on the latest developments in the wind park scandal, saying that even though he is trying to avoid it, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković is the main sponsor of corruption in Croatia.
He appointed ministers Gabrijela Žalac and Marija Vučković, he appointed Minister Tomislav Ćorić and all those who are directly or indirectly connected to the wind park scandal and now he is acting as if he didn't know anything, Grmoja told the press in Parliament House.
We saw that former minister Žalac lobbied for loans to be approved in that scandal, said Grmoja, recalling that while MOST Party was in government, that project did not get the green light because it lacked the necessary environmental impact study, and that as soon as MOST Party was ousted, Minister Ćorić approved the project.
Responding to a reporter's comment that even after the scandal was uncovered, many of its participants kept their positions, Grmoja said that the "mafia doesn't forget its members."
For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
USKOK Indicts Nine Migrant Smugglers
ZAGREB, 27 April, 2021 - The anti-corruption office USKOK has indicted an Afghan national and eight Croatian nationals for smuggling migrants.
The Afghan national, who is the principal defendant in the case, is charged with having organised a ring to smuggle migrants across the Croatian-Slovenian border.
The migrants were charged €600-800 for transport from the Croatian-Bosnian border to the border with Slovenia.
For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
