Diary of a Split Tour Guide in the Age of Corona - Part 2
March 28, 2020 - The second installment of popular former TCN writer Ivica Profaca's diary of the new reality as a tour guide in waiting in an era of no tourism.
If you read the first part of this series, you might remember it finished with the word "survival". And it had been proven as a keyword for something we still like to call the "season".
Between that first article and this second installment, new cancelations have arrived, plus a few postponements to later months, usually September and October. Actually, what puzzles me the most is this kind of optimism some of my guests are showing by still not cancelling. At this very moment, I still have some 20 dates booked in May and June. Those numbers are just a joke compared to the almost daily tours I had in those two months last year, but it's amazing that there are still people expecting to be able to travel in less than two months from what most of us see as the Apocalypse. To make the picture even less bright, some of those dates are for cruisers which means they will be dropped off knowing that most cruise companies have put operations on hold for an indefinite time.
Contrary to some optimism drawn from those dates which were still not cancelled, but "only" postponed, there are no new bookings. It would be pretty insane to expect any these days (and a sign of insanity of those wishing to travel right now), but when I get the first one it will be well worthy of opening the finest bottle of wine I have at home. By the way, recently I heard probably the craziest question ever arriving from some tourist. Someone I know rents a villa close to Dubrovnik, and they pretty much gave up with most of the season, like most of us in the business. However, some ten days ago they got an e-mail from a potential guest, who said they plan to arrive in late April, so they wanted to know if the pool has heated water. Because it's the biggest problem.
All this is just for some personal encouragement, for the struggle for survival is much more bitter.
Many were relying on desperately expected government aid measures to help the economy recover. When they finally came, most of the business world wasn't very enthusiastic. "Wasn't very enthusiastic" is, of course, an understatement, for the general opinion was trashing those measures as insufficient. I'm not an economist, so I can only talk about those measures I hope I can count on. Tourism was immediately declared as an industry which will need a big injection. However, officials were mostly talking about hotels, restaurants, companies with employees, etc. They all have huge problems, and the unemployment rate will go sky high very soon. On the other hand, a whole army of independent, freelance tourism workers were almost ignored. I'm talking about all those accommodation owners, guides, drivers, skippers, all those self-employed sole traders, whose only source of income are the assignments they do. If I don't have a tour any given day, or week, or month, there is no salary like in smaller or bigger companies with employees having a (good, or not so good) contract. In normal times, it's usually a blessing not to depend on anyone. In times like this, which remind me of the plot of the Walking Dead, it's a curse.
The government measures triggered zillions of questions in the guiding community, with one big super-question floating above our heads: where are we in this? Going through the rules was like passing a bar exam, and trying to get some answers from any institution involved wasn't much easier. Initially, there was not a single mention of self-employed people, not even by the tourism ministry. There were some traces of our category carefully hidden behind bureaucratic phrases, but only for more careful readers. The Croatian Tourist Guides Association made an effort to make it easier to understand, and by pressuring institutions in charge, along with Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts, so we were given more clarity. The biggest help came through personal experiences and ideas shared on social networks, some on the Association of Tourist Guides Split Facebook group, but mostly through a Messenger group a bunch of us created in Split. That one was, and still is, real community and the one we need when in trouble. With some official clarification coming from the Croatian Employment Service, which is in charge for all measures, it was finally possible to apply. So I did, for both things I'm eligible for; monthly payments of the minimum wage for three months, and a three-month delay of tax and insurance payments. I'm still waiting for a reply, which will hopefuly be positive. I'm one of over a quarter of million workers who have applied, and it will take time to solve it. I hope I will start part three of this series with some good news.
Will it help? Not completely, especially that we will need to pay our duties later from income which won't come. However, it will at least delay, or soften the disaster. My advice to fellow guides (and others in a similar situation): apply. If you don't know how, ask those who did it, exchange everything you know, and look for explanations from colleagues who are maybe more literate in legal matters. Ask institutions, they have to reply, and read all the documents as carefully as possible.
In the meantime, what lies ahead? The number of positive cases from Coronavirus is still growing, and talking about tourism, or business in general, sounds like a fantasy. Or, if you want, complaining about it in the world where people die in thousands is like spoiled whining. Still, read this excellent account on 2020 tourism possibilities written by Paul Bradbury here on Total Croatia News. It offers some directions about the near future.
(To be continued)
We will be following Ivica Profaca's journey through the rocky weeks ahead.
If you find yourself in Split, or are planning a post-corona visit, check out his range of tours on his website - families, look out for the kids tour of Diocletian Palace. It will not only entertain your kids while allowing you to absorb this unique UNESCO World Heritage Site, but it will bring out the inner child in you too. Learn more about it here.
Zagreb Earthquake Aftermath: Moving Video Footage Meets Poignant Poetry
March 28, 2020 - A very moving and uplifting video in the Zagreb earthquake aftermath, combining great images with poignant property (English with Croatian subtitles).
No need for any words from me, the YouTube channel Marko_Zido says it all about a video it uploaded 2 days ago called Sjeti Se - Remember.
A few days ago something big happened in Croatia's capital, Zagreb. In the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, we suffered a huge earthquake of 5,4 Richter magnitude. Some people lost their homes, some lost hope & some lost both. It woke us all up in every aspect of life and I want this video to be a reminder to myself & everybody else that our time here is limited, but our love is not.
Take a step back. If you have somebody who would give their whole world just to have you by their side with a smile, don't take that for granted, ever. It's a most precious gift you could actually get on this planet.
A true and honest human connection. Love.
Don't waste your days. Go out there, love like you never got stabbed in your heart. Dream and smile like you're 12 years old again. I know, it's not that easy. Some of us have huge baggage from the past, some have toxic people holding them back & some simply don't have the strength to move on anymore. But it's ok. There will come days like this to remind you, that the baggage you're carrying is not that heavy when you have the help of your loved one. That toxic person in your life will leave when you stand up for yourself and that strength you're lacking, it's there just take a look inside. Just don't forget what this life is when everything is over. Be an example for younger generations, fight for the things you believe in or we'll have world filled with people who don't know what love is anymore.
The words to the poem, Good Timber by Douglas Malloch, are below:
Good Timber
- by Douglas Malloch
The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.
Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
For the latest on the Zagreb earthquake aftermath, follow the dedicated TCN section.
FreshBooks: Canadian Software Company Opening Development Centre in Croatia
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 27th of March, 2020, despite the potential economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, finally some good news for the Croatian IT market has emerged - The Canadian company FreshBooks is planning to open a development centre right here in Croatia.
The plan is to recruit a large number of IT professionals, which certainly means a lot to a country that has been struggling with retaining talented and skilled people for a long time, even before this crisis.
FreshBooks is cloud-based accounting software tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that greatly facilitates bookkeeping, invoice management, reports, etc. This service allows all their users to use it from home, which, nowadays, when self-isolation and quarantine have become a reality, is of utmost importance.
Founded back in 2004 in the Canadian city of Toronto, the company has the largest number of customers in the US and Canada and is among the top three online accounting services.
From the very beginning, Mike McDerment, the founder of FreshBooks, has made sure to place the utmost importance on the users of the software, which is why the company continually invests in its development and in adaptation to the needs of the users. Improving the platform itself is something that the development team in Croatia will be working on. So far, FreshBooks has been used by around twenty million people for their various business needs.
With a new development centre in the Republic of Croatia and the recruitment of Croatian talent to work with the regional market, FreshBooks will strengthen its presence in Europe and hopes that this will enable them to attract new customers worldwide.
Croatia was chosen precisely because of its potential and culture, although FreshBooks as software will not be available on the Croatian market for some time due to adaptation to local laws.
FreshBooks is currently available in 160 countries, with one other development centre in Europe in Amsterdam. FreshBooks has always been on the list of the best employers in Canada for the last few years, so it is to be expected that as an employer, it will also be very desirable and help create a positive business culture in a country that has been struggling with retaining its IT professionals for some time.
Make sure to follow our business page for more.
Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Dalmatian Solution: the Imotski Prsut Mask!
March 28, 2020 - Dalmatians have always been resourceful in times of adversity, but have they come up with the ultimate weapon to fight COVID-19 - the prsut mask?
(DISCLAIMER - Please note that in these troubled times, this is an attempt at a humorous post to lighten the mood. The prsut mask is obviously not suitable for protection from COVID-19)
Humour can be in short supply at trying times such as these, and although Brits are known for their sense of humour, I personally find the humour of Croatians and the Balkan region to be equally quality.
Especially when it comes to the darker sense of humour.
One of the things I am looking forward to experiencing in the coming nightmarish weeks is the solidarity of the people of Dalmatia. They have been used to adversity and hardship for centuries, but they have always prevailed, and I rate their survival skills as 3000 times better than a city boy like me.
But have they come up with the ultimate weapon to ward off the corona threat - the prsut mask?
Facebook page Imocki Crnjaci (Imotski Black Humour) has posted the first prsut mask on its page, with a simple message:
With love from Ljubuski (a town over the border in Hercegovina).
Local solutions for global problems, and the prsut mask is an excellent advert for the policy of shopping locally and - presumably when the hunger pangs become too strong - eating local.
The power of the prsut in Dalmatian society should not be underestimated, and a few years ago, it entered the political arena when then Split Mayor Zeljko Kerum added a prsut accessory to his forehead during a brief craze known as prsuting.
You can learn more about the crazy art of prsuting from a 2013 TCN article on the subject (we really have covered some niche topics over the years...).
And, when all this madness is over, prsut life will return to normal and play its essential role in society as part of the most popular starter in the region - Dalmatian prsut, Pag cheese and Dalmatian olives.
May that return to normal be soon.
Stay safe, and for the latest coronavirus updates, follow the dedicated TCN section.
Article update from TCN reader Kristijan Jakovic seconds after this was posted on our FB:
Wrong, that's Slavonian slanina.
Dalmatian or Slavonian - one thing is for sure. Pure genius.
Podravka Donates 900,000 Kuna to Hospitals for Coronavirus Fight
As Novac writes on the 28th of March, 2020, in order to help those who currently need assistance during the coronavirus outbreak, the management and vice-presidents of the Podravka Group, as well as the rest of the company's management, will set aside a portion of their own personal income and donate it for humanitarian purposes.
To date, those individuals from the well known Croatian company Podravka have raised more than 900,000 kuna, which they will donate to Croatian hospitals for the procurement of essential respirators and other necessary medical equipment needed to try to manage the current coronavirus pandemic.
''In addition to our regular humanitarian assistance, the least we as individuals can do is, in addition to organising our business operations appropriately during these extraordinary times, personally help out financially, so that our contribution can be incorporated into the purchase of respirators that may help save someone's life, or protect the lives of those who are busy saving lives by purchasing protective equipment.
I'm proud to be at the forefront of a company whose workers are wholeheartedly accomplishing their tasks, and whose management has never hesitated for a second in individually allocating their personal funds to be part of this humanitarian story,'' said the initiator of the initiative, Marin Pucar, CEO of Podravka.
In addition, as they emphasised, the Podravka Group's employees are working at full capacity these days. Production has been properly organised into three to four shifts, they claim, and their warehouses are working until late at night to load goods into trucks.
''Quality control laboratories are monitoring our production work flawlessly, some employees from corporate and administrative departments have been sent home to reduce the potential risk of them contracting coronavirus, and work from home for them has been organised. There are sufficient quantities of food and medicines to stop shop shelves from becoming empty,'' they state from Podravka.
Make sure to follow our dedicated section for rolling information and updates on coronavirus in Croatia.
Is Turkmenistan Responsible for Poor Air Quality in Zagreb?
As if a global coronavirus pandemic, a set of earthquakes and snow weren't enough, Zagreb now has to deal with another problem - a concerning amount of air pollution hanging over the city. Does the answer to the city's poor air quality lie in Turkmenistan?
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 28th of March, 2020 in the western part of the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan, sand dunes as high as ninety metres extend in parallel, in a meridional direction.
Unusually high concentrations of PM10 particles were recorded across various cities and areas in Croatia, more specifically in Zagreb, Osijek, Kopački rit, Sisak and Zoljan near Našice yesterday, according to a report from Večernji list.
Experts from the ''Dr. Andrija Štampar'' Public Health Institute and the DHMZ are telling the public that this air pollution of sorts is made up primarily of sand particles which have travelled from Turkmenistan's Karakum desert, located east of the Caspian sea.
They noted that air pollution should drop down to significantly lower levels over this coming weekend. According to the Croatian Encyclopedia, the the Karakum desert, sometimes referred to as the Garagum deser, is a sandy desert in Turkmenistan, Central Asia. It extends from Lake Sarikamish and Amu ‑ Darje in the north, to the Kopet Dagh mountains in the southwest and the Garabil hills in the southeast. It covers about 350,000 square kilometres in total.
As previously stated, in the the western part of the Karakum desert, sand dunes which are almost ninety metres high extend in parallel, in a meridional direction. Along approximately 1300 kilometres of the Karakum canal (Amu-Dar-Murgab-Aşgabat-Serdar/Gyzylarbat), which irrigates about one million hectars of land in total, cotton is also grown. Sulfur, oil, and gas deposits are rich there. The southern part also sees the the Trans-Caspian railway pass through it.
Make sure to follow our lifestyle page for more. If it's just Zagreb you're interested in, give Total Zagreb a follow.
HNK Zagreb Online Performances Have Almost 300,000 Views
ZAGREB, March 28, 2020 - The Croatian National Theatre (HNK) in Zagreb, in cooperation with the 24 sata daily newspaper, has made some of its most popular performances available online, attracting almost 300,000 views in just over a week.
It has been just over a week since the Zagreb HNK, in cooperation with the 24sata editorial board, launched the project "HNK in Zagreb fighting against the coronavirus". Performances by opera, drama and ballet troupes, as well as the Philosophical Theatre programmes, are available every day on the 24sata YouTube channel, 24sata website, and the HNK Facebook page, the HNK said in a press release.
"Theatre in the homes of our viewers has thrilled all performing arts enthusiasts and attracted new audiences, those who have not had a chance up to now to see a play at the HNK in Zagreb. Up to this day, our performances, released on the 24sata YouTube channel, have attracted 299,168 views," the HNK said.
In this way, the HNK has been able to re-establish communication with its audience in this tragic time of isolation, after it was closed on 12 March, but also to cross virtual borders and become present in numerous European and world cities and on different continents, the theatre said.
More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.
Minimum Wage Requested for 253,000 Workers
ZAGREB, March 28, 2020 - Labour and Pension System Minister Josip Aladrović has said that by Friday, 43,000 employers sought assistance as part of the government's first set of measures designed to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, asking the state to pay the minimum wage for 253,000 employees.
Asked if he was surprised by the large number of applications, the minister said in an interview with RTL that initial estimates had predicted that minimum wages would be sought for around 500,000 workers.
He recalled that between four and six billion kuna would be ensured for those wages.
"We are glad that payments started already on Wednesday, which means that the Employment Service has been dealing with applications swiftly... we believe that it is important that the right to be paid the minimum wage be granted to everyone meeting the set conditions by the time when March wages have to be paid," the minister said.
He also noted that the government's second set of measures designed to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economic sector would not include tax write-offs or the write-off of contributions.
More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.
Parliament Speaker: No Need to Declare State of Emergency for Now
ZAGREB, March 28, 2020 - Commenting on the possibility of declaring a state of emergency over the outbreak of the coronavirus, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Friday that the parliament would do it if necessary, but that currently other constitutional provisions enabled normal work.
Asked if the government would accept the Opposition's amendments to a bill on the electronic tracking of persons in self-isolation, Jandroković said that he believed the law should not be passed by a two-thirds majority.
The purpose of the law is not to abolish freedoms or curtail democracy, but rather to prevent the spreading of the disease, he said.
The purpose of the law is to protect citizens and their health, but considering the objections, we are trying to reach the broadest possible consensus, and the bill will therefore have to pass a second reading, Jandroković said in an interview with RTL.
As for the Opposition's amendments to the government-sponsored bill, he said: "We'll discuss them. We have taken some time to make the best possible law, but the key issue at the moment is protection of people's health."
As for the possible activation of Article 17 of the Constitution (which concerns restriction of human rights and freedoms in time of war or a major natural disaster), Jandroković said that the Constitutional Court reacts with a report in the event of a breach of the constitution, and that since it did not react to the legal situation at hand, he believes that the constitution was not violated.
For the time being, we have resorted to Article 16 (rights may be restricted only by law and restrictions must be proportionate to the need to protect people's lives), Article 32 (restriction of movement) and Article 50 (restrictions on property or dispossession with compensation, and restriction of entrepreneurial freedoms in exceptional cases) and it will stay so until further notice, Jandroković said among other things.
More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.
Chaos at Dinamo: Players Refuse Salary Cut, Coach Bjelica's Staff Sacked
March 28, 2020 - Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Dinamo Zagreb decided to cut salaries by 30 percent to players, staff and members of the working community over the next six months. Everyone in the club agreed to the pay cut except the first team, coach Nenad Bjelica and his staff.
T.portal reports that on Wednesday, the Croatian football champion decided to cut salaries for all 450 Dinamo-based employees, to which all but the players and first-team professional staff agreed. On Thursday, the Dinamo leaders brutally retaliated by terminating the contracts of Bjelica’s closest associates - his staff. Namely, assistant coaches Rene Poms and Nino Bule, goalie coach Silvije Cavlina, conditioning coaches Martin Mayer and Karlo Reinholz and analyst Jasmin Osmanovic have been sacked.
The only one pardoned was head coach Nenad Bjelica.
On Friday, Dinamo handed over two fully equipped ambulances to the health system of Croatia, worth half a million kuna, with two donations of 250,000 kuna each for the reconstruction of the Zagreb Pediatric Disease Clinic and the Petrova Clinic for Women and Diseases, which were both damaged in the devastating earthquake on Sunday.
After the ceremony at Maksimir Stadium, Kresimir Antolic presented the position of the GNK Dinamo Management on media reports about the split between the club management and the locker room after the decision to reduce salaries.
'We have said everything about the measures we have taken in our statement. Anyone who is reasonable, realistic, normal will recognize our intentions and why we have now introduced rationalization and austerity measures. Not because we are in a panic, but because we are thinking about what will be in three, six or nine months,” Antolic said, adding that “everyone must be responsible for what they say” and not speak of “manipulations and untruths”.
“Let us deal with our players and let them understand through conversation that this is aimed at safeguarding their contracts and securing their livelihoods, as 90 percent of other people who receive a salary from Dinamo each month accept. In a situation where people have no place to live, when apartments and houses are destroyed, when people die in hospitals, the topic now is the relationship between Dinamo's players and Dinamo. These are our players. These are no other players. Let's not make hysteria out of it. We will sit down with them and they will fully understand what this is about, that it is not about any impact on them,” Antolic revealed to the media about the club’s next move.
In a statement issued Thursday, in response to the reaction of the players, the GNK Dinamo management stated that “it had brought in measures to rationalize the remuneration of all employees for the next six months to maintain the overall stability of the club" and that they "informed every club employee in a timely manner, in accordance with the coronavirus pandemic restriction," and that the first to know was head coach Nenad Bjelica and captain Arjan Ademi with several other first-team players.
Dinamo said in a statement that the coach and the players on several occasions decisively rejected the measures imposed and that the club "received such refusal as soon as possible and in writing". The same statement read that all other employees agreed to the measures introduced and that the allegations of expeditiousness, one-sidedness and lack of analysis and communication were simply incorrect.
T.portal also reported that Dinamo did not sack coach Nenad Bjelica because they could lose millions, as Dinamo would have to pay his contract until the end, which is the summer of 2021, with all bonuses and arrears.
Bjelica currently has a contract of around 1.2 million euro a year, and until the end of the contract, he is owed over one and a half million euro. Add to that the agreed bonuses for their Champions League success this season and likely another Croatian championship, the sum could easily exceed two million euro.
Dinamo fan group Bad Blue Boys released a statement on Friday.
Some excerpts read:
“The despotic, absolutist principle of governing our club has again shown its true face.
Amid the biggest crisis since the war in which most people in the country have been struggling to survive, using the lowest passions, the club has brought its players and coaches to the pillar of shame by sticking the label of greedy millionaires on them and leaving them at the mercy of the masses and the media, thirsty for blood and sensations. And many fans, nevertheless people, sometimes naive and confronted with the great problems of life and the threatening black clouds, reflexively perceived this situation as black and white.
For the past three days, the public has separated players and first-team coaches into simple factors by which the so-called "management" clasped their hands and closed their mouths to defend themselves and tell their side of the story in a situation that is all but black and white. They did not run the risk of rebelling coaches and players, nor did they direct this play for less money. Nor is it by chance that the entire operation was performed at this exact time.
It is a completely surreal fact that the one behind everything has been abolished by the body of the club, while at the same time, humiliating the coach and players whose character they had swore on yesterday.
All this is just a reflection of the general schizophrenia the club is in, complete opacity and throwing dust in the eyes of fans and anyone who loves Dinamo.
The players now have the opportunity to show who they are; do they feel for this club, the fans, for the people of this city and this country, which the higher forces again threw to their knees.”
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