On its long and arduous road to the European Union, Croatia has had many ups and downs. It has scored a few notable successes, as well. But one of its greatest successes in recent past is the impression that the country is at long last fighting against corruption, for which it is famous far and wide. No mean feat, this. The success consists in the very notion that there is anyone in the state left to fight corruption in all its guises. In fact, there is not a single institution in Croatia that is not corrupt from head to toe. Since independence, when kleptocracy took root, everyone who is anyone in this society is a part of the racket. They differ only in terms of their place in the hierarchy. Whence the success of those in power, corrupt one and all, in presenting the current hoopla as anything but a case in damage limitation, whereby a handful of small crooks and cut-throats are paraded as the leaders of everything that ails this kleptocratic society. Congratulations all around! Congratulations to the vaunted European Union, too!

Addendum (August 29, 2008)

I just printed out several copies of this piece and pasted them on postcards addressed to the Prime Minister of Croatia, Ivo Sanader, Minister of the Environment, Marina Matulović-Dropulić, and the Governor of Istria, Ivan Jakovčić. For good measure, I made an identical postcard for Dražen Dobrila, the editor of Glas Istre (The Voice of Istria), the only if pathetic daily newspaper in this forlorn region. Of course, they will all know exactly what I am talking about in this piece, but they will be somewhat confused about the postcard itself, which shows my face just after the accident in the Alps seven years ago. I look awesome, too. If only I could see their pinched faces as they turn their postcards from front to back. And from back to front.