Last chance to get discounted Petar Graso Tickets

for this coming Saturday
We're getting ready to welcome Croatian Music Pop Sensation, Petar Graso and his band, Bolero to the Tarragon in Sunnyvale. We've heard many good things about his recent performance in LA, and we know he will give us a show to remember.
If you haven't purchased tickets yet, now is the time. They are still $40 if purchased in advance, and $50 at the door on the night of the concert.
For Concert Tickets, please call:

in San Mateo:
Ivo Batkovic 650-315-7955

in Hayward:
Slavko Miskic 510-441-0371
Mario Jarak 510-909-4559

in San Jose:
Emil Jakovcevic 408-910-6089
Laura Kolomejec 408-455-3305

If in Santa Clara, you can pick your tickets up from 9am-6pm at:
Rivalwatch, Inc.
3065 Olcott Street
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Just let Emil know you're coming and how many tickets you need (408-910-6089)

Concert is on Saturday, February 5th at the Tarragon in Sunnyvale. 140 S. Murphy Ave. Sunnyvale, California 94086 Doors open at 8:00, Concert starts at 9:00
For more info, please visit us online at: http://www.crocenter.com

If you plan on dining at the Tarragon before the concert, please call to make a reservation:
(408) 737-8003

At the concert, we will also have a raffle drawing with some great prizes.

NYU Creative Writing Program Spring Reading Series Opens Mar. 3 with Alumni Reading

Monday, Feb 07, 2005

Six alumni of the New York University Creative Writing Program â Courtney Brkic, Nell Freudenberger, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Allison Lynn, Emily Raboteau, and Jason Schneiderman â open the programâs Spring Reading Series on Thursday, March 3, at 7 p.m., when they read from their new books of poetry and fiction. The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place in the Main Hall, ground floor of 19 University Place. For further information, call 212.998.8816.

Courtney Brkic is the author of Stillness and Other Stories (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a collection of short fiction about the wars in Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and The Stone Fields (FSG), a family memoir. She is the recipient of a New York Times Fellowship and a Whiting Award.

Nell Freudenberger wrote a collection of short stories, Lucky Girls, which won the Pen/Malamud Award. Her story âThe Tutorâ? was included in the Best American Short Stories and the OâHenry Prize Stories anthologies.

Quraysh Ali Lansana is the author of They Shall Run: Harriet Tubman Poems (2004) and Southside Rain (2000) as well as a childrenâs book, TheBig World (Addison-Wesley, 1999). He is co-editor of Roll Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art (Third World Press, 2002).

Allison Lynnâs first novel, Now You See It, won both the William Faulkner Medal from the Pirateâs Alley Faulkner Society and the Chapter One Award from the Bronx Writersâ Center.

Emily Raboteau, an assistant professor of creative writing at CUNY, is the author of a first novel, The Professorâs Daughter, published in February by Henry Holt. She is the recipient of the Chicago Tribuneâs Nelson Algren Award for Short Fiction, a Jacob Javits Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

Jason Schneidermanâs first collection of poems, Sublimation Point, was published by Four Way Books in 2004. He is the recipient of the Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America and has received fellowships from The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and Yaddo.

The next event in the NYU Creative Writing Program Reading Series will be on Tuesday, March 24, featuring Galway Kinnell, prize-winning poet and Erich Maria Remarque Professor in Creative Writing at NYU.

The NYU Creative Writing Program, with permanent faculty members E.L. Doctorow, Galway Kinnell, Paule Marshall, and Sharon Olds, has distinguished itself for over three decades as a leading national center for the study of literature and writing. The Creative Writing Program Director is Melissa Hammerle. The Reading Series, sponsored in cooperation with the NYU Book Centers and the Fales Collection at NYU, is a vital component of the Writing Program, bringing both established and new writers to NYU.

The NYU Creative Writing Program Reading Series is made possible by generous support from the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund, established in The New York Community Trust by the founders of the Readerâs Digest Association. Additional support is provided by Robert E. Holmes.

Dragi gospodine Bach,

Odite na NYU link
http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/180

Nekoliko mlad(j)ih autora, medju njima i Courtney Brkich (kao prva),
citat ce iz svojih knjiga 3. ozujka. Mozda mozete sazeti nesto iz ove
obavjesti staviti je u vas newsletter.

Srdacno,

Zlatko Bacic

http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/180

Watch Freedom From Despair

on

Cinequest Film Festival's Online Viewer Voice Awards

PLEASE WATCH and VOTE FOR FREEDOM FROM DESPAIR
THE ONLY DOCUMENTARY IN ENGLISH TO EVER TELL THE TRUE HISTORY OF CROATIA

From February 9-15, 2005, you will be able to watch and vote for Freedom from Despair in the Cinequest Film Festival's Online Viewer Voice Awards - an internet competition recognizing outstanding new films.

Starting Feb 9, 2005 go to http://www.cinequestonline.org/ then click on Viewers Voice Collection and Competition.

You will be prompted to register as a voter using your email address. If you have already registered, then just log in using your email address.

Once you have registered and logged in, choose Freedom from Despair then click on Watch Full Feature in the gray box.

The film will download onto your Windows Media Player and you can watch it. You can vote for the film based on a 5 star rating system - 5 stars being the best! (the average number of stars combined with the average number of downloads per week determines the winners, so downloading will help to generate legitimate points for the film). You can also post notes about what you thought of the film. The top 3 films win a place in the Cinequest Film Festival in March.

Note: Full Features only viewable using Windows Media 9 on Windows 98/2000/XP. You may be prompted to install the software if it is not on your computer already. Please do so as it is supposed to be a very secure program. Also, the film is 95 minutes long, so please be patient as it will take some time to download the entire film for viewing.

Thank you very much and I appreciate your support. It is up to you to vote for this story so please do your part to help promote true history. A film on this subject only comes around once in a lifetime - now is the chance to support it! Please vote for Freedom from Despair!

Brenda Brkusic
Director, Freedom from Despair
www.freedomfromdespair.com

FREEDOM FROM DESPAIR

SYNOPSIS

Freedom from Despair is a feature length documentary that explores the untold history of Communist Yugoslavia through first hand interviews, stock footage, news reels and narrative recreations shot in the US and Croatia. The film portrays the incredible journey of Kruno Brkusic, who as a young man risked his life to flee from a regime that punished independent thought and suppressed Croatian culture through state-sanctioned terror, imprisonment and exile. In 1957 after escaping across the border to Italy, Kruno is given a chance to live in the USA and his dream of witnessing the free world is realized.

As Kruno’s homeland becomes scarred by war during the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, he becomes a voice in the American media, fighting to disseminate untrue propaganda and challenging the journalistic community to take a stand on human rights in that part of the world. As the nation sits by and watches the carnage on television, Kruno and thousands of Croatian-Americans demonstrate on Capitol Hill in a desperate attempt to convince George Bush Senior to recognize Croatia. The film examines the role certain administrations had in allowing the massacre of over 250,000 people to occur in the Balkans. It is a shocking look at that which was never revealed in the American mainstream media including the American government’s attempt keep Yugoslavia together by supporting two of the world’s bloodiest dictators, Josip Broz Tito and Slobodan Milosevic.

Interviewees include an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, US Congressmen, a priest, a concentration camp survivor, authors on Croatian history, Kruno, his childhood friends, and his family. In exploring the atrocities committed and hidden by the Communist government of Yugoslavia and its allies, the filmmaker pieces together the shocking truth has been silenced within a generation of survivors for the past 60 years. Slowly, as these people are heard, the healing of a nation begins. Courage, faith, and an overwhelming desire to fight for freedom in the face of despair; these are the themes included in this film, making it a saga but also a celebration of culture, democracy, and the abiding strength in the human spirit.

AWARDS

WINNER of three “BEST DOCUMENTARY” awards
The New York International Independent Film Festival
The International Student Film Festival Hollywood
The Chapman Studios Filmmaker Awards
FINALIST in the Anti-Defamation League’s Dore Schary Awards
SPECIAL RECOGNITION in the Dubrovnik International Film Festival

STARRING Michael York, John Savage, Beata Pozniak
MUSIC by Nenad Bach

The film was recently picked by Amnesty International to be included in "On Campus" film festivals that will take place in Universities around the United States.
The film has also been selected to screen at the Pula Film Festival, the ARPA International Film Festival and the Tiburon International Film Festival.

PRESS

“A brilliant film” -The Tolucan Times

“A moving account” -The Studio City Sun

“A personal documentary” -The LA TIMES

“It is a must-see film for those who want to look into the window of truth. It is very likely that this fine film will send up in the archives of great documentaries”
-The Croatian Chronicle

“Brenda Brkusic is a young American filmmaker of Croatian decent who actually delved deep into the roots of the war in Croatia, unlike most foreign based directors who were lost in a myriad of ideological propaganda from all sides and left most things open-ended and unanswered”
-Voice of Croatia Radio Program

“Brenda Brkusic, American film producer of Croatian descent, is one of these authors we have been waiting for: young, gifted and brave. Brenda presented this tale without exaggeration, honestly and sincerely, with the author's courage which is imposing, but which is also without any ideology and propaganda. She gave through her personal dimension a very vivid presentation of a totalitarian time, the darkest sides of a system which mercilessly trampled human rights.”
-Hrvatsko Slovo Newspaper

“Brenda Brkusic has a very inspired directorial approach, and she achieved dramatic tension and rhythm, which even after one and one half hours time does not leave the viewer unmoved. Not only did she master her film profession, it is also obvious that she is a very gifted young film director, as she as a 23-year old made a mature and serious film for which even older colleagues in this domain could be envious.”
-Hrvatsko Slovo Newspaper

“Freedom from Despair is a powerful, moving film, documenting a much neglected piece of modern history - Croatia’s struggle for independence from the repression of Tito’s Yugoslavia and the brutality of the Balkan War. Brenda Brkusic has created a memorable portrait of a people, a culture, and one man’s hard-fought journey to freedom”
-David S. Ward, Academy Award Winning Filmmaker

The Best Instrument Cases in the World...

come from Croatia - Accord Case

and if you doubt that statement, check their new website and see the list of the people who use their products.

Nenad Bach

Dear All ,

Accord Case company is pleased to announce that the newly redesigned web site is now on line www.accordcase.com with lots of photos, descriptions and information for all ranges of products : strings instrument cases, guitar cases, wind instrument cases.

With honest friendly regards

Jordan Rodic

Accord sales team
t. +385 52 380 588
f.+385 52 380 589
info@accordcase.com

OSCE had established Council of the prominent political figures

02.02 / 19:08 Kazakhstan enters the Council of the leading political figures
Astana. February 2. KAZINFORM. OSCE had established Council of the prominent political figures, such a decision was taken by the OSCE incumbent chairman, Foreign minister of Slovenia Dimitri Rupel at the session of the OSCE Preparatory committee held on Monday in the capital of Austria, Vienna.
The Council is called to attach new impulse to the political dialogue between the OSCE member states and introduce conceptual viewing of the organization activity within new geopolitical terms. The council is to elaborate proposals aimed at perfection of the OSCE efficiency.
The Council consists of famous political and public figures of the seven OSCE member states –Germany, Russia, the USA, the Netherlands, Norway, Croatia and Kazakhstan. Chairman of the committee of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, resigned Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador Kuanysh Sultanov has been elected as the Council member.

http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=109949

Laffingly Serious

February 2, 2005
COMMENTARY
By VITOMIR MILES RAGUZ
February 2, 2005
Poor cousins from the East they may be, yet the politicians from New Europe can be quite rich in policy ideas. So enticing in fact that Brussels may be about to take up one of their recipes as a way to revive the lackluster economies of Old Europe. And this may happen quickly if the new Commission president has his way.
Today in Strasbourg, JosĂŠ Manuel Barroso is expected to tell the 732 lawmakers in the European Parliament that the way to economic rejuvenation and job-creation in Europe lies primarily with intra-border competition, technological innovation, less rigid labor regulations and more stringent welfare programs. As a way to promote competition within the borders of the Union, Mr. Barroso is also expected to step away from a strict interpretation of single market principles. He will likely oppose calls for tax harmonization, including the controversial issue of minimum corporate tax rates.
What may be music to the ears of leaders in new members states out East will be a sour note to Gerhard SchrĂśder, Nicolas Sarkozy and others. The German chancellor recently called moves to cut corporate tax rates in New Europe dangerous "tax-dumping." Mr. Sarkozy said this was unfair competition and suggested cutting EU transfers to states practicing it.
While the issue of lower tax rates is accepted wisdom in the U.S., made famous in the 1970s by Arthur Laffer, it's still counter-intuitive in Europe. Mr. Laffer argued convincingly that lower tax rates, at some optimum level, will promote risk-taking and investment, thereby increasing production and government revenue.
Apart from Ireland, newcomers Slovakia and Lithuania are the Union's only real-life laboratories for Mr. Laffer's ideas. Their overall tax burdens on corporate profits are below 15%, compared to tax rates in Old Europe states that can be twice as high. Despite lower rates, these countries collect more corporate tax receipts than those with higher rates. Ireland's inflows are at 3.3% of GDP, Slovakia's at 2.2%, while Germany's, for instance, linger at 0.7%.
Slovakia reduced tax rates last year, and went a step further by making them flat. It now has the same 19% rate on corporate profits, personal income and sales tax. The fact that the government was able to bring in two new major car production lines has made the country the Detroit of Eastern Europe -- and a bellwether state for economic policy. U.S. President George W. Bush will stop over in Bratislava later this month, due to in no small part to this development.
Meanwhile, Poland's leading opposition party, the conservative Civic Platform, has suggested that Warsaw should introduce a flat tax four points below Slovakia's. Similarly, Romania just this year reduced its corporate and personal income taxes from 25% to a flat 16% rate, while keeping VAT at 19%. Serbia seems to want to outdo them all with its recent corporate rate cut to 10%, to be followed by additional tax reductions in June. Even the spend-happy Czech Republic has now commenced a process to reduce its corporate rate to the low-20s from the high-20s over a period of a few years.
To be fair, New Europe states are not doing this only because they believe Mr. Laffer. Rather, they fret that they're becoming less attractive to foreign investors due to rising wages. Not only are the wages in the region now relatively higher, but payroll taxes supporting the Communist-era social programs remain extravagant. Thus, to lower the burden of doing business in their countries, they look to lower corporate taxes. Hungary, for instance, has seen close to 10 foreign investors, such as IBM and Philips, move some or all of their Hungarian operations to cheaper pastures further east and south.
* * *
But New Europe is no policy nirvana. While a number of Central Eastern European states are now in the vanguard on tax policy, many are still laggards on fiscal policy. They can use the advice of Mr. Barroso in this respect. His support for lower taxes should also be seen as a de facto petition for smaller governments, especially in the East, where they are particularly bloated, slow and nontransparent. They're the major obstacles to a new phase of robust economic expansion needed to catch up quickly with Western levels of prosperity. Countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia have been most profligate in recent years, running budget deficits in the 5-13% range, compared to the 0-3% levels elsewhere in Europe. This is largely due to a lack of political will to break away from Socialist-era welfare comfort and vote-buying dependency.
As a consequence, Prague, for instance, may have more single mothers than any other city in the world. Of course, almost all wear matrimonial bands but are officially single to be able to collect hefty handouts. Croatia, meanwhile, has yet to grasp what economic policy means beyond IMF stability packages. It muddles along only thanks to its resilient private sector, tourism earnings and ĂŠmigrĂŠ transfers. And Hungary, once a favorite among international investors, is now seen as a weakling in the region due to its long-running twin deficits, which put constant pressure on inflation and the exchange rate.
The health care, judiciary, pensions, subsidies and entitlement schemes need a major overhaul in the East. The last three are also a problem in the West. Health sector reform can begin with cost-participations, which is anyway already part of the system in the form of routine bribes of doctors and key personnel. The judiciary can be improved by transferring commercial disputes to special arbitration courts. But most of all, public sector wages in the East ought to be brought in line with Western standards. They cannot be higher than the private sector earnings as is now often the case.
Lower taxes in new member states prevent capital flight to cheaper Asian markets. If combined with reforms, that'll increase the wealth and buying power there. After all, the region still accounts for only 5% of the Union's output or demand. It isn't a threat to Western Europe. As new Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu pointed out during a visit to Brussels last week, the region can produce more consumers with deeper pockets for the EU.
While Europe's backyard has taken the lead on taxes, Brussels should embrace these benefits for the front yard as well. Moreover, it should insist on fiscal responsibility across the Continent, all the more so because the old leaders of economic policy in Europe, Berlin and Paris, have lost credibility on both taxes and fiscal policy.
Thankfully, Mr. Barroso seems to have the courage to lead. He doesn't sound worried about offending the old guard. He's confident enough to side with the upstarts out East when they're right. Now if only everyone, whether New or Old Europe, followed his advice.
Mr. Raguz, a former Bosnian-Herzegovene ambassador to the E.U. and NATO, is a banker in Vienna.

Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Is Croatia the new California?

Nenad, We made the Sunday Wash. Post Style section and this was a very,very successful event. Sve najbolje, Steve Rukavina

The Reliable Source -- The Style Section
By Richard Leiby
The Washington Post
Sunday, February 6, 2005; Page D03

This Wine Has Croatians Proud Enough to Pop

• Is Croatia the new California? Well, we don't expect to see the next wine-region movie set there (à la "Sideways"), but Croatian officials are finding an appreciative audience for their grape products on Capitol Hill. Croatian red zinfandel and other wines flowed last week when the Congressional Croatian Caucus was launched with 40 representatives and two senators signing on as bipartisan members.
At a Hill reception hosted by the Croatian Embassy, the buzz, so to speak, concerned a newly discovered link between California and Croatian zinfandel grapes -- specifically, the Croatian varietal called crljenak kastelanski. The embassy's deputy chief, Marijan Gubic, tells us this "zinfandel mystery" took 35 years of genetic sleuthing across two continents to solve. (Clearly, some topics besides joining the European Union warrant keen attention.)
The caucus is co-chaired by Reps. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and George Radanovich (R-Calif.). Radanovich also co-chairs the popular 250-member Congressional Wine Caucus, whose Web site quotes Robert Louis Stevenson: "Wine is bottled poetry." The Croats have enlisted nine other Californians, as well as Sens. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).
"They're not all Croatian, but they support Croatia," said Gubic, adding, "We're not known yet in America as a wine-producing country, but increasingly we hope to be." Given its thirst to understand international affairs, Congress seems a good place to start.

With Chris Richards

Sopele - Sopile

Sopele is traditional Croatian wind instrument played
in the region of Istria, on Islands of Krk, Cres, Rab,
and also in the region from Rijeka till Novi. Two instruments are
played simultenaously (na tanko i debelo, high voice and deep voice),
using the famous Istrian Scale. Thanks to efforts of several enthusiasts
on the island of Krk, the instrument is again in use more and more.
For example, mr. Svetko Usalj prepares these wooden instruments for
serous players, but also as a souvenir. He is known to be very active
in promoting Croatian Glagolitic Script among young people, and
the glagolitic is a part of some very beautiful souvenirs carved in wood.
Thanks to his efforts, after centuries of male players of
SOPILE or
SOPELE
(called SOPCI), there are also female players - young girls (SOPCHICE)
playing this instrument! Mr. Svetko Usalj is also coauthor of an
intersting web page devoted to the history of
Glagolitic
quickscript.
Also specialists (linguists and historians) are using his transliterations
from old glagolitic church documents into the Latin script.
He teaches children the secrets of this old Croatian
script in the following way: having learned the basics of the alphabet,
children read a copy of text in the Glagolitic which is three or
four centuries old, written in the same area, containing the name of some
of predecessors of the
child. You can imagine amazement of a 10 or 12 years old
boy or girl when, reading the text aloud, he or she finds his or her
own second name in the text which is three of four hundred years old.
Mr. Svetko Usalj is a wonderful person, very gifted, retired
whom children simply adore. He lives with his family in a lovely village
of Gabonjin near Dobrinj on the island of Krk. Mr. Usalj (Ushalj) also
organized (and completed!) an interesting glagolitic alley of glagolitic
monuments and inscriptions, connecting the village with the nearby church
on the top of the hill, with a beautiful view on the Rijeka bay. He
appeared many times in newspapers, and also on the TV. He is honorable
member of the www.croatianhistory.net/glagoljica/dpg.html

Society of Lovers of the Glagolitic Script in Zagreb.

Those interested in his souvenirs and other activities, may
contact Mr Svetko directly:

Mr. Svetko Usalj
Gabonjin 103
51511 Malinska
Croatia

tel. +385 51 868 593

Many greetings from Zagreb,

Darko Zubrinic

former president of Society of Lovers of the Glagolitic Script in Zagreb;
honorable member of the Cultural Society of St. Peter from the village of
Gabonjin on the island of Krk; author of www.croatianhistory.net

Pope appoints bishops

From correspondents in Vatican City
February 02, 2005
POPE John Paul II named a number of new bishops from his hospital bed today, continuing to work hours after being admitted with breathing difficulties, the Vatican said. The pope appointed two bishops in Brazil and a suffragan bishop inCroatia, and named several cardinals to a Vatican committee, including two tipped as possible successors to the 84-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12131018%255E1702,00.html

Horses and Nurses on Rijeka's Carnival

Women dressed as nurses smile during Carnival grand parade in Croatia's Adriatic town of Rijeka.(AFP/Denis Lovrovic)

Participants surround a giant horse during Carnival grand parade in Croatia's Adriatic town of Rijeka.(AFP/Denis Lovrovic)

Croatia's carnival city holds colourful masked parade
RIJEKA, Croatia (AFP)

Sunday February 06, 2005

AFP
The annual carnival in the Croatian coastal town of Rijeka reached its dazzling climax with a colourful parade of thousands of masked revellers along its main promenade. Some 100,000 visitors from Croatia and abroad flocked to watch the parade, the highlight of the month-long festival, kick off at around noon (1100 GMT), in bright winter sunshine and despite a bitterly cold wind.
"Rijeka's carnival is a mix of a modern European carnival and local folk tradition, with contemporary masks marching alongside bell-ringers from nearby villages," Anton Skrobonja, who headed up the parade, told AFP.
The frightening looking bell-ringers, or Zvoncari, dressed in animal skins are believed to summon back the spring and scare away evil forces. The event is closer in feel to the world-famous carnival in Rio de Janeiro than to the Venice Carnival, across the Adriatic Sea from Rijeka, said Skrobonja, fitted out with a blue suit and 18th-century top hat.
"Venice Carnival is more static, the figures mostly stand in one place and people walk around them, while in Rijeka the public watches a parade of masks along the city's promenade," said the parade's leader, nicknamed "Master Toni".
Since its launch in 1982, the Rijeka carnival has grown into one of Europe's biggest. On Sunday some 10,000 masked paraders marched in 140 groups, including ones from Bosnia , Hungary , Italy, Macedonia , Slovakia and Slovenia .
President Stipe Mesic also briefly attended the seven-hour event. Unlike in Venice, which is dominated by traditional baroque masks, the teams participating in the Rijeka carnival spend months dreaming up original new creations for each edition of the carnival.
On display on the Rijeka promenade were masks representing the four seasons, a dazzling array of flowers, animals and even cannibals.
A tribute to a rich tradition of parades which flourished under the Austro-Hungarian empire, the Rijeka carnival has also become an opportunity for satirical comment on current political and social affairs.
Thus, on Sunday, a mask depicting President Mesic rode astride a blue dragon with yellow stars, representing the European Union which Croatia wants to join -- shown with the face of the pro-European Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.
In front of the dragon marched masks representing cave people, a satiric reference to the way Croatians feel they are perceived by the EU. The parade was to end with the burning of an effigy embodying all the misfortune that has befallen Rijeka's citizens in the past year, before the mayor reclaims the city keys from the carnival master ahead of Mardi Gras.
Despite its originality, the Rijeka's carnival remains underexploited as a tourist magnet. "The carnival's significance for tourism will grow, but for now even our travel agencies advertise trips to Venice for carnival instead of focusing on Rijeka," Skobronja said.

http://entertainment.news.designerz.com/croatias-carnival-city-holds-colourful-masked-parade.html