Auction Of Photos Raises Money For Needy Children

10/28/2005
More than 25,000 euros has been raised for children suffering from cerebral paralysis in Croatia by the auction of photographs of world famous football stars in the Adriatic port of Split.
Images of Brazilian strikers Ronaldo and Adriano, Swedish national team and Juventus striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sienna’s Igor Tudor, Shakhtar Donetsk’s Darijo Srna, Hajduk Split and Croatian national team midfielder Niko Kranjcar were included in the humanitarian auction. Croatian photographer Vladimir Dugandzic and his Japanese colleague Junichi Yamazakioffered their work at the auction at the Albatros Club in Split. The proceeds will be used to buy wheelchairs for children in need. A number of Croatian footballers attended the auction. Photos of different Olympic medal winners were also included in the auction.

http://www.goal.com/NewsDetail.aspx?idNews=96991&progr=0

MICROSOFT BUSINESS-TECHNOLOGY CENTRE OPENS IN VARAZDIN
 

28-10-2005 08:46

VARAZDIN, Croatia, October 28 /PRNewswire/ --
- The Opening Ceremony Marks an Alliance Between Public and Private Sector Aimed to Help Increase Economic Growth, Competitiveness and Job Creation in Croatia
Ivo Sanader, Prime Minister of Croatia, along with Ralph Frank, American Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia, Ivan Cehok, Mayor of the City of Varazdin, and Davor Majetic, general manager Microsoft Croatia, today attended the opening ceremony of the Microsoft(R) Business-Technology Centre in Varazdin, Croatia. The Centre was formed through an alliance of number of partners that contributed resources toward the development and management of the Centre, including Cisco Systems Inc, the City of Varazdin, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Corp, T-Com and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This Centre is the most recent example of public and private partnership to speed economic growth, increase competitiveness and more create knowledge-based jobs in emerging markets.
(Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)
The Centre was created to stimulate the development of Croatia's information and communication technology (ICT) industry. It will help Croatian entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to create innovative new products and services, bring those products and services to market, and build competitive businesses in the IT sector. The Centre will include both an incubator for start-up companies and a laboratory facility for development of joint projects among mature software developers and vendors, focusing on delivering knowledge transfer in both technology and business through classes, workshops, testing and demonstration.
Microsoft is committed in establishing long-term partnerships with governments, academic institutions and private sector throughout Europe in an effort to grow local economic development and help enable these countries to better compete in the global marketplace through the use of technology.
"Establishment of the Business-Technology Centre is another direct Microsoft investment in local economy especially in SME sector," said Davor Majetic, Microsoft general manager in Croatia. "Over the next 30 months the Centre will directly assist a minimum of 100 independent software vendor companies with formal training or technical assistance, and we expect a minimum of 200 new employees will be hired by assisted companies. In the same period, we also expect establishment of at least 20 new start-ups and development of minimum 50 new software solutions. The Centre is the result of our recognition that Croatian enterprises across the economy need new advanced technologies in order to raise their productivity and capacity to deliver highly competitive goods and services at lower prices, as is highlighted in the Lisbon agenda. It is not a coincidence that this occasion is coming at a time when Croatia is starting its negotiation process for joining European Union."
The latest IDC research study shows that the ICT sector in Croatia will create at least 7,200 new jobs and provide tax income of US$115 million in the next four years. Last year, 47 per cent of all IT jobs and taxes were related to the broad ICT ecosystem Microsoft has helped to create in the country and 9,400 jobs in Croatia are directly related to Microsoft and Microsoft partners' technologies.
"This Centre is a model for how the public and private sectors can work together," said Ralph Frank, American Ambassador to Republic of Croatia and the director of USAID mission in Croatia that has, together with Microsoft, initiated this project.
Additional information on today's announcements is available on Microsoft's EMEA Press Centre website at http://www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.
About Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)
Microsoft has operated in EMEA since 1982. In the region Microsoft employs more than 12,000 people in over 55 subsidiaries, delivering products and services in more than 139 countries and territories.
This material is for informational purposes only. Microsoft Corp disclaims all warranties and conditions with regard to use of the material for other purposes. Microsoft Corp shall not, at any time, be liable for any special, direct, indirect or consequential damages, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the material. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any kind of warranty.
NOTE: Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Web site: http://www.microsoft.com

http://www.itnews.it/risorse/EuroNews,Zj0xMjg2MTU5
 

Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust

The book was editor's choice in the New York Times Book Review for five weeks in a row.
 

Hi,

I will be giving a reading from my new book, Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust (Harper Perennial), at 7 pm, this Friday the 28th, at

National Arts Club
245 East 21st Street
Apt. 10C
New York, NY 10010
Contact: Leonore Comora
212-982-0848 direct
 

David Byrne about Croatian painter Vanka

'The church is Croatian and the murals, by Maxo Vanka, are spectacular. The Diego Riviera of Pittsburgh, I would say.'

Pittsburgh May 14

Last night the audience sang Happy Birthday to me as we walked on stage. We're in a beautiful renovated theater in downtown- the topless muses frolic on a ceiling mural.
Leigh is from here and her parents give me a pre-birthday present — a glass dish her mom made with a copy of a peculiar Austin roundabout traffic sign on it — the same sign I had embroidered on some of our merch.

The next day I met my friend John Chernoff, writer and drummer, at the Mattress factory, an art space on the North Side. He talked about city finances. Some old timers remember when Pittsburgh was booming and smoky. With the combined smoke from the foundries, the coal dust and the coal heat in the houses the sky was often dark at noon. Black clouds covered the city for much of the year.
The last steel mill closed recently. They tear them down and the area that remains is called Brownland. They were vast- the largest one stretched for miles along the riverbank. The little valleys that eked out from the river each contained their own mines and a little town of workers housing and churches squished into the remaining space. A law, still on the books, says that if coal is found under your house you have to allow it to be dug out.

[John's correction: "Brownland" should be "Brownfields." "Brownfields" are former industrial sites that are being rehabilitated. The developments along the river are all Brownfields. There are a lot of sites that are under major reconstruction, such as the old Homestead foundry site that is now a development called Waterfront. Along the South Side, the site of the old Jones and Laughlin plant, among others, are all being redevelopment. But the main thing that makes them a "brownfield site" is that they have been cleared in preparation for them to be rehabilitated or redeveloped."]

Now, of course, with the passing of all this, these towns are boarded up, as are large sections of Pittsburgh's neighborhoods. But other parts are emerging, beginning to revive in one form or another.
The city is pretty much bankrupt, especially after having build 2 incredible stadiums right next to one another.

[John's amplification and correction: "The city is not bankrupt because of the stadiums. There are a lot of factors, such as the shrinking population, and what you mentioned of the large nonprofit institutions that don't pay taxes, among other things like many other cities, including lack of federal and state funding support. The boarded up city neighborhoods you refer to are actually some of the old mill and mining towns. It's not neighborhoods in the city itself. And of course, there are people working to turn those places around in addition to the oligarchs -- grassroots community groups
and small businesses all over the place. The bakery we visited is an example of a business locating itself in such an old town like Millvale."]

The voters said no to the expenditure, but a revamped initiative snuck through, and now the bills have come due, and as there was no raise in taxes to pay them- the Republican legislature squashed any tax raising, especially on the wealthier suburbans- well, other services have been cut, city pools closed, police force has been cut, etc. The burden falls on the mostly poor in the city itself- who just don't have the money for it. Luckily some of the oligarchs, the Heinz's, the Mellon's and others live in the city and don't want their town to go straight to hell- so they work to reinvigorate the city center, block by block, and to figure out some means of obtaining funds from the wealthier landowners. The largest tenants in the city are schools and hospitals – which don't pay taxes, so something has to be done.

[John: "there are grassroots efforts being made to work on such matters as the North Side neighborhoods around the stadium. The renovated houses we saw on the North Side, around Central North Side and Mexican War Streets, cost lots of money. The neighborhood is a mix of income levels and of privately and publicly supported housing investments."]

Various disastrous 60s and 70s urban renewal schemes have yet to be undone- a beautiful freeway cuts the North Side in two- insulating the stadiums and all their attendant businesses from the local neighborhoods. Housing projects create high crime zones and only the neighborhoods that were deemed beyond help- the neighborhoods of immigrant workers housing scattered here and there- are reviving. Some of them look beautiful. They still have local bars, mom and pop stores and some pedestrian traffic. We met after the show at a bar in a Polish or Czech neighborhood called Gooski's (sp?). It was packed.

At the Mattress Factory the Turrell installations are spectacular — they have about 4 of them. One room is so dark and the piece is just barely on the threshold of sight- one can't be sure of one is perceiving anything or not.
A piece in the alley is made of tombstones engraved with names and occupations of immigrants. A Calvino quote about finding one's part in a place one has yet to visit is inspiring- now I want to try reading him again.

After lunch we look for a church in Millvale that had been recommended to me as having interesting murals. Millvale is a few miles down (up?) the river, a former mining village nestled in a little valley. Lots of boarded up stores, but a great French bakery- I buy a cake as it's my birthday.
The church is Croatian and the murals, by Maxo Vanka, are spectacular. The Diego Riviera of Pittsburgh, I would say. They murals were done during 8 weeks in 1937 and they cover the interior of the church. Of course there is the virgin holding the child, but below her, for example, on either side of what is now the altar, are Croatian people, on the left from the old world, and on the right form the new- a steel foundry can be seen belching smoke behind them.
But more amazing are the political murals that echo the crucifixion- widows mourn over a soldier in a coffin containing a bleeding corpse - crosses cover the hillside behind them. Another wall depicts a corrupt justice in a gas mask holding scales on which the gold outweighs the bread. Clearly WWI had a big effect on Maxo.
The virgin, on the verge of being bayoneted herself, separates two soldiers.

On another mural an oligarch done as Death reads the stock reports while being served a chicken dinner by two black servants. One more- Jesus is stabbed, a second crucifixion,

These are badly in need of renovation- probably years of coal dust have darkened them, but one can hope that these amazing things will survive and be cleaned soon.

http://www.davidbyrne.com/journal/2004-may-june.php
 

Ivan Ljubicic did it again!

REPEATING THE FEAT

By Jeff Lesser

Ivan Ljubicic did it again! For the second week in a row, Croat Ivan Ljubicic won a high-level ATP tournament. After not having won a tournament in four years, Ivan has put together an amazing streak, winning 13 straight matches (As of the time I write this article, he has just won the first round of the Madrid Tennis Masters).
Prior to these two weeks of fabulous play, Ivan has appeared in four finals this year, only to lose in each and every one. This includes three losses to dominant world #1 Roger Federer and one to hard-hitting Swede Joachim Johansson.
Now, however, Ljubicic has reversed the curse. He is in the midst what is by far his best season ever. Despite still not having reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam, the Bosnian born 26-year-old has reached the finals of six tournaments, winning two of them. Going into the Tennis Masters Madrid, he is clearly the hottest player. It would not be a surprise for him to do extremely well, with a relatively easy draw and without Roger Federer in the tournament.
Ljubicic has had more success than just making it to the finals of six events, which would surely qualify a tremedous season for almost every tour player. Besides for this, he has almost single-handedly vaulted Croatia into the Davis Cup finals, to be held December 2-4. He was responsible for all three victories [two singles, one doubles victory (with partner Mario Ancic)] in Croatia's first round shocking upset over the United States, who had assembled what was potentially the best Davis Cup team to ever play. This feat, alone, was unheard of, as the United States media made a tremendous deal of one man single-handedly defeating ANY team, let alone the United States. In the next two rounds, Croatia played Romania and Russia. Against both, Ljubicic repeated the amazing feat he first unleashed on the United States, winning all three matches. This has truly been a great year.
Ivan Ljubicic has also reached a career-high ranking of #12, matching what he obtained in the beginning of the season with another hot streak of tennis. It has now become clear that Ivan Ljubicic has the talent and the opportunity to crack the top ten. Add to all this his six finals appearances, two straight tournament victories, 13 straight match wins, and his instrumental role in putting Croatia in the Davis Cup final for the first time in the nation's young history, and Ivan Ljubicic is quickly rising as one of the best players on the men's tennis tour.

Ivanisevic the joker still has some aces left
 

By Mark Hodgkinson
(Filed: 20/10/2005)

There were several occasions during our conversation when it sounded as though Goran Ivanisevic had just been watching old tapes of Teletubbies, the children's television programme with all the gibberish and silliness that provided him with inspiration during the 2001 Wimbledon fortnight. Here was Ivanisevic in cheerful, surreal, and ever so slightly demented mood.

And which Goran was this talking anyway? How were the Split personalities in that eccentric head of his, Good Goran, Bad Goran and Emergency Goran? "The three Gorans still exist, for sure they still exist," he said. "They are best friends and they are worst enemies. It depends on the day. They are not like before - it is slightly more relaxed. They have all achieved what they wanted to achieve. But they still have their misunderstandings, and they have to negotiate which way it will be like in my head that day. They still have their fights."

Ivanisevic was as sharp, wickedly funny, self-deprecating, and honest as you would have expected, but it was just that he was a little more outlandish and enthusiastic than normal. It could well have been Teletubbies-driven, but perhaps not. Retirement has certainly not blunted and dulled the Croatian. In fact, it has almost certainly had quite the opposite effect, with Ivanisevic explaining how he is planning to come out of retirement as a fully-fit and well-primed fourth member of his country's Davis Cup team for the final in December.

It all sounds rather improbable, this notion that Ivanisevic may play an active role in the final against Slovakia in Bratislava. The 34-year-old said that he could feature in the doubles rubber and, if the tie is already decided, in one of the dead singles rubbers. "If you had put some money at the start of the season on Croatia and Slovakia being in the Davis Cup final, and also that I would be in the team for the final, I think that you would be a very rich man, that you would have made millions. The odds were huge," said Ivanisevic, who returned to proper training a fortnight ago.

But then again, Ivanisevic has always had a great talent for achieving the silly and improbable. When he won Wimbledon in 2001 he did so as a wild card with a dodgy shoulder, a triple-figure ranking and the knowledge that most observers had predicted at the start of the tournament that he would do well to even reach the second week of the grasscourt grand slam.

Ivanisevic thought that he had ended his career at the highest level when he was defeated in the third round of last year's Wimbledon and then cavorted around the lawns in his red-and-white checked Croatian football shirt. It was the "crazy exit" he had promised.

And even before that goodbye in south-west London, he had been struggling around the world with a series of ailments, not least the recurring shoulder injury that had hampered his ability to hit that gargantuan left-handed service action of his. The last time he played at anything near full capacity was probably Wimbledon four years ago. And even then he had that damned shoulder to deal with.

And yet Ivanisevic still believes that he could be a force in a Croatian team including Ivan Ljubicic, Mario Ancic (otherwise known as "Baby Goran") and Ivo Karlovic. Ivanisevic feels he deserves a chance to play with the younger men.

"The Davis Cup final is the only thing that could have brought me out of retirement. I have always had a dream that I would be in the Davis Cup final and help win it for Croatia. That would be a big, big thing for me, a real dream for me. I know that I am still good enough to play doubles in a Davis Cup final," he said.

"I helped in the semi-final against Russia. To be honest, I can't say what exactly my role was. I had a lot of roles. I was the assistant coach, the ball boy, the sparring partner, the guy for the atmosphere, the cheerleader. I don't know, there were too many roles for me, and hopefully in the final I will have another role as the fourth guy in the team. I am good for the team. It can get a bit serious without me, and I help to keep it fun. But it makes me really nervous now just thinking about getting the chance to play in a Davis Cup final."

Ivanisevic is not exactly in the best shape of his life. He confessed that he spent much of the summer lounging and luxuriating on his boat, and may well have been on his way to developing a half-decent beer belly. "Yes, I was drinking beer on the boat, eating lots, and doing a bit of fishing and taking a little swim every now and then. I wasn't doing anything. So I think I started to get a bit fat. I put my body into a bad shape. I was on my boat for two months and I didn't even touch my racquet, I didn't even make two steps," he said.

"I want to be fit and ready to play, and then who knows. I don't want to go there just to sit there and be the fourth guy with a stomach. I need to know in my mind that I'm there if they need me," said Ivanisevic. He has kept his racquet skills ticking over by playing on the Champions (seniors) tour against John McEnroe and the other old swingers.

It was a shock to his boat-softened body when he started out on the physical regime that will hopefully have him slimmed and ready for Bratislava. "The first time I went running and went to the gym, I couldn't get off the bed again for about three days. Oh my God, I was so sore and all the muscles in my body were aching. I'm still pretty slow and the body is a little stiff and it is still the same old story with my shoulder," Ivanisevic said.

Ivanisevic provided some exceptional plot-lines on the way to his Wimbledon triumph. As well as the reliance on Teletubbies, he ate the same meal at the same table of the same restaurant for a fortnight. It was remarkable that not just his suspect shoulder, but also his digestive system, held up for the tournament, culminating in that glorious third Monday when he defeated Australian Pat Rafter. On his return to his home town of Split, Ivanisevic did a striptease in front of his delirious public.

"Whatever happens in the Davis Cup final, Wimbledon will still be the most beautiful moment in my career. By far," he said. "Every time I think about Wimbledon I think about the way I won, how I won, why I won, and I still don't know how or why, but who cares? I won." If Ivanisevic had lost that Wimbledon final, he said that his life would be very different now. He would not be comfortable with his career or whether he had made the most of his talents. "I think if I had lost that match, my fourth final, I would have had to move to the North Pole, or maybe I would have killed myself by hanging myself off some bridge. So I don't like to think about it too much and what would have happened if I had lost. Sometimes I start to think about it and then almost straight away I have to stop," he said.

There have been dark whispers and rumours circulating in Croatia since the summer that Ivanisevic was on the verge of bankruptcy, that he had lost most of his money on bad investments in the construction industry. Not so, said Ivanisevic, who strongly denied that he has been forced to play on the seniors tour to avoid destitution. He did admit, however, that he lost a substantial amount of money on some of his investments.

Away from tennis, there is plenty in Ivanisevic's life. He has been appointed the vice-president of Croatia's Olympic association, wants to know more about business, and has a two-year-old daughter, Amber-Maria, who he calls his "little vampire" on account of the fact that she often wakes him up five to six times a night. "I have to be a good father to my daughter. That takes a lot of time and energy. She needs a lot of attention," Ivanisevic said.

Ivanisevic appreciates his life membership of the All England Club, a purple-and-green tie that allows him to return there and "drink tea" whenever he pleases. "It is really nice that the people in England still remember what I did at Wimbledon. I think I had a special relationship with English crowds even before I won. And England enjoyed the way I won Wimbledon, that I showed that I was a bit temperamental. I think that English people liked that because people in England are temperamental too," he said.

And just to seal his Anglophile tendencies, Ivanisevic revealed that he now supports an English football team, West Bromwich Albion. He was introduced to Albion by an English PR on the seniors tour, and now even has a replica shirt with his name on the back.

"They are not doing that well, but that is okay. You have to support a team when they don't do well. It's easy to support Chelsea, with a guy who puts in a lot of money and if he sees a player he wants to buy, he buys, even if he doesn't need him. It doesn't matter to me if they are in the Premiership or not. I am the same for life, I don't change my team," said Ivanisevic.

Ivanisevic recalled last year's struggle against relegation with affection. "Last year was very dramatic," he said. "My life is very dramatic so I must support a dramatic football team as well. I can't be normal, nothing is normal with me. But it's good that way. Not being normal means that you have so much more fun in life."

www.telegraph.co.uk/hodgkinson

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2005/10/20/sthodg20.xml&sSheet=/sport/2005/10/20/ixtenn.html

Ivo Karlovic from Croatia beats Andy Roddick from USA

Associated Press
Oct. 19 MADRID, Spain — Andy Roddick blew a match point and lost 3-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3) to Ivo Karlovic on Wednesday in the second round of the Madrid Masters in a contest between big servers.

Roddick, seeded second, was playing his first match since losing in the first round of the U.S. Open.
'For two sets, I don't think I could have played better,' Roddick said. 'It was the highest quality match we've played.'

He had an easy first set and held match point at 6-5 in the second-set tiebreaker against the 6-foot-10 Croat, the ATP Tour's tallest player. Karlovic won the tiebreak 9-7 on his second set point when Roddick's return went wide. Both players had chances to break in the deciding set, but they served to another tiebreaker before Karlovic took a 3-1 lead. 'You're going to have two or three points per tiebreaker that's either going to go your way or it's not,' Roddick said. 'It didn't go
my way tonight. In the second tiebreaker, I don't think I played a bad point.' Earlier, Rafael Nadal beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the second round, the top-seeded Spaniard's first match
before a home crowd since his French Open victory. Nadal has not trained for three weeks because of knee tendinitis. He received a first-round bye along with the 15 other seeded
players in the ATP Masters Series event. 'The match was not easy,' he said. 'I was a bit nervous, a bit slow.' Nadal trailed 3-1 in the first set and 3-0 in the tiebreaker before rallying. In the second set, Nadal broke to lead 4-3 and broke again to win. Other winners were third-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, fourth-seeded Guillermo Coria of Argentina, sixth-seeded Mariano Puerta of Argentina and eighth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.

Seventh-seeded Gaston Gaudio lost to Jose Acasuso 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the second round in an all-Argentine match. Gaudio dropped his fifth straight match, hurting his chances of qualifying for the Tennis Masters Cup next month in Shanghai, China. Four
already have secured berths: Nadal, Roddick, Roger Federer and Marat Safin.

Davydenko beat Slovakia's Karol Beck 6-4, 6-1, and Coria defeated Belgian qualifier Christophe Rochus 6-3, 6-4 to improve
his chances of making the season finale.

'It was an ugly match, boring for spectators,' Coria said. 'But the important thing was to win.'

Rochus' younger brother, Olivier, knocked out 12th-seeded Mario Ancic of Croatia 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5); Puerta edged Max
Mirnyi of Belarus 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5); and Ljubicic defeated Alberto Martin of Spain 6-3, 7-6 (7).

Also, ninth-seeded Thomas Johansson of Sweden beat Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela 7-6 (2), 6-3; 10th-seeded Radek
Stepanek of the Czech Republic rallied past Britain's Tim Henman 6-4, 1-6, 6-3; and 14th-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia
eliminated Germany's Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-2.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/ESPNSports/story?id=1231085

Hagan’s American Journal:
They may be afraid to name names, but I'm not

By
William John Hagan

October 14, 2005
The Houston Home Journal
Warner Robins, Georgia
The United States of America

The United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague has been a truly questionable entity since its inception. On the surface one would find it hard not to support an international court based on Nuremburg Tribunal which tried Nazi Leaders after World War Two. Few people on the world stage have had the guts to stand up and point out that the ICTY’s lofty mission of bring justice to alleged Yugoslavian war criminals is both unnecessary and a danger to national sovereignty.

Those individuals in the docks until recently have not been the most sympatric individuals, so there has virtually no public outcry about how the United Nations is using the ICTY to establish its sovereignty over independent nations. The nations who are primarily affected by the ICTY are Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia which are all former republics of the once Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Unlike the Nazis tried for crimes against humanity at Nuremburg, the accused sitting in the docks at The Hague are all from nations with functioning judiciary systems. Both Croatia and Serbia are more than capable of trying their own citizens at home. While this may be a politically incorrect statement it is reality. Supporters of the ICTY will claim that neither Croatia nor Serbia would fairly prosecute their own former soldiers and political leaders. I find that hard to believe as these are the very nations that under international pressure have shipped their own citizens off to stand trial in a foreign land.

Since its inception the goal of many within the United Nations bureaucracy has been world government. The United Nations is even today quietly floating the idea of the first world tax. Such a tax would be on oil and would be paid directly by those that pump the crude, the cost of the tax would then be past on to consumers world wide.

Until now their was absolutely zero chance of any significant opposition to the ICTY acting as a World Court whose sovereignty reigned above that of self governing nation states. Who is going to care about the rights of alleged war criminals or the nations that produced them? Why not send them off to a foreign land to stand trial? Well for the same reason the Iraqi Government isn’t shipping War Criminals such as Saddam Hussein off, there is no need for an independent nation to bow its head to a Non Governmental Organization such as the United Nations.

However few people are going to loss sleep about a kangaroo court trying a man such as Croatian General Tihomir Blaskic who was convicted of crimes against humanity for allegedly orchestrating the massacre of Muslims in Bosnia. The tribunal was able to secure its conviction in part because of the testimony of a “protected witnessâ€?. In other words Blaskic was not able to face his accuser.

The tribunal issued a gag order against the media and ordered that the name of this “protected witnessâ€? not be published. There of course is no basis in international law for such an order so five Croatian Journalists “violatedâ€? this order and published the name of the witness whose motives were politically motivated. If General Blaskic did in fact commit the crimes for which he was convicted, I will certainly not defend him but I will always support the right of an accused to face their accuser.

However of much greater import is not the fate of Blaskic is that of the five Croatian Journalist who have now been arrested by the United Nations for violating the gag order of a court in a foreign land. The War Crime Tribunal was set up by the United Nations to tri war criminals not journals. The rights of a free press in all cases surmount the desire of the United Nations to formulate world governing power. The UN may think that they can get away with this type of action against Croatian journalists whose government won’t support their right to a free press, but let’s see if they have the guts to try to arrest an American journalist for violating their gag order.

I solidarity with my fellow journalists I will shout from the highest roof top the name of this witness that in reality needs no protection. His name is Stjepan Mesic and the reason he does not need protection from the press or anyone else is that he is the President of Croatia. The court’s gag order does not serve to protect Mesic from physical harm but from political harm. I was personally acquainted with Mesic when I lived in Yugoslavia. I disliked him then and I dislike him even more now that he has demonstrate such cowardice allowing the United Nations to arrest journalist who did their job and reported on his testimony.

In solidarity with my brother journalists, I challenge the ICTY’s to indict me for violating their gag order. Let’s see if they have the resolve to go after a journalist from a nation that has enshrined Freedom of the Press in its constitution. If not then they have a moral reasonability to release the Croatian journalists that are little more then political prisoners of would be world governing body.

Letters to the editor of The Houston Home Journal may be e-mailed to:rgambill@evansnewspapers.com  (Please Include Your Name and Location)

William John Hagan can be contacted directly by e-mail at:William_Hagan@excite.com

http://williamjohnhagan.blogspot.com/

Znanje jest Blagostanje ... kad zazivimo svoj Identitet

Projekti Europske Unije - uz udruzivanje i umrezavanje strucnosti

Hrvatska jest nedvojbeno europska zemlja, pa sustavno politicko ucjenjivanje nase nacije od odredjenih centara moci zahtijeva vrlo specificna znanja i ozbiljne (re)akcije (o tom drugom prilikom). Jedna od posljedica nedavnog pocetka pregovora s EU jest najava da vec od 4. listopada hrvatski znanstvenici (i dapace svi gradjani) mogu ucestvovati u projektima EU, te primiti nezanemarivu financijsku podrsku za prihvacene projekte (s EU partnerima) vec od 18. studenog ove godine (sto je usitinu vrlo brzo). Pritom se vecina s pravom pita imamo li mi osobe koje znaju pripremiti takve projekte, te koja je vjerojatnost da Hrvatska dobije poveci dio tog novca koji, bez obzira na nasa politicka uvjerenja, jest ponudjen i na nama je da ga 'pokupimo'. Kao i uvijek odgovor je kompleksan, no pojednostavljeno mozemo reci da je prirodnoslovni dio nacije u velikoj mjeri spreman za te (ocekivane) izazove, dok vecina drugih podrucja polako kaska, a velika vecina nacije nema predodzbu o cemu se ustvari radi.
Nasi prirodni-znanstvenici po svijetu su strucno povezani vec godinama, te i sustavno organizirani nakon Prvog Kongresa Hrvatskih Znanstvenika iz domovine i inozemstva (PKHZ, Zagreb-Vukovar, studeni 2005). Dapace mnoge akcije (siroj javnosti uglavnom nepoznate) su u tijeku ... medju inima, prosli tjedan je poslan poziv svim kolegama diljem Europe, da ako vec imaju projekte u EU da pomognu ukljuciti i domace partnere bar na neke od tih financijski atraktivnih (no birokratski kompleksnih) projekata. Medjutim, u nastavku clanka necu pisati o detaljima raznih EU projekata jer sve te informacije postoje i u Ministarstvu i na Internetu, nego cu radije navesti neka zanimljiva opazanja o znanju i odnosu nas Hrvata i nase europske subrace.

Mi jesmo Europljani i imamo i brojne cestite prijatelje

Kljucno nam je cijelim bicem istinski prihvatiti da 1) mi jesmo uistinu europska zemlja, 2) EU nije neka homogena cjelina, a vecina Europljana jesu nasi prijatelji. Mada, stoji cinjenica da vecina ne poznaje dovoljno nasu povijest i istinu o nama, jer je ne poznaje ni vecina Hrvata ! 3) Iako to tako ne djeluje na prvi pogled, europska tradicija je ipak bitno krscanska (a cesto i katolicka), te u Europi zive brojni cestiti ljudi. Iskreno, meni su brojni europski kolege u profesiji cesto vise pomogli nego neki hrvatski kolege, djelomicno i zato jer je sustav strucnog vrednovanja i 'higijene' ljudskih odnosa bolje postavljen. Stovise, svakom kreativnom Hrvatu koji vlada barem jednim od euro-jezika relativno je lako naci optimalne partnere diljem Europe za sve originalne, zanimljive, pa cak i 'politicki-nepodobne' projekte. Naime, ne postoje samo znanstveni projekti u nanotehnologiji ili bio-genetici nego i u drustveno-povijesnim temema. Stovise, pocinju se detaljno znanstveno obradjivati brojni zlocini komunizma, te razni (tajni) politicki dogovori koji i danas utjecu na stanje ponekih europskih naroda. Ne dvojim da, ako ne propadnemo kao civilizacija, nasi unuci ce napokon poznavati istinu o hrvatskoj povijesti! U pred-zakljucku, buduci da je vise od 300 milijuna Europljana, za svaku zanimljivu temu postoje partneri i najcesce i najlakse ih je naci preko Interneta (google trazilica najcesce na engleskom).
Izvrsnost je svakako vazan parametar u svemu tome, no kako primjer obitelji Kostelic jasno pokazuje, cak u disciplini u kojoj nemamo dugorocnu tradiciju, snagom volje, vizijom i uz minimum predispozicija mozemo stici do najboljih rezultata. Naravno, ne treba imati iluzija da ce nas odmah bas svi Europljani u svemu podrzati, ali kako rekoh imamo mi brojne nase ljude posvuda, te brojne nama vec sklone Europljane, pa je na nama da sad to sve sustavno koristimo. Isto vrijedi i na planetarnoj skali gdje opet imamo specificnu (cak povoljnu) situaciju jer nasi ljudi doslovno zive posvuda.

Kljucan problem : 'hipnotiziranost' Hrvata
Bez obzira sto nam neki centri moci nisu skloni, nasoj su naciji oduvijek najveci problem bili i ostali sami hrvatski gradjani. Uz ocitu negativnu hipnozu nacije partijskim boljsevizmom, koji i dalje dominira i u politici i poslovodstvu, i u tiskovinama i na HTV-u, takodjer moramo uvijek jasno iznijeti konkretne cinjenice glede (ne)obrazovanosti nacije. Poznato je da bi nacija sustavno povecavala svoj BNP potrebno je imati >1.5% inzenjera koji aktivno stvaralacki djeluju u drustvu; u Hrvatskoj svi visokoskolovani gradjani predstavljaju tek oko 2% (i jos uvijek dominiraju ne-inzenjerske struke). Dakle, nemojmo imati iluzije da cemo poreko noci izaci iz sadasnjeg (polu-)kolonijalnog stanja nacije. Sadasnja situacija jest direktna posljedica pola stoljeca krivog odgoja i usmjerenja, te uspavljivanja identiteta, kreativnosti te osobnosti nase nacije. Primjer bivse istocne Njemacke drasticno potvrdjuje koliko je zlo boljsevicko stanje svijesti, te da investicije ne rijesavaju probleme mentaliteta. Ni nakon €1.5 trilijuna ulaganja istocni dio Njemacke nije dostigao zapadni i nezaposlenost jest oko 20% ...
Da, Hrvatska zeli i treba izrasti u drustvo znanja. No, nacija se i dalje svakodnevno bori sa svim tim ''klasicnim'' problemima (post-komunistickog) tranzicijskog sustava. Brzina izlaska iz tranzicije uvelike ovisi o sustavnoj podrsci svih medija, poglavito HTV-a. Sami pregovori i ulazak u EU kao i novi EU projekti i financiranja nece, a ni ne mogu, rijesiti bitne probleme hrvatske nacije. Pokusao sam stoga ukazati da je najvazniji korak k istinski demokratskom drustvu znanja i blagostanja prvo svega sveopce budjenje i opca svijest hrvatske nacije da jedina konkurentnost jest ustvari kreativno oslobadjanje i realizacija predispozicija svake osobe, svake grupe i svake institucije. To je jedini put dekolonizacije nase nacije. Da bi se nacija stvarno pokrenula, svaka zdrava osoba treba SVJESNO pronaci svoje optimalno mjesto u sustavu, kako u skolstvu, tako u institucijama, servisima ili industrijskim tvrtkama. To je moguce i nuzno i ovdje i sada kao i u kontekstu Europe jer mi jesmo Europljani. Sve ostalo o cemu brojni strucnjaci Hrvati pisemo jesu - posljedice: ovog trena jos uvijek zivimo posljedice sustavne partijsko-boljsevicke hipnoze, pa na nama samima ostaje taj kljucni izazov, budjenje originalnosti svake osobe. Time budimo identitet i sustavno stvaramo istinsku konkurentnost probudjene nacije, a tada znanje uistinu postaje - blagostanje.


Ukratko o autoru
Dr. Davor Pavuna jer profesor fizike na Ecole Polytechnique u Lausanne-i. Diplomirao je eksperimentalnu fiziku u Zagrebu, te nakon doktorata u Engleskoj, kraceg djelovanja u Francuskoj, te Australiji i USA, vec dvadesetak godina djeluje iz Svicarske u strucnim suradnjama (uglavnom supravodljivost i novi materijali) s kolegama diljem svijeta.