End of illegal buildings in Istria?

This government of prime minister Sanader, seems to have more courage than last of premier Racan. They have realized the importance of order in this field, so yesterday they started with destruction of illegal constructions along Istrian coast. The owners usually complains because they was told that land on which they have constructed their week-end houses (and devastated the environment) will be legalized for constructions, but they didn’t waited for it.

But seams that all in Istria are less or more happy with this situation, because it is not fair that someone can build illegally and not be punished while other people respect the procedure and law.

About weather

Probably everyone noticed that people talk often about weather. There are more reason for this: because the weather is important for about how we feel in general, the other thing is that it's so easy to talk about it, you can do it, without saying anything important. And people seems to have fear of taking decisions, fear of truth and responsibility, so they often run into conversation about thing they cannot influence.

But, our dear weather, seams to change as everything else. This days in Istria are rather cold for this season, and, which is not unusually, often rains. I would not be surprised that even summer continues in same direction, or that will be very hot and dry. People have become so powerful with their technology to influence many things on our planet, among which is weather also. And we all share the responsibility for this.

Some people can think that they are not responsible for ozone holes or forests dying, but we must be honest and objective: do I use car? do I use fridge? Do I like and want all comfort that modern life offers? Do I everyday throw away garbage without knowing where it will go? If answer is yes, than I also share a responsibility: it is because of me that one part (doesn't matter how small it is) of the nature is devastated with this technology that is currently imperfect. We must understand that wishes of the common people run this material world. If common people wouldn’t like to use cellular phones or cars, then cellular phone or car industry would not exist. It is as simple as this. Don’t think that I am saying that progress is bad thing, I am only saying that we should be all aware of our responsibility for thing that are happening. We must all strive to do our best, and help to build better world. This also includes mastering the skills and technology of today, and using our sense of discrimination try to improve good ones, and replace bad with better.

The passion of Christ

Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ", set a new record during its opening weekend as Croatia's most-watched movie. I am happy that people are once again inspired by Jesus, and that Mel made this film because of my esteem for his work. It is good that people take positive examples and high ideals, so what can be higher than ideal of Christ’s love, patience and compassion. This is far better than ideals like power, money or sexuality that are widely promoted in all medias today.

It is interesting that Christ’s message could seem to be to quiet and unattractive for today’s world, but surprisingly it is strong enough to attract people again and again. For me this is a good sign: people are still able to distinguish between the right and wrong, and feels need for deeper peace, happiness and sense of life. So the popularity of Christ and his message today isn’t so big surprise after all: they give a key to answer our deeper questions and needs.

Istra Tourist Board website

Maybe you have tried to search for term “Istra” in Google, or some other search engine, and you always get istra.com site on the top. There my arise an confusion, because this is not an official, but private site. Official site of Istrian Tourist Board is istra.hr, and official site of Istrian Region is istra-istria.hr. So we learned one more thing… The Croatian top-level domain is .hr (from local name Hrvatska), as its country code. So croatia.hr is official site, croatia.com is not, because you cannot buy an .hr domain as .com, for example. No private person can purchase croatia.hr or istra.hr, you must prove that you have right to own this name(for example the name must be same to your company name).

Off course, this doesn’t mean that official sites are better than unofficial, and in most cases private site makes better service, here I’ve only wanted to make few clarification about Croatian internet space. You can also visit dns.hr for more information’s.

PS. I’ve noticed link to this blog, and to our site, on Istra-Online portal, about which we were writing earlier. Thanks guys, I appreciate it and think that you are doing good job.

Real estate in Croatia

This weekend there was an interesting article in Croatian newspapers "Jutarnji list" (means something like "Morning paper"), that says that prices of real estate in Croatia has reach its maximum, and begins slowly to fall down.

I think that this is good news, because some prices has gone beyond the limit. Yesterday my business partner went to ask for one Business premise in Fazana (small place opposite to Brijuni archipelago): they asked 4000 EUR/m2!! Incredible if you think that medium salary in Croatia is 500 EUR: Fazana is nice, but it is not realy a San Marco square in Venice.

So, because prices has begin to fall, some of the foreign citizens(in major part German) that have acquired real estate during mid ’90(like good brokers), are selling now that same property for 10 time bigger price! Incredible, isn’t it. there is an example that person acquired a property for 70.000 DM(about 35.000 EUR), and now selling the same one for 350.000 EUR. This is 10 times…

So this is what it happens when people are poor. Other can buy all you possess for small money, and then sell it for much more, even back to you. The politicians Should think a bit, how they are guiding people, and which interests are they sustaining. People’s interest or own, or somebody else interests. The things could be done better for shure.