Istrian master plan for rural development

Today, Istrian district-perfect Ivan Jakovčić, has presented master plan of rural development of Istria. He hopes that we will get some support from SEENET program for development of local communities of south-east European countries in the form of financial founds and expertise.

What means development

Well, development is an abstract concept, because what is progress for someone, for somebody else it may be vandalism or deterioration. So what should be development of Istrian rural county? As any part in the world, Istria is specific, with strong and long tradition. So development should include care for traditional values. Istrians also like their specific cuisine, they love nature and land. So, plan of development should include care for these values also - but this is not enough: the freedom and life of every single individual should be respected, and plan of development should be in accordance with those individuals. This means taking master plans to micro level, by which we can develop strong and creative society, develop recognizable individuality of Istria, as place to live or tourist product.
Today we can see globalization everyway, it seams like we will become one culture, one language, and one economy … My opinion is that tradition and differences has to be cultivated as precious and not considered to be obstacles. Obstacles have to be removed by mutual understanding and respect. We should respect different cultures, languages and traditions as equally good and precious as ours, and this is the way to equality. Differences are good to keep the world interesting and fair place, and they shouldn’t be considered as point of separation, but as the point of union what every border is. Non respecting the border is sign that the stronger one doesn’t respect weaker. This is the case in marriage, family, between cities, regions, countries, races...
Finally, we should say yes to development and progress, but by improving, and not by copying.

Macro and Micro levels

While all this stories of advance sounds pretty in the words of politicians, they are not at all so nice in reality. The ecology, tradition and culture are not respected if they are not in the service of profit. I’m not saying here that our leaders are doing this because there are bad, but the lack of understanding and competence in some fields. More, they are under big pressure from various parts, various interests which they are not always able to properly. System mostly falls in applying concepts that are set to micro level. The system is in service of individuals, and individuals are in service of society, or system. Mostly this is not respected, and system often neglects right of individuals, as people that are responsible for system has “big” and “small” concepts in their heads. They don’t understand concept that macro cosmos is derived from micro cosmos, that macro and micro cosmos are not able to exist separately.
Society, cultures, states etc. are made of people, and on the other part they are the frame for human existence. So individuals should care for society, and society should care for every individual. In effect, the things are made and intended to be this way, but because lack of understanding and skill from people that represents big instances (city, state…), the theory hasn’t become truth. To be honest, “Little” people also lack of understanding of this concept, and they don’t understand the importance of their engagement in the society and things of common interest.
If “big” instances neglect little people, or take care of them only as it’s needed to retain system functionality, we came in the danger that system voids it self from its “content”, in which way becomes as an empty balloon with risk of explosion. I think that we are now on that critical point of history, when everyone should understand his position, duty and responsibility towards people and society, because system could fall otherwise. Human creativity and effort creates economy of the country, human mind creates science, human wisdom and intellect creates philosophy, culture, theology… All society is based on human values and virtues, without them system does not exists.
Here is an example for lack of care for “small” people. In the strict center of Pula there is a little park called “Park of city of Graz”. During summer days people find there some rest and freshness, tourist stops for some brake, small children’s find there little playground in center - otherwise dedicated to adults… Now, from this point of view it is obvious that this little park greatly improves life of “little” people. And improving their life quality means feeding the “micro cosmos”.
But as we said earlier “big” people often neglect needs of “little”, and city of Pula decided to build an business building on the site of current park. Why? It is easy, it is attractive, it will bring us profit, but effects on the human life are not so easily predictable. What is predictable, is that modern business building in the center of old roman city will not be attractive at all to tourists, with doubtful improvement to our identity and culture.