Unwonted as it may be, here is a sample of HDZ lobbying art in the US, brought to the attention of this editor and webmaster:

“We ratified the NATO in [US] Congress. Congratulations to all, we go ahead….” – writes to us the chief HDZ man in the US, Frank Bilaver, who “has full support” of prime minister Ivo Sanader for years now.

The rest of his communiqué is his usual HDZ’s “lobbying art” of insulting the opponents and hiding the details, which I won’t expose here in full since it’s quite rude and offbeat. Creative, as such “global leaders” would put it nicely.

Hence, we are interested, and entitled to know :

1. What exactly HDZ ratified (NATO!?) in the US Congress;

2. How much HDZ has paid to “ratify the NATO” and to whom exactly;

3. How much Frank Bilaver is paid for such “lobbying” (see below the screenshot of the message informing us of HDZ's "ratifying of the NATO in the [US] Congress").

It’s Croatian money, and it’s not very Croatian way of "lobbying" to me. The NATO will be proud of their new allies for sure. But this is not very American either… Or perhaps it is. Let's not take anything for granted any longer. A detailed lobbying expenditure list will disclose whose “art” all this is. Perhaps, "useful idiots", such as Frank Bilaver rank very highly in the US foreign policy strategy and tactics of today.

IA@VoC

(click on the pic for larger size of the image)

There's another "creative economics" invention in Croatia praised by ruling party HDZ: Public relations companies that Croatian government is paying dearly in the US and Europe. Thus all the debts with witch they burdened several Croatian generations (the only result of their orientation "towards" the future) are imposed so to send the money back to the US and the EU (or serve the interests of lobbyists groups in Croatia).

Indeed, public relation companies did develop a non-transparent network that mediates between the governments and narrow interest groups. This is quite amazing as a democracy concept reinvention. Let's examine just a few points:

- HDZ (US) says that 15.000 lobbyists operate in EU, which is supposed to be the largest lobbyist target after Washington, D.C. What the governments serve to - lobbying groups or people?

- And what, for example, Croatian government is lobbying for: For global "millennium objectives" and "global challenges", i.e., wars.

- We've seen it in the speech of Croatian PM at the Global Creative Leadership Summit in NYC, probably one of the largest "lobbying centers" in the US, and perhaps even in the world, which HDZ fails to specify. Little matters that such lobbying groups don't look any more professional than the most ordinary call-centers, or even worse, but they have "connections" in the government. How do we call this "public" decision-making process - I find no description of it in any of my once-so-praised US books.

- Another "creativeness" is that that we see top politicians "lobbying" themselves - so what are they paying the lobbying companies for. After a first year of Sanader's HDZ in power, the top Croatian politicians, including the prime minister, prided themselves in spending half of the mandate out of country - probably lobbying, the effects of which are drastic in Croatia in all areas of life a several years later.

- Anyhow, this "public relations" lobbying by Croatian government looks more like money washing to me, or some kind of bribery, if I still remember my old public economics and management books (western, of course). Since there are no other details than the "importance" of paying to lobbying firms.

- Does it mean, Croatian government (as a "successful experiment") is taking the money from foreign governments (loans, etc.) so to pay a portion back to the lobbying firms, which they, profit aside, use to talk to foreign officials they have connections with... All that for lobbying for the global interests, and not Croatian ones at all!

- And who's benefiting: Only the "global leaders" of different nations.

 I see no democratic decision-making process here at all, just money laundering pockets in the government affairs. Was that not so in communism, but at least they didn't make it look so nice - public relations, lobbying, etc., they were doing it in hiding. And just because hundreds of "countries" are doing it, as HDZ would put it, all that should be fine.

The logic of that seems to be the same as in Croatia's education: Just because there is a corruption in other ministries, and it's practiced often, by many (it's how the dean and minister justified the scandal in education, selling exams, marks, diplomas etc.), no one had to tell us what was going on and take some measures. Thus no one resigned yet from the faculties or the ministry of education, which tolerated a wide-scale corruption. There seems to be some interesting spirit of "tolerance" taking place not only in Croatia, but globally.

IA@VoC

"Knowledge-" or bribery-based "global world" of Croatian pm

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader wasn’t quite creative this Sunday, 21 Sept 2008  in NYC where he gave a talk at the Global Creative Leadership Summit.

Croatia is mentioned in context of serving unidentified “millennium objectives”, their deadline being 2015.

His zeal for “global challenges and possibilities” contains no other clarification than certain vague “regional” and “global” schemes, where the pm entirely ignores the problem of irresponsibility inherent to globalisation processes ever since they started, which is only being aggravated since.

But, Croatian PM proved most “creative” in reinventing recent Croatian military history by comparing the defence Homeland war to the American Sept 11. He said: “In Croatia, 10 years prior to the attack of Sept 11, we were faced with the same threat incarnated in Milosevic”. Although, Milosevic “outlived his usefulness” for pm Sanader’s global leaders only after his war in Croatia and Bosnia.  

It goes without saying that the Croatian war was that of national defence, so that Croatian people ends communist oppression and reasserts national freedom and independence, Croatian sovereignty and Croatian values, but the Croatian pm entirely dismissed them by trading them for the “global” ones. He attracted the global threats to Croatia, the only lasting "advantage" of globalisation, so that the US may diversify their own threats arising from the wars they run in their own interest far removed from Croatian one.

As for the tragic event of Sept 11, there are divided public opinions regarding the culprits in the climate of overall radicalisation imposed and systematically developed across the world by the US and its allied advisors in the name of the world messianic that Croatian pm advocates, as well. (See the section American "Bin Ladens" on this blog.)

Next, Croatian PM Sanader remained in the “cold war” epoch that is over. It’s him that’s pushing Croatia and the world back to the past: The utopia reigns now in global leadership zones. (see The "American Dream" is over - It is not a Cold war! )

But we must concede that Croatian pm was quite creative in the area of education:

“Next, we came to the conclusion that the knowledge-based economy is the best way to increase our economic competiveness. In this direction, we started and implemented numerous reforms and initiatives. Among those initiatives, there is also the promotion of life-time education, implementation of the [European Union] Bologna process, through which we reformed the educational system so to promote the creativeness in the classes and the removal of unnecessary content from the educational programs.”

He certainly promoted life-time wealth for so many of his likes: In Croatia, the police raid was launched on 16 Sept 2008, and so far, 67 cases of bribery within a few Zagreb’s faculties are under official investigation  (the police forces have “no capacity” to investigate other cases!). Following his reformation, it became the most normal practice for professors to sell the notes, diplomas etc. to the students they never even see! It's how the rector of the University of Zagreb presented it, as normal and therefore not significant. The Economics $ Business faculty dean reacted also in a way of minimizing the problem and virtually blaming the police for their reputation! President Mesic also addressed the problem as a "joke". The PM’s first response to the police raids, although one day belated, was the following: “I’m interested to know who initiated this”; “It’s not the government that’s doing this.” Yes, we know, the government is only implementing the reforms… and that very "creatively", via means of organized crime in which took place even a high parliament official appointed by pm Sanader.

We can conclude that the creativeness in pm Sanader’s terms means: new ways to destroy Croatian security, legislation, economy, education, and particularly the new prices for passing the exams, getting the diplomas etc. in his “knowledge-based” world.

Finally, we can safely conclude that pm Sanader speech in NYC was written by someone who bought his/her exams/diploma very cheaply. It is the only thing that is clear to us from his speech.

IA@VoC

Note 1: This blog addressed "the global challenge" here: IN THE US HOUSE OF WAR - St Augustine or St Aquinas vs. Founding fathers 

Note 2: I should rename my previous headline into: If it's normal for global elites, for most people it's not.

Related news: Speech available only in Croatian on the government website: Govor predsjednika Vlade na Global creative leadership summitu

Other related news: Croatian PM takes part in Global Creative Leadership Summit

Police raid Croatian universities amid claims students paid  to pass exams

Unidentified croatian students walk out of the Faculty of Economics & Business at Zagreb University in Zagreb, Croatia, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008. Croatian police are raiding several universities and questioning some dozens of professors who are suspected of taking bribes to give students passing exam grades. ... ( AP Photo/Filip Horvat)

Benko said professors were suspected of taking euro400-2,000 (US$560-2,800) to give students a passing grade and up to euro9,000 (US$12,600) for illegally enrolling them.

YAHOO NEWS  USA TODAY   REUTERS  WASHINGTON POST  WTOP NEWS - FEDERAL RADIO NEWS   CBS NEWS  IHT  NEW YORK TIMES ROCKY MOUNT TELEGRAM  MSN BC  ETC ETC ETC

Mesić: Treba stati na kraj i kriminalu većem od 10.000 eura

Pourquoi la politique ne dit-elle rien à propos d'Indeks ?

Indeks est sans conteste la plus grosse et la plus spectaculaire action anti-corruption à avoir été menée en Croatie à ce jour. Cependant, les principaux politiciens croates n'en disent mot. Il est pour tout dire incompréhensible que le Gouvernement ne se soit pas exprimé à propos d'Indeks, mis à part la curieuse tentative tarabiscotée du ministre Dragan Primorac de présenter Indeks, dont en fait il ne savait rien, comme sa propre initiative.

Le Gouvernement et le Premier ministre avaient réagi tout à fait autrement dans les précédentes affaires semblables quoique moins vastes. Qu'on se souvienne de l'importance que le Premier ministre et ses collaborateurs avaient accordée à l'opération Maestro* de l'année dernière, qu'ils avaient dépeinte comme leur propre succès politique.

S'agissant d'Indeks, ils n'ont en revanche soufflé mot le premier jour, probablement en raison du gros malaise qu'a infligé à la Communauté croate démocratique (HDZ) l'arrestation de Desa Mlikotin Tomic, la présidente, appartenant au HDZ, du Comité parlementaire pour les conflits d'intérêt, dont la fille est employée au sein du Bureau du Premier ministre.

Toujours est-il que le silence dont fait montre le Gouvernement au sujet d'Indeks est une grosse omission. Sanader et son Gouvernement auraient dû immédiatement apporter à Indeks un soutien clair et vigoureux. Un tel geste aurait offert à l'action Indeks la dimension sociale souhaitable, à savoir le besoin de créer un consensus social pour la lutte contre la corruption. (lire la suite)

Chers amis et les équipes de média,

Je vous signale les nouvelles internationales provenant de la Croatie du 18 à 19 septembre 2008 concernent l’éducation.

Il s’agit d’une pratique continuelle de vendre les examens, les notes pour les cours, et les diplômes à la faculté d’économie et celle d’ingénierie du trafic etc. au sein de l’université de Zagreb.

L’opération policière qui se déroule présentement à Zagreb en a signalé 95 cas et même les prix sont connus. Ceci ce pratiquait dans un pays dont le gouvernement se flatte de ses « réussites » colossales dans sa voie vers « L’Union Européen », « NATO » etc.  

Cette opération policière « Index » à réussi grâce à l’ignorance des autorités politiques sur ses préparations, ce dont témoigne aussi la première réaction du premier ministre qui a demandé publiquement de lancer une investigation contre les journalistes qui en écrivaient promptement au cours de l’opération, en obstruant ainsi la justice.  

By the way, le premier ministre croate déclare en connexion avec cet affaire (car son haute fonctionnaire du parlement était arrêtée aussi) que l’opposition ne comprend pas ce qui est la démocratie : c’est 50% + 1 (pour évoquer le bipartisme). Comme on le sait bien, cela est un échec dans chaque université sérieux.

Imaginez-vous, maintenant, les « élites » croates se plaignent que ceci fait dommage à l’institution comme si la police était coupable de leur intervention et non les profs qui vendent les examens et les diplômes  (Recteur de l’UdeZ),  et à la réputation des profs : le doyen de la faculté d’économie M. Tipuric se demande comment vont-ils regarder aux yeux à ses étudiants après cela (police coupable une fois de plus), mais il ne dit pas comment pouvait-ils le faire auparavant ! Le média croate a adressé ce sujet comme « mafia universitaire ».

J’ai signalé ses nouvelles croates sur mon site ici

Car moi aussi, j’ai une expérience désagréable avec la soutenance de ma thèse de magistrat (en administration) pour laquelle je ne pouvais même pas obtenir la date jusqu’au récemment (avec une demande des frais additionnels pour leur obstruction !) – on m’a toujours menti que le rapport était soumis (pendant 6-7 ans!). Le directeur de ma thèse était l’ami proche du doyen de la faculté de l’économie et j’ai lassé tomber le tout, pour une dernière fois, juste récemment : il n’y avait pas de moyen de dépasser les obstructions sans bien payer à tous.

En plus, les pouvoirs politiques m’ont fait passer deux fois une demande d’approx. 9,000 Euros avant que je puisse obtenir mon diplôme ! Tout cela après que tous les frais étaient payés à la faculté et j’ai fait ma part… et l’université n’a jamais fait le leur. Il fallait payer aux profs mais aussi obéir aux pouvoirs politiques pour obtenir un diplôme à Zagreb.

Vous allez voir des nouvelles croates que pour cet argent on achète le diplôme à Zagreb, sans que personne ne fasse aucun travail, donc, pourquoi il me faillait s’en occuper depuis 1996 quand je me suis inscrit... J’ai adressé ce cas ici :

La science en Croatie en pratique du 21 mai 2008.

Aidez-nous, S.V.P., à faire connaitre ce que vaut un diplôme en Croatie pour que cette pratique des « élites » arrête. Ce que font les « élites » en démocratie « 50% + 1 » n’est jamais de crime – on cherche à punir ceux qui dévoilent la vérité, et non les coupables…  A ce titre, je vous joins un article de la presse française sur ce sujet qui rend un peu de la justice à tous ceux qui travaillent fort pour obtenir des résultats….

La police arrête des professeurs dans la Faculté d'ingénierie du trafic et celle d'économie

(Et une chose vraiment merveilleuse, c’est le fait que cette pratique est adressée en Croatie me réjouit, après tout…, bien plus qu’un diplôme de Zagreb… Ca fait du bien ! )

(Ex-étudiante de l'Université de Zagreb)