March 31, 2020 – Do foreigners in Croatia feel more or less safe sitting out COVID-19 here than in their home country, and what are their experiences? A new series on TCN, starting with entrepreneur Jason Berry from Ireland/USA, currently holed up in Split.
Oxford University recently published some research on government responses to coronavirus which showed that Croatia currently has the strictest measures in the world. While inconvenient, this is a good thing in terms of reducing the spread of the virus, and I am certainly not alone in my admiration of the official Croatian handling of this crisis in recent weeks, both in terms of action and communication.
But what do other expats here think? And how does it compare with the response in their home country? Would they rather sit this one out here or there? In the first of a new series on TCN, we will be featuring expats from all over the world to see what their views are on life in corona Croatia rather than back home. Having started with an excellent contribution from Romanian Mirela Rus in Split yesterday, we move across the Dalmatian capital to see how Jason Berry, an entrepreneur from Ireland/USA, is faring.
If you would like to contribute to this series, full details are below. Now, over to the one and only Jason Berry.
Firstly, how are you? Are you alone/with someone? Tell us a little about your situation and sanity levels.
Thanks for asking. We’re all healthy. All our friends are healthy. All our family are healthy so all good in that department. My wife and I decided (she decided) to divide and conquer. She has taken the two kids down to baba and dide’s in the smallest most famous town on the Makarska Riviera, Drasnice. The kids have a huge house and yard to play in and lots of space empty of people. There are only 200 people in the village so its very well isolated and sparsely populated, all good for isolation. So by dividing, I am living the bachelor life of a single man in isolation: movies, video games, reading, and the kids have been busy conquering my poor wife, running her off her feet.
I am up in Split working from home and drive down the Magistrala coast road through three checkpoints to visit them each weekend.
I am a director of a securities trading firm with offices in Dublin and Croatia. I am mostly trading the financial markets, and not doing much directoring as most people are working from home.
Our Dublin office is completely shut down and all people are working remotely. Our Croatia office has a skeleton crew of only 4 in the office and everybody else is remote.
We have a front row seat to the craziness of the markets caused by Covid-19 over the past few weeks, which has given us a greater sense of urgency as to the seriousness of the virus’ impact on the global economies. We were watching first hand as the markets collapsed, erasing the gains of the past decade in a matter of days. Terrifying volatility. Our business is inversely correlated with the normal business cycle. We are least busy when the markets are going up and incredibly busy when markets are going down. So in terms of work, we’ve been run off our feet. The US markets open around midnight on Sunday night, and on the last three Sundays I’ve worked more or less straight through from midnight on Sunday til midnight on Monday with a few naps. The whole firm is more or less doing the same thing. Strange times.
When did you realise that corona was going to be a big issue?
We realized pretty early on as it started to leave China. Like I mentioned above, the markets were reacting to the seriousness of the situation even if most politicians and the public were not. So we made preparations for the business and for the family the first week of March and went into isolation shortly thereafter. We were fortunate to be able to see the market indicators about how serious this was going to be. But the last week of February we had booked to go skiing in Italy. All the guys were being all macho and saying, no big deal, all the women were saying cancel cancel. In the end, we cancelled as it became clear how serious the disease was spreading.
What is your impression of the way Croatia is dealing with the crisis? How safe do you feel?
I feel very safe compared to how they are handling it in the US. I feel China handled it better and Germany is testing tons. I wish Croatia was testing more. But there are relatively few tourists here in the winter so we are fortunate. There are a lot of workers that go to Italy and Austria, and a few who travel for skiing and such, but otherwise I feel pretty well isolated.
Croatia’s daily communication from the Health Minister has been great. The Viber messages are great too.
Split people following the government’s orders in the beginning were disgraceful. People were out playing bocci ball, hanging in cafes in big groups, drinking on the wall in the local neighborhood, pretty much ignoring the whole social distancing thing. But then after the earthquake and ban on travel, everybody got the message. The police should have been out enforcing the self-distancing stuff earlier.
The numbers are low in Croatia. Now I don’t know if that is because Croatian health service is kicking ass and is well prepared or that we got lucky. People tell me that the health service is well organized. It helps a lot having a centralized health system. It’s probably a little of both.
Now compare that to your home country and how they are handling it. What is Croatia doing better/worse?
Compared to Ireland, Croatia is about the same, a little less strict, with similar results. The Irish will struggle because they travel so much and people travel to Ireland at all times of the year, but Jan and Feb is the slowest time.
Compared to the US, Croatia is heaven. The US is in for a serious dose. They have handled it almost as badly as you could, denial, denial, oh shit. Trump said it at the start of his presidency, US will be number 1. It’s a funny joke but things are going to get really bad over there. The US doesn’t have centralized medical systems or universal health insurance, and they have a leader who denied it was coming. All those things will add up to some serious problems in the next month, unfortunately.
What about official communications from the authorities, compared to your home country?
Health boss Vili seems to be no BS, all the facts, straight-shooting, and spot on. He even has an accent I can understand! Bonus. His daily briefings and Viber have been great. The police at checkpoints, however, have a mix of masks and no masks. People on the street seem to be wearing masks against all advisories so not all messages are getting through on how to handle precautions.
What’s the one thing you wish you had taken with you into self-isolation.
Food. I laughed at all the hoarders going out and panic buying stuff. Now I can’t find a store open past 5pm and Konzum’s delivery service is all jammed up. But that just means I don’t cook and order a ton of Wolt: sushi, poke bowls from Maka, Zora Bila, Mexican from To je Tako, and desserts from The Cookie Lab. I’m going to be enormous when the isolation ends.
One thing you have learned about yourself, and one thing you have learned about others during this crisis.
It is a crisis but it is not. If you do what you are supposed to, it is just like a series of rainy days. The risk is relatively low. I work. I come home. I watch too much TV, play too many video games, and don’t read enough. So I don’t panic or maybe I just have too much faith in the things I expect will continue working. I don’t panic so I’ve got fairly low stress so far. I don’t panic so I have no food in the house. But to be honest, so far so good. We’re all healthy. I can do my job at home very easily. So we are quite fortunate and so far for me and my family its just been an inconveniece. I know that is not the scenario for everybody else.
The only big regret I have right now and probably the thing that has been worrying me the most is that I have two teenagers from Dom Maestral that I hang out with and I haven’t been able to see them for like a month. We touch base on WhatsApp and I check in, but that is about all we can do until it ends. They are under lockdown and so am I. That is a real bummer.
Thanks Jason, stay safe and see you on the other side. You can learn more about Jason and his life in Split from this earlier feature story on foreign entrepreneurs in Croatia.
You can find more foreigner corona stories in our dedicated section here.
TCN is starting a new feature series on foreign experiences of sitting out covid-19 here in croatia compared to their home country. If you would like to contribute, the questions are below. Please also include a para about yourself and where you are from, and a link to your website if you would like. Please also send 3-4 photos minimum to [email protected] Subject Corona Foreigner
If you would be interested to record a video version for our partners www.rplus.video please let us know in the email. Thanks and stay safe.
Foreigners Self-Isolating in Croatia: Do You Feel Safer Than in Your Home Country?
Firstly, how are you? Are you alone/with someone? Tell us a little about your situation and sanity levels.
What do you think about the economic measures the government is taking, are they helping your business? (PLEASE IGNORE IF THIS DOES NOT AFFECT YOU)
When did you realise that corona was going to be a big issue?
What is your impression of the way Croatia is dealing with the crisis? How safe do you feel?
Now compare that to your home country and how they are handling it. What is Croatia doing better/worse?
What about official communications from the authorities, compared to your home country?
What’s the one thing you wish you had taken with you into self-isolation.
One thing you have learned about yourself, and one thing you have learned about others during this crisis.
TCN has recently become a partner in Robert Tomic Zuber’s new R+ video channel, initially telling stories about corona experiences. You can see the first TCN contribution from this morning, my video from Jelsa talking about the realities of running a news portal in the corona era below. If you would like to also submit a video interview, please find Robert’s guidelines below
VIDEO RECORDING GUIDE
The video footage should be recorded so that the cell phone is turned horizontally (landscape mode).
There are several rules for television and video news:- length is not a virtue- a picture speaks more than a thousand words
In short, this would mean that your story should not last more than 90 seconds and that everything you say in the report should be shown by video (for example, if you talk about empty streets, we should see those empty streets, etc.).
How to do it with your cell phone?First, use a selfie camera to record yourself telling your story for about a minute and a half. Ideally, it would be taken in the exterior, except in situations where you are reporting on things in the interior (quarantine, hospital, self-isolation, etc.). Also, when shooting, move freely, make sure everything is not static.
After you have recorded your report, you should capture footage that will tell your story with a picture, such as an earlier example with empty streets.
One of the basic rules of TV journalism is that the story is told in the same way as a journalist with his text. Therefore, we ask you for additional effort. Because we work in a very specific situation, sometimes you may not be able to capture footage for each sentence of the report. In this case, record the details on the streets: people walking, the main features of the city where you live, inscriptions on the windows related to the virus, etc.
The same rules apply if you are shooting a story from your apartment, self-isolation, quarantine. We also need you to capture footage that describes your story.
When shooting frames to cover your reports, it is important that you change the angle of the shot (in other words, shoot that empty street from several angles). Also, when shooting a detail, count at least five seconds before removing the camera to another detail.
The material should be about 5 minutes long (90 seconds of your report + frames to cover your story).
After recording everything, send us to Zagreb, preferably via WeTransfer to [email protected]
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