April 2, 2018 – As our social media feeds were overflowing with photos of bunnies, coloured eggs and lavish holiday meals, one citizen decided to skip the Easter extravaganza this year, embarking on a solo journey for a commendable cause
Saša Pavlić, a resident of Rijeka, headed for the capital to protest the state spending billions on military aircraft instead of investing in medicine for ill children.
While he could’ve got in a car and taken the highway, Pavlić packed a bag and departed for Zagreb on foot, taking the old local road through Gorski Kotar. He’s bringing along a large wooden cross he built himself; as he stated, he’s “taking it to Zagreb to the dear leaders of this nation, for all those children and parents who keep hearing there’s no money for treatments, but there are three billion kuna for planes.”
“I want this Government to reach into the same well where they found 500 million dollars and fill up the fund for orphan drugs with at least 10% of that same amount. The latest reported state of the fund amounted to a pathetic 20.000 kuna”, Pavlić wrote, adding he finds it abhorrent that none of the four million citizens didn’t find this fact a good enough reason to react.
“The acquisition of airplanes is not a problem in itself, everyone has them, so why wouldn’t we? But our dear leaders have had 27 years since we left Yugoslavia to make Croatia into Switzerland as they used to promise at the time, so we could have been able to both buy new planes and provide children with medicine these days”, he wrote.
“When there’s a sick child in any given family, they will sell their house and furniture and anything else of value so the child could be provided with a cure. This is the way the state should go about it; it’s not until all the little helpless ones are taken care of that we can spend money on other things. The only country I can think of that would invest in weaponry rather than its sick children is Sparta”, concluded Pavlić.
Dobro jutro Hrvatska 🙂 pic.twitter.com/Fsbgq13aFI
— Sale (@SasaPavlic) April 2, 2018
He doesn’t think there’s anything heroic about his feat, instead reiterating he’s only a messenger, and his long walk only a medium to deliver that message.
Pavlić is currently making his way to Zagreb, sleeping on the side of the road and meeting kind strangers who have been offering help and small donations to support his undertaking. You can follow his journey on Twitter.
