TCN’s Tanja Radmilo gives us her take on island politics, and it seems a new breeze is blowing…
On the 13th of May, 2017, in the City of Hvar, candidates for the independent local election lists were presented. The Island Movement organised the event as a public discussion under the title ”How do the Islanders See Their Future”. The moderator was Goran Jeras, Chairman of the Co-operative for Ethical Financing.
During election times, my favourite pastime is visiting such events because it makes me really happy to be a Croat and I feel that somebody is really trying to do something for me. It would be good to organise a confrontation of the candidates in my home to see which one of them is the best at cleaning my toilet, paying my electricity bills or changing the diaper of my old mother-in-law. These people (politicians) are willing to do just about anything for you every two years and now is the time to utilise it!
Then, the islanders invited me to come to the island of Hvar and listen to what they have to say about their future, which they decided to change by taking their own destiny into their own hands. In Croatia, that is considered to be an extreme sport.
Of course, I agreed. Who wouldn’t want to soak up the Hvar sunshine and look at the sea?
And then I sat with these people, some of them are young, some are a little bit older, but nobody is old. Some are men, some are women, some already have experience in politics, some have none. They all have one thing in common, though – they are all deeply in love with the islands they come from. And, as it happens with true love, when you love somebody, you want to be with them all the time, you want to take care of your beloved one, you want to make them happy, you want them to flourish. These people only want the absolute best for their islands.
They are Leo Zanetic from Vela Luka, Riki Novak from Hvar, Roberta Roskera from Pucisca, Zeljko Hrepic from Supetar, Stipe Vojkovic from Vis, Goran Tvrdic from Solta and Zaneta Roic from Stari Grad.
True love always has to have obstacles, think Romeo and Juliet, so it is with the island people. Everything was fine when they were swimming downstream, as Maja Jurisic, the Island Movement Project Leader said. But once they started asking questions in their local communities, trouble in paradise started. Some of them were so cocky to ask questions about public procurement and municipality investments in huge tourist resorts. and some of them decided not to be machines that simply raise their hands when somebody tells them to. Can you imagine that?
True love, after all, is the one you need to fight for and our island heroes decided to do exactly that. They bravely decided to take the destiny of their love into their own hands and make things better.
Regardless of what some might say about me, I am a true romantic deep down and I do believe in happy endings – and in this case, that these people will live happily ever after with their islands. And if my editor thinks that I was drugged while on the island, and that is the reason why I’m blabbering on about love (as is not usual!), don’t worry, I wasn’t. I just trust these romantics I’m very proud of them.
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