“No more flavored bottled water for government officials, only regular bottled water.  And no more red paper clips,”  Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor proudly announced during round-table conference on public procurement, earlier this year.

This is one of those things that makes you want to slap yourself in complete disbelief, just to make sure you heard it right and you are not dreaming.

After the failure known as “crisis tax,” imposing  tax rate on all incomes, infamous part of Kosor’s recovery program that caused rage all over Croatia, the time has come for major cutbacks.

Forget about lemon or peach flavor, dear ministers, no more lime or apple for you!

This year government will spend around 400,000 euro on regular bottled water.  For the record, same amount of tap water would cost 800 euro.

Why am I being so negative? Maybe our prime minister simply wanted to send out a message, give us all example on how to deal with the inevitable. Whether we like it or not, economic crisis is forcing us to save.

Well, when you’re done with splurging and you accept the fact that careless times of flavored water are behind us, Kosor has another brilliant idea for you. 

Brace yourself, unemployed! Brand new scheme, fresh from the government’s brainstorming factory! Throw away your college degrees, step away from your computers, stop sending CV’s to companies that don’t even bother to read them. Why would you spend your precious time pining over them when you can get down and dirty working in “real” business.  Kosor has open job positions for – shepherds!

Yes, shepherds! Kosor got a call from a sad farmer who told her he was looking for 150 shepherds and only six people took the job, the interest was very low. Wait, people weren’t interested? Really?!

Perhaps because they would have to move to middle of nowhere, and their minimum living expenses wouldn’t be covered by the paycheck?

I would slap myself again if I didn’t feel like banging my head against the wall.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there is anything degrading about this job, nothing that one must do to make an honest living is degrading.

But after all the years I spent educating myself, after all the effort, time and money I put into it, I feel it is my right to want something better for myself, at least a life in which I will do what I educated myself for.

A clear case of utopia. Especially if you live in a country where some public administration workers don’t have a high school diploma, where doctors visit unemployment office every month, where economist used to be a minister of defense, where you can’t even volunteer without experience.

Some might argue that I haven’t knocked on enough doors. Maybe you are right.

Not so long ago, by sheer mistake (or incompetence?), I foolishly ignored what seemed to be a proposition to do research work. In my defense, this was offered to me by a complete stranger in a restaurant.  Mr. Joseph Babic, if you ever read this – is it too late to accept that offer?!

I do not like what living in this day, age, and country turned me into. All of a sudden I’m very good at noticing the negative, unable to concentrate on positive. I grew too bitter for my own taste.

But I will fight it. Not the way Kosor fights the recession. I will do it with knowledge, determination,

dedication.

And eventually, I will succeed.

The article was originally written in English.
 

Photo credit: Marie Fette

The views, opinions and comments published on this BLOG are not necessarily those of the Kosovo 2.0 editorial staff. Also, the website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted on the blog stories. All comments that incite and encourage hate speech or discrimination will be moderated.