As we all know, the main stream media not only ignores – or misrepresents – the lessons of history, they do the same with current events. Here’s another interesting story out of Europe (like the one about Estonia) that we could all stand to learn about, analyze, and discuss. But you’ll never hear about it from the msm since it involves a fight between government corruption and free-market economic policies and conservative principles.
 
Croatia, population some 4.4 million, is located on the Adriatic. Rather crescent-shaped, it’s wedged between Slovina, Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina. A beautiful country (Really! Check out the images on Google.) with mountains, lakes, islands and a craggy coastline that’s over 2500 miles long, Croatia has the potential to become the Switzerland of Southeastern Europe… IF – it can recover what’s been lost in the last several decades.
 

 
Jeffrey T. Kuhner, a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute, a Washington think tank, recounts Croatia’s history of the past century, a sad tale:
 

Under Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, Croatia was reduced to an economic vassal of Belgrade. From 1945 until his death in 1980, Communist dictator Josip Broz Tito imposed a brutal police state. His multiethnic empire subjugated Yugoslavia’s constituent peoples – especially Croatians.
 
Tito sought to smash the two great sources of opposition to his totalitarian rule: the Croatian peasantry and the Roman Catholic Church. His regime murdered more than 200,000 Croatians, including countless priests and nuns. Churches were confiscated. State-sponsored atheism was inculcated systematically in the youth. Press freedoms were abrogated. Dissidents and anti-communist intellectuals were shot or imprisoned. The environment was ravaged. Economic collectivism destroyed private enterprise and personal responsibility. Cronyism and corruption became rampant. Croatian nationalism was suppressed savagely. In short, Croatia’s moral and historic core – traditional Catholicism fused with Central European civilization – was eradicated.

 
And if history teaches us anything it’s that when God gets pushed out or thrown out of any society, something has to fill the vacuum – from totalitarianism to a thugocracy. Since Croatia’s 1991-1995 War of Independence (from Yugoslavia), it’s been a country plagued by corruption:
 

The governing Croatian Democratic Union, known by its acronym HDZ, is the political expression of this gangster ruling class. Its former prime minister, Ivo Sanader, is under investigation for embezzlement, bribery, corruption and influence-peddling. High-ranking sources both within the government and outside say that, along with his cronies, Mr. Sanader plundered public assets. They have amassed huge personal fortunes – all at the expense of the Croatian taxpayer. The HDZ elite have stolen or siphoned off about $1 billion – a grotesque sum for such a small nation. Mr. Sanader belongs in one place: the dock. He should answer for his crimes to the Croatian people…
…Hence, there is little transparency and openness. Political connections and bribery are necessary to personal advancement. A healthy, vibrant society is based upon pluralism, the rule of law, entrenched private property rights and meritocracy. Croatia has none of these.

 
But maybe, just maybe, Croatia had found the champion it needs in Natasha Srdoc: Croatia’s Iron Lady. To turn the country around, Mrs. Srdoc and her newly-formed political party – Croatia 21st Century- advocate “tax reform, market-driven growth, spending restraint and Catholic social values – especially by strengthening families and health care”.
 

She is a staunch critic of government corruption. Hence, she is fiercely opposed by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). The regime has labeled her “an enemy of the state.” She and her family have been threatened. She has become a dissident in her own land. For Zagreb’s politicians, Mrs. Srdoc is Public Enemy No. 1…
…Her key pledge – the one that has Croatia’s governing class trembling – is to send every corrupt politician to prison and to confiscate their illicit enrichment.

 
Sounds like a plan! And apparently her message is resonating with her fellow Croatians. Polls show that the majority agree with Mrs. Srdoc that the country shouldn’t rush headlong into European Union membership because, as she puts it: Croatian people expected through this (EU) negotiation process that Croatia would be able to establish rule of law, an independent judiciary, protection of property rights, and, above all, to get rid of rampant political corruption… However, we haven’t seen that happening.
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An ocean and ½ a continent away from us, it’s hard to know for sure all the intricacies surrounding the Croatian situation, but right now their unemployment is at a staggering 20 percent. For the youth, it stands at 30 percent. Reckless spending and soaring deficits have pushed Croatia to the brink of national bankruptcy. (Kind of sounds like where America is headed doesn’t it?) So something’s got to give.
 
Srdoc’s proposals could go a long way toward improving things. As Kuhner says:
Croatia’s conundrum is that it is a Central European nation governed by a Balkan political class – dishonest, venal and incompetent. This may change. If it does, it will dramatically alter the country’s destiny. The HDZ is part of the past; Mrs. Srdoc represents the future. Will Croatians seize it?
 
Let hope so.