painful perspective

I had to take a whirlwind trip to Croatia over the weekend. The European Association of Social Psychology held its general meeting in Opatija this year. 1,200 psychologists from around the world gather every three years to discuss new theories, old ones, new ideas and ground breaking research.
I was just the driver. Picking up my better half who is, i must brag a bit, one of the world s top up and coming social psychologists. Opatija is much further than i remember.
During my marathon trip i realized one thing - that i don t get out of Bosnia enough. I was shell shocked when i got to Croatia. I mean i go there enough, so its not by any means foreign ground to me. But Croatia is leaps and bounds ahead of us in absolutely everything. I had mixed emotions as i traveled from Karlovac to Opatija.
On the one hand...i was happy and proud for Croatia. They have come a long way. And what they have done, they have done right. The motorways were impeccable. Urban planning was impressive. Landscape architecture was top class. Development was obviously tackled with strict environmental principles. The nature and landscape around their motorways not only remained intact but still mirror the beauty before Croatia embarked on a construction a major road network. On the other hand i was ashamed and pissed off. Our fucking morons haven t managed to get past Visoko in the past ten years. Our lovely towns and villages often resemble ciganluk rather than the clean, quaint towns they deserve to be. Our road signs are rubbish. Our landscape architecture is non existent. Detours and even the main parts of the little bit of motorway that we do have are death traps. YOu can t see a friggin thing. It s dark. The reflectors that might aid one seeing where the hell the road more resemble bicycle reflectors than those of a multi million euro road
Our towns are dirty. I guarantee that less than half of the vehicles on the road would pass a normal motor vehicle inspection. Instead, we settle for 10 KM bribes that allow polluting, dangerous automobiles onto our roadways - willingly exposing ourselves to great danger.
We don t have sidewalks. Our mothers walk our children in the middle of crowded roads. We don t trim the grass along the highway. We allow people to build ugly houses wherever and however they please. We ve massacred the beautiful architectural history of this place. What the fuck is the deal with these pink and glowing green facades?!?! Are we colour blind?
I drive through our stunningly beautiful country....see so much potential...and wonder why the hell we CHOOSE to shit on our goldmine day in and day out. It is, quite honestly, beyond me. My trip was a painful perspective on just how backwards we do things....and how little we seem to care.
Jebi ga.
peace tim