<nettime> neo-colonial rates

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

Since my parents are divorced and live in two different countries 
(Germany and Croatia) I came to the following interesting 
observations:
1) if I would fly to visit my dad in Croatia this summer I would pay 
twice as much as I would to visit my mom in Germany (also to 
Croatia I would be flown by LOT, Polish airlines, that used to be the 
only European airlines with worse ratings than JAT)
2) when I call my mother I pay three times less than when I call my 
father; the difference is even bigger when they call me
3) when my mom calls me it doesn't matter whether she calls me 
at home or on my cell phone; when my dad calls my cell phone, 
Croatian Telekom (which, btw, is owned by Deutsche Telekom, the 
same company that owns German telephony) bills him four times 
higher rate

One would think that people in Croatia are much richer than in 
Germany - to be able to afford those higher prices. But they are 
not. The average income in Croatia is actually just a fraction of the 
income in Germany. So, the obvious conclusion would be that 
Croats can travel less and use long-distance service more 
sparingly than Germans. Which is the empirical truth. But is it just?

Still, Croatia yearns to become a NATO member - despite the 
evidence of the pains among the recent members (Poland, Hungary 
Czech Republic) - which all just ended up poorer and with more 
defense spending as a result of their NATO membership.

I remember Tudjman's pompous slogan trumpeting Croatian 
independence: "Croatian gun on Croatian shoulder, Croatian vallet 
in Croatian pocket." It seems however that it ended up more like 
this: "American gun on Croatian shoulder, Croatian vallet in 
German pocket."

ivo
---------------------------------------------------------
Ivo Skoric
19 Baxter Street
Rutland VT 05701
802.775.7257
ivo@balkansnet.org
balkansnet.org

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