NZ woman loses hand in Croatian yacht sex
This headline hit your shores a day or so after we heard about it here – does this tie in with my conversation a couple of months ago about New Zealand women being the most promiscuous in the world?… actually she didn’t lose her hand – it was carefully re-stitched by surgeons in Split, but who knows how much movement she will regain in it. New Zealand being the place that it is (you know, 2 degrees of separation instead of the standard 6 degrees), someone reading this may be able to say who the poor woman was – the visitors here from New Zealand were asking.
The other ‘scandal’ in the local paper is that of all of the towns toured by our lovely NZ cultural groups, Makarska was the only town that did not behave hospitably by providing food as is the norm in most cultures – and if you look carefully at the photo, you will see that it is our own ex mayor, Tony Covich from Waitakere City Council, the erstwhile ‘Super City’ (before the current even more ‘super’ city). He and his wife Ivica stated in the article (and I quote) ‘Sram me kao nikadu zivotu’ – literally, I am ashamed like never before in my life. Tony Covich says that this is the first time in 75 years he has been ashamed of Makarska. Serious sentiments but ones that were being bandied around by others before this article appeared.
The generosity of other individuals was limitless however – Mate Jujnovic – ex Croatian kiwi for 20 odd years – provided the transport for the whole tour, and from what I understand, no hotels required payment and they were fed and watered wherever they went.
The local paper is also filled with another conversation which, depending on who you are talking to needs to be in hushed tones – it is a conversation which is kind of incredulous from our (kiwi) perspective, but in this perspective has a different layer of meaning. I mentioned one day that there were bus loads of visitors who arrive in Makarska each day to take advantage of the lovely beaches here. The key word here for some people who have dared to say so out loud is ‘advantage’. The story goes that these people come for lovely day trips, they bring their picnics with them so that they don’t have to spend any money, they spend the day on the beach, have a shower at the end of the day, rinsing the soap and shampoo off under the lovely fresh water (which then runs into the sea), and then climb back on the bus with happy hearts from the day at the beach. Seems reasonable from the perspective of beach culture in New Zealand. But the comment that has escaped the lips of a journalist here goes as follows – these visitors are costing the town (in clean-up costs, rubbish removal etc) and are not contributing a cent to the economy. The flow on from that comment is ….oooohhhh, a hornet’s nest!
The rubbish on the beaches is an issue – I have mentioned in a skiting way about the beach that I wander to in the afternoons, which now has a huge pile of rubbish waiting for removal.
I for one can’t see why if you can carry full bottles of drink, food to eat for the day, together with beach mats, and lilos for the sea TO THE BEACH, that you then find yourself with broken arms that render it impossible to carry the same articles, lighter now that you have drunk the liquids and eaten the picnic, AWAY FROM THE BEACH.
I wonder what would happen if the rubbish bins on this remote beach were removed and a sign put up that simply says ‘leave nothing on the beach except your footprints’. (Apart from the fact that there is no sand, only pebbles, and footprints in the sand may not translate in this situation – but you get the point).
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