Thank you all for your support and encouragement. In October 2011 I published my first blog article and with well over 2 million readers, visits, from 227 countries and independent territories over that time I must be doing something right. Over those 14 years, I’ve published on this blog more than 1,400 articles, most of them long, well over 1300 words for in-depth guides and analyses of issues or matters affecting progress into full democracy during the long, drawn-out transition from communism in Croatia, communist crimes in former Yugoslavia. I, my articles, have been quoted in academic articles, mainstream newspapers, as well as books, especially those addressing transition from communism, reintegration of war veterans into society, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and others.

In today’s digital era, where information is easily accessible with a click or a tap, blogging has emerged as a powerful medium. The newsroom has changed. Thirty years ago, the world’s news was fuelled by mainstream media, and the plight of the professional journalist was to find the big story and break it…accurately, simple as that. In today’s world, with print media employing fewer people, bloggers have entered the scene and are typing away at their computers with their voices becoming louder and louder. The roles of traditional mainstream news and the blogosphere are blurring.

My blog articles are mainly pitched to those of Croatian origins living in non-Croatian speaking countries as well as the world in general so that their knowledge of Croatia, its thousand-year pursuit for freedom, and its history may be added to or corrected with facts, the truth. Given that during its reign in Croatia after World War Two, until 1991, the totalitarian communist regime of Yugoslavia had purposefully distorted the Croatian history of independence struggles and moulded a culture that does not lend itself to life of democracy it was only to be expected that to right the wrongs, to transition into a culture of democracy was never going to be easy for Croatia. Les Shaw’s 1973 book “Trial by Slander: a background to the Independent State of Croatia, and an account of the Anti-Croatian Campaign in Australia” serves as an excellent example of trials and tribulations patriotic Croats have had to endure. And so, I guess, by having this blog, I thought I could contribute to the struggles of correcting the untrue accounts of the past in Croatia that would build paths to a brighter future for all who live in Croatia and Croats everywhere. It has been the historical lies about freedom-loving Croats fabricated and spread by Yugoslav communists and their ideological allies that need much energy and attention so that justice prevails in the end. After all, I commenced writing on this blog because the former communists who idealised communist Yugoslavia were increasingly creeping into positions of power and hence, influencing most of the Croatian mainstream media to start regurgitating lies about the Homeland War, uplifting nostalgia for communist Yugoslavia once again. Aligned with that attempt to criminalise the Croatian Homeland War from within, the Western mainstream media had in many cases become unjust and unkind, again, to the Croatian truth; often leaning towards presenting half-truths, biased content; funded by leftist political ideologies’ purses. The encouragement for my blog initially came from young adults of Croatian origins born and raised outside of Croatia and I thank them profusely for that. Given that I choose a topic each week that relates to Croatia as a nation, rather than local or regional issues, it would seem the path of contents in my blog posts has been a useful one, albeit hard in terms of work and energy required. But I am blessed with all of you who read my articles as am grateful for sharing them to your circles.

In the past 35 years of independent Croatian statehood, the fundamental problems that sadly have evolved to a crystal-clear status that seriously threaten state sovereignty and, ultimately, security within the country can be wrapped up in the following: the ongoing support by many of the communist Yugoslavia constructed myth of the WWII Jasenovac Camp despite the many scientific researches debunking the myth , the rather widespread tolerance and “praise” of the Yugoslav legacy, which should have been dumped as unwanted after the 1991 referendum on seceding from communist Yugoslavia, and the support of the activities of the Serbian Orthodox Church within Croatian territory that vehemently deny Croatian independence. It does seem that Croatia is currently engrossed in a kind of a vicious cultural and political war where the former communist regime, via its apologetics, still fights to conquer democracy and patriotism in Croatia. To me, it has all the hallmarks of an ugly war that prolongs a successful transition from communism into democracy and makes it all the more difficult. It would seem that my blog continues to have a positive role in the pursuit of Croatian truth. Thank you all for your support. Ina Vukic