Meet the Mighty State of Uhljebistan in Croatia 

Thank you Paul for fighting for Croatia in your own way!

You are doing more for Croatian tourism and marketing than half of people employed in those sectors here

Once again Paul you nailed it! Alkar Paul u sridu 👌

Well there it is!! 🎯 Bless you Paul. Ps..that little bit of optimism towards the end is priceless and very welcomed. 🥂

Absolutely nail it👌🏻👌🏻 I left Croatia 1998 ..I had my own business since I was 19 but can’t have any success because of inspectors (you have to bribe them a lot if you want to survive.) I struggled 7 years and then went to work on cruise liners to escape that madness. 25 years is gone since I left but I still have that bitter taste in my mouth every time I land in Zagreb. It’s hard to explain to my British husband how I feel because all he can see is that beautiful country.. One need to feel on your own skin ,then one can know what is Uhljeb,nepotism ,bribe and injustice .. So many young highly professional and educated people arrived in Manchester area ( where we lived) because they don’t want for their children to grow up in environment like that …

Not the main reason but certainly major one for me leaving Croatia specifically Rijeka in 1984. Got exhausted fighting incompetent idiots in the position of power. Sad but true not much changed. Creative class would love to build this Godgiven beautiful country but can’t afford to waste their lives on stupidity. Thank you Paul, you are one of us. Brave one. Courage is the key to life itself

You're so right about uhljeb culture, it's not only in Croatia, I'd say all former Yugoslavia countries apart maybe Slovenia have a same problem.

Croatia is certainly not the only country that has this particular problem. I'm sure that nepotism/cronyism exists in the UK as well but is perhaps not nearly as widespread as here. You ended the video on a positive note so let's just be optimistic.

You nailed it Paul ! I met a few foreigners who leave in Croatia permanently. But they know very little about Croatia. Most of my family lives in USA same thing ! I guess that’s how it goes you can’t live in two places at once. I watch a few of your videos. It must be a year ago. I think that RU-vid disconnected my bell reminder. I will check your content more often. Thanks !

I worked in Croatia(cres) in the kitchen for couple of months last year and I loved it apart from a fact that I got really bad covid at the end of the summer so I left earlier. I want to live very simple life. Just riding bike, swimming in the sea, relaxing and work just to get basic stuff(so maybe delivery on the bike at some tourist resort or something would be great) I also can imagine that I would really enjoy winter in Croatia. When it's calmer with less tourists. Just hiking in nature..

That is the single biggest and by far most important challenge Croatia is facing at the moment! Interestingly, it is actually something we inherited from Yugoslavia and socialism where a single party was in charge and you had to be a part of it to succeed. Now, while I feel like all the press coverage did impose negative connotations of being an uhljeb onto many young people (at least the highly educated urban ones), it is still so omnipresent that most people just take it for granted and do not believe there is an alternative. Thus, the change will come with time, mostly simply by younger generations entering the workforce. Also, a controbuting factor is, funnily, the fact that public sector salaries are so low they make uhljebstvo somewhat unnatractive - making uhljebs rely upon bribery and straightforward corrpution. Therefore, the path to victory might be to simply expand USKOK's activities from large scale affairs to hard pressing low-level officials. Fun topic! 😄🤷‍♂️

Well, thanks for sharing the truth! This was so well said, in a way... and yeah, I am one of those young people who immigrated from Croatia, 85% of that exact reason! It was very frustrating for me to watch since young age those things, especially because my parents had a very hard time before, and by paradox my father is ingenieur (now retired) but he never got recognition and praise, not because he was bad at it, mostly because my family was never a part of that certain political choice outthere. It sucked, but what to do. I still love my homeland as a beautiful nature place & rich culture of it and I am happy to visit, but I am still strongly repealed by exactly those things you mentioned in this video. Warm regards!

Totalno ste u pravu

I've been binge watching for a couple of hrs now, your content is really refreshing. As a Zagrepčan, I can completely empathize with you.

This video is everything. Thank you!!

Thank you Paul

Great work Paul. Really well put. I completely agree.

There is a decent amount of mouth breathers as well.

Love this. Couldn't said it better myself.

Yes! Bravo!

There are uhljebs everywhere. Croatia is no exception. I live in Canada and people who work for government are equally inefficient and lazy as people in Croatia who work for government. Main difference is the bureaucracy which is simplified so the dumbest among us can understand it and amount of people working for government.

really like how you explained it Paul Bradbury​ ! You not only told the story, but you have made it your story too, caring and fully understanding the pain of Croatian people. it so much resonates with me, I admire you for this. THANK YOU!

Hey Paul, i‘ve dicovered your channel right now. Because of your story on Steve from Vinkovci. You are doing an amazing job! Appreciate! Cheers and greetings from a Croat living outside Uhljebistan for many many years.

Everything is correct except "... it comes from the Serbian word Hleb..." Noup, that is not correct, "hljeb" is also an old Croatian word, also an Old Slavic - Indo-European word. We have changed the dictionary a bit in the meantime.

briliantly explained

Yes! You got it right. The real problem is people with a very little knowledge or capabilities working on very demanding positions, making wrong decisions, and not knowing how wrong they are....

Well done on this

I like your honesty in relating that for 13 years you were unaware of the nature of this country. Just setting up here doesn't immediately give one insight and many people quite naively believe they know how things work here having just visited for a few summers. You, living here, needed 13 years! That's really important information to relay as the problem is so pernicious, so long-standing, that it's old enough of news that it's assumed normal and it's not properly explained to visitors or people who just moved here... Thank you for so succinctly and honestly explaining this for those who need it said in English! I often watch the capable and talented struggle in whatever job they can get here and it kills me to see it. The wrong people have the key positions... Keeping the status quo kills innovation and advancement. This causes a great deal of suffering, enough of which I've seen first hand to make it difficult for me to be hopeful. I want to be... If I keep watching you, maybe that spark of hope will come back to me!

Paul you are awesome!

Well done!

Sir, you rock!❤

Wow, I love your conclusion! Thank you for that. At a point I thought it was just going to a bit more depressing end.

Many many thanks Paul for this particular YT, as I presume a large number of foreigners might see it and better understand what Croatia is, why it is so, and that the huge majority of us Croatians are not directly responsible (indirectly definitely we are, since we are apolitical enough to sustain the State of Uhljebistan). Your wording "Inbred in bread" is soooooo correct, I love it! About Jelsa in particular, I had exactly the same type of response back in 1999. I believe, as a student of architecture very interested in Jelsa (as it used to be my go place for holidays). I proposed to the then Mayor and also owner of a tourist agency (btw a friend of my late father, also I became later his son godfather, so actually could become his "uhljeb" in a way) a way of getting great information about Jelsa to the potential, incoming and also present tourists, before the age of mass Internet. This because I saw that information on Jelsa and its territory was given to the tourists then as photocopies of various restaurants, bars etc in large ring binders that were obligatory stationary in each apartment. The photocopies were really bad, both technically and graphically, also missing all public information (just the businesses were listed). None of that information was available anywhere other than inside an apartment in Jelsa, and noone prior to arriving could get it anyhow. As this was before Internet, but already in Windows and CD time, I presented him with the idea of making a virtual digital map of Jelsa and it's territory (thinking ahead to possibly later include the whole island of Hvar, then possibly move on to wider areas). The map would basically be a non-online CD version of what Google Maps started doing in 2005., with layers upon layers of graphical and symbolic information tied to textual information that would present a much larger number of locations in the territory, including of course all of the businesses (their working hours, telephone numbers, menus etc etc), but especially all the public places available. All the churches, parks, beaches, roads, bycicle and pedestrian paths, medical facilites, police, firemen, bus, ferry and boat stops and routes and timetables, shops, car and boat mechanics etc etc would have been represented. As it would be on CD, the CD's could be given to tourists arriving in appartements, and if they didn't have a laptop with CD with them a computer might be available for several rooms in a joint area. Some of the material from the CD could still be printed out for their binders if needed. But the added benefact would be that those CD's were extremely cheap and could be given out at tourist fairs, sent by mail to potential tourists on their booking, given away to tourists that arrived in Croatia on petrol stations or the border entry points, or on Split/Starigrad/Drvenik/Sućuraj ferry building etc etc. Even the CD's in the apartments would be freely given to the tourists to take home if they wanted so they could either browse through it to get more info for possibly returning next year, or give it to friends and family and possibly incite them to come. Of course when internet penetrated a few years later it could have been totally ported into it, removing the need for CD distribution. Well, the answer was: "Who would use a computer for that? That is totally unnecessary..."

Spot on,.. cheers from Croatian immigrant in Australia

Go for it. You are so right!

You're good. Spot on for "Full of Uhljebistan"! :)

Just one side note - hljeb is Croatian word for bread as well. It’s a bit archaic, and word kruh is more commonly used, but it’s Croatian and doesn’t have any connection to Serbia in this case. That’s why you have Hlebinje.

Got it in one Paul, but things are getting better if a little slowly than we would like.

Bravo !

well done Paul.

I think my username says a lot about Croatian system. Paul, good job. Also, i am from Zadar which is in begining of video, also big city in Uhljebistan

I came back after 9 yrs of living abroad (NYC, Tel Aviv, Sprinkle, Cluj) and what you said at the end is true, online systems (eGradjani, portal Zdravlje, START system) are making moving back a bit easier (still had to fight a bit with uhljebs at Trade court, healt insurance, police :))

More uhljebs, less 'full of life, for sure.. It's good that a 'naturalised one of us' speaks out....as we sadly learned to be silent and just take the crap. Keep the good work Paul.....while we slave for our £s in the UK, and dream of home.

Nije mi zanimljivo ono o čemu ljudi govore, nego ono o čemu gromoglasno šute. Ti si, Pavle, čuo o čemu svi šute! :)

Paul, Thank you for raising voice about "uhljebi".

good point man

Complete agreement, there is nothing to add or substract.

Bravo 👏

So true! Hi from village Buševec! 🙋🏻‍♂️🛰👍

Bravo

Uhljeb is a way of life right across all former Yugoslav Republics, including Croatia. Back in the early fifties, dad was told that if he joined the Communist party, his life, and the life of his family would improve immensely. So, uhljeb by political rather than family or friend means. He left Croatia!

same thing in Greece , i think in all Med

We have something similar in Poland. I've heard many things like "katoland", "kaczystan" and "kraj kwitnącej lipy". It all boils down to the same problem Croatia has - the way things are done.

Thank you Paul! You summarized it perfectly! That was the reason most of us emigrated. Sad but true. Such a Beautiful country but full of UHLJEBS.

Next time I go home to Croatia id really like to shake your hand and buy you s pint. Fair play.

I am glad you talk about this. Honest people cant get decent job without good connections. Young people but also those in their mid years leaving because they cannot have stable employment, better pays and overal situation in country. Corruption is quite spread around. Frankly i do not care for political parties or politics, i am not member of any as such i do not have any connection nor do i have job that i should have. More and more i think leaving somewhere else simply because with current job and pay i barely can live. I cannot afford myself a new car even an used newer car, i cannot buy myself apartment, i am forced to live with my parents and i am in thirties because i simply do not have enough money nor i want a credit for next 30 or so year. I love my country but i hate what it become.

Bravo Paul 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏💪💪💪💪💪💪

Hello my english friend, the reason why there are so many uhljebs in Croatia is, there was no "lustracija" after the war, so practically Croats won on the battlefield but didn t fight the enemies in the system/administration etc.

My dear Paul Yu hit the nail on the head It was always like that No matter which political party. When I was young in 1968,I worked in a firm as pripravnik

You are on a right way, keeo digging and enjoy in hipokracy

Spot on! We need to talk about it publicy. I also think that people are leaving Croatia primarily because of Uhljebistan state of mind. You can't do or achieve anything big or serious properly because od corruption, lack of interest and lack of capability of people in important places. Most of the time you can't even get a job.

Paul, how would you rate our humour vs. English? I like English people mostly because of it and was wondering which on is "better" I guess....or more offensive? Anyway, I'm glad we have you here. God bless.

My friend, you have penetrated to the essence of the problem not only of one Croatian but also of the other republics of the former Yugoslavia, as a hereditary defect of the scattered communist system and legacy that survives to this day. The honor of the inherited bureaucracy has been rolling in these areas for the past 35 years.

As a croatian myself i agree

That's very very true and it should be changed 👍

What's even more fascinating in my opinion Paul, is that those who are uhljebi will go out of their way to deny they are one, that most of the people have got their job through nepotism and to convince people around them that the community they live in is way better off than it actually is (despite your very eyes and ears telling you otherwise). It's this delusion they perpetuate to both mask the ugly nature of way things work and as a way to feel better about themselves. Cheers from a Slavonian in Bavaria.

To a tee!

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Come and visit Imotski two wonderful lakes in the world

Unfortunately uhljeb or nepotism isn't just a Croatia thing, but unfortunately it seems to have been refined to an artform in Croatia. (Dealing with inherited property has been a nightmare to say the least for me recently). You rightfully point out Paul that there is an element in the bureaucracy that are simply incompetent to the point of being comical ... similar to Basil Fawlty ... but this impacts in profound ways on the croatian people (the mass immigration of it's most talented, as you point out is one) and those wanting to invest & trade with/in Croatia. There was some hope that with the acceptance into the EU that uhljeb may be stamped out but from my experience and those of family and friends overthere, it's the 'same old same old' or 'business as usual' 🤔

Paul strikes again! U sridu!

That's basically it. The reason why so many of us want to leave the country. Everywhere I look there's injustice and nepotism. Because of that I haven't watched the news in 15 years. For the sake of my mental health, I don't even want to know what's going on here. I rely on my friends and colleagues to let me know about the really important stuff, and the rest I don't want to know. And I'm counting down days to moving away.

Paul you shouldn't have get involved with local politicians that was mistake but on the other hand now you have become truly one of us cheers

Just a tip. Hljeb isn't a Serbian word. Hljeb and different versions of it can be traced in East Slavic languages. Good video. Cheers!

Well noticed , Paul . Being Croatian myself wasn't even aware if it ..

omg i love you

OK, so now I can see you're not the guy to listen to. I grew up with Croatian grandparents... So I can come there as a Croatian. I only know two Croatian words. The only two my grandfather ever spoke to me. Good and Love You. So when you finally kick off from a massive coronary. We wont have to listen to this anymore will we?

..istina ziva.. XemX

"And I think Croatia is due for a better future" - Riječi ti se pozlatile :)

I love you,and i am a 45 years old streight man.If you ewer run for Croatia president i will vote for you.Cheers from Šibenik!

Paul thank you to bring this up. After I got my first job in former Yugoslavia, I was wondering why HR lady (kadrovska) tried to find my family background and she got disappointed because I did not have anyone who would push me into that position. Later I learned that a candidate for that job, exposed member of social youth, gave up opportunity and pick up another job. This was engineering job without any real need for political righteousness. Months before, I was denied other job, because I refused to provide recommendation of university social youth organization. The guy who asked me for that later become HDZ member. This happened just before breakup of Yugoslavia, but it seems it did not change much today.

Now you know why I left Croatia ! Darn Uhljebistan .

I have the inside story about this. As the IT engeener that was trying to find his place under the sun I was asked what political party I am a member on the bleeding job interview. I have seen your birth country not on the same level as you have seen mine but I do have something to say. While I knew back in the day that the UK was the part of the EU and that I will not have a chance there I went regardless as my knowledge of the language is on the good level. And I've seen ohhh so much nepotism in the midlands and smaller towns so within 5 months there I booked a ticket to Ireland from the amazing accent city of Birmingham straight to Dublin. Sorry about my Dublinism that I have now after years living there just can't help myself BTW I still think Birmingham is the best town in Europe - It gave us the Black Sabbath. Also index I've seen beeing called imbex sometimes (from imbecile) so I wouldn't worry about them calling me whatever they want to call me Stay strong and know you are the most prominent promoter of the country you live at

It's the only thing keeping me out of Croatia. I miss the culture and people so much. Now I live in Germany and have made a lot of progress in my career. It would not have been possible to achieve the same in Croatia because the corruption is so strong there.

Communism is not just an ideology , it is in the genes of the uhljebs. The media is also sponsoring this by making it very important to know to which party someone on the tv,radio or in the news ,belongs. The names are not important ,it is the party membership that is the most important to describe someone.

Yes, but have you tried the uhljeb way? It's very cozy existence, I assure you.

Standing ovation 👏👏👏 for as long as it exits together with greed which I find also appalling Croatia will perform below its capacity and capability unfortunatey.

Paul, dont forget, everyone in some form of authority position wants their palm to be greased.

I hope you are right about the better future, u really understand how it works, thank you so much for speaking about it... but, unfortunatelly, we a(croats) all know about it and its almost the part of our culture... its the leftover boomers from socialism mentality... this country can only move forward if we get our mentality straight, but its hard when there are 40-50 yearold uhljebs who dont know how to do any other job than being an uhljeb at their current workplaces..

If you are an "uhljeb", then you are the most useful uhljeb in Croatia for sure. But then again, any amount of usefulness makes the uhljeb argument null and void ;)

To je Ruski izvozni proizvod. Iz nekog razloga kod nas dobro ukorjenio

I'd like to meet you 🙂

At college I had a professor that taught let's call it electronic calcualtion,to say she was not qualified is not good enough. Often students themselves corrected her because she spoke nonsense,used prewritten material that she obviously would try to memorize word to word without any understanding and pass it unto us. She got a job thanks to the political party she was a member and she didn't even hide it. There was a news article about her about a decade ago where she was accused of buying a decree in electronics lol. It's all true and authorities didn't do sh it...the extent and depth of corruption in Croatia is insane. There's an old quote form a 19th century Croatian writer A.G. Matos,goes something like (I'll try to get the context and the rhyme right) "So many miracles were witnessed by us(Croats) yet never found enoguh rope for all the Judas." If there was business in exporting traitors and spineless,worthless worms that our politicians and their lackies are we'd be no1 in the world.

You didn't live here during socialism, when connections/acquaintances were a prerequisite for any move. A song from that time Parni Valjak, Vrijeme je na našoj strani: ... My connections are quite thin I know a pretty one who works at the bank counter Sometimes I get a drink in a cafe over the line and that's all ... 45 years of such a system spilled over into a mentality that did not exist before socialism. The solution is not a criticism of uhljeb, the solution is a "small state", in which there is no room for uhljeb.

U Hrvatskoj puno Uhljeba ali nijedan Ukruh! velik je to problem, ljudi ne rade poslove po kompetenciji nego po vezama i politici

Bojim se da ništa od bolje budućnosti kad i dalje imamo samo podobne 😢 a ne sposobne…

With the general purpose AI dawning upon the clerks, lawyers, etc. Uhljebi will finally cease to exist, at least in the present state of matter.

Great now we need to import balls too! Respect!

That, that on 3:30 is the sad truth about Croatia.

You are correct in describing business and politics in Croatia this way (leftover from communist times), however sick Western woke-liberals have now archived pinacol of total UHLJEB phenomena as you speak. So stay there we need you.