Veselko Tenžera: Why I Like TV, 1988

I was once told never to write like Tenžera. A sound advice - nobody can, this not in a conceited sense. As one TV lady said: "I cannot clone myself and there is really no need. There must be a change of generations, and style, if you will."

Here's his criticism of socialist TV. Nota bene, this was later published; he actually had a column in Studio, merely commenting TV.


For a good couple of years, every day, TV Zagreb points out examples of succesful companies that agreed upon, concluded, enabled, constructed, envisioned, exported.. with unavoidable dollar amounts at the close, instantly to be realised. Purely using calculus, this makes about one thousand companies annually (the rest of the successful ones is from the third newsreel bit), five thousand in five years. Just imagine the every-day evening triumph of our economy in the newsreel and all those optimistic layers of smug that these triumphs sediment in the spirit of each spectator! There were days when, carried away by cosmoplitan sentiment, I pitied Japan and Sweden, about whose difficulties our correspondents dilligently reported.

The alarming inventory of Croatian economy, prepared in front of my alarm by a man so informed as the president of the executive council of the parliament initially prompted me to phone the TV, and I would have done it if this were only a phone-in show. I would have asked: WELL, WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO ALL THOSE COMPANIES FROM THE NEWSREEL? I would have implored the editors of the newsreel to divulge their addresses to comrade president. Merely one hundred addresses would have sufficed for one decent stabilisation, while they can safeguard the rest for the rainy day, when we are in more trouble.


This is real art. We have meanwhile advanced a bit - there is an increasing number of commercials that none trust.

For real, Veselko Tenžera is reported to have been drinking rakija from the big glass, and water from the small one. As one of my friends commented on Hemingway: "Anyone intelligent would have found escape in alcohol."

As for politics, the SM (small-medium, whatever that is) business sector is said to be most dynamic. Why? You don't rely on people. The downside is that the average lifespan of a company is (really) about five years.

Perhaps we can change this if we talk sense. I had a conversation with an economist who explained no theory at the moment was valid. I honestly still do not understand economics but I did ask one silly question:

What if I don't need an item?

"Difficult Question," circa 1880

The question is: "who does the hat belong to?"