Please Rise for the National Anthem…

Our Beautiful Homeland Beautiful is our homeland, O so fearless, o so gracious, Our fathers' ancient glory, May God bless you, live forever!

You are our only glory, You are our only treasure, Yes, we love your plains and valleys, Yes, we love your hills and mountains.

Sava, Drava, keep on flowing, Danube, do not lose your vigor, Deep blue sea go tell the whole world, That a Croat loves his homeland.

When his fields are kissed by sunshine, When his oaks are whipped by wild winds, When his dear ones go to heaven, Still his heart beats for Croatia!

History of Croatia

• Croatia is the new state, established in 1990, recognized by the United Nations in 1992.

• For the last fifty years Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, the government, public administration, foreign affairs, military and police, mostly formed by Serbs.

• The lands that include Croatia today were in time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of World War I. In 1918, the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a kingdom known as Yugoslavia, after 1929.

History of Croatia Continued…

• After World War II, Yugoslavia became a federal independent Communist state in the power of Marshal TITO. Even though Croatia had declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, “it took four years of sporadic, but often bitter, fighting before occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands.” Under the UN supervision, the last Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia was returned to Croatia in 1998.

Damage During the War• Over 400 destroyed or severely damaged

Croatian Catholic churches

• 210 destroyed or damaged libraries (from school libraries to such famous libraries as those in Dubrovnik),

• 22 killed press agents, who were trying to reveal the truth about the aggression against Croatia

Burned down library

Buildings near a

Roman Catholic Church

Environmental damages •The most serious environmental damages in Croatia have been caused by past wars. Waste materials in war zones are causing pollution of groundwater, soil, and rivers. Many natural habitats, especially forests, were destroyed by fires. Air pollution is caused by traffic, burning coal and industries. The government is trying to promote central heating instead of gas for homes because it causes less pollution and is cheaper.

Literacy Rate Primary education in Croatia is mandatory and

free because it is usually sponsored by the Ministry of Education.

Due to the low wages that teachers are being paid, there are shortages of teachers throughout Croatia.

• If you graduate from a University, you are looked up upon and are offered the best jobs. The literacy rate was 98.7 percent in 2006.

Status of Women All women have the right to decide on their

reproductive life and whether or not to exercise safe birth control, and are free from discrimination, pressure or violence.

On the other hand, the Catholic Church encourages women to be seen only as mothers and housewives. They don’t expect women to go to College or to get a good job that pays well.

• The Catholic Church advocacy plans to ban abortion and their rights to control their fertility and to self-determination.

Croat i a Popul at i on Profi l e

0200, 000400, 000600, 000800, 000

1, 000, 0001, 200, 0001, 400, 0001, 600, 000

0- 14 15- 64 65 +

Age

Popu

lati

on

Mal eFemal e

• 0-14 the male population is 363,551 while the female population is 345,132. • 15-64 the male population is 1,501,949 while the female population is

1,517,962. • 65 and higher the male population is 295,229 while the female population is

467,720 • Total population is 4,491,543 people.

56,414 sq km 62,809 sq km

Since Croatia is a small country (56,414 sq km which is about the size of West Virginia) and Croatia is above average. This was in 2006.

Densi ty ( sq. km)

0102030405060708090

Croat i a Wor l d

Peop

le i

n 1

sq.

km

Ethni c Groups of Croati a Of 2001

0

20

40

60

80

100

Croat i ans Serbi ans Others

Ethni c Groups

Perc

enta

ge

• Croats make up 89.6% • Serbians make up 4.5%• Others make up 5.9% (including Bosniak, Hunga

rian, Slovene, Czech, and Roma)

• Roman Catholic (87.8%)• Orthodox (4.4%)• Other Christian groups (0.4%)• Muslim (1.3%)• Others (0.9%)• None (5.2%)

Rel i gi ons of Croati a I n 2001

020406080

100

Rel i gi ons

Percentage

Bri th Rate Per 1000

0

5

10

15

20

25

Croat i a Worl d

Per

1000

• Compared to the World, Croatia is below average for birth rates.

• Although the birth rate is low the infant mortality is low too.

I nf ant Mortal i ty Per 1000

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Croat i a Worl d

Per

1000

Rate of Natural I ncrease

- 0. 2

0

0. 2

0. 4

0. 6

0. 8

1

1. 2

1. 4

Croat i a Worl d

Perc

enta

ge

In 2008, the population decreased instead of an expected increase. The decrease was -0.043.

Total Fert i l i ty Rate (TFR)

0

0. 5

1

1. 5

2

2. 5

3

Croat i a Worl d

Expe

cted

Bir

ths

in a

life

time

Economy of Croatia

Croatian National BankThe Bank's main objectives are to maintain price stability and

support the economic policy of the Croatian Government. It

manages the national currency, the kuna, issues banknotes and

coins, and holds the national monetary reserves.

GDPThe GDP recorded for Croatia’s economy as of 2007, is 275,5 billion Croatian Kuna or just over USD 12.400 per capita.

Exporting and OutputShipbuilding dominates the industrial part of Croatia’s economy; with exports of over 1 billion Euro’s annually, shipbuilding accounts for over 10% of exported goods. Food processing and chemical industry take significant portions of industrial output and are responsible for significant part of exported goods. Industry represents 27% of Croatia’s total economic output, and agriculture represents 6%.

AgricultureCroatian agriculture comes from exports of blue water fish, which in recent years experienced a huge demand, mainly from Asian countries, such as South Korea and Japan. Croatia is a producer of organic food, and much of it is exported to countries of the European Union. Wines, Olive oils, and Lavander are high demand products made in Croatia.

Tourism Tourism is a big source of income, particularly during the

summer months but also more recently from winter months, due to an increase in popularity of snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding. With over 10 million foreign

tourists annually, tourism makes a profit of 7 billion Euro’s. Croatia is ranked amongst the top 20 most popular tourist

destinations in the world.

During the summer, tourists enjoy Croatian beaches, making the country an evened out tourism spot, from the winter and

the summer.

Stock Market

The Zagreb Stock Exchange or ZSE is a stock exchange which operates in Zagreb, Croatia. The exchange trades

shares of Croatian companies, as well as bonds and commercial bills. It is the most known market in Croatia,

and also the largest one.

The official share index of the Zagreb Stock Market is the CROBEX. It currently includes 30 different stocks and it is calculated during the trade using the latest stock prices. It is measured using ‘free float market capitalization’, where

the weight of stock is limited to about 20%.

A free float is the estimation of shares that are not held by large owners.

These are facts about Croatia’s economy taken from the CIA fact book:

GDP - real growth rate: 5.8% (2007 est.)GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $15,500 (2007 est.)GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 7.2% industry: 31.6% services: 61.2% (2007 est.)Labor force: 1.749 million (2007 est.)Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 2.7%, industry 32.8%, services 64.5% (2004)Unemployment rate: 9.6% (2005 est.)Population below poverty line:national absolute: 11% (2003)internationally comparable: 4.8% (2003 est.)Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.9% (2007) Agriculture - products: wheat, corn, sugar beets, sunflower seed, barley, alfalfa, clover, olives, citrus, grapes, soybeans, potatoes; livestock, dairy productsIndustries: chemicals and plastics, machine tools, fabricated metal, electronics, pig iron and rolled steel products, aluminium, paper, wood products, construction materials, textiles, shipbuilding, petroleum and petroleum refining, food and beverages; tourism.Debt - external: $45.29 billion (30 June 2007 est.) Currency: kuna (HRK)

10 Year Plan• To bring the Croatian economy back to its fundamental and

prosperous state once again, we should: * Create a new government in which we replace the president, Stjepan Mesic, the prime minister, Ivo Sanader* Assign new roles to the leaders of Croatia in charge of the socialist republic* Seek to form a mass movement of militants who are willing to engage in violence aganist their political opponents * Use revolution aganist governments in order to allow the movement to gain power * Not oppose solving existing economic, political, and social problems by achieving a millenarian national rebirth by praising the nation or race, and promoting forms of unity, power, and clarity * Retrieve more money by taxing the riches and goods* Use energy more effectively* Keep the population at a stable level or try decreasing it * Try getting at more smaller businesses for a stable stock market (50% debt, 45% people, 5% gov't officials) * Build more colleges + increase benefits for teachers rather than avg. working class 

Sava River and other rivers were greatly polluted... we should: *  Lighten pollution + damages made from war* Help supply millions of people, industry, and agricultural areas by bringing the croatian economy back up...