Total Perspective Vortex

It sometimes helps to put things into perspective, if for no other reason than to make readers miserable once again and to make G17+, a Serbian political party with a monopoly over monopolies (i.e. our economy gurus), look bad:

There has been $1.3 billion of foreign direct investments into Serbia in 2005. Some of the biggest individual “investments” were purchases of Apatinska pivara (a brewery famous for its Jelen pivo) and NiÅ¡ Tobacco Industry (DIN, famous for causing cancer), which speaks for itself.

Albeit twice as big of a country, neighbouring Romania had circa $6.5 billion FDI in 2005. Slovenia, a country of two million souls, was at $1.7 billion in 1995!

It has been a long tradition in Serbia to compare our standard of living and political maturity to our neighbours. Seeing Romania and Bulgaria join the EU before Serbia hurts a bit. Seeing them go through transition without major welfare sacrifices is promising, though.

(much of info via Blogoslovenia)