'So many incidents have accumulated meanwhile that at this moment in Croatia any other perspective, except those well-steeped in the sweat of "love of country," is intolerable. For Croatia thrives on patriotism. Political ignoramus that I am, I cannot forget the fact that our golden boys, whether consciously or not, are camouflaging the moral, political, governmental, and economic bankruptcy of Croatia. There are elections coming up and homogenizing the people is a priority to insure that they'll vote again for their own usurpers. Croatia hasn't moved forward an inch since the end of the Homeland War, in fact it is slipping backward; tens of thousands of people are moving away in search of work; many Croats are, literally, starving, they have no jobs, nor will they be able to find them; the people in positions of authority have destroyed whatever they could destroy and devoured what there was to devour. Soccer balls slamming into goals can be counted on to distract, at least briefly, from the crimes, corruption, excesses, and incompetence of the Croatian government. The cheery red-and-white checkerboard design is a grotesque cover-up for defeat, first and foremost a defeat of morals. And the moral stumbling hasn't bypassed the soccer players themselves, they are not just spinning the soccer ball, but also vast sums of money. And besides, in countries like Croatia, soccer victories serve as a moral whitewash of the political elite who have gambled away the country's future, if it ever had one.'
Een fragment uit een essay van Dubravka Ugrešić (2018) in: The age of skin, vertaald door Ellen Elias-Bursać.