Thursday, June 14, 2007

Feral Tribune

Via the always informative Yakima Gulag Literary Gazett, some bad news, one of the best independent news papers in the Balkans, The Feral Tribune, is shutting down.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shaina,

that 64 year old (beep) from Sarajevo is communist Serb http://www.blogger.com/profile/05484903653746525806 .

She is posting disgusting photos of Sarajevo so she can spread hatred, intolerance, and portray Bosniak culture in bad light.

She is "Yugoslav" nostalgic, and horrible human being. That pathetic old woman censors my comments, and she is trully disgusting.

Shaina said...

Dan,

What does this have to do with the Feral Tribune being shut down?

I really do not want to have my blog turned into a shouting match between bloggers, or anything of that nature at all. Especially over an argument that I am NOT even involved in.


I really hope that everyone will respect that. I really value every single commentary that I get on this blog; and a not so subtle hint-I want more! (Of course, I would need to write more entries myself, I've been slacking lately).


Now, back to the actual topic at hand; what are your opinion on the Feral Tribune being shut down?

What about everyone else? Personally I think it is very unfortunate.

Anonymous said...

It seems that Feral Tribune has a massive outstanding VAT bill. I find it difficult to credit that Croatia imposes 22% VAT on newspapers. In the UK books and newspapers are zero-rated for VAT. During the first half of the 19th century Britain had a newspaper tax which was considered a "tax on knowledge". It would be very difficult for any politician to try and bring in that sort of levy again. It obviously promotes domination of the media by commercially successful publications that are less likely to challenge the rich and powerful.

Shaina said...

what is a VAT bill? (I'm assuming that the "T" stands for tax.)

Anonymous said...

VAT is value-added tax, It's a cascading purchase tax - accruing on the value added at each stage of the production process and finally paid by the end-purchaser as the equivalent of a purchase tax. Like most consumption taxes it is essentially inequitable (the poor are normally obliged to spend a greater portion of their income on securing a basic existence). To avoid economic distortion it should normally be levied equally on all products. In practice to counter some of the regressive impact reduced or zero rates may be applied on essential goods. In the Uk (which has a 17.5% rate compared with Croatia's 22%) non-restaurant food, children's clothing and books and newspapers are zero-rated and domestic fuel is taxed at a reduced rate.