July, 2007 | SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

Belgrade – A Miniature

So, the Stones have left me speechless yesterday, and I will follow suit with today’s post. But not because Belgrade left me in awe, but because I honestly don’t know what to think. Rollo has already dubbed be a difficult tourist because I’m not easily moved by any destination.

I like cities. I’d also like to stare down a volcano or do some serious mountaneering, the likes of which Burja hates. But cities. Me likes. I like the heated concrete, the sound of sirens and screeching tires, the feeling that you get from being out at 2 AM still sweating like a pig because it’s still 28 degrees Celsius out there. By this measure I should have loved Belgrade. Yet I didn’t. I did, however, feel like home. It took me an hour to figure out the traffic-lights system, another two hours to figure out the angles at which streets in the Old City criss-cross and that was it. By the time it was time to go to a concert I was almost able to move freely around downtown.

The city basically left me unfazed.

However….

….there was no way to hide the fact that it was once a great city and will undoubtedly become great again. Personaly I think Belgrade is the “fifth capital of Europe”, next to London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. If I had to make a comparison, I’d say that Belgrade is like a middle-aged woman who cannot hide the fact that she was once gorgeous.

Since this side of the digital divide is more than filled with pictures of Weissburg, let me show you a couple of moments that caugth my attention:

Like the city itself, the plateau in front of Tito’s Memorial Centre (Kuča cveća) demonstrates its faded greatness

The old federal coat-of-arms still hangs on what remained of the building of the Ministry of Interior (destroyed in 1999 NATO bombing campaign)

You can still see waitresses wearing the old socialist regulation footwear that was kind to their legs and ankles.

One of the small surprises was Belgrade’s Hyde Park, or as they call it: “Hajd Park” – the map says so! 🙂

Imagine the smile on my face when a hydrant in Tito’s Memorial Centre sported the name “Pohorje”

The last ever Relay of Youth (1987). Like everything else Yugoslav, its beginning of the end started in Slovenia.

And last but not least… Belgrade serves a decent beer: BG Beer. Goes down so discreetly that you have to have another one just to have it check up on the first one.

So, that was my Belgrade. How was yours?

The Rolling Stones in Concert

6 hours of driving (5 hours on the way back), 50.000 people (10.000 Slovenes), 30 degrees Celsius and one hell of a concert.

Start Me Up, Miss You, Satisfaction, Sympathy for the Devil & Jumping Jack Flash 😀

In case you wondered what the stage looked like

Mick and Keith in action

Ever wondered what happens if 50k people leave a venue at the same time? The bridge starts swinging

To put in the words of Kieth Richards: “Fookin’ wild, man!”

UPDATE: More reactions here, here and here

Belgium Explained To Slovenes (And Whoever Else ) In Ten Easy Lessons

LESSON III : THE MONARCHY

Yet another Arfastic guest-post 😀

Belgian Royal Couple: King Albert II. and Queen Paola. Pengovsky’s been to their crib 🙂
SO WHAT WAS IT?

It was an attempt of our neighbouring countries to have a king on the throne with ties to just about everyone of them, so as they would be guaranteed to have a friendly nation and retain their favourite battlefield. Little did they know that over time, the power of the royal family would dissipate and become all but non- existent…

WHAT IS IT NOW?

It used to be a powerful monarchy, just like everywhere else in the 19th century. But just like everywhere else, the nobility got overtaken by capitalist wealth and the introduction of democracy. And after WWII, the King Issue arose and that was kind of the start of a slow, fatal blow to the Belgian monarchy, which has become the head of state only in name, with an ever increasing number of voices on Flemish side to restrict the king’s role to merely ceremonial. And if you know who’s to come, that would not be such a bad idea in my opinion. But then, I am a republican by nature (not the American kind; the kind that opposes monarchist rule)…

A SHORT RECAP OF BELGIAN ROYAL HISTORY

… Is not on the menu today because, frankly, while it has some political significance, I would like to stick to what I know best about them and leave the rest to Wikipedia, where you can read all about the monarchs up to and including the ones I’ll address today. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of subject matter there which could translate well into a historical royal soap opera. But it would just take me too long and I’d probably bore the death out of you anyway…

WHEN KING BAUDOUIN DESCENDED FROM HEAVEN

When young Baudouin (Boudewijn in Dutch) rose to the throne, he had a lot of public sympathy. After all, he lost his mum in a car accident and had to put up with – allegedly – a wicked stepmother who was rumoured to be after his cherry; a capital sin in the then very catholic Belgium. And he lost the Congo Colony, established by his great- grand uncle king Leopold II (whose bloody reign of terror decimated the Congolese populace after he established it as a colony). He got even more sympathy when he married the Spanish Fabiola de Mora y Aragon. A Spanish beauty for sure, but unfortunately also even more catholic than the pope. Still, after several miscarriages, the people loved and supported them, even though it was clear that religion had instilled some sort of messianic complex in him. Later evidence about talks between him and the dignitaries of those days clearly show that. Imagine that : Jesus came back in the shape of Belgian king Baudouin… I don’t think so.

But times change. And Belgium became less and less devout. And Baudouin became more of a fanatic catholic, letting Opus Dei and the Charismatic Movement into the Royal Court, largely due to Fabby. Also, he decided not to sign the Abortion Act in April 1990, allowing abortion under some circumstances, saying that it went against his conscience. The prime minister of that time, Wilfried Martens, had to perform a trick by declaring the king �?unfit to rule’ for one day so parliament could sign the act to make it law. So our king was declared insane for a day. That’s Belgium for ya…

And what to say about the persistent rumour that after he let Congo have its independence, he knew of and agreed with the arrest and assassination of Congo’s Communist leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961? All this surfaced after he died, though, long after the facts.

Nevertheless, Baudouin still garnered a lot of support from the people, because he showed interest in them and always was the first to arrive after natural or other disasters had stricken a portion of Belgium’s populace. When he died on the last day of July ’93, it caused a mass reaction and people queued up at the palace for a week to greet his dead body. He was the last king that kind of kept Belgium together.

AFTER BAUDOUIN

Some sort of crisis emerged after Baudouin died. His brother Albert’s eldest son, Filip, was originally destined to become king, but was found unfit for the job. So his dad, who up till then had led a life of leisure, parties, mistresses and fast cars and motor cycles, grudgingly took to the throne, kind of like Emperor Claudius who was also a victim of circumstance (although Baudouin was anything but a Caligula :P). There’s not a lot to say about Albert, other than he is somewhat invisible, which is fine to most Belgians. That and the fact that in back in the day, he married the very hot Italian princess Paola Rufo di Calabria. She’s rumoured to have had her fair share of affairs when her hubby was doing the same, and given her looks back in the day, you can’t blame her. One of Albert’s sidesteps brought forth an illegitimate daughter : Delphine Boël. When this became public knowledge (it had been known for a while but never said out loud) the public outrage was more about him not acknowledging his daughter than having her in the first place. But The Palace won’t hear of it, to this day and to the dismay of poor Delphine.

And the royal women are a feisty bunch too, to say the least. Baudouin’s step mother, princess Liliane, couldn’t stand Fabiola and the dislike was mutual, so when Fabby became queen, she gave Liliane her marching orders, together with former king Leopold (who had to abdicate because of his dubious attitude during WW II in favour of Baudouin in 1950; the so called �?King Issue’).
Fabby didn’t like any of the other women either, as she was at odds with Dolce Paola. Guess what happened when Paola became queen? You got it : Fabby got the boot herself and aside of her religious fervor, is nowadays mostly recognized for her absurd hair style and choice in hats (she’s the one on the right). Oh, and she used to write fairy tales too (no surprise there :P)…

There is a lot more to say about his sons, Filip and Laurent, though. Compared to Filip, Prince Charles is a jovial chap. Filip walks, talks and acts like he has a rod up his rectum and is equally convinced that he – and I quote – �?is on a mission (from God)’. He got that idea in the aforementioned Charismatic Movement and from his uncle and aunt, key supporters of the CM within the palace. Also, the future king is supposed to remain neutral about everything involving politics, but since he feels he IS on a mission, he repeatedly has spoken out in favor of or against policies and even political parties. His latest blunder was at the Palace’s new year reception for the press, where he summoned two editors in chief and read them the riot act about their critical views on him. A famous stand up comedian has made a living just by chronicling the acts of stupidity of both Filip and his little brother year after year. Best known quote of Filip, after his first daughter was born : �?It’s a female’ (instead of �?It’s a girl’). Filip doesn’t speak Dutch very well, you see. Another reason why no one up North wants him to be king. He’s also rumoured to be gay and his kids being the product of artificial insemination. Whether or not that’s true can’t be determined at this time. It’s most likely a wild rumour, if you ask me. Sure, he has a rod up his butt, but that doesn’t mean squat in these days of sexual liberty, now does it? 😉 Incidentally, he shares his birthday with… me. Oh, the joy! 😈 Luckily, that’s where all similarities end…

And the prime beef of the family has to be Laurent. Everyone seems to be kind of moving between pity and ridicule when it comes to Laurent. Pity, because he’s always been the wild child, is not very intelligent and is clearly not liked by the rest of the family members. The late king Baudouin is rumoured to have sanctioned an abortion for one of Laurent’s girlfriends, after having gotten the blessing of Belgium’s cardinal Danneels, and he had a law passed that enabled women to become throne successors, in order to prevent Laurent from ever having a chance at the throne (his sister Astrid is now third in line, Laurent’s now 11th).

He lives a rebellious life, had several affairs, one of which was reportedly with the aging Natalija Verboten of Belgium, Wendy van Wanten (trust me, you DON’T want to know what her name stands for), who gave birth to a son by the name of Clément.
He loves fast and gas- guzzling cars, but at the same time has a foundation that �?studies’ ecological projects. However, this is only a construction to keep him occupied, installed by one of the previous governments.
Recently, he was named and summoned in a corruption scandal in the Belgian Navy, where the Navy had �?donated’ their money to the restauration of Laurent’s Villa Clémentine (daughter of king Leopold II, also much a rebel) and to his foundation. Laurent testified and said he knew nothing about the money. An enraged Albert then paid back to the Navy what Laurent supposedly owed him.

Laurent also complained that he �?was poor and didn’t have succifient funds to live on and support his family’ (he’s married to Claire Coombs, daughter of an English father and a Belgian mother and has one daughter and twin sons).
He’s also the royal with at least a – questionable – sense of humor, but you’d have to at least know Dutch rather well in order to get his jokes. He’s been interviewed drunk, dressed up as Santa Claus and at festivals (which he called �?sports’). His interest in beautiful women is also highly documented. And his love for dogs is a point of ridicule for the whole nation.

Nevertheless, when the Dutroux affair happened, he was the only royal who stopped his car when an angry mob was outside the Palace of Justice and tried to talk to them in order to get them to calm down. And he bravely took some insults (�?Why don’t you go and write another book about doggies!’; a reference to him saying he �?wrote a book about doggies’. No, they really don’t speak Dutch all that well in the royal family). Laurent is a controversial guy, but if there still exists some sympathy for the royals in the Belgian populace, I think it lies largely with him.

So there you have it : sex, no drugs (that I know of, although… Looking at Filip, he must be on a permanent high :twisted:) more sex, religion, even more sex and more religion and a bit of rock �?n roll at the end. That’s the Belgian monarchy for you. I don’t mind them existing, but I feel the institution is outdated and absorbs too much of our national budget. If we have to work for a living, why shouldn’t they? But chances are that the institution will become ceremonial, largely because Filip is viewed as a liability for the Belgian reputation. So we’ll see about that in a few years. At times, their antics are highly entertaining, but mostly they exist in a different dimension, far removed from the real life you and I live in. Vive la république!!
Next week my post will coincide with the Belgian National Holiday. High time for some scandals, methinks… 😉

P.S. : Now I’m thinking of it : at the end of this guest series, I’d like to answer some questions you might have about all this. I’m very busy right now, so I don’t always have the time to answer right after posting. So perhaps you can think of some questions, I’ll provide you with an email address at the end of this series and I’ll pick 20 to answer. How about it?

За Београд… To Belgrade…

Pengovsky and rollo will be in Belgrade during the weekend for the Charlie Watts Quartet concert. I will post some material from my former capital as well as from the concert itself on Tuesday (hopefully), but today I’m posting two clips that are at the very best remotely related to Mick the Lick – but they are fun to watch, nevertheless.

Bohemian Rhapsofdy in 25 versions… No prizes for spotting Mick 😉

Evolution of dance. An oldie but goodie. 😀

And since I’m going to Belgrade, this one is a must…

The last clip deserves a post of its own, so a short explanation will be given only upon request 🙂

Benč & Grašič

Here is a promised clip from Rock za prihodnje generacije concert Saturday last. Janez Bončina Benč and Primož Grašič doing a medley of “Navali narod na gostilne” and “Vsak dan ob istem šanku”

Janez Bončina Benč & Primož Grašič doing what they do best

I loved their gig. Both Benč and Grašič are great on their own. But together they were the high-point of the event. Just too bad they were on so soon.

More clips will be availabe at Planet Zemlja Society soon.

All The Presidential Men

All the presidential men… and a woman

As you know, Slovenia is up for presidential elections in autumn this year. Now, the President of the Republic of Slovenia is a curious office. It bears relatively little powers, but its influence is near enormous. The office as we know is today exists since winter 1992, when the current constitution was passed. Article 103 of the Constution stipulates that The President is elected by a popular vote for a five-year-term with a possibility of being re-elected once.

Historically, one of the reasons for a constitutionally weak Office of the President is the fact that – when framing the constitution – Milan Kučan was thought to be unbeatable in presidential elections. That indeed happened to be the case, and since Kučan had enourmous moral and political capital stemming from peaceful democratization and achieving independence, there was a tacit agreement among various political powers that be, that Kučan should not be a powerful president.

Thus the office of the President is largely ceremonial, limited to naming ambassadors, promulgating laws and conferring mandates to form a government. That said, however, the President does have extensive emergency powers. Should the National Assembly become unable to convene, the President can declare war or a state of emergency and even pass laws.

But perhaps even more importantly, the office has high moral authorithy, which was achieved (or created, if you will) by two presidents: former President Milan Kučan (held office for two terms from 1992 to 2002) and incumbent president Janez Drnovšek (holds office since 2002, but said that he will not seek re-election).

Slovenes seem to think of their president as a counter-weight to an increasingly self-involved goverment (any government, not just current one) and thus the voters often disregard “party directions” and go for the person they deem most fit to hold office, regardless of the candidate’s party affiliation. But the definition of “fit” is quite flexible, mind you. Take President Drnovšek, for example. Having been elected on a slightly liberal platform (pro-choice, anti-death penatly), he underwent a radical personal transformation from a somber, even uptight and sometimes perfunctionary president, to a new-age, proto-hippy president on a strictly vegan diet. Curiously enough, voters didn’t mind.

And so this autumn somenoe will have to fill a rather large pair of presidential shoes.

Parties of the political right have found a common candidate in the person of first Slovenian PM and incumbent MEP Lojze Peterle who has been campaigning since last November and is poised to win a substantial percent of the vote – close to 50 %, thus tossing the glove to the political left very early in the game. Since the leader of the Social Democrats Borut Pahor decided to run for PM in 2008, he has to put forward a credible candidate (a rather daunting task, since Pahor is the most popular politician in Slovenia by far).

He picked Danilo Türk, former Slovene Ambassador to the UN and former right-hand man to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Türk is probably a good choice as his achievements are recognised across the political spectrum, making him also acceptable to some right-leaning voters. But for now it seems that Pahor so far failed to “sell” Türk as a common candidate for left-wing parties.

Namely. Liberal Democrats (LDS) have put forward Mitja Gaspari, former Governor of the Central Bank as their nominee… You might remember Gaspari from this post and LDS are apparently counting on a lot od sympathy vote for the fallen Governor. (slightly OT: When Zoran Janković, 6 months after he was ousted as CEO of Mercator, ran for Mayor of Ljubljana, sympathy vote played a crucial role in clinching him a victory in the first round).

Some people believe that the left is better off with two candidates, supposedly ensuring mobilisation of more left-wing voters and making sure they also cast their vote in the second round wheren the best of the two candidates would take on Peterle. Others, of course fear that the vote will be split and that neither of the left-wing candidates will win a substanital percent of vote (say, above 40%), making him unelectable in the second round.

But the second round is by no means a given. It could very well be that Peterle has already built a voters’ base far beyond the reach of any other candidate. He’s been campaigning uninterruped for the past six months and has won support of all three major right-wing parties, clearing the field on the right just for himself. All he has to do is to win enough moderates to get 50% plus one vote and he wins the presidency in the first round.

What may save the day for the left is the fact that there are several “lesser” candidates, which will win a certain percentage of vote, perhaps just enough to stop Peterle short of winning the majority of the vote. These canidadates include Zmago Jelinčič of the Slovene National Party, Darko Krajnc of the Slovene Youth Party, Marjan Beranič, a Maribor-based enterpreneur, Monika Piberl of the Slovene Female Voice and Jože Andrejaš, who won a mock election in Hri-Bar talk show and then decided to run for real.

Anyways… There is more at stake then it seems at a first glance.

Thanks For Caring!

A biiiig thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about yesterday’s concert. Perhaps it could have been better, but it most certainly could have not been at all. What counts is your help, the fact that 3000 people attended and that the message apparently did get across. Guys at city cleaning service said that this was the first gig ever that left Kongresni trg clean and neat.

One of my favourite parts was when a five-year-old girl knew exactly which type of waste goes to which dustbin when recycling. If kids now it, we should learn it to.

The other best part was a short jam-session by Janez Bončina Benč and Primož Grašič… These guys should really start touring together. (photos and video will be available soon… Just don’t tell anyone ;))

I’m only sorry that we were not able to broadcast the event live. The mobile network just wouldn’t let the signal through – and I don’t know why. I did it several times already, but yesterday it just wouldn’t budge.