Month: November 2007

Dan Republike / Republic Day

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The Old Man


A bit of yugo-nostalgia today… November 29th was the biggest public holiday in former Yugoslavia. At the very least it was on a par with Labour Day (May 1st). Born in late 70’s I still had the opportunity to observe how the first thing people did was to check on which day the 29th “fell”, i.e.: what day of the week it was. Because if it was a Thursday (like today), people would normally take Friday off and all of a sudden they were facing a prospect of a mini-holiday at the end of November.

It was a feast for us kids as well, because a week before that schools were abuzz with “bratstvo in jedinstvo” (broterhood and unity). Sometimes kids from other republics came to visit (we never went anywhere – it was an injustice, it was!), most of the time army recruits from local barrack came to give lectures about the Yugoslay National Army and what an honour it was for them to serve in Tito’s army (well, they had to say it, because our class teacher was married to a high-ranking Colonel in Ljubljana army district), and we all felt that this day must really be important – and by extention we felt important too.

But why 29 November? On that day in 1943 the second session of Antifasistic Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia (Antifašictičko viječe narodnog odlobodjenja Jugoslavije – AVNOJ) took place in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where (among other things) the council was declared the supreme legislative body, removed the king from power (but stopped short of declaring a republic), made Comrade Tito a marshal and – perhaps most importnatnly – decided that all five nations (Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Motenegrians and Macedonians) will remain within Yugoslavia. Basically, Yugoslavia was re-established on that day after it was wiped off the map two-and-a-half years earlier by aggresion of Nazi Germany.

Before rabid nationalists come flocking this way, let me also add, that one of the decisions AVNOJ took was, that nations of Yugoslavia decided on their commom future based on an inalienable right of self-declaration which was one of the strongest legal arguments for Slovene declaration of independence 48 years later.

But to quote apatrid over at the Lexicon of Yugoslav Mythology: “only pigs had an aversion to the glorious date“. Late autumn is slaugher time in this part of the world :mrgreen:

Already Married?

A little birdie told me that Prime Minister Janez Janša and the Captain of his heart Urška Bačovnik might already be married. Obviously, this is pure hearsay of the best kind (a friend of a friend of a co-worked of someone’s second aunt’s cousin), so please, take it cum grano salis. But as the story goes, the happy couple is said to have had a civilian wedding some two weeks ago, with the religious service to be held some time in spring of next year.


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Already married? JJ and Urška in an interview for Radio Ognjišče (foto: Izidor Šček, source)


Personally, I don’t think there’s much to it, as JJ has little to gain both in terms of politics as well as PR by marrying Urška in secrecy, but then again, there is an off chance that he’s just waaay crazy about her.


P.S.: Thanks for all good wishes yesterday. Special thanks go to Disablez, Mišo and Uroš for helping with my computer headache. After pulling an all-nighter I it turned out to be a bad PHP install. Go figure.

Evicted

Mayor of the City of Ljubljana Zoran Janković apparently realised that he is fighting an uphill battle with the government, so he decided to adopt sabotage and guerilla tacticts.


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Zoran Janković during Tuesday’s press conference


According to stories in today’s edition of Delo and Dnevnik dailies, the city administration refused to extend the lease agreement with Slovene Democratic Party, which for the past 15 years rented office spaces on street Komenskega ulica. The party was apparently offered (but refused) three other locations, while their present one is to become HQ of Lekarna Ljubljana (city owned drugstore company), which in turn is being evicted from their present location as that particular building was de-nationalised and returned to Ljubljana Archdiocese.

SDS, at the moment the largest Slovene party now has until October 27th to move to a new location. It shouldn’t be a problem, but it sure is a hassle in an election year. And while city administration claims (and SDS agrees :-o) that this has nothing to do with the row between city and the government, noone actually believes that. 😉

Pathetic

The government of Janez Janša as expected survived yesterday’s vote of confidence. The show we have had the dubious pleasure of seeing, however, bordeded on the inexplicable. What we have seen was the good old paranoid Janez Janša, who basically acused everyone who did not toe the line (his line) of high treason.


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Janša analysing an issue of Delo newspaper (photo: RTVSLO)


His speech lasted for the better part of two hours. One would expect that – given all the supposed economic successes of this government – Janša would go on and on about it like an Energizer bunny. Instead he just leafed through it, showed a couple of powerpoint graphs and (among other things) claimed that higher birthrate in this country is a direct result of his government’s policies. Riiiight….. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that baby boomers are simply having kids…

But before that, for and hour and a half, we’ve seen some very blatant and direct attacks on Slovene media and some journalists in particular. Janez Janša kept asking himself rhetorically, where is this so called pressure on the media, since everyone seems to be attacking the government (in that moment he produces an issue of Delo newspaper, with marked articles by journalists who signed the anti-censorship petition).

Now – since in the past few days I was asked that same question – let me aswer it (although I must admit that doing so makes me feel rather uncomfortable, because journalists sure as hell aren’t the only ones feeling the heat in this country) :

The very fact that the prime minister debates work of journalists in the parliament is one of the most clear examples of media pressure. Two journalists, authors of the petition were named (by their names and surnames) in the parliament by the prime minister as being a tool in the hands of the opposition.


What. More. Do. You. Want?!?!


Perhaps the fact that one of these journalists was interrogated by the army intelligence in 2000 while Janša was minister of defence because he had published a confidential memo?

Or perhaps the fact that a moderator on national radio was fired (and then re-hired afer a public outcry) for making an unappropriate remark about the PM?

Perhaps the fact that non-government aligned media have a tougher time securing advertisments from government-owned companies who are still the largest advertisers in the country?

Perhaps you’re still not convinced and you don’t know about our foreign minister at one point telling the media that it would not be benefitial to them to pick fights with the government?

Or perhaps the fact that national television lent a willing hand in removing Mitja Gaspari as governor of the Central Bank?

Perhaps even the fact that (while they were good chums) Janša controlled Delo daily via Laško brewery, had a cooperative supervisory board, a cooperative CEO (Danilo Slivnik) and an even more cooperative Editor-in-Chief (Peter Jančič)?


You see, politicians all over the world find it hard to resist the urge of subjugating the media. Slovenia is no exception. It never was. Even the LDS is not without sin in this department. Janša was right on one point – that media cartels were established under LDS and we still feel the effect today. However, that does not make him any less responsible for media pressures that were (and apparently still are) exerted under his tenure.


But are big bad media being accused of?

Well, for starters, the said petition. Apparently JJ has no problems with rebelious journalists. Until it gets out, that is. He explicitly said that the problems journalists have should have been handled at home and that they should not have been brought to the attention of foreign and international organisations. And I went… WHAT. THE. FUCK!?! But wait, there’s more! Remember the Strojan family? And The Erased? The PM finds it insulting that he has to answer questions by foreign media about these problems when there are much more important things at hand – like Slovene presidency of the EU

Newsflash: Nothing, and I mean nothing is ever more important than human rights and freedom of information (and sex :)). I’m usually the one told to shut up, but this time I must admit that I am at the loss for words, disgusted and shocked by actions of my prime minister who – in a desperate attempt to keep face – accuses journalists of high treason for not falling into line of national unity just prior to EU presidency.

For the record: I personally don’t feel the pressure any more than I did prior to Janša’s rise to power. The Firm™ is far too insignificant for that (or maybe not – I still can’t get an FM frequency). But I soooo hate being told what to do, what to say and what to report. And if got yesterday’s message, than you can be sure a lot of other people did too. It doesn’t matter that most of us will not obey it. Pressure was brought to bear by the prime minister of a EU member state in the most public place of all – a session of the parliament. It was pathetic.

70.000

As promised, this is another Sunday Special by pengovsky.


Ljubljana saw the largest gathering of people since the end of World War II. 70.000 (yes, seventy thousand) workers demanded a rise in basic wages. The constant tug-of-war between the unions and the employers was fueled by rising inflation (shown in 10 – 20 percent raise in prices of basic food comodities such as bread, dairy product, etc…) which hit those with small incomes hardest. Employers of course will hear nothing of it and the end result was that negotiations broke down and unions took to the streets.



Unions don’t demand a staggering raise in wages – a mere 3.5 percent, just enough to offset the inflation. And – as odd as it may seem, the minister for labour Marjeta Cotman supports their cause. As does presiden-elect Danilo Türk, as you can see on the video.

Iif unions’ demands are not met, they will call a general strike. Which will make the 70.000-strong crowd seem like a picnic. So employers should think twice about not heeding to unions’ demands. I can understand that it may seem like blackmail, but if Slovene economy is really doing better, than a pay raise should be no trouble at all. The unions know that the days of free lunches are over. That’s why they called the demonstration on a Saturday. The employers have been given a fair warning.


And since things can be lost in translation, let me just explain the last part of the video. I used a song by Jani Kovačič, Delam (Working) – which is about people not being able to find work and still having to feed their families, while the only “work” they get is standing in a line at the local unemployment office. It became the unofficial anthem of Slovene working call (and others who are simply overworked).