Category: Ljubljana

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.

Spending Spree

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Pigs, they are…


As you may or may not know, Slovenia recorded an unprecedented 7.2 rise in GDP in first quarter of this year, while the projections hoped for a “meagre” 4.3% growth. Hooray for us!

What troubles me is that the government has decided to increase spending and thus increase the projected budget deficit from 1.0% to 1.2%. It may not seem much, but it is really a 20% increase in budget deficit, which is a lot.

I’m not an economist, but I distinctly remember from my lectures at the University that during periods of economic growth any responsible government will try to balance the budget, because it will inevitably have to resort to deficit spending once the economic boom looses momentum and the economy slumps. Our finance minister and his boss will aparently have none of it and decided to go on a spending spree.

Naturally, noone thought about compensating Ljubljana for the withdrawal of funds (read: daylight robbery) earlier in the year.


As if we were in a pre-election period…

Trubači Fejata Sejdića

Ever been to Guča? Me neither… I plan on going to. But in the mean time, Fužine seems to be a good second choice, as Trubači Fejata Sejdića (Fejat Sejdić’s Brass Band) has a gig there until Sunday, June 10th (inclusive). We’ve had a lot of fun there Wednesday night…




Ej kome sada moja draga
na djurdjevak mirise
na djurdjevak mirise
meni nikad vise
evo zore evo zore
Bogu da se pomolim
evo zore evo zore
ej djurdjevdan je
a ja nisam s onom koju volim


or, as Mark Knopfler would have it:


Juliet, the dice were loaded from the start
And I bet and you exploded in my heart
And I forget the movie song
When you wanna realise it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet ?


Sorry… I’m a bit introspective these days

Catch 22

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The Mayor and his very able head of PR service


A funny thought occured to me the other day… If the administrative divison into regions goes on as planned and Ljubljana does become a region unto its own, there’s a high possibility that the law will prevent a single person holding both the office of the mayor and that of the regional head.

And with regions becoming the pricipal player in defining the financial relations with the government, the position of the mayor will be weakened considerably, as the municipality will (figuratively speaking -or not) be left in charge of painting the road-signs and mowing the lawns.


This is still speculation, of course, as the legislation on regions is facing huge obstacles within the rulling coalition, but I do sense a certain anti-Zoki sentiment here… First, they take away the money. Then they choose Maribor over Ljubljana as the country’s Cultural Capital of 2012 (again diverting funds away from Ljubljana). Just a couple of days ago they announced a measure to preserve the current “architectual and otherwise” state of Ljubljana’s Central Market, preventing the start of construction of an underground parking lot there. And now this redistribution of power is looming. A coincidence? I don’t think so… More like a Catch 22.

Declaration of War


The Mayor doing the thing…


OK, so the liberation festivities are more or less over, but what a week-and-a-half it was! We’ve liberated Ljubljana, seen Franja hospital and fought for workers’ rights, to name but a few exploits.


But while we (OK, me) were steeped in history, politics was being made, and as everything had more than one meaning these past few days, so did the speech by mayor Janković, which he gave on 9 May. It wasn’t an ordinary “patting-myself-on-the-back” speech.


It was a declaration of war.


It seems that Zoki is not so sure about striking a deal with the government anymore.


P.S.: I just realized that I left out the best bit with Zoki saying that the people of Ljubljana are being punished for making a democratic choice and defying the government. Boys are bringing in the big guns, apparently.

P.P.S.: The fact that former president Milan Kučan was made honorary citizen of Ljubljana at the event might have percipetated the amount of venom of Zoki’s speech. The mayor is widely seen as Kučan’s frontman and prime minister Janša considers Kučan his greates political rival and arch-enemy.