Dej ga na gobec!*

*Punch him in the face!



Olimpija’s Brendan Yarema beating Alba’s player Odor in Austrian EBEL league

OK, so I don’t usually do sports on this blog. Unless of course you count sex and that other thing as a sporting activity. The reason for this is that I can’t even pretend to know the first thing sports. I couldn’t bluff my way through it under any circumstances. But to make an exception (if only to confirm the rule, today’s topic is ice hockey.

As some of you probably know, Ljubljana’s own ZM Olimpija followed suit of its eternal rival Jesenice and joined the Austrian EBEL ice hockey league. After decades of Slovene ice hockey being dominated by the two teams a change was more than welcome, not in the least because both Jesenice and Olimpija could now play against clubs on or above their level. Especially Olimpija performed admirably and qualified all the way to the finals of the league where it has already played five games against Salzburg Red Bulls and through a combination of skill and luck got a 3:1 lead in victories prior to last Sunday’s match. Or did they?

Namely: only hours before Sunday’s game a fax came in, saying that Olimpija was stripped of one victory (the game was played almost a week before), because – watch this – the average age of players exceeded the limits set in the rules of the league. Obviously, half of Slovenia went EXSQEEZE ME? BAKING POWDER? WTF? Average age?!?! What is this? The Little League!?! But there was no avoiding it. Rules are there and you can’t just ignore them if you don’t like them. Funny thing is, that the management of the league sent word only hours before the fifth game, with Olimpija being on a roll and all primed to score what they thought was the last victory needed to win the championship. And the – dissapointment and disbelief. Not only was one of their hard-fought victories disallowed, but was awarded to Salzburg. You can’t really put up much of a resistance knowing that everything you did was in vain. Consequently Olimpija lost Sunday’s game 5:0 and now the victory tally is 3:2 in favour of Salzburg, while only 72 hours ago it was still 3:1 for Olimpija.

While the error was clearly on the side of Olimpija’s management, the fans and the players were outraged at the behaviour of the league’s management, which was clearly aimed at destroying Olimpija’s morale. In responce, it seems, Salzburg is about to get a shot of the Balkans tonight. This evening Salzburg and Olimpija clash for the sixth time in this play-off and Olimpija must win to even the victory tally and stay in the game. A little birdie tells me that Green Dragons, Olimpija’s official fan club/amateur hooligans and the players were given an unofficial all-clear to make tonight’s game a living hell for both Salzburg and the league’s management.

The running joke is that if Salzburg loses the finals, they’ll be off playing in the German league next season, but in realitly Olimpija is the weaker team. But no matter who wins, I (and thousands like me, I’m sure) would like to see the victory being achieved in the ring and not on some clerical error.

The Garden Of Gethsemane (Take This Cup Away From Me)

A biblical story, naturally.

Once upon a time, there was a guy who had clear political convictions. Not that he let them get in the way of having fun or getting laid, but he was quite outspoken about the matters of the world – especially Slovenian politics. But he was a fun guy to be around. A party animal that could hold his liquer. But eventually he settled down and like most of his student colleagues ended up in the media world. Not surprisingly he chose to write for a magazine that more or less echoed his political views and which he read avidly alerady as a student. Predictabily, he was slightly out of his depth at first and when his editors taksed him with digging up the dirt on the mayor of a certain Central European capitol, he turned to a colleague of his working for another media company and asked him if there is a person in the city administration which could spill the beans of mayor’s alleged misuse of public funds or some other juicy details. Now, our hero was a complete greenhorn back then and of course didn’t know that sources are not shared but must be found – or, as it happens in most cases – sources themselves find journalists.

But hey! You live and you learn. So he kept on working, gaining experience and bettering his articles. The political and media world around him, though, reached boiling point as several hundred journalists from all walks of life signed a petition claiming government pressures and even censorship. Did we say “all walks of life”? Not really. A small-but-significant portion of journalists, mostly from our hero’s magazine and other media of similar political alignment did not sign the petition, but instead wrote a counter-petition, an “Ethical Call To Professionalism” in which they denounced the original petition and its signatories. Our hero, possibly still being rather fresh and idealistic, signed this counter-petition together with his colleagues from the magazine.

But Fortune is a fickle lady and owners of the parent company of his magazine (which just happened to be the country’s most influential daily newspaper) had a political change of heart and started attacking the government they previsouly supported. Eventually things started to change at our hero’s magazine as well, as the owners – amid outcries of censorship, similar to those which the magazine denounced earlier – replaced the editors of the magazine and (by extension) changed the political profile of the magazine as well. And within months the magazine ran a story uncovering a network of nepotism and cronyism surrounding and leading up to the prime minister of the country, connecting him to a construction scandal which rattled the country weeks earlier. But as the magazine’s circulation was somewhat low (it wasn’t big to start with, but as a result of editoral changes it dropped even further, losing hard-core readers), an abstract of the story was run in the daily newspaper as well. And lo! behold! One of the two authors turns out to be our hero.

No one knows exactly what happened. Did he realise the error of his previous ways or was he threatned into writing it? Or could it be that he is just a good adapter? Who knows. But I sure wouldn’t like to trade places with him at that particular table, because like J.C. in that olive grove 1975 years ago I’d have wished for that cup to be taken away from me.

BBC On Slovenian Media

I like to think that even a not-so-regular visitor to this puny blog can get a general picture of the way things are in Slovenia. At the very least, you can see how I see things over here, but if you take the time to read the comments and follow the links, I would venture to say that you get a very comprehensive view of the state of affairs. And as the debate has recently focused on media, the following story by the Beebs might come in handy in understanding what had happened.

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In this picture: Blaž Zgaga of Večer daily. Click image to play

The piece is a bit outdated and does not cover the rather recent events at Mag magazine, where the whole thing backfired into government’s face. But… If we neglect the fact that Anže Logar, the head of the Governmental Communication Office barely speaks English (the man holds an MSc, for crying out loud!), I would like to point out the absurdity of his answer that “…journalists are free to ask any question they like” and that is proof enough that there’s no pressure.

I mean – WTF??? Did we actually sink so deep that the government boasts that Slovenian journalists ask questions? Would the gov’t rather they didn’t? I mean, it’s like boasting with compulsory primary education or electricity. It’s kind of entry level standard these days..

So – yes. Slovenian journalists can ask questions they like. But that doesn’t mean that the government doesn’t distinguish between right and wrong questions. Or, in government-speak, between right and left questions. It shouldn’t, but it does. And that’s one way to apply pressure.

History Repeating

The title of this Shiley Bassey song came to mind when I stumbled upon an issue of Delo newspaper dated December 9th 1985. It was a funny feeling. Dated almost 23 years ago, this particular issue of Delo bears striking similarities to today’s headlines. It is as if we are running around in circles. You don’t believe me? Try this on for size:

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1: West Germany Threatned By A Wave Of Strikes
A quarter of a century later the Germans are still up to their old tricks apparently

2. OPEC Looking To Solve Oil Woes
Hm… If you only knew back then….

3. Primož Ulaga Beats World Elite In Canada
The legendary Slovene ski-jumper won in Thunder Bay, Canada and went on to win the Planica event three years later. This year the whole thing was dominated by Austrians

4. USA Amassing Planes Off Lybia?
USA Amassing Planes Off Iran?

5. Hurricane Strikes Germany, Floods Hit Holland
The only difference is that they didn’t name European windstorms back then

6. Page 5: 50 members of Albanian separatist movement arrested
It’s just that today its the Serbs who are getting arrested.

7. Jesenice Decisevly Beat Ljubljana
Well, this time around, Ljubljana got the upper hand. Against the Austrians, mind you 🙂

8. Police Officers Killed In South Africa
Only two?


But, there are also differences…

9. Bishops Agree: A Compromise Between Fractions
A paper, even today accused of being communist, running an article about Vatican proceedings in top left corner back in 1985?. My, my…

10. A New Bankonte For 5000 Dinars
Well, we’re still far from a new euro banknote being issued – let alone one with Tito’s face on it – but, not surprisingly, inflation was a problem then as it is now.

Well, there you have it. If you’re feeling like Bill Murray you may be on to something. Shirley Bassey knew all along, of course 😉

DeSUS: The Little Party That Could

I almost missed it, but there was another poll by Episcenter published Sunday last. Please note, that this poll too – as all other Episcenter polls in this series – was commisioned by the government, which might have influenced the results. But be that as it may, two things are immediately obvious: the ruling SDS of PM Janša has surpassed its oppositon rival, the Social Democrats for the first time. In terms of total percentage points both parties have gained, but while the SD recorded only a token increase in support, SDS made substantial headway. Secondly, the “don’t knows”: this time around Episcenter records a staggeringly low percentage of undecided voters – a mere 19 percent.

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In other interesting races: Zares kept the third place, while LDS (which some of the more prominent Zares and SD members used to call home) gained slightly, closing the gap a bit. The pensioners’ party (DeSUS) gained as well, which means that its eloquent-if-somewhat-sleazy boss does indeed know how to dodge bullets and survive politically. Supporters of Zmago Jelinčič (the nationalist party – SNS) seem to have remained unfazed by formation of rival nationalist party Lipa (headed by former SNS second-in-command Sašo Peče). The latter got a sole percentage point, but that is actually better than expected, as Peče & Co. have little to show for at the moment – save a nice-looking website.

And finally – christian democrat NSi (Nova Slovenija) and it’s slightly more enterpreneurial cousin-party, Slovene People’s Party (SLS) are hovering around the 3-percent mark, with NSi gaining the upper hand this time around. This is the longitudal graph representing all the polls in a single timeline:

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What to say? For starters, if the exceptionally low number of the undecideds persists, we can assume that the polarization has already begun and that a visciously bloody fight for scrap-votes will ensue the minute the EU presidency end. Quite possibly, we won’t even have to wait until then as the SD will apparently have to do something, fast to prevent its ratings spiraling out of control. Yes, there is the presidency and the anti-tycoon drive which have bumbed up Janša’s ratings (as predicted), but that doesn’t mean Borut Pahor can sit on his pretty arse and do nothing but wait. They seem to be aware of that, as they’ve hired the same campaign managers which have helped the likes of Bill Clinton and Hugo Chavez get elected (link kindly provided by abaris, any relation to yesterday’s post is coincidential yet intentional 🙂 ).

What amuses me, though, is DeSUS. Namely: I’ve said on a number of occasions that pensioner’s party and similar cleavage parties (don’t google it 🙂 ) should be illegal, as they go against the essence of democracy (in my opinion at least political platforms should be shared based on beliefs and ideology and not based on age). But they seem to be turning into the little party that could.

Most of you remember the referendum on Triglav Insurance, which was held on the same day than last year’s presidential elections and when the voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposed privatisation of the state-owned financial heavy-weight. DeSUS and SLS went apeshit over it and demanded that the company’s controlling share be trasfered to the pension fund instead of being sold. Exactly a week ago the government passed a bill which proposed that a 34-percent share be transfered to the said fund, hopefully making it solvent for the forseable future. Having achieved this, DeSUS’s president Karel Erjavec seems to have the last laugh for now, as he actually does have something to show for joining the coalition.

Namely, three-and-a-half years ago Erjavec took a lot of heat withing the party, when some of its more fervernt members vowed to cut their remaining leg and burn their walking canes before going in bed with Janez Janša. But Erjavec maintained that their interests will be better protected if they join the colalition as opposed to remaining outside and bitching about it. With Triglav, Erjavec made his point big time. The added bonus being that he seems to bask in glory alone, as SLS is still trying to pick itself up.

Pahor wooing Rupel?

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Borut Pahor and Dimitrij Rupel in a romantic setting.

A little birdie told me Borut Pahor asked Dimitrij Rupel if he’d be willing to stay on as foreign minister. I went LOL, OMG and WTF simultaneously. If the rumour is true, than two things are possible: a) either Borut Pahor doesn’t really want to win the upcoming elections or b) someone big and powerful won’t throw money at you if you don’t co-opt a the last, best defence of US interests in this part of the world.

But hopefully the rumour is not true.