SLEEPING WITH PENGOVSKY

The People Have Spoken

Well, look what the cat dragged in… The reason pengovsky was mum these past few weeks is, well, political. As some of you know, I’ve been involved with President Danilo Türk’s re-election campaign. Specifically, I co-handled the (social) web part of the campaign. Which is why I put the blog and my column in Nedelo newspaper on hold and severely limited my presence on Twitter. Even The Firm™ was put on back-burner. The reasoning behind this was two-fold. First and foremost, there simply was not enough time for everything.

Second, I wanted to exclude, as much as possible, any possible conflict of interest. The Firm™ does not usually report on national issues so that wasn’t a problem. But for my own sake as well as that of the president’s, I didn’t want this blog to become an echo chamber for the campaign. Hence no posts, no public opinion polls, no Friday Foxies, no Monday Morning Meat, no nothing. Also, it would be unfair to write a column for a national newspaper while actively working in favour of one candidate, despite the usual “does not represent the views of the newspaper” disclaimer. Call me a pussy, but that’s the way it was. Not that it mattered. As most of you know, last Sunday Danilo Türk lost the elections to former PM and former leader of Social Democrats Borut Pahor in what for all intents and purposes was a landslide. 67% to 33% (albeit with low, 42% turnout) is as serious an ass whooping as it gets. The reasons for that are many, but I’ll leave public analysis of the defeat to others. Although, for the record, most analyses published until now are way off mark. And so, the next president of the Republic of Slovenia will be Borut Pahor.

President elect Borut Pahor and a cloud of tear-gas in front of the parliament

However. During the final crescendo of the campaign, a wave of protests hit Slovenia which radically altered the political environment in this country. Or, rather, showed the political environment has long since changed but nobody got the memo. Starting in Maribor, seemingly over a dodgy private-public partnership on speed-traps in which the private partner got as much as 92% of all fines collected, it quickly turned into a general revolt against city mayor Franc Kangler who is being investigated on numerous corruption charges and – adding insult to injury – got himself elected into the National Council (the would-be second chamber of the parliament) after some very obvious horse-trading. Maribor exploded, a peaceful protest turned ugly, riot police were deployed and within days what was thought to be a local issue of public discontent turned into an all-encompassing wave of protests all over the country against the political class in general. There’s a fairly decent if somewhat simplistic report by The Beeb on the issue.

Omnishambles

Pengovsky imagines it can be somewhat baffling from an outsider’s perspective to see lovely-but-predictable Slovenia turn into omnishambles in a matter of days. Two things, deeply interwoven, are at play. First: the general dissatisfaction with all things political. Turnout on Sunday was criminally low. As little as 42 percent of eligible voters bothered to show up for the vote where they directly elect the highest political authority in the country, a person who despite the limited powers of the office has enough clout to keep things running while others can’t. A popular tribune, someone to turn to when all else fails. The national father figure (or mother figure, while we’re at it). Well, nearly sixty percent of the voters said two days ago they simply don’t give a fuck. As a result, Borut Pahor was elected president with as little as 28 percent of total votes available. And that includes the votes of the political right which overwhelmingly voted for Pahor (reinforcing the image of him being in cahoots with PM Janez Janša – but more on that in the coming days). On the other hand, Danilo Türk got as little as 14 percent of total votes available.

This of course shows, beyond a shadow of the doubt, that what many people claimed for some time now is in fact true. Politics as we know it in Slovenia is completely and utterly de-legitimised. It is no longer of the people and for the people, let alone by the people. A large majority of the people in this country simply don’t care a pair of fetid dingo’s kidneys about the purest of political processes any more. On the other hand, they do care about the country they live in and the social, economic an other injustices which not only did not go away despite many a promise to the contrary, they were ever more present and became painfully obvious as the crisis dealt a blow after blow to the people of this country.

At the moment protests in Slovenia are directed against many different targets. Mayor Kangler, Mayor Janković, prime minister Janša, interior minister Gorenak, the failed industrial and construction tycoons, the banksters, even the president-elect Pahor already found his way to the “Gotof je” (He’s Done With) posters. But there is a common message to these protests. The people realised they’ve been robbed of their own country. And they’ve come to take it back.

The coalition with the cops

Remember. Despite the fact the shit hit the fan just prior to the second round of elections, this thing is not political. Not in a typical sense, anyway. It is anti-political in the sense that it shuns established politics, but is apolitical in the sense that it will not conform to any given party agenda. In fact, what we are seeing here may be the re-birth of civil society and active citizenship. While the political establishment went to great lengths in making sure things remain predictable, it apparently turned a blind eye to this vast area of political expression whose only problem was that it did not conform to established patterns and therefore did not exist in the eyes of the political establishment. Again, we’re talking about more than a half of eligible votes. This is not peanuts.

Additionally, the protest movement (which appears to be totally decentralised and operating via Facebook) has made it obvious that demonstrations must be peaceful. Leaflets and posts are being circulated on how to react in case someone starts stirring up trouble. Also – and this is very important – the movement did not declare the police as the enemy. In fact, coppers made it known of their own accord that they in fact sympathise with demonstrations, but since it is their job to keep the public order, this is what they are doing. The police, too, are spreading information on how to react if violence erupts and are trying to make the people understand that if things go south, there are limits to what the cops can do on the sport, especially in terms of discriminating good guys from bad guys.

And things do go south. Not only in Maribor, but in Ljubljana as well. Friday last was particular shambolic. A crowd of nearly 10.000 people gathered in front of the parliament for a peaceful protest amid a very tense atmosphere, but a group of right-wing extremists and/or neo-nazis started stirring up trouble, just in time for the evening news (which suggest at least basic level of coordination). Riot police intervened and picked some of them up, only to trigger an (expected) attack by about a hundred or so hooligans who needed just the flimsiest of excuses to start throwing everything they could get their hands on at the cops. Tear gas was used a couple of times (it tastes like aluminium foil). There were plenty of injuries, but luckily nothing overly serious. The scenario was repeated yesterday in Maribor and apparently today in Jesenice (albeit on a smaller scale). But at least for now, the people see the police as their ally. Which is why demonstrators are giving cops carnations as a sign peace. A coalition was struck between demonstrators and the police and it is making the powers that be highly nervous.

80’s are back with a vengeance

The current government is losing it. Its rhetoric is ever more similar to that of Yugoslav authorities during late 80’s, when Janez Janša was arrested on charges of treason by the federal army, sparking protests which eventually led to Slovenian statehood. Back then, the army claimed that only a handful of people are behind the protests and are manipulating the masses. About a week ago interior minister Vinko Gorenak claimed more or less the same about a week ago. Back then, the army said it was the Slovene media which fuelled the protests by reporting on them. Today, a member of the supervisory board of state television, a man close to the ruling SDS, demanded that journalists reduce their reporting on protests.

Additionally, pegovsky knows of at least one case of a journalist being removed from this story because the powers that be were not happy with how this person reported. The ruling coalition almost rammed through a committee debate on the role of the media in the protest. And just as the people in power said back then they’re willing to listen to the demand if “they’re put through the proper channels”, representatives of the right-wing politics are saying that protesters could be listened to, if there were anyone in particular to talk to (adding that protesters really should care more about this country) Yes, 80’s are back. Only this time with a vengeance.

And finally, as the ultimate proof that the government doesn’t have a fucking clue about what’s really going on, just prior to election night – and no doubt in response to President Türk’s open support for the peaceful protests – prime minister Janša shot a 15-minute “address to the nation” where he blames everything and everyone but himself for the current situation. And I mean everything. From the second world war on.

As for president-elect Pahor? Well, he sold his soul to the devil, so to speak. Exit polls showed that his average voter was a middle-aged male supported of SDS. His people try to spin it as “bridging the political divide”. But what they don’t get is that the political spectrum as a whole slid very much to the right and that a) Borut Pahor did not so much bridge the gap as much as simply land with the right-wing, and b) a powerful disconnect has taken place, where more than 70% percent of the people did not vote for this president (one way or another).

But let’s leave this and more for another day.

Police Raid Zoran Janković

Ljubljana mayor Zoran Janković got raided by law-enforcement agencies early this morning. The CrimPolice knocked on his door at about 6 am, produced a search warrant and searched his place, places of eight other individuals and fourteen places of work. While Janković himself was apparently not detained during the course of the investigation, six people were. This includes his two sons (one whom was in hospital, where his wife was having a C-section) as well as Uroš Ogrin, general manager of Gradis G, the principal contractor in the Stožice Complex project (and several other construction projects in the city).

Cop cars in front of the City Hall earlier today (photo: The Firm™)

Officially, the primary focus of the investigation is the Stožice complex and the flow of money surrounding it. The commercial part of the complex still isn’t finished, allegedly because GREP (a company established by Gradis G and the other contractor Energoplan for the purpose of constructing the complex) can’t secure a final credit line of about 15 million euro in what is essentially a 350 million euro project. Specifically, the police suspect (among other things) money laundering, abuse of office and fraud.

Right now no charges are filed. They usually aren’t in cases like these. It will take the cops over at National Bureau of Investigation some time before they sift through the pile of papers they’ve confiscated but it seems inconceivable that the prosecution would not press the case all the way to the court. Regardless of how watertight the case against the mayor really is.

Because even though everyone was loath to look at the case from the political point of view, it is obvious that the ramifications of this case go beyond mere questions of legality of Janković’s actions. With him being the president of the largest party in the parliament this somewhat levels the political playing field in Slovenia, since his arch-rival Janez Janša is knee-deep in the Patria Affair. Somewhat being the operative word here as no charges are pressed as yet against Janković, while Janša is standing trial. Since the investigation was apparently opened a year and a half ago it would be unfair to say that the whole thing is purely political, but there are too many coincidences here to just brush them off.

First, as with almost every other big story in the last year, the whole thing broke while PM Janša was out of town. This time around he was in New York, attending the UN General Assembly, calling for a world without genocide (I’m sure everyone else went: Hey, why didn’t we think of that?). Second, this happened after the State Prosecution was transferred under the portfolio of Ministry of the interior, now ran by Vinko Gorenak of Janša’s SDS. And third, the fact that the raid happened on the same day Jankovič’s daughter-in-law was in hospital, giving birth via a C-section, reeks of intent to humiliate. These procedures are planned in advance and while pengovsky is not pointing any fingers, it looks as if someone was looking to add insult to injury.

But even if these are pure coincidences, fact remains that the spotlight is now firmly on Zoran Janković and this will be exploited by his political opponents in every way, shape or form. Indeed, it wasn’t long since president Danilo Türk was called upon to “publicly denounce” Janković, who was Türk’s first PM nominee after 2011 elections and whose party Positive Slovenia supports the incumbent president in his re-election bid. Funnily, no-one calls on SDS presidential candidate Milan Zver to publicly denounce Janez Janša due to him being tried in a court of law. And you can be sure Borut Pahor will try to jump on that particular bandwagon as well.

But while the right-wing will howl about how this is the beginning of an end of Jay-Z and the “entire left wing”, there is an issue that will have to be dealt with mostly by Positive Slovenia and sooner rather than later: as things stand right now, the party appears united behind their man. But in the past members of this party and other notable left-wing politicos claimed that Janša should resign the moment the court accepted the charges against him filed by the State Prosecution. With regard to their leader, the SDS maintains that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. As expected, they are not willing to extend this luxury to Janković. But Positive Slovenia claimed an altogether different criteria, which is definitely more in line with the concept of a modern democracy. Thus it will be interesting to see how they respond if charges against Janković are indeed formally pressed.

On the other hand, however, there’s always the possibility that Jay-Z will spare them the grief. Tonight he categorically denied any possibility of him resigning, but then again, you never know…

Do Not Put On Knob And Bollocks

Yes, shit is going on in Slovenia, the presidential race is looming ever larger and the parliament just passed a law establishing the Slovenian State Holding company, which rounds up every asset this country holds and basically puts all of our eggs in one basket worth 10 billion euro (all that via a controversial shortened procedure and Bob knows who’s watching the basket). But today we’ll leave Janša and his branch-a aside (inside joke, I’ll explain eventually) as the following is much too fun to ignore…

It would appear that the 200 ml Veet for Men Hair Removal Gel Creme is getting some mixed reviews from the customers over at Amazon UK, some of which might make you cringe. And when pengovsky says mixed he means brilliantly awful and when he says cringe he means howling with discomfort even when reading it.

Here are just few random examples:

The bollocks I knew and loved are gone now. In their place is a maroon coloured bag of agony which sends stabs of pain up my body every time it grazes against my thigh or an article of clothing.

Afterwards, there would be Dave and the Twins, hairless but with none of that sharp stubble that my wife complains about.

Trying to find the words to describe it is difficult but imagine, if you can, having your scrotum industrially sandblasted from a distance of about a foot with broken glass mixed with acid and salt.

Although as a man I lack the required experience, I’m going to estimate that using this product is at least eleven times more painful than childbirth.

And many, many more. Read them at your own risk…

(hat tip to Ian and Joan)

[VIDEO] Fabiani Bridge

In late August, Ljubljana finally got a crucial piece of traffic infrastructure which completed the so called “inner road ring”. Fabiani bridge across the Ljubljanica River connects Roška and Njegoševa streets, cutting commute time between Poljane and Tabor neighbourhoods by a substantial margin. The bridge itself was controversial. Bridges tend to be. This particular bridge is a two-level construction with motor traffic on top and pedestrian and cyclist traffic below. Also, it is a four-lane bridge connecting a three-lane road to a two-lane road, which raised many-an-eyebrow. But it works.

However, the lower level of the bridge was just as controversial: a bicycle lane which starts on one bank and does not go in a straight line to the other bank was a point where mayor Zoran Janković and vice-mayor for urban planning Janez Koželj got plenty of flak. Also, the stairs on the left bank seem to be quite a challenge to negotiate. But as far as cyclists go, pengosky was in the neighbourhood recently and decided to have a look…

Has Janković Had Enough?

Days ago Ljubljana mayor Zoran Janković for the second time this month dropped a hint in the passing which none of the news media seems to have picked up. Namely, that this will be his last term as mayor of the capital. At the start of a new school year Zoki, while cutting the ribbon at the new building of Ljubljana Waldorf school said that any further expansion projects will be overseen by the new mayor. While there were a few gasps in situ nobody made a big deal about it. Ditto two days ago, when upon unveiling the concept of a new housing project, he announced the new head of City Administration (to take over soonest) and told her that she will have to see that the next mayor will provide funds for the project as well.

Tired? Fed up? Bored? Or just having fun… (photo by yours truly)

Now, Zoki being Zoki, this could mean absolutely nothing. He can change his mind in split second, again full of zest and vigor and carry on as if nothing happened. On the other hand, he does seem a bit, well, fed up. Also, things are not going especially well for him. After being subjected to a year-long tax audit, his case was now referred to the state prosecution which will decide whether or not to press charges. No points for guessing what the decision will be.

The list goes on. In some circles he is constantly being mentioned as a possible “technocratic prime minister”, a sort of Slovenian Mario Monti (but much less sombre), but in pengovsky’s opinion those are just wet dreams of people who still think in terms of getting to the power first and thinking about everything else second. Janez Janša and his government are a fine example of this approach and the disaster it brings about.

All things considered, it seems extremely unlikely that Janković will (again) resign before his term is up. But if he really intends to make this his last term as mayor, political parties in the capital should start getting their asses in gear, because right now not a single one of them can produce a person with enough clout to cover all the bases in the city. Autumn 2014 may turn out to be plenty of fun.

Borut Pahor’s Mitt Romney Moment

Slovenian and US ~~menstrual~~ election cycles are oddly in sync. No matter the clusterfuck this country is in, we’ll always find elections to have more or less simultaneously with the “Tuesday after the first Monday in November“. Four years ago it was parliamentary elections which gave us Borut Pahor and gave Barack Obama to the rest of the world. Well, except Iran. And maybe Israel. But that’s another story.

Borut and Mitt, the also-rans (sources: The Firm™ and NYT)

This time around, however, the game in both towns is presidential. Barack H. Obama is running for re-election in Washington, while Danilo Türk is running for another term in Ljubljana. Also running are Mitt Romney in DC and Borut Pahor over here. Or should that be in past tense?

You’ll remember how pengovsky wrote about Borut Pahor turning into Slovenian Joe Lieberman. Today, however, he seems to have suffered his very own Mitt Romney moment, and not even a full 24 hours after former Governor of Massechussets more or less tanked his presidential bid.

Namely, in a pre-session huddle with members of the press Pahor, who serves as MP for Social Democrats (where he lost a re-election bid as party leader) said that his 2008-2011 government was oblivious to the worsening situation in the banking sector and totally failed to detect a problem. Which was a bit of a duh! moment for everyone else, but it seems to have been a breakthrough for Pahor himself. Which would be all fine and dandy were it not for the small fact of him running for president of this country.

The post of the President of the Republic is the pinnacle of political hierarchy in Slovenia. Despite the fact that it is largely (but not completely) a ceremonial post, the president is elected by a popular vote and is as such often looked to for moral and political guidance. Borut Pahor, despite his undeniable political and diplomatic achievements (the Arbitration Agreement with Croatia being his lasting contribution to the short history of this country), was voted out of office on account of – well – bad leadership. Sure, the fact that the pension- and labour-market reforms were defeated on a referendum was the result of an unholy alliance between the right-wing opposition and labour unions, but even after the defeat he relentlessly clung on to power saying that the last thing this country needs is political turmoil. Failing to recognise the fact that by then the country was throat-deep in political turmoil.

He also did not realise that, for better or for worse, the buck stopped with him, the head of the government and of the largest coalition party. He actively evaded taking responsibility for the situation and thus only protracted the political impasse that had at the time gripped Slovenia. And when he did make a move it was far too little, far too late. And after being subjected to an open can of whoop-ass in 2011 parliamentary elections (SD plunged from 30% in 2008 to a meagre 10% in 2011) he blamed everyone and his brother for the defeat. In fact, the only proof that Borut Pahor does indeed have a back came only days ago, when he fell of a horse and hurt it. The back, I mean. The horse is reportedly OK.

The scene was repeated in June this year, when – despite the epic electoral defeat – he ran for re-election as party leader. The Social Democrats, in what appears to have been a rare moment of lucidity, ousted him by the thinnest of margins and installed Igor Lukšič as head of SD (Lukšič himself painfully underperformed ever since, but that’s another story). Pahor went on with his presidential bid regardless, as if he is somehow entitled to the top post, after having already served as head of the Parliament (2000-2004) and head of the government (2008-2011).

Thus, after objectively failing as prime minister and then as party leader, Pahor now of his own free will said that he also failed in realising the problems of the banking sector. And yet he truly believes that he is fit to be president of this country, at a time as perilous as any this generation has ever seen. This, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing less than a humongous case of disconnect from reality.

Despite his apparent panache and suaveness, Borut Pahor often came across as overly candid, naive and unable to properly gauge the political environment he was in. Not unlike Mitt Romney, who probably killed any chance he had to get elected president. And so, too, it seems, has Borut Pahor.

Unless, of course, the disconnect is not only with Borut Pahor.

Apology Of Ineptitude

Minister of education, science, culture and sports Žiga Turk a.k.a. superminister (due to many a portfolio that were joined together under one roof) recently held a speech where he touched upon what he called “the lost moral capital”. Delo daily ran the speech titled Why Nothing Happens and What Should Happen verbatim in its Saturday supplement Sobotna priloga and it definitely deserves to be commented upon.

minister Žiga Turk at a recent event (photo by yours truly)

First of all, it has been ages since this particular newspaper (or any newspaper worthy of its name, for that matter) ran a transcript of a politician’s speech. True, Delo once did that. Regularly. But in those days its tagline was “Workers of the world, unite!” and was officially still a socialist and party-sanctioned newspaper. In other words, running a speech by a sitting politician has an unwelcome taste of times past. One can hope the newspaper went with it for less obvious reasons, but still. A good three pages were spent on what was primarily an agenda-driven political discourse.

Because that’s exactly what is was. For what it’s worth, here’s a Google translation of the speech. In it Turk submits that the main problem of Slovenian society is the lack of moral capital and quotes Jonathan Haidt‘s Moral Foundations Theory to further his case. Bottom line? Moral principles are not only acquired, but mostly passed down genetically from generation to generation.

Now, we don’t have to spend a lot of time on whether Haidt is right or wrong. He is controversial, to say the least. The problem here is the approach minister Turk takes to explain the current sociopolitical situation in Slovenia. In short: it is a classic example of first defining a conclusion and then using whatever (pseudo)science there is to support it. The conclusion being that both sides of the political spectrum are equally right. Or, better, equally wrong. Also, morality of the right should be equally legitimate as morality of the left. And vice-versa.

Here, Turk enters the slippery territory of WWII history in Slovenia and declares that the fight against the occupation should be set apart from the social and political revolution that took place alongside it. To simplify: rebellion against Nazism and Fascism – good. Revolution – bad. And goes on to say that those who opposed the revolution were guilty of nothing more than a different set of morals. If it were only that simple. While there is no such thing as a clean war (and pengovsky wrote time and again that it is high time we bury our dead), fact of the matter is, that there was no middle ground in WWII and those who sought it usually made the disastrous miscalculation of “picking the lesser evil” which more or less amounted to (at the very least) tacit toleration of the occupation. Also, revolutions happen because the existing societal structure is not fair. They do not happen out of the blue.

Or, of you want a more recent example, Turk cites the Family code debate as a typical example of morals that neither right nor wrong. Just – different. Pengovsky, however, is still at a loss as to how exactly is “gays and lesbians do not deserve a happy family” morally equal to “everyone deserves a happy family”.

This of course is nothing more than the moral, social and especially political relativism which is at the core of neoconservatism. My morals equal your morals. Regardless of the effect they have on the society as a whole as well as on the individual. If right-wing morals are that some are by definition more equal than others, then – according to Turk – this should be accepted as a valid set of morals, no more right or wrong than the opposing set of left-wing morals that all people are created equal.

But all of the above is just a sideshow for the ultimate kicker: Turk adds that the left-wingers who (according to Haidt) subscribe to the first three moral foundations (care for others, justice, liberty) show disdain for symbols of Slovenian state while happily parading around with symbols of the old socialist state and that in this they are markedly different from right-wingers who (in addition to the first three foundations) also subscribe to loyalty, respect for authority and sanctity. In other words, left-wingers are unpatriotic and as such are not being constructive in the attempts to heal the state of the nation. Well, here’s a newsflash: This has nothing to do with (non)patriotism. Rather, it has to do with substance. Or the lack thereof.

You see, most people who today display the red star (or other symbols of the old regime) are doing it as a sign of protest. Just as they were defaming that very same red star and other symbols of the old regime twenty-odd years ago. The problem of this nation is not its inherent division, but a complete and utter lack of substance. Just as the old regime became a caricature of itself and needed to be mocked, so has this state become an empty shell, devoid of all inspiration, prospect and happiness. And this is where a large number of our elected representatives and other key players failed this country. Scattered across the political spectrum, too many of them are locked in a self-perpetuated power-struggle, suffering from a complete lack of imagination and – once in power – will pull no punches when their own positions are threatened. Even if it means shoving the country and its nation further down the drain.

Out of sheer benevolence, I will subscribe to the fact that Turk and people with whom he shares the reins of power these days genuinely want to do good. But this will not be achieved by wearing countless hats, switching at pleasure from role to role. A minister is a minister 24/7. He or she cannot choose to be a politician in the morning, a professor in the afternoon, a weekend economist and a moral philosopher on special occasions. Whatever a politician in office does, is inherently political. In fact, the more apolitical they claim it to be, the more political it is. They were elected and/or appointed to further an agenda. And if that agenda is not furthered or is having disastrous results, someone isn’t doing his or her homework. Looking outside for causes to this only makes it worse.

In fact, rather than “searching for moral capital”, the whole thing should be titled as “an apology of ineptitude”.