The Slovenia Times 147

en d b cie y s

U N P The R D E the Eur E R cre ozo SS dit ne U rat is c R ing lin E c ag he

The Slovenia Times, Slovenian magazine in English Language, volume 9, number 147, EUR 4,80

GUEST STAR 2011: In search of new stars January/February 2012

CONTENTS 3

January/February 2012 Business Partners

POLITICS

6

A Path to the New Government

ECONOMY

8

Economy news

10

The credit ratings factor

10

Company news

13

Dunlop sava tires going strong

DIPLOMATIC SOCIETY

14

Embassy diaries

16

Croatian ambassador Svjetlan Berković

EDUCATION SPECAIL 17

Education Overview

18

The power of Alumni

20

IEDC’s educates entire companies

MICE SPECIAL

100 95 75

21

Industry Overview

24

Paul Bridle reviews Slovenian MICE

LIFESTYLE

100 95 25

28

Experiance: Breza Wellness Centre

30

Lifestyle news

32

Guest Star retrospective

75 5

CULTURE

0 25 5 0

34

Yugoslav space program - really?

35

Master of Slovenian comic scene

38

People: Miki Muster

40

The opera is back

41

The Event Guide

SPORTS Slo times avgust 230x95 mm 11. junij 2009 10:43:56

45

Tough times for Jesenice hockey club

45

Troubles in the Ski Association

46

Every picture tells a story January/February 2012

4

PANORAMA

source: STA, Slovenian Press Agency

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A Helping Hand?

US Ambassador to Slovenia Joseph Mussomeli has come under fire in the aftermath of media reports that he had offered himself as mediator in talks on the new government coalition, a move that President Danilo Türk labelled as “inappropriate” interference.

The ambassador says he was misunderstood.

Türk stressed that all who represent this country should be dignified in international talks and make sure that the dignity of the country is also protected. The Foreign Ministry meanwhile warned the ambassador that it did not approve of his conduct as in international relations the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of countries by other countries is observed.

Commercial broadcaster reported that Mussomeli had been advocating the idea of a grand coalition of Positive Slovenia and the Democrats (SDS) and that he had met all heads of parliamentary parties over

coalition talks. The ambassador told after visit outgoing PM Borut Pahor in hospital last week that it would be nice if a coalition representing the majority, if not all Slovenians, could be formed, while business daily Finance, quoting diplomatic sources, reported today that the US was rooting for a grand coalition of the two strongest parties but thought that neither of their leaders should become the prime minister since neither Janković nor SDS leader Janez Janša enjoy the trust of foreign politicians.

Mussomelli acknowledged that embassy representatives had met party heads or representatives since November, with the initiative coming from both sides.

But he says such talks are “nothing unusual”, it is what all diplomats do. He also rejected reports he favours a third man at the helm of the government, saying that that would have been “inappropriate”.

Border arbitration

Europe

The A-Team is Complete

Ticket to Kosovo

Slovenia and Croatia agreed on the president and the remaining two members of the tribunal which will arbitrate on the border between the countries, based on a list compiled by the European Commission. The president of the tribunal will be Gilbert Guillaume of France, an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) who served as president of the ICJ in 2000-2003, while the other two members will be German Bruno Simma, a judge on the International Court of Justice since 2003, and Vaughan Lowe, a leading British barrister and professor of public international law at the University of Oxford.

The European Commission welcomed “the successful launch of the arbitration process between Slovenia and Croatia” and said it saw the agreement on the three arbiters a welcome signal for a positive development of good neighbourly relations between the two countries and the Western Balkan region. Outgoing PM Borut Pahor labelled the deal a major success for everyone involved in the efforts for a peaceful resolution of the SlovenianCroatian border dispute, expressing optimism about the arbitration tribunal’s work.

In line with the arbitration agreement, which was signed in Stockholm in 2009, the two countries have already appointed one member of the tribunal each. Jernej Sekolec, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague and a vice president of the London Court of International Arbitration, was appointed by Slovenia and Budimir Vukas, an expert on maritime law, by Croatia.

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The EU’s high representative for foreign and security policy Catherine Ashton confirmed in Brussels that outgoing Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Žbogar will become the EU ambassador to Kosovo. Žbogar is to perform two tasks in Kosovo, as he is to head the EU office there and also serve as the special representative of the EU. Žbogar’s appointment, which has to be confirmed by the EU Council, expectedly at the beginning of 2012, would get Slovenia its first high-raking official in the European External Action Service (EEAS). Žbogar told the STA that the appointment was probably the best acknowledgement for the work of the government and the ministry in the past term. He sees resolving the open issues between Serbia and Kosovo as one of the biggest challenges.

ACTA

Unpleasant Surprise Slovenian government failed to inform the public and the Information Commisioner Office about joining the international agreement to combat counterfeiting (ACTA).

The information Commissioner Nataša Pirc Musar reacted strongly saying that the matters need to be fully revealed and discussed within the civil society in order to reach a common solution. She was also surprised that the European Commission did not inform the MEPs about it. Meanwhile the Slovenian Ambassador to Japan Helena Drnovšek Zorko, who has signed the agreement as a part of her duty, made a statement in which she apologies for signing the agreement automatically and ignorantly, unaware that she also opposes its contents. Five EU countries did not sign the agreement, Germany among them. The agreement is similar to the much debated U.S. law against online piracy.

Editor-in-chief Jaka Terpinc editor@sloveniatimes.com

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Front page by Jaka Terpinc The Slovenia Times

UNDER THE PRESS 5 The astrologic calculations and analysis show there’s an overwhelming interest from the Eurozone’s strongest; they would never question its existence. There are so far no grounds for speculations of a “stronger” and a “weaker” Euro. Despite all obstacles, firm grounds for its existence are visible in the natal charts of the Euro.

Astrologist Ivana Scotto di Minico at RTV Slovenis MMC offers an optimistic view on the future of the Euro

Family Planning The Constitutional Court announced it had rejected the parliament’s request to stay a referendum on the controversial family law. The proponents resumed collecting the requisite 40,000 signatures and the referendum is slated to be held in early March.

Parliament had petitioned the court to stay the referendum demanded by conservative pro-family groups, arguing that rejection of the law would create unconstitutional conditions that needed to be prevented. Only a handful of the provisions of the law are controversial, most notably the right of gay couples to adopt children. In a rare 5:4 split vote, the Court did not dwell on whether the results of a rejection of the law would be unconstitutional.

Instead, it focused on the fact that the law would not be applied until one year after its publication in the Official Gazette anyway. This means, according to the court, that the family law would not have legal effects for one year after its publication in the Official Gazette, hence rejection of the law in the referendum would not have a legal effect in this time either. The one-year window also gives parliament ample time to find a new solution, the court opined.

The reactions from both sides of the aisle were predictable: the government and other proponents expressed regret, but voiced the hope that the people will endorse the legislation; the main opponents of the law, a pro-family group and the Catholic Church, meanwhile interpreted the court’s decision as an endorsement of their view that a referendum in which the majority will decide on the rights of a (sexual) minority is not unconstitutional.

Crime

Steroids and Suicide A Slovenian couple was apprehended by the Austrian police on 27 December for selling anabolic steroid over the internet. The couple, identified as Alenka and Mihael Karner, reportedly gained some EUR 38.6m through their network of dealers. They are wanted by the US, where they could be facing up to 40 years in prison. The couple, who live in Bad Kleinkirchheim, set up a number of websites on which athletes could buy the drugs. The Austrian investigators, who were handed the case by the US authorities in mid-2011, reported that the couple had laundered the illegallygained money through a number of shell corporations and invested it in real estate. Soon after the news broke, the Slovenian media found out that Alenka Karner is a niece of Danilo Slivnik, a well-known Slovenian journalist and former chairman of newspaper publisher Delo, with whom the couple has been conducting business. Just days after the news of the Karners’ arrest Slivnik, 61, was found dead on 6 January, unofficially after committing suicide. The reason was reportedly his family’s alleged involvement in the suspected on-line sale of anabolic steroids.

Lottery

A Historical Prize Slovenia’s lottery issued the highest ever main prize, worth EUR 4.9m. It went to a lucky punter from Maribor, who picked the right combination 14, 16, 19, 20, 27, 31, 38. Hundreds of thousands queued to buy tickets in the run-up to the draw, with the odds of hitting seven being one in 15 million. The previous record winning was paid out in mid-2005, when two lucky winners from Ljubljana bagged EUR 3.2m.

The massive state owned inventory we had after the end of socialism should have created a pension fund. Instead our bad decisions created tycoons. The process of their expropriation is a painful one and should be carried out carefully. Therefore it is totally wrong to import foreign tycoons in order to get rid of domestic ones.

Outgoing Agriculture minister Dejan Židan explains the role of politicians in the sale of Mercator and his opposition to Agrokor’s takeover.

She is brilliant, so brilliant you find it hard to believe. She is direct, communicative. Normal.

That’s something everyone asks me. It’s getting a bit funny – out of everything I have done in my life, the most important thing about me is that I have met Angelina Jolie.

Branko Djurić, actor of Bosnian origin living in Slovenia, about his friend Angelina. (siol.net)

The owner should be someone who feels. To me, the most devoted tourist worker in Slovenia is the Bled priest Janez Ferkolj. He went to see the manager of the Bled tourist office and asked her to join them at the London tourist fair. Then in a London pub we talked over a pint. He said: “Bring us loads of Japanese people. I want to go to Japan with you, encounter their customs and talk to the people.” He is the first man in Slovenia who came to ask for it. Three times he said that he would cover the expenses himself. A total businessman…

This man understands what tourism is. The total opposite of some tourist company managers.

Tone Matjašič, president of The Association of Tourist Agencies on tourism business owners. (Dnevnik Objektiv)

I challenge them to come and search me. Because I have no idea how to launder money. In fact, I cannot even turn on the washing machine.

Zoran Janković at the Positive Slovenia congress, attempting to joke about accusations of financial crime.

As a former imperial force, which sees itself much like Serbia, it is always capable of something Serbs would refer to as “All in favour of our damage”. To have a single strategic partner is too dangerous for any country of economy. The same goes for the British.

MEP Jelko Kacin on the British attitude to the EU debt crisis (Delo) January/February 2012

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR 6 POLITICS

Tough Driver for a Rocky Road

by Jaka Terpinc

When Janez Janša found out about the election result, he was quick to comment that the result does not reflect the reason for the snap elections. In other words – the people have made the wrong decision. Nonetheless, through circumstances and his own smart play, Janša has managed to secure himself a second spell as prime minister. It seemed to take took a while but in fact it was checkmate in two moves.

Janković might have won the hearts of voters, but he was completely unprepared for his fellow politicians. His attempt to form a government was a failure due to his bossy approach to parliament.

People in the temple of Slovenian democracy were not ready to automatically treat him with the same respect and loyalty he commands from those in Ljubljana City Council. Also, the small centrist parties, DeSUS and Virant list – who suddenly became the kingmakers – initially set themselves a very high price and then called off the deal. After that, opinion polls indicated that Janković had gained even more sympathy from the people, while the popularity of the two parties who left him out in the cold fell so low their chances of getting into parliament were seriously compromised in the event of the elections being repeated. Janša therefore took advantage of the January sales of these parties’ support and got them into his pocket at a discounted price. Unlike the failed parliamentary newcomer, this new-old prime minister – who has experienced the whole of Slovenian political history – had little trouble finding the right tune to get the coalition of 51 MPs dancing.

The only remaining question now is whether the MPs have really chosen someone with the wisdom to fulfil the promise of economic reforms without involving issues of ideology.

Janša can act as a firm and determined leader who doesn’t need diplomacy to hold together the government. He enters the game with huge political capital and a solid degree of real power and awe, sitting firmly atop the hierarchy he has created. None of this could be said for his predecessor Borut Pahor. Besides, Janša seems to believe is he someone who has been irreplaceably appointed by destiny. Both Pahor and Janković, on the other hand, have been offered to left-leaning voters merely as the momentarily available choice, a replacement of someone like the legendary Janez Drnovšek.

The logic of voting “anyone but Janša” mainly has its roots in Janša’s personality (cult) and the fear of his dark side. It’s safe to say that many of his supporters are motivated more by his blood and soil sentiments than by his policies. Also his cold, seemingly rational appearance hides a rather paranoid defence expert whose mind tends to get stuck in the conflict of 1991. Despite his recent campaign explicitly stating otherwise, experience tells us that fears of political staffing and interfering with the judiciary system and the media are far from unjustified with Janša in power.

Tweaking investment and business conditions was the top priority in all parties’ 2011 election campaigns. Now these intentions finally have a flavour. If the coalition programme gets into full swing, we are facing a wave of privatisations, cost-cutting and public finances consolidation. The first shocks have already come with the idea of optimising the state institution, which aims to shut down or merge numerous ministries, the cultural among others.

Reflecting on his previous term, Janša’s biggest problem is that we do not live in 2007 anymore, when Euro adoption and the expanding economy contributed to a record-breaking 6.1 percent GDP growth – something which he kept presenting as the exclusive magic of his leadership.

In any case, the desperate standstill we have been experiencing for months is over. Some took it with excitement, others with resignation, but for everyone, there’s a rough ride ahead. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only road towards a stable and prosperous economy – something which, at the moment, we’re a long way from. editor@sloveniatimes.com

A path to the new government

Enter the Polit Year of the Dra The election shocker has only been a prelude to weeks of agony and dramatic turns before the 10th Slovenian government has sworn in.

By STA

O

n December 4th Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic and his Positive Slovenia party emerged as the surprise winners of the early general election. The result came as an almost complete shock, as nearly all polls in the final week of the campaign had Janša ahead by as much as ten points.

While building a coalition turned out to be an increasingly complicated and painful issue, Janković bungled the first major task, the appointment of the parliament speaker, due to a tug-ofwar with a potential coalition partner, Social Democrats’ (SD) president Borut Pahor. This created an opening for the smaller parties, which banded together and, with the help of the Democrats (SDS), succeeded in appointing Gregor Virant, the head of the Virant List, to the top post in the National Assembly.

Emboldened by the success, the Virant List, Pensioners’ Party (DeSUS) and People’s Party (SLS) joined forces and made the surprising move of airing an initiative for a national unity government.

The other parties dismissed the proposal but the trio gave them until next week to reach a final decision, in effect stalling the formation of government since neither Janković nor SDS president Janez Janša can form a government without them.

Virant in particular came under fire from the media, which accused him of derailing the democratic process for the sake of raising his own price. The party did back-track a bit and an-

nounced it was open to all options if its proposal for a national unity government fails.

The New Year was celebrated without a new government.

No to Janković

The vote on prime minister was held on 11th January. Endorsed by a prospective coalition of the PS and the left-leaning SocDems and Pensioners’ Party (DeSUS), Janković came to parliament facing a deadlock of 44 votes on each side and seeking two votes from the other side of the isle. In the end, the nominee put forward by President Danilo Türk managed to secure only 42 votes. The vote marked the culmination of a frantic day in parliament dominated by speculation about potential defectors from the no camp featuring the Democrats (SDS), the Citizens’ List of Gregor Virant, the People’s Party (SLS) and New Slovenia (NSi). To defend against defections in the secret ballot, the camp decided not to pick up its ballots bar a few needed to ensure a quorum.. The development opened the door to the right-leaning bloc to propose its own nominee, with Janez Janša, the leader of the SDS - the second biggest party in parliament, appearing to be the most likely candidate. Janša however said the SDS would not nominate him until it secures a coalition agreement with a firm majority in parliament.

The right-leaning bloc, which also holds 44 seats in the 90-strong legislature, sent an initialled draft coalition agreement to DeSUS and

POLITICS 7 Prime Minister Janez Janša with others coalition party leaders.

The Anti-Crisis Cabinet

Prime Minister-Elect Janez Janša presented the candidates for his cabinet, which is to have 11 ministers and one minister without portfolio. This will be the smallest cabinet in Slovenia’s history, but Janša is confident that his team will be up to the task. He labelled the cabinet as a team built on compromise and said it was the best possible in the given situation.

Photo: BOBO

tical agon SocDems as potential partners in its coalition.

Meanwhile, President Danilo Türk called a new round of consultations with the parties on a prime minister-designate. The president had two weeks to nominate a new candidate or Janković again for the second round of voting, for which nominations can also be made by MPs.

The President Gives Up

Photo: BOBO

President Danilo Türk proposed to parties to consider the possibility of supporting former NLB bank chairman Marko Voljč as a candidate for PM-designate. He said that Voljč, who chaired Slovenia’s biggest bank between 1992 and 2004, was ready to stand if a consensus among parties is secured beforehand. But the proposal was welcomed only by Janković, who said he would not seek nomination in the second round or a post in the government if Voljč becomes a candidate. The idea was rejected by the SDS and New Slovenia (NSi), as well as the Virant List, People’s Party (SLS) and Pensioners’ Party (DeSUS), the three parties who had proposed Slovenia get a government of national unity with a “third person”

Banker Marko Voljč, a non-partisan alternative proposed by President Türk

as the prime minister. After that, five parties launched official negotiations on forming a right-leaning coalition as DeSUS decided to join the talks. The first meeting of the parties of the emerging coalition brought among other things agreement that divisive historical issues would not be brought up by the new government. Virant List boss Gregor Virant said that this will be a “coalition whose main common denominator lies in economic and financial matters.”

Janša is Back

The leaders of the five parties signed the coalition agreement just as President Danilo Türk announced he would not put forward a PM-designate, not even Janša, whom he did not find a fully legitimate candidate given the indictment he faces in relation to the 2006 defence contract with Finnish company Patria.

While the support for the coalition was more or less expected in the four centre-right parties, DeSUS was faced with a tough call with 37 out of the 48 members of the council voting in favour after hours of debate.

On 28th January the National Assembly endorsed Janez Janša, leader of the Democrats (SDS), for prime minister-elect by 51 votes to 39.

Enjoying the support of 50 MPs from his coalition, Janša will also be able to count on two votes from the deputies representing the Italian and Hungarian national minorities, who reached a deal with the coalition on efforts to protect the minorities. After the coalition agreement was finalised, Janša pointed to efforts to restart the economy and balance the budget as priorities for the next government. As part of this efforts to rack up EUR 800m in savings in an austerity budget began.

SDS MP Andrej Vizjak is to take over the ministry for labour, family and social affairs and Vinko Gorenak is to be the interior minister. Former Development Minister Žiga Turk is to be in charge of education, science, culture and sport ministry, while MP Zvonko Černač is to take over the ministry for infrastructure and spatial planning.

President of the Pensioners’ Party (DeSUS) Karl Erjavec has been nominated for foreign minister and doctor Tomaž Gantar for the health minister.

The Virant List vice-president Janez Šušteršič is to be the finance minister and Ljubljana Law Faculty professor Senko Pličanič is to be in charge of the Justice and Public Administration Ministry.

SLS president Radovan Žerjav is to become the economy minister and SLS MP Franc Bogovič minister of agriculture and the environment.

NSi president Ljudmila Novak is the candidate for minister without portfolio for Slovenians abroad, and former board member of motorway company DARS Aleš Hojs is to become the defence minister.

Focus on Public Finances

A significant portion of the coalition agreement is dedicated to shoring up public finances, which the new government plans to make the top priority. The coalition partners pledge to cut public expenditure to 45% of GDP and cap debt at 46% of GDP with a combination of spending and tax cuts.

This year alone budget expenditure is to be reduced by at least 5% with a supplementary budget. A bipartisan consensus has already been reached to put the golden rule, a combination of a debt ceiling and other measures, in the Constitution. Businesses will be disburdened, according to plans, as the corporate income tax rate is to be gradually reduced to 15% and tax breaks for investments in R&D increased to 100% from 40%. Administrative obstacles will be reduced, acquisition of permits simplified, as well as taxation of small businesses and sole traders. The shift to e-commerce will be promoted across the board. Personal income tax rates will be changed to reduce taxes on “the most productive workers” and a cap on the social security contributions of the highest earners will be introduced.

The coalition agreement also talks about improving the prosecution of white collar crime and creating a specialised court to handle cases of money laundering, unlawful privatisation and non-payment of social security contributions. Ownership of banks and state-owned companies will be consolidated with a view to attracting private investors. The coalition plans to “create conditions” for overcoming the credit crunch, including by forcing banks to sell housing they seized as collateral in order to free up funds. In the long term public finances will be strengthened with pension and health reforms.

According to the agreement, pensions will be frozen this year with an emergency act, whereupon they will increase based on wage and consumer price growth with a 60:40 formula. When the economic circumstances improve, average pensions should not be lower than 60% of average wages but the long-term target is 72%.

Early retirement will be curbed. Pensions will depend more on years of service than on retirement age and voluntary extension of employment beyond retirement age will be intensified. Pensions will be more closely aligned with contributions. However, “decent pensions” will be provided for everyone unable to save enough.

Greater emphasis will be placed on the second and third tier (private pension funds and supplementary pension insurance).

Long-term care will refocus on programmes that allow people to continue living at home. Competition will also be increased in health care as well as on the supplementary health insurance market provided that analysis of comparable EU countries shows this to be appropriate.

January/February 2012

8

Economy

NEWS

source: STA, Slovenian Press Agency

IMAD Winter Forecast

On The Edge of a New Recession?

IMAD Winter forecast 2011

2012

2013

0,5

0,2

2,0

GDP per capita (EUR)

17.437

17.778

18.349

Number of registered unemployed people

110,7

116,1

118,8

Unemployment rate ILO (%)

8,1

8,6

8,8

Gross wages growth (%)

0,2

-0,1

0,3

Real export growth (%)

7,3

2,9

6,0

Real import growth (%)

5,5

1,0

4,6

-192

-176

321

GDP real growth (%)

tion of construction works that were interrupted or delayed by the crisis.

It is predicted that slightly improved labour market conditions will gradually strengthen private consumption and recovery of foreign and domestic demand will affect the growth of economic activity which is expected to be around two percent in 2013.

“Still, the risks of further deterioration of economic activity remain high and is mainly dependent of the situation in the international environment and of the condition in the Slovenian banking system,” Vasle warns. “Risks are also associated with the effectiveness of fiscal consolidation and the planned reforms which would contribute to greater confidence of international financial markets.” Simulations show that the escalation of the situation in the European Monetary Union due to the deepening debt crisis – which may already lead to a decline in economic activity in these countries this year – will result in a decline in the gross domestic product of Slovenia.

Real GDP Growth in EMU (%)

Source: IMAD

Boštjan Vasle, director of Institut of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (IMAD)

E

conomic growth over the past year was very modest (0.5 percent) and this year is expected to be near stagnation (0.2 percent).

“The quick slowdown in gross domestic product growth is mainly due to changes in the international environment,” says Boštjan Vasle, director of Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (IMAD). “These changes will be most reflected in slower growth in exports, which will – with further tightening of financial conditions – also affect the low investment growth.” Such an economic environment will also affect the labour market which is expected to deteriorate further this year. Private consumption is also expected to suffer.

For 2013, international institutions now forecast slightly higher economic growth in Slovenia’s major trading partners. In such an environment, a slight upswing in export demand is expected. Growth in domestic consumption is also anticipated, which will come mainly from the strengthening of private investment and the realisaSource: IMAD

Photo: BOBO

Economic activity in Slovenia weakened again in the second half of last year, the result of further deterioration of economic activity in the international environment and increased tightening of conditions in financial markets.

2

1,5

1

0,5

0

Account balance, million EUR

-0,5 jan 11

The Slovenia Times

jan 12

9

Jože Mencinger believes that imposing a constitutional ceiling on public debt would only serve to reduce economic growth and increase the actual percentage and burden of public debt.

Writing in a publication by EIPF, a private economic think-tank, the economist argues that the extreme differences in public debt among EU countries mean a constitutional cap in Slovenia is illogical.

Arguing that the percentage of public debt in GDP does not show the actual burden of debt, Mencinger maintains that a constitutional cap would annul the effects of automatic stabilisers and what is left of economic policies. The

economist quotes data showing that the 27 EU member states saw their public debt drop from 61 percent to 59 percent in 2001-2007, which then rose from 59 percent to 80.1 percent of GDP in 2007-2010.

“As many as 14 member states had debt above 60 percent, including eleven eurozone countries.

Not only because of the primary deficit, a natural consequence of falling fiscal revenues, but also because of a drop in the dominator in the calculation of the share of public debt, that is a decrease in GDP,” writes Mencinger.

He also points to considerable differences in public debts of EU countries from Estonia’s 6.7 percent of GDP, to Greece’s 144.9 percent of GDP in 2010. The same year Slovenia’s stood at 38.8 percent of GDP, which places the country among “little indebted EU member countries, and second among the Euro countries, after Luxembourg,” writes the economist. Member states moreover saw their public debt grow at different rates in the past four crisis years.

“What should then the cap on the public debt be in the constitution? Given the differences, should Estonia cap its public debt at let’s say 10 percent, Greece at 180 percent, Ireland at 100 percent, Slovenia at 48 percent?”

The economist, who served as Slovenia’s

economy minister in 1991, also argues that public debt and deficit are “in the most indebted European countries marginal problems compared to recession and social and political turmoil that the attempts to implement the fiscal compact will provoke”. What is more, the current crisis was not caused by public deficits and debts, but decades-long distribution of GDP in favour of capital and at the expense of labour, migration of production capacities, the securing of demand by means of loans and financial consolidation, Mencinger says in the publication Economic Mirror.

Slovenian public debt from 2000 – 2011 (in % GDP) 50 40 30

Source: Ministry of Finance

Photo: BOBO

Mencinger argues Golden Rule is Detrimental

20 10 0

2011 Forecast

2000

Finance

Law

Credit ratings

Davos 2012

Gaspari Nominated for ECB Board

Parliament Passes Three Anti-crisis Laws

Slovenia Falls from AA- to A

IMF Issues Austerity Warning

The Finance Ministry confirmed that Slovenia nominated outgoing Development and European Affairs Minister Mitja Gaspari as its candidate for the vacancy on the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB). The vacancy is left by Spain’s Jose Manuel GonzalezParamo. Gaspari, who was the governor of Slovenia’s central bank between 2001 and 2007, will however have a hard job running against Spain’s Antonio Sainz de Vicuna, as Spain, together with Germany, France, Italy, has held a seat on the board ever since the formation of the ECB.

In late January the National Assembly endorsed almost unanimously a package of three tweaked anti-crisis laws proposed by the outgoing government – the takeovers act, the energy act and the act on mortgage and municipal bonds. The takeovers act has been changed to eliminate the provisions that did not allow companies to restructure normally in cases when creditors crossed the takeover threshold after confiscating shares pledges as collateral.

The changes give creditors a two-year exemption from having to publish a takeover bid, they will however also not be able to exercise the managerial rights stemming from the confiscated shares. After two years, creditors will either have to publish a takeover bid or sell the shares.

European union

EU Fiscal Pact Confirmed 25 out of 27 EU states have agreed to a German-inspired pact for stricter budget discipline, even as they struggled to rekindle growth from the ashes of austerity.

Only Britain and the Czech Republic refused to sign a fiscal compact that will impose automatic sanctions on countries that breach European Union budget deficit limits and will enshrine balanced budget rules in national law. The accord was eagerly greeted by the European Central Bank which has long pressed eurozone governments to put their houses in order. The EU summit focused mainly on a strategy to revive growth and create jobs at a time when governments across Europe have to cut public spending and raise taxes to tackle mountains of debt. Leaders agreed that a EUR 500bn European Stability Mechanism will enter into force in July, a year earlier than planned, to back heavily indebted states.

Fitch Ratings downgraded the debt of Slovenia, Italy, Spain and three other countries that use the Euro on Friday 27 January 2012.

The lower government-debt ratings make it more expensive for these countries to borrow. Fitch said its decision was based on the deteriorating economic outlook in Europe, a concern that Europe’s bailout fund is not large enough, and a belief that European leaders are not acting quickly or boldly enough to prevent the debt crisis worsening.

Borrowing costs for many European countries have fallen in recent weeks despite Standard and Poor’s decision on January 13 to lower its ratings for nine countries that use the Euro. This reflects growing investor confidence in those countries’ economic policies and the impact of the European Central Bank’s decision to loan hundreds of billions of Euros to banks at very low rates.

Inappropriate spending cuts could “strangle” growth prospects, the head of the IMF has warned.

Austerity programmes must be tailored to each economy, Christine Lagarde said, and not be “across the board”. The International Monetary Fund has been one of those stressing the need for countries to cut their debts, but some fear this could hit growth. The response to the eurozone debt crisis has been a major debate at World Economic Forum in Davos. “We are not suggesting there should be fiscal consolidation across the board,” Ms Lagarde stressed.

“Some countries have to go fullspeed ahead to do this fiscal consolidation, but other countries have space and room, it has to be tailor-made.”

January/February 2012

10

EXPERT OPINION

The Credit Rating of the Global Economic System In the last month we have witnessed a new wave

by Tilen Majnardi, of catastrophic predictions on the deepening business consultant economic and financial crisis in the European Union. Forecasts for Slovenia are in most cases even more unfavourable than those for the core of the EU. Rating agencies are furiously competing to reduce their ratings for Euro states, generally on the basis of already-heard explanations and widely known data. Much of the responsibility for this state of affairs lies with the European Union itself, while Slovenia is lost in a maze of posttransitional normality with its political elite apparently unable to cope with the development issues.

T

he project of European Monetary Union has been dangerously asymmetric. On the one hand we euphorically introduced the Euro and centralised monetary policy. On the other we neglected stability of public finances and deeper coordination of fiscal policies.

Thanks to excessive bureaucracy and the weakness of major European institutions and their “democracy deficit”, the EU was not able to form a foundation of common economic policy within a changing world. It has especially struggled to adapt to the shift of economic power between the United States, Europe and BRIC countries.

The current problems of the European Union at the strategic level are primarily the result of blindly following the old prescriptions of economic development: glorification of free trade with hidden barriers to protect the developed world; creating a constantly growing global demand for your products; invention of methods and financial instruments for generating additional unrealistic purchasing power along with unnecessary services and products; maximising corporate profits at any cost by moving production to underdeveloped countries; and so on... And all this without taking into account local and global environmental and social constraints. The result of such a policy is that the EU is facing the constant loss of jobs in traditional industrial sectors; those jobs are moving to cheaper, more flexible, underdeveloped countries. Slovenia is especially suffering in this way.

A glorified concept

As a result our (until recently) glorified concept of the “knowledge society” has remained without real funding. Everything together is resulting in a vicious circle of irrational regional hyperproduction, increasing social differences between different regions and nations; decreasing general purchasing power, structural budget and balance of payments instabilities. This global race for profit and GDP growth as the mother of The Slovenia Times

all indicators without appropriate institutional corrective is causing extremely accelerated environmental degradation and social stratification in developing countries. This instant concept of development, combined with political instabilities in the developing world, can result in an explosive mix and global problems of previously unseen dimensions.

The United States is tackling the problem in the old manner, trying to fix “presumably temporary instabilities” and continuing with business as usual. At any cost and with all means they try to maintain the leading position in the international political community and in the global economy. So far they have managed to effectively neutralise their economic problems and finance growth through public-debt-resistant global currency, the US dollar. Many feel that the current behaviour of credit rating agencies – all of which are based in the US – can be understood as part of Uncle Sam´s global policy.

An important lesson

The current crisis is therefore an important lesson for the whole of Europe. Will the EU understand that, aside from the urgent adaptation of consumption on all levels, it needs to redefine the real income to correspond to the concept of development and global policy? If not, it can just stay with the “go with the flow” policy directed from the other side of Atlantic.

In the past Europe has, with the concept of the welfare state, shown that development is not just constantly growing profit and competition between countries and citizens. Development can also mean solidarity, quality of life and a healthy, creative, peaceful environment – within, of course, a real and sustainable financial framework. A policy which assumes that the current situation will improve only with short-term financial consolidation and the adoption of some structural reforms simply doesn´t understand the real scope and nature of the problem.

Logistics

Transshipment at Koper Port Up 11 percent in 2011 Total transshipment in the port of Koper exceeded 17 million tonnes in 2011, which is 11 percent more than in the year before, according to a report released by port operator Luka Koper. The biggest share in transshipped cargo was represented by bulk cargo, amounting to 6.7 million tonnes or six percent more than in 2010. Container transshipment was up by almost 25 percent to 5.31 million tonnes, while transshipments of liquid cargo and general cargo were down slightly to 2.92 million tonnes and 1.38 million tonnes respectively. Transshipment of vehicles last year stood at 665,000 tonnes, up 19 percent yearon-year. The number of transshipped container units was up by 24 percent to 589,000, while the number of transshipped vehicles increased by 18 percent to more than 447,000. The passenger terminal welcomed 100,344 people, which is 169 percent more than in 2010, while the number of docked passenger ships remained almost flat at 1,958.

Total transshipment Index 2011/10

2010

2011

General cargo

1.445.630

1.383.355

96

Containers

4.302.542

5.224.817

124

Vehicles

533.300

640.407

120

Liquid cargo

2.727.014

2.922.890

107

Bulk cargo

6.363.557

6.769.845

106

Total

15.372.044

17.051.314

111

Media

The end of TV3 Swedish media group MTG announced that TV3 will cease broadcasting in a few months. The main reason cited is monopolisation of the sector and the inaction of state institutions. The closure follows consecutive years of losses and will end almost six years of MTG presence in the country. MTG first entered the Slovenian market in July 2006 with a buyout of free channel Prva TV from Croatian businessman Ivan Caleta (who owned 75 per cent of the shares) and the Roman Catholic Church (25 per cent of shares). Shortly after the acquisition, the channel was rebranded to TV3 and started with an audience share of two percent, which had increased to 11 percent in 2011. MTG was not able to monetise this audience reach proportionately with advertising.

TV3’s TV net advertising revenues, contributed towards five percent of Slovenian total TV advertising revenues in the first nine months of 2011. MTG’s key competitor in Slovenia, Central European Media Enterprises (CME), owns 100 per cent of shares in Pro Plus, the Slovenian broadcaster whose portfolio consists of three free-to-air channels: POP TV, Kanal A and POP NON STOP. In the third quarter of 2011, Pro Plus reported an audience share of 47 percent and TV ad market share above 70 percent.

In the same period, MTG had an audience share of 11 percent and TV ad market share of around six per cent. Squeezed by the large competitor, which dictates market rates for advertising pricing and has a fully-fledged multichannel strategy, MTG concluded it had little room for growth in Slovenia.

11

CompanY

NEWS

Retail

Pharmaceuticals

Mercator will invest Krka’s good performance in 2011 EUR 12 million in The Management Board of Krka Serbia

Krka Group sales by region in 2011

9% Slovenia 14% South-East Europe 24% West Europe and Overseas Markets

Source: Krka d.d.

Company has presented the sales results of the Krka Company and the Krka Group and the preliminary unaudited net profit of the Krka Company for 2011. President of the Management Board Jože Colarič explained that Krka Company sold EUR 957.6 million worth of products in 2011, three percent more than in 2010. Krka Group sales were worth EUR 1,075.6 million, up six percent compared to 2010. On the basis of preliminary unaudited financial statements Krka expects to report EUR 150mof net profit on behalf of the Krka Company, while net profit of the Krka Group is expected to achieve the planned value of EUR 16m.

27% Central Europe

Mercator is this year celebrating the tenth anniversary of opening its first facility in Serbia. The Serbian subsidiary Mercator-S will continue with investment activities; the most important investment this year will be the EUR 12m modernisation of the Mercator Centre in Belgrade. Mercator is today the second largest retailer in Serbia. Modernisation of the Belgrade centre means continuation of development and expansion of Mercator-S. With EUR 500m of investment, the company is considered one of the largest investors in Serbia.

Automotive 26% East Europe

Pharmaceuticals

Krka to Boost Liquidity With Warsaw Listing Drug maker Krka hopes to get listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange by the end of June in hope of increasing its transparency and liquidity. The shares will first be offered in Warsaw to institutional investors. The Ljubljana Stock Exchange has been struggling with low liquidity for some time, while the Warsaw Stock Exchange has much bigger market capitalisation and is regarded as an entry point for developing markets. The President of the Board Anton Colarič said Krka will also continue to look for possible takeover targets, but does not wish to eat any poisoned apples or take in companies that would be “hard to digest”. New takeovers will be aimed at expanding Krka’s range of products, at entering new markets or strengthening the company’s position on the existing markets.

source: STA, Slovenian Press Agency

Chemicals

Etol Taken over by Israel’s Frutarom Frutarom Industries has signed an agreement to acquire 56 percent of Etol, the Celje-based maker of flavourings and essential oils, for EUR 19.6m. It plans to make an offer to buy the remaining shares in the coming weeks, the Israeli company has said. The transaction was performed through a Frutarom subsidiary in Switzerland. The acquisition of 31.6 percent Etol’s share capital was completed shortly following the signature and acquisition of the remaining 24.4 percent was completed in the following days.

Hygene

Paloma with Innovative Multi-Purpose Napkin Paper tissue producer Paloma has officially launched its new line of tissues, a EUR 1.3m investment which the company hopes will boost annual revenues by around EUR 7m. The multi-purpose Paloma Professional Premium tissues are the work of acclaimed 93-year old innovator Peter Florjančič, also known for photo slide frames and the perfume atomiser spray bottle. The products mark Paloma’s transition from a mass-market producer with relatively small added value to a maker of niche products. In addition, a loan reprogramming agreement has been reached with banks, which gives the management reason to expect positive figures at least in the coming two years. This would make the company, which employs around 750 people, interesting for investment by the state as well as potential strategic investors.

Revoz’s Production Down due to Japan Quake Revoz, the Novo mesto-based subsidiary of French car maker Renault, produced 174,127 cars in 2011 – fewer than in 2010.

The decrease is mostly due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which forced the company to scrap one shift between May and August. The management expects the 2012 operations to depend on the success of the new Twingo model and the situation on the European markets, especially in France, the Netherlands and Italy – the countries to which Revoz exports the majority of its cars. The company hopes to keep the number of cars in 2012 close to that from 2011, despite expectations that demand on the European markets will continue to shrink.

Beverages

Radenska Top Brand in 2011 Soft drinks maker Radenska tops the list of most popular brands in Slovenia in 2011, according to the second annual survey conducted by the Si.Brand consumer association. Following Radenska on the top 50 list of brands by consumers’ choice were Fructal fruit drinks and the tea brand 1001 Cvet. Also among the top ten brands were retailers Spar and Mercator, Paloma tissues, Gorenjka chocolate, Adidas sportswear, Coca Cola and Kras meat products. According to Si.Brand, the popularity of state-owned companies is decreasing. This can be seen from the NLB bank and Slovenia Railways falling considerably on the list, while flag carrier Adria Airways and airport operator Aerodrom Ljubljana didn’t even make it into the top 50 places.

January/February 2012

12 companY news Retail

Construction

Tourism

Battle for Mercator Continues

Slovenia and Serbia Join Construction Capacity

Maribor Expects Increase in Tourists

The story of the sale of Mercator to Croatian Agrokor continues. After Mercator expectedly resigned from the Pivovarna Laško takeover bid, the Supervisory Board of Laško issued consent for the sale of shares owned by the company and Laško Group. However, much will depend on the state-owned banks, especially NLB, which is strongly against confirmed organisational transformation of Laško to contract concern. The opinion of the new government of Janez Janša is eagerly awaited with the latest opinion polls showing that more than 80 percent of Slovenian citizens oppose the sale of Mercator to Agrokor.

The Slovenia Times

A new Slovenian-Serbian construction consortium consisting of more than 40 companies has been formed. Feniks will try to expand its members’ business to third markets. The project, initiated by Slovenian industrial conglomerate Hidria and Serbia’s PSP Farman, is targeting Russia or Eastern and South Eastern Europe as well as the Middle East and Far East. It includes 15 Slovenian companies that are directly or indirectly involved in construction. On the list along with Hidria are companies such as household appliance maker Gorenje, maker of pre-fabricated construction panels Trimo Trebnje, and window and door maker, MIK Celje. Hidria will primarily participate with its solutions from the field of air conditioning, heating, renewable energy use and energy management in buildings in general. In the initial phase, the Slovenian side will not feature the typical major builders such as Primorje or GH Holding. This however does not mean that these companies will not join later.

Maribor expects the number of tourists to increase by between 20 percent and 30 percent during the city’s time as European Capital of Culture in 2012. In the first week of 2012, the Maribor tourist information centre recorded a 100 percent increase in visitor turnout year-onyear. Between January and November 2011 the number of visitors to Slovenia’s second largest city increased 14.2 percent compared to the same period the year before, while the number of overnight stays in the same period was up 8.4 percent with over 66 percent of the visitors coming from abroad. In 2011, the number of tourists visiting Maribor’s tourist info centre went up 28 percent on the year before, the House of Old Vine that houses the oldest vine in the world recorded a 35 percent increase, while the city’s web pages recorded 17 percent more visitors.

Particularly pleasing for the town’s tourist board was being listed eighth in the top ten destinations for 2012 by respected travel guide company Lonely Planet.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT 13

FDI best practice: Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires

Going Strong Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires is one of those rare companies that came out of the global economic crisis with a triumph. A member of a global Goodyear corporation, which operates 54 factories in 22 countries, increased both revenues and profit, while at the same time made significant investments that further strengthened its brand name and favourable market position.

By Polona Cimerman

T

he firm’s story of success started in 1998 when one of the world’s leading tyre manufacturers Goodyear and Sava d. d. made a joint venture – Sava Tires d. o. o. started its march to becoming one of the most thriving companies in Slovenia on July 1 1998. Since 2004, Sava Tiers has been 100 % owned b Goodyear and in 2011 the company was renamed to Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires in order to enhance its identity, align the name with other compa n ies wit h i n Goodyea r Dunlop, reflect the reality as they manufacture and sell all Goodyear brands with an increasing number of Goodyear and Dunlop units, and become recognized as a very successful and profitable Slovene company.

Impressive Performance

The firm employs more than 1400 people and constantly places among the largest, most successful and most respected Slovenian companies. The factory in Kranj is one of the most complex Goodyear factories in Europe and is focused on manufacturing of high performance and ultra high performance tyres while its production line is based on passenger and truck tyres. The brands made in the Slovenian company are Goodyear, Dunlop, Fulda, Sava and Debica, all highly acclaimed and trusted trademarks.

Since 2006, Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires is part of the Goodyear

Dunlop Central and South-Eastern Europe (CSEE), uniting markets of 13 countries. Today, Kranj is the “home base” of the CSEE organisation as the company moved its headquarters there back in 2010In 2010, the company increased its productivity as the number of manufactured tyres reached 7.12 million which was nearly 1.5 million more than the year before; also the company sold over 1 million tyres more than in 2009. It was an outstanding year for Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires because it also increased its sales by 25 % and earnings by more than 28 %. The company’s net sales were almost 374 million €, the majority of it was generated in the EU markets. The results for 2011 will not be disclosed before spring, but the company officials stated they achieved all their goals for the past year.

to constant improvement in this field, the firm decreased the incident rate by over 90 % in the last 13 years. Its commitments to environmental protection are visible in its economical use of water, energy and waste while one of their most important achievements is the reduction of the usage of solvents to zero. Moreover, with their policy of deliberate waste separation they also managed to reduce waste for 85 % in the past decade.

Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires is actively engaged in the local

community, initiating ecological campaigns for children such as Pozor(!)ni za okolje, road safety campaigns such as Safety Ambassadors, supporting local fire departments and ambulances. The company’s efforts have been recognised in 2011 when it received a special FDI award (Foreign direct investor of the year, organised by The Slovenia Times and JAPTI) for long-term commitment. The campaign Pozor(!)ni za okolje received Prizma award for excellence in corporate communication.

Smart Investments

Long-term business strategies the company employs also encompass investments which are constantly on Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires’ agenda. Since 1998, investments worth more than 170 million € were made, nearly 11 million of those in 2010 which resulted in enhanced productivity, increased safety at work, improved working conditions, and emphasised environmental awareness. Safety at work is one of the company’s greatest concerns and due to its active approach January/February 2012

14 DIPLOMATIC SOCIETY

EMBASSY DIARIES Hungarian embassy

Spanish embassy

Jazz Concert

Catalan and Balearic Artists Visiting Slovenian Artists

Hungarian ambassador Istvan Szent-Ivanyi organised a reception and a concert of a pianist Béla Lakatos Szakcsi in Cankarjev dom.

The concert entitled “Liszt and Jazz” was a closing event of the 2011 series of Hungarian cultural events in Slovenia, also held to honour the Liszt Year. Jazz pianist Szakcsi has performed at the most prestigious festivals all over the world and collaborated with prominent names such as Frank Zappa, Art Farmer, Rodney Holmes, Reginald Vela and many others. He has created a new style of music, the New Hungarian Gipsy Jazz.

Spanish embassy

Before the literary dialogue, a solemn ceremony took place where the winner of the best young translator competition ESASI was revealed. The award of the Spanish embassy went to Ignac Fock who got a prize for his translation of the book by Juan Bonilla “Parachutist”. The event was attended by Spanish ambassador Anunciada Fernández de Córdova and members of the jury, including the last year’s winner of the award Marjeta Drobnič. The two events were promoted by the so-called »book rain« where people were able to take home Spanish books placed around Ljubljana.

Best time to Join Slovene-German Chamber of Commerce Networking, concrete support in business with German partners, exclusive meetings with German business delegation, high-valued sector information from Germany, reputation and recommendations for your company... These are just few of the most important reasons, why 34 companies decided to become a member of the Slovene-German chamber of Commerce in year 2011. You can rely on us as the best business acquaintances, who would promote your good name in the selected society. We will link you to the German clients and bring you to the largest market in Europe.

There are more than enough reasons to become a part of the strongest Slovene-German exclusive network. For more information please visit our webpage www.dihk.si and discover the advantages of our membership program.

Tomšičeva 3, 1000 Ljubljana Tel.: +386 1 252 88 60 ahk@ahkslo.si, www.dihk.si

The Slovenia Times

Greek embassy

Greek Director Nikolaidis Retrospective Greek embassy sponsored a retrospective of eight films in Slovenska kinoteka by a director Nikos Nikolaidis. He is famed to be one of the best kept secrets of not only Greek but also European film with a unique avant-garde artistic vision.

The first projection of the retrospective was “See You in Hell, my Darling”, attended by honorary guests – the director’s widow and his long-time creative colleague Marie-Louise Nikolaidis, and Vicky Harris, staring in the screened film. The opening projection was followed by a banquet with Greek specialities, organised by the Greek Embassy in Ljubljana.

Photo: Antic Teatre

In January Spanish embassy organised a second literary dialogue from the cycle “Literary dialogues: Slovenia – Spain”. The event moderated by a journalist Tanja Lesničar Pučko took place in Club Cankarjev dom where a Slovenian writer Andrej Blatnik and a Spanish Andrés Neuman talked about the main topic of the past and the present in literature. The purpose of the initiative is to bring together writers, critics, editors, journalists, literary agents, students and the broader public to present and share their ideas and experiences to create new original suggestions. Above all the goal of the cycle is to bring together the two countries and increase the mutual understanding through literature and thinkers.

Photo: Antic Teatre

Literary Dialogue: Slovenia – Spain

Spanish embassy, Ramon Llull Institute, Glej Theatre from Ljubljana and Antic Theatre from Barcelona prepared a project cav_a: Catalan and Balearic Artists Visiting Slovenian Artists. It was a twoday cross-border engagement and cultural co-operation between Barcelona and Ljubljana, devised to share, understand and raise awareness about theatrical practises in Catalonia and the Balearic islands. In 2012 the Slovenian artists will be able to go to Barcelona and upgrade their knowledge and skills in contemporary theatrical arts with an emphasis on international programmes, meetings and discussions. The goal of such a project is to integrate those artists in a community and enable them an easier confrontation with social, political and professional challenges of the artist as a citizen. In Ljubljana, three stage performances, three workshops, three moderated discussions with the audience and three afternoon hang-outs were held.

French embassy

Cultural December French embassy in collaboration with the French Institute organised a number of events in December. Among them was an installation “Lords of Dirt” in Art Gallery Maribor which was a project of artists coming from various cultural backgrounds. Visitors of Animateka were able to see four French animated films, among them the famous Triplets of Belleville. Also a photo exhibition entitled “Game of the other side” was organised in Galerija fotografija in Ljubljana, depicting works of Rodin/Bourdelle/Emo.

British embassy

New Deputy Head of Mission The British Embassy in Ljubljana welcomed a new colleague. James Hilton became the New Deputy Head of Mission. His previous roles in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office were in the Finance Directorate and in the South East Asia and Pacific Department, while before joining the Office he worked in the Customs Law Team in her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. However, Hilton has not been a civil servant his whole working life – he taught English literature and language in the UK and in Japan where he developed a fascination with international relations which was the reason he left the teaching profession to become a diplomat. Hilton says that despite having changed careers, he is still passionate about literature while his other main interest is music as he plays a number if instruments.

DIPLOMATIC SOCIETY 15 Greek embassy

British embassy

Lecture on Greek traditional cheeses

Lecture on Modern Journalism

Embassy of Greece organised its annual event to honour Greek companies’ business partners in Slovenia.

The focus of the event which took place in Hotel Slon was to honour Slovenian travel agencies which direct the majority of Slovenian tourists to Greek holiday destinations.

Also Greek traditional cheeses were presented. The event was followed by a reception where Feta, Kefalotyri and Kefalograviera cheeses were offered to guests to taste, along with various types of Greek olives and Greek extra virgin olive oil. The event was attended by more than 50 guests, among them representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic community, local businesspersons and others.

Georgina Henry, online editor of the Guardian, gave a lecture to a packed house of Slovenian journalists, online experts and academics in media studies in the City Museum. She discussed the opportunities that internet has give to journalists, and the challenges that traditional print-media now faces as its readership declines. The event which was organised by the Peace Institute was also attended by British Ambassador Andrew Page and newly arrived Deputy Head of Mission Jamie Hilton who hosted a dinner afterwards for the Guest Speaker and a dozen other participants.

Greek embassy

Week of Greek Culture In December, the City library Ljubljana in collaboration with the Embassy of Greece and the Slovenian-Greek Cultural Association organised a Week of Greek Culture as part of the library’s project “World between us”. The opening saw a concert of traditional Greek music by Vagantes music cast and a musical recital of Greek soprano singer Zinovia-Maria Zafeiriadou and a pianist Marko Hribernik.

Hungarian embassy

Piano Performance at EPTA

Spanish embassy

This year’s European Piano Teachers’ Association (EPTA) yearly conference was dedicated to two pianists and composers Liszt and Bartok and was entitled “Hungarian music from Liszt to today”. The twoday-long conference took place in Murska Sobota and Ádám György, a promising Hungarian pianist famous all around the globe, gave a performance on the ceremonial closing event of the conference. The concert was attended mainly by musical experts and music lovers who were greeted by the Hungarian cultural attaché Bíborka G.-Molnár who expressed her satisfaction over the musical collaboration between Hungary and Slovenia.

Animateka: Spain in Focus

Greek embassy

Photo and ecology exhibition As part of the Week of Greek Culture, an exhibition of Vangelis Paravas photos was held. Paravas is a photographer, biologist and an ecologist whose photos of the most endangered mammal of the world, the Mediterranean monk seal were displayed in Šiška Library in Ljubljana. The last several hundreds animals of this endangered seal species live in the waters around the Greek islands Kimolos, Alonisos and Saira under strict protection of ecological foundations such as MOM and other non-governmental organisations. Paravas also presented part of the natural and cultural heritage of the Greek islands.

Spanish embassy

A Photo Exhibition

Photo: Antic Teatre

Spanish embassy in collaboration with the National gallery opened a photographic exhibition entitled “The Glance on the Other – Connections – Confrontations”. The exhibition presents a majority of authors from a long list of national photo award winners, established by the Spanish ministry of culture with a purpose of showing the richness, capability, creativity, brilliance and a high quality of the photographers working in Spain.

Moreover, the exhibition offers an overview of the last 60 years of Spanish history. Among the authors whose works are exhibited are Toni Catany, Alberto García-Alix, Bleda y Rosa. The exhibition closes on 11th March.

The 8th international animated film festival Animateka highlighted Spain in its programme. The selection of films focused on short historical and new independent productions. At the opening of the festival, a premiere of Chico and Rita, directed by Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal and Tono Errando was screened. Apart from films, also moderated discussions and presentations were held, for example one on the Spanish School of Animated Film ESDIP.

Hungarian embassy

Griff Puppet theatre performance Hungarian embassy organised a theatre performance of Griff Puppet Theatre from the Hungarian Zalaehersz. The theatre presented the audience with an adaptation of Sándor Petöf’s “Janoš the Brave” and was a roaring success. The event strengthened the international ties between the Slovenian and Hungarian theatre, Nataša Antunićeviž Vižintin from the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre said.

After the performance the consul Bíborka G.-Molnar invited everybody to a small banquet and some relaxed socialising in the theatre’s lobby.

How to gain confidence and how to reestablish an effective strategy for the Slovenian economy?

AmCham Business Breakfast,

Friday, 17 February 2012, at 8 a.m., Austria Trend Hotel Ljubljana

The perspective of investors on the European economy, presented by

Anton Rop, M.Sc., Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB)

Other guest speakers include: Mihael Kline, PhD, Faculty of Social Sciences; Sibil Svilan, M.Sc., CEO, SID Banka; Rok Uršič, Founder and CEO, Instrumentation Technologies.

The discussion will be moderated by Barbara Guzina, M.Sc.

January/February 2012

16 DIPLOMATIC SOCIETY

Interview: Dr Svjetlan Berković, Croatian ambassador

The Problems are Gone. The Future is Our Common Goal.

Croatian ambassador to Slovenia Dr Svjetlan Berković is proud of the strong relations between the countries and foresees an even more promising future, with old quarrels resolved and Croatian EU membership on the cards.

By Jaka Terpinc

The most notorious drama in bilateral relations between Slovenia and Croatia has been the border dispute, which is now to be resolved in arbitration. Would you agree that the whole issue is more symbolic than practical?

The problem mostly derives from undefined situations at the breakup of Yugoslavia, including when it comes to the maritime border. This has taken on the dimensions of a bilateral problem but in my opinion it is not a huge one. Relations in 2009 did indeed drop to a very low point – a point totally unacceptable for two nations which have never in history experienced any kind of conflicts, but rather followed common ideas and goals. The arbitration deal has overcome this problem as both countries made the effort to improve relations. The dispute will be dealt according to the arbitration agreement. In any case the entire issue will become far less significant when Croatia enters the European Union and the Schengen border control system. The future however is in our common goals for the protection of the Adriatic Sea and the other things which bind us together.

As we have seen, in neither country has this “problem” become The Slovenia Times

an issue in the recent election campaigns.

Photo: BOBO

S

lovenia and Croatia are good neighbours – trade partnerships are strong and result in two billion euro exchanges each year – with occasional mood swings. Disputes over borders have rumbled on for many years but cooperation continues unabated, often with little political or diplomatic involvement. Thirty Croatian companies have representatives in Slovenia, linked in to the Cro Club. Over a million Slovenes travelled to the Croatian seaside last year and thousands of Croats came to Slovenia to ski.

Don’t you fear that when the arbitration court makes a decision one side might be disappointed and the relationship may again deteriorate?

I expect that both sides will be satisfied and partly unhappy as well, what would mean we have reached a balanced solution, acceptable for both countries’ futures. I should repeat that with Croatia’s EU accession this problem becomes a secondary issue.

What are the expectations for Croatian EU accession?

It is important that Croatia enters a union based on democracy, free market principles, free movement and free communication, where the rule of law is respected along with minority rights. It ensures a high level of security. The Union was funded to preserve peace in Europe. It is important to us, because we are leaving behind a period of conflicts, a period when we were defending ourselves from aggression, and the post-war period that has followed. The EU might have certain problems at the moment, but at the same time there is no alternative.

What is the Croatian experience of being in NATO, two years after joining the pact?

NATO membership means security for us and demonstrates our commitment to peace in the member states. In all ways our experience has been positive. We don’t consider it solely a military alliance, but political as well. Practically it means that with fewer resources we achieve better results, such as with the possibility of common air forces. Croatian participation is most notably reflected in peace missions all over crisis areas with NATO presence. Our mili-

tary police is much appreciated.

Nevertheless, many members of the Croatian army unfortunately have the experience of real war. If we had been a NATO member in 1991, that wouldn’t have happened.

I do not see it as a political question, there is no reason to put such issues on the pedestal of national interest. When Atlantic Group from Croatia purchased Kolinska, nobody asked questions.

The Croatian Agrokor group attempted to purchase the Slovenian retailer Mercator, but failed due to resistance on the Slovenian side. Some have put these events in the context of bilateral relations.

What is your view?

It’s a business matter. Agrokor has offered the best bid, and if market freedom was respected, Mercator should have accepted it in its best interest. I should also say that Slovenian investments in Croatia are by far bigger than vice versa, and no one has ever questioned that. If foreign capital is healthy and properly invested, it can only bring economic progress.

Tourism is not only a matter of bilateral exchange, but also a common opportunity. Might a joint appearance of both Slovenian and Croatian tourist boards in Far Eastern markets be the way to go?

This is a very good practice, too bad it didn’t work out for the South Korean Expo as well, where Slovenia has given up on attendance for certain reasons. If a guest from Japan comes here, he is visiting Europe. If he comes to Slovenia he would naturally go see something in Croatia as well – and vice versa.

Such joint ventures have turned out to be very efficient.

EDUCATION SPECIAL 17

EDUCATION SPECIAL

The Future is International International study exchanges in Slovenia are increasing, with faculties successfully obtaining internationally acclaimed accreditations. It seems the country’s education sector is opening up to the rest of the world.

By Polona Cimerman

“

In this school year, the total number of incoming exchange students studying at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana will exceed 300,” says spokesperson Urška Vrščaj Vovk.

“We also have 300 fulltime international students.”

These figures illustrate the increasingly international flavour of Slovenia’s education sector. At the Faculty of Economics, students from overseas can attend numerous classes in the English language – at the moment there are 17 complete programmes from undergraduate to doctoral level held in English and also over 90 independent subjects.

“When we decided to candidate for accreditations, programmes in English became our standard,” explains Vrščaj Vovk.

“We also have a number of guest lectures, international research programmes and compulsory study materials in the English language.”

Around the world

Both foreign and Slovenian students also have a chance to complete part of their studies at one of the Faculty’s international partner institutions. Meanwhile at IEDCBled School of Management foreign students are often the rule rather than exception.

“We are an international school in principle and our students are managers and potential managers, coming from all around the world,” says Danica Purg, the dean and director of the school.

“In longer educat iona l pro grammes it is foreigners who are the majority, not Slovenians.”

On average the school has around 2,500 to 3,000 managers from 40 to 50 countries a year.

“Since our participants come from an international environment, we do not need classic exchange programmes,” explains Purg. “However, we do have more and more postgraduate students who attend our lectures in addition to their

customised study visits which usually last for one or two weeks.

They come from Italy, Russia, the USA and South Africa.”

Some obstacles IEDC-Bled and the Faculty of Economics clearly have a good system of catering for international students’ needs. However this is not the case everywhere.

Czech chemistry student Gabriela Kalčíková, who did an Erasmus study exchange in Ljubljana, says there were no lessons held in English.

“I was supposed to attend all lectures, but as I understood alcontinued on page 18 January/February 2012

18 EDUCATION SPECIAL continued from page 17

most nothing it was difficult for me,” she says. “For exams I got some books in English and could come for consultations with professors.”

“This issue is hugely dependent on the faculty itself,” Monika Rešetar, vice-president of Eramus Student Network Maribor, recently admitted. “Some have classes in English, some offer other solutions such as doing seminar work and projects instead of taking classes.”

Despite the language obstacles she experienced, Kalčíková praises all other aspects of study in Slovenia: “Conditions for foreign students were really great. We were well taken care of.”

Good chances for daring Slovenians

Slovenian students travelling abroad report similar language

barriers – the institutions they travel to also reluctant to teach in English. There are also tales of exams taken abroad not being recognised upon returning to their home institutions. Nonetheless, by in 2013 it is predicted that three million of the world’s students will have completed a foreign exchange. By 2020 the goal is for 20 percent or all students to have done an Erasmus programme or other international exchange.

Surveys suggest that most Slovenians won’t be part of this group.

Most prefer to study in their home country – only one percent gain international study experiences.

Yet the conditions for those who decide to go are generally good.

Students at the Faculty of Economics can choose from 184 foreign institutions, with studying abroad actively encouraged through web pages, workshops, presentations and fairs.

“We are aiming for ten percent of our students to go abroad for at least one semester,” explains Vrščaj Vovk. “We try to make our students aware that an international study experience gives them an advantage at the international labour market as it enhances their chances to get a job at home and abroad.”

Internationally recognised

Having experience from overseas is important, but above all it is the quality of the educational institution that matters. One of the ways in which this quality is judged is by international accreditations “which are relevant as a systematic way of checking the quality of schools and their programmes,” explains Purg.

The Faculty of Economics can boast two of the most prestigious

accreditations: the EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) and the American AACSB (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business).

“This places us among the approximately 70 business schools in the world which have both accreditations,” says Vrščaj Vovk.

“This is an enviable achievement also on an international scale.

Our faculty is the first to have AACSB in Central and Eastern Europe.”

Chances for teachers too

The accreditations strengthen the faculty’s position in the international environment and bring important agreements with the best international schools, thus ensuring an abundance of overseas opportunities for its students... and teachers.

Alumni clubs

The Power of Alumni Graduation is one of life’s milestones – an exciting time when those who have just received their degrees feel as though the world is at their feet. But, in Slovenia at least, it has sometimes been a somewhat isolating time; a time when job searches begin with little support and contact with fellow graduates is lost. It’s a tradition which the country’s growing network of alumni clubs is trying to erode.

By Polona Cimerman regions is rare,” says Urška Vrščaj Vovk from the Faculty of Economics Ljubljana.

Reciprocal relationship

I

n Western countries, membership of an alumni association after graduation is almost taken for granted. Yet in Slovenia

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and the rest of Central Europe the situation is somewhat different. “Having a strong sense of belonging to one’s faculty in these

If Slovenia’s institutions are to really become world class then many feel that is a situation which needs to be reversed.

“Alumni networks are an amazing chance to make new business ties and find new business and professional opportunities,” argues Iva Eibel, head of Alumni Office at IEDC-Bled School of Management.

“It is a platform for further personal development. That means that understanding the relationship between faculty and graduate is vital – it needs to be a reciprocal relationship. The graduate must want to return to the faculty to take part in activities organised by the school, or come back as guests or lecturers. And from our perspective, alumni are a key way in which we connect to and collaborate with the business world.”

Outstanding chances

IEDC-Bled has long been convinced of the importance of good

“Our professors can choose from more than 180 partner institutions and they keenly seize the opportunity,” Vrščaj Vovk explains.

“Also the number of visiting professors is increasing – monthly there are at least 25 of them who come to lecture and contribute to our faculty’s quality.”

IEDC Bled has Association of MBAs (AMBA) and IQA (International Quality Accreditation) accreditations. Purg says the latter is only given to schools which encourage innovation and ethical standards – only 17 institutions in the world are considered to have reached the required standards.

“Also the alternative business schools scale ‘Beyond Grey Pinstripes’ placed us among the 100 most innovative business schools in the world,” Purg says. “This scale takes into account how well the school prepares its students

for environmental, social and ethical challenges of the contemporary business world.”

Accreditations may be impressive and raise the standards of the faculty but Purg argues they are not the be all and end all.

“Large schools create the standards themselves and so the objectivity of them can be questioned. Universal standards also do not consider the local context which varies greatly; moreover they threaten the innovation in study programmes. These issues are a big subject at international conferences.”

She says what matters most is the international character of the professors and students: “Especially in a time of rapid changes in the business world, innovation is vital. However, the most important thing is that the managers who come from the school stand out.”

relationships with its graduates. It established its first three alumni clubs in 1992 to stay in touch with international studies students, enable them to share experiences, and help them build important business ties. Today the school has 14 clubs all across Central and Eastern Europe and plans are currently underway to establish a fifteenth organisation – in Africa.

The 3,500 club members from 70 countries have a chance to connect, exchange ideas and share intellectual, social and career opportunities.

“In Central Europe, the IEDC alumni club is definitely one of the most international business school graduates’ clubs. And as already employed managers educate themselves here, it is an excellent opportunity for creating high quality international business links,” says Eibel.

The Faculty of Economics is equally convinced of the value of alumni networks though it is a more recent newcomer to the party – its first club was established last year. Members have access to a database of their fellow graduates; are invited to all faculty events, including social ones; and receive popular newspaper Alumni.

“The main goal of our alumni club is to create a stimulative and positive environment that creates added value for the graduate, the faculty, companies and consequently the economy,” says Vrščaj Vovk.

The club currently has around 7,000 members. Students are encouraged to join immediately after graduation, and those who finished their studies before the club was established are also invited to get involved. And the best

graduates can join another club – the elite Beta Gamma Sigma Club (BGS). That’s thanks to the Faculty’s recent accreditation by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

“BGS is an honorary association of the best business science students and graduates. Its mission is to upgrade academic excellence and encourage personal and professional growth of its members through networking and creating various opportunities,” Vrščaj Vovk explains. “We are the only school in the region that offers its students the same opportunities that the best students from top business schools in the international environment have.” Members have access to the most successful graduates of elite schools, scholarships and exchange programmes.

Business and Pleasure

Alumni clubs link their members in formal and less formal ways. The IEDC clubs organise seminars, conferences, “especially interesting are international traditional events, such as sailing regattas, sports events, business breakfasts and many more,” says Eibel.

At the Faculty of Economics “we organise discussions, seminars, lectures, social meetings and also a traditional postgraduate students’ dance, golf tournaments and concerts among many other events,” explains Vrščaj Vovk.

With the growing importance of networking and international experience, joining an alumni club can be a ticket to new experiences and also a possible boost for the wider economy.

January/February 2012

20 EDUCATION SPECIAL

Interview: Prof. Danica Purg, IEDC Bled

In Good Company IEDC-Bled School of Management has been active for 25 years.

It works with professors from leading business schools in Europe and North America who advise global and international companies and therefore truly understand the challenges facing firms in the region. Prof. Danica Purg, dean and president of the school, says custom-made educational programmes are further contributing to the success of this internationally renowned educational institution.

Lately, you have been increasingly concentrating on the education of individual companies.

What benefits can you offer in this area?

Custom-made education is not a novelty for IEDC, which has had many years of experience in this field. We have developed and organized longer programs for companies from Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Turkey, and short educational programmes and workshops for Slovenian and foreign companies.

With the help of the Norwegian government we also developed these workshops for the governments of several countries in the region. Companies and other organisations choose our workshops because of quality content, the excellent international group of professors, perfect fit with their development needs, innovativeness and the excellent execution.

With the custom-made educational programmes, organisations quickly and efficiently develop strategic directions, values, skills

and relations, on which the business model is based and should be internalised by employees.

We are currently doing a series of educational seminars for one of the biggest banks in the region.

The purpose of this seminar is to present to 600 managers the basic directions and goals of the company and equip them with the knowledge and skills to achieve them. Companies often invite us to help develop strategy, modernise the business model, evaluate the leadership potential and similar strategic projects. The workshops help create concrete action and communication plans. With the custom-made programmes we see more than 20 percent annual growth – 90 percent of companies hail from abroad.

What are the preparations for such courses like and how do they work in practice?

Every programme is custommade. It is the result of the company working closely with IEDC. The preparation of such courses

usually happens in four steps: first we set the goals (what the companies want to achieve with the educational programme) with the top brass. The purpose of the first step is to create a connection between the educational programme and the strategy, culture and business challenges of the company. Next comes the shaping and developing of the programme, where we set all the educational elements, from the methods, length, place of courses, special educational methods to the development of case studies, based on the company’s actual challenges. During the workshops the programme is monitored by the programme director, who supervises the execution of the education process and if necessary adapts certain elements so we can achieve the desired goals. After the completion comes the evaluation. If the programme is repeated, we make the appropriate modifications – if we realise during the workshops that changes are necessary. In the case of strategic workshops, the professors also put together an action plan, which helps the company realise its goals. The professor is also available to the company after the workshops finish. Companies often decide to conduct “followup” workshops, where they check what has been done since the last workshop, what the problems are and so on.

What are the advantages of this approach?

The advantage of custom education and strategic workshops is that companies collaborate in the creation of the programme from the very beginning. The courses are completely adapted to the strategic and educational priorities of the companies. Because the

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goals are set at the very start, the measure of success and the effectiveness of the investment are much greater and more reliable.

The companies work with internationally renowned professors, who bring something extra and a critical insight due to their experience with different companies from different fields and different countries.

What has the response from companies been like? Do they prefer this approach to hiring consulting firms?

The responses from companies have been extremely positive. Their satisfaction and trust are best seen in the fact that they keep choosing IEDC as an educational partner and recommend us to other companies. Our greatest reward is when the course participants or the leading figures in companies tell us that we have enriched their lives; that they are much more open-minded and less short-sighted; and that our professors have motivated them to become better managers, better leaders and better people. Let me quote one of the participants of a seminar we did for a Dutch company: “I think of your seminar every day, almost every hour. I did not write sooner because I needed time to think. You are probably not aware of what you did for us, but it was a minor miracle for me, which I will remember for a long time.”

We receive such appraisals for our most innovative programmes, where we enlist the help of not only businessmen and professors, but also artists and other socially responsible people. Our innovative methods not only encourage people to learn, but also help change their ways of thinking.

21 Photo: B. Cetkovič

MICE SPECIAL

More than Meets the Eye Variation is the trump card the Slovenian meetings industry holds over its competitors. For events with more than a thousand delegates there are the immense halls of venues in Ljubljana. For small teambuilding exercises, travel to the mountains. For a brainstorming day, head to a sun splattered terrace on the Adriatic coast. The sector has been growing steadily and looks set to continue to do so, but there are still challenges to face.

By Mark Koghee

W

hen congress manager Tatjana Radovič of the Ljubljana Convention Bureau takes a look at the calendar of business events she sees a schedule that is more packed than before. The meetings industry, of-

ten referred to as MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) is evidently on the rise in Slovenia.

“The current confirmed event bookings and requests promise the continuation of a posi-

tive trend,” she says. “Due to the effort and investment of some suppliers over the past few years who build up their presence on some markets, encouraging results started to show in 2010 and 2011.”

Dark clouds

Radovič will only speak of “moderate optimism”, however, thanks to the deteriorating economic outlook. Providers in continued on page 22 January/February 2012

22 MICE SPECIAL

Photo: I. Lapajne

Changes

continued from page 17

The Ljubljana Convention Bureau aims to strengthen its marketing activities this year as well as cooperation with the venues, the Slovenian Convention Bureau, and other players on the market.

the meetings industry notice a downward pricing pressure on their services. “Customers shop around,” she says. “And there is an overall decrease of budgets per event for the corporate meetings segment. Furthermore, associations have strong concerns about how to maintain the expected delegate attendance at congresses and there is less success in attracting industry sponsorship due to economic cutbacks. In the national

Explore the

magnificient Underworld

sphere, there is a visible decrease of business hospitality events organised by local corporations and organisations.”

“The number of events is not the only parameter of success,” explains Radovič. “The income side might not be that reassuring, as the strong price sensitiveness of clients and a demand for added value on top of the standard services are reflected in the generated turnover.

This does not necessarily correspond to the increase in percentage of the number of events.”

ld Wor us o Famaction attr

in Postojna, Slovenia

Postojna Cave

www.postojnska-jama.eu

Postojnska jama, Jamska cesta 30, 6230 Postojna Slovenia T: +386 5 7000 100, E: info@postojnska-jama.si

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Late last year Miha Kovačič, the director of the Slovenian Convention Bureau, said that he was only seeing minor improvements in the number of meetings and events in comparison to 2010: “The world, European and Slovenian economies are all facing difficult times and this also has a negative effect on meetings and events.”

The crisis of 2008 and 2009 already led to changes in the meetings industry. Kovačič: “Some people say it will never be as it was. Meetings have also changed due to the development of IT. Face to face meetings are important and will never disappear but they have and will change. Clients are looking for return on investment or return on objectives and budgets get smaller.”

Yet despite these difficult times all signs are pointing to further growth for the industry. The Ljubljana Convention Bureau aims to strengthen its marketing activities this year as well as cooperation with the venues, the Slovenian Convention Bureau, and other players on the market.

These efforts should address an oft-repeated problem.

“The largest unused potential is the synergy that would be gener-

ated if the meetings destinations would start to work together,” says Kovačič. “At this moment players in the destinations are not cooperating properly. They are not aware that the client is first buying the destination and only then the individual property.”

It is not just local cooperation which is being looked but international too, as reflected at the fourth edition of Coventa. Held last month, the tradeshow for the meetings industry in South East Europe had a record number of attendees.

Yet those in nearby countries are not just potential partners for the Slovenian industry – they are also potential rivals. “Neighbouring countries like Italy, Austria and Hungary hold, especially with their capitals, a strong position on the European and global meetings market,” Radovič says.

“We are constantly keeping an eye on Zagreb and Belgrade, as well as some destinations that have a similar ranking as Ljubljana on international meetings statistics.

Benchmarking is a must, together with the necessity to follow new developments in these cities.”

Spread throughout

But Slovenia has its advantages; not least the variety it has to offer.

It’s not just that there are venues of all sizes, but that there are so many different settings throughout the country, says Kovačič: “We have established meetings destinations such as Ljubljana, Bled and Portoroz and we just welcomed new destinations such as Laško, Bohinj and Bovec but also many others. The advantage of the meetings industry is that it is spread throughout the country.”

Kovačič adds that the country holds another trump card: the fact it is relatively unknown; always a plus for clients looking for an exciting new destination.

“But we are also an experienced country which gives more confidence to the client. We are lacking on resources for international promotion but we are also aware that small countries have to compete differently. We are proud that each potential and existing client that comes to Slovenia is very much surprised on the positive experiences generated while staying in Slovenia.”

Happy clients and an increasing number of meetings on one side and pressure on earnings on the other. The real challenge of the meetings industry this year seems to become the quest for more income.

Photo: Tadej Bernik

MICE SPECIAL 23

The Conventa fair.trio: Maja Pak of the Slovenian Tourist Board, Miha Kovačič of the Convetnional Bureau and Barabara Vajda, of the Ljubljana tourist board.

January/February 2012

24 MICE SPECIAL

Interview: Paul Bridle

Time to Reinvent Can the meetings industry survive in a world in which we increasingly communicate through the internet rather than through face to face conversation?

Canadian Paul Bridle, an expert in the field, is convinced it will. The self-described “information contextualiser” recently visited Slovenia to speak at the fourth edition of Conventa, the trade show of the meetings industry in South East Europe. Following the trip, he has one key piece of advice for the Slovenian industry: reinvent rather than copying others.

By Mark Koghee You are regarded as a leadership expert but you describe yourself as an “information contextualiser”. What do you mean by that term?

We live in a time when there is plenty of information available – just go to Google. It is not a shortage of information that people struggle with, but rather with accessing the right and relevant information they need. I find relevant information for clients and deliver it to them in a format that they can use to develop their business.

What path led you to this line of work? What is your working life like?

23 years ago I started researching effective organisations and the people that lead them and I still spend about twenty percent of my year doing research. People ask me to share my research and what I see as the trends in the world at the moment. So I speak, write, advise, sit on boards of organisations and assist where I can, based on what I study and what I know.

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How many meetings do you attend a year?

I spend a great deal of my life in meetings, at conferences and events… too much to add up.

What have been the biggest challenges for the meetings industry in the past ten years?

There have been a number of things that have changed all at once in the last ten years. Probably the biggest is the need to prove return on investment for meetings, but also technology has had a big impact and of course sustainability has been a big pressure on this industry.

Do you think that further changes in technology, like better internet applications, will ultimately make traditional, face to face meetings obsolete?

Technology adds a new dimension to the meetings industry and allows our meetings to reach a wider audience. People will still attend [traditional] meetings because people want and like to meet face to face. So meetings have

to embrace technology but at the same time organisers have to recognise the importance of adapting their meeting to make it relevant to those that attend. This means changing some of our approaches and it probably also means that there have to be fewer presentations and more discussions.

You attended the Conventa event in Ljubljana in January.

Have you been to Slovenia before?

No, I had never been to Slovenia before. My stay was very short but I enjoyed it and I plan to return later in the year.

What impression did the country leave on you?

My impression was mixed.

There is obviously an older population and some of them seem very set in their ways and are probably struggling with the changes that are happening. Then there is a young dynamic group of people desperate to learn and grow, hungry for knowledge and wanting to do something in a changing world. Most people were exceptionally friendly and welcoming.

What’s your first impression of Slovenia’s meetings industry?

Hungry to learn and desperate to grow. Probably trying too hard to catch up with the world instead of reinventing themselves in some way.

Can you explain that a bit more?

It’s difficult to answer because I was only in Slovenia for 36 hours and wasn’t able to stay for the whole show. But I was struck by the way the people I met were really willing to learn and obviously focused on growing their market and their business. I got the feeling they were trying to learn what everyone else was doing, what other countries are doing and looking for best practice ideas. The trouble with that is that copying others is like playing catch-up; it means you are always behind. If you are defining who you are and discovering the best of who you can be, then you are reinventing yourself and you have the potential to be amazing.

In your speech at Conventa you mentioned that the meetings industry is too segmented. Did you also notice this in Slovenia?

I was not there long enough to comment on this, but the fact that politicians, venues, planners, tourism, media, airlines and so on are not working in synchronisation and are not creating a joint plan for Slovenia probably means that it is segmented. A visitor to Slovenia should have a seamless experience from arriving at the airport to fly to Slovenia, to the hotel, the venue, the shopping, the restaurant and the flight home.

That would be amazing.

26 MICE SPECIAL

Interview: Renata Balažic, Sava Turizem

Growth Potential The Slovenian meetings industry has the potential to grow further according to Renata Balažic of the management board of Sava Turizem.

But the 2008 winner of Slovenia’s Best Manager in Tourism award warns that more support is needed to maintain the positive trend.

By Mark Koghee How important are meetings for Sava Turizem’s hotels and spas?

The MICE segment [meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions] is one of our key segments and will definitely be our strategic focus in the upcoming years.

However its importance varies from destination to destination.

Some of our destinations with health and spa programmes predominately target leisure guests, while at our Sava Hotels Bled and Terme Ptuj the meetings segment represents an important, constantly growing part of our business.

Which of your venues are most popular for meetings?

At Terme Ptuj, which is a thermal spa resort, the number of MICE events is growing. But Sava Hotels Bled remains our main MICE destination, boasting all the attributes needed for a successful MICE venue.

How big is the share of MICE compared to regular tourism?

At our Sava Hotels Bled the MICE revenues represent approx-

imately eleven percent of total revenues. Taking into account all the indirect revenues generated by MICE guests at the destination the actual share is higher than that but very difficult to estimate.

Are there differences between the business tourist and the regular tourist?

Business guests are much more demanding than leisure guests.

They are usually well-travelled, they often stay at hotels, and therefore expect superior service and outstanding facilities. Usually, our hotel staff have to put much more effort in to satisfy business guests and meet their expectations than is the case with leisure guests. However, this extra effort is worth it as business guests usually generate higher turnover than leisure guests. Their travel expenses are usually covered by an event organiser or employer and therefore they spend more for extra services at the hotel or at the destination.

Last year saw a positive trend in business tourism in Slovenia

compared to 2010.

Do you expect that this trend will continue?

Yes, but some conditions must be fulfilled to achieve this. The domestic Slovenian market is too small to ensure long-time growth. Therefore we are greatly dependent on foreign markets. Slovenia is still a rather undiscovered meetings destination so there is certainly growth potential for the upcoming years.

However, we need strong support from the state as well as from other industries, like the airlines, to ensure this growth.

Do you cooperate with other organisations in the industry?

We are actively cooperating with the Slovenian Convention Bureau and we strongly support the development of the new Bled Convention Bureau which we believe will greatly benefit the development of the MICE industry at this destination. We also cooperate with other tourism compa-

nies because we are aware that we can only attract big international events if we work as a whole destination and not as independent providers.

But it’s not just cooperation between the key players in the meeting industry that is required for success. What we lack is strong support from the state. The state needs to recognise the MICE industry as one with extremely high development potential and higher than average multiplier effect. As a consequence, the state needs to ensure long-term, reliable funding of the national convention bureau as the only independent professional intermediary between meeting planners and suppliers.

What recent changes have you seen in the meetings industry?

Just like individual leisure travellers, meeting and conference organisers have become much more cost-conscious than they were before. The downward pricing pressure continues, especially in the corporate segment. Clients are extremely aware of competition and are trying to achieve better value for money when negotiating with hotels. The association meetings segment is more stable but is also facing budgeting problems caused by withdrawal of sponsors and lower attendance numbers.

Do you see positive trends as well?

We see several new trends gaining importance. One is the trend towards g reener, sustainable events. Clients are trying to add value to their events through sustainability or corporate social responsibility.

The Slovenia Times

experience

28

Breza Make Yourself at Home Tucked away in a residential district of Slovenia’s capital city is the Breza wellness centre, a place to kick back, relax and feel thoroughly at home.

By: Jaka Terpinc Šiška is a neat residential district of Ljubljana, extending from the Union Brewery towards the outskirts of the city.

Among its pre-war villas are only a few places to while away free time. One of the most notable is Breza (Birch), a wellness centre with a small but varied range of services.

Breza’s services are centred on three areas: pool and saunas; fitness; and massages. As befits its location in Šiška, the approach of Breza is very much to make clients feel at home. An enchanting domestic atmosphere pervades the place. In the lobby, delicate lightning, soft ambient

music, piles of art magazines, sun beds, lemonade, water, snacks and dried fruit all provide a relaxing welcome. Next to the reception are the centre’s three saunas: Finnish to relax and revive, Turkish (steam) to detox, and infrared to rejuvenate. Saunas are interesting places – both intimate and public, both private and social. Nonetheless, they are perfect places for complete relaxation; somewhere to let daily burdens and concerns evaporate.

The pool is kept at a constant 28 degrees Celsius and is spacious enough not only for a comfortable dip but also for swimming a few lengths. And of course Jacuzzi and massage streams are only few steps away.

In good hands

If you prefer to be massaged by highly qualified physiotherapists, Breza can offer that too. A wide set of techniques are used, from classical to stone massage to lomi-lomi. Massages are always tailored to individual customers’ needs, whether they are looking for just a single session or ongoing treatment.

The final aspect of Breza is fitness. As might be expected, its fitness room is anything but a basic facility with a few exercise bikes. Instead there are two separate gym rooms, both with the latest workout equipment. But the real added value comes with a personal trainer. Breza does not merely leave its clients on their own to figure out which machines are best for their fitness aims. Instead, each client can have customised and guided sessions led by the best trainers around.

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29

The team is led by renowned expert Dr Petra Zaletel. Each session is individual, constantly monitored by a trainer and is private. Besides, only two customers with the trainers are allowed in the gym room at the same time. The fitness programme can also be taken out into nature – after all, Tivoli Park is practically across the road.

A family business.

The friendly, welcoming atmosphere of Breza is no doubt in large part to its status as a family business. It all began 30 years ago when Jurij KriĹžnik set up a small spa in his house. Gradually, the business has expanded but it has never lost sight of what makes it special. A massive crowd has never been the target. Here the aim is to have a small number of highly satisfied customers who all feel at home the minute they step through the door.

Savna Klub Breza Lepodvorska 13 1000 Ljubljana T: +386 (0)1 231 97 13 info@savnabreza.com www.savnabreza.com

The Magic House As I stood outside a bourgeois house two traffic lights away from the main centre of Ljubljana I thought there must have been some mistake. The house I was looking at was supposedly the Breza wellness centre but I just could not reconcile the sight of this building with the website images of its interior.

A check and recheck showed this was indeed the building and so I headed to the slightly-below-ground-level entrance.

The door opens upon request only so I rang the doorbell and was personally welcomed to this playful house. The minute I stepped into the centre I knew there was no mistake. I was looking at a smartly rearranged building which comfortably housed all the facilities mentioned on Breza’s website.

The sauna session was just what I needed. A short but sweet sweat before the main act: an hour-long full-

body massage, which is all a person with a predominantly office-based job could ever want after an exhausting day. The skilful physiotherapist, who paid attention to every single muscle, admitted that most of her clients are people with office jobs, keen to bid farewell to their physically and mentally stressful days.

The image that comes to mind when a fitness-pool-sauna-massage complex is mentioned is usually some big sports centre that smells of sweat and is populated by masculine guys who parade in front of all those mirrors.

Such a facility corresponds to our shopping mall mentality and is widely available, but it is not the only kind there is. If you prefer something different, something elegant, quiet and discreet, Breza is an enchanting place in central Ljubljana waiting for you.

January/February 2012

A Shortcut to the World

Venice Airport is becoming an increasingly popular springboard for travellers from Slovenia. The airport, which hosts dozens of carriers, covers most European destinations and offers direct intercontinental lines to cities such as Dubai, Toronto, New York and Philadelphia.

With its most recent upgrades the terminal is ready to handle 10 million passengers a year. 6,400 parking places are set next to the air terminal which boasts over 5,500 square metres of commercial areas and a VIP lounge.

To make Venice even more accessible, the recently introduced travel platform GoOpti provides cheap and efficient bus and van travel from Ljubljana.

A Decade of Good Bathing

Philately

Terme Snovik, the closest natural spa resort to Ljubljana, is celebrating its tenth anniversary. It took a century from the discovery of healing waters until the provisional outdoor pool was built in 1994. In January 2002 a big indoor pool made the water available throughout the entire year. In the years to follow, Snovik has gained plenty of additional facilities, from outdoor pools and massage centre to tourist apartments offering 371 beds. All has been done according to the most demanding environmental standard, what has earned the resort a series of eco-awards.

The next decade will bring additional services such as acupuncture, ventosa massage, mesotherapy and detox weekends.

2012 on Stamps

Although most mail is now sent electronically, stamps continue to represent not just proof of postage paid but also an opportunity to mark significant events.

Slovenian Post has published the first batch of stamps as a part of its traditional series. The designs will mark events such as the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of female writer Mira Mihelić, the Chinese New Year, and 70 years of Ljubljana occupation. Two additional designs belong to the folk costumes and love graffiti series.

The Slovenia Times

Enter the Collection

Hotels

Wellness

news

Travel

30

Ljubljana City Hotel has been accepted as a member of Great Hotels of the World – Classic Collection. The hotel was recognised for its exceptional corporate and meeting and incentive facilities. Situated in the heart of the city, the hotel offers 201 rooms and two luxury apartments, a car park on the basement level, a fully equipped conference centre with four bright meeting rooms, a library with Slovenian and foreign literature, a summer terrace restaurant, an internet corner, a lobby bar and an exceptional restaurant. Headquartered in the UK, Great Hotels of the World provides global hotel reservation, sales and marketing services for an exclusive portfolio of primarily independent hotels and resorts worldwide.

32

Guest Star is Back

The Guest Star Retrospective 2004

The first campaign ended in Rogaška Slatina’s crystal hall.

Some winners couldn’t attend, others came with family.

After a series of successful annual campaigns to honour the Slovenia’s expat community, Guest Star 2011 introduces a set of new candidates in diplomacy, economy, sports and culture. This year’s event goes hand in hand with the European Capital of Culture - Maribor.

The Slovenia Times

2005

The campaign primarily aims to present those people who have decided to live and work in Slovenia, but are not of Slovene descent. Their talent and personality are the key factors that directly contribute to the building of a multicultural and closely-knit society with the consequent development and openness of Slovenia. Moreover, they contribute to creating prejudice- and stereotype-free cooperation between various nations.

The Guest Star team considers expatriates to be an essential element in building a modern cosmopolitan society on the sunny side of the Alps.

Variety is the spice of stars! Since expats are active in many different yet equally important fields, the future stars are in four categories: Culture, Diplomacy, Business and Sports.

The factor qualifying the candidates for nomination is being active in Slovenia for more than half a year. Until this year, the winners were selected by a popular vote on the internet and Radio SI phone-in programmes. This year again, the final results are going to consist of two parts: 40% from the readers and 60% from an expert jury composed of authorities from each category; the jury will have the final word in short-listing the candidates.

Guest Star is an eagerly anticipated event every year, and has been a tremendous success since its first launch.

Despite the fact that there are only four awards, there is most definitely a much greater number of stars twinkling on the sky that night. This unique event has always been an opportunity to meet friends and spend a wonderful evening enjoying exquisite company, impressive performances, delicious culinary delicacies and some the best Slovene wines.

The final event has seen many glamorous venues around Slovenia. This year the course is set towards the east – to the actual European Capital of Culture Maribor.

As the initial idea behind these marvellous evenings is booming, sois the atmosphere since the true essence of the events is deeper and nobler than merely winning the awards. The Guest Star campaign and ceremony attract increasing media attention every year, bestowing even more recognition and prominence on them. Apart from uniting outstanding foreigners, it also brings together the most prominent Slovenian guests from business, art and diplomatic circles, as well as the highest representatives of the state.

This year’s Guest Star will be no exception in achieving excellence.

The organizers’ goals remain true to the now well-established tradition: emphasising the significance of friendship and the sense of equality between Slovenians and people from other cultural environments. You can contribute to a yet another joyous evening by voting for the selected candidates.

The next event at Kranjska Gora Vitranc hall introduced the future global stars, Perpetuum Jazzile.

2006

The event at Nova Gorica’s Casino Perla came with music guests and a fashion show.

33

2007

2009

The ambience of the smaller Fuzine Castle, contributed to a warm and tasty and conclusion of the fourth Guest Star.

2010

When Kino Šiska became a trendy venue for the world’s best performers, it was also an obvious choice for Guest Star 2009.

Moving to Ljubljana’s City Museum, the Guest Start attracted a number of prominent attendees.

2008

The most recent Guest Star took place at Ljubljana Castle. A prelude to the glamourous event was a lunch with all the candidates.

January/February 2012

34 CULTURE

The Culture pages are supported by the Minstry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia

Film

Houston, we have Food for Thought At the beginning of January, a trailer for a documentary on Yugoslavia’s secret space programme hit YouTube.

Within 24 hours it had received 250,000 hits. But just where does the line between fiction and reality lie when it comes to Yugoslavia’s involvement in the space race?

By Polona Cimerman

T

NASA and Tito was even given a stone from the moon by the Americans,” Boštjan Virc says.

he “Houston, we have a problem” trailer promotes a film which its Slovene creators – Academy Award-nominated director Žiga Virc and his uncle Boštjan Virc – are terming a “docudrama”. According to the video, the movie will reveal one of the biggest secrets of the Cold War: that Yugoslavia had a space programme and that Tito sold it to the USA in 1961, the same year US President John Kennedy announced “we choose to go to the moon”. Yugoslavia was allegedly the third player in the space race, making rapid progress thanks to the secret diaries of space travel pioneer Herman Potočnik Noordung, a pioneer of space travel.

The technical solutions resulted in the establishment of the Yugoslavian space programme which was discovered by the CIA in 1960. After that, Yugoslavia started to flourish, supposedly due to the generous US financial support.

A hoax or something more?

It’s an amazing story, which has received enormous attention from as far away as Africa, Japan and Australia. But how much of it is really true?

“We can say that 80-90 percent of it is based on facts which can be tracked down in archives and double checked,” Žiga Virc claimed in an interview for Studio City TV programme. “The trailer

The Slovenia Times

Out in 2013

Žiga Virc

is a hypothesis on the Yugoslavian space programme and due to numerous contacts and feedbacks we have received after we put in online, the percentage of the real stuff is getting ever higher,” he added.

The video triggered various responses, from deep Yugo-nostalgia to an interview on one of the Croatian TV stations in which a

constructor of Apollo programme modules seemed to partially back the film’s version of events. Mike Vucelić confirmed that he had met with Tito met and that the leader was interested in establishing a Yugoslavian space programme.

The expert rejected him, but it’s stories like this which have ignited the imaginations of the two Vircs: “Many Yugoslavians worked in

Experts are emphasising that the historical “facts” in the trailer have been interpreted in a very free way. Yes, Potočnik’s work did influence the American space programme. But his diaries and documents do not and did not exist – the only airing of his theories was in the published book “The Problem of Space Travel”. Also there is no evidence of any space collaboration in the bestselling Tito biography “Tito and Comrades”.

The Vircs assert that they put the video was online just to see the audience’s reaction: “We did not plan to receive such an enormous feedback. The themes are hot indeed, but during the making of the trailer we did not plan it to become so successful. We are just doing what we are interested in and what we believe in, not following any matrixes of what might work with the public.”

Interestingly, one very positive reaction was from Houston. The US space team commented on the trailer via Radio Free Europe: “They think it is really good,” says Boštjan Virc.

The team already has pre-production funds and pitching arrangements. The film is due to be released next spring. Judging from the reaction to the trailer, it’s likely to cause a big stir.

CULTURE 35

Stripburger

Mirror on Society Alternative comic magazine Stripburger is marking 20 years of innovative concepts, thousands of pages of pure creativity, and a history of strong international cooperation.

By Medard Kržišnik

W

hat happens when you bite into a hamburger full of comic strips? “We can certainly feel something edible, although not necessarily nutritious,” smiles Bojan Albahari, a member of the editorial board and executive editor of Stripburger. A hamburger filled with comic pages appeared on the first issue. That was in1992, the artist behind the legendary cover was

by Jakob Klemenčič, a comic book artist, printmaker, an architect by profession, the co-founder of the magazine Stripburger.

Stripburger is now a prestigious international alternative magazine, celebrating its twentieth birthday this year. Members of the rotating editorial board encourage the development of comics culture in Slovenia and abroad.

They strive to encourage youngsters to the culture, emphasising that there are alternative as well as commercial comic books and organising competitions and comic drawing lessons for both primary and secondary pupils. Also run are comic workshops open to all regardless of age and artistry, jam sessions and round tables.

All of those working on Stripburger see comics as a unique and important means of artistic expression. “Our magazine is a corrective, a mirror of society,” Albahari explains. “It is here to show the dark side of people, of humanity. Everybody can be sucked into this vortex.”

Take the most recent issue, in which Brooklyn comic artist Pe-

ter Cooper depicts the turbulent situation in American society. His colour comic strip deals with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

He tells in his own way what is happening to the lawless, desperate majority, contrary to the life of the “elite”, which is impoverished as well, albeit in a different way.

Two decades

Stripburger aims to connect comic fans from across the world.

At the beginning, the aim was just to connect to fans across the former Yugoslavia. Back then there were no such magazines and so art enthusiasts from the Stripcore team decided to create the comic art fanzine. Over time it has grown into the Stripburger we know. The team is still keen

to forge links across the region.

They recently attended a meeting of the Turbocomix International Association in Belgrade. The aim is to restore a common place for crosscultural comics exchange, which was disrupted by the war and the independence process in the Balkans.

In Slovenia, the transition to capitalism in the mid-nineties brought many unexpected and undesired consequences. The two comic artists Tomaž Lavrič and Iztok Sitar lively described this era, the former in a compilation of short stories called New Times and Red Alarm, the latter in a piece of art called Black Men, White bones. Sitar explicitly decontinued on page 36

Bojan Albahari

At the beginning, the aim was just to connect to fans across the former Yugoslavia. Now, Stripburger aims to connect comic fans from across the world.

January/February 2012

36 CULTURE continued from page 35

scribed scenes of deviant sexuality and hypocrisy of the Slovenian Catholic church. His drawing was inspired by 4000, the dystopic novel by Slovene writer Ivan Tavčar. “They are committed comics writers, though politically incorrect,” Albahari notes.

From Sex to War

For Stripburger’s special topical editions, editors invite authors to draw a comic strip on a specific issue. One was a collection of comics by Slavic authors from fifteen Eastern European countries called Stripbure. It provoked much interest among Western “connoisseurs” of alternative comics, who through the collection became acquainted with “a premonition of the wounded future.”

Topics are more commonly drawn from everyday life. Sex (XXX Burger) and madness (Madburger) are still popular. When the USA attacked Iraq in 2003, Warburger came out. The team achieved great international acclaim through provocative cartoons on handicap (Handy Burger).

The latest issue is devoted to recipes for food, good luck and a better life. Sometimes they give over special issues to the comic art of certain countries.

Speaking on the most recent topics and styles prevalent in alternative comics, Albahari says: “A certain form produces certain content.

The way you describe something, indicates the understanding of the content.”

Not all of Stripburger’s authors deal with social issues. Jyrki Heikkinen, for example, interweaves poetry with comics to create lyrical work. Others like Peter Cooper take a classic approach. All the contributors are drawers, illustrators, plastic designers or film animators. Each of them contributes to the high quality of the magazine.

If asked to highlight a few promising Slovenes, it would have to be Gašer Rus, David Krančan or Martin Ramoveš. In his latest contribution Rus shows that we can be subversive if we proceed from personal experience. He illustrates the deterioration of traditional paternal authority.

Stripburger may be subversive but it has received mainstream attention. In 2001 it won the Alpha Art award at the international comics festival in Angoulême, one of the most important in Europe.

The Slovenia Times

The future

Stripburger may be subversive but it has received mainstream attention. In 2001 it won the Alpha Art award at the international comics festival in Angoulême, one of the most important in Europe.

Fancy a burger? The magazine can be purchased in bookshops in Slovenia and elsewhere in the world and previous issues will soon be published in electronic form.

Tomaž Lavirč

The Godfather of Contemporary Slovenian Comics The title of Slovenia’s most productive and recognisable contemporary comic artist undoubtedly belongs to Tomaž Lavrič. His reflection of modern society, marked by political transition and Balkan war, is internationally acclaimed.

By Andraž Bajc

L

avrič belongs to the generation of Yugoslavian youths who grew up comics. Little wonder that his stories are closely connected to the former homeland – a homeland which in his youth boasted powerful production of domestic comics as well as a solid supply of foreign translations.

His creations have always been linked to liberal weekly Mladina, which more or less has Lavrič as its trademark. In it he has appeared under many pseudonyms and expressed himself through a variety of drawing styles.

His most unique creation is a story called Diareja (Diarrhoea).

Even though it walks the thin line between comic strip and caricature it is definitely one of the peaks of the Slovene comic

scene. In its nearly 24 years of existence it has mocked two political systems, numerous characters, and political situations – and continues to do so to this day. The main character – a bignosed figure drawn with just a few lines – randomly changes to an officer, a punk, a bureaucrat, or a representative of a certain nation with just one attribute, and makes a simple but

The Diarrhoea

Kostja Gatnik

A Different Kind of Comic Heroism Over 40 years after its publication, Magna Purga – the work of illustrator and photographer Kostja Gatnik – remains a classic of Slovene comic books.

S

lovenia might not be a superpower in comic production, but its small population has nevertheless included a few remarkable artists. Kostja Gatnik is one of them. Magna Purga, a comic book featuring his works, is a classic. Even though it was made in different times, its messages remain up to date and when found on a bookshelf it quickly attracts the attention of youngsters.

If Miki Muster is the Slovenian Disney, then Gatnik is perhaps

Slovenia’s Robert Crumb. His style is tough to define, however. Call it “third generation of comic artists”, alternative, or underground. Its most distinctive element is variation in artistic expression with elements of popart, and a solid dose of appealing, smart (black) humour. His heroes are either everymen in the most trivial situations, or parodied folk heroes and super heroes (James Bond becomes Janez Blond).

In addition to the cult Magna Purga, Gatnik has created a wide

CULTURE 37

controversial point. What started as a comment on the last days in the political life of Yugoslavia has turned into a constant commentary on the ongoing situation. In short, it has become a part of the Slovene political culture.

In the nineties Lavrič published a few graphic novels from work which had previously appeared in Mladina. His Red Alert – Dark Days (1996) is an autobiographic portrayal of the Ljubljana punk scene. It was followed by Ratman (1997), a local superhero social and political parody, and Bosnian Fables (1997), a collection of stories of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He entered the new millennium with a collection of black

opus of illustrations, graphics, paintings, photog raphs and magazine covers. He is viewed as a humble, hidden genius of the art scene. After illustrating more than 80 books, a number of record covers, posters, labels and industrial packages, he has left

humour stories under the collective titles Extreme Sports 1 & 2, contributed to t he Deca log ue project which featured other prominent European artists, and published French-exclusive scifi series Lomm. In 2004 he created the comic album Blind Sun, a series of nine short, cataclysm ic stories with poetic text. His next creation was mafia thriller Evropa, followed by the notorious A Peregrine and a Dove series, where he put the entire Slovenian political scene into a romantic soap opera plot. It is not just Slovenia where his work is appreciated: many of his titles are published by foreign labels and are available in French, Spanish, Italian and Croatian.

In common with many comic artists Lavrič doesn’t want much personal publicity. In a rare interview for Playboy he commented on his own satirical style: “What I have to say I say through my works. Is that so difficult to understand? Perhaps it really is, among all these village boasts and hysterical teenagers who would do anything for their five minutes of local glory. It’s not about fake humility.

I want to be on the front page of Time magazine or nothing!”

Poalar Winter, a story in Lavrič’s Extreme Sports collection.

a huge impact on the country’s visual imagery. On the popular level, the images he has created are actually more recognisable than his name. Gatnik has been nothing less than the illustrator of Slovenia’s contemporary history.

And when the death hour comes around, Urban thinks and says: Eh, fuck, I lived after all.

January/February 2012

38 PEOPLE

Miki Muster: illustrator, animator, swimmer...

Animation’s Other Miki Sixty years ago a young man called Miki Muster graduated from Ljubljana’s Art Academy and took up a job as an illustrator at a newspaper. It was to be the start of an incredible career in comic strips and animation.

By Marjan Žiberna ble living. But this too wasn’t to be: he changed his architecture studies for sculpture at the Art Academy in Ljubljana after the first year.

“I didn’t want to draw buildings but instead I felt passion for figures, people,” he says now. “For as long as I can remember I have been making caricatures – school friends, professors... I wasn’t interested in drawing with the ruler, wasn’t interested in straight lines.”

He graduated in sculpture but didn’t work in the field: “I only made a few sculptures of my then girlfriend who later became my wife,” he says.

Photo: BOBO

A taboo

M

“Colleagues and professors from the Art Academy used to ask me why I bothered to go there if I do kitsch and things that have no relation to art… Even film didn’t have the status of art then. But later they recognised film as art and after that also cartoons.”

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iki is short for Miklavž, Muster explai n s, removing any doubt as to whether his name is somehow connected to the world’s most famous cartoon mouse. Ironically, though, the name Miki Muster could have been connected to Disney if the times had been different. Slovenia was a closed country lacking freedom when this legend of Slovenian and European animated films started his incredible career, just after World War II. The Yugoslavian political regime was unsympathetic to the young man’s wish to travel to the United States.

One can’t help but reflect that if he had been given the chance – or if he had been born at another time – the world might have been watching American cartoons drawn by a Slovene.

Had Murska Sobota-born Muster followed his mother’s dreams, on the other hand, he would have become an architect. She wanted him to attain an education that would guarantee him a comforta-

Instead he dedicated his life to his other great love: cartoons and animated films. When he was in primary and secondary school there were some Croatian and Serbian cartoonists that were popular among Slovenian youngsters. But by the time Muster was starting out his preferred art form was not a welcome one.

“I was already drawing cartoons when I was at the Academy but nothing was published because cartoon was a taboo in Slovenia at the time. It was considered pro-American and therefore prohibited.”

But thanks to a courageous newspaper editor, Muster had a chance to pursue his passion. It was in 1952 that he was hired by Slovenski Poročevalec as an illustrator and journalist and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands – he didn’t leave the paper until 1973. During this period he drew a series of comic strips that became very popular amongst young readers – ultimately 20 books were published. Children also loved too for the picture books in which he illustrated the stories of many world renowned authors, as well as some original stories from Slovenian writers. He even penned one himself.

From comic strips to animation “I never had to do anything for my own publicity; Zvitorepec, Lakotnik and the others did that for me,” says Muster, referring to the characters he created and which have been known and loved in

Slovenia by many generations.

“Trdonja the turtle, Lakotnik the wolf, Zvitorepec the fox; Joža Gulikoža the frog... everybody knows those,” he says.

Their popularity continues today: “If I go to town, I’m always stopped by at least three or four people who ask me for my autograph. It has also been established recently that my comics about Zvitorepec are suitable for children who are learning to read either in kindergarten or in the first year of primary school. Children are interested in the stories – and the writing is in capital letters.”

Older generations also remember Muster for the many animated advertisements he made for Slovenian National Television. He was enchanted by animation from early on in his life.

“I remember when I was about seven – we lived in the Dolenjska region then – and we went to the cinema in Ljubljana. There was an animated film on show before the ‘real’ film started – some little devils were making fire and danced around it. That was my first contact with animated film and I will always remember it,” he says fondly.

The American dream

At the time the only animation studio known in Slovenia was Disney. “I think it was in 1938 when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a full-length animated film, was on at the Ljubljana cinemas. I was poisoned. All I could do was dream about making animated films myself. Every piece of paper, all the notebook edges were full of drawings of dwarfs.”

Muster quickly became familiar with Disney’s approach. He admired how the company gave human character to objects and animals. But he never copied the famous US studio. It may have been his starting point, but Muster came to develop his own style – the hard way. When he was studying there was practically no literature on animation and so he taught himself.

“There was nobody who could show me things or give me advice, so I experimented,” he remembers. “I only knew what I found

The People pages are supported by the Minstry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia

The exile

Soon after arriving in Germany he met Guillermo Mordillo, an Argentinean humorist and caricaturist. From 1976 to 1981 Muster created more than 400 short animated films based on Mordillo’s ideas. Simply called Mordillo, the rights for these witty films were bought by over 30 countries and proved highly successful. Muster also made a series about detective character Nick Knatterton and a series of 21 films titled Oma bitte kommen, both based on the comics of Manfred Schmidt. Both were very popular in Germany and Austria. As if all that wasn’t enough, he continued to make five to ten animated advertisements a year for Slovenian National Television. He also drew comics for German publishers.

His productivity has always been impressive. On average he drew seven seconds of animated film a day – given that every second of animated film takes 10 to 12 pictures, that means he was drawing 70 to 80 pictures a day.

“Only a few months after arriving in Germany I had contracts that guaranteed me work for the next three years,” he remembers.

“I worked quickly, never missed a deadline, there were never any corrections and I became a kind of a wonder for them. I’ve always done everything by myself – the screenplays, animations, copying, and drawing the backgrounds.

The films were only coloured and shot by others. They couldn’t believe that I was doing it all alone.

Sometimes I was ill, once I had a poisoned working hand but I used the other hand to support it and I worked.”

Swimming back home

Muster returned to his homeland in 1990, a time of rising Slovenian independence. He continued with his work, drawing caricatures for one of the Slovenian weekly magazines among other

“When I was drawing, I sometimes laughed so much – that inner laugh – that I simply couldn’t feel tired, because I enjoyed it so much. But if I had to do things I didn’t like I think I’d be long gone by now. I never considered myself working. It was a joy, a hobby for me.”

“I was commissioned to do, let’s say, a ten minute long animated film. I started working at seven o’clock in the morning and I worked until the pencil fell from my hand at one o’clock the following morning. I was literally in a trance.

I didn’t go anywhere, not even to eat; I just worked and made a film in two months. The Germans thought I had slaves working for me.”

Photo: BOBO

The heroes: Lakotnik, Zvitorepec and Trdonja

out from some newspapers here and there that you have to draw many pictures to create the appearance of moving. Years and years of hard work were needed to come to the first results. I had to literally invent it all by myself.

There were also no proper materials. Sometimes we didn’t even have plain paper.”

During its early years Slovenian National Television showed no interest in animated advertisements.

But Muster introduced them and thanks to him those adverts later became valued and recognisable.

He made around 380 animated ads from 1967 to 1990 and some of them became legendary. In the 1960s he was commissioned by Slovenian film company Viba to make some animated films and so he created Puščica (An Arrow), Zimska Zgodba (Winter Tale) and Kurir Nejček (Courier Nejček).Wishing to dedicate himself completely to making films for children, he left his job with the national television company in Slovenia and took up a freelance role at Bavaria Film in Muenchen, Germany.

projects. It was also at this time that he rediscovered his long-forgotten love, swimming. He ultimately won several medals among the veterans at the largest world competitions.

He explains his love for swimming with a joke that water greeted him into this world: “On November 22 1925, when I was born, Murska Sobota was flooded. The baker was delivering bread in a boat or rather in a washing tub because there were no real boats around.”

As a youngster he swam a lot, including competitively, and was later a swimming trainer for some time. But then he didn’t swim for a full 40 years because he spent all his time working. After he had returned from Germany, he went to the seaside and discovered he could still swim three kilometres without a problem. That made him think he could probably compete with the best veteran swimmers in Europe or even in the world.

He was right. “I went to a competition and I won,” he says simply. He describes one of his big contests: “I was swimming with former world champions that we once looked up to as idols. I knew six out of eight that were waiting on the start positions, all former world champions or Olympic champions. I was so nervous seeing them I thought I wouldn’t be able to swim. But then I realised they were all quite old misters.”

Of course Miki himself isn’t so young these days. He still creates but otherwise he lives a quiet and fairly private life in Ljubljana.

That’s the way he likes it. He was uncomfortable being the centre of attention some years ago when he was celebrating his 80th birthday: “That’s not for me,” he says. “I never made public appearances or looked for the crowds. I don’t like it, the audience is bothering me. I like it best to be at home and to be able to work.”

PEOPLE 39

January/February 2012

40 CULTURE

Classical

The Opera is Back After six years of renovation – and numerous complications – the Slovene National Opera and Ballet Theatre finally reopened its doors in December, shining with splendour and magnificence.

By Polona Cimerman

T

he original theatre was built in 1892, its neo-Renaissance design dreamed up by Czech architects Jan V. Hrasky and Anton Hruby. Initially the venue hosted productions of French and Italian operas. But after 1918, when the opera orchestra was formed, Slovenian and Slavic opera pieces started to take centre stage. Between the wars many successful operas from Slovenian composers like Kogoj, Osterc and Bravničar were hosted in the venue. 1918 also saw the establishment of a professional ballet ensemble in Ljubljana – a fixture on the Slovenian theatre scene ever since.

Over the humps

The magnificent old theatre is a landmark, with a richly adorned front façade with Ionic columns and numerous allegorical sculptures. But it has long needed renovation – and indeed the process of renovation has been a long one.

The works started in 2006 and were due to end in 2008. The reality, however, is that the building has been closed for nearly six years thanks to a host of unforeseen problems, including underground water. As is depressingly familiar for Slovenian projects, the main problem was uneconomical management of finances – the spend exceeded the initial plans by more than a third, reaching EUR 43m – and poor planning of the entire project. Mitja Bervar, SNG Opera and Ballet director, says the issue was in

The Slovenia Times

part due to “the global recession, which altered plans. Many companies involved in the project went bankrupt, including the two construction giants Vegrad and SCT and a number of small and midsized subcontractors. The renovation which actually started 14 years ago with a public call for tenders occupied six ministers and three directors which also contributed to the lengthiness of the project.”

Beautiful both inside and out

But at last it is complete. From the outside, the renovated op-

era house building is a blend of the old and the new, designed by the architects Jurij Kobe and Matjaž Zupanc. The façade retains its classical glamorous old looks while the back of the building hosts a huge black modern extension.

“One of the most important developments is the five practice rooms for ensembles,” says Bervar. “We lacked these in the past even though they are crucial for artists’ normal functioning.” Another great new facility is a very modern and technically wellequipped stage. Again, in Bervar’s opinion this is a must for contemporary productions of ballet and opera: “In this respect we can now compare our opera and ballet house to other similar institutions in other European countries.” New are also socialising spaces on the ground floor and in the basement while the entire hall has been enlarged and refurbished; its capacities are now 565 seats plus additional. Better too are the acoustics – for artists as well as audience.

The grand opening on 20 December did not offer a premiere, but instead a performance of six acts from the second part of Verdi’s Aida and some ballet performances. The premiere will come in the future, says Bervar: “A new

Slovenian opera ‘Love Capital of Jani Golob’ has been planned for this occasion for many years now, but since the reopening kept being postponed over and over again, we made a decision some time ago that the premiere would take place in October 2012 when we were sure the renovation would be finished.”

Bringing back the audience

According to Bervar, the repertoire for this season aims at a broader audience: “Opera in Slovenia is very well accepted, but still we need to make an effort and bring back the audience which in these six years perhaps got used to the fact that opera did not really exist.” Hence in 2012 opera and ballet enthusiasts will be able to enjoy the famous Nabucco, Traviata, La Boeme, Rusalka and a new Giselle, while the highlight will be Black Masks.

The theatre may at last be reopened but there are still small tasks being completed over the next six months. But as Bervar says: “The most important thing is that the people feel the theatre and keep returning to it.” Judging from the 500 season tickets sold in the first two weeks since reopening, it’s mission accomplished on that front.

CULTURE 41 Exhibition

Closed Spaces of my City Wed 18 Jan–Sat 03 Mar, Stolp Photogallery, Maribor Slovenian photographers of various generations that are coming to Maribor from all partner ECoC cities, will use their own artistic approach in documenting socalled closed spaces, which are only partly accessible to the public eye (courtyards, playgrounds, underpasses, stairways, deserted halls...). This sort of photography allows visitors to see hidden city spaces that offer unique beauty, otherwise known as ‘here and now’.

Photography

Mariovo – A Land of the Elderly Wed 25 Jan–Sun 26 Feb, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission

The photo exhibition by Vančo Ivanov, Macedonian photographer and filmmaker from Radoviš, and award-winning Slovenian author and publicist Nina Kokelj illustrates the memory of the elderly inhabitants of a remote, picturesque, undisclosed, as yet undiscovered and unique landscape – Mariovo in south Macedonia. Through the shots, new bonds are forged with them.

Spotlighting the elderly, their stories and archetypal beauty, as well as the universal issue of bridging the generation gap, the exhibition has been devised as an intricate, conceptual collage of black-and-white photos – portraits of old men and women.

Exhibition

Paris, London, Berlin Wed 25 Jan–Monday 31 Dec, Gallery 3X, Maribor The artist Jasna Kozar’s gallery has been active since 2010 and is, with only 12 m2, one of the smallest galleries in Maribor.

Slovenia Times recommends

The Carnival is Here!

Shrovetide carnival events are expected allover the country on Saturday, 18th Feburary. Ljubljana carnival is a good place to meet all the typical Slovene masks parading the streets along with other creations and creatures.

The Shrovetide carnival traditionally held in Ljubljana consists of a large carnival parade through the city’s streets and a programme of entertainment held in the centrally located Kongresni trg square. The carnival parade includes, among others, a number of typical Slovenian carnival figures rooted in pagan tradition, such as ‘kurent’, ‘laufar’, ‘morostar’ and several others.

The tradition of celebrating Shrovetide with masks and carnival processions dates back to ancient pagan times. After 1300, Central Europe saw the merging of pagan and Christian traditions and masked celebrations began to be held over the days preceding the 40-day fasting period of Lent.

Slovenian carnival figures are very colourful and Slovenian Shrovetide traditions, reflecting the distinctive local features of the rural environments of the past, unique in many ways.

Kozar consciously avoids everything that gives a hint of firmness to institutional public and private galleries. Exhibitions are not planned several months beforehand. It opens its door to artists who are close to it and do not trouble it with administration.

The programme is a response to current challenges. The gallery is not only a place for exhibitions but also a place to hang out, resulting in the maintenance of an art community. It often moves to the street and invigorates the surrounding district with actions, banquets, and musical performances.

Exhibition

Victor Vasarely Wed 1 Feb–Sat 3 Mar, Rotovž Exhibition Salon, Maribor Victor Vasarely (1906-1997), the pioneer of op-art, successfully merged art with science and technology. His aesthetic vision is based on the belief that technology

The country’s best known carnival figures are ‘kurent’, originating from the town of Ptuj, ‘laufar’ from the village of Cerkno, and ‘škoromat’ from the village of Hrušica. In Ljubljana’s surrounding area the best known carnival figures are ‘mačkara’ and ‘petelin’ from the valley of Dobrepolje.

is radically changing our world, especially when we wish to perceive the world in an intuitive manner, with the proper intellectual depth and immense energy. His visions have proven correct, for there is an immense interest in his work and in the optical art, brought forth by the development of new technologies. The once hand crafted geometrical abstraction is blooming in digital mode.

generation, making sure that Zsolnay porcelain, formerly present only at the most exquisite dinner tables, has become a modern staple and the trademark of ECOC Pécs 2010.

Exhibition

The Budapest Photography Grant was established in 2000 by the Pro Cultura Urbis Public Foundation and provides a monthly stipend for prominent photographers.

Through the eyes of ten prominent photographers, former grantees of the Budapest Photography Grant the exhibition represents a vision of Budapest, the diversity of the capital’s population and its rich cultural and social milieu. The curator of the exhibition is Sári Stenczer.

Zsolnay Porcelain Collection Tue 7 Feb–Fri 2 Mar, Vetrinjski dvor mansion, Maribor The world famous Zsolnay porcelain factory is rich in tradition and history. Starting in 1853, the work of its owner, Miklós Zsolnay, made an early and lasting impression. His successor Vilmos Zsolnay received the golden medal at the 1878 Paris World Fair. The tradition, knowledge and skills are passed from generation to

Exhibition

Budapest Positive Tue 7 Feb–Fri 2 Mar, Vetrinjski dvor mansion, Maribor

Pop

Smokie Sat 11 Feb, 8pm, Hala Tivoli (sports hall), Ljubljana, EUR 26–36 Smokie is an English pop and rock band, which started its career in 1974. They achieved the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They had many hit singles and popular songs, with Living Next Door to Alice considered their trademark song, January/February 2012

42 EVENTS

even though it was a cover version of the New World song. In the early 1980s their popularity dropped, but they have been making a comeback in the last few years.

Visual arts

EX-garage 2 Mon 13 Feb – Tue 13 Mar, EXGarage 2, Maribor The low-budget guerrilla project EX-garage seeks to supplement the existing discourse on contemporary fine arts in Maribor and contribute to building a platform in this area.

Its continuity – encompassing exhibitions, projections, lectures and public discussions – opens the way for the presentation of new tendencies and practices in contemporary fine arts, with a particular emphasis on photography and new media. Presenting this time: The garage 1 BOOK + original T-shirts WALKING GALLERY.

Pop

Josipa Lisac Tue 14 Feb, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 16–32

Now in their thirteenth year, this ground-breaking duo featuring British saxophonist Iain Ballamy and Norwegian percussionist Thomas Stronen has toured and recorded internationally, creating thought-provoking improvised music of great depth and beauty. Their dynamic and forward-thinking approach to music incorporates juxtapositions of sound, space and texture. By combining acoustic elements like bells, blocks, gongs and a lyrical saxophone voice along with live sampling, drums and electronics, the musicians create moods using a broad palette that can range from minimalist to the angular and more turbulent.

Ballet

Romeo and Juliet Tue 14 Feb and Thu 16 Feb, 7.30pm, Slovenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Ljubljana, EUR 10–33 Romeo and Juliet, an immortal tragedy about a couple of lovers in Verona written by William Shakespeare in 1593, is one of the most famous love stories ever written. Its ballet adaptation, set to music by Sergei Prokofiev seventy years ago, is characterised by such depth that the music defines even the mental worlds of its dramatis personae.

In the foreground of the current Slovenian production of the ballet, choreographed by the famous Youri Vamos (Hungary), are the motives of the two young lovers, who consistently and regardless of consequences follow their emotions.

Rock

Dance

Kerretta

Gardenia

Wed 15 Feb, 9pm, Channel Zero, Ljubljana, EUR 8

Thu 16 Feb–Fri 17 Feb, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 13–24

Kerretta is a post rock band from New Zealand. They already have two full-length studio albums under their belts and their live performances have already gained them many fans. Their intense live performances and progressive sound have been thrilling fans of experimental music ever since 2006. They will be supported by Croatian band Emphasis, who are also no strangers to Slovenian stages, having performed in Ljubljana already with Pg.lost.

Classical

Marcin Dylla Wed 15 Feb, 7.30pm, Slovenian Philharmonic, Ljubljana, EUR 8–20

Photography A great artist with an astonishing voice and a considerable flair for stage performance, Josipa Lisac has dedicated herself to music with all her heart. She has gone through many different styles in her career, but her vision and dedication has always remained at the forefront.

Her art is thus an ideal present for Valentine’s Day, at the time of celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.

She will be accompanied by a 5-member band.

Jazz

Food Tue 14 Feb, 8.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 11–14 The Slovenia Times

Emzin Photography Competition Tue 14 Feb–Fri 9 Mar, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission Time-honoured tradition, large number of entrants, an expert jury and widespread acclaim are the reasons why the Photography of the Year competition has grown to become the central Slovenian photo event. It aims at promoting quality Slovenian original and press photography, encouraging the discourse on issues related to photography, and bolstering its reputation with the experts, critics and the general public. These goals are achieved also by publishing the awarded oeuvres and profiling the award-winning artists in Emzin magazine.

A musician par excellence, Polishborn Marcin Dylla is one of the world’s most compelling classical guitar players – a true guitar phenomenon praised by critics and music lovers alike. Between 1995 and 2000 he studied at the State Academy of Music Katowice with Wanda Palacz. He continued his musical education in schools abroad: Academy of Music in Basel with Oscar Ghiglia, Academy of Music in Freiburg with Sonja Prunnbauer, and Musical Conservatory in Maastricht with Carlo Marchione. Apart from his charismatic personality, he owes his acclaim to unparalleled number of awards at music competitions.

Inspired by the penetrating film Yo soy así, in which the closing of a transvestite cabaret in Barcelona affords a glimpse into the private lives of a memorable group of old artists, actress Vanessa Van Durme collected a number of transsexual and transvestite friends in order to win over directors Alain Platel and Frank Van Laecke and composer Steven Prengels for a project that can be called unique in every respect. Because Gardenia is not a work of fiction. Gardenia is a singular account, the most intimate of tales. Gardenia goes deep into the turbulent lives of nine striking people. Seven older individuals who seemingly effortlessly navigate the twilight zone between being male and being female.

Exhibition

Carnival Masks from the Ptuj Region Fri 17 Feb–Mon 31 Dec, Ptuj Castle, Ptuj Are you familiar with the folk customs and their meaning, with the traditional Slovenian Shrovetide carnival masks? Masks are more than just objects, they are used by people to hide their own identities and take on new ones. Throughout history, masks have played an important role and are still perceived as highly interesting items of great cultural and historical value. The new PtujOrmož Regional Museum collection of Shrovetide masks and similar objects at the former castle horse stables focuses on the history of masks in the area of Ptujsko and Dravsko Polje, and the hilly regions of Slovenske Gorice and Haloze.

Drama

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Fri 17 Feb, 7.30pm, Slovene National Theatre, Maribor The “Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” is a didactic drama of the manner in which Hitler – the monstrous figure who shocked the entire world – rose to power in a manner that was simple, rapid and entirely preventable. He achieved what he did by exploiting capitalism, and the psychological mechanisms of a nation whose existence was

METroPolIS

S T H G I L H HIG RY A U R B E F OF H C R A M D AN

F: STeVe HillS / euRekA enTeRTAinMenT

TwElvE - BorIS groyS

Mandragola

(comic opera - opera & TheaTre MadlenianuM, Serbia) TheaTre and performance arTs 11.02.2012 at 19:30 slovene national Theatre maribor - Grand hall

(silenT film classic will be accompanied by a symphony orchesTra, conducTed by roberT israel) film, music 29.02.2012 at 19:30 slovene national Theatre maribor - Grand hall

F: nATAliA nikiTin

(The recTor of The academy of fine arTs in Vienna and one of The foremosT TheorisTs in The field of conTemporary arTs and culTure) ciTy eVenTs 09.03.2012 at 19:00 slovene national Theatre maribor - Kazina hall

rEvIvEd SoUndS oF THE PaST - HUgo wolF

gardEnIa

(reVeal of The renoVaTed permanenT exhibiT and esTablishmenT of huGo wolf inTernaTional informaTion-documenTaTion cenTer) ciTy eVenTs, communiTy 13.03.2012 at 18:00 hugo wolf house, slovenj Gradec

(les balleTes c de la b, belGium) TheaTre and performance arTs 14.02.2012 at 19:30 slovene national Theatre maribor - old hall

F: luk MonSAeRT

HuGo WolF, 1881, ARHiV koRoškeGA pokRAjinSkeGA MuzejA

gErManS and MarIBor pokRAjinSki ARHiV MARiboR

exhibiTions and Visual arTs 15.03.2012 at 11:00 Grand coffeehouse maribor

MUSIC, wInE and FaSHIon FESTIval

F: Al jošA Rebolj

l. n. TolSToj: war and PEaCE

KnowledGe, ciTy eVenTs, music, communiTy from 20.03.2012 at 17:00 till 23.03.2012 at 19:30 different venues in maribor (Vetrinjski dvor mansion, union hall, festival hall lent, satchmo - club 2012)

(drama premiere - direcTed by Tomaž pandur) TheaTre and performance arTs 21.02.2012 at 19:30 slovene national Theatre maribor - Grand hall

F: el GVojoS

F: STepHAn lupino

2CElloS

(sTjepan hauser and luKa Šulič) MuSic 24.02.2012 at 20:00 Tabor hall, maribor

Eur opean Capital of Culture

THE ZagrEB PHIlHarMonICS and Ivo PogorElIC

Tickets and whole programme on: www.maribor2012.eu

(will under The leadership of The conducTor dmiTrij KiTajenKo presenT frideric chopin’s concerTo for piano and orchesTra in e-minor (op.11), and johannes brahms’ symphony no.2 in d-major (op. 73)) MuSic 24.03.2012 at 19:30 slovene national Theatre maribor - Grand hall

44 EVENTS

Slovenia Times recommends

Otis Taylor Otis Taylor is one of the real heroes and cult legends of the current American blues scene and in the context of the Postojna Blues Festival, we will be able to witness his onstage antics.

With Otis Taylor, it’s best to expect the unexpected.

While his music, an amalgamation of roots styles in their rawest form, discusses heavyweight issues like murder, homelessness, tyranny, and injustice, his personal style is light-hearted. Part of Taylor’s appeal is his contrasting character traits. But it is precisely this element of surprise that makes him one of the most compelling artists to emerge in recent years.

Whether it’s his unique instrumentation (he fancies banjo and cello), or it’s the sudden sound of a female

vocal, or a seemingly upbeat optimistic song takes a turn for the forlorn, what remains consistent is poignant storytelling based in truth and history.

Thu 16 Feb, 8.30pm, Jamski dvorec mansion, Postojna, EUR 20 in danger. Using at first minor corrupt methods to accumulate power, he refused to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. The story reads like a narrative of the post-industrial, post-democratic era of today: Arturo Ui, a typical Chicago gangster from the 1930s, gains power over all of the cauliflower vendors.

Martial arts

Shaolin Sat 18 Feb, 7pm, Hala Tivoli (sports hall), EUR 19–36

Jazz

Nostalgia 77 Tue 21 Feb, 8.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 11–14 Nostalgia 77’s long-awaited fourth studio album, The Sleepwalking Society, featuring the vocals of German singer Josa Peit, was out on 21 March 2011 on Tru Thoughts, with tour dates planned for UK and Europe to promote the release. The Sleepwalking Society is rich with overtones of blues and folk and runs the whole range of influences from different styles of music.

Rock pm. We hope that by listening to the music there, we will be able to strike a balance between the twoseemingly incompatible creative schools of electronic music, the experimental and the playful. DJ’s : Stefan Betke (Germany), Yanoosh (Slovenia) and DJ Kozmonavt (Slovenia).

Jazz

Samo Šalamon 2Alto Tur 28 Feb, 8.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 11–14

Photography

Slovenia Press Photo Tue 21 Feb–Fri 16 Mar, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission

The monks from the famous Shaolin temple in the Henan Province of China have for centuries been using meditation and physical exercises to enhance their physical capabilities to an outstandingly high level, which historically led to the development of martial arts such as kung fu. The Shaolin technique, practiced for over fifteen hundred years, is based on harnessing the body’s vital energy known as Qi. The Shaolin show is comprised of extreme physical stunts performed by a group of monks and masters led by a 75-year-old Shaolin temple master and a group of young monks. The show includes interaction with the audience.

The Slovenia Times

Day after day, Slovenian photographers and photojournalists cover diverse events and record interesting and soul-stirring stories. A yearly overview of the finest achievements in photojournalism, the Slovenia Press Photo competition is intended for all professional and gifted amateur photographers who permanently reside in Slovenia. A jury of internationally acclaimed experts in photojournalism and photographers awards the finest works.

The latest project by guitarist Samo Šalamon follows the “bassless” thread, which was first spun with Tim Bern and Tom Rainey in 2008 (to raving European and American reviews Šalamon released Duality in 2011). Devised for the new project, Šalamon’s new compositions represent first-class contemporary jazz and, consequently, Guitar Player named Samo as one of the 10 hottest new guitar players in the world; in 2011, Samo Šalamon’s Ornethology ranked among the 1001 best albums in the history of jazz according to Penguin!

Electronic

Film

MED Session

Metropolis

Sat 25 Feb, 10pm, Kibla, Maribor

Wed 29 Feb, 7.30pm, Slovene National Theatre, Maribor

The highlight of the festival will be the DJ evening, which is taking place on 24 and 25 February at 10

Metropolis, one of the greatest masterpieces in film history, will be shown within the European Capital of Culture framework. The copy includes recently discovered parts, lost for decades. A timeless dystopian tale examining the search for humanity and the rising of downtrodden people seems no less revolutionary and magnificent nowadays than it at the time of its release in 1927. Fritz Lang spent some time in Ljutomer during World War I, where he was recuperating from an injury at the house of Karl Grossman. The film will be accompanied by a 60-member symphony orchestra, which will perform the original movie score by Gottfried Gupertz.

A digitally restored copy of Fritz Lang’s silent film classic

dEUS Thu 1 Mar, 9pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, EUR 16–23

For two decades already dEUS have been considered the leading style icons of the Belgian music scene, where there is always much going on, so that the activity has been bursting across borders, yet it has managed to preserve a great deal of unique mentality. The path in music that has so far been treaded by dEUS could be split into two parts, first the jazz rock experiment of the 1990s and classic romantic rock that also rages properly on this year’s “Keep You Close”.

Dance

La Muntanya al teu Voltant Sat 3 Mar, 7.30pm, Slovene National Theatre, Maribor Presence and the present: two enigmas born out of the sheer movement of life. The movement of one rubs against the movement of the other, the presence of the collective and the individual. “La Muntanya al teu voltant” is a dance production, the essence of which revolves around a mystery that fascinates every dancer and choreographer, as the choreographer Gelabert Azzopardi himself explains: “La Muntanya al teu voltant” sketches out allusions to Catalonian culture while at the same time represents also the attitude of the individual dancer.

SPORTS 45

Ice hockey

Jesenice on its Deathbed?

Acroni Jesenice ice hockey club has been the pride of sport in the Gorenjska region but dark clouds hover above its future.

By Simon Demšar Foto: Žiga Novak (HK Acroni Jesenice)

W

ith its 32 national titles (23 as Yugoslav champions and 9 as Slovene) in its 53-year history, Jesenice are a phenomenon also on a larger scale. They set ice hockey standards for the whole of former Yugoslavia. In recognition of their quality and charisma and due to no proper competition at home, they became the first non-Austrian team to join in the expanded Austrian championship in 2006.

Other teams must have been jealous but were gradually also let in and the EBEL league, as it is known, now gives shelter to five foreign clubs from four different countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia and Hungary).

Things started well and Jesenice were a force to reckon in the first couple of years, but that was also when problems started to mount.

Looking back and according to former president Slavko Kanalec, it seems that the management was overspending on the team. While it was possible to be competitive with local boys in Yugoslavia and

Slovenia, being on a par with the best in Austria required bringing in expensive foreign players. Frequent changes in the staff during the last couple of years can also

provide an explanation that things hadn’t gone smoothly long before the recent problems surfaced.

Very early into this season, foreign players left Jesenice en masse.

When locals followed them it was clear that something was seriously wrong. The EBEL league board gave the team an ultimatum: either pay the players or you leave the league with immediate effect. Another problem was that there was no competent partner on Jesenice’s side as Kanalec had resigned only a few weeks earlier amid accusations of corruption and even threats from the fans.

The mayor of Jesenice, Tomaž Tom Mencinger stepped in and promised that players would be paid.

For now, Jesenice have evaded the worst scenario but it is feared that this is far from the end of the story. If Jesenice indeed collapse and go back to amateur basics it could well signal the end of professional ice hockey not only in Gorenjska but Slovenia as a whole.

While it is difficult to believe that a rich sponsor will appear, some optimists suggest that Anže Kopitar, a native of Jesenice and now an established NHL star, could one day appear with a big bag of money and simply buy the club.

Alpine skiing

Bittersweet After a slow start, Tina Maze’s skiing season took off at the end of December. In the overall standings she is trailing only Lindsey Vonn. However, not everything has been sweet for Maze.

S

ince 2008, when Tina Maze e st abl i shed he r pr ivate team, the on ly way has been up. Overall, she was 6th in 2009, 4th in 2010 and 3rd last year, so it is only natural to aim at the very top. Similarly to last year, this season wasn’t off to a good start. A string of mediocre results, where the best achievement in the first seven races was a seventh place, suggested that she could have got it wrong during the training period. However, the tide turned with a third place in slalom in Flachau, followed by another four podium finishes.

Despite no wins, she was gradually making her way to the top thanks to the fact that she is reasonably competitive in all disciplines. Vonn, for example, struggles in slalom, while Maze’s next

closest opponents Marlies Schiled is a slalom specialist and Elisabeth Goergl is nowhere in slalom.

Another fact is that at the time of writing, it was still the first half of the season, with 22 events to go. Maze’s deficit of 282 points to Vonn might seem a lot but given the fact that this is less than three wins away, the battle could go right down to the wire. Maze’s successes once again attracted thousands of fans to Kranjska Gora where the World Cup race, otherwise held in Maribor, took place due to no snow in Maribor.

But contrary to any logic, Maze’s worst enemy is not other skiers but seems to be coming from the inside. It is the political battle with the Ski Association of Slovenia and its president Tomaž Lovše. In a rarely seen outburst

of emotions, Lovše publically accused Maze, her team leader Andrea Massi and lawyer Damijan Terpin of greediness, selfishness, misconduct, improper attitude towards sponsors, and even political threats in connection with the imminent change of the government in Slovenia. In a heated exchange of words, Terpin accused Lovše of lying, while Maze refused Lovše’s congratulation for her fifth and four places in Kranjska Gora. The dispute has deep roots, originating in the Ski Association’s financial contribution to Maze’s private team. Although things seemed solved with the arrival of Lovše at the helm of the Association this is obviously not the case. For now, things ended with Maze demanding Lovše’s apology and Lovše’s “no comment”.

Photo: Mediaspeed

By Simon Demšar

Tomaž Lovše January/February 2012

The Old-Fashioned Skiing Festival in Škofja Loka. (BOBO)

Doctor Jadranka Vrh, the personality o 2011 in the Littoral region.

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY

The fairest of them all: CACIB exhibition Ljubljana: terrier Mr Energyzer di Sutri, bobtail Bottom Shaker my Secret and Irish setter Garden Star’s Johnie Walker

Ice castles of King Matjaž, the annual snowsculpturing event in Črna na Koroškem. (BOBO)

Gymnastics for Brains: The first “First® Lego® League” open championship at a primary school in Šentjur

The Global co-working innitiative Jellyweek at Kino Šiška. (Photo: Peter Kuralt)

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