Is Time Running out?

www.see-magazine.eu |

January 30th

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southeast europe · a fortnight in reviewno.19 / y.2 / subscription only / 30th january 2013

in medias res | Serbia & Kosovo Slow(ly) Coming to the Point

editorial | And They All Cried Wolf (or Vuk, if You Will)

event horizon | Regressions of the Longest Waiting EU Candidate

IS TIME RUNNING OUT?

financial | Croatian Cash Businesses (Finally) on the Run

politics | The Slovenian Political Undead Playing Chicken

| www.see-magazine.eu

SEE - A Fortnight in Review

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January 30th

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Is Time Running Out?May the Next One Be BetterRa quis accatusa dolorem faccus.

May the Next One Be BetterRa quis accatusa dolorem faccus.














introductory epistle

The Economy

Of General Interest

Politics

news

highlights

editorial

politics

event horizon

in medias res around the world

destinations

lifestyle

good stuff

did you know?

blast from the past

to do list

financial

fortnightly interview

in perspective

culture

The Slovenian Political Undead Playing Chicken

Regressions of the Longest Waiting EU Candidate

Serbia & Kosovo Slow(ly) Coming to the Point

Cash Businesses (Finally) On The Run

Ye Croatian Residents, Income Tax Changes to Be Aware of

Hard Times: The Serbian Health System in Crisis

Addiction Treatment in Montenegro: Like & Share

Küstendorf: or Emir Kusturica’s Declaration of War on Red Carpets & Globalisation

Happy Chinese New Year!

Skiing in the East

World’s Fastest Electric Supercar… And It’s Croatian

A Few Eastern Beauties

Nikola Tesla - A Man Out of Time

And They All Cried Wolf (or Vuk, if You Will)

Two Bomb Attacks Shake up Zagreb

Early Elections for Serbia?

Dodik Strikes Some Nerves on RS Anniversary

Croatia’s EU Accession Stalled?


January 30th

09

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10

When at a loss, one should always do the obvious thing: start at the begin-ning and, if one is in my line of work, explain oneself as quickly as possible.The world indeed did not end in 2012, but 2013 did rather kick off on a hec-tic note: the Croats are scurrying to and fro in quite panicky attempts to find a solution with the Slovenians and thus avoid a truly horrific, but with each passing day more plausible, scenario, and that is a failure to 'persuade' all the remaining eu countries which have not as yet done so to ratify Croatia's Accession Agreement. The Slovenians, of course, have other things on their mind, as the very top echelon of their political pantheon, namely Janša and Janković, stand accused of having engaged in less than honourable – and not entirely legal – practices. Vesna Pusić seems confident that everything will be fine (as, truth be told, it probably will), but time slowly but surely running out. The fact that, it seems, every few days or so an explosive device tends to go off somewhere in Zagreb certainly does not soothe the strained psyche.There is plenty of strain further down south as well, as the Macedonian ex-ecutive and legislative branches, after some recognisably Third-World she-nanigans in and around the Parliament might soon find out that their his-torical prerogative of ‘manufacturing’ a State may just have achieved exactly the opposite effect. No matter what certain enthusiastic Irish diplomats may be stating, Europe is tired and would probably have difficulty dealing with a far ‘better’ Macedonia, let alone this one. Time is running out.Time is running out for Serbia as well: the economic situation is not improv-ing – at least not to any palpable degree – and the Kosovo ‘situation’ won’t go away. Tensions have even spilled over from northern Kosovo and into southern Serbia – into the Preševo valley – and it hard to shirk the impres-sion that the Serbian authorities have grown awfully weary of it all. The Al-banians have worn them down, and perhaps the best thing Nikolić and Dačić could do is to admit it. As to what that might mean in practice, we must leave to them to decide. But one does rather notice that time is somehow running out…Which may not be an altogether bad thing. Some people can function adequately only when they are presented with a deadline; also, a bit of stress never killed the proverbial ram. As for us, I can only hope you can appreciate our new design – in fact, prompt-ed by our subscribers' kind suggestions , we could only oblige and reduce the format so as to make see easier to handle, as well as increase the number of pages in order to accommodate the ever increasing number of news items. I daresay it looks like this is going to be a rather interesting year.

Is Time Running Out?

director

Igor Dakić

[email protected]

sales & marketing (cro & slo)

Miroslav Tomas

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sales & marketing (srb & bih)

Miša Milošević

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editor-in-chief

Igor Dakić

executive editor

Lee Murphy

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graphic editor

Ivor Vinski

[email protected]

art editor

Stiv Cinik

country editors

Miša Milošević

Aida Tabaković

Sebastijan Maček

Ben Berković

contributors

Dylan Alexander

Ivana Stepanović

Mark Ferris

Michael Devaney

Črt Razboršek

Paul Suchar

Jerko Markovina

Marijan Grakalić

photography

Mens-Libera Photo,

Shutterstock, IStock,

Wiki Commons

unless otherwise

specified

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Stega tisak d.o.o.

Zavrtnica 17, Zagreb

Croatia

introductory epistleimpressum


January 30th

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12

The Economy

The largest retail chain in Europe, the French

owned Carrefour, has decided to purchase

the Croatian company ‘Idea Srbija’, which has

until now been owned by Croatian business-

man Ivica Todorić, while the Serbian compa-

ny Frikom is now the property of Ledo, part of

Todorić’s Agrokor empire. Carrefour had been

looking for an opportunity to enter the Serbian

market for a number of years, and had been

linked with a takeover of Mercator. Carrefour

holds almost 38% of the European market

share and is already present in Albania, Mac-

edonia, and Romania. Frikom was purchased

for an amount just short of 100 million Euros,

with the intention of uniting their ice cream

and frozen foods sections with those of Ledo

and other Agrokor subsidiaries. Todorić has

expressed his desire to see his foodstuff em-

pire become the regional leader in these seg-

ments. Ever alert, market analysts are suggest-

ing that this restructuring might actually be a

precursor to a renewed takeover bid of Mer-

cator, with Todorić’s hand, perhaps, forced

by Carrefour’s strengthening in the region.

Montenegro is not the only regional state gar-

nering attention from the UAE, with the Emir-

ate of Abu Dhabi showing interest in Serbian

agriculture. Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan,

also the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, recent-

ly visited Serbia and it now appears as if the

Serbian Government will be signing the first of

many agreements with the UAE relating to ag-

riculture, irrigation, and land lease, mainly in

Vojvodina. The total investment will be worth

several hundreds of millions of Euros, and will

also include the reconstruction of river har-

bours and development of those harbours as

cargo centres. Further investment is also ex-

pected in the field of high technology and com-

puter production, and possibly even in the revi-

talisation of JAT, the near defunct Serbian airline.

A spokesperson for the Croatian producer of

wine and spirits, Badel 1862, has reported that

the process of due diligence, by potential bid-

ders, has begun and is expected to last until

the second half of February. A representative

of Badel stated that “potential bidders have

acquired rights to purchase over two million

shares in Badel 1862, which are currently the

property of the Republic of Croatia”. Those two

million shares approximate 66% of Badel’s

stock. The Agency for State Property Manage-

ment, responsible for the overall process of

collecting binding offers and for finalising the

eventual sale of the shares, has so far received

eleven letters of intent from potential investors

during the first round of bidding, of which “most

were from relevant European and international

companies in the sector”. Although official in-

formation on the sale of Badel 1862 cannot be

acquired during the bidding process, unofficial

sources report that amongst the bidders are the

domestic Podravka, the Chinese company Ta-

dee Holding Group, the Cypriot Photos Photia-

des Group, the Canadian company Adria Pacific,

and Stock, a company owned jointly by Salo-

mon Berkowitz and a Czech investment fund.

Since news of the expected takeover became

public, shares of Badel 1862 saw a significant

increase in value, 8.5%, bringing the total value

of a single share to 43.40 Kuna. The cost of the

takeover will be in the region of 12 million Euros.

Jorgovanka Tabaković, the Governor of the Na-

tional Bank of Serbia, believes that inflation in

2013 will not exceed the planned 5.5% and that

the exchange rate will remain stable throughout

the calendar year. Comparing the situation to

that in 2012 Tabaković said that the April-De-

cember inflation rate was 9.5%, with the price

of food accounting for 6.6% of that. She went

on to say that food price increases should be

lowered by promoting new agricultural policies

and by eliminating existing monopolies and the

oversupply of intermediaries on the food pro-

duction and trade chain. A 12% increase in the

price of electricity is due this spring, but it is ex-

pected that this will account for just 0.8% in-

flation. Miscellaneous Governmental activity will

contribute very little to the overall inflation rate.

The Serbian Ministry of Traffic and Chinese Tel-

ecommunications and Infrastructure Company

(CCCC International) have signed a memoran-

dum of understanding which includes an agree-

ment on the construction of the railway Corridor

10, which runs parallel with the road of the same

name, and the revitalisation of the Belgrade-Bar

railway. Italfer, a subsidiary company of the Ital-

ian state railway, had previously conducted a fea-

sibility study on the Belgrade-Bar railway and is

interested in submitting a bid for the contract.

President of Italfer, Mauro Moretti, says that

“Serbia will find itself in the same situation as Af-

rica where the Chinese infrastructure has proved

not to be of the highest quality”. Estimates

state that the reconstruction of the Belgrade-

Bar railway will cost 200-300 million Euros.

Regional Large Retailer ‘Cold War’

United Arab Emirates Invest in Serbia

Badel 1862 Due Diligence

National Bank of Serbia Promises a Stable 2013

China to Finance & Reconstruct Serbian Railways

news |


January 30th

13

With austerity measures causing general un-

rest amongst the Slovenian populace, the Gov-

ernment has taken steps to reduce their diplo-

matic costs. The first stage of an overhaul of the

Slovenian diplomatic network has resulted in

the closure of their Embassy in Dublin and their

General Consulate in New York. The Slovenian

Foreign Minister, Karl Erjavec, has already stat-

ed that additional closures may be necessary

in the future. These two closures are expect-

ed to save the Slovenian exchequer an annual

amount of 2.5 million Euros in overhead costs

and salaries. Slovenia is not the only European

country choosing to tighten the diplomatic belt

in an effort to cuts costs, no matter how small

in comparison with their overall national budget.

The Unity through Knowledge Fund has imple-

mented a support programme called “Research

in Science and Academics”, with the goal of in-

creasing the mobility of scientists and young

experts between the economic and academ-

ic sectors, as well as strengthening the collab-

oration between the two sectors; the maxi-

mum amount of financial support allowable

through this fund is 160,000 Kuna. The inten-

tion of these funds is to subsidise the salaries of

the chosen entrepreneurs in Croatian compa-

nies or public scientific research institutes, un-

der the following conditions: (1) Create/enhance

new products/processes/services; (2) Increase

the competitiveness of the Croatian economy

by developing innovative technology solutions;

(3) Joint involvement of the economic branch

and the academe in international and European

technology projects.The support programme is

available for young scientists and experts who

live and work in Croatia, or Croatian nation-

als and those of Croatian origin who work and

live abroad, so long as they are PhD students or

have gained a PhD in the last 5 years. Warranty

for the co-financing has to be ensured by the

enterprise in which they would work. The appli-

cation deadline is February 22nd 2013, midnight.

German retail chain Bauhaus have stepped

away from any further joint investments with

Serbian company Delreal. Although the latter

denies any connection with Miroslav Mišković,

it would be an almighty coincidence given that

the Germans’ decision came just days after the

police interrogated the Serbian businessman.

Delreal have stated that their erstwhile German

partner did not wish to wait any longer for the

conversion of a right to use of a parcel of land to

ownership of said land, which Delreal had filed

for over a decade ago. It is expected that the

Serbian company will demand a refund from

the City of Belgrade, along with compensation,

as a result of the deal falling through. Delre-

al has released estimates which claim that the

country has lost more then 100 million Euros

worth of investments because of these delays,

while Delreal have lost 22 million Euros and Bel-

grade has lost out on a potential 1,500 new jobs.

Late last year the trade unions of Republika Srp-

ska had threatened strike action if the Govern-

ment did not raise the basic working hour rate,

which is used to determine the pay rates of the

public sector. The trade unions claimed that an

increase of 10% was needed so as to offset an

expected decrease in public sector pay, deferred

from the 2013 budget. Minor action did take place,

on January 21st, in 130 schools and 24 facilities

across Republika Srpska, but services were bare-

ly affected. Several groups returned to work after

only a day of action, claiming that they had been

subjected to aggressive pressure from man-

agement and from Government sources. Many

Government institutions remained opened with

some staff refusing to strike, while a strike by po-

lice was rendered pointless by their work roster.

Milo Đukanović, the Prime Minister and former

President of Montenegro, met with the Deputy

Prime Minister of the UAE, Mohammed bin Zayed

al-Nahyan, while visiting the Arab nation dur-

ing January. The two men talked about potential

improvements in their countries’ bilateral rela-

tions, including ways in which business cooper-

ation could be strengthened. Proposed plans in-

cluded the setting up of a direct route between

Abu Dhabi and Podgorica airports. “The UAE has

a positive view of Montenegro at all levels, and

will be focusing on investing into your country

in the coming period”, said the Deputy Prime

Minister to the visiting Montenegrin delegation.

Earlier during his visit, Đukanović met with the

President of the Federation of UAE Chambers of

Commerce, Muhammad Thani Al Rumaithi and

other businessmen, during which an agree-

ment was reached: businessmen from the UAE

will visit Montenegro by the end of May 2013 per-

sonally to investigate investment possibilities.

Slovenia Closing Certain Legations

Ministry of Science to Subsidise the Hiring of Young Scientists

Bauhaus Calls Off Serbian Deal

Strike fails to materialise in Republika Srpska

Montenegro Strengthens Relations With Uae



14

news | Of Generral Interest

The District Attorney of Zagreb has charged

former General Ljubo Ćesić-Rojs with fraud, or

with having allegedly illegally retained almost

58,000 Euros which had been collected in the

first half of 2010 and which were meant to fi-

nance the Hague defence teams of six Croats,

including Gotovina and Markač. The story

came to light in August 2011, when the media

learned that Jako Andabak, one of the wealth-

iest Croats, had given Rojs the money, but that

it had never arrived at its intended destination.

Rojs is arguing that the money was delayed be-

cause Interpol had blocked the bank account

(Rojs, denied entry into the EU, was suspect-

ed of having abetted persons charged with

war-crimes) he was using for the issue at hand.

Official signs on public institutions, as well as

names of streets and squares, in the Croatian

town of Vukovar are to become bilingual, intro-

ducing Serbian Cyrillic to all signs. Though eth-

nic Serbs constitute 34.8% of the city’s cur-

rent population, the decision has created a

somewhat delicate situation, angering many,

including a number of war veterans’ associa-

tions. Minister of Public Administration Arsen

Bauk, however, says that discussion would not

be entered into: “The introduction of official bi-

lingualism is not a matter which is up for de-

bate. It is in fact a direct application of our laws”.

According to the Ministry the introduction of

such a form of bilingualism is in accordance

with the Constitutional Law on National Mi-

norities (and also with the Helsinki Charter),

which guarantees the rights of members of mi-

norities to use and display their own language

and script. The President of the Serbian Peo-

ples Committee, Milorad Pupovac, comment-

ed that the state is obligated to ensure equal

use of Serbian Cyrillic in communities with a

Serbian population of 30% or more. Minister

Bauk also stated that the Government is plan-

ning on introducing Serbian Cyrillic signs on

public institutions, police stations, post offic-

es, streets and squares in at least 20 other mu-

nicipalities, including Vojnić, Vrginmost, Plaški,

Udbina, Korenica, Gračac, and Negoslavci.

The Vice President of the Federation of Bosnia

and Herzegovina, Svetozar Pudarić, and the

Mayor of Sarajevo, Alija Behmen, have signed

an agreement on cooperation in the construc-

tion of a memorial which is to commemorate

those citizens of Sarajevo (mainly ethnic Serb

and Croat civilians) who were killed at Kazani in

1993. This agreement was not unexpected, with

it being on the agenda for the past few years.

Behmen said that “this is something that the

city of Sarajevo must commemorate, for what

happened at Kazani was a show of absolute dis-

obedience of one part of the Army of Bosnia

and Herzegovina”. The monument, which will

be chosen by a commission, will stand on the

slopes of the Trebević Mountain, but the May-

or reassured the public that whatever design

was chosen it would “not be an obelisk, mere-

ly a stone tablet which will, in an indicative

way, tell the story of what happened at Kazani

in 1993”, before going on to remind all that “in-

nocent civilians of Sarajevo, of all nationalities,

lost their lives here. I am deeply saddened that

such an atrocity took place in my city”. The tab-

let will include the names of all the victims, but

for this plan to proceed there remains a need

for the cooperation of various institutions. “At

the time when citizens of Sarajevo were cop-

ing with the aggression, there was a group of

people who were taking advantage of the sit-

uation. I would like it if that part of Kazani re-

mained as unaltered as possible, so as clear-

ly to show what the people, with their hands

bound, experienced whilst being marched up

the hill to their graves”, said Pudarić, who do-

nated 5,000 Bosnian Marks to the project.

Over the past number of years relations between

Kosovo and Turkey have become much more cor-

dial than they have been in the past, so much so

that the Kosovan Ministry of Education has de-

cided to make certain alterations to their history

curriculum, at least where the Ottoman Empire

is concerned. The Turkish Minister for Foreign Af-

fairs, Ahmet Davutoglu, had in the past expressed

his concern that “Kosovars learn history as in-

terpreted by Tito or Enver Hoxha”. The chang-

es include replacing the words ‘violence’ and

‘killing’ with ‘conquering’ and ‘imprisonment’,

as well toning down the actions of the Otto-

man invaders. Other European countries, such

as France and Germany, have also made simi-

lar changes in order to remove what was termed

“hate language and aggressive vocabulary”.

Former General Rojs Charged With Withholding Legal Fund

20 Croatian Municipalities to Introduce Signs in Cyrillic

Sarajevo To Construct Memorial For Victims of Kazani Murders

History To Be Rewritten for Future Generations in Kosovo


January 30th

15

The Romani Kafenava is expected to open in

Maribor within the coming year, as reported by

the EPeKa and Romano Pralipe associations re-

cently. The restaurant is to be the first of its kind

in Europe, actually employing members of the

Roma community. As an enterprise creating jobs

specifically for the Roma it has also been cho-

sen by the Economic Technology and Develop-

ment Ministry to receive EU social funding. The

founders intend to create a model on the basis

of which similar restaurants might be opened

both nation- and EU-wide, with its income also

being put towards funding similar restaurants in

Slovenia and the EU. Jure Vahtar of EPeKa stat-

ed that one of the main goals of the restaurant

is to revive the almost forgotten Roma tradi-

tions, to help preserve the Romany culture, as

well as to motivate members of the Roma com-

munity to find jobs, thereby improving their in-

formal education and level of social integration.

Epidemiologists in B&H have reported three

new cases of the H1N1 virus since last week. The

infection, also known as Swine Flu, has been

confirmed in five patients, of which three car-

ry the H1N1 virus, and the other two have been

infected by the A type flu (H3N2). Marija Željko,

of the National Institute of Public Health of the

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has

predicted, along with her colleagues, that the

risk of the virus spreading rapidly is high be-

cause of the low number of people who have

been vaccinated, which is disappointing fact

given that the vaccine was available in large

quantities well in advance of this outbreak.

Currently undergoing modification and over-

haul, Kozara is set to become the most modern

river going vessel in Serbia and the wider region.

Kozara will be able to operate at peak efficiency

for another 30 years now that her engine has

been replaced, along with a full electronic up-

date, and has had a modern navigation system

installed. Kozara, as well as being the command

ship of the River Fleet, will be used as a protocol

vessel for the highest of state and military oc-

casions, as a ship base of the accommodation

of fleet personnel, as a military transport vessel,

as a training centre, and if need be as a hospital.

The costs of this refit are estimated to be 20%

of the purchase price of a purpose built vessel.

The magazine ‘National Geographic Travel-

ler’ describes Zadar, a Croatian harbour town

in Northern Dalmatia, as a 3000 year old town

which has inherited the features of many for-

eign powers which have, in the past, ruled over

it, which are visible today in the old city cen-

tre, the Forum, and in its diverse architecture.

The February/March issue of National Geo-

graphic features ‘Europe’s Best Small Ports’,

and other than Zadar, the harbour towns

which should be visited, as suggested by Na-

tional Geographic Traveller, are Alesun (Nor-

way), Tallin (Estonia), Gdansk (Poland), Ajaccio

(France), and Valletta (Malta). The magazine de-

scribes Zadar as looking out at idyllic Adriat-

ic islands, and notes that it is within an hour’s

drive from as many as five national parks.

The publishing of a book detailing the names of

96,000 people who died (as well as the cause

and place of their death) during the Balkan con-

flicts has brought hope that political groups on

all sides of the divide will no longer be able to

muddy the waters with ideological rhetoric. The

book was compiled by the Serbian Humanitari-

an Law Centre, with the help of an internation-

al panel of experts. Nataša Kandić, of the Hu-

manitarian Law Centre, said that “at first glance,

the data shows there were almost ten thousand

female civilian victims”; and Mirsad Tokača, the

Director of Sarajevo’s Research and Identifica-

tion Centre, added that “it is vital that we have,

in one place, the names and identities of Bos-

nian citizens who were killed during the war”.

The telephone numbers of the police, ambu-

lance, and other emergency services have been

changed as of the start of 2013. The new num-

bers are very much the same as the old ones,

with the exception of the number 1 placed in

front of them. Thus, the new phone number

for the police is 192, the Fire Department 193,

the ambulance 194, 112 for emergencies, 1985

for info hotlines, and 1987 for motor-trans-

port assistance services. Authorities respon-

sible for the operation of these services have

stated that despite the changes there was no

discernible decrease in the number of calls. In

other words, so far no problems have arisen.

First Roma Restaurant In Slovenia to Open in Maribor

Bosnia and Herzegovina Expecting Outbreak of Swine Flu

‘Kozara’ To Be The Most Modern River Ship in the Region

Zadar Listed as One of The Most Beautiful European Ports

‘Book Of The Dead’ Finally Published

New Emergency Phone Numbers in Serbia



16

news | Politics

Serbian PM Ivica Dačić has stated that it is high

time to bring about a final solution to the con-

tentious matters regarding Montenegro: “In the

last couple of decades the relationships between

Serbia and Montenegro have been quite turbulent.

I believe it is time for all such disputes to be re-

solved ad acta.” He also met with the Montenegrin

PM, Milo Đukanović with the aim of resolving any

disputes on a tabula rasa principle: “We respect

the choices of every citizen of Montenegro… and

we wish to nurture and develop a mutually ben-

eficial friendship and brotherhood between Serbia

and Montenegro”. Dačić went on to reiterate that

there was a pressing need to topple the prejudicial

thinking that Belgrade somehow objects to Mon-

tenegrin independence and statehood. “There

are no two countries or nations which are clos-

er than Serbia and Montenegro”, finished Dačić.

Following an incident on January 14th, when the

Serb ballad ‘March on the Drina’ was played at

an event commemorating Serbia’s Presidency

of the UN General Assembly, a petition has been

created which calls for Vuk Jeremić, the Pres-

ident of the General Assembly, to step down

from his position. The ballad in question is as-

sociated with Serbian attacks in Bosnia and

Herzegovina, specifically Srebrenica. A joint let-

ter signed by the Congress of North American

Bosniaks, the Advisory Council for Bosnia and

Herzegovina, the Bosnian-American Genocide

Institute from the US, and the Institute for the

Research of Genocide from Canada, was sent

to the UN General Secretary, Ban Ki-moon, ex-

pressing their dismay at the choice of music.

“2013 will be a great year for enlargement to-

wards the Balkans”, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister

Eamon Gilmore told the European Parliament

foreign affairs committee on behalf of the serv-

ing Irish EU presidency. “We expect to open ne-

gotiations with Serbia and Macedonia in the first

half of 2013, award Albania the status of a can-

didate, and also sign a stabilisation and associ-

ation agreement with Kosovo. We know that this

is an ambitious agenda, but the Irish presiden-

cy will work for the progress of all Western Bal-

kan countries. Ireland also supports a Bosnian

candidacy, and we hope the Bosnian govern-

ment will show signs of progress towards the

EU.” Quite optimistic, Mr. Gilmore is, but that

is just what the region needs most – doesn’t it?

Three cars belonging to the Kosovo Govern-

ment were torched during the early hours of

January 18th, apparently in response to EU-

mediated Kosovo-Serbia talks. The talks are

quite unpopular amongst the Kosovo public,

with the ethnic majority claiming that Kosovo

has nothing to discuss with Serbia as they are

now an independent state. The fear amongst

the Albanians is that Hashim Thaçi’s Govern-

ment will agree to concessions for the Ser-

bian minority in northern Kosovo. This is not

the first time the Government has lost a vehi-

cle to fire, with two cars having been torched

on December 4th, 2012, after Thaçi met with

Serbian PM Ivica Dačić. In a separate incident,

likely connected with the protests, there were

two explosions in the Serb-controlled Mitrovica.

The Zagreb County Court has published their de-

cision in relation to the criminal case of Radimir

Čačić, who was found guilty of causing a traffic

accident, then leaving the scene, causing the

death of two persons. The sentence, issued by

the Hungarian Court in Kaposvar, stated that

Čačić would be expected to serve 22 months

in jail. Čačić has confirmed, through his legal

team, that he will file an appeal challenging the

Croatian court’s decision. Čačić will be eligible to

have the remainder of his sentence commuted

once he has served 11 months. He has also been

banned from operating motor vehicles for three

years, and will be liable for 31,000 Kuna in costs

which were incurred by the Hungarian court.

President of the Montenegrin Parliament Ranko

Krivokapić has announced that April 7th, 2013,

will serve as the date for the country’s Pres-

idential Election, while the second round of

voting will take place on April 21st. The cur-

rent President, Filip Vujanović, will see his

mandate expire on May 21st, but his politi-

cal allies, the Social Democratic Party (SDP),

will not be supporting his possible candidacy

for re-election as the Montenegrin Constitu-

tion does not confer the right to a third presi-

dential mandate. So far the only declared can-

didate is Miodrag Lekić, an independent Lekić

supported by the Democratic Front (DF), while

the remaining political parties are yet to de-

cide whether they will propose candidates

or not (though we’d be fools to expect any-

thing other than a very full ballot come April).

Serbian PM Calls for Final Resolution Regarding Montenegro

Jeremić To Face His Marching Orders?

Gilmore: Serbia & Macedonia to Start EU Negotiations in 2013

Kosovo Government Cars Torched In Protest

Čačić’s Hungarian Sentence Confirmed by the Croatian Courts

Montenegrin Presidential Elections Announced


January 30th

17



18

highlights

The Croatian Minister of Economy, Ivan Vrdoljak, delivered the initialled

contract regarding the sale of the Bro-dotrogir shipyard to “Kermas Energija”, owned by Danko Končar, to Brussels on Jan 21st, which is one of the remaining problematic issues listed in the 2012 re-port by the European Monitoring Com-mission.

“We have fulfilled 8 of the 10 issues listed in the last report by the Europe-an Monitoring Commission regarding Croatias’ entry into the eu, and we are confident that we will resolve the re-maining two issues by the end of Jan-uary”, was rather optimistically stated by a source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The two remaining issues are the privatisation and restructuring of the shipyards, and the construction of two border crossings in the Neum corridor.

By presenting the shipyard sales con-tract to Joaquin Almunia, the European Commissioner for Competition, Vrdol-jak is hoping to assure the Spaniard that Croatia will resolve the issues regarding the shipyards before entering the eu on July 1st, 2013.

Croatia is obligated to deliver infor-mation showing what has been done re-garding the 10 issues listed by the emc, by the end of January 2013, the success rate of which is expected to be reported by the emc in March. “The Neum bor-der crossings will be completed with-in the April 1st deadline”, as the source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as-sures us.

As Croatia prepares to enter the eu on July 1st, it still awaits the ratification of its’ Accession to the eu agreement by Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Neth-erlands and Slovenia. The greatest con-cern for Croatia is that Slovenia, current-ly in political turmoil, is likely to be the

Emboldened by recent polls which give his party absolute dominance, the Serbian President may just have gone one step too far...

Will the Slovenians actually fill the role of an anti deux-ex-machina, ruining rather than saving the day? This scenario shouldn’t be ruled out...

Early Elections for Serbia?

Croatia’s EU Accession Stalled?

were deposited in the bank before the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

Still, the Croatian Deputy Prime Min-ister, Vesna Pusić, repeatedly stated “I firmly believe that Slovenia will ratify the accession treaty by July 1st. Not doing so, which would result in Croatia not enter-ing the eu in 2013, would not only harm Croatia, but Slovenia also. I am absolute-ly sure that we will come to a mutually beneficial solution concerning “Ljubljan-ska banka.”

Meanwhile, the eu and even the Unit-ed States have been putting pressure on Slovenia regarding the ratification, call-ing for the current Government at least to begin the process, even if it is dissolved due to the political crisis. President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Bar-roso intimated as much during a recent visit of Slovenian President Borut Pahor to Brussels, although no official state-ments were issued.

I t was only last May that Ivica Dačić and Tomislav Nikolić swept to power, oust-

ing the incumbent Boris Tadić from his roost. Whether Tadić’s replacement at the top of the Democratic Party of Serbia, Dragan Đilas, feels he can lead his par-ty back into power, or not, could soon be put to the test as Nikolić, President of Serbia, has intimated that a General Elec-tion might yet be called, although no ear-lier than mid-2013. Dačić, as Prime Min-ister, has certainly had a baptism of fire in his term in office, as his Government has faced a failing economy, a much pub-licised battle with corruption, and most recently the trial of Miroslav Mišković, the owner of Delta Holding - one of Ser-bia’s largest companies.

President Nikolić actually said that “politicians have made such a meaning-less country out of Serbia. There never would have been this much corruption and crime, bribery, citizens’ dissatis-faction with their lives, if the politicians had not wanted it. Therefore, the politi-cians need to be dealt with first.” Nikolić also hinted that whether or not elections would be called depended on whether or not Brussels would give Serbia a defini-tive date for European Union talks.

Oddly, however, the Deputy Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vučić, who is de-termined to root out all aspects of cor-ruption in Serbian political life, has dis-missed the idea of any new elections, pointing out that, even if they were to be held, his (and Nikolić’s) party, the Serbian Progressive Party, enjoys such a high popularity rating that they would likely be returned holding an overall majority.

Vesna Pusić & Karl Erjavec

very last country to ratify the process by July 1st, if it does at all. To reiterate, Slov-enia’s main reason for not even having commenced the ratification process is the dispute it has with Croatia regarding the “Ljubljanska banka” savings affair, in which more than 130,000 Croatians claim 160 million Euros in savings that


January 30th

19

Z agreb was shaken awake in the small hours of January 9th as a cargo train,

travelling through the Podsused area, struck an explosive device which had been left on the tracks. That such an event was seized upon by the media was not unexpected, but cries of terrorism and bombing campaigns were soon rife as only two days later a second explosion occurred, this time at a bus stop on Aleja Bolonje in West Zagreb. The same media outlets would go on to report that the ex-

Republika Srpska celebrated 21 years of existence on Jan 9th, a day off for

most citizens, though this year’s festiv-ities came nowhere close to what one would have witnessed last year. With the mood somewhat muted, we could say, not without sarcasm, that a measure of con-troversy was quite welcome. For one, the President of the Serbian Democratic Par-

Acts of terrorism in the streets of Zagreb? Something did go off, but no one’s crying wolf just yet...

We’ve heard it all (or almost all) before, but Republika Srpska’s President may yet have found a new verbal weapon in his secessionist arsenal...

Two Bomb Attacks Shake up Zagreb

Dodik Strikes Some Nerves on RS Anniversary

plosion was heard as far away as Samobor and Maksimir – very much an exaggerat-ed claim. The second bomb did cause in-jury to one man, who was promptly in-stalled as the prime suspect in the two events. Eventually the police named the man as Vojislav Blažević, a 53 year old pa-raglider from the Croatian capital, and confirmed that he had been officially ar-rested in connection with the bombings.

The police have conducted over 25 sep-arate searches of Blažević’s apartment, car,

computer, mobile phone, as well as those belonging to people of interest, but after 200 seized items, and 250 interviews, they have yet to discover any motive which would connect their suspect to the bomb-ings. Blažević, who was also suspected by the Italian police of rigging explosive devic-es seven years ago in Udine, denied any in-volvement with the bombings.

But then (just as we were ready to go to print), yet a third explosive device ex-ploded, just after midnight on the 23rd of January, this time round on Zagreb's main square. No one was hurt, but con-jectures started running wild immediate-ly. With Blažević in custody, who had set it off? Well, the police were quick to tell us that this bombing was unrelated to the previous two, but one cannot help but wonder...

ty (sds), Mladen Bosić, pointed out that one should remember the founders of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić and Momčilo Krajišnik (who are both cur-rently ‘guests’ of The Hague, having been found guilty of war crimes), “whose de-termination and bravery made it possible to celebrate our Republic’s holiday”.

Milorad Dodik, the President of the same republic, was naturally invited to appear on a local television show, during which he stated how “Republika Srpska must be socially stable, with no protests, because the vultures from Sarajevo and the international community can hard-ly wait to split everything up here”. He also said that the Croatian President, Ivo Josipović, sent congratulations re-garding Republika Srpska’s anniversa-ry, a claim which was officially denied by the Office of the President, stating that

“they congratulate countries on inde-pendence, and not political entities”.

Dodik also stated that Republika Srps-ka is the only self-sufficient community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that “it would not agree indefinitely to abide by the decisions brought by high represent-atives, decisions made in an unconstitu-tional and unlawful manner, and against the best interest of rs”, alluding to the Of-fice of the High Representative in b&h.

Previously, on the 6th of January, he had invited Serbs from Kosovo to come and settle in Republika Srpska (“Serbs in Kosovo don’t even have jobs, while we could offer them both jobs and proper-ty”), but it was his latest statement that echoes the loudest. “I believe the exter-nal political conditions for the breakdown of b&h will be created. Whether it will be in 2035 or later, is less important”, said Dodik, alluding to the new map of Eu-rope in 2035 created by Russian experts, in which Croatia and Serbia will divide b&h amongst themselves.



20

What might a fictional German Ambassador and the President of The United Nations General Assembly have in common? What has Wagner got to do with an old Serbian folk song? What has football got to do with The Hague? And could it be that we just might be entering the last phase of those ethnic passions which have been reigning supreme in the Yugosphere for quite some time?

Imagine the following scenario: a German ambassador to an eminent country or important internation-

al institution decides to throw a party – food, drinks, music and all – for the diplomatic and political elite on the oc-casion, say, of the German Unification Day. As dignitaries, potentates, High Commissioners, General Secretaries and so on begin to trickle in our ambas-sador consults (or rather inspects) his staff, caterers and hired entertainment – junior officers, chefs, valets, waiters, the orchestra, his butler (let us not be cheap and accord him one) – for one last time. Everything seems to be in order, and he has no reason to think that the evening could be anything but complete and ut-ter success.

The ethnic cliché is observed to the finest detail – sausages and sauerkraut are served, Rhineland wine, Bavari-an beer etc. – as is the custom at such events – and everyone is absolutely de-lighted, or at least they all say that they are. Glasses are raised in innumerable toasts, as those in attendance unabash-edly drink each other’s health, and as the evening progresses attempts are

have opted for Bach or Beethoven, but for some reason – no concrete reason – he had instructed the orchestra to open with Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’. The music having commenced, our am-bassador accidentally takes a seat in be-tween two South American Prime Min-isters, both of whom are half-German and hence speak our ambassador’s lan-guage with native fluency. The rest of the evening is a pleasant blur, just to his liking...

The next day, after a good night’s sleep and only slightly hung over, our ambassador picks up his favourite in-ternational English language broad-sheet: gracing the cover is a picture of none other than himself, seated in be-tween those two Prime Ministers, with

And They All Cried Wolf (or Vuk, if You Will)

even made at light-hearted philoso-phising: a dandified Greek diplomat even lights a cigar and attempts to dis-cuss Kant’s Categorical Imperative with a Cardinal; at the other end of the table a powerful Asian lobbyist draws a par-allel between Confucius and Nietzsche, which nobody understands but all pre-tend they do. An African pm – or per-haps dictator – who was, by the way, educated at Heidelberg – saves the mo-ment by quoting Goethe (“Ich habe ge-lebt, und ich habe geliebt”...), eliciting earnest applause. Relaxed dilettant-ism is the order of the day, which suits everyone.

But then, the table cleared and di-gestives and coffee served, the orches-tra is invited in. Our ambassador could

editorial | by Igor Dakić

Even all the hype surrounding the acquittal of Generals Gotovina and Markač has almost completely subsided, except on the most formal level...

“


January 30th

21

the following headline above it: ‘H.E. the German Ambassador Entertains the Elite with Hitler’s Favourite Music’. Suppressing a heart-attack, he imme-diately checks his messages and discov-ers that he has already been summoned back home by the Foreign Minister, his boss. The reader can easily imagine how this story will unfold...

O n January 14th, 2013, Vuk Jeremić, the former Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs

and currently the President of The Unit-ed Nations General Assembly, hosts the

‘Serbian New Year's Eve’ at the un head-quarters in New York. The old Serbian tradition of celebrating the New Year according to the Julian calendar, which Serbian Orthodox church still adheres to, is the perfect occasion to throw a party of his own and organise the con-cert of an a cappella choir, which per-forms a broad selection of Serbian and international hits. Attended by the dip-lomatic corps accredited in the un and addressed by the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who greets the audience and wishes them a happy New Year in

Serbian, the evening is a complete suc-cess. The concert is even broadcast live on Serbian State Television…

The next day, Vuk Jeremić wakes up in a pleasant blur (as is just to his lik-ing), has a cup of coffee or tea, switch-es on his laptop – but only to discov-er, alas, that he has been embroiled in a rather serious diplomatic scandal. You see, the a cappella choir he had hired al-so performed a certain song, ‘The March on the Drina’, an old Serbian folk song really but a song which was also the tune of choice, on various occasions (many of them hardly harmless), of a good number of convicted Serb war crimi-nals back in the nineties.

The Croatian media as well as the po-litical elites are already having a field day, not only because it provides them with a measure of much needed respite from the ‘Slovenian scare’, ratification of eu membership hanging on the line. They didn’t like him much in the first place (perhaps for a reason, but that is not the point here), and as far as they are concerned this is perfect confirmation that something had always been fishy about Jeremić and that it is an absolute

disgrace that he should ever have been allowed to assume a post as important as that of the President of the United Na-tions General Assembly. Even the Ser-bian pm, Ivica Dačić, seems to be irri-tated, as he had just completed a fairly constructive bilateral session with his Croatian counterpart Milanović, not to mention the fact that he must apply all his faculties to the Kosovo ‘situation’ and that he clearly wishes to spend as little time as possible vexing over oth-er issues.

Vuk Jeremić now switches on the telly to look at his favourite Bosnian channel via satellite. News comes on almost im-mediately – and he finds that he him-self is the breaking news. The level of indignation amongst the Bosniaks is severe – which is disconcerting to Vuk Jeremić. You see, he himself is part Bos-niak – and even if he in fact were a prop-er Chetnik, he reasons that then he nev-er would have allowed himself to ask for

‘The March on the Drina’ to be includ-ed in the previous night’s musical rep-ertoire. He believes that his ‘innocence’ is proof enough of his Innocence, and begins to feel indignant himself.

Who is the stuff that nightmares are made of? Who indeed is the boogeyman?



22

In the ensuing weeks the situation gets even worse. A whole host of (main-ly Bosniak) associations and interest groups files official complaints with the un, embarrassing not only him but al-so his boss, Ban Ki-Moon, who is real-ly such a likable chap and could even be bothered to learn a little Serb. Now they have really gone too far – they have made it personal…“I may have made it,” he thinks to himself with a slight back-hand, “but things really were so much better back in the day when I was a stu-dent at Harvard, when I was younger, quicker, and when the (whole) world had no interest in commenting on what kind of music I like to listen to when en-tertaining my friends, colleagues, and associates...By God, I could handle be-ing accused of not possessing enough tact – especially in my position – but I draw the line at being accused of blatant Chetnik sympathies… ”

T he above two scenarios, the first fictional and second obvious-ly semi-fictional (for the purpos-

es of achieving a semi-dramatic effect), testify to two things: 1) that Oscar Wilde was absolutely right when he said that life imitates (rather mediocre) art; and 2) that Balkan inter-ethnic passions – at least when it comes to the elites – have entered their terminal – meaning rec-ognisably thespian – phase.

When, say, Milorad Dodik – a man who, unlike Vuk Jeremić, does actual-ly wield real power in this neck of the woods – says that there will likely be no more Bosnia and Herzegovina in ten years’ time, very few relevant ac-tors take him seriously and dismiss his excesses as his usual populist rhetoric. Croatia-Serbia genocide and counter genocide suits, if discussed at all, usual-ly fill no more than half a column some-where in the middle of national dailies. Even all the hype surrounding the ac-quittal of Generals Gotovina and Markač has almost completely subsided, except on the most formal level – and both on Croatian and Serbian ends. In other words, one gets the impression that all,

say, Gotovina, is good for is to kick off the ball in the upcoming Croatia-Ser-bia March bout in the qualifying group for the 2016 fifa World Cup in Rio. In-deed, more than a few parties have pro-posed this in earnest, and still entertain the notion that it might actually happen. As for the Serbs, one almost gets the im-pression that they are more dismayed with what they perceive as a ‘Croatian victory’ than with the fact that no one has as yet answered for the mass mur-der and exodus of the Serbs during and after Operation Storm.

that is not necessarily bad – yet one also cannot escape from the impression that many decent human beings, on all sides, have been seriously wronged and can, in light of their perpetual suffering, only be enormously frustrated by the way in which events appear to have turned. It is a futile endeavour, this, trying to pac-ify the human reality of plight with the just as human inclination towards facile self-stultification; then again, one had better be fair and admit it, and get on with it, whatever that means...

In fact, perhaps the only thing that was absolutely unfair in this hack piece was the drawing of a comparison be-tween ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ and ‘The March on the Drina’. It was done, admittedly, so as to achieve dramatic ef-fect. For those are two completely dif-ferent musical styles, usually enjoyed on completely different occasions and in completely different ways. And as for this author, the only thing he still owes you is the act of declaring his personal preference – for we do, do we not, live in a day and age when one absolutely has to state one’s ‘likes’, for the whole world to see, read, or hear so there would be no doubt whatsoever. Well, then, let this author somewhat carefully state that he has never been overly fond of Wagner (whom he finds overbearing), patiently hoping that his German friends, and es-pecially his Croatian peers, will not hold it against him.

To be fair, now it is more about football and music than about history, territory, or ‘justice’.

“

Real issues are giving way to some-thing resembling, and awfully so, a sporting contest, or the playhouse; to be fair, we must say that the ideologies are all but spent, and that the ‘contest’ – that elusive yet so human a thing – is all that remains. To be fair, now it is more about football and music than about his-tory, territory, or ‘justice’. To be fair,


January 30th

23



24


January 30th

25

The Slovenian Democrats (sds), the party of Prime Minister Janez Janša, labelled the thousands of people protesting against out-of-touch political elites in the centre of the capital, Ljubljana, on December 21st, “zombies”. Less than a month later, it is Janša who looks like a zombie, a political zombie engaged in a high-stakes game of chicken.

Janša was getting ready to celebrate the first year in office for his centre-right Government, which would be in early February. He would have plen-

ty to show for: pension reform; a Con-stitutional Court ruling which in effect prevents any referendums on reforms; a law establishing a bad bank and anoth-er law creating a sovereign holding that would take under its umbrella all compa-nies in full or partial state ownership; and a budget pleasing the eu, as well as rat-ing agencies, by putting Slovenia firmly on the course of austerity.

Alas, he may find it difficult to stick around long enough to pop the cham-pagne after the independent Commis-sion for the Prevention of Corruption is-sued a report on January 8th claiming that Janša and the leader of the biggest op-position party, Zoran Janković, had sys-tematically violated anti-corruption leg-islation by failing properly to account for their assets.

The anti-graft commission said that Janša, who is already on trial for corrup-tion over a 2006 defence deal, failed to account for some 210,000 Euros in as-sets between 2007 and 2012. This figure includes a number of cash transactions

inquiry over these and similar deals. The startling thing about them is that in the eyes of the public, the anti-Janša and Janša became one, and both men’s par-ties now unlikely bedfellows.

How do arguably the strongest poli-ticians in Slovenia at the moment cope with such grave accusations? If this was Germany, where President Christian Wulff stepped down over a personal loan that was only ethically questionable but perfectly legal if kept hidden from the public, both would resign immediate-ly. But Slovenia is no such place, as Ger-man-like as it likes to think that it is. In-stead, both Janković and Janša went on the offensive.

The first victim of their ire was the anti-graft commission itself. Its head, Goran Klemenčič, pre-empted the fallout when he cautioned that the commission,

The Slovenian Political Undead Playing Chicken

that he was at pains to explain, chang-ing his story several times before de-faulting to the narrative, saying that the cash came from either his inheritance or was the payback of loans that he gave his brother. There was also the small mat-ter of him getting a very generous price for a plot of land in the Triglav Nation-al Park from a real estate developer who had made millions in deals with the State during Janša's first tenure as Prime Min-ister, or between 2004 and 2008.

The report was even more damning for Janković, who received a whopping 2.4 million Euros of unclear origin from his sons via chain transactions that also included companies which did business with the city of Ljubljana, of which he is mayor. However, the revelations about Janković were not particularly new, since he has already been targeted by a police

politics | by Sebastijan Maček

Reactions from foreign partners are telling. US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli, has hinted in no uncertain terms that stability might have to take precedence over ethics...

“



26

its report, and himself personally would come under attack. He was being opti-mistic, for the amount of sulphur spewed out by both Janković and Janša, but par-ticularly the latter and his political com-panions, exceeded even his wildest im-agination.

In the process, truth and ethics be-came collateral damage. Both were so busy trying to delegitimise the anti-graft watchdog, and so hung up on challeng-ing even the tiniest technical aspect of the report, that they conveniently for-got that ethics is an inalienable part of politics, an asset much more easily lost than gained, even in a country used to brushing off increasingly blatant trans-gressions of even the most basic stand-ards of political propriety. Tried as they might, though, they failed.

Though the report, since analysed in minute detail, has been found to have its shortcomings, that does not change the fact that both have failed to report their assets in accordance with the law, which constitutes an infringement that would normally be considered grave enough to warrant a resignation. This is what the majority of other political parties seem to think as well, and therein lies the mak-ing of a political crisis with few parallels in Slovenia's history.

Since the report was published Janković has been relegated to the trash heap of Slovenian political history, for-ever to be considered a silver bullet that managed to prevent Janša from winning the 2011 election, but deflected in a direc-tion that few of his political backers were willing to accept. He ‘froze’ his chair-manship of his party, the Positive Slov-enia, and mp Alenka Bratušek has been appointed interim President until a new leader is elected. Though Janković's move has been widely criticised as being cow-ardly, since he steadfastly refused to step down outright and continues to cling on to his mayoral mandate, it creates an op-portunity for the party he founded just over a year ago to survive his almost cer-tain political demise.

Janša opted for a different strategy. Though three of his four coalition part-

ners have demanded his resignation, he insists he is innocent and says he will not step down. His party says the whole af-fair is a conspiracy perpetrated by dark Communist forces which have been af-ter him for over two decades, trying to protect their vested interests against a force that is bent on finally breaking with Slovenia’s Communist legacy. It has even held pep rallies, shows of unity and un-yielding support for Janša that are eeri-

ly reminiscent of a bygone era the par-ty claims to want to relegate to history.

Janša's recalcitrance has turned the political arena into a game of chick-en, in which political survival is not the only thing at stake. He argues that those who want to undermine his Government should make their move and bear the subsequent consequences. His erstwhile partners say he is the one who should call the shots. They would prefer the Demo-crats to put forward a new Prime Min-ister, but the party has made it patent-ly clear that this is a non-option. As a Democrat Member of the European Par-liament put it, Janša is “irreplaceable” for the party, which is essentially true. There is no obvious successor, mainly owing to Janša's ostracising all such party mem-bers as have ever come even marginally close to challenging his supremacy.

Realistically, there are several ways out of this quagmire. Janša could de-cide to carry on with a minority Govern-ment, but even the top legal minds in the country claim that such a move is virtu-ally impossible under Slovenian law. Al-ternatively, a technocratic Government

Goran Klemenčić, 'The Thinker'

Janković has been relegated to the trash heap of Slovenian political history, forever to be considered a silver bullet that managed to prevent Janša from winning the election...

“


January 30th

27

could be appointed. This would suit all parties bar the Democrats, who have al-ready undermined any potential legit-imacy of a technocratic cabinet by in-sisting they would not support such a solution, which means this could not be a true cross-partisan Government. An-other option would be for the rebellious coalition partners to join ranks with the centre-left opposition in forming a new majority. Such a coalition would be possi-ble now that Janković is out of the picture, but it is widely agreed that it would be so ideologically incompatible as to render it almost ungovernable. The most likely so-lution, therefore, is early elections.

The smaller parties, as well as the op-position Social Democrats, are salivating at the prospect of voters handing down a verdict on ethics now that the two big-gest parties have become embroiled in corruption scandals. The latest opinion polls suggest huge gains for all of them and a drubbing for the Positive Slovenia and the Democrats. Despite that, they are loath to push for this solution at this stage. Why? The economy, of course!

Some of the junior partners are now seriously suggesting that Janša stay on for another month or two, so that the Government can adopt urgent (though unpopular) reforms before vacating the scene. Janša has effectively told them to stick it, refusing to play the fall guy, and rightly so if he wants his party to remain a political force of any importance in the foreseeable future.

But there is another dimension to the reluctance to proceed with rapid solu-tions: the company which will take over billions in the banks' non-performing as-sets, and the Slovenia Sovereign Hold-ing, which will manage assets worth about 10 billion Euros, need new man-agers and supervisors soon, and they will be appointed by Parliament. Who-ever gets their allies in, and there is no prize for guessing what the ratio between real experts and political cronies will be, will have a say in what has already been dubbed the final phase of privatisation, which will continue to yield influence dividends for years to come.

It is anyone's guess how soon chang-es will take place. Despite the temptation of early elections, the fact remains that the polity is in such flux that all opin-ion polls at this point are worthless, aside from polling showing complete distrust of virtually all institutions of the State. Add to that the persistent anti-estab-lishment protests which may or may not evolve into a political movement to be reckoned with, and the only certain prediction one can make is that Slove-nia's politics will remain utterly unpre-dictable for months to come.

grave economic situation and the poor prospects for growth in the immediate future. But this risks further fanning the ideological divides in the country and the resentment of the anti-establish-ment protesters, who appear to speak for a majority of the populace in seeing the corruption allegations as an open-ing for a final reckoning with two dec-ades worth of increasing corruption and cronyism, for a fresh start. The rhetoric in the aftermath of the anti-graft watch-dog's report has escalated to levels that could easily fool an outside observer into thinking that the country is in the midst of a civil war.

Not to mention that the turmoil risks undermining relations with Croatia. The two countries have been arguing for the better part of two decades about deposits by Croatian citizens in a defunct Slove-nian bank, Ljubljanska banka. Finan-cial experts have been appointed to try and find a solution to at least a part of this elusive dispute, but they have only months to come up with one, for Croatia wants to join the European Union on July 1st of this year.

Slovenia insists that the dispute be re-solved before it ratifies Croatia's eu Ac-cession Treaty – a mere formality if the issue is resolved in time but a potential nightmare if the Government falls apart and the Parliament is relegated to care-taker role until the election. That said, Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec has said this would remain his top priority re-gardless of how the political crisis pans out. Indeed, he is optimistic about the outcome – if only the Croatian Govern-ment does the one thing Slovenia de-mands of it – revoke its authorisation for lawsuits that Croatian commercial banks have launched against lb and its succes-sor nlb.

Both sides will now be under huge in-ternational pressure to do what is need-ed. However, in an interregnum, Slove-nian politicians may find it much easier to dodge responsibility for a potential failure and a delay in Croatia's eu acces-sion. Just like Slovenian voters, Croatia is rightly anxious.

The smaller parties, as well as the opposition Social Democrats, are salivating at the prospect of voters handing down a verdict on ethics...

“

Whichever way the situation plays out, the implications for the country's fu-ture are huge. Janša rightly argues that his Government has managed to push through much needed reforms. Though heavy-handed and often unnecessari-ly ideological, the reforms have checked all the right boxes with partners in the European Union and the almighty rating agencies. Spending has been trimmed, the generous public sector is being scaled back, and public finances are gradually being put on a more sustainable foot-ing. If anything, the Government has opened itself to criticism of being more Catholic than the Pope, aggressively cut-ting spending even as excessive austeri-ty is turning out to be medicine that can also kill.

Reactions from foreign partners are telling. The us Ambassador to Slovenia, Joseph Mussomeli, has hinted in no un-certain terms that stability might have to take precedence over ethics, given the



28

Bickering over the 2013 budget had spilled the glass of political crisis in the country even further, and revealed that the southernmost former Yugoslav Republic may just have reached the final "make or break" point. Police troops in Parliament, check-points on highways, rabid protesters of every hue – it sounds like a story out of some different time...

Skopje, the Macedonian capital, saw protests break out on De-cember 24th last, when opposi-

tion MPs tried to block a parliamenta-ry debate on the 2013 budget and were subsequently expelled from the cham-ber. Branko Crvenkovski, leader of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (sdsm), was incensed that after their ex-pulsion the Government chose to pur-sue their debate behind closed doors; he immediately called upon his party’s fol-lowers to gather in front of the Parlia-ment in order to prevent the adoption of the annual budget, which also included a new loan of 250 million Dollars from the World Bank.

A few hundred people assembled in front of the building, at which point the ruling party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation – Democrat-ic Party for Macedonian National Unity (vmro-dpmne), responded by rallying their local supporters under the banner ‘Front of People, Front for Macedonia’. This latter group consisted primarily of workers, pensioners, farmers, artists and teachers – in other words, those heavily dependent upon the State budget – de-manding of the Opposition that they al-

the police (the Opposition also mention that a swat team was involved) break-ing into the parliament and bringing Vel-janovski to safety, whilst also arresting four opposition mps. At the same time se-curity expelled all media and journalists from the building, saying there would be nothing to report on as the session prob-ably wouldn't even begin. The irony was palpable.

Ultimately the budget was adopt-ed by way of a parliamentary extraordi-nary session, without any opposition mps in attendance and with only 44 of their amendments adopted out of 1,000 pre-sented. “Authority is yours but the State

Regressions of the Longest Waiting EU Candidate

low the budget to be adopted so that sal-aries and pensions might be paid timely. The anti-demonstration police made a cordon between the two groups, both of which were exchanging words (as well as sticks and stones), in order to prevent a more severe clash.

Tensions continued inside the par-liament building. The next day, on De-cember 25th, sdsm mps tried to stop the beginning of the parliamentary session by literally blocking Government depu-ties from entering the hall, and then sur-rounding the President of the Assembly, Trajko Veljanovski, so as to prevent him from opening the session. This resulted in

event horizon | by Dylan Alexander

Welcome to the Macedonian Sobranje. The police will be coming shortly to restore order...


January 30th

29

This largesse has had predictable ef-fects: unemployment exceeds 30%, while the number of people living in absolute poverty is increasing. Ethnic tensions hang over the country like the sword of Damocles, and it would not be an exag-geration to suggest that everybody feels some degree of fear.

Sdsm accuses the International Com-munity of overlooking what the party clearly sees as a recent democratic re-versal. “This year will be a year to make or break democracy in Macedonia,” says an sdsm statement, referring to the forth-coming elections. “Democracy, consti-tutionality, and the rule of law will be restored, or the country will look more like Belarus than an eu candidate coun-try”. It might be unusual to draw a com-parison with Belarus, especially since it is precisely Branko Crvenkovski, the Op-position leader, who is the longest ten-ured major party leader in Europe after President Lukashenko of the former So-viet Republic.

In any event, in his New Year’s address Prime Minister Gruevski called upon the opposition to return to the parlia-ment and to take part in the local elec-tions. Sdsm swiftly replied that it would take part only in elections organised by a temporary Government, since it was felt those currently in power had spent its le-gitimacy and legality to the full.

But who is to restore that legitimacy? The Opposition? Well, Crvenkovski has al-ready had his day in Office before, and his record was hardly enviable. Who then?

It is a truism to say that the south-ernmost former Yugoslav republic is still transiting through that purgatory from ex-Socialist country to a young democ-racy, but it also, to make things worse, appears to be burning through sundry (and quite colourful) populist platforms with such gusto and at such speed that it – both Macedonia and its political elit-es – might find itself entirely spent be-fore long. Something is in the air, and may one prophesy that it just might be the year 2013 to provide an answer as to what exactly – is in the air… for better or for worse.

is ours”, claimed the sdsm delegates who spent several nights in the parlia-ment building in order to prevent what they called a “partito-police coup d'êtat”.

Crvenkovski was pained to get his point across: “It is not only about the budget, it is about preserving democra-cy. If this trend continues the Govern-ment will soon neglect the very Consti-tution and completely bury democracy in Macedonia; not just anywhere - they will do it here, in the parliament. We are here - they must see us. If they want war, they will get it”.

Some Macedonian media even report-ed tensions on the Veles-Skopje road, where police blocked buses ferrying op-position supporters who were en route to join other protesters in the capital. The police gave “required technical inspec-tion of vehicles” as the reason behind their actions. In revolt, opposition sup-porters blocked the e-75 highway south of Skopje for several hours.

This winter of discontent has its or-igins in a rather long list of accusations which were levelled at the ruling party (mainly by the opposition parties), most of which far exceed the usual point and counterpoint barracking that can be ex-pected of any parliament, and which could also be deemed highly inappropri-ate for an eu Candidate country, such as Macedonia. That said, although Macedo-nia has held this status since 2005, it has hardly made any progress since.

T he Opposition accuses vmro-dp-mne of winning the 2011 elections through the intimidation of vot-

ers, thereby commencing an era of au-thoritarian rule marked by the arrest of political opponents, shutting down of publications connected to opposition parties, silencing of critical voices and

the putting of the media, public admin-istration, judiciary and most of civil so-ciety under political control. The Gov-ernment is also accused of continually drawing new loans, whilst keeping the books very much non-transparent – the Ministry of Finance stopped publishing regular financial statements some time ago and the precise amount which the country owes is currently unavailable to the public.

In addition to these accusations the Opposition has expressed concern at the huge amounts of money which the Gov-ernment has spent on populist events or for recognisably clientelist purpos-es. ‘Skopje 2014’, being one example, is an attempt to give the Macedonian cap-ital more historical identity and a clas-sical look. In order to achieve this ‘look’ the Government is investing an indeter-minate amount (somewhere between 80 and 500 million Euros) in the construc-tion of approximately 20 buildings and some 40 monuments, all of which are to hark back to Macedonia’s past, but which are also being seen as Nationalistic kitsch and quite tasteless. One of these mon-uments, a statue, is “Warrior on Horse-back”, obviously meant to be Alexander the Great, and has drawn much fury from neighbouring Greece.

Especially as regards foreign debt, the precise amount which Macedonia owes is currently unavailable to the public...

“



30

In a series of meetings under the auspices of the European Union, Serbian and Kosovar leaders are seemingly getting closer to some semblance of common ground, and perhaps finding a place where they can co-exist independently of each other; meanwhile, a new issue has got in the way...

T he dispute between Serbia and Ko-sovo has lost any real political sig-nificance in the region, mostly due

to the latter’s imminent and irreversi-ble independence tacitly recognised as fait accompli. In a way, this long-lasting process has become much like a divorce case: while both spouses (Serbia and Ko-sovo) admit irreconcilable differences, their attention is now focused on split-ting what is considered the income of the household (collection and distribution of duties and taxes on the integrated bor-der), and custody of the children (those Serbs living in Northern Kosovo). Need-less to say, one party always has better lawyers and the sympathies of the judge on its side.

The fourth round of this so-called lit-igation, mediated by Catherine Ashton, was supposed to bring the talks forward and up to the political level. The much awaited and postponed Serbian platform, which even caused tensions amongst the ruling coalition in Belgrade, and a long parliamentary discussion, was finally adopted just days before the latest round of talks. As outdated or as late as it gets, in brief it insists that the Serbian Constitu-tion be respected, which mentions Kos-

ovo, which will be jointly governed by both sides, as well as the European Un-ion, and kept in a commercial Europe-an bank. Serbian pm Ivica Dačić consid-ers this to be a satisfactory solution for Kosovo Serbs who, in turn, are threat-ening protests and blockades if the tax-es are paid to Priština and not exclusive-ly to Belgrade.

The Kosovar negotiator, Edita Tahiri, claims that “with this agreement, from the political point of view, Serbia has rec-ognised the state of Kosovo, if only in the customs domain” - customs which, to-gether with vat, will be collected in ac-cordance with the laws of Kosovo. “This agreement abolishes all parallel structures in northern Kosovo, enables tracking of all trade and economic transactions, pre-vents smuggling in the North, and nor-malises trade between Kosovo and Serbia in accordance with the eu criteria”.

Serbia & Kosovo Slow(ly) Coming to the Point

ovo as an inseparable part of Serbia; there is also the matter of the un Resolution 1244, which also reiterates Serbian formal jurisdiction over Kosovo. Still, the plat-form didn't make it to the negotiating ta-ble. Instead, the round served merely as a probe of each party's inclination towards future political agreement, and also as a corrective session regarding the misin-terpretations of the previous agreement on integrated borders administration.

The main topic was the collection and distribution of customs, duties, and vat, at the integrated border between Ser-bia and Kosovo. Obviously, the original agreement that goods coming from Ser-bia to northern Kosovo would be tax-free has never worked, or even perhaps has never existed. Instead, the new, although temporary, agreement directs the funds collected in this way to the Special Fund for the Development of Northern Kos-

in medias res | by Miša Milošević

How does one organise daily life in a situation in which there is no final solution for the status of Kosovo?...

“


January 30th

31

ernment threatens the very normali-sation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, with the latter being solely re-sponsible for this”.

This was always a case of an immov-able object meeting an irresistible force (although the statue was definitely re-moved, and Kosovo resists Serbia at every opportunity), metaphysically at least, if not in practise. Perhaps there was no real way in which this new crisis could have been avoided, at least not at this moment in time. The answer to our riddle is that of surrender, but no one here was ever in-clined to give so much as an inch – and, lo and behold, in the following few days there would be retaliation, as hundreds of Serbian graves and tombstones would be vandalised and desecrated in Kosovo, namely in Prizren.

The aftermath will be two-fold – not only will Preševo become the new smoul-dering fire in the south of Serbia, poten-tially escalating to renewed ethnic unrest, but Priština might also use the ‘statue-gate’ as an excuse (rather than a reason) to deny any special status or autonomy to the Serbs living in northern Kosovo. Tit for tat, reciprocity, or sheer bloody stubborn-ness, call it what you will. Either outcome will further weaken Serbia’s internal situ-ation, and weaken their negotiating posi-tions with both Priština and Brussels. The whole furore is being announced by the media as ‘Albanian protests’, but they’ll certainly shape the next round of discus-sions, which are scheduled to take place in Brussels in February.

Once again, the reading of contrasted statements on the same events is becom-ing a game of deciphering the true con-tent of agreements, in which Priština has apparently more reasons for optimism. Hashim Thaçi expressed as much at the end of negotiations: “I am now a greater optimist than after previous negotiations, because the talks are now going in the direction of full normalisation of rela-tions between Serbia and Kosovo, which will lead to mutual recognition of these states”. Thaçi also claimed that “Serbia has undertaken to disband parallel in-stitutions and withdraw parallel securi-ty structures from Kosovo”.

Dačić has a different interpretation as to how negotiations went. He said that only certain modalities were discussed, namely with regard to how to resolve the issue of parallel institutions in a manner acceptable for both sides, and how to maintain “special relations” with Serbs from northern Kosovo. “Serbia will not recognise the unilateral independence of Kosovo, but we must reach solutions based on the existing platforms and the Resolution [1244], and organise life of the Serb community and their institu-tions accordingly.” In other words, these are the main question: how does one de-fine the relations between Belgrade and Priština, and how does one organise daily life in a situation in which there is no final solution for the status of Kosovo.

No matter how the Serbs living in northern Kosovo choose to react to developments on the ground,

there is one thing that might actual-ly influence the upcoming fifth round of the Belgrade-Priština talks: the latest events in Preševo. The area surround-ing the Preševo valley, which is near the Kosovo border but in Serbia proper (and also very close to Macedonia), is popu-lated by an Albanian majority. Recent-ly that community erected a monument to the combatants of the Bujanovac-Preševo-Medveđa Liberation Army, a phalange of homonymous Kosovo mili-tiamen who were connected to the Lib-eration National Army in Macedonia and

The usual northern Kosovo 'landscape', only this time in southern Serbia proper.

who were killed in clashes with Serbian armed forces in 2000-2001. Although the militia was later disbanded and the surviving members were granted am-nesty in 2002, it is still considered a ter-rorist organisation by Serbian authori-ties. The tension, which realistically has been there for some time already, esca-lated last autumn when the monument first appeared, without official decree or permit, in the centre of Preševo.

Confronted with Belgrade’s warnings that the monument in question would be removed, either voluntarily by the Alba-nians or by force by the Serbians, the Ko-sovar side went to great lengths to defend what it considered a right of their minor-ity; they threatened the mobilisation of 500 Liberation Army troops, and further internationalised their cause by inviting the diplomatic community, accredited in Serbia, to visit the site of the controver-sial statue. Official Priština promptly re-acted, exceeding its diplomatic aplomb, and promised protection to their co-nationals in the case of physical conflict, whilst simultaneously calling both sides to commit to finding a solution through dialogue.

Still, early on January 17th, during the early morning hours, special Serbian po-lice forces entered Preševo and removed the monument, carrying it away to an as-yet unknown location. That same day the Government in Priština issued a statement accusing Serbia of violating minority rights and went so far as to say that “this ugly act by the Serbian Gov-



32

On November 8th 2012, the Croatian Government passed the new fiscalisation law, which should allow for a more efficient overall taxation system. It is to be carried out in three phases, the first of which was put into action on January 1st 2013, affecting the catering industry and medium and large companies, all of which are now required to introduce the so called fiscal cash tills, connected by internet directly to the Tax Administration. Is this Big Brother, or simply a necessity, given past tax-related indiscretions?

A s soon as a receipt is created, it will have to be digitally signed, and immediately sent, via a con-

stant internet connection, to the serv-ers of the Tax Administration. In such an electronic transaction the servers of the Tax Administration will then produce a jir (Jedinstveni Identifikator Računa

– Unique Receipt Identifier) number for the receipt, which is to be immediately printed on the receipt. The Finance Min-istry also announced a hotline to which customers could send an sms, contain-ing their jir, presumably so that the Tax Authority might compile addition-

obtain a digital certificate (issued by fina in Croatia for 300 Kuna and for the peri-od of five years, after which it will have to be renewed). The digital certificate will be used to digitally sign every issued re-ceipt. Furthermore, that means that the taxpayers will have to issue receipts us-ing electronic billing devices (current legislation simply defines the obligatory content of the receipt, but not the way in which it is issued). Affected business-es will consequently have to procure a so called fiscal printer. Already these addi-tional costs are the focus for retail dis-pleasure, as many cafes, salons, and so on, which had previously only dealt with cash, must now ‘tech’ their business in order to be legally compliant.

The new law is expected significantly to decrease tax evasion and fraud with-in enterprises that generally charge cash rather than credit, such as retailers and restaurants. Annual tax registers have shown that the submitted turnovers of a large number of such enterprises are extremely small, which indicates a large number of cases where receipts are not issued or are manipulated in some way.

The list of taxpayers affected by the new law can be found in the bill proposal; however, it is important to note that en-

Cash Businesses (Finally) On The Run

al data and thus obtain a more complete picture of spending patterns. What was not mentioned at the time was the fact that calling this hotline phone number would involve a cost, and of course the Ministry found itself in some hot water as a result.

The next item regarding the ‘fiscalisa-tion’ process is that businesses are now required to send a file containing the turnover of the previous day at the end of working hours (or at latest before open-ing hours of the next day), which also has to be in digital format. Practically speak-ing, every such taxpayer is required to

financial | by Ben Berković


January 30th

33

By collecting up to twenty receipts & reporting them to the Tax Administration, citizens will be eligible to participate in a lottery…

“

The Minister of Finance, Slavko Linić, expects the new law to produce 1 billion Kuna in additional revenue, while at the same time he noted that the recent de-crease in vat for caterers, from 25% to 10%, is expected to cost the state 950 mil-lion Kuna. Of course that vat reduction has not obviously been passed onto the con-sumer, as very few establishments decided to lower their prices, but that’s of no im-mediate concern to the Tax Authority, so long as they get their cut. Flawed yes, but well meaning – the new law might yet best serve the state by engendering a more tax compliant attitude in the business world. Stories are already emerging of course, of café owners who ‘recycle’ their receipts so as to reduce their vat obligation… Beware… Big Brother will be watching.

pc

> 3000 – 4000 Kuna

fiscal till software

> 1500 Kuna

pos receipt printer

> 300-1000 Kuna

fiscal till certificate

> 300 Kuna for 5 years

(60 annually)

internet connection

> approx. 100 Kuna monthly

all-in-one packages

(pc, cash drawer,

pos printer, barcode reader)

> approx. 4500 Kuna

fines for irregularities

> 5000–500,000 Kuna

Fiscal Till Implementation Costs

terprises that do not deal in cash will not be subject to the new law. In the case of it companies, this means that a compa-ny which owns a hardware store will be such a taxpayer, while a software compa-ny in the b2b sector, which receives pay-ments directly to its bank account, will not be. This is to be welcomed in that it shows that the Tax Authority and the Fi-nance Ministry are actively tackling the issue of tax evasion in areas where it is likely most prevalent, and not looking to interfere in those industries which oper-ate almost entirely in the spectrum of on-line banking.

One of the problems the new fiscal-isation law faces could be the speed at which receipts will be issued. The ines-capable fact is that a large number of re-ceipt files will simultaneously be sent via the Internet, so as to receive a jir number from the Tax Administration. According to some, the two seconds, which is the expected maximum amount of waiting time, is not a realistic estimate, as pure mathematics shows us that if one were to process an average of ten million cash receipts daily, one would have to be op-

Nada Čavlović Smiljanec, the lady in charge

erating at a speed 276 receipts per sec-ond. According to the calculations, the most active times of the day could see that figure quadrupled; seeing how bet-ting offices conduct about 800,000 to 1,000,000 transactions daily, the waiting times, or even server over-loads, could be significant.

The director of the Tax Administra-tion, Nada Čavlović Smiljanec, said that, via sms or the Tax Administration web-page, citizens will be able to report suspi-cious receipts and be rewarded for doing so. By collecting up to twenty such re-ceipts and reporting them to the Tax Ad-ministration, they will be eligible to par-ticipate in a lottery, in which they can win 20,000, 15,000, or 10,000 Kuna.

Between Tuesday January 8th and Mon-day January 14th, 362 tax inspectors con-ducted 4676 field surveys of catering premises, finding 323 irregularities, pri-marily due to the lack of a fiscal till, which amounts to 6.9% of the inspected busi-nesses. On January 11th, six catering estab-lishments were sealed and under threat of fines of up to 500,000 Kuna after the mis-demeanour proceedings are completed.



34

As of January 1st, 2013, amendments to two laws came into effect, the Personal Income Tax (pit) Law and the Social Security (s/s) Contributions Law. As with any such changes it is important to be aware of how they might affect you, the reader. Paul Suchar of kpmg is at hand to explain.

W ith regards to the Personal In-come Tax Law there is now one new, single form, which re-

places the previously existing forms: id, idd, idd-1, ip, id-1, and r-sm. This new form will be used for reporting, inter alia, certain non-taxable income. The dead-line for the submission of information through this form, the method of sub-mission, and format and content, will be further prescribed by pit regulations. There is also a new programme of pension annuity which is being introduced into the pension insurance system, and un-der the amended law pension payments made by employers will not be treated as income at the time of their employ-ees’ retirement, but any pension annu-ity paid by insurers to retirees will be treated as employment income if the in-itial payments were pit exempt. Mon-ies received from non-refundable Euro-pean Union funds and programmes, for the purpose of education and profession-al training, and up to prescribed amounts, are not subject to pit.

Income from the sale of property or of proprietary rights will no longer be treated as self-employment income, but instead as income deriving from property and proprietary rights; there are condi-

tion is less than 250 m² in area, and if all pieces of land disposed are smaller than 1000 m² in area. Real estate received as a gift but disposed of within five years of receipt will now be subject to income tax from property and proprietary rights.

In relation to the process of determi-nation of the origin of assets that is being carried out by the Tax Authority, the or-igin of entire assets of an individual ac-quired after January 1st, 2005, will be ex-amined, and if the Resolution on annual income and pit for that period has al-ready been issued, renewal of the proc-ess will be initiated without time con-straints.

Lastly, social security contributions (health insurance contributions, contri-butions against injury at work, and Un-employment Fund contributions) are now to be calculated on an individual ba-sis, using the aforementioned single form. The same form will also have to be sub-mitted by employers to the Tax Authority when salary is paid out from a compul-sory insurance fund or out of state funds (for example, sick leave charged to hzzo).

Ye Croatian Residents, Income Tax Changes to Be Aware of

financial | by Paul Suchar

On September 22nd, 2012 the ‘Decision on the collection of information for the

purpose of preparing balance of payment, amount of foreign debt and amount of

international investments’ came into force, whereby the Croatian National Bank

(HNB) imposed an obligation for residents to report salary payments and payments

of other remunerations made to non-residents to HNB. The above-mentioned

‘Decision’ prescribes the following:

> An obligation to submit a DOH-Q form (Questionnaire on income paid to non-

residents) for legal entity residents that make payments to non-residents

> A DOH-Q form should be submitted for the quarters in which the above-men-

tioned payments occurred, no later than 15 days after the end of the quarter.

> Exceptionally, legal entities that are chosen in the sample for the submission

of monthly or quarterly statistical reports on income and expenditure from the

exchange of services and special transactions with foreign countries are not re-

quired to submit a DOH-Q form.

> The payment of salaries based on a service contract between two entities should

not be included in the DOH-Q form.

An important reminder

tions attached, however – this only ap-plies if three such sales take place, and within a five year period. When it comes to the disposal of land, all taxable income will not be assessed if the land in ques-


January 30th

35

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36

Serbian Minister of Health, Dr Slavica Đukić-Dejanović, talks about the future of the health system in her country, which proverbially oscillates in between the ideal of the welfare state and the reality of a modern liberal system. Verily, it could be the best of times, or the worst of times, but never the less see was there to ask (let us hope) the right questions.

SEE To begin with, what can you tell us about the current state of the health system in Serbia, and

where does it stand in relation to Euro-pean Union standards? > SĐD Recently I’ve had a number of meetings with the Director of the World Health Organisation, in Copenhagen, and we came to the conclusion that Ser-bia possesses quite an average Europe-an score with regard to mass contagious and non-contagious diseases, as well concerning the parameters of mental health. Bearing in mind that Serbia is a country in transition, and considering past events and the current state of the economy, it is testimony to our health system that we are not significantly dif-ferent from other countries within the European Union.

> SEE Still, certain structures and organisations within the Health sector in Serbia are in deep crisis. Accord-ing to the Euro Health Consumer Index (ehci), Serbia is in the rear in the Euro-pean league; queues and waiting lists are the worst they’ve ever been, and the infrastructure itself is in dire need of improvement.

Ideally, as many as 80% of all patients should have their problems addressed and treated at this first stage, with no more than 25% of patients needing to progress to an actual hospital or spe-cialist centre. Unfortunately, that is not the case here, and I am convinced that most of the problems which have aris-en stem from the fact that the infirma-ries are being misused, thus leading to an overcrowding of our secondary and ter-tiary care facilities.

Hard Times: The Serbian Health System in Crisis

> SĐD It would be hard to disagree with you. Right now there is near anar-chy within the health services: while our biggest ‘resource’ in the Ministry is the fact that the vast majority of Serbian citi-zens are in good health, and while indeed it is our primary policy to preserve and promote that good health, we are clear-ly failing in other areas. Our infirmaries, for instance, are unable to meet their pri-mary function because they have become literal reception desks for the hospitals.

fortnightly interview


January 30th

37

I am convinced that most of the problems which have arisen stem from the fact that the infirmaries are being misused, leading to an overcrowding of our care facilities...

“

> SEE Surely the current legislation, which prohibits infirmaries from en-gaging in subclinical diagnostics, pre-ventative measures, and treatment, is to blame for this? After all, the medical community is audibly upset over it. > SĐD Yes, I think this legislation was a wrong kind of step. Once upon a time we used to have extraordinary health services; if someone fell ill all they need-ed to do was to bring their health card along to the infirmary and the system would take care of the rest. Our goal now is to re-achieve that previous lev-el of health protection, but for now we are pretty far from that goal; thankfully, though, with the infirmaries still in place we do not need to create or build new in-stitutions. In fact, primary health pro-tection is precisely the task of these in-stitutions, chief amongst them being the Institute for Public Health of Serbia – ‘Dr Milan Jovanović Batut’; institutions such as these are in charge of protecting and promoting health, providing early di-agnoses, and screenings for a variety of

conditions – and for treating everything that can be treated at that level. Institu-tions such as these are also the ones that can, and should, help restore the digni-ty of our doctors and the health system.

> SEE You are a Minister in a Govern-ment which promised a social welfare state and to care for the poorest amongst your citizens. How does your Ministry intend to put this into practice, given the paucity of resources? > SĐD It will be a step-by-step proc-ess. Current per capita contribution to the cost of health provision amounts to 250 Euros, of which 47% is immediate-ly spent on payroll-related expenditures. These are the facts of the matter; figures are what they are, and going by this pa-rameter Serbia is only doing marginally better than Albania, which puts us in bad standing when compared to other Euro-pean nations – and yet we still need to protect those who cannot fend for them-selves. The latest modifications to the ex-isting Law on Health Protection and In-

surance, which has just been passed through parliament, actually extend re-lated rights to the poorest citizens, espe-cially those who are most in need. Firstly, we made sure that every citizen has ac-cess to various booster shots and immu-nisation programmes – getting your jab in order to avoid certain ailments is now free for all, even those without health in-surance. A budget, sufficient enough to cover the screening of diseases such as breast, cervical, and colon cancer, is in place. Also, we have ensured that all self-sustained parents of pre-school children can also enjoy full health protection. And so, although the economic situation is far from desirable, we continue to do what we can for the health of the people.

> SEE In order to harmonise Serbia’s legal framework with that of the Europe-an Union for the purposes of accession, this Government will need to carry out certain reforms, legislative and bureau-cratic, of social, pension, and health in-surance. How do you see your Minis-try’s social health policy in relation to these expected reforms?> SĐD There should always be an el-ement of realism, even in a health sys-tem which strives to cater to all. We will, over the coming years, have to raise the degree of responsibility of the individual for avoidable illnesses which are a result of his or her own lifestyle. The forthcom-ing Law on Patient’s Rights has already included something in this vein: we’ll require the patient to be not only just a bearer of insurance, but rather the ac-tive partner in whatever treatment proc-ess, in such a way such that he will jointly agree with his doctor as to the path they will take towards full health. In other words, so long as the patient is doing all he can to recover, recuperate, or avoid relapse, he will enjoy all the benefits the Serbian health system can offer; should he tend towards self-destructive habits, however, then he will find that his doc-tor has the right to refer him to anoth-er treatment centre. It could be said that we are asking future patients to help us to help them. Call it a Social Contract.



38

> SEE So then, how do you see the economic model of the health system in Serbia, and the relationship between the patient and the state and private health insurers and institutions?> SĐD Firstly, we should strive to make the state and private health sec-tors as equal as possible – particularly if a patient is taking a financial interest in their own health needs. However, with-out improving overall financial disci-pline and with such low wages in Serbia, it will be very hard. We will also be look-ing to tighten control over health contri-butions, so that large companies will be unable to shirk their responsibilities in paying health contributions. We are be-ing aided by other Ministries in this re-gard, pushing for non-payment of em-ployee’s health insurance premiums to be qualified a criminal offence; all of these moves are designed to benefit the working citizen. Secondly, we are aware of the need for huge effort in the pres-ervation of health here in Serbia, mainly as regards the early diagnosis of diseas-es which are treatable in the early stag-es, such as cancer. The World Health Or-ganisation is worried about the Serbian mortality rate, but we, and rightly so, are even more concerned, since we are the

ones who are active on the ground here. Serbians die from malignant diseases more so than most other comparable na-tions, because we detect them far too late. We can’t rely solely on treating symp-toms once they are present, but rather, as already mentioned, focus on educating the populace so that they are more aware of their own health and do not leave their concerns until it is too late. Finally, all of this costs money, so we need to be able to make the system work with us, for us, rather than against us. We should enable different levels of health insurance which would create healthy competition with-in the insurance sector and health sector. Why shouldn't a private pharmacy be the same as the state one? If the Government subsidises a medication, why shouldn't it share the subsidy money with the pri-vate sector, too? This will stimulate the competition between the two sectors, without the state aspect being viewed as a second-class industry. Starting from this year, 2013, we will begin the proc-ess of equalisation within the pharma-ceutical sector.

> SEE And a short question to end with – rumours abound that you might soon end up applying your talents in a more diplomatic field?> SĐD For now, at least, health di-plomacy is the best form of diplomacy for me.

So long as the patient is doing all he can to recover, recuperate, or avoid relapse, he will enjoy all the benefits the Serbian health system can offer...

“

Slavica Đukić-Dejanović has worked at the University of Kragujevac Medi-

cal School since 1982, becoming a full professor in 1996. She also served as

the Director of the Clinical-Hospital Centre in Kragujevac from 1995 to 2001.

Dejanović is the Director of the Clinic for Psychiatry in Kragujevac and Vice

Dean of the Medical School and the Vice President of the Association of Psy-

chiatrists of Serbia.

Dejanović has been a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia since 1990. She

served as MP in the Serbian parliament for two terms. In 2008 she was elect-

ed the President of the National Assembly of Serbia. On April 5th, 2012, Slavica

Đukić-Dejanović became Acting President of Serbia, following the early resig-

nation of President Boris Tadić.

Biography


January 30th

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40

Addiction is an ever growing modern plague, which affects over a billion people worldwide. Alcohol, drugs, gambling, all well known to the public. What is less known is that Facebook, and other social media, now has its own devout, and very much addicted, following. Several million users across the globe cannot go more than a few minutes without checking their smartphone and now, in Montenegro, a private clinic has opened its doors to the country’s youngest, and newest, addicts.

L ow tolerance levels, anti-social crises, neglecting healthy life-styles, and a constant increase in

time spent on Facebook are clear signs of Facebook addiction, says Dr Dani-lo Jokić, an addiction specialist work-ing at the health clinic Anima Medika in Podgorica, who has, so far, treated two minors addicted to Facebook.

This relatively new addition to Dr Jokić’s area of expertise (and indeed to other addiction specialists worldwide), is a clear sign that Facebook addiction is a real disease, and not just a teenager’s ex-cuse for bad grades or “a figment of our imagination”. In fact, a recent study has shown that quitting Facebook is actually more difficult than quitting smoking or giving up alcohol.

Quite recently, researchers might have given women a new excuse for whiling away hours updating their Fa-cebook profiles, scrolling through Twit-ter, or browsing online shopping sites. Scientists have uncovered new evidence of a genetic variant linked to internet addiction - and the link occurred most frequently in women. To explain some-what, the nicotinic acetylcholine recep-tor in the brain is influenced by a muta-tion on the related gene which promotes addictive behavior.

verted personalities, often with little or no friends, prone to fantasising, and will regularly be found neglecting schoolwork and other obligations.

“We have found that people who are anxious and socially insecure use Face-book more than those with lower scores on those traits, probably because those who are anxious find it easier to com-municate via social media than face-to-face”, says Dr. Cecilie Andraessen of the University of Bergen, a researcher on Fa-cebook addiction.

One can only presume as to what turns certain individuals into Facebook addicts,

Addiction Treatment in Montenegro: Like & Share

in perspective | by Ben Berković

While alcoholics might be regarded as jolly, outgoing people (or at least they might think so), Facebook addicts, ac-cording to Dr Jokić, are usually intro-

Facebook is a pesky habit

Facebook addiction is a real disease, and not just a teenager’s excuse for bad grades...

“


January 30th

41

but a general explanation is given by Dr Ante Bagarić, a psychiatrist dealing with Facebook addicts in the Psychiatric Hos-pital Vrapče, in Zagreb, where more and more young people are being admitted as well. “When one communicates via Face-book, he or she is in total control of who they will talk with, how honestly, and for how long. When the communication reaches a negative or problematic state, the user can simply close a window and escape reality. This is called ‘behind the blinds’ communication, during which we desire to present ourselves the way we wish we were, resulting in a fear of going out into the real world”.

Most people today, both young and old, have become quite reliant on technology,

in order efficiently to function on a daily basis, be it job related, or some matter of their private life. Another study, close-ly related to Facebook addiction studies, looked at students who were denied ac-cess to media for 24 hours, which result-ed in clear withdrawal symptoms, both psychological and physical. “I am clear-ly addicted and the dependency is sick-ening,” said one student in the study. “I feel like most people these days are in a similar situation; between having a Blackberry, a laptop, a television, and an iPod, people have become unable to shed their media skin.”

As mentioned, almost half of the pop-ulation of Montenegro are Facebook us-ers, numbering 300,420 so far, the

majority being 97,600 young people be-tween 18 and 24 years of age.

So far Jokić has treated ten internet addicts, two of which were young Face-book addicts, and is expecting more and more to come. He stated that his patients spent up to fifteen hours per day on the internet during weekends, and five to seven hours during work days.

“When denied access to the inter-net, the children started acting just as any other addict would. They became aggressive and highly agitated, trou-bled by insomnia, depression and all the other symptoms characteristic of al-coholics or drug addicts, for example”, says Dr Jokić. Many agree it is a failure in parenting, including Dr Jokić, who is calling upon the parents to pay more at-tention to how their children use the In-ternet, because “the dangers of serious misuse are numerous”.

Specialised clinics which concen-trate solely on internet addictions are already present world-wide, and as it stands, such facilities might be emerg-ing in Montenegro too, as unexpected as it might sound to their citizens, since the health-care system, as it is, is struggling with even some basic services.

This issue could very well be used in the coming Presidential Elections in Montenegro on April 7th. Only one can-didate, President of the Democratic Front Miodrag lekić, has officially put his name forth for now, and he would do well im-mediately to hire a marketing agen-cy specialising in social networks...be-fore other candidates awaken from their slumbers.

Montenegro is a country we like very much, but it has proven yet again that it is a transitional economy/society to the fullest. It is yet to adapt the successes typical of modern and wealthy polities: good road infrastructure, strong educa-tional institutions, advanced medical fa-cilities… But be sure, as it is rather obvi-ous, that it was extremely expedient at contracting all the new age diseases of those same modern and wealthy polities.

Then again, we’re not only talking about Montenegro, are we?

Scientists from Norway have actually developed a psychological scale to meas-

ure Facebook addiction, called the BFAS (Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale),

through which researchers hope to investigate problem behaviour associated

with using Facebook or other social networking sites.

The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale is based on six basic criteria, where all

items are scored on the following scale: (1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3) Some-

times, (4) Often, and (5) Very often:

> You spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook or plan use of Facebook.

> You feel an urge to use Facebook more and more.

> You use Facebook in order to forget about personal problems.

> You have tried to cut down on the use of Facebook without success.

> You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using Facebook.

> You use Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/

studies.

Scoring ‘often’ or ‘very often’ on at least four of the six items

may suggest Facebook addiction.

Are you addicted ?

Scientists have uncovered new evidence of a genetic variant linked to internet addiction - most frequently in women.

“



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January 30th

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Monica Bellucci, Audrey Tautou, Aleksei Balabanov, Zhang Yimou and a host of other famous film directors made their cameos at the Küstendorf festival, but it just might be that the show was stolen, not by silver screen savants and illustrious celebrities, but by unique architecture, good rakija, and 100% home-grown & home-made food. Something for organisers to ponder...

How many people, who are not Kings, Queens, Conquerors, or Saints, can say that they have

a village named after them? Meet Emir Kusturica, who has, since 2008, been or-ganising an International Film Festival, Küstendorf, which is held in the tradi-tional Serbian village of Drvengrad.

Drvengrad was built from scratch for Kusturica’s 2004 film Life is a Miracle, but it is also known by a different name to many, that of Küstendorf (Kusta’s Vil-lage). This anti-Hollywood of sorts (that is certainly what Kusturica would have us believe) is situated in the midst of a markedly romantic nature preserve and is famous for hosting only stars of Euro-pean cinema and representatives of the so called auteur theory. This year’s dis-tinguished guests were famous actresses Monica Bellucci and Audrey Tautou, and film directors Aleksei Balabanov, Benh Zeytlin, Zhang Yimou, Yeşim Ustaoğlu Araf and Péter Gothár. As you might sus-pect, there was no red carpet and no mill-ing paparazzi, but instead the guests were welcomed with rakija and salted bread.

sion to the two them to work out in their spare time.

At any rate, Audrey Tautou of Amélie (2001) fame was also present, but only, as she herself admitted, in the capaci-ty of a fan: “I would not mind acting in one of his energetic films such as Un-derground, or even partnering up with him in a French film”, said the French-woman.

While one may indeed find authentic wooden houses in a host of Serbian vil-lages, those of Küstendorf truly do come across as being straight out of Hansel and Gretel, complete with sugar icing top – especially in this snowy and hence visu-ally obliging winter. Some might say that this creation is cute, or twee, but the fact

Küstendorf: or Emir Kusturica’s Declaration of War on Red Carpets & Globalisation

For many the highlight of the festival was the presence – of course – of Belluc-ci, who was there to accept the ‘Award for Future Movies’, and who will play the fe-male lead in Kusturica’s own upcoming Love and War. When asked to comment on the difference between Hollywood and art films she replied diplomatical-ly: “The difference is just in the money – it means you have a bigger room, a big-ger trailer. You are just more spoiled and protected, but apart from that, nothing changes.” Too diplomatically, perhaps; we’re not sure that Kusturica was entire-ly pleased with this statement, especial-ly after he had given his newest muse an award for movies she hasn’t done yet, but we’ll leave the finer points of this discus-

culture | by Ivana Stepanović

The village also acts as a tourist hub – and you will find no cars, trucks, factories, mines, or blatant Western culture allowed in the area.

“



44

remains that such houses are very much what one would expect to find in a tra-ditional Serbian village, if only because these sorts of villages were better pre-served than their cousins in other Euro-pean countries. Wicked tongues are wont to remark that the famed director has not been entirely successful in capturing an altogether ‘faithful look’, but we won’t split hairs, will we?

Other quirks follow: the streets are all named after Serbian celebrities or past greats. Ivo Andrić, the Nobel prize winning novelist, got his own street, as did the very much alive Novak Đoković. Kusturica’s favourite directors are also featured (Fellini, Bergman...), as are a number of personages who inspired the proud proprietor in other capacities (let us mention Maradona and Che Guevara).

And proud Kusturica is: he discov-ered the area whilst scouting for loca-tions for Life is a Miracle and decided to build his own village. “I lost my city dur-ing the war,” he once said, “so this is why I wished to build my own village.” More than a village, Kusturica would go on to say, Drvengrad was his masterpiece. Ap-parently there is more to the claim than mere affectation, as Drvengrad was hon-


January 30th

45

oured with the Philippe Rotthier Europe-an Architecture Award in 2005.

According to Kusturica, the main pur-pose of Drvengrad is to act as a cultural centre and bring together artists, musi-cians, and filmmakers from all around the world: “I wanted to make a place where I can live, but also organise festivals and seminars on filmmaking, music, and arts. I always dreamed of such a place, which

would be able to defy globalisation”. The village also acts as a tourist hub – and you will find no cars, trucks, factories, mines, or blatant Western culture allowed in the area. Everything in the village restau-rants is organic and domestic, while the shops only sell local produce or souve-nirs which have been made by tradition-alists from neighbouring villages. The vil-lage founder even introduced his own line

of fruit beverages, Biorevolution, although not without a measure of controversy, as he named his cherry flavoured juice after Draža Mihajlović, the infamous Serbian general from World War II and leader of the Chetnik movement, and the blueberry juice after none other than Josip Broz Tito; it was only after accepting that a court case was imminent that he decided to remove this contentious labelling, calling it a ‘joke’.

We may begin with Aleksei Balabanov, a Russian director best known for his

movies Brother (1997), Brother 2 (2000), and War (2002). He presented his

most recent film, Me Too (2012), at the festival this year, holding a workshop

afterwards. Balabanov also announced that he will, in collaboration with Kus-

turica, be making a film about ‘Uncle Joe’: “Stalin was a terrorist and the film

will show all the horror of his terrorist activities from 1905 until 1907. I did my

research and visited Siberia, all the museums, and even looked into his time

in exile when he was robbing trains. I do not have the ambition to send some

kind of a message to the world with this film, I simply want to portray the man.

I have chosen to work with Kusturica because he is a clever man who knows

much about film and life.”

Chinese film director Zhang Yimou was the recipient of the festival’s lifetime

achievement award. He also made use of the festival to present his latest film

Flowers of War (2011). Yimou is famous for his films The Story of Qiy Ju (1992),

which was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, To Live (1994),

The Road Home (1999), awarded the Grand Jury Grand Prix at Cannes, as well

as many others. He directed the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in

Beijing in 2008 despite the fact that his films Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and

To Live (1994) were banned in his home country. Strangely, Flowers of War was

approved for viewing in China in spite of scenes depicting prostitutes, catholic

nuns, Westerners, and even Christian Bale in less than admirable circumstances.

Yimou had this to say on the matter: “The Chinese Government is going through

change and is becoming less rigid. However, censorship still exists and I was

forced to change some of the scenes in order to get the approval”. One can only

wonder at how the original print must have looked.

Kusturica, for his part, presented his own student film Guernica (1978), which

served as an introduction to his talk on common mistakes in filmmaking and

on the difference between reality and realism. Let us quote him: “Every film di-

rector should be able to imprint his own opinion into the film narrative”. Italian

director Matteo Garrone, who presented his newest film Reality (awarded with

the Jury Grand Prix in Cannes last year), also held a workshop during the festival.

Highlights of the Programme



46

Kusturica’s ecological/traditional-ist bent does not end with his village

– he is constantly battling to preserve the whole area of Mokra Gora from all kinds of pollutions. He introduced road taxes in order to reduce traffic and re-cently protested against the initiative for the exploration of nickel in the im-mediate area. In his letter to the Min-ister of Natural Resources he expressed fear that “the dirty technology” might endanger people’s health. He even es-tablished the Board for the Protection of Serbia from Nickel Mining. Moreover, all the houses in Drvengrad are using pellet heating, which has significantly lowered harmful emissions usually as-sociated with combustible fuels.

Perhaps the biggest curiosity of the village is a cemetery made specifically

Emir Kusturica was born in Sarajevo in 1954. His parents, Murat Kusturica and

Senka Numankadić, were Bosniaks, even though Kusturica claimed that they

were in fact Serbs: “My father was an atheist and he always declared him-

self as a Serb. Perhaps we were Muslims for 250 years, but we were Orthodox

Christians beforehand. One cannot change one’s religion. We had to convert

to Islam in order to survive”.

Kusturica left Sarajevo during the siege in 1992 and moved to Serbia. He had

sympathies for Slobodan Milošević and with his friend Peter Handke he even

supported Serbian politicians in Bosnia for a while. He was criticised because

his film Underground (1995) was supposedly financed by the Serbian National

Television, and also for a lack of tact because Underground was filmed while

the war in Bosnia was still raging. Accusations that he may have attempted to

justify Serbian nationalism and war crimes in this film were probably levelled

by people who had never seen it, and it must also be noted, albeit not neces-

sarily directly in his defence, that Kusturica did eventually change his opinion

of Milošević over the years. When asked by the New York Times why he did not

stand up to him before, he replied: “Nobody’s perfect”.

Kusturica, a practical persona non grata in Sarajevo, is of the opinion (ex-

pressed in many interviews), that the city of his birth has lost its identity, im-

plying that it has been ethnically cleansed and that there are no Serbs left in

the city. In 2005 Kusturica was baptised in a Serbian church in Montenegro

and changed his Muslim name Emir to the Serbian Nemanja – causing, natu-

rally, even more controversy.

Kusturica’s Nationalist/Conversion Controversy

for ‘bad films’, the first of which to be buried here was ‘Die Hard 4’ – which, we agree, truly was a terrible movie. But this year Kusturica went even one step fur-

ther in his imaginary war against “im-perialist trash” and staged a fight with the hologram of Bruce Willis. He dramat-ically announced this event as an “his-torical battle between David and Golia-th”, and claimed that this event marked the triumph of auteur theory over Holly-wood ideology. At the opening ceremony, Kusturica stressed that his festival aims to support true artists such as Tarkovsky, Fellini and Forman, rather than “vulgar and commercial” films.

And yes, we almost forget (the wine and the hearth had lulled us into a rather tufted slumber). The winner of the main prize in a competition of 28 movies was the Swiss film Stammering Love by di-rector Jan Czarlewski, who according-ly received the Golden Egg. The Silver Egg was given to accorded to the Dan-ish movie Barvalo, directed by Rasmus Kloster Bro, while the Bronze Egg went to Israeli director Yaniv Linton for the film Tateh. As could only be expected, the Festival was closed by who else but Emir Kusturica, who once again stressed the importance of championing auteur films. Modern trends may not be playing his tune, but there was certainly plenty of resolve to go all the way around the table…

If nothing else, we dare hope we might have at least aroused the reader’s curi-osity and given him – or her – the per-fect excuse to visit a rather picturesque part of Serbia – if not before, then at least right round this time next year.


January 30th

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48

Almost every larger business deal, every major project, in the Western Balkans is, at some point or another, connected with Chinese investors and, being fair, sometimes there is even an actual business delegation involved. In other words, paying a sort of homage to the second largest global economy, we owe you this: Chinese New Year usually falls in February, the 10th in this case, and since SEE’s resident Irishman will actually be in London to celebrate the day in question we said we'd take a short look at one of the most celebrated events in the world.

1 Similarly to the Occidental zodiac, Chinese New Year too is represented by twelve distinct avatars – animals

in this case: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Drag-on, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Roost-er, Dog, and Pig. Each animal, much like the zodiac, is purportedly reflected in the personalities of those born in a particular year. 2013 will be the Year of the Snake, which means that those born this year are meant to appear acute, aware, cun-ning, proud, vain, and vicious.

2Much in the same way that Saint Patrick’s Day has become an inter-nationally observed event (more

of a celebration than a holiday), so too is it for Chinese New Year, especially in countries where there is a sizeable Chi-nese population. Parades and parties can be found in almost every larger Western country, and more often than not these festivals are treated as an excuse to par-ty even by those not directly connected with the Chinese community. Vancou-ver, Sydney, San Francisco, London, and Dublin (Chinese is officially the second

the Chinese are the benchmark when it comes to such dazzling displays of aer-ial pyrotechnics. Originally, firecrack-ers were used to fend off evil spirits, but like in so many traditions the initial rea-son behind this practice (or craft) has been refashioned so as to be more in line with the esprit of the modern world. In short, we all like standing out in the cold, watching things explode in the sky in a series of bright sparks and flashes.

5You know how Queen Elizabeth has two birthdays? One actu-al birthday and one public birth-

day? It’s pretty much the same in Chi-na: Chinese New Year is when everyone gets one year older, specifically on the 7th day of the year. Birthdays, while also celebrated, simply don’t have the same resonance for the Chinese as they do for people in the West. Chinese New Year is supposed to be a time for family and friends, and it would be hard to argue that that wouldn’t be a kick-ass birth-day party, especially with all the food and drink on offer.

Happy Chinese New Year!

most spoken language in Ireland), as well as sundry other cities, play host to mem-orable celebrations.

3 Chairman Mao was known for his Little Red Book, but it was red for a reason, as red is considered to be a

very lucky colour in China. The colour al-so associated with fire is believed to ward off evil spirits, oh-so important as the Year passes from Dragon to Snake. Red clothes are clearly in evidence, and chil-dren receive red envelopes with money in them. Wedding dresses in China are traditionally red (white is worn at fu-nerals), and this idea is slowly becom-ing more prevalent in Western weddings as well. The famous designer Vera Wang has exhibited an entirely red collection for Spring 2013.

4What would Chinese New Year be without fireworks and firecrack-ers? China has long been fet-

ed as the home to gunpowder, and all those who saw the opening ceremony to the 2008 Olympics will be aware that

around the world | by Lee Murphy


January 30th

49

6While the New Year, like in any culture, symbolises a new begin-ning, the Chinese New Year also

proves a boon to those who own clothes shops: tradition holds that those cele-brating the day in question should wear a completely new outfit to welcome

the new and brighter year. In addi-tion, there is a ban on cleaning on the first day of the Chinese New Year (al-though you can be sure the matriarch of any family has likely whipped the fami-ly into making the place spick and span beforehand).

7You’ve heard of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and no doubt you’re aware of Advent. The Chinese New Year is

celebrated for up to fifteen days, with each day symbolising something different, and the activities are organised to match. The first day is all about parades, floats, parties, etc, while the second day is all about family

– preferably the maternal side of the fami-ly. The third day is spent indoors, as ven-turing outside is considered bad luck, and so on and so on. The seventh day, as already mentioned, is ‘everyone’s birthday’.

8 Not exactly related to Chinese New Year, but most definitely Chinese. The number 8 is considered to be

exceptionally lucky in Chinese mythol-ogy, with both the word and calligra-phy being similar to ‘prosper’, ‘wealth’, ‘joy’, and ‘happiness’. Not only is 8 a lucky number, but can also be an expensive one at that: a telephone number comprising entirely of ‘eights’ sold, in China, for ap-proximately € 200,000! The Petronas Towers in Malaysia, only recently ousted as World’s Tallest Building by Burj Kha-lifa in Dubai, both have 88 floors. And the 2008 Olympic Games, held in Beijing, held their opening ceremony on August 8th, 2008, at the fortunate time of 8 sec-onds and 8 minutes past 8pm local time. Take that, Daniel Craig!

According to Chinese legend, the twelve animals quarreled one day as to who was

to head the cycle of years. The gods were asked to decide, and so they held a con-

test: whoever was to reach the opposite bank of the river would be first, and the

rest of the animals would receive their years according to their finish.

All twelve animals gathered at the river bank and jumped in. Unbeknownst to the

ox, the rat had jumped upon his back. As the ox was about to jump ashore, the

rat jumped off the ox's back, and won the race. The pig, who was very lazy, came

in last. That is why the rat is the first year of the animal cycle, the ox second, and

the pig last…

The order of the day (or year, if you will)

New Year fireworks in Hong Kong

* Chinese sign for number 8



50

destinations |

A mere 28 kilometres from Sarajevo, Jahorina is easily accessible by a decent road which is regularly maintained, especially during the winter months. There is over 20 kilometres of ski trails at your disposal, at an elevation between 1300 and 1880 metres, with two six-seat chairlifts, four ski-lifts and three two-seaters which are capable of transporting over 10.000 people each hour.

The trails and transports are managed by the Jahorina Olympic Centre (anyone remember the 1984 Winter Olympics?), which provides the services of professional skiing instructors and also rents out skiing and snowboarding equipment. The price of ski passes here is about half that of Alpine resorts, and is usually around 15-20 Euros, which will leave you with quite enough money to experience the turbulent night life in the many bars, restaurants and discos.

And believe us when we say turbulent, for you will be meeting the dawn in a very different manner than the Alpine yodelling kind you’re used to. So let us repeat: Jahorina is a beautiful mountain with a “soul”, the nature is stunning, all the prices are significantly lower than the European ones, and the night life is unforgettable.

There are about 10 kilometres of official ski trails, which range from 1250 m to 2067 m in elevation, predominantly red flagged, with a few blue ones too. The higher slopes are bare and thus remindful of the high Alps, while the middle and lower trails go through a thick pine forest, which, when covered in snow, is quite idyllic. Mind you, your enjoyment can be interfered with by the often “weekend crowds”, and the still present occasional stones on the slopes.

A great advantage of this resort is its night skiing offer, which is open from Tuesday until Sunday, and which, with its excellent lighting, is simply pleasure guaranteed.

The best time to enjoy winter sports at Bjelašnica, which applies to most ski resorts in the region, is the end of February and beginning of March, when the accumulated snow is highest, the temperatures are not too low, and the days are somewhat longer.

Finally, Bjelašnica has a wide variety of apartments for rent and a few hotels, all at very affordable prices.

We all know Slovenia managed to assert itself decades ago, and we also know that the Serbs at Kopaonik can throw quite a party. We also know about the Snow Queen Trophy on Zagreb’s Sljeme...but Bosnia and Herzegovina? Yes, there are the erstwhile Olympic slopes of Bjelašnica and Jahorina, but there is even more. Be prepared for a different experience – perhaps even a different kind of skiing etiquette – which is not to say for something necessarily substandard. Cheaper, yes, but, then again, that can only recommend the following four destinations.

Skiing in the East

> Jahorina

> Bjelašnica

Straight out of an Alpine idyll, isn't it? And the party scene won't disappoint either.

by Mark Ferris


January 30th

51

Vlašić Mountain is situated in the very centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with its highest peak Paljenik rising to 1963 m. It is an ideal weekend destination, especially for beginners, while more advanced skiers might grow bored with it relatively quickly.

There are several less known ski resorts situated nearby, but the most popular of them all is undoubtedly the sports and recreation centre Vlašić, located at Babanovac (1260 m). The ski resort includes six ski-lifts, two of which are baby lifts, 15 kilometres of ski trails, and, as a bit of an oddity, even very ‘serious’ looking ski-jumping ramps. Please only take photos, do not try to have a go...

Starting from the top, it is possible to go down two paths, leading you down trails which separate in certain areas, which can make orientation challenging during bad weather and low visibility. Most of the trails are a combination of blue and red. One of them passes by the aforementioned 90 metre ski jumping ramp, and literally through the centre of the town. Skiing on the town streets, which are closed for traffic during the winter season, is quite the experience, although you must exercise caution since there are many strollers and families with children sledging.

Today, Babanovac is a quaint (in a very positive sense) tourist town, with over 1000 weekend cottages and a few hotels and boarding houses, with a capacity that surpasses even the largest skiing centres of b&h. The quality of accommodation, as always, is diverse, but suffice it to say that there indeed are a number of luxury Spa-Wellness hotels. There are also many coffee shops in the area, with sunlit terraces and numerous steak houses. In comparison with Jahorina and Bjelašnica, the prices are about 20% lower.

The Kupres ski resort – ‘the Pearl of Herzegovina’ – spreads over three unconnected mountains: Čajuša, Stožer and Čordaćica. The most popular among them is Čajuša, which is – deservedly so – in fact one of the most popular skiing destinations in b&h (and perhaps beyond).

The elevations of the Čajuša ski resort are between 1200 and 1550 metres. Skiers and snowboarders are transported by one two-seater, one four-seater, two T-bars and one baby lift

– enough for a smooth upward trip. All in all, there are about 13 kilometres of ski slopes, which are often considerably more crowded than those at Stožer or Čordaćica.

Skiing and snowboarding equipment rental is available on site, with two skiing schools situated in the Adriaski hotel. Nearby is the fine “Ognjište” restaurant, just below the beginning of the ski resort, which includes a sledging slope for youngsters.

While the prices for food and drinks are higher than in the rest of the ski resorts in Bosnia, the daily pass costs no more than 20 Euros, and Kupres indeed is an excellent weekend or one day trip destination, especially for skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts from Dalmatia, for whom this is the closest adequate ski resort. So, especially ye Dalmatian residents, do not be shy of the Eastern border...

> Vlašić

> Kupres

Fancy having a go at a veritable Olympic size ski jumping ramp?



52

With a maximum power output of 1088 horse power, an acceleration time of 2.8 seconds, a top speed close to 200 mph, and with an autonomy of 600 kilometres the Rimac Concept_One, breaking the mould of the supercars and shattering the stereotype of an electric car as a boring and unreliable enterprise, could be considered the first true supercar powered purely by electricity. And it’s Croatian, mind you...

The Croatian company Rimac Au-tomobili took the perfect chance and unveiled the latest version of

their Concept_One electric supercar at the “Top Marques Monaco 2012”event, the first of which was sold to a buyer in Spain in mid January 2013, for a whop-ping 750,000 Euros. Not bad, especially if we take into account that this one sale can finance the entire Rimac operation for as long as six months.

What else can one say? Well, little else. So, first, here’s a short story on how a young innovator from a small town in Croatia managed to get his name on Bloomberg’s “Worlds’ Best of 2012” list.

Mate Rimac, a 25 year old innovator, the brain behind Concept_One, has ap-parently always stood out amongst his peers, be it in high school or universi-ty. While still in school, he won the na-tional award at the inventors champion-ship, which resulted in him being sent to a Tokyo inventors contest, where he won another prize: his side mirror solution solved the blind spot problem for mo-torists, and was duly patented.

Four years ago, Rimac took interest in drifting and for the purposes bought a bmw e30 323i, which is considered

World’s Fastest Electric Supercar… And It’s Croatian

lifestyle | by Michael Devaney


January 30th

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one of the best cars in the world to learn how to drift. Unfortunately – or not, as it would turn out – during one session he burned out the engine and decided to replace it with an electric one. He found the instructions for building one online, ordered the parts, and with a team of friends put together his first electric car, during which time he, as he says, realised that such a project wasn’t all that com-plicated. The next step was natural (for those, of course, born with business in their bones): Rimac also started devel-oping his own parts and software for a concept car he had in mind.

It wouldn’t be long before Rimac, with his now 600 horse power electric BMW, nicknamed “The Green Beast”, broke five electric car acceleration world records, for instance going from 0 to 60 mph in only 3.3 seconds. The work he did on the BMW provided him with the knowledge to start patenting Concept_One. He took to the drawing board and started writing a patent for the car, documenting every single detail before he even had any in-vestors. After he realised that all the de-tails and sketches could actually be fully functional, he found some investors and began to manage a team of professionals

to help him build Concept_One, which quickly became reality. It was first shown at the 2011 iaa Motor Show in Frankfurt.

The super aerodynamic body was de-signed by Adriano Mudri, and is sculpted out of carbon fibre, which gives it true su-percar dynamics. The interior is designed by former associates of the famous de-signer Pininfarina, and is made from high quality materials (leather seats, bespoke infotainment system, etc.). The wheels are custom made for the car, with huge brake callipers. A curious feature of the car is that it does not have a back window but cameras instead, or rather a total of seven of them. The prototype did not have any side mirrors either, but the produc-tion model does, due to safety regulations.

90% of the car is built in Croatia, spe-cifically in the town of Sveta Nedelja near Zagreb, where Rimac has his fac-tory and test track; also, a vast majority of the parts are patented by Rimac him-self and produced by his company. As if the range of 372.9 miles that the batter-ies provide was not enough, the company is developing new technologies to further improve this figure, leaving most elec-tric cars in the dust with their maximum ranges of 150 miles or less. Incidentally, Concept_One has a range of 86-112 miles

– in race mode!Additionally, 3800 Nms of torque

provide a major push, and the car could theoretically accelerate up to ridiculous speeds, as stated by Rimac himself: “It could go 500 km/h, but we can’t guar-antee the safety of the passengers, so we electronically limited it to 300 km/h.” Perhaps exaggerated, this statement, but experts don’t dismiss is as implausible.

In any event, Rimac – or rather his small manufacturing outfit – plans to produce 15-20 cars per year, each costing an overwhelming 750,000 Euros, or ap-proximately 1 million dollars. They plan to release a limited series of 88 vehicles in total, by which point they hope they will have started developing new models as well. Rimac states that their goal is to increase production of new, less costly, models during the next 2 or 3 years. Con-cept_Two? Why not.

engine : electric

battery capacity : 92 kwh

battery range : 372.9 miles

(600 kms)

horsepower : 1088 hp

0–60 mph: 2,8 seconds

top speed : 189.5 mph (305 km/h)

wheelbase : 2,750 mm (108.3 in)

length : 4,548 mm (179.1 in)

width : 1,997 mm (78.6 in)

height : 1,198 mm (47.2 in)

curb weight : 1,950 kg (4,300 lb)

General Specs

A curious feature of the car is that it does not have a back window but cameras instead...

“



54

good stuff

Like so much of Russia’s Cold War technology this particular vehicle

was the result of reverse engineering of a 1942 Packard Super Eight,

once given to Stalin as present by F.D.R. It was powered by a six litre,

eight cylinder engine, could produce 140 HP, and had a top speed of over

87 mph. Stalin’s personal parade car, built in 1949, was one of these,

painted Soviet green, and by the time of his death four years later the

car had only 2040 miles on the odometer. ZIL are still active to this

day, and making cars which they claim are as of high a quality as any

Maybach or Rolls Royce. Only 2083 ZIS-110s were ever produced and

if you felt the need to own one then you would fork out in the region

of 65,000 Euros... But it could be worth it, no?

This Czech(oslovak) 2.9 litre V8 engine produced 85 HP, helping

the car reach speeds of 100 mph it had one rather infamous fan –

Adolf Hitler, who once even quipped, “this is the car for my roads”.

Indeed, the T87 was often praised by the German officers who drove

them, both for its speed and excellent handling on the Autobahn. The

first car designed using aerodynamic principles was the Tatra T77, and

this car heavily influenced the T87, which in turn influenced other,

more renowned, car manufacturers such as Ferdinand Porsche. In

the 1940s a brand new T87 would have cost you 25,000 Swiss Francs,

while nowadays the price is closer to 100,000 Euros. A 1941 T87 won

a New York Times reader’s poll of collector’s cars in 2010, beating 651

other collectibles.

Of course not every 'cool' car can be as suave as a ZIL or Tatra.

The Trabant was of course the ‘pride’ of East Germany; described as

a lunch box with a lawn-mower engine, it could accelerate from 0

to 100 – eventually. It was durable, however, though it may be that

that is the best thing which can be said about it. For, while it could

fit four adults and their luggage, it had worse fuel economy than

any American muscle car and emitted exhaust fumes such as would

announce its presence even unsighted. Every dog will have its day,

however, and the Trabant has earned its place amongst the more

frugal car aficionados, especially after the onset of Ostalgie. Proper

Trabant motorcade sightseeing tours are regularly organised in Berlin,

and, though not at all rare by collectable standards (there were over 3

million produced), a mint condition Trabant could sell for up to 4,000

Euros. We like it.

There has been a recent, and welcome, resurgence in the automotive industry in the region, what with FIAT finally taking off in Serbia, and Croatian electric cars (there's more than one) headed for the market. But what about the past, and the glorious collectibles that may have inspired this renaissance of sorts? We couldn’t find much in the Yugosphere, but we indeed did find a few delicacies in the former Eastern Bloc… So enjoy – and possibly treat yourself.

A Few Eastern Beauties

> Uncle Joe’s Russian ‘Rolls Royce’: ZIS-110

> Tatra T87

> Trabant


January 30th

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56

did you know? | by Lee Murphy

All the great technology companies of the 21st century are pushing hard to be the first to unveil wireless energy transfer. Im-agine being able to charge your phone without having to plug it in, or being able simply to unpack a new television or computer and have no need to rearrange a multitude of leads and cables? Tesla could well have been the first, but for a lack of investment fund-ing. More specifically, Wardenclyffe Tower was to have been one of the world’s first industrial parks, housing thousands of workers and hundreds of generators and associated equipment. The tower itself was to be 57 metres tall, coupled with a 37 metre earthing rod placed underground so as “to have a grip on the Earth so the whole of this globe can quiver”. It was to be twinned with one situated in Britain, and was expected to transmit radio signals initially, and eventually even energy. However, as Tesla left behind no worka-ble blueprints (nothing unusual in his case, and also the main rea-son why he was often refused financing), such technological so-lutions are yet to be fully grasped, even more than a century later.

Although a man dedicated to science like all who preceded him, and those who would follow, Tesla’s inventions were often twisted to darker purpose. Tesla patented “Method of and Appa-ratus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles“, patent no. 613,809, and demonstrated for all to see, before the National Electric Light Association, in 1893, and again later, in 1898, at the Madison Square Garden, where he unveiled his re-mote controlled boat to the public, calling it a telautomaton. The two boats involved could withstand a certain amount of submer-sion and while they were not in any way related to what we now know as submarines, they were adapated, or at least the tech-nology was, into the concept of guided missiles – used in World War II and other modern conflicts. Thankfully, actual science has managed to utilise this technology for something other than war, for Tesla's invention has also partly resulted in nasa being able to operate remote vehicles on Mars.

January 7th, 2013 saw the 70th anniversary of Nikola Tesla’s death, and it’s no great secret that Tesla has his admirers in the SEE offices. So then, what seems fitting for this ethnic Serb born in Croatia under the Austro-Hungarian Empire? Well know are Tesla’s disputes with Thomas Edison and his long struggle with near poverty, but we took it upon ourselves also to look at some Tesla trivia – in a bit more detail to boot – which you might not necessarily have heard about.

Nikola Tesla - A Man Out of Time

> Wireless Energy Transfer

> Remote Controlled Vessels

Nice toy, for grown men


January 30th

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“I contracted many strange likes, dislikes and habits, some of which I can trace to external impressions while others are unac-countable. I had a violent aversion against earrings of women… I would not touch the hair of other people except, perhaps, at the point of a revolver. I would get a fever looking at a peach and if a piece of camphor was anywhere in the house, it caused me the keenest discomfort.” So said Tesla, which goes some way to ex-plaining why the man never settled down, nor even became in-volved with someone, at a time when science was likely attracting the sort of fan-girl attention that Apple and other ‘stylish’ compa-nies enjoy today. Then again, genius has its price, and perhaps we all of us would be better off if we had more passionate recluses and fewer business savvy dot-com-ers or social network impresarios. Anyone care to join the 21st century Tesla defence team?

Believe it or not, electric vehicles, though somewhat of a current fad, were briefly popular (and yes, in fact existed, though mostly in prototype form) as far back as the early 1900s, when they used a series of batteries and dc engines to move about. The electric au-tomobile, for instance, could not be adapted to accommodate and utilise a polyphase motor (i.e. ac power), so the batteries required recharging every night and the range of travel was restricted to about 100 miles. Even comparatively low speeds in the range of 45 to 50 mph could not be attained for this would have destroyed the batteries in moments. Bursts of speeds of 25 to 35 mph could be maintained only for a moment or so. Normal driving speed – de-pending on traffic conditions – was between 15 and 20 mph; by 1910 standards, this was an acceptable speed limit, especially as concerns an electric vehicle. Still, somewhere around 1915 or so, the electric automobile became history and would not be further developed in a serious fashion until modern times.

However, in a brief 1931 revival episode, with the financing of Pierce-Arrow and George Westinghouse, a 1931 Pierce-Arrow was selected to be tested at the factory grounds in Buffalo, New York, its standard internal combustion engine removed and an 80 horse-power, 1800 rpm electric engine put in place instead. The ac mo-tor was 40 inches long and 30 inches wide, and the power leads were left standing in the air - no external power source! And here is where Nikola Tesla comes in.

At the appointed time, Tesla arrived from New York City and in-spected the Pierce-Arrow automobile. He then went to a local ra-dio store and purchased a dozen tubes, wires, and assorted resis-tors. A box 24 inches long, 12 inches wide and 6 inches high was assembled to house the circuit and then placed on the front seat. Its wires were connected to the air-cooled, brushless motor. Two rods, ¼ inch in diameter, stuck out of the box, which was about 3 inches long.

Tesla settled himself into the driver's seat, pushed the two rods in and stated, “We now have power”. He put the car into gear and it moved forward! This vehicle, powered by an ac motor, was driv-en to speeds of 90 mph and performed better than any internal combustion engine of its day!

One week was spent testing the vehicle, and several newspa-pers in Buffalo reported on it. When asked where the power came from, Tesla replied: “From the ethers all around us”. Several people suggested that Tesla was mad and somehow in league with sinister forces of the Universe. He became incensed, removed his myste-rious box from the vehicle, and returned to his laboratory in New York City. His secret died with him!

> A Self-Aware Recluse

> A 100-Year-Old Electric Car, Anyone?

> Tesla intentionally exposed himself to cholera in order to

avoid military service.

> He was obsessed with the number 3, and felt driven to

perform everything in sets of 3. Anyone heard of the old Aris-

totelian triad of Art, Imitation, and Exercise? Or maybe it was

the Holy Trinity behind it all, Tesla's father having been an Or-

thodox priest? We shall never know.

> He methodically fed pigeons and brought injured ones back

to his Waldorf Astoria to tend to them. Unusual, isn't it, for a

germophobe to have established such a close 'relationship'

with ordinarily disease-spreading birds, isn't it?

> He declared that he received messages from aliens from

Mars or Venus over his radio equipment. Perhaps only to pull

people's legs, but then again...

> In his autobiography (My Inventions), he claimed that he would

get a fever just by looking at a peach. Naturally, he never provided

an adequate explanation as to why? Or how...

How eccentric can you get?



58

blast from the past

Goce Delčev, an important revolutionary figure in Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Thrace, was

born on February 4th, 1872. He was one of the leaders of the Internal Macedonian Revolution-

ary Organisation (IMRO). While in high-school (in Thessaloniki) he already organised and led a

secret revolutionary brotherhood. Then, as a cadet in the Military Academy in Sofia, he secret-

ly handed out socialist literature which eventually got him expelled. In 1898, upon foundation

of the so called Četnik Institute, the goal of which was the autonomy of Macedonia and Thra-

ce, Goce was named commander of all the Macedonian troops. He died in 1903 in a skirmish

with the Turkish police whilst preparing the famed Ilinden Uprising.

On February 9th, 1934, a treaty was signed between Greece, Turkey, Romania and Yugoslavia,

thereafter known as the Balkan Pact. The main goal of this treaty was to maintain a geopolitical

status quo in the region in the aftermath of The Great War, guaranteeing the signatories’ ter-

ritorial integrity and political independence against attack by another Balkan state. The coun-

tries involved agreed to suspend all claims against each other concerning disputed territories,

which was important for the pursuit of peace as a rise in regional ethnic minority tensions had

become evident after 1918. A number of countries chose not to sign the treaty: Albania, Bulgaria,

Hungary, Italy and the Soviet Union, whose Governments all had territorial expansion in mind.

Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, a Croatian engineer and innovator of Polish-Jewish and Dutch ethnicity,

died on February 5th, 1922. Having earned his doctorate from the Royal Technical College in Dres-

den, Penkala came up with more than 70 inventions in the fields of mechanics, chemistry, physics,

aeronautics, etc. However, he is by far best known for inventing the fountain pen. In 1907, in collab-

oration with Edmund Moster, he started the Penkala-Moster Company and built a pen-and-pencil

factory, which was one of the biggest in the world at the time. The company still exists to this very

day, as TOZ-Penkala (Tvornica Olovaka Zagreb which means Zagreb Pencil Factory). Some of his oth-

er notable inventions are the hot water bottle (Termofor), a rail-car brake, and an anode battery.

Constantine XI, also known as the Marble Emperor, was the last reigning Byzantine Basileos. Born

on February 9th 1404, he reigned from 1449 until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, when, accord-

ing to legend, he shed his royal garments after the Ottomans had breached the Wall and joined

his men in the last charge, during which he fell. One of the most prominent national heroes of

Greece, it is – outside of academic circles – a less known fact that Constantine XI was half Ser-

bian, his mother being Helena Dragaš, daughter of the Serbian Prince Constantine Dragaš, whose

surname he added to his own dynastic moniker upon gaining the imperial throne. He even al-

most married a Serb, Mara Branković, but for a number of reasons the marriage never took place.

› Goce Delčev: Macedonian revolutionary

› The Balkan Pact

› Slavoljub Penkala: the passing of a Croatian Innovator 1922

1872

1934

1404› Constantine XI Palaiologos


January 30th

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60

to do list | January 30th - February 12th

Lasts until 17th February

Various locations in Rijeka

Feb 2nd – Feb 13th | 11-20h

Ptuj

Feb 13th – Feb 17th | 10–18h

Zagrebački Velesajam

Feb 1st – Feb 12th | start at 10h

Trg Kralja Tomislava, Samobor

Feb 4th | 19:30h

Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb

Feb 8th | 21h

Hala Tivolii, Ljubljana

Feb 21st – Feb 24th | 10–19h

Belgrade Fair

Lasts until 3rd March | 10–19h (Sun: 10-14h)

Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb

Feb 3rd | 21h

Dom Omladine, Belgrade

Feb 14th | 20:30h

Sava Centar, Belgrade

Feb 2nd – Feb 10th

Dom sportova, Zagreb

Feb 7th – March 21st

Various locations in Rijeka

Feb 9th – Feb 14th | 11–20h

Main square, Zagreb

Feb 22nd – March 3rd

Belgrade

Nov 29th 2012 – Feb 24th 2013

Museum of Cont Art Metelkova, Ljubljana

Do not miss the 30th International Carnival Parade

The most high-profile carnival event in Slovenia

Learn more about tourist agencies, hotels and all other important aspects of tourism in Croatia

Indulge in various carnival activities like concerts and street shows held throughout Samobor

Rock out with the legendary Slash, and lead singer Myles Kennedy

Celebrate the 200th birth anniversary of Verdi with his most spectacular opera

The largest wine manufacturing fair accompanied by the Tourism Fair

World renowned photographer Peter Knapp offers his view on Croatian photography

A San Fransicso-based alternative rock band led by singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel

A renowned singer with a unique voice will invigorate your Valentines’ Day sentiments

The main events take place at 17:45h, (semi-finals: 15h on Feb 9th; finals: 19h on Feb 10th)

Indulge yourself in the pleasures of the world's finest chocolates at the 2nd Zagreb Chocofest

Theatre plays, Concerts, Movies, Fine Arts Exhibitions, Panel Discussions, Literary Events...

Annual film festival held in Belgrade since 1971, guaranteed quality

Exhibition is focused on the interconnectedness of art & politics

rijeka carnival

the kurentovanje international carnival festival

crotour - 6th international tourism fair & zagreb boat show

samoborski fašnik

• slash feat. myles kennedy & the conspirators

giusseppe verdi: aida

beowine fair

• croatian photography through the eyes of peter knapp

• mark eitzel – american music club

• josipa lisac

• pbz zagreb indoors – atp world tour 250

zagreb chocofest

international festival “sarajevo winter – art of touch”

• belgrade international film festival (fest)

dear art exhibition


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