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Daily news and culture as catharsis (fist part)

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What dominated the news yesterday was undoubtedly the arrest of Ratko Mladi, the man who is, among other things, held responsible for the largest genocide on European soil since World War II. The capture provides catharsis for Serbians and is, as some key Croatian commentators interpret, in a way comparable to the verdict and sentencing of the Croatian war criminal Ante Gotovina not long ago. According to these contributors, Ante Gotovinas sen-tencing was in fact a guilty verdict issued against Franjo Tuman, the Croatian president at the time. Heading further into this direction we notice that Mon-tenegro at least has Andrej Nikolaidis with his uncompromising writings resembling those of Thomas Bernhard, shattering the traditional Montenegrin mentality and the perspective within which the current moment is determined or limited even by a mythological structure, or to put it in other words, a perspective which prevents us from seeing the present by focusing too much on the past. What about Slovenians? Do we need our own minor or a slightly larger catharsis, a way to dispel all sorts of paradigms and bring an end to mystifications of various kinds? Regarding the matter, an interesting generational appearance was made by individuals holding important formal positions in Slovenia born in 1970 (or after the year). Fortunately, the countrys ten-day war cannot compare in any way to the atrocities committed in countries south of its border. Those ten days did however prove sufficient for controversies such as the arms trading scandal, often regarded the scandal of all Slovenian scandals, followed closely by the dispute between the Slovenian bank of the time, Ljubljanska banka and its Croatian savers who were left without their savings. Then there is also the Slovenian administrative genocide or erasure of individuals from the registry of permanent residence, an issue still being swept under the rug by a substantial part of the countrys politicians. Furthermore, the specific aspect of the post-communist transition period blurs boundaries between political, legal and business elites which are first provided with a legal and formal framework (in spite of numerous warnings), then they are supported by a legal and formal defense in their pursuit of a path on the brink of breaking a law, and finally these elites are directly linked to the implementation itself (the bank sector also and above all the part which was majority owned by the state). All of this is a part of our lives, the taxes we pay; it is our money which is intended for financial injections into banks and so on. The auditors scrutiny, to which the ECOC project is constantly subjected, is by all means expected. It is a shame, though, that by doing so these auditors are missing out on even greater stories in other fields and areas. But perhaps we can run the risk of being optimistic. Not so long ago, there was an interesting yet somewhat extreme media appearance

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(http://www.siol.net/slovenija/aktualno/2011/02/spovedniki_in_ucitelji.aspx) by a group of people who hold prominent positions in the country. The group significantly naming itself utter fools consists of Gorazd Klemeni (head of the Corruption Prevention Commission), Damjan ugelj (head of Securities Market Agency), Jani Sorak (until February of 2011 the head of Competition Protection Office) and Rado Pezdir, whose civil initiative for the rule of law is constantly attacking cartels. What is the connection between them? A thing of seemingly little importance their generational background. All of them were born around 1970 or later and are a part of such an interesting generation, states Klemeni, too young to profit from the transition period and old enough to remember all the promises given. This concerns my and even younger generations, say Sorak and Pezdir which will no longer be as foolishly patient as ours has been for twenty years. They will no longer be easily tricked by political bickering which is nothing but eyewash enabling interest groups to continue receiving their monthly pay-ments. The group ensures that we can indeed be optimistic, that the time has come for a confession to be made and a lesson to be had. So this is probably what you might call a purification or, if you will, a catharsis the Slovenian way. We have our own little symbolic deaths, thefts, robberies and our own genocides of the transition period immediately following the downfall of communism. The key shift in perspective truly seems tied to the generational mental image which was pointed to by aforementioned indi-viduals. This is no longer a point of expression for those active in the socio-political field or from older generations which have been fully shaped by the previous political system. This new way of thinking is therefore not founded on political affiliation (with either side of the political spectrum) and consequently not partial in its critique (of the other side). Its underlying characteristic is the distance towards the political elite of the transition period as a whole, regard-less of the color or political side the elite represents. This is also and above all a matter of culture and will, I sincerely hope, greatly impact and define the cul-ture and refinement of this area in the future, at all levels and as a whole. What we are dealing with here are two entirely and radically different images. Let us first take a look at the subject of a series of recent discussions and writ-ten contributions in Slovenia, the so called networks. Common knowledge up to now was that both political sides had their own, enclosed networks pre-sent at all levels of the country's structure, at its every subsystem. Not every-one can enter these networks; they are reserved for highly trusted members. What runs through the very veins of these two presumably separate and inde-pendent networks is patronage, corruption and ruthless greed with clearly set goals complete control over the country and its subsystems. There is no need to emphasize that these two systems are entangled in total war, scandals, ar-rests, bribes, attempts of discrediting the opponent, all of which, regularly pre-sented to us in recent months, is merely collateral damage of subterranean collisions by these two networks, both trying to force the other out of promi-nent positions in the subsystems and regain as much power as possible. What can be discerned from the media appearance of Klemeni, ugelj, Sorak and Pezdir differs from all the things mentioned above. It does not revolve around two separate networks and the black-and-white existence of good and evil; instead, it focuses on a much larger aspect of the political set which has governed the country since 1991, when the majority of politicians active today were taking part in the establishment of the national company; they were waiting at the start line for the starter gun signal the beginning, enabling them to run toward no man's land and mark out their territory. What followed was a lasting series of insinuations aimed at unprincipled, project coalitions whose main goal sooner or later became money and not political idealism or its political beliefs. In accordance with this logic, the sensational war of scandals, bribes, setups, arrests and so on, we are forced to witness, does not in any way represent the collision of the left and right network, it does however indicate that karma has backfired after twenty years of establishing opposing networks, providing unprincipled support and constantly attempting to wash one's hands clean. All of this suggests that we have reached a saturation point. That the lid has been blown off the elites operating in the fields of politics, law and the economy. That the twentieth anniversary of our independence will mark the beginning of the end of the chapter entitled Transition. That the time has come for the country's first political set, which may be in its prime but, has, due to the circumstances, reached a tired old age of its political existence. The major part of the ECOC structure also belongs to the 1970 and younger generations. As the cultural project of the year and perhaps the entire decade, it is

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supposed to set standards in the broadest sense of culture. Culture as a refined existence and communication. With an active stance towards our immediate environment and different contexts. At least this is the way I see things. Ni e komentarjev. Dodaj komentar

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