Overview of the week's top stories
since 23 November 2001

On 21 November, results from a Swiss lab confirmed that Slovenia has its first case of Mad Cow Disease, or BSE. The disease was found in a 5-year old dairy cow on a farm northeast of Ljubljana.

The public does not seem overly concerned. Dnevnik’s monthly poll for November showed little change in people’s attitudes, with more than 70 percent of respondents saying they continue to trust domestic beef. Only 22.6 percent said their trust has fallen.

Dnevnik attributes this to the attention BSE has drawn in recent years throughout Europe, and the widely publicized steps the government has taken to prevent the disease from spreading in the country. Most people thought BSE would show up sooner or later, and so they were already psychologically prepared.

With a decision sent down this week by the High Court in Maribor, Radio MARŠ (Maribor Student Radio) is slated to be erased from the legal registry. The station was founded by students in Maribor and began broadcasting on 8 February 1990. Together with Radio Študent (RŠ) in Ljubljana, it was a leading part of the independent media scene.

Authorities have tried to shut down MARŠ several times since 1994, after allegations of the "wild privatization" of the station by employees. The University of Maribor, one of the original legal founders of the station, led the charge for its elimination.

To show solidarity with their Maribor colleagues, RŠ is planning a weekend of events called "RŠ: MARŠ v MB!" (RŠ March on Maribor!). RŠ wants to show the public what the loss of MARŠ means to the country’s independent media scene, and to impress upon the public that an independent media is crucial to true democracy. Events including a basketball game between RŠ and MARŠ teams, joint broadcasts, a public debate and concerts, will take place on 7 and 8 December.

The country inched ever closer towards its goal of EU membership this week, as it closed another chapter of its negotiations. This time, the chapter was Competition and State Assistance, which raises the total number closed to 22, of a grand total of 29.

Brussels and Ljubljana had hoped to close four more chapters by the end of the year: Taxation, Justice and Home Affairs, Transportation and Free Movement of People. However, it seems that only two will be possible.

The Taxation chapter should pose little problem, while the chapter on Justice and Home Affairs is only being held up by issues surrounding border controls. Slovenia, like the other candidate countries, must wait for the current EU member states to decide on their position regarding Transport and Free Movement of People before negotiations can progress.

The remaining three chapters, Finance and Budget, Agriculture and Structural Policy, will be negotiated early next year after Spain assumes the EU presidency. These are expected to be the last chapters each of the candidate countries will close.

To initiate an amendment, 20 Members of Parliament must sign a petition. So far, the SNS has only managed to collect nine. An informal poll conducted last week by Delo showed little support within the DZ. Only LDS and DeSUS MPs said they would even consider the suggestion.

SNS leaders announced the results of a survey this week which they hope will bolster their case. Of the 918 telephone respondents chosen at random, 76 percent did not know what the DS does, and 52 percent did not realize it was different from the DZ. About 50 percent answered that the DS is not useful to the state, while 73 percent said that the DS is not necessary.

The final question shows the public’s awareness about the DS best. Respondents were asked the name of the president of the DS. Less than one percent got it right.

Finance reported this week that only four of the eighteen students lured to Maribor from China and defrauded out of thousands of dollars will be ale to formally enroll at the University of Maribor. The Ministry of Education made that determination after reviewing the students’ educational records from China.

The Ministry says that the rest of the students will have to enroll in a lower-level institution unless they can come up with further evidence of their qualifications.

Five of the students have filed a suit against the University of Maribor in an attempt to recoup their losses and return to China. Maribor-based lawyer Andrej Ketiš is representing the students, and told Delo that aside from this civil suit, a criminal suit could follow if the students’ demands are not met quickly.

The five students want reimbursement for their tuition along with damages to cover the living and travel expenses they incurred. The damages amount to USD 35,000.

• The 17^th annual Festival of Gay and Lesbian Film (FGLF) will run from 2 to 9 December in Ljubljana. Nine films from six countries will be shown, among them Drole de Felix (Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, France, 2000), Trembling Before G-D (Sandi Simcha Dubowski, USA, 2000), and O Fantasma (Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal, 2000). A special program of the films of Andy Warhol is also included, coinciding with the exhibit at Ljubljana’s Moderna Galerija. The only other gay-themed film festival in the region is the five-year old Gay Film Festival in Bratislava. The FGLF program can be found here.

• Because of poor attendance, the Šiška theatre will soon be closed. The city of Ljubljana, which owns the theatre, is currently drawing up plans to rent the building. Ljubljana’s smaller theaters have seen falling attendance overall, due to last year’s opening of the Kolosej multiplex.

• On 29 November, Ljubljana's Mestna Galerija opened an exhibit of 20th century Slovene architecture. Using 114 key examples, the exhibit traces the development of architecture in the Slovene lands. Works elsewhere by Slovene architects are also included. There are plans for the exhibit to travel to the Umetnostna Galerija in Maribor and to the Obalne Galerije in Piran next year, and organizers also hope to export it to Italy and Austria.