and that ladies and gentlemen, is the whole truth. Respenus beautifuly summed it up.
In the end of the day it's political afiliation that will get you high level position, not competence. The more people you set your ass out, the better you'll do in life.
And the saddest thing is, when the left wing is in power the right wing will constantly undermine them, even in anything good being done to the people. When the right wing is in power its vice versa

When was the last time the 'right wing' was in power in Slovenia?

***WARNING: Rant ahead***

2004-2008. Now, I am not saying that our centre-right parties whose political programme in certain regards is more social-democratic than of the official party (things are seriously screwed here. You cannot tell who is who. Or as an exchange student said: "I don't wish to my choice to be limited to the social-democrat or pensioner's party. More on the topic below). Still, the projects that they proposed were, economically wise, better suited to serve Slovenia's economic structure than the quick repairs and pouring of money in failed businesses which was proposed and carried out by the ruling coalition. Those enterprises are now bankrupt, our budget deficit bigger than ever and our economy in practical ruins. You constantly hear of PIIGS in the EU. It should be PIIGSS, luckily, we are far to small a cog to bother anyone right now. Plus no state, except Finland, has any large state contracts with us, at least which are public. So should Slovenia go the way of the dodo, no-one would really be bothered about it and the markets wouldn't go into a fit. One more thing comes to mind. We hired the previous director of German railways to get ours into order. We pay him a tonne of cash, which I wouldn't worry about if he were allowed to do his job. No, every single worker and manager is having a go at his plans. While I am not saying that worker's shouldn't have a say in the whole matter, in fact, they should be heard more often since abuse is rarely reported in our media while the workers bear the brunt of it all, it is just that the interest of our community as a whole, the good of the many, depends more on this project being done. And this is the final reason why Slovenia will fall and collapse in on itself. Nothing ever gets done due to the individuals in the community which our parents and grandparents decided to name Slovenia, always and only think about themselves first. Smith can be proven wrong in Slovenia. The free market does nothing to bring the common good out of individual self-interest. Our forefathers in the 1870s, fighting for our political freedom in calling the Emperor to establish a unified Slovenian land were better at working together. Even after 1918, in the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, built on the ruins of Austria-Hungary, we stood together and for a short time had our own land and were our proper rulers. Now, we are reduced once more to be the bailiffs of those around us. How Cankar must be rolling in his grave right now. His prophetic words sound true a hundred years since he has written them and his advice made more pertinent by every passing day.

///Here the text splits into another semi-coherent thought///

What Betonov speaks of is usually true in every political system. The opposition attacks the coalition (or the ruling party) and usually only party supporters get the good jobs. But here in Slovenia nothing is "sacred" or free from political interference. From the economy, to the simple administration jobs. We truly are a partitocracy, in the truest definition of the term. Even our universities take part in the fight, with a lot of our current ministers retaining the professorial posts at the Faculty for Social Sciences in Ljubljana. Damn, some are/were even my professors.

I realise that in the end, this is what is going on in most modern western states, yet one rarely sees it so poorly covered than in Slovenia. Either it is out in the open, or there is enough open space and media scrupulosity that "democratic" processes might take hold. The shame is, most foreigners who come to Slovenia say that is is a wonderful country with a high standard of living and comfort. While to a certain extent this is true, I must admit that right now, being an ERASMUS student abroad, my mind does often wonder to how easy we have it. The problem is, people do not realise that it is too easy. Even today, the old communist (the reds) versus the Slovenian Home Guard (the whites) continues to be the centre point of our politics. Imagine if the Civil War were constantly on the subject and Texas was always trying to secede. Stable democracy my a**.

Respenus, not a rant, words of wisdom.

If we were some backwater east european banana state one would understand. But we are not. Slovenia is on a European crossroad. The bulk of goods coming from or going to the balkans and Turkey pases trough Slovenia. Balkans may have a rather poor reputation but it is still an enormous market, billions involved. But the infrastructure is like ut of an african documentary, highways are giant contruction sites, local roads have so many potholes that roads look like they've been shelled. Nothing gained, all squanderd :nope:
Slovenians have had a reputation of very skilled workers since the Habsburgs. Some of the companies are world renovned, like Instrumentation technologies, which has a contract with CERN, ELAN, which is still widely known even if it is going down the toilet due to bonehead management, Seaway which was setting the quality in luxury yachts standards just 5 years ago and many more. But being put in charge of companies here is som kind of a political award. The director of Mura (clothes and fabricks) had a degree in tourism, Mura went bust creating a economical disaster for an entire region. :timeout: wheres the logic in that. I remember an article, one or two years ago, when a company that was making train parts and even whole trains for Siemens went broke, even while they were drowning in orders. And I doubt the Germans were responsible for the closure.
When it comes to tourism, we could be swimming in money. Everyone that ever comes to Slovenia cant stop saying what a beautiful country it is. Ljubljana has been voted as one of the most idylic cities in the world, not a small feat considering the competition (Paris, Amsterdam...). The Alps, the seashore regions, the plains of panonia and endless forrests that rival Finland, in a country the size of New Jersey. And every region has so much cultural distinctivnes, the food, the rituals, history, dialect, one would think that every region has it's own nation. If one is an adventurer, one will be satisfied here, if one seeks culture, one will be satisfied, if one just wants to relax, he can relax. Also billions could be raked in from tourism, but the politicians just cant sell it. :nope:
Instead of creating a tax heaven for foreign investors taxes are being increased and even created. Small companies strugle, big ones get relieves (if an ass has been offered to the goverment). :nope:

It's sad. To waste a potential that we can be richer than Switzerland