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Instead of self-pity we should try something different. Recently the Washington Post and few others newspapers, mainly from US or UK published, articles about Slovenia and speculated about the difficult
situation in our public finances. This are the same newspapers which in 1991 published numerous articles that Slovenia would have big problems getting independence. The credibility of their journalism is more than obvious. Maybe they should write about the quality of the health and social systems in the USA and then they could discover who really needs a bailout. Obviously Slovenia is a topic because maybe somebody would like to profit from our next bond issue. The "western type" of "free" economy is now finally really off the track and without answers for future sustainable development without destroying all global resources for excessive acumulating the wealth in maybe few procents of global population.

Nevertheless we are here in Slovenia. We have our problems, we have people protesting on the streets (not on Saturdays, because they're shopping) and we are stuck with politicians who are more or less guilty for the whole mess. There are some signs that they have discovered what the problem is. At the end of the day we must say that our situation is far from bad - in comparison with other EU countries our public finances are in a solid position, we can sell something if necessary, our health system is working
as is our pension system, our roads are okay, beer prices are stable, the tourism sector is growing and on top of that we have world champions Tina Maze, Anže Kopitar and our hockey team qualified for the Olympics in Sochi.

So, instead of general pessimism we must enter the spring and summer of 2013 with optimism. I would like to hear from our new PM a realistic action plan, for example five steps for 2013 - solving banks, stabilising public finances, maybe something around the South Stream project and connected projects. I would like to hear our PM in Brussels saying a few real things about Slovenia, about our economy, our plans and not just talking about the problems and that we need more time.

Back to our reality. At the Slovenia Times we are celebrating our tenth anniversary and we are entering a new phase of media. We have upgraded our web page which is a credible and independent daily source of information from the region. We also upgraded and redesigned The Slovenia Times magazine with more background stories and in-depth analysis. We want to be active, timely and bring you the stories behind the stories.