Do you know how much money the state took away from taxpayers’ net contribution and gave it to 83 NGOs, which signed a hostile pamphlet against the Democracy magazine yesterday? Hold on tightly, you better sit down, it is 0.25 billion euros.
This means that, for example, the Peace Institute, the Slovene Philanthropy, Amnesty International Slovenia and UNICEF Slovenia, have deprived the young Slovenian families of about 2,100 two-bedroom apartments. With 0.25 billion, 151,000 wages could be paid. And if we use left-wing logic, these NGOs have deprived primary school students of around 80 million worth of warm meals and have caused hunger among schoolchildren.
However, the Slovene Writers’ Association announced yesterday (HERE) a protest against the public tender for a fairy tale, published in the Democracy magazine (HERE). According to them, the magazine is “abusing children’s literature for racist propaganda, which is unacceptable”.
“The twisting that everything not in accordance with the will of the progressive ideological agenda, must be racism, xenophobia and I do not know what else, has become a safeguard for the left and their non-governmental organizations. Well, that’s their right. We, at the magazine, do not disagree with their opinions. Even the abusive language used, obviously not knowing what it even means in the original sense, is an indicator of freedom of speech,” said Jože Biščak, Democracy’s Editor-in-chief.
Joze Biscak. (Photo: Demokracija)
According to Biščak, they should be glad, at the Slovene Writers’ Association, that someone is even willing to publish a book, as they constantly complain that people do not read, that there is no money for new books. “The fairytale (like any other book published by Nova obzorja publishing) will be taxpayer friendly. This means that it will not receive any subsidies from the state, which in turn means that the buyer will not pay twice as much, as he or she does with the subsidized books, but will pay only once,” Biščak said.
Anyway, we received eight fairy tales today that were sent to the Editorial Board’s address of the Democracy magazine. “We will probably receive more due to the un-anticipated promotions by the mainstream media. A common feature of tenders is that most of the works usually come in at the last minute, so we count on receiving at least 20 fairy tales. This will be enough so that we can truly choose the best one. And, if the demand is high enough, we will not only publish the winning fairy tale in book form, but also a collection of patriotic fairytales in the form of picture books, such as, for example, the one of Marinka and her friends, which some older generations of readers will remember. Such a collection will be more than an excellent gift for a child for any occasion,” emphasizes Biščak, adding:
“This pogrom against Democracy has finally revealed the irresistible desire of left-wing activists, who want to regulate all aspects of human life. Even what fairy tale the parents can buy and what to read to their child, what can be printed and what cannot be. Democracy will not force anyone to buy the fairytale. The buyer will decide whether he will reach into his pocket, pull his wallet out and buy the book with his own money. This will be a free choice of the individual, which obviously left-wing activists deny him or her: they think that people are incapable of deciding for themselves, so they feel the need to ‘help’ them. And that is the really scary part, not some imaginary racism, which is appearing to them from nowhere like a ghost.”
However, Biščak has a proposal for the non-governmental organizations that have signed the protest pamphlet: “They should buy out the entire printed edition to prevent the ‘temptation’”. Then they can put the fairy tale in a censor bunker. For this, they will only need 0.008 percent of the funds that they have received from the state in 15 years.”
“Just today, I was contacted by a woman from Vrhnika, who has already self-published a fairy tale, which corresponds to the tender conditions. She asked if she could sell it through Nova obzorja publishing. This shows that the interest in patriotic fairy tales is significant. If demand is high, we will set up a special department dealing with patriotic content for children and adolescents. A lot of students and young people were also interested in the book Manifest za domovino (A Manifest for The Homeland). I know about one high school in Ljubljana, where one of the students bought this manifest that is now circulating among his classmates. It is interesting to them, especially because the manifest was written by young people, their peers,” said Biščak.