Slovene companies leading other EU newbies'
According to Slovenia Business Week, "The magic one-billion-euro revenue mark was crossed by 54 companies from eight of the new EU member states last year, and among the 1,000 major companies from the new EU members, one tenth are Slovenian," citing a 6 December issue of Gospodarski vestnik [SBW / 13.12.04 / 10% of Top 1,000 Companies from EU Newcomers Are Slovenian].
Though Slovenia's rightful share of spots on the list would one-tenth of the companies on the list, since there were ten new member states, it should be pointed out that only eight of the countries were included. Of them, Poland had 442 companies on the list, the Czech Republic 171, Slovakia 59 and the three Baltic republics together 22. Slovenia managed to place 99 of its companies.
Oil company Petrol was the highest ranked among Slovene firms, placing 40th overall. Next was Renault-owned auto maker Revoz, at 80th place, followed by Nova Ljubljanska Banka (81), retailer Mercator (86th), drug maker Lek (97th) and appliance maker Gorenje (107).
To sem jaz update: Two contestants expelled
Even before the first two contestants could be voted out of the To sem jaz house, two of them managed to get themselves disqualified on 8 December: Gordana Dimitrievska and Filip Hristovski, both of the Macedonians.
Filip was disqualified for mistreating his female housemates, and for talking to people outside the secret Skopje villa where the cast is living. Contestants are only allowed to communicate with the moderators and guests of the show, and are otherwise supposed to be cut off from the outside world.
Gordana, on the other hand, was disqualified for throwing a mug at Edis, one of the Croatian contestants, during a heated argument. He managed to get out of the way, and the mug shattered on the floor, but a piece of the broken glass hurt the mouth of Admir, one of the Albanians. Filip backed Gordana up in the argument, and that proved to be the last straw for him. Both were ejected from the house [Večernji list / 09.12.04 / Iz kuće izbačeni - Makedonci!].
Two new Macedonian contestants have been brought in to replace Filip and Gordana: Jana Velkovska and Dragi Hristos.
Slovenia is represented by Mateja Plahuta and Miro Tosodovski. The other contestants are Edin and Mirela from Bosnia, Edis and Josipa from Croatia and Miodrag and Dijana from Serbia and Montenegro. They are joined by the Macedonian Albanian Admir, and the Kosovo Rom Saneli.
Two contestants are voted out of the house every twenty days by phone calls and SMS messages from viewers at home. The last ones left win EUR 10,000. Viewers in Slovenia can participate in the telephone voting by calling 090 93 60 63 or by sending an SMS with the name of the candidate to be voted off to 2929.
To sem jaz can be seen on Prva TV in 10 to 15 minute increments five times daily from Monday to Friday, with hour-long daily wrap-ups each evening as well as on Saturdays. The To sem jaz website can be found at http://www.toasumjas.com.mk/.
