Archives for August 7th, 2006

The Post recently offended some (over)sensitive Slovenes.

Dear Washington Post,

Hey there. It’s me, Michael. I’ve been meaning to write to you for some time — ever since I heard about your controversial coverage of Prime Minister Janez Janša’s visit to the U.S. Your archives are a bit difficult to navigate; I could only find this rather tame article about the trip. Was that the one that originally called Slovenia a “Balkan” country?

To be fair, that idea isn’t totally cuckoo-land crazy. Wikipedia notes that it’s sometimes included in the region, and as you yourselves pointed out, the Encyclopedia Britannica, American Heritage Dictionary and Prince Charles have all done the same. I guess it’s kind of like the whole Is Finland part of Scandinavia? deal. The vast majority of people either think Finland is in Scandinavia or they don’t care; meanwhile, some locals froth at the mouth just hearing the question. A similar thing is at work with Slovenia and the Balkans.

Really, in all fairness, how could you have known that it would unleash a “wave” of protest letters, from Ohio, West Virginia, Sydney, Tornto, Montreal and Vancouver? Who would have suspected that one could touch such a raw nerve with geographical terminology? (’Tis revealing, though, that the Foreign Minister himself (when you asked him) said he “wasn’t offended” but preferred “Central Europe.”)

Either way, welcome to my world. Or better said: welcome to my e-mail inbox.

It took me a while to figure out how enraged some Slovenes can get about being lumped together with countries like Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. I mean, now it’s clear to me that those countries have nothing in common. But I guess it’s the kind of thing you have to pick up by living here.

Best of luck in the future and best regards,

Michael