- Michael M.: Too much going on. Life in flux, etc..
- Sunshine: Wow, I was soooo happy to see a new post in my rss reader. I was hopping this is already the comeback! :(...
- gandalf: Did you only get caffeine through Dr.p or did you drink coffee as well? I’m interested, since...
- neeka: nine kilos… wow… :) happy holidays to you, michael, and to all your loved ones! veronica
- m: It was a bargain. No strings attached.
Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maribor, Slovenia.
Portoroz, Slovenia.
• AlienMelon
• Burger.si
• Heck
• Izklop
• si.blogs
• Sloblogi
• Blogorola
• Natalija Verboten
Ljubljana is the best place for your cell phone to fall off your ear.
Reader’s Digest recently conducted an experiment: They dropped 30 cell phones in cities around the world and recorded how many good Samaritans would bring them back. In the surprise to end all surprises, Ljubljana won.
From the article Excuse Me, Is This Your Phone?:
The highest-ranking city happened to be the smallest: Ljubljana, Slovenia. Twenty-nine of 30 phones were returned in this picture-postcard city in the foothills of the Alps, home to just 267,000 people . The Slovene helpful streak extended beyond the parameters of the magazine’s mission: In one case, a young waiter at a coffee shop returned a phone and a leather jacket accidentally left behind by our reporter.
I still can’t believe it. For me, it’s the biggest surprise since Shanghai Surprise, and the biggest shocker since Wes Craven’s Shocker. My first thought was that people returned it because they’ve already got enough phones and don’t need another. But according to this, Hong Kong leads the world in mobile phones per capita (after Luxembourg) and they were dead last in returning phones. (You can see the complete rankings here. [pdf] )
So what the hell happened? I don’t know. Could it be that this country is changing into a kinder, gentler nation? Sometimes it feels like it. Yesterday, I was making a left turn and some guy actually let me in. He even waved. And it’s been happening more often lately. I don’t think it happened to me a single time in the first two years I was here. Maybe the government’s putting something in the water? Or perhaps the booming economy has something to do with it? I’m baffled. Still, as Tomaž suggested, it would be a lot more interesting experiment if they used iPhones…
(Big thanks to Gregor and Tomaž!)
Comments
Comments for this post are closed.
Hey your surprise just confirms that you live in a different country, the one some’d like to swap for the Istrian peninsula whilst evacuating you in time
Do love the green dragon up in your banner..
Greetings from ljubljena Ljubljana
It’s gotta be the heat, man! I guess our “selfish-centre” has already melted
There’s no reason to be to affected: According to this everything is okey…
dr filomena: Luckily for all of us, most of the Slovenian readers here are in Ljubljana so there’s little chance of an all-consuming flamewar erupting. (As for the dragon: You’d be surprised how often my friends in Maribor bring it up — as in “Why the hell did you put the dragon there?”)
Robert: Looks like I spoke too soon, no? That’s a great find! It looks like in those rankings, Hong Kong and Ljubljana are tied among the least polite cities on Earth. Make up your mind, Reader’s Digest!
This is no surprise to me. I’ve had a much higher proportion of small acts of kindness in Slovenia than anywhere else in the world. The contrast with here (UK) is quite depressing.
The tone was set in Bled about 5 years ago when I was crossing a road. There was only one car coming but he stopped and waved me across. Wow I thought - this is the place for me! Can’t say I’ve been disappointed since and won’t change my opinion until I see otherwise.
Perhaps its Slovakia I keep visiting.
I’m not surprised actually. My father keeps losing things (including cell phones) and I think he’s got everything returned till now.
As for the drivers, there’s a huge contrast, some are nice and civil but on the other hand, those that aren’t, are really bad.
Maybe more people are learning that being nice to others, actually makes your day, too.
As for the UK, I remember while I was there for the summer years ago, me and my friend saw an older lady carrying some really heavy bags, while walking home. We asked her if we can help her and she said it’s the first time in like 20 years since she’s moved from Spain, that anyone asked her that.
BTW, here’s the English-language version of the study mentioned by Robert (the one in which Ljubljana did poorly):
www.readersdigest.ca/mag/2006/07/polite.php
Michael: I do hope the nonljubljanians can detect the tongue-in-cheek posture. Otherwise, my old and reliable flame suit will come in handy once more. Yikes, should watch my words better… no suits in this weather!
On a slightly less facetious note: remind me of the definition of statistics?
It is obvious here that returning a phone and politeness are being conflated. Though I love all the Slovenian people I’ve met so far, there obviously must be some other factor causing the returns.Just because those people returned the missing items doesn’t mean they’d take the proactive step of helping an old lady cross the road or giving a tourist directions or stopping to buy a box girl Scout cookies or whatever. Further research is needed….
In the meantime, we here in New York will keep the crown for politest city firmly planted on our head.
I’m not surprised either. Slovenia is by far one of the most helpful countries. However don’t confuse helpfull and service minded. That’s a different story. Same with Czech replublic. If you ask for help in a polite way, they will work hard to help you, if you go to a store and expect service you’ll get dissapointed.
The surprise for me is how high up on the list new york came..
Why are you surprised about Ljubljana being both impolite AND honest town, Michael? The good burghers of Slovenia’s fair capital could be shouting abuse and making rude gestures while returning lost mobile phones. Wolf’s stomach full, sheep in one piece, as they might say.
“Here’s your cell phone back, I fuck your forgetful mother, you schmuck.”
As an aside, I remember losing my passport while a student in the Netherlands - I was riding a bike, so naturally it fell out of my back pocket. When I found out I lost it, I didn’t remotely freak out - I knew exactly where it would be. Sure enough, the police chief of Leiden was keeping a close eye on it, and was pleased to give it to me. Long live the Dutch!
@Nekje drugje, crni: True that!
plavtrg, the driver just didn’t feel like washing you off of their car!