L.A. Times Olympics blog: Slovenian readers are frustrated with American misconceptions

The L.A. Times Olympics blog has been receiving a ton of comments lately from both enthusiastic sports fans and very angry foreigners.  After blogger Bill Plaschke wrote, "let the Spanish act racist in the privacy of their own little country," hundreds of Spaniards left comments to remind us Americans of our own racist history. To top it off, a lot of the comments were left in Spanish, making us comment moderators feel even more guilty for not learning another language and therefore having no clue what they were saying.

The most recent foreign citizens to take offense at the Olympics blog are those of Slovenia. Chuck Culpepper tried to give the place a complement by explaining that it has won more medals per capita than any other country competing in this year's Olympics.  But some readers felt that his tone was sarcastic.

Margarita wrote: "Mr. Culpepper's pathetic sarcasm aside, I think it's incredibly remarkable that such tiny, poverty-ridden countries that most people cannot even locate on a map have shown such athletic prowess and talent. With all the money, support, food, propaganda and access to performance-enhancing drugs that major countries like the US and China have at their disposable, it's amazing that they don't dominate and take three for three in every event. Is that fact keeping Mr. Culpepper from acknowledging the accomplishments of these forgotten countries without lacing his entire article with biting sarcasm?"

Though Margarita had some astute points about the the country's athletic achievements, her praise just angered more readers, who thought that she belittled Slovenia by describing it as "poverty-ridden."  Slovenians wrote in to explain that the quality-of-life over there really isn't as bad as some Americans may think. 

Though Styria meant well, he or she may have had the least convincing argument:  "OMG! LOL :-DDDDDD  Soooo glad i live in Slovenia..."

Slovenia made a more persuasive comment: "poverty-ridden? This is typical american thinking. They can't locate us on the map and they think we live and poverty. And if you would ask them about Austria, they would say something alse. We are practically like Austria. Wages are few procents lower but that's that."

Rok wrote: "Sorry Margarita, but you have no clue about Slovenia.If a country with $28,010 GDP per capita, member of EU and NATO is poverty ridden so be it. But then, you have strange understanding of word poverty.I don't know for you but I don't feel poor."

KateUK wrote: "Poverty-ridden, Margarita??? I have to laugh.Before you make statements like this you should have your facts straight.I lived in Slovenia for professional reasons and I’ll tell you one thing … those people are highly educated, speak 2 foreign languages, have full health insurance from the state (with small contribution from themselves that everyone can afford) and are definitely not poverty-ridden. 95% of people own houses and/or flats they live in and have 2 cars per household. They take 2 holidays per year (skiing in winter and sea in summer).

Readers were so caught up in their bickering, that few commented on the "pivotal" hammer throw by Slovenian athlete Primoz Kozmus, leading to the country's  first gold medal in track-and-field. If you want more sports coverage, check out the Olympics blog.  And if you Americans plan on traveling abroad anytime soon, just keep telling people that you're from Canada.

-- Amy Silverstein

Photo: Primoz Kozmus competes on Sunday during the men's hammer throw final at the National Stadium during the 2008 Beijing Games. Kozmus, of Slovenia, won the gold medal. Credit: Adrian Dennis / AFP / Getty Images

 

 

Comments

[JJ]

Yeah, some people in my country can get quiet patriotic if they are provoked (me included). That put aside, did you know, that we just won another silver medal (Vasilij Zbogar placed 2nd in the Laser category of sailing)? That makes us have an Olympic medal for every 400.000 people. And we still have some athletes to go. GO Primoz, GO Sara, GO Rajmond, GO Lucija, GO Vasilij and GO Slovenia!!!

[martina]

i am ashamed of being slovenian right now.

I think the article of chuck is great.
where is our sense of humour?

[Jansa]

ehh..my dear Americans..come here and you will see the truth...and bring a lot of money..we are not some cheap south american state..

greetings from Slovenia

[Slovenka]

Dear blog author, @margarita and the other readers!

We Slovenians are like everyone else. If we got mislabel as a nation we become to defensive and to patriotic, sometime for no particular reason.
I know that author and @margarita meant well.
I don't expect that everyone is familiar with my country, mostly not,LOL but I usually make sure to introduce Slovenia the best way I can.
It would be enough if we politely get the facts strait.

I feel kind of defensive right now to write this :)

I believe is an honor and privilege for every country participants to even qualify for Olympic games.

Congratulations to every country medal winners!

Congratulations to M. Phelps for 8 Gold medals!

Congratulations to all Slovenian medal winners!

[Giggling Cunuck]

Chuck's articles are the best Olympic coverage I've read so far, likely the best sports articles I've ever read and I'm not a sports fan so if he can get me reading about them he's damn good! The lady making idiotic comments about countries that she knows nothing about is exactly the point of the whole thing, the only people that Chuck makes fun of is the ones that can't see past the noses on their faces and that included the ones and can't decipher the difference between sarcasm and taking a lighthearted view of the whole twisted Olympic spectacle with it's rampant use of doping and egomaniacs. In fact, the only people he's actually targetted with less then stellar comments are Americans.

I think the articles are brilliant and every day I check frequently with anticipation to see who's winning the MPC... I, in fact, got quite excited about the prospects of Jamaica moving up the MPC chart when the 3 women won the 100m sprint... no, as Chuck indicated, I have no life (for those people who save the world by writing comments online to journalist telling them they should be ashamed of themselves for bringing attention to small countries and their great achievements let me asure you that I am not poverty-stricken and my comment about not having a life is a joke, not an actual feeling of inferiority bestowed upon me from journalist Chuck Culpepper when he mentioned that people who noted that Jamaica was going to go up the MPC chart do not have a life... some of us have a sense of humour).

[John Francis Adlesic]

I enjoyed and very much appreciated Mr. Culpepper's article. I made several hard copies to give to my family. We are Slovene-Americans and it gives me great pride to watch and read about the athletes that hail from a country that has a village with my surname and whose population is less than Pittsburgh (where I live and which, to give just a bit more perspective on Slovenia, is considered a bantam weight city by many in the USA. Could Pittsburgh produce 5 medal winners at one summer Olympics? yes! we could; but, then again, we have a very good sized community of Slovene immigrants!).

Mr. Culpepper did "puzzle" me with the use of the word "kumquat" in conjunction with describing the beauty of Slovenia (the only country with "love" in it!). Maybe it's me but the word "kumquat" seems to carry a bit of a negative connotation.

But, thanks to Mr. Culpepper. I specifically searched "per capita medal count" to see if Slovenia was recognized (yes! now with 5 medals). I did not discern any sarcasm. In fact, I did not even see the "dialogue" until I printed copies and wondered why there were so many pages.

Actually, in the brief space allotted, Mr. Culpepper did an excellent job of providing both a current and historical perspective of Slovenia. Anyone who read the article, with an open mind, should have come away a better person.

Thanks to the LA Times for running the article, welcome to Slovenia to anyone new to it, and peace to one and all, large and small.

[Borc]

here is ,for those,who never been here link and you deside:)
landscape,museums,waterfals,towns of Slovenia , hope youll like it ;)

www.burger.si

enjoy ;) greetings Borc

[piva]

Slovenia rules!

[vojc]

Hi all over the world. I do not care who knows Slovenia and who does not. In Europe we all know about Americans education. This year I was at the Middle East for my holidays with my family. And even common people knew where Slovenia is. We were in Turkey, Syria and Jordan and there we found very educated, friendly and people far from arrogance. And we respect such a people. But Americans? They lost everything: credibility, respect... to my regret.
Maybe you cannot believe, but we feel USA as a poor country with ten millons prisioners, with a president from the middle age...sorry but such is reality. Think where you can travel, where you are wished for. Arogance is a mortal sin for me...Where is America from sixties...

[Tatjana - tatjanap]

Hmmmm .... Vojc ... Generally I agree with you, but let's be more friendly. Let's show that we can do better then that.

From my experiences I can tell you that I had many (online) friends in USA but at the end they all betrayed me in a way. It was frustrating thing and it took me quite some time (like 2 years) to collect myself again because these friendships meant so much to me. But, surprisingly, I still can't be disrispective or offensive and I can't even hate them. I respect all people and I don't support the idea of the author of this blog who says at the end that Americans should say when travelling abroad that they are from Canada. They are what they are and there's no need to deny this.

In comments to Mr. Culpepper's article about hammer throwing I've read how sarcastic he is. Now, do I not know what sarcasm is or there's not any at all. I didn't feel it and actually I found Mr. Culpepper's article great. I enjoyed the reading.

What I feel about Slovenia and the statment Margerita gave there you can read in my comment there so there's no need to discuss this matter any further.

Hmm ... what concerns education in USA there could be much to say, but as I'm too straight and honest and people usually don't like this bit of my nature, I'll rather say nothing because comments like one Margerita gave talk for themselves.

Enjoy the day and be what you are!

Many greetings from/Lep pozdrav od
Tatjana - tatjanap