Hello everyone,
I know this is not tech related, but it’s important to me and I doubt I could share it another way, so why not put it here? As you might know, I am Slovenian — that little country in the middle of Europe. Even though I am not a typical Slovenian (I am crossbred with a Nepali), I’d like to think I understand the culture.
While in our actual culture, nationalism is frowned upon (it’s much easier to remember the consequences of WW2 if you have history with it), I am still somewhat proud of being Slovenian. And I think that’s okay, I’d love to live in a world where everyone gets to be proud of who they are. It is inspiring with motivation, and our lives these days I think are desperately in need of more positive motivation.
Historically, slavs have been farmers for eons before our current nations came to be. Slovenia is the westernmost protrusion of the people who also live in Slovakia, so in case you were ever confused about why the names of the two are so similar — apparently at some point in history we thought we were one people: Slovenci.
Slovenians have lived in a conflict zone between what are now the Italians, Austrians, Hungarians. We were raided in part by all of them and yet throughout history, we’ve been a part of every federation and alliance that existed in Europe. We’ve been in the roman empire, the austro-hungarian empire, we’ve been in Yugoslavia, we’re in the EU, and everything in between.
As a people, Slovenians were historically small farmers. Like many other countries in Europe such as Ireland for instance, our people were historically not wealthy and it was the foreigners who were the rich capitalists. It’s not until the modern era that our people have become owners of large farms and factories. And so, there is some historical resentment towards abusive rich outsiders. Many families around right now, have been born to households that were the inheritors of those small farms. In fact I live in one such home right now, even though I bought it, as I was born to a worker family who lived in the city and were housed by the government.
As such, it is not difficult to understand, that while of course each person is unique, as a national stereotype, Slovenians are hard working and modest people, who care about their community and are greatly concerned about giving the wrong impression. As such, on an international level, we are pacifists who seek to avoid conflict if possible.
If you are an outsider, reading this blog. You probably don’t know, that our national anthem is a song about striving for world peace. While I’m sure there is an english translation of the actual song out there, what perhaps doesn’t come across as clearly is that as you sing it, you’re not simply singing for Slovenia. You are signing for all the nations who strive to see the day, when there will be no more war in this world. I deeply, personally identify with this, and it touches my heart that so many others here do as well.
The EU anthem has at the time when we joined it, not had its own text, rather it was simply the Ode to Joy musical. This german poem from the 1800s, of course has an english translation. But what I didn’t realise until recently is that it’s meaning doesn’t quite match the Slovenian translation. So in fact, as an outsider, you have no way to know what the Slovenian translation is. Personally, I think it’s just as inspiring and nicely captures the idea of what I think the EU is for.
Radost od boga edina hčerka ti Elizijska
V tvoje hrame nas stopinja vodi o božanstvena.
Tvoji čari časa teku so pregnali kruto noč
človek spet je brat človeku kadar veje tvoja moč
Re-translation back into english:
Joy, only daughter of god, from Elysium
Into her storehouse she carefully leads us, o godly her
In time, your magic has defeated the cruel night
Man is once again a brother to fellow man, where your power reaches
And while the official english translation makes a lot more sense, as it is describing Joy… this has always been the meaning of the song for me. The meaning of the EU was to: in time heal our differences, undo the dark times, and let us all be brothers once more.
The EU was designed from the start to encourage economic cooperation, which would make countries interdependent and make war unthinkable. The wonderful thing is: it worked. It’s like a subtle magic of an abstract spirit, over time improving everything and making us all peers. Obviously, I rather enjoy the idea that many people understand that too.
Politics these days is so divisive and I don’t know if there’s ever a time when they aren’t angry with everything. It’s like everyone forgot how to be positive sometime in the 1980s and all we got since is negativity. I don’t understand why so many people seem to prefer this, because I simply don’t think it’s sustainable. How can you go about your daily life feeling motivated to work and create in this environment, if everything you think about is hate and anger. I don’t think that works.
We need to remember what it was that kept us going when we got started with all this and use it. I think there was greatness in that unity and well I guess I want to make the EU great again. 😉
LP,
Jure