For the previous week I only have one update for the webpage, mostly because I wrote a fairly lengthy short story (about 5500 words). The other part of this blog post will be a few comments on my home country’s momentous anniversary. So let’s get right to it!
I.N.D.E. – short story
If you want to delve right into the story and interpret it as you will, without any potential spoilers, click on the link here – I.N.D.E.
Otherwise, there are two things that I want to share about this. First of all, Inde used to be a factory in Koper, Slovenia that closed down. For a while there it was abandoned, decaying and only housing the occasional homeless person sleeping there. Some young people decided to take the matter in their own hands, come there, clean up and use at least part of the available space for all sorts of alternative events. I wasn’t neither the first or the most contributing member, but I did help with cleaning and taking away the construction material on several occasions.
The events organized in Inde ranged from music (concerts), to movie nights, board games and literary nights, as well as just a place for young people to gather and not be forced to shut down by 10 pm (22:00) – which is the ordinance in the old city center of Koper. What can you do, a lot of old people tend to hate fun (here’s a honest FUCK YOU to one of my lovely neighbors in Koper who called the police on me and my friends once because we were talking too loud after 10 pm).
Originally, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to read one of my short stories during a literary event. I agreed and decided to come up with a new idea, a new story, to fit the theme. And so I came up with INDEpendence. For one reason or another, the story didn’t save on my laptop (I’m still not sure what happened; internet died, I forgot to press save, no clue). Anyway, I panicked when I realized that as the event was starting, but was still able to quickly rewrite it in something that vaguely resembled my original longer plan and I read that. I wasn’t too happy with the result, but it was better than nothing.
I’ve since moved away from Koper and was informed by some friends that Inde was shut down. That is such a shame. I am a firm believer that the weird, the strange, the societally not-so-much accepted is all amazing in bringing forth great new ideas and freedom of expression. I think we need more places for outcasts, for people who don’t fit in. I mean, my own favorite music genre (metal) was once seen as “the devil’s music”, lol.
Anyhow, years later I’m going over my old content, I took the idea, retitled it simply I.N.D.E. (you’ll see why if you read it), planned for it and wrote it every single day this past week. Maybe this writing here will provide some additional context as to why I chose to use some Slovenian names in writing (Jan, Tina, Mitja).
Furthermore, this week was the perfect one to rewrite this story, because of the theme of independence.
30 let Slovenije (30 years of Slovenia)
25 Junij 1991, or, June 25th 1991 is when Slovenia officially gained its independence. Please stop confusing us with Slovakia, it’s getting old.
Every country has its own, often times tumultuous story to what it is today. Throughout history empires have risen and fallen, alliances created and broken, dynasties died out.
My country of Slovenia is fairly young (only 30 years old), and yet there are other countries which are still trying to gain their own independence and a foothold in the world. Some being partially recognized, others not all the while there yet.
Us Slovenians (Slovenes? I am never quite sure how to conjugate that in English) have had our own culture and semblance of a language / identity for about 1500 years, with first written texts in slovenian being about a 1000 years old.
There’s currently about 2 million Slovenians living in Slovenia and about another half a million living all over the world.
For being a tiny country, 20271 square km (7827 sq. mi), we have all the different geografical landmarks: the sea, the mountains, the caves and plains. Though obviously, the coastal region – the Northern most part of Istria – is the best (I’m totally not biased). And because the rest of us are so jealous to not live there, they just had to omit the water from the coat of arms in the above picture (I’m just kidding, though we Slovenians are stereotypically very jealous people).
Our attitudes and behaviors vary by a long shot depending on which part of Slovenia we’re from. In particular, us Istrians are some of the most stubborn people you’ll ever meet. There’s even a song from Zmelkoow (gravitacija) nicely illustrating the fact: in the song one of the band members falls from the bike and hits a stone head-first. His head remains intact, the stone crumbles a little bit.
Most of us are fluent in at least 2 languages and different parts of Slovenia have minorities from other neighboring countries (Italy, Croatia, Austria and Hungary) and live in bilingual zones. We also have our own dialects, though those are mostly dying out because we’re not taught them in schools (we only learn formal Slovenian language, the dialects are up to families to share).
If you search for famous Slovenians you’ll quite quickly find out all sorts of achievements that we have been part of: from sports, to aviation. From climbing gear to glasswork. You name it, we’ve probably contributed something to it.
Tomo Umer 
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